Tag: u s politics
Chile Weighs Taking Guantanamo Detainees At U.S. Request

Chile Weighs Taking Guantanamo Detainees At U.S. Request

Santiago (AFP) — The Chilean government is considering taking in detainees from the U.S. detention camp at Guantanamo Bay, officials said Monday.

The United States made the request back in 2010 but the idea has run up against opposition from some lawmakers, said Foreign Ministry legal adviser Claudio Troncoso.

“Our country is carrying out an evaluation of that U.S. request,” he told reporters. “There has been absolutely no final decision made on this issue.”

The United States has told Santiago that they are detainees who do not face formal charges or present any danger, he added.

But opposition lawmakers voiced concern.

“There could be collateral damage from taking in prisoners linked to terrorist acts,” said Ivan Moreira, a senator with the ultra-conservative Independent Democratic Union party.

“Our country should not get involved in a sensitive issue that could bring upon us unwanted consequences when we are being looked at by international terror groups,” added Jorge Tarud, a lawmaker with the ruling coalition-backing Party for Democracy.

Uruguay plans to take in six detainees from the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo, Cuba, but says that no date for the transfer has been set yet.

There are 149 inmates still at the prison on the eastern tip of Cuba that was set up under former president George W. Bush after the September 11, 2001 attacks.

AFP Photo/Chantal Valery

Want more world news? Sign up for our daily email newsletter!

Kerry Bids For Arab Anti-IS Front Buoyed By New Iraq Govt

Kerry Bids For Arab Anti-IS Front Buoyed By New Iraq Govt

Baghdad (AFP) — Washington kickstarted its efforts to form a broad coalition against jihadists in Iraq and Syria Tuesday with Secretary of State John Kerry headed to the region to rally U.S. allies.

Regional heavyweight Saudi Arabia is to host talks on Thursday between Kerry and ministers from 10 Arab states plus Turkey on joint action against the Islamic State group.

Kerry’s arrival in the region on Wednesday will coincide with a keenly awaited speech by President Barack Obama in which he has promised to set out a strategy to defeat the jihadists who have unleashed a wave of atrocities that have shocked the world.

Washington has been buoyed in its diplomatic offensive by the formation of a new government in Baghdad that it hopes will be more acceptable to both Iraq’s disenchanted Sunni Arab minority and Sunni governments around the region.

The Iraqi army’s campaign to claw back the territory it lost in the Sunni Arab heartland north and west of Baghdad in June — and U.S. efforts to engage Sunni governments in the fightback — have been complicated by the sectarian politics of the region.

Saudi Arabia and other Gulf Arab states had deeply strained relations with the Shiite-led government in Baghdad, with each side blaming the other for the advance of the jihadists.

But after months of wrangling, Iraq’s new Prime Minister Haidar al-Abadi finally formed a government on Monday that Washington said had “the potential to unite all of Iraq’s diverse communities.”

Kerry described the new government as a “major milestone” in efforts to woo the Sunni Arab minority away from IS after the divisive rule of Abadi’s predecessor Nuri al-Maliki.

– ‘Broadest possible coalition’ –

The talks in the Saudi port city of Jeddah on Thursday will be attended by the foreign ministers of Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Turkey and the six Gulf Arab states as well as Iraq.

Kerry has pledged to build “the broadest possible coalition of partners around the globe to confront, degrade and ultimately defeat (IS).”

“Almost every single country has a role to play in eliminating the (IS) threat and the evil that it represents,” the U.S. top diplomat said.

Notable by their absence from Jeddah will be the Syrian government — facing a three and a half year uprising backed by many of the participants — and its regional ally Iran.

IS has taken advantage of the civil war to seize a big chunk of northeastern Syria in fighting with government forces, rival rebel groups and Kurdish militia.

Damascus views itself as a key bulwark against the jihadists, but Washington has ruled out any cooperation for fear of alienating Syria’s Sunni majority who largely support the uprising.

The Syrian media mocked the U.S. decision to exclude Damascus from the anti-IS coalition.

“Western and regional governments are excluding the nations that really want to fight terrorism,” the pro-government Al-Watan newspaper said.

Instead, Washington was building a coalition that included nations that “support terrorism financially, militarily and logistically,” it said.

It was alluding to neighbouring Turkey and the Gulf Arab states, whose arms deliveries to the rebels, some of which have wound up in IS hands, have made them bugbears of the regime.

Damascus fears efforts to tackle IS will involve air strikes on its territory without its permission.

Washington launched air strikes against jihadist targets in Iraq on August 8 and has since carried out nearly 150 sorties.

Obama has so far held back from authorising strikes on IS in Syria but he has promised a comprehensive strategy against the group on both sides of the border in the policy speech he is to deliver on Wednesday.

The new U.N. Syria envoy, Staffan de Mistura, was expected in Damascus on Tuesday for his visit since taking over the post in July.

– Iran welcomes Iraq govt –

Shiite Iran — alongside the United States, the key outside power in Iraq — said it hoped the change of government in Baghdad would help turn the tide against IS.

“I hope that during your new mandate, complete calm will return to your country,” President Hassan Rouhani said.

In reality the new government does not constitute quite the sea-change hailed by Washington — it remains dominated by politicians from Iraq’s Shiite Arab majority, the Kurds hold fewer ministries than in the previous cabinet and the Sunni Arabs relatively minor ones.

The divisive Maliki becomes one of three vice presidents, alongside a Sunni Arab — former parliament speaker Osama al-Nujaifi — and a secular Shiite — ex-premier Iyad Allawi.

Fuad Masum, a Kurd, became president in July.

Abadi also put off filling the key interior and defence portfolios, promising to name the two ministers who will take charge of the security forces’ fightback against the jihadists within the next week.

The commander of one of the Shiite militias that have played a growing military role alongside the army has sought the interior ministry post.

Any such appointment would risk further alienating the Sunni Arab minority given the Shiite militias’ brutal history in the sectarian bloodshed that gripped Iraq in 2006 to 2008.

AFP Photo/Peter Parks

Want more world news? Sign up for our daily email newsletter!

Will The 113th Congress Be The Least Productive In History?

Will The 113th Congress Be The Least Productive In History?

Members of Congress returned to Capitol Hill after their August recess on Monday, and if they want to avoid being the least productive Congress in modern history, they have their work cut out for them. According to Govtrack.us, this Congress has enacted only 163 laws (including both bills and joint resolutions that have been enacted into law). That leaves it 121 laws behind the 112th Congress, which is currently the do-nothingest in modern congressional history.

Washington Post chart

As this chart from TheWashington Post shows, it is common practice for as much as 50 percent of laws enacted by Congress to come in the last quarter of the session. But even taking Congress’ tendency to procrastinate into account, the 113th Congress will have to cover a lot of ground in the next few weeks if it wants to enact more laws than its predecessor. This is because of November’s elections: According to the Associated Press, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) plans to adjourn the Senate by September 23 to allow members to campaign.

The most pressing issue is keeping the government funded. Legislators will need to come up with a short-term spending bill to fund the government through the end of 2014, and they will need to do so by September 30. With negotiations over the budget absorbing so much time and focus in the coming weeks, the question will be whether Congress can accomplish much else before being adjourned until after the elections.

If its track record is any indication, then the answer looks grim. While the number of laws that a Congress enacts is not the only way to judge its productivity, even small-government conservatives will find this dearth of legislation to be a problem, since it does take a law to repeal a law.

Even when Congress has been able to pass legislation, like The Workforce Investment and Opportunity Act (WIOA) and the Veterans Access Choice and Accountability Act (which reformed the VA), it has sunk back into inefficiency by following it up with partisan bills that stand little chance of becoming law. On the day before the August recess, for example, the House passed bills authorizing a lawsuit against President Obama and curtailing the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program — neither of which the Democratic-controlled Senate will seriously consider.

If this Congress really wants to improve its productivity, its members will need to compromise and pass bills that are not solely designed to position themselves favorably for re-election.

AFP Photo/Jewel Samad

Interested in U.S. politics? Sign up for our daily email newsletter!

$41 Million Settlement In ‘Central Park Five’ Case Gets Final Approval

$41 Million Settlement In ‘Central Park Five’ Case Gets Final Approval

Los Angeles Times — A federal judge approved a $41 million settlement Friday for five black and Latino men who were wrongly accused in the brutal rape and beating of a Central Park jogger in 1989.
While admitting no wrongdoing, the city will make the payouts to Antron McCray, Kevin Richardson, Raymond Santana Jr., Yusef Salaam, and Korey Wise, each of whom served between six and 13 years in prison after the vicious attack captivated the media during a time when New York City was rife with crime and violence.
Eventually, admitted serial rapist Matias Reyes told police he committed the assault, and DNA evidence confirmed the claim.
McCray, Richardson, Santana Jr., and Salaam will each receive $7,125,000, according to court records, and Wise will be paid $12,250,000. Each defendant was to be paid roughly $1 million for each year they were wrongly imprisoned, according to the terms of the settlement.
The five filed a federal lawsuit in 2003, a year after their convictions were overturned, claiming police coerced their confessions. Former Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s administration fought the legal challenge for years, but freshman Mayor Bill de Blasio has championed the men’s case.
“This settlement is an act of justice for those five men that is long overdue. The city had a moral obligation to right this injustice which is why, from Day One, I vowed to settle this case,” de Blasio said in a statement.
Calls to plaintiffs’ attorney Jonathan Moore were not immediately returned Friday, but he previously said the sizable settlement serves as an acknowledgment of wrongdoing on behalf of the city.
“It’s an amount that is significant enough that it represents an admission the city did something wrong,” Moore told the Los Angeles Times last month.

Times staff writer Tina Susman in New York contributed to this report

Photo via Flickr

Interested in more U.S. news? Sign up for our newsletter!