Tag Archives: US
12 December 2013
A United States embassy spokesman in Turkey announced that the US has suspended all non-lethal aid to the opposition in northern Syria, after forces from the Islamic Front (a new coalition of six major Islamist rebel groups) seized bases and warehouses belonging to the Western-backed Supreme Military Council (SMC). Likewise, a spokesman from the British embassy in Turkey stated that ‘We have no plans to deliver any equipment while the situation remains so unclear. We will keep this under close review.’
The Islamic Front disconnected last week from the SMC and Free Syrian Army (FSA), and took over the headquarters and weapons warehouses at the Bab al-Hawa border crossing with Turkey. According to the US spokesman, the situation is being investigated to ‘inventory the status of U.S. equipment and supplies provided to the SMC.’ The US alone has committed 250 million dollar worth non-lethal assistance (food rations, medical supplies, but possibly also communications equipment, intelligence assistance and body armour) to be delivered to the Syrian National Coalition, local opposition councils, and the SMC.
The Islamic Front’s success in capturing the weapons stores could undermine SMC assurances to the US that no supplies sent to their fighters would fall into the hands of Islamist brigades.
Source: Reuters | U.S., Britain suspend aid to north Syria after Islamists seize weapons store
Source: Foreign Policy | U.S. Suspends Non-Lethal Aid into Northern Syria
9 December 2013
The lawyers for two Guantánamo Bay detainees claimed before the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) that the detainees were tortured in a secret ‘black site’ in Poland. Poland has been brought before the ECtHR for allowing US officials to use ‘enhanced’ interrogations and ‘waterboarding’ technics within its territory. Ben Emmerson, the UN special rapporteur on counter-terrorism argued before the Court, where ‘systematic human rights violations are alleged to have occurred, the right to know the truth is not only an individual right that belongs to the immediate victim of the violation, but also a collective rights that belongs to the whole of society.’ (more…)
Source: The Guardian | Guantánamo Bay detainees claim Poland allowed CIA torture
5 December 2013
Speaking at the launch of the Fourth Replenishment of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria (Global Fund), United States Secretary of State John Kerry called on global health partners to embrace all available tools to defeat AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria, saying that shared responsibility was the only way to succeed.
The Fourth Replenishment launch, entitled: ‘No Time to Lose: Sharing the Responsibility to Save Lives’ is convening leaders in global health in Washington to consider joint action and to secure sustained funding for the next three years to support programmes that prevent, treat and care for people with AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria.
Also, Mark Dybul, Executive Director of the Global Fund, said in his closing remarks at the meeting: ‘The 21st century ideals that led to the founding of the Global Fund are now stronger than ever: partnership, shared responsibility, and mutual accountability. In many ways, this is a replenishment of hope. It is a lifting up of the human spirit.’
Source: The Global Fund To Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria | Replenishment Partners Talk Shared Responsibility
Source: The Global Fund To Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria | Global Fund Donors Pledge US$12 Billion
4 December 2013
A Danish cargo vessel is due to load Syria’s chemical arms stockpile and transfer it to a US ship in early January 2014. The plan, which has not yet been finalised, has been drawn up by the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons.
The Guardian reports that it is not yet clear whether the transfer between the two ships of about 500 tonnes of lethal chemicals, including nerve agents, will be done at sea or when both vessels are docked, and that both options have serious challenges. So far, no Mediterranean port has agreed to host the transfer on land.
Source: The Guardian | Syria's chemical weapons to be shipped in delicate US-Danish operation
29 November 2013
Afghan President, Hamid Karzai angered about NATO drone strikes which had killed civilians in southern Afghanistan, lashed out at US allies. President Karzai stated, ‘[t]his attack shows that American forces do not respect the lives and security of the people of Afghanistan (…) For years, our people are being killed and their houses are being destroyed under the pretext of the war on terror.’ The drone strike in question killed at least one child and wounded two women.
This attack comes at a delicate time when negotiations between President Karzai and the United States regarding a bilateral security agreement are becoming more strained. The security agreement provides for a 10 year long presence of the American military in Afghanistan, and if President Karzai does not sign the agreement NATO troops will be completely withdrawn from Afghanistan. However, President Karzai wants new conditions to be added to the agreement, such as an immediate ban on raids of Afghan homes, before he will sign the agreement. President Karzai stated, ‘[f]or as long as such arbitrary acts and oppression of foreign forces continue, the security agreement with the United States will not be signed.’
Source: The New York Times | Afghan Leader Lashes Out at U.S. Allies After NATO Drone Strike