Welcome to NO! The Rape Documentary website where we are committed to ending rape, sexual assault, and other forms of violence against women.
Almost since the conception of the idea/vision for the feature length documentary that has evolved into NO!, Aishah Shahidah Simmons, an incest and rape survivor, has been on the international road raising awareness about rape, sexual assault, and other forms of violence against women; and the critical non-negotiable need to end it.
Little did she know that her vision and her commitment would be tested over and over and over again on multiple seen and unseen levels. Nor did she know that it would take a full 13-years before her full vision would wo/manifest.
This Portuguese, French, and Spanish subtitled, feature-length, internationally acclaimed, award-winning documentary, its two-hour supplemental educational video, and the accompanying 100-page study guide explore the international realities of rape, sexual assault and other forms of violence against women through the first person testimonies, scholarship, spirituality, activism and cultural work of African-Americans. They are being used globally in grassroots and mainstream movements to end rape, sexual assault, and other forms of violence against women.
We invite you to join Aishah in her work to end rape, sexual assault, and other forms of gender-based violence globally.
An animation for Vital Voices, an organisation working globally for women's independence. This film tells the childhood story of Kakenya Ntaiya, a Masai woman who negotiated herself out of an arranged marriage and convinced her village to collect money for her to study in the USA. She has since returned to the village and built a girls' school there. Directed by Aaron Kisner and Pistachios. Music by Dan Radlauer. Produced by Blacklist.
You can't help but contrast Kakenya Ntaiyamy's story (told in the award winning animated short above) about how she struck a deal to avoid child marriage in her village and take controll of her life to Yinka Ola Williams' profile (below) of 20 year old Oluchi Samuels trapped in a spiral of disfranchisement and poverty in a Lagos squatter settlement.
Girl Effect already explained how to disrupt the cycle and turn girls' lives into a global resource, and comparing both stories, it seems to us one stands a better chance of disrupting the chain of events if one gets to the girls before they hit the cities.
Montana Prize in Fiction, Montana Prize in Creative Nonfiction, Patricia Goedicke Prize in Poetry
open December 1 - February 28
Description
CutBank is pleased to announce the 2011 Montana Prize in Fiction, Montana Prize in Creative Nonfiction, and the Patricia Goedicke Prize in Poetry.
Submissions are accepted December 1, 2010 through February 28, 2011. Winners receive $500 and publication in CutBank 75. All submissions will be considered for publication in CutBank. The contests' $17 entry fee includes a one-year, two-issue subscription to CutBank, beginning with the prize issue, CutBank 75.
Please send only your best work. With all three of these awards, we are seeking to highlight work that showcases an authentic voice, a boldness of form, and a rejection of functional fixedness.
Guidelines
Submissions are accepted December 1 through February 28. Submissions are accepted through our online submission manager only. The $17 contest entry fee includes a one-year subscription to CutBank and covers the reading of a single submission in a single genre. Prose writers, please send only a single work of no greater than 40 pages. Poets may submit up to five poems. We cannot consider submissions that exceed these guidelines. Please submit only once per genre - writers are permitted to submit in multiple genres.
Please include a short cover letter that mentions your address, phone number, and email address, as well as the title of your work. Please include the author's name on the manuscript—names will be removed from the pool of submissions that goes before our contest judges. Current subscribers may submit for the same $17 fee—subscriptions will be extended by one year. Simultaneous submissions are accepted, but please withdraw your submission via Submishmash immediately should it be accepted elsewhere. We are unable to offer refunds.
Entrants will be notified of their submission status no later than May 15, 2011. One winner in each genre, as chosen by our guest judges, will receive a $500 award and publication in CutBank 75, our summer 2011 issue. Winners will be required to complete a W-9 form to receive payment. All manuscripts are considered for publication in CutBank. All rights to selected manuscripts revert to the author upon publication. The author grants their permission to have their work electronically archived as part of CutBank 75 in EBSCO International's subscription-based research database. Current University of Montana students and faculty and former CutBank staff are not eligible for the awards.
Judges
Montana Prize in Fiction Judge - Eileen Myles
Eileen Myles' THE INFERNO/A POET'S NOVEL came out in October 2010, and THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING ICELAND (MIT Press, 2009) is a talkative prose collection in which she describes her travels and explores art criticism. She's published more than 20 volumes of fiction, poetry, articles, plays and libretti including HELL (an opera with composer Michael Webster, 2004), SKIES (2001), ON MY WAY (2001), COOL FOR YOU (a novel, 2000), SCHOOL OF FISH (1997), MAXFIELD PARRISH (1995), NOT ME (1991) and CHELSEA GIRLS (stories, 1994). With Liz Kotz, she edited THE NEW FUCK YOU/ADVENTURES IN LESBIAN READING (Semiotext(e), 1995). Eileen conducted in 1992 an openly female write-in campaign for President of the United States. In the 80s, she was Artistic Director of St. Mark's Poetry Project. In '94 and again in 2007, Eileen toured with Sister Spit. She is a Professor Emeritus of writing at UCSD. In 2007, she received The Andy Warhol/Creative Capital art writing fellowship.
Montana Prize in Creative Nonfiction Judge - Thalia Field
Thalia Field's recent book of interrelated story-essays, BIRD LOVERS, BACKYARD, joins her earlier POINT AND LINE, and INCARNATE:STORY MATERIAL from New Directions Press. She also recently released, A PRANK OF GEORGES (with Abigail Lang) from Essay Press, and has written a "performance-novel" ULULU (CLOWN SHRAPNEL), published by Coffee House. Thalia's work has appeared in Tin House, Conjunctions, Ploughshares, Chicago Review, Seneca Review, Angelaki, and other journals. She is included in The Next American Essay, edited by John D'Agata, and considers the essay to be essentially a mode or register at home and in the lineage of any genre. Thalia teaches in the Literary Arts Program at Brown University.
Patricia Goedicke Prize in Poetry Judge - D. A. Powell
D. A. Powell's most recent collections, COCKTAILS (2004) and CHRONIC (2009), were both chosen as finalists for the Publishing Triangle and National Book Critics Circle Awards. In 2010, Powell received the California Book Award, the Kingsley Tufts Prize in Poetry and the Northern California Book Award. A former Briggs-Copeland Lecturer in Poetry at Harvard University, Powell has taught at Columbia University, University of Iowa and New England College. He is currently the McGee Visiting Writer at Davidson College in North Carolina.
The Issue 9 submission period is now open. From now through noon Pacific time, February 16, 2011, you may submit via our Submission Manager or via snail mail. All submissions sent via snail mail must be postmarked by February 16, 2011. If you have questions regarding our contest or submission guidelines, please email submissions [at] memoirjournal [dot] com
CONTEST RULES
There is no contest entry fee.
All submissions are automatically entered in the Contest.
Submissions not chosen as Contest winners are still eligible for publication.
Submit online with our Submission Manager, orsubmit by snail mail to Memoir (and) Submissions, PO Box 1398, Sausalito CA 94966-1398. To be advised of the status of your snail mail submission, include a SASE, or your email address.
TheMemoir (and) Prizes for Memoir in Prose or Poetry are awarded to the most outstanding prose or poetry memoirs—traditional, nontraditional or experimental—drawn from the submission period.
Grand Prize for Memoir in Prose or Poetry
$500 cash award
Publication in print and online
Three copies of the journal
Second Prize for Memoir in Prose or Poetry
$250 cash award
Publication in print and online
Three copies of the journal
Third Prize for Memoir in Prose or Poetry
$100 cash award
Publication in print and online
Three copies of the journal
The Memoir (and) Prize for Graphic Memoir is awarded to the most outstanding graphic memoir drawn from the submission period.
Prize for Graphic Memoir
$100 cash award
Publication in print and online
Three copies of the journal
The Memoir (and) Prize for Photography is awarded to the most outstanding and innovative photography submission.
Seasonal Poetic Quote: in each issue, you’ll find a short seasonal quote submitted by an Aurorean reader to get you in the spirit of the season (Spring/Summer; Fall/Winter). The hope, too, is that perhaps you’ll be inspired to read more of the poet to whom the quote is attributed. Best of all, if your quote is chosen, you’ll receive two copies of the issue in which your quote appears!
To submit a quote: submit four lines maximum from not-too-obscure poet.Cite source for verification.Seasonal (Spring/Summer; Fall/Winter) quotes please.Deadlines:2/15 and 8/15 respectively.Winner each issue receives two copies.Entries cannot be returned/acknowledged.
Editors' Chapbook Choice: In each issue, the editors picks one poetry chapbook or book of poetry to recommend as “Editor’s Choice.” Authors of poetry books/chapbooks are invited to submit for consideration. (*The editors do not review books; please do not send books for review; materials sent in error cannot be returned).
Submit: your chapbook/book of poetry published in the last 6 months with ordering and contact information. To give everyone a fair read, chaps submitted MUST be under 50 pages. Deadlines: 2/15 and 8/15 for Spring/Summer or Fall/Winter, respectively. Editors pick one per issue to recommend (*not a review). Entries cannot be returned or acknowledged.
Best-Poem-of-Last-Issue. For each issue, an independent judge chooses the “Best Poem” from the previous issue. “Best Poem” winners receive $30.
Creative Writing Student Outstanding Haiku Contest. Undergraduate and graduate Creative Writing Students (across the U.S.) are invited to submit haiku for this student-only contest. One winner will be chosen each issue. Submissions welcome on ongoing basis; same deadlines as above. Submissions do NOT have to be received during academic semesters. To be eligible, entrants MUST be Creative Writing majors.
There is no fee to enter.
Submitters are encouraged to be as familiar as possible with the haiku form and its history by perusing contemporary literary journals that publish haiku and other resources. (We recommend How to Haiku by Bruce Ross, 2002, Tuttle Publishing).
Winner each issue receives $10, publication of his/her haiku in the Aurorean as well as three copies of the issue, and an award certificate.
Deadlines: February 15th and August 15th, respectively for Spring/Summer and Fall/Winter issues. (Entries must be received—not postmarked—by deadline dates.)
To be eligible, entries of one to five haiku (you may include more than one haiku per page), typewritten, must:
be sent to The Aurorean, P.O. Box 187, Farmington, ME 04938, ATTN: CWSOHC;
be received by deadline dates for consideration in respective issues;
include a signed, short cover letter stating where you are enrolled in a Creative Writing Program and that you are submitting your original, unpublished poetry;
not be submitted elsewhere while under this contest consideration;
include name, mailing address, phone number and e-mail on each page.
Winners are notified by March 1st and September 1st respectively. If you would like to know that your entry has been received, state that in your cover letter and be sure to include your e-mail address, or a self-addressed stamped postcard. If you don’t receive winning notification by March 1st or September 1st, you may assume you are free to submit your work elsewhere. Entries cannot be returned. Submissions do not have to arrive during college semesters, but you MUST be enrolled in a Creative Writing degree program at the time of submission.
Editor's tip: in my long experience judging poetry contests (Writer's Digest writing competition, unrhymed division, for example), it is more often than not lack of following contest rules to the letter that disqualifies entries rather than the content of entries.
This week we consider Duke Ellington recorded on the road, and then visit Boston to check out emerging emcee Dutch ReBelle, and then jump over to Paris to experience jazz vocalist Elisabeth Kontomanou.
What becomes clear when you listen to a lot of Duke covering recordings from the late twenties on through the early seventies, what you hear is a constant development of the music in terms of ideas and inspirations. Ellington wrote for an orchestra made up of distinctive individuals. Ellington also wrote on commission, wrote for movies and theatre, for vaudeville and religious liturgy.
Also, you hear the arrangement of material change as the band members changed and as the times changed. Just in terms of longevity of the band as a whole, as well as longevity of the repertoire (both in terms of producing time, classic material, as well as in terms of producing quality compositions over a period of decades), the Duke Ellington orchestra is unparalleled in all of American history. In fact, I don’t think there is even an American classical orchestra that matches the Ellington aggregation in terms of standing within its genre. And certainly there is no American classical music composer who has achieved in classical music what Duke achieved in jazz.
Has pop culture made true fine arts offerings unpalatable for mass consumption?
By: Mychal Denzel Smith | TheLoop21 (Add to your loop) Wed, 12/08/2010 - 22:00
'Night Catches Us' Stars Anthony Mackie and Kerry Washington
I don’t live in one of the major U.S. cities, so my access to indie films is severely limited. I’m never included in those “limited cities” that are privileged enough to get the initial release, due to their large populations and reputations as taste-makers. So when I found out that I could rent the newly released 'Night Catches Us' on iTunes, and bypass the long wait that typically accompanies the release of small independent films to the market-at-large, I was excited.
Based on the trailers and cast/crew interviews, I believed 'Night Catches Us' was going to be exactly the type of movie I enjoy but rarely get the chance to see. My suspicions were confirmed. Writer/director Tanya Hamilton’s debut film is a tense, emotional drama that asks the audience to see behind the still photographs, the leather jackets, the guns, and fiery revolutionary rhetoric of the Black Panther Party and consider the effect the fight for freedom had on the lives of the flesh-and-blood human beings who participated and were left in the wake of the dismantled organization. The film offers a rare opportunity to humanize the oft-romanticized Black Panthers and give audiences a glimpse into the world these brave activists had to face after going to war with federal infiltration, informants, and murder that made it difficult to trust one another. Out of that world, Hamilton has crafted an auspicious debut film that features top-notch performances from Kerry Washington and the scary-good Anthony Mackie.
On the rare occasion that a film of this quality featuring an all-Black cast (and written/directed by a Black woman, no less) is produced and makes it to theatres, there’s a clarion call from the trumpets of the Black intelligentsia for Black people, en masse, to go out and support with our dollars. I understand the sentiment, and have stood behind this sort of consumer activism in the past. But I’m wondering now, is that really what we want? Is the popularization of “high art” a laudable idea?
In his essay “Mass Culture and the Creative Artist: Some Personal Notes”, James Baldwin says, concerning this very idea: “We cannot possibly expect, and should not desire, that the great bulk of the populace embark on a mental and spiritual voyage for which very few people are equipped and which even fewer have survived.” When considering recent films that have generated considerable buzz from Black-indie moviegoers, specifically 'Night Catches Us,' 'Medicine for Melancholy,' and the lesser-known 'Something is Killing Tate,' in the context of that Baldwin quote, I question whether the larger body politic is equipped to appreciate what these films have to offer. In advocating for these films (though this is also applicable to the worlds of literature and music, as well), we tend to overlook that the purpose of these films is force us to see a new viewpoint, shift us out of our comfort zone, address the demons we have left dormant, and imagine a world contrary to our own.
How many of us are actually prepared for that journey? It’s as though we’re asking someone fed a constant diet of McDonald’s to suddenly appreciate 'Top Chef'-style meals. An underdeveloped palate will likely reject and then despise this foreign substance.
But is that fair? True, it could prove a difficult process to convert those who fawn over the inept “mainstream” offerings into art connoisseurs, but is it fair to say that it can’t or shouldn’t be done? What is the fear? Moreover, should we not be questioning why this culture has chosen to mass produce brain-dead “art” for so long in the first place?
In the Martin Scorcese directed documentary 'Public Speaking,' writer Fran Lebowitz suggests that culture should not be a democracy, but a natural aristocracy wherein those who are allowed to create only do so because they are indeed the best. What we have, rather, is a culture that allows space for everyone, regardless of talent level, but is also subject to capitalism and market forces, and often promotes and exploits the lower aspects of the culture for great financial gain. If the culture as a whole is decidedly anti-intellectual, is it reasonable to expect individuals who know no more than that which they’ve been socialized into to form a greater appreciation of “high art”?
Maybe not. However, that neither means we should stop producing films in the vein of 'Night Catches Us' or that we should rule out the possibility that it can be appreciated in large numbers. For me, it simply means that, while everyone should be afforded their own taste, a deeper appreciation of artistic contributions to culture is something that can be cultivated and instilled over time. Careful critique of culture is necessary, but outright condemnation of popular figures/entertainment may not be a useful tactic in bridging the gap. High-minded idealism has to meet real world solutions. And, perhaps most importantly, our art must continue to challenge and inspire.
Mychal Denzel Smith is a writer currently based in Virginia Beach, VA. He is a regular contributor to TheLoop21.com and theGrio.com, as well as having blogged for Elon James White's ThisWeekinBlackness.com and contributing to Rebecca Walker's "One Big Happy Family" series on The Huffington Post. Follow him on Twitter @mychalsmith or email him at mychal@theloop21.com.
Marley, Tosh and Wailer, Who Shall Be King? is a group biography of the Wailers and their rise to fame and power. Rising independent historian Colin Grant argues that these reggae stars offered a model for black men in the second half of the twenty century: accommodate and succeed (Marley), fight and die (Tosh) or retreat and live (Livingston). Where this book will differ from the crowd of biographies on Marley is Grant's eagle eye for historical details, his fantastic reputation for research, and his skilful story telling skills.
'If Reggae music had delighted and enthralled so many around the world, transformed a tiny island into a musical super-power, and given a platform to the Wailers, a trio of extraordinarily poetic and powerful natural mystics, then how could it, in the space of thirty years, rise and fall so spectacularly and end so brutally? A cultural coup had taken place, and in decades to come the lament that 'the singers must come back' haunted the land. In the 1980s, the passing of Bob Marley and Peter Tosh had left a vacuum, and on 26 December 1990, the last remaining Wailer, the region's finest Caribbean voice, had been rendered mute.'
Colin Grant
__________________________________
Reggae legend Bob Marley 'blacked up with shoe polish' in order to fit in, new book reveals
Inseucure: Bob Marley's angst over his mixed-race background led him to 'blacken' his hair with shoe polish
A new book has revealed that Bob Marley was so angst-ridden over his race that he used shoe polish to blacken his hair.
I&I: The Natural Mystics: Marley, Tosh and Wailer, highlights the insecurities the Jamaican-born reggae legend - who had a white father and a black mother - faced during his teenage years.
In the book, his widow Rita Marley recalls how her husband was so aware of bullying for being mixed-race that he asked her to 'rub shoe polish in his hair to make it more black, make it more African.'
The author, Colin Grant, interviewed some of the singer's relatives and those close to him for the book, which is published in January.
Among those featured are Marley's late mother, Cedella Booker and Chris Blackwell, founder of Island Records, which released most of his music.
'When Marley moved to Trench Town in Kingston aged 13 he was thought of as a white man and would have got a lot of grief for that,' Grant told The Guardian.
'His father was a so-called white man who moved in white circles, and it was unusual to marry a black lady. But he did.
It's interesting that Marley went on to do that as well. He married a very black lady, Rita, and that was a time when people married up and out of colour. He did exactly the opposite.'
Grant added that while this part of Marley's life was well known in Jamaica, it is the first time that the extent of his insecurities and prejudices he faced has been revealed.
Marley was born in 1945. His father, Norval Sinclair Marley, was a white Jamaican of English descent, who died in 1965 when the singer was experiencing racial prejudice due to his skin colour.
He once said of his background, 'Me don't dip on nobody's side. Me don't dip on the black man's side not the white man's side. Me dip on God's side, the one who create me and cause me to come from black and white.'
Tragic star: Marley, who died in 1981 was at the height of his fame in the mid-70s when he was diagnosed with cancer
It was while living in Trench Town that he met Bunny Wailer and Peter Tosh, both of whom are also featured in the book. The trio formed the band The Wailers, whose most famous songs included Get Up Stand Up and I Shot The Sherriff.
After the band broke up in 1974 Marley continued recording as Bob Marley And The Wailers with a new backing band, and released the classic album Exodus, which included the hits One Love, Jamming and Waiting In Vain as well as the title track.
Editor's Note:Since Haiti’s presidential election results were announced Tuesday, thousands of protesters have taken to the streets. No candidate won a majority, forcing a runoff set for January 16th. The election council announced the two candidates who are in the runoff and supporters of the candidate left out have hit the streets in anger. CNN’s Jim Spellman is in Port-au-Prince. Read his first-hand account and scroll through the gallery of photos to find out what's really going on in Haiti right now.
Jim Spellman CNN All Platform Journalist
The first thing I noticed in the morning was the thick black smoke hanging in the humid tropical air. We soon found the source: dozens, maybe hundreds, of fires set throughout the streets of Port-au-Prince.
The fires set the stage, then came the protesters by the thousands. Most are supporters of Michel Martelly, a popular entertainer turned politician. His supporters lovingly call him Sweet Mickey, his old stage name. The crowds chant "Tet Kale!", Creole for bald-head...a reference to Martelly shaved head.
They march through the streets with no particular place to go. On Wednesday a group burned down the headquarters of the Inite party. Inite is the party of unpopular president Rene Preval whose protégé Jude Celestin beat out Martelly for a spot in a January election.
On the street it goes way beyond simple politics. It is a year’s worth of anger and frustration pouring out. First the earthquake, whose impact is still evident everywhere in Port-au-Prince. Next came Hurricane Tomas, then the cholera outbreak.
Now the people on the street feel they have been cheated out of an election. Their shot at a chance to feel a little hope seems to be gone. For the people in the street of Port-au-Prince it's the one thing they can't afford to lose.
Haiti is on edge, after Haiti's election council announced preliminary results in the Nov. 28 election, which even the US Embassy has questioned.
Like others, the Government of the United States is concerned by the Provisional Electoral Council's announcement of preliminary results from the November 28 national elections that are inconsistent with the published results of the National Election Observation Council (CNO), which had more than 5,500 observers and observed the vote count in 1,600 voting centers nationwide, election-day observations by official U.S. observers accredited by the CEP, and vote counts observed around the country by numerous domestic and international observers.
According to the results announced by the CEP, Jude Célestin, Haitian President Preval's anointed successor, will advance to a runoff along with Mirlande Manigat. But this outcome depends on a razor-thin margin in the CEP's tally: only .64 percentage points -- 6,800 votes -- separate Jude Célestin from Michel Martelly.
But even putting the CNO evidence to the side, 6,800 votes is way too small a margin to have confidence in the outcome, given the widespread allegations of fraud.
This was a disaster foretold. Back in June, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee published a report prepared under the direction of Republican Senator Richard Lugar, the ranking member, calling for Haiti's electoral council to be reformed. But the Obama administration ignored Lugar's report, despite the fact that the US government was paying for the elections, as 45 members of the House pointed out in an October letter.
Why was Sen. Lugar's report ignored? It's hard to escape the conclusion that the overall framework of US policy has been: the right people are in charge, the people that we support, so we can't push them too hard, because that might inadvertently result in the wrong people being in charge.
How did the "right people" get to be in charge in Haiti? The US supported a coup against democratically elected President Jean Bertrand Aristide in 2004. UN troops have been there ever since, maintaining the "order" brought about by the US-supported coup. One of the electoral council's most controversial decisions was to exclude the Fanmi Lavalas party of former President Aristide. Sen. Lugar and 45 members of the House criticized this, but the administration was silent. That represents continuity with the Bush administration's support of the coup against Aristide in 2004.
Opposition in Haiti to the presence of UN troops has crystallized recently with accusations that UN troops were responsible for the outbreak of cholera in Haiti, which has killed at least 2000 people. The UN and others initially dismissed these accusations as unfounded rumor, but now a report by a leading French epidemiologist, selected by the French government to assist Haitian health officials in determining the source of the outbreak, says that UN troops were the likely source of the cholera outbreak.
The flawed election, ignoring warnings about the electoral council, and the lack of honesty about and accountability for the cholera outbreak, suggest it is high time to turn a new page in US relations with Haiti, towards the restoration of full Haitian sovereignty. US officials should support a timetable for the withdrawal of UN troops from Haiti. You can sign a petition to U.S. officials here.
A key obstacle to reforming US policy is that major US media downplay to the point of invisibility the history of US policy. You would have to look hard to find an article in the major establishment media that acknowledges the US role in the 2004 coup, and the continuity of that with present US policy. This is part of a larger pattern of failure by US media to acknowledge the US role in coups in Latin America.
Oliver Stone's documentary South of the Border tried to do something to correct the record. It documented the role of the US in the 2002 coup in Venezuela.
On Friday, December 10 -- Human Rights Day -- people in 20 cities around the US will be hosting screenings of South of the Border. You can check here to see if there is a screening near you.
Here is a clip from South of the Border, in which Scott Wilson, formerly foreign editor of the Washington Post, describes the involvement of the U.S. in the coup in Venezuela:
Thousands of protesters stormed through the streets of Port au Prince, Haiti's capital on Wednesday December 8, 2010, to denounce the resultsfrom the turbulent Nov. 28 elections.
Below are some of my images from the protest. It must be said that though the images may give the impression that the protesters were violent, at no point were they threatening to me. In fact I was helped more than once, to dodge rubber bullets fired by United Nations troops. Yes, there was anger, but none that was directed towards me nor to each other from what I saw. Others may have had a different experience.
PORT AU PRINCE; HAITI: DECEMBER 8, 2010 -- A man runs across Delmas street as United Nations troops arrive to quell demonstrations against election results in Port au Prince, Wednesday December 8, 2010. ( Phil Carpenter/ THE GAZETTE)
PORT AU PRINCE; HAITI: DECEMBER 8, 2010 -- A man runs across Delmas street as United Nations troops arrive to quell demonstrations against election results in Port au Prince, Wednesday December 8, 2010. ( Phil Carpenter/ THE GAZETTE)
PORT AU PRINCE; HAITI: DECEMBER 8, 2010 -- A man tosses a tire unto a fire on Delmas street during demonstrations against election results in Port au Prince, Wednesday December 8, 2010. ( Phil Carpenter/ THE GAZETTE)
PORT AU PRINCE; HAITI: DECEMBER 8, 2010 -- A supporter of Haitian presidential candidate Michel Martelly pours water on his face during demonstrations on Delmas against election results in Port au Prince, Wednesday December 8, 2010. Martelly failed to qualify for an election run-off in results that many are disputing. ( Phil Carpenter/ THE GAZETTE)
PORT AU PRINCE; HAITI: DECEMBER 8, 2010 -- Supporters of Haitian presidential candidate Michel demonstrate on Delmas against election results in Port au Prince, Wednesday December 8, 2010. Martelly failed to qualify for an election run-off in results that many are disputing. ( Phil Carpenter/ THE GAZETTE)
PORT AU PRINCE; HAITI: DECEMBER 8, 2010 -- United Nations troops watch a crowd as smoke from street fires billow behind them during demonstrations on Delmas against election results in Port au Prince, Wednesday December 8, 2010. ( Phil Carpenter/ THE GAZETTE)
PORT AU PRINCE; HAITI: DECEMBER 8, 2010 -- A man carrying stones erects a barricade in front of approaching United Nations troops on Delmas street during demonstrations against election results in Port au Prince, Wednesday December 8, 2010. ( Phil Carpenter/ THE GAZETTE)
PORT AU PRINCE; HAITI: DECEMBER 8, 2010 -- Demonstrators taunt United Nations troops on Delmas street during demonstrations against election results in Port au Prince, Wednesday December 8, 2010. ( Phil Carpenter/ THE GAZETTE)
PORT AU PRINCE; HAITI: DECEMBER 8, 2010 -- Fires burn on Delmas street during demonstrations against election results in Port au Prince, Wednesday December 8, 2010. ( Phil Carpenter/ THE GAZETTE)
PORT AU PRINCE; HAITI: DECEMBER 8, 2010 -- A supporter of Haitian presidential candidate Michel Martelly argues with United Nations troops during demonstrations on Delmas against election results in Port au Prince, Wednesday December 8, 2010. Martelly failed to qualify for an election run-off in results that many are disputing. ( Phil Carpenter/ THE GAZETTE)
PORT AU PRINCE; HAITI: DECEMBER 8, 2010 -- Rock-throwing protesters and others hide from United Nations troops firing rubber bullets on Delmas street during demonstrations against election results in Port au Prince, Wednesday December 8, 2010. ( Phil Carpenter/ THE GAZETTE)
PORT AU PRINCE; HAITI: DECEMBER 8, 2010 -- Supporters of Haitian presidential candidate Michel Martelly march during demonstrations on Delmas against election results in Port au Prince, Wednesday December 8, 2010. Martelly failed to qualify for an election run-off in results that many are disputing. ( Phil Carpenter/ THE GAZETTE)
PORT AU PRINCE; HAITI: DECEMBER 8, 2010 -- Protestors hide from United Nations troops on Delmas street during demonstrations against election results in Port au Prince, Wednesday December 8, 2010. ( Phil Carpenter/ THE GAZETTE)
PORT AU PRINCE; HAITI: DECEMBER 8, 2010 -- Supporters of Haitian presidential candidate Michel Martelly march during demonstrations on Delmas against election results in Port au Prince, Wednesday December 8, 2010. Martelly failed to qualify for an election run-off in results that many are disputing. ( Phil Carpenter/ THE GAZETTE)
PORT AU PRINCE; HAITI: DECEMBER 8, 2010 -- A man walks past a fire on Delmas street during demonstrations against election results in Port au Prince, Wednesday December 8, 2010. ( Phil Carpenter/ THE GAZETTE)
Haiti Message to the US Embassy in Haiti: The Will of The People
Pye kout pran devan. I write this note, to pran devan - get ahead - of the international double-speak, outline for the US Embassy the obvious "will of the Haitian people."
Pye kout pran devan - the most likely scenario to be played out in these disaster elections
By the time United States policymakers in Haiti are finished playing with Haiti, they will hang Preval out to dry, ignore the process was not inclusive, not fair, not free even before one ballot was cast; ignore that most of the candidates asked for the (s)election to be annulled by midday of the farce, their voters then stopped voting - and go on with their farce. But with Manigat and Martelly. I think that's most likely what they will do.
They've already set it up.Everyone is supposed to forget the cast and un-casted ballots we saw all strewn around; the untold numbers of voters with ID cards unable to vote; those who couldn't find their polling places; video evidence of ballot stuffing and children playing around in the piles of ballots. There’s no unco-opted Haitian voice high enough in the Western power citadels to effectively point out that Haiti’s frustrated young are using the Martelly vehicle to drive their frustration, their discontent somewhere. Even if its over-the-cliff with Martelly in the crumbled palace driving seat. The marginalized, totally disenfranchised have died a thousand deaths. What’s another? Haiti has suffered through two Bush coup d'etats, Clinton's famine, the apocalyptic earthquake, the charity organizations enriching themselves with the earthquake donations, a hurricane, over a million still in tarp camps nearly a year later and imported UN cholera.In our shallow, narcissistic, celebrity-driven globalize pop culture, the novice Martelly is merely a tool to be used by those “more schooled in the patterns of privilege and domination” than any self-serving Haiti politician could ever dream to be. Martelly is the valve that releases accumulated surface pressure while reinforcing the “violent Haitian” narrative. Brilliant US/Euro move. A no brainer. Bottom line, once the US Embassy is done manipulating, its so-called Nov. 28 election will count.I’d really like to be wrong, to believe that Haiti’s beleaguered people will sidestep the UN/US use of Manigat and Martelly to divide the initial block of 12, calling for annulment. That the Haitian people will not play into the hands of the enemy; will have enough strength left to continue demanding for the annulment of this charade even if Martelly is put back in the run-off. That they won’t take Martelly’s re-inclusion as a victory, fall for the ol' okey doke; won’t allow this latest disaster, the disaster elections, to help push through a Haiti Clinton/Oligarchy cohort. Except when fairy tales end, reality steps into view.* This is the how they've set it up to resolve:Quoting a December 7th statement by the U.S. Embassy in Haiti expressing concern over the CEP’s announced result which it said were “inconsistent with the published results of the National Election Observation Council (CNO), which had more than 5,500 observers and observed the vote count in 1,600 voting centers nationwide,’ CNN reported that:The CNO, a European Union-backed local election monitoring group, had said Celestin was running behind the other two candidates.” (See, Anger sweeps Haitian capital despite calls for calm in election unrest By Moni Basu, CNN | December 8, 2010.)Right after the UN reportedly convinced Martelly and Manigat to stop calling for annulment by telling each they were in the lead, I wrote:
"If these farcical elections are not annulled, whoever wins will have no legitimacy, will depend on UN/US to maintain their rule. That means next president of Haiti will accept and legitimize the people's brutal repression, as their rule is dependent on it ."-- Ezili Dantò of HLLN
US Embassy Statement, Wikileaks, US hypocrisy, Imported UN cholera and the Will of the people
The statement by the US Embassy in Haiti on the November 28 election result is gobbledygook, double speak, signifying nothing but avoidance of the truth, duplicity and dishonesty.
In the statement the US embassy also writes that it “stands ready to support efforts to thoroughly review irregularities in support of electoral results that are consistent with the will of the Haitian people expressed in their votes… The United States is committed to the consolidation of democracy in Haiti and calls on the Government of Haiti, the CEP and all political forces to ensure that the will of the people is fully reflected in the outcome of this election.”The US embassy talks as if the whole election process was sound but for some “irregularities; as if the Preval government and the electoral council (CEP) are unbiased and may be counted on to ”ensure that the will of the people is fully reflected in the outcome of this election.”The US Embassy citing "the will of the people" in this statement when that embassy helped finance an election it KNEW would be rigged in favor of Preval's candidate, illustrates their duplicity, dishonesty, and rank hypocrisy. It’s an insult to our intelligence. Wikileaks blew the whistle on president Renee Preval and the 2010 Haiti elections. The partisan CEP has no credibility, nor the US Embassy or that lying Mule(t). They’ve proven their only concern is to undermine the will of the people. By pushing these rigged elections down Haiti’s throats in the name of bringing stability, the international community basically is saying “beggars can’t be choosers.” How can the US Embassy have any legitimacy to say their policies are about the will of the people, the beggars whose national election these foreigners say they paid for and so, for pragmatic purposes, won’t annul no matter that most of the candidates in said very election and most of Haiti is protesting, asking for an annulment? Who determines the will of the people, if not the people? Wikileaks cut the US Embassy’s hypocrisy asunder.The US Embassy in Haiti is only comprehensive to Haitians as a long-standing obstacle blocking the will of Haiti’s people. All else is incomprehensible.Elections without an electorate are a sham and therefore without meaning. Haitians are not props to be moved around at the will of the international community. Haiti's masses did not ask the foreigners to spend money on this charade. Nor will Haiti accept from foreigners that this circus they wish to push down our throats is "for our own good" and stability.
Photo: December 8, 2010. Election protest crowd in front of President Preval's house
Haitians know when their will is being circumvented and the foreigners are destabilizing Haiti with these elections, not encouraging stability. Perhaps that’s because the UN troops need instability to justify why its in Haiti and distract the world from the fact that, in its 6-year tenure in Haiti, it has not laid one inch of pipe for clean drinking water, has made over $3billion dollars and fed Haitians 6-years of its raw feces to the point of importing cholera to Haiti.
Dying and being disenfranchised is not the will of the people of Haiti.
Imported UN Cholera
Although the often-cited figures of dead cholera victims is just over 2,000 with over 70,000 infected. Those numbers are a gross underestimation. Besides making over $860million this year in Haiti, the UN even got extra money to do so, and has ordered 200,000 body bags for the cholera victims it is anticipating!
These are human beings, flesh and blood. My son, daughter, mother, sister, aunt. Haitians want justice, restitution and liability apportioned, as well as for the over $1.4 billion in the hands of the private charity organizations to provide clean drinking water, or at least if they won't, then to leave Haiti and stop blocking the Haiti Diaspora from organizing to get water treatment centers put in Haiti. But the United Nations is avoiding responsibility in Haiti - it has been there almost 7years and not one inch of pipe has been laid for clean drinking water. Now Haitians are dying from its imported disease. 515 years ago the Tainos on Ayiti died from the discoverers' syphilis and smallpox. Today the indigenous African of Haiti are dying from imported cholera from the "peacekeepers" who know what’s good for us.It's a false argument that the international community can't walk (help treat the cholera victims) and chew gun at the same time (establish the responsibility of the UN and others for bringing a deadly disease to Haiti) . That's just a continuation of the lack of value these foreigners and their supporters place on Haitian life. We see this especially in these elections without an electorate they're pushing down Haiti’s throats, for Haiti’s own good. Just as Haitian dying of cholera deserve justice and restitution, similarly these foreigners, occupying Haiti and reigning over genocide, have made sham elections (disenfranchisement) a Haiti priority before the health of Haiti's people, and the will of the people.The United States, together with Haiti’s so-called international community partners, cannot be trusted “to support efforts to thoroughly review irregularities in support of electoral results that are consistent with the will of the Haitian people expressed in their votes.”Moreover, the US Embassy has absolutely no leg to stand on to opine on “Haiti’s transition to democracy over the past 24 years” when it has orchestrated both the 1991 and 2004 coup d’etats against Haiti’s democratically elected president, thus thoroughly disenfranchising 10 million Blacks and undermined the “will of the people.” President Obama has simply continue the trajectory by appointing George W. Bush and UN occupation force envoy, Bill Clinton, to the Haiti earthquake relief fund. How can the US Embassy or the UN speak about upholding the “will of the people” to determine their destiny through their vote when they’ve put Haiti under legal protectorate with the non-elected, non-Haitian and anti-democratic Interim Haiti Reconstruction Commission (IHRC)? (See, Haiti Elections-HLLN Letter to Edmond Mulet:Goodbye UN! ; Sham Haiti elections complete disaster but US will proceed ; Haiti elections are neither free nor fair; Haiti Elections and UN Cholera ; and Disaster Capitalism in Haiti, New Orleans, Congo & Pakistan.)Haitians are hoarse and empty from screaming our their will. Our lost is bottomless. And these foreigners want the masses not to express that will. Not to demonstrate, not protest, simply roll-over, remain silent as they are being gorged, disemboweled alive with these foreigners’ election bayonet, cholera bayonet, UN occupation bayonet, 16,000NGO bayonet, the IHRC bayonet. Haiti’s is being gang-raped by these bayonets, raped and bloodied silly with no mercy. When Haiti screams, shows the crime is not hers, that she will be heard, will testify and not be ashamed of herself or fear her rapists, the US Embassy in Haiti comes out with its gobbledygook statement, talking about how its policies are to support the will of the people of Haiti and calling on the discredited Preval government, the biased CEP “and all political forces to ensure that the will of the people is fully reflected in the outcome of this election.”
The Will of the People of Haiti
Listen US Embassy: it’s the will of the people to annul the November 28 farce, end the UN occupation, prioritize investing Haiti’s life-force and resources and any reconstruction funds in water treatment plants, sanitation treatment plants, sustainable housing, domestic agriculture and manufacturing, public works jobs, indigenous schooling and basic infrastructure. If this had been done in the first place, cholera would not have erupted. Instead, you foreigners prioritized your own interests in Haiti. Discounted the will of the people. Forced upon Haiti as “development” and “for our own good” your elections, your promises of aid that never, ever gets to Haiti, your self-serving US sweatshops, your UN soldiers replacing the traditional role of the bloody Haitian army and policies like privatization.
With all the funding given, water treatment and sanitation infrastructure should have been the first precaution. Now we must also stop the outbreak and clearly get UN accountability as the source of the cholera, get an apology of substance with wrongful death justice and restitution made. That’s the will of the people.Ezili Dantò President, Haitian Lawyers Leadership Network
Ezili Dantò
Human Rights lawyer Ezili Dantò is dedicated to correcting the media lies and colonial narratives about Haiti. A writer, performance poet and lawyer, Ezili Dantò is founder and president of the Haitian Lawyers Leadership Network (HLLN). Learn more at the website at: ezilidanto.com. For updates, join theEzili HLLN Listserve.
Fanm nan kan yo di, nou konstate depi aprè rezilta eleksyon an sitiyasyon yo vin pi grav kote plis pitit pèp la kontinye ap mouri, administrasyon piblik nan anpil pwovens ap kraze kote ke sa pral mete nou nan rekomanse toutan. Dejouranjou pwoblèm nou menm fanm nan kan yo ap vin pi di, apre reziltaeleksyon you nou resevwa kout woch, kout boutèy, kote ke vye tant nou konn domi yo fin chire pandan yap revandike pou pouvwa, nou menm fanm nou kontinye ap viktim, peyi a bloke, nou pa gen anyen poun bay pitit nou. Kesyon nap poze, èske politisyen sa yo ap goumen pou pouvwa chanje sitiyasyon pèp la oubyen pou yo chanje sitiyasyon poch yo.
..........................................
Our situation deteriorates
We women in the camps have seen that since the elections results were released our situation has only gotten worse. The children of Haiti continue to die, government offices in many provinces are being torn down and it means we are back in the position of starting over, over and over again. Each day, the struggle of women in the camps gets harder. After the electoral results we feel the blow of every rock that’s thrown, every bottle. The tattered tents we sleep in are torn as they fight for power and we the women continue to be victims. The country has come to a halt. We have nothing to give our children. The question we ask is, are politicians fighting for power to change the situation for the people of Haiti or merely to fill their own pockets?
Hackers Attack, Take Down Site of Bank that Froze Assange Cash
Who knew that caving to government intimidation and the threat of bad p.r. could actually backfire? A group of anonymous online activists have knocked out the website of Post Finance, the Swiss bank that froze the assets of the Julian Assange Defense Fund. Operation Payback, which also launched an attack on PayPal this morning, pledged to go after any organization that "censors" WikiLeaks. (H/T Raw Story)
Raw Story found this video explaining their philosophy posted to their YouTube channel.
Despite billions of dollars in oil revenue, 70% of people in Nigeria live below the poverty line. Photograph: George Osodi/AP
The oil giant Shell claimed it had inserted staff into all the main ministries of the Nigerian government, giving it access to politicians' every move in the oil-rich Niger Delta, according to a leaked US diplomatic cable.
The company's top executive in Nigeria told US diplomats that Shell had seconded employees to every relevant department and so knew "everything that was being done in those ministries". She boasted that the Nigerian government had "forgotten" about the extent of Shell's infiltration and was unaware of how much the company knew about its deliberations.
The cache of secret dispatches from Washington's embassies in Africa also revealed that the Anglo-Dutch oil firm swapped intelligence with the US, in one case providing US diplomats with the names of Nigerian politicians it suspected of supporting militant activity, and requesting information from the US on whether the militants had acquired anti-aircraft missiles.
The latest revelations came on a day that saw hackers sympathetic to WikiLeaks target MasterCard and Visa over their decision to block payments to the whistleblowers' website.
The website's founder, Julian Assange, spent a second night in jail after a judge refused him bail prior to an extradition hearing to face questioning over sexual assault charges in Sweden.
Campaigners tonight said the revelation about Shell in Nigeria demonstrated the tangled links between the oil firm and politicians in the country where, despite billions of dollars in oil revenue, 70% of people live below the poverty line.
Cables from Nigeria show how Ann Pickard, then Shell's vice-president for sub-Saharan Africa, sought to share intelligence with the US government on militant activity and business competition in the contested Niger Delta – and how, with some prescience, she seemed reluctant to open up because of a suspicion the US government was "leaky".
But that did not prevent Pickard disclosing the company's reach into the Nigerian government when she met US ambassador Robin Renee Sanders, as recorded in a confidential memo from the US embassy in Abuja on 20 October 2009.
At the meeting, Pickard related how the company had obtained a letter showing that the Nigerian government had invited bids for oil concessions from China. She said the minister of state for petroleum resources, Odein Ajumogobia, had denied the letter had been sent but Shell knew similar correspondence had taken place with China andRussia.
Nigeria is Africa's leading oil producer and the eighth biggest exporter in the world, accounting for 8% of US oil imports. Although a recent UN report largely exonerated the company, critics accuse Shell, the biggest operator in the delta, and other companies, of causing widespread pollution and environmental damage in the region. Militant groups engaged in hostage-taking and sabotage have proliferated.
The WikiLeaks disclosure was today seized on by campaigners as evidence of Shell's vice-like grip on the country's oil wealth. "Shell and the government of Nigeria are two sides of the same coin," said Celestine AkpoBari, of Social Action Nigeria. "Shell is everywhere. They have an eye and an ear in every ministry of Nigeria. They have people on the payroll in every community, which is why they get away with everything. They are more powerful than the Nigerian government."
The criticism was echoed by Ben Amunwa of the London-based oil watchdog Platform. "Shell claims to have nothing to do with Nigerian politics," he said. "In reality, Shell works deep inside the system, and has long exploited political channels in Nigeria to its own advantage."
Nigeria tonight strenuously denied the claim. Levi Ajuonoma, a spokesman for the state-owned Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, said: "Shell does not control the government of Nigeria and has never controlled the government of Nigeria. This cable is the mere interpretation of one individual. It is absolutely untrue, an absolute falsehood and utterly misleading. It is an attempt to demean the government and we will not stand for that. I don't think anybody will lose sleep over it."
Another cable released today, from the US consulate in Lagos and dated 19 September 2008, claims that Pickard told US diplomats that two named regional politicians were behind unrest in the Rivers state. She also asked if the American diplomats had any intelligence on shipments of surface to air missiles (SAMs) to militants in the Niger Delta.
"She claimed Shell has 'intelligence' that one to three SAMs may have been shipped to Nigerian militant groups, although she seemed somewhat sceptical of that information and wondered if such sensitive systems would last long in the harsh environment of the Niger Delta," the cable said.
Pickard also said Shell had learned from the British government details of Russian energy company Gazprom's ambitions to enter the Nigerian market. In June last year, Gazprom signed a $2.5bn (£1.5bn) deal with the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation to build refineries, pipelines and gas power stations.
Shell put a request to the US consulate for potentially sensitive intelligence about Gazprom, a possible rival, which she said had secured a promise from the Nigerian government of access to 17trn cubic feet of natural gas – roughly a tenth of Nigeria's entire reserves. "Pickard said that amount of gas was only available if the GON were to take concessions currently assigned to other oil companies and give them to Gazprom. She assumed Shell would be the GON's prime target." Pickard alleged that a conversation with a Nigerian government minister had been secretly recorded by the Russians. Shortly after the meeting in the minister's office she received a verbatim transcript of the meeting "from Russia", according to the memo.
The cable concludes with the observation that the oil executive had tended to be guarded in discussion with US officials. "Pickard has repeatedly told us she does not like to talk to USG [US government] officials because the USG is 'leaky'." She may be concerned that ... bad news about Shell's Nigerian operations will leak out."
Shell declined to comment on the allegations, saying: "You are seeking our views on a leaked cable allegedly containing information about a private conversation involving a Shell representative, but have declined to share this cable or to permit us sufficient time to obtain information from the person you say took part in the conversation on the part of Shell. In view of this, we cannot comment on the alleged contents of the cable, including the correctness or incorrectness of any statements you say it contains."
As ThinkProgress previously reported, earlier this month, the Nigerian government moved to “chargeformer Vice President Dick Cheney in a massive bribery case involving $180 million in kickbacks paid to Nigerian lawmakers, who awarded a $6 billion natural gas pipeline contract to Halliburton subsidiary KBR when Cheney was running the company.” As a part of the charge, the Nigerian government is seeking an arrest warrant through Interpol for the former vice president.
Now, GlobalPost is reporting that the company is in talks with the Nigerian government to arrive at a settlement. Sources within the Nigerian government informed GlobalPost that a possible plea bargain could “involve a $500 million settlement“:
Halliburton is planning to make a plea bargain in former U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney’s corruption case, Nigerian officials told GlobalPost.[...]
However, Halliburton is in talks with Nigerian officials to make a plea bargain in the case, said Femi Babafemi, spokesman for Nigeria’s Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, the agency which has pressed the charges against Cheney.
“The companies are asking for a plea bargain, we are reviewing their request, we are talking with them, but we have not gone far with the talks yet,” Babafemi told GlobalPost. Although Babafemi did not give further details, other sources within the agency said the plea bargain might involve a $500 million settlement.
GlobalPost goes on to note that “Cheney and three other top executives could face sentences of three years in a Nigerian prison if convicted of the charges in the 16-count indictment.” One has to wonder how the employees and stockholders of the company feel about it possibly sacrificing half a billion dollars to keep Cheney and other executives out of jail. (HT: emptywheel)
A system of free expression and other political rights is a pubic good. That means that for most participants in that system - say, corporations - there always is a powerful incentive not to pay the costs required to sustain that good. So when, as Paypal reportedly has admitted and other companies predictably soon also will*, the U.S. Government pressures them to toss commitment to free expression overboard, they will do so with alacrity. Principle goes by the board quickly when profits or legal exposure seem threatened.The problem is that as Paypal, Mastercard, Visa, Amazon, Everydns.net and PostFinance (the Swiss bank handling funds for Julian Assange'slegal defense fund) cut services to Wikileaks, they are acting on the government's allegation that Assange and/or Wikileaksmay have committed a crime. To date there are no actual legal charges, let alone convictions in the fracas. And while Joe Lieberman is stomping arounddemanding that we simply dispense with the first amendmentaltogether it is not at all obvious that Assange and his compatriots have actually broken any law.I am not big on conspiracy theories. But as the corporate world capitulates to government demands like this, I am tempted to reassess that propensity. And I wonder why it is that the companies are nearly so interested in falling into line on say, tax compliance or environmental protections or whatever when the government stops by and says 'pretty please.'It is important to note that not all the companies that the U.S. Government is pressuring in the anti-Wikileaks campaign have capitulated. According to this reportThe Guardian, the Swiss firm Switch, which now hosts the Wikileaks web site, is resisting the pressure. Just when one starts to think that all corporations are simply craven here comes a surprise. __________ Update (later that same day): *I highly recommend this post by Henry Farrell - who, unlike me, actually knows a lot about this general topic of government interference with the Internet - over at Crooked Timber.No need to take my data free speculation for anything more than what it is.
Nearly 200 previously unreported U.S. diplomatic cables were posted on Thursday to the website of Lebanese newspaper Al Akhbar. The cables, from eight U.S. embassies across the Middle East and North Africa, have not appeared on Wikileaks' official website or in the Western media outlets working with Wikileaks. Al Akhbar, which defines itself as an "opposition" newspaper, is published in Arabic. It has posted all 183 cables in their original English but promises readers a forthcoming Arabic translation. It's unclear how Al Akhbar got the cables, which they say are "exclusive," and whether they posted them with the permission of Wikileaks, which has tightly controlled who publishes which of its cables and when. Wikileaks offered a handful of media outlets, such as The Guardian and Spain's El Pais, advance access to some cables on the condition that they coordinate release. But neither Wikileaks nor those media outlets have released the same cables posted by Al Akhbar. If Al Akhbar had coordinated their release with Wikileaks, it stands to reason that the Lebanese publication would have been granted sufficient advance time to translate the cables to Arabic.The documents appear to be authentic as the cables from Tripoli match up with The Atlantic's background reporting for an earlier story on a 2009 Libyan nuclear crisis, some details of which The Atlantic did not publish but nonetheless appear in Al Akhbar's cables. The rest of the cables are from U.S. embassies in Iraq, Egypt, Lebanon, Algeria, Mauritania, Morocco, and Tunisia. They portray U.S. diplomats as struggling to understand and influence the region's oppressive and sometimes unpredictable regime. One series of cables from Baghdad reports that Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki replaced hundreds of his most experienced intelligence and security officials with under-qualified "political officers" in advance of the 2010 Iraq elections. Another series from Beirut in 2008 shows Lebanese Defense Minister Elias al-Murr telling U.S. diplomats, in a message he implied they should pass on to Israeli officials, that the Lebanese military would not resist an Israeli invasion so long as the Israeli forces abided by certain conditions. Murr, apparently hoping that an Israeli invasion would destroy much of the Hezbollah insurgency and the communities in Lebanon's south that support it, promised an Israeli invasion would go unchallenged as long as it did not pass certain physical boundaries and did not bomb Christian communities. A U.S. embassy official wrote, "Murr is trying to ascertain how long an offensive would be required to clean out Hizballah in the Beka'a." Murr added that he had discussed the plan with then-Military Commandant Michel Sleiman, who has since become the President of Lebanon. The small but vibrant community of Middle East-based, English-language Arab bloggers have expressed outrage at Murr and Sleiman's apparent invitation, predicting it will bring political disaster and possibly worse.If Al Akhbar did not receive the cables from Wikileaks, it's unclear whether the newspaper got them from a leak within Wikileaks or perhaps from a third-party source who wanted to beat Wikileaks' planned release. But it appears that this is not the only such case of loose documents. Less than a week into Wikileaks' gradual release of State Department cables, a process it is less than 0.25 percent through, the shadowy radical-transparency group seems to have lost control of its cables. Foreign Policy's Josh Rogin reported on Wednesday:
One Washington lobbyist who represents countries in the Middle East said that local press in several countries he works on is reporting on cables that haven't yet been reported on by the media outlets who had advance access to the documents. The lobbyist speculated that foreign governments may also be selectively leaking cables they've come across in order to spin them in their own favor before WikiLeaks or local media has a chance to weigh in.
"New leaked cables are coming from weird sources, think tanks, the countries involved. There's a lot of stuff being quoted in local press from cables that haven't been released yet and I have no idea where they are coming from," this lobbyist said.
It remains to be seen if Al Akhbar will translate the cables for its Arabic readership or even keep them posted online. Much like Wikileaks.org, which has gone down several times since posting the cables and had its hosting pulled at least twice, Al-Akhbar.com has been increasingly difficult to load since it posted the cables. While that could be the result of a spike in traffic, media attention on Al Akhbar's exclusive cables has been relatively sparse. But, for the moment, you can still view all 183 cables here.
Update: When I asked about the origins of the cables, Al Akhbar executive editor Khaled Saghieh replied, "We are not in a position to disclose information about who we received these documents from, as the source requested strict anonymity. We have reasons to trust this source." But whoever that source was, the mere fact that he, she, or they requested anonymity suggests it was not Wikileaks. After all, the group has openly disclosed and actively promoted its role in every one of it leaks. When I pointed this out to Saghieh, he refused to confirm or deny Wikileaks' involvement.
Image: Al Akhbar's navigation page for its 183 exclusive State Department cables.
Add a comment
Despite billions of dollars in oil revenue, 70% of people in Nigeria live below the poverty line. Photograph: George Osodi/AP
As ThinkProgress previously reported, earlier this month, the Nigerian government moved to “
Nearly 200 previously unreported U.S. diplomatic cables were posted on Thursday to the website of Lebanese newspaper