[CSMONITOR] The Nigerian military is again under scrutiny for allegations that it carried out systematic killings of hundreds of civilians, following a similar report in March.
A new report by Amnesia Amnesty International sheds light into the killings of some 350 minority Shiite Muslims ‐ men, women, and children ‐ in Zaria, a town in northern Nigeria. The human rights One man's rights are another man's existential threat. group released a report based on eyewitness accounts and satellite images detailing large-scale killings and a mass grave.
Between Dec. 12 and 14, 2015, the Nigerian Army clashed with members of the Islamic Movement of Nigeria (IMN) who had gathered for a religious meeting. Some of the IMN members were armed with batons, knives, and machetes, and closed a section of road in front of the IMN headquarters in Zaria, blocking the Army chief's convoy. The military said they raided the city after the members of IMN attempted to assassinate the Army chief.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/23/2016 00:00 ||
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[IN.REUTERS] Yemen's warring factions held their first direct talks in a U.N.-backed grinding of the peace processor on Friday and will meet again despite failing to agree on an agenda, participants said.
The United Nations ...an organization conceived in the belief that we're just one big happy world, with the sort of results you'd expect from such nonsense... envoy, Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed, said the meetings in Kuwait had been constructive and the positive atmosphere was a step forward in efforts to end the conflict.
They discussed a more permanent ceasefire in Yemen ...an area of the Arabian Peninsula sometimes mistaken for a country. It is populated by more antagonistic tribes and factions than you can keep track of. Except for a tiny handfull of Jews everthing there is very Islamic... and how it would be implemented, he said.
The talks, which opened late on Thursday, seek a solution to a war which has killed more than 6,200 people, triggered a humanitarian crisis and enabled al Qaeda and Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems.... Lions of Islam to consolidate their presence in the country.
They bring together the Iran-allied Houthi ...a Zaidi Shia insurgent group operating in Yemen. They have also been referred to as the Believing Youth. Hussein Badreddin al-Houthi is said to be the spiritual leader of the group and most of the military leaders are his relatives. The Yemeni government has accused the Houthis of having ties to the Iranian government, which wouldn't suprise most of us. The group has managed to gain control over all of Saada Governorate and parts of Amran, Al Jawf and Hajjah Governorates. Its slogan is God is Great, Death to America™, Death to Israel, a curse on the Jews ... movement, who control the capital Sanaa, and its General People's Congress (GPC) allies with the Saudi-backed government of President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi, based in the southern port city of Aden.
"The meetings held today were constructive and the atmosphere is an important advancement," Ould Cheikh Ahmed told a news conference. "We will intensify our efforts."
But sources present at the talks, delayed since Monday due to the late arrival of the Houthi delegation and its allies, said the two sides continue to be divided on the priorities.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/23/2016 00:00 ||
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[Guardian] About 600 US-bound Africans are stranded in Costa Rica after officials blocked a major migration route to America, leading local aid workers to warn of a humanitarian crisis if their number continues to rise.
African and Latin American migrants have long passed through Costa Rica on their way to the US, but their passage has been blocked by the authorities in Costa Rica and Nicaragua, the next country on the route north.
This has led to a buildup of people in the border town of Paso Canoas, where they are now sleeping rough in a makeshift detention camp.
The Costa Rican government says it has not decided what to do with them, and in the meantime they are being tended to by local Red Cross workers. Speaking to Al Jazeera, the medics said they feared an escalation of the crisis, should these 600 people turn out to be the first of a new wave of African migrants.
"They could be changing their route from Europe and going to America and so we could have a humanitarian crisis if we don't manage this right," Luis JimĂŠnez, a Red Cross representative in Paso Canoas, told the TV channel.
But migration experts said that the route was not new, and has long been trod by Africans hoping to reach America.
"It's nothing to do with the Balkan route becoming harder to take," Joel Millman, a spokesman for the International Organisation for Migration, said in an interview with the Guardian.
"This phenomenon has been building for years," Millman added. "The number of Africans making this trip and asking for asylum every year at the US border is in the thousands, so this 600 is just a traffic jam. You see these kind of agglomerations every now and again."
Africans typically take planes to Ecuador or Brazil, or occasionally stow away inside cargo ships, before making their way up through several countries in Latin America to the US border, where they claim asylum, Millman said.
Members of the stranded group told Al Jazeera they had been travelling for four months and had reached South America by boat. Youleyni, a pregnant woman from the Democratic Republic of Congo, said: "It's been bad, a lot of police in Colombia, Panama asking for money."
Costa Rica has typically taken a laissez-faire attitude to migrants crossing its territory, but may have now decided to shift policy because Nicaragua recently began to send people back to Costa Rican soil.
In December, regional authorities organised an airlift of about 6,000 Cubans who had been held up in Costa Rica and Panama after Nicaragua closed its southern border to migrants on 15 November.
NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said Thursday the number of migrants crossing the Aegean Sea into Europe is “significantly down,” one day after news emerged that as many as 500 of them may have drowned last week in the sea between Libya and Italy.
Stoltenberg, speaking at a joint press news conference with Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu in Ankrara, said international coordination had helped push the numbers down, but he urged authorities not to abandon efforts prematurely as human smugglers can easily change routes and tactics.
He said human smugglers were still actively trying to ship migrants across the Aegean Sea into Europe. Stoltenberg said, however, that the numbers were “significantly down,” which he added “confirms our collective efforts are making a difference.”
Under a recent EU-Turkey deal, migrants arriving on Greek islands from the Turkish coast from March 20 onwards face deportation back to Turkey unless they successfully apply for asylum in Greece. The International Organization for Migration says Greece has seen fewer than 70 migrant arrivals a day over the past 10 days, down from a staggering nearly 1,500 of arrivals a day before the deal was struck in March.
Warships from the NATO military alliance began patrolling the Aegean Sea in February to help stop the overwhelming surge of migrants arriving on the shores of Europe.
Posted by: Steve White ||
04/23/2016 00:00 ||
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[THELOCAL.DE] The battle over TV satirist Jan Böhmermann continues to divide Germany's governing coalition in Berlin, a newspaper report suggested on Thursday.
Chancellor Angela Merkel ...current chancellor of Germany. She was educated in East Germany when is was still run by commies, but in 1989 got involved with the growing democracy movement when the Berlin Wall fell. Merkel is sometimes referred to by Germans as Mom... had announced last Friday that the law dating back to the 19th Century would be abolished by 2018 ‐ and that satirist Jan Böhmermann could face prosecution under the law in the meantime.
It's not certain that Böhmermann will have a day in court, as prosecutors must first decide whether there is a case to answer for the "smear poem" he read out against Recep Tayyip Erdogan ... Turkey's version of Mohammed Morsi but they voted him back in so they deserve him... on public television.
But the Social Democratic Party (SPD) ‐ the junior coalition partner to Merkel's Christian Democratic Union (CDU) ‐ were unhappy with the Chancellor's decision.
Now SPD Justice Minister Heiko Maas plans to have a draft bill to abolish the law on "insulting a foreign heads of state" in front of MPs in the Bundestag (German parliament) within a week, the Rheinische Post reported on Thursday, citing government sources.
Many political commentators and two-thirds of the public were also against Merkel's choice to allow the prosecution to go ahead.
It was seen by many as a bid to appease Erdogan's anger and keep alive a controversial refugee exchange deal struck by the EU with The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire.... .
Posted by: Fred ||
04/23/2016 00:00 ||
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#1
Law against saying sh*t stinks still safe, for now...
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
04/23/2016 17:28 Comments ||
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[IsraelTimes] Najim Laachraoui, one of the Brussels airport jacket wallahs, has been identified by several Frenchies held hostage by Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems.... in Syria as one of their prison guards, sources close to the investigation said.
According to one of the sources, four French journalists kidnapped in Syria in 2013 and 2014 had identified a guard known as "Abou Idriss."
One of these journalists, Nicolas Henin, "formally identified" Abou Idriss as Najim Laachraoui, said his lawyer Marie-Laure Ingouf, confirming reports in French newspapers.
Laachraoui also briefly worked as a cleaner at the European Parliament several years ago.
He was one of two suicide bombers at Brussels airport on March 22 in coordinated attacks that also struck a metro station in the city, killing 32 people overall.
For five years until 2012, Laachraoui "worked... at Brussels airport", Phlegmish-language VTM reported, adding that he had been recruited by a temp agency. It did not provide details about the kind of work Laachraoui was to have carried out there, but said that airport staff are usually subject to a security check before being given access badges. There has been no official confirmation of the report.
Traces of Laachraoui’s DNA have been found at a Brussels apartment where the suicide belts for the Brussels attacks were made.
The 24-year-old one-time electrical engineering student is also suspected of being the bomb-maker for last November’s Gay Paree attacks that left 130 people dead.
Both attacks have been claimed by the Islamic State group.
On April 6, the European Parliament said one of the bombers had held a summer cleaning job at its Brussels headquarters in 2009 and 2010. Speaking to AFP, a source close to the inquiry named that person as Laachraoui.
Belgian prosecutors believe Laachraoui went to Syria in February 2013 where he joined IS. He resurfaced last September, two months before the Gay Paree carnage, when he was stopped by police on the Austria-Hungary border. He was using the false identity of Soufiane Kayal and was travelling with Salah Abdeslam, the sole surviving Gay Paree attacks suspect.
Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems.... itself has also identified Laachraoui as Abou Idriss in the latest edition of its magazine, Dabiq, saying he "prepared the explosives for the two raids in Gay Paree and Brussels".
The former kidnapped Frenchies have already identified two Frenchies as being among their jailers when they were held in Syria.
One, Mehdi Nemmouche, is in jug accused of killing four people in an attack on the Jewish museum in Brussels in 2014.
The other is Salim Benghalem, who has been sentenced in absentia in La Belle France for recruiting for IS and is listed as a "foreign terrorist combatant" by the United States.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
04/23/2016 00:00 ||
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Some of the four Minnesota men facing trial next month for conspiring to join the Islamic State group had discussed the possibility of attacks in the United States, according to a document filed by prosecutors.
Prosecutors said one defendant, Guled Ali Omar, talked about establishing a route from the U.S. to Syria through Mexico, then telling the Islamic State group about the route so it could be used to send fighters into America to carry out attacks.
A little slow off the mark there, guys -- Hezbollah has been coming to the U.S. via Mexico with their drug cartel friends for decades. No doubt someone in ISIS is aware of this, simce we've been discussing it here at Rantburg for years.
The document, filed Wednesday, is one of many filed in recent weeks as prosecutors and defense attorneys argue about which evidence should be allowed at the men’s trial, which starts May 9.
The men — Omar, 21; Hamza Naj Ahmed, 21; Mohamed Abdihamid Farah, 22; and Abdirahman Yasin Daud, 22 — have pleaded not guilty to multiple charges, including conspiracy to commit murder outside the U.S. Prosecutors have said they were part of a group of friends in Minnesota’s Somali community who held secret meetings and plotted to join the Islamic State group.
Five other men have pleaded guilty to one count each of conspiracy to support a foreign terrorist organization. A tenth man charged in the case is at-large, believed to be in Syria.
The government’s document was filed in response to a defense request that prosecutors be barred from introducing evidence about possible attacks in the U.S.
Last week, Daud’s attorney wrote that, absent any specific evidence that his client threatened the United States, any references to discussions about attacks would be prejudicial. To permit such references, as well as references to the Sept. 11 attacks or exhibits that show violent images of war crimes, “would cause the jurors to decide out of fear and contempt alone,” defense attorney Bruce Nestor wrote.
But prosecutors said audio recordings obtained during the investigation show the defendants spoke multiple times about the possibility of attacks in the U.S. Among them, Omar spoke of establishing a route for fighters, Farah spoke of killing an FBI agent and another man who pleaded guilty talked about shooting a homemade rocket at an airplane.
Prosecutors wrote that they should be allowed to “play for the jury the defendants’ own words, in which they discuss the possibility of returning to attack the United States.” They also said the defendants watched videos and gruesome images, which they also want to play for the jury, and that a blanket ban on mentioning the 2001 attacks is inappropriate, noting that Omar had pictures of the burning World Trade Center towers and Osama bin Laden on his cellphone.
A phone message left with Omar’s attorney wasn’t immediately returned.
The FBI has said about a dozen people have left Minnesota to join militant groups fighting in Syria in recent years. In addition, since 2007 more than 22 men have joined al-Shabab in Somalia.
Posted by: Steve White ||
04/23/2016 00:00 ||
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[Ynet] Two New England men accused of plotting to behead Massachusetts coppers in support of the bad boy group Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems.... were receiving instructions from one of the group's cyber experts, according to a new indictment released on Thursday.
A grand jury in federal court in Massachusetts added conspiracy to commit acts of terrorism transcending national boundaries to the charges against David Wright, 26, of Massachusetts, and Nicholas Rovinski, 25, of Rhode Island.
According to the new indictment, Rovinski has continued to support Islamic State while in jail by trying to recruit others to "decapitate non-believers" and take down the US government and by writing a new pledge of support to the group's leader, His Supreme Immensity, Caliph of the Faithful and Galactic Overlord, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi ...formerly merely the head of ISIL and a veteran of the Bagram jailhouse. Looks like a new messiah to bajillions of Moslems, like just another dead-eyed mass murder to the rest of us... , on the back of his own criminal complaint.
Rovinski and Wright pleaded not guilty "Wudn't me." to the original charge of conspiring to provide material support to a designated terrorist organization after they were placed in durance vile Don't shoot, coppers! I'm comin' out! in June, and they were due to face trial in February 2017.
See here for Rantburg's archive on the gentlemen, though only the most recent three articles. Apparently David Wright has been a popular name around the world.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
04/23/2016 00:00 ||
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[DAWN] An antiterrorism court on Friday rejected the request of General retired Pervez Perv Musharraf ... former dictator of Pakistain, who was less dictatorial and corrupt than any Pak civilian government to date ... for temporary exemption from court appearances and termed his April 6 medical report ’fake’.
The ruling regarding the former military ruler's certificate came during the hearing of the judges' detention case
Gen Musharraf’s lawyer Akhtar Shah submitted the former army chief’s medical report along with a request to grant his client temporary exemption from appearing in court in the judges’ detention case, but the judge rejected both and upheld his non-bailable arrest warrants, DawnNews reported.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/23/2016 00:00 ||
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[DAWN] Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif ... served two non-consecutive terms as prime minister, heads the Pakistain Moslem League (Nawaz). Noted for his spectacular corruption, the 1998 Pak nuclear test, border war with India, and for being tossed by General Musharraf... , in his address to the nation on Friday, said he will resign and go home if proven guilty by the Panama Papers probe.
"I challenge all those who allege tax fraud to come forward and present evidence. If charges are proved against me, I will resign immediately," vowed Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif.
The prime minister stated that a decision has been taken by him to write a letter to the Chief Justice of Pakistain, for the formation of a commission to probe the allegations levelled against his family and him.
We will accept the recommendations presented forth by the commission, added Nawaz.
"Once again certain elements are attempting to destabilise Pakistain in the wake of Panama Papers."
"Soon after the issue surfaced, I took the nation into confidence and ordered the formation of a judicial commission under the supervision of a retired supreme court judge," said the premier.
We have answered such allegations in the past and we will do it again, because we believe that as a democratic government and representatives of the people, it is our duty to answer these allegations, said Nawaz.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/23/2016 00:00 ||
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[IsraelTimes] Troops position concrete wall near Kibbutz Misgav Am; four years ago, similar protection was built at Metulla
Fearing plots by Hezbollah to send gunnies into Israel to attack soldiers and civilians, Israel is gradually walling off further parts of its northern border with Leb.
Israel’s Channel 2 news on Wednesday showed sections of concrete wall being installed near to Kibbutz Misgav Am, a border community in the Upper Galilee.
It noted that a project to bolster the border area had been underway for some time.
In 2012, a seven-meter (23-foot) high wall separating Israel from Leb near the border town of Metulla was completed. The 1,200-meter-long (3,937-foot) wall is outfitted with sophisticated cameras and sensory equipment aimed at preventing infiltration. The 2006 Second Leb War began with a cross-border attack by Hezbollah.
[IsraelTimes] Washington announces $8.6m purchase despite GOP efforts to bar Tehran from any use of US dollar, financial system
The United States said Friday it would buy heavy water from Iran despite angry claims at home that it has already gone too far in granting Tehran nuclear sanctions relief.
Officials said the purchase would cost $8.6 million, even as Republican politicians pressed for Iran to be excluded from any use of the US dollar or financial system.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: trailing wife ||
04/23/2016 00:00:00 ||
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#2
Don't believe we even use much Deuterium oxide in stuff other for medical radiology or lab process here in the states.
The Canadian CANDU nuke power systems uses a form of it, and they produce their own, but would the Persian product even work for that system without modification?
India uses the same form of Deuterium that Iran makes, but they make their own, and quite well I might add.
What are we going to do with this stuff other than launder money?
Of course the Sierra Club will remain silent.
Posted by: Mullah Richard ||
04/23/2016 12:56 Comments ||
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#3
D2O is D2O, as far as I know. Care to elaborate Mullah R? I am actually quite interested, and request enlightenment, please. Maybe Fred can be used as a non-public bridge?
This is is a real request, as I use it.
Posted by: Whiskey Mike ||
04/23/2016 23:16 Comments ||
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Iran has a capacity to increase oil production to even 5.5-6 million barrels per day (mb/d), but not under the current situations, Fereydoun Barkeshli, former general manager at National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) in OPEC and international affairs, told Trend April 21.
Iran's oil output plunged by more than one million barrels to 2.8 mb/d during a 3-year sanctions, imposed by western countries in 2012. Iran had to shut down some fields, but resumed the output to around 3.3 mb/d in March, three months after lifting sanctions.
Tehran says it would increase this figure to the pre-sanctions level, but most of international organization, including the Energy Information Administration believes that the country can add only around 0.5 mb/d to its output in 2016 due to the delays in developing new fields and technical problems for resuming output from old fields.
About 80 percent of Iran's active fields are in their second half-life and their production decrease by 8-13 percent annually. For now Iran re-injects about 93 million cubic meters per day (mcm/d) to maintain the output level, but the figure should have been three times more than this level.
Barkeshli says that Iran needs a lot of gas injection to brown fields (active oil fields). "Currently oil and gas must move hand in hand in order to make raising crude oil production more sustainable and meaningful".
For now, Iran has increased oil exports by 750,000 b/d to 1.7 mb/d since January mostly thanking to the 30-50 million barrels of stored oil on water, but the figure is more much than the production growth. Keeping exports sustainable incoming months or increasing that to the pre-sanctions level (2.2mb/d) is not possible with the current output.
Posted by: Steve White ||
04/23/2016 00:00 ||
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The accompanying article is full of hyperbole, bywords and propaganda. The game can be found on Steam, and has received very positive reviews.
An example: You kill rapefugees and terrorists, whats not to like?
He created an ultra-violent video game that encouraged players to act out genocidal maniac fantasies and boasts about his anti-Islamic views.
Now computer games boss Jaroslaw Zieliniski has released a savage new video game that allows players to slay invading Isis jihadis - but also carries insulting messages to Muslims. I would bet more than half of the Muslim kids who play this game love it.
The game, IS Defense, is set 2020 and its aim is to protect Europe from fanatics who have taken over north Africa and are now launching an invasion on the West. The game is $7.99 and requires a 64-bit Windows OS
But the Isis flag has been altered to apparently represent Allah as a dog, and the Prophet Mohammed has been changed into a smiley face in another.
Campaigners warned that as well as inflaming hatred against Muslims, the game could in fact encourage pro-jihadi views.
Everything and nothing encourages pro-jihadi views in the susceptible. Might as well identify them early, and fix the problematic.
#1
...I'd point out that those who serve any god who gets all butthurt about a smiley face being placed on one of his prophets might want to reconsider their choice of deities.
But if I did that I'd be Islamaphobic.
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
04/23/2016 10:12 Comments ||
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As Alinsky wrote, force them to live up to their own standards.
[IsraelTimes] Plaintiffs in DC lawsuit say that American Studies Association’s ban violates organization’s charter -- and tax law
Four professors affiliated with the American Studies Association filed a lawsuit Wednesday in the District of Columbia’s Federal District Court, claiming that the association’s politicization of the organization through adopting an academic boycott of Israel violated laws governing nonprofit organizations.
"Until a handful of zealots appropriated our learned society, the ASA was the leading organization for the study of American culture," stated Simon Bronner, a professor at Pennsylvania State University at Harrisburg and one of the plaintiffs. "Yet in 2013, a handful of anti-Israel Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) activists aggressively steered the ASA to an organization of social change pushing a narrow political agenda."
Bronner is joined in the suit by Michael Rockland, Michael Barton and Charles Kupfer, all prominent professors in the field of American studies. Their academic society, the ASA, voted during its annual meeting in 2013 to adopt an academic boycott of Israel.
The plaintiffs said Wednesday that the decision to file the suit followed numerous unsuccessful attempts to address the matter within the Association, describing it in a statement as "a last resort to return the ASA to the academically-focused organization it has been for 60 years."
A similar argument was made when in 2014 the Royal Institute of British Architects endorsed an anti-Israel boycott. In that case, lawyers warned the institute’s action was outside its mission and therefore illegal ‐ and the policy was rescinded.
In the suit, the plaintiffs claim that the boycott resolution adopted by the organization during its December 2013 annual conference came following a concerted effort by a small number of BDS activists. These activists, the plaintiffs complain, abused their leadership positions in ASA to make anti-Israel activism the central focus of the Association ‐ a move that the plaintiffs claim violates the organization’s stated mission.
At the time the boycott was initiated, ASA’s constitution stated that "[t]he object of the association [is] the promotion of the study of American culture through the encouragement of research, teaching, publication... about American culture in all its diversity and complexity."
The suit charges that a boycott of another country is outside the scope of ASA’s charter and in fact contradicts its stated purpose of promoting knowledge.
The constitution also states that ASA’s goal is "the strengthening of relations among persons and institutions in this country and abroad devoted to such studies."
The complaint argues that the decision to pursue an academic boycott of Israel accomplishes the exact opposite.
In its IRS ...the Internal Revenue Service; that office of the United States government that collects taxes and persecutes the regime's political enemies... documents that maintain its tax-exempt status, the Association continues to describe its mission as "the nation’s oldest and largest association devoted to the interdisciplinary study of American culture and history." It states that its tax-exemption derives from its purpose of "advancing the Study of American Culture." The plaintiffs allege that the academic boycott of Israel is clearly outside of this stated mission and purpose ‐ and that the tax documents are thus inaccurate.
The lawsuit alleges that ASA is in violation of the District of Columbia’s Non-Profit Corporation Act, which requires that an organization operate only within the provisions of its charter. According to legal experts, the charter is a contract intended to protect members from those who seek to co-opt a nonprofit for purposes outside the boundaries of its charter.
"This appears to be a clear example of a small group misappropriating assets raised for an agreed upon purpose and illegally using the organization to advance a completely separate and personal agenda," stated University of Caliphornia, an impregnable bastion of the Democratic Party, Berkeley Law School professor Steven Davidoff Solomon, who served as an expert adviser to the plaintiffs.
Northwestern Pritzker Law School professor Eugene Kontorovich, who also served as an expert adviser to the litigation group emphasized that the suit "is not about silencing or stopping criticism of Israel, or in any way discouraging it. It is about nonprofit corporations abiding by their own rules."
The plaintiffs’ legal counsel noted that many ASA members, including 12 winners of the outstanding ASA Mary C. Turpie Award, raised objections regarding the boycott to ASA’s leadership, but were ignored.
As evidence that the organization’s standing has suffered, they cited cases in which ASA members resigned and stopped donating as well as the ringing condemnations of the ASA’s boycott leveled by the American Association of University Professors (AAUP) and 134 members of Congress.
A similar argument was made when in 2014 the Royal Institute of British Architects endorsed an anti-Israel boycott. In that case, lawyers warned the institute’s action was outside its mission and therefore illegal ‐ and the policy was rescinded.
"Academic associations should think twice before abusing their missions and betraying the lawful purposes for which they were established in favor of the personal political agendas of their noisiest and most politicized activist members," Kenneth L. Marcus, president of the Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law and one of the attorneys on the case, emphasized in a written statement.
"This case stands for the simple proposition that nonprofit corporations must pursue the lawful purposes for which they are established, for which they receive nonprofit status and for which they raise charitable contributions," added Jerome Marcus of Marcus & Auerbach LLC, lead counsel to the plaintiffs.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said Thursday the number of migrants crossing the Aegean Sea into Europe is “significantly down,” one day after news emerged that as many as 500 of them may have drowned last week in the sea between Libya and Italy.
Pervez 
Iran has a capacity to increase oil production to even 5.5-6 million barrels per day (mb/d), but not under the current situations, Fereydoun Barkeshli, former general manager at National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) in OPEC and international affairs, told Trend April 21.
