FOREIGN SERVICE UPDATES

DRC Congo US diplomat detained w W.African pro-democracy activists & foreign journalists after news conf. http://www.bulletinecho.com/politics/ap-news-congo-detains-us-diplomat-with-pro-democracy-activists-h8969.html Accused of: posing threat to stability. US Embassy in Kinshasa - no comment AP Circular http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/congo-detains-us-diplomat-pro-democracy-activist-29656474 LOL .. markings of US interference? Filimbi NGO organised conference: aims for greater youth participation in politics ** foreign journalists released ** according to AP circular Filimbi Swahili = flute  {Google Translate} = flute  {Glosobe} -- SierraLeone USA Ebola US embassy in Sierra Leone confirmed: US healthcare worker infected  / 10 in quarantine World Health Org: > 10,004 ebola deaths West Africa > abt. 24,350 total cases http://www.lse.co.uk/AllNews.asp?code=ef4lzjvo&headline=US_Ebola_Patient_Being_Treated_In_Washington_10_In_Quarantine Australian ambassadors to Zimbabwe & Egypt appointed  >>  http://www.psnews.com.au/aps/Page_psn44717.html -- PAKISTAN  Obama nominates US Ambassador to Lebanon - DAVID HALE - as new envoy to Pakistan Senate needs to confirm. David Hale >replacing ambassador Richard Olson. U. Georgetown. Career ambass. New Jersey native. LEBANON US Embassy in Beirut recently led a $25 million shipment of weapons from USA to help Lebanon fight extremists along border with Syria. http://www.lebaneseexaminer.com/2015/03/16/president-obama-nominates-u-s-ambassador-to-lebanon-as-new-envoy-to-pakistan/ --

Sweden Prosecutor's Delay Blamed for Destroying Three Lives

GOOGLE TRANSLATION * CAUTION * * INEXACT * STERN http://www.stern.de/panorama/wikileaks-gruender-julian-assange-kaempft-gegen-schweden-2180034.html Julian Assange to Sweden destroyed three lives, a culprit GOOGLE TRANSLATION * CAUTION * * INEXACT* March 14, 2015, 11:35 clock Wikileaks founder Julian Assange had to wait for years for no reason on an interrogation. A scandal that destroyed three existences, but only one culprit knows: the Swedish prosecutor Marianne Ny. A commentary by Sylvia Margaret Steinitz The Swedish prosecutor Marianne Ny and Wikileaks founder Julian Assange © Adam Ihse / AFP / Facundo Arrizabalaga / EPA The whole thing would have been so not necessary. The international arrest warrant. Applications to court. The asylum at the Embassy of Ecuador, the existential twilight seventy square meters. One thousand days without sunlight and fresh air. Sentry outside the windows, which devoured already rumored 15 million pounds of British taxpayers' money. The whole theater - in vain. Years ago, it now turns out, the Swedish prosecutor Marianne Ny would have to arrange that Julian Assange interviewed in the UK to allegations of sexual offenses from 2010 and whether charges are brought. She always had declared a survey in the message is not possible, Assange had come to Sweden. The unspoken "or": In case of refusal, he would just go stale in the message. The warrant remained upright and in any case so that the whole farce about the Wikileaks founder, who fears being extradited to the US, he should enter the Swedish soil. Fairness And now that Assange's legal team called the Supreme Court, an Attorney General has taken responsibility and also the limitation period for some of Assange threatens to spread alleged actions, as it suddenly goes but Marianne Ny has submitted a request to question Assange in London to take a sample of DNA. What she needs is unclear, the Swedish authorities have already from the year 2010. But, after all. It is an examination that is desired by all parties, especially by Julian Assange. The course is not Uschuldslamm. Do the statements of the two affected women in the matter only half the truth, this man has a huge problem with people in general, and respect for women in particular.  [Uschuldslamm, means 'innocent lamb' (I think).  The bit about the 'huge problem with people" and 'respect for women in particular', is arguable, of course.] Assange is smart, arrogant, irrational, utterly fearless. On a ten-point scale from hero to asshole he is a clear five. But heroes and assholes have to prove the same right to due process, the possibility of her innocence, if convicted on appropriate punishment and the chance of rehabilitation. Assange may already sitting longer than a prison sentence would make if convicted.  [LOL, I don't know how the author came up with an Assange is 5 on an 'assh*le' scale assessment, if that's a proper translation.] But while the situation in which Julian Assange is located, has been sufficiently discussed, one thing remains largely unnoticed by the public: what does this long waiting time for the two women. Help protect the mighty lawyer Since XXX & XXX released in August 2010 on a Stockholm police station to seek advice on how to Julian Assange could be forced to have an HIV test is over her life basically. XXX stated that Assange had had intercourse with her while she was half asleep, and that without prevention protection, even though she had repeatedly emphasized to want to have sex only with condom. XXX had come along to support XXX and explain his sexual encounter with Assange, who she'd felt as violent. The police saw among other things, satisfies the conditions of the rape and put an ad on. Rape in Sweden is a public offense that needs no own display by the victim. 24 hours later dropped the competent prosecutor this fall again. XXX  brought forward Protect your help with a ideologically related Advocate Claes Borgström, well-connected politically powerful, ambitious. By a legal trick he left the lodge a complaint again and took a very different prosecutor from the nearly 500 kilometers from Gothenburg on board: his old friend Marianne Ny, which should delay the process until 2015. Video Swedish authorities want to question Assange in London The end of a career For more than four years, XXX and XXX maligned as intelligence officials, who Assange had set a trap, abandoned their personal experiences with Assange ridicule - not least by Geoffrey Robertson, Assange's acclaimed lawyer and head of Amal Clooney stated that the portrayal of XXX describe "what is commonly known as a missionary position". XXX and XXX full names were mentioned in violation of the protection of their identity in articles published their photos in the network appeared ace address and a picture of her house on input. She eventually fled to Palestine to participate, on a project. XXX popped up quite as. It has created a new lawyer who is primarily concerned with photos and other items that affect XXX personal lives to sue from the network. For the aspiring artist video of farewell from the Internet also meant the end of a career that had just begun. The political career of XXX, who worked for a subset of the Swedish Social Democrats will never take the path that might have been possible without this floating method. Assange spurred the witch hunt Assange did nothing against the witch-hunt against XXX and XXX, on the contrary, in a subtle way he spurred the agitation also still on. He has switched Only since 2014, and stressed that the two women had not introduced the display. Much too late. Marianne Ny that could be provoked by Assange attacks in their direction into a power struggle, it is understandable though unprofessional. But with their blockade, they also took the women affected the ability to finally finish the thing. How much suffering victims of sexual violence through lengthy proceedings, is sufficiently well known. Marianne Ny is considered to be declared feminist and expert on Sexual Violence and yet consciously accepts the gain of a possible post-traumatic stress disorder in buying, apparently to punish an unpleasant counterparty. To leave two women in an unnecessary and intolerable, endanger its existence condition is inexcusable. But senior public prosecutor Ny is accountable to no one, seated at her job, Swedish workers law goodness. And so she plays for four years God. If a person is responsible for the mess in which not only Julian Assange, but XXX and XXX stuck, it's Marianne Ny. COMMENT The article is a poor Google translation of German, so all you can get from it is a few snippets and an overall feel for the article.  Some of it, I'm not entirely clear on.  And some translates hilariously:  as in the 5 points on the assh*le-scale.  Sorry, people, but I find that really funny.  Not so funny is the bit where Assange is deemed to have issues with 'people' and with 'respect for women in particular'.  Not quite sure how the author has come to that conclusion, unless she knows him personally.  And even if he was known personally, such a statement would be a statement of subjective opinion, rather than a statement of objective fact. Moving on:  I thought the criticism of Ny was interesting.  Ny in a job 'accountable to no one', plays God for four years.  Ny a declared feminist and expert on sexual violence who has, nonetheless, let this matter stagnate, risking possible post-traumatic stress disorder  ("PTSD"). However, that risk of PTSD is, of course, on presumption that the state of Sweden's allegations of wrongdoing reflect an actual trespass upon the two women (which the women themselves have previously and separately denied). Alternatively, even if the women in question were caught up in political intrigue, Sweden dragging this highly political and public matter out over the space of nearly 5 years is enough to give anyone PTSD, including Assange, I should think. The writer indicates that one of the women has fled to Palestine on a project and the other woman  cut short an otherwise promising career (if I understand this translation correctly). That woman's career appears to have been on the periphery of the Swedish Social Democratic party. Swedish Social Democratic party seems to connect a number of people associated with this intriguing Swedish predicament:  including the lawyer who resurrected the dismissed matter — 500km away in Gothenburg:  Claes Borgström. The author of the Stern article refers to, lawyer, Claes Borgström, as "well-connected politically powerful, ambitious." It appears from the article that prosecutor, Marianne Ny, is the prosecutor Claes Borgström found (500km away) to resurrect the dismissed matter — and this obliging prosecutor is referred to, in this Google translation, as Claes Borgström's 'old friend'.  Found this pretty exciting news (assuming the translation is correct).  Wow, how mind-blowing is all of this?  It's probably one of the first mainstream articles I've seen that sort of connects the dots (or it gets rather close).  On the other hand, this could be old news to everyone else and nothing to get excited about.  But I still think it's rather cool to see Sweden come under criticism in mainstream media. The author made a good point about Sweden dragging this out and the potential effects of doing so, particularly when the person taking the hit for the delay is a 'radical feminist' (who presumably ought to have more concern as to the impact of delay on the two women involved). This is a most interesting and pertinent criticism of the prosecutor's delay. And perhaps the criticism is even more interesting in light of the probability that the delay did not really come down to a single person in Sweden holding up progressing the matter by refusing to question Assange.  The disregard for the women's welfare — by a feminist state and feminist prosecutor — is perhaps more disturbing when the delay is considered alongside the strategy of a governmental, legal and political apparatus that's held Assange in place on behalf of the US Department of Justice, for more than 4 years.  Regardless of who in Sweden is responsible for not progressing this matter in a timely manner, the point about the delay by Sweden still stands and deserves examination, in the aftermath of Sweden's improbable about-face. As for the Claes Borgström and Marianne Ny 'old friend' factor referred to in Stern, how awkward.  LOL * Checked the distance between Gothenburg & Stockholm.  Varied figures.  470km was one of those figures, which is near enough to the author's 500km.

ASSANGE - 1,000 DAYS AT ECUADOR EMBASSY

It's 1,000 days today.  BBC reports that supporters are expected to hold a vigil outside the Ecuador embassy.

US GOVT INJUSTICE, BARRETT BROWN & THE EVIL EMPIRE

BARRETT BROWN Journalist BARRETT BROWN #FreeBarrett  TWITTER: https://twitter.com/FreeBarrett_   SITE: http://echelon2.org   SUPPORT: http://freebarrettbrown.org My Post Cyberpunk Indentured Servitude http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2015/01/31/my-post-cyberpunk-indentured-servitude.html Journalist Barrett Brown looks back in anger at the government’s trumped up charges against him as he starts a 63 month prison sentence. Not long ago I was a mild-mannered freelance journalist, activist, and satirist, contributing to outlets like the Guardian and Vanity Fair. But last Thursday I was sentenced to 63 months in federal prison in a case that Reporters Without Borders cited as a key factor in its reduction of America’s press freedom rankings from 33 to 46. As inconvenient as this is for me, the upside is that for the first time in the two and a half years since I was arrested, I am at last able to speak freely about what has been happening to me and why—and what it means for the press and the republic as a whole. A portion of my sentence stems from an attempt I made to conceal from the government the identities of certain contacts of mine: pro-democracy activists living under Middle Eastern dictatorships such as Bahrain, with which the U.S. is known to share intelligence on such things. Another large chunk is due to an admittedly ill-conceived public threat I made—in the midst of opiate withdrawal and what court psychologists say was a manic state brought on by medication issues—to investigate and humiliate an F.B.I. agent, who had himself threatened to indict my mother in an attempt to get me to cooperate against individuals associated with the Anonymous movement (my mother was indeed charged). Though I clearly stated that my intent was not violent, the prosecution claimed that my “victim,” Dallas-based Special Agent Robert Smith, had reason to fear that I might physically harm him and even his children—in which case it is not immediately obvious why the prosecution felt the need to alter the end of the sentence in question when quoting it on the indictment. (My complete statement, (PDF) in which I make a point of noting that I was merely going to proceed along lines spelled out by the FBI-linked contractor C.E.O. Aaron Barr while he was investigating activists on behalf of his corporate clients, and that I was doing so perfunctorily, and merely in order to make a point about the F.B.I.’s traditional reluctance to investigate its allies, has been viewed on YouTube by well over 100,000 people, including the dozens of reporters who have covered the story; none of them seem to agree with the Department of Justice contention that a journalist’s threat to “look into” someone in an explicitly non-violent manner necessarily entails violence.) A separate declaration I made to the effect that I’d defend my family from any illegal armed raids by the government, while silly and bombastic, was not actually illegal under the threats statutes. To judge from similar comments made by Senator Joni Ernst, it would not even have necessarily precluded me from delivering the G.O.P.’s recent response to the State of the Union address. But the charges that prompted the most international outrage were those alleging fraud. In late 2011, I copied and pasted a link to a publicly-available file, which chat transcripts introduced in court showed that I initially believed to contain the same leaked corporate emails I’d long been in the habit of reviewing for my Guardian articles. The file turned out to contain customer data, including credit card numbers. Although the government’s own forensics showed that I never opened the file, the D.O.J. contended (PDF) that I had thereby engaged in 11 counts of aggravated identity theft, punishable by a mandatory minimum sentence of 22 years in federal prison. The feds were eventually forced to drop these precedent-setting charges, after which I agreed to plea to the spurious make-believe crimes described above, so as to avoid the perils of a Texas jury. (As the government itself warned in a 2013 public filing, (PDF) my status as an atheist would have seriously damaged my ability to get a fair trial here in Dallas—although one might wonder how a jury would know I’m an atheist unless the government made a point of bringing it up, as they did, say, in that 2013 public filing.)     I will spend the rest of my life in a strange state of post-cyberpunk indentured servitude to an amoral private intelligence firm. I also had to plea to an Accessory After the Fact charge for having contacted the corporate espionage outfit Stratfor after some Anonymous-affiliated hackers stole several million of the firm’s emails and vowed to publish them online; I offered to arrange with the hackers to redact any of those communications that could potentially have endangered any foreign contacts if made public. For this, I will not only serve additional prison time, but have also been ordered to pay the company over $800,000—which is to say that I will spend the rest of my life in a strange state of post-cyberpunk indentured servitude to an amoral private intelligence firm that’s perhaps best known for having spied on Bhopal activists on behalf of Dow Chemical. That the prosecution did not quite manage to articulate how I did any damage to this particular company did not seem to dissuade U.S. District Judge Sam A. Lindsay in this matter. Likewise, His Honor did not express any visible interest in the fact that the F.B.I. itself has acknowledged having actually overseen the hack on Stratfor via its confidential informant, Hector “Sabu” Monsegur, who recently appeared in a national television interview with Charlie Rose to discuss his role in these matters. Quite understandably, most media coverage of last week’s sentencing hearing has focused on the exciting twist ending. Despite having dropped the notorious “linking” charges, the government still managed to convince Judge Lindsay to hold me responsible for the act of copying and pasting a link—a link that was already public, and which led to a file which was already itself public, and to which other journalists had also linked without being prosecuted for it—by way of a sentencing mechanism known as “relevant conduct.” In doing so, Judge Lindsay stated that this would not actually cause any concern among journalists—an exquisitely bizarre claim insomuch as countless journalists have been expressing concern over this very matter since the charges were first brought in 2012, with Wired’s Quinn Norton even having testified at a prior hearing that she herself would have been subject to such prosecution not only in the Stratfor affair, but throughout much of her career reporting on online security. In the wake of last week’s sentencing, Norton announced she could no longer report on security breaches and advised her colleagues to refrain as well. I will leave it to Judge Lindsay to explain to the concerned members of the press that they are not actually concerned; based on the commentary that’s now coming out of outlets ranging from the U.S. News & World Report to The Intercept and the Columbia Journalism Review, His Honor has a big job ahead of him. Instead, I will merely point out the other major scandal inherent to this case, one which has so far gone largely unreported—that in addition to having lost the “right to link” journalists have also now lost the “right to quote.” In trying to make the case that I was a violent threat to Agent Smith, the prosecution attributed to me the following statement: “Dead men can’t leak stuff … illegally shoot the son of a bitch.” I will admit that this is clearly an outright call for murder, and thus would certainly seem to warrant an F.B.I. investigation. The problem is that it wasn’t I who uttered this, but rather Fox News commentator Bob Beckel, who said it on national television in the course of a no-doubt productive discussion about Wikileaks founder Julian Assange. I had merely quoted the statement on my Twitter feed—in disapproval, of course, as I happen to admire Assange, and he, himself, has put out a statement expressing astonishment that the U.S. government would attribute to me a call for his murder made by someone else on a major cable news network. Now, it would be one thing if this had simply been a misunderstanding on the part of the D.O.J., which, in all fairness, was clearly in a rush to flesh out its fabricated case against me. But when my attorneys pointed this out in a motion to dismiss the charge, the prosecutor, Candina Heath, actually stuck to her guns, arguing that, by quoting this, I had “promoted” the idea. Among many other things, this leaves open the question of why Bob Beckel has not been indicted. The answer is that, unlike me, Beckel did not spend much of 2011 investigating the full extent of the Team Themis conspiracy, in which F.B.I.-linked contracting firms prepared a covert and criminal scheme by which to launch cyber-attacks in a campaign of intimidation against activists and journalists deemed supportive of Wikileaks—a conspiracy that, as the press and even some members of Congress noted at the time that it was foiled and made public by Anonymous, had been put in motion by none other than the D.O.J. itself. The dozen or so Americans who still have faith in the essential decency of the D.O.J., despite the assorted scandals of the last 15 years, might find it hard to believe that the charges against me were actually prompted by my efforts to bring attention to the agency’s own wrong-doing. It’s a fine thing, then, that the late journalist Michael Hastings saw fit to publish a copy of the original search warrants in my case, which list Themis firms HBGary Federal and Endgame Systems as subjects to be searched among my files, along with echelon2.org, the website on which my colleagues and I posted our research on the matter. Stratfor, the firm I allegedly cost almost a million dollars via a single phone call, is left unmentioned. But what should worry Americans most is not that the various frightening aspects of this case can fill a rather wordy article. What should worry them is that this is not even that article. The great bulk of the government’s demonstrable lies, contradictions, and instances of perjury are still sealed and thus unavailable to the public. Other matters are just now coming to light, such as the revelation, two days before my sentencing, that the D.O.J. had withheld from my defense team sealed chat transcripts from the Jeremy Hammond hacking case which contradicted its key claim that I was a co-conspirator in the Stratfor hack. And there are still other aspects of all this, such as the F.B.I.’s seizure of my copy of the Declaration of Independence as evidence of my criminal activity, that I blush to even commit to print, lest I not be believed, even despite the F.B.I. itself having now confirmed it. Suffice to say that I shall produce a far more comprehensive account of this whole affair later this year, even if I have few illusions that it will make much difference; a state that had reason to fear the press would not have acted as openly as it has, for as long as it has, and to such ends as it has. If anyone needs me in the meantime, I’ll be in prison.  [ ... LOL, BB's always funny.] http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2015/01/31/my-post-cyberpunk-indentured-servitude.html COMMENT How's that for sleaze, injustice, and violation of democracy, liberties, law, and who knows what else?  And that's not some official USG enemy; that's the Evil Empire itself. People don't get a fair go or fair trials in America. Notice how they only go after those they consider a 'threat' and how arbitrary it all is? Also, that you can't get a fair hearing as an atheist in Texas is surely a joke. So is the prosecution targeting a person's lack of superstitious beliefs, to gain the upper hand in a courtroom, based on a trumped up case to further the interests of a bunch of wrongdoers and sleasebags. If that isn't evidence of absolute godlessness and a case for atheism, I don't know what his.  Another good reason for society to abolish state endorsement of religion (which is used to manipulate ignorant or misguided people politically, and in other ways, by the state, by lobby funders, by interest groups, by individuals, by preachers, by gurus and so on - the list is endless).   Look-Ups Cluster of contractors known as Team Themis Team Themis - a consortium made up of: HBGary Palantir Berico (with Endgame Systems serving as a "silent partner") source:   http://echelon2.org/wiki/Team_Themis Barrett Brown Faces 105 Years in Jail http://www.rollingstone.com/culture/news/barrett-brown-faces-105-years-in-jail-20130905 ROLLING STONE - EXTRACTS (some minor modification) ... origins of Team Themis date to Bank of America  alarm over Julian Assange 2010 claim to possess documents that "could take down a bank or two." Department of Justice recommended Bank of America retain the services of: DC law firm Hunton & Williams Booz Allen Hamilton (high-powered intelligence contractor) On behalf of Bank of America, Hunton & Williams turned to the large and growing world of InfoSec subcontractors to come up with a plan, settling on: > HBGary > x2 data ­intelligence shops: Berico Technologies Palantir Technologies Themis three were also preparing a proposal for Hunton & Williams on behalf of another client, the US Chamber of Commerce. The leaked HBGary documents revealed that Themis was exploring ways of discrediting and disrupting the activities of organized labor and its allies for the Chamber. potential money at stake in these contracts was considerable According to Wired, the trio proposed that the Chamber create a $2-million­a-month sort of cyber special-forces team "of the kind developed and utilized by the Joint Special Operations Command." They also suggested targeting a range of left-of-center organizations, incl.: > SEIU > watchdog groups like US Chamber Watch > Center for American Progress (The Chamber of Commerce and Bank of America have denied ever hiring Team Themis or having any knowledge of the proposals.) Pursuing Chamber and Bank of America contracts, the Themis three devised multipronged campaigns, amounting to: > a private-sector information-age COINTELPRO  (ie FBI's program to infiltrate and undermine "subversive" groups between 1956 and 1971) Among the Themis ideas presented to Hunton & Williams: 1.      Feed the fuel between the feuding groups. 2.      Disinformation. 3.      Create messages around actions to sabotage or discredit the opposing organization. 4.      Submit fake documents and then call out the error. 5.      The revelations represented a triumph for Brown and his wiki. A group of Democratic congressmen asked four Republican committee chairs to hold hearings on the "deeply troubling" question of whether "tactics developed for use against terrorists may have been unleashed illegally against American citizens." But the calls for investigation went nowhere.  Brown on lack of outrage Washington & media: "[politicians and pundits] clearly intent on killing off even this belated scrutiny into the invisible empire that so thoroughly scrutinizes us – at our own expense and to unknown ends."  SOURCE:  http://www.rollingstone.com/culture/news/barrett-brown-faces-105-years-in-jail-20130905

HRW - UKRAINE GOVT CONTRIBUTED TO SERIOUS DELAYS, DELIVERY OF HUMANITARIAN & MEDICAL AID

HRW - UKRAINE GOVT CONTRIBUTED TO SERIOUS DELAYS, DELIVERY OF HUMANITARIAN & MEDICAL AID Ukraine: Civilians Struggle to Get Medical Care All Sides Should Ensure Delivery of Aid to Civilians in Rebel-Held Areas March 13, 2015 A woman standing in front of a bomb shelter in Petrovsky district of Donetsk, area of Trudovskaya mine, where locals have been hiding from attacks since August. February 9, 2015. © 2015 Dmytry Belyakov     © 2015 Dmytry Belyakov (Berlin) – Travel restrictions imposed by the government of Ukraine have contributed to serious delays in the delivery of humanitarian aid, particularly medicines and medical equipment, to civilians in rebel-controlled areas of eastern Ukraine, Human Rights Watch said today. Human Rights Watch released a video based on interviews with medical personnel and patients in eastern Ukraine. The restrictions also seriously impede access to health care for civilians from rebel-controlled areas who need to use state-funded medical services available only in government-controlled areas, Human Rights Watch said. Human Rights Watch also found that patients receiving treatment for HIV, tuberculosis (TB), and opioid substitution therapy (OST) are facing interruptions of life-saving treatment. “Delays in delivering medicines, combined with a pass system and military hostilities, have created massive shortages at medical facilities,” said Yulia Gorbunova, Europe and Central Asia researcher at Human Rights Watch. “This is jeopardizing the lives of people with serious medical conditions and others who need medical assistance in rebel-controlled areas.” Human Rights Watch spent three days in Kiev and seven days in the Donetsk region interviewing, in person or by phone, doctors and other health workers, patients, local residents, volunteers, and members of independent humanitarian groups that provide humanitarian aid to conflict-affected areas. In a March 9, 2015 letter to Ukrainian officials, Human Rights Watch asked the Ukrainian government to ensure that its restrictions on movement in and out of areas not under government control do not adversely affect the health of the civilian population. Several local and international humanitarian organizations told Human Rights Watch that since January, they have experienced restrictions and delays when trying to move medicines and medical equipment that are essential for the health of the civilian population into rebel-controlled areas. In some cases these restrictions and delays did not appear to be justified on security grounds, Human Rights Watch said. In November 2014, the Ukrainian government stopped providing funding for government services and social benefit payments – including budgets for hospitals, pensions, and social security – in rebel-controlled areas. Civilians have to travel to government-controlled territories to get their social benefits. In January 2015, the government also began to enforce travel regulations that require civilians to obtain a special pass to move between rebel-controlled and government-controlled territories. Human Rights Watch found that rebel forces, who exercise effective control over areas of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions, have failed to fill the gap left by the withdrawal of state funding for services and payments from rebel-held areas. People in rebel-controlled areas who need state-funded treatment now have to travel to government-controlled territory, but are often unable to, either because they do not have the financial and other resources to travel and register in government-controlled areas, they have to provide care for sick or elderly family members who are not able to travel, or they fear injury or worse due to the hostilities.  [Think it rather unrealistic to expect people defending a territory to suddenly begin administering an efficient welfare providing state, while under military fire from the Ukraine govt.] All parties to the conflict should uphold their obligations under international humanitarian law and their commitments under the February 13 Minsk ceasefire agreements to ensure access to humanitarian relief for civilians who need it, Human Rights Watch said. The Ukrainian government has the right to control movement in and out of rebel-controlled areas, but all parties to the conflict must allow and facilitate the rapid and unimpeded access for impartial humanitarian relief for civilians in need, Human Rights Watch said. Consent for access to humanitarian operations cannot be withheld for arbitrary reasons, and neither side should seek to impose intolerable conditions on the civilian population as a tactic of war.  [Obviously it can be, if you're sneaky & want to use harm to civilians as a tactic - and that would be the Ukraine govt tactic, as the civilians being referred to here are east Ukraine ethnic Russian civilians.] The government also maintains its obligations under international human rights law to respect the right to health and other economic and social rights, as well as rights such as freedom of movement for the civilian population. This includes, in particular, rights provided for in the treaties to which it is a party, such as the European Convention on Human Rights, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. In areas under effective control of rebel forces, those forces have the primary responsibility to ensure that civilians have humanitarian essentials, including medical supplies, Human Rights Watch said. And, while the Ukrainian government has no obligation under international humanitarian law to provide direct financial assistance to authorities operating under the control of rebels, its human rights obligations to the civilian population do not cease due to the current conflict. In its letter, Human Rights Watch said the Ukrainian government and de facto authorities in rebel-controlled areas should not impede humanitarian assistance and should facilitate access to it for civilians in need. The government of Ukraine and rebel forces controlling those areas should issue instructions to troops and forces staffing checkpoints, and their commanders, to ensure that delivery of medication and medical assistance for civilians in rebel-controlled areas are not subject to arbitrary or unreasonable delays, in line with humanitarian law and the Minsk agreements. “Some of the most vulnerable civilians in rebel-controlled areas have no choice but to rely on humanitarian groups for certain medications and medical services,” Gorbunova said. “Impediments to delivering medications, such as arbitrary delays at checkpoints, can have a severe negative impact on their health with dire, and in some cases deadly, consequences.” Restrictions and Their Impact In November 2014 the Ukrainian government halted the provision of government services to rebel-controlled areas. Funds from the government budget for hospitals, including staff salaries, are no longer disbursed in rebel-controlled areas. On February 9, 2015, the Kiev District Court of Appeal partially annulled the decision, but it is not clear what steps the government has taken either to comply with the decision or to appeal. Travel regulations introduced by the Ukrainian government in January require a special pass, issued by a coordination group of the Security Service of Ukraine, to move between rebel and government-controlled territories. Civilians living in rebel-controlled areas need to apply for the pass at a government checkpoint in a bureaucratic process requiring a minimum of two visits. Many complained of long lines to hand in their documents. The regulations set out a maximum 10-day waiting period for a pass, but several people who live in or near Donetsk said they had been waiting for up to three weeks and some still had not received a pass. Independent humanitarian groups operating in the area, including Doctors Without Borders (MSF) and others, have said that they have been able to operate in rebel-held areas and successfully obtained these passes. But some spoke of difficulties they faced in delivering humanitarian aid and medical supplies. Volunteer groups in rebel-controlled areas that provide targeted assistance to the most vulnerable groups reported difficulties connected with delays or refusals to let humanitarian aid through at checkpoints. One of the organizers of the local group Responsible Citizens, Dmytro Shibalov, told Human Rights Watch of instances where both Ukrainian forces at government checkpoints and rebel forces at rebel checkpoints refused to let their cargo pass without a reasonable explanation. Treatment for Tuberculosis and HIV People receiving treatment for tuberculosis (TB) or HIV and those on opioid substitution therapy (OST) are among the most vulnerable in the rebel-held areas of Donetsk and Luhansk regions. The travel restrictions and the protracted fighting have severely impacted their treatment and put some of them at great risk. Treatment of HIV, TB, and viral hepatitis in eastern Ukraine is under great strain, with hospitals lacking both medicine and diagnostic equipment. According to data provided to Human Rights Watch by the International HIV/AIDS Alliance in Ukraine, over 16,000 people are living with HIV/AIDS in rebel-held areas in eastern Ukraine, including over 7,000 people who receive antiretroviral therapy. At least 2,300 people there have active forms of TB, including about 500 people with multi-drug-resistant TB. Doctors who work with people receiving treatment for HIV and TB in rebel-controlled areas told Human Rights Watch in February that their staff had faced long delays in getting permission to move new supplies of these medications from government-controlled to rebel-controlled territories. The government has yet to approve a regulation drafted in January that would allow humanitarian groups to deliver methadone and buprenorphine, used in OST, to rebel-controlled areas. Medical centers in Donetsk and Luhansk regions may have to shut down these treatments when the supply runs out, which could have a devastating impact on patients receiving this therapy who would be at significant risk of relapsing into illicit drug use and of accidental overdoses. The Donetsk Regional Center for AIDS Prevention and Control is registered in Sloviansk, on Ukrainian government-controlled territory, and continues to operate its facility in Donetsk, in rebel-controlled territory. In early February, the center’s chief medical officer, Nikolai Grazhdanov, told Human Rights Watch that the travel pass system has significantly delayed the delivery of both diagnostic test kits and antiretroviral medicine to the region, including Donetsk and nearby towns such as Horlivka and Makeevka. The center’s deputy director, Valentina Pavlenko, MD, said in early February that her staff had been waiting three weeks for the travel passes to bring antiretroviral medicine and diagnostic kits from Sloviansk to rebel-held Donetsk. Although they eventually received the passes in early March, over 6,000 HIV-positive patents in the rebel-controlled territory of Donetsk were at risk of running out of medicine, Pavlenko said. A humanitarian aid convoy was eventually able to deliver treatment that is expected to last until April. Stopping the treatment may result in patients’ conditions deteriorating, with dire, and possibly deadly, consequences. [... EDIT ... ] Opioid Substitution Therapy Opioid substitution therapy (OST) is available in government-controlled territory but the government has not yet approved a regulation, drafted in January, to allow independent humanitarian groups to deliver the methadone and buprenorphine used in this therapy to rebel-controlled areas. In the meantime, the stock of buprenorphine in rebel-controlled parts of Donetsk and Luhansk regions has been depleted completely and methadone supplies are running out. Igor Tsiba, the chief doctor of the regional drug treatment center in Donetsk treating patients in rebel-controlled areas, said in early February that while the center has been sporadically receiving necessary supplies and medicine with humanitarian convoys, delivery of OST therapy stopped in September 2014. The center had to discontinue treatment with buprenorphine in early January 2015 when the supplies ran out, and was in the process of drastically reducing methadone treatment. Tsiba said that some of the most vulnerable patients who receive opioid substitution treatment, including those who are living with HIV, also have TB or various forms of hepatitis. Discontinuing their opioid substitution treatment will result in significant deterioration of their condition and could possibly have fatal consequences for some of them. Yulia Drozd, MD, the head of the department for OST at the center, and head of Donbass Without Drugs, a nongovernmental group that provides medical treatment and social rehabilitation for patients in the Donetsk region, said in early February: “The most shocking thing is that these drugs are readily available but there is no way of getting them here because there is no procedure in place for delivering them.” Seventy percent of the patients who receive this therapy are also HIV-positive, and 25 percent have TB and are vulnerable to other infections, Drozd said. According to data provided to Human Rights Watch by the International HIV/AIDS Alliance in Ukraine, as of early March, at least 600 patients in rebel-held areas of Donetsk and Luhansk regions had to discontinue their opioid substitution treatment due to shortages of medicines. Human Rights Watch interviewed three patients receiving OST. Elena, who had used heroin for over 30 years, said she turned her life around after she started OST a year ago and is terrified to think that she could lose it. Rita, 35, who has been receiving methadone therapy for six years and is living with HIV, said she could not leave Donetsk because she had no money and no relatives anywhere else. She looks after her 7-year-old son and her elderly mother, who recently had a stroke and cannot travel. “If I can’t receive treatment, I will not survive,” she said. http://www.hrw.org/news/2015/03/13/ukraine-civilians-struggle-get-medical-care COMMENT Well, this sketches out what the official obligations are.  But, obviously, they can be by-passed or stalled to inflict hardship on the other side.  In this case, by the govt of Ukraine against the civilians in independence-militia-held regions in east Ukraine. Shocked by the large number of people that have HIV (16,000 in east Ukraine independence militia held areas alone).  Seems like a huge number to me.

FOREIGN SERVICE UPDATES

Israel opens first embassy Lithuania pre-war home to 250,000 Jews mostly killed by German Nazis & local collaborators Lithuania equating of Nazism & Communism & claiming Lithuania victim Soviet genocide damaged its reputation internationally & in Israel Many in Israel perceive 'genocide' claim by Lithuania as a removal of guilt means for Lithuania / has deep complicity in Holocaust. http://www.jpost.com/Diaspora/Israel-opens-its-first-embassy-in-Lithuania-pre-war-home-to-250000-Jews-393875 EGYPT / ISRAEL - JOHN KERRY BLOOPER  - US Embassy says .... long flight http://www.thecairopost.com/news/141545/business/us-embassy-blames-israel-slip-on-long-flight India doesn't have a rape problem:  12 Robbers ‘gang-raped’ 75 year old Indian nun: police  http://english.alarabiya.net/en/News/asia/2015/03/14/Robbers-gang-raped-elderly-Indian-nun-police.html See - Indian student claims German professor denied internship over 'rape culture' German Ambassador Michael Steiner:  “Let's be clear: India is not a country of rapists”   http://www.thenewsminute.com/news_sections/3190 SLOVAKIA  abt 500 Anti NATO protest outside US embassy, in bratislava  http://rt.com/in-motion/240445-anti-nato-protest-slovakia/ Saudi Arabia Heightened security concerns US Embassy cancels consular services (Sun + Mon):  >Riyadh  >Jeddah >Dhahran http://triblive.com/usworld/nation/7974492-74/embassy-saudi-arabia SierraLeone VP Samuel Sam-Sumana seeks US asylum his residence security disarmed by military on orders of President US Ambassador John Hoover in Sierra Leone No comment via spox. Sam-Sumana - not at US embassy  http://www.oregonlive.com/today/index.ssf/2015/03/sierra_leone_vice_president_as.html -- Nepal Embassy in Malaysia relocating landlord complaint. visitors issue:  much spitting, throwing waste everywhere. Malaysia = largest number of Nepali migrant workers than any other labour destinations. est. 800,000  http://www.ekantipur.com/2015/03/15/national/embassy-in-msia-told-to-relocate/402838.html -- India  'May 17 Movement' (Eelam Tamil separatists) protesters arrested trying to besiege US embassy Say US meddling Sri Lanka Tamil affairs, trying to control India Ocean USA - categorisation of Lankan Tamils as ‘religious minorities’ by US denied their nationality / block genocide claims. http://www.newindianexpress.com/states/tamil_nadu/Activists-of-May-17-Movement-Held-for-Bid-to-Beseige-US-Embassy-in-Chennai/2015/03/15/article2714201.ece -- PHILIPPINES Despite US Embassy denials: Philippines Manila says US personnel involved in Oplan Exodus botched police op 6 Americans at command centre Gun battle killed = > 44 SAF troops >14 MILF fighters > 5 civilians police super. confirmed US presence comm.ctr Philippines - Allows US troops Southern PHL as 'war on terror' effort US had 500-600 spec ops forces until last mth  Accusation: Philippine govt playing up 'war on terror' of US to cover up fact that op violated Philippines sovereignty. http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/region/15-Mar-2015/us-role-in-philippine-clash-revealed -- China summons Myanmar ambassador  bomb fell from Myanmar aircraft in China territory -  kills 4 bomb also destroyed house near border, days prior Myanmar & China share border: = 2,000 km (1,250 mile) Spox for China airforce says China air patrol step up on border Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army / MNDAA formed out of  Communist Party of Burma remnants led by ethnic China comm. Peng Jiasheng MNDAA reportedly powerful China backed guerilla force {splintered 1989}  Truce struck w. govt until 2009 MNDAA region taken over by Myanmar govt post-2009 tens of thousands of refugees pushed into China Myanmar govt accuses China mercenaries of fighting w. MNDAA rebels China denies any attacks launched from its territory http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/foreign/15-Mar-2015/china-summons-myanmar-ambassador-after-bomb-kills-four-chinese -- COMMENT Heaps of interesting things going on.  Not enough time in a day to cover everything. Probably won't remember most of this stuff.   It took me until today to discover there's more than one Congo.  Tried to note the differences for future reference, but I don't know how much I'll remember.  I've categorised it into French and Belgian, which might help.  And the Che Guevara association might help, too. I got all 'misty eyed' about Che Guevara helping out the revolutionaries in Congo and dug up the Che songs and the pics ... only to be horrified by photos of wildlife slaughter I encountered on Google search.  Immediate revolutionary fandom and mood killer.  Felt like crying seeing slaughtered elephants and gorillas. Funny how places are never how you imagine them to be.

Denmark - Lars Vilks, artist Sweden, receives award for promoting free speech

LARS VILKS Free Press Society Denmark Lars Vilks, artist Sweden, receives award from Danish association promoting free speech,  Trykkefrihedsselskabet ('Press Freedom Society' - a more direct translation?) http://www.thelocal.se/20150315/cartoonist-lars-vilks-in-first-public-appearance-since-copenhagen-attacks Trykkefrihedsselskabet assoc. prior free speech awards to: >Kurt Westergaard cartoonist >editor Flemming Rose, Jyllands-Posten trykkefrihed = trykke frihed = press freedom known as:   Free Press Society f. 2004 in Denmark "Without freedom of speech, no free society." Article caught my eye, as I knew that Lars Vilks has been in hiding for years, under police protection in Sweden, which struck me as an absolutely insane way for him to have to live  ...  ... and I think he was also the target of the recent Copenhagen attack (yes, it sure looks like it - or the event was). More on Lars Vilks - here. The Wikipedia entry on Vilks discusses the Copenhagen attack in the most recent subsection, going into detail about the Copenhagen cafe event arrangements and who attended. However, while the entry (which contains an overhead link to a separate entry on the Copenhagen attack) states that gunman (who killed 'one civilian' and wounded three policemen), was subsequently killed by police, the Vilks entry has left out shocking and important details relevant to Vilks and the Copenhagen attack, by not plainly stating that the following took place: Film director Finn Noergaard, 55, was killed yesterday at a cafe. Hours later, security employee Dan Uzan, 37, was shot in the head as he stood outside a building belonging to the city's Great Synagogue. [1] The gunman, Omar El-Hussein, later shot dead a Jewish man outside a synagogue before he was killed by police. [2] Seriously, how hard is it (a) name the gunman and (b) key in the names of the two dead victims? Maybe less focus on who organised and attended a cafe event and a bit more attention paid to the people that were murdered would have made for a more sensible entry on the subject of the Vilks Copenhagen attack subsection, irrespective of the overhead link-to provision in the entry. It's not as if the relevant information wasn't available, as the citation link is to the Daily Mail article which contains names. When key points are left out of entries, I think it damages confidence in the source (Wikipedia) and makes for an inferior information repository, even if there is links to other sections.  It just looks really shifty excluding information that is key and information that has a lot of impact. More on the Vilks latest event: Israel National News: Cartoonist Makes First Public Appearance Since Copenhagen Attack http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/192608