Friday, August 15, 2014


News Clips For The Day


http://www.dailykos.com/?detail=action

Attorney General Holder: Situation in Ferguson 'cannot continue'
THU AUG 14, 2014

U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder issued a statement Thursday reiterating the Department of Justice's concerns about the escalation of tensions in Ferguson, and the issue of the heavy militarization of the police there. While "acts of violence by members of the public cannot be condoned," Holder said, "the law enforcement response to these demonstrations must seek to reduce tensions, not heighten them."

Those who peacefully gather to express sympathy for the family of Michael Brown must have their rights respected at all times. And journalists must not be harassed or prevented from covering a story that needs to be told.

“At a time when we must seek to rebuild trust between law enforcement and the local community, I am deeply concerned that the deployment of military equipment and vehicles sends a conflicting message. At my direction, Department officials have conveyed these concerns to local authorities. Also at my direction, the Department is offering—through our COPS office and Office of Justice Programs—technical assistance to local authorities in order to help conduct crowd control and maintain public safety without relying on unnecessarily extreme displays of force. The local authorities in Missouri have accepted this offer of assistance as of this afternoon.”

Additionally, Holder said, representatives from the department's Community Relations Service are in Missouri, meeting with law enforcement and with local civic and religious leaders "to plot out steps to reduce tensions in the community." Meanwhile, the federal investigation of Michael Brown's death continues.



http://www.dailykos.com/story/2014/08/12/1320956/-Militarized-Police-Turn-Protect-Serve-into-War-on-American-Citizens?detail=email

Militarized Police Turn 'Protect & Serve' into War on American Citizens
TUE AUG 12, 2014 

The militarization of America's myriad law enforcement agencies is well known. Gone are the days of police officers normatively seeing themselves as integrated parts of a community's social fabric. "Officer Friendly" has been replaced by what Radley Balko calls the "Warrior Cop" – soldiers armed with battlefield-tested weapons looking to suppress insurrections and engage in tactical missions in American neighborhoods.

Today, we're seeing this play out in Ferguson, Missouri, where officers from countless districts around Saint Louis have been "deployed" to patrol and secure a neighborhood distraught over the killing of unarmed teenager Michael Brown.

[Right: police confront unarmed man in Ferguson. Image by Ben Kesling.]

The images coming out of Ferguson are not just disturbing, as officers gripping military-grade weapons approach unarmed citizens, American citizens, as though they are an enemy force. These images are becoming normative, images of officers riding armored personnel carriers through city streets, firing rubber bullets and tear gas into crowds, pointing M-16s and flash grenade launchers at those protesting or demonstrating near their own homes, and even in their own backyards.

Balko, writing in the Wall Street Journal, describes how this rise in militarization since the 1960s has created police forces which threaten citizens just as much as they protect those they're charged to serve:

Law-enforcement agencies across the U.S., at every level of government, have been blurring the line between police officer and soldier. Driven by martial rhetoric and the availability of military-style equipment—from bayonets and M-16 rifles to armored personnel carriers—American police forces have often adopted a mind-set previously reserved for the battlefield. The war on drugs and, more recently, post-9/11 antiterrorism efforts have created a new figure on the U.S. scene: the warrior cop—armed to the teeth, ready to deal harshly with targeted wrongdoers, and a growing threat to familiar American liberties.

Many longtime and retired law-enforcement officers have told me of their worry that the trend toward militarization is too far gone. Those who think there is still a chance at reform tend to embrace the idea of community policing, an approach that depends more on civil society than on brute force.

In this very different view of policing, cops walk beats, interact with citizens and consider themselves part of the neighborhoods they patrol—and therefore have a stake in those communities. It's all about a baton-twirling "Officer Friendly" rather than a Taser-toting RoboCop.

This type of policing stance, with officers being recruited via paramilitary-style videos, armed with military-grade weapons and trained tactically as though soldiers, leads to a naturally oppositional stance toward communities in distress.

It leads to images like this: Ferguson citizens stand opposite police. Image via Robert Cohen

And unless the funding and arming of police forces change, such images will continue to be repeated.



http://www.cbsnews.com/news/darren-wilson-ferguson-police-officer-who-fatally-shot-michael-brown-identified/


Ferguson police say teen shot by cop was suspect in robbery; officer's identity revealed
CBS/AP August 15, 2014, 9:47 AM

FERGUSON, Mo. -- The unarmed teenager whose fatal shooting by policeignited days of heated protests in suburban St. Louis was suspected of stealing cigars and pushing a clerk at a nearby convenience store earlier that day, police said Friday.

Ferguson Police Chief Thomas Jackson released several police reports and documents during a news conference where he also identified the officer involved as Darren Wilson, who has been on administrative leave since the shooting of 18-year-old Michael Brown on Aug. 9.

Police previously refused citing concerns over the officer's safety.

According to the police reports, Brown and his friend, Dorian Johnson, were suspected of taking a box of cigars from a store in Ferguson that morning. Jackson said Wilson, along with other officers, was called to the area after a 911 call reporting a "strong-arm" robbery just before noon. He said a dispatcher gave a description of the robbery suspect, and Wilson, who had been assisting on another call, was sent to investigate.

That strong arm robbery was caught on video,CBS affiliate KMOV reports. According to the incident report from the robbery, Brown allegedly grabbed a victim and pushed him against shelves in the store.

Wilson, a six-year veteran of the police department, encountered Brown just after 12:01 p.m., with a second officer arriving three minutes later, Jackson said. Wilson was treated for injuries after the shooting, the police chief said.

Police have said Brown was shot after an officer encountered him and another man on the street. They say one of the men pushed the officer into his squad car, then physically assaulted him in the vehicle and struggled with the officer over the officer's weapon. At least one shot was fired inside the car before the struggle spilled onto the street, where Brown was shot multiple times, according to police.

The police chief's announcement Friday was met with immediate disbelief and anger by several dozen community members who also attended the news conference, which was hastily held at a gas station burned during a night of looting earlier in the week.
"He stopped the wrong one, bottom line," yelled Tatinisha Wheeler, a nurse's aide who was at the news conference.
A couple dozen protesters began marching around the area and in the street chanting, "Hands up, don't shoot," and, "What do we want? Justice! When do we want it? Now!"

But on Thursday, county police in riot gear and armored tanks gave way to state troopers walking side-by-side with thousands of peaceful protesters. The dramatic shift came after Gov. Jay Nixon assigned oversight of the protests to the state Highway Patrol, stripping that authority from the St. Louis County Police Department.

"All they did was look at us and shoot tear gas," Pedro Smith, who has participated in the nightly protests, said Thursday. "This is totally different. Now we're being treated with respect."

The more tolerant response came as President Barack Obama spoke publicly for the first time about the shooting - and the subsequent violence that shocked the nation and threatened to tear apart Ferguson, a town of 21,000 that is nearly 70 percent black and patrolled by a nearly all-white police force.

Obama said there was "no excuse" for violence either against the police or by officers against peaceful protesters.

Nixon's promise to ease the deep racial tensions was swiftly put to the test as demonstrators gathered again Thursday evening. But the latest protests had a light, almost jubilant atmosphere among the racially mixed crowd, more akin to a parade or block party.

Nixon appointed Highway Patrol Capt. Ron Johnson, who is black, to lead the police effort. Johnson, who grew up near Ferguson and commands a region that includes St. Louis County, marched alongside protesters Thursday, joined by other high-ranking brass from the Highway Patrol as well as the county department. The marchers also had a police escort.

"We're here to serve and protect," Johnson said. "We're not here to instill fear."

Attorney General Eric Holder has said federal investigators have interviewed witnesses to the shooting.




“The war on drugs and, more recently, post-9/11 antiterrorism efforts have created a new figure on the U.S. scene: the warrior cop—armed to the teeth, ready to deal harshly with targeted wrongdoers, and a growing threat to familiar American liberties. Many longtime and retired law-enforcement officers have told me of their worry that the trend toward militarization is too far gone. Those who think there is still a chance at reform tend to embrace the idea of community policing, an approach that depends more on civil society than on brute force..... This type of policing stance, with officers being recruited via paramilitary-style videos, armed with military-grade weapons and trained tactically as though soldiers, leads to a naturally oppositional stance toward communities in distress.”

There is a trend in policing that has many people disturbed – the militarization of police forces. See the following article on Salon.com: http://www.salon.com/2013/07/13/radley_balko_once_a_town_gets_a_swat_team_you_want_to_use_it/, “Radley Balko: 'Once a town gets a SWAT team you want to use it.'” by Alex Halperin. Photographs from the Ferguson, MO news coverage of crowd control efforts there have fueled a number of news reports on militarization rather than merely the actions of a rogue cop. When I look at them, they do remind me of scenes from some other country and time, for instance Nazi Germany or China's crowd control measures at Tiananmen Square. I believe in respecting policemen and not doing ridiculous things that provoke them, but this invulnerability of the police force is a step toward a totalitarian society. Read the Salon article. It mentions a “Policemen's Bill of Rights.”

The modern trend in policing has been, according to Radley Balko, partly a result of Homeland Security arming local forces to make them more able to combat a terrorist attack, and that is understandable after 9/11, but they are carrying these very aggressive tactics out in local neighborhoods where there are robbers, rapists, murderers, yes, but no terrorists. The officer who shot Brown to death for walking in the street and then – the officer said, but the witness doesn't back this up – “assaulting” the police officer. The chief of police is going to announce the name of this officer today, according to NBC, and perhaps that will make it more likely that the officer will be punished for an unnecessary shooting.

The way this incident with the young men was described, it sounded to me like the police officer felt “disrespected” by the teenagers, who did not move to obey the officer's command that they get out of the street and walk on the sidewalk, and responded by trying to choke the boy and put him in the police car, but failing that he shot him as he was running away and then again several times as he held his arms up and tried to get down on the ground. It looks like a rage killing. The fact that he discharged a large number of bullets resembles either rage or fear, but he shouldn't have been afraid because the boy was surrendering. The police officer's name is Darren Wilson, and he is on administrative leave. According to CBS, the population in Ferguson is 70% black, but there are only three black police officers on the force. That alone is a sign of systemic problems.

The US legislature is looking at this problem in modern police forces as a result of this series of events in Ferguson, and USAG Eric Holder yesterday issued a statement, which I am glad to say covers all my personal concerns about the type of policing that has been used in MO. “'The local authorities in Missouri have accepted this offer of assistance as of this afternoon.' Additionally, Holder said, 'representatives from the department's Community Relations Service are in Missouri, meeting with law enforcement and with local civic and religious leaders 'to plot out steps to reduce tensions in the community.' Meanwhile, the federal investigation of Michael Brown's death continues.” I will follow all articles that appear on this subject. I am also preparing a Blog on the changes in America's police forces. Check for that in two or three days under “Lucy Warner Thoughts And Researches.”





Ebola outbreak likely "vastly" underestimated
CBS/AP August 15, 2014, 9:20 AM

DAKAR, Senegal -- The World Health Organization says beds in Ebola treatment centers in West Africa are filling up faster than they can be provided.

Spokesman Gregory Hartl said in Geneva Friday that the flood of patients to newly opened treatment centers shows that the outbreak's size is far larger than official counts show. WHO said Thursday that recorded death and case tolls may "vastly underestimate the magnitude of the outbreak."

Hartl's remarks confirmed fears first reported by CBS News 10 days earlier, when a senior medical worker in the Liberian capital told CBS' Debora Patta the number of deaths could be 50 percent higher than reflected by the official death toll.

The doctor told Patta the discrepancy between the known cases and the number of actual cases was down to the fact that people in West Africa were scared to report family and friends they feared had the disease and had been hiding sick relatives and burying the still-contagious bodies of the dead in secret.

Traditions in parts of West Africa involve touching bodies before burial -- potentially putting unknown numbers of family and community members at risk.

Hartl said that an 80-bed treatment center opened in Liberia's capital in recent days filled up immediately. The next day, dozens more people showed up to be treated.

According to WHO figures, the outbreak, which began in Guinea and has spread to Liberia, Sierra Leone and Nigeria, has killed more than 1,060 people and sickened nearly 2,000.




“Hartl's remarks confirmed fears first reported by CBS News 10 days earlier, when a senior medical worker in the Liberian capital told CBS' Debora Patta the number of deaths could be 50 percent higher than reflected by the official death toll.... The doctor told Patta the discrepancy between the known cases and the number of actual cases was down to the fact that people in West Africa were scared to report family and friends they feared had the disease and had been hiding sick relatives and burying the still-contagious bodies of the dead in secret.”

I don't understand why the people are afraid of telling authorities that they have sick family members unless they fear being taken against their will to hospitals. I saw in an earlier article that many feared the hospitals, and that there are even people who believe that the health workers have actually caused the disease rather then treating it. They are behaving as though they don't understand what viruses are. There was one report that some Africans thought witches had caused the illness. It's hard to communicate effectively with someone who has no idea what you're talking about, and a head full of superstitions about things that we in the US consider to be a matter of science and medicine. That's like the number of people in the US who still believe in possession by the devil in clearcut cases of mental illness.

I just hope some more doses of serum can be produced in time to do some good. Unfortunately there are only a few labs working on the matter. I don't understand why NIH hasn't been working on a vaccine after the earlier outbreaks. Some healthworkers in Africa are said to have produced serum from goats. Why aren't we doing that? At this point, if the patient already has symptoms of the disease, it doesn't matter much if the serum has not been tested on humans . They should use it, because there is nothing else to give. And in an outbreak like this, there are some people on an ongoing basis who have survived, and therefore their blood will have antibodies in it which have several times been used in Africa to save people's lives. Scientists could be stockpiling sera from those patients to use. I can't help feeling that nothing is being done when there are several things that could be done.




IRS failed to do background checks on contractors
By STEPHANIE CONDON CBS/AP  August 15, 2014, 9:37 AM

The IRS failed to do background checks on some private contractors who handled confidential taxpayer information, exposing more than a million taxpayers to an increased risk of fraud and identity theft, a government investigator said Thursday.

In one case, the IRS gave a printing contractor a computer disk with names, addresses and Social Security numbers of 1.4 million taxpayers, but didn't require a background check for anyone who worked on the job, said a report by the Treasury inspector general for tax administration.

In another case, to transport sensitive documents the IRS used a courier who previously had spent 21 years in prison on arson and other charges. In other cases, contractors underwent background checks but weren't required to sign agreements not to disclose sensitive information, the report said.

"Allowing contractor employees access to taxpayer data without appropriate background investigations exposes taxpayers to increased risk of fraud and identity theft," the inspector general, J. Russell George, said.

IRS policy requires contractors with access to confidential taxpayer information to undergo background checks, though the policy wasn't always followed, the report said. About 10,000 private contractors have access to such information.

The report did not examine whether any of the private contractors misused taxpayer information. But the issue of identity theft has been gaining attention at the IRS and elsewhere.

In recent years the IRS has reported a big jump in thieves trying to fraudulently claim tax refunds using stolen Social Security numbers.

In 2012, the IRS issued $4 billion in fraudulent tax refunds to people using stolen identities, according to an inspector general's report released last year. That same year, the IRS blocked more than $12 billion in fraudulent refunds from going to identity thieves.

Just last month, the FBI's online fraud site, the Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3), issued an alert that complaints from victims about phony tax returns being filed using their information doubled from 2013 to this year.

CBS News business analyst Jill Schlesinger explained earlier this year that thieves typically steal information by sending "phishing" emails, collecting personal information and then filing a return that information.

In a statement, the IRS said it takes seriously its responsibility to protect taxpayer information, "and we expect the same from our contractors."

The agency said it was committed to ensuring that all contractors with access to sensitive information undergo thorough background checks. Also, the IRS said it issued more explicit guidance over a year ago to ensure that contractors submit nondisclosure agreements.

"The IRS is committed to clarifying policies and procedures to ensure appropriate security provisions are included in all appropriate solicitations and contracts," the agency said.

George's investigators reviewed 34 IRS contracts that were active in May 2013. They found five contracts in which no background checks were required, even though contractors had access to confidential information, which is labeled "sensitive but unclassified." The contracts were for courier, printing, document recovery and sign language interpreter services.

The document recovery contract was to salvage sensitive documents and personal belongings of IRS employees after a single-engine plane crashed into an IRS office building in Austin, Texas, in 2010. An IRS employee in the building was killed in the crash.

George's report said background checks were required as part of 12 contracts, but workers were allowed access to sensitive information before the checks were completed.
Investigators also identified 20 contracts in which workers did not sign agreements not to disclose sensitive information.




“IRS policy requires contractors with access to confidential taxpayer information to undergo background checks, though the policy wasn't always followed, the report said. About 10,000 private contractors have access to such information. The report did not examine whether any of the private contractors misused taxpayer information. But the issue of identity theft has been gaining attention at the IRS and elsewhere. In recent years the IRS has reported a big jump in thieves trying to fraudulently claim tax refunds using stolen Social Security numbers.”

In 2012 the IRS blocked $12 billion in fraudulent refunds to identity thiefs, while actually paying out $4 billion. "The IRS is committed to clarifying policies and procedures to ensure appropriate security provisions are included in all appropriate solicitations and contracts," the agency said. George's investigators reviewed 34 IRS contracts that were active in May 2013. They found five contracts in which no background checks were required, even though contractors had access to confidential information, which is labeled 'sensitive but unclassified.' The contracts were for courier, printing, document recovery and sign language interpreter services.'”

This is more lax administration on the part of the IRS. Farming out work to contractors is supposed to save money, but such workers should all be checked and made to promise to reveal nothing about the work. That's like the military contractors such as Blackwater – which is now called Academi – and which was under indictment for torture and perhaps worse of prisoners at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq. They were under very loose supervision. It is shameful that the US government has failed to supervise such people and fire them if they break the law. Hopefully, now that this report has been issued, the shortcomings will be resolved and prevented from occurring in the future.





Ukraine inspects Russia aid convoy near border – CBS
AP August 15, 2014, 5:51 AM

KAMENSK-SHAKHTINSKY, Russia -- Ukraine said its customs and border service officials on Friday began inspecting a Russian aid convoy parked just beyond its border, a sign that the two countries were taking steps to ease mounting tensions over the shipment.

Sergei Astakhov, an assistant to the deputy head of Ukraine's border guard service, said the cargo would be inspected in the presence of representatives from the International Committee of the Red Cross.

The group of 41 Ukrainian border service representatives and 18 customs officials began inspecting the Russian aid at the Donetsk crossing on Friday morning, defense officials in Kiev said in a statement.

Russian news agencies said Russia was prepared to present all necessary documentation and to hand over the cargo to the Red Cross.

The roughly 200 Russian white-tarped trucks have been parked since Thursday near Kamensk-Shakhtinsky, about 17 miles from the border. Much of the border in this part of eastern Ukraine has been under the control of the pro-Russia separatists.

Russia sent the convoy south after deciding not to abide by an earlier tentative agreement to deliver the aid through a government-controlled border crossing in the Kharkiv region.

Ukraine has expressed fears that Russia could use the aid shipment as cover for a military incursion in support of the separatists and threatened to use all means necessary to block the convoy if Ukrainian officials and the Red Cross were not allowed to inspect the cargo.

Adding to the tensions, a dozen Russian armored personnel carriers appeared Friday morning near the aid convoy.




http://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/ukraine-crisis/ukrainian-president-some-russian-military-vehicles-eliminated-n181601

Kiev: Russian Armor Destroyed After Crossing Border – NPR
by SCOTT NEUMAN
August 15, 2014 9:10 AM ET
Updated at 1:20 p.m. ET.

Ukraine's president says Kiev's artillery destroyed a "significant" part of a Russian armored column that is said to have crossed the border overnight.

Russia called the claim a "fantasy."

President Petro Poroshenko told British Prime Minister David Cameron that Ukrainian forces had hit the column, according to the presidential website. Separately, a Ukrainian military spokesman said the Russian column of armored personnel carriers were tracked as they crossed the border. "Appropriate actions were undertaken and a part of it no longer exists," military spokesman Andriy Lysenko told journalists, according to Reuters.

Earlier, NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen says the alliance observed a "Russian incursion" overnight, confirming that Moscow was continuing to supply pro-Moscow separatists with "a continuous flow of weapons and fighters."

"Last night we saw a Russian incursion, a crossing of the Ukrainian border," Rasmussen told reporters after meeting the Danish defense minister, according to Reuters.

"It just confirms the fact that we see a continuous flow of weapons and fighters from Russia into eastern Ukraine and it is a clear demonstration of continued Russian involvement in the destabilization of eastern Ukraine," said.

Russia's Defense Ministry has denied that any of its forces crossed the border.

"There was no Russian military column that crossed the Russian-Ukrainian border either at night or during the day," the ministry was cited as saying in a statement, according to Reuters. The Russians dismissed the Ukrainian report as "some kind of fantasy."

The remarks came as a Russian convoy purportedly carrying humanitarian aid to eastern Ukraine has been halted near the border as it awaits inspection by officials concerned that it could be a pretext for invasion.

Bloomberg says: "The incursion last night isn't seen by Ukraine as a new development or a possible start of an invasion by Russia, Defense Ministry spokesman Leonid Matyukhin said by phone. The vehicles were painted white to camouflage the operation as a peacekeeping mission, he said. The military column, which wasn't part of Russia's convoy delivering humanitarian aid, rolled into insurgent-held territory, Andriy Lysenko, a spokesman for the military, told reporters in Kiev today."

Meanwhile, NPR's Soraya Sarhaddi Nelson, at the eastern border with Russia, says Ukrainian officials reportedly have begun inspecting the convoy at a border crossing that leads to Luhansk, an area where fighting between pro-Russia separatists and Kiev's forces has been ongoing.

Karoun Demirjian, reporting for NPR from Moscow, says the inspections are taking place on the Russian side of the border.

The Associated Press say Moscow has agreed to the procedure and to allow the Red Cross to distribute the aid.

In a statement from the International Committee of the Red Cross on Friday, spokesman Laurent Corbaz said the relief organization would deliver the aid to health centers in the area inside Ukraine where fighting was taking place. He urged both sides to agree quickly to moving the aid to where it's needed.

"We still need assurances from all parties to the conflict that our staff will be allowed to perform their tasks safely and with due respect for our humanitarian principles," he said.

Karoun reports that European diplomatic officials and some journalists in the area first reported that some Russian military vehicles did cross into Ukraine overnight and that two British newspapers said "at least 23 Russian military vehicles" were involved.




"'Appropriate actions were undertaken and a part of it no longer exists,' military spokesman Andriy Lysenko told journalists, according to Reuters.” I'm glad that the Ukrainian troops were able to destroy part of the convoy, but the way this is worded means that others got away, and are presumably reinforcing rebel fighters at this time. It is significant that the Russian move was witnesses this time, but even so Russia has called the story “fantasy.” This report states “Earlier, NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen says the alliance observed a "Russian incursion" overnight, confirming that Moscow was continuing to supply pro-Moscow separatists with 'a continuous flow of weapons and fighter," so it isn't fantasy. According to members of the British press “at least 23” Russian vehicles were involved. One report said they were personnel carriers. I no longer have any good will toward Russia. They have stepped away from the edge at which they were cooperating with the West, and have joined “the dark side” again. US-Russia relations will not be as hopeful from now on.




Nigeria's Brutal Islamist Sect Boko Haram Stages Fresh Mass Kidnap – NBC
Alexander Smith
Reuters contributed to this report.
First published August 15th 2014, 12:05 pm

Nigeria’s violent Islamist sect Boko Haram has abducted around 100 people from a remote fishing village, an official and eyewitnesses said Friday. The attack on Doron Baga was first reported by Reuters eyewitnesses and confirmed to NBC News by Khalifa Ahmed Zanna, senator of Nigeria's northeastern Borno state where most of Boko Haram's attacks take place. "They were shouting 'Allah Akbar' (God is greatest), shooting sporadically," Halima Adamu, told Reuters after the incident last Sunday. "There was confusion everywhere. They started parking our men and boys into their vehicles, threatening to shoot whoever disobey them. Everybody was scared."

Reuters eyewitnesses said 97 people — all men and boys — were unaccounted for, but Zanna said 84 males and 28 females were taken. Doron Baga is 170 miles northeast of Chibok, where Boko Haram kidnapped more than 200 girls in April, sparking an international outcry based around the Twitter hashtag#BringBackOurGirls. Zanna is in the same political party as Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan but he is very critical Jonathan’s response. “I cannot stand by and sacrifice my own people," he said.



Nigerian Troops Battling Boko Haram Are Guilty of War Crimes: Report
BY ALEXANDER SMITH
First published August 4th 2014, 8:11 pm

Forcing detainees to dig their own graves, slitting prisoners' throats in gruesome ceremonial killings, and conducting arbitrary mass executions. These are not charges leveled against Nigeria's brutal Islamist group Boko Haram, but the alleged human rights abuses of government troops tasked with fighting them, according to a report published Monday.

The atrocities of the al-Qaeda-linked sect Boko Haram have been well documented since the kidnap of more than 200 girls in April sparked the international #BringBackOurGirls campaign.

But a report released Monday by human rights group Amnesty International has provided some of the most in-depth coverage yet of the alleged abuses committed by Nigerian security forces tasked with battling Boko Haram and protecting the country's civilians.

One grisly incident tells of two young men forced to dig their own graves by apparent members of the government-backed Civilian Joint Task Force (CJTF).

One of the detainees is held down while the leader of the group raises a knife, kisses it and shouts: "Die hard, commando," before slitting the prisoner’s throat, according to a video gathered by Amnesty, which verified the footage with two Nigerian security sources. Other members of the CJTF group are heard shouting: "Yes oga (boss), kill him."

Several of the armed captors wore military uniforms bearing the name "Borno State Operation Flush," a local state-backed militia, according to Amnesty. NBC News reached out to Borno Senator Ahmed Zanna but he was unavailable for comment.

The incident took place in Maiduguri, the capital of the Nigeria's northeastern Borno state that has become a stronghold for Boko Haram. The group’s name roughly translates to "western education is a sin" and its aim is to destroy Nigeria's oil-driven economy and set up an Islamic state. The government of Nigeria is ranked as one of the most corrupt countries in the world, according to Transparency International.

Borno state, in Nigeria’s Muslim-majority north, has seen more than half of the 22,000 conflict-related deaths in Nigeria since May 2011,according figures from to the New York-based Council for Foreign Relations (CFR).

The video was shot on March 14, the same day as the alleged extrajudicial execution of some 600 prisoners at the town’s Giwa Barracks in the chaotic aftermath of a Boko Haram raid to free fighters held there.

NBC News sent a copy of Amnesty's report before its publication to Boko Haram expert John Campbell, a Senior Fellow for Africa Policy Studies at the CFR. He said the claims were "all very credible, I'm afraid - with a chilling specificity."

According to Campbell, Nigeria's security forces are responsible for killing just as many civilians as Boko Haram.

"Boko Haram is an extremely violent group and since 2009 has basically killed any soldier or policeman it has gotten its hands on," Campbell said. "Whenever you have got this level of violence and brutality it quickly spirals on both sides."

Amnesty’s report also details a terrifying "screening" operation in the town of Bama, 40 miles south-east of Maiduguri, on July 23. Residents told Amnesty that scores of Nigerian military and CJTF personnel told all adult males to gather in the central market at 11 a.m. and remove their clothes.

The men were then lined up one by one, told to close their eyes, and pushed in front of one of the CJTF personnel who told them to go "left" or "right." The 35 men who were sent left were deemed alleged Boko Haram members and beaten with clubs and machetes and later executed, according to eyewitnesses. The 300 who were told to go right were deemed innocent.

"This shocking new evidence is further proof of the appalling disregard for humanity in north-eastern Nigeria, where war crimes are being committed with abandon by all sides in the conflict,” said Salil Shetty, Amnesty International’s Secretary General. “What does it say about a country when members of its military carry out such unspeakable acts and then deliberately capture the images on film?"




Khalifa Ahmed Zanna, senator of Nigeria's northeastern Borno state where the people were kidnapped, is critical of President Goodluck Jonathan's response to the event, though he is of the same political party. According to the article, “97 people — all men and boys — were unaccounted for, but Zanna said 84 males and 28 females were taken.” The Nigerian army seems to be unable to cope with Boko Haram. Meanwhile Amnesty International has released an expose on the war crimes committed by Nigeria's army itself. The incident described in this article as a “screening” procedure executed by the Nigerian army was as ridiculous as it was brutal. I have pity for the ordinary citizens who have to live in such a country.





Iraq's Prime Minister Maliki Says He Will Step Down – NPR
by SCOTT NEUMAN
August 14, 2014 4:23 PM ET
Updated at 6:30 p.m. ET.

Iraq's Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki announced today that he will step down and endorse his nominated successor, state television says.

Maliki, who has been under increasing pressure to step aside, will be succeeded by Haider al-Abadi, from the prime minister's own Dawa Party, who was appointed on Monday and had begun the process of forming a Cabinet despite Maliki's angry denunciations.

The White House commended the move. In a written statement, National Security Adviser Susan Rice said, "A wide range of leaders across the Iraqi political spectrum" have said they are committed to working with Abadi.

"These are encouraging developments that we hope can set Iraq on a new path and unite its people against the threat presented by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant," the statement added.

The Guardian says : "Maliki had been struggling for weeks to stay for a third four-year term as prime minister amid an attempt by opponents to push him out, accusing him of monopolising power and pursuing a fiercely pro-Shiite agenda that has alienated the Sunni minority."

Even so, Maliki pledged earlier this week not to use force to stay in power. Dawa Party spokesman Khalaf Abdul Samad said Wednesday that Maliki had told him he would in fact step down.

Maliki, whose formative political career was as a Shiite dissident under Saddam Hussein, became prime minister in 2006, taking the reins from the Iraqi Transitional Government set up after the U.S. invasion and Saddam's ouster.

He worked closely with the U.S. but has gradually fallen out of favor with Washington, especially in recent months as Islamic militants have launched a push to capture large areas of the country.




“Maliki, who has been under increasing pressure to step aside, will be succeeded by Haider al-Abadi, from the prime minister's own Dawa Party, who was appointed on Monday and had begun the process of forming a Cabinet despite Maliki's angry denunciations.... National Security Adviser Susan Rice said, "A wide range of leaders across the Iraqi political spectrum" have said they are committed to working with Abadi. 'These are encouraging developments that we hope can set Iraq on a new path and unite its people against the threat presented by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant,' the statement added.”

With so many bad news stories these last few weeks, this is one of progress, or at least I hope it pans out to be. If a unified Iraq which includes a well-armed Kurdish population can't stop ISIS, a group of other states will have to, and that's too much like a large regional war which can only get worse. I hope Abadi will be a courageous, honest and wise leader who can martial the Iraqi army to do what it needs to do.