Month: July 2021

U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland on Monday announced a new Justice Department policy that prohibits federal prosecutors from seizing journalists’ phone and email records in leak investigations.

This comes on the heels of a Biden administration decision that the U.S. government will discontinue a highly controversial practice of using subpoenas and secret orders for reporters’ communications data to track down government leakers.

“The Department of Justice will no longer use compulsory legal process for the purpose of obtaining information from or records of members of the news media acting within the scope of newsgathering activities,” Garland wrote in a widely-anticipated memo to his department’s leadership and federal prosecutors.

The policy announcement means the Justice Department will no longer issue subpoenas, warrants and court orders to reporters, their publishers and third-party service providers to obtain the journalists’ records.

There will be exceptions, however. The ban does not apply to obtaining information about a journalist who is under criminal investigation or a journalist who has “used criminal methods” to acquire information, Garland wrote in the three-page statement.

“The prohibition does apply when a member of the news media has, in the course of newsgathering, only possessed or published government information, including classified information,” Garland said.

The announcement comes two months after the Justice Department informed reporters from the Washington Post, New York Times and CNN that the department under former President Donald Trump secretly obtained their phone and email records. As part of a leak investigation, the Justice Department reportedly subpoenaed Apple for the records of two Democratic members of Congress, their aides and family members.

The revelations caused outrage among journalists and press freedom advocates and prompted the Justice Department’s inspector general to open a review of the seizures. Garland promised to change the department’s policy on obtaining journalists’ records and voiced support for legislation to make safeguards permanent.

Last month, the attorney general met with executives from the three news organizations and pledged to announce a new policy on the issue. At a news conference last month, Garland said “the only way to make [the policy] permanently durable is through legislation, and I personally will support working with Congress to develop legislation that would make protections for obtaining the press’ records part of the legislation.”

In his memo, Garland said he had asked his deputy, Lisa Monaco, to review existing Justice Department rules on obtaining journalists’ records and to “codify the…protections in regulations.” He also reiterated his support for congressional action “to protect members of the news media.”

Press freedom advocates praised the new policy.

“The attorney general has taken a necessary and momentous step to protect press freedom at a critical time,” Bruce Brown, executive director of Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, said in a statement. “This historic new policy will ensure that journalists can do their job of informing the public without fear of federal government intrusion into their relationships with confidential sources.”

On Twitter, Freedom of the Press Foundation urged Congress to “immediately codify these rules so they have the force of law.”
 
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Egyptian authorities released three activists and three journalists Sunday after months in pre-trial detention, officials and lawyers said. The releases came after U.S. officials, among others, expressed concern over the arrests and harassment of rights advocates and critics of President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi’s government.

State security prosecutors ordered the release of the six pending ongoing investigations into charges against them, according to two judicial officials. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to brief the media. 

The charges rage from disseminating false news and misuse of social media platforms to joining a terrorist group, a reference to the Muslim Brotherhood which Egypt designated as a terrorist group in 2013. 

Despite their lengthy detention, those arrested and released have yet to stand trial, according their lawyers.

Esraa Abdel-Fattah, a pro-democracy activist and writer, walked free early Sunday, her sister Shimaa wrote in a Facebook post. She was a co-founder of the April 6 movement that played a crucial role in the 2011 pro-democracy uprising that toppled longtime autocrat Hosni Mubarak.

Abdel-Fattah was arrested in October 2019 in a city west of Cairo, during a crackdown that followed small but rare anti-government protests. Hundreds were arrested at the time, but many were later released.

Prominent rights lawyer Mahienour el-Masry also was released Sunday, her sister Maysoon el-Masry wrote in a Facebook post that included a photo of the lawyer wearing a white uniform for jailed people and a face mask.

El-Masry, who is widely known for her activism in labor movements, and on behalf of Syrian and Palestinian refugees living in Egypt, had been arrested in Sep. 2019 amid the crackdown that followed the rare protest.

Authorities also released journalist Gamal el-Gamal, said rights lawyer Nasser Amin. El-Gamal, who is widely known for his columns critical of el-Sissi’s government, was arrested earlier this year upon arrival at Cairo International Airport from Turkey, where he had lived since 2017.

Also among those released Sunday were journalists Mustafa el-Aasar and Moataz Wadnan, who had been held in pre-trail detention since 2018, according to rights lawyer Malek Adly.

Abdel-Nasser Ismail, deputy head of the Socialist People’s Alliance Party, also walked free earlier Sunday after nearly two years in pre-trail detention.

The releases came amid calls by lawmakers and public figures to release activists and rights advocates who have been detained in recent years in over what they say politically-motivated charges.
Last week, there was an outcry by rights advocates when prosecutors last week referred Hossam Bahgat, a leading Egyptian investigative journalist and human rights advocate, to trial. Bahgat said he was accused of insulting Egypt’s election authority, spreading false news alleging electoral fraud, and using social media to commit crimes.

The accusations stem from a tweet Bahgat wrote last year blaming the election authority’s chairman for allegedly mishandling last year’s parliamentary vote, he said.

U.S. State Department spokesman Ned Price condemned Bahgat’s indictment and the detention and harassment of Egyptian civil society leaders, academics, and journalists under el-Sissi.

“We’ve communicated to the Egyptian government our strong belief that individuals such as Hossam Bahgat should not be targeted for expressing their views peacefully,” Price said last week. “As a strategic partner we’ve raised these concerns with the Egyptian government, and we will continue to do so going forward.”

Also last week, an Egyptian court began the trial of six secular activists and journalists, including former lawmaker Zyad el-Elaimy, rights lawyer Khalid Ali said. The six, who were arrested in 2019, face an array of charges including disturbing the public peace through disseminating false news about domestic affairs. The next court session is July 29, Ali said.

El-Elaimy and others were added by a court last year to a list of suspected terrorists for the next five years. The decision was upheld last week by the Court of Cassation — Egypt’s highest criminal court. 

Also added to the terror list was Palestinian-Egyptian activist Ramy Shaath, who helped establish Egypt’s branch of the Palestinian-led boycott movement against Israel, known as BDS. 

Shaath, the son of a former Palestinian foreign minister, was also detained in 2019 but has not been charged or referred to court for trial. His wife, a French citizen, has been deported.

The Egyptian government has in recent years waged a wide-scale crackdown on dissent, jailing thousands of people, mainly Islamists, but also secular activists involved in the 2011 Arab Spring uprising that toppled longtime autocrat Hosni Mubarak.

Journalists have also been targeted, with dozens imprisoned and some expelled. Egypt remains among the world’s top jailers of journalists, along with Turkey and China, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists.
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The leader of the Taliban said Sunday that his movement is committed to a political settlement to end decades of war in Afghanistan, even as the insurgents battle in dozens of districts across to country to gain territory. 

The statement by Mawlawi Hibatullah Akhundzada came as Taliban leaders were meeting with a high-level Afghan government delegation in the Gulf state of Qatar to jump-start stalled peace talks. The Kabul delegation includes the No. 2 in the government, Abdullah Abdullah, head of Afghanistan’s national reconciliation council. 

The talks resumed Saturday, ahead of the four-day Muslim holiday of Eid al-Adha, which in many parts of the world is expected to start Tuesday. A second session took place Sunday afternoon. 

Washington’s peace envoy Zalmay Khalilzad, who is in Qatar, previously expressed hope for a reduction in violence and possibly a cease-fire over Eid al-Adha. 

Akhundzada said that “in spite of the military gains and advances, the Islamic Emirate strenuously favors a political settlement in the country, and every opportunity for the establishment of an Islamic system.”  

The Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan is what the Taliban called their government when they ruled the country for five years, until their ouster by a U.S.-led coalition in 2001. 

Still, there are few signs of a political agreement on the horizon. Battles between the Taliban and government forces are continuing in dozens of provinces, and thousands of Afghans are seeking visas in hopes of leaving the country. Most are frightened that the final withdrawal of U.S. and NATO troops after nearly 20 years will plunge their war-ravaged nation into deeper chaos. With the U.S. withdrawal more than 95% complete, Afghanistan’s future seems uncertain. 

Militias with a brutal history have been resurrected to fight the Taliban but their loyalties are to their commanders, many of them U.S.-allied warlords with ethnic-based support. 

This has raised the specter of deepening divisions between Afghanistan’s many ethnic groups. Most Taliban are ethnic Pashtuns and in the past there have been brutal reprisal killings by one ethnic group against another. 

In a sign of how little progress has been made in negotiations, both sides are still haggling over terminology, unable to agree on the name for the nation. The Taliban are insisting on the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan. Kabul wants the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan. 

Meanwhile Akhunzada’s statement demanded an Islamic system without explaining what that meant. 

He promised to support education, but for girls he said the “Islamic Emirate will … strive to create an appropriate environment for female education within the framework of sublime Islamic law.” 

He didn’t say how that differed from the educational institutions that have been created during the last 20 years and whether women would be allowed the freedom to work outside their home and move freely without being accompanied by a male relative. 

He said the Taliban have ordered their commanders to treat civilians with care and to protect institutions and infrastructure. Yet, reports have emerged from areas coming under Taliban control that schools have been burned, women have been restricted to their homes and some government buildings have been blown up. 

The Taliban have denied reports of such destruction, saying that the footage being shown is old and accused the government of being engaged in disinformation and propaganda. 
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Afghanistan said Sunday it has asked all of its diplomats in Pakistan to return to Kabul until Islamabad addresses “all security risks” to them and brings to justice those behind last week’s brief abduction of the Afghan ambassador’s daughter.  
 
The announcement came a day after the Afghan government said Silsila Alikhil, daughter of Afghan envoy Najibullah Alikhil, was taken hostage for several hours and “severely tortured” by unknown assailants in the Pakistani capital on Friday afternoon before being set free.  
 
Islamabad said a high-level through investigation was launched into the “disturbing incident” immediately after the Afghan embassy reported to the Pakistani foreign ministry that Alikhil was “assaulted while riding a rented vehicle.”
 
A hospital medical report confirmed that Alikhil was physically assaulted.  
 
“An Afghan delegation will visit Pakistan soon to assess and follow up on the (kidnapping) case and all related issues; subsequent actions will follow based on the findings,” the Afghan foreign ministry said Sunday.
 
No one has claimed responsibility for the attack that has dealt a fresh blow to the fragile relationship between Afghanistan and Pakistan that is marred by suspicion and acrimony.

The Pakistani Foreign Ministry, responding to Kabul’s recalling of its diplomats, described it as “unfortunate and regrettable.” The ministry said in a statement it hoped the Afghan government would reconsider the decision.  
 
“The reported abduction and assault of ambassador’s daughter in Islamabad is being investigated and followed-up at the highest level on the instructions of the prime minister (Imran Khan),” it said. 

Pakistani officials said security for the Afghan ambassador, his family and personnel of other diplomatic missions of Afghanistan in the country has been further tightened.
 
Bilateral diplomatic tensions have deteriorated in the wake of stepped-up attacks by Taliban insurgents against Afghan government forces amid the drawdown of U.S.-led foreign forces from Afghanistan.
 
Kabul routinely accuses Islamabad of allowing the Taliban to use Pakistani soil for directing attacks on the Afghan side of the long border between the two countries.  
 
Pakistan accuses authorities in Afghanistan of sheltering fugitive militants and allowing them to plot cross-border terrorist attacks.
Analysts said the rising diplomatic bilateral tensions do not bode well for peace efforts in Afghanistan.  
 
Pakistan is considered a key player in the Afghan peace process and has been acknowledged by the United States for helping bring the Taliban to the negotiating table for talks with Kabul’s representatives, though the process has failed to make any headway.  
 
“Close Afghanistan-Pakistan collaboration is of utmost importance at this time of peace talks,” said Torek Farhadi, a former Afghan government adviser.  
 
“Pakistan has promised to get to the bottom of this unfortunate affair within 48 hours. President [Ashraf] Ghani could have waited a few days and take such a decision in consultation with Afghan Parliament,” Farhadi said.

 
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Former Haitian justice ministry official Joseph Felix Badio may have ordered the assassination of Haiti’s President Jovenel Moise, the head of Colombia’s national police has said, citing a preliminary investigation into the killing. 

Moise was shot dead at his private residence in a suburb of Port-au-Prince before dawn on July 7.

An investigation by Haitian and Colombian authorities, alongside Interpol, into Moise’s killing has revealed that Badio appeared to have given an order for the assassination three days before the attack, General Jorge Vargas said Friday at a news conference and in an audio message sent to news outlets by the police.

It was not immediately possible to reach Badio for comment. His whereabouts are unknown.

According to Vargas, the investigation found that Badio had ordered former Colombian soldiers Duberney Capador and German Rivera to kill Moise. The men had initially been contacted to carry out security services.

“Several days before, apparently three, Joseph Felix Badio, who was a former official of [Haiti’s] ministry of justice, who worked in the anti-corruption unit with the general intelligence service, told Capador and Rivera that they had to assassinate the president of Haiti,” Vargas said.

Vargas did not provide proof or give more details about where the information came from.

Capador was killed and Rivera was captured by Haiti police in the aftermath of Moise’s killing, authorities have said.

Alleged mastermind

On Sunday, Haitian authorities detained Christian Emmanuel Sanon, 63, widely described as a Florida-based doctor, and accused him of being one of the masterminds behind the killing.

Former Haitian Senator John Joel Joseph is being sought by police after Haiti’s National Police Chief Leon Charles identified him as a key player in the plot, while Dimitri Herard, the head of palace security for Moise, has been arrested.

“This is a big plot. A lot of people are part of it,” Haiti’s Interim Prime Minister Claude Joseph said in a news conference. “I am determined to move the investigation forward.”

The group of assassins included 26 Colombians and two Haitian Americans, according to Haitian authorities. Eighteen of the Colombians have been captured, while five are on the run and three were killed.

Many of the Colombians accused of involvement in the assassination went to the country as bodyguards, Colombian President Ivan Duque said Thursday. That has been confirmed by relatives and colleagues of some of the detained Colombians.

“We are assisting in all the support tasks for the interviews that are being carried out with the captured Colombians,” Vargas said.

Colombia will send a consular mission to Haiti as soon as it is approved by the Caribbean nation, Colombian Vice President and Foreign Minister Marta Lucia Ramirez told journalists on Friday, to meet with the detained Colombians, ensure their rights are being respected, and move ahead with the repatriation of the remains of the deceased Colombians.

The ministry is in daily contact with the families of the dead and detained, Ramirez added.
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