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alexsmitposts · 6 years ago

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US Denial of Sovereignty – Unipolarism Laid Bare “With a gentleman I am always a gentleman and a half, and with a fraud I try to be a fraud and a half. ~ Otto von Bismark, Prussian statesman who dominated German and European affairs from the 1860s until 1890. American Unipolarism may seem like a Trump-inspired creation, but it has deeper roots. As a concept, Unipolarism was created long before Trump took center stage. He has just taken it to a new level, telling country after country that if they do not do what he says, he will punish them via a variety of sanction tools, or even military force if he so desires. Paul Wolfowitz, in his infamous 1992 Defense Planning Guidance paper, promoted the need for Washington to “account sufficiently for the interests of the advanced industrial nations to discourage them from challenging our [US] leadership or seeking to overturn the established economic and political order.” How ironic to watch Trump take a wrecking ball to the established economic order with his sanctions jihad, as he raises the bar for chaos theory. Unipolarism comes out of the closet From The Guardian back in 2007 we have, “The problem with the US hegemony is that it’s hegemonic, not that it’s American.” The Guardian went on to say, “The intervention in Iraq has strengthened the very forces of extremism and violence it was meant to weaken, with the result that we are in much greater danger.” Recently, we saw sudden mass uprisings in Iraq timed with the start of their big religious pilgrimage, apparently because Iraq had been working to get trade with Syria cranked up again, and with militarily wiping out the last remnants of ISIS in the border areas. Historically, these demonstrations have happened in July during the summer heat, and so, the smell of another regime overthrow effort is in the Iraqi air. President Putin characterized the hegemony issue in his 2007 historic Munich Security Conference address, which has become a classic, where he stated that the unipolar model is inherently flawed, “…Because it concentrates power in ways that are unhealthy and undemocratic…The United States, in contrast, is in favor of interference in other countries on principle: because it seeks a Unipolar world, with a single democratic system, and considers itself the final authority as to which regime a country should have and how it should run its affairs”. Syria is still unipolarism’s ground zero? Putin’s words are as true today as they were twelve years ago. But now we have the king of unipolarism with us in Mr. Trump having taken his flamboyant reality TV show style into the Whitehouse, issuing orders about who must do what, or else suffer the consequences. Today Trump casually stated that, … “While we only had 50 soldiers remaining in that section of Syria, and they have been removed, any unforced or unnecessary fighting by Turkey will be devastating to their economy and to their very fragile currency,” Turkey has its own unipolar game going on in Syria The Turkish Air Force bombed the Rabia border crossing in Syria’s Hasakah Province, the main Kurdish supply line for war materials that have been going into the SDF Kurds from US bases inside Iraq. Mr. Trump stated today that those supplies, along with paying the Kurds, had cost a huge amount of money. Turkey claims it has been shelling People’s Protection Units (YPG) in al-Malikiyh town, northern Hasakah. The Kurds of course have put in a quick call to Damascus − the expected, “Hey, we made a big mistake, the Americans are leaving us to be pounded by the Turkish Army, we want to come back.” They claim to have contacted Russia for possible support in fighting off the pending Turkish offensive against them. This “second” Trump Syrian pullout is as confusing as the first one There is confusion about what areas the US pullout extends to. The US troops that had been patrolling around the north Syrian border could be shuffled over to Deir Ezzor province; for how long we don’t know, because the Russians and Syrians are building a bridge at Deir Ezzor. So, the troop movements there would indicate Trump is not bringing them home as he stated initially. The Pentagon says it was caught totally by surprise and the Russians have indicated that new with the Syrian Constitutional Committee set up that all parties must avoid any actions that would impede their work. The US’ low-key British partners in the SDF area said they only learned about the pullout from the mainstream news, and then had to scramble to get their people out − although Trump said, “I consulted everybody, I always consult people.” Some of Trump’s language indicated a complete pullout; but we don’t really know, because not even Trump may know. And we know from experience, he can change his mind in a minute. Can Damascus maintain control of recaptured territory and confront Turkey? Since the first phase of the SAA campaign to retake Idlib and taking back all of northern Hama, no major efforts have been made to go further north. It seemed strange for the Syrian Arab Army and Russians to stop their combined efforts, as they have been an effective team. Recent Idlib fighting has centered around destroying jihadi war infrastructure and also trying to push those in the West farther away from the Russian airbase. I had been thinking that Damascus wanted to save its combat forces and was waiting to see what was going to happen with the Turkey-US shotgun marriage in north Syria, and how long it would last. It ended today. The tactical combat map in Syria has been shifting. As Netanyahu struggles to stay out of jail on corruption charges, IDF bombing raids into Syria have dropped off. Even the commercial Syria-Iraq border crossing at al-Bakumal opened last week; it has not been bombed by “unknown forces”, despite the Iranians rebuilding their base just a few miles east of the crossing after two earlier precision drone strikes. The US supervised terror at the Al-Tanf refugee camp on the Jordan border should be internationally sanctioned. US jihadi proxies ruthlessly exploit the refugees there − stealing their humanitarian aid, charging them for water − all while performing light infantry patrol duty for their US masters who seem to stay inside the wire. ISIS cells have infiltrated back into the Daraa area south of Damascus, the scene of endless bloody fighting. They are launching IED attacks on road traffic there once again, killing Syrian soldiers. A partial list of unipolar target updates US economic sanctions extend to Asia, where India is threatened with US sanctions if it proceeds with its purchase of a Russian S400 system, a sanction which seem off the rails because after what happened to the Saudi Aramco facilities, who would want to bet their lives on the US Patriot system? Merkel has been told repeatedly by Trump that Germany should walk away from the new Russian Nordstream 2 gas pipeline, despite the fact its economy has almost flat-lined. Keeping gas prices low with a dependable supply is not a luxury for the Germans, but an economic national security. Venezuela remains economically encircled by a South American version of a Gulf-states coalition, in which members pledge to take a targeted country down. Despite claims by the US that civilians are not being targeted, they have been dying due to shortages of medicals supplies that US sanctions block via payment restrictions. North Korea is getting tired of the song and dance show that US negotiators are doing, saying that no progress is being made and the US delegation just seems to be putting on a show so Trump can get more brinkmanship press coverage. We all expected from the beginning that the only feasible way for any North Korea de-escalation was for the US to ease of sanctions in stages reciprocating NK’s denuclearization steps. To date we are still stuck on stupid with Trump’s position that NK must dismantle its entire nuclear program before ANY sanctions are removed. North Korea would never do that, hence, we seem to have a fake negotiation going on. Libya continues to be carved up like a pizza via a number of countries supporting mercenary groups fighting the Tripoli government. Some suspect that the internal Libyan turmoil is kept cooking to distract it from hunting down all the Libyan wealth stolen after Gaddafi went down. In Hong Kong, the smell of the CIA is in the streets, as civilian protesters display some of the creative mayhem talents that you would expect of trained Special Ops military people creating regime change circumstances. Iraq is looking into a repeat of the Madain coup in Ukraine where mercenary snipers were brought in to shoot both police and protesters during their recent violent protests. Iraqi police were only firing rubber bullets so who shot the protesters? Qatar is losing its big US airbase, and − you guessed it! − is sanctioned by the US. Fortunately, Qatar does not need the income from the base lease. Can you imagine what a hoot it would be if Qatar leased the base to Iran to use, and then Trump had to own that during next year’s election season? Trump has doubled-down on the EU with new sanctions − and legal ones, too − because the World Trade Organization approved them due to the EU having subsidized the AirBus flight program to the detriment of Boeing. Regardless of the WTO’s approval, the EU has declared it will roll out counter sanctions. Trump’s claim to have complete immunity gets sanctioned by US Appeals Court Trump’s own personal ‘sovereignty’ is at risk, since an appeals court threw out his case to stop the New York State Attorney General obtaining eight years of the Trump organization’s tax returns. Insiders say the current Ukraine impeachment effort will pale in comparison to what is expected to be in those returns. Mr. Trump has been busy with his Twitter, denouncing Democratic leaders as traitors and asking China to investigate Mr. Biden, then claiming there is nothing wrong with that. China has responded that it would not investigate, so it will probably get more sanctions. Mitt Romney is already being mentioned as a Republican primary challenger to “save the Republican party” from destruction by Trump’s free wheeling actions. We are going to see an incredible political battle fought in the US, while Trump’s geopolitical one rages on in tandem.

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mendesmusical · 6 years ago

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stopkingobama · 8 years ago

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Public Schools Resort to Child Abuse to Further Anti-Gun Agenda

Photo: Pixabay

Several years ago, I would regularly share horror stories about innocent kids being abused by politically correct government school administrators who overreacted to anything remotely resembling a gun.

I even had a U.S. vs. U.K. stupidity contest that featured many examples of anti-gun lunacy, though Canada may actually win the prize for the most absurd case of political correctness.

But I eventually stopped sharing these types of stories because it seemed there were so many and I felt like I was making the same points over and over again.

Time for the hiatus to end. I’ve run across a handful of stories that are so preposterous that I can’t resist revisiting the issue.

Punishing Make-Believe

Here’s our first example. A local television station in North Carolina reports that a little girl was suspended because she pretended that a stick was a gun while playing with her friends.

A local mother is outraged after her 5-year-old daughter was suspended from school because of a stick that resembled a gun.…It started Friday when her mother got a call from the principal about a playground incident. Caitlin explained that she and her two friends were using their imaginations, playing “King and Queen.” In this case, Caitlin was the guard protecting the royals and picked up the gun to imitate shooting an intruder into the kingdom. Hoke County Schools said Caitlin posed a threat to other students when she made a shooting motion, thus violating policy 4331. …Miller says Caitlin was alienated by her friends and teachers as a result of the suspension. She hopes that the school will issue some sort of apology to her daughter.

I’m not the only one who thinks this is insane.

Suspended over a Butter Knife

Now for our second story.

It’s about a very dangerous 11-year old girl who – gasp!! – a Florida television station has the details.

A South Florida couple is outraged after they said their daughter was suspended from her middle school for using a child butter knife at lunchtime to cut a peach. …Souto’s daughter is an honor roll student at Silver Trail Middle School in Pembroke Pines. …Ronald and Andrea Souto told Local 10 News reporter Michael Seiden that their 11-year-old daughter was suspended for six days for bringing the knife to school. “This is a set of a spoon, fork and knife for toddlers — one year old,” Andrea Souto said. “It is made for children to learn how to eat properly. She’s used it since she was a baby.” According to the school district, the girl violated the county’s weapon policy when she used her butter knife in the cafeteria to cut the peach. …Ronald said he hopes what happened to his daughter will bring change to the district, specifically new policies when it comes to weapons.

But this rogue child didn’t just get suspended. She may become an actual criminal.

The Soutos said they were shocked about the suspension and are now concerned that their daughter’s act of kindness could lead to criminal charges. …The Pembroke Pines Police Department said it has turned over their investigation to the State Attorney’s Office. It’s unclear whether prosecutors will file charges.

Preschool to Prison Pipeline

Our third story comes from a St. Louis TV station and it involves a four-year-old boy who was suspended for a shell casing.

Hunter, 4, has been suspended from his preschool for bringing a shell casing from a fired bullet to school. He’d been at the preschool for about a year, she said, and now was in tears.Neither she nor Hunter’s dad knew it, but he found something he thought was pretty neat and he took it to school Tuesday to show his friends. …Hunter’s parents got a letter from the school’s director saying Hunter had been suspended for 7 days. …It turns out the casing came from a visit with Hunter’s grandpa who is a Caseyville police officer, Jackson said. …The school’s vice-president e-mailed her that he was notifying the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS).

The last sentence is particularly chilling since DCFS bureaucrats presumably have the power to take children from their families. So imagine the horrible position of Hunter’s parents, who not only have to deal with their kid being suspended for doing nothing wrong, but also have to worry about the state kidnapping their child if some anti-gun bureaucrat woke up on the wrong side of the bed.

Permanent Record

Our fourth and final story is courtesy of the Montgomery Advertiser in Alabama, where a teenager was expelled for a year because of a water gun.

A family is up in arms after their 16-year-old daughter was expelled from Prattville High School for having a water gun on campus. …she was banned from school property and any extra-curricular activities for the same period. …She said a male classmate handed the toy to her daughter “as a joke.” “…the second you picked it up, you know it’s plastic and a toy,” she said. “So we can understand the initial reaction, not knowing it wasn’t a real gun. But after the principal and school officials knew it was a water gun, things should never have progressed this far.” …The family wants any reference to the expulsion removed from Laney’s academic records, McPhillips’ letters read. …If the expulsion isn’t removed from Laney’s academic record, the family is considering filing legal action.

I suppose there are two big-picture lessons to be learned.

It’s hard to be optimistic about the education system after reading these stories.

If bureaucrats at government schools don’t have common sense, how can they teach reading, writing, and arithmetic?

Maybe (especially given the shocking lack of results after record levels of staffing and funding) we should break up the government school monopoly and let parents choose better-quality schools.

Second, keep in mind that anti-gun statists know they can’t win the intellectual argument against private gun ownership, so they’re trying to stigmatize anything remotely connected to guns in hopes of eventually winning the political argument.

Republished from International Liberty.

Daniel J. Mitchell

Daniel J. Mitchell is a senior fellow at the Cato Institute who specializes in fiscal policy, particularly tax reform, international tax competition, and the economic burden of government spending. He also serves on the editorial board of the Cayman Financial Review.

This article was originally published on FEE.org. Read the original article.

#Big Government #gun control #Nanny State #Gun Control

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shirlleycoyle · 5 years ago

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Explosions and Sinkholes: The Sordid History of Sunoco’s Pipelines in Pennsylvania

On paper, it might appear that Sunoco Logistics Partners is having a difficult time figuring out the logistics of pipelines, even though that’s its core business. In September 2018, for instance, Sunoco began operating a new, 100-mile natural gas pipeline in Pennsylvania called the Revolution. One week into service, a segment of the Revolution was hit by a landslide and subsequently exploded, leveling a house and forcing an evacuation about 30 miles outside Pittsburgh.

As state regulators began investigating the Revolution explosion, Sunoco moved ahead with construction on a different group of pipelines in Pennsylvania known as the Mariner East project, despite concerns from locals that this project could be even more explosive.

Unlike a regular natural gas pipeline, the Mariner East pipelines are intended to carry particularly volatile chemicals known as natural gas liquids, containing ethane, propane, and butane left over from shale drilling operations in the eastern United States. The Mariner East pipelines would ship the liquids from shale fields in Pennsylvania and Ohio to a refinery in Marcus Hook, about 25 miles away from Philadelphia. From there, the chemicals would then be exported to Scotland for the manufacturing of plastics, the point of this all being to “wring as much revenue as they could from their Northeast wells,” as one industry trade publication explains.

Sunoco’s parent company, the pipeline giant Energy Transfer Partners, has anticipated that the operation will generate billions of dollars and thousands of construction jobs and says that Mariner East provides “needed infrastructure” to Pennsylvania.

The company says that American consumers may still use the plastics that are produced overseas. "The ethane that is exported overseas is mainly used for ethylene production, which is converted to polyethylene to make many types of plastics and synthetic fibers, such as nylon, polyester and spandex, which again, are in products used by Americans every day,” Energy Transfer Partners spokesperson Lisa Coleman told Motherboard.

Mariner East makes use of the same path, and some of the same pipe, that was originally constructed in the 1930s to provide heating oil to residential buildings and towns. Opponents thus nicknamed the project “franken-pipe” and argued that the combination of factors—the natural gas liquids, the old pipe, and the densely populated routes the pipelines follow—was a recipe for a horrible disaster.

“Ethane, propane, and butane, these are all gases that are heavier than air,” George Alexander, a retired technical journalist who has been covering Mariner East for his popular local blog the Dragonpipe Diary, told Motherboard. In the event of a leak, “it means you get these massive clouds going which are entirely flammable as soon as they reach an ignition source of some kind…They behave like a fog.” (A pipeline safety consultant has similarly described natural gas liquids as “hugging the ground” in the event of a leak; Natural gas liquids are considered to be “highly volatile” by the United States Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration),

According to recent testimony from an emergency services director for the Public Utility Commission in Delaware County, PA any leak from the Mariner East pipeline would affect “a large amount of people” and have devastating consequences.

"Safety has been and will always be our first priority—the safety of the environment, the safety of the communities through which we pass, and the safety of our employees," Coleman said. "We regularly inspect, maintain and update on our pipelines to ensure they will operate safely for decades to come."

For the fossil fuel industry, the Mariner East project marks an important milestone for natural gas production in Appalachia, with its high production capacity in a relatively new business sector. The United States Department of Energy, in a 2017 report that is supportive of the industry, optimistically predicted that natural gas production in Appalachia would increase 350 percent by 2040. Until recently, the agency said, production of natural gas liquids in the United States remained relatively flat, but because shale fields in the eastern United States tend to have more natural gas liquids, that sector is also poised for growth. The DoE predicts that between 2013 and 2023, production of natural gas liquids in Appalachia would increase 700 percent. Anticipating this growth, Royal Dutch Shell is currently constructing a massive petrochemical complex along the Ohio river; the project will be the first and biggest ethane production plant in the Appalachian region.

“The opportunity to take advantage of the full economic value of NGLs produced in Appalachia has been identified by regional leaders,” the Department of Energy report explains.

The Mariner East II and IIx pipelines would have capacity to carry a respective 275,000 and 250,000 barrels per day, according to the Department of Energy. The next-highest capacity natural gas liquid pipeline in the region, operated by Enterprise Product Partners, went into service in 2014 and has capacity of 125,000 barrels a day. Opponents note that a portion of that company’s pipeline exploded on a landowner’s pasture in 2015. There were no injuries, but a local fire chief recalled, in an interview with the Philadelphia Inquirer, that "I've never been involved with anything of that magnitude before…it sounded like a damn jet engine, and the flame was huge."

Opponents also note that Sunoco’s track record is relatively poor compared to other oil and gas pipeline operators. According to data submitted to the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration, and analyzed by NPR, Sunoco has the oil and gas pipeline industry’s second-highest number of self-reported incidents to federal regulators over the past 12 years.

In Sunoco’s defense, none of its Mariner East pipelines have exploded, and a consulting firm the company hired has claimed that the risk of civilians getting injured by these pipelines is less than getting hurt in a car crash. But the ongoing construction process hasn’t exactly been building confidence from locals; sinkholes have repeatedly appeared around construction of the pipeline. State regulators also found that thousands of gallons of the natural gas liquids had been improperly discharged into creeks. In total, Energy Transfer Partners has amassed hundreds of environmental violations in the course of construction, just for this project. Both Republicans and Democrats in the state legislature, even those friendly to the oil and gas industry, have described Sunoco as a “rogue company” that makes business more difficult for other pipeline operators in the state.

In 2017, environmental groups suing to stop Mariner East found that Pennsylvania’s Department of Environmental Protection had identified hundreds of “deficiencies” in Sunoco’s permitting application, but approved it anyway. In November 2019, the Associated Press reported that the FBI had opened a corruption investigation into the role that Pennsylvania Governor Tom Wolf’s office may have played in the permitting of the project. Some recent lawsuits against Energy Transfer Partners, pointing to the FBI investigation as evidence, allege that the state environmental permits had been obtained through “bribery” or “other illicit means.”

Energy Transfer Partners spokesperson Lisa Coleman told Motherboard that the company has not has not been contacted by the FBI. “We believe our project was properly permitted by all agencies,” Coleman said.

Landowners who live along the route of Mariner East have repeatedly risked arrest to protest the project, most recently in December 2019. They’ve claimed that the arrests were improper. In one of the most prominent cases, retired school teacher Ellen Gerhart was sentenced to six months in prison for allegedly setting fires and placing food in construction areas in an effort to lure bears to the site where people would be working. Gerhart has argued in court that her protest was nonviolent. A state court disagreed and sided with Sunoco in the matter, upholding the charges against her.

But not all local officials are sympathetic to Sunoco in the criminal protest cases. In December 2019, the Chester County District Attorney’s office said that Energy Transfer Partners had illegally recruited state constables to act as private security guards for the construction sites. The councy brought bribery and conspiracy charges against three constables.

Despite all of the above, the Mariner East pipelines are still going forward. In January 2020, Energy Transfer Partners agreed to pay a $30 million fine to Pennsylvania’s Department of Environmental Protection over the Revolution explosion. In exchange, the state agreed to lift a company-wide permitting moratorium, which had been in place for a year, and allow Sunoco/Energy Transfer Partners to continue working in the state.

Pennsylvania regulators said, with the announcement of the $30 million settlement agreement, that the company has “demonstrated its intention to correct its unlawful conduct.” Energy Transfer Partners said in a recent public statement that it is “pleased” that the state “will allow us to safely complete the construction projects we have underway in Pennsylvania.”

Citizens groups remain unconvinced, and they’re hoping that lawsuits and public pressure may eventually change the outcome.

“It’s really slipshod work that they have done,” adds Alexander, the Dragon Pipe Diary journalist. “They have been fined and fined and fined, but it's been a mouse that doesn’t make a difference in the context of a $2.5 billion pipeline project.”

Energy Transfer Partners insisted that the project will be safe.

"Specifically, Mariner East 1 underwent integrity testing and major upgrades when it was repurposed for NGL service in 2014, including new valves and pump stations," Coleman said. "Additionally, the 12-inch pipeline being used in a section of Mariner East 2 pipeline went through a $30 million upgrade in 2016 as part of our ongoing Integrity Management Program."

She added that the upgraded section of the pipe exceeds the requirements of the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission and Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration.

Explosions and Sinkholes: The Sordid History of Sunoco’s Pipelines in Pennsylvania syndicated from https://triviaqaweb.wordpress.com/feed/

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thewebofslime · 6 years ago

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hen the Brazilian construction firm Odebrecht S.A. admitted in December 2016 to a massive corruption scheme that the United States Justice Department described as the “largest foreign bribery case in history,” it set off a wave of political scandals across Latin America. Governments toppled. Former presidents and other senior officials, along with Odebrecht executives, went from the halls of power to prison cells. Odebrecht confessed to a detailed accounting of its misdeeds and is cooperating with prosecutors across the region who have vowed to bring its collaborators to justice. But Odebrecht’s confession didn’t tell the whole story. The Bribery Division, a new investigation led by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, reveals that Odebrecht’s cash-for-contracts operation was even bigger than the company has acknowledged, and involved prominent figures and massive public works projects not mentioned in the criminal cases or other official inquiries to date. These discoveries were made in a fresh trove of leaked records from an Odebrecht division created primarily to manage the company’s bribes. The records were obtained by the Ecuadorian news organization La Posta and shared with ICIJ and 17 media partners across the Americas. The leaked records reveal hidden payments across the region that extend far beyond what has been publicly reported, including: More than $39 million in secret Odebrecht payments made in connection with the Dominican Republic’s giant Punta Catalina coal-fired power plant. Two official investigations into the project that reported finding no wrongdoing didn’t mention these payments. Seventeen payments totaling more than $3 million related to a Peruvian gas pipeline. Among those slated to receive payment was a company owned by a Peruvian politician who, in an unrelated recording recently aired by a local news station, appeared to plot the assassination of a rival. Emails discussing secret payments that a bank owned by Odebrecht operatives made to shell companies related to the construction of a $2 billion subway system for Ecuador’s capital, Quito. The documents don’t say who received the money. Payments related to more than a dozen other infrastructure projects in countries around the region, including more than $18 million linked to the subway system in Panama City and more than $34 million connected to Line 5 of the subway system in Caracas, Venezuela. Odebrecht paid off public officials on such a scale that it created a special unit, the Division of Structured Operations, for the primary purpose of handling bribes. The files obtained by La Posta and ICIJ contain more than 13,000 documents that had been stored by this division on a secret communications platform known as Drousys. These files were obtained separately by the Ecuadorian news outlet Mil Hojas, which then joined in the project. Recommended reading Explore Odebrecht’s hidden transactions Bribery Division: What is Odebrecht? Who is Involved? Filtración revela millonarios pagos asociados con el escándalo de Odebrecht In Brazil, the epicenter of the scandal, former two-term president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, once described by Barack Obama as “the most popular politician on earth,” sits in prison serving a lengthy sentence for corruption and graft, including Odebrecht-related offenses. On June 17, Odebrecht announced it was filing for bankruptcy protection to restructure $13 billion in debt. For more than four months, ICIJ has worked in partnership with more than 50 journalists in 10 countries to investigate the ledgers of Odebrecht’s bribery division. In a statement to ICIJ, Odebrecht said it was committed to full cooperation with authorities investigating corruption associated with the company. “Odebrecht will continue to make all efforts in a process of unrestricted collaboration with the competent authorities,” the company said. The company declined to answer questions about individual cases. Why did some remain hidden? The Odebrecht scandal has been a continuing political earthquake shaking Latin America. Revelations about illegal payments have toppled governments in Brazil and Peru and led to the imprisonment of former presidents of both countries. Across the region, prosecutors have filed a steady stream of indictments of public officials and others as new bribe recipients are uncovered. iERIKA SANTELICES/AFP/Getty Images But the leaked files make clear that Odebrecht’s web of corruption extended to many public works projects and public figures that have not been addressed by law enforcement, raising questions about whether Odebrecht has been fully candid with authorities and about the political will of some prosecutors to pursue cases. Carlos Pimentel, executive director of the Dominican anti-corruption group Participación Ciudadana, said the graft associated with the Dominican power plant and the inadequacy of the government’s response undermines the credibility of the country’s political institutions. “There is a system of complicity in the country for the enrichment of a minority, in the public and private sectors, based on the impoverishment of the majority,” Pimentel said. “That is what the Odebrecht case has left.” The unmasking of the company’s corrupt practices has also caused political upheaval, sparking anger at established politicians and fueling growing instability. “When all the traditional parties are delegitimized, it opens a lot of space for an insurgent populist,” said Yascha Mounk, a Johns Hopkins University political scientist who studies the global decline of liberal democracy. After Brazil’s da Silva was barred from running for president again because of his conviction, voters decisively elected an ultraconservative former military officer, Jair Bolsanaro, who railed against corrupt elites and who once said that the military dictatorship that ruled Brazil from 1964 to 1985 should have killed 30,000 more people. The leaked files also laid bare the role played by the shadowy world of offshore finance, which made Odebrecht’s bribery division possible. While bribe beneficiaries were almost all in Latin America, the payments invariably flowed through a secretive archipelago of offshore shell companies and bank accounts. It’s mind-boggling to even understand how this went on for so long – Shruti Shah, Coalition for Integrity Opaque offshore entities funneled hundreds of millions of dollars in secret payments through companies and banks in countries around the world, including the United States, China, Switzerland, the Netherlands, the United Arab Emirates, Panama and Antigua. In one instance, payments passed from Odebrecht through a company incorporated in the Bahamas to one with an address in the Dominican Republic, which later bought a $2 million apartment in midtown Manhattan. All told, Odebrecht paid more than $788 million in bribes from 2001 to 2016, resulting in $3.3 billion in ill-gotten benefits, according to the U.S. Justice Department. “It’s mind-boggling to even understand how this went on for so long,” said Shruti Shah, president and CEO of the Coalition for Integrity, a Washington-based nonprofit group that advocates stricter controls to curb corruption in business and government. WANT TO KNOW WHEN WE PUBLISH? Help us change the world. Get our stories by email. SIGN UP Rise of Odebrecht Odebrecht was founded in 1944 by Norberto Odebrecht, a descendant of 19th-century German immigrants, in the Brazilian port city of Salvador da Bahia. His father had owned a construction company that shut down under pressure from high wartime materials prices. Over the decades, Odebrecht became Latin America’s largest construction company, and governments across the region relied on it to carry out major public works from dams to highways to power plants. The company attributes its success to a lofty set of “principles, concepts and criteria” it calls Odebrecht Entrepreneurial Technology, developed by its founder. These tenets include “Education through Work,” “Partnership among Members” and “Trust in People”. Its leadership has stayed in the Odebrecht family, with its presidency passing from Norberto to his son, Emilio, in 1991, and his grandson, Marcelo, in 2009. iKiyoshi Ota/Bloomberg via Getty Images Under the leadership of Marcelo, a slim, bespectacled executive once known as “The Prince,” the company’s annual revenues skyrocketed, from $17.5 billion in 2008 to $45.8 billion in 2014. Bidding successfully for blockbuster projects — including the $7 billion gas pipeline in Peru, the $2 billion Dominican coal-fired power plant and the $2 billion subway system in Quito — Odebrecht solidified its status as the dominant contractor in Latin America and became one of the largest contractors in the world. Odebrecht benefited from close ties to the influential Brazilian President da Silva, whose administration tapped the company to carry out infrastructure projects that were part of his ambitious anti-poverty and development agenda. But the company’s rapid growth under Marcelo Odebrecht was also powered by another factor: massive graft. The scale of Odebrecht’s bribery operation became such that in 2006 the company created a specialized unit to manage it. The Division of Structured Operations “effectively functioned as a bribe department,” according to a statement of facts that the company acknowledged to be “true and accurate” as part of its plea agreement with the U.S. Justice Department. All of the unit’s payments were off the books, the division’s former treasurer Fernando Migliaccio would later testify to Peruvian prosecutors, and therefore illegal. However, not all payments by the division were bribes, the company has said. “Various works by the company are registered in these systems,” Odebrecht’s Peruvian division said in a July 2018 statement, in reference to Drousys and another off-the-books platform used by the Structured Operations unit. “This does not mean that all of them involved corruption or bribes.” Inside the bribery division The Division of Structured Operations combined the stealth of a criminal conspiracy with the bureaucracy of big business. To communicate secretly, the bribery division created the Drousys system, an off-the-books platform including secure emails and instant messages. Odebrecht employees and bribe recipients are referred to only by code names, many of which have yet to be cracked. Employees go by names such as “Gigo” and “Waterloo,” while recipients are often assigned more colorful monikers, such as “Bambi,” “Robocop,” “Darth Vader” and “Stalin.” The documents include frank and explicit discussions about how to ensure the secrecy of the system. One email string is a discussion of the need to break multimillion-dollar payments into smaller increments to avoid making banks suspicious. There also are spreadsheets that track the bribery division’s payments. One lists more than 600 outlays totaling more than $230 million issued from late 2013 through 2014. Among the projects that the unit’s secret payments helped steer to Odebrecht, criminal investigations would reveal, were the rapid-transit system in Lima, Peru; a dam in Michoacán state, Mexico; and a hydroelectric power project in Ecuador. Odebrecht’s system of corruption was finally brought down by Brazilian prosecutors in the famous anti-corruption investigation called Operation Car Wash. Launched in March 2014, the probe initially focused on money laundering at small businesses such as car washes, but it expanded when the dirty money led investigators to a huge bribery and bid-rigging conspiracy involving Brazil’s state-owned oil company, Petrobras, and Odebrecht. In June 2015, Brazilian authorities investigating bribery, bid-rigging and overbilling on state contracts arrested Marcelo Odebrecht. In March 2016, a Brazilian court sentenced him to 19 years in prison, which was later reduced and converted to house arrest in return for his cooperation with authorities. In December 2016, the Odebrecht company reached a plea agreement with prosecutors from Brazil, the U.S. and Switzerland, the latter two countries having joined the case upon finding that the company’s illegal payments had passed through Swiss and U.S. banks. The firm avoided prosecution by consenting to a detailed public statement of its crimes and agreeing to pay a fine of $2.6 billion. The plea deal’s 23-page “statement of facts” lays out in detail the creation of the Division of Structured Operations and its purpose. Odebrecht admitted that the division funneled off-the-books funds through offshore companies and banks based in financial-secrecy havens, sometimes using fictitious contracts to cover its operations. The money was ultimately used to pay bribes to politicians, other public officials and political parties. As part of the mandatory disclosures, Odebrecht handed prosecutors documents including spreadsheets tracking hidden payments, statements from offshore bank accounts, emails, transaction records, contracts and computer logs, all stored on its Drousys system. Odebrecht’s revelations sparked outrage and unrest across Latin America. The arrest of former Brazilian President da Silva on Odebrecht-related charges touched off street clashes between his supporters and detractors. In the Dominican Republic, anti-corruption protesters in the Movimiento Verde (green movement) demanded an end to impunity for politicians entangled with Odebrecht. The cooperation agreements and confessions generated high-profile charges. Former Ecuadorian Vice President Jorge Glas sits in jail after being convicted of taking bribes from Odebrecht. Former Peruvian President Ollanta Humala faces corruption charges carrying a potential 20-year prison sentence. In April 2019, police carrying an Odebrecht-related arrest warrant arrived at the door of Humala’s predecessor, former two-term Peruvian President Alan Garcia. As they tried to arrest him, Garcia locked himself in a bedroom, pulled a gun and killed himself. Prosecutors said the Odebrecht case was a landmark in the fight against public corruption in Latin America and globally. Robert L. Capers, then the U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of New York, said in a statement announcing the Odebrecht plea deal: “The message sent by this prosecution is that the United States, working with its law enforcement partners abroad, will not hesitate to hold responsible those corporations and individuals who seek to enrich themselves through the corruption of the legitimate functions of government, no matter how sophisticated the scheme.” I want to support independent journalism and join The fine print But, it turns out, the sweeping deal with Brazil, U.S., and Switzerland had some significant limits. Odebrecht, in fact, was not made to tell all. Its detailed statement of facts, for instance, discloses how much the company had paid overall in bribes across the region, but it doesn’t specify which projects were the subject of the payoffs or who had received them. Prosecutors in other countries are working with Brazilian authorities to build their own cases and some have filed charges against politicians and others who have been implicated. in Odebrecht’s scheme. Odebrecht and its executives, meanwhile, are negotiating deals for immunity or leniency in exchange for cooperation. So far, agreements are in place in Peru, the Dominican Republic, Panama, Ecuador and Guatemala, along with Brazil, the U.S., and Switzerland. One catch is that the countries must agree not to prosecute Odebrecht executives who already made plea deals with Brazil. But much depends on whether governments have the resources to investigate and prosecute these crimes and, analysts say, whether they have the political will. Odebrecht’s bribery operation reached into the highest levels of politics and society across the region, and national responses have varied widely. For instance, over the last two years, Peruvian prosecutors have made 68 document requests of Brazilian authorities; Dominican prosecutors have made three. The Dominican economist Much remains to be discovered about the array of companies, consultation and service agreements, and secret bank accounts employed by Odebrecht’s bribery division. But one thing is clear: The division’s Drousys files contain the names of prominent figures in positions of trust who have never been openly questioned about their relationships to Odebrecht — until now. Andrés Dauhajre is a well-known member of the Dominican Republic’s political elite. The bespectacled, silver-templed economist writes a weekly column in the newspaper El Caribe. He was part of a delegation of business leaders that accompanied Dominican President Danilo Medina on a state visit to China in November. He also leads the Economy and Development Foundation, an economic consultancy, based in the Dominican capital of Santo Domingo, that often wins contracts from the state. In late 2013, when the Dominican Republic’s state utility company was awarding a contract to build the Punta Catalina coal-fired power plant, a 770-megawatt facility on the Caribbean coast, it tapped Dauhajre’s consulting firm, along with two others, to evaluate the bidders’ financial proposals. iOrlando Ramos / ICIJ By then, the state utility had disqualified several bidders, citing poor technical proposals, and the only remaining candidate for the job was a consortium led by Odebrecht. To win the contract, Odebrecht still needed to have its economic offer and financing plan approved. Dauhajre and the other consultants approved its plan, and Odebrecht was awarded a contract of more than $2 billion, hundreds of millions of dollars more than some of the bids by its sidelined competitors. When the Odebrecht scandal exploded across Latin America, the company admitted to prosecutors in December 2016 that its corrupt payments included $92 million in bribes in the Dominican Republic. The Punta Catalina project immediately fell under suspicion. A commission led by an influential clergyman, Monsignor Agripino Núñez Collado, was appointed to investigate the contract. Among the witnesses interviewed was Dauhajre. On Feb. 5, 2017, three days after his testimony, Dauhajre indignantly dismissed suspicions that Odebrecht’s contract had been inflated. “The supposed overvaluation of Punta Catalina is the best-marketed lie in the Dominican Republic in recent years,” Dauhajre wrote in his column in El Caribe, one of several pieces in which he publicly defended the power plant and its financing. These columns did not mention any financial relationship between himself and Odebrecht. Ultimately, the commission found no proof of irregularities in the plant’s bidding or financing, handing a major victory to Odebrecht. The Dominican attorney general came to a similar conclusion upon announcing charges against 7 defendants in the Odebrecht case in June 2018, saying his team had thoroughly investigated Punta Catalina and found no evidence of corruption. The ledgers of Odebrecht’s Structured Operations unit show dozens of payments that appear to have eluded investigators, who did not have access to the records obtained by ICIJ. A spreadsheet tracking the unit’s hidden payments from December 2013 through December 2014 reveals 62 payments totaling more than $39 million related to a “Planta Termo,” or “Thermoelectric Plant.” Five of the payments, worth more than $3.3 million, were directed to a company listed at a Dominican address called Baker Street Financial Inc. The spreadsheet indicates that at least two of the payments to Baker Street passed through a Bahamas-based company, Fincastle Enterprises Ltd., which has been cited by prosecutors in Peru as a vehicle for Odebrecht’s bribes. These payments were made in May and July 2014, several months after Odebrecht’s financial plan was approved. On Dec. 7, 2015, Baker Street Financial paid more than $2 million for a 12th-floor apartment in a sleek glass-clad building in a posh midtown Manhattan neighborhood, around the block from Le Bernardin, the acclaimed French restaurant. New York City records of the sale include a deed signed by Baker Street Financial’s sole director: Andrés Dauhajre. Dauhajre told ICIJ that the payments he received from Odebrecht were for consulting services that he provided in connection to the financing of the power plant. Dauhajre said Odebrecht retained his services in early 2014 after one of the key funders expected to underwrite the project, the Export–Import Bank of the United States, pulled out due to a directive by then-U.S. President Obama not to finance coal-fired power plants due to their contributions to climate change. Dauhajre said he helped Odebrecht find alternative sources of funding for the plant, and that Odebrecht had proposed Fincastle Enterprises as the vehicle for his payment. “Baker Street Financial successfully and effectively provided the advisory service requested by Odebrecht during 2014 and 2015,” Dauhajre said in a letter to ICIJ. “It was this financial service that generated the remuneration.” The cast grows larger The files of the Structured Operations unit entangle public officials and prominent citizens who are connected for the first time to Odebrecht’s hidden payments. One of those officials is Constantino Galarza Zaldivar, who in October was elected vice governor of Callao, an urban province that includes Peru’s leading port. A Panamanian company, CGZ Ingenieria Corp., received in late 2014 two payments totaling $240,000 related to a Peruvian gas pipeline, Drousys records show. Galarza, whose initials are CGZ, is the president and a director of CGZ Ingenieria, according to records from the Panamanian Corporate Registry. Galarza also served as the company’s general manager for years, including at the time it received the payments, according to his LinkedIn page. CGZ Ingenieria offers support services in engineering, business intelligence, and legal, financial and institutional relations, and has offices in Lima, Panama, Colombia and Madrid, Galarza’s LinkedIn page states. Galarza has not been linked previously to Odebrecht’s bribery unit. His name emerged in March in connection with another controversy. In an audio recording played on the Peruvian news program Panorama, Galarza appears to plot the assassination of his boss, the Callao governor, Dante Mandriotti. In the recording, Galarza discusses plans for a hit on Mandriotti with an unknown associate, saying “a high-level professional from Mexico or Colombia” would be needed to do the job. “They need to put a lot of bullets in him,” Galarza says in the recording. After the recording’s release, Mandriotti called on prosecutors to charge Galarza with attempted homicide, conspiracy and other offenses. Prosecutors in Callao indicated that they will investigate the matter. In a news conference, Galarza admitted that his voice is heard in the recording, but he said he had spoken in a moment of anger with no intention of carrying out an assassination. In an initial telephone conversation with an ICIJ journalist on June 21, Galarza denied any business dealings connected to Odebrecht or the Gasoducto Sur pipeline. Then, in an interview on June 24, Galarza said that his company was paid for financial consulting indirectly related to the pipeline. He said his firm was hired by an Indian construction company, ECI Engineering & Construction Company Ltd, that was working on a pipeline for liquids that would run parallel to the Gasoducto Sur. This second pipeline, Galarza said, was a private project also led by Odebrecht. He said his firm was not paid by Odebrecht directly, and that the parallel pipeline was not ultimately carried out. In the interview, Galarza also cast doubts about the recording in which he discussed assassinating Mandriotti. He said that while some parts of the recording were authentic, he said that other sections of the recording were false and likely manipulated. The Structured Operations Division’s reach extended across Latin America. The files show a payment of $200,000 in January 2014 to a Panamanian company called El Facilitador Holdings, related to a public works project referred to as “LE LM” in the unit’s files. It is unclear what “LE LM” is or what the payment was for. The president and a director of El Facilitador is a Salvadoran radio executive, Jose Luis Saca. He has served since 2015 as the president of the International Association of Broadcasting, a group that represents some 17,000 radio and television broadcasters across the Americas. Saca, who advises the United Nations on media issues in his capacity as the association’s president, travels Latin America advocating press freedom. Saca did not respond to ICIJ’s inquiries, which included repeated emails, telephone calls and a letter to the International Association of Broadcasting, and a hand-delivered letter to Radio Corporación, the Salvadoran radio company where he serves as vice president. Unrevealed projects iOrlando Ramos / ICIJ It was a Friday morning in the waiting room of the Dr. Robert Reid Cabral Children’s Hospital in Santo Domingo. About 50 people — mostly babies and other young children and their anxious parents — waited on rusted metal seats to see a doctor. The room was hot. The sound of children crying was constant, swelling and receding in different parts of the room. Families like these, said Pimentel, of Participación Ciudadana, are the true victims of the kind of corruption practiced by Odebrecht. As governments squandered money on public contracts inflated by graft, vital public services were starved. While it is not possible to attribute specific incidents to the effects of corruption, the dollar figures involved are massive and the stakes are high. For example, in 2014, the Structured Operations unit’s hidden payments may have helped the company win billions of dollars in contracts for the Punta Catalina power plant and other projects. In the same year, 11 children died at the children’s hospital because it ran out of oxygen. The hospital had fallen deeply in debt to oxygen suppliers. “What is lost in corruption is that the Dominican state can’t invest in public policies that guarantee people’s rights,” Pimentel said. The Dominican Republic is one of a half-dozen countries in which major infrastructure projects are tied for the first time to Odebrecht’s corruption. A subway system for Quito — the high-altitude capital city that is home to more than 1.5 million people — was Odebrecht’s most important project in Ecuador. The project’s construction budget came in at just over $2 billion. The 14-mile system, slated to open in December, is expected eventually to transport as many as 530,000 commuters a day. When Odebrecht’s international bribery was exposed, local prosecutors launched an investigation into whether the company’s work on the Quito Metro had been tainted by bribes. In March 2018, after more than a year on the case, prosecutors closed the investigation, saying there wasn’t evidence to support charges. The files of the bribery division might reopen it. In Drousys system emails, Odebrecht employees, code-named “Silver,” “Fred” and “Wilson,” discuss payments for the Quito Metro that were routed through their department. In July 2015, for instance, Silver asks Fred whether payment for the Metro had been issued and if it had been made via Meinl Bank, a bank whose Antigua branch was acquired by Odebrecht operatives in 2010 to facilitate corrupt payments, according to prosecutors. Fred replied in the affirmative. “The Metro payment was also made through Meinl,” Fred wrote in an email to Silver. The message notes that the payment was made through the company Fortress Investors Ltd., which appears repeatedly in the bribery division’s files as a conduit for payments. The records don’t say who received the secret payments or their purpose. Mauricio Rodas, the former mayor of Quito whose administration approved Odebrecht’s contract, told an ICIJ journalist that Odebrecht was chosen solely because it offered the least expensive economic proposal, and that the project would reshape transportation in Quito. The leaked Drousys files include other secret payments related to projects that so far have not been connected to the Odebrecht scandal. The Gasoducto Sur, a gas pipeline in southern Peru and the most prominent project of former Peruvian President Ollanta Humala’s administration, is mentioned in connection with 17 payments in 2014 totaling more than $3 million. A Peruvian prosecutor indicted Humala and his wife, Nadine Heredia, in May for allegedly laundering assets provided by Odebrecht. Payments related to the $7 billion pipeline have not been disclosed by Odebrecht. The Ruta Viva, a highway between Quito and Ecuador’s largest airport, is not mentioned in Ecuadorian prosecutors’ filings but is named in the new trove of documents in connection with a payment of 915,000 in an unspecified currency made in October 2012, several months after the city awarded Odebrecht the contract to build the road. The leaked documents don’t say who received the hidden payment. In Panama, the country’s first ever rapid-transit system, in Panama City, and an expansion of the city’s airport, Tocumen International, are linked for the first time to millions of dollars in hidden payments made in 2014. In Venezuela, new details emerged showing more than $34 million in secret payments in 2014 linked to Line 5 of the Caracas Metro, for which only one of 10 planned stations has been built. It’s not clear why hidden payments found in Drousys documents have not come to light in public investigations. In response to ICIJ’s inquiries as to why it had not acted on the payments revealed in the Dominican Republic, the Dominican Attorney General’s office called on the consortium to turn over any documents relevant to Dominican investigations. “It raises the interest of this law-enforcement body that a consortium of journalists has in its power information that is relevant to a criminal investigation,” anti-corruption prosecutor Laura Maria Guerrero wrote to ICIJ. “We order you to deposit to the Public Prosecutor’s Office any documents that support your statements.” (ICIJ’s policy is not to collaborate or share materials with law enforcement agencies.) Jessica Tillipman, an assistant dean at George Washington University Law School who specializes in government contracts and anti-corruption issues, said that the payments could be the subject of ongoing criminal probes or that Odebrecht might have argued successfully that the payments didn’t violate the law. If Odebrecht, for whatever reason, withheld information about its crimes from authorities, the consequences could be dire. “If the government finds out after the fact, it could blow up the terms of the agreement,” Tillipman said. Pimentel, the anti-corruption activist, said Dominican prosecutors’ failure to pursue wrongdoing in projects such as Punta Catalina represents a failure of political will in a country where political and economic elites are closely intertwined. Citizens have long known that corruption and impunity were serious problems, Pimentel said, but the Odebrecht case has revealed that it reaches the highest levels of government. The meager results from official investigations, he said, demonstrate the government’s continuing inability to banish Odebrecht’s stain. “The Odebrecht case,” he said, “has served to strip bare the Dominican Republic’s institutions.”

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alfredrserrano · 6 years ago

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National Cheat Sheet: Sears avoids liquidation, warehouse vacancies hit 18-year low, Blackstone plans massive real estate fund … & more

Clockwise from top left: Sears avoids bankruptcy liquidation after its board accepted an auction bid from chairman Eddie Lampert, CBRE finds warehouse vacancy rates at their lowest levels since 2000, the Blackstone Group readies its largest-ever real estate private equity fund and leading homebuilder Hovnanian Enterprises is in danger of getting delisted from the New York Stock Exchange.

Sears avoids liquidation after board accepts chairman’s auction bid All of the remaining assets of Sears Holdings Corporation have been acquired by chairman Edward Lampert for $5.2 billion, according to various news reports. The board of the bankrupt company accepted Lampert’s auction bid in lieu of competing proposals from liquidators, Bloomberg reported. The decision came after “two days of discussions… to determine whether Sears would be worth more dead or alive,” according to the outlet. The deal must still be approved by a U.S. bankruptcy judge. A hearing on the matter has been scheduled for Feb. 1. If it is approved, Lampert will have another opportunity to try to revive the ailing retail chain. He hopes to keep 425 stores open and save 45,000 jobs, a source told Bloomberg. [TRD]

CBRE finds warehouse vacancy rates at lowest level since 2000 A mere 7 percent of industrial space was vacant in the fourth quarter of 2018 — the lowest that vacancy rates have dipped since 2000, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing data from CBRE. The commercial real estate firm attributed the scarcity of available space in part to the growing e-commerce industry. Demand actually outpaced supply by around 6 million square feet during the fourth quarter last year. “In 2019, it will remain quite a competitive market for people to get hold of the logistics assets they need,” CBRE’s head of research for the Americas and global chief economist Richard Barkham told the newspaper. [TRD]

Blackstone’s $20B real estate fund set to be its largest yet Buyout giant the Blackstone Group is gearing up to close a $20 billion real estate fund with around $60 billion in buying power, the Wall Street Journal reported. The fund, which will likely close in the first quarter of 2019, will be the private equity firm’s largest real estate fund to date. “They can buy private companies and they can buy [entire companies listed] on the New York Stock Exchange,” Evercore ISI analyst Steve Sakwa told the newspaper. The fund is something of an anomaly, as other real estate funds have struggled to raise money, according to the outlet. [TRD]

The Mooch parts ways with Opportunity Zone fund partner Former White House communications director and Harvard Law School graduate Anthony Scaramucci’s SkyBridge Capital split this week with Emanuel “Manny” Friedman’s EJF Capital on a planned $3 billion fund to invest in Opportunity Zones. The venture, which was announced in November and poised to be structured as a real estate investment trust, fell apart as a result of EJF’s perceived lack of experience in managing real estate funds, according to The Real Deal‘s reporting. SkyBridge president Brett Messing told TRD that the separation with EJF was amicable. Both will now proceed with their own Opportunity Zone funds. Scaramucci, meanwhile, will soon appear as a contestant on “Celebrity Big Brother,” which premieres Jan. 21 on CBS. [TRD]

Leading national homebuilder in danger of getting stock delisted One of the largest homebuilders in the country, Hovnanian Enterprises, could be delisted from the New York Stock Exchange as its debt piles up. The Matawan, New Jersey-based company, founded by chairman and president Ara Hovnanian, plans to carry out a reverse stock split to stay on the NYSE if it can get approval from shareholders at a meeting in March. On Thursday, Hovnanian’s stock price close at 66 cents, and the company will need its shares to trade above $1 if it hopes to stay listed. Hovnanian’s current financial woes can be traced back to the 1990s, when the company’s debt started to mount as it went into acquisition mode. [TRD]

MAJOR MARKET HIGHLIGHTS

Amazon eyes 10,000 square feet of space in Chrysler Building The Chrysler Building is for sale, but Amazon is planning to ink a lease at the iconic office tower, the New York Post reported. The e-commerce and technology behemoth, which late last year announced plans for a second headquarters in nearby Long Island City, is expected to sign a lease for around 10,000 square feet of space in the building soon, though it’s not yet clear exactly when. News of Amazon’s likely tenancy came less than a week after news broke that Tishman Speyer and the Abu Dhabi government fund that own the Chrysler Building would be putting it up for sale after hiring CBRE to market the landmark skyscraper. [TRD]

Microsoft to contribute $500M to affordable housing in Seattle One of the world’s largest companies has a plan to tackle a dearth of affordable housing in the Puget Sound region. Microsoft announced this week that it was ready to spend $500 million to fix a problem that it partly had a hand in creating in one of the nation’s priciest housing markets, according to the New York Times. The Redmond, Washington-based company has pledged to fund projects in Seattle and surrounding areas that provide more housing options for low-income and middle-class workers, as well as address homelessness. [TRD]

PG&E filing for bankruptcy and CEO steps down amid wildfire fallout The California utility giant accused of starting the deadly Camp Fire in California this past fall plans to file for bankruptcy, Bloomberg reported. Geisha Williams, CEO of the San Francisco-based Pacific Gas & Electric Company, has also stepped down with general counsel John Simon stepping into the company’s top leadership role until it finds a permanent replacement. A number of California residents have hit PG&E with lawsuits claiming that the company’s equipment sparked the November fire that left 86 people dead and destroyed 21,000 homes in Northern California. State Attorney General Xavier Becerra is investigating those allegations. PG&E could be facing up to $30 billion in wildfire-related liabilities. [TRD]

Top NYC developer looks outside for new leader Sush Torgalkar, a former COO of Westbrook Partners, has been named the new CEO of Extell Development Company, one of the largest commercial real estate developers in Manhattan. Extell founder Gary Barnett will continue to serve as chairman of the firm, but he did not provide a reason for recruiting Torgalkar to run the business. Torgalkar, 42, grew up in Cleveland as the son of Indian immigrants. He is known for his access to institutional investors and ability to navigate tricky deals, something in which Extell is well-versed. A recent analysis by The Real Deal found that Extell has more than 1,500 units in its New York pipeline. [TRD]

South Florida mansion owned by IHOP founder’s son hits market The son of one of IHOP’s founders has put the South Florida mansion that he and his wife own on the market. Nathan and Jacqueline Finkel are seeking $7.25 million for their 21,656-square-foot home in a suburb of Fort Lauderdale. Abe Finkel, Nathan’s father, was one of the founders of IHOP, the pancake house restaurant chain that briefly flirted last year with a name change to IHOB as part of a burger promotion. The nine-bedroom, 11-bathroom home in the town of Southwest Ranches has a bowling alley, a theater room, a bar room, a library and quarters for maids and nannies. The property comes with a tennis court, gazebo and swimming pool. Mark Kaminsky and Kevin O’steen of the Kaminsky/Reyes Team at Coldwell Banker have the listing. [TRD]

Amid national expansion, Compass heads to Mile-High City Despite already having offices in Aspen and Telluride, Compass is embarking on a further Colorado expansion with planned outposts in Denver and Boulder. The SoftBank Group-backed residential brokerage said it will open flagship offices in the two cities within the next few months. “Colorado is consistently named one of the fastest growing states in the country, netting more than 70,000 new residents per year over the past 5 years,” chief growth officer Rob Lehman said in a statement, noting that there’s “an enormous opportunity to elevate the real estate experience for agents across the state.” Compass has been rapidly expanding, opening offices across the country. [TRD]

R. Kelly evicted from Chicago warehouse he used as studio, residence A judge signed an order evicting the R. Kelly from an industrial building in Chicago, the Chicago Sun-Times reported. The singer owed nearly $80,000 in back rent for the warehouse, which he used as both a recording studio and a residence. City attorneys claim the dual use violates zoning code and had been trying to gain access to the building, according to the outlet. R. Kelly has long been accused of abusing women and young girls, but a recently-aired Lifetime series, “Surviving R. Kelly,” has raised a new set of abuse allegations against the entertainer, all of which he has denied. [TRD]

Nonprofit shells out $2.5M for Muhammad Ali’s Michigan estate An 81-acre estate in southwest Michigan that Muhammad Ali bought in the 1970s has a new owner, the Chicago Tribune reported. A Turkish nonprofit called the Turken Foundation, which is based in New York, bought the property from Lonnie Ali, the boxing legend’s widow, for $2.5 million, according to the outlet. Lonnie Ali initially listed the estate for $2.895 million, although the precise figure was $2,895,037, a tribute to her late husband’s 37 career knockouts. Ali, who died in 2016, purchased the property when he was living 90 miles away in Chicago’s Kenwood neighborhood. He continued to stay there even after Ali moved to Los Angeles and Arizona. One of the buildings on the estate has a boxing ring, the newspaper reported. [TRD]

from The Real Deal Miami https://therealdeal.com/2019/01/18/national-cheat-sheet-sears-avoids-liquidation-warehouse-vacancies-hit-an-18-year-low-more/#new_tab via IFTTT

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juditmiltz · 6 years ago

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National Cheat Sheet: Sears avoids liquidation, warehouse vacancies hit 18-year low, Blackstone plans massive real estate fund … & more

MAJOR MARKET HIGHLIGHTS

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premimtimes · 7 years ago

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In tears, 80-year-old Mama Abiri undressed. Before strangers, family, and friends alike, Mama clasped her frail breasts, and cried inconsolably, naked. With emotions only a mother could express, Mama cried in the native Ijaw language of the Niger Delta creeks. Mama was calling on Nigeria’s President, Muhammadu Buhari, to feel her pain and hear her plea.

“Please, I am begging. Please, pity me. Anyone that is holding my son, please release him for me,” Mama cried. “I gave birth to him. I breastfed him. I know my son. He is not a militant. He is not a criminal. He is a journalist.”

For almost two years, Jones Abiri has not been seen nor heard from. Married with a wife and five children, Jones would have celebrated his 50th birthday on June 4 this year. Jones was a 300-Level student aspiring for his first degree in Law from the National Open University of Nigeria. All that is in the past.

Now, Mr Abiri remains in a state of forced disappearance as the State Security Service (SSS), Nigeria’s secret police, has detained him for over 700 days without trial, and without access to his family, lawyers, and doctors. Under international human rights law, a person is a victim of (en)forced disappearance if detained by state authorities or a third party with the authorisation of the state, followed by a refusal to acknowledge the person’s whereabouts and condition in a bid to deny the victim the protection of the law.

The Arrest

On July 21, 2016, a dozen heavily-armed agents of the self-styled Department of State Services arrested Mr Abiri, the publisher of Weekly Source newspaper, outside his office at 288 Chief Melford Okilo Expressway, Yenagoa, Bayelsa State. Eyewitnesses said the SSS agents, who came in three cars, did not read him his rights and did not produce a warrant before handcuffing him, raiding his office, and taking him into custody.

“Some men wearing black came to where we were and asked if he was Jones,” Garba Suleiman, a local provision store vendor who witnessed the arrest said in pidgin English.

“He said yes, and they grabbed him, handcuffed him, and took him. Nobody knew why.”

John Angese, the chairman of the Nigeria Union of Journalists in Bayelsa State, in an interview in March recalled how at gunpoint the SSS threatened everyone, including journalists, not to cross a parameter line. The SSS spent hours searching Mr Abiri’s office before carting away his computer and documents, sealing his office, and taking him handcuffed into custody.

“I was personally there when he was taken away. I tried to ask what was the problem but I was rebuffed with their guns. I was threatened to be shot if I went any closer. Everybody was scared,” Mr Angese recalled.

Two days after his arrest, the SSS on July 23, 2016 released a statement alleging Mr Abiri is a militant named General Akotebe Darikoro, operating under the nom-de-guerre, General Kill and Bury, the leader of the Joint Niger Delta Liberation Force, “which has been furthering separatist tendencies in connivance with other criminal gangs in the Niger Delta region”.

Ziboimo Abiri Jones

Abiri’s wife

The SSS said the detainee “confessed and owned up” to vandalising and bombing oil pipelines belonging to international oil companies Agip and Shell in early July 2016, sending threat messages to management of both oil companies demanding a total of N750 million payment, threatening to launch missile attacks against the Presidential Villa and selected targets in Abuja, and masterminding the rumour in 2016 that the military was planning a coup against President Muhammadu Buhari.

Weekly Source, a local tabloid which operated by mostly sourcing and publishing critical stories of the government culled from online and national newspapers, had in its last edition dated July 10, 2016 published as its lead a story originally published by the online pointblanknews.com titled “Rumble In The Military: Inside The Coup Plot Story… Militants’ Warning Alters Plot.”

The story elaborated an alleged conspiracy that top military officers working with politicians had approached the Joint Niger Delta Liberation Force (JNDLF) militant group to intensify bombing pipelines as a justification to overthrow President Buhari. The military denied the allegations.

Weekly Source in the same edition published another story sourced from pointblanknews.com on how President Buhari’s loyalists, including the Director-General of the SSS, were blocking investigations into an oil and gas company implicated by the anti-graft Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) in siphoning billions of dollars in fraudulent oil deals. The story claimed that the company donated heavily towards President Buhari’s 2015 presidential campaign through the loyalists.

Jackson Ude, the publisher of pointblanknews.com based in the U.S., in an interview in 2016 said he had received threats, from proxies of the SSS, asking him to pull down stories from his website which local based journalists like Mr Abiri were re-publishing in their newspapers and tabloids. He said he had been warned of possible arrest whenever he came to Nigeria.

The ‘Confession’

In August 2016, Mr Abiri’s family filed a fundamental rights enforcement lawsuit against the SSS, asking the Bayelsa State High Court to declare his arrest and continued detention without trial unconstitutional, unlawful, illegal, null and void, and order the SSS to release him on bail, and direct the SSS to open Weekly Source newspaper’s office.

The SSS in response tendered as its only evidence in court a confessional statement allegedly written and signed by Mr Abiri on the same day of his arrest, admitting to “being the founder, co-ordinator and spokesperson” of the militant group and “directing his foot soldiers (still at large) to carry out bombings of oil pipelines” and blackmailing oil companies for money with threats of further bombings.

Mother o Abiri Jones

On September 7, 2016, a Bayelsa State high court judge, Nayai Aganaba, ordered the SSS to reopen Weekly Source newspaper’s office but ruled that the SSS arrest and continued detention of Mr Abiri, then almost two months, was lawful. The ruling effectively gave legal backing for the SSS to continue detaining him without charge for almost two years and without access to his family, lawyers and doctors.

“The offence of terrorism and related offences for which [Mr Abiri] was arrested and detained is a capital offence by virtue of Section 1 (2) under paragraph (h) of the Terrorism Prevention Amendment Act 2013 and by virtue of Section 35 (7) of the 1999 Constitution, the arrest and detention of [Mr Abiri] by the [SSS] is therefore not unlawful,” Mr Aganaba ruled.

The SSS also swore on oath that the “seeming delay in charging [him] to court” was due to “ongoing efforts to arrest other members of the militant group” as well as results of “scientific analysis of evidence” still been awaited. The SSS promised “to ensure an expedited conclusion of investigation on the case and to charge [him] and his accomplices to court without undue delay”.

It is almost two years and Mr Abiri, a husband, father of five children, and breadwinner for his family including an 80-year-old mother and several siblings, has not been charged to court.

In the past two years, the SSS has rebuffed all efforts by Mr Abiri’s family, lawyers, journalists and civil society actors to get any information on him.

In June, during the International Press Institute World Congress held in Abuja, Garba Shehu, spokesperson to President Buhari, sold to the world that Mr Abiri is not a journalist but a militant who remains a “guest of [the SSS] because of his alleged criminal activities.” The Information minister, Lai Mohammed, also echoed a similar claim.

John Angese NUJ Chairman Bayelsa State

Nigerian authorities also declined to allow Mr Abiri’s wife and son who travelled from Bayelsa State to Abuja access to see him in SSS captivity.

In the past two years, the family relocated from Yenagoa, Bayelsa State capital, to the village in the Southern Ijaw local government creeks where they barely survive on petty farming and handouts. In the past two years, his children also dropped out and have not gone back to school due to the family’s inability to pay school fees.

In the past two years, his younger brother, Ebikesayi Abiri, died from fire burns he sustained in 2017 after he involved himself for the first time in illegal oil bunkering which his family said was in a bid to raise money to pay among other things legal costs and other bills associated with getting Mr Abiri released. Ebikesayi left behind a widow and two children, one of whom was born the same day he died.

Curiously, in the past two years, the SSS and Nigerian authorities have also kept hidden from the public and refused to act on vital information relating to members and financiers of the Joint Niger Delta Liberation Force militant group, according to Mr Abiri’s alleged confessional statement dated July 21, 2016 in court records.

“The only person that has funded the group to the best of my knowledge is the former commissioner of Ijaw National Affairs, Dr Felix Tuodolo, who gave us the sum of N500, 000 through Sele Dise sometime between 1st and 15th June 2016,” Mr Abiri allegedly wrote in his confessional statement. “Sele told me that the commissioner called him on phone and gave him the money to support the group.”

Mr Tuodolo is at present the Special Adviser on Ijaw national affairs to Seriake Dickson, the governor of the oil-rich Bayelsa State. The former state commissioner is well known as a human rights activist and the founding president of the influential Ijaw Youth Council which was set up at the twilight of Nigerian military dictatorship to coordinate the Ijaw people’s struggle for self-determination and greater control of vast oil and gas resources in the Niger Delta region.

Mr Tuodolo was influential in stemming the tide of militancy in the 2000s by advocating for the government to grant amnesty to known militant warlords and their camps in a Disarmament, Demobilisation and Reintegration programme in exchange for assurances of a stop to the destruction of oil installations. The militants who ostensibly repented and surrendered their arms were given huge government contracts, placed on regular stipend running into billions of naira yearly, and sponsored around the world for training in diverse skills acquisition and education programmes.

Mr Abiri in his alleged confessional statement mentioned Sele Dise, Ebi John, Justice Tare and Ebi-Ladei as other members of the JNDLF militant group. Independent findings during this investigation, including obtaining communication exchanges between Mr Abiri and an individual believed to be Sele Dise, revealed both had been friends prior to Mr Abiri’s arrest in July 2016.

“Sometime February this year 2016, Mr Sele Dise came to my office with the idea that let us form the organisation. I don’t know what they [other members] do for a living but I know Sele is a 200-Level student of Public Administration in Niger Delta University [Bayelsa State],” the statement read.

When contacted, Mr Tuodolo said he was only aware from media reports that Mr Abiri is a journalist but that he does not know him personally nor the details of his arrest. He said as a prominent Ijaw leader, he often renders financial assistance to his kinsmen who regularly solicit his help to pay school fees, house rent, and other financial support, but not to fund militant activities.

Mr Tuodolo expressed shock over Mr Abiri’s alleged confessional statement linking him as a financier of the Joint Niger Delta Liberation Force militant group.

“I don’t even know Jones Abiri. This is the first time I am hearing about this that Jones Abiri made a statement involving my name. That sounds strange to me,” he said in a telephone call in June this year. “And if indeed he made such statement, why hasn’t the SSS come to question me about it? I have never been invited.”

Mr Tuodolo’s claim has not been independently verified as efforts to get the SSS to react to Mr Abiri’s case and other instances of human rights violations, including indefinite detentions, torture, and extra-judicial killings, have repeatedly been ignored over the years.

Since 2015, the agency has been operating without a physically identifiable spokesperson or official contact to interface and respond to information requests from the public and the media. Press statements distributed by the SSS cite as its spokesperson one Tony Opuiyo, a fictitious character whom no one has met, several journalists who cover the defence and security beat have said. The journalists complained that during parades of crime suspects, the SSS does not permit them to ask questions and many times hinder their reporting factually through intimidation and threat of arrests.

“The way the SSS operates now is we can’t ask for information and get it. There is no spokesperson, no one to make enquiries on behalf of the public who we are reporting for. No one to hold accountable. It is serious. Even in court, many of the cases, they disturb us from covering,” said one journalist during an informal chat during this investigation.

Ayebaitari Easterday, the chairman of newspaper publishers in the state, in March said Mr Abiri whom he had known for over 20 years as a law-abiding citizen was on medication for an undisclosed ailment at the time of his arrest. He said the liability of responsibility lies on the SSS to disprove rumours of his death.

“I don’t want to believe Jones is dead because you can only believe what you’ve seen and what you know is true,” said Mr Easterday. “The SSS should declare the condition of Jones Abiri, where he is right now, what is the state of his health, and why they have refused to prosecute him over the years. Something should be told to the public. We are curious. We want to know. And we have a right to know.”

Ex-SSS Detainee Narrates Experience

Comrade (name withheld), a Niger Delta Ijaw activist whose identity is being protected for his safety, said he met Mr Abiri in SSS custody while detained for nearly two years on allegations of being a militant. Comrade said that before his release in 2017, he was detained with over 50 Ijaw and Niger Delta youth, numerous Boko Haram suspects and members of the Independent People of Biafra (IPOB) secessionist group, who were all routinely tortured at the SSS Headquarters in Nigeria’s capital, Abuja.

“We were all together for over one year so we knew ourselves. I was in New Depot detention facility while Jones was in Old Depot. I remember one particular day Jones was shouting: “They wan go beat me again. They wan go beat me again.” It pained me so much I cried,” Comrade said.

Early 2016, the government declared an influential ex-Niger Delta militant commander, Government Ekpemupolo, popularly called Tompolo, wanted. The anti-graft agency, EFCC, froze his bank accounts, and began an unsuccessful manhunt for the former warlord after he refused to appear before a court to answer corruption charges over contracts obtained from the previous government of President Goodluck Jonathan.

His supporters alleged a ploy by the government to arrest and indefinitely detain the former warlord seen by many as a very influential folk hero in the Niger Delta. They cited with examples several ongoing cases where the SSS continues to refuse to obey Nigerian and international court orders granting the release on bail to several high-profile suspects in SSS custody.

Militant groups responded to the government’s clamp down with renewed bombings of oil installations. Security agencies, in an unsuccessful bid to flush him out, arrested scores of Niger Delta activists and youth perceived as sympathetic to the former militant leader.

Comrade said Mr Abiri told him he was set up by powerful people who capitalised on the government’s clampdown in the Niger Delta to punish him for publishing a story that exposed how their company, which was a local contractor to Agip [international oil company], failed to fulfil its corporate social responsibility to oil-producing host communities.

“His article led Agip to find out that their company was shortchanging the communities and this caused problems for them. They were angry and then petitioned the security agencies that Jones is the media handler to militant groups and that was how he was picked up,” Comrade said Mr Abiri told him.

SSS ‘Above The Law’

Comrade said suspects in SSS custody were habitually tortured. In tears, he narrated how the SSS at different times used beating, electrocution, and exposure of radiation to his testicles to force him to confess being a militant. Comrade quoted his case officer as once telling him “the DSS is above the laws of the land. DSS only listens to the instruction of Mr President. Anything short of that, including court orders, you are just wasting your time.”

Femi Falana, a foremost human rights lawyer, wrote an open letter to President Buhari in December 2017 asking him to end the illegal arrest and detention without legal justification of Nigerians and foreigners by security agencies, especially the SSS, which he described an embarrassment to the country by its continued violation of the Nigerian constitution, the African Charter on Human and Peoples Rights Act, and the Nigerian Administration of Criminal Justice Act.

“From the information at our disposal, the DSS has detained several Nigerians and foreigners to settle personal scores,” Mr Falana said to President Buhari. “Others have been arrested and detained by the DSS on the suspicion that they have committed criminal offences, a matter that is within the purview of the Police and the anti-graft agencies. To compound the illegality of such arrest and detention, the orders made by competent courts of law directing the DSS to either release or produce detainees in court have been treated with contempt.”

In the past three years since President Buhari appointed Lawal Daura, his kinsman from Katsina State, as SSS director general, the agency’s mode of operations has been reminiscent of past Nigerian military dictatorships, which created the organisation and deployed it with impunity to intimidate, indefinitely detain without charge, and habitually torture individuals, including journalists, activists, and political figures, deemed critical of the military government.

Under Mr Buhari’s rule as military Head of State in the 80s, the SSS, then known as the National Security Organisation, became an agency of repression and a crack violator of human rights. Mr Buhari promulgated and implemented several laws, including Decree 2 which granted the SSS arbitrary powers to indefinitely detain any person without charges, and Decree 4 which provided imprisonment to any person who published any information deemed false or ridiculed his government.

Leading to the 2015 general elections, the SSS under former President Jonathan had become politically partisan, targeting journalists, activists and political opponents, including Mr Buhari and his political party. Mr Buhari while campaigning said he had become a reformed democrat and, if elected, promised to uphold the rule of law, respect fundamental rights, and ensure access to justice for all Nigerians.

Yet, in the past three years, the SSS has been heavily criticised for operating with utmost secrecy, crass impunity, and total disregard for the rule of law, including serially disobeying court orders and violating federal laws in lopsided recruitment to favour people from President Buhari’s part of Nigeria.

Mr Abiri’s ordeal as a persecuted journalist represents possibly hundreds of people detained and tortured across all the offices of the SSS in Nigeria’s 36 States and the federal capital Abuja. Mr Falana, in an interview in June 2018, said Nigeria’s terrorism law is being abused by the SSS to violate Mr Abiri’s and other citizens’ rights to personal liberty and fair hearing in a competent court within a reasonable time.

“Subject to obtaining a court order, section 27 of the Terrorism Act permits a detention for 90 days which, subject to review, can be renewed once for another period of 90 days. Afterwards you have to release the suspect. Either conditionally or unconditionally, you grant the suspect bail,” Mr Falana said.

A global advocacy effort from the media, Nigerian and international human rights defenders, civil society, and social impact groups calling for Mr Abiri’s release is mounting. The Ondewari Health, Education and Environmental Project, a civil society group working in the Niger Delta creeks, took the lead in March by gathering signatures from several Ijaw communities which was sent to local and international human rights organisations as an appeal calling on the international community to intervene on the detainee’s plight.

On a visit into Bayelsa State’s creeks, several youth and elders from different Ijaw communities refuted the government’s allegation that the detainee is a militant. In a show of solidarity with the Abiri family, community members gathered to sign OHEEP’s petition as a single voice echoing their growing frustration and anger with the government. Resonating loudest among the pleas directed at President Buhari were those of Mr Abiri’s children calling for the release of their father.

“My father is a journalist. All the allegations against my father that he is a militant are lies,” said 16-year-old Abadeifa Abiri Jones, with eyes red and swollen from flowing tears. “He did not do anything and he does not know anything. The government should release my father unconditionally.”

SPECIAL REPORT: How Buhari’s govt detained Nigerian journalist for two years without trial In tears, 80-year-old Mama Abiri undressed. Before strangers, family, and friends alike, Mama clasped her frail breasts, and cried inconsolably, naked.

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armeniaitn · 5 years ago

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Full restoration of the ceasefire regime is a must, Armenian Ambassador says

New Post has been published on https://armenia.in-the.news/politics/full-restoration-of-the-ceasefire-regime-is-a-must-armenian-ambassador-says-38579-22-07-2020/

Full restoration of the ceasefire regime is a must, Armenian Ambassador says

Tigran Mkrtchyan, Ambassador of Armenia to Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia, authored an op-ed on the recent Azerbaijani aggression on the border of the Republic of Armenia, which was simultaneously published in the largest periodicals of the three countries.

In Lithuania, Ambassador Mkrtchyan’s article was published in Lietuvos rytas, the country’s largest daily, on the cover of Neatkarīgā, one of Latvia’s biggest daily newspapers and on its nra.lv website, and in Estonia, in the print edition of “esti Päevaleht”, which has the largest audience, and on its webpage.

Below is the translation of the article:

‘Full restoration of the ceasefire regime is a must! On July 12th the Azerbaijani border forces started provocative actions on the state borders of Armenia in the north-eastern direction. Civilian population, gas pipeline, factories, including one that makes masks necessary to fight COVID 19 pandemic came under attack.

Anyone who has ever crossed the Armenian-Georgian border on a car knows that the situation in the region situated northeast of Armenian-Azerbaijani border is extremely unpredictable. Azerbaijani military oftentimes would start shelling the nearest areas, keeping the population tense. Travelers even might be asked to divert from their route so as not to endanger themselves. In spite of all this, we must admit that the last few days is a different story altogether. Targeting civilian infrastructures is a clear sign of violation of the international humanitarian law.

Still, a few days after the renewal of hostilities, which had to be responded by the Armenian side, we read the mind-blowing threat by the Azerbaijani Defense Ministry about the possibility to launch missile attacks at the Armenian Metsamor Nuclear Power Plant. The threat was a flagrant violation of the International Humanitarian Law in general. Such actions are an explicit demonstration of state terrorism and genocidal intent.

There are members of the international community and organizations that have refrained from pinpointing who the aggressor is, and who the victim is in the absence of independently established facts. Such a stance, which might perhaps look like an appeasement for an aggressor, can be explained by the fact that there are no local ceasefire violation monitoring measures. And here we come to the biggest question mark of the entire situation. Why aren’t there any such measures on Armenian-Azerbaijani borders?

It would be unjust to blame the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs (the USA, France and Russia), the single internationally mandated organization which mediates between the sides seeking a peaceful settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

Diverting hereby I should emphasize that, in 1990s, Azerbaijan, even though it was fighting to gain control over Nagorno-Karabakh, annexed to it by Stalin’s authoritarian decision in 1921, eventually embarked on a total fight and blockade against Armenia. Armenian territory was shelled from all possible angles where it borders with Azerbaijan.

Armenia has repeatedly stated and continues to insist that there is no alternative to a peaceful settlement of the conflict. There are specific proposals for security and confidence-building measures, including an increase in the number and permanent deployment of international observers on the ground, a direct line of communications and the introduction of a mechanism to investigate alleged ceasefire violations. Their implementation will help avoid further escalation renewals.

However, Azerbaijan has rejected these control mechanisms, the absence of which contributes to both an increase in civilian casualties and baseless accusations against the Armenian sides. I would like to emphasize that in the current situation, efforts to end hostilities, unconditionally and fully restore, preserve and strengthen the ceasefire regime signed between Armenia, Nagorno-Karabakh and Azerbaijan are imperative.

After the outbreak of COVID 19 at the end of March, the UN General Secretary made an appeal “for an immediate global ceasefire in all corners of the world”, adding that “it is time to put armed conflict on lockdown and focus together on the true fight of our lives.” Hours later the Armenian Minister of Foreign Affairs Zohrab Mnatsakanyan applauded and welcomed this idea. The Azerbaijani side chose to ignore this appeal, as well.

Moreover, over the years the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs have time and again reiterated that it is an indispensable need to prepare the societies for peace and refrain from war rhetoric. This is an extremely important point, not to be ignored by anyone longing for peace. The Prime Minister of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan soon after the Velvet Revolution in 2018 has adopted the audacious stance that any conflict resolution must be based on mutual compromises and be acceptable to the peoples of Armenia, Nagorno-Karabakh and Azerbaijan.

This idea was never appreciated by Azerbaijan. Moreover, there have been continuous threats, often by the leader of that country claiming Armenia’s capital and other parts of this cradle of ancient civilization as “Azerbaijan’s historical lands” and demanding that “Azerbaijanis must return to these historical lands.”

The dangerous development of poisoned public opinion could be felt soon after the recent clashes between Armenians and Azerbaijanis in Tavush region. The mass rally in Baku where nationalist slogans of Armenophobia could be heard soon enough morphed into anti-governmental appeals, upon which it was immediately dispersed by the Azerbaijani police. Apparently freedom of speech in Azerbaijan is acceptable only when it includes expressions of hatred towards Armenians.

While majority of countries in the world and international organizations are appealing to both sides to refrain from any escalation and return to the table of negotiations, NATO member state Turkey adds fuel to the fire unconditionally supporting Azerbaijan and inciting further actions against Armenia.

Sometimes one may get the impression that the leadership of Turkey feels that the Armenian Genocide, perpetrated by the Young Turks in 1915, has not been “carried out” fully and that the Republic of Armenia should concede to every wish and whim of the Turks and their ethnic brothers, even at the cost of our total annihilation.

It is worth noting that even in the 21st century, Turkey chooses to build its policy in our region on the traditions of justification of the Armenian Genocide and the impunity of that crime. Turkey’s provocative and biased stance seriously undermines the peaceful settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict and proves that Turkey can’t be involved in any international processes related to the conflict and first and foremost within the OSCE framework. With its approaches, Turkey is an existential security threat for Armenia, and should revisit this dangerous behavior as soon as possible.

Summarizing, I would like to note that it is never too late to embrace the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs proposals on the establishment of ceasefire violations mechanisms and it is never too late to accept and respect ceasefire during and after the COVID crisis. For any conflict to be resolved we need political will of all leaders involved and constructive support of international players. History is a witness to this axiom!

Read original article here.

#Armenia #Armenians #Karabakh #Politics

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