Bulletins and News Discussion from August 7th to August 13th, 2023 - White Blows From A Black Hand
Bulletins and News Discussion from August 7th to August 13th, 2023 - White Blows From A Black Hand
Image is of the American military during their occupation of Haiti at the beginning of the 20th century, taken from this NYT article from 2022: Invade Haiti, Wall Street Urged. The U.S. Obliged.
In the aftermath of the assassination of Jovenel Moïse in 2021 and his replacement by Western comprador Ariel Henry, the situation in Haiti is the most dire it has been in decades - by some metrics, even worse than the aftermath of the 2010 earthquake (CW: rape, violence including against children). Millions do not have enough food. Outbreaks of disease are rampant. The government - such that it still exists, which is becoming increasingly debatable - has only a minority control over the capital city, with some estimates putting the influence of armed groups at 80%.
America's search for somebody, anybody, to intervene in Haiti has ended, with Kenya answering the call. President Ruto has announced that he will send 1000 police officers to Haiti. Kenya's Foreign Minister has tried to sell this intervention as pan-Africanism. Other Caribbean states, like the Bahamas and Antigua and Barbuda, have offered to send police officers too.
I can't really say it any better than the Black Alliance for Peace's own statement:
Kenya has offered to deploy a contingent of 1,000 police officers to help train and assist Haitian police, ostensibly to “restore order” in the Caribbean republic. Yet, their proposal is nothing more than military occupation by another name; an occupation of Haiti by an African country is not Pan-Africanism, but Western imperialism in Black face. By agreeing to send troops into Haiti, the Kenyan government is assisting in undermining the sovereignty and self-determination of Haitian people, while serving the neocolonial interests of the United States, the Core Group, and the United Nations.
There is an urgent need for clarity on the issue of occupation in Haiti. As described in a recent statement on Haiti and Colonialism, Haiti is under ongoing occupation. No call for foreign intervention into Haiti from the administration of appointed Prime Minister Ariel Henry can be considered legitimate, because the Henry administration itself is illegitimate. BAP has repeatedly pointed out that Haiti’s crisis is a crisis of imperialism. Haiti’s current unpopular and unelected government is propped up only by Haiti’s de facto imperial rulers: the unseemly confederacy of the Core Group countries and organizations, as well as BINUH (the United Nations Integrated Office in Haiti), and a loose alliance of foreign corporations and local elites.
Henry and the UN have made a mockery of sovereignty by mouthing the slogan “Haitian solutions to Haitian problems,” yet finding the only solution in violence through foreign military intervention. After repeated failed attempts to organize an occupying force to protect their interests and impose their will on the Haitian people (including appeals to the multinational organization, the Caribbean Community [CARICOM] for troops), they have now found a willing accomplice in Kenya, an east African country with its own set of internal problems.
Indeed, what’s in it for Kenya? An opportunity to both train and enhance the salaries of local police forces and garner a patina of prestige, or at least bootlicking approval, from the West. And for Haiti? White blows from a Black hand and a further erosion of their sovereignty.
And, by the way, here's the Black Alliance for Peace's statement calling for no intervention by ECOWAS in Niger, calling the organization a Western comprador organization similar to CARICOM's role in Haiti.
Welcome to our friends throughout the Lemmyverse!
Here is the map of the Ukraine conflict, courtesy of Wikipedia.
This week's first update is here in the comments.
This week's second update is here in the comments.
This week's third update might not happen because I'm busy dunking.
Links and Stuff
The bulletins site is down.
Examples of Ukrainian Nazis and fascists
Examples of racism/euro-centrism during the Russia-Ukraine conflict
Add to the above list if you can.
Resources For Understanding The War
Defense Politics Asia's youtube channel and their map. Their youtube channel has substantially diminished in quality but the map is still useful.
Moon of Alabama, which tends to have interesting analysis. Avoid the comment section.
Understanding War and the Saker: reactionary sources that have occasional insights on the war.
Alexander Mercouris, who does daily videos on the conflict. While he is a reactionary and surrounds himself with likeminded people, his daily update videos are relatively brainworm-free and good if you don't want to follow Russian telegram channels to get news. He also co-hosts The Duran, which is more explicitly conservative, racist, sexist, transphobic, anti-communist, etc when guests are invited on, but is just about tolerable when it's just the two of them if you want a little more analysis.
On the ground: Patrick Lancaster, an independent and very good journalist reporting in the warzone on the separatists' side.
Unedited videos of Russian/Ukrainian press conferences and speeches.
Telegram Channels
Again, CW for anti-LGBT and racist, sexist, etc speech, as well as combat footage.
Pro-Russian
https://t.me/aleksandr_skif ~ DPR's former Defense Minister and Colonel in the DPR's forces. Russian language.
https://t.me/Slavyangrad ~ A few different pro-Russian people gather frequent content for this channel (~100 posts per day), some socialist, but all socially reactionary. If you can only tolerate using one Russian telegram channel, I would recommend this one.
https://t.me/s/levigodman ~ Does daily update posts.
https://t.me/patricklancasternewstoday ~ Patrick Lancaster's telegram channel.
https://t.me/gonzowarr ~ A big Russian commentator.
https://t.me/rybar ~ One of, if not the, biggest Russian telegram channels focussing on the war out there. Actually quite balanced, maybe even pessimistic about Russia. Produces interesting and useful maps.
https://t.me/epoddubny ~ Russian language.
https://t.me/boris_rozhin ~ Russian language.
https://t.me/mod_russia_en ~ Russian Ministry of Defense. Does daily, if rather bland updates on the number of Ukrainians killed, etc. The figures appear to be approximately accurate; if you want, reduce all numbers by 25% as a 'propaganda tax', if you don't believe them. Does not cover everything, for obvious reasons, and virtually never details Russian losses.
https://t.me/UkraineHumanRightsAbuses ~ Pro-Russian, documents abuses that Ukraine commits.
Pro-Ukraine
Almost every Western media outlet.
https://discord.gg/projectowl ~ Pro-Ukrainian OSINT Discord.
https://t.me/ice_inii ~ Alleged Ukrainian account with a rather cynical take on the entire thing.
Last week's discussion post.
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Caroline Kennedy Says US Open to Assange Plea Deal
The U.S. ambassador to Australia believes a plea bargain could free imprisoned WikiLeaks publisher Julian Assange, allowing him to serve a shortened sentence for a lesser crime in his home country.
Caroline Kennedy told The Sydney Morning Herald in a front-page interview published Monday that the decision on a plea deal was up to the U.S. Justice Department. “So it’s not really a diplomatic issue, but I think that there absolutely could be a resolution,” she told the newspaper.
Kennedy noted the firm comments by U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken on July 31 in Brisbane that,
“Mr. Assange was charged with very serious criminal conduct in the United States in connection with his alleged role in one of the largest compromises of classified information in the history of our country. … So I say that only because just as we understand sensitivities here, it’s important that our friends understand sensitivities in the United States.”
Despite Blinken’s strong words, Kennedy said: “But there is a way to resolve it. You can read the [newspapers] just like I can.”
Gabriel Shipton, Assange’s brother, told the Herald: “Caroline Kennedy wouldn’t be saying these things if they didn’t want a way out. The Americans want this off their plate.”
The newspaper said there could be a “David Hicks-style plea bargain,” a so-called Alford Plea, in which Assange would continue to state his innocence while accepting a lesser charge that would allow him to serve additional time in Australia. The four years Assange has already served on remand at London’s maximum security Belmarsh Prison could perhaps be taken into account.
David Hicks was an Australian imprisoned by the United States in Guantanamo for five years. He was ultimately released by the U.S., after pressure from the Australian government, when he agreed to an Alford Plea, in which he pled guilty to a single charge, but was allowed to assert his innocence at the same time on the grounds that he understood he would not receive a fair trial.
Hicks was returned to Australia where he served an additional seven months in prison. His case was then thrown out on appeal when it was established that the charge of giving “material assistance to terrorists” was not yet a crime on the books at the time of his arrest.
The Herald quoted Don Rothwell, an international law expert at Australian National University in Canberra, as saying that Assange would have to travel to the U.S. in order to work out the plea deal.
“Everything we know about Julian Assange suggests this would be a significant sticking point for him,” Rothwell said. “It’s not possible to strike a plea deal outside the relevant jurisdiction except in the most exceptional circumstances.”
However, Bruce Afran, a U.S. constitutional attorney, told Consortium News‘ CN Live! webcast in May that it would indeed be possible for Assange to remain in Britain to work out the deal.
“Usually American courts don’t act unless a defendant is inside that district and shows up to the court,” Afran said. “However, there’s nothing strictly prohibiting it either. And in a given instance, a plea could be taken internationally. I don’t think there’s anything wrong with that. It’s not barred by any any laws. If all parties consent to it, then the court has jurisdiction.”
Afran said that after seven years in the Ecuadorian embassy in London and four years in Belmarsh, Assange “obviously would have a fear of coming to the U.S. And our prison system is often known for rough treatment in terms of management units and solitary confinement.”
Afran said it was understandable that Assange would not trust the U.S. to follow through on a deal if he went to America. “The U.S. sometimes finds ways to get around these agreements,” Afran said. “The better approach would be that he pleads while in the U.K., we resolve the sentence by either an additional sentence of seven months, such as David Hicks had or a year to be served in the U.K. or in Australia or time served.”
Shipton told the Herald that his brother going to the U.S. was a “non-starter.” He said: “Julian cannot go to the US under any circumstances.”
Afran said Assange would not necessarily have to plead to an espionage or computer intrusion offense. “He could plead simply to mishandling official information or even, in the worst case scenario, conspiracy to mishandle official information, a far lesser charge,” he said.
“That would also resolve the case and probably give the U.S. its satisfaction and would allow Julian essentially to hold his head up high after all these years,” said Afran.
Afran also said that Assange’s side could initiate the plea offer.
On May 22, two days before President Joe Biden was due to visit Australia on a trip he then canceled, Assange lawyer Jennifer Robinson said for the first time on behalf of Assange’s legal team that they would consider a plea deal.
Robinson told the National Press Club in Canberra:
“We are considering all options. The difficulty is our primary position is, of course that the case ought to be dropped. We say no crime has been committed and the facts of the case don’t disclose a crime. So what is it that Julian would be pleading to?”
Assange remains in Belmarsh awaiting a final, 30-minute hearing before the High Court of England Wales, which is on summer recess until Oct. 1. Assange’s lawyers will attempt to reverse a decision by the High Court not to hear his appeal against the home secretary’s extradition order and against most of the lower court’s ruling in his extradition case.
That court in January 2021 ordered Assange released on health grounds and the conditions of U.S. prisons but sided with the U.S. on every other point of law. The U.S. thenwon its appeal before the High Court, which overturned the order to release Assange.
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese is due to visit President Joe Biden at the White House at the end of October at which time Assange supporters may hope that an arrangement to send Assange to Australia could be finalized.
But the High Court could convene before that. If it rejects Assange’s final appeal, he could be put on a plane to Alexandria, VA where he faces up to 175 years in a U.S. dungeon for publishing accurate information about U.S. war crimes and corruption.
This sounds to me like a high pressure campaign to get the guy to sign a plea deal and avoid a trial, but they are dressing it up like the Australian government are stepping in to help him.