US Senate investigates Moscow’s meddling in 2016 election

James Mattis, President-elect Donald Trump’s pick for US defense secretary, accused Russia of trying to break up NATO and said the US needs to stand up to its old foe. (AFP)
Updated 15 January 2017
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US Senate investigates Moscow’s meddling in 2016 election

WASHINGTON: US senators have launched a probe into Russian spying, saying intelligence reports of Moscow’s interference in the 2016 election and possible ties to American political parties “raise profound concerns.” 
 
The Senate Intelligence Committee, backed by both Democrats and Republicans, will investigate possible contacts between Russia and the people associated with US political campaigns as part of a broader investigation into Moscow’s meddling in the 2016 presidential election.
 
The probe could trigger forced testimony by officials of both Barack Obama’s outgoing administration and the incoming government of Donald Trump, who won the Nov. 8 presidential vote.
 
In a statement late Friday, Sens. Richard Burr. R-N.C., the committee’s chairman, and Mark Warner, D-Virginia, the panel’s top Democrat, said the panel “will follow the intelligence where it leads.”
Burr and Warner said that as part of the investigation they will interview senior officials from the Obama administration and the incoming Trump administration. They said subpoenas would be issued “if necessary to compel testimony.”
 
“We will conduct this inquiry expeditiously, and we will get it right,” the senators said.
A declassified intelligence report released last week said Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered a hidden campaign to influence the election to favor Trump over Democrat Hillary Clinton, revelations that have roiled Washington.
 
Trump and his supporters have staunchly resisted the findings and Trump has leveled a series of broadsides at US intelligence agencies, even though he will have to rely on their expertise to help him make major national security decisions once he takes over at the White House next week. He will be sworn in Jan. 20.
 
At a news conference this week, Trump speculated that US intelligence agencies might have leaked details about a classified briefing with him that included unsubstantiated allegations that Russia had collected compromising sexual and financial information about him.
 
He said any such information was not true: “It’s all fake news. It’s phony stuff. It didn’t happen.”
The bulk of the Senate Intelligence Committee’s work will be done in secret, although the senators said they will hold open hearings when possible.
 
“As the committee’s investigation progresses, we will keep Senate leadership, and the broader body, apprised of our findings,” Burr and Warner said.
 
Democrats and some Republicans have pressed for a special, select bipartisan committee to conduct the investigation, but Republican leaders have maintained that the existing committees are capable of handling the inquiries.
 
According to the committee’s statement, the inquiry will include:
— A review of the intelligence that informed the declassified report about Russia’s interference in the election.
 
— “Counterintelligence concerns” related to Russia and the election, “including any intelligence regarding links between Russia and individuals associated with political campaigns.”
— Russian cyber activity and other “active measures” against the US during the election and more broadly.
 
A report from the Director of National Intelligence released early this month said the Russians hacked Democratic Party computers and accounts to release files embarrassing to Clinton, and also conducted a campaign of media manipulation with the same aim.
 
But the public version of the report was questioned for offering only weak evidence of its claims.
An unproven dossier compiled by a former British MI6 intelligence agent also alleged close ties between the Trump campaign and Russian government, and said Moscow had lurid video of Trump with prostitutes while in Russia.
 
“It is critical to have a full understanding of the scope of Russian intelligence activities impacting the United States,” the Senate panel said on Friday.
Trump, who will take office in one week, has repeatedly rejected suggestions that Moscow aided in his election victory.
 
He has also compared US intelligence agencies to “Nazi Germany” for allegedly leaking to the media their analyzes to undermine him.
The probe will review the intelligence community’s assessments and also other assessments, “including any intelligence regarding links between Russia and individuals associated with political campaigns,” the committee said.
 
That suggested the former British spy’s explosive report could also be reviewed.
Vowing to “get it right,” the panel said most of the work will be done out of public scrutiny to protect classified information.
 
In light of the hacking allegations, Trump’s close ties with Russia, and especially President Vladimir Putin, have come under growing scrutiny.
 
Trump, who sees an opportunity to cooperate with Moscow in fighting jihadist groups like Islamic State, has expressed admiration for Putin, and only reluctantly accepted US intelligence’s conclusion that Russian hackers acting on Putin’s authority interfered in the US elections.
 
The Washington Post reported that Trump’s incoming national security adviser Michael Flynn telephoned Moscow’s ambassador to Washington, Sergey Kislyak, several times the day before Obama unveiled punitive measures over Russia’s alleged cyberattacks to influence the US election.
 
Flynn receives a speaking fee from Russian government-funded Russia Today.
Trump’s incoming press secretary, Sean Spicer, said Flynn in fact spoke with the envoy on Christmas Day, sending him a text to wish him a merry Christmas and happy New Year.
 
“I look forward to touching base with you, and working with you, and I wish you all the best,” Spicer quoted Flynn as telling the ambassador, adding that the envoy responded with holiday greetings.
On Dec. 28, the pair spoke by phone about “the logistics of setting up a call with the president of Russia and the president-elect after he was sworn in, and they exchanged logistical information on how to initiate and schedule that call,” Spicer said. He added: “That was it. Plain and simple.”
 
In an interview with the Wall Street Journal, Trump hinted he may scrap Obama’s punitive measures altogether, and said he was prepared to meet with Putin after taking office Jan. 20.
 
Separately, he blasted the leak of the unsubstantiated report that Russia had gathered compromising personal and financial material on him as “totally made up facts by sleazebag political operatives.”
He promised a “full report” on the hacking claims within 90 days.
 
In the first round of hearings for Trump nominees that wrapped up Friday, a week before Obama hands the Manhattan billionaire the keys to the White House, several of his cabinet picks publicly contradicted him.
 
But the president-elect dismissed talk of ideological splits.
“All of my Cabinet nominee (sic) are looking good and doing a great job,” he said in an early morning tweet. “I want them to be themselves and express their own thoughts, not mine!”
 
The 70-year-old Republican later elaborated, telling reporters at Trump Tower: “I could have said, ‘Do this, say that.’ I don’t want that. I want them all to be themselves.”
 
“And I’m going to do the right thing, whatever it is. I may be right. And they may be right.”
Over three days of feisty hearings this week, Trump’s nominees warned of the threat posed by Russia, hailed NATO, repudiated torture, defended the US intelligence community and cautioned against withdrawing from the Iran nuclear treaty and the Paris climate accord.
 
On virtually every controversial foreign policy stance that Trump took during the campaign, they hedged and backtracked and sought to assure senators that they shared the consensus that has shaped Western strategic thinking and institutions since World War II.
 

Uganda’s president arrives in S.Sudan as crisis deepens

Updated 03 April 2025
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Uganda’s president arrives in S.Sudan as crisis deepens

  • The Ugandan leader, whose military was invited into South Sudan last month to help secure the capital, did not refer directly to the crisis in public remarks at the airport in Juba

NAIROBI: Uganda’s President Yoweri Museveni arrived in neighboring South Sudan on Thursday, in the highest level mission there since clashes and the detention of the vice president triggered regional fears of a return to civil war.
Museveni was met at the airport by South Sudan’s President Salva Kiir, whose administration has accused First Vice President Riek Machar of stoking rebellion and put him under house arrest.
The Ugandan leader, whose military was invited into South Sudan last month to help secure the capital, did not refer directly to the crisis in public remarks at the airport in Juba.
The visit follows mediation missions by the African Union and an East African regional body this week to de-escalate the crisis.
Museveni told reporters he would hold talks “aimed at strengthening bilateral relations and enhancing cooperation between our two nations.”
Kiir said the two leaders would discuss “current political developments in the country.”
The standoff between Kiir and Machar, who led opposing forces in a 2013-2018 civil war that killed hundreds of thousands, has prompted the UN to warn that the world’s young nation could be on the brink of all-out conflict along ethnic lines.
Uganda backed Kiir’s forces during the civil war.
It sent troops last month amid fighting between South Sudan’s military and an ethnic Nuer militia in Upper Nile state in the northeast.
Machar’s predominantly Nuer forces were allied with the White Army militia during the civil war, but his party denies government accusations of ongoing links.
Uganda’s military chief, Muhoozi Kainerugaba, also Museveni’s son, said on Tuesday he had ordered Ugandan forces to stop attacking the White Army so long as it ceases offensives against Ugandan troops.
Machar’s party says the Ugandan intervention violates South Sudan’s arms embargo.
Analysts say Kiir, 73, appears to be attempting to shore up his position amid discontent within his political camp and speculation about his succession plan.

 


Italy plans $22 million for migrant repatriations

Updated 03 April 2025
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Italy plans $22 million for migrant repatriations

  • The ministry said the plan would benefit “around 3,300 of the most vulnerable migrants, carrying out their repatriation to their countries of origin sustainably and effectively”

ROME: Italy plans to invest 20 million euros ($22 million) in a new project to help Algeria, Libya, and Tunisia send irregular migrants from their territories back to the migrants’ countries of origin.
The government of Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has vowed to cut irregular migration to Italy’s shores from North Africa — the majority of whom depart from Libya and Tunisia.
However, many migrants who depart hail from other countries, especially sub-Saharan African countries.
Italy’s new plan “focuses on strengthening the institutional and administrative-managerial capacities of the partner countries,” with the involvement of 400 officials, Italy’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
Irregular migration would be better addressed “through the improvement and development of assisted voluntary repatriations from Algeria, Libya and Tunisia to the countries of origin,” it said.
It said the project would collaborate with the International Organization for Migration to ensure migrants’ rights.
The ministry said the plan would benefit “around 3,300 of the most vulnerable migrants, carrying out their repatriation to their countries of origin sustainably and effectively.”
It said Italy’s Agency for Development Cooperation, which helps carry out development activities, would provide technical support.
The agency has also been charged with another plan targeted at the “socio-economic reintegration of returning migrants,” tapping Italian companies and civil society groups, it said.
Most migrants arriving in Italy via the Mediterranean depart from Libya and Tunisia.
Italy has agreements with both countries to provide funding in exchange for help stemming departures.
On Wednesday, Libyan authorities said they would suspend the work of 10 international humanitarian groups, including Doctors Without Borders, accusing them of a plan to “settle migrants” from other parts of Africa in the country.

 


Driver of car in Amsterdam explosion may have been attempting suicide, police say

Updated 03 April 2025
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Driver of car in Amsterdam explosion may have been attempting suicide, police say

  • Police arrested the man, a 50-year old Dutchman, on suspicion of arson
  • Nobody was hurt in the incident except the suspect

AMSTERDAM: Dutch police said they believed the driver of a car that caught fire on Thursday following an explosion in central Amsterdam may have been attempting to commit suicide.
Police arrested the man, a 50-year old Dutchman, on suspicion of arson. Nobody was hurt in the incident except the suspect.
“Police detectives are keeping all scenarios open but have strong suspicions that the man wanted to take his own life,” police said on the social media platform X.


Earlier, police said camera footage had shown the fire was caused by an explosion, which happened among a crowd of people on Amsterdam’s busy Dam Square.
Images on social media show a man with burning clothes close to a small red car with flames billowing from its windows.
Police are seen extinguishing the flames on the man before taking him into custody.
Police sealed off the square while explosives experts investigated the vehicle. It was later removed from the square.
Last week, a man injured five people near Dam Square in a stabbing rampage. Police identified the suspect in that incident as a 30-year-old Ukrainian national from the eastern Donetsk region, who prosecutors said had acted with terrorist intent.

 


University of Birmingham students facing disciplinary hearing over pro-Palestine activism

Updated 03 April 2025
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University of Birmingham students facing disciplinary hearing over pro-Palestine activism

  • Student Antonia Listrat: ‘Funding genocide is violent; protesting genocide is peaceful’
  • Legal rights group sounds alarm over ‘nationwide crackdown’ on solidarity with Palestinians

LONDON: Two pro-Palestine students at the UK’s University of Birmingham are facing disciplinary proceedings over their activism, with a major legal rights group sounding the alarm over a “nationwide crackdown” on solidarity with the Palestinian people.

The European Legal Support Centre submitted legal documents to the university’s misconduct panel on behalf of the two students, Mariyah Ali and Antonia Listrat.

Amid the war in Gaza and sweeping pro-Palestine solidarity at institutions across the UK, the two students had demanded that their university divest from arms companies supplying the Israeli military.

Ali and Listrat face a disciplinary hearing on April 7, with the ELSC urging the university to dismiss the proceedings.

Coventry MP Zarah Sultana labeled the university’s move “an assault on democratic rights,” while the decision was questioned by UN Special Rapporteur Gina Romero, who highlighted “harassment, intimidation and reprisals” against the students at the university.

The pair have been supported by the university’s student body, which elected Listrat as guild president and Ali as ethnic minorities officer.

Ali said: “The disciplinary process against Antonia and me is a blatant attempt to suppress dissent and silence the wider student movement.

“This authoritarian crackdown is not just an attack on our right to protest — it is a display of institutional Islamophobia and bureaucratic repression.

“The student movement for Palestine is stronger than ever. Instead of charging students, the University of Birmingham must focus on divesting from companies complicit in genocide and war crimes.”

The student union also passed a motion supporting pro-Palestine solidarity that was subsequently blocked by union trustees.

By taking punitive measures against the students, the university is “contradicting the democratic will of students,” the ELSC said.

Anna Ost, the center’s senior legal officer, added: “We are deeply concerned that the university’s intention and effect in targeting these two students is to dissuade the wider university community from speaking out for Palestine.

“The university needs to change its approach, drop the disciplinaries, and demonstrate that fundamental freedoms are still promoted on its campus.”

The targeting of the students is part a wider crackdown on pro-Palestine activism across the UK in the wake of Israel’s war in Gaza.

Since October 2023, at least 28 universities across the UK have disciplined more than 113 students for activism, a joint investigation by Sky News and Liberty Investigates found.

The ELSC warned that the campus crackdowns, which have involved police and private security, is creating a “chilling effect” that “sets a dangerous precedent for campus democracy.”

British universities are legally bound to protect freedom of expression under the education and human rights acts, it added, warning that the University of Birmingham is “violating these obligations by penalizing students for their political beliefs.”

The center called on the university to dismiss the charges against the students and uphold freedom of speech, expression and assembly on campus.

Listrat said protesting is “an integral part of campus life” that signifies a “healthy and progressive society.”

She added: “As far-right rhetoric rises throughout the world, we need to make a huge effort to protect our rights and uphold international law and morality.

“Enabling genocide and profiting from human rights violations is quite a violent stance that the University of Birmingham has taken. Funding genocide is violent; protesting genocide is peaceful.”


German military to order exploding drones for first time, sources say

Updated 03 April 2025
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German military to order exploding drones for first time, sources say

  • Russia and Ukraine have fielded such single-use drones
  • The procurement of armed drones has been controversial in Germany

BERLIN: The German military will be armed with loitering munitions, or exploding drones, for the first time, two defense ministry sources said on Thursday, as Berlin tries to catch up with a technology that has shown its destructive power in Ukraine.
Both Russia and Ukraine have fielded such single-use drones, which cruise toward their target before plummeting at velocity and detonating on impact.
But the procurement of armed drones has been controversial in Germany, with some politicians associating them with targeted extrajudicial killings by US forces in Afghanistan.
It took years of heated debate before parliament agreed in 2022 to enable a large drone such as the Heron TP, which flies at much higher altitudes, to carry arms.
However, military upgrades are more urgent now for Germany, amid the continuing war between Russia and Ukraine and doubts about the future of US military protection.
Last month, parliament approved plans for a defense spending surge worth hundreds of billions of euros.
Contracts with two companies for a first batch of exploding drones will be signed in the coming days, the sources said, declining to name the companies. The army, air force and navy will test them in the following months.
“The use of drones and the defense against drones is crucial for the survival of our troops on the modern battlefield, that’s something we learned in Ukraine,” said one of the sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
“Each soldier must be capable of operating drones, just as today, everybody knows how to use binoculars.”
Germany will aim to sign longer-term contracts by the end of the year for a larger number of drones, shortening the period for introducing new weapons which usually takes years.
As drone technology evolves rapidly, the deals will specify that companies supply a limited number initially for training purposes, and that they may be asked later to supply a larger number of the latest models at short notice, if needed.
“There’s no use in purchasing thousands of drones ... only to realize they are outdated by the time we need them,” one of the sources said.