May, 05 2010, 11:35am EDT
For Immediate Release
Contact:
Peter Bjork 202.408.565
CREW Files FOIA Seeking Documents Confirming Bureau of Prisons Prevented Jack Abramoff From Participating in Documentary
WASHINGTON
Today, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW)
filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request with the Bureau of
Prisons (BOP) seeking documents related to efforts by the BOP to prevent
Jack Abramoff from cooperating or participating in the making of the
documentary Casino Jack and the United States of Money. CREW
is acting on information that the BOP actively prevented Mr. Abramoff
from speaking to anyone connected to the movie and also seeks to learn
whether the BOP may have prevented Mr. Abramoff from speaking to other
members of the media.
Click
here to read CREW's FOIA to BOP.
Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) is a nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization dedicated to promoting ethics and accountability in government and public life by targeting government officials -- regardless of party affiliation -- who sacrifice the common good to special interests. CREW advances its mission using a combination of research, litigation and media outreach.
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Climate Emergency Again Grips Pakistan as Temps Soar to Nearly 126°F
"The customers are not coming to the restaurant because of extreme heat," said one tea shop owner in the town of Mohenjo Daro. "I sit idle at the restaurant with these tables and chairs and without any customers."
May 28, 2024
Record-breaking heat in Pakistan's southern province of Sindh this week was the South Asian country's latest local climate emergency, with temperatures soaring to 125.6°F on Monday.
The extreme heat this month comes amid warnings from the World Weather Attribution that last month's heatwaves in Asian countries including Laos, Myanmar, and Vietnam were "driven by emissions from oil, gas, and coal."
The think tank also said in 2022 that Pakistan's devastating floods that year were made more likely by the fossil fuel-driven climate crisis.
Australia-based journalist Abdul Waheed Rabbani said Pakistan's "profound climate challenges" should push the government to declare a national emergency to address extreme heatwaves and other climate impacts.
The temperatures in Sindh on Monday were the highest of the summer season so far and approached the country's record high.
Cities deployed volunteer teams to spray residents with cold water as they went about their daily tasks.
In the historic town of Mohenjo Daro, which welcomes tourists to its archeological sites and offers a downtown area where visitors can shop and dine, the 125°F heat harmed the local economy this week.
"The customers are not coming to the restaurant because of extreme heat," Wajid Ali, who owns a tea shop, toldReuters. "I sit idle at the restaurant with these tables and chairs and without any customers... Also there is no power. The heat has made us very uneasy."
The city of Turbat in the southwestern province of Balochistan recorded Pakistan's highest-ever temperature of 129.2°F in 2017, and the following year, dozens of people in Pakistan suffered from heatstroke as meteorologists reported the planet's hottest April on record in the city of Nawabshah, where temperatures rose to 122.3°F.
"Pakistan is the fifth most vulnerable country to the impact of climate change," said Rubina Khursheed Alam, the government climate coordinator, at a news conference last Friday. "We have witnessed above normal rains, floods."
Pakistan's capital, Karachi, is expected to be hit with extreme heat in the coming days.
In addition to rapidly drawing down fossil fuel emissions, especially in the world's biggest pollution-causing countries including the U.S., Pakistan-based water management expert Amjad Jamal urged officials to confront "Pakistan's climate roller coaster" through adaptation.
"To mitigate the impact of these extremes," said Jamal, "government and communities must invest in water harvesting and storage, implement climate-resilient agriculture, enhance disaster preparedness and response, promote water conservation and efficiency, [and] support climate-smart infrastructure development."
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Genocide Prevention Group Says 'Israel Must Be Stopped Now'
"Even if there were legitimate doubts about Israel's genocide, there is no doubt that Israel is committing atrocity crimes of the most barbaric kind," the Lemkin Institute for Genocide Prevention said.
May 28, 2024
A U.S.-based group dedicated to preventing genocide blasted what it called "the cynical lies and propaganda" from Israeli and U.S. leaders who deny that Israel's obliteration of Gaza is genocidal, while imploring humanity to stop the slaughter.
In a statement published Monday on social media, the Lemkin Institute for Genocide Prevention (LIGP) argued that "one can have different views about the definition of genocide, but one may not use definitional disputes to deny genocide."
"If a genocide may be occurring, every nation is compelled by customary law to try to stop it," asserted the Philadelphia-based group named after Raphael Lemkin, the 20th-century Polish lawyer who is credited with coining the word genocide in the 1940s.
"Let us be clear: Israel is committing genocide in Gaza. The U.S. is complicit in genocide," LIGP said. "These are not political statements. They are statements that are made from knowledge and experience."
"Nevertheless, you do not need a Ph.D. , a law degree, or X-ray vision to see the genocidal dimensions of Israel's carnage in Gaza. It is clear in the behavior of the state and its military, on full display in yesterday's horrific bombardment of a Rafah camp," the group added, referring to the attack on a refugee encampment in the southern city's Tal al-Sultan neighborhood that killed at least 45 people and wounded hundreds of others, including many women and children.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called the strike a "tragic mistake." Two days later, at least 21 more Palestinians were killed in another Israel Defense Forces attack on a different refugee camp in southern Gaza.
LIGP said that "even if there were legitimate doubts about Israel's genocide, there is no doubt that Israel is committing atrocity crimes of the most barbaric kind."
"Israel must be stopped," the group stressed. "Israel must be stopped now."
LIGP continued:
We are disgusted by Western leaders, especially in the USA, Germany, and the U.K. They have demonstrated not only that they don't care one bit about genocide prevention and human rights, but also that they are willing to allow an ally to commit atrocity crimes while they offer material and diplomatic support. It is reprehensible and the individuals involved in this gaslighting campaign should be deeply ashamed. They should also be put on trial.
International Criminal Court Prosecutor Karim Khan last week formally applied for warrants to arrest Netanyahu, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, and three Hamas leaders for alleged crimes including extermination committed on and after October 7.
Israeli and U.S. leaders deny there is genocide in Gaza. U.S. President Joe Biden said in October that he had "no confidence" in Palestinian health officials' Gaza casualty reports—figures deemed reliable by United Nations agencies, human rights groups, international and Israeli mainstream media, and even the U.S. State Department.
Biden, who early in the war declared his "unwavering" support for Israel, has approved billions of dollars of new U.S. military aid for the key Middle Eastern ally. His administration has repeatedly sidestepped Congress to expedite weapons transfers to Israel. The U.S. has also provided diplomatic cover for Netanyahu's far-right government by vetoing several United Nations Security Council cease-fire resolutions.
The International Court of Justice is currently determining whether Israel is committing genocide, as alleged by South Africa and over 30 countries and regional blocs supporting the case. The ICJ recently ordered Israel to immediately halt its invasion of Rafah. Israel has ignored the legally binding order, prompting calls for punitive action including sanctions.
According to Palestinian officials and international human rights defenders, at least 36,096 Palestinians—mostly women and children—have been killed during Israel's 235-day assault on Gaza in retaliation for the Hamas-led attack that left more than 1,100 people dead and over 240 others taken prisoner. At least 81,136 Palestinians have been wounded by Israeli bombs and bullets. Upward of 11,000 other Gazans are missing and presumed dead and buried beneath the rubble of bombed-out buildings.
Meanwhile, famine in the north and widespread starvation throughout Gaza have been exacerbated by Israel's blockade of the besieged coastal enclave, where around 90% of the population have been forcibly displaced.
"Humanity has a choice: Either we decide that our children can all be killed whenever a superior force alleges that 'terrorists' are among us, or we decide that under no circumstances will we allow these superior forces to lay waste to our world any longer," LIGP said. "We each must choose and act accordingly. The watershed moment is now."
At least hundreds of legal and human rights experts around the world—including Israelis—accuse Israel of genocide. In March, the United Nations Human Rights Council published a draft report that found "reasonable grounds to believe" that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza.
On Sunday, Human Rights Watch co-founder Aryeh Neier—a Jewish Holocaust survivor—reiterated his earlier assertion that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza. In an interview with CNN's Fareed Zakaria, Neier explained how his assessment of Israel's conduct has evolved during the war.
"I thought Israel had a right to retaliate against Hamas, and I thought Israel had a right to try to incapacitate Hamas so that it would never be able to do anything like that again," Neier said. "But I was disturbed by some of the actions of Israel, by the use of very large weapons, 2,000-pound bombs, which are utterly inappropriate in a crowded urban area."
Is Israel committing humanitarian crimes in Gaza? The Israeli gov’t strenuously denies it.
Aryeh Neier, a giant in the world of human rights who escaped Nazi Germany and later cofounder Human Rights Watch, says the answer is yes.
Our conversation from today’s GPS: pic.twitter.com/dQC20WDywO
— Fareed Zakaria (@FareedZakaria) May 26, 2024
Neier also condemned Israeli and U.S. officials' efforts to equate criticism of Israel's policies and practices with antisemitism.
"Antisemitism has been a great scourge," he said, "but it doesn't insulate the Israeli government from being held to the same standards as other governments have to be held to around the world."
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'Just Disgusting': Nikki Haley Writes 'Finish Them' on Israeli Bomb Bound for Gaza
"Biden provided the shells, Republicans autograph them," said one progressive leader. "The U.S. political class is united in its complicity with this genocide."
May 28, 2024
Humanitarians reacted with outrage on Tuesday after former presidential U.S. candidate Nikki Haley wrote and signed an arguably genocidal message on an Israeli artillery shell while visiting an Israel Defense Forces post.
"Finish them! America [loves] Israel always," Haley wrote on the shell Tuesday, signing her name. She was accompanied by Danny Danon, a member of the Knesset, Israel's parliament, who posted photos from their tour on social media. Haley, who was the ambassador to the United Nations under then-President Donald Trump, has been an ardent supporter of Israel's war in Gaza and has ties to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), a pro-Israel lobby group.
"Nothing to see here, just AIPAC's favorite politician, Nikki Haley, celebrating death and destruction in Gaza with an autographed missile," IfNotNow, a U.S. Jewish group that supports Palestinian rights, wrote on social media.
"Just disgusting," wrote Alon-Lee Green, director of the Jewish-Arab Movement for Peace, Equality & Social Justice in Israel. In the post, Green pleaded with Americans to take back their "filthy death-promoting politicians."
Alec Karakatsanis, an American civil rights lawyer, wrote that the Haley's message was "one of the most depraved things I have ever seen."
The timing of Haley's autograph of the weapon of war heightened the outrage. On Sunday night, Israel bombed the tents of displaced Palestinians in a "safe zone" of Rafah, killing at least 45 civilians, mostly women and children. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called the strike a "tragic mistake," but the Israeli military then killed at least another 21 Palestinian civilians in a similar attack on a refugee camp in the southern Gaza Strip on Tuesday.
Haley "spent Memorial Day not commemorating fallen American service members, but visiting Israel as it conducts a brutal massacre in Gaza," The New Republic's Hafiz Rashid reported, calling her autographed message "sick."
One commentator suggested that Haley's act encapsulated the attitude of America's leaders. The most powerful members of both major parties, including President Joe Biden, a Democrat, have supported Israel's war in spite of condemnation by the United Nations General Assembly, the International Criminal Court, and the International Court of Justice, which ordered Israel to "immediately halt its military offensive" in Rafah.
"Biden provided the shells, Republicans autograph them," Yanis Varoufakis, former Greek minister of finance and pro-Palestine public intellectual, wrote on social media. "The U.S. political class is united in its complicity with this genocide."
Nikki Hailey in Israel scribbling "FINISH THEM"on the shells that the IDF is about to fire into Rafah in defiance of the International Court of Justice. Biden provided the shells, Republicans autograph them. The US political class is united in its complicity with this genocide. pic.twitter.com/hejqVAjq8M
— Yanis Varoufakis (@yanisvaroufakis) May 28, 2024
Haley has spent recent days in Israel making unfounded claims about Russian, Chinese, and Iranian connections to the October 7 attack led by Hamas—and voicing her full support for the war effort, using rhetoric that wrongly indicates that she speaks for all Americans.
"America stands by Israel," Haley said during her tour with Danon, according toi24 News. "Israel is fighting the enemies of the U.S. today. Don't stop until you win."
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