Tag Archives: international

"Kerry Has Shown a Genuine Capacity for Mediocrity and an Almost Tragicomic Haplessness"

by Silvester Mongan Posted on November 4, 2013

Mother Jones

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This story first appeared on the TomDispatch website.

In the 1960s, John Kerry was distinctly a man of his times. Kennedy-esque, he went from Yale to Vietnam to fight in a lost war. When popular sentiments on that war shifted, he became one of the more poignant voices raised in protest by antiwar veterans. Now, skip past his time as a congressman, lieutenant governor of Massachusetts, senator, and presidential candidate (Swift Boated out of the race by the Republican right). Four decades after his Vietnam experience, he has achieved what will undoubtedly be the highest post of his lifetime: secretary of state. And he’s looked like a bumbler first class. Has he also been—once again—a true man of his time, of a moment in which American foreign policy, as well as its claim to global moral and diplomatic leadership, is in remarkable disarray?

In his nine months in office, Kerry’s State Department has one striking accomplishment to its name. It has achieved a new level of media savvy in promoting itself and plugging its highest official as a rock star, a world leader in his own right (complete with photo-ops and sophisticated image-making). In the meantime, the secretary of state has been stumbling and bloviating from one crisis to the next, one debacle to another, surrounded by the well-crafted imagery of diplomatic effectiveness. He and his errant statements have become global punch lines, but is he truly to blame for his performance?

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"Kerry Has Shown a Genuine Capacity for Mediocrity and an Almost Tragicomic Haplessness"

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Yet Another Benghazi Story Falls Apart

by Cynthia Perez Posted on November 1, 2013

Mother Jones

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Earlier this week I wrote about Lara Logan’s sensationalistic report on Benghazi for 60 Minutes on Sunday. As it turned out, the only new bit of reporting came from a British security supervisor who has written a book and came on the program to publicize it, but even he didn’t really have anything new to add. When he got to Benghazi, he said, he realized it was a dangerous place and that al-Qaeda-affiliated groups were active in the area. This isn’t news.

However, the supervisor, who was dramatically disguised on camera and went by the pseudonym Morgan Jones, did have a very detailed account of his own heroic actions on the night of the attacks. Today, Karen DeYoung of the Washington Post suggests—well, she’s a straight news reporter, so she doesn’t suggest anything. But here’s what she reports:

In a written account that Jones, whose real name was confirmed as Dylan Davies by several officials who worked with him in Benghazi, provided to his employer three days after the attack, he told a different story of his experiences that night.

In Davies’s 2½-page incident report to Blue Mountain, the Britain-based contractor hired by the State Department to handle perimeter security at the compound, he wrote that he spent most of that night at his Benghazi beach-side villa. Although he attempted to get to the compound, he wrote in the report, “we could not get anywhere near . . . as roadblocks had been set up.”

….The State Department and GOP congressional aides confirmed that Davies’s Sept. 14, 2012, report, a copy of which was obtained by The Washington Post, was included among tens of thousands of documents turned over to lawmakers by the State Department this year.

….A person answering the telephone Thursday at Blue Mountain, based in Wales, said no one was available to discuss Benghazi or Davies, who no longer worked there. Damien Lewis, co-author of the book, said in a telephone interview that Davies was “not well” and is hospitalized. Lewis said he was unaware that the Blue Mountain incident report existed but suggested that Davies might have dissembled in it because his superiors, whom he contacted by telephone once he was informed that the attack was underway, told him to stay away from the compound.

So here’s what we know: (a) There was really no need for the dramatic pseudonym. Everyone knew who Davies was. (b) His official report differs wildly from his 60 Minutes account. (c) Davies is now conveniently sick and unable to explain himself. (d) Davies never told his co-author about his after-action report. (e) Presumably he never told 60 Minutes about it either. (f) Congressional investigators have had copies of Davies’ report for months.

Needless to say, neither 60 Minutes nor congressional Republicans care about any of this. They have their story and they’re sticking to it. The rest of us can make up our own minds.

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Yet Another Benghazi Story Falls Apart

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Germany Continues to Fiddle as Europe Stagnates

by romek52 Posted on October 31, 2013

Mother Jones

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Unemployment in the euro area hit 12.2 percent in September, up from 11.5 percent a year ago. The inflation rate hit 0.7 percent, down from 2.5 percent a year ago. This suggests that Europe could tolerate a wee bit more stimulus in its economic policy, especially from its biggest and most powerful country.

So what was the response of Europe’s biggest and most powerful country? Dismissing as “incomprehensible” U.S. criticism of Germany’s continuing dedication to running trade surpluses, and then taking a shot at high U.S. debt levels.

I think that perhaps “incomprehensible” does not mean what they think it means.

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Germany Continues to Fiddle as Europe Stagnates

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Oddly Enough, Syria Really Is Destroying Its Chemical Weapons

by Selina R. Pinkstaff Posted on October 31, 2013

Mother Jones

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Here’s the latest news on the chemical weapons front:

The international chemical weapons watchdog said on Thursday that Syria had met an important deadline for “the functional destruction” of all the chemical weapons production and mixing facilities declared to inspectors, “rendering them inoperable” under a deal brokered by Russia and the United States.

….The next phase of the timetable set down by the United Nations foresees Syria destroying its stockpiles of chemical weapons by mid-2014. Those weapons are reported to include mustard gas and sarin, a toxic nerve agent which the Obama administration says was used in the Aug. 21 attack.

I don’t really have any comment about this, except to express a bit of puzzlement. As near as I can tell, Bashar al-Assad is really and truly sincere about destroying his chemical weapons stocks.1 But why? I very much doubt it’s because he fears retaliation from the United States. And given his past behavior, it’s hardly likely that it’s driven by feelings of moral revulsion.

So what’s his motivation? For reasons of his own, he must have decided that he was better off without chemical weapons than with them. Perhaps it has to do with the internal political situation in Syria. Or maybe Russia got fed up for some reason. But it’s a bit of a mystery, and not one that I’ve seen any plausible explanations for.

1So far, anyway. Obviously things might change in the future. At the moment, though, it seems like he’s genuinely being cooperative.

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Oddly Enough, Syria Really Is Destroying Its Chemical Weapons

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Obama moves to block new coal plants abroad

by ncf01r Posted on October 30, 2013

Obama moves to block new coal plants abroad

By

gynti_46

The U.S. is set to virtually stamp out construction of new coal-fired power plants domestically, thanks to proposed climate regulations. And now it’s setting its sights internationally.

The Obama administration said Tuesday it plans to use its influence with international lending bodies like the World Bank to curtail financial support for new coal power plants overseas. From Reuters:

The U.S. Treasury said it would only support funding for coal plants in the world’s poorest countries if they have no other efficient or economical alternative for their energy needs.

For richer countries, it would only support coal plants that deploy carbon capture and sequestration, an advanced technology for reducing emissions that is not yet commercially viable. That essentially means the United States would limit coal funding to only the world’s poorest for now.

The announcement follows the president’s pledge in June that he would call for an “end to public financing for new coal plants overseas unless they deploy carbon-capture technologies, or there’s no other viable way for the poorest countries to generate electricity.”

The New York Times, however, raises questions about America’s ability to actually sway decisions about coal-plant construction abroad:

The United States does not have a veto over which projects in other countries get financed through organizations, and the number of coal plants built overseas with public money is small relative to the number that are likely to be built with private investment.

By leading a coalition of like-minded countries — including several European ones that have already announced similar intentions — officials said the administration would be able to influence the direction of power plant construction.

“We believe that if public financing points the way, it will then facilitate private investment,” [said Lael Brainard, the under secretary for international affairs at the Treasury Department]. …

Treasury officials said the United States would also seek to push private investors to favor energy technologies that are better for the environment.

A test of the new policy is expected next year. That’s when the World Bank, which recently announced it will finance coal power plants only in rare circumstances, is set to decide whether to support a 600-megawatt coal-fired plant in Kosovo.


Source
U.S. Says It Won’t Back New International Coal-Fired Power Plants, New York Times
U.S. lays out strict limits on coal funding abroad, Reuters

John Upton is a science fan and green news boffin who tweets, posts articles to Facebook, and blogs about ecology. He welcomes reader questions, tips, and incoherent rants: johnupton@gmail.com.

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Obama moves to block new coal plants abroad

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Magic Bust: Here’s What Roger Daltrey Is Helping Boehner and Kerry Unveil

by p9zyztu Posted on October 29, 2013

Mother Jones

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The US Capitol’s National Statuary Hall may be full of white supremacists. But tomorrow, it will also be full of Roger Daltrey.

On Wednesday, Daltrey, lead singer of legendary English rock band The Who, will perform at a ceremony honoring Winston Churchill. Secretary of State John Kerry and congressional leaders are expected to attend the event, where a bust of the former British prime minister will be unveiled.

“I am pleased to be part of the celebration of Winston Churchill and the longstanding relationship between the United Kingdom and the United States,” Daltrey said in a statement. “I am honoured to be able to show my appreciation to this great man who, as our Prime Minister, fought for and secured freedom for Britain, America, and the citizens of the world.”

You can watch the ceremony here when it streams live at 11 a.m. EDT on Wednesday. What will Daltrey sing? “A Man in a Purple Dress?” “Won’t Get Fooled Again?” “We’re Not Gonna Take It,” perhaps? You’ll have to watch to find out; Daltrey’s representatives, the Churchill Centre, and the office of House Speaker John Boehner are keeping the set list a secret until show time.

“What better way to celebrate Winston Churchill’s friendship to the United States than to have one of Britain’s most legendary recording artists perform in the halls of the Capitol,” Boehner said in a statement. “Roger’s performance is sure to guarantee that the Churchill bust receives the first-class welcome it deserves.” The Speaker’s office also posted this “teaser” video to YouTube last week, praising Churchill as the “best friend America ever had.”

The dedication ceremony—and Daltrey’s latest gig—is the culmination of Boehner’s nearly two-year effort to place a bust of Churchill in the US Capitol. In December 2011, the House passed a resolution that tasked the Architect of the Capitol with finding an “appropriate statue or bust” of Churchill. This was the fourth piece of legislation sponsored by Boehner after he became House Speaker in January 2011. Here is the resolution that Boehner submitted:

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2 H Res 497 (PDF)

2 H Res 497 (Text)

Republicans have a track record of really caring about busts of Winston Churchill. In 2009, President Obama returned to the British Embassy a Churchill bust that graced the Oval Office in the Bush era. The British press freaked out over this, and it became a conservative meme stateside that was revived in an extraordinarily dumb pseudo-controversy during the 2012 election. “This man, Winston Churchill, used to have his bust in the Oval Office, and if I’m president of the United States, it’ll be there again,” Republican presidential contender Mitt Romney said to a cheering audience at a GOP debate in September 2011.

But the bust being offered a home in Statuary Hall is refreshingly controversy-free. The Chicago-based Churchill Centre, which donated the bust, came up with the idea several weeks ago to invite Daltrey, and contacted Universal Music about bringing the rock star to the US Capitol. “He is an iconic figure in the world of British music of the past 40 years, and he responded very enthusiastically to coming over from the UK,” says Lee Pollock, the Centre’s executive director. “I don’t want to sound flippant, but Churchill contributed so many good things in his time, as did the British musicians of the ’60s and ’70s. They are similarly iconic, in their own rights.”

According to Pollock, Daltrey is playing the gig pro bono. He is expected to perform two songs, and to be accompanied by an acoustic guitar player, a pianist, and a local choir during the hour-long ceremony. Separately, the US Army Chorus will perform “The Battle Hymn of the Republic,” which was reportedly one of Churchill’s favorite pieces of music.

This mini-concert isn’t Daltrey’s first encounter with Washington politicians. Here is President George W. Bush honoring Daltrey and Who guitarist Pete Townshend in December 2008:

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Magic Bust: Here’s What Roger Daltrey Is Helping Boehner and Kerry Unveil

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Jeremy Scahill: Obama Presidency Marred by Legacy of Drone Program

by GlennaNVYhnbrcm Posted on October 29, 2013

Mother Jones

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This story first appeared on the TomDispatch website.

On January 21, 2013, Barack Obama was inaugurated for his second term as president of the United States. Just as he had promised when he began his first campaign for president six years earlier, he pledged again to turn the page on history and take US foreign policy in a different direction. “A decade of war is now ending,” Obama declared. “We, the people, still believe that enduring security and lasting peace do not require perpetual war.”

Much of the media focus that day was on the new hairstyle of First Lady Michelle Obama, who appeared on the dais sporting freshly trimmed bangs, and on the celebrities in attendance, including hip-hop mogul Jay-Z and his wife, Beyoncé, who performed the national anthem. But the day Obama was sworn in, a US drone strike hit Yemen. It was the third such attack in that country in as many days. Despite the rhetoric from the president on the Capitol steps, there was abundant evidence that he would continue to preside over a country that is in a state of perpetual war.

In the year leading up to the inauguration, more people had been killed in US drone strikes across the globe than were imprisoned at Guantánamo. As Obama was sworn in for his second term, his counterterrorism team was finishing up the task of systematizing the kill list, including developing rules for when US citizens could be targeted. Admiral William McRaven had been promoted to the commander of the United States Special Operations Command (SOCOM), and his Special Ops forces were operating in more than 100 countries across the globe.

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Jeremy Scahill: Obama Presidency Marred by Legacy of Drone Program

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Saudi Comic’s "No Woman, No Drive" Video Goes Viral, But He’s "Not a Social Activist"

by Aale Harry Posted on October 28, 2013

Mother Jones

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The video has racked up over 3.5 million views since it was posted to YouTube on Saturday. It has received positive attention from everybody from CNN to Twitchy. And it’s drawing even more attention to the latest efforts of women in the immensely conservative Kingdom of Saudi Arabia who are protesting the country’s prohibition on women drivers. On Saturday, dozens of Saudi women defied the ban, many of them posting web videos of themselves sitting in the driver’s seat. This type of protest has happened before, but this is reportedly the largest of its kind to occur in the Kingdom.

“No Woman, No Drive” is an obvious parody of “No Woman, No Cry,” the popular reggae song by Bob Marley and the Wailers. The song is a satirical a cappella performance, with lyrics such as, “your feet is your only carriage, but only inside the house—and when I say it I mean it.”

The video was shot at the C3 Films/Telfaz11 studios in Riyadh, and was created by Hisham Fageeh, Fahad Albutairi, and Alaa Wardi, who belong to the Saudi entertainment collective Telfaz11. The group has been on the front lines of Saudi Arabia’s recent YouTube-abetted “comedic revolution,” and supports the successful Saudi YouTube sketch series La Yekthar.

“We just wanted to do something relevant and funny,” Fageeh, the 26-year-old, Riyadh-based comedian/actor, tells Mother Jones. “The lyrics happened a while back in New York City while I was taking a shower, just playing on words. And the real, materialized idea came while shooting Telfaz11 projects in London and perusing Twitter hashtags in Saudi Arabia. I had discussed the idea with Alaa Wardi a long time ago, and he was all about it. So Fahad Albutairi and I stayed up and wrote it in our London hotel room.”

Fageeh, who studied religion and the Middle East at Florida State University and worked in educational development in Rwanda, started doing stand-up comedy while living and working in Washington, DC. Fageeh then attended Columbia University, which allowed him to try out his act in New York. He lists Louis C.K., Dave Chappelle, Andy Kaufman, Zach Galifianakis, Eric Andre, and Hannibal Buress as some of his top comic influences. And for all the attention his new video is receiving as a piece of social commentary and satire, Fageeh insists that this project was not politically motivated.

“I’m not an artist or social activist, I’m a comedian,” he says. At the start of “No Woman, No Drive,” Fageeh identifies himself as a “social activist” who doesn’t “really listen to music,” which led to many news outlets referring to him as such after the video posted online. Fageeh, however, clarifies that that was just a “character bit” he was doing. “It was satirizing the valorization of titles that happen in media (and general human) interactions,” he says. When I ask Fageeh if he is passionate about issues of women’s rights in Saudi Arabia, he simply responds, “I’m passionate about comedy.”

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Saudi Comic’s "No Woman, No Drive" Video Goes Viral, But He’s "Not a Social Activist"

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UN Mulls Plan to Defend Against Earth-Demolishing Asteroids

by euro9 Posted on October 28, 2013

Mother Jones

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If scientists were to discover, later this week, that an asteroid large enough to destroy the Earth will smash into the planet in a years’ time, humanity would have only one course of action, says former astronaut Russell Schweickart: “Make yourself a nice cocktail and go out and watch.”

That’s why the United Nations is forming an “International Asteroid Warning Group,” on the advice of an association of former astronauts, to share data about threatening asteroids. In a set of forthcoming recommendations, the Association of Space Explorers (ASE) will loosely outline the emergency steps that the UN’s longstanding Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space must take if the asteroid warning group identifies an extinction-level space rock on a collision course with Earth. (The best option, according to ASE, would be to crash a spacecraft into the asteroid to knock it off course.)

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UN Mulls Plan to Defend Against Earth-Demolishing Asteroids

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FBI Probing Whether Russia Used Cultural Junkets to Recruit American Intelligence Assets

by munrhexaa Posted on October 23, 2013

Mother Jones

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On September 30, Richard Portwood, a 27-year-old Georgetown University graduate student, received a phone call from an FBI agent who said the bureau wanted to meet with him urgently. Portwood didn’t know why the FBI would have any interest in him, but two days later he sat down with a pair of agents at a coffee shop near his apartment. They told him they suspected that Yury Zaytsev, the US director of a Russian government-run cultural exchange program that Portwood had participated in, was a spy.

Since 2001, Zaytsev’s organization, Rossotrudnichestvo, has footed the bill for about 130 young Americans—including political aides, nonprofit advocates, and business executives—to visit Russia. Along with Portwood, Mother Jones has spoken to two other Rossotrudnichestvo participants who were questioned by the FBI about Zaytsev, who also heads the Russian Cultural Center in Washington.

Yury Zaytsev, a Russian diplomat. Multiple sources tell us he is the subject of an extensive FBI investigation. Rossotrudnichestvo

The FBI agents “have been very up front about” their investigation into whether Zaytsev is a Russian intelligence agent, says a 24-year-old nonprofit worker whom the FBI has interviewed twice and who asked not to be identified. The FBI agents, according to this source, said, “We’re investigating Yury for spying activities. We just want to know what interactions you’ve had with him.” The nonprofit worker was shocked. Zaytsev, he says, is “what you imagine when you imagine a Russian diplomat. He’s fairly stoic, tall, pale.” Zaytsev did not travel on the exchange trips he helped arrange, and his contact with the Americans who went on these trips was limited.

The agents who interviewed the Rossotrudnichestvo participants did not tell them what evidence they possessed to support their suspicions. FBI spokeswoman Amy Thoreson declined to confirm or deny the existence of an investigation into Zaytsev or answer any questions about FBI actions regarding the Russian. (The FBI did not ask Mother Jones to withhold this story.) But based on what the bureau’s agents said during the interviews, the Americans who were questioned concluded the FBI suspects that Zaytsev and Rossotrudnichestvo have used the all-expenses-paid trips to Russia in an effort to cultivate young Americans as intelligence assets. (An asset could be someone who actually works with an intelligence service to gather information, or merely a contact who provides information, opinions, or gossip, not realizing it is being collected by an intelligence officer.) The nonprofit worker says the FBI agents told him that Zaytsev had identified him as a potential asset. Zaytsev or his associates, the agents said, had begun to build a file on the nonprofit worker and at least one other Rossotrudnichestvo participant who had been an adviser to an American governor.

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FBI Probing Whether Russia Used Cultural Junkets to Recruit American Intelligence Assets

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