October, 18 2019, 12:00am EDT
For Immediate Release
Contact:
Yetta Stein, Communications Associate
Western Values Project
yetta@westernvaluesproject.org
(406) 529-1682
Trump's Logging Proposal in the Tongass National Forest Reveals Interior Ties to Timber Industry
Interior’s Deputy Solicitor for Parks and Wildlife Has Ties to Logging Industry; Sued to Log Tongass
Whitefish, MT.
Recent reporting from the Washington Post revealed the Trump administration's new push to expand logging throughout the Tongass National Forest, the largest intact temperate rainforest in North America. Richard Goeken, Interior's Deputy Solicitor for Parks and Wildlife and a Trump political appointee, has previously led efforts to log millions of board feet of centuries-old trees in the Tongass National Forest, revealing yet again the extent to which Interior's leadership team is rife with conflicts of interests and ties to industry.
"This corrupt decision by the Trump administration points directly to the special interests which stand to benefit from a move that could destroy the Tongass National Forest," said Jayson O'Neill, Deputy Director of Western Values Project. "The swampy industry and lobbyist ties within the Trump administration and the Interior Department are once again rearing their ugly head."
In 2015, Richard Goeken represented Viking Lumber Co., a timber company that won a federal appeals case, clearing the way to "cut centuries-old trees from the Tongass National Forest." Viking Lumber Co. stood to cut "roughly two-thirds" of the 150 million board feet of lumber in question, "most of it from tree stands that have never been cut."
O'Neill continued, "President Trump's swamp is constantly putting our outdoor heritage on the line. If the Trump administration is willing to sell out the Tongass National Forest, one of the last remaining ecologically intact areas in North America, for narrow special interests, all of America's valued public lands are under threat."
This is not the first time Interior has been caught playing politics with the Tongass National Forest. In September 2017, then-Deputy Director of the US Fish and Wildlife Service Greg Sheehan called in a favor to his old friend, Sportsmen for Fish and Wildlife Founder Don Peay. Sheehan had been contacted by a concerned individual who was trying to save privately-owned cabins in a wilderness area in the Tongass National Forest. The land is managed by the United States Forest Service, and the cabins could be saved if Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue intervened and changed the policy. Sheehan said Peay had a "very strong relationship" with the "now Assistant Secretary of agricultural [sic]" and Sheehan wanted to get Peay "engaged" on the issue.
Deep ties to industry have become the standard within Interior. From Interior Secretary Bernhardt's conflicted lobbying past to a number of other Interior political appointees with corrupted connections, Western Values Project created the Department of Influence website to track Interior's abundant culture of corruption.
Western Values Project brings accountability to the national conversation about Western public lands and national parks conservation - a space too often dominated by industry lobbyists and their allies in government.
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Spain Widens Push for EU Countries to Recognize Palestinian State
A majority of U.N. member states recognize Palestinian statehood, but the U.S. and most E.U. countries lag behind.
Apr 17, 2024
In his latest stop on a tour of several European countries aimed at gathering support for recognizing a Palestinian state, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez joined his Slovenian counterpart on Tuesday in calling to make the diplomatic move to help secure an end to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Palestine is already recognized as a state by the vast majority of United Nations members—139 out of 193 countries—and by a handful of European nations, but the European Union as a whole, the United States, and the United Kingdom are among those that have long refused to recognize statehood.
At a joint press conference with Sánchez, Slovenian Prime Minister Robert Golob said the question is "when, not if, but when is the best moment to recognize Palestine."
Al Jazeera reported Wednesday that Sánchez aims to formally recognize Palestinian statehood by July, even if he does not secure enough support from other E.U. countries.
"The time has come for the international community to once and for all recognize the state of Palestine," Sánchez said in November. "It is something that many E.U. countries believe we have to do jointly, but if this is not the case, Spain will adopt its own decision."
Sánchez has also met with leaders in Ireland, Malta, and Norway in recent weeks.
Jonas Gahr Støre, prime minister of Norway—which is not an E.U. member—said last week that his government "stands ready" to join "like-minded countries" in recognizing Palestinian statehood.
Irish Prime Minister Simon Harris said after meeting with Sánchez last Friday that formal recognition "is coming much closer and we would like to move together in doing so."
"The people of Palestine have long sought the dignity of their own country and sovereignty—a home that like Ireland and Spain can take its place amongst the nations of the Earth," Harris added.
Ireland's Green Party said Monday that the full recognition of Palestine by European countries would help to secure a cease-fire in Gaza, where Israel has killed at least 33,899 people since October and has so far starved more than two dozen children to death by blocking the vast majority of humanitarian aid for months.
Al Jazeerareported Wednesday that Belgium—which has called for economic sanctions on Israel over its bombardment of Gaza—is likely to join Spain's push after June, when the country no longer holds the E.U. presidency.
The push from Spain comes as the U.N. Security Council is scheduled to vote on whether to admit Palestine as a full member of the U.N., which the Spanish prime minister said would be supported by the governments he's met with.
Palestinian representatives announced earlier this month that they would revive their application for membership, which the U.S. has vetoed in previous votes.
"We are seeking admission. That is our natural and legal right," said Riyad Mansour, the Palestinian ambassador to the U.N. Palestine has held observer status in the U.N. since 2012.
The League of Arab States on Tuesday expressed its "unwavering support" of the Palestinians' new application.
"Membership in the United Nations is a crucial step in the right direction towards a just and lasting resolution of the Palestinian question in line with international law and relevant U.N. resolutions," said the group of 22 countries.
U.S. State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller told reporters this month that full U.N. membership for Palestine "should be done through direct negotiations through the parties," while Israeli U.N. ambassador Gilad Erdan said the fact that the application is being considered is "a victory for genocidal terror."
The Arab League urged U.N. members "not to obstruct this critical initiative."
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Israeli soldiers have either passively watched or participated in the uprooting of at least seven communities in the West Bank since October of last year, Human Rights Watch said Wednesday in a new report documenting surging settler violence in the occupied Palestinian territory.
The rights group interviewed dozens of eyewitnesses and examined video footage showing harassment and other abuse of Palestinians in the West Bank "by men in Israeli military uniforms carrying M16 assault rifles."
Following the Hamas-led October 7 attack on southern Israel, the Israeli military drafted more than 5,000 settlers into "regional defense" units in the West Bank, Haaretzreported earlier this year. The Israeli newspaper noted that "alongside this large-scale mobilization, the [Israel Defense Forces] has distributed some 7,000 weapons to the battalions as well as to settlers who were not recruited into the army but received them as civilians whom the army considers eligible to carry military arms."
HRW's investigation found that "armed settlers, with the active participation of army units, repeatedly cut off road access and raided Palestinian communities, detained, assaulted, and tortured residents, chased them out of their homes and off their lands at gunpoint or coerced them to leave with death threats, and blocked them from taking their belongings."
"Israeli settlers and soldiers are literally wiping Palestinian communities off the map," said Omar Shakir, HRW's Israel and Palestine director.
"While the attention of the world is focused on Gaza, abuses in the West Bank, fueled by decades of impunity and complacency among Israel’s allies, are soaring."
The new report comes days after Israeli settlers—escorted by IDF soldiers—went on their latest destructive and deadly rampage in the West Bank, killing at least two Palestinians, injuring dozens, and setting homes and vehicles ablaze. At least 20 households were displaced after Israeli settlers burned down their homes.
The wave of settler violence came after a missing 14-year-old Israeli boy was found dead in the area around the West Bank city of Ramallah. The Israeli military said the boy was killed in a "terrorist attack."
Since October 7, according to the United Nations, Israeli settlers have launched more than 720 attacks on Palestinians in the West Bank, displacing at least 206 households comprised of 1,244 people—including 603 children. Israeli soldiers in uniform have been present at many of the attacks.
"Settlers and soldiers have displaced entire Palestinian communities, destroying every home, with the apparent backing of higher Israeli authorities," Bill Van Esveld, associate children's rights director at HRW, said in a statement Wednesday. "While the attention of the world is focused on Gaza, abuses in the West Bank, fueled by decades of impunity and complacency among Israel's allies, are soaring."
HRW's new report examines five West Bank communities that have come under attack by Israeli settlers, including one in which uniformed Israeli men armed with assault rifles entered tents and destroyed or stole people's belongings, abused residents, and threatened to kill them if they didn't leave the area.
"One man in uniform kicked me in the back of my neck," a Palestinian mother told HRW. "They said, 'Go to the valley, and if you come back, we will kill you.'"
None of the families forcibly evicted from the five communities examined in the HRW report have been allowed to return home.
"Palestinian children have seen their families brutalized, and their homes and schools destroyed, and the Israeli authorities are ultimately to blame," Van Esveld said Wednesday. "Senior state officials are fueling or failing to prevent these attacks, and Israel's allies are not doing enough to stop that."
Following the latest wave of settler violence in the West Bank this past weekend, a coalition of human rights organizations said in a joint statement Wednesday that "the international community must swiftly and decisively pressure the government of Israel to halt these attacks and urgently de-escalate the situation."
"With international attention centered on Gaza, the government of Israel has not only allowed settler violence to spiral but also persisted in the expansion of Israeli settlements built on Palestinian land and unlawfully seized Palestinian territory by designating it as 'state land,' blatantly violating international law," the groups noted. "Concerted efforts are needed to tackle the root cause of settler violence by permanently dismantling settlement outposts and ensuring the safe return of displaced Palestinians to their lands."
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Democratic Sen. Ron Wyden took to the floor of the U.S. Senate on Tuesday to speak out against a chilling mass surveillance bill that lawmakers are working to rush through the upper chamber and send to President Joe Biden's desk by the end of the week.
The measure in question would reauthorize Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) for two years and massively expand the federal government's warrantless surveillance power by requiring a wide range of businesses and individuals to cooperate with spying efforts.
"If you have access to any communications, the government can force you to help it spy," said Wyden (Ore.), referring to an amendment that was tacked on to the legislation by the U.S. House last week with bipartisan support. "That means anyone with access to a server, a wire, a cable box, a Wi-Fi router, a phone, or a computer. So think for a moment about the millions of Americans who work in buildings and offices in which communications are stored or pass through."
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Wyden said the process "can all happen without any oversight whatsoever: The FISA Court won't know about it, Congress won't know about it. Americans who are handed these directives will be forbidden from talking about it. Unless they can afford high-priced lawyers with security clearances who know their way around the FISA Court, they will have no recourse at all."
Wyden's remarks came after the Senate narrowly approved a motion Tuesday to proceed to the FISA reauthorization bill ahead of Section 702's expiration at the end of the week. The Oregon senator, an outspoken privacy advocate, was among the seven members of the Democratic caucus who voted against the procedural motion.
Despite its grave implications for civil liberties, the bill has drawn relatively little vocal opposition in the Senate. A final vote could come as soon as Thursday.
Titled Reforming Intelligence and Securing America Act (RISAA), the legislation passed the Republican-controlled House last week after lawmakers voted down an amendment that would have added a search warrant requirement to Section 702.
The authority allows U.S. agencies to spy on non-citizens located outside of the country, but it has been abused extensively by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and National Security Agency to collect the communications of American lawmakers, activists, journalists, and others without a warrant.
Privacy advocates warn RISAA would dramatically expand the scope of Section 702 by broadening the kinds of individuals and businesses required to participate in government spying. A key provision of the bill would mandate cooperation from "electronic communications service providers" such as Google, Verizon, and AT&T as well as "any other service provider who has access to equipment that is being or may be used" to transmit or store electronic communications.
That would mean U.S. intelligence agencies could, without a warrant, compel gyms, grocery stores, barber shops, and other businesses to hand over communications data.
"In the face of the pervasive past misuse of Section 702, the last thing Americans need is a large expansion of government surveillance," Caitlin Vogus, deputy director of advocacy at Freedom of the Press Foundation, wrote in an op-ed for The Guardian on Tuesday. "The Senate should reject the House bill and refuse to reauthorize Section 702 without a warrant requirement. Lawmakers must demand reforms to put a stop to unjustified government spying on Americans."
Wyden said during his floor speech Tuesday that some of his colleagues "say they aren't worried about President Biden abusing these authorities."
"In that case, how about [former President Donald] Trump? Imagine these authorities in his hands," said Wyden. "If you're worried about having a president who lives to target vulnerable Americans, to pit Americans against each other, to find every conceivable way to punish perceived enemies, you ought to find this bill terrifying."
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