A. Loewenstein Online Newsletter

Holding power to account in PNG when resource curse hits hard

Posted: 25 Oct 2011

This is welcome news, as corporations are systemically raping Papua New Guinea; it’s disaster capitalism on crack with little oversight:

A US federal appeals court has revived a lawsuit seeking to hold Rio Tinto responsible for human rights violations and thousands of deaths linked to a Bougainville copper and gold mine it once ran.

A divided 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco reversed a lower court’s dismissal of claims against the mining giant for genocide and war crimes, while upholding the dismissal of claims for racial discrimination and crimes against humanity.

“The complaint alleges purposeful conduct undertaken by Rio Tinto with the intent to assist in the commission of violence, injury, and death, to the degree necessary to keep its mines open,” Judge Mary Schroeder wrote.

The 6-5 decision on Tuesday revives an 11-year-old lawsuit on behalf of about 10,000 current and former residents of the South Pacific island of Bougainville, where a late 1980s uprising led to the use of military force and many deaths.

The Bougainville residents claimed Rio Tinto’s Panguna mine operations polluted the island and the company forced native workers to live in “slave like” conditions.

They also contended that after workers began to sabotage the mine in 1988, Rio Tinto goaded the government of Papua New Guinea into exacting retribution and conspired to impose a blockade that resulted in the deaths of 10,000 civilians by 1997.

Rio Tinto shut the mine in 1989.

Steve Berman, a lawyer for the Rio Tinto plaintiffs, said: “My clients believe Rio has been covering up its complicity in war crimes and genocide. We’re pleased to be able to return to the district court and begin proving our case.”

Writing for the 9th Circuit, Judge Schroeder said the complaint’s allegation that Rio Tinto’s “worldwide modus operandi” was to treat indigenous non-Caucasians as “expendable” justified restoring the genocide claim to the case.

She also said the allegation that Rio Tinto acted for its own private ends in inducing Papua New Guinea’s military to murder civilians justified restoring the war crimes claim.

Rio Tinto spokesman Tony Shaffer said: “We intend to defend ourselves vigorously against these improper claims.”

The appeals court has returned the case to US District Judge Margaret Morrow in Los Angeles for further proceedings.

But some dissenting judges protested against allowing a lawsuit to proceed in federal courts brought by non-US residents against non-US companies such as Rio Tinto, which has corporate offices in the UK and Australia.

The case is one of several in which non-US residents seek to hold companies responsible in US courts for alleged human rights violations on foreign soil, under a 1789 US law known as the Alien Tort Statute.

Rio Tinto is one of the world’s largest mining companies, with a market value exceeding $95 billion.

Sky News comparing #OccupyLSE protesters to Nazi occupation of France

Posted: 25 Oct 2011

Insulate Israel from attack, oh wise people, its nuclear arms can’t handle it

Posted: 25 Oct 2011

Take cover, people, Nazi Germany is returning to the quiet campus of Sydney University.

Well, maybe not but the hilarious hysteria whipped up by Murdoch’s Australian over complaints about an upcoming collaboration between the university and an Israeli institution suggests the Zionist state must remain beyond criticism. Perhaps only foreign policy “experts” should be allowed to speak?

First this article today (which reflects terribly on the Palestinian Authority, a group of corrupt fools who have benefited from the Israeli occupation and have only brought shame and destruction on their people in Palestine and globally):

The Palestinian ambassador to Australia has condemned attacks by activists on Israeli businesses and thrown his support behind a controversial visit to the University of Sydney next week by Israeli academics.

Izzat Abdulhadi, head of the General Delegation of Palestine to Australia, said yesterday he did not support a full-scale boycotts, divestment and sanctions campaign designed to isolate and delegitimise Israel, and was scathing about recent BDS-inspired protests outside the Max Brenner chain of shops, which are Israeli-owned. “BDS is a non-violent process and I don’t think it’s the right of anybody to use BDS as a violent action or to prevent people from buying from any place,” Mr Abdulhadi said of the Max Brenner protests, which have occasionally turned violent.

“(The BDS) is also sensitive to the Jewish people (because) in 1937 their businesses in Europe were boycotted.”

Mr Abdulhadi said he favoured a limited boycott of goods produced in Israeli settlements on the West Bank, because those settlements harmed the establishment of a Palestinian economy.

“Our objective is to build our own state, not to delegitimise any other state,” he said.

“We recognise Israel.”

Mr Abdulhadi opposed calls for the cancellation of the Israel Research Forum, due to be held at the University of Sydney next Monday, at which local experts will exchange ideas with Israeli leaders in fields including neuroscience and tissue regeneration.

He noted a similar exchange with Arab scholars was scheduled at the university for next year.

“This is Sydney University’s decision and we support that position, but it should be even-handed and there is another forum next year allowing all parties to present their own views and not to be biased to one side,” he said.

The Australian revealed yesterday that Jake Lynch, the head of the university’s Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies, had written to deputy vice-chancellor John Hearn calling for the forum to be scrapped because, he said, it was a PR exercise for Israel, did not include any Palestinian representation, included institutions linked to Israel’s military and would turn off Muslim students.

Mr Abdulhadi said this was not the official Palestinian position. “We encourage professional co-operation between Palestine, Australia and Israel,” he said.

“This is my message to Australians. We don’t mind this close friendship with Israel. It’s a plus for us Palestinians, as it means Australia can play an even-handed and balanced role between the two parties and challenge Israel on certain issues of international law.”

Professor Hearn provided The Australian with a letter he had written to participants in the forum, supporting their work.

“The arguments used by Jake Lynch are, ironically, similar to the ones I have used to defend him and the Centre or Peace and Conflict Studies when they have been criticised for their own choices,” he wrote. “I will be speaking with Jake shortly about his similar respect for colleagues and a balanced approach.”

Dr Lynch declined to comment.

The letters in today’s paper also reveal a profound level of ignorance and insecurity. Don’t mention the occupation, people:

Boycott of Israeli academics would be immoral

I am saddened, yet again, to read about University of Sydney academic Jake Lynch’s unthinking support of boycotting academic ties with Israel (“University forum with Israeli scientists ‘offends Muslims’ “, 25/10). Just what does he fear from a free exchange of ideas? To pick an example, would he block Australians from learning about Israeli work to develop a new universal flu vaccine by linking flu virus proteins to teach the immune system to make antibodies and killer cells that will attack the virus, now in the early stages of testing?

Or what about the work of Gideon Grader (one of the visitors in the exchange program that Lynch attacks) on the development of processes that enable clean energy extraction from non-carbon fuels, a boon to a world where carbon- based fuels are becoming scarcer by the decade?
David D. Knoll, Coogee, NSW

Universities are supposed to be bastions of free speech but not so at the University of Sydney where, of all people,
the director of the Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies, Jake Lynch wants to stop Israeli scientists from attending aforum because it might “offend Muslim students”.

Perhaps Lynch needs reminding that there are more Israeli Nobel prizes for science among its 6 million Jews than in the billion-strong Islamic world. One of their few winners was for the Nobel Peace prize, Yasser Arafat.
Randy Rose, Hobart, Tas

The call by Jake Lynch from the University of Sydney’s Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies to shut down an Israel research forum is astonishingly illiberal.

I always thought that the role of academics was to promote rather than silence academic freedom.
Philip Mendes, Kew, Vic

What have we come to when medical researchers are discouraged from speaking at Australian universities on the basis of their ethnicity for fear of causing offence? Why is it that in some minds anything linked to Israel, that Middle Eastern country of freedom, is deemed to be bad?

It is very disappointing that members of our so-called enlightened academia would condone restrictions on academic freedoms because of anti-Semitism.
Cory Bernardi, Senator for South Australia, Kent Town, SA

I see Jake Lynch is irritated by the prospect of an Israel research forum. This is despite the fact that the webpage of the Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies says: “The centre aims to facilitate dialogue between individuals, groups or communities who are concerned with conditions of positive peace, whether in interpersonal relationships, community relations, within organisations and nations, or with reference to international relations”.

One of his complaints is that Arabic is generally not the language of instruction in Israeli universities. Of course, together with Hebrew, Arabic is an official language of Israel. No doubt, Lynch would therefore support the use of native languages for instruction in Australian universities, as well as elsewhere.
Lawrence J. Doctors, Dover Heights, NSW

Jake Lynch argues that the University of Sydney risks reputational damage. On the contrary, its reputation will be damaged if it responds positively to Lynch’s morally and politically repugnant demands.

As an academic I find the idea of academics demanding a boycott of universities in Israel and Israeli academics unprofessional and immoral.

Whatever happened to the idea that open debate, that argument and counter-argument is crucial to academic andpolitical discourse?

Israel is undeniably the only true democracy in the Middle East. It is indefensible to call for a boycott of any description against such a nation.

Bill Anderson, Surrey Hills, Vic

Private companies love war on terror lasting forever

Posted: 25 Oct 2011

Just one day, via the US Department of Defence website:

Global Integrated Security (USA), Inc., Reston, Va., was awarded a $480,000,000 firm-fixed-price contract. The award will provide for the reconstruction security support services throughout Afghanistan in support of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Work will be performed in Afghanistan, with an estimated completion date of Oct. 19, 2015. Five bids were solicited, with five bids received. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Winchester, Va., is the contracting activity (W912ER-12-D-0001).

            Core Engineering and Construction, Inc., Winter Park, Fla., was awarded a $45,000,000 firm-fixed-price contract. The award will provide for the remediation services in support of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Work location will be determined with each task order, with an estimated completion date of Oct. 15, 2016. There were 54 bids solicited, with six bids received. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Mobile, Ala., is the contracting activity (W91278-12-D-0002).

            Lockheed Martin Corp., Grand Prairie, Texas, was awarded a $33,336,156 firm-fixed-price and cost-plus-fixed-fee contract. The award will provide for the modification of an existing contract to produce 12 launcher mod kits. Work will be performed in Grand Prairie, Texas; Camden, Ark.; Lufkin, Texas; Chelmsford, Mass.; and Ocala, Fla., with an estimated completion date of Nov. 30, 2013. One bid was solicited, with one bid received. The U.S. Army Contracting Command, Redstone Arsenal, Ala., is the contracting activity (W31P4Q-11-C-0001).

            Benard Associates, Wayne, N.J., was awarded a $23,974,000 firm-fixed-price contract. The award will provide for the renovation and addition services for West Point Middle School. Work will be performed in West Point, N.Y., with an estimated completion date of Jan. 15, 2015. Thirty bids were solicited, with six bids received. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, New York, N.Y., is the contracting activity (W912DS-12-C-0001).

            Battelle Memorial Institute, Columbus, Ohio, was awarded a $14,395,550 firm-fixed-price contract. The award will provide for the procurement of UH-60 fault-function panels. Work will be performed in Columbus, Ohio, with an estimated completion date of Sept. 30, 2016. One bid was solicited, with one bid received. The U.S. Army Aviation and Missile Command, Redstone Arsenal, Ala., is the contracting activity (W58RGZ-12-D-0010).

            BAE Systems, York, Pa., was awarded a $9,031,771 cost-plus-fixed-fee contract. The award will provide for the refurbishment and analysis services for the Paladin integrated management bridge, three. Work will be performed in York, Pa., with an estimated completion date of Nov. 30, 2012. One bid was solicited, with one bid received. The U.S. Army Contracting Command, Warren, Mich., is the contracting activity (W56HZV-09-C-0550).

Washington loves crony capitalism to protect Israel through Egypt

Posted: 25 Oct 2011

Great recent piece in the Washington Post on a key source of maintaining the brutal Egyptian dictatorship for so long; the US tax-payer:

Beginning two decades ago, the United States government bankrolled an Egyptian think tank dedicated to economic reform. A different outcome is only now becoming visible in the fallout from Egypt’s Arab Spring.

Formed with a $10 million endowment from the U.S. Agency for International Development, the Egyptian Center for Economic Studies gathered captains of industry in a small circle — with the president’s son Gamal Mubarak at the center. Over time, members of the group would assume top roles in Egypt’s ruling party and government.

Today, Gamal Mubarak and four of those think tank members are in jail, charged with squandering public funds in the sale of public resources, lands and government-run companies as part of a dramatic restructuring. Some have fled the country, pilloried amid the public outrage over insider deals and corruption that toppled President Hosni Mubarak.

“It became a crony capitalism,” Magda Kandil, the think tank’s new executive director, said of the privatization program advocated by its founders. Because of the corruption, the center now estimates, the assets that Egypt has sold off since 1991 have netted only about $10 billion, $90 billion less than their estimated worth.

The privatization saga is a cautionary tale about the power and perils of U.S. foreign aid — most notably the nearly $8 billion that the United States has provided to Egypt since the 1990s to push the country toward economic reforms.

Gamal Mubarak, 47, and the others deny any wrongdoing and are fighting corruption charges filed by the new Egyptian government, saying they have been trumped up to placate street protesters calling for retribution. The defendants also assert that the deals were legal under existing laws.

But the arc of the American-backed privatization effort in Egypt recalls years of questions from critics about the transparency and effectiveness of the more than $70 billion in military and economic assistance to that country over the past six decades, the most aid given to any country other than Israel.

Although U.S. officials have not publicly raised questions about the funding to ECES, as the economic think tank is known, they expressed concerns in confidential cables that privatization efforts could lead to high-level corruption, according to a review of hundreds of WikiLeaks documents by The Washington Post.