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Revealed: Pentagon blocking release of cleared Guantánamo detainees

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Exclusive reporting by the Guardian reveals that the U.S. government is intentionally “dragging its feet” on allowing Shaker Aamer, others to go home

Demonstrators call for the release of cleared Guantanamo Bay detainee Shaker Aamer. (Photo: Justin Norman/flickr/cc)

Demonstrators call for the release of cleared Guantanamo Bay detainee Shaker Aamer. (Photo: Justin Norman/flickr/cc)

by Nadia Prupis, Common Dreams

The U.S. Pentagon is blocking the release of Guantánamo Bay detainees who have been cleared to return home through diplomatic deals between the U.S. and UK governments, the Guardian revealed on Thursday in an exclusive report.

Among those detainees is Shaker Aamer, a Saudi citizen and UK resident who has been held at the U.S. military base in Cuba for more than 13 years without charge and has twice been cleared for release. In 2010, the Pentagon itself participated in a federal review of Aamer’s case, as well as that of another detainee, both of whom were deemed to pose no threat to national security and cleared to go home.

But as one official told the Guardian, the U.S. government’s defense secretaries have been playing “foot-dragging and process games” to keep the diplomatic deals that secured his release from going through.

The Guardian reports:

Pentagon chief Ashton Carter, backed by powerful US militaryofficers, have withheld support for sending Aamer back to the UK. The ongoing obstruction has left current and former US officials who consider the detainees a minimal threat seething, as they see it undermining relations with Britain and other foreign partners while subverting from the inside Obama’s long-stifled goal of closing the infamous detention facility.

[….] The transfers have the backing of the US Justice Department, the State Department, the Department of Homeland Security and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence.

But since White House rules depend on full administration consensus, Aamer remains at Guantánamo until Carter and the Pentagon say otherwise.

The Pentagon is also blocking the release of Ahmed Ould Abdel Aziz of Mauritania and Abdul Shalabi of Saudi Arabia. Carter has yet to sign the diplomatic deals already brokered between the U.S. and the men’s home countries which would enable their release.

Aamer’s case has drawn widespread support from human rights groups and peace activists. A campaign for his release, which operates under the banner Save Shaker Aamer, stages regular actions and protests to call attention to his continued illegal detention. According to legal charity Reprieve, which represents Aamer, he has been subject to force-feedings, solitary confinement, and beatings by guards up to eight times a day while in custody at Guantánamo Bay.

Climate change ‘set to fuel global food crisis’

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Global food shortages to become three times more likely due to climate change, according to report by US and UK experts.

Global food

by Al Jazeera

Global food shortages will become three times more likely as a result of climate change according to a report by a joint US-British taskforce, which warned that the international community needs to be ready to respond to potentially dramatic future rises in prices.

Food shortages, market volatility and price spikes are likely to occur at an exponentially higher rate of every 30 years by 2040, said the Taskforce on Extreme Weather and Global Food System Resilience.

With the world’s population set to rise to nine billion by 2050 from 7.3 billion today, food production will need to increase by more than 60 percent and climate-linked market disruptions could lead to civil unrest, the report, published on Friday, said.

“The climate is changing and weather records are being broken all the time,” said David King, the UK foreign minister’s Special Representative for Climate Change.

“The risks of an event are growing, and it could be unprecedented in scale and extent.”

Globalisation and new technologies have made the world’s food system more efficient but it has also become less resilient to risks, said King.

Some of the major risks include a rapid rise in oil prices fuelling food costs, reduced export capacity in Brazil, the US or the Black Sea region due to infrastructure weakness, and the possible depreciation of the US dollar causing prices for dollar-listed commodities to spike.

Global food production is likely to be most impacted by extreme weather events in North and South America and Asia which produce most of the world’s four major crops – maize, soybean, wheat and rice, the report found.

Such shocks in production or price hikes are likely to hit some of the world’s poorest nations hardest such as import dependent countries in sub-Saharan Africa, the report found.

‘Violence or conflict’

“In fragile political contexts where household food insecurity is high, civil unrest might spill over into violence or conflict,” the report said.

“The Middle East and North Africa region is of particular systemic concern, given its exposure to international price volatility and risk of instability, its vulnerability to import disruption and the potential for interruption of energy exports.”

To ease the pain of increasingly likely shocks, the report urged countries not to impose export restrictions in the event of extreme weather, as Russia did following a poor harvest in 2010.

The researchers said agriculture itself needs to change to respond to global warming as international demand is already growing faster than agricultural yields and climate change will put further pressure on production.

“Increases in productivity, sustainability and resilience to climate change are required,” the report said.

This will require significant investment from the public and private sectors, as well as new cross-sector collaborations.”

China orders evacuations as chemical fears grow

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Fire re-ignites at site of twin blasts in Tianjin, as death toll rises to 85, with more than 700 wounded.

china

by Al Jazeera

Residents living close to the site of giant explosions in the Chinese port of Tianjin have been evacuated over fears of toxic contamination as new fires ignited.

Armed police were carrying out evacuations within 3km of the blast site on Saturday after highly poisonous sodium cyanide was found, the Beijing News said.

The blaze ignited again at the warehouse where the blasts struck on Wednesday night, with several small blasts heard by reporters from the Xinhua state news agency.

“Out of consideration for toxic substances spreading, the masses nearby have been asked to evacuate,” Xinhua reported.

Authorities announced on Saturday that the death toll has risen to 85, with more than 700 others still being treated in hospitals, including 25 who are in critical condition and 33 who are in serious condition.

A survivor was pulled from a shipping container on Saturday morning, state media reported. His identity was not immediately known. Television video showed the man being carried out on a sketcher by a group of soldiers wearing gas masks.

A team of chemical experts has been called in to the site to test for toxic gases.

Shockwaves from the blasts late on Wednesday were felt by residents in apartment blocks kilometres away in the city of 15 million people.

Furious residents and victims’ relatives railed against authorities outside a news conference on Saturday for keeping them in the dark as criticism over transparency mounted.

Residents and relatives were prevented from entering the press conference and could be heard shouting outside.

“Nobody has told us anything, we’re in the dark, there is no news at all,” screamed one middle-aged woman, as she was dragged away by security personnel.

The man survived for three days in a shipping container following the blasts [Reuters]

China has a patchy industrial safety record and the disaster has raised fears of toxic contamination after officials said they were unable to identify precisely what chemicals were at the site at the time.

Tianjin work safety official Gao Huaiyou listed a host of possible substances at the briefing, adding that the firm’s recent large exports had included sodium bisulfide, magnesium, sodium, potassium nitrate, ammonium nitrate, and sodium cyanide, among others.

China on Friday defended the work of firefighters who initially hosed water on a blaze in a warehouse storing volatile chemicals, a response foreign experts said could have contributed to the explosions.

The explosions have disrupted the flow of cars, oil, iron ore and other items through the world’s 10th largest port.

The blast sent shipping containers tumbling into one another, leaving them in bent, charred piles.

Rows of new cars, lined up on vast lots for distribution across China, were reduced to blackened carcasses.

Tianjin is the 10th largest port in the world by container volume and the seventh largest in China, according to the World Shipping Council, moving more containers than the ports of Rotterdam, Hamburg and Los Angeles.

It handles vast quantities of metal ore, coal, steel, cars and crude oil.

Authorities have only released limited information about the accident, a criticism often levelled at Chinese officials in the aftermath of disasters, and restricted discussion of it online.

More than 360 social media accounts have been shut down or suspended for “spreading rumours” about the blasts, Xinhua reported citing the Cyberspace Administration of China.

Death toll soars after huge blasts hit China’s Tianjin

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Explosions in city’s industrial zone kill at least 50 people and injure hundreds more, with 36 firemen reported missing.

The blasts started late on Wednesday after a container of 'hazardous material' exploded in a warehouse in Tianjin [EPA]

The blasts started late on Wednesday after a container of ‘hazardous material’ exploded in a warehouse in Tianjin [EPA]

by Al Jazeera

Explosions at a warehouse for dangerous materials in the northeastern Chinese port of Tianjin have killed at least 50 people, including at least a dozen firefighters, and injured more than 700 and sent shockwaves through the city.

Chinese state news said the blasts started late on Wednesday after a container of “hazardous material” exploded in a warehouse around midnight local time.

The city government said the death toll from the explosions stood at 50, adding that were 701 hospitalised and 71 seriously injured.

At least 36 firefighters were initially reported missing by the state news agency, Xinhua.

The blasts knocked doors off buildings in the area and shattered windows up to several kilometres away.

There were no indications of what caused the blasts, and no immediate signs of any large release of toxic chemicals into the air.

Beijing News reported on its website that there was some unidentified yellow foam flowing at the site.

Police in Tianjin said an initial blast occurred at shipping containers in a warehouse for hazardous materials owned by Ruihai Logistics, a company that says it is properly approved to handle hazardous materials.

Al Jazeera’s Adrian Brown, reporting from Tianjin early on Thursday, said: “Close to the disaster zone, dazed people are wandering about the streets, many carrying what possessions they could grab before fleeing their homes.

“Others are sitting at roadsides, many clearly in shock. Those who can get out are fleeing.

Photos on state media outlets showed a sea of fire that painted Wednesday’s night sky bright orange in Tianjin [Reuters]

“In the distance, smoke is still billowing from the scene of the multiple blasts. Scores of nearby buildings have had their windows punched out.

“The streets are littered with broken glass and stones. The air is acrid. That no one knows what they are breathing is adding to the anxiety here.”

State media said senior management of the company had been detained by authorities, and that President Xi Jinping has demanded severe punishment for anyone found responsible for the explosions.

The official Xinhua news agency said an initial explosion sparked other blasts at nearby businesses.

The National Earthquake Bureau reported two major blasts before midnight, the first was the equivalent of three tonnes of TNT, and the second one was the equivalent of 21 tonnes.

The explosions occurred in a mostly industrial zone, with some apartment buildings in the vicinity.

Buildings of a half-dozen other logistics companies were destroyed in the blasts, and more than 1,000 new Renault cars were left charred in a nearby parking lot, Beijing News said.

Photos taken by bystanders and circulating on microblogs show a huge fireball high in the sky, with a mushroom cloud.

China’s National Earthquake Bureau reported two major blasts in Tianjin’s industrial zone before midnight on Wednesday [Reuters]

Tall plumes of smoke

Other photos on state media outlets showed a sea of fire that painted the night sky bright orange, with tall plumes of smoke.

In one neighbourhood about 10km to 20km from the blast site, some residents were sleeping on the street wearing gas masks, although there was no perceptible problem with the air apart from massive clouds of smoke seen in the distance.

At the nearby Taida Hospital as dawn broke, military medical tents were set up.

Photos circulating online showed patients in bandages and with cuts.

State broadcaster CCTV said six battalions of firefighters had brought the ensuing fire under control, although it was still burning in the early hours of Thursday.

Ruihai Logistics says on its website that it was established in 2011 and is an approved company for handling hazardous materials. It says it handles one million tonnes of cargo annually.

Tianjin, with a population of about 15 million, is about 120km east of Beijing on the Bohai Sea and is one of the country’s major ports.

It is also one of China’s more modern cities and is connected to the capital by a high speed rail line.

China stages biggest currency devaluation in 20 yrs to revive exports

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Chinese one yuan coins and 100 yuan banknotes are seen in this picture illustration taken in Beijing December 30, 2010. A gradual and modest appreciation of yuan is good for China's economy, a senior Chinese central bank official said in comments published on Thursday. REUTERS/Petar Kujundzic (CHINA - Tags: BUSINESS) - RTXW3AD

Chinese one yuan coins and 100 yuan banknotes are seen in this picture illustration taken in Beijing December 30, 2010. A gradual and modest appreciation of yuan is good for China’s economy, a senior Chinese central bank official said in comments published on Thursday. REUTERS/Petar Kujundzic (CHINA – Tags: BUSINESS) – RTXW3AD

by RT

The central bank of China has cut its daily reference rate by 1.9 percent, making its biggest downward adjustment since 1994. The People’s Bank insists Tuesday’s measures are a one-off aimed at reviving faltering exports.

The bank’s announcement prompted the yuan exchange rate to tumble against the US dollar. As of 8:15am GMT on Tuesday, the yuan (renminbi) was trading at 6.33 to the dollar, 1.9 percent lower than Monday.

Over the weekend, Beijing said July exports dropped 8.3 percent, compared to a year before. The weaker the yuan, the bigger revenues exporters get from their foreign sales.

The tough move may also indicate that Beijing is allowing the market more freedom to determine the yuan rate.

“The People’s Bank of China has astutely combined a move to weaken the yuan with a shift to a more market-determined exchange rate,” Eswar Prasad, a Cornell University professor and former China representative of the IMF told the Wall Street Journal.

Becky Liu, a Hong Kong-based senior strategist for Standard Chartered, said the bank’s move was “big… and bolder” than predicted.

“The new fixing will be quoted based on the previous day’s closing, which is a real market level. The band will become the real band. This is a big step, and bolder than we expected,” she told Bloomberg News.

Tuesday’s devaluation comes a decade after Beijing’s key decision to replace the hard peg against the US dollar by a link to a basket of currencies. The exchange rate was simultaneously set within a band of around 8.11 to the US dollar, marking a 2.1 percent move from an 8.28 yuan exchange rate in place before 2005. In those 10 years, the yuan has risen 33 percent, becoming one of the world’s most-traded currencies, while Beijing has staked out its position as the world’s second-biggest economy.

The adjustment could complicate Beijing’s goal of making the yuan the world’s leading currency. On the other hand, becoming more market-oriented is a solid step towards greater openness.

Sex claims against WikiLeaks founder Assange to expire

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Three out of four charges to reach their five-year expiry date next week as his lawyer calls for probe to be dropped.

Assange (right) has always denied the sexual assault allegations against him [AP]

Assange (right) has always denied the sexual assault allegations against him [AP]

by Al Jazeera

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange is set to be cleared of three sexual assault allegations made in Sweden within days, as a five-year statute of limitations against the charges expires.

Three of the charges of sexual molestation involving two women he met during a visit to Sweden five years ago will expire on August 13 and August 18.

The statute of limitations on a fourth and more serious allegation of rape is not set to expire for another five years.

Never charged

Assange, who has been holed up at the Ecuadorian Embassy in London for more than three years, has never been charged with any offence and has denied all of the allegations.

His lawyer, Thomas Olsson, told Swedish Television last week that it was “lamentable that it’s taken such a long time to wind up this case” and called on Swedish prosecutors to close the investigation.

However, he said it was unlikely that the closing of the case itself would be enough to prompt Assange to leave the embassy, where he has sought asylum since June 2012, as he remained concerned over being extradited to the US to face charges over WikiLeaks’ publication of classified US military and diplomatic documents.

“The reason he is at the embassy is his concern over being extradited to the US and prosecuted there because of the very serious accusations the US made about WikiLeaks publications and because of personal threats made by people in public office,” Olsson said.

“So long as that threat remains – and it’s a threat of global scope – he can’t leave the embassy.”

On Wednesday the Financial Times reported that Ecuador had agreed to hold talks with Sweden about questioning Assange, a move which could end a years-long stand-off.

Swedish officials said Ecuador had wanted Sweden to sign a bilateral agreement on judicial cooperation regarding Assange’s case before allowing Swedish prosecutors to question him. Sweden described the demand as unreasonable.

Assange’s lawyer Olsson said Assange’s lawyers had for several years requested prosecutors to come and interrogate Assange “but had not had a reply”.

“What people forget is that Julian Assange voluntarily attended the first interrogation and answered the questions he was asked,” Olsson said.

“Then the investigation was closed and a new prosecutor arrived on the scene to open it again.”

Bradley Manning, a US army soldier, in 2013 was sentenced in a military court to a maximum term of 35 years’ jail for passing on thousands of classified military documents to WikiLeaks for publication.

No death penalty for Colorado theatre massacre gunman

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Jury fails to agree on capital punishment, meaning James Holmes will serve life in prison without parole for 12 murders.

Prosecutors argued Holmes deserved to die because he methodically planned the 2012 assault [File: Reuters]

Prosecutors argued Holmes deserved to die because he methodically planned the 2012 assault [File: Reuters]

by Al Jazeera

United States theatre gunman James Holmes will be sentenced to life in prison without parole after a jury failed to agree on whether he should get the death penalty for his murderous attack on a packed movie premiere in Colorado in 2012.

The nine women and three men said on Friday that they could not reach a unanimous verdict on each of the murder counts. That automatically eliminates the death penalty for the failed neuroscientist, who blamed his calculated murders of 12 people on mental illness.

Prosecutors argued Holmes deserved to die because he methodically planned the 2012 assault at a midnight screening of a Batman movie, even blasting techno music through ear phones so he wouldn’t hear his victims scream.

The same jury had rejected his insanity defence, finding Holmes capable of understanding right from wrong when he murdered 12 people and tried to kill 70 others.

But the defence countered that his schizophrenia led to a psychotic break, and that powerful delusions drove him to carry out one of the nation’s deadliest mass shootings.

There was never any question during the gruelling, four-month trial as to whether Holmes was the killer.

Holmes surrendered outside the theatre, where police found him clad head-to-toe in combat gear.

The trial hinged instead on the question of whether a mentally ill person should be held legally and morally culpable for an act of unspeakable violence.

It took jurors only about 12 hours of deliberations to decide the first part – they rejected his insanity defence and found him guilty of 165 felony counts.

The defence then conceded his guilt, but insisted during the sentencing phase that his crimes were caused by the psychotic breakdown of a mentally ill young man, reducing his moral culpability and making a life sentence appropriate.

The jury’s final decision came after days of tearful testimony from relatives of the slain.

Prayers held as Hiroshima marks 70 years since bomb

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Japanese city marks the 70th anniversary of the world’s first atomic bombing that killed 140,000 people in 1945.

NukeHiroshima

by Al Jazeera

Bells tolled and thousands bowed their heads in prayer in Hiroshima at ceremonies in the Japanese city marking the 70th anniversary of the world’s first atomic bombing.

On Thursday at 8:15am (23:15 GMT, Wednesday), the exact time when the bomb, dropped by the US B-29 aircraft, the Enola Gay, exploded on August 6, 1945, the crowd stood for a moment of silence.

In the heavy summer heat, cicadas shrilled, the Peace Bell rang and hundreds of doves were released into the sky.

Many of those gathered for the ceremony renewed their calls for peace, while survivors recalled agonising memories that continue to haunt them 70 years on.

Eighty-nine-year-old Keigo Miyagawa spoke to Al Jazeera of the terror and the trauma his 19-year-old self went through.

“It felt like lightning. I saw this strong flash, and it was followed by this sound, and it swept me off my feet. I lost consciousness,” he recalled. “When I woke up … I was injured and bleeding.”

For the last five decades, Miyagawa has been committing images imprisoned in his mind to canvas. Read his story here .

The Hiroshima bombing, which killed 140,000 by the end of the year, was followed three days later by the bombing of Nagasaki on August 9, which killed about 40,000 instantly. The war ended on August 15.

Al Jazeera has drawn a timeline of the events from the day German chemist Otto Hahn discovered nuclear fission, through to the day the Nobel prize winner saw his discovery used to instigate the attack.

The effects of the bomb blast outlived its survivors.

The cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki became known for cancers, premature births and malformed babies.

About 90 percent of the city was destroyed, which is why it looks so new today.

The black-and-white photo gallery reveals a glimpse of the suffering.

The US demonstrated unprecedented power when it dropped the atomic bombs. Days later, Japan surrendered and World War II was over.

The bombings remain the only use of nuclear weapons for warfare in history.

Seventy years on, many with memories of the war and its aftermath are scathing about Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s efforts to pass security bills that could send troops into conflict for the first time since World War II, sparking massive protests around the country.

Critics who see the measures as a derailment of Japan’s pacifist constitution lambasted Abe at a meeting after the commemoration ceremony. Abe said the legislation was essential to ensure Japan’s safety.

An excerpt of former US president Harry Truman’s announcement that the US had dropped an atomic bomb for the first time in history is shown in this video below.

Malaysia seeks help to widen MH370 search

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Malaysia asks Indian Ocean islands around Reunion to search for plane debris after wing part confirmed from Boeing 777.

The wing flap was found on Wednesday on the French island of La Reunion [AP]

The wing flap was found on Wednesday on the French island of La Reunion [AP]

by Al Jazeera

Malaysia will seek help from territories near the Indian Ocean island where a suspected wing part from the missing Malaysia Airlines jet was discovered in an attempt to find more plane debris.

A new piece of debris, meanwhile, found on Sunday on the French island of Reunion did not belong to a plane, Malaysian Director General of Civil Aviation Azharuddin Abdul Rahman told news agencies AP and AFP, amid reports that a new part was found.

Rahman, who is in France for the analysis of the wing part, told AFP one item “was actually from a domestic ladder. It is not a door”.

And a source close to the investigation in Paris said “no object or debris likely to come from a plane” had been placed into evidence on Sunday.

Identified as from Boeing 777

Malaysian Transport Minister Liow Tiong Lai told AFP that civil aviation authorities were reaching out to their counterparts in other Indian Ocean territories to be on the lookout for further debris that could provide “more clues to the missing aircraft”.

He had confirmed in a statement that the wing part had been “officially identified” as from a Boeing 777 – making it likely that it was from the missing Malaysia Airlines flight, as MH370 is the only missing Boeing 777.

The identification was verified by French authorities together with Boeing, the US National Transportation Safety Board and a Malaysian team.

The wing flap was found on Wednesday on Reunion. It arrived on Saturday at a French military testing facility for analysis by experts.

Experts will try to establish whether the part comes specifically from Flight 370, which disappeared on March 8, 2014, while en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing with 239 people on board, about two-thirds of whom were Chinese.

The experts are expected to start their inquiry on Wednesday. On Monday, an investigating judge will meet with Malaysian authorities and representatives of the French aviation investigative agency, known as the BEA.

Liow said Malaysia’s Department of Civil Aviation was reaching out to authorities in territories near Reunion to allow experts “to conduct more substantive analysis should there be more debris coming on to land, providing us [with] more clues to the missing aircraft”.

“I urge all parties to allow this crucial investigation process to take its course. I reiterate this is for the sake of the next of kin of the loved ones of MH370 who would be anxiously awaiting news and have suffered much over this time,” Liow said. “We will make an announcement once the verification process has been completed.”

WikiLeaks: US spied on Japanese government and companies

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WikiLeaks published what it says are four NSA documents showing the US spied on Japan

WikiLeaks published what it says are four NSA documents showing the US spied on Japan

by Independent

The WikiLeaks website has published documents that allegedly show the US government spied on Japanese officials and companies.

The documents include what appear to be four US National Security Agency (NSA) reports marked top secret that reveal internal Japanese discussions on international trade and climate change policy.

A notation on one of the reports indicates it was shared with Australia, Canada, Great Britain and New Zealand.

WikiLeaks also posted an NSA list of 35 Japanese targets for telephone intercepts including the Japanese cabinet office, Bank of Japan officials, Finance and Trade Ministry numbers and fossil fuel departments at Mitsubishi and Mitsui.

The Japanese government had no immediate response.

WikiLeaks has released similar reports of US spying on Germany, France and Brazil.

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