organization:department of state

In Egypt, Business as Usual : l’édito du NYT critique la conférence US organisée en Égypte pour les investisseurs américains en dépit des violations des droits humains

▻http://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/07/opinion/in-egypt-business-as-usual.html?smid=tw-share

The Obama administration’s Egypt policy — to the extent that one can be discerned — has been characterized by a combination of mixed messages, wishful thinking and a willful disregard of inconvenient truths.

It is nonetheless stunning that the State Department saw fit to help organize a large investment conference for American businesses in Cairo next week, coinciding with a deadline the Egyptian government imposed in a blatant effort to shut down independent groups that promote civil society and human rights.

A State Department official called the timing “inadvertent,” and said the gathering of more than 65 American executives, which is being billed as the largest of its kind, in no way diminishes Washington’s concerns about Egypt’s efforts to throttle pro-democracy organizations. Inadvertent or not, the conference will be seen by Egyptians as an unequivocal endorsement of President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, whose ruthless authoritarianism is making Egypt’s past dictators look almost benign.

Under Egypt’s draconian 2002 Law on Associations, nongovernmental groups must be licensed by the state. Because the government has not accredited those that have brought to light government abuses and promoted democratic reforms, most such groups have operated in a gray legal area. By announcing a Nov. 10 deadline for all organizations to be accredited, authorities in Cairo are signaling that a new crackdown on such groups could be imminent.

The message has been reinforced in recent months as some of Egypt’s smartest and bravest activists have been encouraged by officials in the government to leave the country or face arrest. Some have slipped out, feeling fearful and resigned.

Adding to the angst, the Egyptian government recently promoted the architect of the last crackdown on civil society organizations, Fayza Abul Naga, to the post of national security adviser. This appointment of an official who in 2012 sparked a diplomatic crisis with Washington by prompting a criminal inquiry that ensnared American pro-democracy workers is an ominous move.

Ms. Abul Naga’s crusade, which sought to vilify foreign-financed nongovernmental organizations, prompted the United States in February 2012 to pay $4.6 million in forfeited bail money that was essentially a judicial bribe. As it has threatened watchdogs and critics, Mr. Sisi’s government has had a freer hand in cracking down on Islamists, a diverse segment of Egypt’s population that the government has branded as terrorists.

That campaign took an alarming turn in recent days when Egyptian officials started leveling houses along the country’s border with Israel in an effort to shut down smuggling tunnels. The government gave thousands of residents 48 hours to leave homes along the border, an arbitrary measure that is certain to be used by extremist groups to foment hatred of the state.

American executives taking part in the Cairo business conference next week should think long and hard about whether investing in Egypt now is worthwhile if it means strengthening a despotic system.

ekathimerini.com | US concern at tensions off Cyprus coast
▻http://www.ekathimerini.com/4dcgi/_w_articles_wsite1_1_01/11/2014_544233

As Turkey fuels fears in the eastern Mediterranean by insisting on maintaining the seismic survey vessel Barbaros off the southern coast of Cyprus, Washington has expressed its concern over renewed tensions in the region and has underlined its support for Nicosia’s sovereignty and right to develop resources in its exclusive economic zone (EEZ).

In a media briefing in Washington over the weekend, State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said the US has not changed its position on Cyprus. “We continue to recognize the Republic of Cyprus’s right to develop its resources and its exclusive economic zones,” she said. Asked why Washington does not call on Turkey to stop transgressions off Cyprus, in the same way as it called on China to freeze provocative acts in the South China Sea, Psaki said, “every region and every conflict and every country is different.”
(…)
Nicosia halted the latest UN-buffered peace drive on Cyprus earlier this month in protest at Turkey’s plans to search for oil and gas in waters where the Cypriot government has already licensed companies to drill.

A decision by Turkey’s National Security Council to maintain its presence off the southern coast of Cyprus, despite objections by Greece, Cyprus and Egypt, has heightened fears of tensions climaxing in the region.

U.S. will continue to ostracize Ya’alon until he apologizes
Not only is Israel’s defense minister detached from reality, but Ya’alon has managed to do the impossible: make people miss Ehud Barak.
By Barak Ravid | Oct. 26, 2014
Haaretz
▻http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/1.622717

The White House hazing suffered by Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon as he landed at Ben-Gurion Airport on Friday should surprise no one, least of all Ya’alon. One cannot humiliate and insult senior officials of the U.S. administration and expect the red carpet to be rolled out at the Department of State, or the door to the Oval Office to be opened.

Yet Ya’alon was surprised. He thought U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry had forgotten that Ya’alon had called him “messianic and obsessive.” He thought that senior White House officials had forgiven him for preaching that the United States is showing weakness all over the world, and that American assistance to Israel should be seen “in proportion.”

Ya’alon’s remarks to the Washington Post before the public humiliation showed the extent to which he is detached from reality. He tried to convey that it was business as usual, and said he and Kerry had overcome the crisis. Twenty-four hours later, that sounded like a bad joke.

Ironically, it was U.S. Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel who strengthened Ya’alon’s misreading of the terrain. Instead of explaining to his Israeli counterpart how much anger had accumulated against him in the corridors of the U.S. administration, Hagel embraced and kissed Ya’alon in front of the cameras.

After each of Ya’alon’s insulting remarks that further increased tensions between Jerusalem and Washington this summer, the defense minister published weak follow-up statements. But the U.S. administration made clear to Ya’alon more than once in recent months – both in public and privately – that he had to publicly and unequivocally apologize. But Ya’alon preferred to ignore the warning and to regard the crisis as a minor and transitory nuisance. To this day, he has not truly apologized.

This week, when Ya’alon returns to his office in the Kirya [defense HQ] in Tel Aviv, he should invite over one of his predecessors, Benjamin Ben-Eliezer, who can tell him from personal experience what he must do. A leak from a 2002 meeting between Ben-Eliezer and Vice President Dick Cheney during media interviews turned Ben-Eliezer into persona non grata in Washington.

Ben-Eliezer had to send a personal letter of apology to Cheney; apologize over the phone to National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice and her deputy, Elliott Abrams; and subject himself to a few months’ cooling-off period, during which he did not go to Washington. Only then, after a meeting with Cheney when the latter came to Israel, was the embargo on Ben-Eliezer lifted.

Ya’alon is trying to play down the significance of the boycott against him. At every opportunity he mentions his good relations with Hagel and the fact that his really important meetings were with the defense secretary. But Hagel could not save him when the White House stopped the delivery of Hellfire missiles to Israel during Operation Protective Edge. If Ya’alon really thought that was a bureaucratic snafu, he was wrong.

Ya’alon’s poor conduct has made him one of the only Israeli defense ministers ever to be ostracized by the American administration. And when an Israeli defense minister is ostracized, that means real damage to national security. Until he apologizes, he will not be a legitimate partner for dialogue with any senior official except Hagel.

Ya’alon has managed to do the impossible and make quite a few people long for Ehud Barak’s years as defense minister. Barak had many faults, but he made a decisive contribution when it came to ties with the United States. In his meetings with President Barack Obama, he corrected quite a lot of the damage caused by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his close advisers.

Today, there is no one to smooth things over with the White House. Ties between Netanyahu and Obama are bad; Israel’s ambassador to the United States, Ron Dermer, is on the outs; and now the defense minister is being given the cold shoulder. Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman has good ties with Kerry, but no more than that. The White House may like Justice Minister Tzipi Livni and Finance Minister Yair Lapid, but knows these two cannot deliver the goods. Thus, Israel has no effective channels of communication with the administration. With all critical diplomatic and security issues on the agenda, that is a great worry indeed.

In policy shift, U.S. opens direct talks with Syrian Kurds
▻http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2014/10/16/243690/in-policy-shift-us-opens-direct.html

WASHINGTON — The Obama administration acknowledged Thursday that a U.S. official for the first time met with a representative of a Syrian Kurdish political party that’s closely linked to a group on the U.S. terrorist list.

State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said a U.S. diplomat met with a counterpart from the main Kurdish political party in Syria – the Democratic Union Party, better known by its Kurdish acronym as the PYD – to discuss the U.S.-led fight against the Islamic State. The PYD’s militia is engaged in fierce battles with the Islamist extremists, especially near the town of Kobani along the border with Turkey.

The direct talks are a sign of the shifting alliances created by the rise of the Islamic State. In Iraq, for example, the U.S. is providing air cover for Iranian-backed Shiite Muslim militias that once targeted American forces. And now in Syria, it appears the United States is willing to work with a group that’s tied to the PKK, or Kurdistan Workers Party, which has waged a guerrilla war for Kurdish rights in Turkey for 30 years and which has been on the U.S. list of foreign terrorist organizations for nearly two decades. Turkey and the European Union also have blacklisted the PKK.

The Black-Market Battleground
▻http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2014/10/17/the_black_market_battleground_syria_iraq_isis

“What we have from the satellite imagery is that there is industrial-scale looting all over Syria,” said Danti, a leader of an American Schools of Oriental Research (ASOR) project that in August received U.S. State Department funding to document cultural heritage threats in Syria. During the U.N. General Assembly meeting in September, Secretary of State John Kerry personally thanked Danti in a speech at New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the project expanded into Iraq.

It’s often difficult to definitively determine who is responsible for an instance of looting. Both the Syrian government and rebel groups have taken part, as have locals in both Syria and Iraq whose livelihoods have been disrupted by the conflict. Satellite images and informants on the ground often can’t keep up with the pace of looting and of the exchange of territory between various groups.

Nonetheless, it’s clear that the scale of the Islamic State’s destruction, looting, and profits from antiquities trafficking is “unprecedented,” Danti said.

ASOR’s Syrian Heritage Initiative uses satellite images such as these, taken at a site in Syria on January 2012 and March 2014, to understand where and on what scale looting is taking place. Click on each photo to see a larger version.

http://www.foreignpolicy.com/files/fp_uploaded_images/141017_january.jpg http://www.foreignpolicy.com/files/fp_uploaded_images/141017_march.jpg

US, Turkey at odds over Syria intervention - World Socialist Web Site

▻http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2014/10/10/syri-o10.html

A top-level US delegation arrived in Ankara Thursday for talks with Turkish leaders amid a mounting crisis on the Syria-Turkey border, where Syrian Kurds are besieged in the town of Kobani by thousands of fighters mobilized by Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS).

The two US representatives are retired General John Allen, the Obama-appointed coordinator of the US-led military coalition attacking ISIS forces, and Brett McGurk, the State Department official handling the diplomatic side of the imperialist intervention.

#syrie #turquie #états-unis #is #isil #kurdes #kurdistan

In search of a digital caliphate | Al Jazeera America
▻http://america.aljazeera.com/opinions/2014/9/in-search-of-a-digitalcaliphate.html

So far, the IS has succeeded in drawing the U.S. back into Iraq, reinforcing the narrative of Muslim oppression at the hands of a Western power. It has also baited the State Department into employing gruesome footage of crucifixions and killings in a propaganda video intended to dissuade potential recruits from joining.

Even if the IS is eventually eliminated, its organizational model is one that our current technology is increasingly pushing us toward: an archipelago of disconnected, interest-driven communes, many of them featuring privatized services. And even though the Islamic State’s stated intention is to destroy the West, it is the West’s technology that’s making its actions possible. As French sociologist Jean Baudrillard wrote in “The Spirit of Terrorism,” we are looking at “a new form of action which plays the game and lays hold of the rules of the game, solely with the aim of disrupting it.”

In a final dismissal of the naive Arab Spring media chorus that Western-developed social media would usher in a final Westernization, the IS plucks from a palette of tools — Facebook, infographics, executions, whatever seems most effective. Ragged black banners and beheadings straight out of “Game of Thrones” nightmares compete with slick social media messages, corporate-style annual reports and targeted resource takeovers, including oil pipelines, natural gas fields, wheat silos and dams. As such, the IS is just as much a product of digital echo chambers as it is the result of medievalism.

#OEI

White House Has No International Legal Justification for Hitting ISIS in Syria - The Daily Beast
▻http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/09/15/white-house-has-no-international-legal-justification-for-hitting-isis

Tous parlent en sa faveur, tous s’assoient dessus : le #droit_international

[State Department Spokesperson Marie] Harf implied that that the administration might claim the right to strike ISIS in Syria based on the principle of individual self-defense, a clear exception to the need for permission or UN Security Council. Such a rational might be applicable if the American government claims there’s an imminent threat to U.S. personnel in a state that is unwilling or unable to counter that threat. But if administration officials actually try to invoke individual self-defense as a justification, they would likely have to contradict repeated statements by top officials this week claiming ISIS does not present an immediate threat to the U.S. homeland.

#Etats-Unis

Foreign Powers Buy Influence at #Think_Tanks
▻http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/07/us/politics/foreign-powers-buy-influence-at-think-tanks.html

Je ne savais pas que la famille #Hariri était une « puissance étrangère » (là où même de véritables puissances étrangères n’ont aucune chance d’acheter la moindre #influence)

The arrangements involve Washington’s most influential think tanks, including the Brookings Institution, the Center for Strategic and International Studies, and the Atlantic Council. Each is a major recipient of overseas funds, producing policy papers, hosting forums and organizing private briefings for senior United States government officials that typically align with the foreign governments’ agendas.

(...)

Michele Dunne served for nearly two decades as a specialist in Middle Eastern affairs at the State Department, including stints in Cairo and Jerusalem, and on the White House National Security Council. In 2011, she was a natural choice to become the founding director of the Atlantic Council’s Rafik Hariri Center for the Middle East, named after the former prime minister of Lebanon, who was assassinated in 2005.

The center was created with a generous donation from Bahaa Hariri , his eldest son, and with the support of the rest of the Hariri family, which has remained active in politics and business in the Middle East. Another son of the former prime minister served as Lebanon’s prime minister from 2009 to 2011.

But by the summer of 2013, when Egypt’s military forcibly removed the country’s democratically elected president, Mohamed Morsi, Ms. Dunne soon realized there were limits to her independence. After she signed a petition and testified before a Senate Foreign Relations Committee urging the United States to suspend military aid to Egypt, calling Mr. Morsi’s ouster a “military coup,” Bahaa Hariri called the Atlantic Council to complain, executives with direct knowledge of the events said.

Ms. Dunne declined to comment on the matter. But four months after the call, Ms. Dunne left the Atlantic Council.

(...)

Ms. Dunne was replaced by Francis J. Ricciardone Jr., who served as United States ambassador to Egypt during the rule of Hosni Mubarak, the longtime Egyptian military and political leader forced out of power at the beginning of the Arab Spring. Mr. Ricciardone, a career foreign service officer, had earlier been criticized by conservatives and human rights activists for being too deferential to the Mubarak government.

Scholars at other Washington think tanks, who were granted anonymity to detail confidential internal discussions, described similar experiences that had a chilling effect on their research and ability to make public statements that might offend current or future foreign sponsors. At Brookings, for example, a donor with apparent ties to the Turkish government suspended its support after a scholar there made critical statements about the country, sending a message, one scholar there said.

“It is the self-censorship that really affects us over time,” the scholar said. “But the fund-raising environment is very difficult at the moment, and Brookings keeps growing and it has to support itself.”

The sensitivities are especially important when it comes to the Qatari government — the single biggest foreign donor to Brookings.

Brookings executives cited strict internal policies that they said ensure their scholars’ work is “not influenced by the views of our funders,” in Qatar or in Washington. They also pointed to several reports published at the Brookings Doha Center in recent years that, for example, questioned the Qatari government’s efforts to revamp its education system or criticized the role it has played in supporting militants in Syria.

But in 2012, when a revised agreement was signed between Brookings and the Qatari government, the Qatar Ministry of Foreign Affairs itself praised the agreement on its website, announcing that “the center will assume its role in reflecting the bright image of Qatar in the international media, especially the American ones.” Brookings officials also acknowledged that they have regular meetings with Qatari government officials about the center’s activities and budget, and that the former Qatar prime minister sits on the center’s advisory board.

Mr. Ali, who served as one of the first visiting fellows at the Brookings Doha Center after it opened in 2009, said such a policy, though unwritten, was clear.

“There was a no-go zone when it came to criticizing the Qatari government,” said Mr. Ali, who is now a professor at the University of Queensland in Australia. “It was unsettling for the academics there. But it was the price we had to pay.”

#corruption #Etats-Unis

As-Safir Newspaper - محمد بلوط : تعاون أمني سوري ـ أميركي يتيح ضرب « داعش » في الرقة : : الصفحة الرئيسة
▻http://www.assafir.com/Article/1/367234

Le Safir revient sur la toute nouvelle "coopération sécuritaire" entre la Syrie et les USA sur le dos de l’EI (au passage, la Syrie nie qu’il y ait eu des bombardements US sur son sol).

Israel trying to resolve weapons transfer crisis with U.S., officials say - Diplomacy and Defense Israel News | Haaretz
▻http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/.premium-1.610635

Une histoire invraisemblable,

The Wall Street Journal report said that during the Gaza war, White House officials were dismayed to discover that large amounts of weaponry are being passed to Israel via direct channels to the Pentagon, with little oversight by the political arena. In light of that, and against the backdrop of American anger over the high number of civilian casualties in Gaza caused by Israel’s massive use of artillery fire rather than more precise weapons, White House and State Department officials are now demanding to review every Israeli request for American arms individually, a fact that slows down the process.

Israël a reçu des armes sans l’accord américain
▻http://www.lefigaro.fr/flash-actu/2014/08/14/97001-20140814FILWWW00175-israel-a-recu-des-armes-sans-l-accord-americain.p

Israël a reçu le mois dernier des armes en provenance du Pentagone sans l’accord de la Maison Blanche ou du département d’Etat, a rapporté le Wall Street Journal aujourd’hui. Les dirigeants américains, Barack Obama en tête, ont tenté de pousser Israël à la retenue dans son opération militaire à Gaza et ils ont essayé de resserrer le contrôle sur l’envoi d’armes à Israël, selon le quotidien qui cite des responsables américains et israéliens.

Mais des armes ont malgré tout été livrées, ce qui illustre en l’occurrence le manque d’influence du gouvernement américain sur le Premier ministre israélien Benyamin Netanyahu, ajoute le Wall Street Journal, citant là aussi des responsables des deux pays. Selon le journal, les dirigeants américains, au lieu de jouer leur rôle habituel de médiateurs, en sont réduits au rôle de spectateurs alors que l’armée israélienne et le Hamas s’affrontent. Le quotidien rapporte que Barack Obama et Benyamin Netanyahu ont eu un entretien téléphonique particulièrement tendu hier..

Israël confirme la suspension des expéditions de missile des Etats-Unis | The Times of Israël
▻http://fr.timesofisrael.com/israel-confirme-la-suspension-des-expeditions-de-missile-des-etats

un (...) responsable de la défense américaine a souligné que les transferts sont légitimes et ne nécessitent pas de signature du président Barack Obama ou du Département d’Etat.

Geography and global order - The Hindu

▻http://www.thehindu.com/books/books-reviews/geography-and-global-order/article6164049.ece

A thesis that explains how the Cold War, origins of the UN and decolonisation were mutually implicated processes

http://www.thehindu.com/multimedia/dynamic/01976/01OEB_MAPPING_JPG_1976365e.jpg

Mapping the End of Empire by U.S. State Department historian Aiyaz Husain embodies a project that the author himself describes as ‘ambitious’. Aiming to offer a fresh perspective on the end of European colonialism and the attendant rebuilding of the global order at the end of World War II is ambitious indeed. And Husain’s core insight — that policy-framing and diplomacy in London and Washington were shaped as much by material factors as by the mental geographies of the East nurtured by strategists and academics — is so original as to run the risk of appearing eccentric. That hazard is avoided, though, as Husain adequately convinces the reader of the tenability of his thesis that in the post-war period ‘perceptions of geography’ came to shape Anglo-American foreign policy agendas, especially on the question of refugee settlement, drove organisational changes, and ultimately ‘congealed into international bodies like the U.N. Security Council’.

#recension #géopolitique #cartographie #histoire_contemporaine

US “gravely concerned” for Palestinian-American teen held in Israeli jail
▻http://english.al-akhbar.com/content/us-gravely-concerned-palestinian-american-teen-held-israeli-jail

The United States on Monday urged #Israel to expedite the case of a 15-year-old American citizen held for three weeks on charges of rock-throwing, amid concerns he has been mistreated in custody. #Mohammed_Abu_Nie — who has dual American and Palestinian citizenship — was arrested in east Jerusalem on July 3, State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki confirmed. “We are certainly gravely concerned about the detention of an American citizen child,” she told reporters. read more

#Palestine

Clinton Earns $12 Million Speaking, Writing After Service
▻http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-07-21/clinton-earns-12-million-speaking-writing-after-service.html

Hillary Clinton has earned at least $12 million in 16 months since leaving the State Department, a windfall at odds with her party’s call to shrink the gap between the rich and the poor.

Clinton’s income since her resignation as secretary of state in February 2013 is derived mostly from her latest memoir, speeches and paid appearances at corporate retreats, according to an analysis of data compiled by Bloomberg.

At least 12 organizations that previously booked President Bill Clinton — who has been paid almost $106 million in speaking fees alone since he left the White House — also hired his wife. Among them: Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (GS) and the National Association of Realtors.

#Kerry caught criticizing Israeli killings in #Gaza
▻http://english.al-akhbar.com/content/kerry-caught-criticizing-israeli-killings-gaza

US Secretary of State John Kerry criticized #Israel in candid remarks caught on an open microphone between television interviews Sunday. Kerry was heard talking about Israeli soldiers killed in Gaza to a State Department official identified as Jonathan Finer just before appearing on the “Fox News Sunday” political talk show. “I hope they don’t think that’s an invitation to go do more,” Kerry says. “That better be the warning to them.” read more

#palestinians

Kerry protests #Bahrain's expulsion of US envoy
▻http://english.al-akhbar.com/content/kerry-protests-bahrains-expulsion-us-envoy

Secretary of State #John_Kerry protested Bahrain’s expulsion of an American envoy and its “unacceptable demands” that foreign ministry personnel attend his private meetings, the State Department said Monday. Kerry also told Foreign Minister Khalid bin Ahmed bin Mohammed al-Khalifa in a “frank” phone call Sunday that Washington was displeased that the Gulf state charged two leaders of Bahrain’s largest opposition movement who met with the US official earlier this month, a senior State Department official said. read more

#Ali_Salman #Khalil_Marzooq #Tom_Malinowski

Salman and Almarzooq summoned for interrogation

Sheikh Ali Salman, Al Wefaq Secretary General, and his Political Assistant Khalil Almarzooq, have today received an official summons by the Bahraini Ministry of Interior, following a meeting with an US Official. The interrogation will take place tomorrow morning (9th July) at 9am (Bahrain time).

Tom Malinowski, US Assistant Secretary of State for Democracy, Human Rights and Labor, was yesterday ordered to leave <mailto:▻http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-28204511> Bahrain by the authorities, after meeting with members of Al Wefaq. Despite international condemnation, Bahrain is now escalating this issue further by targeting leading members of Al Wefaq, who took part in the meeting.

In September 2013 a law was passed that prohibited meetings between opposition societies and international diplomats, without the presence of a representative of the Ministry of Interior. Although no reason for the summons was given, it comes less than 24 hours after the demand for Mr. Malinowski to leave Bahrain.

Commenting on the orders for Mr. Malinowski to leave Bahrain, the State Department said it is “deeply concerned”, <mailto:▻http://www.state.gov/r/pa/prs/ps/2014/07/228839.htm> whilst Mr. Malinowski himself said the decision was about “undermining dialogue”. <mailto:▻https://twitter.com/Malinowski/status/486495418583629825> The Bahrain Justice and Development Movement share this analysis, with the summons received by Salman and Almarzooq serving as proof.

The dropping of charges against Almarzooq last month was a potentially positive step towards rebuilding a political process, but this latest attack is yet another example of the “one step forward, two steps back approach” adopted by Bahrain. Once again hardliners within the Authorities are taking control to scupper any plans towards reform.

Given the chance to take full control, Bahrain’s hardliners will turn Bahrain into a closed society, barring international observers and unleashing heavy repression and human rights abuses.

The Bahrain Justice and Development Movement condemn the summons received by Salman and Almarzooq, as well as the decision to demand that a stop State Department official leave Bahrain. We call on the Bahrain authorities to rescind the summons, or at least to make sure no false charges are attributed to Salman and Almarzooq. Furthermore, we call on the authorities to end the stalling and to immediately begin a new political process that takes the country towards serious democratic reform.

Ali Alaswad, a resigned Bahraini MP from Al Wefaq, said:

/“After the State Department rejected the removal of Mr. Malinowski, the authorities in Bahrain are turning their attention to Al Wefaq instead. In any country, anywhere in the world, international observers and diplomats have a right to meet with political leaders. This shows just the lengths Bahrain will go to in order to protect its image, and that clearly they have something to hide.”/

Chile court: US had role in ‘Missing’ killings
▻http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/the_americas/chile-court-us-had-role-in-missing-killings/2014/07/01/de82fa56-00e9-11e4-b203-f4b4c664cccf_story.html

SANTIAGO, Chile — A Chilean court said U.S. military intelligence services played a key role that led to the 1973 killings of two Americans in Chile in a case that inspired the Oscar-winning film “Missing.”

A court ruling released late Monday said former U.S. Navy Capt. Ray E. Davis gave information to Chilean officials about journalist Charles Horman and student Frank Teruggi that led to their arrest and execution just days after the 1973 coup that brought Gen. Augusto Pinochet to power.

http://mwcnews.net/images/stories/americas/us/b/frank-teruggi-and-charles-h.jpg

Before Shooting in Iraq, a Warning on #Blackwater - NYTimes.com
▻http://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/30/us/before-shooting-in-iraq-warning-on-blackwater.html

Just weeks before Blackwater guards fatally shot 17 civilians at Baghdad’s Nisour Square in 2007, the State Department began investigating the security contractor’s operations in Iraq. But the inquiry was abandoned after Blackwater’s top manager there issued a threat: “that he could kill” the government’s chief investigator and “no one could or would do anything about it as we were in Iraq,”

Russia Sent Tanks to Separatists in Ukraine, U.S. Says - NYTimes.com

▻http://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/14/world/europe/ukraine-claims-full-control-of-port-city-of-mariupol.html?_r=0

Invérifiable ?

DONETSK, Ukraine — The State Department said Friday that Russia had sent tanks and other heavy weapons to separatists in Ukraine, supporting accusations Thursday by the Ukrainian government.

http://static01.nyt.com/images/2014/06/14/world/14UKRAINE/14UKRAINE-articleLarge.jpg

A convoy of three T-64 tanks, several BM-21 multiple rocket launchers and other military vehicles crossed the border near the Ukrainian town of Snizhne, State Department officials said. The Ukrainian Army reported Friday that it had destroyed two of the tanks and several other vehicles in the convoy.

#ukraine #russie

U.S. Embassy prepares evacuation plans - IraqiNews.com
▻http://www.iraqinews.com/iraq-war/urgent-u-s-embassy-prepares-evacuation-plans

The U.S. Embassy in Baghdad is preparing contingency plans to evacuate its staff since ISIL has taken control over large swaths of Iraq, according to a U.S. State Department official.

#Hillary_Clinton and the Weaponization of the State Department by JP Sottile — Antiwar.com
▻http://original.antiwar.com/JP-Sottile/2014/06/05/hillary-clinton-and-the-weaponization-of-the-state-department

The ultimate outcome of this shift is, to borrow from Nick Turse, yet another “#new_normal” – the new normalization of the War on Terror. What the adoption of the Whole-of-Government/mission integration approach has done is to normalize the implementation of the re-branded War on Terror (a.k.a. Overseas Contingency Operations) across key agencies of the government and masked it, for lack of the better term, under the rubric of stabilization, development and democracy building.

It is, in effect, the return of a key Cold War policy of “regime support” for clients and “regime change” for non-client states, particularly in strategically-located areas and resource-rich regions. Regimes – whether or not they actually “reflect American values” – can count on US financial, military and mission-integrated diplomatic support so long as they can claim to be endangered…not by communists, but by terrorists.

And because terrorism is a tactic – not a political system or a regime – the shadowy, State Department-assisted Special Ops industry that fights them will, unlike the sullen enthusiasts of the Cold War, never be bereft of an enemy.

#militarisation_de_la_diplomatie #terrorisme

▻http://www.granma.cu/idiomas/ingles/ouramerica-i/29may-What+is%20the.html

In a tactical shift toward Bolivia, the U.S. State Department has sent Jefferson Brown to the country, indicating a likely increase in subversive activity against the Morales government. He was apparently sent to clean house, and replace all embassy personnel in preparation for the July arrival of a new attaché, Peter Brennan, an uncommon diplomatic practice.

It appears that the White House has decided to make a turn - for the worse - in its relations with Bolivia. After removing Larry Memmott, considered a dove in U.S. secret services circles, the State Department has sent Jefferson Brown, as interim business attaché, who will remain on the job only through June, before handing over the position to the much more experienced hawk, Peter Brennan.

#bolivie #morales #eeuu

Zombie NATO, by Harvey B. Feigenbaum
▻http://mondediplo.com/blogs/zombie-nato

In the mid 1990s over lunch with a friend in the State Department, he remarked: “We should have dismantled NATO when we had the chance!” That’s not what happened, and we are currently reaping the consequences of the path not taken.

#Israel denounces #US #Terrorism report over mention of “price tag” attacks
▻http://english.al-akhbar.com/content/israel-denounces-us-terrorism-report-over-mention-price-tag-attac

http://english.al-akhbar.com/sites/default/files/imagecache/4cols/leading_images/743480-01-08.jpg

An Israeli settler woman, left, questions a Palestian woman walking her children home, as settler families move into a four-story building which the Palestinian Rajabis family has said was taken over fraudulently by Israeli settlers, in the West Bank town of Hebron, on April 13, 2014. (Photo: AFP - Hazem Bader)

Israeli police on Thursday challenged Washington’s inclusion of Zionist extremist attacks on Palestinians in a global terror report, claiming such incidents could not be likened to terrorist attacks. For the first time, the State Department’s 2013 Country Reports on Terrorism, published Wednesday, included a reference to a growing wave of racist anti-Palestinian vandalism, euphemistically known as “price tag” attacks. read (...)

#Palestine #price_tag #Top_News