30 December 20
I For One Do Not Want to Lose RSN at this Crucial Time!!
I don't like getting solicitations for donations any more than anybody else does. Except that for RSN, this seems to be a very "necessary evil" for funding and continuing quality reading. — BUT, RSN is one thing I am TOTALLY WILLING to contribute to! ...BTW, I'm retired, on a fixed income — and not all that much $$ income at that!
So howzabout all you "readers" (but non-donors) becoming REAL SUPPORTERS - send RSN some $$$, PLEASE!! (I for one do NOT want to lose RSN at this crucial time!!) Thanx RSN!
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30 December 20
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Reader Supported News
NY Prosecutor Hires Forensic Accountants as Criminal Investigation Into Trump Organization Escalates
Shayna Jacobs and Jonathan O'Connell, The Washington Post
Excerpt: "The Manhattan District Attorney's Office has retained forensic accounting specialists to aid its criminal investigation of President Trump and his business operations, as prosecutors ramp up their scrutiny of his company's real estate transactions, according to people familiar with the matter."
District Attorney Cyrus R. Vance Jr. opened the investigation in 2018 to examine alleged hush-money payments made to two women who, during Trump’s first presidential campaign, claimed to have had affairs with him years earlier. The probe has since expanded, and now includes the Trump Organization's activities more broadly, said the people familiar with the matter. Vance’s office has suggested in court filings that bank, tax and insurance fraud are areas of exploration.
Vance has contracted with FTI Consulting to look for anomalies among a variety of property deals, and to advise the district attorney on whether the president’s company manipulated the value of certain assets to obtain favorable interest rates and tax breaks, according to a person with knowledge of the investigation who, like others, spoke on the condition of anonymity because the matter remains highly sensitive. The probe is believed to encompass transactions spanning several years.
Spokesmen for Vance and FTI Consulting declined to comment.
Representatives for the Trump Organization did not respond to a request for comment. In the past, company officials have rejected the merits of Vance’s investigation, calling it politically motivated.
Headquartered in Washington, FTI provides a range of financial advisory services to clients worldwide in public and corporate sectors. “We provide the industry's most complete range of forensic, investigative, data analytic and litigation services,” according to a corporate brochure, which also noted FTI’s “extensive experience serving leading corporations, governments and law firms around the globe.”
The analysts hired by Vance probably have already reviewed various bank and mortgage records obtained from Trump’s company as part of the ongoing grand jury investigation, and they could be called on to testify about their findings should the district attorney eventually bring criminal charges, said the person familiar with the arrangement.
Vance is engaged in a long-running legal battle to obtain eight years of Trump’s tax records and other financial information from the president's accounting firm, Mazars USA. Those records are considered the final piece of what is already a well-developed investigation, according to the person.
In July, the U.S. Supreme Court rejected Trump’s argument that, as president, he is immune from state court proceedings. Since then, he has argued that the subpoena for his financial information is deficient, amounts to political “harassment” and was issued in “bad faith.”
Though lower courts have rejected those arguments as well, the matter is once again before the Supreme Court. Trump has requested a stay, or a suspension of the proceedings, in his fight with Vance. If the president’s request is denied, the district attorney’s office should get immediate access to his tax records.
Jason Zirkle, with the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners, said that in addition to FTI's specialized services, Vance, who is a Democrat, may be hoping that the inclusion of an outside firm will offer a veneer of neutrality and help deflect criticism that his probe is politically motivated.
In Trump, “you have a very high-profile person who is polarizing,” Zirkle said, “and then you also have a district attorney who is elected. You can't ignore those facts, and that they're both of different political parties.” Vance can now say, “We've gotten with a global advisory firm . . . that can come in and take an objective look at this, and we’re outsourcing everything to them in the way of the analysis so that it doesn't look like we're just going after Donald Trump,” Zirkle added.
It is possible Vance could find evidence that the Trump Organization as a business entity has broken the law, without attaching personal liability to Trump or other individuals at his company. To bring criminal charges, the district attorney must be able to prove there was an intent to break the law — which probably would require the testimony of an insider witness, experts have said.
It’s unclear whether Vance has secured such testimony, though in recent weeks his team has spoken with employees at Deutsche Bank, a major lender for the Trump Organization, and the insurance brokerage Aon. Those discussion were first reported by the New York Times. Prosecutors have issued new subpoenas and met with witnesses at a steady pace, people familiar with the process have said.
A spokeswoman for Aon, Nadine Youssef, confirmed that the insurance company received a subpoena from the district attorney’s office but declined to discuss what records had been requested.
“As is our policy, we intend to cooperate with all regulatory bodies,” Youssef said. “We do not comment on specific client matters.”
A spokesperson for Deutsche Bank declined to comment.
Vance’s probe is one of two investigations in New York that could pose serious legal peril for the president once he leaves office next month. New York Attorney General Letitia James is overseeing a civil investigation into the Trump Organization and its business operations. There appears to be at least some overlap in the deals and loans that are under review by the two agencies.
Additionally, the president faces separate defamation lawsuits brought by two women who have accused him of sexual assault.
His niece, Mary L. Trump, is suing him and his siblings as well over a multimillion-dollar inheritance dispute. He’s also being sued by the tenants of several apartment buildings his family once owned, and by people who say they saw little to no profit after joining a multilevel marketing organization touted by Trump and his children.
In all instances, Trump or his representatives have denied any wrongdoing.
A waitperson wears a face mask while tending to a patron sitting in the outdoor patio of a sushi restaurant, late Monday, Dec. 28, 2020, in downtown Denver. (photo: David Zalubowski/AP)
Mutant Strain of Coronavirus Reaches the United States
Amanda Macias, CNBC News
Macias writes: "The first case of a new and potentially more infectious strain of Covid-19 has been confirmed in the United States, Colorado health officials said Tuesday."
READ MORE
A demonstrator holds a sign with the image of Breonna Taylor. (photo: Jason Connolly/AFP/Getty Images)
Louisville Police to Fire Two More Officers Involved in Death of Breonna Taylor
Elena Moore, NPR
Moore writes: "Two police officers who were part of the raid that ended with the shooting and death of Breonna Taylor, a 26-year-old Black woman, are reportedly being terminated by the Louisville Metro Police Department."
The move comes nine months after Taylor was killed in her apartment when police attempted to carry out a search.
Attorneys for detectives Myles Cosgrove and Joshua Jaynes have confirmed to member station WFPL that both have been given pre-termination letters by Chief Yvette Gentry.
"We intend to show up to the pre-termination hearing on Dec. 31 and we're going to contest this action, although I'm not optimistic about Interim Chief Gentry changing her decision," said Thomas Clay, the lawyer for Jaynes. NPR was unable to contact Clay for comment.
Jaynes was not at the raid. He was responsible for obtaining the police warrant that led to the incident at Taylor's home.
Jaynes asked the court to issue a warrant, supporting his request by saying that police learned from a postal inspector that a drug suspect, Taylor's ex-boyfriend, had received packages at her address. But he later acknowledged to investigators that he had not verified that information with a postal inspector.
"These are extreme violations of our policies, which endangered others," Chief Gentry wrote in the pre-termination letter obtained by The New York Times.
Cosgrove was one of multiple police officers who fired shots that killed Taylor. His lawyer did not give a comment for WFPL.
Tuesday's firings come after detective Brett Hankison was terminated in June.
When reached for comment, Louisville Metro Police Department told NPR that they are unable to give or send information on any parts of the case until it is closed.
Metro DC Socialists hold a photo op for Santa to deliver coal to Congress while demanding a $2,000 per month check on December 25. (photo: Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call/Getty Images)
US Citizen Spouses and Children of Undocumented Immigrants Will Finally Get Stimulus Checks
Nicole Narea, Vox
Narea writes: "Many mixed-status households with undocumented family members are now eligible for stimulus checks under a billion coronavirus relief package signed by President Donald Trump on Sunday night."
Excluded from stimulus relief up until now, US citizens and permanent residents who filed a joint tax return with an undocumented spouse will receive a check for $600, as well as $600 per dependent child. The benefits phase out for individuals making more than $75,000 and couples making more than $150,000.
The impact is significant: An estimated 16.7 million people live in mixed-status households nationwide, including 8.2 million US-born or naturalized citizens. That number includes those who have been shielded from deportation under the Obama-era Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, children and young adults whose parents often don’t have legal status.
The law also allows households with at least one family member who has a Social Security number to retroactively receive checks for up to $1,200 and an additional $500 per child under the last round of stimulus relief enacted in late March.
But many undocumented immigrants and other taxpaying noncitizens who do not have a Social Security number are still barred from receiving stimulus checks under the law.
That carries public health consequences. Undocumented immigrant workers are particularly vulnerable to Covid-19 due to inadequate access to health care. Noncitizens are significantly more likely to be uninsured compared to US citizens, which may dissuade them from seeking medical care if they contract the virus. And compounding matters are the Trump administration’s hardline immigration policies — including wide-scale immigration raids and a rule that can penalize green card applicants for using Medicaid — which have made noncitizens afraid to access care.
Some Democratic lawmakers have consequently argued that while the new relief package represents progress, it still does not go far enough in delivering much-needed aid to immigrant families.
“I’m glad the relief package allows mixed-status households [with] undocumented family members to receive relief checks,” Rep. Lucille Roybal-Allard (D-CA) tweeted. “We must now provide relief for ALL tax filers, regardless of immigration status, including brave first responders on our front lines.”
This spring’s CARES Act had excluded mixed-status families from relief
The CARES Act, which was enacted in March, barred those in households with people of mixed immigration status — where some tax filers or their children may use what’s called an Individual Taxpayer Identification Number (ITIN) — from receiving stimulus checks.
The IRS issues ITINs to unauthorized immigrants so they can pay taxes, even though they don’t have a Social Security number. If anyone in the household had used an ITIN — either a spouse or a dependent child — that meant no one in the household will qualify for the stimulus checks under the CARES Act unless one spouse served in the military in 2019.
The exclusion for mixed-status households defied current practices: Many other federal programs are designed in such a way that US citizen children of unauthorized immigrants can access necessary benefits, including the child tax credit, food stamps, housing assistance, welfare benefits, and benefits from the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children.
But there is a precedent for this kind of exclusion. Amid the global financial crisis in 2008, Congress handed out tax rebates to most American taxpayers, except for the spouses of immigrants who didn’t have Social Security numbers.
Advocates from Georgetown Law and Villanova Law nevertheless filed a class action lawsuit in the spring challenging the CARES Act on behalf of seven US citizen children of unauthorized immigrant taxpayers. They argued that it unfairly discriminated against these children based on their parents’ immigration status, and denied them equal protection under the law in violation of the US Constitution’s due process clause.
That lawsuit is still pending, but the new aid package signed on Sunday could render that challenge moot since it makes mixed-status families retroactively eligible for CARES Act stimulus checks.
“The refusal to distribute this benefit to US citizen children undermines the CARES Act’s goals of providing assistance to Americans in need, frustrates the Act’s efforts to jumpstart the economy, and punishes citizen children for their parents’ status — punishment that is particularly nonsensical given that undocumented immigrants, collectively, pay billions of dollars each year in taxes,” Mary McCord, legal director of Georgetown Law’s Institute for Constitutional Advocacy and Protection, said in a statement when the lawsuit was filed.
Ali Kinani. (photo: Twitter)
"Blackwater's Youngest Victim": 9-Year-Old Ali Kinani Was Among Victims of Trump's Pardoned Killers
Democracy Now!
Excerpt: "You probably have never heard his name, but you likely know something about how 9-year-old Ali Mohammed Hafedh Kinani died."
resident Trump’s pardon of four former Blackwater contractors convicted for their role in a massacre in Baghdad has sparked outrage in Iraq. The Blackwater guards include Nicholas Slatten, who was sentenced to life in prison after being convicted of first-degree murder for his role in the 2007 Nisoor Square massacre, when he and other Blackwater mercenaries opened fire with machine guns and grenades on a crowded public space in Baghdad, killing 17 unarmed civilians, including women and children. The youngest victim was a 9-year-old named Ali Kinani. We re-broadcast clips from a short documentary, “Blackwater’s Youngest Victim,” by The Intercept’s Jeremy Scahill and filmmaker Rick Rowley, that first aired on Democracy Now! in 2010.
Transcript
This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.
AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org, The Quarantine Report. I’m Amy Goodman.
President Trump’s pardon of four former Blackwater mercenaries convicted for their role in a massacre in Baghdad has sparked outrage in Iraq. The Iraqi Foreign Ministry said the decision violates, quote, “the values of justice, human rights and rule of law” and, quote, “ignores the dignity of the victims,” unquote. The Blackwater guards included Nicholas Slatten, who was sentenced to life in prison after being convicted of first-degree murder for his role in the 2007 Nisoor Square massacre, when he and other Blackwater mercenaries opened fire with machine guns and grenades on a crowded public space in Baghdad, killing 17 unarmed civilians, including women and children, the youngest victim a 9-year-old boy named Ali Kinani.
Later in the program, we’ll be joined by a lawyer who sued Blackwater over the massacre, but first we turn to a short documentay by Jeremy Scahill and Rick Rowley that first aired on Democracy Now! in 2010. It features an interview with Ali Kinani’s father, Mohammed Kinani. This is Blackwater’s Youngest Victim.
MOHAMMED KINANI: [translated] I’m not just remembering the scene. I’m reliving it as if it were happening now. I will never forget those few minutes. So whatever you ask me, I will answer with absolute clarity.
All I could hear from my car were gunshots and the sound of glass shattering and the sound of tires blown out with bullets. I started to scream, “They killed my son! They killed my son!” What can I tell you? It was like the end of days. With cold blood and stone hearts, they continued shooting.
JEREMY SCAHILL: Baghdad, September 16, 2007. Shortly before noon, a convoy of four armored vehicles departs the Green Zone, the heavily fortified U.S. base in Iraq. The men inside of the vehicles were elite private soldiers working for Blackwater. Their code name: Raven 23.
The men had defied orders from their superiors to remain in the Green Zone and proceeded on to the streets of Baghdad. As they departed, they were again told to return to base. They didn’t.
Within minutes, Blackwater Raven 23 would arrive at the congested Baghdad intersection known as Nisoor Square. Fifteen minutes later, at least 17 Iraqi civilians would be dead, more than 20 others wounded, in a shooting that would go down in infamy as Baghdad’s Bloody Sunday.
You probably have never heard his name, but you likely know something about how 9-year-old Ali Mohammed Hafedh Kinani died. He was the youngest person killed by Blackwater forces at Nisoor Square.
This is the story of the death of young Ali Kinani, and his father has provided us with the most detailed eyewitness account of the Nisoor Square massacre ever given to a U.S. media outlet.
Mohammed Hafedh Abdulrazzaq Kinani and his wife Fatimah lived with their three children in Baghdad. Mohammed ran his family’s auto parts business, and he adored his youngest son Ali, whom the family affectionately called by his kid nickname, Allawi.
MOHAMMED KINANI: [translated] He would sleep on my arm. He was nine-and-a-half years old, but still slept on my arm. He had his own room, but he never slept alone.
When he turned 9, I told him it was time to stop using my arm as his pillow. I said, “Son, you’re getting older. Go sleep with your brothers, on your bed in your room. Your name is Ali. We used to call you Allawi, but you’ll be a man soon.” So he said, “As you wish, father.” He always said that.
So I looked and saw his feet under the door. I called him in. He opened the door and said, “Dad, I’m Allawi, not Ali.” He was telling me that he was still a child. After that, he kept sleeping on my arm. It was the only pillow he ever had.
JEREMY SCAHILL: When U.S. forces rolled into Baghdad in April of 2003, Mohammed proudly took his son to greet the men he called their liberators, the U.S. military. Mohammed was that rare personification of the neoconservative narrative about the U.S. invasion.
MOHAMMED KINANI: [translated] The first day the American Army entered Baghdad, I handed out juice and candy in the street, to celebrate our liberation from Saddam.
JEREMY SCAHILL: Before September 16th, 2007, Mohammed had never heard of Blackwater. Now he thinks of them and that day every waking moment. He remembers that Ali was not supposed to be in his car that day. Mohammed had just pulled away from his family’s home on his way to pick up his sister Jenan and her children for a visit. Ali came running out of the house.
MOHAMMED KINANI: [translated] He was quiet the whole ride. But then we passed a newly built park, a garden. So he turned to me and asked, “Daddy, when are you going to bring us here?” I told him, “Next week, hopefully, if God wills it.”
JEREMY SCAHILL: Mohammed and Ali picked up Jenan and her three children and made their way back home. The return journey would bring them through Nisoor Square. When Mohammed found himself in a traffic jam at the square that day, he thought it was a U.S. military checkpoint. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary to him when he saw the armored vehicles block off traffic.
MOHAMMED KINANI: [translated] One of the guards gestured toward us with his hands. This gesture means “stop.” So we stopped. I and all the cars in front and behind me stopped. We followed their orders.
At that point, I didn’t even know they were Blackwater. I didn’t know it was a security company. I thought it was some sort of American Army unit, or maybe a military police unit. In any case, we followed their orders.
JEREMY SCAHILL: As Mohammed and his family waited in the SUV, the man in the car next to them was frantic. “I think someone was shot in the car in front of you,” he told Mohammed. It was then Mohammed watched in horror as Blackwater gunners, for no apparent reason, blew up a white Kia sedan in front of his eyes. Inside, Mohammed would later learn, were a young Iraqi medical student and his mother.
MOHAMMED KINANI: [translated] There was absolutely no shooting or any sign of danger for us or Blackwater. No one was in the slightest danger.
Suddenly, in the flash of a second, they started shooting in all directions. And it wasn’t warning shots. They were shooting as if they were fighting in the field.
By the time they stopped shooting, the car looked like a sieve. This is the only way to describe it, because it was truly riddled with bullets. They finished with the first car and turned their guns on us. It turned into the apocalypse.
JEREMY SCAHILL: As chaos and blood flooded the square, Mohammed remembers the fate of one man in particular who tried to flee the Blackwater gunmen.
MOHAMMED KINANI: [translated] Everyone was trying to escape. Whoever wasn’t shot dead in their car just wanted to escape somehow. When one man tried to run, they shot him. He dropped dead on the spot. He was on the ground bleeding, and they were shooting nonstop. They shot like they were trying to kill everyone they could see. He sank into his own blood. And every minute, they would go back and shoot him again, and I could see his body shake with every bullet. He was dead, but his body shook with the bullets. He would shoot at someone else and then go back to shooting at this dead man.
The man is dead in a pool of blood. Why would you keep shooting him?
JEREMY SCAHILL: As Mohammed sat in his SUV with his 9-year-old son Ali, his sister Jenan and her three children, he realized that, for them, attempting to escape was not an option. As the shooting intensified, Mohammed yelled for the kids to get down. He and Jenan did the same.
MOHAMMED KINANI: [translated] Bullets were coming from the right and the left. My younger sister was trying to cover me with her body. So I pulled out of her grip and covered her with my body to protect her. I have pictures that show the headrest of my sister’s seat is full of bullet holes. It was horrific, extremely terrifying. I still wake up from sleep, startled.
Why? I ask. Why would they do this? We were civilians sitting in our cars. Most of the cars had families in them. So why did this happen?
I kept hearing boom, boom, boom in my car. Bullets were flying everywhere. It was horrific, horrific. I don’t know. I don’t know how to describe it.
After they had killed everyone in sight, my sister and I kept still. I had her rest her head on my lap, and my body was on top of her. We would sneak to peek from under the dashboard. They continued shooting here and there, killing this and that one. Then it cleared. Nothing was moving on the street. Only the Blackwater men were moving. Then, they drove off.
JEREMY SCAHILL: It seemed to Mohammed like a miracle had blessed his car. “We’re alive,” he thought. As the Blackwater forces retreated, Mohammed told Jenan he was going to check on the man who had been repeatedly shot by Blackwater. It was then Mohammed’s world crumbled.
MOHAMMED KINANI: [translated] When I got out of the car, my nephew said, “Uncle, Allawi is dead.” My sister started screaming, and I turned to look at Ali.
I turned and saw that his window was broken. It was shot. I looked at him, and his head was resting at the side of the door. I opened the door to see if he was OK. I opened the door, and he started falling out. I stood there in shock, watching him as the door opened and his brain fell to the ground between my feet. I looked at his brain on the ground, and I pushed him back into the car. I told my sister that they had blown his brains out.
I started to scream, “They killed my son! They killed my son!” I was turning and screaming. People were standing on the roof of a nearby building, saying, “Get out! Get out!” But I was in another world. They killed my son, and I was looking at his brain.
I didn’t know what to do. I didn’t know what to do. I reached through the window to check his heart, and it was beating. I told my sister, who said, “Let’s rush him to the hospital. Maybe he still can make it.” But I knew. His brain was on the ground. He’s gone.
I turned the car, which had no water, no tires, and I spun it around. I drove towards Yarmouk Hospital.
JEREMY SCAHILL: At the hospital, Mohammed was told that because of Ali’s severe head injuries, an ambulance would need to rush him across town to a neurological hospital.
MOHAMMED KINANI: [translated] Riding in the ambulance, I was completely destroyed. My son was dying in front of my eyes. He was suffering. His arms were shaking and almost pulled out the IVs. So I held his hands still.
He died. What can I say? My son. Up to the night before his death, my son never slept alone.
JEREMY SCAHILL: After Ali died, the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad contacted Mohammed, offering his family a $10,000 condolence payment, making clear it was not a remedy for what happened and not a substitute for any potential legal action against the shooters. Initially, Mohammed refused the money, but the embassy pursued his family, urging them to take it. They eventually did, but with one condition: that half the money be donated to the family of a U.S. soldier killed in Iraq. Mohammed’s wife Fatimah delivered the gift to the U.S. Embassy.
MOHAMMED KINANI: [translated] This is a gift from Ali’s family to whichever family you choose, the family of any soldier who lost his life for the sake of Iraq. I want you to give it as a gift. I know it is insignificant, but it is an emotional and moral gesture from us to them.
JEREMY SCAHILL: Mohammed carries around a letter sent his family by General Ray Odierno, the commander of U.S. forces in Iraq. “Your substantial generosity on behalf of the families of fallen American soldiers,” Odierno wrote, “has touched me deeply.”
While Mohammed and his family mourned the death of Ali, half a world away in Washington, D.C., Blackwater’s owner, Erik Prince, was summoned before the U.S. Congress. Blackwater, Prince said, had been the victim of an armed ambush by Iraqi insurgents at Nisoor Square, and he defended the conduct of his men, saying they had, quote, “acted appropriately at all times.”
REP. DANNY DAVIS: You do admit that Blackwater personnel have shot and killed innocent civilians, don’t you?
ERIK PRINCE: No, sir. I disagree with that. I think there’s been times when guys are using defensive force to protect themselves, to protect the package. They’re trying to get away from danger. There could be ricochets. There are traffic accidents, yes. This is war. You know.
JEREMY SCAHILL: Mohammed watched those hearings live and was outraged.
MOHAMMED KINANI: [translated] I wish they would ask the head of Blackwater: Did he think that this child was a threat to his company? This giant company with all the biggest weapons, guns and planes — was this boy a threat to them?
JEREMY SCAHILL: At the hearing, a State Department document was produced revealing that before Nisoor Square, the department had coordinated with Blackwater to set a low payout for Iraqi shooting victims, because, in the words of a department security official, if it was too high, Iraqis may try “to get killed by our guys to financially guarantee their family’s future.”
Despite Prince’s brazen denials, the thought of suing Blackwater didn’t cross Mohammed’s mind. He didn’t want anyone’s money. He readily cooperated with the U.S. military and federal investigators, and he believed that justice would be done in America.
Then, he says, Blackwater stepped in.
In February of 2008, ABC News did a brief story about Mohammed. The day the story was posted online, Blackwater’s attorney threatened to take legal action against the network, accusing ABC of defamation.
What outraged Mohammed was that Blackwater denied its forces killed Ali, claiming instead that he was killed by a stray bullet, possibly fired by the U.S. military an hour after Blackwater personnel had departed the scene. Blackwater claimed Ali was hit by a warning shot that ricocheted and killed him. It was not even possible, the Blackwater lawyer claimed, that Blackwater was responsible.
Shortly after that, Mohammed said an Iraqi attorney approached him. But he wasn’t just any lawyer. Ja’afar al Moussawy was the chief prosecutor of the Supreme Iraqi Criminal Tribunal, which prosecuted Saddam Hussein. He was the Iraqi lawyer. Mohammed agreed to meet with Moussawy and Blackwater’s regional manager. He says they offered him $20,000.
MOHAMMED KINANI: [translated] I said, “I’m not taking a penny from you. I want nothing.” I asked them if they wanted to resolve the problem. They said, “Yes.” I said, “OK, get me a pen and paper.” I said, “Look, I have the paper, and I can sign and waive all my rights. All of them. I will sign now, but under one condition: I want the head of Blackwater to apologize publicly to me in America and say, 'We killed your son, and we're sorry.’ That’s all I want.” I told them, “I don’t want $50 or $20,000. I just want him to publicly apologize. That would be enough for me.”
Blackwater’s regional manager said, “We do not apologize.” I said, “You kill my son and go on TV and publicly accuse me and all Iraqis of being mercenaries who intentionally have you kill us for the compensation. And you were under oath in front of Congress, and you tell me you will not apologize. What did you want, then? Why did you bring me here?” He said, “No, we won’t apologize.”
JEREMY SCAHILL: Mohammed then confronted the Blackwater manager about the company’s claim that the U.S. military, not Blackwater, may have killed Ali.
MOHAMMED KINANI: [translated] I told the manager, “My son was killed in the car with me. How can you say it was the military? Do you want to stain the reputation the American Army? The American Army is innocent of this. Why would you blame this on them? Do you want us to hate them more? Aren’t you an American company, and this is your national military? Why would you do this to your own?” I told them, “We love the American Army more than you do.”
JEREMY SCAHILL: Mohammed threw the pen and paper at the Blackwater manager and left the meeting.
MOHAMMED KINANI: [translated] So I had no choice but to go the legal route and take things to court.
JEREMY SCAHILL: As we wrap up our time together, Mohammed Kinani shows us a cellphone video of young Ali hopping around a swimming pool with his cousins and siblings. With a smile ear to ear, Ali approaches Mohammed’s cellphone camera and says to his dad, “I am Allawi.”
ALI KINANI: [translated] I am Allawi. I am Allawi.
AMY GOODMAN: That’s Blackwater’s Youngest Victim, a short documentary by Jeremy Scahill and Rick Rowley that first aired on Democracy Now! in 2010.
Alexei Navalny. (photo: EPA)
Russia Gives Kremlin Critic Navalny an Ultimatum: Return Immediately or Face Jail
Reuters
Excerpt: "Russia's prison service on Monday gave Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny a last minute ultimatum: Fly back from Germany at once and report at a Moscow office early on Tuesday morning, or be jailed if you return after that deadline."
Navalny, one of President Vladimir Putin's leading critics, was airlifted to Germany for treatment in August after collapsing on a plane in what Germany and other Western nations say was an attempt to murder him with a Novichok nerve agent.
Russia has said it has seen no evidence he was poisoned and has denied any involvement in the incident.
The Federal Prison Service (FSIN) on Monday accused Navalny of violating the terms of a suspended prison sentence he is still serving out over a conviction dating from 2014, and of evading the supervision of Russia's criminal inspection authority.
Citing an article in the British medical publication The Lancet about his treatment, it said Navalny had been discharged from hospital in Berlin on Sept. 20 and that all symptoms of what it called his illness had vanished by Oct. 12.
"Therefore the convicted man is not fulfilling all of the obligations placed on him by the court, and is evading the supervision of the Criminal Inspectorate," it said.
Navalny is serving out a suspended three-and-a-half-year prison term over a theft case he says was politically-motivated. His probation period expires on Dec. 30.
The prison service said in a statement late on Monday that it had summoned Navalny to report to the inspection authority and that his suspended sentence could be changed to a real jail term if his suspected violations of the terms of the suspended sentence were proven to be true.
The prison service mentioned no deadline, but Navalny posted a screenshot of a message to his lawyer which said he had until 0900 on Tuesday to return and show up at a Moscow office.
His spokeswoman, Kira Yarmysh, said on Twitter, it was impossible for Navalny to return in time, that he was still convalescing after his poisoning, and accused the prison service of acting on orders from the Kremlin.
"There's no way he could appear at the Moscow Criminal Inspectorate tomorrow. But does the FSIN really care about common sense? They were given an order, they are fulfilling it," she wrote.
The Kremlin has said Navalny is free to return to Russia at any time like any other Russian citizen.
Florida panther. (photo: Miami Herald/Yahoo News)
Cars Kill Dozens of Panthers, Florida Wants to Build More Highways
Zachary T. Sampson, The Miami Herald
Sampson writes: "At least 20 Florida panthers died in 2020, almost all of them because of people."
One was killed by another panther, according to data from the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. Another was hit by a train. A person killed one panther intentionally, leaving its body mutilated on the side of a road near Immokalee.
Every other cat found dead this year was felled by a typical culprit: cars.
The toll, updated as of Thursday morning, appeared on track to finish lower than recent years — 27 in 2019 and 30 the year before.
“We typically say the number of panther fatalities and roadkill are increased with the increase in panther population size,” said Dave Onorato, a panther biologist with the Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.
Under that logic, a lower death count might spell a bad turn for the endangered species. “It’s plausible. We don’t want to make too much of it yet, but it certainly gets our attention,” Onorato said.
Florida panthers are the only puma still roaming east of the Mississippi River. Their former range across the American Southeast has shrunk to a corner of the lower Florida peninsula. Scientists estimate between 120 and 230 adults live in the wild.
“For the most part we think the population is holding steady and stable,” Onorato said. “Signs don’t seem to show that it’s increasing at the moment.”
Environmentalists say the low numbers, and variability in the population estimate, mean the panther remains extremely at-risk.
“The panther is like this patient that’s in a bed in (the intensive care unit) and is in stable condition,” said Jaclyn Lopez, Florida director of the Center for Biological Diversity. “You’re not going to send the panther home. ... Any wrong turn can put it at risk of plummeting into extinction.”
One complicating factor for the 2020 figures is that biologists have tracked fewer panthers with radio collars than usual, according to Onorato. Their work, he said, has been hampered in part by the pandemic. Scientists have documented infections of the coronavirus in large cats.
“We don’t want to be the ones responsible for transmitting (a disease) to panthers,” Onorato said.
Among researchers’ current focus is a mysterious neurological disorder in panthers, which is visible in animals hobbled by weak back legs. Onorato said biologists don’t know what causes feline leukomyelopathy, referred to in shorthand as “FLM.” At least one animal with evidence of symptoms was recently spotted around the Big Cypress National Preserve, he said, prompting researchers to position more cameras on public land in hopes of documenting the disorder’s prevalence.
The greatest challenge for panthers, environmentalists say, is the squeeze of development.
“We’re heading toward a habitat that’s just too small to sustain a big cat,” said Matthew Schwartz, director of the South Florida Wildlands Association.
He and other advocates spent much of 2020 fighting a proposed toll road expansion, which could bring a new highway near panther habitat. The leader of The Nature Conservancy in Florida called it an “existential threat.”
Proponents of the toll road say it would spur development in rural Florida. But those rural areas, environmentalists say, offer crucial habitat for animals like the panther. Committees studying different segments of the road project suggested the state avoid environmentally sensitive areas.
“It really would open up the spine of Florida,” said Lopez, of the Center for Biological Diversity. “Frankly there’s no additional space for the panther to go. ... Each panther needs a ton of habitat to hunt and reproduce successfully.”
Some nature advocates say they are skeptical of the idea that more panther deaths in the past have been a sign of a growing population. They wonder if lower death numbers in 2020 might show what would happen with fewer drivers in panther territory. People, they say, could have stayed at home more during the pandemic.
Bradley Cornell, a Southwest Florida policy associate for Audubon Florida, said panther deaths are a reminder of the importance of preserving conservation land and big ranches as habitat in the middle of the state where the animals could expand.
“Are we going to keep them as a zoo species that we have to highly manage in this confined area of Southwest Florida?”
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