Day: April 23, 2024

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer warned in a conversation with Pakistan’s ambassador to Washington that the safety of imprisoned former Prime Minister Imran Khan was a high priority of the United States, multiple sources familiar with the exchange told The Intercept.

The warning issued late last month by Schumer, the most powerful Democrat in Congress, to Pakistan came after intense activism by members of the Pakistani diaspora amid concerns that the Pakistani military may harm Khan, the former prime minister who was ousted from office in 2022.

“The Pakistani American diaspora has felt let down by Washington’s failure to engage power brokers in Pakistan and hold them accountable for blatant violations of human rights.”

“Chuck Schumer speaking to the ambassador regarding the safety of Imran Khan is very constructive,” Mohammad Munir Khan, a Pakistani American political activist in the U.S., told The Intercept. “The Pakistani American diaspora has felt let down by Washington’s failure to engage power brokers in Pakistan and hold them accountable for blatant violations of human rights, and destruction of basic fundamentals of democracy.”

Imran Khan is currently incarcerated on corruption charges that are widely seen as politically motivated. Khan, who is regarded as the most popular politician in Pakistan, was removed from power in an April 2022 no-confidence vote orchestrated by the country’s powerful military establishment and encouraged by the U.S. Since then, Khan’s party, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf, or PTI, has faced a brutal repression that has raised international alarms and been denounced by human rights groups.

The concerns about Khan’s life that prompted Schumer’s call to the Pakistani Ambassador Masood Khan reflect a growing fear that the military may deal with Khan’s stubborn popularity by simply putting an end to his life behind bars. (Schumer’s office declined to comment for this story. The Pakistani Embassy in Washington did not immediately respond to a request for comment.)

The outreach from Schumer, who represents a large, vocal Pakistani American community in New York, came as a new governing coalition in the South Asian country seeks to consolidate power despite public disaffection over a February election rife with fraud.

In addition to banning PTI, Pakistan engaged in heavy repression ahead of the February vote. A record turnout suggested PTI-aligned candidates had the upper hand. Ignoring widespread fraud, however, a coalition of parties supported by the Pakistani military successfully formed a government led by Shehbaz Sharif in the vote’s aftermath.

The international community, including the U.S., noted voting irregularities, and credible allegations arose of vote rigging and flagrant fraud in the election.

“There is undeniable evidence, which the State Department agrees with, that there were problems with this election,” Rep. Greg Casar, D-Texas, told The Intercept in March. At the time, Casar and other members of Congress had just called on President Joe Biden to withhold recognition of the government, but Washington’s ambassador to Pakistan congratulated Sharif in early March.

“There is undeniable evidence, which the State Department agrees with, that there were problems with this election.”

Foreign policy experts in Washington said the Biden administration’s approach risked transgressing democratic principles in the name of security. Matt Duss, executive vice president of the Center for International Policy, said, “This appears to be an example where the administration is allowing its security relationship with a foreign government to crowd out other critical concerns like democratic backsliding and human rights.”

Imran Khan himself has reportedly been held in dire conditions at a prison in the Pakistani city of Rawalpindi. Last month, his visitor privileges were abruptly suspended for two weeks, prompting fears from his supporters about his physical conditions in custody. Earlier this month, one of his lawyers claimed that his personal physician was not being allowed to see him in jail. Khan’s wife, who is imprisoned on politically motivated charges of an un-Islamic marriage and graft, has also reportedly suffered health problems due to conditions of her confinement, according to remarks from her lawyer this week.

In a statement given to reporters from prison and later shared on social media, Khan, who was wounded in an attempted assassination in November 2022 at a political rally, alleged that there had been a plot to kill him while behind bars. Khan suggested his fate was in the hands of Gen. Asim Munir, Pakistan’s powerful army chief.

“Let it be known that if anything happens to me or my wife, it’ll be him who will be responsible,” Khan said.

Schumer’s call to the Pakistani ambassador, however, may play into the military’s calculations about killing Khan. “A senior Democrat influential in the Biden administration is sending a warning, which is somewhat significant,” said Adam Weinstein, the deputy director of the Middle East program at the Quincy Institute, adding that he did not believe the military would will Khan in prison.

As extreme as a step it would be, the military harming or even killing a leader it ousted, even one as popular as Khan, would fit a pattern in Pakistani history. Several Pakistani leaders have died violently in the past few decades after falling out with the military, some under murky circumstances, while others, like former Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, were executed by military rulers after being deposed from power.

Although nominally led by a civilian government today, Pakistan’s military is widely known to call the shots in the country politically and is currently led by Munir, whose clashes with Khan and his party have been the main political storyline in the country for over a year.

For Pakistani activists in the U.S., the American relationship with Pakistan creates leverage that can be used to ensure that Khan is not murdered behind bars. Mohammad Munir Khan, the Pakistani American activist, said, “The least Washington can do is to ensure Imran Khan is not harmed physically.”

Supporters of Pakistan’s former Prime Minister Imran Khan and his Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf, or PTI, party hold a March 10, 2024, protest in Peshawar against election fraud.

Photo: Abdul Majeed/AFP via Getty Images

Capitol Hill Hearing

The U.S. has played an outsized role in Pakistan’s internal politics, especially over the past several years, including a pivotal role in Khan’s ouster from power. 

In August 2023, The Intercept reported on and published a classified Pakistani diplomatic cable — a contentious document that had become a centerpiece of political drama, though its contents had remained unknown — showing that Khan’s removal from power had taken place following intense pressure placed on the Pakistani government by U.S. State Department officials.

In the cable, Assistant Secretary of State Donald Lu, whose office covers South Asia at the State Department, is quoted as telling the Pakistani ambassador to Washington that the countries’ relations would be seriously damaged if Khan were to remain in power.

“I think if the no-confidence vote against the Prime Minister succeeds, all will be forgiven in Washington,” Lu said, according to the Pakistani cable.

Since Khan’s removal from power, the U.S. has worked closely with the new military-backed Pakistani regime. Pakistan provided weapons to Ukraine in exchange for the U.S. brokering a favorable International Monetary Fund loan package, according to previous reporting from The Intercept.

Before being imprisoned, Khan made frequent reference to the classified cypher and even claimed to be brandishing a physical copy during a political rally. He is now facing a lengthy prison sentence on charges related to his handling of classified information, in addition to the raft of corruption charges that initially landed him in custody.

Coming in the context of a broader crackdown on his party — which has including killings, extrajudicial disappearances, and torture targeting supporters of PTI and members of the press — most observers believe Khan’s continued imprisonment is a politically motivated gambit to keep him and his movement out of power.

Following this year’s election, with Casar and others in Congress raising questions about Khan’s removal and the vote, the U.S. House Foreign Affairs Committee held a hearing featuring Lu, the assistant secretary of state.

The sole person testifying, Lu denied that he had been involved in a “regime change” in Pakistan — a reference to Khan’s comments about his role and the content of the cable reported by The Intercept.

On the election, Lu paid lip service to concerns about how the ballot was carried off, while failing to outline what consequences there would be for the vote rigging.

“You have seen actions by our ambassador and our embassy,” Lu said, alluding the congratulations extended by the U.S. to Pakistan’s new prime minister. He then quickly added: “We are in every interaction with this government stressing the importance of accountability for election irregularities.”

“In the long term it has never worked out in the United States’ benefit to be seen as propping up illegitimate, military-led governments.”

Rep. Brad Sherman, D-Calif., raised the issue of Khan’s safety in detention at the hearing. Sherman urged Lu to meet directly with Khan in prison, earning applause from the mostly Pakistani audience in hand.

“Ensuring the safety of leaders, regardless of political differences, is paramount,” said Atif Khan, another Pakistan American diaspora activist. “Congressman Brad Sherman rightly advocated for accountability and protection, urging the US Ambassador to visit former Prime Minister Imran Khan and prioritize his well-being.”

While Khan’s fate hangs in the balance, members of Congress have warned that continued U.S. support for a government seen as illegitimate by most Pakistanis risks harming not just Pakistan, but also the U.S. position in a critical region.

“Promoting democracy is important in itself, but it’s in our interests as well,” Casar, the Texas Democrat, told The Intercept. “Regardless of the short-term military benefits, in the long term it has never worked out in the United States’ benefit to be seen as propping up illegitimate, military-led governments.”

The post Chuck Schumer Privately Warns Pakistan: Don’t Kill Imran Khan in Prison appeared first on The Intercept.

Donald Trump has always made a point of yelling “fake news” at any news item he doesn’t like, or any news outlet that dares to report on his scandals. But in reality it’s Trump who is more dishonest than anyone else in politics or media, and now we have proof of this under oath.

Former national inquirer boss David Pecker testified at Donald Trump‘s criminal trial today that he and Trump would conspire to put out negative stories about Trump’s 2016 political opponents. Some of these stories were true and just ugly, but many of them were false and ugly. Trump and pecker did this not just to Hillary Clinton, but also to each Republican candidate who was gaining in the primary polls at any given time.

So now we have a direct confession under oath from one of Trump’s own co-conspirators that Donald Trump is indeed The primary source of “fake news” in politics, and has been all along. In fact, we now have confirmation that Trump helped manufacture, fake news as part of a criminal conspiracy to alter the outcome of a presidential election in his favor to use one of his other phrases, lock him up!

The post We’ve found the “fake news” and it is Donald Trump, as David Pecker exposes all appeared first on Palmer Report.

Minnesota state senator Nicole Mitchell was charged with first-degree burglary Tuesday morning, one day after being arrested at a home in Detroit Lakes, Minn. 

The Democratic lawmaker, 49, is being charged after the victim, identified as Mitchell’s stepmother in a complaint filed in court, called the police about an active burglary at her home. Officers then arrested Mitchell on the scene, amid an alleged dispute between the two women over possessions allegedly belonging to Mitchell and her late father.  

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“I know I did something bad,” Mitchell said after an officer read her Miranda rights, according to the complaint. 

A restraining order was issued against Mitchell on Tuesday. A judge gave permission for Mitchell’s release as long as she agreed to not contact her stepmother and not leave the state without court approval, according to MPR News. 

Mitchell is set to return to court on June 10. Mitchell hasn’t publicly commented on the incident. Her government office did not respond to a request for comment.

The incident occurred early Monday morning. At around 4:45 a.m. local time, Detroit Lakes Police received a call about someone breaking into a home. The victim said that the suspect ran into the basement. Officers found Mitchell in the home wearing all black clothes and a black hat, and a flashlight with a black sock covering nearby. 

While being arrested, Mitchell told the victim something like, “I was just trying to get a couple of my dad’s things because you wouldn’t talk to me anymore,” the complaint filed in district court alleges. Police looked in Mitchell’s backpack and found two laptops, a cell phone, Mitchell’s personal identification documents, and tupperware. Mitchell told officers that her father had just passed away, and her stepmother had “ceased all contact” with family. 

Mitchell told officers she wanted a few items back, listing “pictures, a flannel shirt, ashes, and other items of sentimental value,” according to the complaint. “Clearly I’m not good at this,” Mitchell allegedly told police. 

Mitchell told officers that she had entered the home through the window on the south wall of the basement, according to the complaint. She also claimed that one of the laptops in her bag was given to her by her stepmother, which her stepmother denies. 

Mitchell represents Minnesota’s senate district 47. Prior to her work in the legislative chamber, she was a meteorologist and an Air National Guard commander, according to her state office biography.

(DETROIT) — The U.S. Justice Department announced a $138.7 million settlement Tuesday with more than 100 people who accused the FBI of grossly mishandling allegations of sexual assault against Larry Nassar in 2015 and 2016, a critical time gap that allowed the sports doctor to continue to prey on victims before his arrest.

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When combined with other settlements, $1 billion now has been set aside by various organizations to compensate hundreds of women who said Nassar assaulted them under the guise of treatment for sports injuries.

Nassar worked at Michigan State University and also served as a team doctor at Indianapolis-based USA Gymnastics. He’s now serving decades in prison for assaulting female athletes, including medal-winning Olympic gymnasts.

Acting Associate Attorney General Benjamin Mizer said Nassar betrayed the trust of those in his care for decades, and that the “allegations should have been taken seriously from the outset.”

“While these settlements won’t undo the harm Nassar inflicted, our hope is that they will help give the victims of his crimes some of the critical support they need to continue healing,” Mizer said of the agreement to settle 139 claims.

The Justice Department has acknowledged that it failed to step in. For more than a year, FBI agents in Indianapolis and Los Angeles had knowledge of allegations against him but apparently took no action, an internal investigation found.

FBI Director Christopher Wray was contrite — and very blunt — when he spoke to survivors at a Senate hearing in 2021. The assault survivors include decorated Olympians Simone Biles, Aly Raisman and McKayla Maroney.

“I’m sorry that so many different people let you down, over and over again,” Wray said. “And I’m especially sorry that there were people at the FBI who had their own chance to stop this monster back in 2015 and failed.”

After a search, investigators said in 2016 that they had found images of child sex abuse and followed up with federal charges against Nassar. Separately, the Michigan attorney general’s office handled the assault charges that ultimately shocked the sports world and led to an extraordinary dayslong sentencing hearing with gripping testimony about his crimes.

“I’m deeply grateful. Accountability with the Justice Department has been a long time in coming,” said Rachael Denhollander of Louisville, Kentucky, who is not part of the latest settlement but was the first person to publicly step forward and detail abuse at the hands of Nassar.

“The unfortunate reality is that what we are seeing today is something that most survivors never see,” Denhollander told The Associated Press. “Most survivors never see accountability. Most survivors never see justice. Most survivors never get restitution.”

Michigan State University, which was also accused of missing chances over many years to stop Nassar, agreed to pay $500 million to more than 300 women and girls who were assaulted. USA Gymnastics and the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee made a $380 million settlement.

Mick Grewal, an attorney who represented 44 people in claims against the government, said the $1 billion in overall settlements speaks to “the travesty that occurred.”

___

Associated Press reporters Mike Householder in Detroit; Dylan Lovan in Louisville, Kentucky; and Alanna Durkin Richer in Washington, D.C., contributed to this story.

На дворе стоит 2026 год. Выступая в Кремле с пессимистической речью, Владимир Путин объявляет о выводе войск с Украины. Российские войска сделали все, что могли, но свежий набор хорошо обученных украинцев взял верх. Донбасс теперь в руках Киева, а до падения Крыма остались считанные дни.

Но перелом в этом вооруженном конфликте наступил не благодаря долгожданным F-16 или возобновлению американского финансирования. Нет, он произошел из-за присутствия в западной половине Украины многотысячной группировки европейских войск, которые защищают города, порты и границы, успокаивая украинцев и заставляя русских нервничать. Киев торжествует, но и Европа незаметно похлопывает сама себя по плечу — ведь она 80 лет держалась за фалды Америки, а теперь начала действовать самостоятельно и победила в вооруженном конфликте, разразившемся на ее рубежах.

Если говорить о военной стратегии будущего, можно быть уверенным — не об этом будет думать Риши Сунак, когда прибудет сегодня в Польшу на переговоры по Украине с премьером Дональдом Туском. Начнем с того, что он не обращает внимания на тот незначительный вопрос, что размещение западных войск к востоку от границы Польши может привести к Третьей Мировой войне. Однако если господин Сунак во время полета в Варшаву заглянет в политический журнал Foreign Affairs, то он узнает, что, по крайней мере, в мире аналитических центров наконец-то задумались о немыслимом.

В статье, опубликованной вчера в этом журнале (ее заголовок — “Войска на Украину должна отправить Европа — но не НАТО”), три влиятельных военных аналитика утверждают, что “блок стран, готовых к прямому европейскому вмешательству в конфликт, ширится”. Пока потенциальные страны-участницы выражаются немного иначе. Французский президент Макрон, первым поднявший вопрос об интервенции в феврале, просто сказал, что этого “нельзя исключать”. А польский министр иностранных дел Радек Сикорский не считает, что это “немыслимо”.

Интервенция, утверждают авторы статьи, не настолько катастрофична, как может показаться. Во-первых, статья 5 Устава НАТО применяться не будет — потому что страны-участницы станут действовать от имени Европы, а не от имени альянса. И вместо того чтобы отправиться прямиком в Бахмут и сойтись в рукопашной с русскими, евровойска будут держаться в сотнях километрах от линии фронта — скорее всего, к западу от Днепра, течение которого делит Украину надвое.

Поступив таким образом, они просигнализируют, что не намерены вступать в драку, а будут лишь защищать такие города как Киев, если Россия попытается снова взять их под свой контроль. Благодаря их присутствию высвободится большое количество украинских войск, которые смогут вступить в боевые действия на востоке. Между тем евровойска существенно усилят материально-техническое обеспечение и защиту тыловых эшелонов — будь это подготовка украинских подразделений, ремонт поврежденной бронетехники или действия расчетов зенитно-ракетных комплексов, борющихся с ракетными ударами России.

Ну что может пойти не так? Все будет нормально, утверждают авторы, ведь “риск, что переброска европейских солдат на Украину приведет к эскалации конфликта, преувеличен”. Такое предложение с энтузиазмом поддержал бывший военный атташе в Прибалтике Глен Грант, одно время работавший советником в украинском министерстве обороны.

“Это очень хорошая идея, и западные страны извлекут из этого ценные уроки, даже если это будет просто помощь с тыловым обеспечением и ремонтом, — сказал он мне. — Если Украина начнет проигрывать эту войну, нам все равно придется это сделать, так что мы просто передвигаем вперед сроки”.

Но это не так просто, как может показаться. Бывший пехотный офицер британской армии Саймон Вудивисс, воевавший в составе украинского Интернационального легиона, а сейчас возглавляющий в Киеве консалтинговую фирму по вопросам безопасности ObjectiveUkraine, тоже в целом поддерживает эту идею. Однако он не уверен, что присутствие европейцев на западе Украины поможет высвободить большое количество годной к службе украинской молодежи, которая отправится воевать на восток. “Средний возраст солдат на фронте уже составляет 43 года, и это те люди, которые хотят воевать. Те, кто сейчас в тылу, проявляют гораздо меньше энтузиазма”, — отметил он.

Есть и другие вопросы. Многому ли может научить украинских военных НАТО с учетом того, насколько сильно использование беспилотников изменило обстановку на поле боя — и как слабо натовская тактика помогла в проведении летнего контрнаступления? И насколько легко будет натовским военным приступить к выполнению второстепенных задач типа тылового обеспечения и снабжения? По словам Вудивисса, украинская армейская система военного снабжения действует в своем уникальном хаотичном ритме, который заставит разрыдаться среднестатистического европейского интенданта.

Но тут возникает еще один важный вопрос: что будет, когда домой начнут прибывать мешки с трупами? Развернутые в больших количествах европейские войска непременно будут подвергаться российским ракетным ударам, ведь соблазн для русских будет очень велик, поскольку статью 5 для их защиты применить не удастся. Грант говорит, что те европейские страны, которые отправят своих военных на Украину, должны будут смириться с возможными людскими потерями. Однако он полагает, что выгоды перевешивают риски. Пролив кровь собственных солдат, Европа продемонстрирует свою преданность Украине так, как это не смогут сделать никакие поставки оружия или выделение денежных средств.

В политическом плане кровь намного дороже любых богатств. В наше время любые потери, превышающие несколько десятков военнослужащих — это неизведанная политическая территория. Например, в ходе афганской кампании основные потери несли Америка, Британия и Канада (3 500 человек). А большинство европейских стран потеряли не более 50 человек.

Но если счет потерь на Украине пойдет на сотни, а тем более на тысячи, очень быстро усилятся требования вернуть войска домой. И стоит хотя бы одной стране дрогнуть, Путин сможет не без оснований заявить, что Европа, как только запахло жареным, оказалась не такой уж и решительной.

Автор: Колин Фриман (Colin Freeman) — в прошлом главный зарубежный корреспондент Sunday Telegraph, автор книги “Между дьяволом и глубоким синим морем. Миссия по спасению заложников, о которой мир забыл” (Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea: The mission to rescue the hostages the world forgot).