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US authorities investigate motive in Muslim students' killings

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Early investigation appears to point to parking dispute as motive, but Muslim victims’ family want “hate crime” probe.

Family members said the shooter had bothered the students in the past [Getty Images]

Family members said the shooter had bothered the students in the past [Getty Images]

by Al Jazeera

Authorities in the US state of North Carolina are trying to determine whether hate played a role in the shooting deaths of three Muslim students.

Craig Stephen Hicks, 46, was charged with three counts of first-degree murder on Wednesday in the fatal shootings of Deah Shaddy Barakat, 23, his 21-year-old wife, Yusor Mohammad, and her sister, 19-year-old Razan Mohammad Abu-Salha.

Authorities said the preliminary investigation of the shooting in Chapel Hill, North Carolina showed that a long-simmering parking dispute was the motive, but family members insist it was a “hate crime”.

“This was not a dispute over a parking space, this was a hate crime,” Mohammad Abu-Salha, the father of the two slain women, told the News & Observer newspaper . “This man had picked on my daughter and her husband a couple of times before, and he talked with them with his gun in his belt. And they were uncomfortable with him, but they did not know he would go this far.”

Suzanne Barakat, sister of Barakat, appealed to authorities on behalf of her family, saying “we ask that the authorities investigate these senseless and heinous murders as a hate crime”.

Gerod King of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives said that agents were in touch with the US attorney’s office in North Carolina that encompasses Chapel Hill and that investigators had not ruled out a hate crime.

“We understand the concerns about the possibility that this was hate-motivated, and we will exhaust every lead to determine if that is the case,” Chapel Hill police Chief Chris Blue said in an email to reporters.

The cautious wording of the police statement contrasted sharply with the anguished reaction among some American Muslims who viewed the homicides as an outgrowth of anti-Muslim opinions.

Outrage was voiced on social media with the hashtags #MuslimLivesMatter and #CallItTerrorism.

“Based on the brutal nature of this crime … the religious attire of two of the victims, and the rising anti-Muslim rhetoric in American society, we urge state and federal law enforcement authorities to quickly address speculation of a possible bias motive in this case,” Nihad Awad, of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, said in a statement.

Vigils for the victims were being held on Wednesday night in North Carolina and elsewhere around the US.

Barakat and Mohammad were newlyweds who helped the homeless and raised funds to help Syrian refugees in Turkey this summer.

Abu-Salha was visiting them on Tuesday from Raleigh, where she was studying.

Imad Ahmad, who lived in the condo where his friends were killed until Barakat and Mohammad were married in December, said Hicks complained about once a month that the two men were parking in a visitor’s space as well as their assigned spot.

Both Hicks and his neighbours complained to the property managers, who apparently did not intervene.

“They told us to call the police if the guy came and harassed us again,” Ahmad said.

Hicks, who appeared briefly in court on Wednesday, is being held without bond. Police said Hicks turned himself in and was cooperating.

USA: Three Muslim students murdered at North Carolina campus

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Police captures suspect after three Muslim Americans are shot dead at University of North Carolina campus.

Friends and family, and online community condemning the murder shared victims' photos online following the incident [Facebook]

Friends and family, and online community condemning the murder shared victims’ photos online following the incident [Facebook]

by Al Jazeera

Three American students have been shot dead at a residential complex of University of North Carolina and a suspect has been arrested over the incident, according to the local police.

Chapel Hill police told local news outlets that Craig Stephen Hicks, 46, was arrested and charged with killing the three Muslim students. He is being held at the Durham County Jail.

Police said they responded to a report of gunshots at around 5:15pm on Tuesday, and found three people who were pronounced dead at the scene.

The victims were identified as 23-year-old Deah Shaddy Barakat, his 21-year-old wife Yusor Mohammad and 19-year-old Razan Mohammad Abu-Salha, police said.

Police said the investigation was continuing.

Residents told local media that the complex was a peaceful place.

“It’s a very quiet community,” Bethany Boring, who lives in the complex, told television station WRAL.

“It’s a lot of graduate and professional students. You know, professionals’ families.”

Friends and family and the online community shared photos of the victims via social media after the incident.

The hashtag  went viral after the incident was reported, many of the tweets criticising the US and other Western media for not covering the shooting.

John Kiriakou: Blowing whistle on Bush-era torture 'was worth it'

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Whistleblower, who’s now serving remainder of 30-month sentence at home, told Democracy Now! that ‘entire torture program was approved by the president himself.’

CIA whisteblower John Kiriakou as depicted in artist Robert Shetterly's "Americans Who Tell the Truth" series. (Credit: Robert Shetterly)

CIA whisteblower John Kiriakou as depicted in artist Robert Shetterly’s “Americans Who Tell the Truth” series. (Credit: Robert Shetterly)

by Andrea Germanos, Common Dreams

Former CIA agent John Kiriakou said Monday that the Bush-era torture program “was approved by the president himself” and that the two years he spent behind bars for blowing the whistle on that program was worth it.

Kiriakou was sentenced to 30 months in prison in 2013 after pleading guilty to releasing the name of an officer implicated in a CIA torture program to the media and violating the Intelligence Identities Protection Act. He was released from federal prison last week and is serving out the remainder of his sentence at home.

He is the only government employee who has gone to jail in connection with the torture program—a fact attorney Jesselyn Radack has called “a miscarriage of justice” and which Kiriakou said makes him feel like he’s “in the Twilight Zone sometimes.”

In an interview with Democracy Now!, Kirikou said he was convinced about the reason for his imprisonment: “My case was about blowing the whistle on torture.”

He explained what led him to reveal in 2007 that “high-value detainee” Abu Zubaydah was waterboarded and tortured in numerous other ways. Kiriakou was part of the CIA team that captured Zubaydah in a house raid in Pakistan, but did not participate in his torture.

“I learned initially that he had been waterboarded in the summer of 2002, at the end of the summer of 2002. And as I said in the 2007 interview with Brian Ross, I believed what the CIA was telling us, that he was being waterboarded, it was working, and we were gathering important, actionable intelligence that was saving American lives,” Kiriakou told host Amy Goodman.

“It wasn’t until something like 2005 or 2006 that we realized that that just simply wasn’t true—he wasn’t producing any information—and that these techniques were horrific. It was in 2007, Amy, that I decided to go public. President Bush said at the time, categorically, ‘We do not torture prisoners. We are not waterboarding.’ And I knew that that was a lie. And he made it seem as though this was a rogue CIA officer who decided to pour water on people’s faces. And that simply wasn’t true.”

“Torture—the entire torture program was approved by the president himself, and it was a very carefully planned-out program. So to say that it was rogue, it was just a bald-faced lie to the American people,” Kiriakou said.

He added that the Senate Intelligence Committee report on CIA torture shows “how wrongheaded the CIA torture program was,” and because of this, some prosecutions need to be made.

“What about case officers who took the law into their own hands or who flouted the law and raped prisoners with broomsticks or carried out rectal hydration with hummus? Those were not approved interrogation techniques. Why aren’t those officers being prosecuted? I think, at the very least, that’s where we should start the prosecutions.”

That President Obama is not going to pursue prosecution of lawyers at the Office of Legal Counsel at the Justice Department or CIA heads was understandable, he said, “But what about the CIA officers who directly violated the law, who carried out interrogations that resulted in death?” “Those people should not be above the law.” he said.

Despite the nearly two years in Loretto Prison, where he previously described people under medical care “die with terrifying frequency,” he told Democracy Now! he’d do it all again.

“What has happened since that 2007 ABC News interview is that torture has been banned in the United States. It is no longer a part of U.S. government policy. And I’m proud to have played a role in that. If that cost me 23 months of my life, well, you know what? It was worth it,” he concluded.

See more from his interview in the video below:

Iran, U.S. hold nuclear talks in Munich

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kerry-zarif

by Press TV

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif and US Secretary of State John Kerry have held fresh talks in the German city of Munich as a March deadline for a nuclear deal between Tehran and the P5+1 group approaches.

The two foreign ministers started their talks on Friday on the sidelines of Munich Security Conference.

Back in January, Zarif and Kerry held intense negotiations in the Swiss city of Geneva to help speed up the ongoing negotiations between Iran and the P5+1 group – the US, France, Britain, China, Russia and Germany – over Tehran’s peaceful nuclear work.

The Iranian minister is scheduled to attend a meeting attended by Kerry as well as his French and German counterparts, Laurent Fabius and Frank-Walter Steinmeier, on Sunday to discuss Iran’s nuclear program. European Union foreign policy chief, Federica Mogherini, is likely to participate in the meeting.

The Iranian minister is also to hold a one-on-one meeting with his German counterpart.

Since an interim deal was agreed in Geneva in November 2013, the negotiating sides have missed two self-imposed deadlines to ink a final agreement.

Iran and the P5+1 countries now seek to reach a high-level political agreement by March 1 and to confirm the full technical details of the accord by July 1.

The scale of Iran’s uranium enrichment and the timetable for the lifting of anti-Iran sanctions are seen as major sticking points in the talks.

The New York Times slams Modi’s dangerous silence on communal attacks in India

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Modi-protest-us

New York: After U.S. President Barack Obama raised the issue of religious intolerance in India, The New York Times (NYT) published a very strong editorial criticizing Prime Minister Narendra Modi for what it calls his “dangerous silence” on a series of communal events in the country.

The editorial, by the NYT editorial board, lists recent attacks on churches and reports of Ghar Vapsi or conversion and marks out the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) for its proposed conversions programme in Ayodhya in March this year, saying the group “was playing with fire.” “Mr. Modi’s continued silence before such troubling intolerance increasingly gives the impression that he either cannot or does not wish to control the fringe elements of the Hindu nationalist right,” the NYT editorial surmised.

New York Times editorial: ‘Modi’s Dangerous Silence’

Full text of the Editorial published in the New York Times on February 6, 2015:

What will it take for Prime Minister Narendra Modi to speak out about the mounting violence against India’s religious minorities? Attacks at Christian places of worship have prompted no response from the man elected to represent and to protect all of India’s citizens. Nor has he addressed the mass conversion to Hinduism of Christians and Muslims who have been coerced or promised money. Mr. Modi’s continued silence before such troubling intolerance increasingly gives the impression that he either cannot or does not wish to control the fringe elements of the Hindu nationalist right.

Recently, a number of Christian churches in India have been burned and ransacked. Last December, St. Sebastian’s Church in East Delhi was engulfed in fire. Its pastor reported a strong smell of kerosene after the blaze was put out. On Monday, St. Alphonsa’s Church in New Delhi was vandalised. Ceremonial vessels were taken, yet collection boxes full of cash were untouched. Alarmed by the attacks, the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India has urged the government to uphold the secular nature of India and to assure its Christians they are “protected and secure” in their own country.

There is also concern about the mass conversions. Last December, about 200 Muslims were converted to Hinduism in Agra. In January, up to 100 Christians in West Bengal “reconverted” to Hinduism. Hard-line Hindu nationalist groups, like the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) and the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), make no secret of their support for a “homecoming” campaign designed to “return” non-Hindus to the fold. More than 80 per cent of Indians are Hindu, but Pravin Togadia of the VHP says his organisation’s goal is a country that is 100 per cent Hindu. The only way to achieve that is to deny religious minorities their faith.

The VHP is reportedly planning a mass conversion of 3,000 Muslims in Ayodhya this month. The destruction of the Babri Mosque there in 1992 by Hindu militants touched off riots between Hindus and Muslims across India that left more than 2,000 people dead. The VHP knows it is playing with fire.

Mr. Modi has promised an ambitious agenda for India’s development. But, as President Obama observed in a speech in New Delhi last month: “India will succeed so long as it is not splintered along the lines of religious faith.” Mr. Modi needs to break his deafening silence on religious intolerance.

Religious intolerance in India would have shocked Gandhi: Obama

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Photo: PTI

Photo: PTI

Washington: US President Barack Obama on Thursday said the “acts of intolerance” experienced by religious faiths of all types in India in the past few years would have shocked Mahatma Gandhi.

The comments by Obama came a day after the White House refuted suggestions that the US President’s public speech in New Delhi in which he touched upon religious tolerance was a “parting shot” aimed at the ruling BJP.

“Michelle and I returned from India – an incredible, beautiful country, full of magnificent diversity – but a place where, in past years, religious faiths of all types have, on occasion, been targeted by other peoples of faith, simply due to their heritage and their beliefs – acts of intolerance that would have shocked Gandhiji, the person who helped to liberate that nation,” Obama said in his remarks at the high-profile National Prayer Breakfast.

The US President, who has just returned from India, was referring to violence against followers of various religions in India in the past few years. He, however, did not name any particular religion and said the violence is not unique to one group or one religion.

“Humanity has been grappling with these questions throughout human history. And lest we get on our high horse and think this is unique to some other place, remember that during the Crusades and the Inquisition, people committed terrible deeds in the name of Christ.

“In our home country, slavery and Jim Crow (racial segregation state and local laws) all too often was justified in the name of Christ,” he said, addressing the gathering of over 3,000 US and international leaders.

“There is a tendency in us, a sinful tendency that can pervert and distort our faith. In today’s world, when hate groups have their own Twitter accounts and bigotry can fester in hidden places in cyberspace, it can be even harder to counteract such intolerance.”But God compels us to try. “And in this mission, I believe there are a few principles that can guide us, particularly those of us who profess to believe,” he said.

In a US-style Town Hall address in New Delhi on January 27, the last day of his India trip, Obama had made a strong pitch for religious tolerance, cautioning that India will succeed so long as it was not “splintered along the lines of religious faith”.

The White House yesterday strongly refuted allegations that Obama’s remarks on religious tolerance was aimed at the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), saying the speech in its entirety was about the “core democratic values and principles” of both the US and India.

(PTI)

Iran says missile program is “not negotiable”

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iran

Iranian officials denied any negotiation is taking place with P5+1 group over its missile plan and stressed that the program is “not negotiable.”

On Wednesday, Deputy Chief of Staff of the Iranian Armed Forces Brigadier General Massoud Jazzayeri said that the country “will never” accept to negotiate over its missile program and “defensive capabilities” with any world power, Fars news agency reported.

A day earlier, Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister and senior nuclear negotiator Abbas Araghchi stressed that “Iran’s missile program has totally defensive nature and is not negotiable,” the Tehran Timesreported.

Iranian officials’ comments came after US Department of State spokesperson Jen Psaki said on Monday that Iran’s missile program was part of the P5+1 group — United States, France, Britain, Germany, Russia and China — nuclear talks with Iran.

Meanwhile, Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani berated the world’s nuclear powers on Wednesday, saying atomic weapons had not kept them safe and reiterating that his country was not seeking the bomb.

Rouhani avoided explicit mention of ongoing nuclear talks between the West and Iran but accused atomic-armed states of hypocrisy.

“They tell us ‘we don’t want Iran to make atomic bombs,’ you who have made atomic bombs,” Rouhani said in Isfahan, 400 kilometers south of the capital Tehran.

He then took aim at Israel, thought to be the only nuclear power in the region although it has never publicly acknowledged it, dubbing the Zionist state a “criminal.”

“Have you managed to bring about security for yourselves with atomic bombs? Have you managed to create security for the usurper Israel?” Rouhani said.

“We don’t need an atomic bomb. We have a great, self-sacrificing and unified nation,” he stressed, referring to Monday’s launch of an observation satellite into space by Iran.

“Despite pressures and sanctions, this nation sent a new satellite into space,” Rouhani added.

Iran is in negotiations with the P5+1 powers aimed at a deal to resolve a long-running dispute over its nuclear program.

Iran denies ever seeking atomic weapons but western powers are unconvinced Tehran’s activities have been solely aimed at peaceful energy production.

Under an interim deal, Iran’s stock of fissile material has been diluted from 20 percent enriched uranium to five percent in exchange for limited sanctions relief.

(AFP, Al-Akhbar)

Delhi Uber rape victim files lawsuit in U.S court

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uber-cab

Washington: A Delhi woman allegedly raped by an Uber driver last December has filed a lawsuit in a US court accusing the web-based US taxi firm of focusing on profits over the safety of its passengers.

In a 36-page complaint filed in the US District Court for the Northern District of California Thursday, the woman seeks to “slam the brakes on Uber’s reckless worldwide expansion at the unfortunate expense of basic customer safety.”

The lawsuit which identifies the victim only as Jane Doe, also seeks compensation “for the horrific and brutal rape that she suffered due to Uber’s inadequate and disingenuous ‘commitment to safety’.”

Demanding a trial by jury, the lawsuit seeks a “a permanent injunction directing that Uber take all affirmative steps necessary to remedy the effects of the unlawful conduct” alleged in the complaint, “and to prevent repeated occurrences in the future.”

It also seeks an award of unspecified amount of punitive damages to be determined at trial, plus prejudgment interest, to compensate the victim “for all physical, monetary and/or economic harm.”

Her New York based Douglas H. Wigdor, in a statement said: “Uber’s focus on its bottom line over the safety of its passengers has resulted in what can only be described as modern day electronic hitchhiking.”

“We intend to hold Uber responsible for the significant physical and emotional harm it has caused to our client, while simultaneously seeking a court order mandating that Uber initiate certain safety precautions that they appear unwilling to do voluntarily,” he said.

“We hope that this lawsuit will bring about positive change that will ultimately protect people worldwide who are unaware of the serious risks of entering into an Uber car,” Wigdor added.

Jeanne M. Christensen, another Wigdor LLP lawyer said: “San Francisco Uber executives’ decisions to cut costs at the expense of customer safety forced our client to pay the ultimate cost in New Delhi.”

“Her brutal rape by an Uber driver who was a known repeat sexual predator was a result of a global Uber policy that has far-reaching consequences,” she said.

“We intend to hold Uber accountable for violence that could easily have been avoided had even a minimal background check been conducted.”

An Uber spokesperson said: “Our deepest sympathies remain with the victim of this horrific crime. We are cooperating fully with the authorities to ensure the perpetrator is brought to justice.”
The accused driver Shiv Kumar Yadav is currently on trial on rape and kidnapping charges in Delhi.

Delhi banned Uber and several other web-based taxi firms for failing to carry out adequate driver checks in early December.

But last week Uber announced resumption of its services in Delhi sayinmg it had applied for a radio taxi license and would improve safety by introducing features such as an “in-app emergency button”.

(IANS)

Cuba demands Guantanamo Bay in return for US ties

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Cuban President Raul Castro issues broad list of demands, saying that without them normal relations are unreachable.

Castro's call for an end to the US embargo drew support at the summit from several Latin American presidents [Reuters]

Castro’s call for an end to the US embargo drew support at the summit from several Latin American presidents [Reuters]

by Associated Press

Cuban President Raul Castro demanded that the United States return the US naval base at Guantanamo Bay before the two nations re-establish normal relations.

Castro also said the US should lift the half-century trade embargo on Cuba and compensate his country for damages in exchange for reconcilliation.

Castro told a summit of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States on Wednesday that Cuba and the US are working toward full diplomatic relations but “if these problems aren’t resolved, this diplomatic rapprochement wouldn’t make any sense”.

Castro and US President Barack Obama announced on December 17 that they would move toward renewing full diplomatic relations by reopening embassies in each other’s countries.

The two governments held negotiations in Havana last week to discuss both the reopening of embassies and the broader agenda of re-establishing normal relations.

Obama has loosened the trade embargo with a range of measures designed to increase economic ties with Cuba and increase the number of Cubans who don’t depend on the communist state for their livelihoods.

The Obama administration says removing barriers to US travel, remittances and exports to Cuba is a tactical change that supports the United States’ unaltered goal of reforming Cuba’s single-party political system and centrally planned economy.

Cuba has said it welcomes the measures but has no intention of changing its system.

List of Cuban demands

Castro emphasised an even broader list of Cuban demands, saying that while diplomatic ties may be re-established, normal relations with the US depend on a series of concessions that appear highly unlikely in the near future.

He demanded that the US end the transmission of anti-Castro radio and television broadcasts and deliver “just compensation to our people for the human and economic damage that they’re suffered.”

Demands also include an end to US support for Cuban dissidents and Cuba’s removal from the US list of state sponsors of terrorism.

Castro also wants the US to pay hundreds of millions of dollars in damages for losses caused by the embargo.

“The re-establishment of diplomatic relations is the start of a process of normalizing bilateral relations, but this will not be possible while the blockade still exists, while they don’t give back the territory illegally occupied by the Guantanamo naval base,” Castro said.

Castro’s call for an end to the US embargo drew support at the summit from the presidents of Brazil, Ecuador, El Salvador, Nicaragua and Venezuela.

Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff also praised the effort by the leaders of Cuba and the US to improve relations.

“The two heads of state deserve our recognition for the decision they made – beneficial for Cubans and Americans, but, most of all, for the entire continent,” she said.

Fidel Castro expresses cautious support of Cuba-U.S talks

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Fidel Castro has welcomed talks with Washington, but warned, “I don’t trust the policy of the United States.”

Fidel-Castro

by teleSUR

Former Cuban President Fidel Castro publicly gave his blessing to the historic negotiations between Cuba and the United States Monday, but warned Washington isn’t to be trusted.

“We will always defend cooperation and friendship with all the peoples of the world, among them our political adversaries,” said Fidel Castro in a statement published by Cuban newspaper Granma. “Any peaceful or negotiated solution to the problems between the United States and the peoples or any people of Latin America that doesn’t imply force or the use of force should be treated in accordance with international norms and principles.”

However, Fidel Castro conceded, “I don’t trust the policy of the United States nor have I had an exchange with them.”

“But, this does not mean … a rejection of a peaceful solution to conflicts or the dangers of war,” he explained.

The first round of negotiations between Havana and Washington wrapped up last week. The talks are aimed at reviving bilateral ties after decades of U.S. attempts to overthrow the government in Havana.

Along with the U.S. blockade and the controversial listing of Cuba as a state sponsor of terrorism, other issues discussed in the meeting included immigration reform and plans to open embassies.

U.S. President Barack Obama has already announced plans to loosen trade and investment restrictions, along with easing a long-standing travel ban.

Both sides reported some progress in last week’s talks, but said there is still more work to be done.

A Cuban official that spoke ahead of the negotiations explained the first round of talks wouldn’t “normalize” bilateral relations.

“Cuba is re-establishing diplomatic relations with the U.S. The process of normalization is much longer and deeper,” the official stated.

The U.S. blockade of Cuba must be totally dismantled before relations can be completely normalized, the official said.

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