March, 06 2019, 11:00pm EDT
President Trump Expands Guantanamo's Indefinite Detention Facilities
President Trump is increasing indefinite detention facilities at Guantanamo Bay, it has been revealed.
WASHINGTON
President Trump is increasing indefinite detention facilities at Guantanamo Bay, it has been revealed.
Middle East Eye and the Miami Herald have revealed that administrators for the detention camp have sought to "identify potential contractors" for a new 5,000-square-foot prison compound at Guantanamo. This compound will apparently include three handicapped-accessible prison cells, suggesting that President Trump plans to keep detainees - the vast majority of whom are currently held without charge or trial - at the prison well into old age.
There are currently 40 men still held at Guantanamo. 5 men still held there have been cleared for release but remain detained. Guantanamo's oldest inmate is 71 year old Saifullah Paracha. He has had two heart attacks and suffers from diabetes, coronary artery disease, hyperlipidaemia, diverticulosis, and gout. He has been detained for 14 years without charge or trial.
President Trump has threatened to send more people to Guantanamo - he campaigned on a promise to "load it [Guantanamo] up with bad dudes" and has since made clear that sending men to Guantanamo remains an option for the administration's counter-terrorism policy.
Reprieve recently released a report about the controversial 'PRB' system designed to clear men for release, which revealed that there is currently no way out of Guantanamo for those detained there.
Commenting, Reprieve's Director Maya Foa, said: "Building wheelchair accessible prison cells at Guantanamo paints a deeply chilling picture. President Trump appears to be planning to detain men - the vast majority of whom have never been charged with a crime or faced a trial - until they die. Indefinite detention has no place in a democratic society. The men who have been cleared for release must be returned home and the prison should be shut once and for all."
Reprieve is a UK-based human rights organization that uses the law to enforce the human rights of prisoners, from death row to Guantanamo Bay.
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'Disconnection Crisis': Power Shutoffs Put Poor at Risk as Heatwaves Ravage US
"For households who will be shut off from electricity this summer because they cannot afford their bills, even being inside their homes is dangerous," a new report says.
Jul 17, 2024
Low-income Americans face climbing energy costs and the possibility of summertime power shutoffs—even amid a devastating heatwave—if they can't pay their utility bills, thanks to a lack of legal protections in most states, a report issued Tuesday by a pair of advocacy groups warns.
The Center for Energy Poverty and Climate (EPC) and the National Energy Assistance Directors Association (NEADA) released the report, which calls for an increase in federal funding to address the issue, as more than 100 million Americans this week face heat advisories and extreme temperatures driven by climate change become increasingly common.
Many low-income people face the prospect of extreme heat inside their own homes, as 31 states offer no summer shutoff protections, the groups said.
"For households who will be shut off from electricity this summer because they cannot afford their bills, even being inside their homes is dangerous," the report says. "In less extreme situations, a family can ride out a hot day by opening their windows, taking a cool shower, and hoping it cools down at night. But when the heat persists for weeks, or the outside air is dangerous, opening a window will only make things worse."
Millions of US low-income households face power shut-offs amid deadly heat.
Half of Americans live in states without rules restricting disconnections for unpaid or overdue bills, report finds. https://t.co/0WYJHmwJ4e
— Watchdog Progressive (@Watchdogsniffer) July 16, 2024
EPC and NEADA estimated that the average American household will spend $719 on cooling costs between June and September of 2024, an 8.7% increase over last year. The rising costs of basic goods has left low-income households forced to decide between paying for food, energy, rent, and other essentials such as medicine, the report says.
Despite the increased need, federal funding to help low-income Americans cover their energy costs declined in fiscal year 2024. The Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program budget was cut significantly—from $6.1 billion to $4.1 billion—and only 12% is estimated to be allotted to summer cooling initiatives.
Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives initiated the cut, which they attempted to make even more dramatic. EPC and NEADA have called for the funding to be restored, and progressive lawmakers have regularly pushed for more funding for the energy needs of low-income Americans in recent years.
Power shutoffs in summer months are common across much of the U.S., and were faced by roughly 1 million customers or more in 2022, according to Sanya Carley and David Konisky, two energy insecurity researchers who wrote about what they call the "disconnection crisis" in The Conversation on Wednesday.
One in four Americans faces energy insecurity—a figure that hasn't improved in the last decade, according to data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration. The problem is prevalent among people with less than two times the federal poverty line income, and especially common in Black and Hispanic households, a 2021 study in Nature Energy found.
Though data are incomplete, disconnections are known to be high in certain parts of the U.S., including the South. "Large investor-owned utilities in Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, and Indiana have averaged disconnection rates near 1% of customers, and some city utilities have been even higher," Carley and Konisky wrote.
The monopolistic power that utilities hold, including their influence in state capitals, contributes to the high prices and the lack of protections. "Energy companies are skimming profits from rate hikes," Food and Water Watch wrote in a briefing released Wednesday, citing examples in California, Louisiana, and Florida.
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"Aside from unreasonable rate hikes, my May usage was up 10% from last year because of rising heat," David Coleman, a retiree in Florida, told Food and Water Watch. "I pay that bill out of my UnitedHealthcare healthy food benefit. Less for food; more for energy."
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Ahead of the International Court of Justice's expected advisory opinion on legal consequences for Israel's occupation of the Palestinian territories, Palestine's permanent observer at the United Nations reminded other diplomats at a U.N. Security Council meeting on Wednesday that the slaughter of more than 38,000 people in Gaza has been broadcast for nine months—while Israel has claimed it is acting in self-defense and is targeting Hamas.
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In addition to the daily news of aerial and ground attacks on schools, homes, and places of worship in Gaza, Mansour pointed to Israeli soldiers' filming of their own attacks in the enclave, leaving no doubt that innocent civilians are being targeted.
Members of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) have "openly, brazenly, and repeatedly" shared its "crimes" on social media, said Mansour.
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Meanwhile, human rights experts and aid groups have amplified images of the results of Israel's use of what Mansour called "the ultimate weapon": a near-total blockade on humanitarian relief. Last month, the Al Mezan Center for Human Rights documented the deaths from starvation of five-month-old Fayez Attaya and 13-year-old Abdulqader Al-Serhi—two of more than two dozen children who have perished as U.N. experts have warned famine has taken hold in Gaza.
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Mansour on Wednesday asked the Security Council—which only voted in favor of a cease-fire in Gaza in June, after U.S. officials had vetoed several resolutions—why it has allowed Israel to violate international laws and norms.
"What is a rule that's not enforced? What do these rules mean anymore when for nine months Israel has bombed the homes, hospitals, schools—including those designated as U.N. shelters—and now people in tents as is the case in al-Mawasi?" he asked.
Mansour emphasized that Israeli soldiers have good reason to think they can film themselves committing potential war crimes.
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Mansour added that the ICJ's pending ruling on the occupation of Palestine "should serve as basis for our collective action in the days to come."
"As all your nations have refused to forego their rights, the Palestinian people will never accept to relinquish theirs," he said. "Peace will not be achieved at the expense of our rights but by upholding them. The right to life, to liberty, and to dignity. That is the only path to peace. Let us finally collectively embark on it."
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A local coalition on Wednesday released a report blasting the record of St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney Wesley Bell, who is challenging progressive Congresswoman Cori Bush in the Democratic primary for Missouri's 1st District.
The report about Bell's five years in his current office was published by the Prosecutor Organizing Table, which includes Action St. Louis, ArchCity Defenders, Freedom Community Center, Forward through Ferguson, MacArthur Justice Center, and Missourians to Abolish the Death Penalty.
"Early on, Bell cast himself as a progressive looking to make fundamental changes to the way that the St. Louis County prosecutor's office operated," the report explains. "He promised changes to address some of the key issues that plague the criminal legal system, including overcharging, lack of transparency, reliance on cash bail, and criminalization of poverty, drug use, and mental health illness."
When Bell took office in 2019, "many residents hoped to see a leader that would fight to dramatically reduce mass human caging on behalf of Black communities and others disproportionately impacted in St. Louis County," the document notes. "We have seen the office fail to implement meaningful change on a number of important fronts."
The analysis began in August 2022 and includes data the coalition collected from Bell's office, "freedom of information requests, independent research, as well as lived experience from people impacted by the carceral system." The report features a timeline of their communication with his office and points out that "some of the issues and questions raised by the table went unanswered."
The Missouri coalition—whose members lead local decarceration and racial justice efforts—evaluated Bell based on five metrics: transparency, charging decisions, pretrial detention, convictions and sentencing, and commitment to community-based alternatives.
"After early progress, the St. Louis County jail population has steadily climbed under Bell's leadership. It has increased 23% in the past year and 46% in the past two years," the report highlights. "Meanwhile, the nation's overall jail and prison population has fallen by over 10%."
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In addition to calling out Bell's prosecutorial record, the groups offered "recommendations for shifting policies and practices towards a survivor-centered approach to restorative justice to decarcerate and address violence at its core."
Bell "discounted the report as politics," according to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. "Many of the organizations backing the report, he said, have endorsed Bush. And he said she won't debate the issues publicly."
The prosecutor told the newspaper, "My opponent refusing to answer questions and hiding behind this group is disingenuous and does a grave disservice to this community."
Meanwhile, ArchCity spokesperson Z Gorley pointed out that the analysis began long before Bell announced he was running for Congress and Bush's campaign accused Bell of using the congresswoman as a scapegoat "to evade responsibility."
The Working Families Party (WFP)—which has endorsed Bush—called the report "scathing."
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