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ryan grim
Biden Says Netanyahu Not Doing Enough to Free Hostages
"Netanyahu has been citing Biden's ironclad support of him as the *reason* he does not have to work harder to get a hostage deal," said one observer.
Sep 02, 2024
U.S. President Joe Biden said Monday that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu isn't doing enough to secure an agreement on the release of hostages held by Hamas in Gaza, a statement ridiculed by critics who asserted that the Biden administration's unconditional support for Israel empowers its far-right government to keep stonewalling a potential deal.
Speaking to reporters at a White House press conference, Biden
responded "no" when asked if Netanyahu is doing enough to reach an agreement to free the approximately 100 Israelis and others—including seven Americans—who are believed to be still alive in Gaza.
Biden added that his administration is "very close" to presenting a final draft agreement to negotiators working toward securing a cease-fire in Gaza and the release of remaining hostages.
More than 240 Israelis and others were kidnapped and taken to Gaza during the October 7 attack on Israel. Hamas has released 109 hostages, while eight have been rescued by Israeli forces, who killed or wounded more than 600 people during a June raid to free four people. Numerous other hostages have been killed by Israeli airstrikes, so-called "friendly fire" accidents, and deliberate attacks under the Hannibal Directive, a policy meant to prevent Israelis from being captured by enemy forces. Hamas is also believed to have executed some of the captives.
The president's comments came after six hostages held by Hamas, including 23-year-old American-Israeli Hersh Goldberg-Polin, were killed in a tunnel in Gaza. Their deaths sparked massive protests in Israel and beyond at which demonstrators demanded Netanyahu do more to free the remaining captives.
Numerous observers blamed Biden for enabling Israel's obliteration of Gaza with his "unwavering" support, including billions of dollars in arms shipments and diplomatic cover in the form of United Nations Security Council cease-fire resolution vetoes.
"Netanyahu has been citing Biden's ironclad support of him as the *reason* he does not have to work harder to get a hostage deal," U.S. journalist Ryan Grim said on social media. "Incredibly rich of Biden to complain about the consequences of his own actions."
Jack Mirkinson, a senior editor at
The Nation and co-founder of the Discourse blog, said that "everyone, including Biden, knows that Netanyahu is *actively sabotaging* a deal, not simply 'not doing enough.'"
"Biden can't say this because he is helping Netanyahu prolong the war," he added. "But there's no reason for anyone else to indulge this fiction."
Referring to Monday's general strike in Israel—in which workers across the country walked off their jobs to protest Netanyahu's refusal to agree to a cease-fire and hostage release deal—Medea Benjamin, co-founder of the peace group CodePink,
said on social media: "If Biden truly stood with hostage families, he'd halt weapons to Israel until a cease-fire is reached. Maybe it's time for a general strike in the U.S. too!"
Many critics also repeated accusations that Netanyahu is stalling or trying to torpedo a potential deal so he can prolong the war and delay his ouster from office. The prime minister is currently on trial for corruption and also faces bribery, fraud, and breach of trust charges over three cases. He could be jailed for 10 years if fully convicted on all counts.
Asked earlier this year if Netanyahu is deliberately prolonging the war for his political self-preservation, Biden said that "there is every reason for people to draw that conclusion."
Meanwhile, Israel's Gaza onslaught continued Monday with attacks including a bombing of yet another school-turned-shelter in Gaza City that killed at least 11 people, including a woman and a child.
With unconditional U.S. support, Israel has killed at least 40,786 Palestinians in Gaza, most of them women and children, according to the Gaza Health Ministry and international organizations. Israeli bombs and bullets have injured more than 94,200 others, forcibly displaced over 2 million, and pushed much of Gaza into famine.
Israel's bombardment, invasion, and siege—which are accompanied by genocidal statements from numerous Israeli leaders—have led many
legal experts and scholars to assert that it is committing genocide. Israel is currently on trial for genocide at the International Court of Justice and the chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court has applied for warrants to arrest Netanyahu, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, and three Hamas leaders—at least one of whom, political chief Ismail Haniyeh, has been assassinated by Israel.
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Accusations of US Regime-Change Operations in Pakistan and Bangladesh Warrant UN Attention
The very strong evidence of the U.S. role in toppling the government of Imran Khan in Pakistan raises the likelihood that something similar may have occurred in Bangladesh.
Aug 19, 2024
Two former leaders of major South Asian countries have reportedly accused the United States of covert regime change operations to topple their governments. One of the leaders, former Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan, languishes in prison, on a perverse conviction that proves Khan’s assertion. The other leader, former Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheik Hasina, fled to India following a violent coup in her country. Their grave accusations against the U.S., as reported in the world media, should be investigated by the UN, since if true, the U.S. actions would constitute a fundamental threat to world peace and to regional stability in South Asia.
The two cases seem to be very similar. The very strong evidence of the U.S. role in toppling the government of Imran Khan raises the likelihood that something similar may have occurred in Bangladesh.
In the case of Pakistan, Donald Lu, Assistant Secretary of State for South Asia and Central Asia, met with Asad Majeed Khan, Pakistan’s Ambassador to the U.S., on March 7, 2022. Ambassador Khan immediately wrote back to his capital, conveying Lu’s warning that PM Khan threatened U.S.-Pakistan relations because of Khan’s “aggressively neutral position” regarding Russia and Ukraine.
The Ambassador’s March 7 note (technically a diplomatic cypher) quoted Assistant Secretary Lu as follows: “I think if the no-confidence vote against the Prime Minister succeeds, all will be forgiven in Washington because the Russia visit is being looked at as a decision by the Prime Minister. Otherwise, I think it will be tough going ahead.” The very next day, members of the parliament took procedural steps to oust PM Khan.
On March 27, PM Khan brandished the cypher, and told his followers and the public that the U.S. was out to bring him down. On April 10, PM Khan was thrown out of office as the parliament acceded to the U.S. threat.
We know this in detail because of Ambassador Khan’s cypher, exposed by PM Khan and brilliantly documented by Ryan Grim of The Intercept, including the text of the cypher. Absurdly and tragically, PM Khan languishes in prison in part over espionage charges, linked to his revealing the cypher.
The U.S. appears to have played a similar role in the recent violent coup in Bangladesh. PM Hasina was ostensibly toppled by student unrest, and fled to India when the Bangladeshi military refused to prevent the protestors from storming the government offices. Yet there may well be much more to the story than meets the eye.
According to press reports in India, PM Hasina is claiming that the U.S. brought her down. Specifically, she says that the U.S. removed her from power because she refused to grant the U.S. military facilities in a region that is considered strategic for the U.S. in its “Indo-Pacific Strategy” to contain China. While these are second-hand accounts by the Indian media, they track closely several speeches and statements that Hasina has made over the past two years.
On May 17, 2024, the same Assistant Secretary Liu who played a lead role in toppling PM Khan, visited Dhaka to discuss the US Indo-Pacific Strategy among other topics. Days later, Sheikh Hasina reportedly summoned the leaders of the 14 parties of her alliance to make the startling claim that a “country of white-skinned people” was trying to bring her down, ostensibly telling the leaders that she refused to compromise her nation’s sovereignty. Like Imran Khan, PM Hasina had been pursuing a foreign policy of neutrality, including constructive relations not only with the U.S. but also with China and Russia, much to the deep consternation of the U.S. government.
To add credence to Hasina’s charges, Bangladesh had delayed signing two military agreements that the U.S. had pushed very hard since 2022, indeed by none other than the former Under-Secretary of State Victoria Nuland, the neocon hardliner with her own storied history of U.S. regime-change operations. One of the draft agreements, the General Security of Military Information Agreement (GSOMIA), would bind Bangladesh to closer military-to-military cooperation with Washington. The Government of PM Hasina was clearly not enthusiastic to sign it.
The U.S. is by far the world’s leading practitioner of regime-change operations, yet the U.S. flatly denies its role in covert regime change operations even when caught red-handed, as with Nuland’s infamous intercepted phone call in late January 2014 planning the U.S.-led regime change operation in Ukraine. It is useless to appeal to the U.S. Congress, and still less the executive branch, to investigate the claims by PM Khan and PM Hasina. Whatever the truth of the matter, they will deny and lie as necessary.
This is where the UN should step in. Covert regime change operations are blatantly illegal under international law (notably the Doctrine of Non-Intervention, as expressed for example in UN General Assembly Resolution 2625, 1970), and constitute perhaps the greatest threat to world peace, as they profoundly destabilize nations, and often lead to wars and other civil disorders. The UN should investigate and expose covert regime change operations, both in the interests of reversing them, and preventing them in the future.
The UN Security Council is of course specifically charged under Article 24 of the UN Charter with “primary responsibility for the maintenance of international peace and security.” When evidence arises that a government has been toppled through the intervention or complicity of a foreign government, the UN Security Council should investigate the claims.
In the cases of Pakistan and Bangladesh, the UN Security Council should seek the direct testimony of PM Khan and PM Hasina in order to evaluate the evidence that the U.S. played a role in the overthrow of the governments of these two leaders. Each, of course, should be protected by the UN for giving their testimony, so as to protect them from any retribution that could follow their honest presentation of the facts. Their testimony can be taken by video conference, if necessary, given the tragic ongoing incarceration of PM Khan.
The U.S. might well exercise its veto in the UN Security Council to prevent such a investigation. In that case, the UN General Assembly can take up the matter, under UN Resolution A/RES/76/, which allows the UN General Assembly to consider an issue blocked by veto in the UN Security Council. The issues at stake could then be assessed by the entire membership of the UN. The veracity of the U.S. involvement in the recent regime changes in Pakistan and Bangladesh could then be objectively analyzed and judged on the evidence, rather than on mere assertions and denials.
The U.S. engaged in at least 64 covert regime change operations during 1947-1989, according to documented research by Lindsey O’Rourke, political science professor at Boston Collage, and several more that were overt (e.g. by U.S.-led war). It continues to engage in regime-change operations with shocking frequency to this day, toppling governments in all parts of the world. It is wishful thinking that the U.S. will abide by international law on its own, but it is not wishful thinking for the world community, long suffering from U.S. regime change operations, to demand their end at the United Nations.Keep ReadingShow Less
US State Department Claims It Hasn't Seen Reports of Israel Torturing UNRWA Staff
"The U.S. cut funding to a vital aid agency during a crisis, but isn't up to speed on reports that directly impact that funding?" asked one observer.
Mar 18, 2024
A Biden administration spokesperson on Monday attempted to avoid addressing allegations by employees of the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees that they were tortured while in Israeli detention by claiming the U.S. State Department has not seen any media reporting on the accusations.
Ryan Grim, The Intercept's Washington, D.C. bureau chief, asked deputy State Department spokesperson Vedant Patel if he believes the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) staff members who say they were tortured by Israeli interrogators into making false confessions about involvement with the Palestinian militant group Hamas, which led the October 7 attacks on Israel. Israeli officials claimed that at least 12 out of UNRWA's 13,000 staff in Gaza had ties to Hamas and October 7.
"The U.S. cut funding to a vital aid agency during a crisis, but isn't up to speed on reports that directly impact that funding?"
"When you originally talked about the allegations against the 12 staff, you have said that UNRWA itself was the one who forwarded those allegations alone. You said you found them credible, but since then UNRWA itself has said that its staff were tortured by Israel in order to get some of those confessions extracted," said Grim. "Does that change your view of the evidence that was presented by Israel, and if UNRWA was credible enough for you believe the allegations the first time, is UNRWA credible enough when they make an allegation of torture against its staff?"
Patel replied, "I've not seen that reporting, Ryan," adding that "we continue to find the allegations that were laid out a number of months ago to be credible."
The U.S. and more than a dozen other nations suspended funding for UNRWA in the wake of the Israeli allegations. In what UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini later called an act of "reverse due process," the agency terminated nine employees in response to Israel's claims, despite admitting to having no evidence to support their firing.
The European Union and nations including Canada, Sweden, and Australia subsequently reinstated funding for UNRWA, which Lazzarini said "is facing a deliberate and concerted campaign to undermine its operations."
The controversy over UNRWA has unfolded as the agency struggles to provide shelter and humanitarian aid to Gazans, who are suffering not only Israeli bombs and bullets but also a genocidal siege and blockade that are exacerbating growing famine in the embattled enclave.
U.S. Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) this week called Israeli claims that UNRWA is a Hamas proxy a "flat-out lie."
"If you cut off funding for UNRWA in Gaza entirely, it means more people will starve, more people won't get the medical assistance they need, and so it would be a huge mistake," the senator warned.
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