Tired but I will note this from today's DEMOCRACY NOW!
On the campaign trail, Donald Trump suggested Monday he was open to
cutting spending on Social Security and Medicare. During an interview on
CNBC, Trump said, “There is a lot you can do
in terms of entitlements, in terms of cutting.” President Biden
responded with a message on social media, saying, “Not on my watch.”
Meanwhile, the Republican National Committee has fired over 60 staffers
just days after Trump’s daughter-in-law Lara Trump became the RNC’s new
co-chair as the former president strengthens his control of the party.
In other Trump news, the former president is seeking to delay the start
of his upcoming hush money trial, which is slated to begin March 25 in
New York. Trump has requested the trial wait until the U.S. Supreme
Court reviews his immunity claim in another case.
I noted the first two developments last time. Jim Sciutto (CNN) reports:
To Donald Trump, Hungarian strongman Viktor Orbán is “fantastic,” Chinese leader Xi Jinping is “brilliant,” North Korea’s Kim Jong Un is “an OK guy,” and, most alarmingly, he allegedly said Adolf Hitler “did some good things,” a worldview that would reverse decades-old US foreign policy in a second term should he win November’s presidential election, multiple former senior advisers told CNN.
“He thought Putin was an OK guy and Kim was an OK guy — that we had pushed North Korea into a corner,” retired Gen. John Kelly, who served as Trump’s chief of staff, told me. “To him, it was like we were goading these guys. ‘If we didn’t have NATO, then Putin wouldn’t be doing these things.’”
Trump’s lavish praise for Hungarian Prime Minister Orbán while hosting him at Mar-a-Lago on Friday, just days after all but sealing the Republican nomination on Super Tuesday, shows it’s a worldview he’s doubling down on.
“There’s nobody that’s better, smarter or a better leader than Viktor Orbán,” Trump said, adding, “He’s the boss and he’s a great leader, fantastic leader. In Europe and around the world, they respect him.”
The former president’s admiration for autocrats has been reported on before, but in comments by Trump recounted to me for my new book, “The Return of Great Powers,” out Tuesday, Kelly and others who served under Trump give new insight into why they warn that a man who consistently praises autocratic leaders opposed to US interests is ill-suited to lead the country in the Great Power clashes that could be coming, telling me they believe that the root of his admiration for these figures is that he envies their power.
“He views himself as a big guy,” John Bolton, who served as national security adviser under Trump, told me. “He likes dealing with other big guys, and big guys like Erdogan in Turkey get to put people in jail and you don’t have to ask anybody’s permission. He kind of likes that.”
“He’s not a tough guy by any means, but in fact quite the opposite,” Kelly said. “But that’s how he envisions himself.”
This is C.I.'s "Iraq snapshot" for today:
GENEVA (1 March 2024) – A UN expert today expressed concern that the possible extradition and imminent prosecution in the United States of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange could have serious implications for freedom of expression.
“Gathering, reporting and disseminating information, including national security information when it is in the public interest, is a legitimate exercise of journalism and should not be treated as a crime,” said Irene Khan, the Special Rapporteur on freedom of expression.
The Australian editor, publisher and activist is awaiting the decision of the High Court in the United Kingdom on his appeal against extradition to the United States, where he is facing 17 charges under the 1917 Espionage Act for publishing classified information on the WikiLeaks platform. The charges carry a maximum sentence of 175 years in prison.
“I am concerned about the use of the Espionage Act in this case, as this statute provides no protection for the publication of information in the public interest,” Khan said.
She noted that if extradited, Julian Assange would be the first publisher to be prosecuted in the US under the Espionage Act.
“It would set a dangerous precedent that could have a chilling effect on investigative journalism in the United States and possibly elsewhere in the world,” the Special Rapporteur said.
“International human rights law provides strong protections for whistle-blowers, journalistic sources and reporting in the public interest,” Khan said. “I call on the United States and the United Kingdom, which profess to uphold the right to freedom of expression, to uphold these international standards in the case of Julian Assange.”
The expert urged the UK authorities not to extradite Assange and the US Government to drop the charges.
Assange was 38 years of age when WikiLeaks garnered praise for publishing disclosures from US Army whistleblower Chelsea Manning. Assange was an ardent, nimble, and sharp-witted advocate for the truth. But at 52, Assange is increasingly frail as delays in proceedings compound physical and mental health problems that he must endure in Belmarsh prison.
President Joe Biden’s administration may prefer the limbo to an unprecedented trial that will invite global condemnation. No Biden official has expressed any reservations when it comes to charging Assange.
Biden officials still sidestep reporters, who ask why the US government won’t drop the charges against Assange. Biden’s National Security Council spokesperson said in October, “This is something the Justice Department is handling, and I think it’s better if you go to them on that.”
But the State Department has not always been so disciplined. On World Press Freedom Day in 2023, State Department spokesperson Verdant Patel endorsed the prosecution that was launched under President Donald Trump.
“The State Department thinks that Mr. Assange has been charged with serious criminal conduct in the United States, in connection with his alleged role in one of the largest compromises of classified information in our nation’s history. His actions risked serious harm to U.S. national security to the benefit of our adversaries,” Patel stated.
Patel added, “It put named human sources to grave and imminent risk and risk of serious physical harm and arbitrary detention.”
What the State Department uttered was familiar. This is how officials responded when WikiLeaks first published US diplomatic cables in 2010.
To be clear, Assange’s “role” was that of a publisher who received documents from Manning and engaged in standard newsgathering activities.
A 2011 Associated Press review of sources, whom the State Department claimed were most at risk from publication of the cables, uncovered no evidence that any person was threatened. In fact, the potential for harm was “strictly theoretical.”
The bell of a new church built near Iraq’s ancient city of Ur chimed for the first time last week as part of a push to lure back pilgrims to a country that is home to one of the world’s oldest Christian communities.
The church is part of a complex that rises from a desert plain in the shadow of the pyramid-shaped Ziggurat of Ur, a city traditionally believed to be the birthplace of the Prophet Abraham that was visited by Pope Francis three years ago.
Construction of the church is to be completed this month. Last week, the large bell was fixed into its steeple, which is made of traditional Iraqi yellowish mud brick. Workers polished the large, brightly-coloured stained-glass windows.
On his historic visit to Iraq in March, 2021, Pope Francis held an inter-religious prayer at a site in Ur believed to have been the house of Abraham – the father of Christianity, Judaism and Islam.
In a country of around 40 million people, the Christian population has been steadily declining for decades, from around 1.4 million in 2003 to about 250,000 today.
Archbishop Najeeb explained that, though Pope Francis brought them comfort and encouraged expatriated Iraqi Christians to resettle following the military defeat of ISIS in 2017, many still hesitate, and families continue to emigrate from the Nineveh Plain and Iraqi Kurdistan, due to ongoing insecurity.
He said that Christians in the region continue to endure intimidation and violence from local militias, and that most of their houses which were destroyed during the ISIS occupation are still in rubble.
“Christians don’t want to restart their life in a place that is still unsafe for them and that the government can’t control”.”
The leader of the Chaldean Catholic Church in Iraq, Louis Sako, called for a complete overhaul of the country’s political process, which has been in place since the 2003 US-led invasion.
Cardinal Sako’s remarks coincide with the country's upcoming commemoration of the 21st anniversary of the invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein's regime and the introduction of an ethno-sectarian quota system.
“There must be a reconsideration of the entire political process,” Cardinal Sako said, while extending his congratulations to Muslims on the start of Ramadan.
“A new nonsectarian agreement needs to be reached based on full citizenship, ensuring a better future for Iraqis and preserving the [society's] components and their rights."
As the head of the agency, Philippe Lazzarini, explained at a press conference on March 4, he has “never been informed” or received evidence of Israel’s claims substantiating their assertions, though he did receive the prompt about the profane twelve directly from Israeli officials. Every year, both Israel and the Palestinian authorities were furnished with staff lists, “and I never received the slightest concern about the staff that we have been employing.”
Had Israeli authorities signed off on these alleged participants in bungling or conspiratorial understanding? Certainly, there was more than a pongy whiff of distraction about it all, given that Israel had come off poorly in The Hague proceedings launched by South Africa, during which the judges issued an interim order demanding an observance of the UN Genocide Convention, an increase of humanitarian aid, and the retention of evidence that might be used for future criminal prosecutions for genocide.
An abrupt wave of initial success in starving the agency followed, with a number of countries announcing plans to freeze funding. In the United States, irate members of Congress accused the agency of having “longstanding connections to terrorism and promotion of antisemitism”. A hearing was duly held titled “UNRWA Exposed: Examining the Agency’s Mission and Failures” with Richard Goldberg, a senior advisor of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies frothing at an agency that supposedly incited “violence against Israel, subsidizes US-designated terrorist organizations, denies Palestinians their basic human rights, and blocks the pathways to a sustainable peace between Israel and the Palestinians.”
The attempt to cast UNRWA into gleefully welcomed oblivion has not worked. Questions were asked about the initial figure of twelve alleged militants. News outlets began questioning the numbers.
The funding channels are resuming. Canada, for instance, approving “the robust investigative process underway”, also acknowledged that “more can be done to respond to the urgent needs of Palestinian civilians”. The initial cancellation of funding to the agency, charged Thomas Woodley, president of Canadians for Justice and Peace in the Middle East, had been “a reckless political decision that never should have been made.”
The Swedish government was also encouraged by undertakings made by UNRWA “to allow independent auditing, strengthen internal supervision and enable additional staff controls”, promising an initial outlay of 200 million kroner (US$19 million)
The UN refugee agency for Palestinians has said there is no other agency that is able to respond to the humanitarian needs in Gaza at UNRWA’s scale.
The UNRWA runs more than 150 shelters and has at least 3,000 working staff in Gaza, the agency said in a post on X.
“We are the backbone of the humanitarian response,” the statement said.
“With over two million people in dire need of life-saving humanitarian assistance in Gaza, no other agency is able to respond at the same scale,” it added.
Gaza remains under assault. Day 158 of the assault in the wave that began in October. Binoy Kampmark (DISSIDENT VOICE) points out, "Bloodletting as form; murder as fashion. The ongoing campaign in Gaza by Israel’s Defence Forces continues without stalling and restriction. But the burgeoning number of corpses is starting to become a challenge for the propaganda outlets: How to justify it? Fortunately for Israel, the United States, its unqualified defender, is happy to provide cover for murder covered in the sheath of self-defence." CNN has explained, "The Gaza Strip is 'the most dangerous place' in the world to be a child, according to the executive director of the United Nations Children's Fund." ABC NEWS quotes UNICEF's December 9th statement, ""The Gaza Strip is the most dangerous place in the world to be a child. Scores of children are reportedly being killed and injured on a daily basis. Entire neighborhoods, where children used to play and go to school have been turned into stacks of rubble, with no life in them." NBC NEWS notes, "Strong majorities of all voters in the U.S. disapprove of President Joe Biden’s handling of foreign policy and the Israel-Hamas war, according to the latest national NBC News poll. The erosion is most pronounced among Democrats, a majority of whom believe Israel has gone too far in its military action in Gaza." The slaughter continues. It has displaced over 1 million people per the US Congressional Research Service. Jessica Corbett (COMMON DREAMS) points out, "Academics and legal experts around the world, including Holocaust scholars, have condemned the six-week Israeli assault of Gaza as genocide." The death toll of Palestinians in Gaza is grows higher and higher. United Nations Women noted, "More than 1.9 million people -- 85 per cent of the total population of Gaza -- have been displaced, including what UN Women estimates to be nearly 1 million women and girls. The entire population of Gaza -- roughly 2.2 million people -- are in crisis levels of acute food insecurity or worse." ALJAZEERA notes, "At least 31,184 people in Gaza have been killed and 72,889 wounded by Israeli attacks on the enclave since October 7, according to the Health Ministry." Months ago, AP noted, "About 4,000 people are reported missing." February 7th, Jeremy Scahill explained on DEMOCRACY NOW! that "there’s an estimated 7,000 or 8,000 Palestinians missing, many of them in graves that are the rubble of their former home." February 5th, the United Nations' Phillipe Lazzarini Tweeted:
In a report released on Tuesday, one parent told the organization:
"I wouldn’t even say that their mental health has deteriorated – it’s been obliterated. Complete psychological destruction.”
Another said:
"Children here have seen everything. They’ve seen the bombs, the deaths, the bodies – we can’t pretend to them any more. Now they understand and have seen everything. Now, my son can even tell what types of explosives are falling – he can hear the difference.”
According to the report, the collapse of healthcare and psychological services in Gaza limits the possibility that children will get the treatment they need to recover.
Director of Save the Children for the Occupied Palestinian Territory Jason Lee said there is hope the psychological impacts of the war could be reversed with support, but added that "none this is possible without an immediate, definitive ceasefire and safe, unfettered aid access so that humanitarians can provide the critical support needed."
