Dhow Trade in the North Arabian Sea

Vijay Sakhuja

The half yearly report on global trends in sea piracy and armed robbery against ships for 2017, published by the International Maritime Bureau (IMB), presents a mixed bag of news: the good news is that 87 piracy incidents were recorded across the globe in the first six months, the lowest in five years for the same period. The bad news is that Somali pirates were once again active in the Gulf of Aden after a hiatus of nearly five years. The IMB has cautioned that the Somali pirates “still retain the skills and capacity to attack merchant ships far from coastal waters.” 

One such attack involves an Indian dhow, the Gujarat based ‘Al-Kausar’, which was hijacked near Yemen's Socotra Island in April  2017. The vessel was on transit between Dubai and Biosaso, Somalia when the 10-member crew was taken hostage by the pirates. The dhow was marshalled to the port of Hobyo. India dispatched warships to the area and inter-government agencies maintained a close watch and effective coordination to end the crisis. After successful negotiations between the dhow’s agents and pirates, the crew was released.

The above incident merits attention from four perspectives. The first concerns the safety of crew against piracy and armed robbery, particularly those onboard dhows. These are poor people and easy targets for pirates; they surrender without putting up any resistance and are forced to pay hefty ransoms for release failing which they remain in captivity for long periods. This is not the first time an Indian dhow has been captured by Somali pirates. In 2009, Bhaktisagar, a Gujarat based dhow was hijacked by Somali pirates who demanded US$300,000 to release the crew. In another incident, a US Navy ship rescued an Indian dhow and the captured pirates were handed over to authorities for trial in a Kenyan court. In 2014, Somali pirates released Al Nasri, a dhow carrying 2,000 goats destined for Dubai considering it as fragile cargo. There are also other cases of Indian dhows being captured by pirates including Krishnajyot, al Kadri, al Ijaj, and Osmani. The fate of the vessels Nar Narayan, Sea Queen and Vishwa Kalyan is unknown. 

Notwithstanding these perilous voyages, Indian dhows have continued to sail between the Persian Gulf and Somalia. The Indian Directorate General of Shipping, through various advisories, has declared the east coast of Africa and Somalia as dangerous for shipping including for smaller craft such as dhows, and has strongly recommended avoiding areas west and south across the imaginary line between Salalah in Oman and Male in the Maldives. 

Second, the dhows which come under the control of pirates can potentially masquerade as trading vessels and used for attacks on unsuspecting ships, for drug smuggling and even for terrorism. The dhows are suspected to be used for drug trade and between 2013 and 2016 the Combined Maritime Forces (CMF) intercepted and seized over 9300kg of high purity heroin from these vessels. In 2015, a dhow named ‘Barooki’, with 12 crew members (seven Iranians and five Baluchs) was discovered off the Kerala coast raising fears that it may be engaged in subversive activities after “no fishing equipment like nets or other materials were found in the dhow.”

Third is the economics of dhow trade. In the Arabian Sea, dhow trade is centuries old and has been popular among the smaller Gujarati and Kerala traders in India and in the Persian Gulf. The dhows displace less than 1000 tons and carry a variety of cargo including iron, coal, steel, cement, grain, livestock and other low value items. These are not ‘just in time’ or ‘time-bound deliveries’ and the dhows can sometime take up to two to three weeks between India and the Gulf countries or to ports in East Africa.

Another significant role of the dhow trade concerns the supply of food to war-torn Yemen. These vessels ship nearly 14000 to 18000 tons of foodstuffs (cereals, rice, condiments, etc) every month to Yemen and each boat carries as much as 2000 tons of cargo. The voyage takes about five to eight days. The threat of Somali piracy and the ongoing civil war in Yemen has severely impacted on the food supply chains between the Gulf region and the Yemini ports of Hodeidah and Salif on the Red Sea, where all the large grain silos are located. 

The fourth issue about the dhows is traditional boat-building.  These boats are built in India, Iran, Oman and the United Arab Emirates (UAE). The dhows in India are built in Gujrat and Kerala. Those built in Gujarat are towed to the Gulf countries for fitting of machinery, particularly engines and other navigation equipment. Apparently, under a barter deal, the supplier of engine and equipment becomes a ‘co-owner of the vessel and plies the services of the vessel for a number of ‘trade days’ in exchange for sponsoring the engine.’

In India, Baypore in Kerala is home to the art of Uru making, a wooden dhow that was part of the trading network with Mesopotamia. The dhow trade is popular along the Malabar Coast and these vessels call at small ports in Maharashtra, Goa, Karnataka and Kerala. 

Given its economic versatility and traditional boat-building capability, dhow trade needs to be preserved. It is a good example where culture, trade, history and society blend and can be an agenda for soft power exchanges between India and the Gulf countries, particularly Oman, Iran and the UAE.

A Pug, a Terrier and the Doklam Stand Off

Vijay Shankar

William Moorcroft, a British veterinary surgeon of the East India Company, set off in 1816 on an expedition to the Kailas region of Tibet to search for that breed of Central Asian horses that would revitalise the blood stock of the Company’s cavalry. His quest took him to a Tibetan official, where to his astonishment he was greeted not by his fabled strain of mounts but by two familiar breed of dogs - one a Pug and the other a Terrier, both alien to the land. So where had they come from? The answer, took a while to sink in: Tsar Alexander’s army had got here before the British.

 

A shadowy war was underway for control of the strategic passes, plateaus and wastelands of Tibet and Central Asia that led to India. However, Russian intent on conquest then, seemed inconceivable to the Raj. It was not till the middle of the 19th Century when the Khanates along the route fell, that the curtains lifted on the ‘Great Game’. As the frontiers of the two empires loomed, it exposed the ill-surveyed and poorly guarded borders of Northern India. It took the British Empire four decades after Moorcroft’s ‘close encounter’ to fully appreciate the significance of the ‘Pug and the Terrier’.

The Great Game ended after two revolutions and another half century. Yet its legacy of where the Northern frontiers of India lay remained confused, as the British used little else than artful cartography and more of imperial disdain to redraw empire. The modern Indian state has yet to reconcile this dangerous historical equivocation. Early political leadership in India had a cavalier and sometimes Arcadian perspective of history. The absence of unprejudiced attempts at defining geography has left indistinct borderlands to this day that suppurate with disturbing regularity. The region of the Doklam plateau in the tri-junction of India, China and Bhutan is one such region. 

Doklam is situated roughly 15kms east of the Nathu La pass that separates India and China. On the western edge of the Doklam plateau is Doka La, which connects Sikkim with either Tibet (Chinese Government claim) or links Sikkim to western Bhutan. In June 2017, China attempted to extend a road southward across Yadong county, the wedge at the mouth of the Chumbi valley, leading to the thin edge. So, on 18 June 2017, Indian troops crossed into the territory to prevent construction of the road. China has criticised India for entering its "territory”. With Bhutan the dispute involves, a matter of 764sq kms of territory on the Doklam Plateau. The ‘Wedge’ has enormous strategic significance for China, Bhutan as well as India.

 

Recall in 1962, the real anxiety was that the thrust of China’s Army of Tibet would develop on a North-South axis from the Chumbi Valley to cut off the strategically vital Siliguri corridor (Chicken’s Neck). In 1965 again China in support of Pakistan, threatened to open this front. If China were to ever get hold of this territory, the Northeast would remain in a state of unremitting peril. The India-Bhutan Friendship Treaty of 2007, successor to the 1949 Treaty of ‘Perpetual Peace and Friendship’, pledges close 'cooperation on issues relating to national interests and security'. It mirrors Bhutanese trepidation of a Tibet encore.

Central to the current stand-off is the building of logistical infrastructure across the disputed plateau that would provide a spring board to drive across the Chicken’s neck. India along with Bhutan has stepped into the disputed area to block advancement of the road. So what has urged Beijing to incite this incident? There are three impulsions which have a bearing on the impasse: first, India’s maritime manoeuvres (‘Malabar’) in the northern Indian Ocean with the US and Japan underscore resolve to achieve cooperative security and control against an aggressive and revisionist China; second, India’s strategic disinclination to come on board on One Belt One Road (OBOR) for reasons of it being “long on politics and spare on economics” has not gone down well with China. Besides the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor is offensive as it passes through the disputed Pakistan-Occupied Kashmir (POK); and last, the India-Bhutan security compact is abhorrent to China and needed to be put to test.

And what of an improbable escalation to a hot conflict? Clearly the Indian military is prepared. It is also clear that conflict will be waged on terms advantageous to India. In addition to operational manoeuvres undertaken to check China’s land forces, the superior deployable Indian Air Force will endeavour to assure a favourable situation in the skies to progress operations on the ground while the Indian Navy will strive to deny the northern Indian Ocean to the People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) exertions as it exercises control over shipping in the busiest lanes of the world located in Arabian Sea and Bay of Bengal, targeting hulls bound for China. Obviously these missions are neither small in scope nor will they come without losses; an eventuality that both nations must be sensitive to will be to the detriment of their larger development goals.

And all this ado for the indifference to misplaced Pugs and Terriers.

Bangladesh’s Governance Decay: A Case Of Leadership Betrayal?

M. Adil Khan

The sad thing about democracy is that every time you vote, a politician wins and for Bangladesh its tryst with ‘democracy’ its politicians have been anything but happy.

Most Bangladeshis feel that they have been betrayed by their politicians especially by their leaderships. They have witnessed how their leaders that sought votes and got themselves elected through democratic frameworks and thus were expected to govern through democratic norms trashed democracy as soon as they entrenched themselves in the seats of power and turned the system into autocracy or semi-autocracy, mainly to suit their own needs more than those of the people that voted them in. People also witnessed that almost every government that ruled the country since its inception in 1971 simply took turns to curtail  freedom, suppress and repress opposition and plunder and pillage the national coffer with such regularity that in the name of democracy all they got is a retinue of ‘rotating plundering governments’. Among these there was also one particular political leadership that went one step further and made what may be termed as,Luichchami(in the absence of proper Englishthis local term has been used to describe a rare form of one human behaviour that mixed pornography and lying with theft), as a governing philosophy.

Lately, even the language of political discourse has changed. Gone are the days when in spite of their differences leaders used to treat each other with respect and never ever strayed from decency and decorum and never departed from the accepted code of civility while criticising their political rivals. Not any more,these days obscenity and foul words are the norm and have become favoured and common epithets in political lexicon.

Notwithstandingits impressive economic and social accomplishments, some however, argue and with some justification that much of these such as reduction of poverty, improvements in education, gender equality, nutrition, sanitation etc.  are mainly due to contributions made by the creative and enterprising men and women of the private sector that have used the market forces to expand manufacturing; toils and tears of migrant workers that fill the national coffer with foreign exchange (only to be stolen by the government and its agents) and the empathizing NGOs that have successfully filled the void that have been left by most governments in social sector, current trend is gloomy and risks reversing the gains made so far. Indeed, Bangladesh is a classic case where progress has been made despite government and the predatory behaviour of the government has become so dangerous that the coterie is starting to eat out the very soul of the country. What is also quite worrying that in order to hide their failures and most importantly, their plundering acts and this is being done quite aggressively now, that the government has resorted to nationalistic rancour that has diverted attention of people to non-issues and at the same time, divided the very people the leadership is expected not just to represent but also to serve,equally. As a matter of fact, parliamentarians that grace the hallowed hall of the Sangsad Bhavan and warm its comfortable seats are anything but selfless crusaders of people’s cause. On the contrary, over the years these political elites have taken turns to rob the country and bully the opponents,while helping themselves and their cronies to become obscenely wealth and dangerously powerful so much so that the entire political system has now become a prisoner of these wealthy predators.

Things cannot and should not be allowed to go on like this forever. But, given its control on the system, is there a way out?

Indeed, there is a way out and it is within the very system that has betrayed the people of Bangladesh and made them powerless in the first place. The answer is in democracy itself – yes, in democracy but not in the democracy of the rich, the minority but in the democracy of the poor and the marginalized, the majority.

José ‘Pepe’ Mujica, a former armed revolutionary,who until recently has been the President of Uruguay,someone who never stayed at the presidential palace but in his small hut for he firmly believed that presidential palaces, red carpets, flagged cars etc. are all colonial legacies,that were deliberately introduced to separate the ruler from the ruled should have never been the norm in a democratic polity and someone who is also popularly known as ‘poor’ president for his frugal lifestyle who never used presidential plush state car and instead travelled in his beaten up beetle to conduct official business,who also donated 90 per cent of his presidential salary to charity firmly believes that democracy is not safe under rich people though rich per se are not the problem. Mujica believes that the rich are not the best people to represent the interest of the poor and this is because perspectives of the rich are very different from those of the poor and thus by linking democracy with lifestyle he once queried that if democracy is about representation and reflection of the majority “..should the heads of state not live like the majority and not like the minority.”

These days in Bangladesh, lifestyles of the political leaders –the president, the prime minister, the ministers, members of the parliament etc. etc. – and the way the potentates manner they conduct themselves resemble more like the Arab Shiekhs (in every bit of its vulgar sense) and not the majority and thus the rich men’s(who are also crooks) ‘democracy’ has corrupted the entire society and marginalized the majority ever so aggressively that at the present time notions of justice, fair play, morality, honesty etc. are an anathema where inequality is on the rise, corruption is rampant, critical conversations are ignored or crushed either through menacing threats or through deaths . A cloud of despair has descended upon Bangladesh where a sedating mix of ‘development’ rhetoric and evocation of false nationalism is used to grease a good proportion of the civil society that acquiesce the ruling elite of their acts of plunder and murder (literally), where democracy sounds more like a death warrant!

So what should the people of Bangladesh do to rescue democracy from the clutches of these wicked elites to make it work for the people again?

Mujica has a solution. He believes that only democracy can cure democracy and that suggests in conditions such those that have gripped Bangladesh the way to resurrect democracy for the people is for people to shun the wealthy (and by extension, crooks) in politics, change is inevitable and rewarding at the same time.

Charges against Australian “terror” suspects only raise new questions

Mike Head

After being detained for five days without charge over an alleged plot to bring down a passenger plane, two Sydney men were charged on Thursday night with two vague counts of acts done in preparation for, or planning “a” terrorist act.

The laying of charges came as the federal government was increasingly under pressure to justify the detentions and the turmoil created over the past week in Australian airports by the alleged terror plot to bring down an aircraft.

The authorities now say there were two separate plans, one to blow up a plane and another to kill people using rotten egg gas.

The charges were laid two days after the release, without charge, of another man arrested when police raided six homes across Sydney last Saturday. A fourth man remains detained without charge under investigation and interrogation powers handed to the police as part of the “war on terror.”

For political purposes, the government and the police are feeding what appear to be fantastic claims to the population, via a complicit media, prejudicing any chance the two men ever had of a fair trial.

“This is one of the most sophisticated plots that has ever been attempted on Australian soil,” Australian Federal Police (AFP) Deputy Commissioner Mike Phelan told a press conference.

At his own media gathering, Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull congratulated “our intelligence, security and police services for their outstanding work in disrupting the terrorist plot to bring down an aeroplane.”

Justice Minister Michael Keenan, who is responsible for the AFP, said the seriousness of the charges laid against the two men “cannot be underestimated.”

With their help, the media has been full of headlines such as “ISIS sent bomb parts for terror plot” and “Terror at the terminal.”

The new details, however, only raise many more questions about the alleged plots, the surveillance the men were under, and the timing of the police operation.

The charges themselves are nebulous. Khaled Mahmoud Khayat, 49, and Mahmoud Khayat, 32, are being prosecuted under section 101.6 of the federal Criminal Code. This provision makes it an offence to do “any act in preparation for, or planning, a terrorist act,” even if no terrorist act occurs and “the person’s act is not done in preparation for, or planning, a specific terrorist act [emphasis added].”

The two brothers can be convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment without the police having to present evidence of any specific plot or its location, target, method or timing. “Preparation” or “planning” can mean nothing more than discussing “a” possible terrorist act.

The two defendants were denied bail and are not due to face court until November 14.

The first alleged plot is that the men attempted to smuggle an improvised bomb, encased in a metal meat grinder, onto a July 15 Etihad flight from Sydney to the Middle East. Supposedly the bomb was made from “military grade explosive” sent by “a senior Islamic State operative” in Syria, via the post using an air cargo flight from Turkey.

Exactly how or why the men and their “sophisticated” ISIS handlers thought they could get a metal meat grinder through routine airport security metal detection has not been explained.

Deputy Commissioner Phelan said it was a matter of “conjecture” why this plan was aborted. For unknown reasons, he said, luggage containing the bomb was not loaded aboard the Etihad plane, although the man taking the luggage—allegedly another Khayat brother—was permitted to board the flight and leave the country.

Phelan said the moment police found out about the plot they constructed a replica of the weapon and tried to smuggle it aboard a plane to test security. He said there had been a “100 percent success rate,” suggesting the device would never have made it onto the plane. This only underscores the implausibility of the meat grinder plan.

The second plot seems just as far-fetched. According to the police, after the men “failed” in the first plot a controller directed them to construct an “improvised chemical dispersion device” designed to release “highly toxic hydrogen sulphide.”

Better known as rotten egg gas, this compound is an unlikely terrorist weapon, and there is no record of it ever being used for that purpose. Relatively easily made and commonly produced in high school laboratory experiments, hydrogen sulphide can be lethal, but only in very high concentrations in small enclosed locations, not aircraft.

One of the academic security experts cited in the media, Professor Greg Barton, said: “Releasing hydrogen sulphide in an aircraft cabin wouldn’t render everyone unconscious.”

Commissioner Phelan declared that the gas plan was in its early stages. “I want to make it quite clear that we were a long way from a functional device,” he said. “There is no evidence at all that that device was completed.”

This only points to further questions about the nature and timing of the police operation. If the meat grinder plot “failed” and the rotten egg gas “bomb” was nowhere near completion, why were the raids and arrests conducted last Saturday, and why were they accompanied by escalated security measures that threw airports into chaos for days?

Questions about timing go back further. According to today’s Australiannewspaper, Khaled Khayat first came to the attention of the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO) some years ago when another brother, Tarek, went to Syria to join ISIS.

The Australian said Khaled was “of no interest to security authorities” after that, but reported that the “plot” began back in April when Khaled started communicating with Tarek and an ISIS “controller” via text and encrypted app messages.

It now appears that, as with so many “terrorist plots,” the participants were under surveillance. According to the Australian, “a foreign intelligence agency believed to be Britain’s” knew about the failed July 15 plot but waited until July 26 to tell Australian authorities. If this is true, it raises obvious questions: how and when did the overseas agency know about the plan?

If the agency knew about the plot before it took place, why were Australian police and intelligence agencies not informed? If it only knew after the failed attempt, why wait for days to alert its Australian counterparts? And why did Australian police wait for another three days to act after they were allegedly told?

All of these details should be treated with healthy suspicion. Increasingly it appears that the police raids were timed to create a terror scare right at the point that the Turnbull government was seeking to justify a revamping and expansion of the federal intelligence agencies and police.

How this operation is being exploited politically can be seen from Turnbull’s media event yesterday. He again declared that the “terrorist plot” proved the need for the far-reaching restructuring of the police and intelligence apparatus that he unveiled the previous week, and for ongoing “relentless” measures to bolster the “security” powers and agencies.

This restructuring includes the creation of a Home Affairs super-ministry to take centralised control over a range of police and spy agencies, including ASIO, the AFP, the Border Force, and a parallel centralisation of all the civilian and military intelligence agencies under a new Office of National Intelligence in the prime minister’s office.

Further plans are now being mooted, including more intrusive security measures at airports and an extension of ASIO’s detention and interrogation powers.

None of this has anything to do with ensuring the safety of the population. Instead, terrorism scares are being exploited to try to divert attention from the deepening crisis of Turnbull’s badly divided government and of the political establishment as a whole.

At the same time, as last week’s intelligence review report indicated, a police-state framework is being established to monitor and suppress rising social and political discontent, and intensifying popular concern about Australia’s close involvement in plans for escalating US-led wars, including against North Korea and China.

Rome sends warships into Libyan waters to block refugees

Alex Lantier 

On August 3, the Italians government sent the frigate Commandante Borsini into Libyan territorial waters to stop refugees fleeing Libya for Europe. This violation of the sovereignty of Libya, a former Italian colony, aims to destroy refugee vessels and force refugees back into Libya, where the militias that have controlled the country ever since the devastating NATO war against Libya in 2011 detain them in appalling conditions.

The Italian parliament has approved a law allowing the Italian navy to trespass into Libyan waters under the pretext that they are helping the Libyan coast guard to arrest refugees. Italian Defense Minister Roberta Pinotti even declared that the goal was to “reinforce Libyan sovereignty.” A large majority in parliament voted for the intervention, 328 to 113 in the lower house and 191 to 47 in the upper house.

The law provoked outrage on Libyan social media and protests in the Libyan capital, Tripoli, with banners bearing pictures of Omar al-Mukhtar, the “Lion of the Desert” who led the resistance to Italian colonial rule in the early 20th century, and the slogan “No to a return to colonialism.” Rome reacted by cutting the number of vessels deployed off Libya from six to two.

Human rights groups denounced the Italian naval operation. “The Italian Navy deployment in Libyan waters could effectively lead to arbitrary detention of people in abusive conditions,” said Human Rights Watch official Judith Sunderland. “Italy is preparing to help Libyan forces who are known to detain people in conditions that expose them to a real risk of torture, sexual violence, and forced labour.”

The Italian Navy also seized the Iuventa, the ship of the German Jugend Rettet (“Youth Rescue”) NGO, which tries to save refugees on the dangerous central Mediterranean passage from western Libya to Italy. The NGO had refused to sign a “code of conduct” dictated by the European Union (EU) that would have limited the number of refugees it could save on the high seas.

“If NGOs do not sign [the code of conduct], it is hard to see how they can continue their work,” Italian Interior Minister Marco Minniti told La Stampa.

The Italian naval mission points to the rising danger of a new imperialist intervention in Libya by competing European powers. Paris has already called for the installation of camps where French and Libyan officials would imprison, inspect, and render judgment on refugees seeking to escape Libya to Europe. Now, Rome is proposing its own intervention amid escalating rivalries between French and Italian imperialism in North Africa.

The Italian operation provoked a loud condemnation from Field Marshal Khalifa Haftar, a former Libyan general and CIA asset who now controls much of eastern Libya around Benghazi and is being groomed as a proxy for French imperialism.

Haftar’s Libyan National Army (LNA) declared in a communiqué that it would “confront any naval vessel that enters national waters without permission from the army.” It called the Italian operation a “violation of sovereignty” of Libya by Italy; which was aiming to “export the illegal immigration crisis from its territory to Libya’s.” The LNA claimed that its forces in Benghazi, Tobruk, and Ras Lanouf, in the eastern part of Libya, as well as in Tripoli in the west, would confront Italian vessels.

This is only a political maneuver, however, in that the LNA only has forces in eastern Libya, whereas refugees travel along sea lanes going from western Libya to Italy. This is where Rome is sending its warships.

It is plainly evident that Haftar, like the other militia leaders in Libya, is hostile to the anti-imperialist sentiment that is rising among the Libyan workers and masses. He has no fundamental differences from the militias in Misrata and elsewhere in western Libya currently working with Rome. He plans to use the LNA’s control of eastern Libya’s vast petroleum reserves and of the Ras Lanouf refineries to develop ties with other imperialist powers, including France, as well as with the Russian, Algerian, and Egyptian regimes.

These conflicts expose yet again the utterly reactionary character of the 2011 NATO war in Libya. With the assistance of petty-bourgeois academics and political groups like France’s New Anti-capitalist Party, the media and governments shamelessly promoted a war of imperialist plunder, in which NATO coordinated its actions with Islamist and tribal militias, as a “humanitarian” war to defend a democratic revolution. NATO’s overthrow of the Libyan regime only created a disaster for Libya’s inhabitants, as well as for hundreds of thousands of refugees in the country.

Nearly 2,500 refugees have drowned in the Mediterranean in the first seven months of 2017, putting 2017 on track to be the deadliest year yet for refugees trying to cross the Mediterranean. A total of 94,000 refugees traveled from Libya to Italy.

The civil war is also sharpening tensions between the major powers, and in particular among the NATO countries. As Washington threatens Russia and China with war, and rivalries grow between Washington and a Berlin-Paris axis that aims to develop an “independent” defense policy from the United States, a diffuse coalition of countries is backing Haftar.

In January, a military officer from neighboring Algeria spoke to Middle East Eyeto underscore growing ties between Moscow, Algiers, and Haftar: “We will not wait forever for the various Libyan political forces to reach a settlement. Libya needs the law to be applied across its territory and, above all, a strong army that is capable of guaranteeing security all the way to the border. And with the Russians, we see eye to eye.”

According to another Algerian source, Moscow and Beijing both hope Haftar will fight members of the Islamic State (IS) militia that, they fear, could return via Libya to Central Asia or to Xinjiang in China, to carry out attacks there: “In a certain measure, the Russians also want to secure this area. For they fear that after the defeat of IS in Syria and Iraq, Russian or Chinese terrorists in East Turkestan sympathetic to Jabhat Fatah al-Sham [ex-Al Nusra, the Syrian wing of Al Qaeda], that is 2,000 to 3,000 men, could also flee to Libya.”

After Haftar was invited onto the Russian aircraft carrier Kuznetsov in the Mediterranean in January, the commander of US forces in Africa, General Thomas Waldhauser, said the ties between Moscow and Haftar are “undeniable.” Waldhauser added, “They are on the ground, they are trying to influence the action, we watch what they do with great concern and you know in addition to the military side of this, we've seen some recent activity in business ventures.” He indicated that Washington planned to continue working with the Tripoli regime.

Paris has oriented to Haftar, however, since the election of President Emmanuel Macron in May, inviting Haftar to a summit in Paris, as Franco-Italian tensions continued to grow on several issues. Not only is Paris refusing to accept refugees who have arrived in Europe via Italy, citing the EU’s Dublin Accords, but Macron has nationalized the STX naval shipyards in Saint Nazaire to block an Italian firm, Fincantieri, from acquiring them.

This provoked an angry comment from the Italian paper Il Fatto Quotidiano on the Berlin-Paris axis in the EU: “European ideals mask nationalist interests. French President Emmanuel Macron has just decided to nationalize STX, the largest French shipyard, to keep it from falling into Italian hands … In Libya, Macron is playing without Europe and against Italy on petroleum and on immigration: the goal is to take over the petroleum to benefit French [energy] firm Total. France is acting in line with its interests, like Germany.”

Second fire at Dubai skyscraper underscores safety failures at Grenfell Tower

Chris Marsden

Dubai’s Torch Tower was engulfed in flames early Friday morning for the second time since 2015. According to Dubai officials, the blaze damaged 64 of the building's 86-storeys.

The scenes filmed were a chilling echo of London’s Grenfell Tower inferno, with reports of burning cladding raining down from 40 to 50 floors high. Two cars in the parking lot were set alight by falling debris from the tower. So far, no official explanation has been given for the latest blaze in the building, one of the world’s tallest.

The earlier blaze in the United Arab Emirates’ largest city was attributed to the same type of cladding and insulation later used on Grenfell Tower, where a June 14 fire claimed over 80 lives.

No lives were lost yesterday at Torch Tower, or in the 2015 blaze that engulfed 60 floors—primarily because, unlike Grenfell Tower, the building’s luxury flats are fitted with sophisticated internal fire safety features. A two-bedroom flat starts at $500,000.

Friday's fire at the 337-metre skyscraper began around 1 a.m. on the ninth floor. It was fought by firefighters from four stations who had it under control by 3:30 a.m.

The building is the fifth tallest residential tower in the world as well as the 40th tallest structure. But firefighters were able to fight the inferno from inside the building, while residents could flee via smoke-free, fire-free safety zones enabling officials to successfully evacuate the 337-metre building’s 676 apartments.

Yorkshire-born resident Lucy told the Daily Mail that she was woken by fire alarms at around 1 a.m. in her apartment on the 40th floor. In addition, the tower's security team triggered a system which “gave an automated call, email and text to all residents within minutes of the fire starting.”

Samia Badani, chairman of the resident’s association at Bramley House, next to Grenfell Tower, told the newspaper, “They clearly took their duty to protect the safety of residents seriously and were organised.” The Mail reported that Badani “believed Grenfell residents were let down because of their social status and because they were poor and that local authorities were only interested in making the building look nice from the outside rather than being safe for those living inside.”

The second blaze at The Torch underscores the inherent danger in the widespread cladding of high-rise buildings. UAE authorities have acknowledged that at least 30,000 buildings across the country were clad in a manner that could cause fire to spread rapidly. Most of Dubai's 250 high-rise buildings have cladding panels with thermoplastic cores.

Cladding contributed to other major fires in Dubai - most notably the 2012 blaze started by a discarded cigarette that gutted the 34-storey Tamweel Tower and at a 63-storey luxury hotel on New Year's Eve in 2016.

In 2012, Dubai introduced legislation that outlawed foamed plastic insulation and required cladding for new buildings to be fire retardant. In 2013, it imposed restrictions on cladding new buildings over nine storeys tall, requiring owners of high-rise buildings with flammable cladding to install external sprinklers and a ring of fire retardant panels every three floors.

However, the rules were not applied to existing structures to protect the commercial interests involved. This exemption led to the latest fire at The Torch that struck before remedial work on the last fire was even completed.

US Court of Appeals throws out Blackwater murder conviction

Matthew MacEgan

On Friday, a US appeals court threw out the first-degree murder conviction of Nicholas A. Slatten, one of the four former Blackwater security guards who massacred 14 unarmed Iraqis in September 2007 while working for the US State Department. Slatten had been sentenced to life in prison in 2015, and the other three former guards each received sentences of 30 years. The court also ruled that the three other men be resentenced.

In a statement, the US Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit panel ruled that the trial court which sentenced the four guards “abused its discretion” by not allowing Slatten to be tried separately from his three co-defendants. He was the only one who faced a murder charge since he was found to have fired the first shots as well as shooting dead the driver of a white Kia car that had stopped at a traffic circle.

The other three defendants, Paul Slough, Evan Liberty, and Dustin Heard, were found to have violated the constitutional prohibition against “cruel and unusual punishment” for their part in the massacre. Thirty-year sentences were issued based on their use of military firearms while committing a felony, a charge that was used for the first time against security contractors who were provided weapons by the US government. All four men were convicted of first-degree murder and manslaughter by a federal jury in October 2014.

On September 16, 2007, the four men were part of a convoy which opened fire with automatic weapons on a civilian intersection in Baghdad’s Nisour Square. One member of the team did not stop firing his automatic assault rifle, even when he was ordered to cease fire. Helicopters were also used to fire into the intersection from overhead. In total, 14 unarmed Iraqis, including children, were killed and 17 more were wounded.

The guards say that they acted in self-defense after coming under AK-47 gunfire, but during the 10-week trial in 2014, no witness testified to such a circumstance nor was evidence found that any AK-47 rifles were carried by Iraqi insurgents at that time. After their conviction, the defendants had vowed to appeal what one of them called a “perversion of justice.” All four men were US military veterans.

The two US circuit judges responsible for Friday’s ruling, Karen LeCraft Henderson and Janice Rogers Brown, wrote, “we by no means intend to minimize the carnage attributable to Slough, Heard, and Liberty’s actions. Their poor judgments resulted in the deaths of many innocent people.”

Despite this, Henderson and Brown ruled that the sentencing judge should have given the men more “nuanced” penalties tailored to each defendant, rather than using a “sledgehammer” across the board. They also argued that the legislation used for the sentencing was originally aimed at violent drug traffickers and should not be applied to US contractors with no prior criminal record.

When the sentences were handed down two years ago, US District Court Judge Royce Lamberth ruled that, “Based on the seriousness of the crimes, I find the penalty is not excessive.” Assistant US Attorney T. Patrick Martin, who prosecuted the four men, argued for the lengthy sentences stating, “You are entrusted to do a job with deadly weapons, but you must use them only when necessary, and their use must be justified. You can’t just shoot first and seek justification later.”

Blackwater has changed names twice, first to Xe Services and then to Academi. The company’s CEO Erik Prince, the brother of current Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos, resigned from Blackwater in 2009. He went on to form a private mercenary force for the United Arab Emirates and is currently lobbying the Trump administration to expand the role of mercenaries in the US war in the Afghanistan.

The 2007 incident was notable for its brutality even in a city where a bitter sectarian war was taking place. It significantly raised the profile of the private security contractors which the US government has increasingly relied on in waging its imperialist wars in the Middle East and Central Asia.

At the time of this writing, there had been no word on whether Slatten will be retried. Spokespeople for the US Justice Department and US Attorney Channing D. Phillips, said that the latter is “reviewing the opinion and has no further comment at this time.” The sentencing that took place in 2015 was the conclusion of a years-long process which wound its way through the federal court system.

Friday’s court action may have similar effects to the lack of prosecutions and criminal convictions against police officers who kill without prejudice in the United States. The decision sends the message that these actions are acceptable and that soldiers and military contractors can get away with using unwarranted deadly force. This is particularly important to note as geopolitical tensions continue to ramp up around the globe and the Trump administration determines its strategy for the war in Afghanistan.

Apple, Amazon help Chinese government censor the Internet

Josh Varlin

The Chinese government, with the assistance of American corporations, has launched a widespread crackdown on virtual private networks (VPNs), which allow Chinese Internet users to circumvent state censorship.

A government order to China’s three telecommunications companies—all state-owned—demands that they restrict access to VPNs by February 2018. The order is apparently being implemented already, and Apple and Amazon have both joined in with the Chinese telecommunications companies in blocking VPNs.

VPNs allow for Internet users to access the Internet as if they were located in another country. For example, someone located in China can use a VPN to appear as if they are browsing in the United States, allowing them to access web sites blocked in China but not in the US.

Reports indicate that select VPNs, registered with the government and heavily monitored, will be allowed to continue operations. These VPNs will be used by approved companies, and the government will likely monitor traffic going through them.

While the Chinese government maintains a significant censorship regime and prevents most Chinese Internet users from accessing large portions of the Internet, including Facebook and Twitter, it has largely tolerated the use of VPNs. The relatively free Internet access provided by VPNs is essential for economic and academic pursuits, encouraging the Chinese government to turn a blind eye to some cracks in the “Great Firewall.”

Chinese Internet censorship is seen by the ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP) as essential to maintaining its control over the population, including an increasingly restive working class. The Stalinist CCP is concerned that the Chinese working class will learn its own history, including the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre, and use the Internet to communicate in China and internationally.

President Xi Jinping has emphasized cybersecurity during his tenure under the banner of “cyber sovereignty.” Additionally, the CCP’s upcoming party congress is prompting the crackdown, with the New York Times noting, “Five years ago, ahead of a similar meeting, VPNs were hit by then-unprecedented disruptions.”

CyberGhost, a Romanian VPN provider, had been under increasing pressure from the Chinese government prior to the new order. CyberGhost CEO Robert Knapp said, “We had seen the Chinese government putting more and more pressure on VPN providers in a technical sense—blocking our IPs, blocking the server infrastructure we were using, detecting traffic from certain sources.”

US companies Apple and Amazon have collaborated with Beijing’s anti-VPN campaign. Apple has removed popular VPN apps from its App Store for Chinese users.

In a statement to TechCrunch, Apple CEO Tim Cook noted that Apple would cooperate with any legally required censorship efforts: “We would obviously rather not remove the apps, but like we do in other countries we follow the law wherever we do business. We strongly believe participating in markets and bringing benefits to customers is in the best interest of the folks there and in other countries as well.”

Amazon has also cooperated with Chinese censorship efforts. The Chinese company that runs Amazon Web Services (AWS) in China reportedly emailed its clients to warn them against VPN use.

Wired notes that, in the pursuit of access to the huge Chinese market, US technology companies have collaborated in the CCP’s censorship for years. Yahoo, Microsoft, Cisco, and LinkedIn have all cooperated with Chinese state censorship.

Wired also reports that Facebook is trying to find a way to get access to the Chinese market: “Facebook has reportedly worked on a censorship tool for the purposes of getting China’s approval.”

Beijing’s actions are part of a wave of Internet censorship. Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a law on July 30 heavily restricting VPNs in Russia. The law also requires messaging apps to link users’ phone numbers to their activity on the app, making anonymous usage much more difficult.

The Indonesian government and YouTube, a video streaming site owned by Google, have agreed to censor “extremist” content and “hate speech.” While the Indonesian government claims it is not creating a “regime of censorship,” these vague terms can be used to censor oppositional content as the government and its corporate partners deem fit.

Mainstream Western news organizations have criticized Apple’s cooperation with the Chinese government in stifling the Internet. Farhad Manjoo, writing in the New York Times, notes that “Apple’s quiet capitulation to tightening censorship in one of its largest markets is still a dangerous precedent.”

The Guardian published an article by Shaun Walker on Friday highlighting human rights groups’ reactions to Moscow’s anti-democratic moves to restrict access to blacklisted web sites. The article quotes Human Rights Watch researcher Yulia Gorbunova, who said, “These laws negatively affect the ability of tens of millions of Russians to freely access and exchange information online.”

While the press in the US and the United Kingdom criticizes Russian and Chinese censorship, similar activities conducted by the US-based Google and Facebook receive general praise and encouragement. Since the 2016 election, the Times, the Washington Post and other major news outlets have promoted a campaign against “fake news.”

Over the past several months, Google has been restricting access to left-wing and anti-war web sites by reducing their prominence in search results. An investigation by the World Socialist Web Site broke this story, and the WSWS has documented it thoroughly. Google justifies its censorship of left-wing views in the name of combating “fake news.”

Leading progressive and anti-war sites, including Democracy Now! and CounterPunch, have been affected by Google’s censorship. The World Socialist Web Site has been the most heavily affected, with traffic generated from Google searches declining by 67 percent since April.

As of this writing, no major US newspaper has acknowledged the effects that Google’s new algorithm is having on left-wing web sites. Indeed, the Post and other papers have spearheaded the calls to combat “fake news.” While criticizing the anti-democratic measures of Moscow and Beijing, the censorship by Washington and its corporate allies in Silicon Valley inside the United States is either praised or ignored by leading US and European newspapers.

Unibank Undergraduate Scholarships for Ghanaian Students 2017 – KNUST

Application Deadline: Friday, 1st September, 2017, at 3.00pm

Offered annually? Yes

Eligible Countries: Ghana

Eligible Field of Study: All

Type: Undergraduate

Eligibility: 

• The Scholarship is opened to all Second (2nd), Third (3rd) and Fourth (4th) year students of the University, pursuing full time programs.
• All applicants must be Ghanaian Regular students.
• Applicants should not be a beneficiary of another Scholarship scheme at the time of application.

Number of Awardees: Not specified

Value of Scholarship: Full tuition waiver

Duration of Scholarship: Duration of Program

How to Apply: All Prospective Applicants are to include the following documents;

• Admission Letter
• Acceptance Letter
• WASSCE Certificate
• Recommendation Letters
• Awards and Certificates (If Any).
• All Applicants should also include their Updated Transcripts.
• All Applicants should explain in details why they need financial support (This information must not exceed one page and should be typed written on a plain sheet using 1.5 line spacing. The Sheet should be attached/stapled to the application form).

Download Application forms

Completed Application forms and all required attachments should be put in an A4 Envelope indicating the following at the back of the envelope:

• Name,
• Reference Number,
• Programme,
• Current year,
• Mobile Number.

The sealed envelope must be submitted at the J. HAPPER BUILDING, Room 19/20 Student Affairs/Student Financial Services (Office of the Dean of Students). Only Shortlisted applicants will be invited for interview.

Visit Scholarship Webpage for details

Award Provider: Unibank Ghana

Important Notes: Only Shortlisted applicants will be invited for interview.

RESOLVE Network Research Leadership Fellowships in Lake Chad Basin 2018

Application Deadline: 15th September 2017

Eligible Countries: Cameroon, Chad, and Nigeria

About the Award: Supported by the RESOLVE Network Secretariat in Washington, D.C., the project will be led by a select team of principal investigators with experience in the region who will work closely with fellows in the program to conduct field based research over the course of 10 months from early November 2017 through late September 2018.

RESOLVE Network Research Leadership Fellowship awards for Cameroon, Chad, and Nigeria may not be deferred or extended beyond September 30, 2018. The first half of the award will be made available at the mid-way mark of the program; the last half of the award will be made available upon satisfactory completion of the project and presentation of findings at a Network Forum.

Fellows will either work as independent affiliated members of the Network or as non-resident fellows of designated partner organizations specified by the RESOLVE Network Secretariat. Fellows are expected to devote the time and attention required to meet the deliverables outlined in the award terms letter, maintain regular contact with their mentors, and provide periodic reports to RESOLVE Network staff

Type: Fellowship

Eligibility: Qualified citizens of Cameroon, Chad, and Nigeria may apply for the fellowship. Applicants based full-time in other parts of the Lake Chad Basin region or the Sahel will be given the highest consideration. Applicants from the Lake Chad or Sahel regions currently living abroad who show a commitment to traveling to the country to conduct research and to returning to their home countries within one-year of completing the program may also be considered.

Applicants must be fluent in English and either French or Arabic (preferably all three), both written and spoken. The Network Secretariat will only consider candidates who have a combination of the following educational and professional experience:

• Bachelor’s degree in political science, economics, international affairs, legal studies, journalism, anthropology, sociology, social psychology, criminology, or related social sciences plus a minimum of 6 years professional experience working with reputable media outlets, think tanks, universities, and/or research centers.
• Master’s degree in political science, economics, international affairs, legal studies, journalism, anthropology, sociology, social psychology, criminology, or related social sciences plus a minimum of 4 years professional experience working with reputable media outlets, think tanks, universities, and/or research centers.
• Doctoral candidates or degree recipients in political science, economics, international affairs, legal studies, journalism, anthropology, sociology, social psychology, criminology, or related social sciences plus a minimum of 2 years professional experience working with reputable media outlets, think tanks, universities, and/or research centers.

Selection Criteria: Selection of fellowship candidates is based on the assessment of the applicant’s:

• Record of achievement in conflict analysis and/or social science research;
• Demonstrated professional experience that reflects leadership potential;
• Capacity to benefit from the fellowship experience in subsequent years; and
• Commitment to building community and shaping future policy on critical social issues.

Number of Awards: Not specified

Value of Award: 

• The 2018 RESOLVE Network Lake Chad Basin Research Leadership Fellowship Awards are set at a total of $4,500 for a 10-month program (November-September 2018) and are paid directly to the individual.
• The RESOLVE Network will also support travel costs for fellows to participate in regionallybased trainings and workshops in January and April 2018. Select fellows who demonstrate a strong commitment to fulfilling the project goals and leadership excellence will be invited to present their research findings in collaboration with their mentors at the network’s Annual Global Forum in Washington, DC.
• The RESOLVE Network Secretariat reserves the right to make final determinations about the terms and conditions for travel support.

Duration of Program: 10 months

How to Apply: RESOLVE Fellowship applications contain the following five sections, each of which is explained in detail in the remainder of this application form:

1. Personal Information
2. Proof of Citizenship in the Country of Focus
3. Curriculum Vitae/Resume
4. Personal Statement
5. Short Analytical Essay
6. Letters of Recommendation (2)

Please read and complete the entire application form.

Your saved PDF application form and a separate PDF copy of your most recent Curriculum Vitae/Resume containing all of the information detailed in Section 3 of the form must be submitted by email to research@resolvenet.org with the following subject line: [Applicant Last name, Applicant First Name]-RESOLVE Network [Intended Project Country] Fellow Application-2018.

Visit the Program Webpage for Details

Award Providers: The RESOLVE Network

Important Notes: Only complete applications submitted by the deadline will be considered.

International Society for the Performing Arts (ISPA) Global Fellowship Program 2018

Application Deadline: 31st August, 2017 at 17:00 EDT

Offered annually? Yes

Eligible Countries: All (with particular attention paid to applicants from developing economies)

To be taken at (country): Home country and New York, USA.

Eligible Field of Study: Performing arts

About the Award: The International Society for the Performing Arts’ (ISPA) Global Fellowship Program provides one-year access to ISPA’s extensive international network of arts professionals to emerging and mid-career leaders from the global performing arts community, with particular attention paid to applicants from developing economies.

Participants join the ISPA membership and attend the New York ISPA Congress where they engage in the development and exchange of ideas with leaders from some of the world’s most significant presenting
organizations, performing arts organizations, artist management agencies, cultural policy groups, foundations, festivals and related professionals. Since the program’s inception in 2007, ISPA has invested over $325,000 in 124 Fellowships from 46 countries.

In considering applying, please be aware that the ISPA Congress is not a traditional arts market and opportunities for self-promotion are limited. This opportunity is intended for those working in the management of the performing arts. Performing arts professionals who are deeply committed to increasing the global connectivity of the performing arts industry, as well as those who take initiative in their own professional development, are most likely to benefit.

Type: Fellowship

Eligibility: ISPA accepts applicants from all regions of the world, with priority given to applicants from developing economies.

Applicants must:

• Be currently employed/working in the performing arts
• Have a minimum of 5 years professional experience in the performing arts field
• Demonstrate a need for financial assistance
• Ability to attend and fully participate in the New York 2018 ISPA Congress, January 9 – 11, 2018, including the one-day Fellows-only Seminar on January 8, 2018
• Have received no more than two ISPA Fellowships in the past

Number of Awardees: Not specified

Value of Fellowship: In 2018 Fellows receive:
 One-year ISPA membership with access to all member benefits
 Full Pass registration to the New York 2018 ISPA Congress (January 9-11, 2018)
 One-day Fellows-only Seminar prior to the New York Congress (January 8, 2018)
 Subsidy to assist with travel and accommodation expenses related to attending the Congress (subsidies do not generally exceed 2,500 USD)
 Introduction to a current ISPA member who will welcome the Fellow to the Congress and help facilitate their participation as part of ISPA’s Community Building Program

Duration of Fellowship: 1  year.

How to Apply: To apply to the Global Fellowship Program, please download and review the application instructions and submit the online application form. Applications are reviewed and selected by the Fellowship Review Committee which consists of ISPA members and staff.

Visit Fellowship Webpage for details

Award Provider: Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, many Fellowship Challenge and Patron donors

Important Notes: In considering applying, please be aware that the ISPA Congress is not a traditional arts market and opportunities for self-promotion are limited.

Goldman Sachs Grace Hopper Fully-funded Scholarship + Job/Internship for Young Women in STEM

Application Deadline: 25th August 2017

Eligible Countries: All

Field of Study: STEM Fields

Type: Undergraduate, Internships/Jobs

Eligibility: Eligible students should be:

• Enrolled full time in a Bachelors program at a four-year college or university
• Graduation date: November 2017 – June 2019
• Major: Computer Science, Mathematics or a related STEM field.

Number of Awards: 25

Value of Award: The scholarship includes:

• All access, three-day conference pass, round-trip airfare, hotel accommodations and daily meal stipend for the Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing event
• Two night, all-expenses-paid trip to our New York City headquarters to meet with senior engineers (end of first semester)
• An onsite interview for a 2018 full-time role or internship role.

How to Apply: Apply Now

Visit the Program Webpage for Details

Award Providers: Goldman Sachs