http://www.huffingtonpost.com/azeem-ibrahim/rohingya-violence-burma_b_1717739.html
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/azeem-ibrahim/rohingya-violence-burma_b_1717739.html
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/azeem-ibrahim/rohingya-violence-burma_b_1717739.html
Tuesday, July 31, 2012
OLYMPICS IS A GREAT OPPORTUNITY TO DISCUSS RELIGIOUS PERSECUTION
EXCLUSIVE ARTICLE:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/azeem-ibrahim/rohingya-violence-burma_b_1717739.html
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/azeem-ibrahim/rohingya-violence-burma_b_1717739.html
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/azeem-ibrahim/rohingya-violence-burma_b_1717739.html
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/azeem-ibrahim/rohingya-violence-burma_b_1717739.html
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/azeem-ibrahim/rohingya-violence-burma_b_1717739.html
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/azeem-ibrahim/rohingya-violence-burma_b_1717739.html
HIS HOLINESS POPE BENEDICT XVI URGES END TO SYRIAN BLOODSHED
HIS HOLINESS POPE BENEDICT XVI URGES END TO SYRIAN BLOODSHED
By David Kerr
Pope Benedict XVI called for an immediate halt to “all violence and shedding of blood” in Syria during his weekly Angelus address on Sunday.
“I ask God to give the wisdom of the heart, especially for those who have the greatest responsibilities, so that no effort is spared in the quest for peace, including the international community, through dialogue and reconciliation, for a proper political settlement of the conflict,” said the Pope to pilgrims at his summer residence in Castel Gandolfo July 29.
His comments come as government forces and rebels battle for control of Aleppo, Syria’s largest city. The armed revolt against President Bashar al-Assad began in March 2011 and has since claimed over 10,000 lives according to latest U.N. estimates. Opposition forces claim the true figure is nearer to 20,000.
The Pope said that he has been following events “with concern” for the “growing and tragic episodes of violence in Syria” which have created a “sad sequence of deaths and injuries among civilians.” He also lamented the large number of internally displaced people and refugees who have moved to neighboring countries.
He called for humanitarian assistance to be provided to those in need and he assured those suffering of his prayers.
The situation in Syria has been a consistent feature of Pope Benedict’s comments in recent months. In July he expressed a fear that the internal conflict “risks becoming a generalized conflict which would have highly negative consequences for the country and the entire region.”
In June he called upon the international community to “spare no efforts to resolve this crisis through dialogue and reconciliation.”
Earlier in his Angelus address, Pope Benedict reflected on Sunday’s gospel in which St. John recounted Christ’s feeding of the five thousand by the shore of the Sea of Galilee. The Pope described the episode as “a sign of God’s immeasurable providence in the Eucharist.”
“Strengthened by that sacrifice, may we always work for the spiritual nourishment of our brethren, not forgetting the poor and needy,” he said.
DOHA GOALS FORUM SET FOR DECEMBER 10 - 12, 2012
DOHA GOALS FORUM SET FOR DECEMBER 10 - 12, 2012
By Doha GOALS Published: Tuesday, Jul. 31, 2012 - 3:09 am
LONDON, July 31, 2012 -- /PRNewswire/ --
Doha GOALS, a new initiative designed to develop the use of sport as a driver for social and economic change, today announced its inaugural, annual Forum, which will take place from December 10 - 12, 2012.
Doha GOALS - Gathering of All Leaders In Sport - was created under the patronage of His Highness Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, the Emir of Qatar, and was launched during the Olympics.
The initiative, from the Aspire Zone Foundation and Richard Attias & Associates, will build a community of hundreds of key influencers from all spheres of life who believe sport is a crucial vehicle for social and economic development.
Three of those influencers are amongst the speakers at the Forum later this year -athletics legend and multi-Olympic gold medallist Carl Lewis; Oscar Pistorius, who will become the first ever Paralympian to compete at an Olympic Games; and multiple Olympic gold medallist, swimmer Mark Spitz.
Carl Lewis says: "Sport creates opportunities for communities: athletes from small countries and impoverished areas can compete on the global stage and shine a spotlight on their communities. This in turn creates economic opportunities at home, opens the outside world to seeing and understanding new cultures, and empowers athletes to use the public platform for good."
Lewis has a Foundation, focusing on sports in education,
and serves as a volunteer athletics coach at his old high school in New Jersey. He also has an active role as a UN ambassador.
He explained: "After more than 30 years of being in the public eye, I have a global voice. You have to ask yourself: how can I use my voice to remain relevant and to make a difference?"
Sheikh Faisal Al Thani, Executive Director of Doha GOALS, says: "We are delighted launch the inaugural annual Doha GOALS Forum during the Olympics. We want to make a tangible difference which why the focus of this Forum has been placed firmly on driving action and making positive changes. We want to produce initiatives to tackle challenges to society and work on developing and improve key areas within sport."
Richard Attias, the former producer of the World Economic Forum in Davos, will produce Doha GOALS. He says: "Sport has the power to bring about great social integration, as well as bring communities together in a spirit of trust and friendship.
"Doha GOALS is a call to action that will bring together a community of policymakers and government officials, heads of business, athletes, NGOs and students to build a roadmap for how we can harness this power to improve societies around the world."
The Forum structure will include plenary sessions, debates, and focused taskforces to facilitate constructive brainstorming and focused collaboration using pioneering technology.
The objectives of the Forum were dictated by a taskforce of more than 50 of the leading policymakers, innovators, sports scientists, physicians, federations heads, academics, athletes, corporate executives and competitors who gathered for a Pre-Forum event in January 2012. This group, which included top executives from FC Barcelona, IMG, Coca-Cola, as well as federation heads, and past and present athletes, debated economic development, the commercialisation of sports, the welfare of athletes, and sport as a vehicle for tourism growth.
For more information
Media enquiries, contact Tom Rubashow, Pitch, tom.rubashow@pitch.co.uk, telephone +44-(0)207-494-1616.
For all other enquiries, email dohagoals@richardattiasassociates.com. http://www.dohagoals.com
About Aspire Zone Foundation, http://www.aspirezone.qa/Corporate/AspireZoneFoundation.aspx
About Richard Attias & Associates, http://www.richardattiasassociates.com
MOROCCAN KING URGES GOVERNMENT TO TAP GULF ARAB FUNDS
MOROCCAN KING URGES GOVERNMENT TO TAP GULF ARAB FUNDS
RABAT, July 30 | Mon Jul 30, 2012 9:04pm IST
(Reuters) - Morocco's King Mohammed urged his cash-strapped government on Monday to tap financing from Gulf Arab sovereign wealth funds to help finance projects Rabat hopes will help it meet pressing social needs.
An invitation last year for Arab kingdoms Morocco and Jordan to join the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) signalled that monarchies in the region were trying to strengthen their links in the face of the Arab Spring uprisings.
In November, wealth funds from Qatar and Kuwait led pledges to invest almost $3 billion in Morocco's tourism sector.
The North African economy is facing economic hardships due mainly to repercussions from the crisis in the euro zone, its main economic partner, and after drought hit its labour-intensive agricultural sector this year.
A spending spree last year aimed at containing a spillover from the Arab Spring revolts in the region has increased fiscal deficits and worsened a liquidity shortage in the domestic money market while foreign reserves shrank to cover just four months of import needs.
Celebrating the 13th anniversary of his enthronement on Monday, the king said the Islamist-led government should spend budget revenues carefully.
Morocco's should also look to "access funding opportunities offered by foreign sovereign funds, especially investment funds in the Gulf sister nations," he said, according to the English transcript of an address broadcast on state media.
Cooperation with these funds, he said, should "promote investment in all productive sectors and encourage partnership between businesses and government institutions".
Besides tourism, the biggest foreign currency earner and the second-biggest employer, Rabat plans to develop its logistics, agricultural and industrial sectors, helping cut high poverty and unemployment rates.
The unfolding crisis in the euro zone has essentially narrowed Rabat's financing options for such programmes to Gulf Arab monarchies. (Reporting By Souhail Karam; Editing by John Stonestreet)
THE VOICE OF A REAL IRANIAN DISSIDENT JOURNALIST (MAY NOT REFLECT MY OPINION, BUT HERE IT IS), TEHRAN NAM SUMMIT DISAPPOINTS THE UNITED STATES
Tehran NAM Summit
TEHRAN NAM SUMMIT DISAPPOINTS THE UNITED STATES
by Kourosh Ziabari / July 6th, 2012
While the United States, Israel, and their European allies are pulling out all the stops to isolate Iran over its nuclear program, the upcoming meeting of the heads of state of the Non-Aligned Movement in Tehran seems to be throwing a spanner in their works.
The Non-Aligned Movement, the rotating presidency of which will be conferred to Iran on August 26, is a major international organization comprising 120 member states that represent the political, cultural, economic, and social interests of the developing world.
The movement, which is comprised of two-thirds of UN member states, was established in 1961 in Belgrade. Despite the fact that the majority of its members are developing nations, many of them play a defining and determining role in such strategic regions as the Middle East, North Africa, and Latin America.
Over the past weeks, the Iranian President has been sending envoys to different NAM member countries to invite their heads of state and government to attend the forthcoming summit in Tehran. The last NAM summit was held in Egypt’s Sharm El Sheikh from July 11-16, 2009 and Tehran will host representatives from 120 countries in the forthcoming gathering.
Iranian officials expect that a great number of the member states will attend the summit in high levels and it goes without saying that the presence of so many officials from different world countries in the conference hosted by Tehran may not be favorably disposed to those who want to see Iran’s regional dominance and international influence derailed.
NAM enjoys remarkable capacities for shaping a new global order based on respecting the rights of the developing nations which are more often than not treated indecorously by the hegemonic powers. With the active cooperation of the member states, NAM can realize its innumerable potentialities and extricate itself from the domination of the superpowers that are usually after exploiting the precious natural resources of these countries.
The Non-Aligned Movement is said to be the largest international organization after the United Nations and it has the capability of effectively influencing the international developments if its member states take its mechanisms seriously and are convinced that their participation in the process of decision-making and collaboration will help them have a say in the global political and economic equations. They can assist each other in diplomatic lobbying in important events such as the UN General Assembly, selecting the non-permanent members of the Security Council and making decisions in the UN Human Rights Council as well as contributing to the progress of entities such as the African Union and the Organization of Islamic Cooperation.
Although non-association and non-alliance with the Western and Eastern superpowers is a characteristic feature of the members of the movement, emerging superpowers such as China, Brazil, and Mexico serve NAM as observing members. Moreover, countries such as India, Indonesia, Saudi Arabia, and South Africa which have strong ties with the United States and are members of the G20 group (the bloc of 20 world major economies) are among the NAM member states.
Iran’s presidency over such a prominent international organization comes while the European Union has just put into effect its intended oil embargo against Iran, banning the European states from importing oil from Iran, the world’s fourth largest oil producer. At the same time, the United States has imposed a fresh round of sanctions against Iran’s banking sector, penalizing the foreign banks which have financial transactions with Iranian counterparts.
The United States, Israel and Europe are pressing Iran on multiple fronts so as to isolate the country and undermine its regional clout: from propagating falsehood and mendacity about Iran and Iranians in the mainstream media to launching malicious cyber attacks against the computers operating in Iran’s nuclear facilities, passing anti-Iranian resolutions in the UN Security Council, relentlessly murdering the country’s nuclear scientists, imposing hard-hitting financial sanctions and beating the drum of war.
However, Iran has persistently and determinedly tolerated all the hardships and now is foiling the plots one after another.
The upcoming NAM summit in Tehran is an invaluable opportunity for Iran to show its diplomatic prowess and demonstrate that it’s impossible for the bullying powers and their stooges to isolate it.
Although it’s an unwritten convention that not all the heads of state will take part in such summits as NAM, it is expected that the important event will take place with the participation of several high-ranking officials from different world countries. This will mark the spring of Iranian diplomacy and be a backbreaking blow to those who want to isolate and weaken Iran. The event will unquestionably testify that Iran is not the lonely and friendless country which the United States and its lackeys want.
Kourosh Ziabari is an Iranian freelance journalist and media correspondent. His articles have appeared on a number of media outlets and newspapers. He is a member of Tlaxcala Translators Network for Linguistic Diversity. Read other articles by Kourosh.
This article was posted on Friday, July 6th, 2012 at 7:42pm and is filed under Iran, Solidarity.
IRAN INVITES SAUDI, BAHRAINI KINGS TO "NAM SUMMIT"
IRAN INVITES SAUDI, BAHRAINI KINGS TO "NAM SUMMIT"
On Line: 29 July 2012 15:34 In Print: Monday 30 July 2012
Font Size TEHRAN – Saudi King Abdullah and King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa of Bahrain have received Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s invitation letters to the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) summit through diplomatic channels, the Persian service of the Mehr News Agency reported on Sunday.
The XVI Summit of the Non-Aligned Movement is scheduled to be held in Tehran from August 26 to 31.
Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister for Arab and African Affairs Hossein Amir-Abdollahian had planned to hand over the invitation letter to the Saudi king but after the execution of a number of Iranian nationals in the Saudi kingdom Amir-Abdollahian’s trip was cancelled.
Likewise, the Al Khalifa regime’s crackdown on the Bahraini people, Tehran reduced its relationship with Manama to the level of charge d’affaires, and in protest against the regime’s acts of violence, the invitation letter to the Bahraini ruler was not delivered by Ahmadinejad’s special envoy.
The Islamic Republic of Iran, as the host of the NAM summit, is obliged to invite all member states to the summit.
According to reports, an Iranian delegation headed by Deputy Energy Minister for Parliamentary Affairs Massoud Hosseini arrived in Sanaa on Saturday to submit Ahmadinejad’s letter to the new Yemeni President Abd Rabbuh Mansur Al-Hadi inviting to the NAM summit.
Iran’s Ambassador to Doha, Abdollah Sohrabi, told the Persian service of the Mehr News Agency on Sunday that Qatari Emir Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani is scheduled to participate in the NAM meeting in Tehran.
WITH BANDAR'S RETURN, SAUDI ARABIA MOVES TO CAPITALIZE ON ARAB SPRING
WITH BANDAR'S RETURN, SAUDI ARABIA MOVES TO CAPITALIZE ON ARAB SPRING
By Catherine Cheney, on 31 Jul 2012, Trend Lines
Not even two weeks after being appointed as the new head of Saudi Arabia's foreign intelligence agency, Prince Bandar bin Sultan is again in the news, this time because of unconfirmed rumors that he has been assassinated.
Bandar, who served as the Saudi ambassador to the United States from 1983 to 2005, largely disappeared from the world stage since being recalled from that post.
His return to the spotlight through his promotion this month is seen as part of a shift toward a more hawkish Saudi Arabian foreign policy as the kingdom faces major challenges in the region, including but not limited to Syria and Iran.
"Bandar's appointment represented a retreat into old-fashioned, autocratic, security-based politics," Toby C. Jones, director of the Center for Middle Eastern Studies at Rutgers University and a nonresident scholar at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, told Trend Lines.
By shuffling his intelligence command, Saudi Arabian King Abdullah was able to "put people in positions of responsibility who have an intense focus on preserving the status quo through the use of security forces."
Jones, who called Bandar a "hardliner" and a "hawk" both in terms of his domestic and regional policy, said his return to Saudi Arabian politics represented an attempt by the king to protect the royal family and its interests, particularly given what is happening in the region.
Saudi Arabia's initial response to the Arab Spring was one of panic, Jones said, explaining that the kingdom was uncertain, watchful and wary.
"But a year and a half into the Arab uprisings, things have stabilized in various ways in Egypt and Tunisia and even in Bahrain," he said.
He explained that the kingdom, which is now working to "manage transformation," is no longer as nervous.
Rather, Jones said, Saudi Arabia has come to embrace the Arab Spring because of a sense that these political crises, if managed, can in fact serve its interests.
"If they can point to the possibility of unrest, but believe they can control it, that becomes useful," Jones said, explaining that, among other benefits, it allows the country to "play the 'iron fist' approach."
In Syria, for example, the ideal outcome for Saudi Arabia may not be a stable democracy, but rather a managed crisis, Jones said. He noted that this might seem contrary to the Saudis' long-standing claims that they want stability and security for the region. But he explained that a divided Syria where the kingdom can "maneuver certain pieces of the chess board against others" offers potential advantages.
Enter Bandar, an "experienced international troubleshooter" who had previously negotiated with both Iran and Syria.
But Bandar's return, combined with the recent succession uncertainty following the death of Crown Prince Nayef last month, raises the question of stability within the kingdom itself, Jones said. He particularly emphasized the ongoing Shiite protests in eastern Saudi Arabia.
"It is part of a conventional wisdom and in fact pretty much unchallenged that Saudi Arabia is a stable place," he said. "But I think this is a place that shows significant fault lines and potential for fracture."
The fact that there was no outbreak of sustained popular unrest in Saudi Arabia even in the midst of the Arab Spring uprisings sweeping the region has to do in part with support for the king. But another major reason, Jones said, is the "coercive apparatus" of Saudi Arabia, which he called "a police state."
"People don't protest because they are scared," he said. "There is a significant foundation of criticism and widespread potential for dissent. The fact that it has not materialized yet does not have to do with its absence."
As if to confirm the fears of potential protesters, Riyadh is now cracking down on peaceful demonstrations in the Shiite-majority east.
"[Saudi authorities] have also attempted to manufacture a connection between Saudi Shiites and Iran, which doesn't exist in any meaningful way, but they exploit or manipulate that for political purposes," Jones explained.
Saudi Arabia, Jones said, does not want to see sweeping democratic change throughout the region, and it also does not want to see Iran being empowered. These fears are mostly separate, but linked in one way, Jones said.
"If you can undermine protesters as being agents of Iran, then you can undermine the democratic claims of those protesters in the eastern province of Saudi Arabia or in Bahrain or elsewhere," he said. "So those two things are linked in the way the Saudis play politics."
Photo: Prince Bandar bin Sultan (Russian Presidential Press and Information Office photo).
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA & THE U.N. PREPARE INTERNATIONAL SANCTIONS ON SUDAN
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA & THE U.N. PREPARE INTERNATIONAL SANCTIONS ON SUDAN
July 31, 2012
UNITED NATIONS: The United States is leading international warnings to Sudan and South Sudan to step up efforts to reach a peace accord this week or face possible UN sanctions.
The UN Security Council has given the rival neighbours, who this year came close to all-out war, until Thursday to make their peace. Tentative talks are being held in Addis Ababa. Diplomats said however that while no accord is expected the 15-nation council will probably hold back from ordering immediate action. “It appears increasingly unlikely that a comprehensive agreement on outstanding issues will be reached” by the August 2 deadline, said Susan Rice, the US ambassador to the United Nations.
South Sudan broke away from Sudan in July last year but no deal has ever been made to set their frontier, how to share revenues from oil reserves that straddle the border, or how to settle citizenship disputes. “The United States calls on the parties to fulfill immediately their obligations under Resolution 2046,” Rice said in a statement referring to the resolution passed by the Security Council in May which set the deadline. “The US wishes to reiterate the UN Security Council’s decision —in the event that any or all of the parties have not complied with the decisions set forth in this resolution to take appropriate additional measures under Article 41 of the (UN) Charter as necessary,” the envoy added.
The United States has taken a tough line with Sudan, which is accused of staging an air raid across the border on July 20. Other Security Council nations say that pressure has to be put on both sides. “The United States strongly condemns Sudan’s July 20 bombing” in South Sudan’s Bahr El Ghazal state, said Rice. “This incident constitutes a serious violation of Resolution 2046 and marks a recurrence of violence, which had abated in the period since the resolution’s adoption.” The UN resolution ordered the two countries to halt hostilities, withdraw their forces from the disputed Abyei frontier region and make a comprehensive accord in three months.
Sudan has however kept a special police force to protect oil facilities in Abyei and has yet to agree a demilitarized border zone map. It also faces international criticism over its war with rebels in South Kordofan and Blue Nile states, on the border with South Sudan. Tens of thousands of refugees from the conflict have crossed into South Sudan and Ethiopia. Rice highlighted international concern over what the United Nations has called a humanitarian crisis in South Kordofan and Blue Nile, where the Khartoum government has severely restricted access to aid agencies. Sudan accuses the South of supplying the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-North (SPLM-N), which is battling government forces.
The United States praised South Sudan for keeping to most provisions of the UN resolution but Rice said: “At the same time, the United States reiterates the Security Council’s call to cease support to rebel groups.” Former South African president Thabo Mbeki is leading African Union efforts to mediate between the two rivals at the Addis Ababa talks, which started last week, but diplomats have cited no progress. afp
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA'S WOMEN OLYMPIC GYMNASTIC TEAM WINS THE GOLD MEDAL FOR THE FIRST TIME IN 16 YEARS
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA'S WOMEN OLYMPIC GYMNASTIC TEAM WINS THE GOLD MEDAL FOR THE FIRST TIME IN 16 YEARS
Published: July 31, 2012 by Bill Chappell
The U.S. women's gymnastics team has won the team gold medal at the London 2012 Olympics, handily beating Russia, which took silver, and Romania, which took bronze. China finished fourth.
The American team was made up of Gabby Douglas of Virginia Beach, Va.; McKayla Maroney of Long Beach, Calif.; Aly Raisman of Needham, Mass.; Kyla Ross of Aliso Viejo, Calif.; and Jordyn Wieber of DeWitt, Mich.
Here is the lineup they used:
Vault: Wieber, Douglas, MaroneyUneven bars: Wieber, Ross, DouglasBalance beam: Ross, Douglas, RaismanFloor exercise: Douglas, Wieber, Raisman
Update at 2:25 p.m. EDT: The U.S. women led off with their strength — the vault. The apparatus gives them an advantage, and not only because Maroney is the world champion and gold-medal favorite in the event.
The AP describes why:
"All of the Americans do Amanars, one of the toughest vaults in the world — a roundoff onto the takeoff board, back handspring onto the table and 2.5 twisting somersaults before landing. It's got a start value — the measure of difficulty — of 6.5, a whopping 0.7 above the vault most other gymnasts do, and they ripped off one massive one after another."
Their performances held up throughout Tuesday's final, with Douglas anchoring the team in all four events.
The Americans won a team gold for the first time since 1996. And they fulfilled the promise seen in them by someone who knows about gold-medal-caliber teams: Bela Karolyi, who coached the 1996 squad.
Karolyi says the Americans have "the deepest team in the world," according to The Detroit Free Press. "I think this is a more even team with their performances," he added. "The 1996 team had ups and downs."
Update at 1:55 p.m. EDT: The American women's performance is winning many fans on Twitter — among them is Dominique Moceanu, a member of the Atlanta 1996 team.
In a tweet naming Wieber and the other team members, Moceanu wrote, "Passing the torch to 2012 Team USA Women!"
The Olympic gold medal is the second in the history of U.S. women's gymnastics.
The U.S. team finished with a strong floor round, but they were in control for much of Tuesday's final. Their final score was 183.596. Russia was a distant second, at 178.530, with Romania trailing at 176.414.
The rest of the final eight: China, Canada, Great Britain, Italy, and Japan, which came in last with a score of 166.646. [Copyright 2012 National Public Radio]
U.S. WOMEN BEAT NORTH KOREA 1 TO 0
U.S. WOMEN BEAT NORTH KOREA 1 TO 0
By Associated Press
MANCHESTER, England — In an iconic venue against a mysterious opponent, the U.S. women’s Olympic soccer team did the familiar: Abby Wambach scored the decisive goal in a victory, and the players found a funky way to celebrate.
Wambach netted for the 141st time in international play, and the Americans finished atop their group Tuesday with a 1-0 win over North Korea in the first women’s soccer game at Old Trafford in 23 years.
Chants of “U-S-A!” among the crowd of 29,522 echoed in the home of Manchester United as the Americans completed a 3-0 run in Olympic group play. They were already assured a berth in the next round entering the game, and they’ll now move on to Newcastle for a quarterfinal match on Friday.
North Korea finished with a 1-2 record in the group and still had a chance to advance, depending on the results of Tuesday’s other games. The team completed the game with 10 players after Choe Mi Gyong was sent off with a second yellow card in the 81st minute following a tackle on Lauren Cheney.
The North Koreans are ranked in the top 10 in the world, but they remain an unknown in women’s soccer because their players and officials have limited interaction with other teams. They sent a very young squad to these Olympics: Their average age of 19 years, 11 months made them look like a junior club next to the Americans, who checked in at 28 years, 1 month.
North Korea had several scoring threats in a three-minute stretch midway through the second half, forcing Hope Solo to the ground twice to preserve the shutout. Mostly, however, the U.S. goalkeeper had plenty of downtime to think about her next series of tweets. Solo ruffled feathers after the last game by using Twitter to criticize NBC analyst and former U.S. player Brandi Chastain’s commentary. Coach Pia Sundhage and the team’s captains met with Solo about the rant, but Solo didn’t back down her comments and has continued to tweet.
Offensively, the Americans can be concerned about a second straight game in which on-the-field dominance failed to produce a comfortable margin. They held a 1-0 lead over Colombia until late in the second half Saturday before pulling away to a 3-0 win.
This time, the insurance goals never came, despite plenty of chances. Alex Morgan and Wambach both hit the right post in the first half, part of a series of near-misses.
The goal came in the 25th minute on a play set up by Cheney’s long ball to Morgan, who slid a pass between two defenders to Wambach for an easy tap-in and her third goal of the tournament. The U.S. players celebrated by forming a line facing the crowd while holding hands — then they starting wiggling their arms as if to create the look of a giant, slithering snake.
The last women’s game played at Old Trafford was an FA Cup final in 1989, a match that drew less than 1,000 people.
NO MORE SALLY RIDE SPECIAL BENEFITS, YOU ARE NASTY! U.S. WOMEN'S GYMNASTICS POSED TO TAKE THE GOLD.
U.S. WOMEN'S GYMNASTICS POSED TO TAKE THE GOLD
July 31, 2012 + FOX NEWS
LONDON – The Americans grabbed hands and backed up, eager to get a better view of the scoreboard.
There was really no need. That Olympic gold medal was in the bag the minute they took the floor.
The Americans lived up to their considerable hype and then some Tuesday night, routing Russia and everybody else on their way to their first Olympic title since 1996. Their score of 183.596 was a whopping five points ahead of Russia, and they were so far ahead their last event, floor exercise, was more like a coronation.
With the Russians on the sidelines crying, the Americans stood at the center of the flow, clapping, cheering and basking in a golden glow. When the score for captain Aly Raisman flashed, the Americans screamed and a chant of "U-S-A! U-S-A!" rang out around the arena. The women held up their index fingers for the cameras -- just in case anyone had a doubt.
The Americans had come into the last two Olympics as world champions, only to leave without a gold. But this team is the strongest, top to bottom, the USA has ever had, and the rest of the world never stood a chance. After the U.S. opened with a barrage of booming vaults, everyone else was playing for silver.
RESTRAINING SALLY RIDE'S SEX PARTNER, TERMINATING HER RIDERS, & REMOVING HER FROM OUR PROPERTIES
CATHOLIC BIZ SCORES VICTORY AGAINST OBAMACARE MEN-DATER
July 31, 2012 + IBD EDITORIALS
Basic Rights: A court in Colorado has ruled that, contrary to DOJ arguments, Americans do not have to choose between giving up their faith or giving up their business. Freedom of religion also applies to the free marketplace.
The Newland family of Colorado and the heating and air conditioning business they run are not quite as famous as CEO Dan Cathy and his Chick-fil-A restaurant chain — at least not yet.
The granting of an injunction by Senior Judge John L. Kane of the U.S. District Court in Colorado saying they do not have to comply with the Health and Human Services rule that they provide contraception coverage may change that.
Chick-fil-A had to deal with threats from mayors in Boston and Chicago to not permit the franchise to open new stores because of the owners' personal belief in the biblical definition of marriage as a union of one man and one woman.
Hercules Industries, the Newland family business that manufactures heating, ventilation and air-conditioning (HVAC) products, faced the ultimate threat from the Department of Justice — stop acting on your faith or shut down altogether.
The Newlands are devout Catholics and like the religious institutions that have filed suit against the Obama administration's mandate that their health insurance cover contraceptive services, the Newlands filed suit against Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius when they were told the mandate applied to small businesses run by Catholics as well as Catholic religious institutions.
Since Hercules Industries would be required to begin offering the new coverage when its self-insured plan renews on Nov. 1, Alliance Defending Freedom, the group representing Hercules, has requested a preliminary injunction that could prevent the government from enforcing the mandate against the company by Aug. 1, the date when the company would need to begin the process of making changes to its plan.
In the Department of Justice's filing in Newland v. Sebelius — a suit brought by William, Paul and James Newland, and their sister, Christine Ketterhagen, DOJ made the assertion — worthy of Stalinist Russia — that Hercules Industries has "made no showing of a religious belief which requires that (it) engage in the (HVAC) business."
No, their faith does not require them to open up an HVAC business, but it does require them to act in all aspects of their lives and dealings with others in accordance with their faith. They argued that the mandate to provide contraceptive coverage or face existential fines placed an undue burden on their First Amendment right to practice their faith. The court agreed.
In his order, Kane, appointed by President Jimmy Carter, said the government's arguments "are countered, and indeed outweighed, by the public interest in the free exercise of religion.
"As the Tenth Circuit has noted, 'there is a strong public interest in the free exercise of religion even where that interest may conflict (with another statutory scheme) ...' Accordingly, the public interest favors entry of an injunction in this case."
The injunction applies only to the Newlands and their family business and is temporary, but a way to kill ObamaCare has been found. Its penalties may have been ruled by the Supreme Court to be a constitutional tax, but ObamaCare's shredding of the First Amendment's guarantee of religious liberty is definitely not constitutional.
"Religious liberty rights don't stop at the storefront door," agreed Hannah Smith, senior counsel at the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, which represents plaintiffs in similar suits. "This decision portends the demise of the current administration's attempts to drive religious activity from the public square and confine it within the four walls of a church."
Amen to that.
REPORT: 5 ATF OFFICIALS BLAMED IN "BOTCHED" FAST & FURIOUS OPERATION & PARTICIPATED IN SEX CRIMES
REPORT: 5 ATF OFFICIALS BLAMED IN "BOTCHED" FAST & FURIOUS OPERATION & PARTICIPATED IN SEX CRIMES
By Jerry Seper - The Washington Times
Five Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) officials have been targeted by House and Senate investigators for blame in the failure of the “Fast and Furious” gunrunning operation that led to the transfer of more than 2,000 illegally-purchased weapons — including semi-automatic assault rifles — to drug smugglers in Mexico.
A 211-page draft report by staff investigators for Rep. Darrell Issa, California Republican and chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, and Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa, ranking Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee, singled out five ATF officials for blame who already have been reassigned to other positions because of miscues in the botched operation.
“Strong leadership is needed at ATF to overcome the deep scars left by Operation Fast and Furious,” the report said. “Greater accountability within ATF would underscore that ineffective supervision and recklessness both have consequences.”
Those named in the report are William Newell, the former special agent in charge of ATF’s Phoenix field division; William McMahon, former deputy assistant director for field operations; Mark Chait, former assistant director for field operations; William Hoover, former deputy director; and Kenneth Melson, former acting ATF director.
“From the outset, the case was marred by missteps, poor judgments and an inherently reckless strategy,” said the draft report, the first of three to be released by congressional Republicans as part of an 18-month investigation.
Of the more than 2,000 weapons transferred to Mexican drug smugglers during the Fast and Furious probe, nearly 1,000 remain unaccounted for. Two weapons purchased at a Glendale, Ariz., gun shop by “straw buyers” during the operation, both AK-47 semi-automatic assault rifles, were found at the site of the shooting death of U.S. Border patrol Agent Brian A. Terry.
Five men were named last month in a federal grand jury indictment unsealed in Tucson, Ariz., in the Terry shooting, with the FBI announcing a $1 million reward for information leading to the arrest of four of the men designated as fugitives.
The Terry death was the catalyst for a heated debate between the Justice Department and Congress over the Fast and Furious operation, and the department’s refusal to turn over hundreds of pages of Fast and Furious documents led to a contempt citation by the House against Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. The report said the House intends to move “soon” to “commence legal proceedings” to enforce the contempt citation.
The Justice Department has denied allowing guns to be “walked” to drug smugglers in Mexico, and Mr. Holder has said he was unaware of that weapons were knowingly being transferred to drug smugglers south of the border.
REPORT: ILLEGALS RELEASED BY OBAMA'S FED COMMITTED 19 MURDERS & 142 SEX CRIMES
REPORT: ILLEGALS RELEASED BY OBAMA'S FED COMMITTED 19 MURDERS & 142 SEX CRIMES
By Stephen Dinan - The Washington Times
The Obama administration declined to try to deport more than 36,000 illegal immigrants that were arrested on other charges between 2008 and 2011, including some who went on to commit 19 murders, 3 attempted murders and 142 sex crimes, the House Judiciary Committee said Tuesday.
All told, the administration was alerted to nearly 160,000 immigrants — most of them here legally — who were arrested during the three-year period. They went on to be charged in nearly 60,000 more crimes, according to the committee and the Congressional Research Service, which issued a report on the matter.
The findings stem from the Obama administration’s Secure Communities program, which was designed to identify immigrants who run afoul of the law and who the administration decides it wants to deport.
While hundreds of thousands have been sent back home under the program, 159,286 were not put in deportation proceedings during the period under review, CRS said.
About three quarters of those weren’t eligible for deportation because they were legal immigrants and their criminal records didn’t rise to the level of deportation, though nearly a quarter could have been deported, CRS said.
Those who could have been deported but were released later went on to commit the 19 murders, 3 attempted murders and 142 sex crimes, the Judiciary Committee said.
“The Obama administration could have prevented these senseless crimes by enforcing our immigration laws,” committee Chairman Lamar Smith said. “But President Obama continues to further his anti-enforcement agenda while innocent Americans suffer the consequences. His unwillingness to enforce immigration laws puts our communities at risk and costs American lives.”
Mr. Smith requested the CRS report, which used data he had subpoenaed from the Homeland Security Department.
The department didn’t immediately return a request for comment Tuesday morning.
Secure Communities has come under fire from both sides of the aisle.
Many Democrats say it casts its net too wide, which means illegal immigrants who have committed relatively minor offenses could be deported. But Republicans, led by Mr. Smith, say the administration is actually being too picky in those it chooses to deport, which results in criminals being released back onto the streets to commit more crimes.
CATHOLIC EXPERTS FIND HILLARY'S SYPHILIS-CARE'S RELIGIOUS FREEDOM REPORT "NOT" BACKED BY ACTION OR THE CATHOLIC COMMUNITY
CATHOLIC EXPERTS FIND HILLARY'S SYPHILIS-CARE'S RELIGIOUS FREEDOM REPORT "NOT" BACKED BY ACTION OR THE CATHOLIC COMMUNITY
By Michelle Bauman
While a new report from Secretary of State Hillary Clinton uses strong rhetoric to back religious liberty, a former diplomat says more action needs to be taken to turn those words into reality.
Dr. Thomas Farr, director of the Religious Freedom Project at the Berkley Center for Religion, Peace and World Affairs at Georgetown University, told EWTN News that although the report offers a "comprehensive catalogue of violations of religious freedom," it stops short of addressing them in a concrete and meaningful way.
Released on July 30, the congressionally-mandated International Religious Freedom Report examines the status of religious liberty in 199 countries and territories around the world during 2011.
The report outlines disturbing trends in religious freedom violations around the world, taking the form of violent extremism, growing blasphemy laws and an increase in anti-Semitism.
It lists eight countries – Burma, China, Eritrea, Iran, North Korea, Saudi Arabia, Sudan and Uzbekistan – as "Countries of Particular Concern." These countries are the same eight that received this designation last year.
In announcing the findings of the report, U.S. Ambassador at Large for International Religious Freedom Suzan Johnson Cook said that the U.S. has been working to voice concerns about these situations and to sponsor tolerance programs aimed at youth, as well as to impose sanctions on countries that fail to respect their citizens.
Countries such as Egypt, which are currently in a period of transition, have "a wonderful opportunity" to include respect for religious freedom in their new constitution, she said.
Aware of promises by Egyptian leaders to respect minorities, America is "looking at them to protect religious minorities and all citizens and adhere to the universal human rights," she explained.
The U.S. has also "raised the religious freedom issue" with China, the ambassador said.
Although the situation in the country is "complicated," she said that the U.S. is continuing to "press the government" of China and emphasized that conversations with the nation's leaders are ongoing.
In an address on the findings of the report, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton acknowledged that there are significant reasons for concern in countries around the globe.
Religious freedom is critical, she emphasized, not only for its own sake, but also for the existence of a secure and stable democracy, as well as for economic and political progress.
"This is a bedrock priority of our foreign policy," she said.
Clinton said that the report "sends a signal to the worst offenders that the world is watching."
It allows the U.S. to more successfully target the countries and aid the individuals that are in greatest need of help, she added.
But while Farr said the language used by Clinton to support religious freedom was "very good," he added that the words do not translate into policies.
Formerly serving in the State Department's Bureau of Intelligence and Research in the 1990s, Farr became the first director of the department's international religious freedom office.
He explained that the International Religious Freedom Act, which mandates the annual report, requires that it tell what policies the U.S. is using "to advance religious freedom in a given country."
But the policy section of the report instead gives "a laundry list of unconnected meetings and 'dialogues,' or repetitions of senior US officials having 'raised the issue' or 'discussed' it with host country officials," he said.
While these meetings and discussions are not bad, he noted, they are not enough on their own to be effective.
Farr explained that "in most countries, there is very little evidence of a unified US strategy to advance religious freedom."
Rather, he said, "there is a grab bag of unrelated items whose purpose is to show movement, at least on a rhetorical level."
For example, he explained, "for a nation like Egypt, whose stability is so vital to our interests," one might expect to see the report give "a comprehensive strategy of policy programs and concrete initiatives designed to convince the Egyptians that their own interests require them to advance religious freedom."
Rather, one finds a list of discussions, dialogues and unrelated programs. While these programs may be good, he said, "they do not represent the kind of foreign policy strategy that takes the advancement of religious freedom as a serious issue of security, stability and success."
What the U.S. should be doing, Farr argued, is giving the religious freedom ambassador the tools "to develop strategies in key countries.
"She should be given increased authority and resources," he stressed. "Currently her office and function are isolated and under funded."
When this changes, he said, the world will know that the Secretary of State is serious about her statements and willing to "put policy weight" behind her strong rhetoric.
PAKISTAN CHURCH SAYS ASIA BIBI MUST BE DEFENDED CAUTIOUSLY FROM SYPHILIS' "IMMINENT DANGER & HARM"
PAKISTAN CHURCH SAYS ASIA BIBI MUST BE DEFENDED CAUTIOUSLY FROM SYPHILIS' "IMMINENT DANGER & HARM"
The Church in Pakistan said that all of the efforts to prevent the execution of Catholic mother Asia Bibi requires prudence on the part of her defenders.
According to Gaudium Press, the director of the National Committee on Justice and Peace of the Bishops’ Conference of Pakistan, Father Emannuel Yousaf Mani, said the concern about the international campaigns to help Bibi is understandable.
“But the life of this woman is very important to us, and we will do nothing to endanger her life...We should wait in silence for the Court to hear her appeal.”
Bibi's case gained worldwide attention in 2010 when she was condemned to death for allegedly violating Pakistan’s blasphemy laws, which state that anyone who offends Islam will be hanged. Critics say the country's blasphemy laws are often unjust and have become a tool for abusing religious minorities as well as vengeance between Muslims.
Bibi is still awaiting a ruling on the appeal of her death sentence and has been moved to an isolated cell without any windows, sink or toilet because of Muslim threats against her life.
Fr. Yousaf said that caution on the part of the Church in Pakistan arises from concerns that those who “pressured for an indult in favor of Bibi ended up being killed by Muslim extremists.”
A “pardon amidst a climate of contentious public opinion,” he added, “would not necessarily save the lives of Asia Bibi and her family.”
Muslim Governor Salman Taseer was the first to lose his life for his support of Asia Bibi when he was gunned down in 2011 by a member of his own security detail, who afterwards said he was proud that he had killed him because of his comments criticizing Pakistan’s blasphemy law.
That same year, a group of extremists killed the only Catholic in the Pakistani government, Shabaz Bhatti, who was the Minister of Affairs for Minorities and who opposed the law on blasphemy and spoke out publicly in defense of Bibi.
Lastly, Anne-Isabelle Tollet, the journalist and author of the book, “Get Me Out of Here,” which recounts the personal drama of Asia Bibi, said all the members of Bibi’s family “are under death threats and live in hiding, moving frequently and unable to work.
The children miss their mother very much and they have stopped going to school out of safety concerns. The youngest child is only nine years old.”
Asia Bibi is currently in solitary confinement due to the threats she receives from other inmates. One Muslim cleric named Peshawar has offered 5000 Euros to the person who kills her.
NEW BOOK RELEASE: OBAMA & VALERIE "PLAME" JARRETT DELAYED THE KILLING OF OSAMA BIN LADEN THREE TIMES
NEW BOOK RELEASE: OBAMA & VALERIE "PLAME" JARRETT DELAYED THE KILLING OF OSAMA BIN LADEN THREE TIMES
July 31, 2012
President Barack Obama — at the urging of senior adviser Valerie Jarrett —canceled the operation to kill Osama bin Laden three times before finally approving the May 2, 2011, Navy SEAL mission, according to a book scheduled to be released next month.
In “Leading From Behind: The Reluctant President and the Advisors who Decide for Him,” Richard Miniter writes that Obama canceled the mission in January 2011, again in February, and a third time in March, The Daily Caller reports.
The book is to be released Aug. 21.
Jarrett, Miniter says in the book, persuaded the president to postpone the mission each time, The Daily Caller reports. She is a senior advisor and assistant to the president for Public Engagement and Intergovernmental Affairs.
Miniter, a two-time New York Times best-selling author, based his reporting on an unnamed source with Joint Special Operations Command who had direct knowledge of the operation and its planning, The Daily Caller reports.
Obama administration officials said after the raid that the president had delayed giving the order to kill bin Laden the day before the order was carried out — an apparent fourth moment of indecision.
The White House blamed the delay at the time on poor weather conditions near the bin Laden compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan. But Miniter says that he had obtained that day’s weather reports from the U.S. Air Force Combat Meteorological Center — and that they showed ideal conditions for the SEALs to carry out their orders, The Daily Caller reports.
“President Obama’s greatest success was actually his greatest failure,” Miniter told The Daily Caller. “Leading From Behind,” he said, examines six important decisions of the Obama White House, showing how the president did — or, in many cases, did not — make them.
Obama, in making the assassination of Osama bin Laden a focal point in his re-election campaign, has called the mission one of the “gutsiest calls of any president in recent history.”
© 2012 Newsmax. All rights reserved.
AFGHANI FEMALE SPRINTER RESISTS COUNTRY'S OLD IDEALS, VOWS TO SHOW WOMEN NEW FUTURE
AFGHANI FEMALE SPRINTER RESISTS COUNTRY'S OLD IDEALS, VOWS TO SHOW WOMEN NEW FUTURE
15 HOURS AGO
LONDON – She could see the men gathering along the track where she trained back home in Kabul, a daunting gauntlet of soccer and volleyball players surrounding the lone woman in the stadium. And Tahmina Kohistani tensed. Something felt wrong. Then they began to shout.
"You can't win a medal from the Olympics, it's not your job!"
"Just be in your house!"
"It's not good for us for an Afghan girl to run!"
"Be behind your man!"
For a moment, tears burned in her eyes. It was not long before she would go to London, to become the only female athlete from a country that does not believe women should play sports. And after 10 minutes of the taunts, she went home that day saying she would not come back. She said she was through. She said she could never face the men again.
But the next morning she did return, because if she didn't, who would? Who would tell the women in her country that they could run too? Who would push for their freedom?
A few days later the men were back at the stadium again. They gathered along the track as Kohistani ran. She could almost feel the glare of their eyes. She knew they were watching. This time they said nothing.
They would not bother her again.
"I'm going to run for all the women of Afghanistan," Kohistani says.
[ Related: Saudi woman ordered not to wear head scarf in judo competition ]
On Friday night she walked into the Olympic stadium and again tears filled her eyes. Here were all the best athletes in the world, walking together with so much cheering and noise spilling down upon them, and yet she was the only woman from her country. Because of this she wept. She cried for the women who wanted to be athletes, too, but couldn't because their families would not allow it. She cried for the women who ached to be like her. And she cried for the women whose bodies were going to waste because of a culture that still forbids females from exercising.
"In my country the woman has a lot of problems, and every second 10, maybe more than 10 women, are killed in every province of Afghanistan because they have a lot of illness," she says. "I think it's the best way to keep them healthy – by sporting, not medicine. Medicine might make them healthy for a few months, but sports makes them healthy forever."
She sits inside a café in the Athletes Village one day right after the start of the Olympics. Outside, a rain pelts down from a passing summer thunderstorm. She wears a warm-up suit and a head scarf, a small umbrella is by her side. She speaks freely in halting English as if she has been waiting all her life for these Olympics, to say these words. She knows she stands little chance in the 100-meter race she will run Friday against the fastest women in the world. But the result is less important to her, she says. What matters most is the message that will come with the simple act of settling into the starting blocks.
[ Related: Fencing controversy forces South Korean to sit on piste for ages, costs her a medal ]
"It's difficult to be a woman in Afghanistan because we have a lot of war and a lot of bad regime," she says. "It's time to change the mind of people about the woman because in the Taliban regime the woman doesn't have equal rights, they have a different idea about the woman. They think you must keep your woman in your house: Don't let them go to school, don't let them go to sporting, don't let them go to anywhere.
In many ways she is the ideal of a new Afghanistan, one molded in the months after the initial U.S. invasion during which years of the Taliban's oppression of women was washed away. As a teenager in school, she started playing basketball, but was always the last player picked, the worst one on the floor. So she looked for a new sport, one that would be more individual, one in which she wouldn't need to rely upon others to be great.
She watched another Afghan woman, Robina Muqimyar, run the 100 meters in Athens back in 2004 and was inspired by what Muqimyar was doing – so defiant and free. She wanted to run too. Soon she, too, had a goal. She was going to be in the Olympics.
Her father Gavid Kohistani, an Afghan politician, wasn't sure he wanted his daughter to run, she says. But then he saw how much she loved it and he told her she must continue, that what she was doing was important enough that that she should not give up a dream.
"She has a very strong determination," says Gavid Kohistani's brother Hasibullah, who spoke for the father who does not speak English. "She's a talented girl. She wants to change society. She would like to be free in Afghanistan and have this be a liberal society."
[ Related: Twitter suspends account of man who criticized NBC's Olympic coverage ]
But Hasibullah Kohistani also concedes: "This is very challenging. It's very difficult for her in Afghanistan. It's not like other countries. In Afghanistan we still have problems, there are people who do not allow the girls to be free. All the time they do not want to see the girls play a sport."
Tahmina's father "is worried about her safety and security," Hasibullah Kohistani says. "He is worried about his daughter and when she goes to exercises all the time. There are people here who do not allow the women to do exercises all the time."
Hasibullah Kohistani says he, too, frets. He is fond of his niece. He loves her stubborn determination and is proud that she is fighting for something big. But he worries about the things that people might say or do. He doesn't want her to be injured. Nor does he want her will to be broken.
After Tahmina Kohistani returned home from the stadium that day the male athletes taunted her, he went to her and said: "Please close your ears. That is your only option."
She said she would do this. And she did. But there are still so many signs of anger, so many people who say that what she is doing is wrong. Like the time she tried to take a taxi and told her driver she was headed to the stadium to train for the Olympics in London. The man stopped the car.
"Get out of my cab!" the driver shouted, throwing her out into the street. "Do not show me your face. I am not going to drive you there."
But when asked about her safety, Tahmina Kohistani shrugs.
"It's very difficult for me," she says. "We need someone to accept this challenge. I'm the person who is going to do this. And I decided I was going to do this for my country and for the people and for the women of Afghanistan.
"I am just going to do this."
[ Related: After years of keeping her sport a secret from her parents, Brazilian wins judo gold ]
She has a dream. She is going to bring women out of the house after this Olympics. She is going to get them running and exercising and living lives they were told they could not have. She is convinced there will be a movement when she returns. She is going to invite all the women to come to the stadium to run with her. She imagines many will come out. And then she believes some of those will even go to the Olympics.
"I know that right now all the women of Afghanistan are proud of me because I'm the only girl who is coming to represent Afghanistan," she says. "It's very difficult, what I am going to do."
Such a crusade never happened after Muqimayr returned after Athens and then later Beijing in 2008. But Tahmina Kohistani shakes her head. No. This time it will be different she says.
"Because the reason is that I have, she doesn't have," Tahmina Kohistani says. "I'm going to do something to change my society but she does not have this idea. She just want to be famous girl. I can say a lot of things about her character, but I know that our feeling is different. My feeling is different because I'm going to do something for my country. I like to change the society, to change the mind of people about [women] and they should accept this. We are not wrong. We are right."
She is going to build a program in her country. She is going to call it Women in Sports in Afghanistan, and it will be dedicated to breaking apart the old way of thinking. She worked on the idea last year when she spent two months studying in the U.S. at Kansas University, and she is sure it is going to work.
"I feel there are a lot of Afghan women who are watching me now and they hope that they should be in place of Tahmina and be representing their country," she says.
And as she sat there in the café at the Olympic village she smiled.
She would love nothing more than if they did.
WHAT SHOULD CONSTITUTIONISTS DO IN THE WAKE OF SYPHILIS? DON'T ABANDON CRITICISMS OF OBAMACARE
DON'T ABANDON CRITICISMS OF OBAMACARE
By Mark Hemingway
Over at National Review Online, George Mason law professor Eric R. Claeys has a very interesting and lengthy piece on how constitutionalists should view Obamacare after the Supreme Court's ruling upholding the law:
So, what should constitutionalists do in the wake of Sebelius? Keep up policy-based criticisms of Obamacare, but don’t abandon constitutional criticisms. In addition, at least some elected representatives should keep up what Representative McClintock has started: citing Sebelius as further proof that Obamacare is unconstitutional.
Of course, if members of Congress criticize Sebelius, at least a few Obamacare supporters may (unfairly) accuse them of threatening the Supreme Court. This criticism has more force when the Supreme Court has issued a well-reasoned opinion. Constitutionalists shouldn’t worry about that in this case, because the chief justice’s vote-switching and the Court opinion’s tax and statutory holdings are all easy targets. The criticism also has more force when the Court says Congress lacks a power under the Constitution and Congress then exercises the power anyway. Lincoln and the Civil War Congress faced that criticism when they abolished slavery in Washington, D.C., and in federal territories in flat defiance of language in Dred Scott saying they couldn’t. Yet Congress is on extremely safe ground when it refuses to exercise, or when it repeals a previous exercise of, powers the Supreme Court says it has. Thus, it was easy for Jackson to defy McCulloch; all he needed to do was criticize the case in a message vetoing the reauthorization of the Second Bank, and make sure the veto wasn’t overridden. From this perspective, Sebelius and the Affordable Care Act present an easy case, like McCulloch and the Second Bank. The 113th Congress won’t be seen as attacking the Court — not if constitutionalists forge a mandate claiming that the Sebelius decision is forbidden fruit and that Obamacare is unconstitutional.
Read the whole thing here.
http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/dont-abandon-constitutional-criticisms-obamacare_649131.html
Monday, July 30, 2012
TEACHERS UNION GOES TO BAT FOR SEXUAL PREDATORS - REVIEW SYSTEM RIGGED TO KEEP ABUSIVE TEACHERS ON THE JOB
TEACHERS UNIONS GOES TO BAT FOR SEXUAL PREDATORS
July 29, 2012, 5:53 p.m. ET + By CAMPBELL BROWN
By resisting almost any change aimed at improving our public schools, teachers unions have become a ripe target for reformers across the ideological spectrum. Even Hollywood, famously sympathetic to organized labor, has turned on unions with the documentary "Waiting for 'Superman'" (2010) and a feature film, "Won't Back Down," to be released later this year. But perhaps most damaging to the unions' credibility is their position on sexual misconduct involving teachers and students in New York schools, which is even causing union members to begin to lose faith.
In the last five years in New York City, 97 tenured teachers or school employees have been charged by the Department of Education with sexual misconduct. Among the charges substantiated by the city's special commissioner of investigation—that is, found to have sufficient merit that an arbitrator's full examination was justified—in the 2011-12 school year:
• An assistant principal at a Brooklyn high school made explicit sexual remarks to three different girls, including asking one of them if she would perform oral sex on him.
• A teacher in Queens had a sexual relationship with a 13-year old girl and sent her inappropriate messages through email and Facebook.
If this kind of behavior were happening in any adult workplace in America, there would be zero tolerance. Yet our public school children are defenseless.
Here's why. Under current New York law, an accusation is first vetted by an independent investigator. (In New York City, that's the special commissioner of investigation; elsewhere in the state, it can be an independent law firm or the local school superintendent.) Then the case goes before an employment arbitrator. The local teachers union and school district together choose the arbitrators, who in turn are paid up to $1,400 per day. And therein lies the problem.
For many arbitrators, their livelihood depends on pleasing the unions (whether the United Federation of Teachers in New York City, or other local unions). And the unions —believing that they are helping the cause of teachers by being weak on sexual predators—prefer suspensions and fines, and not dismissal, for teachers charged with inappropriate sexual conduct. The effects of this policy are mounting.
One example: An arbitrator in 2007 found that teacher Alexis Grullon had victimized young girls with repeated hugging, "incidental though not accidental contact with one student's breast" and "sexually suggestive remarks." The teacher had denied all these charges. In the end the arbitrator found him "unrepentant," yet punished him with only a six-month suspension.
Another example from 2007: Teacher William Scharbach was found to have inappropriately touched and held young boys. "Respondent's actions at best give the appearance of impropriety and at worst suggest pedophilia," wrote the arbitrator—before giving the teacher only a reprimand. The teacher didn't deny the touching but denied that it was inappropriate.
Then there was teacher Steven Ostrin, who in 2010 was found to have asked a young girl to give him a striptease, harassed students by text, and engaged in sexual banter. The arbitrator in his case concluded that since the teacher hadn't actually solicited sex from students, the charges—all of which the teacher denied—warranted only a suspension.
Michael Loeb, a middle school teacher in the Bronx and UFT member, calls this a "horrible situation," telling me "if you keep these people in the classroom, you are demeaning our profession."
Parents I spoke with described their tremendous fear about what is happening in the classroom. Maria Elena Rivera says her 14-year-old daughter was stalked by one of her Brooklyn high school teachers (who resigned from his position before the Department of Education decided whether to send the case to arbitration). Today her daughter is in counseling, says Ms. Rivera, and doesn't trust anyone: "It so messed her up. I can't protect her."
Local media have begun to get the word out, yet the stories come and go with trifling consequences or accountability. New York City's schools chancellor and districts statewide must have the power to fire sexual predators—and the final say cannot be that of an arbitrator with incentives to lessen the punishment.
Fortunately, state Sen. Stephen Saland has proposed legislation in Albany to do just this, removing arbitrators' final say while still giving teachers due process and the opportunity to appeal terminations in court. But the buck would stop with those officials in charge of our schools and tasked with protecting our kids: the chancellor in New York City, and school districts elsewhere in the state.
Mr. Saland's initiative has little chance of success without union support—which is hardly assured. "I don't understand how they think this could be a gray area," says Natalie Harrington, who teaches English at New Day Academy in the Bronx. "I worry that if the union goes to bat [against] this, it makes it seem like they will do anything to keep anyone in the classroom."
Michael Loeb still supports his union but says it "treats teachers like interchangeable widgets"—defending all teachers no matter what they have done.
The union has reached a moment of truth. With responsible legislation on the table, the right course of action is obvious. At stake is the safety of kids, the reputation of the unions, and the standing of every good and responsible teacher throughout the state.
Ms. Brown, a former news reporter and anchor at CNN and NBC, recently testified on this issue before the New York governor's Education Reform Commission.
A version of this article appeared July 30, 2012, on page A13 in the U.S. edition of The Wall Street Journal, with the headline: Teachers Unions Go to Bat for Sexual Predators.
July 29, 2012, 5:53 p.m. ET + By CAMPBELL BROWN
By resisting almost any change aimed at improving our public schools, teachers unions have become a ripe target for reformers across the ideological spectrum. Even Hollywood, famously sympathetic to organized labor, has turned on unions with the documentary "Waiting for 'Superman'" (2010) and a feature film, "Won't Back Down," to be released later this year. But perhaps most damaging to the unions' credibility is their position on sexual misconduct involving teachers and students in New York schools, which is even causing union members to begin to lose faith.
In the last five years in New York City, 97 tenured teachers or school employees have been charged by the Department of Education with sexual misconduct. Among the charges substantiated by the city's special commissioner of investigation—that is, found to have sufficient merit that an arbitrator's full examination was justified—in the 2011-12 school year:
• An assistant principal at a Brooklyn high school made explicit sexual remarks to three different girls, including asking one of them if she would perform oral sex on him.
• A teacher in Queens had a sexual relationship with a 13-year old girl and sent her inappropriate messages through email and Facebook.
If this kind of behavior were happening in any adult workplace in America, there would be zero tolerance. Yet our public school children are defenseless.
Here's why. Under current New York law, an accusation is first vetted by an independent investigator. (In New York City, that's the special commissioner of investigation; elsewhere in the state, it can be an independent law firm or the local school superintendent.) Then the case goes before an employment arbitrator. The local teachers union and school district together choose the arbitrators, who in turn are paid up to $1,400 per day. And therein lies the problem.
For many arbitrators, their livelihood depends on pleasing the unions (whether the United Federation of Teachers in New York City, or other local unions). And the unions —believing that they are helping the cause of teachers by being weak on sexual predators—prefer suspensions and fines, and not dismissal, for teachers charged with inappropriate sexual conduct. The effects of this policy are mounting.
One example: An arbitrator in 2007 found that teacher Alexis Grullon had victimized young girls with repeated hugging, "incidental though not accidental contact with one student's breast" and "sexually suggestive remarks." The teacher had denied all these charges. In the end the arbitrator found him "unrepentant," yet punished him with only a six-month suspension.
Another example from 2007: Teacher William Scharbach was found to have inappropriately touched and held young boys. "Respondent's actions at best give the appearance of impropriety and at worst suggest pedophilia," wrote the arbitrator—before giving the teacher only a reprimand. The teacher didn't deny the touching but denied that it was inappropriate.
Then there was teacher Steven Ostrin, who in 2010 was found to have asked a young girl to give him a striptease, harassed students by text, and engaged in sexual banter. The arbitrator in his case concluded that since the teacher hadn't actually solicited sex from students, the charges—all of which the teacher denied—warranted only a suspension.
Michael Loeb, a middle school teacher in the Bronx and UFT member, calls this a "horrible situation," telling me "if you keep these people in the classroom, you are demeaning our profession."
Parents I spoke with described their tremendous fear about what is happening in the classroom. Maria Elena Rivera says her 14-year-old daughter was stalked by one of her Brooklyn high school teachers (who resigned from his position before the Department of Education decided whether to send the case to arbitration). Today her daughter is in counseling, says Ms. Rivera, and doesn't trust anyone: "It so messed her up. I can't protect her."
Local media have begun to get the word out, yet the stories come and go with trifling consequences or accountability. New York City's schools chancellor and districts statewide must have the power to fire sexual predators—and the final say cannot be that of an arbitrator with incentives to lessen the punishment.
Fortunately, state Sen. Stephen Saland has proposed legislation in Albany to do just this, removing arbitrators' final say while still giving teachers due process and the opportunity to appeal terminations in court. But the buck would stop with those officials in charge of our schools and tasked with protecting our kids: the chancellor in New York City, and school districts elsewhere in the state.
Mr. Saland's initiative has little chance of success without union support—which is hardly assured. "I don't understand how they think this could be a gray area," says Natalie Harrington, who teaches English at New Day Academy in the Bronx. "I worry that if the union goes to bat [against] this, it makes it seem like they will do anything to keep anyone in the classroom."
Michael Loeb still supports his union but says it "treats teachers like interchangeable widgets"—defending all teachers no matter what they have done.
The union has reached a moment of truth. With responsible legislation on the table, the right course of action is obvious. At stake is the safety of kids, the reputation of the unions, and the standing of every good and responsible teacher throughout the state.
Ms. Brown, a former news reporter and anchor at CNN and NBC, recently testified on this issue before the New York governor's Education Reform Commission.
A version of this article appeared July 30, 2012, on page A13 in the U.S. edition of The Wall Street Journal, with the headline: Teachers Unions Go to Bat for Sexual Predators.
HILLARY CLINTON GRANTS TERRORIST-SPONSORING NATION VISA TO POSE "IMMINENT DANGER & HARM" AT D.C. AIDS CONFERENCE
HILLARY CLINTON GRANTS TERRORIST-SPONSORING NATION VISA TO POSE "IMMINENT DANGER & HARM" AT D.C. AIDS CONFERENCE
July 26, 2012
The Obama Administration has granted officials from a country that appears on the State Department’s list of terrorism-sponsoring nations visas to attend an AIDS conference in Washington D.C. this week.
It’s part of the administration’s effort to combat the deadly, sexually-transmitted disease on a global level and especially in minority communities because they have been hit the hardest. But was it really necessary to include officials from Cuba, a communist nation that is a notorious human and civil rights violator? That’s in addition to a decades-long run on the U.S. government’s list of nation’s that sponsor terrorism.
Ironically, in Cuba the government involuntarily isolates AIDS patients in special sanatorium prisons. In the U.S. that would be considered an unacceptable violation of a person’s civil rights. Cuba’s controversial handling of the disease has gained worldwide attention in a number of media and academic reports. Even the nation’s largest mainstream newspaper, known for publishing favorable articles about the island prison, says Cuba’s success in limiting AIDS stems partly from “harsh early tactics.”
A California congresswoman who pushed for the Cuban visas, Oakland Democrat Barbara Lee, hosted the island’s delegation at a Capitol Hill event related to the International AIDS Conference. A D.C.-area group that promotes human rights in Cuba disclosed the names of the Communist officials being courted by Lee, who has worked in Congress to lift the Cuban embargo. They include Dr. Lorenzo Jorge Perez Avila, director of the Pedro Kouri Tropical Medicine Institute, Luis Estruch Rancaño, Deputy Minister of Public Health and Maria Isela Lantero, Director of Cuba’s AIDS Programs.
The nonprofit, Cuba Democracy Advocates, reminds that in May the Obama Administration granted U.S. visas to Cuban Dictator Raul Castro’s daughter, Mariela, and 60 other regime officials to attend a conference in San Francisco. It’s very likely that Lee, who represents the area in the U.S. House, was behind that as well. The executive director of Cuba Democracy Advocates asks: “How would Barbara Lee like it if everyone in her Oakland district suffering from HIV/AIDS was involuntarily imprisoned?”
Lee, a prominent member of the U.S. Congressional Black Caucus, is a huge admirer of ailing Cuban Dictator Fidel Castro and his brother, Raul. During a 2009 trip to the island, Lee praised Fidel and said spending time with him was “quite a moment to behold.” Ironically, during the love fest one of Cuba’s best known political prisoners, a black doctor named Oscar Elias Biscet, was serving more than 20 years in a deplorable prison simply because he stood up for human rights by following the peaceful resistance of Martin Luther King Jr.
Also of interesting note is that the country of about 11 million people has a majority black population yet it is ruled by an overwhelmingly white government that openly discriminates against black and mixed-race Cubans. The regime has publicly announced that it does not believe in civil rights.
In 2003, when three black young men tried to hijack a Havana ferry to the U.S., Castro executed them by firing squad even though no one got hurt in the incident. The idea was to send a message to the island’s black majority so, hours after a swift and secret trial, the men were murdered for what the Cuban government called “very grave acts of terrorism.”
SHINSEKI ADMITS CUTS TO VA TO OCCUR UNDER SEQUESTRATION
SHINSEKI ADMITS CUTS TO VA TO OCCUR UNDER SEQUESTRATION
For more information, contact: Amy K. Mitchell, (202) 225-3527 JUL 25, 2012 Issues: Veterans
WASHINGTON, D.C.—Today, at a joint hearing of the House Veterans’ Affairs and Armed Services Committees, the Secretary of Veterans Affairs, Eric Shinseki, confirmed that under sequestration, VA would face cuts, possibly affecting the administration of veterans’ benefits and services, stating, “VA is exempt from sequestration except for administrative costs… I don’t have a definition of administrative costs right now.”
“President Obama publicly said Monday at the VFW Convention that VA is exempt from sequestration, yet the Secretary conceded today that VA would face cuts early next year if a sequester takes place,” stated Rep. Jeff Miller, Chairman of the House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs. “Since last August, I have been asking this question and until today, I have received nothing but double speak. I am now demanding that VA and the President define ‘administrative costs.’ Does this mean closing veterans’ hospitals, fewer claims processors to help veterans with their disability compensation, longer wait times for veterans suffering from the invisible wounds of war or those having to bury a loved one, not to mention the possible impact on homeless veterans’ programs and research to care for our wounded warriors? Congress, and more important, our veterans, deserve an honest, straight-forward answer.”
In the first joint hearing of the two Committees in recent history, Members also addressed serious concerns that the Departments of Defense and Veterans Affairs were not working fast enough toward a seamless transition for servicemembers leaving the military. Secretary Shinseki noted that “over the next five years, there is the potential for one million serving men and women to either leave military service or demobilize from active duty,” raising numerous questions on the already convoluted transition process for veterans.
Wait times for the Integrated Disability Evaluation System, which assists wounded warriors transition from DoD to VA, are already at record highs, the disability claims backlog has tripled in the past four years, and a majority of veterans seeking mental health evaluations wait an average of two months for an appointment.
“Despite repeated assurances from VA and DoD to provide a ‘warm handoff,’ it is clear that is not happening. Unfortunately, what we heard today, we have heard before. And what is clear is that there are still no tangible results demonstrating that the silos between the departments have been broken down,” Miller said. “American know-how put a man on the moon in less than a decade, but 50 years later we can’t produce single electronic medical database for our military and veterans in the same span of time? There is clearly something wrong with this system, and the time has come to see real change and real results.”
SUBCOMMITTEE ON SPACE & AERONAUTICS - THE EMERGING COMMERCIAL SUBORBITAL REUSABLE LAUNCH VEHICLE MARKET
SUBCOMMITTEE ON SPACE & AERONAUTICS - THE EMERGING COMMERCIAL SUBORBITAL REUSABLE LAUNCH VEHICLE MARKET
Subcommittee on Space and Aeronautics
2318 Rayburn HOB
Washington, DC 20515
Aug 1, 2012 2:00pm
The Emerging Commercial Suborbital Reusable Launch Vehicle Market
Witnesses
Ms. Carissa Christensen, Managing Partner, The Tauri Group
Dr. Alan Stern, Chairman, Suborbital Applications Researchers Group
Mr. George Whitesides, CEO and President, Virgin Galactic LLC
Mr. Bretton Alexander, Director, Business Development and Strategy, Blue Origin
Mr. Andrew Nelson, Chief Operating Officer, XCOR Aerospace
Dr. Stephan R. McCandliss, Research Professor, The Johns Hopkins University
BI-PARTISAN HOUSE & SENATE AGREEMENT ON IRAN SANCTION LEGISLATION
BI-PARTISAN HOUSE & SENATE AGREEMENT ON IRAN SANCTION LEGISLATION
July 30, 2012
(WASHINGTON) - U.S. Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL), Chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, released the following statement on the agreement reached between House and Senate negotiators on new Iran sanctions legislation which will be voted on by each Chamber later this week:
“This bipartisan, bicameral Iran sanctions legislation strengthens current U.S. law by leaps and bounds. It updates and expands U.S. sanctions, and counters Iran’s efforts to evade them. The bill sends a clear message to the Iranian regime that the U.S. is committed, through the use of sanctions, to preventing Iran from crossing the nuclear threshold.
“The expanded energy sanctions contained in this critical legislation effectively blacklist the Iranian energy sector and anyone doing business with it. Further, new and expanded sanctions targeting financial institutions, shipping companies, and insurers doing business with Iran will close major loopholes that the regime was taking advantage of to avoid the sting of sanctions. The bill also blocks Iran’s ability to insulate itself from sanctions through oil-for-gold swaps, other trading and bartering schemes, and selling energy bonds and issuing government debt.
“This legislation incorporates great ideas and specific provisions from bills proposed by Members of the House and Senate on both sides of the aisle. If properly implemented, this bill will impose crippling economic pressure on the Iranian regime in order to force Tehran to abandon its nuclear program and other dangerous policies. The House and Senate will be taking up the bill this week, and I urge President Obama to quickly sign it and vigorously enforce its provisions.”
NOTE: Text of the legislation will be available here.
July 30, 2012
(WASHINGTON) - U.S. Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL), Chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, released the following statement on the agreement reached between House and Senate negotiators on new Iran sanctions legislation which will be voted on by each Chamber later this week:
“This bipartisan, bicameral Iran sanctions legislation strengthens current U.S. law by leaps and bounds. It updates and expands U.S. sanctions, and counters Iran’s efforts to evade them. The bill sends a clear message to the Iranian regime that the U.S. is committed, through the use of sanctions, to preventing Iran from crossing the nuclear threshold.
“The expanded energy sanctions contained in this critical legislation effectively blacklist the Iranian energy sector and anyone doing business with it. Further, new and expanded sanctions targeting financial institutions, shipping companies, and insurers doing business with Iran will close major loopholes that the regime was taking advantage of to avoid the sting of sanctions. The bill also blocks Iran’s ability to insulate itself from sanctions through oil-for-gold swaps, other trading and bartering schemes, and selling energy bonds and issuing government debt.
“This legislation incorporates great ideas and specific provisions from bills proposed by Members of the House and Senate on both sides of the aisle. If properly implemented, this bill will impose crippling economic pressure on the Iranian regime in order to force Tehran to abandon its nuclear program and other dangerous policies. The House and Senate will be taking up the bill this week, and I urge President Obama to quickly sign it and vigorously enforce its provisions.”
NOTE: Text of the legislation will be available here.
HOUSE HEARING TOMORROW: AMERICANS TRAPPED IN A DISGUSTING MORAL HAZARDOUS BOLIVIAN PRISON
HOUSE HEARING TOMORROW: AMERICANS TRAPPED IN A DISGUSTING MORAL HAZARDOUS BOLIVIAN PRISON
http://foreignaffairs.house.gov/hearings/view/?1465
http://foreignaffairs.house.gov/hearings/view/?1465
http://foreignaffairs.house.gov/hearings/view/?1465
http://foreignaffairs.house.gov/hearings/view/?1465
CONGRESSIONAL CLASS-ACTION FREDDIE MACK --- INVESTIGATION INTO ANTI-IED FLAP
CONGRESSIONAL CLASS-ACTION FREDDIE MACK --- INVESTIGATION INTO ANTI-IED FLAP
By Mike Mount
As roadside bombs continue to be the top killer of U.S. troops in Afghanistan, a Republican House member is asking for a congressional inquiry into why an Army report favoring a system that increases detection of the bombs was altered to seem less effective, presumably to push an already existing Army system that troops said was inferior.
Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-California, a member of the House Armed Services Committee, also is asking congressional investigators to look into why some Army units that requested the bomb-detection system were denied access to it by the Pentagon bureaucracy.
The investigation request surrounds a new privately developed software system called Palantir, which according to U.S troops and commanders who have used it, is more effective in helping troops in Afghanistan track and predict the location of deadly roadside bombs than the existing Army system.
Earlier this year, after ordering the system pushed out to units in Afghanistan that had been urgently asking for it, Army Chief of Staff Gen. Raymond Odierno requested the Army's Operational Test Command to report on Palantir by surveying troops who have used it.
Documents obtained by Security Clearance show that the initial report came back with overwhelmingly positive feedback on Palantir and recommended that more computer servers be put into Afghanistan so more units could use the system.
But despite the findings, the commander of the test command, Col. Joseph M. Martin, ordered the report destroyed and another report generated that removed favorable references to Palantir as well as the recommendation to add additional servers.
"Please ensure that any and all copies of the 25 April report are destroyed and not distributed," a memo directed by Col. Martin said.
"Upon destruction of the previous report, please confirm to me in email that all copies of the original report, dated 25 April has been destroyed," it continued.
The newer report would then seemingly push troops to use the service's own Distributed Common Ground System, a similar program already in use in the field but less favored by the troops that use it.
Odierno ordered an investigation into Martin's actions in July, according to officials familiar with the investigation who were only able to say the investigation was being led by a three-star Army general.
It is unclear what led Odierno to ask for the investigation, and Army officials were only able confirm there was an investigation.
"There is an ongoing investigation being conducted to determine the facts in the matter," said Army spokesman Lt. Col. Freddie Mack.
The presumed lack of transparency by the Army to use a senior Army general to investigate prompted Rep. Hunter to request a congressional inquiry, according to officials in Rep. Hunter's office.
This week Hunter wrote a letter to Odierno asking for answers to why Martin would change a report to prevent the expedited use of the software to troops in the field and forcing it to undergo more reviews.
"With so much at stake on the ground for our men and women, it is important that they receive the most technologically advanced assets available, whether it is an organic asset within the services or a commercial off-the-shelf product," Hunter wrote to Odierno on July 23, referring to the Palantir system.
"I am frustrated that even the Chief of Staff of the Army can't receive an honest and transparent assessment from his own independent evaluation command," Hunter said.
All of this started last fall when, after the success of the Palantir system with other U.S. military units, the Army's 82nd Airborne Division in Afghanistan urgently requested the system, but those requests were denied by the Army for reasons that remain unclear, said Hunter in a July 24 letter to the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee requesting an investigation into the Army's actions.
He said that data at the time showed that the Palantir system indicated find-and-clear rates for roadside bombs was improved by 12%. Several other urgent requests by the 82nd also were denied until Gen. Odierno was told about the denials and stepped in to ensure the system was delivered to the soldiers.
Hunter said, despite Odierno stepping in, the unit still did not receive the software until February of this year because of resistance by Army officials who seemed to prefer the Army-developed intelligence software system called the Distributed Common Ground System.
Hunter also said he learned of other Army units that have since been denied requests to get the system while in Afghanistan and still have not received them.
Army officials did not respond to questions about the reason requests were denied to troops in the field who had requested the Palantir system.
But in another response to Security Clearance, Army spokesman Mack said, "The Army is currently using Palantir in-theater, and the service has signed (May 2012) a Cooperative Research and Development Agreement (CRADA) to assess integration of the technology in the Distributed Common Ground System."
"The Army plans to demonstrate Palantir capabilities within the Distributed Common Ground System program this September based on CRADA successes," Mack's statement continued.
A spokesman for Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta said, "The secretary believes that the Army can handle this appropriately. And obviously, we will consult closely with Congress. The Department of the Army ... is consulting."
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