The Libya Observer | Uganda nationalizes Libya's share in UTL The Libya Observer The Ugandan government has taken over Uganda Telecom Limited (UTL), the country's national fixed line, mobile and internet provider, in which Libya a majority shareholder. Libyan Ambassador to Uganda Fawazi Abu Katif said the Ugandan government ... |
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Uganda nationalizes Libya's share in UTL - The Libya Observer
John Wight has written for newspapers and websites across the world, including the Independent, Morning Star, Huffington Post, Counterpunch, London Progressive Journal, and Foreign Policy Journal. He is also a regular commentator on RT and BBC Radio. John is currently working on a book exploring the role of the West in the Arab Spring. You can follow him on Twitter @JohnWight1
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrovs meeting in Moscow with Fayez al-Sarraj, prime minister of the Government of National Accord of Libya, reminds us that security and stability has yet to be restored in the war-torn country.
Though it may have slipped off the radar of global consciousness, Libyas central importance when it comes a region that has been mired in conflict and chaos over the past few years cannot be overstated. The countrys destruction and societal collapse will forever stand as a withering indictment of Western foreign policy towards the region and NATOs role, not as a defender of democracy, peace, and stability, but as an instrument of Western imperial power. The savage murder of Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi at the hands of a NATO-supported mob in October 2011 was a ghastly and despicable crime, one that stands comparison with the legal lynching of Saddam Hussein in Iraq in 2006.
This is without factoring in the refugee crisis that erupted in the wake of Gaddafis overthrow, the worst such crisis the world has seen since the end of World War II. It involved untold thousands of men, women, and children attempting a perilous journey across the Mediterranean to Europe. According to the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR), over 5,000 perished in 2016 alone while attempting to cross the Mediterranean, evidence that this ongoing human catastrophe shows no signs of improving.
Perhaps the most grievous aspect of the military campaign in support of regime-change in Tripoli was the fact that for most of the previous decade, Libya under Gaddafi had been an economic and strategic partner of the West, ending decades of enmity and isolation, with Western oil companies in particular benefiting from Gaddafis volte-face where Western governments were concerned.
Writing in the Boston Globe in April 2011, writer and academic Alan J Kuperman reveals how President Barack Obama grossly exaggerated the humanitarian threat to justify military action in Libya. Later in the same article, he writes, It is hard to know whether the White House was duped by the rebels or conspired with them to pursue regime-change on bogus humanitarian grounds. In either case, intervention quickly exceeded the UN mandate of civilian protection by bombing Libyan forces in retreat or based in bastions of Khadafy (sic) support, such as Sirte, where they threatened no civilians.
Meanwhile, on the question of the character of the so-called revolution in Libya, as far back as August 2011, the BBC was reporting, Islamists have played an important part in the uprising against Col Muammar Gaddafi, sparking concern about what role they will play in the new Libya.
The BBC, one of the prime culprits among Western news organizations in making the case for humanitarian intervention in Libya in 2011, was more accurate than it could ever have imagined in reporting the danger of Islamist involvement and influence in this revolution.
Fast-forward to 2017, and the countrys predicament could not be grimmer. ISIS and Al-Qaeda retain a strong foothold in the country, to the point where both groups, though former enemies, are now actively cooperating in Libya on plans to mount a fresh wave of attacks this year. In this they are taking advantage of the lack of a strong central government and any semblance of stability in a country that was turned from a functioning state into a failed state as a direct result of the NATO-supported regime-change in 2011.
It is all a far cry from 2010, when Libya enjoyed the status of a High Development Country in the judgment of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). In concrete terms, this status translates to a life expectancy of 74.5 years, a literacy rate of 88.4%, and foreign assets worth over $150 billion, among other favorable developmental and social indices.
This brings us back to the talks recently held in Moscow between Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and Mr. al-Sarraj. In advance of them taking place, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said, Russia is interested in Libya finally becoming a working state after this barbaric intervention that was conducted from outside, that led to catastrophic consequences from the point of view of the Libyan state and the future of the Libyan people.
Though Mr. al-Sarraj heads one of three competing authorities currently established in the country that are vying for legitimacy, his Government of National Accord is currently the only internationally recognized one, a fact emphasized by his visit to Moscow.
On a wider note, Russias role in Syria since 2015 has brought with it requests from governments and leaders across the region for diplomatic support. In recent months, the Kremlin has hosted talks between the Hamas and Fatah Palestinian factions, out of which emerged a commitment to forge a unity government, while the Astana talks on Syria in Kazakhstan in January saw Russia sit down with Turkey, Iran, and representatives of the Syrian government and Syrian opposition to try and make diplomatic progress in resolving the conflict.
In Washington, meanwhile, the circus that is US democracy seems unrelenting, what with newly elected President Trump at war with the media and elements of the intelligence community, and a political establishment that appears to be a model of dysfunction and paralysis.
The statements, views and opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of RT.
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Why Libya's cry for justice must be heard - RT
Mahkieb Shabazz Booker, founder of Wilmingtons Black Lives Matter, addresses the crowd at a rally Saturday at Rodney Square in downtown Wilmington.(Photo: JERRY SMITH/THE NEWS JOURNAL)Buy Photo
Mahkieb Shabazz Booker thought it was time folks in Wilmington heard firsthand about the injustices at the James T. Vaughn Correctional Center near Smyrna.
The founder of Delawares Black Lives Matter movement held a rally on Saturday at Wilmingtons Rodney Square to demonstrate about the conditions inmates faced leading up to the Feb. 1 deadly standoff at Vaughn and the conditions they are enduring since the 18-hour siege ended with the death of correctional officer Lt. Steven Floyd.
Using his nephews story as a way to illustrate the oppression some of the inmates have been facing since the siege, Booker said it is his intent to keep his foot on the necks of those responsible for the consistently bad treatment of the inmates at Vaughn until something changes for the good.
I want treatment in the prison system to be changed, he said standing under the large statue of American Revolutionary leaderCaesar Rodney. Without pressure, the pipes wont burst.
An inmatein Building C said in a federal lawsuit filed in February that while he and other inmates were initially seen in the prison infirmary after the standoff ended, they have since not been able to receive any treatment for physical injuries or mental health concerns stemming from the extremely traumatic events.
That also appears to be the case for a member of Booker's family. Booker has been rallying support for the manbut hasreceived little information from the Department of Correctionon his condition. The inmate said he was locked in his cell for days with a swollen, throbbing, broken hand and no hope of seeing a doctor, getting an X-ray or being fitted for a cast. Medical records are not public unless the inmate gives permission for them to be released.
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In a letter to Bookers family, his nephew said that he submitted three to four sick calls and still had not been seen on Feb. 17.
Its been since Feb. 2, 2017, since I was beat bad by officers who breached C-Building due to the hostage situation, the nephew wrote in his grievance letter to DOC officials on Feb. 17, which was received on Feb. 21. Ive wrote 3-4 sick calls and still havent been seen (for my) neck, ribs, head, knee. (My hand) is killing me and hurting very bad. My hand has a bone poking out the top of my left hand (and) Ive yet to be seen.
Michelle Booker talks about the conditions at James T. Vaughn Correctional Center near Smyrna and what her nephew has faced before and after the 18-hour siege at the prison last month.(Photo: JERRY SMITH/THE NEWS JOURNAL)
The nephew said the matter was URGENT and said in the "action requested" space that officials should Investigate This Matter!
Theyre not telling nobody nothing, Bookerreiterated Saturday. To our knowledge, he still hasnt received any medical attention.
Booker said families complain that the lack of information is causing rumors to flourish.
When there is no transparency, there is no trust, Booker said.
Michelle Booker read the letter to the 40-50 people attending the rally. She said her nephew and the other inmates are fearing for their lives, and since the incident, many have lost weight because inmates' have been given smaller mealportions.
There are things that are being done to these inmates that people dont know, she said. It hurts us so bad because we cant do anything for them. He called and told us he had nothing to do with the riot and yet he is being punished.
She said her condolences go out to the Floyd family, but the focus now should be the oppression of all inmates, not just African-Americans. She said something needs to be done now.
Im not here to trash Governor Carney, she said. I just want him to do his job and make sure conditions at Vaughn and the other prisons in the state are improved. Its unimaginable what they are doing down there.
Wilmington Black Lives Matter founder Mahkieb Shabazz Booker (right) talks to members of the Wilmington Peacekeepers (in orange) and the Rev. Derrick Johnson of Joshua Harvest Church before a rally Saturday at Rodney Square in downtown Wilmington.(Photo: JERRY SMITH/THE NEWS JOURNAL)
After hearing about the Bookers nephew, people were given the opportunity to speak. Each talked about the need for everybody to come together to affect change, both in the city of Wilmington and in the prison system.
If we can make things better in our neighborhoods, things can be better in our prison system, Mahkieb Booker said. The whole purpose for being here today is to shed light on what is happening and to send the message that something needs to change now and it will take everybody to make that happen.
Speaker after speaker told their personal stories of oppression by the system and hoped changes would be made so that when inmates are released, they can stay out of prison. Some talked about more money being used for education and rehabilitation so when the inmates are released, they can do something with their lives and become a functioning part of the community.
We need to make it better for our children, said lifelong Wilmington resident Michael Bartley, who has been incarcerated. We need to step up to the plate. Im tired of hearing the speeches. Its time to put boots on the ground and get something done.
Reach Jerry Smith at jsmith17@delawareonline.com. Follow him on Twitter at JerrySmithTNJ.
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Black Lives Matter rally sheds light on prison conditions - The News Journal
Tishaura Jones is running to uproot racism just a few miles from the streets where Michael Brown was murdered.
Tishaura O. Jones speaking at a mayoral debate on January 25, 2017. (Paul Sableman)
Most political candidates would do just about anything to win the endorsement of their largest hometown newspaper, but Tishaura O. Jones knows that the old rules are riggedand ripe for revision.
The 44-year-old city treasurer, Black Lives Matter advocate, and labor-backed progressive is running to be the next mayor of St. Louis. Last month, she declined to sit down for a standard candidate interview with the editorial board of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Instead, in a stroke of gutsy defiance, she wrote a searing open letter to the newspapers leadership in which she criticized its coverage of poverty and racism in the city and laid out her own bold political platform.
I had a Fannie Lou Hamer moment, Jones says, referring to the iconic Southern civil-rights activist. I was sick and tired of being sick and tired.
Specifically, as her letter lays out, she was sick and tired of the way the Post-Dispatch leadership seemed to blame poor and struggling residents for St. Louiss woes, attributing its problems to racially coded issues like blight and graffiti. She was sick and tired of the papers thinly veiled racism and preference for the status quo past. She wanted no part of it.
What is killing our city is poverty, she wrote. What is killing our region is a systemic racism that pervades almost every public and private institution, including your newspaper, and makes it nearly impossible for either North St. Louis or the parts of South St. Louis where African Americans live to get better or safer or healthier or better-educated.
Jones believes she can begin to change all that. And she detailed a plan to do so in her unsparing letter, which quickly went viral and helped infuse her candidacy with a last-minute boost of money and populist energy. As she enters the final days of her primary run, she hopes that energy will be enough to propel the peoples candidate, as she calls herself, one crucial step closer to the citys highest office.
Joness campaign, set against the backdrop of the murder of Michael Brown in nearby Ferguson, is further evidence that the movements against mass incarceration, police brutality, and entrenched racism are holding the line at the local level. Should she win, her success would offer reassurance that the progressive flame can still burn hot in City Hall, despite the reactionary white-supremacist agenda ascendant at the White House.
Indeed, most grassroots progressive groups in St. Louis back Joness candidacy, says Kennard Williams, a community organizer with the nonprofit Missourians Organizing for Reform and Empowerment, or MORE, which is currently leading a campaign against mass incarceration, called Decarcerate STL, in the city.
Joness record, her ideas and her rhetoric, he says, have earned her endorsements from organizations like MORE, the SEIU Missouri State Council, the St. Louis Action Council, and the Coalition of Black Trade Unionists, as well as dozens of Black Lives Matter, civil-rights, and community activists in the city. Mobilize Missouri, a statewide coalition of grassroots activists that emerged out of the Bernie Sanders campaign, endorsed her in mid-February.
People understand that she is the best option, Williams adds. She is the only candidate to come out and trash on our criminal-justice system, to acknowledge there is a problem with this system and that we cant keep operating it this way.
In her letter to the Post-Dispatch, for instance, Jones pledged to look at every issue through a racial equity lens and to advocate for people who have been disenfranchised, red-lined and flat-out ignored for way too long.
One sees this approach in her past work. During her innovative tenure as city treasurer, a normally staid political office, she launched a program to open college savings accounts for every kindergartner in St. Louis and seed each account with $50 drawn from parking fees. She also created an Office of Financial Empowerment, which provides free financial education and credit-counseling services.
As mayor, Jones says she would expand such programs. Her agenda, though, goes far beyond that.
She intends, for instance, to close once and for all the citys notorious Workhouse, a jail that some activists have likened to a debtors prison. In her open letter, Jones described the facility as a rat hole. If she succeeds in shuttering it, she says she will funnel the budget savings to reentry programs, mental-health services, and substance-abuse centers.
Uprooting racism has to be the number-one priority. Tishaura Jones
We have advocated shutting down the Workhouse for a couple years now, says Williams, who helps spearhead MOREs campaign against mass incarceration. Her plan falls perfectly in line with what we are trying to do.
Jones supports the placement of social workers in the citys police department, the establishment of a $15 minimum wage, and the creation of a Tenants Bill of Rights to help protect poor and working-class renters from predatory landlords. She plans to eliminate the St. Louis cash-bail system too.
Cash bail has a domino effect on low income families, she says. If someone is in jail because they cant afford to pay a cash bail, then they may lose their jobs, and from there it becomes a downward spiral.
If Joness campaign prevails, if she beats out six other Democrats in the March 7 primary as well the inevitable Republican opponent in the April 4 general election, the Black Lives Matter movement will clearly, finally, have an unequivocal ally at City Hall.
St. Louis is the epicenter of Black Lives Matter, says Jones. As I wrote in my letter, after that tragic incident in Ferguson, we woke up, black people woke up, and we have seen more civic and political activity from young people than we have ever seen before. I want to make sure that we are amplifying their voices. I want to make sure we are giving them a seat at the table.
Uprooting racism, she contends, has to be the number-one priority.
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Can a Champion of Black Lives Matter Become Mayor of St. Louis ... - The Nation.
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These three mainstream media outlets devoted a combined 1 hour and 12 minutes over less than two days to the now former Senator Sessions two interactions with the Russian Ambassador. That coverage time was tabulated from just one set of evening and two sets of morning shows. During Senate confirmation hearings for his current position of U.S. Attorney General, Sessions responded to Sen. Al Frankens questions about Trump campaign surrogates meeting with Russian officials by saying that as he was at times considered a surrogate for the campaign and did not meet with Russian officials.
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MRC compared the Sessions coverage with coverage by these three networks of former Attorney General Holder on the day he became the first Cabinet member to be held in contempt of Congress. Holder had refused to provide documents for the House investigation into the Obama Administration Fast and Furious gun running scandal. As a result, Holder was held in contempt on June 28, 2012.
The grand total of combined airtime between the three networks on Holder being held in contempt of Congress garnered just 10 minutes and 38 seconds, according to MRCs calculation.
The morning of the vote to hold Holder in contempt, the three morning shows carried a combined 91 seconds of the story. That evening varied little, as only NBC carried the full story, but for only 2 minutes and 8 seconds. ABC and CBS carried just 35 seconds and 30 seconds, respectively, according to the MRC. The following morning, NBC was again the only network of the three to carry a full report at just 2 minutes, 50 seconds as well as short mentions of the story. ABC and CBS again carried merely short mentions of it.
CBS led the pack on coverage of Sessions with 28 minutes and 42 seconds over the day and a half according to the MRC. NBC followed with 25 minutes and 12 seconds, while ABC spent 18 minutes and 39 seconds on the story.
When compared, the three networks covered then Sen. Sessions meeting the Russian ambassador approximately 6.8 times as much as they covered the unprecedented news that a Cabinet member, Holder, was held in contempt of Congress.
Since the Sessions story broke, many Democrats have lodged weighty condemnation of Sessions meeting with the ambassador. Sessions contends that the meetings at the time were in his capacity as a Senator. Some of those Democrats, such as Rep. Nancy Pelosi and Sen. Chuck Schumer, have since been challenged for meeting with Russian officials as well. Whats more, new details have surfaced that it was the Obama Administration State Department that sponsored a July 2016 event where Sessions met the Russian ambassador for the second time that year.
Follow Michelle Moons on Twitter @MichelleDiana
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MRC: 3 Networks Covered Sessions 7x More Than Eric Holder Being Held in Contempt of Congress - Breitbart News