Tunisian Winds of Political Change

BLUF: The four prominent groups operating within Tunisian communities and the government include four main groups Hizb an Nahda (Ennahda), Hizb al-Tahrir, Tabligh wa Dawa, and the Tunisian Combatant Group. Under their majority control within the government basic human rights and freedoms continue to shrink as these groups move towards their goal of a caliphate.

The season has changed to autumn. So much for the Arab Spring, recent events make it look more like the Arab Fall. Since these events started in Tunisia we felt it best to start looking at events there.

The Tunisian Constitution has been written to indicate that, nationally, all religions and residents of the country shall have freedom of religion and basic human rights. In practice, this is hardly the case. In August of this year blogger Safiene Chaurabi and two of his friends were arrested one day after blogging their criticism of the government. Chaurabi was calling for protests against the government. One can only assume that a body that came to power by inciting protests first followed by violence that such a call would be seen as a rapidly growing threat.

Any rights during arrest and detention in Tunisia are whatever the police and the Department of State Security (DSS) decides you can have. There have been, and continue to be, violations of human rights in spite of the aforementioned constitutional guarantees. Reports of police torture are regularly printed in papers where there is freedom of the press.

"But, Tunisua is a democracy, they even have elections!" some say in disbelief. A 'democracy' is simply 'majority rules.' Whoever can convince the most people gets the most votes. Without a republic, a society under laws that provide for rules of conduct, a democracy is nothing more than mob rules and might makes right. Who are the majority groups voting and moving society there?

We find four Islamic groups that come in at the top of the list. These groups are Hizb an-Nahda, Hizb al-Tahrir, Tabligh wa Dawa, and the Tunisian Combatant Group.

Hizb an-Nahda, also found as Ennahda, is the praimary (largest) group in Tunisia. It uses the koran and hadith as "an anchor for political thought and practice," according to its founder Rached Ghannouchi. The group has a record of using violent means to achieve its goals. This group is Salafist.

Some reports indicate thqat the group does not operate within Tunisia, but we are not entirely convinced. The Foundry, the blog of The Heritage Foundation, indicates that the group uses its moderate political position to push forward Gannouchi's current moderate voice. Sadly, it seems that in the violence of the Arab Spring this group stepped in with other Salafist groups to gain the majority. We believe that, as the moderate face of political islam in Tunisia the West would have an excuse to turn away and ignore reports and allegations of governmental abuse of prisoners. There are numerous reports regularly about the police and officers of the Tunisian Department of State Security torturing prisoners, failing to quickly alert the judiicary system that a person has been arressted and is awaiting trial. This delay would seem to allow for recovering from some of these alleged injuries.

 Hizb al-Tahrir, the Islamic Liberation Party, is the second largest islamic group to gain political recognition in Tunisia.. This group shares the political view of the Hizbul-Tahrir in Palestine and has until recently been viewed in Tunisia as a hard-line group.  The group has allegedly renounced violence in Tunisia.  This group shares its name with other pro-caliphate groups in 40 other countries.The stated operational plan, simplified, is
1) Establish a community base.
2) Build supportand spread thei political opinion throughout their community base.
3) Once the localities are in line with the group's view, move to take over the country.

Tabligh wa Dawa is a society for spreading the faith. That is what the title means, spreading the faith. This group pops up in nations around the world. Even the State Department reports that many of its members have been caught in terrorist groups world wide and conducting terrorist operations. The group had originated in Pakistan where it gained positions of prominence within that nation's primary  military intelligence group, Inter-Services Intelligence, ISI. Reports over the past several years show that the ISI has been operationally invovled with terrorists in Afghanistan.

That brings us to another salafist group, the Tunisian Combatant Group. The TCG is based upon the Libyan based Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat, SGPC. SGPC splintered off from the group that overthrew the Alferian government. The TCG was formed in 2000 and has well established connections withn al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM). TCG is known to operate regionally, this includes Afghanistan, Italy, and Belgium. The Long War Journal reports that high level political members within the Tunisian Ennahda majority have been recorded conspiring to take full control of Tunisia.

 Are we here at MSMII the only ones to recognize the Barbary Coast membership?

In Tunisia we are seeing several globally operating terrorist groups gaining "legitimate" control through democracy. Remeber your early government classes, please, a democracy without societal safeguarding laws is mob rules; whereas a republic has those laws and is called a democratic republic, which is what the United States is. Based on where Obama has "helped" power has gone steadily into the hands of groups using extreme violence to gain control of the masses.

NOTE: This post was completed via iPod due to technical difficulties. In text citings were not possible. Those sites used are listed below

www.almanac.afpc.org
www.globalsecurity.org
www.blog.heritage.org
www.barenakedislam.com
www.longwarjournal.org
www.wikipedia.org
 

Syria

A few weeks ago I said that al-Assad would not step down. As time passed, videos, and reports came out depicting the slaughter being unleashed against the Syrian people.  As bodies were dumped off pick-up trucks into the ocean protestors continued. I suppose when you know that you are going to die you may as well go down screaming what you believe.

It was not until after UN leadership spoke about alleged atrocities ongoing in Syria that US leadership spoke up at all. The feeling I had was that our leadership was going to wait for the UN to say what was wrong and then we would lock step and parrot the weak and watery leadership for the UN. Blogs and tweets showed up relentlessly at White House pages. Finally, the page 8 articles from Lames Stream Media were noticed. Clinton spoke out and an international coalition was being built to do something. The coalition, US, EU, and UN (the UN being largely OIC and OPEC) spoke out against al-Assad.

This coalition called for a cease to hostilities and for al-Assad to step down. The threat of criminal charges in the International Criminal Court would appear to have been noticed. New sanctions were not seen as threatening enough by the regime, as Assad had clearly said that he could get all the resources he needed. Clearly, the political solution that Assad had insisted was going to come from his people was more the rest of the world tapping on his shoulder.

Al-Assad said that he stopped the killing of his people on the 18^th. The weekend would appear to have been quiet; however, Monday morning brings more bodies in fresh blood. I am (sarcastically) quite certain that these two protestors were shot either accidentally (which will, of course result in the troops being severely dealt with) or they were violent and well armed Syrian versions of Schwarzenegger from the movie Commando and these guards had simply acted in accordance with protecting themselves.

Al-Assad will not step down. He will continue to scoff and throw shoes at the rest of the world. He knows that, like al-Bashir the president of Sudan (indicted for war crimes and crimes against his own people due to committing similar attacks as al-Assad), he will not be apprehended. No one is going to go into Syria to catch him. Any country he goes to quietly will not turn him over to the ICC. And, like al-Bashir, the Obama administration and Clinton State Department will likely move to restore relations with al-Assad within the year.

http://mobile.nytimes.com/2011/08/22/world/middleeast/22syria.xml
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/aug/18/syria-assad-claims-military-operations-stopped

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-14577333

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english2010/indepth/2011-08/22/c_131064442.htm

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/middle-east/un-rights-chief-likely-to-call-for-syria-to-be-referred-to-international-criminal-court/2011/08/17/gIQA7Iz2LJ_story.html

I cannot wait for the horror stoires and the accounts of mass rapes and mutilations to begin.

Pakistan Kills Its Own

Yet ANOTHER government that is part of the United Nations is killing more of its own people based on ETHNICITY. What will the president say?

Fighting in Pakistani city of Karachi claims 34 lives

Shops and vehicles have been set ablaze

At least 34 people have been killed since Monday in the latest bout of ethnically fuelled violence in Pakistan's southern city of Karachi.

Officials said 11 people were shot dead on Tuesday, while 23 had been killed the previous day.

Targeted killings and clashes claimed more than 200 lives in Karachi in July.

Armed groups supported by Pakistan's main political parties are said to be responsible. Police officials say the groups are controlled by criminals.

But critics say that Pakistan's ruling coalition appears unwilling to bring them to account.

Interior Minister Rehman Malik said Karachi was enduring "a reign of terror and bloodshed", and that the government would pursue "every possible action to restore peace".

"We have ordered surveillance planes to be brought to Karachi for locating and weeding out the killers," he added.

Injured people have been pouring into hospitals

"I want to warn those... miscreants that... you have tested the government enough. Neither our people nor our government will tolerate any more of this. There will be strict action... I won't say anything else now. You will see the action yourself."

Provincial home department official Sharfuddin Memon said some bodies had been found riddled with bullets, and others showed signs of torture and were tied up in sacks.

"The criminals want to destabilise the efforts for a permanent peace in the city," he said.

Police said dozens of motorcycles were set alight inside a factory, and that a roadside restaurant and several vehicles were also torched.

In a recent report, the independent Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) said 490 people had been killed in targeted killings in Karachi during the first half of the year, compared with 748 in 2010.

'Game of death and destruction'

The BBC's Syed Shoiab Hasan in Karachi says that the killings are becoming increasingly indiscriminate.

“Start Quote

Karachi is in the grip of a multi-sided wave of insecurity-driven political, ethnic and sectarian polarisation”

End Quote

Human Rights Commission of Pakistan

Our correspondent says that it is not just political activists who are being targeted - shopkeepers, cafe owners, truck drivers and even pedestrians have all been gunned down.

Increasingly, he adds, there is an ethnic dimension to the violence - members of both the Pashtun and Urdu speaking communities have been targeted.

Shops and vehicles have been set ablaze and markets have been shut for several days in the affected areas.

Police officials say activists of the Pashtun-dominated Awami National Party (ANP) as well as those of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) - supported by the majority Urdu speaking community in the city - are responsible for much of the violence.

The parties have continued what is increasingly a battle for land and votes - despite being partners in the country's ruling coalition.

Our correspondent says that the government appears helpless to stop the violence, which has wreaked havoc.

Security officials say this is because senior politicians are protecting many of those involved in the killings.

They say the violence will continue until security forces are allowed to arrest these men.

On Monday, the HRCP called for a political solution.

"Karachi is in the grip of a multi-sided wave of insecurity-driven political, ethnic and sectarian polarisation that has greatly undermined its tradition of tolerance and good-neighbourliness," it said.

"While gangs of land-grabbers and mafias have tried to exploit the breakdown of law and order, they do not appear to be the main directors of the horrible game of death and destruction; that distinction belongs to more powerful political groups and it is they who hold the key to peace.”

Bombs

[fox40] CALIFORNIA - Four Explosives Found at Sacramento Hotel

"A security guard at the Hawthorne Suites on the 300 block of Bercut Drive discovered four water bottles containing explosives. One bottle blew up, injuring one person. Someone opened two other bottles before police arrived."

Read the full article:

http://www.fox40.com/news/headlines/ktxl-four-explosives-were-found-at-a-sacramento-hotel-monday-night-injuring-one-person-20110802,0,1136502.story?track=rss&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Ktxl-Fox40NewsAtTen+%28KTXL+-+FOX40+News+at+Ten%29

[Reuters] BOSNIA - Parcel bomb found in Bosnia court mail

"The court's security officials found a hand grenade in a package while scanning the daily mail and the police instantly removed it."

Read the full article:

http://news.yahoo.com/parcel-bomb-found-bosnia-court-mail-122103675.html;_ylt=AsOsfmm_WID545tozpWvWhhvaA8F;_ylu=X3oDMTM5MTI4YWF2BHBrZwM0Yjc5ZDYzZS0wYjljLTMwNGQtODVkNC02YmVkYzYwMWQyMjgEcG9zAzEEc2VjA01lZGlhVG9wU3RvcnkEdmVyAzJkYzI1NjkwLWJkMDItMTFlMC1iNTNmLWY0YjY3YzgyMWViMg--;_ylg=X3oDMTFqOTI2ZDZmBGludGwDdXMEbGFuZwNlbi11cwRwc3RhaWQDBHBzdGNhdAN3b3JsZARwdANzZWN0aW9ucw--;_ylv=3

[Ynetnews.com] LEBANON - Report: Beirut blast targeted Nasrallah

"A mysterious blast that occurred in the Hezbollah stronghold of Dahiya has inspired a number of explanations, and on Monday the Kuwaiti paper al-Jarida joined the fray by extrapolating that its intention was to assassinate the leader of the Lebanese group, Hassan Nasrallah."

Read the full article:

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4103346,00.htmls

[RIA Novosti] RUSSIA - Local official injured, 2 dead in attack in Russia's Dagestan

"An explosion on Tuesday near the town of Buynaksk in the Russian North Caucasus Republic of Dagestan injured the head of the Untsukulsky District and killed two people, a spokesman for the local police said."

Read the full article:

http://en.rian.ru/russia/20110802/165514746.html

See also http://www.itar-tass.com/en/c32/196657.html

[PTI] PAKISTAN - China blames terror camps in Pakistan as 20 killed in Xinjiang

"China on Monday blamed "extremists" trained in terror camps in Pakistan for orchestrating attacks on civilians in the troubled Xinjiang province, where 20 people, including alleged militants, were killed in violent incidents over two days."

Read the full article:

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/china/China-blames-terror-camps-in-Pak-as-20-killed-in-Xinjiang/articleshow/9440242.cms

[Bangkok Post] THAILAND - 1 killed, 2 hurt by bomb in Pattani

"One soldier was killed and two others wounded by a bomb explosion on Monday morning in Yarang district of Pattani province."

Read the full article:

http://www.bangkokpost.com/breakingnews/249767/1-killed-2-wounded-by-bomb-in-pattani

[Xinhua] PHILIPPINES - Philippine military blames Jemaah Islamiyah for deadly bomb attack

"Philippine military blamed al-Qaeda linked Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) for the powerful bomb blast Tuesday in the country's south that left two people dead and eight others wounded."

Read the full article:

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english2010/world/2011-08/02/c_131025477.htm

[Itar-Tass] RUSSIA - Suspect confesses to making bomb that exploded at kindergarten

"The 28-year-old resident of Komsomolsk-on-Amur, detained within the Komsomolsk-on-Amur kindergarten explosion case, confessed to making an explosive device, aide to the director of the regional department t of the Investigative Committee (SK) Ilya Gudkov said."

Read the full article:

http://www.itar-tass.com/en/c154/196659.html

Week In Review 29 July 2011

This week I took a quick look at the UN Security Council. Being the principal apparatus of the UN for writing, declaring, and instituting security policy I thought it important to know who they are. At first glance it looked not so bad; however, it seems that the foxes, chicken hawks wolves, and bears are watching the hen house.

The structure of the UNSC is that there are five permanent members and 10 temporary members who are selected and voted in by a two-thirds majority. The temporary post is held for two years. The five permanent seats are held by the US, UK, China, Russia, and France. The current temporary seats are held by Colombia, Germany, India, Portugal, South Africa, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Brazil, Gabon, Lebanon, and Nigeria.

Membership in the UN comes with a regularly assessed fee, or membership dues. There is a long standing issue with the member states not paying their dues in full, if at all. The US has been in arrears with this, particularly in the ramp up and early years of Operation Iraqi Freedom. It is my belief that agreeing to pay the dues was a means of bringing “partner” nations to the table. In 2010 the US paid $7.7 billion dollars to be a member. That was 22% of the overall UN Budget. That needs to be repeated, 22% of the overall budget of the UN. Those dues cover 27% of the Peace Keeping budget. What did this get us? You pay some money and you expect to get something of value in return. This is what we got

·         Failure in Sudan

·         Failure along the Ethiopian/Eritrean border

·         Failure in Angola

·         Failure in Bosnia

·         Failure in Colombia

·         Failure in Israel

·         Failure in Iraq (recall, if you will, the corruption and abuse of the UN Oil For Food Program?)

·         Failure in Somalia

·         Failure to prevent Mugabe, the President of Zimbabwe, from expunging all white farmers

·         Failure to condemn, fine, or even mention the levels of corruption and abuses which are currently being practiced by its own members

I think that Obi Wan Kenobi had the most apt description as you will never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy. Practices such as institutionalized pedophilia, slavery, rape, enforced disappearance, and torture are practiced with impunity and are, in fact, “public secrets”. The United States and United Kingdom have come under fire from these other UNSC states for torture and enforced disappearances in the war against terror; however, to date, very little outcry has been heard about these same abuses that are currently conducted daily within the borders and with the knowledge of these other UN states.

We are paying for these nations to vote against the US in Assembly. We are paying for these nations to have a venue in which to act against our interests. Our TAX dollars, from the budgets past to the budget currently being debated, pay for these other nations to commit crimes against their own people. Crimes which they have openly claimed to take a stand against.

UNSC Membership Overview, South Africa

South Africa (Remeber, the First Lady just visited, paid for by our taxes)

Incidents of torture and extra judicial killings (read that as police sanctioned murders) in 2010 were up from previous years. Increased incidents of torture and extrajudicial executions by police were reported in 2010. Refugees and migrants continued to suffer discrimination and displacement in large-scale incidents of violence.

Advocates of housing rights were threatened and attacked with impunity. High levels of violence against women and girls were reported, along with failures by the authorities to provide adequate support to survivors of such abuse. An estimated 5.7 million people were living with HIV, with women continuing to be disproportionately affected.

High levels of violence against women and girls continued to be reported. In June, the South African Medical Research Council published results of a survey showing that more than two fifths of the men interviewed had been physically violent to an intimate partner.

Earlier this year heavily armed black South-African police stormed into a club with white patrons. It is clear that the purpose of this assault was to target the white patrons as can be seen on the video below. 15 of the assault victims were then loaded into a police vehicle and imprisoned until relatives arrived to pay fines (ransom) for them preventing the cops in their duty. Watch the horrible video. I do not know if the link below works, but the description should give enough of a taste.

http://www.rapport.co.za/Suid-Afrika/Nuus/Polisie-skop-slaan-mense-20110226

An internal inspection of 430 police stations showed many were failing to comply with their obligations under the Domestic Violence Act (DVA).

Former National Police Commissioner and ex-President of Interpol, Jackie Selebi, was convicted on corruption charges in July 2010, for receiving (at least) R120 000 from alleged crime-syndicate boss, Glenn Agliott

Tenderpreneur is a local term that has been created to refer to individuals who enrich themselves through government tender contracts, mostly based on personal connections and corrupt relationships - although outright bribery might also take place - and sometimes involving an elected or politically-appointed official (or his or her family members) holding simultaneous business interests.

The State Department notes that South Africa is a source, transit, and destination country for men, women, and children subjected to forced labor and sex trafficking. Children are trafficked mainly within the country. Girls are subjected to sex trafficking and domestic servitude; boys are forced to work in street vending, food service, begging, criminal activities, and agriculture. The tradition of ukuthwala, is the forced marriage of girls as young as 12 to adult men and is still being practiced today. Nigerian syndicates dominate the commercial sex trade within the country, and send South African women to the United States for exploitation in domestic servitude. The most recent report from the State Department admits that the “Government of South Africa does not fully comply with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking”.

UNSC Overview, India

India

Here is a country that is growing exponentially and has several democratic systems in place. It seems that India is changing, slowly, from a caste system to one in which people are to be viewed as equal. This is not a change that is going smoothly, not at all.

Amnesty International reports

Tighter anti-terror and security legislation in the wake of the 2008 Mumbai attacks was linked to reports of arbitrary detention and torture. Maoist violence in central India spread to West Bengal, with local communities being targeted and at least 300 civilians killed. Extrajudicial executions took place in a number of states and human rights defenders were threatened and detained arbitrarily. Judicial processes continued to fail to ensure justice for many victims of past human rights violations, violence against religious minorities and corporate abuses. Adivasis (Indigenous communities), small farmers and city dwellers living in poverty across India whose livelihoods were threatened by fast-tracked development and mining projects continued to resist moves to acquire their lands and natural resources. At least 50 people were sentenced to death but, for the fifth successive year, there were no executions.

The prisons and the police are in disrepair, are defunct, decrepit, and violent. The court systems are, most undoubtedly, corrupt and discriminatory. Among the abuses that the police are accused and by video evidence guilty, of are discriminatory arrests, arbitrary beatings, and torture. With those points playing out, I would assert that enforced disappearance is also a regularly practiced activity from the Bangladeshi border to the Nepalese border to Kashmir and down through the Thar Desert.  Reports are that police will question a suspect of a crime by tying their hands and feet then beating them to the point of unconsciousness. The water torture that one suspect underwent was being hung by the feet and having water poured into his nose and mouth until he passed out. This one individual who was tied, beaten, and tortured was a fruit vendor who might have had some information about a local street gang.

There is a decades old internal conflict between police, militias, and external extremist groups. The muslims in Bangladesh infiltrate into border regions for sabotage, kidnappings, and the like. Police and militias often move to protect against this. The two also fight each other in so doing. Kashmir is a region rife with conflict of both sectarian and secular roots. No amount of government presence has been able to prevent violence and atrocities from happening with frightening regularity.

Children are regularly sold into slavery for sex inside India and also transported to other regions as well. The sex trade runs rampant. Human trafficking goes with it. There also is an inability by the system to protect girls from being kidnapped by muslims, raped, and then put into forced marriages and forced religious conversions. These forced conversions occur more frequently in areas outside of the major metropolitan areas. There is little to no law enforcement presence and the locals, as well as missionaries, are left to their own devices of protection.

UNSC Membership Overview, Lebanon

On December 23, 2010, the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance will enter into force. Lebanon has not ratified this Convention which the country signed in 2007, adopted in 2006 by the United Nations General Assembly.  The US State Department report on Lebanon indicates that there was one case of enforced disappearance, rather a politically motivated disappearance. The report makes no mention of the list of 640 victims of Syrian enforced disappearances in Lebanon. An official joint Syrian-Lebanese committee established in May 2005 to investigate such.

The law does not specifically prohibit torture or cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment, and there were reports government officials employed such practices. That is an understatement! The prisons are overcrowded, poorly managed, rarely maintained.

Now, to say that there is some angst in Lebanon towards Syrians is putting it lightly. Look again at the statement above. That list was made about 2005. How many Syrians have risked their lives by fleeing violence in Syria to go to Lebanon this year? Seriously, these guys. This country, gets to vote on US led resolutions at the UNSC?

UNSC Membership Overview, Brazil

Brazil

It is clear, from the US State Department and a multitude of news reports and human rights agencies, that Brazil can be quite brutal in the arena of human rights and following their own constitutional laws.

Slavery still is practiced in Brazil. Slavery and labor situations like depression era company towns still exist in remote areas in Brazil like the Amazon. Indentured Servitude, abandoned long before the British Colonies became the United States of America, is still practiced here. A recruiter known as a "gato," or cat, plumbs the slums and other poor areas of the vast country and gets people to agree to jobs in distant places. Once separated from home and family, workers are vulnerable to all sorts of abuses, such as being told they owe money for transportation, food, housing and other services. "This is known as debt bondage, which also fits official definitions of slavery,"

Darker-skinned citizens, particularly Afro-Brazilians, frequently encountered discrimination.

Prisons are overcrowded and unhealthy, and prison rape is not uncommon. There are over 400,000 inmates in the system. Beatings, torture and killings by prison guards occur throughout the system. Children are abused in the juvenile justice system.  According to the Ministry of Justice, 13,489 teenagers are in detention.

Prison conditions throughout the country often range from poor to extremely harsh and life threatening. Abuse by prison guards, poor medical care, and severe overcrowding occurred at many facilities. Prison officials often resorted to brutal treatment of prisoners, including torture.

Torture in Brazil is widespread and systematic according to the ex-UN Special Rapporteur. Occurrence of police torture accompanies murder or effecting intimidation and extortion. Torture has also been widely reported in detention centers and mental institutions. Although the constitution prohibits torture and provides severe legal penalties for its use, torture by police and prison guards remained a serious and widespread problem. The government's National Human Rights Secretariat (SEDH) acknowledged that torture existed in the country and related the problem to societal tolerance and the fear of retaliation.

Federal, state, and military police often enjoyed impunity in cases of torture, as in other cases of abuse. During the year an additional state (for a total of 13 of 26) adopted the National Plan for the Prevention and Control of Torture, which includes the installation of cameras in prisons and penitentiaries, taping of interrogations, and reversal of the presumption of innocence for those accused of torture.

State Department -- unlawful killings by state police (military and civil) were widespread, particularly in the populous states of Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro.

In many cases police officers employed indiscriminate lethal force during apprehensions. In some cases civilian deaths followed severe harassment or torture by law enforcement officials.

Credible reports indicated the continuing involvement of state police officials in revenge killings and the intimidation and killing of witnesses involved in testifying against police officials.

UNSC Membership Overview, Germany

Germany has ratified most international human rights treaties. Reports from independent organizations such as Amnesty International certify a high level of compliance with human rights, while still pointing out several issues, in particular police brutality and mistreatment of refugees.

Police brutality appears to be wide spread. The court system offers little to no protection or recompense to the victims. At peaceful protests police have been videotaped attacking people who are already incapacitated.  This would include kicking people in the head after they are already on the ground and dragging people into custody by the hair.

The State Department has a kind view of Germany, stating that there is little in the way of human rights violations there. However, the UNHCR disagrees with Madame Clinton. Germany is a source, transit, and destination country for women, children, and men subjected to sex trafficking and forced labor. Approximately 85 percent of identified victims of sex trafficking originated in Europe, including 25 percent from within Germany, 20 percent from Romania, and 19 percent from Bulgaria. Non-European victims originated in Nigeria, other parts of Africa, Asia, and the Western Hemisphere. The majority of identified sex trafficking victims have been exploited in bars, brothels, and apartments – approximately 45 percent of identified sex trafficking victims reported that they had agreed initially to engage in prostitution. Victims of forced labor have been identified in hotels, domestic service, construction sites, meat processing plants, and restaurants. Members of ethnic minorities, such as Roma, as well as foreign unaccompanied minors who arrived in Germany, were particularly vulnerable to human trafficking.

UNSC Overview, continues

Yesterday, I posted several items that are of concern in regards to human rights and security enforcement in a few of the UNSC member states. Those states reviewed were China, Frnace, Russia, and Colombia. The only real shock I had in that was the pervasiveness of abuse by police. The fact that China and Russia routinely put citizens through forced disappearance, while disturbing, is not a shock to learn. I believe that these two countries regimes will never change the way they conduct business internally. Colombia is simply one of the most violent places. Should these three countries be in positions that have them writing and voting on security resolutions, I think not. I have some misgivings on them enforcing the resolutions and acts, but that role would seem much more appropriate for the apparatchik of these countries.

Today, let's look at the US and the UK to round out the Permanent Membership of the UNSC. Bosnia, Nigeria, and Portugal will be the temporary members at which to look today.

UNSC OVerview Portugal

A 2011 report from the State Department indicates that there is a strong respect for human life and dignity there. There were no reports that the government or its agents committed arbitrary or unlawful killings and no reports of politically motivated disappearances.

The worst thing that can be said of this country is that it is a haven for pedophiles. UK Mail Online writes about how children at an unnamed but very famous orphanage cringe at the sound of Ferrari’s arriving. They are sorted by deaf mutes first, screened and checked for STDs, then carted off in vans to the homes of wealthy pedophiles. Once there, the children may be drugged, given alcohol, or other harsh treatments prior to being sexually abused. The young Madeleine McCann disappeared, to never be found, in this country.

In September 2010 the BBC reported seven defendants faced a total of more than 800 charges relating to an alleged sex ring abusing children from the Casa Pia, a state-run network of homes and schools looking after more than 4,000 needy children.

They included Carlos Cruz, a former TV presenter; Jorge Ritto, a retired ambassador; and a former deputy director of the Casa Pia itself.

Carlos Silvino, a 54-year-old former Casa Pia driver, was the hub of the ring, and faced more than 600 charges relating to the abuse of children or procuring them for others.

Five other male defendants each faced between six and 48 abuse charges. One was also accused of pimping.

But a 68-year-old woman, Gertrudes Nunes, was acquitted of charges relating to the use of her house in Elvas, near the Spanish border, by the abusers.

The abuse at Casa Pia is said to have started in the mid-1970s, but was not discovered until 2002. (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-11171283)

I suppose that, with all that safety and beauty of the country, a few thousand children sexually and systematically abused is alright with the State Department under Hillary Clinton.

UNSC Overview Bosnia & Herzegovina

Srebrenica is the first thing that comes to mind. Due to its internal war, as seen with Colombia, human rights violations abound. It is estimate that there are up to 10,000 cases of human rights violations that are yet untried. There were Serb run prison camps in which Bosniaks, Bosnian citizens who identified as muslims, had been raped, murdered, and mutilated. At the end of the war one could travel around and find muslims who were missing the pinky and ring finger from their right hand. This mutilation left the survivors with a permanent Serb Victory Salute.

While in Bosnia I saw also that the Bosniaks were not innocent of crimes against humanity. In Bugojno all the Croat men and boys were rounded up by the Bosniaks and taken to the soccer stadium. After being held there, these inmates were executed. Old men right down to and including baby boys were murdered.

Bosnian Croats are not innocent, either. The Croatians in Bosnia decimated the town of Duvno and later renamed it as Tomislavgrad. A town in Bosnia named for the first crowned king of Croatia, a neighboring country.

Progress in identifying the whereabouts of victims of enforced disappearance during the 1992-1995 war remained slow and is obstructed by the lack of cooperation between the authorities of FBiH and the RS.

Perhaps, still repairing and healing from the wounds that were sustained during the war and certainly those from the iron fisted reign of Tito, putting Bosnia & Herzegovina on the UNSC was premature. Premature, if not downright misguided, is the kindest way I can put an assessment of this country being on the Council. A single country bearing two names, comprised of two opposing states (The Serb Republic and Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina), comprised of three divided religions is not a solid candidate for sitting on the council to decide security resolutions.

UNSC Overview Nigeria

A country with over 120 languages spoken, three main ethnic groups, and a religious schism between Christians in the south and Muslims in the north has seen thousands of people killed in ethnic clashes over the past few years. Al Jazeera, in 2009, reported on the group Boko Haram (loosely translates to all non-islamic teaching is evil) killing police and hundreds of civilians in the north. In the goal of establishing sharia law throughout the country, Boko Haram is known for widespread killings, rape, burning villages, and more. The government of Nigeria is unable to stop the group or to protect the people who live in areas that are under threat from Boko Haram.

The Nigerian government, where it does operate, is corrupt. 102-page report, "‘Everyone's in on the Game': Corruption and Human Rights Abuses by the Nigeria Police Force," documents the myriad forms of police corruption in Nigeria. It also shows how institutionalized extortion -- a profound lack of political will to reform the force -- and impunity combine to make police corruption a deeply embedded problem.

The US State Department report from 2008 states national police, army, and other security forces committed extrajudicial killings and used lethal and excessive force to apprehend criminals and to disperse demonstrators during the year … On February 25, police killed approximately 50 persons, burned nearly 100 homes, and destroyed more than 150 market stalls in Ogaminana, just outside Okene, Adavi local government area, Kogi State. Credible reports indicate the police attacked the village in reprisal for the reported killing of a colleague by local youths the previous day. There was no formal investigation of the incident … In March 2007 the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture visited the country at the government's invitation to assess reports of official abuse. On the basis of discussions with detainees, visits to prisons and police stations, and forensic medical evidence collected over a one-week period, the rapporteur reported that torture was endemic in law enforcement operations, including police custody, and was often used to extract alleged confessions. According to his report, methods of torture included flogging with whips; beating with batons and machetes; shooting in the foot; threatening a suspect with death and then shooting him with powder cartridges; suspension from the ceiling; and denying food, water, and medical treatment.

Even after the UN had written and published the scathing report of very recent and, to this day, ongoing blatant violations of human rights, absolute and utter disregard for human rights, and a completely corrupt system that is incapable of maintaining its own internal security, Nigeria was voted to sit on the UNSC.

UNSC Overview United Kingdom

This year the European Court has found the UK guilty of violating human rights and due process of law in two cases.

The first involved what was deemed to be the improper investigation into the killing of 6 Iraqi civilians in 2003 and 2004. The Court found the UK had failed to ensure such investigations in five of the six cases, in violation of article 2 (right to life) of the Convention. Significantly, the Court rejected arguments by the UK that the European Convention did not apply to the UK’s operations because they occurred outside the UK’s ordinary territory. The Court held that the fact the UK was an occupying force over the territory in question and therefore exercised public powers there meant the European Convention applied.

The second case the European Court of Human Rights found that the prolonged internment of the applicant, Hilal Abdul-Razzaq Ali Al-Jedda, for more than three years in a detention centre in Basra, Iraq, run by British forces, violated his right to liberty and security under the European Convention.

The UK has also transferred prisoners to countries in which torture is openly permitted and practiced as a matter of course. During the course of the last decade the UK has allowed use of its airspace to transfer prisoners to these countries.

While not clear of blood on their hands, the United Kingdom certainly does not operate at the same levels of impunity or with the same disregard for human rights and security, they are certainly not innocent. That being said, and I may be biased some, it seems that the UK may actually be well suited for writing and suggesting actions and resolutions within the UNSC.

UNSC Overview United States

The protection of fundamental human rights was a foundation stone in the establishment of the United States. In February 2008, US Vice President Dick Cheney said, “[w]e do not torture – it’s against our laws and against our values.” President George W. Bush had used the same words a year and a half earlier when he admitted publicly for the first time that the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) had been operating a program of secret detention in various places around the world.

The USA has now effectively admitted to being a state that condones torture – one that has used torture and reserves the right to do so again. Its response to revelations of torture and other ill-treatment has been at best inadequate. At worst the government is facilitating impunity for crimes under international law.

A black eye, certainly. Have the letter and the spirit of the laws on due process and human rights been violated? Clearly, these abuses have occurred. However, as Lincoln said, this country is the world’s last best hope.