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EU parliament votes for dropped charges, asylum protection for Edward Snowden

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Resolution passed by European Parliament Thursday calls on member states to prevent whistleblower’s extradition, rendition

A sticker calling for asylum for Edward Snowden seen in Berlin. (Photo: Tony Webster/flickr/cc)

A sticker calling for asylum for Edward Snowden seen in Berlin. (Photo: Tony Webster/flickr/cc)

by Andrea Germanos, Common Dreams

The European Parliament passed a resolution Thursday urging its nations to afford NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden protection.

Passed by a 285 to 281 vote, the resolution calls on EU member states to “drop any criminal charges against Edward Snowden, grant him protection and consequently prevent extradition or rendition by third parties, in recognition of his status as whistle-blower and international human rights defender.”

Snowden, who’s been residing in Russia since 2013, responded to the resolution on Twitter by calling it a “game-changer”:

While the resolution is not binding, Wolfgang Kaleck, Snowden’s lawyer in Berlin, told the Daily Dot in an email, “It is an overdue step and we urge the member States to act now to implement the resolution.”

U.S.-based digital rights group Fight for the Future welcomed the news as well. Evan Greer, the organization’s campaign director, said, “We hope that this resolution leads to a binding agreement in the EU that allows Edward Snowden to move to whichever EU country he wants, and we hope he gets an epic party thrown in his honor when he arrives.”

“The battle over mass government surveillance is a decisive moment in the history of humanity, and it’s hard to think of anyone who has done more than Edward Snowden to educate the public about the grave risks that runaway spying programs pose to our basic human rights, the future of the Internet, and freedom of expression,” he added.

The World Wide Web Foundation, which advocates for an open Internet and was founded by Web inventor Tim Berners-Lee, called it a “landmark resolution.” It added in a statement, “We call on national leaders to publicly commit to respecting the will of the European people and offering Snowden asylum.”

Berners-Lee said in a Reddit Ask Me Anything session last year that Snowden “should be protected, and we should have ways of protecting people like him. Because we can try to design perfect systems of government, and they will never be perfect, and when they fail, then the whistleblower may be all that saves society.”

Shaker Aamer: Last UK Guantanamo Bay detainee released after 14-year detention

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Shaker Aamer has never been charged with any offences and has maintained his innocence

Shaker Aamer has been kept in Guantanamo Bay for 14 years but has never been charged or tried.

Shaker Aamer has been kept in Guantanamo Bay for 14 years but has never been charged or tried.

by Rose Troup Buchanan, Independent

Shaker Aamer, the last British resident detained in Guantanamo, has been reportedly released and is flying back to his wife and four children in London.

Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond confirmed to Sky News Mr Aamer had been released. His plane is believed to be due to land in the UK at around midday today.

Co-director of the We Stand With Shaker campaign Andy Worthington also said he had confirmation from Mr Aamer’s lawyer he is due to return.

“We’re delighted to hear that his long and unacceptable ordeal has come to an end,” he told Press Association. 

“We hope he won’t be detained by the British authorities on his return and gets the psychological and medical care that he needs to be able to resume his life with his family in London.”

Cori Crider, Mr Aamer’s US lawyer and strategic director of Reprieve, said in a statement the release was “long, long past time.” “Shaker now needs to see a doctor, and then get to spend time alone with his family as soon as possible.” Amnesty International UK director Kate Allen cautioned: “After so many twists and turns in this appalling case, we won’t really believe that Shaker Aamer is actually being returned to the UK until his plane touches down on British soil.” “We should remember what a terrible travesty of justice this case has been, and that having been held in intolerable circumstances for nearly 14 years Mr Aamer will need time to readjust to his freedom,” Ms Allen said in a statement. The 46-year-old Saudi Arabian citizen has been held in the US dentention centre for 13 years without trial. His case was debated in the House of Commons in March, and MPs have lobbied Washington to urgently address his transfer – which was cleared in 2007. Prime Minister David Cameron has personally lobbied on behalf of Mr Aamer, urging Barack Obama to free the Guantanamo detainee in June of this year.  A Downing Street source claimed Mr Cameron told the US president: “We are very clear we need to find a resolution to the case of Shaker Aamer.” On Friday, Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn congratulated Mr Aamer’s team on the release, calling it “great news.”

Mr McDonnell told The Mirror he was “breathing a heavy sigh of relief” following Mr Aamer’s release. “Shaker was simply a man in the wrong place at the wrong time, a charity worker building wells in Afghanistan who was kidnapped, ransomed and falsely imprisoned.”

Mr Aamer, whose British wife and four children live in London, has British residency and permission to reside indefinitely in the UK. He has not seen his family in 14 years.

He was imprisoned in Afghanistan after being accused of working with al-Qaeda.

A Reprieve report, published earlier this year, detailed the horrific torture he claims US interrogators meted out in an attempt to make him sign a false confession. Mr Aamer later said he would have told interrogators “he was Bin Laden” to make the torture stop.

Dr Emily Keram, an American doctor who was able to visit him in Guantanamo, diagnosed Mr Aamer with acute post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), migraines, digestive problems, swelling, asthma and tinnitus. She recommended urgent treatment for the “serious medical concerns” in the UK.

Guantanamo Bay detention centre was established in 2002 by the US government. Following a successful Freedom of Information request, the centre admitted to holding 779 men and boys over the course of its use. Mr Obama had promised to close the facility – condemned globally by international human rights organisations – but as of June this year 116 individuals remain imprisoned in the centre. That number will now stand at 115.

China to abolish decades-old one-child policy

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State news agency says restriction introduced in 1980 will be lifted, allowing all couples to have two children.

The restriction was introduced in 1980 as a way to curb the population and limit demands for resources [Frederic J Brown/AFP]

The restriction was introduced in 1980 as a way to curb the population and limit demands for resources [Frederic J Brown/AFP]

by Al Jazeera

The official Xinhua News Agency says China’s ruling Communist Party has decided to abolish the country’s one-child policy and allow all couples to have two children.

It cited a communique issued by the ruling Communist Party on Thursday after a four-day meeting in Beijing to chart the course of the nation over the next five years.

China is “abandoning its decades-long one-child policy”, Xinhua reported.

The restriction was introduced in 1980 as a way to curb the population and limit demands for water and other resources.

The controversial policy restricted most couples to only a single offspring, and for years authorities argued that it was a key contributor to China’s economic boom.

But after years of strict, sometimes brutal enforcement by a dedicated government commission, China’s population – the world’s largest – is now ageing rapidly, gender imbalances are severe, and its workforce is shrinking.

The concerns led to limited reforms in 2013, including allowing a second child for some couples in urban areas, but relatively few have taken up the opportunity.

Al Jazeera’s Rob McBride, reporting from Beijing, said the one-child policy was no longer viable for the country.

“China needs more people joining the workforce, so there is the economic aspect looking further ahead that China needs to have larger families.

“This was one of the widely anticipated measures that was expected from the five-year plan and I think it will be broadly welcomed. The one-child policy is an unpopular measure here in china. We have seen children growing up in isolation because of it,” our correspondent said.

WHO links processed meat consumption to cancer

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Twenty-year-long study finds hot dogs, bacon and other processed meats raise risk of colon, stomach and other cancers.

EU Meat andCancer

by Al Jazeera

Hot dogs, bacon and other processed meats raise the risk of colon, stomach and other cancers, the World Health Organization (WHO) has said.

Monday’s announcement follows studies which looked at more than a dozen types of cancer in populations with diverse diets over the past 20 years.

The findings back what many doctors have been warning for years, and will anger the meat industry which has been rallying against putting processed meats in the same danger category as smoking or asbestos.

A group of 22 scientists from the WHO’s International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) in Lyon, France, evaluated more than 800 studies from several continents about meat and cancer.

Based on the results, the IARC classified processed meat as “carcinogenic to humans”.

With regard to red meat, the report said it contained some important nutrients, but still labelled it “probably carcinogenic”, with links to colon, prostate and pancreatic cancers.

The agency said it did not have enough data to define how much processed meat is dangerous, but said the risk grows with the amount consumed.

Analysis of 10 of the studies suggested that a 50-gramme portion of processed meat daily increases the risk of colorectal cancer over a lifetime by about 18 percent.

The WHO’s findings can influence public health recommendations around the globe.

‘Global impact’

Doctors, especially in rich countries, have long warned that a diet loaded with red meat is linked to cancers, including those of the colon and pancreas.

The American Cancer Society has long urged people to eat less processed and red meat.

“For an individual, the risk of developing colorectal cancer because of their consumption of processed meat remains small, but this risk increases with the amount of meat consumed,” Dr Kurt Straif of the IARC said in a statement.

“In view of the large number of people who consume processed meat, the global impact on cancer incidence is of public health importance.”

The cancer agency noted research by the Global Burden of Disease Project suggesting that 34,000 cancer deaths per year worldwide are linked to diets heavy in processed meat – compared with one million deaths a year linked to smoking, 600,000 a year to alcohol consumption and 200,000 a year to air pollution.

Ex-comedian Jimmy Morales claims victory in Guatemala polls

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Jimmy Morales takes commanding lead over rival, a former first lady, as he is on course to become the next president.

Jimmy Morales

by Al Jazeera

Guatemalan former comedian Jimmy Morales has claimed victory in presidential election, as partial results showed him taking a commanding lead over his rival, the former first lady Sandra Torres.

The Supreme Electoral Tribunal reported on Sunday that with nearly 70 percent of polling stations reporting, Morales had about 72 percent of the votes, compared with 28 percent for Torres, according to Associated Press.

“With this election you have made me president, I received a mandate and that mandate is to fight the corruption that has consumed us,” Morales told AFP new agency.

The runoff was held a month and a half after President Otto Perez Molina resigned and was jailed in connection with a corruption scandal.

Morales and Torres were the top two vote-getters in the first round September 6, when presumed front-runner Manuel Baldizon finished a surprising third – a result considered to be a rejection of Guatemala’s political establishment in the wake of the corruption scandal.

His surge has capped a tumultuous campaign rocked by president Otto Perez’s resignation and arrest on corruption charges on September 3, three days before the first round of voting.

An estimated 7.5 million people were eligible to vote in the second round.

The headquarters of Morales’ National Convergence Front (FCN) party erupted in a celebration with live music and dozens of early revelers, Reuters reported.

“We are tired of the same faces. Jimmy Morales doesn’t really convince me, I was not even going to vote. But he is the only option,” Ana Fuentes, 36, a street seller, told Reuters.

Morales and Torres jockeyed to position themselves as the anti-corruption candidate.

Both promised to keep Attorney General Thelma Aldana, a key figure in the investigation, and the UN commission in place. Morales vowed to strengthen controls and transparency, while Torres said she would ask the UN body for help conducting a government-wide audit.

Perez, who is in jail awaiting trial, is accused of masterminding a corrupt network of politicians and customs officials that allowed businesses to pay bribes to get illegal discounts on import duties.

Prosecutors and UN investigators say the network collected $3.8m in bribes between May 2014 and April 2015 – including $800,000 each to Perez and jailed ex-vice president Roxana Baldetti.

The scandal, the worst in a string of recent corruption cases, has created an unprecedented climate of outrage in Guatemala, an impoverished Central American country torn by gang violence and still recovering from a 36-year civil war that ended in 1996.

Thousands of protesters, including from the country’s large and historically marginalized indigenous population, took to the streets in the weeks leading up to the elections.

European leaders commit to more shelter for refugees

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EU and Balkan leaders agree 17-point plan that includes about 100,000 more places for refugees as winter looms.

eu

by Al Jazeera

European Union and Balkan leaders have agreed a 17-point plan to cooperate on managing arrival of refugees through the Balkan peninsula, the European Commission has said.

Among measures agreed at the meeting in Brussels on Sunday evening were that 100,000 places in reception centres should be made available along the route from Greece toward Germany. The UN refugee agency would help establish them.

Some 50,000 places will be created in Greece and another 50,000 on the route through Balkans countries such as Macedonia and Serbia, European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker said after the mini-summit of 11 nations.

“Refugees need to be treated in a humane manner along the length of the Western Balkans route to avoid a humanitarian tragedy in Europe,” Juncker said.

The agreement comes in the wake of differences among member nations on how to tackle the continent’s greatest refugee crisis since World War II.

“This is one of the greatest litmus tests that Europe has ever faced,” said German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

Border operations

They also agreed to expand border operations and make full use of biometric data like fingerprints as they register and screen refugees, before deciding whether to grant them asylum or send them home.

“We have made very clear that the policy of simply waving people through must be stopped,” EU Commission president told reporters, referring to agreements to cooperate and avoid unilateral national measures that have contributed to chaos throughout the region.

The meeting also agreed to deploy 400 police officers to Slovenia within a week to help the country cope with its overwhelming arrival of refugees. Earlier, Slovenian Prime Minister Miro Cerar said that his country was not receiving enough help from its EU partners.

Nearly 250,000 people have passed through the Balkans since mid-September.

Croatia said 11,500 people entered its territory on Saturday, the highest tally in a single day since Hungary put up a fence and refugees started moving sideways into Croatia a month ago.

France bus crash leaves dozens of elderly dead

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At least 42 people killed after bus collides with truck and catches fire in country’s worst road accident since 1982.

france-bus-crash

by Al Jazeera

At least 42 people have been killed in a collision between a bus and truck near the southwestern town of Libourne, officials said.

The bus caught fire in the Friday morning crash that also left the driver of the truck dead.

Images shown on French television showed the coach as a charred shell that had been entirely burned.

Five surviving passengers were brought to hospital with injuries while three others were unharmed, local authorities said.

The interior ministry said the bus was carrying elderly from a nearby village going on excursion.

Local politician Florent Boudie, who had visited the accident site, told BFM-TV that it was unclear what had caused the accident. He said the authorities were considering high speed and weather conditions as
potential factors.

Scores of emergency workers from the region were mobilised to the scene.

The incident was France’s worst road accident since 1982.

“The French government has fully mobilised after this terrible tragedy,” President Francois Hollande said from Athens, where he is on an official visit.

“We are plunged into sadness due to this drama.”

WikiLeaks publishes first round of hacked CIA chief emails

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Former CIA Director John Brennan is said to have used the private email account ‘occasionally for several intelligence related projects’

John Brennan has been director of the CIA since 2013. The documents contained in the WikiLeaks cache are from 2008 and before. (Photo: Reuters)

John Brennan has been director of the CIA since 2013. The documents contained in the WikiLeaks cache are from 2008 and before. (Photo: Reuters)

by Deirdre Fulton, Common Dreams

WikiLeaks on Wednesday began releasing documents from one of former CIA chief John Brennan’s non-government email accounts, which he is said to have “used occasionally for several intelligence related projects.”

Earlier this week an individual, claiming to be a teenager, alleged that he and two other people had hacked into Brennan’s AOL email account and uncovered files dealing with the CIA director’s security clearance application. The hacker told the New York Post that he used a tactic called “social engineering” that involved tricking workers at Verizon into providing Brennan’s personal information and duping AOL into resetting his password. The FBI and Secret Service are reportedly investigating the breach.

The unredacted documents published Wednesday include Brennan’s “National Security Position” form, which WikiLeaks says “reveals a quite comprehensive social graph of the current Director of the CIA with a lot of additional non-govermental and professional/military career details.”

Other documents in the dump cover topics including “challenges for the US Intelligence Community in a post cold-war and post-9/11 world;” “the conundrum of Iran;” and “forbidden interrogation techniques.”

Brennan, who defended the CIA in the wake of the Senate Torture Report, has been accused of “willfully [providing] inaccurate information and misrepresent[ing] the efficacy of torture.”

Canada’s opposition wins historic elections

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Justin Trudeau’s Liberal Party sweeps to power, ending nearly a decade of Conservative Party rule.

Trudeau has pledged to run small budget deficits and spend on infrastructure to stimulate economic growth [Reuters]

Trudeau has pledged to run small budget deficits and spend on infrastructure to stimulate economic growth [Reuters]

by Al Jazeera

Justin Trudeau is set to become Canada’s new prime minister after his Liberal Party swept to power in general elections, ending nearly a decade of Conservative Party rule.

The Liberals seized a parliamentary majority, an unprecedented turn in political fortunes that smashed the record for the number of seats gained from one election to the next.

The Liberals had been a distant third place party in parliament before this election.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper conceded defeat, ending his government’s nine-year run in power and the 56-year-old’s brand of fiscal and cultural conservatism.

Trudeau, 43, the son of former Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau, pledged to run a $7.7bn annual budget deficit for three years to invest in infrastructure and help stimulate Canada’s anaemic economic growth.

This rattled financial markets ahead of the vote and the Canadian dollar weakened on news of his victory.

Trudeau has said he will repair Canada’s cool relations with the Obama administration, withdraw Canada from the combat mission against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) group in favour of humanitarian aid and training, and tackle climate change.

Trudeau vaulted from third place to lead the polls in the final days of the campaign, overcoming Conservative attacks that he is too inexperienced to govern and to return to the prime minister’s residence in Ottawa where he grew up as a child.

“When the time for change strikes, it’s lethal,” former Conservative Prime Minister Brian Mulroney said in a television interview.

“I ran and was successful because I wasn’t Pierre Trudeau. Justin is successful because he isn’t Stephen Harper,” Mulroney added.

The Conservatives were projected to become the official opposition in parliament, with the left-leaning New Democratic Party in third.

Liberal supporters at the party’s campaign headquarters broke into cheers and whistles when television networks projected that Trudeau would be the next prime minister.

“A sea of change here. We are used to high tides in Atlantic Canada. This is not what we hoped for,” said Peter MacKay, a former senior Conservative cabinet minister.

The 11-week campaign was considered too close to call for nearly two months, a virtual tie between the Conservatives, Liberals and left-leaning NDP.

Trudeau, who took over a party in shambles in 2013, trailed early in the campaign, brushed off by his opponents as being more style than substance and an intellectual lightweight who was not ready for the job.

But a bold pledge to run a budget deficit and boost spending to spur the economy, as well as a positive message and his gregarious nature, helped the Liberals engineer a turnaround.

Up to 26.4 million electorates were eligible to vote in 338 electoral districts. About 3.6 million had already cast a ballot in advance voting a week ago.

Amid the issues raised during the campaign was a record influx of refugees fleeing war in Syria, a court ruling quashing a veil ban and a recession – crises that gave Canadians a chance to assess parties’ reactions in near-real time.

Drone Papers ‘no surprise to Yemenis,’ says man who lost family

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“For years, we have been confused by the sharp contrast between what we see with our own eyes and what the U.S. government tells the world,” said Faisal bin Ali Jaber.

"For years, we have been confused by the sharp contrast between what we see with our own eyes and what the U.S. government tells the world. Slowly, the whole truth will come out," said Faisal bin Ali Jaber. (Photo: Reprieve)

“For years, we have been confused by the sharp contrast between what we see with our own eyes and what the U.S. government tells the world. Slowly, the whole truth will come out,” said Faisal bin Ali Jaber. (Photo: Reprieve)

by Sarah Lazare, Common Dreams

One man who lost family members to the covert U.S. drone war in Yemen responded Friday to The Intercept‘s explosive new exposé of the American “assassination complex” by proclaiming he is not surprised but now more hopeful “the whole truth will come out.”

“I read that the Americans have very little knowledge of the innocent civilians they are killing in Yemen,” said Faisal bin Ali Jaber, a Yemeni engineer whose nephew Waleed bin Ali Jaber and brother-in-law Salem bin Ali Jaber were killed in a 2012 U.S. drone strike attack on their village of Khashamir.

“This is no surprise to Yemenis,” he continued. “For years, we have been confused by the sharp contrast between what we see with our own eyes and what the U.S. government tells the world. Slowly, the whole truth will come out.”

“I hope that my American court case will help that happen. But how many innocent Yemeni men, women and children will die before it does?” Jaber added, referencing his months-long court battle for justice or, short of that, acknowledgment of his loss. The administration of President Barack Obama earlier this month rejected a settlement offer that would have required a formal apology for the drone strike that killed Jaber’s family.

Joe Pace, an attorney for the legal charity Reprieve who represents Jaber, said: “We were told that the drone program was ‘safe’ and ‘effective.’ When we raised concerns with the Administration that it was anything but, we were told ‘trust us.'”

“These leaked reports confirming the staggering inaccuracy of the U.S drone program may be news to the American people who have been lied to by this Administration, but there’s nothing revelatory for [Jaber] or the millions who live under constant threat of U.S. drone strikes,” Pace continued. “[Jaber] and countless others have witnessed their loved ones literally blown to pieces based on a toxic combination of garbage intelligence and U.S. indifference to foreign lives.”

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