Sam Husseini, (202) 347-0020, (202) 421-6858; David Zupan,(541) 484-9167
LGBT Activists Against Militarization and Surveillance--Interviews Available
See in the Guardian: "Omar Mateen's interest in gay men makes this no ordinary act of terrorism," by David Shariatmadari.
See in the Guardian: "Omar Mateen's interest in gay men makes this no ordinary act of terrorism," by David Shariatmadari.
Chelsea E. Manning, currently in prison for leaking information, including the "Collateral Murder" video to WikiLeaks, writes: "We must not let the Orlando nightclub terror further strangle our civil liberties."
YASMIN NAIR, (773) 784-3216, nairyasmin@gmail.com, @NairYasmin
Nair is a freelance writer, activist, academic, and commentator based in Chicago. She is the co-founder of the editorial collective Against Equality and a member of Gender JUST, a radical queer grassroots organization based in Chicago. She just appeared on The Real News segment: "Why is the Orlando Shooter Branded as a Muslim Instead of a Homophobe?"
EVAN GREER, (978) 852-6457, evangreer@gmail.com, @evan_greer
Greer is campaign director for Fight for the Future, which works for free expression on the internet. She said today: "More surveillance would not have stopped this horrific attack on our LGBTQ community. That's because mass government surveillance is not intended to keep us safe, it's intended to keep us in line. The population of queer people of color, predominantly latinxs, who were targeted by this attack, are already disproportionately endangered by corporate and government surveillance and the runaway systems of policing and incarceration that it enables. Politicians' and the media's focus on "radical Islam" as the root cause of this attack is nothing but thinly veiled racism. There are homophobic and transphobic attacks every day in the United States, many of them carried out by law enforcement and government officials themselves. I'm sickened by politicians who never cared about our lives or our safety until they saw an opportunity to advance their Islamophobic, imperialist agenda."
MATTILDA B. SYCAMORE, (206) 325-5029, nobodypasses@gmail.com, @mbsycamore
Sycamore's books include The End of San Francisco and Why Are Faggots So Afraid of Faggots?
She wrote on her Facebook page: "Sometimes I wake up, and I glance at the news, and there's something so horrifying that I cannot stop crying. I mean today. When I saw that at least 50 people have been killed in a mass shooting at a gay bar in Orlando, and at least 53 more have been hospitalized. Watching the video of a guy talking about using his bandanna to plug a bullet hole in someone's neck, and how he had never seen so much blood in his life. ... We should not allow anyone, gay, or straight (or queer) to justify even more Islamophobia, serving as cover for U.S. military aggression around the world and oppression here in the U.S."
A nationwide consortium, the Institute for Public Accuracy (IPA) represents an unprecedented effort to bring other voices to the mass-media table often dominated by a few major think tanks. IPA works to broaden public discourse in mainstream media, while building communication with alternative media outlets and grassroots activists.
Senate Dems Seek Special Counsel to Investigate Clarence Thomas and Billionaire Benefactors
"The evidence assembled thus far plainly suggests that Justice Thomas has committed numerous willful violations of federal ethics."
Stepping up efforts to hold U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas accountable for alleged ethics violations, two Democratic senators on Tuesday announced they'd requested that the Biden administration appoint a special counsel to investigate the right-wing judge.
Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), who chairs a Senate Judiciary subcommittee on the federal courts and oversight, was joined by and Senate Finance Committee Chairman Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) in writing to Attorney General Merrick Garland, warning that extensive reporting has pointed to possible violations of the Ethics in Government Act by Thomas.
While the senators' committees have presented Thomas with opportunities to explain his failure to disclose a significant forgiven debt and several financial gifts he received from wealthy benefactors, the justice "has maintained a suspicious silence," said Whitehouse and Wyden.
"The evidence assembled thus far plainly suggests that Justice Thomas has committed numerous willful violations of federal ethics and false-statement laws and raises significant questions about whether he and his wealthy benefactors have complied with their federal tax obligations," wrote the senators. "No government official should be above the law. Supreme Court justices are properly expected to obey laws designed to prevent conflicts of interest and the appearance of impropriety and to comply with the federal tax code."
"We therefore request that you appoint a special counsel authorized to investigate potential criminal violations by Justice Thomas," they added.
The senators cited a loan of more than $267,000 to Thomas, in connection with his purchase of a luxury motor coach. The Senate Finance Committee found that the provider of the loan, Anthony Welters, a wealthy businessman in the healthcare sector, stopped collecting principal and interest on the loan in 2008—suggesting the debt was forgiven and therefore taxable.
"The Ethics in Government Act requires justices to disclose any 'income from discharge of indebtedness,'" wrote the senators. "Justice Thomas did not report any such forgiveness as income on his financial disclosure report covering the year 2008, or for any other year."
The letter also points to numerous financial gifts Thomas received from benefactors including billionaire Harlan Crow, businessman Wayne Huizenga, and former Berkshire Hathaway executive David Sokol. The justice has reportedly received free private jet travel, lodging, tuition for his grandnephew, a country club membership, and free rent for his mother, among other gifts, "all of which Justice Thomas failed to disclose" in violation of the Ethics in Government Act.
"Justice Thomas has claimed that some omissions were 'inadvertent,' and he has amended some past reports accordingly," wrote Whitehouse and Wyden. "However, Justice Thomas has not disclosed all of the gifts that have been uncovered, and there may well be more. His long history of omissions indicates a pattern of willfulness meriting investigation under the Ethics in Government Act."
On social media, Whitehouse added that "the American people deserve a comprehensive investigation into the potential violations of ethics and tax laws by Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas."
Court reform groups and other progressives have long called for Thomas to be held accountable for multiple alleged conflicts of interest and other possible ethics violations—demanding that he recuse from cases involving former President Donald Trump due to his wife's involvement in efforts to overturn the 2020 election results and calling for a federal investigation into gifts he's received from people and groups who had business before the Supreme Court.
"It's beyond time we hold Clarence Thomas accountable for his actions," said the advocacy group End Citizens United.
The senators noted that an ethics investigation by a special counsel appointed by Garland could shed light on payments reportedly facilitated by Leonard Leo, board chair of the right-wing Federalist Society, which has pushed for the appointment of right-wing judges to the Supreme Court and other federal courts.
"Last year, The Washington Postreported that Leo directed payments of at least $25,000 to a consulting firm run by Justice Thomas's spouse, with Leo specifying that the documents related to the payments should make '[n]o mention' of Mrs. Thomas," wrote Whitehouse and Wyden. "The furtive nature of the payments raises further questions about how many such payments were orchestrated, whether legitimate services were actually rendered, and whether such payments required additional reporting by Justice Thomas."
An investigation is needed, said the senators, to uncover "the full scope of potential unlawful conduct related to any coordinated gifts program for certain justices."
Right to Asylum Must Be Protected in EU, Says Human Rights Coalition
"As this legislative cycle starts, the E.U. can and must do better than abandon its commitment to the global refugee protection regime," said an Amnesty campaigner.
Nearly 100 human rights organizations came together Tuesday to emphasize that members of the European Union "must guarantee the right to seek and enjoy asylum and uphold their commitments to the international refugee protection system."
The joint statement from groups including Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, and Oxfam came as members of the European Parliament prepare for the July 16 plenary sitting, the first meeting scheduled since the bloc's June elections, which resulted in the far-right "Patriots for Europe" becoming the third-largest alliance in the legislative body.
The human rights coalition underscored obligations under Article 18 of the E.U. Charter of Fundamental Rights and expressed concern about "the recent and increasing attempts by the E.U. and its member states to evade their asylum responsibilities by outsourcing asylum processing and refugee protection risk undermining the international protection system."
As the groups detailed:
Italy, for instance, is currently seeking to process asylum applications of certain groups of asylum-seekers outside of its territory, from detention in Albania—which risks leading to prolonged, automatic detention, a denial of access to fair asylum procedures with necessary procedural guarantees, and delayed disembarkation for people rescued or intercepted at sea. Others, such as Denmark and Germany, are assessing the feasibility of this type of arrangement. Fifteen E.U. member states and some political groups have endorsed similar shortsighted measures to shift asylum processing outside E.U. territory and encouraged the European Commission to explore ways to facilitate this through further legislative reform, including through a watered-down 'safe third country' concept.
These attempts must be seen in the context of parallel containment efforts that seek to stem departures and prevent the arrival of asylum-seekers to E.U. territory through partnership agreements with third countries, with little to no attention to the human rights records of those authorities.
The coalition stressed that "as the extensive track record of human rights violations in partner countries such as Libya demonstrates, the E.U. and Member States have no adequate tools and competencies to effectively monitor or enforce human rights standards outside of E.U. territory."
A report published in November by Doctors Without Borders features stories of violence that migrants endured in nations including Libya and Tunisia while trying to get to the E.U. That publication also points out that 2023 was the deadliest year for migration in the Central Mediterranean since 2017, due in part to E.U. countries failing to assist those at risk of drowning.
In addition to sounding the alarm about current E.U. policies and practices, the coalition on Tuesday cited examples including Australia's offshore detention scheme, which "demonstrates how these models have created prolonged confinement and restricted freedom of movement, deeply harming both the mental and physical health of people seeking protection."
The organizations also pointed to an asylum scheme attempted by the United Kingdom—which left the E.U. in 2020 following the 2016 Brexit vote—and Rwanda, which the statement notes "is not yet in effect following the U.K. Supreme Court declaring it unlawful and in any event is unlikely to be operationalized at any significant scale."
The U.K.'s failed attempt to forcibly remove people to the African country was "projected to cost a staggering £1.8 million per asylum-seeker returned," which is equal to €2.13 million or $2.3 million. The coalition called such schemes "not only an unjustifiable waste of public money, but also a lost opportunity to spend it in ways that would truly aid people seeking asylum by investing in fair and humane asylum systems and the communities that welcome them."
Olivia Sundberg Diez, Amnesty's E.U. advocate on migration and asylum, said in a statement Tuesday that "attempts by states to outsource their asylum responsibilities to other countries are not new—but have long been criticized, condemned, and rejected for good reason."
"Just as the U.K.-Rwanda scheme is, rightly, collapsing, the E.U. and its member states should pay attention, stop making false promises, and wasting time and money on expensive, inhumane, and unworkable proposals," she continued. "As this legislative cycle starts, the E.U. can and must do better than abandon its commitment to the global refugee protection regime."
The meeting scheduled for next week will follow the Pact on Migration and Asylum that the European Parliament passed in April and the Council of the E.U. adopted in May. The coalition highlighted that "civil society organizations have been clear about their serious concerns" regarding the reforms while also explaining that "the transfer of asylum-seekers outside of E.U. territory for asylum processing and refugee protection is not provided for in the pact, nor within current E.U. law."
"After the E.U. and member states have spent close to a decade attempting to reform the E.U.'s asylum system, they should now focus on implementing it with a human rights-centered approach that prioritizes the right to asylum per E.U. law and fundamental principles of international refugee law to which they remain bound," the coalition concluded. "They should not, mere weeks after the reform has passed, waste further time and resources on proposals that are incompatible with European and international law."
'Historic Victory': Ecuadorian Judge Rules Pollution Violates River's Rights
The court ordered the city of Quito to clean up the Machángara River, citing the rights of nature enshrined in Ecuador's Constitution.
Environmentalists around the world this week cheered what they called a "historic" ruling by an Ecuadorian court that human-caused pollution violates the rights of a river running through the capital city of Quito.
Responding to an application for a protective action filed by the Kitu Kara Indigenous people, a Quito judge on Friday found that municipal authorities are responsible for violating the Machángara River's rights and ordered officials to devise a decontamination plan.
The city of Quito said it will appeal the ruling. Mayor Pabel Muñoz said last week that an approved cleanup plan for the Machángara, which includes new water treatment plants, would cost $900 million and take 17 years to complete, according toLa Hora.
An editorial in El Comercio called the ruling a "significant step forward in defending the rights of nature" and "a milestone in the fight for environmental preservation in Ecuador."
"The recognition of the Machángara River as an entity with its own rights goes beyond considering it a mere natural resource," the editorial asserted. "This progress means that the river now has legal protection, and the authorities have an obligation to ensure its health and well-being."
Kitu Kara organizer DarÃo Iza said in a statement that "this is historic because the river runs right through Quito, and because of its influence, people live very close to it."
Quito must now implement a comprehensive wastewater treatment plan to reduce the discharge of pollutants into the river, restore riverbanks, and replant vegetation in degraded areas. The city of more than 2 million inhabitants has long used the Machángara—whose source is high in the Andes Mountains—as a dump, a problem exacerbated by a lack of adequate wastewater treatment infrastructure.
"It is alarming what happens with the Machángara because it should be full not of bacteria and chemicals, but of animal and plant life."
"The river carries away tons of garbage that comes down from gullies and hillsides," Global Alliance for the Rights of Nature said on social media. "This decision represents a breakthrough in the protection and decontamination of one of the most vulnerable rivers in the country."
Experts have likened the section of the Machángara running through Quito to a sewer in a Paris-sized city. The river is contaminated with heavy metals, fats, detergents, oils, bacteria, fecal matter, and a wide array of chemical pollutants.
"It is alarming what happens with the Machángara because it should be full not of bacteria and chemicals, but of animal and plant life," Blanca RÃos, an ecologist who has studied the river for 20 years, toldPrimicias on Tuesday.
Ecuador—one of the world's most biodiverse nations—is one of just a handful of countries to enshrine rights of nature in its constitution. Previous court rulings, including a 2021 decision against mining in the Amazon Rainforest and an earlier block on dumping in the Vilcabamba River, have upheld this right.