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For Immediate Release
July, 20 2009, 11:00am EDT
Contact:
Taylor McKinnon, Center for Biological Diversity, (928) 310-67
Roger Clark, Grand Canyon Trust, (928) 774-7488
Sandy Bahr, Sierra Club-Grand Canyon Chapter, (602) 999-5790
Salazar Protects Grand Canyon Watersheds From New Uranium Claims and Exploration
Order Temporarily Bans New Uranium Claims and Exploration Across 1 Million Acres of Public Land Surrounding Grand Canyon National Park
GRAND CANYON, Arizona
Conservationists are applauding a notice issued today by the Obama
administration to temporarily place 1 million acres of public lands
surrounding Grand Canyon off limits to new mining claims and exploration or
development of existing, unpatented claims. The order complies with a 25
June 2008 resolution by the House Committee on Natural Resources enacting
the same protections across the same area. The protections do not affect
three existing mines in the area slated for reopening or the exploration of
existing patented claims.
Uranium
prices have caused sharp increases in new uranium mining claims,
exploration, and permitting to reopen old mines on public lands surrounding
Grand Canyon National Park. Uranium development
threatens to damage wildlife habitat, industrialize iconic wildlands, and contaminate
surface water and groundwater feeding regional water wells, seeps, springs
and the Colorado River - prompting concerns from former Arizona
Governor Janet Napolitano, the Metropolitan Water District of Southern
California, the Southern Nevada Water Authority, the Arizona Game and Fish
Department, the Navajo, Hopi, Havasupai, Hualapai, and Kaibab Paiute
tribes, Coconino County officials, and independent geologists.
"Secretary
Salazar's decision secures a much-needed, but temporary respite from
thousands of new uranium claims around the Grand
Canyon," said Grand Canyon Trust spokesman Roger Clark.
"For permanent protection, Congress now needs to pass the Grand
Canyon Watersheds Protection Act."
Today's
order aligns the U.S. Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management
direction with the 25 June 2008 resolution by the House Committee on
Natural Resources, which directed the secretary of the interior to enact an
"emergency withdrawal," banning new claims and exploration across
the 1 million acres for three years. The Center for Biological Diversity,
Grand Canyon Trust, and Sierra Clubfiled
suit against the Department of the Interior and Bureau of Land
Management in September 2008 for authorizing uranium exploration in violation
of the withdrawal. The groups are evaluating how today's action
affects that pending litigation.
"We
are pleased to see Secretary Salazar take this action to protect the lands
around Grand Canyon and the Colorado River,
which provides the drinking water for millions of people downstream,"
said Sandy Bahr, chapter director for the Sierra Club's Grand Canyon
Chapter. "Our waters and special places such as Grand
Canyon deserve strong protections."
The
administration's order comes as Congress considers legislative mining
reforms. Tomorrow the Subcommittee on National Parks, Forests And Public
Lands will hear
testimony on H.R.644, the
Grand Canyon Watersheds Protection Act of 2009,
introduced by Representative Raul Grijalva, D-Ariz, that would permanently
ban exploration and new claims on about 1 million acres of public lands
bordering Grand Canyon. Last week the Senate Committee on Energy and
Natural Resources heard
testimony on legislation to reform the antiquated 1872
mining law. The Environmental Protection Agency in that hearing noted that
hard-rock mining has impacted 40 percent of all western watersheds and
generates 28 percent of the toxic pollution in the United States.
"Grand Canyon's uranium problem exemplifies the
need for national mining law reform," said Taylor McKinnon, public
lands campaigns director at the Center for Biological Diversity. "America
deserves a mining law that holds our parks, watersheds and wildlife above -
rather than hostage to - mining industry profits."
State
air and water permitting has begun to open three existing mines in the area
covered by today's order but will not be limited by it. All three
mines are owned by Denison Mines, a Canadian firm with Korean ties. Federal
environmental approvals for all three mines are outdated and were completed
in the 1980s. The Havasupai tribe will host a rally
on July 25th and 26th near Grand
Canyon's south rim in protest of one of those mines, the Canyon mine,
located on the Kaibab National Forest and traditional tribal lands.
LATEST NEWS
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Family members and people who knew Lotfi Hassan Misto described him as "a kind, hard-working man whose 'whole life was spent poor,'" The Washington Post reported.
May 19, 2023
The Pentagon said earlier this month, without providing evidence, that a U.S. drone strike in northwest Syria killed a "senior al-Qaeda leader."
But U.S. military officials are now beginning to walk back the claim as the victim's family insists the father of 10 had no connections to terrorist organizations and was herding his sheep when he was slain by a Hellfire missile on the morning of May 3.
Lotfi Hassan Misto, a 56-year-old former bricklayer, has been identified by his family as the victim of the drone strike, The Washington Postreported Thursday, citing interviews with the man's brother, son, and several people who knew him.
"They described a kind, hard-working man whose 'whole life was spent poor,'" the Post noted.
The operation that killed Misto, the Post reported, "was overseen by U.S. Central Command, which claimed hours after the strike, without citing evidence or naming a suspect, that the Predator drone strike had targeted a 'senior al-Qaeda leader.' But now there is doubt inside the Pentagon about who was killed."
One unnamed U.S. military official told the newspaper that the Pentagon is "no longer confident" that the strike killed an al-Qaeda leader. Another official said that "though we believe the strike did not kill the original target, we believe the person to be al-Qaeda."
The entire U.S. drone program, including the process by which officials choose their assassination targets, is shrouded in secrecy, and activists argue the program should be shuttered in its entirety.
Often described by the Pentagon as "precision" attacks, U.S. drone strikes have killed thousands of civilians in recent years—deaths that U.S. officials typically refuse to even acknowledge, let alone apologize for.
The Biden administration did apologize after killing 10 members of an Afghan family—including seven children—in a 2021 drone strike in Kabul, but the U.S. has yet to uphold its pledge to compensate the survivors. A U.S. Central Command report on the strike indicated that military officials knew the attack likely killed civilians but initially lied about it in public.
The aftermath of the May 3 drone strike in northwest Syria appears to be following a similar trajectory.
On the day of the deadly strike, the watchdog Airwars published an initial assessment noting that a "60-year-old male civilian was killed by a declared U.S. drone strike on the outskirts of Qurqaniya," immediately disputing the Pentagon narrative.
Airwars pointed to a tweet from a Syrian journalist who said that contrary to CENTCOM's statement, the man killed was a civilian with "no connection with any organization, neither now nor previously."
Video footage given to the Post shows "a dozen people standing nearby" as aid workers arrived at the scene of the drone strike earlier this month, the newspaper reported.
"Most stare in shock," the Post observed. "Some cry."
Nearly a week after the strike, a CENTCOM spokesperson said the U.S. military was "aware of the allegations of a civilian casualty" and determining whether "further investigation is necessary and how it should proceed."
Misto's brother told the Associated Press at the time that the U.S. military's claims that Misto had terrorist connections were "absolute lies," decrying his killing as "an injustice and an aggression."
"If they claim that he's a terrorist, or that they got someone from al-Qaeda, they're all liars," Misto's brother told the Post.
Analysts told the Post that the family's insistence that Misto had no terrorist ties appears highly credible.
"Very quickly after this strike, the White Helmets came out and identified the individual with his name and his profession," said Charles Lister, the director of Syria and Countering Terrorism and Extremism at the Middle East Institute.
"Locals came forward to say, this guy's always been a farmer. He's never had any political activities; he's never had any affiliation with armed groups," Lister added. "The pace and breadth of such pushback was actually quite unusual."
Citing Jerome Drevon, a senior analyst on jihad and modern conflict with the International Crisis Group, the Post noted that "typically, when al-Qaeda leaders are killed, sympathizers announce their deaths online as a celebration of martyrdom."
"If the victim was a lower-level member of the organization, groups may not announce their death, he said, but people close to them will, often saying how they were connected to the group," the newspaper reported. "In this case, Drevon said 'there was nothing.'"
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Challenging First Republic Bank Sale, Warren Says JPMorgan Chase Is Big Enough
"The single biggest threat to the U.S. banking system is more concentration," said the Massachusetts Democrat. "A bank as big as JPMorgan shouldn't be allowed to get even bigger."
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U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren raised alarm about the recent sale of First Republic Bank to JPMorgan Chase—which followed a government takeover of the former—in a letter to financial regulators and a series of questions during a Thursday hearing.
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Ahead of the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs hearing, Warren wrote to two officials who appeared before the panel Thursday morning: Martin Gruenberg, chair of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), and Michael Hsu, acting head of the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC).
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Warren asked Gruenberg and Hsu to prepare to address the topic at the committee's hearing and also requested written responses to a series of questions by the end of the month.
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During the hearing, Warren explained that "when the FDIC sells a failed bank, the law requires that you choose the highest bidder that will result in the lowest cost to the Deposit Insurance Fund—but the law also requires signoff from the OCC, and the OCC's job, by law, is to consider whether the merger would pose 'risk to the stability of the United States banking or financial system.'"
The senator questioned Hsu about the decision to sell to JPMorgan versus PNC or Citizens Bank, given that selling to either of the latter would have posed less of a risk, based on one metric used by financial regulators that is notably influenced by bank size.
\u201cThe single biggest threat to the U.S. banking system is more concentration. I am troubled by @USOCC Acting Comptroller Michael Hsu's decision to approve @jpmorgan's acquisition of First Republic Bank. A bank as big as JP Morgan shouldn't be allowed to get even bigger.\u201d— Elizabeth Warren (@Elizabeth Warren) 1684436759
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After insisting that "for every merger application we follow the law, we follow our guidelines, we follow our policies and procedures," Hsu said focusing only on the metric Warren cited would not have been "wise," and if that approach had been taken, "I fear that there would have been greater financial instability that weekend."
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"It is an exhibition of unadulterated hate and racism," said one Palestinian activist. "Beyond inflammatory."
May 18, 2023
Israeli government officials including far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir joined tens of thousands of ultra-nationalists participating in Thursday's inflammatory "Flag March" in occupied East Jerusalem, an event at which police and demonstrators attacked Palestinians and journalists while chanting slogans including "death to Arabs" and "your village will be burned."
Ben-Gvir, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, and Transport Minister Miri Regev were among the Israeli officials who took part in the annual march, which celebrates Israel's conquest and illegal occupation of East Jerusalem in 1967.
Marcher Limor Son Har-Melech, a lawmaker from Ben Gvir's far-right Otzma Yehudit (Jewish Power) party, toldThe Times of Israel that she was participating to celebrate "our victory over the Arabs."
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Israeli marchers threw rocks at journalists, hitting at least two reporters in the head and wounding them, Middle East Eyereports.
\u201cUs journalists are under attack by participants in the flag march in #Jerusalem. \n\nThey cheer every time they hit us with projectiles.\u201d— \u211d\ud835\udd60\ud835\udd64\ud835\udd5a\ud835\udd56 \ud835\udd4a\ud835\udd54\ud835\udd52\ud835\udd5e\ud835\udd5e\ud835\udd56\ud835\udd5d\ud835\udd5d (@\u211d\ud835\udd60\ud835\udd64\ud835\udd5a\ud835\udd56 \ud835\udd4a\ud835\udd54\ud835\udd52\ud835\udd5e\ud835\udd5e\ud835\udd56\ud835\udd5d\ud835\udd5d) 1684421979
Middle East Eye said that marchers in Jerusalem's Old City beat Palestinian residents, and when Israeli police intervened, they assaulted Palestinian victims under attack instead of protecting them.
March participants stormed the Al-Aqsa Mosque—one of the holiest sites to both Muslims and Jews—and insulted the prophet Mohammed, who Muslims believe was the messenger of God.
Ofer Cassif, an Israeli lawmaker from the left-wing Hadash coalition, called the flag march a "violent parade presented as a joyous dance."
"Rioting gangs backed by Ben-Gvir and the fascist government are bullying Arabs to show them who's in charge, "Cassif told Haaretz. "This is disgusting Kahanism in its peak."
\u201cIsrael's right wing uses Flag Day to violently remind Palestinians each year that Israel will stop at nothing to kick them out of their own homeland.\n\nThey fly Israel's national symbol as a symbol of Palestinian exclusion.\n\nThat's apartheid.\u201d— IMEU (@IMEU) 1684421511
Cassif was referring to the Jewish supremacist movement once led by Meir Kahane, the Orthodox rabbi convicted of terrorism before being assassinated in 1990. Ben-Gvir was convicted in 2007 of incitement to racism and supporting the Kahanist terror group Kach after he advocated the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians.
There were other Israeli marches in cities and towns including Lod—known to Palestinians as Lydda—site of a 1948 massacre and death march as Jewish militias seized control of the area.
Thursday's marches came three days after, and stood in stark contrast with, Palestinians' commemoration of Nakba Day, a remembrance of the ethnic cleansing of more than 750,000 Arabs from over 400 villages—sometimes by massacres—during the foundation of the modern Israeli state in 1948. For the first time ever, the United Nations officially commemorated the Nakba.
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