person:mohammed

  • Bahrain debacle marks crash of Trump team’s campaign to diss Palestinians into submission

    Kushner’s Peace for Prosperity includes Utopian projects funded by non-existent money as part of peace deal that won’t happen
    Chemi Shalev
    Jun 25, 2019 9:12 AM

    https://www.haaretz.com/us-news/.premium-bahrain-debacle-marks-crash-of-trump-team-s-campaign-to-dis-palest

    The unveiling of the U.S. administration’s long-awaited production of Peace for Prosperity, premiering in Bahrain on Tuesday, garnered mixed reviews, to say the least. Barak Ravid of Axios and Israel’s Channel 13 described it as “impressive, detailed and ambitious – perhaps overly ambitious.” Former U.S. Ambassador to Israel and Egypt Dan Kurtzer offered a slightly different take: “I would give this so-called plan a C- from an undergraduate student. The authors of the plan clearly understand nothing,” he said.

    The plan, released in a colorful pamphlet on the eve of the Bahrain economic summit, is being portrayed by the White House as a vision of the bountiful “fruits of peace” that Palestinians might reap once they reach a peace agreement with Israel. Critics describe it as an amateurish pie-in-the-sky, shoot-for-the-moon, everything-but-the-kitchen-sink hodgepodge that promises projects that cannot be implemented, funded by money that does not exist and contingent on a peace deal that will never happen.

    But the main problem with Peace for Prosperity isn’t its outlandishly unrealistic proposals – such as the $5 billion superhighway between the West Bank and Gaza, which Israel will never agree to; or its occasional condescending and Orientalist attitude towards Palestinian society - their great hummus could attract millions of tourists; or even its offer to manage and foster Palestinian institutions and civil society in a way that can be viewed either as implicit state-building or as imposing foreign control on a future Palestinian government.

    >> Read more: ’There is no purely economic solution to the Palestinian economy’s problems’ ■ Trump’s Bahrain conference - not what you imagined ■ Kushner’s deal holds some surprises, but it’s more vision than blueprint ■ The billion-dollar question in Trump’s peace plan

    The Palestinians would have been suspicious in any case, even if Jimmy Carter or Barack Obama were President. They have always been wary of the term “economic peace”, especially when detached from the real nitty-gritty of resolving their dispute with Israel. Nonetheless, if the President was anyone other than Trump, Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas would have more or less emulated Benjamin Netanyahu’s reaction: Somber nodding of the head, then a non-committal reaction to Peace for Prosperity, followed by effusive but general praise for our lord and savior Donald Trump. Israelis and Palestinians would have attended the Bahrain conference, while doing their best to suppress their inner guffaws.

    If it was anyone by Trump and his peace team - which often doubles as Netanyahu’s cheerleading squad – the Palestinians might have allowed themselves to believe that A. A comprehensive peace plan isn’t just a mirage and is indeed forthcoming. B. The deal won’t be tilted so far in favor of Israel that it will be declared stillborn on arrival and C. That it isn’t a ruse meant to cast Palestinians as congenital rejectionists and to pave the way for an Israeli annexation of “parts of the West Bank”, as Ambassador David Friedman put it when he pronounced Trump’s imperial edict conceding territory to Israel, which even Palestinian minimalists claim as their own, in advance of any actual talks.

    But because the plan bears Trump’s signature, it was received in most world capitals with shrugs, as yet another manifestation of the U.S. administration’s preposterous handling of foreign policy – see North Korea, Europe, Mexico, Venezuela et al. Israel, of course, didn’t miss the opportunity to regurgitate the cliché about the Palestinians “never missing an opportunity to miss an opportunity”.
    A Palestinian man steps on a painting depicting U.S. President Donald Trump during a protest against U.S.-led Bahrain workshop in Gaza City, June 24, 2019.
    A Palestinian man steps on a painting depicting U.S. President Donald Trump during a protest against U.S.-led Bahrain workshop in Gaza City, June 24, 2019. \ MOHAMMED SALEM/ REUTERS
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    For Palestinians and their supporters, however, Kushner’s bid was but the latest in the Trump team’s never-ending stream of slights, slanders and slaps in their collective faces. In Palestinian eyes, the economic bonanza isn’t a CBM – confidence building measure – but a con job and insult rolled into one. It dangles dollars in front of Palestinian noses, implying they can be bought, and it sets up a chain of events at the end of which Jason Greenblatt will inevitably accuse them on Twitter of being hysterical and dishonest while praising Netanyahu’s bold leadership and pioneering vision. They’ve been there, and done that.

    This has been the Trump approach from the outset: Uncontained admiration for Israel and its leader coupled with unhidden disdain for Palestinian leaders and contempt for their “unrealistic” dreams. Trump’s peace team swears by Israel’s security needs as if they were part of the bible or U.S. Constitution; the ongoing 52-year military occupation of millions of Palestinians, on the other hand, seems to have escaped their attention.

    For the first ten months of Trump’s tenure, the Palestinians put up with his administration’s unequivocal pledges of allegiance to Israel as well as the White House’s departure from past custom and continuing refusal to criticize any of its actions – not to mention the appointment of a peace team comprised exclusively of right-wing Netanyahu groupies, which Palestinians initially thought was surely a practical joke.

    Trump’s announcement in December 2017 that he would recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and move the U.S. embassy there was both game-changer and deal-breaker as far as the Palestinians were concerned. While Netanyahu and most of Israel were celebrating Donald the Daring and the long-awaited recognition of their eternal capital, Palestinians realized they were facing a President radically different from any of his predecessors - one willing to break the rules in Israel’s favor and to grant his bestie Bibi tangible victories, before, during and after elections - without asking for anything in return.

    The Palestinians have boycotted the Trump administration ever since, embarrassing Friedman, Greenblatt, Kushner and ultimately Trump in the process. They, in response, have increasingly vented their anger and frustrations at the Palestinians, and not just in words and Tweets alone: The administration shut down the PLO’s office in Washington, declared Jerusalem “off the table” and indicated that the refugee issue should follow it, cut aid to UNRWA and is endeavoring to dismantle it altogether and slashed assistance to Palestinian humanitarian organizations.

    In March 2018, in a move strongly supported by Israel and vigorously endorsed by Evangelicals and other right wing supporters, Trump signed the Congressionally approved Taylor Force Act that prohibits U.S. aid to the Palestinian Authority as long as it continued to pay monthly stipends to the families of what the Act describes as “terrorists”. Palestinians, who, to many people’s regret, regard such terrorists as heroes and martyrs, noted that the passage of the Taylor Force Act embarrassed Israel and spurred it to legislate its own way to withholding Palestinian tax money for the very same reason.

    Throughout the process, Trump and his peace team have lectured the Palestinians as a teacher reprimands an obstinate child. The Palestinians need to face reality, to lower their expectations, to land back on earth, Kushner and colleagues insist. Not only will they never realize their dreams and aspirations, they should also forget their core demand for an independent state free of outside control and not confide inside Israeli-controlled gates. Israelis are worthy of such independence, the Palestinians are told, but you are not.

    Trump approach is a product, first and foremost, of his own inexperience, arrogance and unwillingness to learn anything from a past in which he wasn’t in charge. It is fed by anti-Palestinian prejudices prevalent in his peace team as well as his advisers and most of his political supporters. Trump and his underlings basically adhere to the arguably racist tenet encapsulated in the Israeli saying “The Arabs understand only force.” The more you pressure them, the greater the chance they will succumb.
    Women protest against the U.S.-led workshop in Bahrain in the Moroccan capital Rabat, June 23, 2019.
    Women protest against the U.S.-led workshop in Bahrain in the Moroccan capital Rabat, June 23, 2019.AFP

    At this point at least, it hasn’t worked out that way. Bahrain, by any measure, is a humiliating bust. As Trump and his aides contemplate the reasons for their abject failure they are likely to blame stubborn Palestinians who don’t know what’s good for them, along with radical Muslims, perfidious Europeans, idiot liberals and all the other usual suspects.

    In a better world, they would take a hard look at themselves in the mirror and possibly have an epiphany. They can make an immediate adjustment that will cost them nothing but possibly achieve dramatic results. Instead of incessantly rebuking, reproaching, reprimanding, threatening and intimidating the Palestinians in a way that garners cheers from Christian messianics and Jewish zealots, they could try and treat them, as Aretha Franklin sang, with just a little respect. And perhaps, if it isn’t asking too much, take down their fawning for Netanyahu a notch or two.

    It might not be enough to reconcile irreconcilable differences or to make peace, but it will signal that Trump is finally getting serious about his claim to be the peacemaker the world has been waiting for. Alternatively, the Palestinians will continue to frustrate his designs and pray to Allah for his quick departure.

  • Qahtani played ’central role’ in abduction and interrogation of Lebanon’s Hariri: UN report | Middle East Eye
    https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/qahtani-played-central-role-interrogation-lebanese-prime-minister-un

    Top Saudi royal adviser Saud al-Qahtani, one of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s closest confidants, played a central role in the abduction and interrogation of Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri, a UN report has revealed. 

    UN Special Rapporteur Agnes Callamard said she was informed that Qahtani was one of two officials who had “personally interrogated and threatened” Hariri at the Riyadh Ritz-Carlton hotel after being summoned to the capital in 2017.

    “People close to the incident suggested the prime minister was a victim of ’psychological torture’ and treatment that may have been ’cruel, inhuman and degrading’,” the UN report said.

    #Liban #arabie_saoudite

  • Ambulance Officer Mohammed Sobhi al-Jadili Succumbed to His Wounds; PCHR Condemns Israeli forces’ Targeting of Medical Personnel in Gaza Strip | Palestinian Center for Human Rights
    June 12, 2019
    https://pchrgaza.org/en/?p=12525

    On Monday, 10 June 2019, an ambulance officer succumbed to wounds he sustained while on duty to rescue and evacuate those wounded in the March of Return and Breaking Siege. Thus, the number of medical personnel causalities has risen to 4 killed and 203 injured since the beginning of the Return March in the Gaza Strip on 29 March 2018.

    According to investigations conducted by the Palestinian Center for Human rights (PCHR), at approximately 13:00 on Monday, 10 June 2019, Palestinian medical sources announced the death of ambulance officer, Mohammed Sobhi Salamah al-Judaili (36), from al-Buraij refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip, succumbing to wounds he sustained at approximately 18:10 on Friday, 03 May 2019. (...)

    #Palestine_assassinée #marcheduretour

  • UAE’s Prince Mohammed Bin Zayed’s Growing Influence On The U.S. (ht...
    https://diasp.eu/p/9165414

    UAE’s Prince Mohammed Bin Zayed’s Growing Influence On The U.S.

    New York Times correspondent David Kirkpatrick says the UAE ruler has convinced President Trump to take an aggressive position against his enemies, including Iran and the Muslim Brotherhood.

    #news #npr #publicradio #usa posted by pod_feeder_v2

  • Les relations intimes de Jared Kushner avec les mystiques juifs marocains
    Par Sophie Lamberts - Le 30 mai 2019
    https://telquel.ma/2019/05/30/les-relations-intimes-de-jared-kushner-avec-les-mystiques-juifs-marocains_16

    Après avoir rencontré Mohammed VI à Rabat, le gendre de Donald Trump s’est recueilli au cimetière juif de Casablanca, aux côté de son rabbin David Pinto. La bénédiction des mystiques marocains suffira-t-elle à résoudre le conflit israélo-palestinien ? Assurément, à en croire Jared Kushner.

    Ils flânent, bras dessus, bras dessous, entre les tombes du cimetière juif Ben M’Sik de Casablanca. L’un, jeune arriviste orthodoxe diplômé de Harvard, gendre et haut conseiller de Donald Trump ; l’autre, mystique à la barbe blanche ultra-orthodoxe d’origine marocaine, qui, selon certains, aurait des pouvoirs miraculeux. “Il est comme mon fils”, glisse David Pinto, en darija, en désignant Jared Kushner. (...)

  • How We Investigated the New York Taxi Medallion Bubble - The New York Times
    https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/22/reader-center/taxi-medallion-investigation.html

    It took a year, 450 interviews and a database built from scratch to answer a simple question: Why had anyone ever agreed to pay $1 million for the right to drive a yellow cab?

    By Brian M. Rosenthal
    May 22, 2019

    Times Insider explains who we are and what we do, and delivers behind-the-scenes insights into how our journalism comes together.

    The story started, like a lot of stories seem to, with President Trump’s former lawyer, Michael D. Cohen.

    On April 9, 2018, the F.B.I. raided Mr. Cohen’s office, thrusting him into the national spotlight. The next day, the top editors at The New York Times asked five reporters to start working on a profile. I was one of them.

    The other reporters researched Mr. Cohen’s family, his legal career, his real estate interests and, of course, his work for the president. I took on the last piece of his business empire: his ownership of 30 New York taxi medallions, the coveted permits needed to own a yellow cab.

    After a few weeks of reporting, the team learned enough to publish our story on Mr. Cohen. And I discovered enough to know what I wanted to investigate next.

    At that time, the taxi industry was becoming a big story. Mr. Cohen had owned his medallions as an investment, counting on them rising in value because of the city’s decision to issue only about 13,000 permits. But thousands of the medallions were owned by drivers themselves, and two driver-owners had just died by suicide. Public officials were talking about how the price of a medallion had plummeted from over $1 million to under $150,000. Most were blaming ride-hailing companies such as Uber and Lyft.

    I had a different question: Why had anybody ever paid $1 million for the right to the grueling job of being a cabby?

    When I pursue an investigation, I identify the single most important question that I am trying to answer, and orient all of my reporting around it. (For example, why did it cost more to build subway track in New York than anywhere else in the world? Or why did Texas have the lowest special education rate in the country?) In this case, I ended up interviewing about 450 people, and I asked almost all the same question: Why did the price reach $1 million? It became my North Star.

    I heard plenty of theories, but I began to get somewhere only when I had an epiphany: No driver-owner had ever really paid close to $1 million for a medallion. On paper, thousands of low-income immigrants had. But while they had poured their life savings into their purchase, virtually all had signed loans for most of the cost — and never really had a chance to repay.

    I needed to examine as many loans as possible, to see if they were as unusual and reckless — and predatory — as some of my sources said they were. But how?

    I got a lead from an unexpected source: the lenders themselves.

    After prices had started crashing, the lenders in the industry had tried to squeeze money out of borrowers. Many of them had filed lawsuits against borrowers — lawsuits which had to include copies of the loans.

    I ultimately reviewed 500 of these loans, and I saw disturbing patterns: Almost none of them included a large down payment. Almost all of them required the borrower to repay everything within three years, which was impossible. There were a lot of interest-only loans, and a wide variety of fees, including charges for paying loans off too early. Many of the loans required borrowers to sign away their legal rights.

    Armed with the loan documents, I started calling dozens of current and former industry bankers, brokers, lawyers and investors. Some pointed me to disclosures that lenders had filed with the government, which were enormously helpful. Others shared internal records, which were even better.

    New York City did not have reliable digital data on medallion sales, so I used paper records to build a database of all the 10,888 sales between 1995 and 2018. The city taxi commission had never analyzed the financial records submitted by medallion buyers, so I did. Nobody knew how many medallion owners had gone bankrupt because of the crisis, so I convinced my boss to pay a technology company, Epiq, to create a program that sped through court records and spat out a tentative list — and then two news assistants helped me verify every result.

    As I dug into the data and the documents, I sought out driver-owners. I wanted to understand what they had been through. To find them, I went to Kennedy International Airport.

    The fare from taking someone from the airport into Manhattan can make a cabby’s day, and so drivers wait in line for hours. And over several visits during a couple of months, I waited with them, striking up conversations outside a food stand run by a Greek family and next to pay phones that had stopped working years ago. After talking briefly, I asked if I could visit their homes and meet their friends.

    In all, I met 200 taxi drivers, including several I interviewed through translators because they did not speak English fluently. (Some of those men still had signed loans of up to $1 million.) One by one, they told me how they had come to New York seeking the American dream, worked hard and gotten trapped in loans they did not understand, which often made them give up almost all of their monthly income. Several said that after the medallion bubble burst, wiping out their savings and their futures, they had contemplated suicide. One said he had already attempted it.

    The day after we began publishing our findings, city officials announced they were exploring ways to help these driver-owners, and the mayor and state attorney general said they were going to investigate the people who channeled them into the loans.

    In the end, the three front-page stories that we published this week about the taxi industry barely mentioned Mr. Cohen at all.

    But they did something much more important: They told the stories of Mohammed Hoque, of Jean Demosthenes and of Wael Ghobrayal.

    Brian M. Rosenthal is an investigative reporter on the Metro Desk. Previously, he covered state government for the Houston Chronicle and for The Seattle Times. @brianmrosenthal

    #USA #New_York #Taxi #Betrug #Ausbeutung

  • ‘They Were Conned’: How Reckless Loans Devastated a Generation of Taxi Drivers - The New York Times
    https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/19/nyregion/nyc-taxis-medallions-suicides.html


    Mohammed Hoque with his three children in their studio apartment in Jamaica, Queens.

    May 19, 2019 - The phone call that ruined Mohammed Hoque’s life came in April 2014 as he began another long day driving a New York City taxi, a job he had held since emigrating from Bangladesh nine years earlier.

    The call came from a prominent businessman who was selling a medallion, the coveted city permit that allows a driver to own a yellow cab instead of working for someone else. If Mr. Hoque gave him $50,000 that day, he promised to arrange a loan for the purchase.

    After years chafing under bosses he hated, Mr. Hoque thought his dreams of wealth and independence were coming true. He emptied his bank account, borrowed from friends and hurried to the man’s office in Astoria, Queens. Mr. Hoque handed over a check and received a stack of papers. He signed his name and left, eager to tell his wife.

    Mr. Hoque made about $30,000 that year. He had no idea, he said later, that he had just signed a contract that required him to pay $1.7 million.

    Over the past year, a spate of suicides by taxi drivers in New York City has highlighted in brutal terms the overwhelming debt and financial plight of medallion owners. All along, officials have blamed the crisis on competition from ride-hailing companies such as Uber and Lyft.

    But a New York Times investigation found much of the devastation can be traced to a handful of powerful industry leaders who steadily and artificially drove up the price of taxi medallions, creating a bubble that eventually burst. Over more than a decade, they channeled thousands of drivers into reckless loans and extracted hundreds of millions of dollars before the market collapsed.

    These business practices generated huge profits for bankers, brokers, lawyers, investors, fleet owners and debt collectors. The leaders of nonprofit credit unions became multimillionaires. Medallion brokers grew rich enough to buy yachts and waterfront properties. One of the most successful bankers hired the rap star Nicki Minaj to perform at a family party.

    But the methods stripped immigrant families of their life savings, crushed drivers under debt they could not repay and engulfed an industry that has long defined New York. More than 950 medallion owners have filed for bankruptcy, according to a Times analysis of court records. Thousands more are barely hanging on.

    The practices were strikingly similar to those behind the housing market crash that led to the 2008 global economic meltdown: Banks and loosely regulated private lenders wrote risky loans and encouraged frequent refinancing; drivers took on debt they could not afford, under terms they often did not understand.

    Some big banks even entered the taxi industry in the aftermath of the housing crash, seeking a new market, with new borrowers.

    The combination of easy money, eager borrowers and the lure of a rare asset helped prices soar far above what medallions were really worth. Some industry leaders fed the frenzy by purposefully overpaying for medallions in order to inflate prices, The Times found.

    Between 2002 and 2014, the price of a medallion rose to more than $1 million from $200,000, even though city records showed that driver incomes barely changed.

    About 4,000 drivers bought medallions in that period, records show. They were excited to buy, but they were enticed by a dubious premise.

    What Actually Happened to New York’s Taxi DriversMay 28, 2019

    After the medallion market collapsed, Mayor Bill de Blasio opted not to fund a bailout, and earlier this year, the City Council speaker, Corey Johnson, shut down the committee overseeing the taxi industry, saying it had completed most of its work.

    Over 10 months, The Times interviewed 450 people, built a database of every medallion sale since 1995 and reviewed thousands of individual loans and other documents, including internal bank records and confidential profit-sharing agreements.

    The investigation found example after example of drivers trapped in exploitative loans, including hundreds who signed interest-only loans that required them to pay exorbitant fees, forfeit their legal rights and give up almost all their monthly income, indefinitely.

    A Pakistani immigrant who thought he was just buying a car ended up with a $780,000 medallion loan that left him unable to pay rent. A Bangladeshi immigrant said he was told to lie about his income on his loan application; he eventually lost his medallion. A Haitian immigrant who worked to exhaustion to make his monthly payments discovered he had been paying only interest and went bankrupt.

    Abdur Rahim, who is from Bangladesh, is one of several cab drivers who allege they were duped into signing exploitative loans. 
    It is unclear if the practices violated any laws. But after reviewing The Times’s findings, experts said the methods were among the worst that have been used since the housing crash.

    “I don’t think I could concoct a more predatory scheme if I tried,” said Roger Bertling, the senior instructor at Harvard Law School’s clinic on predatory lending and consumer protection. “This was modern-day indentured servitude.”

    Lenders developed their techniques in New York but spread them to Chicago, Boston, San Francisco and elsewhere, transforming taxi industries across the United States.

    In interviews, lenders denied wrongdoing. They noted that regulators approved their practices, and said some borrowers made poor decisions and assumed too much debt. They said some drivers were happy to use climbing medallion values as collateral to take out cash, and that those who sold their medallions at the height of the market made money.

    The lenders said they believed medallion values would keep increasing, as they almost always had. No one, they said, could have predicted Uber and Lyft would emerge to undercut the business.

    “People love to blame banks for things that happen because they’re big bad banks,” said Robert Familant, the former head of Progressive Credit Union, a small nonprofit that specialized in medallion loans. “We didn’t do anything, in my opinion, other than try to help small businesspeople become successful.”

    Mr. Familant made about $30 million in salary and deferred payouts during the bubble, including $4.8 million in bonuses and incentives in 2014, the year it burst, according to disclosure forms.

    Meera Joshi, who joined the Taxi and Limousine Commission in 2011 and became chairwoman in 2014, said it was not the city’s job to regulate lending. But she acknowledged that officials saw red flags and could have done something.

    “There were lots of players, and lots of people just watched it happen. So the T.L.C. watched it happen. The lenders watched it happen. The borrowers watched it happen as their investment went up, and it wasn’t until it started falling apart that people started taking action and pointing fingers,” said Ms. Joshi, who left the commission in March. “It was a party. Why stop it?”

    Every day, about 250,000 people hail a New York City yellow taxi. Most probably do not know they are participating in an unconventional economic system about as old as the Empire State Building.

    The city created taxi medallions in 1937. Unlicensed cabs crowded city streets, so officials designed about 12,000 specialized tin plates and made it illegal to operate a taxi without one bolted to the hood of the car. The city sold each medallion for $10.

    People who bought medallions could sell them, just like any other asset. The only restriction: Officials designated roughly half as “independent medallions” and eventually required that those always be owned by whoever was driving that cab.

    Over time, as yellow taxis became symbols of New York, a cutthroat industry grew around them. A few entrepreneurs obtained most of the nonindependent medallions and built fleets that controlled the market. They were family operations largely based in the industrial neighborhoods of Hell’s Kitchen in Manhattan and Long Island City in Queens.

    Allegations of corruption, racism and exploitation dogged the industry. Some fleet bosses were accused of cheating drivers. Some drivers refused to go outside Manhattan or pick up black and Latino passengers. Fleet drivers typically worked 60 hours a week, made less than minimum wage and received no benefits, according to city studies.

    Still, driving could serve as a path to the middle class. Drivers could save to buy an independent medallion, which would increase their earnings and give them an asset they could someday sell for a retirement nest egg.

    Those who borrowed money to buy a medallion typically had to submit a large down payment and repay within five to 10 years.

    The conservative lending strategy produced modest returns. The city did not release new medallions for almost 60 years, and values slowly climbed, hitting $100,000 in 1985 and $200,000 in 1997.

    “It was a safe and stable asset, and it provided a good life for those of us who were lucky enough to buy them,” said Guy Roberts, who began driving in 1979 and eventually bought medallions and formed a fleet. “Not an easy life, but a good life.”

    “And then,” he said, “everything changed.”

    – Before coming to America, Mohammed Hoque lived comfortably in Chittagong, a city on Bangladesh’s southern coast. He was a serious student and a gifted runner, despite a small and stocky frame. His father and grandfather were teachers; he said he surpassed them, becoming an education official with a master’s degree in management. He supervised dozens of schools and traveled on a government-issued motorcycle. In 2004, when he was 33, he married Fouzia Mahabub. -

    That same year, several of his friends signed up for the green card lottery, and their thirst for opportunity was contagious. He applied, and won.

    His wife had an uncle in Jamaica, Queens, so they went there. They found a studio apartment. Mr. Hoque wanted to work in education, but he did not speak enough English. A friend recommended the taxi industry.

    It was an increasingly common move for South Asian immigrants. In 2005, about 40 percent of New York cabbies were born in Bangladesh, India or Pakistan, according to the United States Census Bureau. Over all, just 9 percent were born in the United States.

    Mr. Hoque and his wife emigrated from Bangladesh, and have rented the same apartment in Queens since 2005.

    Mr. Hoque joined Taxifleet Management, a large fleet run by the Weingartens, a Russian immigrant family whose patriarchs called themselves the “Three Wise Men.”

    He worked 5 a.m. to 5 p.m., six days a week. On a good day, he said, he brought home $100. He often felt lonely on the road, and he developed back pain from sitting all day and diabetes, medical records show.

    He could have worked fewer shifts. He also could have moved out of the studio. But he drove as much as feasible and spent as little as possible. He had heard the city would soon be auctioning off new medallions. He was saving to buy one.

    Andrew Murstein, left, with his father, Alvin.CreditChester Higgins Jr./The New York Times
    In the early 2000s, a new generation took power in New York’s cab industry. They were the sons of longtime industry leaders, and they had new ideas for making money.

    Few people represented the shift better than Andrew Murstein.

    Mr. Murstein was the grandson of a Polish immigrant who bought one of the first medallions, built one of the city’s biggest fleets and began informally lending to other buyers in the 1970s. Mr. Murstein attended business school and started his career at Bear Stearns and Salomon Brothers, the investment banks.

    When he joined the taxi business, he has said, he pushed his family to sell off many medallions and to establish a bank to focus on lending. Medallion Financial went public in 1996. Its motto was, “In niches, there are riches.”

    Dozens of industry veterans said Mr. Murstein and his father, Alvin, were among those who helped to move the industry to less conservative lending practices. The industry veterans said the Mursteins, as well as others, started saying medallion values would always rise and used that idea to focus on lending to lower-income drivers, which was riskier but more profitable.

    The strategy began to be used by the industry’s other major lenders — Progressive Credit Union, Melrose Credit Union and Lomto Credit Union, all family-run nonprofits that made essentially all their money from medallion loans, according to financial disclosures.

    “We didn’t want to be the one left behind,” said Monte Silberger, Lomto’s controller and then chief financial officer from 1999 to 2017.

    The lenders began accepting smaller down payments. By 2013, many medallion buyers were not handing over any down payment at all, according to an analysis of buyer applications submitted to the city.

    “It got to a point where we didn’t even check their income or credit score,” Mr. Silberger said. “It didn’t matter.”

    Lenders also encouraged existing borrowers to refinance and take out more money when medallion prices rose, according to interviews with dozens of borrowers and loan officers. There is no comprehensive data, but bank disclosures suggest that thousands of owners refinanced.

    Industry veterans said it became common for owners to refinance to buy a house or to put children through college. “You’d walk into the bank and walk out 30 minutes later with an extra $200,000,” said Lou Bakalar, a broker who arranged loans.

    Yvon Augustin has been living with help from his children ever since he declared bankruptcy and lost his taxi medallion.

    Some pointed to the refinancing to argue that irresponsible borrowers fueled the crisis. “Medallion owners were misusing it,” said Aleksey Medvedovskiy, a fleet owner who also worked as a broker. “They used it as an A.T.M.”

    As lenders loosened standards, they increased returns. Rather than raising interest rates, they made borrowers pay a mix of costs — origination fees, legal fees, financing fees, refinancing fees, filing fees, fees for paying too late and fees for paying too early, according to a Times review of more than 500 loans included in legal cases. Many lenders also made borrowers split their loan and pay a much higher rate on the second loan, documents show.

    Lenders also extended loan lengths. Instead of requiring repayment in five or 10 years, they developed deals that lasted as long as 50 years, locking in decades of interest payments. And some wrote interest-only loans that could continue forever.

    “We couldn’t figure out why the company was doing so many interest-only loans,” said Michelle Pirritano, a Medallion Financial loan analyst from 2007 to 2011. “It was a good revenue stream, but it didn’t really make sense as a loan. I mean, it wasn’t really a loan, because it wasn’t being repaid.”

    Almost every loan reviewed by The Times included a clause that spiked the interest rate to as high as 24 percent if it was not repaid in three years. Lenders included the clause — called a “balloon” — so that borrowers almost always had to extend the loan, possibly at a higher rate than in the original terms, and with additional fees.

    Yvon Augustin was caught in one of those loans. He bought a medallion in 2006, a decade after emigrating from Haiti. He said he paid $2,275 every month — more than half his income, he said — and thought he was paying off the loan. But last year, his bank used the balloon to demand that he repay everything. That is when he learned he had been paying only the interest, he said.

    Mr. Augustin, 69, declared bankruptcy and lost his medallion. He lives off assistance from his children.

    During the global financial crisis, Eugene Haber, a lawyer for the taxi industry, started getting calls from bankers he had never met.

    Mr. Haber had written a template for medallion loans in the 1970s. By 2008, his thick mustache had turned white, and he thought he knew everybody in the industry. Suddenly, new bankers began calling his suite in a Long Island office park. Capital One, Signature Bank, New York Commercial Bank and others wanted to issue medallion loans, he said.

    Some of the banks were looking for new borrowers after the housing market collapsed, Mr. Haber said. “They needed somewhere else to invest,” he said. He said he represented some banks at loan signings but eventually became embittered because he believed banks were knowingly lending to people who could not repay.

    Instead of lending directly, the big banks worked through powerful industry players. They enlisted large fleet owners and brokers — especially Neil Greenbaum, Richard Chipman, Savas Konstantinides, Roman Sapino and Basil Messados — to use the banks’ money to lend to medallion buyers. In return, the owners and brokers received a cut of the monthly payments and sometimes an additional fee.

    The fleet owners and brokers, who technically issued the loans, did not face the same scrutiny as banks.

    “They did loans that were frankly insane,” said Larry Fisher, who from 2003 to 2016 oversaw medallion lending at Melrose Credit Union, one of the biggest lenders originally in the industry. “It contributed to the price increases and put a lot of pressure on the rest of us to keep up.”

    Evgeny Freidman, a fleet owner, has said he purposely overbid for taxi medallions in order to drive up their value.CreditSasha Maslov
    Still, Mr. Fisher said, Melrose followed lending rules. “A lot of people tend to blame others for their own misfortune,” he said. “If they want to blame the lender for the medallion going down the tubes the way it has, I think they’re misplaced.”

    Mr. Konstantinides, a fleet owner and the broker and lender who arranged Mr. Hoque’s loans, said every loan issued by his company abided by federal and state banking guidelines. “I am very sympathetic to the plight of immigrant families who are seeking a better life in this country and in this city,” said Mr. Konstantinides, who added that he was also an immigrant.

    Walter Rabin, who led Capital One’s medallion lending division between 2007 and 2012 and has led Signature Bank’s medallion lending division since, said he was one of the industry’s most conservative lenders. He said he could not speak for the brokers and fleet owners with whom he worked.

    Mr. Rabin and other Signature executives denied fault for the market collapse and blamed the city for allowing ride-hail companies to enter with little regulation. “It’s the City of New York that took the biggest advantage of the drivers,” said Joseph J. DePaolo, the president and chief executive of Signature. “It’s not the banks.”

    New York Commercial Bank said in a statement that it began issuing medallion loans before the housing crisis and that they were a very small part of its business. The bank did not engage in risky lending practices, a spokesman said.

    Mr. Messados said in an interview that he disagreed with interest-only loans and other one-sided terms. But he said he was caught between banks developing the loans and drivers clamoring for them. “They were insisting on this,” he said. “What are you supposed to do? Say, ‘I’m not doing the sale?’”

    Several lenders challenged the idea that borrowers were unsophisticated. They said that some got better deals by negotiating with multiple lenders at once.

    Mr. Greenbaum, Mr. Chipman and Mr. Sapino declined to comment, as did Capital One.

    Some fleet owners worked to manipulate prices. In the most prominent example, Evgeny Freidman, a brash Russian immigrant who owned so many medallions that some called him “The Taxi King,” said he purposefully overpaid for medallions sold at city auctions. He reasoned that the higher prices would become the industry standard, making the medallions he already owned worth more. Mr. Freidman, who was partners with Michael Cohen, President Trump’s former lawyer, disclosed the plan in a 2012 speech at Yeshiva University. He recently pleaded guilty to felony tax fraud. He declined to comment.

    As medallion prices kept increasing, the industry became strained. Drivers had to work longer hours to make monthly payments. Eventually, loan records show, many drivers had to use almost all their income on payments.

    “The prices got to be ridiculous,” said Vincent Sapone, the retired manager of the League of Mutual Taxi Owners, an owner association. “When it got close to $1 million, nobody was going to pay that amount of money, unless they came from another country. Nobody from Brooklyn was going to pay that.”

    Some drivers have alleged in court that lenders tricked them into signing loans.

    Muhammad Ashraf, who is not fluent in English, said he thought he was getting a loan to purchase a car but ended up in debt to buy a taxi medallion instead.

    Muhammad Ashraf, a Pakistani immigrant, alleged that a broker, Heath Candero, duped him into a $780,000 interest-only loan. He said in an interview in Urdu that he could not speak English fluently and thought he was just signing a loan to buy a car. He said he found out about the loan when his bank sued him for not fully repaying. The bank eventually decided not to pursue a case against Mr. Ashraf. He also filed a lawsuit against Mr. Candero. That case was dismissed. A lawyer for Mr. Candero declined to comment.

    Abdur Rahim, a Bangladeshi immigrant, alleged that his lender, Bay Ridge Credit Union, inserted hidden fees. In an interview, he added he was told to lie on his loan application. The application, reviewed by The Times, said he made $128,389, but he said his tax return showed he made about $25,000. In court, Bay Ridge has denied there were hidden fees and said Mr. Rahim was “confusing the predatory-lending statute with a mere bad investment.” The credit union declined to comment.

    Several employees of lenders said they were pushed to write loans, encouraged by bonuses and perks such as tickets to sporting events and free trips to the Bahamas.

    They also said drivers almost never had lawyers at loan closings. Borrowers instead trusted their broker to represent them, even though, unbeknown to them, the broker was often getting paid by the bank.

    Stan Zurbin, who between 2009 and 2012 did consulting work for a lender that issued medallion loans, said that as prices rose, lenders in the industry increasingly lent to immigrants.

    “They didn’t have 750 credit scores, let’s just say,” he said. “A lot of them had just come into the country. A lot of them just had no idea what they were signing.”

    The $1 million medallion
    Video
    Mrs. Hoque did not want her husband to buy a medallion. She wanted to use their savings to buy a house. They had their first child in 2008, and they planned to have more. They needed to leave the studio apartment, and she thought a home would be a safer investment.

    But Mr. Hoque could not shake the idea, especially after several friends bought medallions at the city’s February 2014 auction.

    One friend introduced him to a man called “Big Savas.” It was Mr. Konstantinides, a fleet owner who also had a brokerage and a lending company, Mega Funding.

    The call came a few weeks later. A medallion owner had died, and the family was selling for $1 million.

    Mr. Hoque said he later learned the $50,000 he paid up front was just for taxes. Mega eventually requested twice that amount for fees and a down payment, records show. Mr. Hoque said he maxed out credit cards and borrowed from a dozen friends and relatives.

    Fees and interest would bring the total repayment to more than $1.7 million, documents show. It was split into two loans, both issued by Mega with New York Commercial Bank. The loans made him pay $5,000 a month — most of the $6,400 he could earn as a medallion owner.

    Mohammed Hoque’s Medallion Loans Consumed Most of His Taxi Revenue
    After paying his two medallion loans and business costs, Mr. Hoque had about $1,400 left over each month to pay the rent on his studio apartment in Queens and cover his living expenses.

    Estimated monthly revenue $11,845

    Gas $1,500

    Income after expenses $1,400

    Vehicle maintenance $1,300

    Medallion loan 1 $4,114

    Insurance $1,200

    Car loan $650

    Credit card fees $400

    Medallion loan 2 $881

    Other work-related expenses $400

    By the time the deal closed in July 2014, Mr. Hoque had heard of a new company called Uber. He wondered if it would hurt the business, but nobody seemed to be worried.

    As Mr. Hoque drove to the Taxi and Limousine Commission’s downtown office for final approval of the purchase, he fantasized about becoming rich, buying a big house and bringing his siblings to America. After a commission official reviewed his application and loan records, he said he was ushered into the elegant “Taxi of Tomorrow” room. An official pointed a camera. Mr. Hoque smiled.

    “These are little cash cows running around the city spitting out money,” Mr. Murstein said, beaming in a navy suit and pink tie.

    He did not mention he was quietly leaving the business, a move that would benefit him when the market collapsed.

    By the time of the appearance, Medallion Financial had been cutting the number of medallion loans on its books for years, according to disclosures it filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Mr. Murstein later said the company started exiting the business and focusing on other ventures before 2010.

    Mr. Murstein declined numerous interview requests. He also declined to answer some written questions, including why he promoted medallions while exiting the business. In emails and through a spokesman, he acknowledged that Medallion Financial reduced down payments but said it rarely issued interest-only loans or charged borrowers for repaying loans too early.

    “Many times, we did not match what our competitors were willing to do and in retrospect, thankfully, we lost the business,” he wrote to The Times.

    Interviews with three former staffers, and a Times review of loan documents that were filed as part of lawsuits brought by Medallion Financial against borrowers, indicate the company issued many interest-only loans and routinely included a provision allowing it to charge borrowers for repaying loans too early.

    Other lenders also left the taxi industry or took precautions long before the market collapsed.

    The credit unions specializing in the industry kept making new loans. But between 2010 and 2014, they sold the loans to other financial institutions more often than in the previous five years, disclosure forms show. Progressive Credit Union, run by Mr. Familant, sold loans off almost twice as often, the forms show. By 2012, that credit union was selling the majority of the loans it issued.

    In a statement, Mr. Familant said the selling of loans was a standard banking practice that did not indicate a lack of confidence in the market.

    Several banks used something called a confession of judgment. It was an obscure document in which the borrower admitted defaulting on the loan — even before taking out any money at all — and authorized the bank to do whatever it wanted to collect.

    Larry Fisher was the medallion lending supervisor at Melrose Credit Union, one of the biggest lenders originally in the industry, from 2003 to 2016.
    Congress has banned that practice in consumer loans, but not in business loans, which is how lenders classified medallion deals. Many states have barred it in business loans, too, but New York is not among them.

    Even as some lenders quietly braced for the market to fall, prices kept rising, and profits kept growing.

    By 2014, many of the people who helped create the bubble had made millions of dollars and invested it elsewhere.

    Medallion Financial started focusing on lending to R.V. buyers and bought a professional lacrosse team and a Nascar team, painting the car to look like a taxi. Mr. Murstein and his father made more than $42 million between 2002 and 2014, disclosures show. In 2015, Ms. Minaj, the rap star, performed at his son’s bar mitzvah.

    The Melrose C.E.O., Alan Kaufman, had the highest base salary of any large state-chartered credit union leader in America in 2013 and 2015, records show. His medallion lending supervisor, Mr. Fisher, also made millions.

    It is harder to tell how much fleet owners and brokers made, but in recent years news articles have featured some of them with new boats and houses.

    Mr. Messados’s bank records, filed in a legal case, show that by 2013, he had more than $50 million in non-taxi assets, including three homes and a yacht.

    The bubble bursts

    At least eight drivers have committed suicide, including three medallion owners with overwhelming loans.
    The medallion bubble burst in late 2014. Uber and Lyft may have hastened the crisis, but virtually all of the hundreds of industry veterans interviewed for this article, including many lenders, said inflated prices and risky lending practices would have caused a collapse even if ride-hailing had never been invented.

    At the market’s height, medallion buyers were typically earning about $5,000 a month and paying about $4,500 to their loans, according to an analysis by The Times of city data and loan documents. Many owners could make their payments only by refinancing when medallion values increased, which was unsustainable, some loan officers said.

    City data shows that since Uber entered New York in 2011, yellow cab revenue has decreased by about 10 percent per cab, a significant bite for low-earning drivers but a small drop compared with medallion values, which initially rose and then fell by 90 percent.

    As values fell, borrowers asked for breaks. But many lenders went the opposite direction. They decided to leave the business and called in their loans.

    They used the confessions to get hundreds of judgments that would allow them to take money from bank accounts, court records show. Some tried to get borrowers to give up homes or a relative’s assets. Others seized medallions and quickly resold them for profit, while still charging the original borrowers fees and extra interest. Several drivers have alleged in court that their lenders ordered them to buy life insurance.

    Many lenders hired a debt collector, Anthony Medina, to seize medallions from borrowers who missed payments.

    The scars left on cabs after medallions were removed.

    Mr. Medina left notes telling borrowers they had to give the lender “relief” to get their medallions back. The notes, which were reviewed by The Times, said the seizure was “authorized by vehicle apprehension unit.” Some drivers said Mr. Medina suggested he was a police officer and made them meet him at a park at night and pay $550 extra in cash.

    One man, Jean Demosthenes, a 64-year-old Haitian immigrant who could not speak English, said in an interview in Haitian Creole that Mr. Medina cornered him in Midtown, displayed a gun and took his car.

    In an interview, Mr. Medina denied threatening anyone with a gun. He said he requested cash because drivers who had defaulted could not be trusted to write good checks. He said he met drivers at parks and referred to himself as the vehicle apprehension unit because he wanted to hide his identity out of fear he could be targeted by borrowers.

    “You’re taking words from people that are deadbeats and delinquent people. Of course, they don’t want to see me,” he said. “I’m not the bad guy. I’m just the messenger from the bank.”

    Some lenders, especially Signature Bank, have let borrowers out of their loans for one-time payments of about $250,000. But to get that money, drivers have had to find new loans. Mr. Greenbaum, a fleet owner, has provided many of those loans, sometimes at interest rates of up to 15 percent, loan documents and interviews showed.

    New York Commercial Bank said in its statement it also had modified some loans.

    Other drivers lost everything. Most of the more than 950 owners who declared bankruptcy had to forfeit their medallions. Records indicate many were bought by hedge funds hoping for prices to rise. For now, cabs sit unused.

    Jean Demosthenes said his medallion was repossessed by a man with a gun. The man denied that he was armed.

    Bhairavi Desai, founder of the Taxi Workers Alliance, which represents drivers and independent owners, has asked the city to bail out owners or refund auction purchasers. Others have urged the city to pressure banks to forgive loans or soften terms.

    After reviewing The Times’s findings, Deepak Gupta, a former top official at the United States Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, said the New York Attorney General’s Office should investigate lenders.

    Mr. Gupta also said the state should close the loophole that let lenders classify medallion deals as business loans, even though borrowers had to guarantee them with everything they owned. Consumer loans have far more disclosure rules and protections.

    “These practices were indisputably predatory and would be illegal if they were considered consumer loans, rather than business loans,” he said.

    Last year, amid eight known suicides of drivers, including three medallion owners with overwhelming loans, the city passed a temporary cap on ride-hailing cars, created a task force to study the industry and directed the city taxi commission to do its own analysis of the debt crisis.

    Earlier this year, the Council eliminated the committee overseeing the industry after its chairman, Councilman Rubén Díaz Sr. of the Bronx, said the Council was “controlled by the homosexual community.” The speaker, Mr. Johnson, said, “The vast majority of the legislative work that we have been looking at has already been completed.”

    In a statement, a council spokesman said the committee’s duties had been transferred to the Committee on Transportation. “The Council is working to do as much as it can legislatively to help all drivers,” the spokesman said.

    As of last week, no one had been appointed to the task force.

    On the last day of 2018, Mr. and Mrs. Hoque brought their third child home from the hospital.

    Mr. Hoque cleared space for the boy’s crib, pushing aside his plastic bags of T-shirts and the fan that cooled the studio. He looked around. He could not believe he was still living in the same room.

    His loan had quickly faltered. He could not make the payments and afford rent, and his medallion was seized. Records show he paid more than $12,000 to Mega, and he said he paid another $550 to Mr. Medina to get it back. He borrowed from friends, promising it would not happen again. Then it happened four more times, he said.

    Mr. Konstantinides, the broker, said in his statement that he met with Mr. Hoque many times and twice modified one of his loans in order to lower his monthly payments. He also said he gave Mr. Hoque extra time to make some payments.

    In all, between the initial fees, monthly payments and penalties after the seizures, Mr. Hoque had paid about $400,000 into the medallion by the beginning of this year.

    But he still owed $915,000 more, plus interest, and he did not know what to do. Bankruptcy would cost money, ruin his credit and remove his only income source. And it would mean a shameful end to years of hard work. He believed his only choice was to keep working and to keep paying.

    His cab was supposed to be his ticket to money and freedom, but instead it seemed like a prison cell. Every day, he got in before the sun rose and stayed until the sky began to darken. Mr. Hoque, now 48, tried not to think about home, about what he had given up and what he had dreamed about.

    “It’s an unhuman life,” he said. “I drive and drive and drive. But I don’t know what my destination is.”

    [Read Part 2 of The Times’s investigation: As Thousands of Taxi Drivers Were Trapped in Loans, Top Officials Counted the Money]

    Reporting was contributed by Emma G. Fitzsimmons, Suzanne Hillinger, Derek M. Norman, Elisha Brown, Lindsey Rogers Cook, Pierre-Antoine Louis and Sameen Amin. Doris Burke and Susan Beachy contributed research. Produced by Jeffrey Furticella and Meghan Louttit.

    Follow Brian M. Rosenthal on Twitter at @brianmrosenthal

    #USA #New_York #Taxi #Betrug #Ausbeutung

  • TRIBUNE. Les Émirats, maîtres de la contre-révolution arabe - Le Point
    https://www.lepoint.fr/monde/tribune-les-emirats-maitres-de-la-contre-revolution-arabe-23-05-2019-2314718

    Larges extraits d’une bonne tribune.

    La perception que l’on a des Émirats arabes unis (EAU) comme un îlot libéral au milieu de l’archipel de monarchies conservatrices du Golfe est un mythe. Dans l’ombre des gratte-ciel clinquants et d’une image soigneusement travaillée, les EAU se sont transformés ces dernières années en un État policier – un État autoritaire qui ne cherche pas seulement à renverser les acquis des révolutions arabes, mais encore plus d’imposer son idéologie en réalité plus intransigeante et machiavélique que celle du royaume saoudien sur laquelle on a tendance à se focaliser. Les Émirats ne font pas que préparer le lancement d’une sonde sur Mars : ils s’acharnent également à étendre leur influence dans le monde et à mener une campagne contre-révolutionnaire de plus en plus active et radicale. C’est le plan mis en place par Mohamed Ben Zayed, prince héritier d’Abu Dhabi, pour externaliser et « glocaliser » sa doctrine sécuritaire dans tous les pays qui ont espéré la démocratisation. Cette « doctrine MBZ » a déjà transformé en partie le pays en « petite Sparte » du Golfe, certes puissante sous l’Antiquité, mais bien peu réputée pour son pacifisme.
    Soutien ou ingérence ?

    Abu Dhabi est omniprésente dans la vie politique de l’ensemble des pays en crise de la région, de sorte que chacun des pays du Printemps arabe a quasi réglé la situation de déstabilisation qu’il a pu connaître en 2011. La Tunisie s’est stabilisée et a entamé sa transition démocratique par une nouvelle Constitution, une vie politique active et des élections fin 2019. Mais dans ce pays, Abu Dhabi soutient clairement la présidence actuelle bien mal en point et largement critiquée à l’intérieur, contre le premier parti du pays, la formation islamiste Ennahda. Quant à la Syrie, après des années de guerre, elle est revenue à l’autoritarisme stable avec le maintien de Bachar el-Assad au pouvoir et la défaite de Daech : l’accord du 15 mars 2019 entre la Russie et les Émirats ouvre les portes de ce pays détruit à Abu Dhabi, qui est désormais son premier partenaire. L’Égypte, elle, après une révolution du 25 janvier 2011 pleine d’espoir a tout perdu avec le putsch contre le président Mohamed Morsi en 2013 et l’installation du nouveau raïs, le maréchal Abdelfattah Sissi, jusqu’à au moins… 2030. Le pays doit son retour à la dictature au soutien des Émirats arabes unis.

    En Algérie, pays qui a enfin entamé son nouveau printemps algérien, après celui de 1988, elle voit son chef d’état-major Gaïd Salah – un général qui effraie les Algériens en quête de démocratie – être en contact permanente avec le puissant Mohammed Ben Zayed. Et le militaire algérien ne cache même plus ses nombreux allers-retours à Abu Dhabi. Quid du Yémen et de la politique « humaniste » qu’Abu Dhabi prétend mener sur place depuis cinq ans avec le concours de Riyad ? Cette guerre a provoqué la pire catastrophe humanitaire du monde avec près de 100 000 enfants morts et des millions de déplacés : tout cela pour venir à bout de la « rébellion » houthiste, soutenue par l’Iran.

    Et nous arrivons enfin à la Libye, pour laquelle les Émirats arabes unis prétendent détenir la solution. Ce pays, dans lequel le renversement de Muammar Khadafi a provoqué un chaos quasi régional, n’est arrivé à rien en huit ans de conflit. À la décharge des Émirats, personne d’autre n’a trouvé de solution à ce jour. La guerre comme la lutte de clans et de gouvernements entre Tripoli et Benghazi n’en finit pas et la communauté internationale gère l’ingérable : l’intrusion de tous dans une histoire politique qui devrait être réglée par les Libyens en premier et en dernier ressort. Les dernières révélations de la BBC sur les crimes de guerre pratiqués par Abu Dhabi en Libye, après celles il y a deux ans des prisons émiriennes au Yémen où seraient pratiquées la torture, n’ont pas fini de faire des remous.

  • Eurovision 2019 : dernier appel de Gaza | Agence Media Palestine
    http://www.agencemediapalestine.fr/blog/2019/05/17/eurovision-2019-dernier-appel-de-gaza
    Qu’est-ce que cela fait de chanter si près de tant de misère humaine et de tant de souffrance ?
    Par Haidar Eid, 17 mai 2019

    Un chanteur palestinien joue pendant un événement appelant au boycott de l’Eurovision sur les décombres d’un immeuble récemment détruit par les raids aériens israéliens sur Gaza le 14 mai [Reuters/Mohammed Salem]

    Chère Madonna, chers concurrents de l’Eurovision 2019,

    Vous avez jusqu’à présent décidé d’ignorer plusieurs demandes de respecter le piquet de grève palestinien. Le 9 mai, des organisations culturelles et des artistes de Gaza ont lancé un appel fort demandant de boycotter la compétition par respect pour les deux bébés et les deux femmes enceintes tués avec 23 autres Palestiniens dans le dernier assaut violent d’Israël sur la Bande de Gaza.

    En plus des appels répétés des Palestiniens et de leur mouvement de Boycott, désinvestissement, sanctions (BDS), des dizaines de milliers de personnes en Europe et dans le monde entier ont signé des pétitions réitérant l’appel à #BoycottEurovision2019 à Tel Aviv et vous ont demandé d’arrêter de blanchir l’occupation et l’apartheid par votre art. Mais tout ceci est tombé dans les oreilles de sourds !

    Il est possible que vous vous en moquiez, il est possible que vous croyiez en la propagande d’Israël selon laquelle nous sommes tous des terroristes et les attaques sur Gaza des « opérations de sécurité ». Certains d’entre vous ont évoqué vouloir soutenir la paix, mais si vous le faisiez vraiment, alors vous ne seriez pas en train de chanter en Israël.

    Laissez moi vous dire ce que soutenir la paix signifie réellement. (...)

  • Des attaques de drones revendiquées par les rebelles houthistes visent des installations pétrolières saoudiennes
    https://www.lemonde.fr/international/article/2019/05/14/arabie-saoudite-des-installations-petrolieres-visees-par-une-attaque-de-dron

    Les rebelles houthistes, contre qui l’Arabie saoudite mène une guerre depuis 2015 au Yémen, ont revendiqué ces attaques, qui ont contraint Riyad à cesser ses opérations sur un oléoduc majeur.

    Des installations pétrolières ont été la cible d’attaques de drones, mardi 14 mai, en Arabie saoudite, contraignant Ryad à interrompre ses opérations sur un oléoduc majeur du royaume. Ces attaques ont été revendiquées par les rebelles houthistes pro-iraniens au Yémen voisin, où des forces saoudiennes aident le pouvoir dans sa guerre contre ces insurgés.

    Tôt mardi, deux stations de pompage ont été visées par des « drones armés », ce qui a provoqué un « incendie » et des « dégâts mineurs » sur une station, avant que le sinistre ne soit maîtrisé, a rapporté Khaled Al-Falih, le ministre de l’énergie de l’Arabie saoudite, premier exportateur de pétrole au monde. Le géant pétrolier Saudi Aramco « a interrompu temporairement les opérations sur l’oléoduc » est-ouest reliant la Province orientale au port de Yanbu sur la mer Rouge, a-t-il ajouté, tout en précisant que la production et les exportations n’avaient pas cessé.

    « Les derniers actes de terrorisme et de sabotage dans le Golfe visent non seulement le royaume mais aussi la sécurité des approvisionnements pétroliers dans le monde et l’économie mondiale, a averti M. Falih. Ces attaques prouvent une fois de plus qu’il est important pour nous de faire face aux entités terroristes, y compris les miliciens houthistes. »

    Au Yémen, la chaîne de télévision des houthistes a fait état d’une « opération militaire majeure » avec « l’utilisation de sept drones » contre des « installations vitales » saoudiennes. Il s’agit d’une « réponse aux crimes » de Ryad au Yémen, a déclaré Mohammed Abdel Salam, porte-parole des houthistes, soutenus par l’Iran qui dément leur fournir des armes. « Notre peuple n’a pas d’autre choix que de se défendre de toutes ses forces. »

    on cherchera vainement un quelconque élément de localisation.

    • quelques précisions sur l’emplacement de l’attaque et des commentaires de DT, dans son style inimitable.

      Saudi oil facilities attacked, U.S. sees threat in Iraq from Iran-backed forces - Reuters
      https://www.reuters.com/article/us-saudi-oil-usa-iran-idUSKCN1SK0YM

      Tuesday’s attacks on the pumping stations more than 200 miles (320 km) west of Riyadh and Sunday’s on four tankers off Fujairah emirate have raised concerns that the United States and Iran might inching toward military conflict.

      However, U.S. President Donald Trump denied a New York Times report that U.S. officials were discussing a military plan to send up to 120,000 troops to the Middle East to counter any attack or nuclear weapons acceleration by Iran.

      It’s fake news, OK? Now, would I do that? Absolutely. But we have not planned for that. Hopefully we’re not going to have to plan for that. And if we did that, we’d send a hell of a lot more troops than that,” Trump told reporters.

  • Teddy Riner, lobbyiste du Maroc subventionné par l’émir du Qatar
    https://www.mediapart.fr/journal/france/130519/teddy-riner-lobbyiste-du-maroc-subventionne-par-l-emir-du-qatar

    Mediapart révèle que la section judo du PSG a été créée pour embaucher Teddy Riner, au mépris de toute logique économique, à la suite d’un contact du roi du Maroc Mohammed VI auprès de l’émir du Qatar. Le champion de judo a, au cours de la même période, aidé son ami Mohammed VI à décrocher l’organisation des mondiaux de novembre 2017 à Marrakech, où il a remporté son dixième titre mondial.

    #Sports #Nasser_Al-Khelaifi,_Mohammed_VI,_Tamim_al-Thani,_Qatar,_Maroc,_PSG,_judo,_Teddy_Riner,_Jean-Claude_Blanc

  • Saudis’ troubled ties in region threaten Trump’s anti-Iran agenda

    https://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2019/05/saudi-arabia-ties-arab-world-washington-iran-policy.html

    As the United States ups the pressure on Iran, the Donald Trump administration is relying on Tehran’s archenemy and longtime US ally Saudi Arabia to shore up regional support for its policies. Yet, strains in Riyadh’s relations in the Arab world could complicate matters.

    Saudi Arabia’s relations with its Arab neighbors are more troubled than usual, largely due to the impetuousness of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. While ties to a few neighbors are close, relations with many others are tense behind the scenes, with significant implications for the Trump administration’s policy in the region.

    The kingdom’s closest allies are Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates, its partners in the blockade of Qatar. Saudi Arabia has long regarded Bahrain as a de facto protectorate. The Saudis reinforced their dominance over their small island neighbor in 2011 when it deployment troops across the King Fahd Causeway to repress protests by the Shiite majority. The troops are still there. The UAE and the kingdom pursue many identical policies but often with different strategies, most notably in regard to the war in Yemen.

  • The Complete Mercenary
    https://theintercept.com/2019/05/03/erik-prince-trump-uae-project-veritas

    How Erik Prince Used the Rise of Trump to Make an Improbable Comeback When Erik Prince arrived at the Four Seasons resort in the Seychelles in January 2017 for his now-famous meetings with a Russian banker and UAE ruler Mohammed bin Zayed, he was in the middle of an unexpected comeback. The election of Donald Trump had given the disgraced Blackwater founder a new opportunity to prove himself. After years of trying and failing to peddle a sweeping vision of mercenary warfare around the (...)

    #militarisation #activisme #sécuritaire #US_Defense_Intelligence_Agency_(DIA) #CIA #manipulation #écoutes #web #surveillance (...)

    ##US_Defense_Intelligence_Agency__DIA_ ##malware

  • Runaway Saudi sisters call on #Google and #Apple to pull ’inhuman’ woman-monitoring app

    Two runaway Saudi sisters on Wednesday urged Apple and Google to pull an “inhuman” app allowing men to monitor and control female relatives’ travel as it helped trap girls in abusive families.

    Maha and Wafa al-Subaie, who are seeking asylum in Georgia after fleeing their family, said Absher – a government e-services app – was bad for women as it supported Saudi Arabia’s strict male guardian system.

    “It gives men control over women,” said Wafa, 25. “They have to remove it,” she added, referring to Google and Apple.

    #Absher, which is available in the Saudi version of Google and Apple online stores, allows men to update or withdraw permissions for female relatives to travel abroad and to get SMS updates if their passports are used, according to researchers.

    Neither company was immediately available to comment. Apple’s chief executive Tim Cook said in February that he had not heard of Absher but pledged to “take a look at it”.

    A free tool created by the interior ministry, Absher allows Saudis to access a wide range of government services, such as renewing passports, making appointments and viewing traffic violations.

    Saudi women must have permission from a male relative to work, marry and travel under the ultra-conservative Islamic kingdom’s guardianship system, which has faced scrutiny following recent cases of Saudi women seeking refuge overseas.

    The al-Subaie sisters, who stole their father’s phone to get themselves passports and authorisation to fly to Istanbul, said they knew of dozens of other young women who were looking to escape abusive families.

    Tech giants could help bring about change in Saudi Arabia if they pulled Absher or insisted that it allows women to organise travel independently – which would significantly hamper the guardianship system - they said.

    “If [they] remove this application, maybe the government will do something,” Wafa said.

    The sisters’ plea added to growing calls from rights groups, diplomats and US and European politicians for the app to be removed from online stores.

    United Nations human rights chief Michelle Bachelet said on Wednesday that she had asked tech companies in Silicon Valley “tough questions” this month about the “threats” posed by apps like Absher.

    “Technology can, and should, be all about progress. But the hugely invasive powers that are being unleashed may do incalculable damage if there are not sufficient checks in place to respect human rights,” she said in a statement.

    A Saudi teen received global attention and ultimately an offer of asylum in Canada when she refused to leave a Thai airport hotel in January to escape her family. Two other Saudi sisters who hid in Hong Kong for six months were granted visas in March to travel to a third country.

    “Increasing cases of women fleeing the country are indicative of the situation of women in Saudi Arabia,” said Lynn Maalouf, Middle East research director for rights group Amnesty International.

    “Despite some limited reforms, [they] are inadequately protected against domestic violence and abuse and, more generally, are discriminated against.”

    Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has introduced reforms, such as lifting the driving ban for women, and indicated last year that he favoured ending the guardianship system. But he has stopped short of backing its annulment.

    Western criticism of the kingdom has sharpened with the trial of 11 women activists who said last month that they had been tortured while in detention on charges related to human rights work and contacts with foreign journalists and diplomats.

    The public prosecutor has denied the torture allegations and said the women had been arrested on suspicion of harming Saudi interests and offering support to hostile elements abroad.

    https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/apr/25/runaway-saudi-sisters-call-for-inhuman-woman-monitoring-app-absher-to-b
    #contrôle #hommes #surveillance #femmes
    #liberté #asile #migrations #réfugiés #Arabie_Saoudite #femmes #technologie #domination_masculine #fuite #contrôles_frontaliers #frontières #passeport

    ping @reka

  • ELO#370 - Rocé
    Dror, Entre Les Oreilles, le 24 avril 2019
    https://entrelesoreilles.blogspot.com/2019/04/elo370-roce.html

    A mon tour de participer à une émission de radio d’une heure sur le projet de Rocé, Par les Damnés de la Terre, sur la radio CKUT de Montréal, le 18 avril dernier, avec Stefan Christoff...

    http://www.drorlist.com/Tadamon/Dromotexte180419.mp3

    On y a passé les extraits suivants :

    1) Dansons avec les travailleurs immigrés - Versailles (France et Tunisie 1974) 03:03

    Chansons anti-brutalité policière, suite à la mort de Mohamed Diab, tué par un policier dans un commissariat de Versailles

    2) Jean Marie Tjibaou - Discours (Kanaki 1974) 00:31

    Explique l’importance de la culture dans la lutte anticoloniale, résumé du concept du disque !

    3) Groupement Culturel Renault - Cadences (France 1973) 05:21

    Chanson soul à la Isaac Hayes, écrite à l’occasion d’une grève dans les usines Renault contre les cadences infernales. Le chanteur est Jean-Pierre Graziani, que Rocé a rencontré, anarchiste et ancien métallurgiste chez Renault, qui a monté ce groupe et une maison de disque pour produire des chants de luttes !

    4) Léon Gontran Damas - Il est des nuits (Guyane) 01:10

    Léon-Gontran Damas, l’un des fondateurs de la Négritude, mais aussi ami de Guy Tirolien, grand père de la chanteuse montréalaise Malika Tirolien...

    5) Malika Tirolien, Emrical et Rawn Cana - Revolution (Guadeloupe, Haïti, Montreal 2014) 03:29

    Seule chanson de cette émission qui ne fait pas partie de l’album produit par Rocé...

    6) Manno Charlemagne - Le mal du pays (Ayiti 1984) 02:17

    Peu de gens en France connaissent ce musicien haïtien décédé en 2017, alors qu’il y a une rue à son nom à Miami où il est mort. Connu par la diaspora haïtienne du monde entier, opposant à la dictature de Duvalier, il avait du s’exiler aux États-Unis d’où il écrit cette chanson en 1984. Après la dictature, il retourne à Haïti et sera brièvement maire de Port-au-Prince.

    7) Abdoulaye Cissé - Les vautours (Haute Volta / Burkina Faso 1978) 04:56

    Avant l’arrivée au pouvoir de Thomas Sankara, Abdoulaye Cissé évoque ici les vautours, les colonisateurs et les exploiteurs. Abdoulaye Cissé était un compagnon de Thomas Sankara et il participera à son gouvernement. Le pays changera de nom et s’appellera Burkina Faso, mais les vautours, encore aujourd’hui, n’ont pas disparu.

    8) Les colombes de la révolution - Hommage à Mohamed Maïga (Burkina Faso - 1985) 04:08

    Morceau composé à la demande de Thomas Sankara, en hommage à Mohammed Maïga, journaliste et proche de Sankara, mystérieusement assassiné en 1984. Interprété par Les colombes de la révolution, l’un des groupes qui accompagnait Thomas Sankara. Rocé a trouvé ce morceau dans les archives de la radio du Burkina Faso et a eu l’autorisation de l’utiliser. Le fille de Mohammed Maïga, la comédienne Aïssa Maïga, ignorait l’existence de cette chanson.

    9) Dane Belany - Complexium - After Aimé Césaire (France & USA 1975) 04:03

    Dane Belany est une française d’origine turque et sénégalaise, exilée à New-York au début des années 1970 où elle rejoint le mouvement de la fierté noire et des musiciens de jazz expérimental, dont Ornette Coleman, Errol Parker, Dewey Redman ou Sirone. Pour ce projet, Rocé a rencontré Dane Belany qui lui a raconté son histoire et l’a autorisé à reproduire ici ce morceau...

    #Musique #Musique_et_politique #radio #Rocé #Histoire #damnés_de_la_terre #colonisation #historicisation #Entre_les_oreilles #shameless_autopromo

    Suite du projet longuement discuté ici :
    https://seenthis.net/messages/706642

  • Settlers ’executed’ a Palestinian, and the Israeli army covered it up, rights group reports - Israel News - Haaretz.com
    https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium-settlers-executed-a-palestinian-and-idf-covered-it-up-human-rights

    Abed al-Muneim Abdel Fattah. Explained repeatedly to investigators that his son had no family or other problems and was never active in any group. Credit : Alex Levac

    It’s a very busy traffic circle on Highway 60, the major route in the West Bank, between the Hawara checkpoint and the Tapuah settlement intersection, not far from Nablus. As you drive toward the spot, which the Palestinians call Beita Circle and the settlers call Beitot Circle, garbage is piled up along the roadside. This is the industrial zone of the town of Hawara, where there is no industry other than garages and workers’ restaurants that look out onto the highway.

    On April 3, three men, all of them on the way to work, arrived at the traffic circle separately. Only two of them left the site alive. The third was shot to death. The B’Tselem Israeli human rights organization asserted this week that the shooting was an execution and that the Israel Defense Forces destroyed evidence and whitewashed the findings.

    It all happened in a flash. A little before 8:30 A.M., Mohammed Abdel Fattah arrived at the circle. He was 23 years old, married and the father of 7-month-old daughter, on the way from his apartment in his uncle’s house in the village of Beita to his job at the uncle’s brick factory in the village of Jama’in. He had apparently been traveling in a shared taxi. Eyewitnesses saw him standing by the side of the road and smoking two cigarettes, one after the other. What was going on in his mind? What was he planning? What made him act? We are unlikely to know.

    He then crossed the road, to the west. He stood on the shoulder, within touching distance of the vehicles proceeding from north to south, a few meters from the circle, where traffic has to slow down. The road was very busy at that time of the morning. He threw two or three stones, not very big ones, at passing cars, hitting no one.

    Even a visit to the home of Mohammed’s family did not provide an explanation for why he threw the stones. He was not a teenager and had never been arrested. He was married with a child, had a steady job and was on the way to work. A few days earlier he’d been to Israel for the first time in his life; together with his wife he visited Jerusalem and they later ate fish at a restaurant in Jaffa. Perhaps that trip holds the key to what drove the young married father to throw stones or try to stab a settler that morning.

    One of the cars he’d thrown a stone at stopped. It was a white Renault with a blue poster of the Union of Right-Wing Parties displayed in the rear window. The driver was Yehoshua Sherman, from the settlement of Elon Moreh, who was working as a field director for the Union of Right-Wing Parties during the election campaign, which had then entered its final week. A blurry video clip from a security camera shows Sherman’s car, which had been traveling from north to south, stopping. Fifteen seconds later, Sherman gets out of the car and apparently shoots Mohammed Abdel Fattah, who’s seen kneeling behind the vehicle. We don’t know what happened in those 15 seconds – the car blocks the view.

    In the meantime a truck with Israeli plates also stops and the driver gets out. B’Tselem field researchers Salma a-Deb’i and Abdulkarim Sadi cite witnesses as saying that they heard two shots. They think Sherman fired them before leaving his car. Abdel Fattah apparently tried to seek refuge behind a dumpster, which this week was still there, overflowing with refuse, at the edge of the road. A second video clip shows him lying on the road on his stomach, and being turned over onto his back by soldiers trying to ascertain if he was carrying explosives.

    According to the testimonies B’Tselem took from four people, who all saw similar things, the two drivers fired a number of shots from close range even after Abdel Fattah lay wounded on the ground. B’Tselem also claims the Israel Defense Forces deleted footage from security cameras in the area of the shooting of the wounded man. Israeli media reported that “a Palestinian terrorist was shot and subdued by two drivers after trying to stab a father and his daughter near Hawara, south of Nablus.”

    From the B’Tselem report, on its website: “At that point, Abdel Fattah was crouching among the dumpsters. Sherman approached him and fired several more shots at him. A truck driving along the road also stopped, and the driver got out. He came over to stand next to Sherman, and the two men fired several more shots at Abdel Fattah, who was lying wounded on the ground… Abdel Fattah succumbed to his wounds a short while later, at Beilinson Hospital in Israel.”

    One of the shots hit Khaled Hawajba, a young man who works in a nearby store, in the abdomen. He was treated in Rafidiya Hospital in Nablus and discharged a few days later.

    Minutes after the shooting by the two settlers, military jeeps arrived at the scene. The soldiers used stun grenades to disperse the crowd that had begun to gather at the site. According to B’Tselem, immediately afterward a group of about eight soldiers entered two of the nearby businesses to check their security cameras. They dismantled a digital video recorder in one of the stores and left. About 20 minutes later, the soldiers returned to the store, reinstalled the DVR and watched the footage.

    “Two soldiers filmed the screen with their mobile phones. They then erased the footage from the DVR and left,” the B’Tselem report states.

    In one of the clips that was uploaded to social networks in Israel, the photographer can be heard saying in Hebrew: “The terrorist tried to jump onto the Jew’s car and stab him. Our heroic soldiers eliminated him, may his name be blotted out. There are no casualties.”

    After the incident, Sherman told Srugim, a website that calls itself “the home site of the religious sector”: “At Beitot junction a terrorist with a knife jumped on the car and tried to open the door. I got out and as the terrorist tried to go around the car in my direction I subdued him with gunfire with the aid of another resident of a nearby settlement who was driving behind me.”

    The media reported that Sherman’s daughter was in the back seat; the allegation was that Abdel Fattah tried to open the car door and stab her. In the clip B’Tselem attached to its report, her father is seen moving relatively coolly toward the young man who is hiding behind the car. What happened there?

    The human rights group is convinced, on the basis of the accounts it collected, that the shooting continued from close range as the wounded man lay on the ground. Moreover, B’Tselem believes that the two drivers shot Abdel Fattah with no justification, after he had moved away from the car and was kneeling behind the dumpster. According to the organization, the security forces who arrived at the scene made no attempt to arrest the two settlers, quickly dispersed the Palestinians and then proceeded to go to the stores and delete the documentation of the event “to ensure that the truth never comes to light and the shooters would not face any charges or be held accountable in any way.”

    It was reported this week that the Samaria Regional Council has decided to award citations to the two settler-shooters.

    The IDF Spokesperson’s Unit this week sent Haaretz this response: “On April 3, 2019 there was an attempted stabbing attack at the Beitot junction, which is [within the purview of] the Samaria Division of the IDF Central Command. The terrorist was shot by citizens and subdued after he threw stones at Israeli cars and then approached one of the cars in order to perpetrate a stabbing attack in the area. At the site of the incident a knife used by the terrorist was found. We would like to point out that the cameras that were dismantled by the security forces as part of their investigation of the incident were returned to their owners. The incident is under investigation.”

    Khirbet Qeis. A small village below the town of Salfit, in the central West Bank, where Abdel Fattah’s parents live. His father, Abed al-Muneim Abdel Fattah, 50, is a night watchman in Ramallah, who has five other children in addition to Mohammed. The house is well kept. Mohammed, the eldest, completed high school, but “regrettably,” his father says, he did not pursue his studies and went to work. In October 2017, he married his cousin, Rada Awadala, from the village of Ein Ariq, near Ramallah, and their daughter Jawan was born last fall. They visited every second Friday, rotating weekends between Rada’s parents in Ein Ariq and Mohammed’s in Khirbet Qeis.

    On the last Friday of Mohammed’s life they were at the home of his in-laws. The next day, when he and Rada went on an organized tour to Jerusalem and Jaffa, they left Jawan with her maternal grandparents. When they got back, Rada went to her parents’ home to collect the baby and stayed there for a few days. Mohammed remained alone in their apartment in Beita, close to his place of work.

    Mohammed’s father was on the job in Ramallah the day his son died. A relative called to inform him that Mohammed had been wounded. Shortly afterward, a Shin Bet security service agent called and ordered him to come to the IDF base at Hawara, Abed tells us now. The agent informed him that his son had tried to stab a soldier and afterward corrected himself to say that his son had thrown stones. The father replied that it was unimaginable for his son to have done that.

    Abed was asked in his interrogation whether Mohammed had been active in any sort of movement, whether anyone had tried to persuade him to throw stones or carry out a stabbing attack, whether he suffered from mental problems or problems at home or at work, or whether perhaps he’d quarreled with his wife. The father replied that his son had no family or other problems and was never active in any group. The interrogator repeated the questions twice, then a third time.

    At this point Abed still didn’t yet know that his son was dead. The Shin Bet agent said he’d been wounded and taken to Beilinson Hospital in Petah Tikva. He recommended that Abed get in touch with the Palestinian District Coordination and Liaison Office to arrange an entry permit to visit his son in Israel. Finally the agent said to the father, “From now on, you and your children are under surveillance. Dir balak [Watch your step]. Take this as a warning, as a red light. Anyone who lifts his head – we’ll cut it off.”

    Abed was at the base in Hawara for nearly three hours. By the time he got home, almost the whole village had gathered next to his house, and he understood that his son was dead. The social networks said he had been killed by settlers.

    Why was he throwing stones, we asked. Abed: “I don’t believe he did anything like that. He was on the way to work. But even if he did, sometimes the settlers provoke people who are standing on the road, spit at them or curse them or try to run them over. Even if he threw stones, by then he wasn’t endangering anyone. After all, the law says that it’s forbidden to shoot someone who is lying on the ground. Arrest him. But why did you kill him?”

    Israel has not yet returned Mohammed Abdel Fattah’s body; all the family’s efforts to claim it have been rebuffed. His grave has already been dug in the village’s small cemetery. There’s a mound of earth there now, but the grave is empty.

    https://seenthis.net/messages/771991

  • Made in France

    Une fuite inédite de documents secret défense révèle l’usage massif d’#armes françaises dans la guerre au Yémen. Après plusieurs mois d’enquête, #Disclose démontre que ces armes sont employées contre des civils.


    https://made-in-france.disclose.ngo/fr
    #armement #France #Yémen #guerre #commerce_d'armes
    ping @reka @simplicissimus @fil

  • L’Arabie saoudite aurait-il forcé El-Béchir à partir ? – Site de la chaîne AlManar-Liban
    http://french.almanar.com.lb/1322598

    Moins de 24 heures après sa nomination à la tête du Conseil militaire de transition au Soudan, le général Ibn Auf a démissionné à la surprise générale vendredi soir 12 avril. Il a été remplacé par l’ancien chef d’état-major Abdel Fattah Abdelrahman Burhan.

    Les médias « mainstream » en sont désormais à voir à travers lui un « personnage plus consensuel » surtout qu’il n’est pas connu du grand public et qu’on ne lui connait aucune appartenance politique, souligne l’AFP qui affirme qu’il n’est pas issu du parti au pouvoir. Certains commentateurs n’ont cessé de souligner le rôle joué par l’axe Riyad-Le Caire-Abou Dhabi dans le renversement du général El-Béchir, hypothèse qui, vu les événements en cours en Libye, pourrait ne pas être totalement dénuée de sens. Al-Binna retient cette piste.

    Selon al-Binna, journal libanais, les récentes évolutions au Soudan semblent avoir été au moins en partie orchestré par Riyad qui souhaite exploiter l’armée régulière soudanaise dans le sens de leurs propres intérêts. Sous l’intitulé, « D’Hormuz à Gibraltar et en Corne de l’Afrique… l’Amérique est derrière la porte », le journal écrit :

    (...) Le quotidien évoque ensuite le rôle joué par le prince saoudien Mohammed ben Salmane dans les récentes évolutions au Soudan et écrit : « Le coup d’État au Soudan a eu lieu très probablement suite à une série de coordinations entre le prince saoudien Mohammed ben Salmane et le ministre soudanais de la Défense Aouad Ibn Aouf qui s’était rendu, quelques jours auparavant avant le coup de force, à Riyad pour prendre part à une réunion de “l’OTAN arabe”. En effet, le coup d’État au Soudan constitue en effet un pas préventif destiné à étouffer tout autre mouvement de protestation de nature populaire dont le succès pourrait entraîner la fin de l’implication des mercenaires soudanais largement impliqués dans les conflits au Yémen et ce, au profit de l’Arabie saoudite ».

    L’Arabie saoudite, disposant d’une armée désintégrée aux faibles capacités militaires, vise effectivement à bénéficier de l’absence d’Omar el-Béchir, qui s’opposait à l’engagement militaire « trop vaste » de son pays dans les conflits au Yémen bien que les mercenaires soudanais se battent depuis longtemps contre les forces yéménites. Riyad croit pouvoir désormais compter sur l’armée régulière soudanaise, l’une des plus puissantes de toute l’Afrique et la déployer plus efficacement contre les forces yéménites qui continuent à avancer sur tous les fronts et progressent même dans le sud de l’Arabie saoudite. Ce plan B intéresserait Riyad qui commence à perdre le soutien de ses alliés occidentaux à sa guerre génocidaire. Mais avec l’appui soudanais, l’Arabie saoudite pourrait-elle changer la donne ?

    #arabie_saoudite #soudan

  • American values : Embassies are for chopping up journalists, not protecting them — RT Op-ed
    https://www.rt.com/op-ed/456344-assange-khashoggi-embassy-us-values

    Valeurs US : les ambassades, ça sert à découper en rondelles les journalistes, pas à les protéger. C’est... saignant comme titre !

    Fair-minded people across the world have rightly condemned the US-ordered arrest of Julian Assange. However, few have noted how it fits part of a pattern of American hypocrisy when it comes to the treatment of journalists.

    Only six months ago, Jamal Khashoggi was murdered and hacked to pieces by Saudi agents at the kingdom’s consulate in Istanbul. He was a columnist at the Washington Post and editor-in-chief of the Al-Arab News Channel, known for his sharp criticism of the illegal US-backed Saudi war on Yemen.

    Despite a CIA conclusion that Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman ordered the gruesome assassination, President Donald Trump stood by his ally and no meaningful sanctions or penalties were directed towards Riyadh.

    #khashoggi #assange

    • C’est une façon très concrète de dire ce qui est.

      Chez nous, en France, je parle depuis la France, on continue de faire comme si les gens qui gouvernent avaient la moindre idée de ce qu’est l’état de droit. De ce qu’est la décence. Mais quand aujourd’hui, un porte-parole de parti t’explique que la collusion ça n’existe pas quand t’es une femme, parce que y-a un joker qui s’appelle féminisme, tu comprends que ces gens n’ont absolument aucune décence. Sans parler du « reste ». Les centaines de mutilés de ces derniers mois démontrent à leur façon que gouverner, c’est prévoir... d’acheter des armes pour mutiler sa population.

      Et donc, oui, les US et leurs alliés démontrent que la diplomatie n’existe plus. C’est un message relativement fort. Et si j’étais chef d’état, je tâcherai d’aller rendre visite aux autres pays du monde, pour vérifier s’ils sont dans le même état d’esprit, et j’essaierai d’entretenir de bonnes relations avec ceux-ci. Je doute que notre cowboy de pacotille ait ce genre de préoccupations, tellement il est occupé à brader les richesses collectives pour le compte des oligarques divers et variés.

    • La communication est une science toujours inexacte, et parfois mensongère. La majorité actuelle en fait la démonstration quotidienne. Car de la même façon que le président de la République dénonce officiellement les comptes anonymes utilisés sur les réseaux sociaux pour mieux s’en servir dans sa propagande (voir ici notre article), il ne cesse de propager des mensonges tout en prétendant combattre les « fake news ».

      C’est Emmanuel Macron lui-même qui s’est approprié cet anglicisme. Mais qu’on les nomme fake news, informations fallacieuses, « infox », fausses nouvelles, ou juste mensonges, l’intention est la même. Tromper en toute connaissance de cause.

      Il ne s’agit en effet pas ici de faire part de divergences d’analyse, de prétendre que le président ment quand il affirme que la suppression de l’impôt sur la fortune est une bonne chose pour l’économie française. Il est probable que le président croie en ce qu’il dit.

      Il ne s’agit pas non plus de s’attarder sur ses jugements à l’emporte-pièce, du type « Je traverse la rue et je vous trouve du travail ». Il est ici question de mensonges purs et durs. De faits sciemment déformés, omis ou transformés.

      Sibeth Ndiaye, la nouvelle porte-parole du gouvernement, anciennement chargée des relations presse à l’Élysée, doit se mordre les doigts d’avoir un jour dit la vérité à L’Express à propos des bobards de l’exécutif : « J’assume de mentir pour protéger le président. »

      Depuis, elle a nié avoir tenu ces propos. Mais ne dément-elle pas pour « protéger le président » ?

      Comme s’il voulait décrédibiliser par avance les informations à paraître, Emmanuel Macron assurait le 26 juillet 2018 à ses amis, aux prémices de l’affaire Benalla, que « nous avons une presse qui ne cherche plus la vérité ». En réalité, c’est l’Élysée qui cherche à l’en détourner.

      Les fausses vidéos de l’affaire Benalla (Emmanuel Macron)

      Ismaël Emelien, en promotion pour la sortie de son livre écrit avec David Amiel, a eu les plus grandes difficultés à se défendre. Le 19 juillet 2018, au lendemain des révélations du journal Le Monde sur les agissements d’Alexandre Benalla, le conseiller spécial du chef de l’État avait orchestré la riposte en faisant diffuser par un compte anonyme sur les réseaux sociaux des vidéos censées dédouaner Benalla.

      Deux problèmes se posent. Tout d’abord, Ismaël Emelien a utilisé une vidéo issue des caméras de surveillance de la police, ce qui est illégal. Il prétend qu’il ne connaissait pas l’origine de ces vidéos. Qu’il n’a pas pensé à se renseigner.

      Mais l’Élysée a aussi fait circuler, avec la bénédiction de Sibeth Ndiaye qui a conseillé aux journalistes d’aller consulter ces vidéos, le film d’un homme très agité poursuivant un groupe d’hommes vêtus de noir, chaise à la main.

      Le problème, comme l’a raconté Le Monde, est qu’il ne s’agit pas du tout du jeune homme immobilisé par Alexandre Benalla place de la Contrescarpe. La vidéo a été tournée le soir, bien après l’intervention musclée d’Alexandre Benalla. Et selon une enquête publiée jeudi 4 avril par le site la-bas.org, l’homme à la chaise poursuivait en réalité des militants « antifas ».

      Mais Emmanuel Macron lui-même a endossé ce mensonge, alors que la comparaison des deux hommes sur ces vidéos ne tromperait pas un enfant familier du jeu des sept erreurs (chaussures de couleurs différentes, blouson sans fourrure…).

      Quelques jours plus tard, le 26 juillet, à la Maison de l’Amérique latine, outre le fait qu’il se plaint de cette « presse qui ne recherche plus la vérité », Emmanuel Macron lance : « Les images tournent en boucle d’une scène inadmissible et que je condamne. Je ne vois jamais la scène d’avant, la scène d’après. Quel est le contexte, qu’est-ce qui s’est passé ? S’agissait-il d’individus qui buvaient gentiment un café en terrasse ? Que s’est-il passé juste ensuite ? »

      Le chef de l’État fait ensuite clairement référence à cette vidéo tournée postérieurement. « J’ai cru comprendre qu’il y avait des images, poursuit-il. Où sont-elles ? Sont-elles montrées avec la même volonté de rechercher la vérité et d’apporter de manière équilibrée les faits ? Non. » Avant de conclure : « Je vois un pouvoir médiatique qui veut devenir un pouvoir judiciaire. »

      La réalité est tout autre. Des investigations journalistiques ont mis en lumière des faits avérés sur lesquels la justice enquête aujourd’hui.

      La perquisition à Mediapart sur les enregistrements Crase/Benalla (Nicole Belloubet)

      Après que nous avons diffusé les extraits d’une conversation entre Alexandre Benalla et Vincent Crase, Mediapart a reçu, le vendredi 1er février, une demande de réquisition de ces extraits par les juges d’instruction de l’affaire du 1er Mai.

      Nous avons tout de suite fait savoir que nous ne nous opposions pas à cette réquisition judiciaire, de façon que des juges indépendants puissent authentifier les documents publiés et statuer, notamment, sur la violation du contrôle judiciaire.

      Cet accord a été renouvelé le lundi 4 février, à 9 heures.

      Pourtant, ce même lundi 4 février, peu après 11 heures, notre journal a fait l’objet d’une tentative de perquisition après l’ouverture d’une enquête préliminaire par le parquet de Paris des chefs d’« atteinte à l’intimité de la vie privée » et de « détention illicite d’appareils ou de dispositifs techniques de nature à permettre la réalisation d’interception et de télécommunications ou de conversations ».

      Deux procureurs du parquet de Paris se sont présentés à notre journal et nous ont annoncé qu’ils venaient pour procéder à une perquisition, et non réquisitionner les enregistrements publiés.

      Vu que nous avions déjà donné notre accord pour la réquisition judiciaire, la tentative de perquisition n’avait qu’un seul objectif : identifier nos sources, et faire peur à tous ceux susceptibles de nous parler.

      Devant l’Assemblée nationale, et pour justifier cette tentative de perquisition, la ministre de la justice Nicole Belloubet a cependant déclaré le 5 février : « Mediapart a dans un premier temps refusé cette remise, mais comme la presse s’en est fait l’écho, depuis, les bandes sonores ont été remises à la justice, ce qui est une très bonne chose, je crois, pour que toute la vérité soit faite dans cette affaire. »

      En mélangeant sciemment les deux procédures, Nicole Belloubet a menti.

      Geneviève Legay, blessée à Nice par un policier (Emmanuel Macron)

      Lors de rassemblements à Nice, le 23 mars, Geneviève Legay, porte-parole d’Attac, est blessée lors d’un rassemblement de gilets jaunes.

      Le lundi 25 mars, le procureur de la République indique, lors d’une conférence de presse, que Geneviève Legay « n’a pas été touchée par des policiers. Il n’y a aucun contact direct entre un policier et cette dame ».

      Dans un entretien avec Nice Matin, publié le lundi 25 mars, le président de la République déclare à son tour, sans la moindre prudence, que « cette dame n’a pas été en contact avec les forces de l’ordre ». Il ajoute quelques phrases qui ont profondément irrité Geneviève Legay : « Pour avoir la quiétude, il faut avoir un comportement responsable. […] Quand on est fragile, qu’on peut se faire bousculer, on ne se rend pas dans des lieux qui sont définis comme interdits et on ne se met pas dans des situations comme celle-ci. »

      Or dès le 23 mars, comme nous l’avons révélé, un policier expliquait le jour même du rassemblement sur procès-verbal qu’au vu des premiers éléments de l’enquête, la victime, âgée de 73 ans, avait été heurtée par « un homme portant un bouclier ».

      Au cours de son audition, un autre policier, ayant participé à la charge, avait précisé : « Nous avons chargé, donc effectivement nous avons poussé les personnes devant nous. […] C’est après la charge en me retournant que j’ai constaté qu’une femme était à terre. »

      Le gouvernement et les chômeurs « trop » indemnisés (Édouard Philippe)

      Le premier ministre et la ministre du travail affirment qu’un chômeur sur cinq gagnerait plus au chômage que dans son travail précédent. Ce chiffre est en réalité totalement vicié et aboutit à un mensonge qui salit 600 000 personnes.

      Comment est-ce possible ? Le gouvernement compare deux périodes qui ne sont pas les mêmes. Avec une méthode de calcul différente, l’Unédic aboutit au chiffre de moins d’un salarié sur 25 se retrouvant dans la situation décrite par l’exécutif.

      Pour le sociologue spécialisé dans les politiques de l’emploi Mathieu Grégoire, il s’agit donc d’« un artefact statistique » et d’« une manipulation assez troublante des chiffres ».

      Selon le gouvernement, ce sont les salariés en contrats courts, généralement peu qualifiés et peu rémunérés, qui sont censés « trop » profiter de l’assurance-chômage. Et en dépit du calcul erroné, c’est sur eux que le gouvernement devrait faire porter l’essentiel des économies à venir.

      Le nombre d’ultras parmi les gilets jaunes (Emmanuel Macron)

      Le jeudi 31 janvier, Emmanuel Macron reçoit cinq journalistes pour une « discussion informelle » autour d’un café. Le président de la République se montre très offensif au moment de dénoncer les violences commises lors des manifestations des « gilets jaunes ». Selon lui, elles seraient l’œuvre « de 40 à 50 000 militants ultras qui veulent la destruction des institutions ». « Face aux violences orchestrées par les extrêmes », rapporte Paris-Match, le chef de l’État « met en garde contre la ‘‘fachosphère’’ et la ‘‘gauchosphère’’ qui ont surinvesti les réseaux sociaux ».

      Pourtant, dans les jours précédents, selon nos enquêtes, des notes des services de renseignement sont remontées à l’Élysée. Et elles disent précisément l’inverse de ce que prétend Macron.

      En effet, à ce moment-là, l’ultradroite se désengage « à Paris comme en province ». Selon la DGSI, « la scène d’ultradroite est quasi inexistante au sein des cortèges ». Même au plus fort de leur mobilisation les premières semaines du mouvement, les services ne comptaient que « quelques centaines d’individus » relevant de cette mouvance.

      À l’ultragauche, alors ? Pas plus. « L’ultragauche s’est impliquée de manière limitée dans un mouvement perçu comme populiste et réactionnaire », écrit-on à la DGSI. Des sources dans différents services de renseignement donnent un même chiffre de 300 militants « au grand maximum » d’ultras de droite et de gauche réunis au plus fort du mouvement, début décembre. En mars, ils n’étaient plus que quelques dizaines.

      Dans la même interview, le président de la République décrit le mouvement des gilets jaunes comme « une manipulation des extrêmes, avec le concours d’une puissance étrangère : la Russie de Poutine ». Or la DGSI et la DGSE n’auraient toujours pas trouvé la moindre trace d’ingérence russe. Et l’Élysée n’a jamais voulu nous faire part de ses sources sur le sujet.

      Le retour des djihadistes français (Emmanuel Macron)

      « Contrairement à ce que j’ai pu lire ou entendre, il n’y a pas un programme de retour des djihadistes qui est aujourd’hui conçu, nous restons sur la même doctrine », explique à l’occasion du « grand débat » Emmanuel Macron à des élus de la Région Grand Est. Selon lui, il n’y aurait donc jamais eu de programme de retour des djihadistes français. Pas question de donner l’impression de tergiverser.

      Selon nos informations, les services des ministères des affaires étrangères, de la défense, de l’intérieur et de la justice travaillaient pourtant bien depuis l’automne 2018 au retour des djihadistes détenus par les Kurdes de Syrie.

      Les conditions du programme de retour étaient tenues pour acquises par les principaux acteurs du dossier lorsque, dans la première quinzaine de février, le président de la République a changé d’avis.

      Qu’est-ce qui a fait changer Emmanuel Macron de position et l’a ainsi fait aller à l’encontre des préconisations de son administration ? L’Élysée n’a pas répondu à nos sollicitations.

      Le chlordécone ne serait pas cancérigène (Emmanuel Macron)

      « Il ne faut pas dire que ce pesticide est cancérigène. » En une phrase, le président de la République a soulevé l’indignation, en particulier des élus d’outre-mer qui lui faisaient face le vendredi 1er février, à l’Élysée, pour une rencontre dans le cadre du grand débat national.

      La discussion portait sur la dangerosité du chlordécone, un pesticide extrêmement toxique et perturbateur endocrinien, classé « cancérigène possible » par l’Organisation mondiale de la santé (OMS) dès 1979 et utilisé jusqu’en 1993 dans les bananeraies en Guadeloupe et en Martinique. Ce jour-là, pour le président, « il ne faut pas dire que c’est cancérigène. Il est établi que ce produit n’est pas bon, il y a des prévalences qui ont été reconnues scientifiquement, mais il ne faut pas aller jusqu’à dire que c’est cancérigène parce qu’on dit quelque chose qui n’est pas vrai et qu’on alimente les peurs ».

      Presque tous les Guadeloupéens et les Martiniquais sont contaminés au chlordécone, selon une étude publiée par Santé publique France en 2018. Et les sols sont pollués pour quatre cents à sept cents ans.

      Estomaqués par les propos du président, l’urologue Pascal Blanchet et le chercheur à l’Inserm Luc Multigner ont répondu en rappelant, entre autres, que « l’exposition au chlordécone est associée à une augmentation de risque de survenue du cancer de la prostate ».

      Face à la polémique, l’Élysée a maladroitement tenté de faire machine arrière, plaidant le malentendu, sans convaincre personne.

      La mort de Jamal Khashoggi (Jean-Yves Le Drian)

      Dès le 6 octobre 2018, soit quatre jours après la disparition de Jamal Khashoggi, un notable saoudien exilé aux États-Unis et devenu chroniqueur au Washington Post, qui n’est jamais ressorti de son consulat à Istanbul où il venait chercher des papiers administratifs, les autorités turques commencent à laisser filtrer des informations auprès de la presse indiquant que le journaliste a été tué dans l’enceinte diplomatique.

      Les jours suivants, la police et le gouvernement turcs distillent de plus en plus de preuves des agissements d’une équipe de tueurs saoudiens composée de proches du prince hériter Mohammed ben Salamane, qui aurait interrogé, torturé, puis découpé en morceaux la victime.

      Le 11 octobre, Ankara laisse entendre qu’elle possède un enregistrement audio de ce qui s’est déroulé à l’intérieur du consulat, qui ne laisserait aucune doute sur la culpabilité des Saoudiens.

      Le 10 novembre, le président turc Recep Tayyip Erdogan affirme que l’enregistrement a été fourni aux États-Unis, au Royaume-Uni, à la France, à l’Allemagne et au Canada.

      Pourtant, Jean-Yves Le Drian, ministre des affaires étrangères bien timide sur le dossier, nie le 12 novembre sur France 2 avoir eu connaissance de l’enregistrement. Et il ajoute : « Si le président turc a des informations à nous donner, il faut qu’il nous les donne », soulevant l’indignation des autorités turques.

      Après une longue enquête, Mediapart a obtenu la confirmation auprès de sept diplomates et fonctionnaires du renseignement français que le Quai d’Orsay, à son plus haut niveau, avait bien eu accès à ces enregistrements à la date où le ministre s’exprimait.

      L’hommage au maréchal Pétain (Florence Parly)

      À l’occasion des cent ans de l’Armistice, l’état-major des armées souhaitait organiser, « en présence du président de la République », un hommage aux huit maréchaux de la Grande Guerre, dont Philippe Pétain. Dans un premier temps, l’Élysée laisse passer cette option, qui se retrouve inscrite dans le programme officiel des célébrations.

      Mais face à l’ampleur de la polémique, l’hommage est finalement retiré in extremis. Ce qui n’empêche pas la ministre des armées Florence Parly de jurer au micro de BFM-TV que « l’État-major n’a jamais imaginé rendre hommage au maréchal Pétain », mais qu’il souhaitait uniquement « rendre hommage aux maréchaux qui sont aux Invalides ».

      Cette cérémonie était pourtant bel et bien prévue, comme l’a d’ailleurs confirmé l’Élysée à Mediapart. Et il n’y a pas de place pour le doute. Chaque étape de cette « itinérance mémorielle » avait été minutieusement préparée : les dossiers de presse sur le site de la Mission du centenaire et sur celui du ministère de l’éducation nationale ne faisaient pas mystère de la présence du président de la République.

      Pataugeant dans ses dénégations, Emmanuel Macron aura au passage jugé « légitime » de rendre hommage au maréchal Pétain, soulignant que le dirigeant du régime de Vichy avait été « pendant la Première Guerre mondiale un grand soldat », même s’il a « conduit des choix funestes » pendant la Seconde. Des déclarations qui ont fait bondir la plupart des historiens.

      Un paparazzi placé en garde à vue pour rien (l’Élysée)

      Le Palais n’a pas attendu les derniers mois pour diffuser des craques. Dès septembre 2017, l’Élysée fait fuiter dans Challenges une information censée montrer à quel point Emmanuel Macron est un président magnanime. « EXCLUSIF. Emmanuel Macron vient de décider d’abandonner ses poursuites judiciaires qu’il avait engagé [sic] contre un paparazzi. »

      La réalité est autre. Selon des informations obtenues à l’époque par Mediapart, s’il est mis un terme à cette affaire très médiatisée, c’est en fait parce que le parquet de Marseille a classé sans suite l’enquête préliminaire ouverte en août pour « harcèlement » et « atteinte à la vie privée ». La plainte de l’Élysée ne tenait pas la route : le photographe mis en cause, Thibaut Daliphard, n’avait commis aucun des délits que l’Élysée lui reprochait.

      Ce photographe avait été contrôlé une première fois par un officier de sécurité devant la résidence privée de Marseille où les époux Macron passaient quelques jours de vacances au mois d’août, et s’était vu répondre qu’il n’y aurait pas de possibilité de prendre des clichés ce jour-là.

      Le lendemain, l’Élysée venant de confirmer que le couple présidentiel y passait ses vacances, le photographe s’était présenté à nouveau devant la résidence pour aller aux nouvelles, sans appareil photo.

      Selon Thibaut Daliphard, il s’était alors heurté à un homme qu’il avait pris pour un policier et qui lui avait déclaré : « Je n’aime pas votre métier », « Ce que vous faites, c’est du harcèlement », puis « Je vais vous placer en garde à vue, je vais vous faire coffrer pour 48 heures ».

      Selon Thibaut Daliphard, alors qu’il attend les forces de l’ordre, son téléphone sonne. « Je décroche le téléphone, il me saute dessus, essaie de me l’arracher, je me débats, puis il me dit : vous êtes en garde à vue, vous n’avez pas le droit de téléphoner. » Puis arrivé au commissariat du VIIIe arrondissement de Marseille, le commissaire présent sur place lui aurait confié : « Je suis désolé, on me demande de vous placer en garde à vue. »

      Thibaut Daliphard restera six heures en cellule. Le matériel, la carte-mémoire et l’ordinateur de ce journaliste sont fouillés.

      Ce n’est qu’un an plus tard, à l’été 2018, que Thibaut Daliphard découvrira que l’homme qui l’a violenté n’était pas un policier. Mais Alexandre Benalla.

  • » One Palestinian Killed, Another Wounded, in Attack by Israeli Settler Near Nablus
    April 3, 2019 10:08 AM - IMEMC News
    https://imemc.org/article/one-palestinian-killed-another-wounded-in-attack-by-israeli-settler-near-nabl

    Israeli soldiers have reported that a Palestinian was killed, and another injured, when an Israeli settler opened fire on them near Beita town, south of Nablus.

    The Palestinian who was killed was identified as Mohammad Abdul-Mon’em Abdel-Fattah from Khirbet Qeis village in the Salfit district, in the northern West Bank.

    The one who was injured has been identified as Khaled Salah Rawajba, a 26-year-old resident of the village of Rujeib, east of Nablus. He was shot in the abdomen and taken to Rafidia hospital in Nablus, where he remains in serious condition.

    The Israeli settler who shot and killed the young man tried to claim that “he had a knife” – but video footage taken by another Israeli settler on the scene, showing the brutal and callous treatment of Adel-Fattah’s body after he was killed, shows that there was no weapon.

    In the video, a soldier and a settler are seen kicking the young man’s corpse, flipping him over and going through his pockets, finding nothing.

    According to eyewitnesses, the claim of an attempted stabbing were completely false. They said that Mohammad was a truck driver who was waiting at the checkpoint when the Israeli settler closed the road with his car. Khaled then got out of his car and tried to tell the settler to move. But the Israeli settler began shooting.

    Khaled Rawajba, an employee at an auto repair shop on the side of the road, heard the altercation and stepped out of his workplace to see what was happening. He was then shot as well, and seriously wounded.

    “““““““““““““““““““““““““““““““““
    In video - Palestinian shot dead by Israeli settler, another injured
    April 3, 2019 9:45 A.M. (Updated: April 3, 2019 9:45 A.M.)
    http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=783082

    NABLUS (Ma’an) — A Palestinian was shot and killed by an Israeli settler, while another was injured at the Huwwara checkpoint in the northern occupied West Bank district of Nablus, on Wednesday, for allegedly attempting to carry out a stabbing attack.

    Medical sources reported that the shot Palestinian was taken in critical condition to Beilinson Hospital in Petah Tikva, east of Tel Aviv, in central Israel, where he was pronounced dead.

    Sources identified the killed Palestinian as Muhammad Abed al-Fattah , a resident from the northern West Bank district of Salfit.

    Local sources said that an Israeli settler, identified as Joshua Sherman, from the illegal settlement of Elon Moreh, northeast of the Nablus district, blocked the road with his vehicle, preventing al-Fattah from crossing the road, and opened fire at him.

    #Palestine_assassinée

  • L’appel surprise du pape François et du roi du Maroc Mohamed VI pour Jérusalem
    De notre envoyé spécial au Maroc Jean-Marie Guénois Publié le 30/03/2019
    http://www.lefigaro.fr/international/2019/03/30/01003-20190330ARTFIG00052-l-appel-surprise-du-pape-francois-et-du-roi-du-ma

    DOCUMENT - Le souverain pontife est arrivé samedi au Maroc. Les deux chefs d’État appellent à « conserver » et « promouvoir le caractère spécifique multi-religieux, la dimension spirituelle et l’identité culturelle particulière de Jérusalem ».

    Le secret a été bien gardé. Comme Le Figaro l’avait annoncé ce samedi, le pape François, en visite de deux jours au Maroc, s’est entretenu dès son arrivée de la question de Jérusalem avec le roi du Maroc Mohammed VI. La publication en revanche, samedi après-midi, juste après leur rencontre à Rabat d’un appel commun sur le statut de la ville de Jérusalem, est une surprise. Elle ne sera pas du goût des autorités israéliennes.

    Voici ce que dit ce court appel solennel :

    « Nous pensons important de préserver la Ville sainte de Jérusalem / Al Qods Acharif comme patrimoine commun de l’humanité et, par-dessus tout pour les fidèles des trois religions monothéistes, comme lieu de rencontre et symbole de coexistence pacifique, où se cultivent le respect réciproque et le dialogue.

    Dans ce but, doivent être conservés et promus le caractère spécifique multi-religieux, la dimension spirituelle et l’identité culturelle particulière de Jérusalem / Al Qods Acharif.

    Nous souhaitons, par conséquent, que dans la Ville sainte soient pleinement garantis la pleine liberté d’accès aux fidèles des trois religions monothéistes et le droit de chacune d’y exercer son propre culte, de sorte qu’à Jérusalem / Al Qods Acharif s’élève, de la part de leurs fidèles, la prière à Dieu, Créateur de tous, pour un avenir de paix et de fraternité sur la terre ».

    #Jérusalem #Al_Qods. #Maroc #Vatican

  • Egyptian pro-democracy activist free after 5 years in prison
    https://www.citynews1130.com/2019/03/28/egyptian-pro-democracy-activist-free-after-5-years-in-prison

    The lawyer and family of one of Egypt’s most prominent pro-democracy activists, Alaa Abdel-Fattah, say he has been released from prison after serving a five-year sentence for taking part in protests.

    His sisters, Mona and Sanaa Seif, posted on Facebook on Friday that “Alaa is out,” along with a video of him at home, playing with a dog.

    His lawyer, Khaled Ali, confirmed the release by posting: “Thanks God, Alaa Abdel-Fattah at home.”

    Abdel-Fattah was sentenced to five years for taking part in a peaceful demonstration in 2013 after the military’s ouster of Egypt’s freely elected but controversial Islamist President Mohammed Morsi.

    His imprisonment was part of a wider crackdown on the pro-democracy movement that began with the 2011 uprising that toppled long-time President Hosni Mubarak.

    #égypte #alaa_abdel-fattah

    • Égypte : libération d’Alaa Abdel Fattah, figure de la révolution de 2011
      Par RFI Publié le 29-03-2019 - Avec notre correspondant au Caire,Alexandre Buccianti
      http://www.rfi.fr/moyen-orient/20190329-egypte-liberation-alaa-abdel-fattah-figure-revolution-2011

      Le militant de gauche et blogueur Alaa Abdel Fattah a été libéré dans la nuit de jeudi à vendredi, a annoncé sa famille. Il avait été arrêté en novembre 2013 lors d’une manifestation contre les militaires.

      « Alaa Abdel Fattah est sur l’asphalte. Mabrouk ! » C’est ainsi que des milliers d’internautes ont accueilli l’annonce de la libération du célèbre blogueur, toujours suivi par plus de sept cent mille personnes sur Twitter malgré des années de silence. Abdel Fattah avait été arrêté en novembre 2013 lors d’une manifestation pour abroger le jugement de civils par des tribunaux militaires dans le projet de Constitution. Libéré sous caution, celui qui avait remporté plusieurs prix internationaux, a été condamné à cinq années de prison en 2014.

  • Saudi students in U.S. say their government watches their every move | PBS NewsHour
    https://www.pbs.org/newshour/world/saudi-students-in-u-s-say-their-government-watches-their-every-move

    The #surveillance of Saudi Arabian students is not a new phenomenon, said former FBI agent Frank Montoya, who served as the director of the Office of the National Counterintelligence Executive from 2012 to 2014. He says while he was there, he heard of a couple of cases, but it was never a priority because the agency did not believe it was a trend.

    But Montoya said that according to agents he has spoken still serving with FBI, the practice of watching students in the U.S. has dramatically expanded under Prince Mohammed — also known as MBS.

  • DU BUTIN AU REPORT DU SCRUTIN, POUR QUEL DESTIN ? – Salimsellami’s Blog
    https://salimsellami.wordpress.com/2019/03/20/du-butin-au-report-du-scrutin-pour-quel-destin

    « Les bons mûrissent, les mauvais pourrissent. » (Michel Audiard)

    A Hassen

    Premier martyr des manifestations pacifiques du Printemps algérien, neveu de Belhaffaf Ghezali, également premier martyr des manifestations pacifiques du 1er Mai 1945, assassiné par les forces coloniales à Alger, et fils du défunt Benyoucef Benkhedda, président du GPRA, victime d’un coup d’Etat du clan d’Oujda, qui continue à régenter la nation algérienne depuis 1962.

    Je suis l’Algérie toute entière. Je suis l’incarnation du peuple algérien », déclarait le chef de l’Etat, Abdelaziz Bouteflika, à la télévision suisse TSR, lors du forum de Crans Montana, en 1999, d’où il annoncera le plan de la « concorde civile » sans vérité et justice, destiné aux… Algériennes et aux Algériens à partir de la Suisse ! Le message était clair : l’Etat, censé être le pouvoir dans sa diversité à travers des institutions qui résistent au temps et aux pouvoirs successifs, c’est un « Homme-Dieu » qui l’incarne.

    Le ton de la nouvelle gouvernance qui nous attendait était donné : détruire l’ordre politique et institutionnel en lui substituant une « mythocratie ». C’est plus qu’une dictature, parce qu’une dictature, elle, peut être combattue, car elle emploie des méthodes et des procédés grossiers et faciles à détecter.

    Par contre, contester un clan ou un pouvoir non institutionnel, qui utilise la « mythocratie » pour atteindre des objectifs inavoués afin de fructifier son butin mal acquis, relève de l’utopie, car il utilise une réalité sociale qu’il scénarise en manipulant les flux de désirs et les croyances comme substance propre du pouvoir.

    Pour cette « camarilla »(1), il n’y a plus de peuple, mais des histoires et des mythes, semant le trouble entre sacré et profane, en passant par la main étrangère, confondant stabilité et immobilisme, complaisamment véhiculés par des médias aux ordres, des ministres sinistres et des oligarques nourris à la manne pétrolière, qui organisaient notre devenir collectif, non pas par la lutte des classes, mais par la lutte pour… des places ! Cet état de fait est sournoisement distillé au sein de la société : pas besoin d’intelligence ni de compétence, l’allégeance ou l’extrait de naissance suffirait pour être aux commandes d’un ministère, d’une entreprise, d’une institution, quelle que soit son importance, ou bénéficier d’un marché juteux. Ainsi, les grands projets structurants piétinent, gangrenés par la corruption, d’où l’indigence et l’indélicatesse de certains responsables à tous les niveaux de l’Etat, avec en prime l’impunité garantie. Comment sommes-nous arrivés à cette catastrophe ?

    Le butin

    Le 2 mars 1956, c’est la fin du protectorat au Maroc. Le roi Mohammed V rentre au pays après son exil forcé à Madagascar. Les autorités françaises lui imposent un certain Oufkir comme aide de camp dès son intronisation. Oufkir, capitaine sous le drapeau français, devient colonel. Il avait pour mission de réduire l’influence de l’Armée de libération nationale marocaine, d’atténuer le plébiscite autour de la légitimité des partis nationalistes, notamment l’Istiqlal et l’UNFP, et de créer les structures policières et de surveillance officielles. Cette ascension spéculaire ne laisse pas indifférents « des lycéens et étudiants d’origine algérienne qui vivaient au Maroc dans des conditions de vie parfaitement pacifiques et heureuses. Des conditions qui étaient tout à fait déséquilibrées, cependant, par rapport à celles de leur peuple et de leurs frères étudiants qui mourraient en Algérie »(2). Ces jeunes lycéens et étudiants constitueront la promotion Larbi Ben M’hidi, ossature du Malg. Leur directeur de stage, Khelifa Laroussi, adjoint de Boussouf, ami du désormais colonel Oufkir , leur avait décrété : « Vous êtes les futurs ministres de l’Algérie indépendante ! »(3) La messe est dite. Attendre l’indépendance du pays pour conquérir le pouvoir par tous les moyens.

    Dès la proclamation de l’indépendance, le 5 juillet 1962, le clan d’Oujda fomente son premier coup d’Etat en démettant violemment le GPRA basé à Tunis et impose à la tête de l’Etat Ahmed Ben Mahjoub Ben Embarek dit Ben Bella, porté par Djamel Abdel Nasser après avoir été travaillé au corps à corps par Fethi Dib, le chef des services de renseignement égyptiens. N’était la sagesse du président Benkhedda, l’indépendance aurait été arrosée d’un bain de sang. Le un million et demi de chouhada aurait été multiplié par deux, avec autant de veuves et de blessures à panser. Une nouvelle série noire commence pour la jeune nation, avec son lot de complots, d’assassinats politiques et d’exils forcés. Le 19 juin 1965, Ben Bella est à son tour déposé par un coup d’Etat militaire, fomenté par son ministre de la Défense, le colonel Boumediène, et son ministre des Affaires étrangères, Abdelaziz Bouteflika, entre autres. Comble de l’ironie, le nouveau maître de l’Algérie, dans son allocution télévisée au lendemain du coup de force, annonçait « le redressement révolutionnaire » (ettas-hih ethawri). Rien que ça ! En d’autres termes, nos vaillants révolutionnaires et chouhada du devoir, source de notre indépendance, s’étaient trompés. 1954/1962 a été une sinécure, comme celle passée aux frontières attendant le moment propice pour s’approprier l’Algérie : son sol avec les Algériens que nous sommes et son sous-sol avec ses richesses.

    Confortablement installés aux commandes du pays, les nouveaux « maîtres » de l’Algérie prennent toutes les commandes de la direction de la Sécurité militaire en la structurant à la mode Oufkir : la société toute entière est étroitement surveillée, dédain envers les vrais moudjahidine et réécriture de l’histoire à leur convenance. Toute voix discordante est vouée aux gémonies. Il fallait attendre Octobre 1988 pour respirer un semblant d’accalmie et d’ouverture. Malheureusement, la « décennie noire » et ses douloureux événements plongeront encore une fois l’Algérie dans la douleur.

    1999, nouvelle ère avec des responsables recyclés du défunt MALG en costumes- cravates, bien introduits dans les affaires. C’est le début de la gouvernance par l’offense, par la destruction du collectif et la substitution du citoyen par le croyant. La mythocratie s’installe en profondeur avec un credo : dépenser sans penser en bradant les richesses du pays, idolâtrant le conteneur, se frottant les mains pour le gré à gré et assaisonnant le tout de « tchipa »(4). Juste à titre d’exemple, pourquoi le code des marchés publics a-t-il été amendé au moins sept fois depuis 1999 ? La loi anticorruption n’a-t-elle pas interdit la dénonciation des délits de corruption par le citoyen ? Pour pouvoir le faire, il faut être membre du… conseil d’administration de l’entité dénoncée.

    Ainsi, l’impunité est garantie : « Hommes du sérail, enrichissez-vous ! », semble clamer ce pouvoir de la prédation. Au lieu d’encourager le libéralisme politique, le régime s’empressa d’aller vers le libéralisme économique sauvage, avec son lot d’oligarques qui « organisent » même la vie politique à travers la « chkara ».

    Le scrutin et son report

    « Si les élections devaient changer les choses, il y a longtemps qu’elles auraient été interdites », me disait Ali Yahia Abdennour du haut de ses 98 ans. En effet, la fraude électorale n’est pas une nécessité, mais un principe. Le chef du moment sait qu’il passera, son unique souci réside dans le taux de suffrages amassés à son avantage, toujours au-delà des 90%, sinon « il rentre chez lui ». Le nouveau vice-Premier ministre et ancien ministre des Affaires étrangères, chargé de mener leur transition, dans une récente déclaration, rassurait les Algériens en leur promettant que cette fois-ci « les élections seront transparentes » ! Une façon explicite de reconnaître l’illégitimité de toutes les institutions. Pour ce qui est du report des élections à une date non arrêtée, cela relève, au-delà de son inconstitutionnalité, de la ruse et de la manigance politicienne. Gagner du temps et se refaire une virginité.

    Le destin

    Après vingt années d’anesthésie générale, distillée par doses homéopathiques, la jeunesse, qui, quand elle se lève se soulève, sort de son fatalisme imposé et réclame sa « liberté ». C’est l’échec de la banalisation de la maladie du Président qui accéléra le processus du recouvrement de la liberté et de la dignité qu’elle procure. Le régime de la prédation et de la faillite, tapi derrière la ligne Morice et qui a remporté la mise en 1962 avec sa communauté d’obligés, a été surpris par cet élan de la jeunesse qui n’a pas connu l’Aqmi ni le FMI, entouré de tout le peuple comme un seul homme.

    Le régime, en terrain conquis, n’avait pas prévu le torrent humain qui risque de l’emporter. En ayant détruit tous les mécanismes de la société, empêché l’émergence d’un leadership, il s’est fait piéger. Car les Algériens n’ont pas eu l’occasion d’exprimer leurs angoisses et leurs espérances, ils n’ont en aucune manière pu fixer l’agenda et les priorités, trop longtemps restés en dehors du jeu politique livré aux seuls appareils des partis qui ont leur propre agenda et qui affichent une rupture inquiétante avec la population. L’Algérienne et l’Algérien, toutes catégories confondues, pensent, qu’à une ou deux exceptions près, en Algérie, il n’y a que des partis uniques ! Le pouvoir l’a ainsi voulu.

    Et pour cause, l’homme du consensus est devenu l’homme du refus général. Aucun interlocuteur avec qui discuter ou négocier son départ. Et pour notre bonheur, ce mouvement populaire, pacifique et civique n’a pas de tête. Le régime l’aurait décapité. Les hommes de « devoir et non de pouvoir » émergeront, et j’en suis convaincu. Ils mettront fin à cette dictature d’adhésion qui a hypothéqué l’avenir de tout un peuple.

    Par Hanafi Si Larbi , 

    hanafisilarbi@gmail.com

    Post-scriptum :

    1- Monsieur le président Macron, soyez rassuré, vous n’aurez pas à vous soucier des boat-people, les jeunes Algériens resteront dans leur pays. Par contre, attendez-vous à des yacht-people à qui vous demanderez, au nom de l’humanité, l’origine, sinon la traçabilité de leur fortune.
    2- BHL : chuuuutttt, c’est une affaire de famille.
    Notes :
    1- Camarilla désigne, avec une connotation péjorative, un groupe de conseillers du prince. Habituellement, ceux-ci n’ont pas de fonctions ministérielles et ne sont pas détenteurs d’une autorité officielle : ils conseillent le souverain de façon informelle.
    2- Colonel Hamlet, ancien responsable du MALG et ensuite des services techniques de la SM – interview in Le Soir d’Algérie 23 et 24 juin 2008.
    3- Idem
    4- Tchipa : terme voulu sympathique pour désigner la désastreuse corruption.
    Bibliographie :
    1- Fethi Al Db Abdel Nasser et la Révolution algérienne Edition L’Harmattan
    2- Hocine Aït Ahmed Mémoires d’un combattant, Edition Sylvie Messinger
    3- Leila Benammar Benmansour La crise de l’été 1962 Collection Etudes et documents

    http://lequotidienalgerie.org/2019/03/19/du-butin-au-report-du-scrutin-pour-quel-destin