Author: Pan-African News Wire

Thursday, April 08, 2010
13:03 Mecca time, 10:03 GMT

US military ‘cannot find Iraq tape’

The US military has said it cannot find its copy of a video showing two helicopters involved in a deadly attack in Baghdad in 2007.

The classified video footage filmed from a helicopter gunsight was released on Monday by Wikileaks, a group that publishes anonymously sourced documents on the internet, and has led to renewed questions about the attack.

US military lawyers are also reviewing the video and, depending on their findings, could reopen an investigation into the incident, Pentagon officials told the Reuters news agency.

The leaked footage that has been widely watched online around the world is the latest twist in a three-year saga that has raised questions about the US rules of engagement in battle and the safety of journalists covering wars.

Two Reuters journalists were among the 12 people killed in the July 12, 2007 attack.

Captain Jack Hanzlik, a spokesman for US Central Command, said on Tuesday that the military has not been able to locate the video within its files after being asked to authenticate the version published by Wikileaks.

“We had no reason to hold the video at [Central Command], nor did the higher headquarters in Iraq,” he said in an e-mailed statement to The Associated Press.

“We’re attempting to retrieve the video from the unit who did the investigation.”

Footage reviewed

US defence officials meanwhile said lawyers at Central Command have been reviewing the footage to see whether the rules of engagement were followed.

“We’re looking at a reinvestigation because of a question of the rules of engagement,” an official told the Reuters news agency on condition of anonymity.

He said lawyers would be examining whether the actions depicted in the video were in parallel with the rules of engagement in effect at the time.

But on Wednesday Central Command said it has no immediate plans to reopen an investigation into the incident, amid appeals by rights groups for a renewed probe.

“Central Command has no current plans to reinvestigate or review this combat action,” Rear Admiral Hal Pittman, the director of communications at Central Command, which oversees the war in Iraq, said in a statement to Reuters.

Pentagon officials have said detailed rules of engagement are generally kept classified to avoid tipping off adversaries about US tactics on the battlefield.

Some international law and human rights experts who have watched the video say the Apache helicopter crew in the footage may have acted illegally.

They raised concerns about how the helicopter pilots operated, particularly in firing at a van that had apparently arrived on the scene after the initial attack to help the wounded.

‘Appropriate’ action

Transparency advocates have questioned the withholding of the video from the public, even though the Reuters news agency requested a copy through the Freedom of Information Act after watching it in an off-the-record meeting with the military in 2007.

The two Reuters employees killed in the attack were photographer Namir Nour El Deen, 22, and his assistant and driver Saeed Chmagh, 40.

An internal US investigation concluded that the troops had acted appropriately, despite having mistaken the camera equipment for weapons.

David Schlesinger, Reuters’ editor-in-chief, said: “I would welcome a thorough new investigation. Reuters from the start has called for transparency and an objective inquiry so that all can learn lessons from this tragedy.”

Al Jazeera’s Patty Culhane reporting from Washington, said one of the recommendations in the military investigation report was for the tape to be kept for training purposes.

“Technically they were supposed to keep a copy… they just can’t seem to find it right now,” she said.

Intense debate

Our correspondent said US television networks have also begun playing the tape, which had mostly been ignored until now, and she said that if domestic US media kept up the pressure the military may decide to reopen the case.

The video been widely viewed online, with a version on Youtube watched 4.1 million times, and has sparked an intense debate over US forces in Iraq and the actions of the troops who opened fire.

US military officials have said they believe the video is authentic.

The video was taken by the tactical unit that operated the helicopters, only identified as a “1st Air Cavalry Brigade”, which reported to the Multinational Division in Baghdad.

The video includes an audio track of the conversation between the helicopter crew, and many who have seen it have been shocked at the images and at some of the fliers’ comments.

It includes audio of troops calling to “light ’em up!” and referring to the men as “dead bastards”.

“Clearly, it is unflattering to the military, but that is not justification for withholding it,” Steven Aftergood, an expert on government secrecy with the Federation of American Scientists told The Associated Press.

Source: Al Jazeera and agencies

Mutallab: U.S. Homeland Security Secretary due in Abuja Sunday

National News Apr 11, 2010
By Kenneth Ehigiator

U.S. Secretary for Homeland Security, Janet Napolitano, is due in Abuja today on the invitation of the federal government to assess steps taken so far to strengthen aviation security at the nation’s international airports.

Her invitation, it was learnt, may be connected with efforts by the Nigerian government to convince its U.S. counterpart on the need to remove the country’s name from its terror watch list.

Nigeria got on the list in the wake of last December’s terror attempt on an American airliner by a Nigerian, Farouk Mutallab, in Detroit, Michigan.

The visit, Vanguard also gathered, is to enable her meet with officials in charge of security matters from other African countries who are converging on Abuja, alongside those of the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO), to review steps already taken by African governments to ward of threats to aviation security.

Confirming the visit in a statement, Press Secretary, Homeland Security Department, Steven Clark, said the visit, the fourth in the series, was part of efforts by the U.S. government to guide Nigeria to put in place all the infrastructure and facilities necessary to guarantee safety and security at the nation’s airports.

The statement read: “Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano will travel to Abuja, Nigeria, on April 11 at the invitation of the Nigerian government to meet with her African counterparts and officials from the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) to discuss ways to bolster global aviation security.

“This will be the fourth in a series of major international meetings hosted by ICAO member states in which Secretary Napolitano will participate to build consensus on strengthening global aviation security and determining specific steps which nations can take individually and collectively to protect all passengers from threats of terrorism.”

A source told Vanguard that the recent security breah at Margaret Ekpo International Airport in Calabar will form part of the agenda of discussions between Napolitano and Nigerian aviation and security officials.

Comment on British and US Imperialism in Nigeria

Nigeria ThisDay
From Tokunbo Adedoja in New York and Olawale Olaleye in Lagos, 04.11.2010

COMMENT
Abanikonda
04.11.2010 09:06

The British colonized Nigeria for nearly 200 years, now it is United States\\\’s turn under the disguise of Bilateral National Agreement to colonize Nigeria again. Is this what Mr. Hussein Barack Obama up to? No need for this agreement at all, because Nigeria is a sovereign, independent Nation under the United Nations Charter.

Nigeria is one of the largest trading partner of United States, even before Barack Obama, and Jonathan were born. Nigeria is a non _aligned independent Nation that needs no agreement with any Nation in order to survive.

A biding agreement of this kind will put her(Nigeria) in a spot check, limiting her independence to deal with other Nations. USA and Nigeria should respect each other\\\’s sovereignty; that alone is enough. The people of Nigeria will love to see the GOVERNMENT GAZZETTE detailing word for word the skeletal nature of these bilateral agreements.

No shady, arm twisting, backdoor agreements of any kind welcomed. I also strongly believe that these agreement have to be approved by the joint Houses of the Nigeria’s National Assembly before implementation. This agreement is a venomous antidote for Nigeria; we should not allow Barack Obama to pull a fast one on Nigeria.

Heavens always help those who help themselves. If our leaders think the US is coming to turn their country into paradise, they better have their brains “meticulously examined”; the British never did, and US is not coming to ease their pains.

United States went through painstaking developments on her own, so did China, Britain, India, Vietnam, Korea, Malaysia, Iran, Israel, and others. So Jonathan, don’t sell Nigeria into “SLAVERY” again, you must resist being taken to be a sucker.

Jonathan in US, Meets Obama Today

From Tokunbo Adedoja in New York and Olawale Olaleye in Lagos, 04.11.2010

A cting President Goodluck Jonathan will be received today in the White House by the US President, Mr. Barack Obama, at 5.45p.m after arriving Washington DC, at 9a.m (4a.m Nigerian time) this morning for the Nuclear Security Summit.

Jonathan and his entourage, travelled late last night to the US on Nigeria Air Force 001, the Presidential jet.

This is clearly an indication of the change in status of the acting president as the official aircraft of the Nigerian vice president is the Gulf Stream V.

Taking a cue from the US system; only the American Presidents travel on the Air Force One. The US Vice President has his official jet which is Air Force Two.

According to the President’s itinerary obtained by THISDAY yesterday, Jonathan would be received at the Air Force Base, Washington DC by members of the Nigerian mission in US, led by Professor Adebowale Adefuye. US officials are also expected to be on ground to receive the Acting President.

Jonathan will be accompanied on the visit by Foreign Affairs Minister, Mr. Odein Ajumogobia, Minister of Petroleum, Mrs. Deziani Allison-Madueke, and her counterpart in the Ministry of Finance, Mr Olusegun Aganga.

Also expected to join the Acting President at the meeting with Obama are Adefuye, former Ambassador Hassan Adamu and Nigeria Ambassador to the United Nations, Professor Joy Ogwu.

Tomorrow, the Acting President would hold a breakfast meeting with the Council on Foreign Relations and then have lunch with US Vice President, Joe Biden. Jonathan will also meet with the World Bank President, Robert Zoellick, at 3p.m from where he would depart for the opening ceremony of the Nuclear Security Summit at 4:30p.m.

The Acting President would spend the whole of Tuesday at the Nuclear Security Summit. On Wednesday, according to the itinerary,Jonathan would have a breakfast meeting at the Center for Global Development and hold lunch with Corporate Council on Africa.
A meeting had also been scheduled to hold between him and the President of ExxonMobil at 3p.m the same day. The Acting President is expected to depart US 6p.m on Wednesday for Nigeria after meeting with the Nigerian community at 4p.m.

The US trip also marked Jonathan’s first official trip outside the country since he became Acting President.

The presidential jet, a Boeing 737-700, was converted to BBJ- a business jet. It has the capacity to travel 10 hours without stopping to refuel. The fuel capacity can therefore not enable the plane to make a direct flight to the US. What this means is that the jet would stop-over either in Darka, Senegal or London, United Kingdom where it is expected to refuel before it continues with the trip.

On Jonathan’s entourage are Minister of Foreign Affairs, Odein Ajuimogobia (SAN); minister of state for Foreign Affairs, Aliyu Idi Hong, Minister of finance, Olusegun Aganga, Wakili Adamawa, Amb. Hassan ÆAdamu, Dr Emmanuel Egbogah, Special Adviser to the President on Petroleum; Dr Martins Uhomoibhi, Permanent Secretary Ministry of Foreign Affairs and oil magnate, Mr Femi Otedola. Minister of Petroleum, Mrs Diezani Alison-Madueke who on official duties is in Los Angeles, United States will also join the acting president’s team in Washington.

Five state governors are also in the entourage, amongst whom is Governor Ikedi Ohakim of Imo State, who had earlier gone to the US.
His advance team, THISDAY learnt, had left for the US since Friday. Members of the advance team included senior special assistant on strategy, Mr. Oronto Douglas and his colleague in charge of media, Mr. Ima Niboro.

PM tells West to face reality

New Ziana-Herald Reporter

PRIME MINISTER Morgan Tsvangirai said on Thursday President Mugabe is part of the solution to the political equation in the country and the West should recognise this.

Addressing delegates to the Zimbabwe-Africa Business Opportunities Day commemorations, PM Tsvangirai advised cynics to accept the reality of the country’s political situation.

“If there are sceptics in the United States who think and wish one day President Mugabe will wake up dead then they are mistaken,” he said.

PM Tsvangirai urged the Western world to recognise the progress the inclusive Government had made, particularly in stabilising the economy.

“We need to be rewarded for the progress. We are not where we are supposed to be, but certainly we are where we never thought we would be sometime last year,” he added.

The West is understood to be holding back from lifting the debilitating economic sanctions in the hope that the economic malaise can lead to regime change.

PM Tsvangirai said Government was creating an environment conducive for foreign investment and business should not fear the indigenisation and economic empowerment regulations.

He explained that under the empowerment programme, Government was not seizing shareholding but wanted it placed on the open market so that ordinary Zimbabweans could buy into large corporations.

“As government we are working on creating an investment climate that will result in our natural assets being used for economic growth,” he said.

PM Tsvangirai urged the business community to interact positively with foreign counterparts to promote international investment.

“If you go out there and paint a bad picture no one will come to invest in the country,” the PM said.

There have been attempts by the local private and foreign media to demonise Zimbabwe’s empowerment regulations.

The laws seek to ensure Zimbabweans own at least 51 percent of any companies that are worth more than US$500 000.

The indiginisation drive has received widespread support from progressive elements of society who believe that it will result in true economic independence following the equally revolutionary land reform programme. — New Ziana-Herald Reporter

Friday, April 09, 2010
22:09 Mecca time, 19:09 GMT

Foreigners abducted in Niger delta

Fighters in the Niger delta has launched attacks and abducted hundreds of people since 2006

Four foreign workers have been abducted by armed men in Nigeria’s oil-rich River State.

An official said one police officer was killed as the three Syrians and one Lebanese, all working on a construction site, were seized near Port Harcourt in the Niger delta.

“About 10 or more kidnappers, all armed with automatic weapons, fired many rounds. The hoodlums kidnapped four expatriate workers – three Syrians and one Lebanese,” Rita Abbey, a police spokeswoman, said on Friday.

“One of our policemen attached to the company was killed by the hoodlums.”

Abbey said no group or individual had yet claimed responsibility for Thursday’s abductions and no ransom has been demanded so far.

Hundreds of mostly foreign and local oil workers have been kidnapped in the volatile Niger delta since 2006. Most have been released unharmed, and some were freed only after ransom payments.

Fighters, who demand that the federal government send more oil-industry funds to Nigeria’s southern region, have launched numerous attacks on oil-installations in the area and fought government troops since January 2006.

On March 31, a local employee of French oil group Total was abducted on his way to work in Port Harcourt.

Source: Agencies

Published on Friday, April 9, 2010 by ABC News

More Banker Outrage: Protesters Plan Marches on Wall Street Banks

Activists, Union Members Will Take to the Streets Again, but Are They Having any Impact?

by Alice Gomstyn and Rachel Humphries
ABC News

Outrage over bonuses, bailouts and home foreclosures have prompted angry demonstrations at bank office buildings, bank conferences and even bankers’ homes since the financial crisis began. With Wall Street reform proposals up for debate in Congress and bank shareholder meetings taking place later this month, protest organizers say they’re getting ready to rally the troops again with several new demonstrations expected to draw thousands.

“There’s something fundamentally wrong with an economic and political system that allows the big banks to rewrite all the rules to stay afloat while allowing entire communities to collapse in the wake of the disaster caused by Wall Street,” Anna Burger, the secretary-treasurer of the Service Employees International Union , said on a conference call with reporters Thursday. “That’s why we’re escalating and expanding this campaign.”

The SEIU, one of the most vocal critics of Wall Street and big U.S. banks, is part of a coalition of at least six groups — including the AFL-CIO; the National People’s Action, a racial and economic justice advocacy group; PICO National Network, a faith-based group; and North Carolina United Power, an organization of religious and community groups — planning demonstrations across the country later this month.

Organizers are calling on banks to help people stay in their homes, offer more small business loans, stop offering financing to payday lenders and stop attempts to block financial reforms. They say they’re targeting their demands at the country’s biggest banks: Bank of America, Citigroup , Goldman Sachs , JPMorgan Chase, Morgan Stanley and Wells Fargo.

The American Bankers Association, one of the banking industry’s top lobbying groups, declined to comment on the planned protests. Last October, an ABA conference in Chicago drew 5,000 protesters, organizers say.

A spokeswoman for Bank of America, which will be the target of at least two demonstrations scheduled for later this month, said of the protesters: “While we understand their passion on the issue, we don’t necessarily agree with some of their statements and approaches.”

On Wall Street itself, news of the planned protests was met with disdain by some of the street’s rank and file.

“I mean, there is a lot of excess on Wall Street, you know, with the bonuses, but there are people that deserve it,” said Michael Maresca, an information technology employee at JPMorgan Chase. “People down here work very, very hard … I think there’s also a lot to blame outside of Wall Street, with the Federal Reserve, politicians, the Federal Reserve, all those guys that have been involved — there’s a lot of blame to go around, I think. It’s directed at the wrong place.”

Wall Street Workers Weary of Bank Protests

Alan Valdes, a trader with DMC Securities, said he didn’t think bank protests help anyone and have kept people from taking advantage of a lucrative rebound in the stock market.

“We’ve still got problems, and we’ve still got a lot of headwinds ahead — there’s no question about it. But (for the market) to be up 75 percent in a year — that’s a great market,” he said. “To keep bashing Wall Street, I think, is wrong. It sends the wrong message to the public … With all this bashing that’s going on, a lot of people, I think have stayed away from the market.”

Jerry, an employee at a Wall Street law firm who did not want his last name used, said he didn’t see the new protests accomplishing much.

“They protest down there all the time,” he said, “but it’s not going to do nothing.”

How effective previous protests have been remains in question.

When it comes to changing public policy, behind-the-scenes moves, including lobbying politicians and bureaucrats , typically work better than “outsider tactics” like demonstrations, said Dean Lacy, a professor of government at Dartmouth College.

While much attention is paid to the massive amounts of cash that banks and lobbying groups pump into political campaigns, Lacy said lobbyists also have an advantage over grassroots protesters because they can make more targeted moves, such as urging a Congressional committee to block a specific provision in a bill or influencing an agency to change its enforcement of an existing policy.

“Protests tend to not have precise targets but seek broad-based change,” Lacy said.

Single protests, he said, tend not to be effective. A series of demonstrations like those of the civil rights movement, however, can successfully draw media attention and raise public awareness, which may ultimately lead to policy changes, he said.

Bank protests thus far, he said, “have probably raised public awareness about executive pay and the bailouts of banks and other financial institutions.”

Protests are planned for the last week of the month at the Wells Fargo shareholder meeting in San Francisco; at the Bank of America shareholders’ meeting in Charlotte, N.C.; outside a Bank of America building in Kansas City; and on Wall Street. Next month, the groups will also converge on K Street in Washington D.C. to protest banks’ lobbying of elected officials.

PR Campaign by JPMorgan’s Dimon?

When asked about the expected protests at their bank buildings, both Wells Fargo and Bank of America representatives cited their banks’ track records in addressing some of the issues raised by activisits.

A Wells Fargo spokeswoman said the bank recognizes that “Americans are demanding more from their financial institutions during these difficult economic times” and that it is “committed to serving the financial needs of businesses and individuals, keeping credit flowing, and working to help those in financial distress find solutions.”

The bank, she said in an e-mail, provided $711 billion in loans and lines of credit last year.

A Bank of America spokeswoman said that BofA last year extended $758 billion in credit in both the consumer and commercial sectors, more than any other bank, and that it has invested more than $8 million in grants to tackle hunger and housing needs. Information about the Bank of America’s work in these areas, she said, is available in its quarterly impact statement on the bank’s Web site.

In Thursday’s call, Burger singled out JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon as “leading the PR campaign to rebrand Wall Street,” noting that the bank spent $6.2 million on lobbying last year.

“The American people aren’t buying Jamie’s PR campaign,” she said.

A JPMorgan Chase spokeswoman declined to comment.

JPMorgan Chase is known, along with Goldman Sachs, for avoiding many of the pitfalls of the financial crisis.

In his annual letter to shareholders earlier this month, Dimon said “punitive efforts” against banks hurts ordinary shareholders and that”vilify(ing) whole industries” denigrates “much of what made this country successful.”

“When we reduce the debate over responsibility and regulation to simplistic and inaccurate notions, such as Main Street vs. Wall Street, big business vs. small business or big banks vs. small banks, we are indiscriminately blaming the good and the bad ? this is simply another form of ignorance and prejudice,” Dimon wrote.

STATEMENT FROM THE OFFICIALS OF THE ANC

The officials of the ANC held their normal weekly meeting held yesterday at the President’s residence – Mahlambandlopfu. The officials decided that, in view of the environment currently prevailing in our country, all our structures must restrain themselves.

The structures have been asked not to engage in any public debate on the death of Mr Eugene TerreBlanche and leave whatever matters that need the attention of the ANC in this regard to the headquarters of our movement. The structures were also asked by the officials to be circumspect in singing liberation songs that have words that can be seen and be interpreted to be contributing to racial polarisation of society.

Our appeal to our members is informed by the fact that we have a responsibility of ensuring that they are not used as a scapegoat for other agendas.

The call by the officials regarding our liberation songs does not amount to banning any of the songs, including the song that is hotly debated currently. The National Executive Committee (NEC) of the ANC will at its next meeting on 14 – 16 May 2010, debate and decide on an appropriate political approach in dealing with the questions raised around some of our songs. The political approach should, amongst others, also be inclusive of the recognition by all of us that such songs are part of our history and heritage.

It is a considered view of our officials that such a restraint as called upon will help our society see through the disguised attempts by the right wing groups that seek to reverse the transformation progress made since 1994. The ANC has up to this point in not raised the questions around the involvement of a 15-year-old farm labourer in the brutal killing of Mr TerreBlanche.

We have also not questioned the drive by some sections of the media to ignore the fact that conflict around non-payment of wages cannot be elevated a singing of a song. We find it very unfortunate that some sections of the media together with some political commentators have decided to politicize a purely criminal matter with regard to the killing of Mr TerreBlanche.

Equally important is the lack of reporting and equal sensation around the shooting and killing of a black hunter by a farmer who is currently out on bail of R5000. We are also dismayed by the little coverage of the brutal assault of seven farm workers by a farmer in the North West. We question the objectivity and the motive that drive certain elements of our media on these matters.

The ANC officials also used their meeting to congratulate our police for acting with speed in arresting the suspects in all these instances, including the arrest of those allegedly responsible for the killing of Mr TerreBlanche, as well as the farmer responsible for brutally assaulting his workers.

Mumia events on his birthday

Published Apr 8, 2010 9:30 PM

Writers for Mumia, an afternoon of readings and testimonials by poets, playwrights, journalists, book authors, wordsmiths and activists, will be held April 24 from 2:30 to 6 p.m. at St. Mary’s Church, 512 W. 126th St. in Harlem.

The New York Chapter of the National Writers Union and the Free Mumia Abu-Jamal Coalition of New York City are co-sponsoring the event, which precedes a rally in front of the Justice Department’s headquarters in Washington, D.C., on April 26.

Unjustly held captive on Pennsylvania’s death row since 1982, Abu-Jamal is being threatened by the courts with another execution date for a killing he didn’t commit in 1981.

“Mumia needs public support at this critical time, so that’s why fellow writers want to pay tribute to the power of his words and his struggle for freedom and justice on April 24,” Susan Elizabeth Davis told Workers World. Davis founded Writers for Mumia as a project of the International Action Center in 1997 and organized two public events in 1999 and 2007. “As the ‘voice of the voiceless,’ Mumia inspires others to write as truthfully, eloquently and purposefully as he does.

We must fight to free him with our words as we seek to write truth to power.” Davis noted that Mumia has been an honorary member of the National Writers Union since 1995. The gathering will also celebrate his 56th birthday, which is on April 24. For more information call 212-633-6646; 212-254-0279 ext. 18; or 212-330-8029.

There will also be a Birthday Celebration and Organizing Party for Mumia Abu-Jamal on April 24 from 6 to 8 p.m. at the S.H.A.P.E. Center, 3815 Live Oak in Houston, Texas. The event is sponsored by the Texas Death Penalty Abolition Movement.

The program will include poetry, music and a birthday cake, along with strategizing to support the campaign for a civil rights investigation by the U.S. Justice Department into violations of Mumia’s civil rights.

For more information call 713-503-2633 or email [email protected].

— Workers World bureau, New York
Gloria Rubac contributed to this report.
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Washington admits there’s no recovery for workers

By Fred Goldstein
Published Apr 7, 2010 2:49 PM

Cheerleaders for capitalism are talking out of both sides of their mouths about the latest job numbers, which showed the creation of 162,000 jobs in March.

President Barack Obama hailed the news as signaling that the economy “is beginning to turn the corner,” but he followed this with the warning that “It will take time to achieve the strong and sustained job growth that we need.” (New York Times, April 3)

Likewise, Christine Romer, head of the White House Council of Economic Advisers, hailed the numbers but said there will be a “gradual labor market healing” and that “we still have a lot of headwinds.” (msnbc.com, April 2)

Larry Summers, director of the National Economic Council, said: “The trend has turned, but to get back to the surface, we’ve got a long way to go.” (washingtontimes.com, April 4) And Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said the administration is “very worried” about getting unemployment back to 5 percent. (Associated Press, April 1)

The double talk was captured in a New York Times headline of April 3 that read, “Signaling Jobs Recovery, Payrolls Surged in March.” This was followed by the exuberant opening sentence, “The clouds have parted.”

However, a few lines further down came the bad news: “The economy needs to add more than 100,000 jobs a month just to absorb new entrants into the labor market, let alone provide a livelihood for the 15 million Americans already looking for work. Without constant, robust growth, the unemployment rate won’t budge. Indeed, the Congressional Budget Office has projected that the rate will hover around 10 percent for the rest of the year.”

So the truth is that the working class has little to cheer about from the latest job numbers. The official unemployment rate is still 9.7 percent. Almost one third of the jobs created, amounting to 48,000, are temporary jobs working for the U.S. Census. These jobs last only six to eight weeks. Officially, there are still 15 million unemployed, 9.1 million doing forced part-time work and 2.3 million so-called “marginally attached” workers who have become so discouraged they’ve given up looking for work.

Added together, they are called “total unemployment” by the government. This number actually rose in March — from 16.8 percent to 16.9 percent. This makes for an official total of 26.4 million workers who need full-time jobs. The actual figure, according to an authoritative study by the Pew Research Center, is more than 30 million.

6.5 million long-term unemployed

The crisis of U.S. capitalism, as far as the workers are concerned, is getting more and more severe, big business spin masters notwithstanding. The long-term unemployed — workers out of a job for 27 weeks or more — rose 414,000 in March to 6.5 million, or 44 percent of the official number.

Black unemployment stands at 16.5 percent, with Black men at 19 percent; Latino/a joblessness is at 12.6 percent; and teenage unemployment is at 26 percent.

Right now almost six unemployed workers are looking for each available job. This dim picture for the workers is despite six months of expanded production and profits for the bosses and a steady rise in the stock market’s Dow Jones Industrial Average, which is now nearing 11,000. This is the “jobless recovery” in action.

An analysis released on April 2 of the unemployment statistics by Heidi Shierholz of the Economic Policy Institute shows in stark terms the crisis that the working class is facing in this capitalist economy.

“Since the start of the recession in December 2007,” wrote Shierholz, “the labor market has shed 8.2 million payroll jobs. This number, however, understates the size of the gap in the labor market by failing to take into account the fact that simply to keep up with population growth, the labor market should have added around 2.8 million jobs since December 2007. This means the labor market is now roughly 11 million jobs below what would restore the pre-recession unemployment rate (which was 5.0 percent in December 2007). To get us back to the lower unemployment rate that existed prior to the 2001 recession (4.3 percent in March 2001), the U.S. economy is now nearly 17 million jobs short.

“Furthermore, these calculations understate slack in the labor market by failing to take into account the decline in hours worked for those who have kept their jobs. At the start of the recession in December 2007, the length of the average workweek in the private sector was 34.7 hours. In March, it was 34.0 hours. This may at first seem like a small amount, but when multiplied across the labor market, the effect is nontrivial — the decline in the total number of hours worked in the private sector since the start of the recession that is due to reduced hours alone (i.e., not job loss) is equivalent to 2.2 million jobs.”

The bourgeois policy experts in Washington and in the media have read the same numbers. Thus, it is no surprise that they preach caution alongside every optimistic statement. They dare not raise expectations among the masses. In fact, according to the Washington Post of April 2, “The White House does not expect the rate to return to its healthy-economy level of 5 percent until at least 2017.”

These are the experts who predicted a maximum of 8 percent unemployment by 2010. They cannot see from one quarter to the next, let alone to 2017. But the point is that the government officials themselves are profoundly pessimistic about any genuine recovery for the working class.

Where can jobs come from?

All this speaks to the urgent necessity to organize a working-class campaign for an immediate, sweeping national jobs campaign. The idea is beginning to surface, even among liberals.

Bob Herbert, an African-American columnist for the New York Times, wrote on March 29: “Those who think some kind of robust recovery is hiding around the corner, just waiting to spring a pleasant surprise on us, are deluded.”

Herbert derided the Obama administration’s “jobs program” of $30 billion as “small-bore initiatives” and said that “some new variation of the Works Progress Administration and the Civilian Conservation Corps should be developed to put economically distressed young people to work. What is happening to young, out-of-work and poorly educated American kids — not just in the big cities, but increasingly in suburban and rural areas, as well — is tragic.”

Along these lines, the Bail Out the People Movement, the May 1st Coalition For Worker and Immigrant Rights, Moratorium Now! Coalition, the San Francisco Labor Council, the Million Worker March Movement, Rev. Tom Smith from Pittsburgh’s Monumental Baptist Church and many others are calling for a national jobs program that would include all workers who need a job to be carried out on a scope comparable to the WPA of the 1930s. Hiring them directly, the WPA put over 8 million workers to work. This demand will be publicized at a demonstration in Washington, D.C., on May 8.

In the midst of this crisis, the bosses are ruthlessly trying to take advantage of workers in every way. There are investigations in many states of corporations that use unpaid interns as free labor.

In 2008 the National Association of Colleges and Employers found that 83 percent of graduating students had held internships, up from 9 percent in 1992. This means hundreds of thousands of students hold internships each year; some experts estimate that one-fourth to one-half are unpaid. (New York Times, April 2)

Making money denying benefits

While workers are suffering, the bosses are using every trick to block them from getting unemployment insurance. This is to reduce employer costs because the more claims after a layoff, the higher the rates the bosses have to pay.

A billion-dollar company called Talx handles more than 30 percent of the nation’s requests for jobless benefits. Pledging to save employers money in part by contesting claims, Talx helps them decide which applications to resist and how to mount effective appeals. This has made Talx a boom business in a bust economy.

Among the companies Talx represents are Wal-Mart, Countrywide, Aetna, AT&T, Best Buy, FedEx, Home Depot, Marriott, McDonald’s and the United States Postal Service. (New York Times, April 3)

In addition, millions more homeowners are expected to lose their homes over the next several years. Workers are forced into homelessness, to double and triple up with their families, or to live in cars or tent cities.

The economic crisis is not making headlines. But for the working class, the communities, students and youth the crisis is spreading, not declining as the government and the apologists for the capitalist profit system would have it.

More people living in the U.S. filed for bankruptcy protection in March than during any month since the federal personal bankruptcy law was tightened in October 2005. A new report attributes this to high unemployment and the housing crash.

Federal courts reported more than 158,000 bankruptcy filings in March, or 6,900 a day, a rise of 35 percent from February, according to a report to be released April 9 by Automated Access to Court Electronic Records.

Capitalism must maximize profits at all costs. This is what drives the economic system. If the bosses have their way, there will be no recovery for the workers at all — only more pressure for those who work and a steady growth in the number of those who cannot get a job.

In a February speech, Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco President Janet Yellen warned what the recovery will look like:

“The recession has forced businesses to reexamine just about everything they do with an eye toward restraining costs and boosting efficiency,” said Yellen. “Strapped by tight credit and plummeting sales, businesses have overhauled the way they manage supply chains, inventory, production practices and staffing.

“My business contacts describe this as a paradigm shift and they believe it’s permanent. This process of implementing new efficiency gains may have only begun and we may be in store for further efficiency improvements and high productivity growth for some time. If so, the rate of job creation will be frustratingly slow.” (Huffington Post, April 4)

The only way to stop job creation from being “frustratingly slow” or actually non-existent is for the working class to mobilize and fight for a national, government-provided jobs program at living wages and conditions. The demonstration May 8 in Washington, D.C., will make that demand.

Goldstein is the author of the book “Low-Wage Capitalism,” a Marxist analysis of globalization and its effects on the U.S. working class. He has also written numerous articles and spoken on the present economic crisis. For further information, visit www.lowwagecapitalism.com.
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Articles copyright 1995-2010 Workers World. Verbatim copying and distribution of this entire article is permitted in any medium without royalty provided this notice is preserved.

Workers World, 55 W. 17 St., NY, NY 10011
Email: [email protected]
Page printed from:
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Protest Right-wing, racist Tea Party Express rally in Clinton Township

Sunday, April 11
Gather at 9:30 AM

Main Library – Clinton-Macomb Public Library parking lot at 40900 Romeo Plank Road, Clinton Township. (Tea Party will be next door)

The right-wing, racist Tea Party Express is scheduled to rally in Clinton Township this Sunday, April 11 at 10 AM.

The Michigan Emergency Committee Against War & Injustice, the Moratorium NOW! Coalition Against Foreclosures, Evictions and Utility Shutoffs and Workers World Party are calling for all progressive individuals and groups to protest this racist, anti-worker, neo-fascist movement.

Let’s let them, the media and the nation know that Michigan doesn’t welcome their message. Bring your own signs or pick up one of ours. If you need a ride call me at 313-680-5508 and we will try to hook you up with someone near you. If you are driving here is where to go.

Progressives meet at Main Library – Clinton-Macomb Public Library parking lot at 40900 Romeo Plank Road (Tea Party will be next door). Be there at 9:30 AM (Tea Party is scheduled for 10 AM)

MapQuest it or follow these directions from Detroit:

I-94 EAST to Exit 236 (Metropolitan Parkway – 16 Mile Rd.) westbound.

Go about 4 miles west on Metropolitan Parkway and turn right (North) on Garfield Road.

Go about 1 mile on Garfield Rd. and turn right (East) on Clinton River Road.

Go about 1 mile on Clinton River Rd. and turn left (North) on Romeo
Plank Road.

Look for us in the Library parking lot with signs and banners.

Jonathan Parleys Mutallab

From George Oji in Abuja, 04.09.2010
Nigeria ThisDay

Ahead of his three-day official trip to the United States (US) Acting President Goodluck Jonathan yesterday met with Umaru Abdul-Muttalab, the father of the 23-year-old Nigerian, Farouk, who attempted to bomb an American aircraft on Christmas Day last year.

Jonathan is traveling to the US on the invitation of President Barack Obama to attend a maiden Nuclear Security Summit organised by the US government.

The two leaders are expected to discuss bilateral relations at the meeting. The Nigeria-US Bi-national Commission is on the agenda, in addition to global terrorism and counterterrorism measures.

US and Nigeria had signed the Bi-national commission agreement last Tuesday in Washington DC.

Also to be discussed at the meeting between Obama and Jonathan are issues of regional security and peace-keeping. Nigeria is Africa’s largest contributor to peace-keeping.

Muttalab was believed to have discussed his earlier trip to the US with Jonathan. During that trip, he met with American security officials regarding his son’s failed terror attack and for which the young man is being prosecuted.

The act had prompted the US to put Nigeria on a list of “countries of interest”, a development bitterly criticized by the Nigeria government. The list was however reviewed last weekend, with new measures superseding the terror watch list.

Mutallab came alone to the Presidential Villa and met with the Acting President behind closed doors for close to an hour. He did not speak to the press afterwards. The Acting President is expected back home by Thursday next week.

Ahmadinejad to open ZITF

By Farai Machivenyika
Zimbabwe Herald

PRESIDENT of the Islamic Republic of Iran, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, will officially open the 51st edition of the Zimbabwe International Trade Fair in Bulawayo on April 23.

Secretary for Media, Information and Publicity Mr George Charamba revealed this after Tehe-ran’s incoming ambassador to Harare, Mr Mohammed Pour Najaf, presented his credentials to President Mugabe at State House yesterday.

“President Ahmadinejad will open the Zimbabwe International Trade Fair this year on April 23,” Mr Charamba said.

The ZITF will run from April 20 to April 24.

Zambia’s President Rupiah Banda officially opened the 50th edition of ZITF last year.

Speaking to journalists after meeting Presi-dent Mugabe, Ambassador Pour Najaf hailed Zimbabwe-Iran ties.

“Zimbabwe and Iran enjoy strategic co-operation partnerships . . .

“The doors and gates of Iran are always open. You do not need a visa to visit Iran so we invite Zimbabweans to come to Iran,” he said.

Ambassador Pour Najaf said Iran would soon establish a regional centre in Harare to supply tractors and irrigation equipment.

“Everything will be transferred from here including the tractors, irrigation equipment and many others,” said Ambassador Pour Najaf.

Iran’s new top diplomat in Harare holds a Master of Arts degree in English and has lectured at Iran’s College of International Relations.

Before taking up his latest posting, he was advisor to Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki and also served at his country’s embassy in South Africa.

Ambassador Pour Najaf takes over from Mr Rasoul Momeni who left Zimbabwe last month.

Zimbabwe and Iran enjoy cordial relations firmly rooted in the principles of sovereignty and self-determination and have been put under illegal sanctions in their pursuit to preserve those virtues.

Iran has been maligned by the West for its civilian nuclear energy programmes, while Zimbabwe has been targeted for redistributing land held by a few thousand whites to nearly 300 000 black families.

The two countries have embarked on several joint ventures; especially in agriculture, irrigation development, pharmaceuticals and biotechnology.

Iran is also considering assisting Zimbabwe in the energy sector through the rehabilitation of the Feruka Oil Refinery, setting up a transformer manufacturing plant and a hydroelectric power plant in Kariba.

Teheran has also invested in a helicopter repair and technicians’ training facility in Zimbabwe.

Western media lies about Zim: Malema

CAJ News-Herald Reporter.

AFRICAN National Congress Youth League president Cde Julius Malema says the world needs to be told the truth about the root cause of Zimbabwe’s problems instead of relying on lies from the Western-sponsored imperialist media.

Addressing journalists at the ANC headquarters at Luthuli House in Johannesburg yesterday about his recent visit to Harare, Cde Malema blasted the international media for misrepresenting facts about Zimbabwe.

He urged Africa to seriously consider its own destiny without depending much on “colonialists”.

Cde Malema hailed President Mugabe for remai-ning resolute, steadfast and unshaken against imperialist forces that have imposed illegal economic sanctions on Zimbabwe.

“I think we need the same fearless leadership in the ANC that will represent the people’s interests instead of pushing interests of the minority imperialists.

“South Africa needs militant, courageous but non-violent leaders to tackle our land reform issue once and for all. We are going to take the land, minerals and transfer them to our majority blacks.

“Here in South Africa the so-called willing buyer, willing seller is not paying results . . .

“Our own people are still living in abject poverty yet the minority, who are not producing much for the country, continue to challenge us in the courts.”

Cde Malema accused MDC-T of being a stumbling block to Zimbabwe’s efforts to defend its sovereignty.

He described it as a “popcorn and mushrooming” political party.

Cde Malema said while the ANC Youth League would not interfere in President Jacob Zuma’s facilitation in Zimbabwe, the youths would never socialise with “puppets” and “unpatriotic” political parties trying to reverse the gains of the liberation struggle.

“It has to be known that as the ANC Youth League we are not power-sharing mediators in Zimbabwe and we should seriously work with our fellow liberation movements like Zanu-PF and President Mugabe without fear.

“We would like Zanu-PF to retain its rural support and lead again without sharing power with anyone.

“We don’t care about popcorn opposition parties, mushrooming political parties which address its meetings in offices full of air conditioners in expensive Sandton hotels.

“We don’t associate with popcorn opposition parties, but work closely with our liberation movements to achieve our aims and goals of redistributing resources to the people.”

Cde Malema blasted the Voice of America pirate broadcast, Studio 7, for invading Zimbabwean airspace.

“We know that VOA are operating illegally in Zimbabwe while disseminating falsehoods. We hope you won’t do the same here in South Africa, otherwise we don’t take such nonsense,” he said.

Cde Malema also ejected a British Broadcasting Corporation journalist, Johan Fisher, for interfering during the Press briefing.

“Whites have tendencies of undermining blacks, here you can’t do as you please. You covered rubbish about Zimbabwe, and you would like to keep doing the same here, nonsense, bastard, bloody agent!

“When you are here, you are in our terrain and should know that this is the ANC head office. You should respect our own home. In Rome you do as Romans do, not as you please.

“You must behave according to our rules, not yours. We do not even care if you don’t come for our Press conferences, we have our own SABC.”

Fisher had tried to defend MDC-T rallies held in Sandton.

“The MDC should go to Zimbabwe to face challenges with fellow Zimbabweans, not addressing meetings in air-conditioned hotels in Sandton.”

Meanwhile, the ANC Youth League has hailed Zimbabwe’s land reform and economic empowerment programmes.

In a statement yesterday, the ANC Youth League said the “courageous and militant” land reform programme has contributed substantially to the empowerment of Zimbabweans.

“From the 4 000 white farmers who used to own farms and land in Zimbabwe, there are currently more than 350 000 Zimbabweans who are in farms. Young African people are involved in agriculture and not reliant on few white farmers who do not have the interests of the people of Zimbabwe at heart.

“In essence, the State’s greater role in land redistribution and mechanisation will contribute a lot in durably empowering the people of Zimbabwe.”

The ANC Youth League also hailed the indigenisation and economic empowerment drive as a “very brave, militant but correct method of transferring wealth from the minority to the majority”.

“There will be challenges in the implementation of these policies, but they have a potential to give the people of Zimbabwe real economic power as they will be in ownership of more than 51 percent of Zimbabwe’s wealth.

“The resilience, dedication, courage and fearlessness of the Zimbabwean political leadership, particularly the Zanu-PF leadership has far much greater potential to bring Zimbabwe to stability.”

Cde Malema was in Zimbabwe on a four-day solidarity visit hosted by the Zanu-PF Youth League.

During the visit he had an opportunity to learn more about Zimbabwe’s land reform programme and economic empowerment drive.

He also met President Mugabe at State House. — CAJ News-Herald Reporter.

Former U.S President Carter arrives in Khartoum to monitor general elections

10:00, April 09, 2010

Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter on Thursday arrived in Khartoum to take part in monitoring Sudan’s General elections, slated for April 11.

He expressed regret over pulling out of candidates of some opposition parties from the elections, especially Yassir Arman of the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM).

“I regret that some of the parties decided not to participate”, Carter told reporters upon arrival at Khartoum airport Thursday.

He refused to describe his impression about the preparations for the electoral process and said that the final assessment would be after the elections.

The U.S.-based Carter Center, which was founded by Jimmy Carter, have sent 65 observers to Sudan elections to monitor the general election in this African country besides the European Union observation team which includes 130 observers.

The Sudanese National Elections Commission (NEC) said over 100 national and foreign observers will be monitoring the elections at all stages.

Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir on Wednesday said he welcomes the Carter Center, and pledged to facilitate its movement in all states of the country.

Multi-party elections, the first of its kind in more than 20 years, are scheduled to be held in Sudan on April 11, 2010.

Source:Xinhua

At Detroit City Council meeting

Plan to steal pensions opposed

By Cheryl LaBash
Detroit
Published Apr 7, 2010 3:02 PM

On March 29 more than 500 Detroit workers, retirees and community members filled the Detroit City Council’s auditorium to oppose the $6 billion giveaway of city pension assets initiated by Mayor Dave Bing. They shouted out, applauded each other’s one- minute public comments and challenged the City Council to stand up against the backdoor maneuver. Bypassing not only the City Council but the elected pension boards and unions, the mayor secretly initiated state legislation for “distressed pensions” that, if passed, will allow him to transfer the control of the city’s two fully funded pension plans to a state-authorized Municipal Employees Retirement System. In a unanimous rebuke, the City Council demanded the mayor reverse his action. But it cannot be withdrawn, only blocked in the legislative committees.

Councilmember JoAnn Watson pointed out, “It is not our pension systems which are ‘distressed,’ It is Detroit that is distressed. We need a state of emergency declared so we can enact a moratorium on foreclosures and sell city-owned homes to Detroiters for a dollar.”

This majority African-American city has suffered racist disinvestment for decades as auto plants closed, moving jobs to rural areas. Automation increased productivity and profits using fewer workers. Highly profitable new housing construction spread suburbs farther and farther from the city center while insurance and mortgage redlining disadvantaged city residents. Underfunded schools deteriorated. Freeway construction destroyed Paradise Valley, the historic Black business center, and then bypassed neighborhood businesses on major city streets. During the housing mania, subprime loans were disproportionately forced on African-American homeowners in Detroit fueling foreclosures and causing the transfer of assets built through generations of homeownership. More than 50 percent of Detroiters are unemployed, especially youth, whose futures are being stolen. It is a crisis imposed on Detroit residents.

Now a substantial concentration of pension capital — $6 billion — controlled by Detroiters is on its way to being handed over to be controlled by a nine-person pension board assembled from small towns across the state. Detroit pension funds have subsidized hotel and other development in Detroit, where its residents now work. It’s like having an absentee landlord, said a firefighter at the council meeting.

Certainly the most concerned about this shock and awe attack are city workers and retirees who gave up wage increases to lock in some security for their post-work years. Currently the American Federation of State County and Municipal Employees is resisting the imposition of a 10 percent pay cut through furlough days. AFSCME represents the lowest paid job classifications; many of their members are women single heads of households.

The city administration claims the move is to protect the pensions of city workers — still traditional, defined-benefit, life-time pensions for most — and also save the city $20 million per year to help offset a much publicized $350 million budget deficit. Although no reduction of current pensions has been suggested yet, the practice of distributing earnings in excess of 7.9 percent to retirees, which especially helps pensioners and survivors whose income has been eroded by inflation — termed thirteenth check — will disappear. Instead, the mayor proposes to reduce the city’s required contribution to the pension fund. And it is the mayor’s stated position that new hires will be forced into defined contribution, 401(k) type retirement plans instead of the “for-life” pensions for current workers and retirees.

Banks deepen debt crises

The global capitalist economic contraction is exposing the ruthless rule of the banks, which demands more and more from local and state governments, forcing them to borrow to cover debts incurred before the crash as the tax base is eroded by unemployment and foreclosures and capitalist laws that prohibit unbalanced budgets for any but the federal government. In one transaction, a full one-seventh of Detroit’s reported budget deficit — $50 million annually — is mandated to pay international financial giant UBS and other banks and financiers for pension obligation certificates and an interest rate swap that crashed. In the renegotiation, payment is essentially garnished from the city just like creditors take part of a worker’s pay before it is even received. All of Detroit’s proceeds from casino taxes are currently deposited with a third-party bank to pay $4.2 million per month before the remainder goes to the city accounts. How much of the “deficit” is owed to the banks remains an unanswered question. The pension obligation certificates fully funded the two Detroit pension funds that the mayor is giving away.

Detroit and the state of Michigan are not alone. “California, New York and other states are showing many of the same signs of debt overload that recently took Greece to the brink — budgets that will not balance, accounting that masks debt, the use of derivatives to plug holes, and armies of retired public workers who are counting on benefits that are proving harder and harder to pay.” (N.Y. Times, Mar. 29) The banks were bailed out with tax dollars, are paid full value by federal mortgage insurance for inflated mortgages in foreclosure, and squeeze cities and states to cut budgets, wages and benefits to transfer wealth from the workers who created it to capitalist financiers as production for profit contracts.

Squeezing wealth from the working class and our communities is not the only possible solution. The urban Marshall Plan advocated by Councilmember Watson calls for massive federal funding for jobs and community-driven economic development. In 1935 the Works Progress Administration provided jobs for more than eight million unemployed. The WPA in Detroit dismantled blighted buildings, and constructed roads and schools. More than 33,000 Detroit structures are on the city’s demolition list, providing enough work to absorb every unemployed Detroiter immediately in a deconstruct/recycle program. The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.’s last struggle was for jobs or income for all. It is still an urgent task that calls out for completion now. Pension benefits are deferred wages.
——————————————————————————–
Articles copyright 1995-2010 Workers World. Verbatim copying and distribution of this entire article is permitted in any medium without royalty provided this notice is preserved.

Workers World, 55 W. 17 St., NY, NY 10011
Email: [email protected]
Page printed from:
http://www.workers.org/2010/us/pensions_0415/

Photos released in imam slaying

By ERIC D. LAWRENCE
FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER

A Muslim group released five photos today taken as part of the investigation into the fatal shooting of a cleric during a raid by FBI agents in Dearborn last year.

The Michigan chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) released the five photos of the body of Imam Luqman Ameen Abdullah to the media from among 75 photos obtained from the Wayne County Medical Examiner’s Office. The photos were released to CAIR after the imam’s widow, Amina Abdullah,and one of his sons, Mujahid Carswell, approved the request.

Three of the photos are close-ups showing missing teeth as well as cuts, gashes and other injuries on Abdullah’s face and head. CAIR questions whether the latter injuries are from the police dog that the FBI says was fatally shot by the imam.

Two photos show Abdullah on the ground after he was killed. One shows him lying face down with his hands cuffed behind his back — something authorities have said is standard procedure.

Dawud Walid, the council’s executive director, said nationally known forensic pathologist Dr. Cyril Wecht has been asked to review both the autopsy report and the photos.

“There are a lot of questions, and the photos raise more questions,” Walid said, adding that other photos were deemed too graphic by the family and CAIR to release to the media. The Free Press is only showing the photo of the imam handcuffed and face down because of similar concerns.

According to the autopsy, Abdullah was shot 20 times, with one bullet causing two wounds.

The FBI has said it acted appropriately in the two-year investigation, raid and shootout that left Abdullah dead. Agents on the Oct. 28 raid wanted to arrest the cleric and 10 other people on suspicion of dealing in stolen goods.

Delays in the release of the autopsy report and completion of a Dearborn Police investigation have fueled criticism of the case’s handling. The FBI and the Department of Justice are also reviewing the matter.

FBI spokeswoman Sandra Berchtoldsaid today that the agency had no comment on the release of the photos.

Omar Regan, one of Abdullah’s 13 children, said he washed his father’s body after he was killed, but was still troubled seeing the photos.

“It’s clear that something went wrong,” he told the Free Press.

Livonia Police Chief Robert Stevenson recounted today a run-in with Abdullah in 1980 when the imam was known as Christopher Thomas. Stevenson, who was a patrol officer at the time, stopped a car in which Abdullah was a passenger because its brake lights weren’t working.

Abdullah, who was carrying a gun in a shoulder holster, fought with then-Officer Stevenson outside the car and tried to grab the gun, he said. Abdullah was arrested after Officer David Wilkie arrived and pointed his own gun at Abdullah.

Contact ERIC D. LAWRENCE: 313-223-4272 or [email protected].

April 7, 2010 http://detnews.com/article/20100407/METRO01/4070405

Autopsy photos released of slain imam

SANTIAGO ESPARZA
The Detroit News

Southfield –The Council on American-Islamic Relations Michigan office released photos today that it says show evidence not detailed in official reports of the Oct. 28 fatal shooting of an imam during an FBI sting.

As result of preliminary government reports, CAIR has called for an independent investigation of the slaying of Imam Luqman Ameen Abdullah, saying his body had injuries not detailed in an autopsy report and that the new photos back their claims.

CAIR says it believes the photos capture injuries that could have come from an FBI dog also killed in the incident despite the autopsy report listing the cause of those injuries as inconclusive. CAIR obtained the photos from the medical examiner.

Federal authorities have said that Abdullah shot the FBI dog and fired at agents during the raid on an FBI-controlled Dearborn warehouse in October, warranting the return fire that ultimately killed the Muslim cleric. FBI officials have alleged Abdullah was part of a ring fencing stolen goods.

The five photos show numerous cuts and scratches on the face of Abdullah. One shows the cleric handcuffed on a floor that’s stained with what appears to be blood.

CAIR has maintained since October that Abdullah may have been attacked by the FBI dog, prompting the fatal shooting that left Abdullah struck 20 times.

The Dearborn Police Department and U.S. Department of Justice are investigating the shooting but have not completed their probes.

The FBI was not available for comment this morning.

Due to their graphic nature, The Detroit News and detnews.com have decided not to run the photos.

[email protected]”>[email protected] (313) 222-2320

Female minister directs Nigeria oil overhaul

By Tom Burgis in Lagos
Financial Times
April 7 2010 17:55

Nigeria’s first female oil minister has been in her post barely 24 hours, but already the demands on her allegiances are many and conflicting.

Diezani Allison-Madueke was the surprise choice to take the helm in sub-Saharan Africa’s biggest oil and gas exporter when Goodluck Jonathan, acting president, unveiled his cabinet on Tuesday.

The team has 12 months to make its mark before the next election. The new minister’s principal task is to bring the long-delayed Petroleum Industry Bill – the most ambitious overhaul in the industry’s 50-year history – into law.

At stake are tens of billions of dollars of potential investments, and reforms that could breathe new life into an industry that provides 80 per cent of the government’s income and one in eight barrels of crude that the US imports.

Yet such is the scope for renewed lobbying from foreign companies, including Royal Dutch Shell, Exxon Mobil and Chevron, and opponents of reform that senior industry figures fear more delays.

“The PIB is definitely unlikely to pass [through the national assembly] in its current form before the elections,” Osten Olorunsola, Shell’s regional vice-president for gas, told the Financial Times. “Not passing anything would magnify the overall level of uncertainty.”

Shell’s competitors suggest the Anglo-Dutch group should be feeling smug. Ms Allison-Madueke is the daughter of a Shell employee and spent some 14 years working for its Nigerian joint venture, rising to become head of external relations.

Some industry groups are said to have lobbied for her appointment, reasoning that her background would make her sympathetic to oil companies’ claims that the bill’s tougher terms would jeopardise $50bn of planned investment.

Yet many of Ms Allison-Madueke’s advisers will argue that the country has made enough concessions to the companies already and the proposed law would simply bring Nigeria’s over-generous terms into line with those of other oil producers.

Mr Jonathan’s cabinet changes owe much to the succession struggle sparked by the prolonged illness of Umaru Yar’Adua, who remains the nominal president despite having been incapacitated since November.

Many Yar’Adua allies have been removed, among them the outgoing oil minister, former Opec boss Rilwanu Lukman, and Mohammed Barkindo, erstwhile head of the national oil company that reformers hope to transform from a byword for patronage to a commercially-driven profit-machine.

Her detractors say the Cambridge-educated Ms Allison-Madueke lacks her predecessor’s clout, noting the limited impact she had in two previous ministerial posts. Critics say that she was promoted because she comes from Mr Jonathan’s home state of Bayelsa, in the heart of the delta.

Some in the delta, where militants have long demanded a greater share of the oil revenues, expect a daughter of the region to look after her own.

Dimieari Von Kemedi, a senior Bayelsa official, said activists would push the new minister to go ahead with a proposal to grant 10 per cent of the net profits of petroleum ventures to the delta’s communities.

Foreign oil groups, seeking to renew leases to prime oil blocks, are locked in tough negotiations. A bidding round for oil assets is planned. Cnooc, a Chinese oil group, is seeking swathes of Nigeria’s crude. From Bayelsa to Beijing, Ms Allison-Madueke’s next moves will be closely watched.

April 6, 2010

U.S. Approves Targeted Killing of American Cleric

By SCOTT SHANE
New York Times

WASHINGTON — The Obama administration has taken the extraordinary step of authorizing the targeted killing of an American citizen, the radical Muslim cleric Anwar al-Awlaki, who is believed to have shifted from encouraging attacks on the United States to directly participating in them, intelligence and counterterrorism officials said Tuesday.

Mr. Awlaki, who was born in New Mexico and spent years in the United States as an imam, is in hiding in Yemen. He has been the focus of intense scrutiny since he was linked to Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, the Army psychiatrist accused of killing 13 people at Fort Hood, Tex., in November, and then to Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the Nigerian man charged with trying to blow up a Detroit-bound airliner on Dec. 25.

American counterterrorism officials say Mr. Awlaki is an operative of Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, the affiliate of the terror network in Yemen and Saudi Arabia. They say they believe that he has become a recruiter for the terrorist network, feeding prospects into plots aimed at the United States and at Americans abroad, the officials said.

It is extremely rare, if not unprecedented, for an American to be approved for targeted killing, officials said. A former senior legal official in the administration of George W. Bush said he did not know of any American who was approved for targeted killing under the former president.

But the director of national intelligence, Dennis C. Blair, told a House hearing in February that such a step was possible. “We take direct actions against terrorists in the intelligence community,” he said. “If we think that direct action will involve killing an American, we get specific permission to do that.” He did not name Mr. Awlaki as a target.

The step taken against Mr. Awlaki, which occurred earlier this year, is a vivid illustration of his rise to prominence in the constellation of terrorist leaders. But his popularity as a cleric, whose lectures on Islamic scripture have a large following among English-speaking Muslims, means any action against him could rebound against the United States in the larger ideological campaign against Al Qaeda.

The possibility that Mr. Awlaki might be added to the target list was reported by The Los Angeles Times in January, and Reuters reported on Tuesday that he was approved for capture or killing.

“The danger Awlaki poses to this country is no longer confined to words,” said an American official, who like other current and former officials interviewed for this article spoke of the classified counterterrorism measures on the condition of anonymity. “He’s gotten involved in plots.”

The official added: “The United States works, exactly as the American people expect, to overcome threats to their security, and this individual — through his own actions — has become one. Awlaki knows what he’s done, and he knows he won’t be met with handshakes and flowers. None of this should surprise anyone.”

As a general principle, international law permits the use of lethal force against individuals and groups that pose an imminent threat to a country, and officials said that was the standard used in adding names to the list of targets. In addition, Congress approved the use of military force against Al Qaeda after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. People on the target list are considered to be military enemies of the United States and therefore not subject to the ban on political assassination first approved by President Gerald R. Ford.

Both the C.I.A. and the military maintain lists of terrorists linked to Al Qaeda and its affiliates who are approved for capture or killing, former officials said. But because Mr. Awlaki is an American, his inclusion on those lists had to be approved by the National Security Council, the officials said.

At a panel discussion in Washington on Tuesday, Representative Jane Harman, Democrat of California and chairwoman of a House subcommittee on homeland security, called Mr. Awlaki “probably the person, the terrorist, who would be terrorist No. 1 in terms of threat against us.”

Red Alert

Remember Chris Hani in 2010: Waging a relentless struggle against corruption!

29 March – 1 May: 34 days of activism against corruption

Blade Nzimande, General Secretary

The SACP Politburo has declared the 29 March to May Day 2010 a period within which to intensify our campaign against corruption, beginning with our highly successful seminar against corruption on 29 March 2010 in Braamfontein and culminating on 1 May 2010, the workers’ historic May Day. This is the 34 Days of Activism against corruption!

The end of the 34 days of activism does not mark the closure of the campaign, but is only a period during which we heighten mass awareness and lay the foundations for sustained mass mobilization thereafter.

We must carry this message of the fight against corruption into every voting district, municipal ward, workplace, community and into all corners of our country, reaching out to the workers, the poor, our youth, women, traditional leaders. Let every SACP branch, district and province ensure that we have an explosion of red forums and red cards against corruption in every locality and workplace where the workers and the poor are!

In all this we are informed by our own analysis, and indeed by that of the alliance as a whole, that corruption currently poses one of the most serious threats to the consolidation and deepening of the national democratic revolution.

It is against this background that we must locate the commemoration of the 17 anniversary of the assassination of our late General Secretary, Cde Martin Thembisile ‘Chris’ Hani.

The SACP, joined by its alliance partners, will over the next of couple of weeks be holding commemorative events, starting with a gathering at the graveside, and followed by a number of other important events.

This coming Saturday we will also be joining the Hani family in the unveiling of the tombstone of the late Nomakhwezi Hani, daughter of Cdes Chris and Limpho Hani.

Let’s do it like Chris, let’s remain focused

The principal challenge of the national democratic revolution in this conjuncture is to remain focused on the key strategic objectives of the revolution. Cde Chris, throughout his life, understood the different challenges facing our movement in different conjunctures, and threw in all his energies into those conjunctural challenges.

When our movement launched the armed struggle in the early 1960s, cde Chris joined our glorious army, Umkhonto WeSizwe at a very young age and dedicated the rest of his life into this. Indeed there were many distractions in that period, including from those who were doubtful about the viability of an armed struggle in South Africa. When the movement launched the Wankie-Sipolile campaign Cde Chris was amongst the first to join.

When we embarked on negotiations, despite some doubts from amongst many of us, including Cde Chris himself, about some of the modalities of those negotiations, he led the SACP delegation to the CODESA talks with energy and enthusiasm. At the same time during this period, he also dedicated his energies into building self-defence units and joined in the wave of mass and worker mobilization of the early 1990s. In addition he dedicated a lot of time into organizing in the rural areas, informed by the dangers of a struggle that has a predominantly urban bias.

There are a number of things that can easily distract us during this period. Our primary task at the moment is to transform the current growth path and break the back of the colonial type economic trajectory so that we can have a new, developmental path capable of meeting the needs of millions of our people.

Within this context we also need to mobilize the workers and the poor to be at the centre of the realization of the 5 key priorities of government. Just like during the negotiations period where mass mobilization was the necessary foundation for driving forward the negotiations process, today, government alone, without sustained mass mobilization will not be able to achieve the key priorities of the ANC-led alliance.

The last ANC NEC meeting, preceded by an important bilateral with the SACP, took important resolutions on many issues that had the potential to derail us on our key revolutionary objectives, including public spats, insults and premature pronouncements on our forthcoming 2012 congresses. We must build on this momentum by ensuring that we mobilize to focus on the key strategic and programmatic issues facing our movement. This is a lesson from Cde Chris’ exemplary life, staying focused.

Of late, our detractors are trying to divert our energies by claiming racial tensions in the wake of the murder of the AWB leader, Eugene Terreblanche and exaggerating the meaning of some of our liberation struggle songs.

The SACP strongly condemns the opportunistic grandstanding by Helen Zille by trying to escalate these matters to the point of seeking an urgent meeting with the President. We wish the ANC can tell Zille where to get off and expose her opportunism, as the President has already dealt with these matters adequately. We must not allow the office of the President to be used to seek cheap political publicity from parties that have no interests of the overwhelming majority of our people.

The SACP also wishes to reiterate its support for the ANC’s actions to challenge the High Court ruling about some of our liberation struggle songs. The courts must not allow themselves to be used in attempts to rewrite our history in favour of those who benefitted immensely from the apartheid era, including elements that were in the forefront of sustaining the criminal apartheid regime. Our songs are not just about our past, but they are also about today going into the future. These songs are about us, about our dignity, about who we are and what we want to be!

Remember Chris Hani: Escalate the fight against corruption

During this period of 34 days of activism against corruption we will be commemorating a number of very significant events – the 17th anniversary of the assassination of our late General Secretary, Cde Chris Hani, on 10 April 2010, our Freedom Day on 27 April 2010, a day extracted from the apartheid regime in the wake of the assassination of Cde Hani, our national day of action against corruption in KZN on 30 April, all culminating on May Day 2010.

All the above activities are also inspired by President Zuma’s declaration of 2010 as the year of action. Let us make sure that, in line with this call, let us also make 2010 the Year of Action against Corruption.

Cde Hani, amongst his many roles and achievements in the liberation struggle, was a principled and consistent fighter against corruption. In the early exile years he co-signed a memorandum sent to the leadership of the ANC complaining and pointing out, amongst many others, creeping corrupt practices and patronage networks within our own movement. This memorandum, amongst other things, led to the convening of the first ANC conference since its banning in 1960, the famous Morogoro Conference in Tanzania.

Were Chris Hani alive today he would have been in the forefront in the struggle against corruption and tenderpreneurship!

Whilst the struggle against corruption should in the current period be led by the ANC, the SACP will nevertheless be expected to play a special vanguard role in this regard. This is because the SACP is best placed to articulate the capitalist foundations of all corruption. And there is no other political formation in our country today that is best capable to articulate this reality, other than the SACP.

The struggle against corruption cannot be separated from a struggle against capitalism and its corrupting ideology and practices. The very existence of a system which allows a small elite to exploit workers in the private accumulation of wealth, instead of societal accumulation of wealth to be shared amongst all, creates opportunities for corruption.

Therefore a struggle against corruption must also be a struggle against capitalism and its market. This is what Cde Chris lived and died for. In his memory and in his name, the SACP will be escalating its mobilisation to fight corruption wherever it occurs, whether in the public or private sector.

The SACP is not the only political formation, or the only organization concerned about threat posed by the scourge of corruption to the attainment of a better life for all, but that there are many citizens and organizations out there who share our outrage at the pillaging of resources and theft, thus depriving the workers and the poor of our country what is due to them. That is why we have taken the initiative to organise the widest range of forces opposed to corruption even if they may not share all of our ideological perspectives.

The working class as the vanguard of the struggle against corruption

The working class, by virtue of its revolutionary potential and traditions, is best placed to be at the head of the various forces fighting against corruption. It is the working class and the poor that stands to lose the most in the pillaging of public and private resources. Its own jobs and other means of livelihood are at stake.

The working class also has a presence in both private companies, public institutions and in the state in particular. It can act as the eyes and ears of the whole population, and indeed it must act as such. Let us follow the example of unions like SATAWU, which blew a whistle on potential corruption at SAA. It is the revolutionary duty of the working class fight corruption as a necessary struggle to defend, consolidate and deepen the national democratic revolution.

The media tends to foster the idea that corruption is more rife in the public sector than in the private sector or that corruption in the public sector is more serious than corruption in the private sector. This is of course not true!

There is also large-scale corruption in the private sector, except that it is often ignored or be called by a respectable and seemingly innocuous description ‘white collar crime’. Crime and corruption has no colour, it is just crime.

It is the working class that is best placed to confront corruption in both the public and private sectors simultaneously.

In the coming May Day the SACP will be calling upon the organised working class in particular to intensify its struggles against corruption.

The struggle against corruption must be intensified as we intensify the struggle against labour brokers and price-fixing. Corruption, on the one hand, and labour brokerage and price-fixing, on the other hand, are not two separate things, but two sides of the same coin.

What is to be done?: 2010 the year of action against corruption

The SACP calls upon all our people and organisations opposed to corruption to develop a mass movement to defeat the scourge. This must include the following:

-mobilise in their own localities to expose all forms of corruption, and broaden the scope of CPF to deal with matters of corruption as well

-Strengthen the progressive labour movement to build its capacity to fight corruption

-Call upon all public and private institutions to develop clear anti-corruption strategies

-Government tender processes to be more transparent through the publication of those shortlisted and awarded tenders in order to allow for public comment as well as prevention of the same culprits getting tenders all the time

-Prevent the tenderisation of the state by ensuring that where community organisations are able to benefit directly from government programmes these should not always be turned into tenders often grabbed by ‘middlemen’, but instead to be given directly to organised communities

-Mobilisation of the youth in particular to fight against corruption as it is targetted by tenderpreneurs, druglords and ‘get rich quick’ schemes aimed at corrupting our young people and promises of short cuts to wealth.

Acknowledge and honour the men and women in both the public and private sectors who hate and act to expose corruption and are only interested in serving their people honestlyIn the public service in particular we can highlight and salute the role of the thousands of public servants who do their work honestly and are totally dedicated to serve our people, whatever it takes. Similarly in the private sector there are many workers and professionals who are only interested in doing an honest and good day’s work.

We must strengthen the capacity of our entire criminal justice system, including SARS and Chapter 9 institutions to fight the scourge of corruption.

Must call for action against those found with their fingers on the till, even if they are within our own ranks. We must protect our organisation from being refuges for the corrupt!

Working together we can end corruption!

The SACP says: a red card to corruption!

Asikhulume!!