Showing posts with label Crime. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Crime. Show all posts
Saturday, August 11, 2012
Thursday, March 8, 2012
US freezes Japan gangsters' financial assets
US freezes Japan gangsters' financial assets
The US Treasury is targeting Japan's Kenichi Shinoda
The US has targeted organised crime by freezing the financial assets of two groups - Japan's Yamaguchi-gumi yakuza group and the Brothers' Circle.
The Department of the Treasury said it was also freezing the assets of key members, including Yamaguchi-gumi leader Kenichi Shinoda.
This is the first time measures have been imposed following a presidential executive order last year.
No details were given on the value of the frozen assets.
President Barack Obama issued the executive order in 2011 to "target and disrupt significant transnational criminal organisations".
Under the order members of crime organisations could be identified, their assets within US jurisdiction frozen and their supporters prohibited from doing any transactions in the US.
"They use our financial system, they use our commercial system to both penetrate the markets, to disrupt the markets and to make use of their illicit proceeds," said David S. Cohen, Treasury under-secretary for terrorism and financial intelligence, on Thursday.
The Treasury also listed nine individuals - two from the Yamaguchi-gumi and seven from the Brothers' Circle - as being subject to financial sanctions.
The Brothers' Circle, described as a "muti-ethnic criminal group", operates in at least four continents.
Syria unrest: Opposition seeks arms pledge
Syria unrest: Opposition seeks arms pledge
Unverified footage shows an apparent attack by opposition fighters on one of President Assad's tanks, as Bridget Kendall reports from Tunis
The main Syrian opposition group has asked for rebel fighters to be allowed to import weapons.
The plea came at a major international "Friends of Syria" conference being held in Tunisia to seek a breakthrough in the increasingly bitter conflict.
A declaration is expected later, calling on Syrian forces to declare a ceasefire and allow humanitarian access to the worst-hit areas.
Syrian state TV said the conference was a meeting of "symbols of colonialism".
Those attending, it said, were "historic enemies of the Arabs".
The US, Europe and Arab countries plan to challenge President Bashar al-Assad to provide humanitarian access within days, with the threat of fresh sanctions if he does not comply.
Around 70 nations, including the US, UK, France and Turkey, are attending the conference, organised by the Arab League.
Continue reading the main story
“Start Quote
Syrian National CouncilThe Friends of Syria should not constrain individual countries from aiding the Syrian opposition by means of military advisers, training and provision of arms to defend themselves”
But Russia and China, key allies of Syria which have blocked UN resolutions again Damascus, are not there.
A group of pro-Assad protesters forced their way into the grounds of the hotel where the conference is being held, Reuters news agency reported, but tight security prevented them getting into the building.
'Offensive measures'The leading opposition group, the Syrian National Council, said countries should be allowed to supply arms if Damascus refused to bow to outside pressure.
Continue reading the main story 
Analysis
Syrian opposition groups point to the disparity of force in this conflict - their Kalashnikovs against Syrian government artillery - and are calling for arms supplies to help them defend themselves against President Assad's forces.
For now, at least, Western governments believe that arms supplies would only further militarise the conflict, making a bad situation worse. But if the bloodshed continues then the pressure - at least covertly - to arm the opposition will grow.
I asked UK Foreign Secretary William Hague as he arrived at the conference to confront this question square on. Had the time come - I asked - to arm the Syrian opposition fighters? There was, he replied, a European Union arms embargo in place against Syria and Britain, he stressed, would abide by it.
There was of course an arms embargo in force in Libya but that didn't prevent Qatar, France and others supplying weaponry to Col Gaddafi's opponents. Even the US seems to be shifting its position slightly - Secretary of State Hillary Clinton implying that one way or another the opposition would get arms from somewhere. If the fighting continues this is going to become an ever more pressing question.
"If the regime fails to accept the terms of the political initiative outlined by the Arab League and end violence against citizens, the Friends of Syria should not constrain individual countries from aiding the Syrian opposition by means of military advisers, training and provision of arms to defend themselves."
The conference endorsed the council as a "credible" voice of opposition, while making clear it did not exclude other groups - thereby stopping short of declaring it a plausible government-in-waiting.
At least one other opposition group, the National Co-ordination Committee for Democratic Change (NCCDC), is boycotting the meeting, saying it excludes some voices and leaves open the idea of military intervention, AFP news agency reports.
Activists say more than 7,000 people have died in the 11-month uprising - more than 90 on Thursday alone - and concern is growing over the humanitarian situation, particularly in the besieged city of Homs.
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) appealed this week for a pause in fighting to allow aid to be taken in, but said it had received no response from Damascus.
The ICRC said it was becoming "more and more concerned over humanitarian needs that are increasing by the hour".
Spokesman Hicham Hassan told Reuters news agency: "It is crucial that our initiative is met with a positive and concrete reaction urgently."
Journalists' appealUS Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told the conference the Syrian government had "ignored every warning, squandered every opportunity and broken every agreement".
"If the Assad regime refuses to allow this life-saving aid to reach civilians, it will have ever-more blood on its hands,'' she said in opening remarks.
UK Foreign Secretary William Hague said "terrible crimes" were being committed in Homs.
"I think we have seen enough in the last few weeks to know that the Assad regime will go down in history as a criminal regime," he said.
French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe said the conference needed to exert the maximum pressure on the Syrian government and also on Russia, but insisted there was no military option on the table and France could not envisage such an option without an international mandate.
The BBC's Jonathan Marcus in Tunis says the conference is a means of getting around Russia and China, which have faced Western and Arab criticism for vetoing a UN Security Council resolution condemning Syria and Mr Assad.
Moscow and Beijing have said they want to see an end to the violence but that such action amounts to forced regime change.
On the eve of the conference, the UN and Arab League appointed Kofi Annan as their envoy to Syria.
Mr Annan, a former UN secretary general who has acted as a diplomatic troubleshooter in several long-running conflicts, said he hoped to "help bring an end to the violence and human rights abuses, and promote a peaceful solution to the Syrian crisis".
Diplomats attending the conference say the UN will call for preparations to start an Arab/UN peacekeeping force for Syria, to assist with the political transition after the violence ends, the BBC's Kim Ghattas reports from Tunis.
The civilian police force would be deployed only in a "permissive" environment, under Chapter 6 of the UN charter.
Diplomats said the efforts were designed to show a political transition was inevitable and that President Assad's rule was coming to an end.
The conference comes two days after two journalists - American Sunday Times reporter Marie Colvin and French photographer Remi Ochlik - died during shelling in Homs.
Two journalists wounded in the same attack have made internet appeals for medical help. Frenchwoman Edith Bouvier is being treated by Syrian medics but needs surgery which they are unable to perform. Paul Conroy, who is British, also asked for outside help to bring him to safety.
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Commentary
What happened to peaceful opposition like we were taught in America?
How can anyone support this type of aggressive activism?
It involves the deaths of hundreds of people; completely unjust.
What can political donors learn from history?
What can political donors learn from history?
Adelson could probably finance an entire presidential campaign on his own, Forbes Magazine says A billionaire Las Vegas casino magnate has said he might donate $100m (£64m) to support Republican Newt Gingrich's presidential campaign. He joins history's long list of great - and ignominious - political money men.
Sheldon Adelson, who is worth an estimated $25bn, is almost single-handedly responsible for keeping Mr Gingrich's bid for the Republican nomination afloat, analysts say.
He and his wife have already donated $10m to a nominally independent political fund that has bought adverts for the former House speaker's campaign.
"What scares me is the continuation of the socialist-style economy we've been experiencing for almost four years," Mr Adelson told Forbes Magazine.
"That scares me because the redistribution of wealth is the path to more socialism, and to more of the government controlling people's lives."
Mr Adelson's big contributions place him among a new generation of US political money men freed to donate millions by recent Supreme Court decisions that overturned campaign finance restrictions.
But he is part of a long tradition - stretching back into antiquity - of wealthy men who used their cash to buy political influence.
Here are some lessons he could heed:
Lesson 1: Patronage can yield profits
Crassus, seated, enabled Caesar's rise by backing his debts and funding his campaign for consul Known to historian Plutarch as "the richest of the Romans", Marcus Crassus got even richer by staking Julius Caesar's military career and his later election as Roman consul.
"We never would have heard of Caesar without Crassus," says Philip Freeman, chairman of the classics department at Luther College in the US state of Iowa and author of a recent biography of Caesar.
Born in a household of relatively modest means, Crassus aligned himself with Roman dictator Sulla and grew rich by taking property Sulla had expropriated from his own political enemies.
He made "the public calamities his greatest source of revenue", Plutarch wrote, and also made lots of money as a contract tax collector.
In 61BC, Caesar was named to a military post in Spain, but his creditors sought to prevent him from leaving Rome.
Crassus guaranteed his debts - to the sum of about $23m (£14.6m) in 2012 figures, by Prof Freeman's calculation.
Two years later, Caesar ran for election as consul, the highest political office in the Roman republic. Crassus funded his campaign, which depended on officially condemned but widespread vote-buying, Freeman says.
In return, Caesar pushed through legislation giving the contract tax collectors a break in the amount of money they had to return to the central government.
"It's like if Mr Gingrich got to be president and passed a bill making casinos tax exempt - for his benefactor back in Las Vegas," says Prof Freeman.
"It was a great financial play for Crassus purely in monetary terms."
Lesson 2: Have an exit strategy
Sir William de la Pole of Hull was a 14th-Century wine importer, wool merchant and financier who lent staggering sums of money to King Edward III to finance his lavish lifestyle and his wars in France and Scotland.
"There's no doubt that Pole did acquire a great deal of wealth, and wealth brought him social status," says Jonathan Sumption, a historian and jurist who has written three volumes about The Hundred Years War.
"His sons went on to become Earls of Suffolk, noblemen, which nobody would have accused William of being. You couldn't do much better than that. This was simply the normal way in which money was converted into status."
Pole's involvement with the crown began in earnest in 1327, when he lent Edward III £2,001 (about £1.4m in today's money, according to Measuringworth.com, a calculator devised by economists at the University of Illinois at Chicago) to hire mercenaries to fight the Scots.
In 1336-1337, Edward III sought to exploit the wool industry to finance the start of the Hundred Years War with France.
Pole organised other wool growers into the Wool Company, in effect purchasing from Edward III the right to export wool on privileged terms, Mr Sumption says.
Between June 1338 and October 1339, he lent the crown £111,000 (more than £86m in 2012 figures).
For Pole himself, the story did not end well.
Edward III grew resentful at his dependence on Pole and imprisoned him for two years. He was released because the king again needed his help raising money.
Edward defaulted on his debts because the wars cost more than his tax revenue, Mr Sumption says, and Pole and his partners went bust.
"Lending to the king was a mug's game," Mr Sumption says. "The problem was that if you didn't you were likely to be ruined anyway."
Lesson 3: The stakes are high
When Seymour's political intrigue failed, he lost more than his shirt When Edward VI ascended to the throne in 1547 at the age nine, members of the Tudor court began jockeying for position and influence.
Two of the top intriguers were his uncles Edward and Thomas Seymour.
Edward Seymour managed to have himself declared Lord Protector of the Realm, Governor of the King's Person and later Duke of Somerset, making him the most powerful man in the court.
But Thomas Seymour, who had been well placed under Henry VII, found himself increasingly frozen out.
Among his several schemes to gain influence over the boy king, Seymour began supplying him with pocket money, telling him "you are a beggarly king, you have no money to play or to give".
Edward VI, who had reportedly complained to Seymour that Somerset "deals very hardly with me and keeps me so straight that I cannot have money at my will", wanted the cash to pay for musicians in his court and to reward his personal servants, says John Cooper, a lecturer in early modern history at the University of York.
Seymour gave the king £188 (about £70,400 in today's value), funnelled in part through Edward's personal servants and his tutor.
"It's a political gamble that fails very dramatically," Mr Cooper says.
When Somerset found out about that and other intrigues (Seymour also flirted with the teenaged Princess Elizabeth, whom he may have hoped to marry), he had him arrested and charged with treason.
He was beheaded at the Tower of London.
On hearing of his execution, Elizabeth said: "This day died a man with much wit, and very little judgment."
Lesson 4: Be prepared to lose big
Among the liberals incensed about the Vietnam war in the late 1960s and early 1970s was Stewart Mott, the black-sheep son of a wealthy Detroit car manufacturing family.
Mott, who described himself as an "avant-garde philanthropist", donated more than $200,000 to the 1968 presidential campaign of Eugene McCarthy, and about $400,000 in 1972 to George McGovern, the Democratic challenger to President Richard Nixon, according to Mr Corrado, the campaign finance expert.
His big contributions in part led Congress to enact strict limits on direct contributions to political campaigns that remain in effect to this day (though giving to independent committees are unlimited).
"He identified with their politics, and whatever one means by progressive, he was it," says Victor Navasky, professor of journalism at Columbia University.
"He cared about them, and he hoped to help them attain the White House."
Despite Mott's seed money, Mr McGovern suffered one of the greatest political defeats in American history, winning only the state of Massachusetts and Washington DC.
Mott's support for liberal candidates earned him a spot on Nixon's infamous enemies list. Nixon aide Chuck Colson listed him as "nothing but big money for radic-lib candidates".
Thursday, February 23, 2012
Neo-Nazi murders: Germany holds minute's silence
Neo-Nazi murders: Germany holds minute's silence
Relatives of neo-Nazi victims lit candles during the ceremony in Berlin
German Chancellor Angela Merkel has described 10 neo-Nazi murders as a "disgrace for our country" and appealed to victims' families for forgiveness.
Nine men, most of them of Turkish origin, and a policewoman have died since 2000 but the neo-Nazi gang blamed for their deaths emerged only recently.
A ceremony took place in Berlin and a minute's silence was held across the country to remember the victims.
Mrs Merkel told victims' families at the ceremony that "we mourn with you".
She promised to do everything possible to prevent a repeat of the "cold-blooded" murders.
Before she spoke, candles were lit in memory of those killed by a gang based in the eastern city of Zwickau that called itself the National Socialist Underground (NSU).
Continue reading the main story 
“Start Quote
Angela Merkel German ChancellorTen burning candles, ten lives snuffed out”
Speaking in Berlin's concert hall, the chancellor named all the victims and gave details of their lives. "Ten burning candles, ten lives snuffed out," she said.
Shortly after the ceremony, at noon, a minute's silence was observed throughout Germany. Trains and buses came to a standstill and employers and unions urged people to halt their work.
The NSU had been undetected for years, prompting criticism of police and intelligence services.
Its existence was revealed last November when two suspected founders were found dead in a caravan and another, Beate Zschaepe, blew up her rented flat in Zwickau and gave herself up to police.
The chancellor apologised to the families for the fact that suspicion for the race murders had fallen, in some cases, on the victims' relatives themselves.
The ceremony was also addressed by Semiya Simsek and Gamze Kubasik, daughters of two of the victims.
Ms Simsek's father, a florist, was fatally shot in September 2000. "Not once in 11 years were we allowed to be treated as genuine victims," she said.
Gamze Kubasik, whose father was shot at his Dortmund kiosk in April 2006, expressed her hope of a future marked by greater "togetherness".
The former president, Christian Wulff, had been due to address the ceremony but he was replaced by Mrs Merkel because of his resignation last week.
Syria unrest: Reporters' deaths spark Western outrage
Syria unrest: Reporters' deaths spark Western outrage
Marie Colvin and Remi Ochlik were killed in a makeshift media centre in Homs
The killings of two Western reporters in the city of Homs and reported deaths of some 60 people across Syria have triggered further Western outrage towards the Damascus government.
Sunday Times reporter Marie Colvin, an American, and French photographer Remi Ochlik died in shelling by Syria's government forces.
The US said it was "another example of the shameless brutality" of the regime.
French President Nicolas Sarkozy said: "That's enough... The regime must go."
Syrian troops have been shelling opposition-held areas of Homs for weeks.
Thousands have died since the unrest erupted last March.
The International Red Cross said it hoped Wednesday's deaths would draw the attention of the world to the many hundreds of other people suffering in Syria.
It earlier urged the government and rebels to agree to a daily ceasefire, to allow medical supplies to reach the worst affected areas and get civilians out.
However, there is no sign yet of this being agreed.
'Dreadful events'Colvin, 56, and Ochlik, 28, were reportedly staying in a house in Homs' area of Baba Amr that was being used by activists as a media centre when it was hit by a shell on Wednesday morning.
Continue reading the main story 
Analysis
Marie would not want any tribute to leave out mention of the people she met, the stories she heard. She often spoke of how humbled she was by the "quiet bravery of civilians".
We've come to expect that wherever something of consequence was happening, Marie would be there. Her signature was not just to go to a story, but to stay for as long as she could, regardless of the danger or discomfort.
She admired the pioneering journalism of fellow American Martha Gelhorn. I always saw her as the Martha of our generation: brave and beautiful. A woman with a wicked laugh, a sensitive soul, and a steely determination to tell the stories that mattered. She had both guts and glamour.
I remember a conversation long ago where she told me a partner wanted her to be what she called a "Laura Ashley" - pretty and perfect in the home. But that wasn't Marie and she knew it. She was, without exception, a kind and considerate colleague and fellow traveller, a woman who inspired and engaged.
Rockets were also said to have hit the building's garden when people tried to flee afterwards.
At least two other foreign journalists were wounded, activists said.
One was named as British freelance photographer Paul Conroy, who was working with Colvin, and Edith Bouvier of the French newspaper, Le Figaro. Bouvier was said to be in a serious condition. The dead and the injured journalists are said to have been taken to a field clinic in Baba Amr.
Activists have expressed fears that Bouvier risks bleeding to death without urgent medical attention and they were trying to get her out.
Syrian state TV said the information ministry had asked officials in Homs to determine the location of foreign journalists because it had learned that some may have been injured.
In Washington, US State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said: "This tragic incident is another example of the shameless brutality of the Assad regime."
Earlier, the US warned that it was not ruling out taking "additional measures" to assist the rebels if the government onslaught continued.
In Paris, French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe said his country held the Syrian government accountable for the deaths.
"Damascus owes us an answer," Mr Juppe said.
UK Prime Minister David Cameron told parliament: "This is a desperately sad reminder of the risks that journalists take to inform the world of what is happening, and the dreadful events in Syria."
Later, the Syrian ambassador to London was summoned to be told that the UK expected Damascus to arrange for the immediate repatriation of the journalists' bodies and to provide medical treatment for the injured British journalist.
Colvin's last articleThe editor of the Sunday Times, John Witherow, said the newspaper was doing what it could to recover Colvin's body and get Conroy to safety.
Continue reading the main storyMarie Colvin: Reports and tributes
Marie Colvin's last BBC interview 
BBC's Jim Muir pays tribute to Colvin 
Colvin: 'A real nuts and bolts journalist' 
How Colvin risked life to report in Syria 
Marie Colvin in Misrata, April 2011 "Marie was an extraordinary figure in the life of the Sunday Times, driven by a passion to cover wars in the belief that what she did mattered," he added. "She believed profoundly that reporting could curtail the excesses of brutal regimes and make the international community take notice."
Her mother told journalists Colvin's legacy was: "Be passionate and be involved in what you believe in. And do it as thoroughly and honestly and fearlessly as you can."
Ochlik had reported from Haiti and covered many of the recent uprisings in the Arab world.
Colvin had been a foreign correspondent for the Sunday Times for two decades, and had reported from several war zones. She lost the sight in one eye in Sri Lanka in 2001 after being hit by shrapnel.
On Tuesday, she told the BBC the bombardment of Baba Amr by Syrian government artillery and tanks had been "unrelenting".
"I watched a little baby die today, absolutely horrific, a two year old - found the shrapnel had gone into the left chest and the doctor said: 'I can't do anything,' and his little tummy just kept heaving until he died. That is happening over and over and over.
The Sunday Times on Wednesday made available Colvin's last article in which she said, "We live in fear of a massacre".
Western journalists have mostly been barred from Syria since the uprising began.
But increasingly, they have risked entering the country undercover, helped by networks of activists, to report from flashpoints.
Last month, the French television journalist, Gilles Jacquier, was killed in Homs while visiting the city on a government-organised trip.
Anthony Shadid, of the New York Times, died of an apparent asthma attack in Syria last week.
New York police 'spied on' New Jersey Muslims
New York police 'spied on' New Jersey Muslims
New York's police commissioner has come under fire for appearing in a documentary about Muslims
New York City police secretly collected information on Muslim communities in nearby Newark, New Jersey, police records have shown.
Newark Mayor Cory Booker said he was not informed of the surveillance, revealed by the Associated Press.
"This raises a number of concerns," Mr Booker said, promising to investigate. "It's just very, very sobering."
Earlier this week university officials in the US north-east protested against NYPD monitoring of Muslim students.
Administrators at Yale and Columbia protested about the police department's activities, which the NYPD said were justified in an effort to identify possible campus radicalisation.
Earlier this month, civic groups from around the US called for a legal investigation into intelligence-gathering on Shia Muslims in New York.
NYPD's demographic unit compiled information on mosques and Muslim-owned businesses in Newark in 2007, AP reported.
The secret police report obtained by the news agency mentions no evidence of terrorism or criminal behaviour.
"These locations provide the maximum ability to assess the general opinions and general activity of these communities," the report said.
Similar reports were prepared for two counties in Long Island, in New York state.
Jersey unsureIn a statement, the NYPD told the BBC that they had informed Newark officials of their operations.
Newark's former police director, Garry McCarthy, told the Associated Press that the NYPD had contacted his police department "as a courtesy" before sending the officers.
Continue reading the main story
“Start Quote
The police department goes where there are allegations. Remind yourself when you turn out the light tonight”
No Newark police officers were involved in the surveillance, according to Mr McCarthy.
But New Jersey Governor Chris Christie said he had knowledge of the operation, which he called "disturbing".
Newark Mayor Cory Booker said the extent of the reported surveillance came as a surprise to him.
"If anyone in my police department had known this was a blanket investigation of individuals based on nothing but their religion, that strikes at the core of our beliefs and my beliefs very personally, and it would have merited a far sterner response,'' he said.
"We're going to get to the bottom of this."
The report notes Newark's large Portuguese and Brazilian communities, but says that only information about "Islamic religious centers" and Muslim-owned businesses were gathered.
However, polls show that most New Yorkers strongly support the NYPD's counter-terrorism efforts.
On Tuesday, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg strongly defended the city's police department after university leaders protested over campus monitoring.
"The police department goes where there are allegations," Mr Bloomberg said.
"And they look to see whether those allegations are true. That's what you'd expect them to do. That's what you'd want them to do. Remind yourself when you turn out the light tonight."
Friday, February 17, 2012
Iraq's Sunni Vice-President Hashemi 'ran death squads'
Iraq's Sunni Vice-President Hashemi 'ran death squads'
Tariq al-Hashemi has now taken refuge Iraq's northern Kurdish region
Iraq's judicial panel has backed accusations against the Sunni Vice-President Tariq al-Hashemi that he was behind attacks on security officials and Shia pilgrims.
The panel - set up by the Supreme Judicial Council - said he had orchestrated such attacks for years.
In December, an arrest warrant was issued for him by Shia Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, triggering a row between Shia and Sunni politicians.
Mr Hashemi denies the charges.
He has taken refuge in Iraq's Kurdish region in the north.
On Thursday, the nine-judge panel said Mr Hashemi and his associates had been running death squads for years and had been involved in at least 150 separate cases.
Sunni leaders have questioned the independence of the panel.
The day after his arrest warrant was issued last year, there were major bomb attacks in Baghdad, raising fears of a return to sectarian conflict, the BBC's Sebastian Usher says.
Sunni leaders then boycotted parliament and the cabinet. But they have since returned, raising hopes the crisis might be kept under control.
Wednesday, February 1, 2012
Pakistan helping Afghan Taliban - Nato
Pakistan helping Afghan Taliban - Nato
The report comes at a sensitive time in Pakistan-Nato relations
The Taliban in Afghanistan are being directly assisted by Pakistani security services, according to a secret Nato report seen by the BBC.
The leaked report, derived from thousands of interrogations, claims the Taliban remain defiant and have wide support among the Afghan people.
A BBC correspondent says the report is painful reading for international forces and the Afghan government.
A Pakistani foreign ministry spokesman called the accusations "ridiculous".
"We are committed to non-interference in Afghanistan and expect all other states to strictly adhere to this principle," Abdul Basit told the BBC.
"A stable and peaceful Afghanistan is in our own interests. We cannot indulge in any activity which takes us away from achieving that objective," he added.
The report alleges that Pakistan knows the locations of senior Taliban leaders.
"We have long been concerned about ties between elements of the ISI [Pakistan's intelligence service] and some extremist networks," said US Pentagon spokesman Captain John Kirby, adding that the US Defence Department had not yet seen the report.
Pakistan Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar is currently in Kabul for talks with Afghan President Hamid Karzai.
'Informational' Continue reading the main story
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Senior al-Qaeda detainee, quoted by the reportThe Taliban are not Islam - the Taliban are Islamabad”
The BBC's Quentin Sommerville in Kabul says the report - on the state of the Taliban - fully exposes for the first time the relationship between the ISI and the Taliban.
The report is based on material from 27,000 interrogations with more than 4,000 captured Taliban, al-Qaeda and other foreign fighters and civilians.
It notes: "Pakistan's manipulation of the Taliban senior leadership continues unabatedly".
It says that Pakistan is aware of the locations of senior Taliban leaders.
Continue reading the main story 
Analysis
Pakistan is finding it harder to convince outsiders it is not helping the Afghan Taliban and giving safe haven to its leaders.
In effect, the accusation is that Pakistan is betting on the insurgents being the strongest power in Afghanistan and most likely ally once Nato leaves - something Islamabad of course strenuously denies.
The leak of this report comes at a particularly sensitive time. Pakistan is already blocking the supply route to coalition forces in Afghanistan, following a Nato attack in which 24 Pakistani soldiers were killed.
With increasing pressure being heaped on Pakistan, public support here for formally ending co-operation with the West simply grows.
"Senior Taliban representatives, such as Nasiruddin Haqqani, maintain residences in the immediate vicinity of ISI headquarters in Islamabad," it said.
It quotes a senior al-Qaeda detainee as saying: "Pakistan knows everything. They control everything. I can't [expletive] on a tree in Kunar without them watching."
"The Taliban are not Islam. The Taliban are Islamabad."
Our correspondent says the report seems to suggest that the Taliban feel trapped by ISI control and fear they will never escape its influence.
However, it states: "As this document is derived directly from insurgents it should be considered informational and not necessarily analytical."
Despite Nato's strategy to secure the country with Afghan forces, the secret document details widespread collaboration between the insurgents and Afghan police and military.
Lt Col Jimmie Cummings, a spokesman for Nato's International Security Assistance Force (Isaf) in Afghanistan, said the document was "a classified internal document that is not meant to be released to the public".
"It is a matter of policy that documents that are classified are not discussed under any circumstances," he said.
The report also depicts the depth of continuing support among the Afghan population for the Taliban, our correspondent says.
It paints a picture of al-Qaeda's influence diminishing but the Taliban's influence increasing, he adds.
Taliban influence
Villagers often prefer the Taliban to "corrupt" Afghan authorities, the report alleges In a damning conclusion, the document says that in the last year there has been unprecedented interest, even from members of the Afghan government, in joining the Taliban cause.
It adds: "Afghan civilians frequently prefer Taliban governance over the Afghan government, usually as a result of government corruption."
The report has evidence that the Taliban are purposely hastening Nato's withdrawal by deliberately reducing their attacks in some areas and then initiating a comprehensive hearts-and-minds campaign.
It says that in areas where Isaf has withdrawn, Taliban influence has increased, often with little or no resistance from government security forces. And in many cases, with the active help of the Afghan police and army.
When foreign soldiers leave, Afghan security forces are expected to take control.
The report says that surrender is far from their collective mindset.
"For the moment, they believe that continuing the fight and expanding Taliban governance are their only viable courses of action," it adds.
According to the report, rifles, pistols and heavy weapons have been sold by Afghan security forces in bazaars in Pakistan.
The report adds that Taliban members "do not receive salaries or other financial incentives for their work", but their operations are funded by the narcotics trade and they frequently take a cut from the trade.
Their main revenue, though, is from donations, and they travel around the country from door to door making no secret of their affliation, it says.
Follow BBC Kabul correspondent Quentin Sommerville on Twitter @mrsommerville
Saturday, January 14, 2012
What future for Afghan woman jailed for being raped ?
What future for Afghan woman jailed for being raped ?
Gulnaz gave birth to her daughter, Moska, in jail
Two high profile cases of violence have sparked domestic and international outcry over the treatment of Afghan women, but campaigners fear a winding down of the military campaign will mean the international community will no longer be interested.
Outside it was a gloriously sunny winter's day. The mountains that loom above the city silhouetted against a cloudless blue sky. But inside the house was dark and the curtains drawn, so that the neighbours could not see in.
This was the safe house in Kabul where Gulnaz and her child had found refuge. The women there asked not to be identified in case their house was burnt down.
Just 21, Gulnaz had been released that week from prison, where she had given birth to her daughter Moska. Gulnaz seemed younger than her years, but she held my gaze almost defiantly as she told her story.
She had been imprisoned in a Kabul women's jail after her cousin's husband raped her.
The crime came to light when the unmarried Gulnaz became pregnant.
The police came and arrested both Gulnaz and her attacker. Under Afghan law she too was found guilty of a crime known as "adultery by force", with her sentence increased on appeal to 12 years.
Continue reading the main story
From Our Own Correspondent
- Broadcast on Saturdays at 11:30 GMT on BBC Radio 4, and weekdays on BBC World Service
When the case aroused condemnation abroad, President Hamid Karzai intervened and Gulnaz was pardoned.
Looking bewildered at her sudden freedom, she told me all she wanted was to go home to her family. In order to do that, she was prepared to marry the man who raped her - otherwise their families would be enemies.
The problem for Gulnaz is that if her attacker will not marry her - or cannot come up with a substantial dowry - the "stain" on her family's honour will remain, perhaps with lethal consequences for Gulnaz and her child. That may mean she can never go home.
For a single mother, unskilled and unqualified, there are few ways for a woman to survive in Afghanistan without family support.
An American lawyer in Kabul, Kim Motley, has taken up Gulnaz's case. She is trying to raise money for her to fund a new life, somehow, somewhere, if Gulnaz cannot go home.
Rescued from violence
I was still wondering what would happen to her when we went to meet 15-year-old Sahar Gul, as she lay in a hospital bed recovering from her injuries, too traumatised to talk.
Sahar's injuries caused public outcry in Afghanistan Married off to a 30-year-old man for a dowry of about $4,500 (£3,000), Sahar had been kept locked in a cellar for several months, starved and tortured by her husband and his family. It is still not really clear why.
Sahar may not have been able to speak, but her injuries did.
Burns to her arm and her fragile body, a swollen black eye, clumps of hair torn out. One small hand was scarred, where her fingernail had been pulled out.
Continue reading the main story
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Tradition and family or community honour is often seen as more important than an individual's misery or misfortune”
The abuse aroused public indignation in Afghanistan, as well as horror abroad.
But Sahar was perhaps, in a strange way, lucky.
She did not run away from a violent marriage, as some Afghan brides have, but was instead rescued from it by police. So she cannot be found guilty of what might otherwise be deemed a "moral crime", as other young Afghan women have been.
Both Sahar and Gulnaz's stories are extreme. But they made me wonder how many other women in Afghanistan still suffer in silence, 10 years after the fall of the Taliban.
There are laws banning violence against women, but enforcing them is hard. Tradition and family or community honour is often seen as more important than an individual's misery or misfortune.
Poverty and lack of education also mean under-age marriage remains common.
When Sahar did try to escape her torturers, it was apparently the neighbours who brought her back to them, before the police intervened.
Dr Samar is concerned about the future of women's rights in Afghanistan
In a quiet, book-lined office in Kabul - a world away from the controlled chaos of the hospital and the dimly-lit safe house - I asked the head of the Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission what she thought.
A no-nonsense woman with steely grey hair, Dr Sima Samar has long risked her own life to speak out for the principles she believes in, equality and justice.
Her answer was clear: She and her colleagues in Afghanistan will carry on fighting to improve the lives of women like Gulnaz and Sahar.
But Dr Samar, like many others, fears the international community is no longer quite so interested in keeping up the pressure on women's rights, as the West seeks to wind down its military campaign.
When Western soldiers no longer patrol the streets of Afghanistan, it will be easier to ignore what goes on behind locked doors and closed curtains in a faraway place.
How to listen to From Our Own Correspondent:
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Second 30-minute programme on Thursdays, 11:00 GMT (some weeks only).
Listen online or download the podcast
BBC World Service:
Hear daily 10-minute editions Monday to Friday, repeated through the day, also available to listen online.
Read more or explore the archive at the programme website.
Thursday, January 12, 2012
Israel upholds citizenship bar for Palestinian spouses
Israel upholds citizenship bar for Palestinian spouses
The law is thought to have prevented thousands of Palestinians from living with their Israeli spouses
Israel's Supreme Court has upheld a law banning Palestinians who marry Israelis from gaining Israeli citizenship.
Civil rights groups had petitioned the court to overturn the law, saying it was unconstitutional.
"Human rights do not prescribe national suicide," Judge Asher Grunis wrote in the judgement.
The law was introduced in 2003, with its backers citing security concerns and the need to ensure Israel remains a Jewish-majority state.
Human rights activists and Arab politicians condemned the court's decision.
The court "had failed the test of justice", said Arab-Israeli MP Jamal Zahalka of the Balad party.
"It is a dark day for the protection of human rights and for the Israeli High Court," lawyers from the Association for Civil Rights in Israel told AFP.
"The ruling proves how much the situation regarding the civil rights of the Arab minority in Israel is declining into a highly dangerous and unprecedented situation", Arab-Israeli civil rights group Adalah, one of those that brought the petition, said in a statement.
The Citizenship and Entry Law was passed in 2003, during the second Palestinian intifada (uprising), as waves of suicide bombings targeted Israel.
Many were launched from the West Bank, some with the help of Israeli Arabs.
Initially, the law was emergency legislation which has since been extended periodically.
It was amended in 2005, allowing women over 25 and men over 35 to apply for temporary permits to live in Israel, but still ruling out citizenship for all but a handful of cases.
In 2007, it was expanded to apply to citizens of Iran, Iraq, Syria and Lebanon.
Can anyone disagree with the fact that Israel is an Apartheid state now? This ruling confirms that sentiment.
Monday, January 9, 2012
The Greek parents 'too poor' to care for their children
The Greek parents 'too poor' to care for their children
Unemployed and homeless, Natasha's mother said she could no longer cope
Greece's financial crisis has made some families so desperate they are giving up the most precious thing of all - their children.
One morning a few weeks before Christmas a kindergarten teacher in Athens found a note about one of her four-year-old pupils.
"I will not be coming to pick up Anna today because I cannot afford to look after her," it read. "Please take good care of her. Sorry. Her mother."
In the last two months Father Antonios, a young Orthodox priest who runs a youth centre for the city's poor, has found four children on his door step - including a baby just days old.
Another charity was approached by a couple whose twin babies were in hospital being treated for malnutrition, because the mother herself was malnourished and unable to breastfeed.
Cases like this are shocking a country where family ties are strong, and failure to look after children is socially unacceptable - they feel to Greeks like stories from the Third World, rather than their own capital city.
One of the children cared for by Father Antonios is Natasha, a bright two-year-old brought to his centre by her mother a few weeks ago.
The woman said she was unemployed and homeless and needed help - but before staff could offer her support she had vanished, leaving her daughter behind.
"Over the last year we have hundreds of cases of parents who want to leave their children with us - they know us and trust us," Father Antonios says.
"They say they do not have any money or shelter or food for their kids, so they hope we might be able to provide them with what they need."
Requests of this kind were not unknown before the crisis - but Father Antonios has never until now come across children being simply abandoned.
HandoutsOne woman driven by poverty to give up her child was Maria, a single mother who lost her job and was unemployed for more than a year.
Continue reading the main story 
Emotional scars
Stefanos Alevizos - Greek psychologist
Parents who are not able to provide for their child will feel despair, loneliness and anger. They will carry an enormous weight of cultural sigma and shame.
Children absorb the emotions of their parents, so the child will internalise all the feelings of their parent - particularly guilt. Often they feel they are to blame.
Children taken into care may avoid forming a bond with their carers because they are afraid it would be a betrayal of their parent, and might mean their mother or father will not return for them.
When they get older, they are likely to have problems with trust and that will manifest itself in difficulties with relationships.
"Every night I cry alone at home, but what can I do? It hurt my heart, but I didn't have a choice, she says.
She spent her days looking for work, sometimes well into the evening and that often meant leaving eight-year-old Anastasia alone for hours at a time. The two of them lived on food handouts from the church. Maria lost 25 kilos.
In the end she decided to Anastasia into foster care with a charity called SOS Children's Villages.
"I can suffer through it but why should she have to?" she asks.
She now has a job in a cafe, but makes just 20 euros (£16) a day. She sees Anastasia about once a month, and hopes to take her back when her economic situation improves - but when that might be she has no idea.
SOS Children's Villages' director of social work, Stergios Sifnyos, says the charity is not accustomed to taking children from families for economic reasons and does not want to.
"The relationship between Maria and Anastasia is very close. You can say you cannot see any problem, [any reason] why this child has to be far away from her mother," he says.
"But it's very difficult for her to feel comfortable to take back the child when she is not sure she will [still] have a job the next days."
'Act of violence' Continue reading the main story
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Father Antonios Head of Kivotos youth centreThe truth is that the biggest need any child has is to feel the love of its parents”
In the past when SOS Children's Villages took children into its care, the cause was mostly drug and alcohol addiction in the family. Now the main factor is poverty.
Another charity, Smile of a Child, also focused in the past on cases involving child abuse and neglect. It too is now catering for the destitute of Athens.
Its chief psychologist Stefanos Alevizos, says that when a parent puts a child into care, the child feels its entire foundations have been shaken.
"They experience the separation as an act of violence because they cannot understand the reasons for it," he says.
But Smile of a Child's Sofia Kouhi says the biggest tragedy, in her eyes, is that those parents who ask for their kids to be taken into care may be the ones who love their children the most.
Continue reading the main story
Damaged safety net
- Greece's crisis has caused more poverty than its welfare system is equipped to deal with, so charities fill the gap
- However, donations are down and charities now have to pay taxes they were once exempt from
- "Charity associations like ours are doing 50% of the work that the Greek state should be doing and instead of thanking us they are penalising us," says director of SOS Children's Villages, George Protopapas
- Most cases of families giving up children occur in Athens, where traditional family and neighbourhood ties are diluted
"It is very sad to see the pain in their heart that they will leave their children, but they know it is for the best, at least for this period," she says.
Father Antonios disagrees.
He believes that no matter how poor parents may be, the child is always better off with its family.
"These families will be judged for abandoning their children," he says.
"We can provide a child with food and shelter, but the truth is that the biggest need any child has is to feel the love of its parents."
The names of children in this report have been changed to protect their identities.
Sunday, November 20, 2011
Pepper spray: US campus police suspended
Pepper spray: US campus police suspended
An officer appeared to spray the protesters at close range
A US university has suspended two campus police officers over the use of pepper spray on students at a peaceful protest on Friday in support of the Occupy Wall Street movement.
Video of the incident shows police blasting seated protesters in the face with the chemical at close range.
The chancellor of the University of California, Davis, who had called in the police, criticised the use of pepper spray on the protesters.
However, she says she will not resign.
The demonstration was intended to show solidarity with protesters at another branch of the University of California, in Berkeley, who were hit with batons by police on 9 November.
The footage of the pepper spray incident, which has been circulated widely on the internet, caused outrage among students.
The protesters are seen sitting in a line on the floor with their arms interlocked, refusing to move.
Continue reading the main story
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Davis Faculty Association statementThe violence was unprovoked, disproportional and excessive”
They try to cover their faces as officers in riot gear walk along emptying canisters of the spray onto them.
'Excessive force'Linda Katehi, Chancellor of the University of California, Davis, near Sacramento, described the use of pepper spray as "chilling".
She said the university was launching an investigation into what had happened.
A task force comprised of students, staff and faculty members would be set up and asked to report back within 30 days, she said.
"The use of pepper spray as shown on the video is chilling to us all and raises many questions about how best to handle situations like this," Ms Katehi said in a message on the university's website.
The Davis Faculty Association, which represents academic staff, has condemned the University of California's approach to protests on several different campuses.
"This week, we have seen excessive force used against non-violent protesters," said a statement on the association's website.
"Student, faculty and staff protesters have been pepper-sprayed directly in the eyes and mouth, beaten and shoved by batons, dragged by the arms while handcuffed, and submitted to other forms of excessive force."
'Occupy' protests have been held on several University of California campuses, including in this rally at Berkeley "The violence was unprovoked, disproportional and excessive," it said.
"We demand that the Chancellors of the University of California cease using police violence to repress non-violent political protests."
The association said Ms Katehi should resign, a call she rejected.
"I do not think that I have violated the policies of the institution," she said.
"I have worked personally very hard to make the campus a safe campus for all."
The Occupy Wall Street protests began in New York more than two months ago against perceived corporate greed and economic inequality.
Similar protests have since sprung up in other places around the United States and elsewhere in the world.
US university investigates campus pepper spray use
US university investigates campus pepper spray use
An officer appeared to spray the protesters at close range
A US university says it is launching an investigation into the use of pepper spray by riot police trying to clear a demonstration.
Video of the incident at the University of California, Davis, shows officers blasting seated protesters in the face with the chemical at close range.
The university chancellor, who had called in the police, described the pepper spray incident as "chilling".
The protest, on Friday, was in support of the Occupy Wall Street movement.
It was intended to show solidarity with protesters at another branch of the University of California, in Berkeley, who were hit with batons by police on 9 November.
The footage of the pepper spray incident, which has been circulated widely on the internet, has caused outrage among students.
The protesters are seen sitting in a line on the floor with their arms interlocked, refusing to move.
Continue reading the main story
“Start Quote
Davis Faculty Association statementThe violence was unprovoked, disproportional and excessive”
They try to cover their faces as officers in riot gear walk along emptying canisters of the spray onto them.
'Excessive force'Linda Katehi, Chancellor of the University of California, Davis, near Sacramento, says she is forming a task force to investigate what happened.
"The use of pepper spray as shown on the video is chilling to us all and raises many questions about how best to handle situations like this," she said in a message on the university's website.
The Davis Faculty Association, which represents academic staff, has condemned the University of California's approach to protests on several different campuses.
"This week, we have seen excessive force used against non-violent protesters," said a statement on the association's website.
"Student, faculty and staff protesters have been pepper-sprayed directly in the eyes and mouth, beaten and shoved by batons, dragged by the arms while handcuffed, and submitted to other forms of excessive force."
There have been 'Occupy' protests on several campuses of the University of California, including in this rally at Berkeley "The violence was unprovoked, disproportional and excessive," it said.
"We demand that the Chancellors of the University of California cease using police violence to repress non-violent political protests."
The Association said Ms Katehi should resign, a call she rejected.
"I do not think that I have violated the policies of the institution," she said.
"I have worked personally very hard to make the campus a safe campus for all."
The Occupy Wall Street protest began in New York more than two months ago against perceived corporate greed and economic inequality.
Similar protests have since sprung up in other places around the United States and elsewhere in the world.
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