April, 26 2013, 04:31pm EDT
Keystone XL: What is Foggy Bottom Hiding?
State Department denies request for quick release of lobbyist documents; appeal filed
WASHINGTON
The State Department has denied Friends of the Earth's request for expedited release of internal documents that could shed light on the web of lobbyists TransCanada and the Province of Alberta have hired in order to fast track approval of the controversial Keystone XL pipeline. Friends of the Earth today filed a formal appeal.
Earlier this month, Friends of the Earth filed a broad Freedom of Information Act request for all communications between State Department officials and lobbyists for TransCanada and the Province of Alberta. The FOIA request identifies more than two dozen Washington lobbyists, lawyers and consultants helping to push for pipeline approval who have close ties to President Obama, Secretary of State John Kerry, former Secretary of State Clinton and other elected officials with a stake in the outcome. Among those are former White House communications director Anita Dunn and three former U.S. ambassadors to Canada.
In a letter dated April 19, the State Department asserted that Friends of the Earth's request did not meet the criteria for expedited processing, even though the State Department is likely to sign off on the environmental review for the pipeline within a few months.
Ross Hammond, senior campaigner with Friends of the Earth, had this to say regarding the State Department's reply.
"Something stinks in Foggy Bottom. One has to wonder what exactly the State Department is hiding.
"Given what we already know about the role of former Kerry and Obama staffers in lobbying for the Keystone pipeline, and the efforts State Department officials have made to hide the relationship between firms conducting the environmental review and TransCanada, it's clear that the public interest would be best served by expediting our request for these documents. The longer the State Department delays turning over these documents, the harder it will be for the public to know the truth about what is really going on behind the scenes at the State Department before President Obama makes this momentous decision."
Friends of the Earth fights for a more healthy and just world. Together we speak truth to power and expose those who endanger the health of people and the planet for corporate profit. We organize to build long-term political power and campaign to change the rules of our economic and political systems that create injustice and destroy nature.
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'Rogue, Authoritarian State': Netanyahu Vows to Ban Al Jazeera Under New Law
"After murdering multiple Al Jazeera journalists, Israel is now moving to expel the news organization entirely," said one advocacy group.
Apr 01, 2024
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu pledged Monday to "immediately" move to ban Al Jazeera from broadcasting from Israel after the Knesset approved legislation that gives the country's government the power to shut down the operations of foreign media outlets deemed a threat to national security.
In a social media post, Netanyahu called the Qatari-owned network a "terrorist channel" and said he would use the new law to halt its activities in Israel.
"I welcome the law promoted by Communications Minister Shlomo Karai with the support of coalition members led by coalition chairman Ofir Katz," wrote Netanyahu.
Under the new law, the Israeli communications minister can ban foreign outlets with the prime minister's permission. The measure, which also gives Israeli authorities the power to confiscate a foreign media outlet's equipment, passed the Knesset in an overwhelming 71 to 10 vote.
The law's passage comes days after Al Jazeera broadcast video footage of Israeli soldiers gunning down two unarmed Palestinians in northern Gaza, one of whom was waving a piece of white fabric in a gesture of surrender. The footage showed Israeli bulldozers subsequently burying the two bodies under the sand of the beach where the killings took place.
"Israel continues to act as a rogue, authoritarian state with total impunity."
Al Jazeera has a bureau in Jerusalem and offices in the West Bank and Gaza, and it has covered Israel's assault on the Gaza Strip closely and critically, regularly reporting and broadcasting footage and eyewitness accounts of Israeli atrocities. Al Jazeera is one of the few international media outlets to broadcast live from Gaza during Israel's latest war on the Palestinian enclave.
The outlet's correspondents have been among the dozens of journalists killed, wounded, or detained by Israeli forces in Gaza since October 7.
Wael Dahdouh, Al Jazeera's Gaza bureau chief, was wounded by an Israeli missile attack in December. Israeli forces have killed five members of Dahdouh's family—including his son, Hamza, who was also an Al Jazeera journalist.
"After murdering multiple Al Jazeera journalists, Israel is now moving to expel the news organization entirely," Canadians for Justice and Peace in the Middle East wrote in response to the new law's passage. "Israel continues to act as a rogue, authoritarian state with total impunity."
Al Jazeerareported Monday that the Netanyahu government has been threatening to shutter the outlet and other publications for months under the guise of wartime security.
In a statement ahead of Monday's vote, the Association for Civil Rights expressed opposition to the proposed crackdown on foreign media outlets, arguing that the measure's "real purpose is not security-related but political: to allow the government to impose sanctions on foreign broadcasting tools whose broadcasts are not to its liking."
"In addition to the grave infringement on freedom of expression and freedom of the press, it also prohibits the court from overturning a non-proportional decision, effectively tying the court's hands from intervening in decisions regarding the closure of media outlets," the group said. "This is a direct continuation of the judicial overhaul, harming the courts and media outlets, all while cynically using war and security justifications."
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Demanding 'Immediate Removal' of Netanyahu, Tens of Thousands Protest in Israel
"Our country is being led by a gang of nut cases that jeopardize not only our existence but our well-being," one demonstrator said.
Apr 01, 2024
Tens of thousands of Israelis demonstrated against the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu Saturday and Sunday, in what were described as the largest protests in the country since Hamas' October 7 attack on southern Israel and Israel's war on Gaza that followed.
Participants carried signs reading, "Hostage deal now," and arguing for Netanyahu's "immediate removal," according toThe New York Times. They demanded early elections and a cease-fire deal that would see the remaining hostages freed from Gaza, calls that came as indirect negotiations between Hamas and Israel resumed in Egypt on Sunday.
"Our country is being led by a gang of nut cases that jeopardize not only our existence but our well-being," 70-year-old protester Shaul Dwek toldThe Washington Post. "This is not the way we grew up and these are not the values that we hold."
"After six months, it seems like the government understands that Bibi Netanyahu is an obstacle."
Netanyahu faced months of internal protests before the October 7 attacks over his government's planned overhaul of the judiciary to weaken the oversight powers of the Supreme Court. However, protests have been muted since Hamas killed 1,139 people on October 7 and took around 250 hostages into Gaza. Since then, Israel and the Netanyahu government have faced global protests and credible accusations of genocide over the war they launched in retaliation, which has killed nearly 33,000 people and subjected the survivors to famine and mass displacement.
In Israel, the war itself is still popular, according toThe Associated Press. However, protesters are concerned about Netanyahu's personal corruption and the degree to which he is prioritizing the release of hostages. While around half were released during a temporary cease-fire and prisoner exchange in 2023, the Israeli government estimates that around 130 are still being held in Gaza, including 34 who have died, The Guardian reported.
"The people of Israel were deep in sorrow and pain after 7 October, that is why it took so long, but when they understood there is no other option, this government is not functioning and is hurting us economically, diplomatically, in our security and in our values […] that is why people are out," Naama Lazimi, a Labor party member of the Knesset who attended Sunday's protest, said, as The Guardian reported.
The weekend's protests were organized by a coalition of hostage family members and civil society and opposition groups, according to The Washington Post.
"The families of the hostages have reached a breaking point with Netanyahu," Josh Drill, who heads a group called Change Generation that demands a new government and the freeing of the hostages, told the Post.
Family members also spoke out directly.
"We believe that no hostages will come back with this government because they're busy putting sticks in the wheels of negotiations for the hostages," Boaz Atzili, whose cousin and cousin's wife were both taken hostage, told AP. "Netanyahu is only working in his private interests."
Atzili's cousin's wife was freed, but his cousin died in Gaza.
Einav Moses, meanwhile, still has a father-in-law being held in Gaza.
"After six months, it seems like the government understands that Bibi Netanyahu is an obstacle," Moses told the AP. "Like he doesn't really want to bring them back, that they have failed in this mission."
On Saturday, protests were concentrated in Tel Aviv, but also took place in other cities including Jerusalem and Haifa. On Sunday, the main demonstration was held outside the Knesset in Jerusalem, which organizers said was the largest in Israel since October 7.
"Reservists rushing between the Kaplan Street demonstrations and the ruins of Gaza or its skies, peppered with bombers or predator drones, are also respondents to a poll, whose answer is unambiguous."
Protesters blocked the main highway in Tel Aviv on Saturday and lit bonfires in the streets, The Washington Post reported. Police sprayed them with water cannons and arrested 16, including family members of hostages. On Sunday, demonstrators also blocked roads in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem.
Some protesters set up tents and prepared to stay until Wednesday, according to The New York Times.
"I will camp here in front of the Knesset until the PM resigns," demonstrator Yaacov Godo, who lost a son on October 7, told The Guardian.
Israel is not scheduled to hold elections again until spring 2026, but Netanyahu's coalition currently trails the opposition in the polls.
However, Israeli journalist Amira Hass, who covers the Occupied Territories for Haaretz, argued in a column for that paper that the majority of Israelis continue to support Netanyahu by backing the devastation wrought on Gaza.
"Reservists rushing between the Kaplan Street demonstrations and the ruins of Gaza or its skies, peppered with bombers or predator drones, are also respondents to a poll, whose answer is unambiguous," Hass said, referring to a major Tel Aviv thoroughfare.
Hass wrote that the Israeli government's plan for Palestinians amounted to forcing them to choose between accepting second-class status, leaving their homes entirely, or war and death.
"This is the plan now carried out in Gaza and the West Bank, with most Israelis serving as active and enthusiastic accomplices, or passively acquiescing in its realization, regardless of their revulsion for this government and its members," Hass concluded. "The vast majority still believe that war is the solution."
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'Autocratic Rule' of Erdogan Cracks as Secular Left Wins Big in Turkey Elections
"You opened the door to the rise of democracy, equality, and freedom," Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoğlu said following his re-election. "You ignited hope at the ballot box."
Apr 01, 2024
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's Justice and Development Party suffered its worst-ever defeat Sunday when the country's main opposition party scored major wins in municipal elections, including in all five of the nation's largest cities.
With nearly all ballots counted, candidates for the center-left Republican People's Party (CHP) emerged victorious in Istanbul, the capital Ankara, İzmir, Bursa, Adana, and other cities and towns. Turkish media reported CHP victories in 36 of the country's 81 provinces. The right-wing Justice and Development Party (AKP) performed best in the largely rural Anatolian interior.
It was the first time in Erdoğan's 21 years as Turkey's increasingly autocratic president that the AKP suffered such a nationwide electoral defeat.
"My dear Istanbulites, you opened the door to a new future today," incumbent CHP Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoğlu told jubilant supporters during his victory speech following what's likely to be a double-digit win over AKP challenger Murat Kurum. "Starting from tomorrow, Turkey will be a different Turkey. You opened the door to the rise of democracy, equality, and freedom... You ignited hope at the ballot box."
Turkey’s main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) has dealt the biggest blow in two decades to President Erdogan’s AK Party by winning control of major cities in local elections. Ekrem Imamoglu secured a second term as Istanbul’s mayor ⤵️ pic.twitter.com/fjgsLzuEYg
— Al Jazeera English (@AJEnglish) April 1, 2024
Imamoğlu said that Sunday "marks the end of democratic erosion in Turkey and the resurgence of democracy."
"People oppressed under authoritarian regimes now turn their gaze to Istanbul," he added.
In Ankara—where an ecstatic crowd chanted "Turkey is secular and will remain secular!" and "Tayyip resign!" outside the city hall—CHP Mayor Mansur Yavaş promised his second term would be one of greater inclusion after beating his AKP rival by a stunning 25-point margin.
"Our political views may be different... But now the election is over," he told supporters. "We will... continue to serve 6 million Ankara residents without discrimination."
Erdoğan, meanwhile, acknowledged that the AKP "lost altitude" with Sunday's sweeping losses, vowing, "We will correct our mistakes and redress our shortcomings."
Imamoğlu's reelection was a personal blow to Erdoğan, an Istanbul native who launched his political career as the megacity's mayor in the 1990s. The AKP had set its sights on retaking control of Istanbul and Ankara but came up empty-handed.
Analysts said skyrocketing inflation, the collapsing value of the lira, disaffected Islamist voters, and Imamoğlu's popularity—which transcends the CHP's traditionally secular base—were major factors in Sunday's results.
So was the Gaza genocide. While Turkey is supporting the South Africa-led genocide case against Israel at the International Court of Justice, Erdoğan and the AKP have been accused—especially by Islamists—of paying little more than lip service to the cause of Palestinian liberation, while Imamoğlu has said that Turkey should immediately sever trade relations with Israel.
Experts said Imamoğlu's victory puts him, and the CHP, at the center of Turkish politics.
"Imamoglu demonstrated he could reach across the deep socio-political divisions that define Turkey's opposition electorate even without their institutional support," Mert Arslanalp, assistant professor of political science at Istanbul's Boğaziçi University, toldReuters. "This makes him the most politically competitive rival to Erdogan's regime."
In the predominantly Kurdish southeast, the progressive People's Equality and Democratic Party (DEM) won 10 provinces. Election-related violence erupted in parts of the region, including in the village of Ağaçlıdere in the Sur district of Diyarbakır, where DEM polling officer Emin Çelik was killed and around a dozen others were wounded. There were multiple reports of Turkish police violently dispersing Kurds celebrating election wins.
International leftists hailed the big wins by CHP and DEM candidates, with Party of European Socialists president Stefan Löfven cheering what he called "a great victory for democracy and a giant step towards a better future of the Turkish people."
"Erdoğan is losing the local elections in the entire country, leaving room for the opposition to breath and to come back victorious at the next national elections," he added. "We are looking forward to that."
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