Sedef Kabas, a leading Turkish journalist, has been arrested in another example of the rollback on civil liberties under President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. As part of his attack on secularism and his introduction of Islamic laws into Turkey’s government, Erdogan has been cracking down critics and journalists over the outcry of the international community. In the case of Kabas, a single tweet on Twitter was enough. The journalist had just sent her five-year-old to school when police came knocking to ask if she authored a tweet about how the government quashed a corruption investigation into his family and close associates of Erdogan. Erdogan previously promised to “eradicate” Twitter in Turkey and he appears to be now doing it one journalist and poster at a time.
Category: International
Dr. Hayat Sindi is a Saudi Arabian medical scientist and a woman who has earned respect for extraordinary accomplishments in a country that denies women basic liberties. She is not only an award-winning scientist but one of the first female members of the Consultative Assembly of Saudi Arabia. Ranked by Arabian Business as the 19th most influential Arab in the world and the ninth most influential Arab woman, it is not surprising that Harvard University has brought her to the country as a visiting scholar. However, a nasty lawsuit in King County has raised deeply disturbing allegations about Sindi’s efforts against women who she accuses of hacking her emails. According to counsel for one of those women, Sindi worked to have another woman flogged for writing on Facebook that she had had an affair with her husband. On the other side is Samia El-Moslimany, a women’s activist and photographer who lives in the U.S. and Saudi Arabia, who is fighting to keep Sindi from forcing the disclosure of the women, who would face medieval Sharia justice in Saudi Arabia.
We have been following the gradual erosion of Turkey as a symbol of secularism in the Islamic world under President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Erdogan was elected by Muslim parties and has steadily broken down secular traditions and introduced more and more Islamic influences in government. That effort has now reached the schools, where Erdogan and his party faithful are seeking to turn schools into training grounds for Islamic orthodoxy. The story below discusses the impact of new rules on Christian Pastor Ahmet Guvener who has learned that, even after securing an exemption for his daughter from mandatory religious classes at her school, she is still required to make Islamic classes in the new Turkey being shaped by Erdogan. If she does not learn Islamic courses on the life of Mohammad or the Quran, she will fail. Erdogan calls it all part of his stated goal of raising “pious generations.”
Respectfully submitted by Lawrence E. Rafferty, (rafflaw) Weekend Contributor
British banking giant, HSBC reached an agreement in 2012 with the Department of Justice that kept it from being hauled in to court on criminal charges due to its systemic assistance in laundering money for drug cartels and allegedly terrorists. HSBC, with its Hong Kong headquarters shown above, is now in trouble again for alleged problems prior to the settlement agreement in 2012.
“The US Department of Justice is considering bringing criminal charges against HSBC and its executives as part of its investigation into whether the bank’s Swiss subsidiary helped US clients evade taxes.
Democratic senator Elizabeth Warren called on prosecutors to “come down hard” on HSBC if the bank is found to have colluded with tax evaders on Tuesday.
Her intervention came as US government officials with knowledge of the DoJ’s investigation provided the Guardian with new details about the inquiry.
Renewed focus has been placed on the long-running investigation into HSBC Switzerland by the department, after a huge leak of secret bank data – passed to the DOJ’s tax division almost five years ago – was obtained by the Guardian and other media.
It shows that HSBC Switzerland helped some clients conceal millions of undeclared assets, and has immediately raised questions on Capitol Hill about the response from prosecutors and tax authorities. US government officials said the investigation is not merely looking at HSBC’s US clients, and could also result in criminal indictments against the bank itself. “That has not been ruled out,” one official said, when asked if HSBC or its executives could be criminally indicted. “It is certainly something that is under consideration.” ‘ Reader Supported News Continue reading “Will HSBC Be Too Big To Jail…Again?”
The United States has continued to fall in the annual ranking of global press freedom under President Barack Obama. The U.S. fell three places to 49th from its already low 46th place last year by Reporters Without Borders 2015 World Press Freedom Index.
Continue reading “United States Falls To 49th In Press Freedom Under President Obama”
Chicago-based Jackie Robinson West Little League team was riding a crest of success this month, including a photo op with President Barack Obama, when it came crashing down in a very messy cheating scandal. The team was accused of effectively stacking the team with ringers from outside of their district — a serious infraction for such teams. The first all-African-American team to win the U.S. championship was stripped of its honor in favor of Mountain Ridge Little League from Las Vegas. In the meantime, there is a suggestion from at least one Chicago leader that the action against the team is racist.
Former International Monetary Fund boss Dominique Strauss-Kahn told a French court that he was unaware of the “prostitutional character” of women involved in orgies at luxury hotels in Paris and Washington D.C. were prostitutes. The much ridiculed defense is only the latest development in a bizarre criminal prosecution in France, where prostitution is legal but not soliciting or running a prostitution business – a curious line to draw for criminal cases.
We have yet another example of the twisted view of women in the Saudi Kingdom and the equally twisted view of what appears to pass for an intellectual in Saudi Arabia. Saudi historian Saleh Al-Saadoon told the Saudi news show Rotana Khalijiyya that the reason women in the West drive is that they “don’t care if they are raped on the roadside.” It was particularly offensive from a Saudi academic in a country long accused of having a culture that excuses rape.
We have previously discussed the problem in some countries like China where drivers routinely drive on sidewalks. Russia is also notorious for some horrendous drivers. One group however has started a campaign to confront drivers, leading to some tense confrontations on sidewalks as the videotape below indicates. It raises an interesting legal question of this type of citizen action. The line between citizen action and vigilantism can blur if it involves property damage, even though this is relatively slight. Indeed, there is admittedly a certain satisfaction in seeing these cars marked with a large sticker after such reckless conduct.
Continue reading “Video: Russians Confront Drivers Using Sidewalks To Avoid Traffic”
My family in Chicago has been walloped by snow so I thought that I would share the video below to offer some guidance at snow removal.
Continue reading “Now This Is Snow Removal . . . Canadian Style”
I had the pleasure this month of writing a piece on free speech in the leading policy magazine in Switzerland, “Schweizer Monat.” The piece is published in German (Charlies falsche Freunde or Charlie’s False Friends), which is particularly cool for my son Benjamin who is taking German at McLean High School in Virginia. The German version can be found here. Germany is currently our fifth highest supplier of readers with Switzerland close behind. Ironically, Harvard Professor Cass Sunstein also wrote a piece in the same issue this month. The translated column is below:
In the conclusion of ten years of intense litigation, Dr. Sami Al-Arian and his wife Nahla boarded a plane last night and left the United States for Turkey. He arrived in Istanbul a couple hours ago. I was Dr. Al-Arian’s lead criminal defense counsel in Virginia until all charges were eventually dropped by the United States Department of Justice against him. I have received many calls from the media over the last couple of days and I have declined to respond because Dr. Al-Arian was represented by an immigration law team after the criminal proceedings concluded. I wanted to defer to those lawyers in any media comments, as I have since handed over the case last year. Dr. Al-Arian issued the statement below this morning.
Continue reading “Dr. Sami Al-Arian Leaves The United States”
There is a horrific videotape capturing the crash of a TransAsia airplane crashing in Taiwan. The plane in the videotape below appears to lose control after takeoff, clip a bridge, and then crashes into a river. That is amazing is that people survived this crash and were seen swimming from the wreckage. This video is likely to be analyzed for years not just in the crash investigation but the likely litigation over the accident.
The Islamic State has continued its campaign of religious fascism in murdering thousands and “cleansing” areas for its view of the true Islamic faith. This process appears to include the burning of books in cities like Mosul, which once held a treasure trove of ancient texts including works dating back to 5000 BC. Some 2,000 books that range from children’s stories to poetry to historical texts were burned in front of residents who were told that such texts “promote infidelity and call for disobeying Allah. So they will be burned.”
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan had become a perpetual gaff machine. He would be funny if he were not so menacing in his effort to roll back on civil liberties and break down the secular traditions of Turkey in favor of Islamification of the government. He is facing growing criticism internationally and last week responded to allegations that he was trying to establish himself as a new Sultan. No, Erdoğan insisted, he really just wants to be more like Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II. As shown in other embarrassing moments recently, Erdoğan’s’s knowledge of history is even worst than his appreciation for human rights.
Continue reading “Erdoğan: I Don’t Want To Be A Sultan . . . I Want To Be A Queen”