The US military command in Afghanistan announced early Wednesday morning that the Army’s Criminal Investigation Division will be investigating whether an unknown number of American soldiers were responsible for the “unlawful deaths” of “as many as three” Afghan civilians. The Washington Independent reported the vagueness of the key details, including where the incident took place, when it occurred and how many soldiers are involved in the investigation.
The incident was reported earlier this month by soldiers from the same unit who came forward to their chain of command about the incident. Allegations of “illegal drug use, assault and conspiracy” are involved, and one soldier is being held in pre-trial detention. This follows several high-profile cases of civilian deaths at the hands of NATO forces in the past few months. On February 12th, US Special Forces killed two men and three women – two of whom were pregnant- during a house raid. Most recently, on a “night raid” earlier this month, locals said 11 civilians were killed by US troops. NATO said all those killed were insurgents, leading to violent protests in the Nangahar Province.
———————————
Senators and politicians from Arizona press for National Guard troops on the US-Mexico border, reported the AP, drawing lukewarm responses from Homeland Security and the Pentagon. In a letter sent to President Obama this week, Sens. John McCain (R-Arizona) and Jon Kyl (R-Arizona) called for at least 6,000 National Guard troops on the border – with half within Arizona state boundaries – to immediately improve the safety of Americans there.
But the idea to have Guard troops supplement border patrol agents fell by the wayside over disagreements about who would bear the cost and how the troops would be utilized. Pentagon officials, who are worried about perceptions that the US is militarizing the border, said the Guard could only be used for particular duties, which did not include screening vehicles at border points or performing any law enforcement duties.
Meanwhile, first lady Michelle Obama came face to face with the human costs of a lack of comprehensive immigration reform, reported Democracy Now! and The Washington Post. On a visit to a Maryland elementary school with Mexico’s first lady Margarita Zavala, a second grade student told Michelle Obama that she was worried about Obama’s plans to deport people like her undocumented mother.
Student: “My mom said that – I think that she says that Barack Obama is taking everybody away that doesn’t have papers.”
Michelle Obama: “Yeah, well, that’s something that we have to work on, right? To make sure that people can be here with the right kind of papers, right? That’s exactly right.”
Student: “But my mom doesn’t have any.”
Michelle Obama: “Yeah, well, we have to work on that. We have to fix that. And everybody’s got to work together in Congress to make sure that that happens.”
———————————
In a dramatic escalation of tensions between North and South Korea, an international report concluding that a South Korean warship was sunk by a torpedo from a North Korean submarine has led to South Korean calls for “stern action” against the North, reported the Guardian UK. The report, compiled by both civilian and military investigators, said there was “no other plausible explanation” for the sinking of the Cheonan warship. Forty-six sailors were killed when the warship was struck by a torpedo in March.
Pyongyang has called Seoul’s finding a fabrication, and in a show of North Korea’s diplomatic bravado, threatened to wage “all-out war” if punished.
But South Korea’s options are limited, reported the AP. Since the 1950-53 war between what is now North and South Korea ended in a truce rather that a peace treaty, both nations are still locked in a state of war on either side of the world’s most heavily armed border. This truce prevents South Korea from waging a unilateral military attack, but may allow it to cooperate with the US, which has 28,500 troops on the Korean peninsula. South Korean and US officials said they are considering a variety of punitive responses, ranging from UN Security Council Action to additional US penalties.
———————————
Venezuela’s government has taken control of currency trading Thursday, reported Reuters, promising to ban brokerages from an unofficial market where the local bolivar fell severely this year. President Hugo Chavez’s attempts to rein in the currency, which has been devalued three times since he took power in 1999, led him to order the central bank to take sole charge of the free-floating “parallel” market. Chavez attributed sky-high inflation and the driving down of the bolivar to capitalist speculators, but critics say an ill-planned and multilayered system has distorted the market and encouraged corruption in Venezuela.
We’re not backing down in the face of Trump’s threats.
As Donald Trump is inaugurated a second time, independent media organizations are faced with urgent mandates: Tell the truth more loudly than ever before. Do that work even as our standard modes of distribution (such as social media platforms) are being manipulated and curtailed by forces of fascist repression and ruthless capitalism. Do that work even as journalism and journalists face targeted attacks, including from the government itself. And do that work in community, never forgetting that we’re not shouting into a faceless void – we’re reaching out to real people amid a life-threatening political climate.
Our task is formidable, and it requires us to ground ourselves in our principles, remind ourselves of our utility, dig in and commit.
As a dizzying number of corporate news organizations – either through need or greed – rush to implement new ways to further monetize their content, and others acquiesce to Trump’s wishes, now is a time for movement media-makers to double down on community-first models.
At Truthout, we are reaffirming our commitments on this front: We won’t run ads or have a paywall because we believe that everyone should have access to information, and that access should exist without barriers and free of distractions from craven corporate interests. We recognize the implications for democracy when information-seekers click a link only to find the article trapped behind a paywall or buried on a page with dozens of invasive ads. The laws of capitalism dictate an unending increase in monetization, and much of the media simply follows those laws. Truthout and many of our peers are dedicating ourselves to following other paths – a commitment which feels vital in a moment when corporations are evermore overtly embedded in government.
Over 80 percent of Truthout‘s funding comes from small individual donations from our community of readers, and the remaining 20 percent comes from a handful of social justice-oriented foundations. Over a third of our total budget is supported by recurring monthly donors, many of whom give because they want to help us keep Truthout barrier-free for everyone.
You can help by giving today. Whether you can make a small monthly donation or a larger gift, Truthout only works with your support.