Mexico’s former top security official pleaded not guilty Friday to charges he accepted a fortune in drug-money bribes from kingpin Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman’s notorious Sinaloa cartel to let it operate with impunity.
Genaro Garcia Luna, 51, was indicted in New York on three counts of cocaine trafficking conspiracy and a false statements charge.
During his brief appearance in a Brooklyn courtroom, Garcia Luna shook his head “no” as prosecutors outlined the charges against him.
A judge ordered him detained after Assistant U.S. Attorney Erin Reid argued that he would pose an “unacceptable risk of flight” if released. Garcia Luna’s lawyer, Cesar de Castro, said he would ask the court later for his client to be granted bail.
Former drug war point man
Garcia Luna was viewed as the point man in then-President Felipe Calderon’s 2006-2012 war on drugs. As public safety secretary, he was one of the most feared members of Calderon’s government, but for years was dogged by allegations about his ties to drug traffickers.
Calderon’s government was criticized for not going after the Sinaloa cartel with the same energy as the cartel’s rivals. Calderon always rebuffed that criticism.
Briefcases of cash
U.S. prosecutors said in a court filing this month that Garcia Luna had accepted “tens of millions of dollars” in bribes — often briefcases full of cash — to protect the cartel.
“Because of the defendant’s corrupt assistance, the Sinaloa Cartel conducted its criminal activity in Mexico without significant interference from Mexican law enforcement and imported multiton quantities of cocaine and other drugs into the United States,” prosecutors wrote.
They added that Garcia Luna “prioritized his personal greed over his sworn duties as a public servant and assured the continued success and safety of one of the world’s most notorious trafficking organizations.”
De Castro declined to comment on the charges.
During Guzman’s 2018 New York trial, jurors heard former cartel member Jesus Zambada testify that he personally made at least $6 million in hidden payments to Garcia Luna, on behalf of his older brother, cartel boss Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada.
It’s alleged that during the time Garcia Luna protected the Sinaloa Cartel in exchange for bribes, the cartel, at the direction of Chapo Guzman, Mayo Zambada and other leaders, sent multiton drug loads to New York and other American cities, including the federal district covering Brooklyn and Queens, according to court documents.
Garcia Luna lived in Miami, Florida, before his arrest last month in Texas. From 2001 to 2005, he led Mexico’s Federal Investigation Agency and from 2006 to 2012 served as Mexico’s secretary of public security before relocating to the U.S., authorities said.
The United States struck a significant and potentially risky blow against Iran, killing the leader of the nation’s elite Quds Force in an airstrike in Iraq.
The Pentagon confirmed the death of Quds Force Commander General Qassem Soleimani in a statement late Thursday, saying the strike was launched, “at the direction” of U.S. President Donald Trump.
It further described the strike as a “decisive defensive action to protect U.S. personnel abroad.”
“General Soleimani was actively developing plans to attack American diplomats and service members in Iraq and throughout the region,” the statement said.
“This strike was aimed at deterring future Iranian attack plans,” it said. “The United States will continue to take all necessary action to protect our people and our interests wherever they are around the world.”
Baghdad airport
The Defense Department statement shared few details of the strike itself, but Iraqi officials said a rocket struck a convoy traveling near Baghdad International Airport early Friday local time.
Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, the deputy commander of Iranian-backed Iraqi militias, known as the Popular Mobilization Forces, also died in the strike, Iraqi officials said, adding other top officials may have been killed, as well.
Even before the U.S. Defense Department confirmed the strike on Soleimani, photos claiming to show the Iranian general’s lifeless body were circulating on social media.
FILE – These photos show Iranian Major General Qassem Soleimani of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, left, in Tehran; and Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, right, a commander in the Popular Mobilization Force.
Iranian-backed militias in Iraq, as well as Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, also quickly confirmed the deaths of Soleimani and al-Muhandis, blaming the United States.
Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif called the U.S. strike an “act of terrorism,” tweeting it was an “extremely dangerous & a foolish escalation.”
The US’ act of international terrorism, targeting & assassinating General Soleimani—THE most effective force fighting Daesh (ISIS), Al Nusrah, Al Qaeda et al—is extremely dangerous & a foolish escalation.
The US bears responsibility for all consequences of its rogue adventurism.
Iran Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, called for three days of national mourning and warned, “All Enemies should know that the jihad of resistance will continue with a doubled motivation, and a definite victory awaits the fighters in the holy war.”
President Trump did not immediately comment but tweeted a picture of the U.S. flag late Thursday.
Just days earlier, Trump warned Iran he was holding its leaders accountable for a series of repeated attacks by members of Iranian-backed militias on the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad.
“They will pay a very big price. This is not a warning. It is a threat,” he tweeted. But he told reporters Tuesday that he did not foresee the U.S. going to war with Iran.
“I don’t think Iran would want that to happen. It would go very quickly,” he said.
U.S. Army paratroopers of an immediate reaction force from the 2nd Battalion, 504th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 1st Brigade Combat Team, 82nd Airborne Division, board their C-17 aircraft at Fort Bragg, N.C., Jan. 1, 2020.
Paradigm shifts
The U.S. has already deployed 750 soldiers from the 82nd Airborne Division to Kuwait to help bolster the defense of U.S. bases and personnel in the region. Defense officials said Thursday more troops would be sent as needed.
Among analysts and onlookers, though, there is a sense that whatever happens next, the paradigm between the United States and Iran has changed.
“The strike was a clear signal from the U.S. that the parameters of our confrontation with Iran have shifted fundamentally,” said Ilan Berman, senior vice president of the American Foreign Policy Council, in a message to VOA Persian. “Quite simply, the U.S. has demonstrated that it is no longer prepared to exercise restraint in the face of repeated Iranian provocation, the way it has in the past.”
“There is significant risk here,” Bill Roggio, a senior fellow at the Washington-based Foundation for the Defense of Democracies, told VOA, calling the strike that killed Soleimani, “the most significant” since the U.S. killed al-Qaida founder Osama bin Laden.
“Soleimani and Muhandis were revered by the Iraqi Shia militias. They will want blood,” he said. “It is unclear if the Iraqi security forces are able or even willing to do anything to prevent it.”
Troops in the region
The United States has about 5,000 troops in Iraq and about 55,000 more across the Middle East, all of whom could potentially be targeted by Iran.
“The key question is whether this will ultimately lead to sustained military confrontation — even war — between the U.S. and Iran and Iran and Israel,” former State Department Middle East analyst and negotiator, Aaron David Miller, tweeted. “Matters will get worse before they get worse.”
Suleimani’s assassination is among the most consequential in Middle East in decades.The key question is whether this will ultimately lead to sustained military confrontation — even war — between the US and Iran and Iran and Israel. Matters will get worse before they get worse.
U.S. officials have repeatedly voiced concern about Iran’s military reach, warning Tehran’s forces are capable of targeting personnel and assets throughout the Middle East.
Some of that concern has focused on Iran’s ballistic missile technology and on Iran’s naval prowess. This past July, Iran also disrupted naval traffic in the Strait of Hormuz, seizing several oil tankers.
But there is also concern that Iran’s proxy forces, like the militias it supports in Iraq and Syria, are capable of inflicting considerable damage.
“When you’re dealing with groups like this, they are a hell of a lot more threatening and a hell of a lot more organized than anything we’ve seen out of many Sunni jihadist groups,” said Phillip Smyth, an analyst with the Washington Institute for Near East Policy.
“It doesn’t operate the same way you might think of, let’s say, the Islamic State,” he said. “You’re dealing with a far more organized apparatus.”
Despite the risk, some key Republican lawmakers praised the U.S. strike against Soleimani.
“President Trump has been clear all along — the United States will not tolerate Iran spilling American blood, and tonight he followed his words with action,” Republican James Inhofe, chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee said in a statement late Thursday.
“The President made the brave and right call, and Americans should be proud,” Republican Senator Benn Sasse, a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said. “General Soleimani is dead because he was an evil bastard who murdered Americans.”
Former U.S. Vice President and current presidential candidate for the Democratic Party Joseph Biden was more cautious. While admitting Soleimani “deserved to be brought to justice for his crimes against American troops and thousands of innocents throughout the region,” Biden in a written statement said President Trump owes the American people an explanation of the strategy and plan to keep American servicemen and diplomats and allies safe at home and abroad.
“I hope the administration has thought through the second- and third-order consequences of the path they have chosen. But I fear this administration has not demonstrated at any turn the discipline or long-term vision necessary — and the stakes could not be higher,” he said.
Although Iran’s Revolutionary Guards Corps [IRGC] and Quds Force are part of the Iranian military, the U.S. State Department designated them as Foreign Terrorist Organizations this past April because of their ties with Middle Eastern terror groups like Hezbollah and Hamas.
The U.S. also blames the IRGC and Quds Force for the death of more than 600 U.S. service members in Iraq between 2003 and 2011.
At the time, @SecPompeo was asked if the US would target #Quds Force Cmdr Qassem Soleimani like it would an #ISIS leader
“I don’t have comments…when you say “target,” you’re usually talking about things that the Department of Defense does. I’ll allow them to respond ” he said pic.twitter.com/PPDtucbHHX
Earlier Thursday, top U.S. defense officials said Iran’s targeting of Americans had resumed.
“There’s been a sustained campaign at least since October,” General Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told reporters.
“We know the intent of this last attack [on a base in Kirkuk, Iraq] was, in fact, to kill American soldiers, sailors, airmen, Marines,” he added. “Thirty-one rockets aren’t designed as a warning shot.”
Speaking alongside Milley, Defense Secretary Mark Esper warned the United States was also ready to take “preemptive action” against Iran.
“The game has changed. We’re prepared to do what is necessary,” he said.
VOA Persian Service and White House Senior Correspondent Steve Herman contributed to this report.
For Iranians whose icons since the Islamic Revolution have been stern-faced clergy, Maj. Gen. Qassem Soleimani widely represented a figure of national resilience in the face of four decades of U.S. pressure.
For the U.S. and Israel, he was a shadowy figure in command of Iran’s proxy forces, responsible for fighters in Syria backing President Bashar Assad and for the deaths of American troops in Iraq.
Soleimani survived the horror of Iran’s long war in the 1980s with Iraq to take control of the Revolutionary Guard’s elite Quds Force, responsible for the Islamic Republic’s foreign campaigns.
FILE – Gen. Qassim Soleimani attends a meeting of a group of the Guard members with Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, in Tehran, Iran, Oct. 2, 2019. Authorities said Soleimani survived an attempt on his life in September 2019.
US helps build his mystique
Relatively unknown in Iran until the 2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq, Soleimani’s popularity and mystique grew out of American officials calling for his killing. By the time it came a decade and a half later, Soleimani had become Iran’s most recognizable battlefield commander, ignoring calls to enter politics but becoming as powerful, if not more, than its civilian leadership.
“The warfront is mankind’s lost paradise,” Soleimani said in a 2009 interview. “One type of paradise that is portrayed for mankind is streams, beautiful nymphs and greeneries. But there is another kind of paradise. … The warfront was the lost paradise of the human beings, indeed.”
A U.S. airstrike killed Soleimani, 62, and others as they traveled from Baghdad’s international airport early Friday morning. The Pentagon said President Donald Trump ordered the U.S. military to take “decisive defensive action to protect U.S. personnel abroad by killing” a man once referred to by Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei as a “living martyr of the revolution.”
Many rumors of his death
Soleimani’s luck ran out after being rumored dead several times in his life. Those incidents included a 2006 airplane crash that killed other military officials in northwestern Iran and a 2012 bombing in Damascus that killed top aides of Assad. More recently, rumors circulated in November 2015 that Soleimani was killed or seriously wounded leading forces loyal to Assad as they fought around Syria’s Aleppo.
Iranian officials quickly vowed to take revenge amid months of tensions between Iran and the U.S. following Trump pulling out of Tehran’s nuclear deal with world powers. While Soleimani was the Guard’s most prominent general, many others in its ranks have experience in waging the asymmetrical, proxy attacks for which Iran has become known.
“Trump through his gamble has dragged the U.S. into the most dangerous situation in the region,” Hessameddin Ashena, an adviser to Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani, wrote on the social media app Telegram. “Whoever put his foot beyond the red line should be ready to face its consequences.”
FILE – Iranian Revolutionary Guard members attend a ceremony celebrating the 40th anniversary of the Islamic Revolution, Feb. 11, 2019, at the Azadi, or Freedom, Square in Tehran, Iran.
Joining Revolutionary Guard
Born March 11, 1957, Soleimani was said in his homeland to have grown up near the mountainous and the historic Iranian town of Rabor, famous for its forests, its apricot, walnut and peach harvests and its brave soldiers. The U.S. State Department has said he was born in the Iranian religious capital of Qom.
Little is known about his childhood, though Iranian accounts suggest Soleimani’s father was a peasant who received a piece of land under the Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, but later became encumbered by debts.
By the time he was 13, Soleimani began working in construction, later as an employee of the Kerman Water Organization. Iran’s 1979 Islamic Revolution swept the shah from power and Soleimani joined the Revolutionary Guard in its wake. He deployed to Iran’s northwest with forces that put down Kurdish unrest following the revolution.
Soon after, Iraq invaded Iran and began the two countries bloody eight-year war. The fighting killed more than 1 million people and saw Iran send waves of lightly armed troops into minefields and the fire of Iraqi forces, including teenage soldiers. Solemani’s unit and others came under attack by Iraqi chemical weapons as well.
Amid the carnage, Soleimani became known for his opposition to “meaningless deaths” on the battlefield, while still weeping at times with fervor when exhorting his men into combat, embracing each individually.
Close to Khamenei
After the Iraq-Iran war, Soleimani largely disappeared from public view for several years, something analysts attribute to his wartime disagreements with Hashemi Rafsanjani, who would serve as Iran’s president from 1989 to 1997. But after Rafsanjani, Soleimani became head of the Quds force. He also grew so close to Khamenei that the Supreme Leader officiated the wedding of the general’s daughter.
As chief of the Quds — or Jerusalem — Force, Solemani oversaw the Guard’s foreign operations and soon would come to the attention of Americans following the 2003 invasion of Iraq and the overthrow of Saddam Hussein.
In secret U.S. diplomatic cables released by WikiLeaks, U.S. officials openly discussed Iraqi efforts to reach out to Soleimani to stop rocket attacks on the highly secured Green Zone in Baghdad in 2009. Another cable in 2007 outlines then-Iraqi President Jalal Talabani offering a U.S. official a message from Soleimani acknowledging having hundreds of agents in the country while pledging, “I swear on the grave of (the late Ayatollah Ruhollah) Khomeini I haven’t authorized a bullet against the U.S.”
U.S. officials at the time dismissed Soleimani’s claim as they saw Iran as both an arsonist and a fireman in Iraq, controlling some Shiite militias while simultaneously stirring dissent and launching attacks. U.S. forces would blame the Quds Force for an attack in Karbala that killed five American troops, as well as for training and supplying the bomb makers whose improvised explosive devices made improvised explosive device (IED) a dreaded acronym among soldiers.
In a 2010 speech, U.S. Gen. David Petreaus recounted a message from Soleimani he said explained the scope of Iranian’s powers.
“He said, ‘Gen. Petreaus, you should know that I, Qassem Soleimani, control the policy for Iran with respect to Iraq, Lebanon, Gaza and Afghanistan,’” Petraeus said.
Syrian civil war
The U.S. and the United Nations put Soleimani on sanctions lists in 2007, though his travels continued. In 2011, U.S. officials also named him as a defendant in an outlandish Quds Force plot to allegedly hire a purported Mexican drug cartel assassin to kill a Saudi diplomat.
But his greatest notoriety would arise from the Syrian civil war and the rapid expansion of the Islamic State group. Iran, a major backer of Assad, sent Soleimani into Syria several times to lead attacks against IS and others opposing Assad’s rule. While a U.S.-led coalition focused on airstrikes, several ground victories for Iraqi forces came with photographs emerging of Soleimani leading, never wearing a flak jacket.
“Soleimani has taught us that death is the beginning of life, not the end of life,” one Iraqi militia commander said.
The United States killed Iran’s top general and the architect of Tehran’s proxy wars in the Middle East in an airstrike in Baghdad Friday.
Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif was among the first Friday to react to the assassination of Quds Force chief Qassem Soleimani, saying it would strengthen resistance against the United States and Israel in the region and the world, Iranian state television reported.
“The brutality and stupidity of American terrorist forces in assassinating Commander Soleimani … will undoubtedly make the tree of resistance in the region and the world more prosperous,” Zarif said in a statement.
On Twitter he said the assassination of Soleimani was “an extremely dangerous and foolish escalation. The U.S. bears responsibility for all consequences of its rogue adventurism.”
FILE – Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., and other Democrats respond to questions from reporters, May 6, 2019, on Capitol Hill.
Senators weigh in
In the U.S., Democratic Sen. Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut said President Donald Trump owes a full explanation to Congress and the American people.
“The present authorizations for use of military force in no way cover starting a possible new war. This step could bring the most consequential military confrontation in decades,” Blumenthal said.
But Trump allies were quick to praise the action.
“To the Iranian government: if you want more, you will get more,” tweeted South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham.
U.S. Senator Chris Murphy, a Democrat from Connecticut, said that while Soleimani was “an enemy of the United States,” the killing could put more Americans at risk.
“One reason we don’t generally (assassinate) foreign political officials is the belief that such action will get more, not less, Americans killed,” Murphy said on Twitter. “That should be our real, pressing and grave worry tonight.”
President Trump is bringing our nation to the brink of an illegal war with Iran with no congressional approval.
Passing our bipartisan amendment to prevent unconstitutional war with Iran is urgent. Congress needs to step in immediately. https://t.co/tBFRwQMp51
Former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley praised the move on Twitter.
Qassem Soleimani was an arch terrorist with American blood on his hands. His demise should be applauded by all who seek peace and justice. Proud of President Trump for doing the strong and right thing. @realDonaldTrump ??
Mohsen Rezaei, former commander of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, also took to Twitter, saying that Soleimani “joined his martyred brothers, but we will take vigorous revenge on America,” Rezaei is now the secretary of a powerful state body.
Turkey’s parliament has approved a bill that allows troop deployment in Libya to support the internationally recognized government in Tripoli.Turkish lawmakers passed the bill on Thursday with a 315-184 vote.Most opposition parties voted against the bill.The Libyan government, headed by Prime Minister Fayez al-Serraj, asked Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan for support as it fends off an offensive by General Khalifa Haftar’s forces to the east of the country, which are backed by Russia, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates, and Jordan. As VOA’S Zlatica Hoke reports.
With just a month to go until the Iowa Caucus — the first nominating contest in the U.S. presidential election — the race to choose a Democratic rival to U.S. President Donald Trump is intensifying. The only Latino candidate in the race, former mayor Julian Castro, withdrew Thursday while new fundraising numbers show Senator Bernie Sanders’ candidacy is stronger than expected. VOA’s congressional correspondent Katherine Gypson has more on the opening of election year 2020.
A chartered plane from the Nigerian city of Lagos landed at Yaounde’s international airport late Tuesday with 87 Cameroonian asylum-seekers and former separatists on board.
The group of mainly women and children was the first to return to Cameroon after fleeing to Nigeria to escape fighting between government troops and separatists in Cameroon’s troubled western regions.
Cameroon authorities say they returned voluntarily under an agreement with Nigeria and that at least 700 asylum-seekers and rebels are expected to return before the end of February.
Marie Nash, 29, fled the English-speaking southwestern town of Mamfe two years ago when fighting first broke out, but returned amid renewed talk of peace.
“Because of the war, I have experienced a lot of things,” she said. “I just thank God because they want to bring peace to Cameroon, and I am very happy for that. I want everybody to come back so that we should not fight again. Let us make peace.”
Among the returnees are former separatist fighters like Success Nkongho, who led an armed group called “Ground Zero” before fleeing to Nigeria in October.
He said he returned to Cameroon after the government showed efforts to address the conflict, including October’s national dialogue.
“Prior to the national dialogue, I was invited though I did not come there,” he said. “Today I am here with other combatants (ex fighters) and refugees, asylum seekers. We have come home, and we wish to say please kindly give us another chance.”
Former rebel Leonard Nyambere said he is still in touch with separatists who want to surrender but do not trust authorities’ offer of reintegration.
“Some of us (the fighters) think that the government wants to trick us or to kill us,” he said. “That is why most of our brothers are still in the forest. My friends and my brothers understand that the Cameroon of yesterday is not the Cameroon of today. Everything cannot be solved by the gun.”
On social media, other separatist fighters describe Nyambere and Nkongho as sell-outs to Cameroon’s government and call for their capture.
The former rebels will enter rehabilitation and reintegration programs before being released.
Despite the risk and ongoing conflict, Cameroon authorities are urging the asylum-seekers to return to their homes in the English-speaking, western regions.
Cameroon Territorial Administration Minister Paul Atanga Nji said there is peace in areas where they have been distributing aid, with no attacks from separatist fighters.
“It is a clear indication that there is no humanitarian crisis in Cameroon,” he said. “I think about 5,000 families have gone back to the northwest and the southwest regions of Cameroon, which is a clear indication that everything is coming back to normalcy.”
But the returnees are staying with relatives in Yaoundé and say they are reluctant to go home until all fighting ends and authorities reconstruct villages and towns destroyed in the conflict.
In December, Cameroon’s parliament gave special status for the English-speaking regions in a further effort to halt the conflict.
The special status creates more elected, local leader positions for the two English-speaking regions. It also cedes some powers to elected mayors, such as authority to recruit hospital staff and teachers.
Unrest erupted in Cameroon’s English-speaking regions in 2017 after teachers and lawyers protested discrimination by the country’s French-speaking majority. Cameroon’s military cracked down hard as separatists took up arms.
The UN says the conflict has left at least 3,000 people dead, displaced half a million, and led tens of thousands to flee to neighboring Nigeria.
The number of deaths in major air crashes around the globe fell by more than half in 2019, according to a report by an aviation consulting firm.
The To70 consultancy said Wednesday that 257 people died in eight fatal accidents in 2019. That compares to 534 deaths in 13 fatal accidents in 2018.
The 2019 death toll rose in late December after a Bek Air Fokker 100 crashed Friday on takeoff in Kazakhstan, killing 12 people. The worst crash of 2019 involved an Ethiopian Airlines Boeing 737 MAX plane that crashed March 10, killing 157 people.
The report said fatal accidents in 2018 and 2019 that led to the grounding of Boeing’s 737 MAX raised questions about how aviation authorities approve aviation designs derived from older ones, and about how much pilot training is needed on new systems.
The group said it expects the 737 MAX to eventually gain permission to fly again in 2020.
The report said the fatal accident rate for large planes in commercial air transport fell to 0.18 fatal accidents per million flights in 2019 from 0.30 accidents per million flights in 2018. That means there was one fatal accident for every 5.58 million flights.
The firm’s annual compilation of accident statistics stressed that aviation needs to keep its focus on the basics of having well-designed and well-constructed aircraft flown by well-trained crews.
Last year may have seen fewer deaths but did not equal the historic low of 2017, which saw only two fatal accidents, involving regional turboprops, that resulted in the loss of 13 lives.
This report is based on crashes involving larger aircraft used for most commercial passenger flights. It excludes accidents involving small planes, military flights, cargo flights and helicopters.
Taiwan’s top military officer was among eight people killed Thursday when their helicopter crashed in a mountainous area outside the capital, Taipei.
The defense ministry says the Blackhawk helicopter carrying Air Force General Shen Yi-ming, the chief of Taipei’s general staff, and 12 others took off from an air base in Taipei early Thursday on a flight to visit soldiers at a base in northeast Yilan county. The helicopter disappeared from radar screens just minutes later.
Three major generals were also among those killed in the crash, while five others survived.
Wednesday’s crash happened just nine days before Taiwan’s presidential and parliamentary elections. A spokesperson for President Tsi Ing-wen said she will suspend her re-election campaign until Saturday.
Taiwan has purchased Blackhawk military helicopters from the United States for decades, including a 60 Blackhawks in 2010. Six people were killed in 2018 when a Blackhawk helicopter crashed off Taiwan’s east coast.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu Wednesday said he will seek immunity from criminal prosecution in three corruption cases dealing with bribery, fraud and breach of trust.
The announcement came in a rambling 11-minute press conference carried live on Israel television. Netanyahu insisted that the immunity would be temporary, lasting only as long as the Knesset that grants it stays in office.
According to Israeli law, a prime minister or Knesset member can ask for immunity, although it is rarely done.
Netanyahu was charged in three separate cases with bribery, fraud and breach of trust. In one case, he is accused of accepting valuable gifts from friends and acquaintances of cigars, champagne and jewelry. In the most serious case, which has become known as Case 4,000, Netanyahu allegedly promoted regulations that benefited the Israeli telecom giant Bezeq in exchange for favorable press coverage.
FILE – Benny Gantz, leader of Blue and White party, speaks at the President’s residence, in Jerusalem, Oct. 23, 2019.
Earlier statements on immunity
“I intend to go to court to crush the fabricated tales against me,” Netanyahu said. “The immunity law is meant to protect public representatives from being framed. The law is meant to ensure that public representatives can serve the people according to the will of the people, and not the will of some clerks.”
The announcement, which had been expected, contradicts Netanyahu statements from recent months that he would not seek immunity and intended to prove his innocence in court. It also comes as Israel is at the beginning of its third election campaign in a year after neither Netanyahu nor rival Benny Gantz of the Kahol Lavan party was able to form a majority coalition with 61 out of 120 members of the Knesset.
Netanyahu’s request must first be considered by the Knesset House Committee, which deals with administrative issues, and then voted on by the whole Knesset. However, the current, outgoing Knesset has not formed a House Committee and is not expected to do so before the March elections. That means that Netanyahu’s request for immunity cannot be dealt with until after the March 2 election.
Netanyahu last week won an overwhelming victory in his Likud party’s primaries. He has been Israel’s longest-serving prime minister and in office continuously for more than a decade. The immunity request means he can conduct this latest election campaign without dealing with his upcoming trial.
“I intend to lead Israel for many years to come,” Netanyahu said.
FILE – Israel’s former Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman speaks during his Yisrael Beitenu party faction meeting at the Knesset, Israel’s parliament, in Jerusalem, May 27, 2019.
Gantz, Lieberman opposed
Within minutes of the announcement, Gantz lambasted Netanyahu’s repeated statement during the last election campaign that “there will be nothing because there was nothing,” meaning the police would not find enough evidence against him to charge him.
“Netanyahu knows he’s guilty,” Gantz said. “Whoever thinks ‘there will be nothing because there was nothing’ should not be afraid to face trial.”
Netanyahu’s former ally and current nemesis, Avigdor Lieberman, also said he would act to prevent Netanyahu from getting immunity. Lieberman, who heads the hard-line Russian immigrant Yisrael Beitenu party, could have given his former boss the seats he needed to form a coalition after both of the elections earlier this year.
“Now it’s clear beyond a doubt: the only thing Netanyahu cared for and continues to care for is immunity,” the former defense minister said.
Along with the request for immunity, Netanyahu has launched an all-out attack on Israel’s judicial institutions and press, accusing them of being left-wing and using illegal means to try to stop him from being reelected.
“There are people who, unlike me, did commit grave crimes and they have lifelong immunity,” he said. “They are just on the right side of the media and the left wing.”
Later he accused Gantz and his co-leader, former finance minister Yair Lapid, of vague crimes but did not give details.
Limiting immunity
Netanyahu is being criticized for the immunity request even though it is enshrined in Israeli law.
“Democracies around the world now understand that it is best to significantly limit immunity for elected officials,” the Israel Democracy Institute, an Israeli think tank specializing in issues of democracy, responded.
“In Europe there is a tendency to lessen the scope of immunity and not to expand it. In France and Italy for instance, automatic immunity was abandoned in the 1990s and today it is limited to exemption from arrest and imprisonment. It is also important to note that international bodies like the European Union emphasize that immunity is needed specifically in countries where there is real danger of political persecution against members of the opposition.”
It is too early to tell how the immunity request will affect Netanyahu’s election bid. A poll by the institute after the indictments against him found that 35% of Israelis wanted Netanyahu to step down and stand trial.
Coalition proposals
There was also an idea floated during the last round of post-election coalition negotiations for a unity government between Netanyahu and Gantz. Netanyahu said he would be prime minister for six months and then let Gantz take over for two years while he fought his case in court. If he won, he would then come back for the last 18 months of the government’s term.
Gantz refused, reportedly because he did not trust Netanyahu to step aside as promised.
Another idea that was proposed by Knesset Speaker Yuli Edelstein during the last round of Knesset negotiations was that President Reuven Rivlin would pardon Netanyahu, and that the former prime minister would become the president when Rivlin’s term is up next year.
In 2008, when then-Prime Minister Ehud Olmert was about to be indicted on corruption charges, Netanyahu insisted he had to resign, which Olmert did. Olmert served 16 months of a 27-month sentence for fraud.
Netanyahu insists he will be Israel’s next prime minister and he still has support from his hard-line base. However, many analysts in Israel say this could be the beginning of the end for Netanyahu.
“Netanyahu knows that the best he can hope for is damage control,” Anshel Pfeffer, a liberal journalist and columnist, wrote in the left-wing Ha’aretz newspaper.
“Few if any politicians have his knack for shifting and shaping media cycles. But he is starting to lose his touch and Kahol Lavan [Gantz’s party] is getting better at dictating events. … Six days ago he won the Likud primary by a landslide and felt he had momentum going into the general election campaign. His plans are already going badly awry,” Pfeffer wrote.
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un may not have formally abandoned nuclear talks in his New Year’s comments published Wednesday. But Kim appears to be preparing his domestic audience for a long-term future without sanctions relief, effectively dismissing the possibility of progress in negotiations that have been stalled for months.
In his comments at the end of a four-day ruling party meeting, Kim unveiled a defiant new stance toward the U.S. and warned his country of possible hard times ahead. Because of the “long-term confrontation with the U.S.,” Kim said, “it should be seen as a “fait accompli that we have to live under the sanctions by the hostile forces in the future.”
“The DPRK-U.S. stand-off which has lasted century after century has now been compressed to (a) clear stand-off between self-reliance and sanctions,” Kim said, using the acronym for North Korea’s official name.
Kim also threatened to resume intercontinental ballistic missile or nuclear tests and warned the world would soon witness a “new strategic weapon” — comments that dominated most international media coverage of the speech.
FILE – U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korea’s leader Kim Jong Un meet during the second U.S.-North Korea summit at the Sofitel Legend Metropole hotel in Hanoi, Feb. 28, 2019.
But his domestic messages are also revealing, especially after Kim, who tries to project an almost godlike status in North Korea, returned home empty-handed following his February summit in Hanoi with U.S. President Donald Trump.
“I think the failure of Hanoi created some audience costs for him and those advocating for diplomacy with the U.S.,” said Andray Abrahamian, a visiting scholar with George Mason University Korea. “They looked weak by asking for sanctions relief, now they’re signaling that they don’t need it.”
Frustrated elite
In Hanoi, Kim offered to dismantle at least parts of his key Yongbyon nuclear complex in exchange for a relaxation of sanctions that have held back North Korea’s economy. But Trump rejected the offer, a potential embarrassment for Kim, whose train ride home took more than two days.
FILE – A view of what researchers of Beyond Parallel, a CSIS project, describe as specialized rail cars at the Yongbyon Nuclear Research Center in North Pyongan Province, North Korea, in this commercial satellite image taken April 12, 2019.
North Korea has been under United Nations sanctions since 2006, and unilateral U.S. sanctions for even longer, as a result of its nuclear and missile programs. Trump has refused to relax sanctions until North Korea agrees to give up its entire nuclear weapons program.
Failure to secure sanctions relief is likely a major frustration for both North Korea’s rising merchant class, which is being pinched by the economic restrictions, and for hard-line members of the country’s traditional elite, many of whom oppose talks that may result in Pyongyang giving up its nuclear weapons.
Kim’s speech may have been designed in part to convince those groups to stick with the regime — a call for continued loyalty, self-reliance, and determination in the face of hardship.
“Kim Jong Un’s message about sanctions was a very ‘learning to live with them’ attitude,” said Jenny Town, a Korea specialist at the Washington-based Stimson Center. “It is using this reality to justify economic and institutional changes.”
Attendees of the 5th Plenary Meeting of the 7th Central Committee of the Workers’ Party of Korea are seen in this undated photo released Dec. 29, 2019, by North Korean Central News Agency.
‘Hard times ahead’
One important possible change: a more stark turn toward North Korea’s byungjin policy of simultaneously prioritizing nuclear and economic development. In effect, what it means is spending more money on defense.
Kim alluded to the possibility of ‘belt-tightening,’ a euphemism for sacrificing the civilian sector to build up national defense, which has been closely associated with byungjin, said Rachel Minyoung Lee, a Seoul-based analyst with NK News, a North Korea-focused website.
“North Koreans should know what that implies, and that that implies hard times ahead,” she said.
In 2012, Kim vowed North Koreans “will never have to tighten their belt again.” A year later, Kim announced his byungjin policy. In 2018, Kim reversed track, declaring the country could focus on economic growth. Kim now may have signaled a de facto return to byungjin, said Lee, the NK News analyst.
“It is very important that we keep a close eye on how the state propaganda machine runs with ‘belt-tightening’ from here on out,” she said.
It’s not the only way in which North Koreans may be negatively impacted. Kim also called for a greater crackdown on “anti-socialist and non-socialist deeds,” suggesting possible restrictions on private markets that have been allowed to emerge in recent decades. Kim also called for “tightening moral discipline throughout society.”
“The prospects for ordinary North Koreans sound discouraging,” said Joshua Pollack, a North Korea researcher at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies.
Workers prepare kimchi on the production line at the Ryugyong Kimchi Factory, outside of Pyongyang, North Korea, Dec. 20, 2017. Using a strategy known as “byungjin,” Kim intends to simultaneously develop the national economy and North Korea’s.
Rejecting Washington’s offer
At several points, Kim seemed to acknowledge that sanctions are hurting his country, but he insisted that “we cannot give up the security of our future just for the visible economic results and happiness and comfort.”
“They’re basically saying that nuclear weapons are integral to their economic success,” said Duyeon Kim, a senior adviser for Northeast Asia and nuclear policy at the International Crisis Group. That amounts to a rejection of Washington’s argument that scrapping nuclear weapons guarantees economic prosperity, she says.
North Korea will now try to become a “nuclear and economic powerhouse,” she added. “It’s telling that (Kim) stressed self-reliance as North Korea’s primary duty and responsibility for achieving that goal, regardless of what happens outside its borders.”
While Kim’s speech did not completely reject nuclear negotiations, it did suggest a more hard-line stance in 2020, regardless of the impact on North Korea’s economy.
“Kim asserts that North Korea’s military strength is more than a match for ‘external hostile policies’ and that the country is on a path of economic development based on indigenous ideas and capabilities,” says Leif-Eric Easley, associate professor of international studies at Ewha Womans University in Seoul.
“He wants the U.S. to negotiate with North Korea as if it were a full-fledged, responsible nuclear power.”
At least 16 inmates in a central Mexico prison were killed and five more were wounded in a riot that closed out a violent 2019 for the country, authorities said.
Zacatecas state security secretary Ismael Camberos Hernandez told local press that authorities had confiscated four guns believed to have been brought into the Cieneguillas state prison during visits Tuesday. He said the prison had been searched for weapons on Saturday and Sunday and that no guns had been found.
The melee broke out around 2:30 p.m. Tuesday and the prison was brought under control by 5 p.m., according to a statement from the state security agency. Fifteen of the victims died at the prison and one died later at a hospital.
One prisoner was detained with a gun still in his possession and the other three guns were found inside the prison, the statement said.
Camberos said not all the victims died from gunshot wounds. Some were stabbed and others beaten with objects. No guards or police were wounded, he said.
Camberos did not offer a possible motive for the attacks, but such killings frequently involve score settling between rival cartel members or a battle for control of the prison’s illicit business.
Mexico has a long history of deadly prison clashes. In October, six inmates were killed in a prison in Morelos state.
In September, Nuevo Leon state closed the infamous Topo Chico prison, the site of many killings over the years. In February 2016, 49 prisoners died there during rioting when two factions of the Zetas cartel clashed.
Venice’s mayor says police are investigating an anti-Semitic attack in which youths punched a left-wing Italian politician in the city’s St. Mark’s Square.
Mayor Luigi Brugnaro tweeted Wednesday that fascist-like incidents like the one that happened on New Year’s Eve “won’t be tolerated” in Venice.
Arturo Scotto, a former lawmaker, was walking with his wife Tuesday night when eight youths yelled out, “Duce! Duce!” a reference to Italy’s World War II fascist leader Benito Mussolini. The youths then punched Scotto in the nose.
Scotto told Italian state TV that a young man who tried to help him was also beaten up. He said the youths also shouted disparaging remarks about Anne Frank, a young Jewish woman who perished in a Nazi death camp.
Brugnaro said police are examining surveillance videos to see if the culprits can be identified. Scotto said the attackers wore scarves to hide their faces.
Anti-Semitic incidents have been on the rise in Italy, as far-right political groups, including those with neo-fascist roots, gain traction in the country. Mussolini’s regime had propagated anti-Jewish laws in 1938.
The head of Rome’s Jewish community, Ruth Dureghello, expressed solidarity with Scotto, saying “one mustn’t give in to any form of anti-Semitism and racism.”
A man wounded in the Hanukkah stabbings north of New York City may have permanent brain damage and be partially paralyzed for the rest of his life, his family said.
The Orthodox Jewish Public Affairs Council released a statement from the family of Josef Neumann, 71, and a graphic photograph Wednesday showing severe head injuries he received Saturday at a rabbi’s home in Monsey, New York.
Four other people were injured in the attack, which federal prosecutors say was a hate crime.
The photograph shows an intubated Neumann with a swollen and disfigured face lying in a hospital bed. A gash to his head appears to have been stitched up.
Neumann’s family released the photograph for the world and “the Jewish community to understand the gravity of hate,” Yossi Gestetner, the council’s co-founder, said in an interview. Neumann has seven children.
“These things are vividly and viciously disturbing and have long-term consequences,” Gestetner said.
The 18-inch machete used in the attack penetrated Neumann’s skull, the statement said, adding that Neumann’s “right arm has been shattered.”
“Our father’s status is so dire that no surgery has yet been performed on the right arm,” the statement said. “Doctors are not optimistic about his chances to regain consciousness, and if our father does miraculously recover partially, doctors expect that he will have permanent damage to the brain, leaving him partially paralyzed and speech-impaired for the rest of his life.”
The statement also called on Jewish people around the world to share their own experiences with anti-Semitism on social media using the hashtag (hash)MeJew.
“We shall not let this terrible hate-driven attack be forgotten,” the statement said, “and let us all work to eradicate all sorts of hate.”
FILE – Police officers escort stabbing suspect Grafton Thomas, center, to a police vehicle, in Ramapo, New York, Dec. 29, 2019.
Federal prosecutors have charged Grafton Thomas, 37, with five federal counts of obstructing the free exercise of religious beliefs by attempting to kill with a dangerous weapon. He also has pleaded not guilty to five state counts of attempted murder and one count of burglary.
Authorities have said Thomas had handwritten journals containing anti-Semitic references and had recently used his phone to look up information on Hitler and the location of synagogues.
Thomas’ family has said he was raised in a tolerant home and had a history of mental illness.
The Hanukkah attack came amid a string of violence that has alarmed Jews in the region.
Former New York State Assemblyman Dov Hikind said he recently spoke with an Orthodox Jewish man in New York who told him he had taken off his yarmulke out of fear.
“Part of what we’re trying to get across to people is that these attacks are not just statistics,” said Hikind, founder of Americans Against Antisemitism. “These people have to live with this the rest of their life.”
Gov. Andrew Cuomo said Wednesday he has directed the state police to increase patrols in Orthodox Jewish neighborhoods around New York. Mayor and fellow Democrat Bill de Blasio announced a similar heightened police presence in the city last week.
“Everybody feels very upset and disturbed about what happened,” Cuomo said during a New Year’s Day visit to Brooklyn’s heavily Orthodox Williamsburg neighborhood, “and everybody stands in solidarity with you.”
Haitian President Jovenel Moise broke with tradition on Wednesday and celebrated the country’s independence day in the capital for security reasons following months of political turmoil.
Moise, whose government has been accused of corruption, denounced graft during his speech at the National Palace in Port-au-Prince and urged Haiti’s elite to work with the government and help create employment.
“We’re still extremely poor,” he said. “Those who continue to get rich find it normal that they do not pay taxes, find it normal that there can be no competition, find it normal that they set prices for consumers, especially when this consumer is the state itself.”
Moise also apologized for the country’s ongoing power outages and renewed his 2016 campaign pledge to provide electricity 24 hours a day, saying it was harder to accomplish than he imagined.
The speech that marked the 216th anniversary of the world’s first black republic was originally slated to take place in the northern coastal town of Gonaives, where Jean-Jacques Dessalines declared Haiti’s independence.
But the town, like many others, was hit by violent protests that began in September amid anger over corruption, fuel shortages and dwindling food supplies as opposition leaders and supporters demanded the resignation of Moise.
More than 40 people have been killed and dozens injured.
Large-scale protests in Port-au-Prince have since dissipated, although smaller ones are still occurring elsewhere in the country. On Wednesday, opposition leaders and supporters gathered in Gonaives to attend the funeral of an anti-government protester and then carried his coffin through the streets as more protesters joined them.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday said he will ask parliament to grant him immunity from corruption charges, a step that is expected to delay his trial for months.
The step most likely puts the trial on hold until after elections in March, when he hopes to win a majority coalition that will shield him from prosecution.
The announcement essentially turns the upcoming election campaign into a referendum on whether Netanyahu should be granted immunity and remain in office or step down to stand trial.
A recent poll indicated that a majority of Israelis oppose giving him immunity.
Netanyahu was indicted in November on charges of bribery, fraud and breach of trust after failing to assemble a governing majority following back-to-back-elections last year. He now gets a third shot at holding onto his office in March.
In a nationally televised address, Netanyahu repeated his assertion that he is the victim of an unfair conspiracy and that he would seek to invoke the law that would protect him from prosecution while he remains in office.
“In order to continue to lead Israel to great achievements, I intend to approach the speaker of the Knesset in accordance with chapter 4C of the law, in order to fulfill my right, my duty and my mission to continue to serve you for the future of Israel,” he said.
The request most likely means that parliament will address the matter after March elections.
The current caretaker government is not empowered to make a decision on granting Netanyahu immunity.
In order to debate the matter, parliament would have to appoint a special committee that needs to study the request. But it remains unclear whether it will be allowed to do so.
The worldwide refugee crisis continues to deepen. According to the United Nations, the world is witnessing “thehighest levels of displacement on record.” Spurred by conflict and persecution, the numbers of displaced are expected to rise further in the future, as climate change pushes people out of their homes. VOA’s Ardita Dunellari reports.
