Israeli Finance Minister Pushes Naval, Aerial Blockade of Iran -- News from Antiwar.com

Israeli Finance Minister Pushes Naval, Aerial Blockade of Iran -- News from Antiwar.com
Jason Ditz, January 26, 2012

In an interview today with Bloomberg Businessweek, Israeli Finance Minister Yuval Steinitz rejected the European Union’s ban on importation of Iranian crude oil, insisting it doesn’t go nearly far enough.

Instead, Steinitz called for the international community to impose a full naval and aerial blockade across all of Iran so that “no one can even go out [sic].” This is the only option with any chance of success, he said.

Steinitz said a good model for his plan was the Cuban blockade by the United States in 1962, an effort which nearly ended with the annihilation of all life on earth in the Cuban Missile Crisis.

“Sometimes it might work. You have to at least try,” Steinitz added. It is unclear how he imagines the full aerial blockade in the north could be imposed, since it would presumably be opposed by Russia.

Mass Demonstrations as EU Countries Sign on to Controversial ACTA Treaty | Common Dreams

Mass Demonstrations as EU Countries Sign on to Controversial ACTA Treaty | Common Dreams
Common Dreams staff , January 27, 2012

Yesterday 22 EU member states signed the controversial trade agreement known as ACTA, the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement.

Protesters in Poznan, Poland, march during a demonstration against the ratifying of Acta. (Photograph: Marek Zakrzewski/EPA)
According to the EUobserver:

EU countries sign unpopular anti-counterfeit treaty

The European Commission and 22 EU member states have signed up to a controversial trade agreement in a move marked by cyber attacks and street protests.
Cyprus, Estonia, Germany, the Netherlands and Slovakia were the only EU countries not to put pen to paper at the signing ceremony in Tokyo on Thursday (26 January) of the so-called Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (Acta).
The European Commission told EUobserver the hold-up is "purely procedural" and that they will come on board shortly.

The Guardian explains:

Acta is a far-reaching agreement that aims to harmonise international standards on protecting the rights of those who produce music, movies, pharmaceuticals, fashion, and a range of other products that often fall victim to intellectual property theft.
Acta also takes aim at the online piracy of movies and music; those opposed to it fear that it will also lead authorities to block content on the internet.

Wired UK adds:

Acta -- which is supported by many rights owners -- has been met with widespread criticism from open rights activists, who argue that the legislation has been rushed through the legal system under the guise of being a trade agreement, when in fact it is a new copyright law. They also argue that it blurs the distinction between piracy and counterfeiting and that it criminalises copyright infringement when there are civil sanctions already.

RT reports:

Thousands wage war against ACTAck on Internet
In order to become law, the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement must first be voted in by parliament. In a bid to stop this from happening, the hacktivist group Anonymous has targeted official websites in the countries that have already signed it. They struck the Polish, French and Czech government websites, as well as the sites of the Irish ministries of justice and finance, the European Parliament, Ireland’s Innovation Minister Sean Sherlock and Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk.
Anti-ACTA sentiment reached the Polish parliament, too, where some opposition MPs put on Guy Fawkes masks to signal that they won’t vote for an agreement that has drawn so much criticism from citizens.
Anonymous is threatening that it will reveal sensitive information on officials, should Poland proceed with adopting ACTA. Prime Minister Tusk called the demos and hacker attacks “blackmail”.

After the signing, there were widespread protests in Poland as the BBC notes:

Thousands march in Poland over Acta internet treaty
Later on Thursday, hundreds of people took to the streets of the eastern city of Lublin to express their anger over the treaty.
Several marches had taken place in cities across the nation on Wednesday, says the BBC's Adam Easton in Warsaw.
Crowds of mostly young people held banners with slogans such as "no to censorship" and "a free internet".

The Guardian adds:

Poland's support for Acta has sparked attacks on Polish government websites by the hacking collective Anonymous that left several of them unreachable off and on for days. Street protests of hundreds, and in some cases thousands of people, have broken out across Poland for the past three days.

* * *

In protest of what he saw as lack of transparency in treaty negotiations French MEP Kader Arif has resigned as rapporteur of the controversial anti-counterfeiting trade agreement (ACTA).

“I want to denounce as the greatest of all the process that led to the signing of this agreement: no association of civil society, lack of transparency from the beginning of negotiations, successive postponements of the signing of the text without any explanation being given, setting aside the claims of the European Parliament [despite those views being] expressed in several resolutions of our Assembly,” Arif said in a strongly-worded statement on his website.

* * *

Techdirt notes this on how ACTA can affect public health:

There are serious health risks associated with ACTA, especially in the developing world. In this case, Europe pushed strongly to include patents under ACTA (something the US actually preferred to leave out). This has complicated matters for some countries. Under existing international agreements, countries can ignore pharmaceutical patents to deal with health emergencies. That is, if you have an outbreak and need a drug that pharmaceutical companies are unwilling to supply at a reasonable price, governments can break the patent and produce their own. That becomes much more difficult under ACTA, which could be a real threat to health around the globe.

* * *

President Obama has already signed the treaty.

* * *

Egyptian Youth Vow to Sit-In Until Military Rulers Relinquish Power | Common Dreams

Egyptian Youth Vow to Sit-In Until Military Rulers Relinquish Power | Common Dreams
Common Dreams staff , January 26, 2012

A day after hundreds of thousands of Egyptians took to Tahrir Square to commemorate the one year anniversary of the uprising that led to Hosni Mubarak's ouster, many of those same youth say they will reinvigorate their revolutionary efforts by once again staging rallies and sit-ins until the military council that now rules Egypt cedes power.

Reuters reports:

An Egyptian youth shouts slogans during a protest in Tahrir Square in Cairo, Egypt, Thursday, Jan. 26, 2012. Hundreds of thousands of Egyptians have marked the first anniversary of the uprising that toppled Hosni Mubarak with rallies in major squares across Egypt that turned into a show of strength by secular groups in their competition with the country's powerful Islamists over demands for an end to military rule. (AP Photo/Muhammed Muheisen)

Scores of youths [on Thursday] occupied the square surrounded by dozens of tents pitched on traffic islands. Vendors sold hot drinks and some activists huddled round open fires to keep warm in the morning air.

"The military council commits the same abuses Mubarak committed. I don't feel any change. The military council is leading a counter-revolution. We will protest until the military council goes," said 23-year-old student Samer Qabil.

The army council took over when Mubarak was ousted and is led by his defense minister for two decades, Field Marshall Mohamed Hussein Tantawi. It has insisted it will hand power to civilians after a presidential election in June.

But many activists say they fear it wants to hold onto power behind the scenes.

And the Egypt Independent adds:

The 25 January Revolution Youth Coalition has called upon the Egyptian people to take part in a million-man protest next Friday, dubbed the "Friday of Dignity," to confirm the continuation of the revolution and demand that the military council hand over power to civilians. It has also called for a sit-in in Tahrir Square until power is handed over to civilians and the military regime falls.

The coalition said in a Wednesday statement that the military mismanaged the transition period and has failed to preserve the dignity of the Egyptian people. It chided it for killing protesters at Maspero in October, on Mohamed Mahmoud Street in November and during cabinet clashes in December.

Other revolutionary movements and parties on Wednesday announced the beginning of a sit-in in Tahrir Square and other squares throughout Egypt. They demand the prompt handover of power to civilian rule.

The April 6 Youth Movement tweeted that it will stage a sit-in in Tahrir Square calling for a speedy transfer of power.

Independent news website Youm7 cited April 6 spokesperson Mahmoud Afifi as saying that the movement will hold sit-ins until the army transfers power to Parliament or holds presidential elections.

###

US-Backed Libyan Militias Accused of Widespread Torture: Reports | Common Dreams

US-Backed Libyan Militias Accused of Widespread Torture: Reports | Common Dreams
Common Dreams staff , January 26, 2012

Two separate reports this morning shine a troubling spotlight on torture - some resulting in death - being carried out 'by officially recognized military and security entities as well by a multitude of armed militias operating outside any legal framework' in post-Gaddafi Libya.

An MSF physiotherapist works in one of Misrata's detention centers, where MSF is suspending operations due to evidence of systemic torture and abuse of detainees. (Libya 2011 © MSF)

Amnesty International and Doctors Without Borders (widely known by their French acronym MSF) both report widespread evidence of abuse in several Libyan cities. The abuse MSF witnessed in Misrata was so bad the physician-led relief organization has closed its operations in the town. As Agence France-Presse reported today:

[MSF] said its doctors were increasingly confronted with patients who suffered injuries caused by "torture" during questioning.

"The interrogations were held outside the detention centres," it said.

Its general director Christopher Stokes said some officials have sought to exploit and obstruct its work in Misrata.

"Patients were brought to us in the middle of interrogation for medical care, in order to make them fit for further interrogation. This is unacceptable," he said.

"Our role is to provide medical care to war casualties and sick detainees, not to repeatedly treat the same patients between torture sessions."

According to the Amnesty report:

Detainees, both Libyan and foreign nationals from sub-Saharan African countries, told Amnesty International they had been suspended in contorted positions, beaten for hours with whips, cables, plastic hoses, metal chains and bars and wooden sticks, and given electric shocks with live wires and Taser-like electro-shock weapons.

The patterns of injury observed by the organization were consistent with their testimonies. Medical reports seen by Amnesty International also confirmed the use of torture on several detainees, a number of whom died in custody.

The majority of detainees being targeted are Libyans believed to have stayed loyal to Colonel al-Gaddafi during the recent conflict. Foreign nationals, mostly sub-Saharan Africans, also continue to be randomly detained, including in connection with their irregular legal status, and some are tortured.

The organization found that detainees were usually tortured immediately after being held by local armed militias and subsequently under interrogations, including in officially recognized detention centres. To date detainees have not been allowed access to lawyers. Several told Amnesty International they had confessed to crimes they had not committed just to end the torture.

As Glenn Greenwald notes this morning, these are not the first reports of torture and abuse in post-Gaddafi Libya:

In this March 29, 2011 file photo, a Libyan rebel urges people to leave, as shelling from Gadhafi's forces started landing on the frontline outside of Bin Jawaad, 150 km east of Sirte, central Libya. (AP Photo/Anja Niedringhaus, File)

In July, Human Rights Watch accused NATO-backed rebels of widespread looting, arson and abuse of civilians. Throughout the latter part of 2011, there were numerous reports of black migrant workers being detained without charges, tortured and even executed en masse. In October, a U.N. report detailed widespread lawless detentions and torture; the same month, an Amnesty International report documented “a pattern of beatings and ill-treatment of captured al-Gaddafi soldiers, suspected loyalists and alleged mercenaries in western Libya. In some cases,” the report continued, “there is clear evidence of torture in order to extract confessions or as a punishment.” The incoming President of the U.N. Security Council, South African U.N. Ambassador Baso Sangqu, accused NATO of exceeding the scope of the U.N. Resolution on Libya and called for an investigation into human rights abuses by all sides, including NATO bombers and rebel forces.

More poignant, however, is what these reports of abuse say about the much touted "success" of the Libyan bombardment by NATO fighter jets that facilitated the overthrow of Gaddafi. As Greenwald explains:

Obviously, the Gadaffi and Saddam regimes were horrible human rights abusers. But the point is that one cannot celebrate a human rights success based merely on the invasion and overthrow of a bad regime; it is necessary to know what one has replaced them with. Ironically, those who are the loudest advocates for these wars and then prematurely celebrate the outcome (and themselves) bear significant responsibility for these subsequent abuses: by telling the world that the invasion was a success, it causes the aftermath — the most important part — to be neglected. There is nothing noble about invading and bombing a country into regime change if what one ushers in is mass instability along with tyranny and abuse by a different regime: typically one that is much more sympathetic to the invading regime-changers.

That last point underscores the other key lesson from these types of invasions. They are almost always sold by appeal to human rights concerns — Iraqi babies pulled from incubators and Saddam’s rape rooms — but that is very rarely their actual objective. When the West invokes human rights concerns to justify an attack on a dictator whom it has long tolerated (and often even supported), that is rather compelling evidence that human rights is the packaging for the war, not the goal. The fact that it is not the goal means more than just another war sold deceitfully based on pretexts: it means that human rights concerns will not drive what happens after the invasion is completed. The materials interests of the invaders are highly likely to be served, but not the human rights of the people of the invaded country. It is still early in the post-Gaddafi age, but those who supported the war in Libya — which (like the war in Iraq) included numerous people who did so out of a genuine, well-intentioned desire to see a vile tyrant vanquished — have a particular responsibility to ensure that the same tyranny is not replicated by the forces supported by the invading armies.

###

Euro zone crisis puts Asean model into question

 Euro zone crisis puts Asean model into question

Pana Janviroj, ANN/The Nation, Davos | Fri, 01/27/2012 9:45 PM

Asean, the European Union--regional blocks in general--are they an endangered species?
Pailin Chuchottaworn, CEO of PTT Plc, told the audience at the World Economic Forum in Davos that the crisis in the euro zone has suddenly thrown the Asean model into question.

"Asean 10, which is starting an Asean Economic Community, was modelled after the euro zone...which is facing a meltdown...Suddenly, we lost our way," he told a session on East Asia.

The PTT chief executive officer's question about Asean was later underscored by German Chancellor Angela Merkel in her opening address, in which she said that Europe was well in need of a new model. She reiterated that further integration and fiscal policy coordination were needed.

Nonetheless, Asia remains a bright spot and talking point at Davos 2012. Asia continues on a high-growth path alongside Brazil and Russia to help the world economy make up for the slump in the US and European economies.

Karim Raslan, CEO of KRA Group from Malaysia, said some smaller economies, such as the Philippines, are also doing surprisingly well.

Jason Li Yat-Sen from China's George Institute for Global Health reiterated that China's 8-per cent growth target for 2012 will be achieved and the country has a very good balance sheet to deal with any external shocks.

Chang Dae-Whan, chairman of Maekeyung Media Group from Korea, said the West could learn from Asia about shortening the implementation period of its policies. It is something the Europeans don't understand, he said.

In another session, Michael Spence, an economics and business professor from New York University, echoed this belief in the benefits of the policy pragmatism found in Asian economies.

Spence said the US now has a broad understanding of the structural changes it needs to make in the medium and long terms to get the economy back on track. But politics poses an obstacle.

Asked in the Asian session about the devastating floods at the end of last year, PTT's Pailin said the crisis is over and the economy is back on the growth path with retail, tourism and manufacturing picking up momentum, although investor confidence is still down.

His view was supported by Hiroyuki Ishige, CEO of the Japan External Trade Organisation, who said that both the Thai and Japanese economies--following their respective natural disaster--proved quite resilient through the strength of their management supply chains.

Pailin said that to Asean, as a group of satellite of economies, China and South Korea "will prove critical for our future".

Southeast Asia can leverage different networks including those in India, Raslan said.
Yat-Sen did not rule out a Chinese-Japanese economic axis if their historical differences can be overcome.

Clashes, Torture on the Rise in ‘Disillusioned’ Libya -- News from Antiwar.com

Clashes, Torture on the Rise in ‘Disillusioned’ Libya -- News from Antiwar.com
Jason Ditz, January 25, 2012

In “liberated” Libya, violence is on the rise as militias attack one another on a regular basis and seemingly everyone accuses everyone else of being a Gadhafi ally. Arrest, in this environment, often means open-ended detention without charges. And torture.

Nominally under the control of the US and NATO-backed National Transitional Council (NTC), this new Libya is a nation awash in arms and grudges, the product of an ugly civil war and an international community that seems determined to throw its weight behind any interested party still alive on the ground.

In one instance, a knife fight at a market between two men from neighboring towns culminated in the massing of troops and the kidnapping and torture death of an uninvolved resident of one of the towns. His wife has just given birth the day before. Each side claims the other are pro-Gadhafi fighters.

Western diplomats are shrugging off the problems as a “country coming down off a victory high.” But Libyans don’t trust their new interim government and mass protests are breaking out against the brand-new regime.

The NTC is looking to placate the public with a few token resignations, but the issue goes well beyond the unpopularity of a few late-in-the-game defectors from the old regime. The protests against the Gadhafi regime began with the hope of a free country, and the realization that the NTC commandeered their revolution — possibly replacing one tyrant with another — is not something that can be easily tamped down.

Dystopia: Corporate Rule Breeding 'Global Class War' | Common Dreams

Dystopia: Corporate Rule Breeding 'Global Class War' | Common Dreams
Common Dreams staff , January 25, 2012 by Common Dreams

Dystopia: Corporate Rule Breeding 'Global Class War'

- Common Dreams staff

The World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, Switzerland, normally an opportunity for the global elite to congratulate one another on their continued dominance of world economic matters and policy victories, has been unable this year to ignore the growing popular movements that have risen to challenge many of the forum's fundamental prescriptions for growth and economic stability.

Additionally, this year's forum has been unable to shirk the pessimistic predictions among its own participants. According to a survey of this year's attendants, fears of a "major geopolitical disruption over the next 12 months has risen significantly to 54%." However, as the survey showed, "respondents from the private sector are marginally more confident about the [world's financial] prospects for 2012 than those from the public, civil society and academic sectors" but are "more worried about the possibility of a social, geopolitical, environmental or technological disruption than their peers."

Further proving that the forum has taken a more pessimistic tone this year is the title of one of today's sessions, 'Seeds of Dystopia,' which mirrors the WEF's Global Risks 2012 Report, released earlier this month. Among those who share the financial worries of a continued economic slump and predict further social and political upheaval, is Nouriel Roubini. An economist and co-author of the book Crisis Economics -- and also known as Dr. Doom for some of his (accurate) predictions of past economic events (read 'meltdowns') -- Roubini spoke on today's panel. The Business Insider delineates some of Roubini's key points:

Roubini & Co. Scare The Crap Out Of Davos

'Social unrest, Roubini says, is tied directly to economic uncertainty'

• What is connecting everyone in the world these days is economic and financial insecurity, the rise of income and wealth inequality, challenges from poverty, unemployment effects of financial crisis.
• Freakouts about debt loads, moreover, are leading to budget cuts — which, in Europe, at least, are making the recession worse.
• 225 million people worldwide are unemployed
• 1 in 3 people on the planet are poor or unemployed
• 1% of the world's families own 40% of the wealth
• Wages as a percent of GDP are at an all-time low
• Corporate profits as a percent of GDP are at an all-time high
• Current policies will lead to explosions
• This inequality is "Great Gatsby revisited"
• We're in a "vicious circle"... fiscal austerity to solve debt problem is making everything worse

These points, most notably his critique of fiscal austerity, follow recent comments Roubini made on Indian television in an interview on NDTV:

Amnesty International, also represented on the 'Seeds of Dystopia' panel, challenged the governing global economic paradigm in a statement by Secretary General Salil Shetty on Tuesday:

Occupy WEF

The economic crisis, and how governments have chosen to address it, poses a clear and unambiguous risk to the rights of people in many countries. Davos cannot afford to be a congratulatory club for the rich and powerful. We must use this opportunity to challenge the orthodoxy of the policies being pursued and ensure governments meet their responsibilities.

Corporate malpractice has been allowed to flourish by government policies of deregulation and limited oversight. In the pursuit of profit, financial institutions have been given a free pass to create systems that expose the most vulnerable groups to exploitation as corporate greed takes precedent over accountability and transparency.

Most governments do not see the connection between financial systems, economic policy and human rights. But wherever you go today you can see people who have lost their jobs, their homes and are struggling even to afford food, you cannot fail to see the devastating impact on people’s basic rights.

Rather than ensuring their policies protect human rights, governments are retreating to old approaches and cosy relationships that will lock in long term inequalities for generations. This is a man-made crisis and the solutions being offered by leaders risk repeating the gross failures of the past.

In a similar vein, Roubini criticizes a world economic system that is institutionally geared toward short-term gains at the top, but shows little regard for shared prosperity and long-term economic security throughout. Roubini makes this point in an interview published today in Foreign Policy:

It's about income and wealth inequality, but it's also about jobs -- whether your children are going to be better off than you. It's about economic insecurity, about whether the benefits of social security, health care are going to be there. It's about underemployment, or unemployment. So it takes different manifestation in different places, of course. There's the Arab Spring, Occupy Wall Street, the riots in London, the middle class in Israel demonstrating because they cannot afford their homes, the Chilean students that cannot afford good education, anti-corruption in India, people saying enough of what's going on in Russia, and in China where people cannot go out on the streets to protest so they turn to the microblogs to voice anger about corruption and inequality.

So it's a whole nexus of things that have to do with economic insecurity, whether it's poverty, education, skills, the ability to compete in a global economy, keeping your old-age benefits, and then inequality. The manifestation of them can be class warfare as opposed to nationalism, or religious warfare as opposed to inter-generational cleavages between young and old. But I think there's a complex nexus of economic concerns that are at the basis for many of the things that are happening in different ways in different countries.

And stressed that the "issue of inequality" cannot be ignored if there's a desire to avoid a 'global class war':

We must make sure that growth is inclusive -- in China, in India, in Latin America -- and that we do create opportunities for young people in Europe and United States to have jobs and succeed in life. We have a huge amount of social and political instability. The issue you raised is usually couched as the bottom of the bottom, meaning the starving people in sub-Sahara Africa. But there is a bigger issue because now we have several billion people in the world working in advanced economies, in emerging markets, who feel very insecure about their own future.

And unless we're going to address that, everything that happened in the last year -- from the Arab Spring to Occupy Wall Street to riots throughout Europe -- is going to get worse. Even in sub-Saharan Africa, you could start to see a lot of social and political instability. We've seen, for example, what happened in Nigeria, when they started to phase out subsidies on oil, and prices went up by 200 percent. Which is why there are now riots in the streets.

So we have to think about these issues; we have to discuss them and figure out how to address them. Not only are a lot of people starving, but actual social and political instability comes from potentially middle class people who see their hopes being dashed.

So what did the 'Seeds of Dystopia' panel think should be done? The Business Insider made the following list, as suggested by the participants:

• More unionization, more power to the worker
• More investment in education
• More investment in "human capital"
• More investment in infrastructure
• Less austerity, more investment in growth (Europe)
• Redistribution of power in society — power to the working people
• Mandated standards instead of voluntary codes of conduct (for business, presumably)
• Need a "Tahir Square" moment in corporate board rooms to get away from short-termism
• Mandate that 50% of boards must be women
• Deal with massive CEO-to-employee pay inequality with taxation
• Be courageous with financial regulation

And, as noted by Shetty:

Business and political leaders need to recognize the need for a new approach that is fair and inclusive. Instead of entrenching the divide between rich and poor, they need to adopt growth plans that address this divide. They must place people’s rights at the heart of any solutions. Otherwise, the recent social unrest unfolding in countries across the world could only be the beginning.

###