industryterm:media scrutiny

  • A border wall rises in Oceanside — but this one is an art project, by Tijuana artist Marcos Ramirez ’ERRE’ - LA Times
    http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/arts/miranda/la-et-cam-undocumenta-marcos-ramirez-erre-20171107-htmlstory.html

    On a rugged patch of the U.S.-Mexico border near San Diego, news crews from all over the world have been documenting the rise of eight border wall prototypes that have materialized, like looming works of land art, in Otay Mesa.

    Another wall, roughly 60 miles to the north, has received far less media scrutiny. It is crafted from 61 panels of corrugated metal bound together by steel beams. And in its crude, rusty aspect, it evokes the metal border fence that began to materialize along the international border near San Diego in the 1990s in an effort to curb illegal immigration.

    Except this wall isn’t quite a wall, it is a work of art — and it is currently obscuring the Modernist facade of the Oceanside Museum of Art in downtown Oceanside.

    #murs #frontières #mexique #métats-unis #art #activisme #résister

  • Oxfam backs Scarlett Johansson, despite actress’ endorsement of Israeli settlements | The Electronic Intifada
    http://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/oxfam-backs-scarlett-johansson-despite-actress-endorsement-israe

    Oxfam backs Scarlett Johansson, despite actress’ endorsement of Israeli settlements
    Submitted by Ali Abunimah on Sat, 01/25/2014 - 15:40
    scarlett_johansson_by_gage_skidmore.jpg

    Scarlett Johansson (Gage Skidmore/Wikipedia)

    International charity Oxfam is standing by its “Global Ambassador” Scarlett Johansson, at least for now, despite the fact that the Hollywood actress has come out in full support of Israeli settlements and profiteering in the occupied West Bank.

    Johansson has faced strong criticism and media scrutiny for a multi-million dollar endorsement deal with SodaStream, an Israeli firm that operates in an illegal colony in the occupied West Bank.

    In a statement yesterday, Johansson defended the deal and praised Israeli settlements.

    “We have been engaged in dialogue with Scarlett Johansson and she has now expressed her position in a statement, including stressing her pride in her past work with Oxfam,” Oxfam spokesperson Kate Pattison told The Electronic Intifada in an email this morning.

    “Oxfam is now considering the implications [of] her new statement and what it means for Ms Johansson’s role as an Oxfam global ambassador,” Pattison added.
    Laundering settlements

    In a statement to The Huffington Post yesterday, Johansson attempted launder the SodaStream deal as something beneficial for “peace”:

    “I remain a supporter of economic cooperation and social interaction between a democratic Israel and Palestine,” the actress said. “SodaStream is a company that is not only committed to the environment but to building a bridge to peace between Israel and Palestine, supporting neighbors working alongside each other, receiving equal pay, equal benefits and equal rights. That is what is happening in their Ma’ale Adumim factory every working day.”

    Maale Adumim is an Israeli colony built on occupied Palestinian land in violation of international law.
    Choosing celebrity over principle

    Johansson’s clear endorsement of Israeli colonization and regurgitation of SodaStream propaganda is at sharp odds with Oxfam’s own policy.

    In a statement on 23 January, Oxfam said it had informed the actress that “Oxfam believes that businesses that operate in settlements further the ongoing poverty and denial of rights of the Palestinian communities that we work to support. Oxfam is opposed to all trade from Israeli settlements, which are illegal under international law.”

    Johansson’s statement indicates that the “dialogue” Oxfam has been hiding behind has failed to impress on the actress that profiting from Israeli crimes is totally incompatible with a role promoting human rights and development.

    But at least for now, Oxfam has chosen to back celebrity over principle by continuing to stand behind Johansson.

    In doing so, it has taken a clear position against Palestinians and their rights and chosen complicity with Israeli occupation and colonization.
    Update

    In light of Oxfam’s comments to The Electronic Intifada and Johansson’s statement, US Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation, Adalah-NY and Jewish Voice for Peace today expressed outrage at Johansson’s endorsement of settlements and Oxfam’s failure to act on it.

    “We demand Oxfam respond immediately and drop her as their Global Ambassador in accordance with their own stated position that settlements are a major barrier to peace and contributor to poverty,” said the US Campaign’s Ramah Kudaimi.

  • Report : US drone attacks via US bases in Germany | News | DW.DE | 31.05.2013
    http://www.dw.de/report-us-drone-attacks-via-us-bases-in-germany/a-16850541

    Les frappes de drones étasuniennes en Afrique seraient opérées à partir de l’Allemagne.

    The US military’s use of unmanned aircraft to kill terror suspects in foreign countries has come under media scrutiny in Germany. US bases in Germany may be involved in drone killings.
    German ARD public television and the national daily paper Süddeutsche Zeitung have claimed that a satellite link located at the US air force base at Ramstein in southern Germany plays a key role in American drone attacks on targets in Africa.

    The reports also raised questions about how much the German government has known about the controversial practice.

    “The killing of a terror suspect using an armed drone outside of an armed conflict could - if the federal government knows about it and doesn’t protest against it - make it complicit in a human rights offence,” German human rights lawyer Thilo Marauhn told ARD.
    Killing via satellite?

    The two reports cite an internal US military document said to indicate that the Ramstein satellite facility provides the vital link between the US drone pilot, who operates from a base in the United States, with the drone itself in missions conducted over Africa.

    • L’article (traduit) de la Süddeutsche Zeitung

      Exclusive : US Armed Forces Piloting Drones From Bases In Germany - All News Is Global |
      http://www.worldcrunch.com/world-affairs/exclusive-us-armed-forces-piloting-drones-from-bases-in-germany/drones-germany-somalia-united-states-illegal/c1s12174

      Ten deadly drone attacks killing up to 29 people have so far been carried out in Somalia by US forces. Most of those killed were believed to be members of the militant Al Shabab, which aims to create an Islamic state on the Horn of Africa.
      Since 2011 an air mission control center in Ramstein has been guiding US Air Force attacks in Africa including Somalia. Up to 650 staff at the Ramstein control center monitor African air space, evaluate pictures taken by drone and satellite, and plan new missions. Without the special satellite relay station for unmanned flying objects in Ramstein the drone attacks in Africa “could not be carried out,” according to a US Air Force internal memo.
      Documents make clear that there are plans to replace an old facility with a better, permanent one. U.S. Congress approved the equivalent of 8.4m euros for this in 2011. “Realizing this project will improve satellite communication with drones long-term,” says the document.
      When asked, a US military spokesperson said that generally responsibility for all military operations in Africa — including the drone missions — lay with Africom in Stuttgart. An internal memo shows that Africom is seeking to hire “secret service analysts” whose task would be to “nominate” targets for drone missions in Africa.

      Le porte-parole états-unien explique benoîtement que l’analyse et la décision sont faites à Stuttgart mais que le pilotage et le contrôle des drones non. (On est en plein dans la dilution de la responsabilité telle que décrite par Chamayou…)
      Quant au gouvernement allemand, il n’est au courant de rien.

      Berlin not aware of U.S. drone strikes from German bases | Reuters
      http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/05/31/us-germany-us-drones-idUSBRE94U0WV20130531

      Thomas Oppermann, parliamentary floor leader of the center-left Social Democrats (SPD), said German law prohibited targeted attacks outside of armed conflicts and demanded an explanation from the government.

      “The German government has no knowledge of such operations being planned or carried out by U.S. armed forces,” Merkel’s spokesman, Steffen Seibert, told a regular government news conference.

      Asked about the reports, Major Ryan Donald of United States European Command (EUCOM) based in Stuttgart said: “We maintain robust civilian and military cooperation with Germany and manage all base activities in accordance with the agreements made between the United States and German governments.”

      “The Air and Space Operations Center at Ramstein Air Base monitors and assesses assigned airpower missions throughout Europe and Africa, but does not directly fly or control any manned or remotely piloted aircraft,” he said in a statement.