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Revealing serious fractures within the 9/11 Commission, a former member of that panel has called for the immediate declassification of the so-called “28 pages” that detail Saudi ties to the 2001 terrorist attack, saying they expose evidence that Saudi government officials were involved in the hijackers’ support network.
“There was an awful lot of participation by Saudi individuals in supporting the hijackers, and some of those people worked in the Saudi government,” Republican John Lehman said in an interview with the Guardian published Thursday. Referring to the commission’s final report, issued in 2004, Lehman stated: “Our report should never have been read as an exoneration of Saudi Arabia.”
He said recent claims made by the Commission’s former chairman and vice-chair—that only one Saudi government employee was “implicated” in supporting the hijackers, and that the Obama administration should be cautious about releasing the 28 pages because they contain “raw, unvetted material” but no “smoking gun”—was “a game of semantics.”
In fact, Lehman said, at least five Saudi government officials were strongly suspected of supporting the terrorists. “They may not have been indicted, but they were certainly implicated,” he told the Guardian. “There was an awful lot of circumstantial evidence.”
In making these statements, Lehman, an investment banker in New York who was U.S. Navy secretary in the Reagan administration, becomes the first of the 10 former commissioners to speak so “bluntly” about the inquiry and the contents of 28 pages.
But he is not alone in his opinion, writes Guardian reporter Philip Shenon:
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A top aide to President Barack Obama who also worked on the 9/11 Commission report made similar statements on a CNN podcast in April, saying the Saudi government did not overtly support al Qaeda leading up to the 2001 attacks, but that individuals in the country did.
The White House is currently reviewing the 28 pages for possible release, and Obama is expected to announce a decision about declassification by June.
In an op-ed at the Washington Post on Wednesday, former U.S. Sen. Bob Graham, a Democrat from Florida, reiterated the call for declassification.
He scoffed at comments made earlier this month by CIA Director John Brennan, who had echoed the argument that “people may seize upon that uncorroborated, unvetted information that was in there… and to point to Saudi involvement, which I think would be very, very inaccurate.”
Graham wrote: “With all due respect, that argument is an affront not only to the American public in general but also to all those who lost family members, loved ones and friends on that fateful September day in 2001. Americans are fully capable of reviewing the 28 pages and making up their own minds about their significance.”
The Hill reported earlier this week on allegations that the Obama administration tried to “strong-arm” Graham into reversing his stance on the 28 pages.
Meanwhile, Shane Harris reports Thursday for the Daily Beast that the 28 pages “are just a start.”
“[I]n Florida, a federal judge is weighing whether to declassify portions of some 80,000 classified pages that could reveal far more about the hijackers’ Saudi connections and their activities in the weeks preceding the worst attack on U.S. soil,” Harris wrote.
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When they gather in Texas and California, respectively, for their annual shareholder meetings next week, ExxonMobil and Chevron will face increasing pressure from shareholders, environmentalists, and impacted communities to act on climate change.
The meetings, both taking place next Wednesday, come amid a concerted effort to hold Exxon and other fossil fuel corporations accountable for deceiving the general public and their shareholders about climate science.
But if history is any indication, the Big Oil giants will remain as intractable as ever, even in the face of a growing climate crisis.
Since 1990, 62 climate-related resolutions have been introduced at annual shareholder meetings, author and 350.org co-founder Bill McKibben writes in an op-ed on Friday. Each of them has failed.
“In 2015,” he offers as an example, “shareholder activists put forward a variety of resolutions, the most important of which would have set goals for cutting greenhouse gas emissions. Again Exxon opposed them, its CEO informing shareholders that if climate change caused any ‘inclement weather’ humans would ‘adapt’.”
McKibben continues:
It may be time to “give up the charade,” McKibben argues.
“If this meeting ends with the same dismal failure as the past 25,” he says, “it’s time to admit the obvious: the Exxons of the world are not going to change their stripes, not voluntarily. It will be time for state treasurers and religious groups to join those students and frontline communities and climate scientists who are saying ‘No more.’ It will be time—past time—to get serious, divest and break free of fossil fuels once and for all.”
Activists plan to hold a rally to this effect outside the Exxon shareholder meeting in Dallas next Wednesday.
“Shareholders have all the evidence they need—Exxon has lied to them about the financial risks of climate change since 1977,” reads the call-to-action. “Exxon robbed humanity of half a century’s worth of time to fight climate change, and their core business model relies on wrecking our communities and the climate.”
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The Union of Concerned Scientists is also circulating a petition in advance of both meetings, specifically challenging Exxon and Chevron to sever ties with the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), the right-wing lobby group it says “peddles disinformation about climate science to policy makers and seeks to roll back the policies we need to reduce global warming emissions.”
Meanwhile, renowned Indigenous leader Humberto Piaguaje of the Secoya nationality, is traveling from his jungle home in the Ecuadorian Amazon to confront Chevron CEO John Watson at his company’s annual meeting on Wednesday in San Ramon, California.
Piaguaje will take Watson to task for Chevron’s refusal to pay a historic $18.1 billion court judgement requiring the company atone for systematically discharging 16 billion gallons of toxic waste into Amazon waterways from 1964 to 1992 and abandoning more than 900 unlined waste pits in a 1,500 square mile area.
“Our leaders plan to confront Mr. Watson with judgments from multiple courts mandating the company pay its pollution bill to the people of Ecuador,” said Piaguaje. “Mr. Watson needs to accept responsibility for Chevron’s environmental crimes in Ecuador, apologize to the company’s victims, and abide by court orders that compensation be paid.”
Until that happens, Piaguaje continued, “Mr. Watson and Chevron’s Board members will be considered by us to be fugitives from justice subject to arrest for crimes against humanity under principles of universal jurisdiction.”
In a clear demonstration of shareholder liability, notes the Oakland-based Amazon Watch, which works with Chevron’s victims, the corporation has used dozens of law firms and up to 2,000 lawyers to fight local Indigenous groups, but it continues to suffer courtroom setbacks.
Earlier this year, a report by securities lawyer Graham Erion concluded that Chevron “appears to be actively trying to hide its Ecuador risk from its investors and the markets.”
Indeed, said Amazon Watch associate director Paul Paz y Miño: “Watson’s refusal to clean up his toxic waste in Ecuador and his evasive approach to climate change might explain why the company is now seen as the poster child for corporate greed.”
Furthermore, according to Amazon Watch:
A protest will take place in San Ramon on the day of the shareholder’s meeting, featuring Indigenous allies affected by Chevron in Ecuador as well as people from impacted communities near Richmond, California—site of a major Chevron refinery.
According to organizers, “They will all have two things in common: they all come from communities that have suffered the dire impacts of Chevron’s reckless pursuit of profits, and they’re all fighting back.”
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Bolivian President Evo Morales called on leftist governments in South America to counter U.S. plans to control the region with a “democratic revolution.”
“In some countries it should be like a wake-up call where [governments] must start permanent conferences to relaunch democratic and cultural revolutions for Latin America and the Caribbean [region],” Morales said during an interview in Cuba on Monday night with the program Cubavisión, according to TeleSUR.
“It is the plan of the American empire that wants to regain control of Latin America and the Caribbean, and especially in South America, and there surely is an ambition to establish a United States presence in these countries and recover subservient governments as a model, as a system,” he continued.
The interview comes amid increasing turmoil in several Latin American countries, including Venezuela, where President Nicolas Maduro has accused the U.S. of plotting a coup as the country struggles with frustration over food shortages and blackouts due to the drop in oil prices.
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Unrest also continues to grow in Brazil following the suspension of President Dilma Rousseff and the ushering in of a neoliberal interim administration headed up by Wall Street favorite Michel Temer, who introduced his agenda on Wednesday. The country’s biggest newspaper on Monday published evidence of a “national pact” between right-wing officials, oil executives, and the military to overthrow Rousseff as part of a larger plot to derail a widespread corruption investigation.
Morales warned Monday that U.S.-backed opposition parties in Brazil and Venezuela seek to roll back socialist programs implemented over the years by leftist governments.
“When the right wing returns to power they will remove the socialist benefits and shrink the state, which will generate a reaction,” he said.
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Funds for NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)—agencies that conduct critical climate change research, among other things—are on the chopping block as the Republican-led U.S. House and Senate hash out their 2017 spending bills.
According to Climate Wire, “The spending bill passed by the House Appropriations Committee last week allocates $128 million for NOAA’s climate research, a 20 percent cut from the previous year. The bill allocates $1.7 billion for NASA’s Earth Science division, a 12 percent cut from 2016.”
Specifically, House appropriators cut funding for climate labs run by NOAA by 17 percent below 2016 levels, which will impact efforts to update carbon dioxide observatories and track U.S. emissions, and also cut funding for ocean acidification research by 15 percent below 2016 levels.
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U.S. Rep. Mike Honda (D-Calif.), a member of the committee, said the “drastic reduction in climatological research funding for NOAA” was among several “troubling funding cuts” to come out of the appropriations process.
On NASA, the American Association for the Advancement of Science reports, “Once again, House appropriators boosted Planetary Science at the expense of Earth Science.” The House bill allocates $1.7 billion for NASA’s Earth Sciences program—which researches the planet’s natural systems and processes, including climate change, severe weather, and glaciers—a 12 percent cut from 2016 funding levels.
Planetary Sciences, which focuses on exploring the solar system, got no such reductions.
The Senate Appropriations Committee passed its “comparatively less brutal spending bill in April,” maintaining funding at 2016 levels for both agencies, Climate Wire notes. The differences between the House and Senate versions will be resolved during conference negotiations.
In a blog post last week, the Planetary Society’s Casey Dreier analyzed the dueling NASA proposals:
House Republicans tried a similarly anti-science ploy last year, when they attempted to cut between $300-500 million in funding to NASA’s Earth Sciences division.
Astronomer and journalist Phil Plait, writing at Slate at the time, argued that U.S. voters only have themselves to blame for such short-sighted policy decisions:
Independent analyses from NASA and NOAA recently showed that Earth’s 2015 surface temperatures were the warmest since modern record-keeping began in 1880.
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A conference organized around the progressive issues that formed the cornerstone of Bernie Sanders’ presidential run has re-energized the American left, attendees said, as the gathering provoked conversations and connections that will invigorate political and social movements to come.
Coming in the wake of Sanders’ primary losses earlier this month, and after the recent murders in Orlando and in the U.K., the so-called People’s Summit became a “place of healing,” said activist and author Naomi Klein, who took part in the opening panel.
“I could feel that people were down,” Klein said of the start of the summit. “This was not a rah rah rally. People came in licking their wounds.”
Klein continued:
“This was very much an exchange,” Klein added. “It was as much about the conversations you’re having in the hallways and over meals as the speeches. It was very much the connective tissue of movements that was what this was all about.”
“You really felt how much bigger this movement is than Bernie.”
—Naomi Klein
“There was a sense among many activists—not all, but most—that the Bernie campaign was not a defeat,” Jeff Cohen, director of the Park Center for Independent Media, told Common Dreams via email. “That it was not an end, but a big acceleration of movements that existed pre-FeelTheBern—for example, Occupy Wall Street, Black Lives Matter, Fight for Fifteen, immigrants’ rights, etc. That it will lead to all sorts of progressive electoral interventions in the coming years.”
Indeed, “if the summit had any common theme, it may have been ‘Don’t count us out,'” reported D.D. Guttenplan in The Nation. “Though there were more than a handful of Bernie-or-busters in attendance[…] Becky Bond, a former senior adviser to the [Sanders] campaign, spoke for a much greater proportion when she said, ‘Bernie didn’t create this movement. He recognized the movement moment we are in.'”
Klein agreed, noting, “You really felt how much bigger this movement is than Bernie. This slogan, ‘Not me, us,’ is so much more than a slogan.”
Cohen observed that “normally when a candidate does not win a hard-fought race, the candidate slinks away and supporters of that candidate drift off disheartened.”
“Unlike most electoral campaigns,” Cohen wrote, “the Bernie campaign resulted in a massive conference this weekend, a search for candidates to run for local offices, some real networking among progressive groups, and a plan for major national protests in February in D.C. and locally, no matter who is elected.”
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Klein said that many conversations at the gathering revolved around how to support and organize new progressive candidates in electoral politics as well as how to keep up the energy in the social movements that are currently pushing for many of Sanders’ suggested reforms.
“We can’t forget that it was social movements that produced the conditions that made governing thinkable,” Klein said. “It was winning enough victories, enough local battles —increases in minimum wage, bans on fracking—that made people feel like, ‘Wow, well, maybe we could govern.’ If we swing all the way in the direction of, ‘Okay, now it’s all about electoral politics,’ then we lose that force and all of that momentum, and that is going to be absolutely necessary to hold neoliberal politicians accountable.”
“There is massive corruption in the machinery of the Democratic Party.”
—RoseAnn DeMoro, National Nurses United”I heard no sectarian discussion,” Klein continued, “no ‘My way or the highway.’ I heard, ‘We need it all. We need people to go into politics, but we also need people in social movements.'”
Many discussions also focused on how to reform the Democratic party—how to eliminate the much-criticized superdelegate system and super PACs, as well as how to influence the party platform, Klein said.
“There is massive corruption in the machinery of the Democratic Party,” said RoseAnn DeMoro to CNN. DeMoro is the executive director of National Nurses United, the “convening force” behind the gathering, as Klein described it.
“The only way that we can overcome that corruption and manipulation is for all of us not to work in isolation,” DeMoro added, telling CNN that the party’s efforts to garner endorsements for Clinton from Sanders backers had been “a very negative dialogue.”
The message, she told the broadcaster, had been that “if you’re not with Clinton, then you’re pro-Trump.”
To that point, Becky Bond, a senior advisor to the Sanders campaign, told the gathering that the progressive movement was better equipped to defeat Trump than the Clinton campaign.
Bond argued that “because Trump is a multimillionaire or billionaire, depending on who you believe, and [progressives] are the people who know how to take on the one percent of the one percent. Hillary is very much aligned with those interests, is herself every much a part of it,” Klein said, summarizing Bond’s comments.
“It is necessary for us to continue our fight on the ground.”
—Dominique Scott, student and summit participant”We do have to defeat Trump, but we don’t have to do it in the way the Democratic establishment wants us to,” Bond told the conference goers, according to Newsweek.
The choice between Trump and Clinton is an appalling one, many attendees seemed to agree.
The stark choice “brings to light how important it is that we are all here as the people,” said a student and participant named Dominique Scott to Newsweek. “It is necessary for us to continue our fight on the ground. We’ve never relied on a presidential candidate to solve all our problems for us, and it would be silly and irresponsible for us to do that.”
Looking to the near future, Klein argued that the “fight in the Democratic Party does matter in the coming weeks. People are going to see how far they can take this attempt to democratize the Democratic Party. They’re pushing on all fronts, they’re going to see what they can come up with.”
“It might turn out that [the Democratic Party is] absolutely irredeemable,” Klein continued, “and we have to organize outside of the Democratic Party, but let’s see how things turn out. Let’s see what happens.”
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The U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday blocked an order (pdf) that gave a transgender Virginia teen access to the same school restrooms as his male peers, which means he will not be able to use the facilities that correspond to his gender identity when classes resume in the fall.
Gavin Grimm, 17, brought the case against the Gloucester county school board in 2015 over what he argued was a discriminatory policy. In April, the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals granted him a major victory by holding that Title IX protects the rights of transgender students to use the facilities consistent with their gender identity. The court sent the case back to the trial judge for further proceedings.
The high court’s stay of the order means Grimm’s school can continue to “isolate and stigmatize” him, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) said Thursday.
Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Sonia Sotomayor, and Elena Kagan dissented and said they would not have stayed the ruling. Justice Stephen Breyer sided with the court’s four conservatives—Chief Justice John Roberts and Justices Anthony Kennedy, Clarence Thomas, and Samuel Alito—”as a courtesy” on the grounds that the ruling would “preserve the status quo” while Grimm’s fight continues.
ACLU senior staff attorney Joshua Block, who is representing Grimm, said, “We are disappointed that the court has issued a stay and that Gavin will have to begin another school year isolated from his peers and stigmatized by the Gloucester County school board just because he’s a boy who is transgender.”
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The ruling “also suggests that four Justices—the number needed to review a case on the merits—could be willing to take the case on, possibly as soon as this fall,” wrote Amy Howe at SCOTUSBlog.
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Howe said:
“We remain hopeful that Gavin will ultimately prevail,” Block said Wednesday.
It is the high court’s first ruling on the issue that has become a new frontier in LGBTQ rights.
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Barcelona boss Ronald Koeman hopes to sign Man City defender Eric Garcia before the window shuts on Monday.
The 19-year-old broke into the Man City team during the 2019/20 season. Garcia made 20 appearances for the club in all competitions last year.
The defender did not play in City’s opening game of the season against Wolves. But he has featured in each of their next two games so far this campaign.
Cheeky backs Leeds to beat Man City, Liverpool to drop points
His form for City helped him earn his first cap for Spain’s senior team in September 2020 against Ukraine.
Garcia came through Barcelona’s academy, but he signed for Man City in 2017. He has long been rumoured with returning to the Spanish giants.
He is entering the final year of his contract, and City appears willing to let him go with Garcia’s heart set on a return to his former club.
City have been trying to persuade him to sign a new deal, but they now wish to cash in on him so they do not lose him for free next summer.
A report from Manchester Evening News suggests that City would want around £20m plus an extra £10m in add-ons for Garcia this summer.
Barcelona boss Koeman has now given his take on the Spaniard’s situation. The former Everton and Holland boss told Goal that they aim to complete a deal for Garcia before Monday’s transfer deadline:
“It’s true we want Eric Garcia here. I’ve seen Pep’s comments and that’s how it is.
“I hope we get it done but we know the situation is tough financially. There’s interest, but I don’t know if we will get it over the line.”
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Leeds United striker Patrick Bamford deserves more credit for his early-season form, according to Martin Keown.
Marcelo Bielsa’s side have made a strong start to their return season in the Premier League.
They pushed champions Liverpool all the way in their opening game, eventually losing 4-3 in an instant classic.
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Leeds have won their next two games, though. They beat fellow promoted side Fulham 4-3 before they were victorious 1-0 over Sheffield United last week.
A big part of this success has been Bamford. From their opening three games, he has scored three and he has also assisted one for his teammates.
Bamford has been the subject of a lot of criticism from Leeds fans during his time at the club.
He has always been praised for the work he does off the ball, but he has been slatted at times for being wasteful in front of goal.
The 27-year-old was a mainstay in Bielsa’s side last season. He made 45 league appearances and he scored 16 goals to help Leeds finish the season as champions.
The Arsenal legend told TalkSPORT that he has been really impressed by Bamford’s performances so far this season.
“Patrick Bamford as well not nearly getting enough credit for what he is doing.”
Bielsa’s Leeds United host Pep Guardiola’s Man City on Saturday afternoon at Elland Road.
Romelu Lukaku has warned former club Man Utd over bringing a new striker to Old Trafford this summer.
Man Utd continue to be linked with a number of players, including a striker, but Donny van de Beek the only major arrival so far.
Even if that changes before Monday’s deadline, fans and former players have grown frustrated with a now familiar story of the club moving too slowly in the market.
FEATURE: Man United v Tottenham: One big game, five big questions
However, Lukaku reckons the Red Devils can do without a new striker as it could upset “the chemistry” between Mason Greenwood and Anthony Martial.
“If you buy another striker, what are you going to do with Anthony?” Lukaku told The Times. “He’s not being the No.9 at a great club.
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“Give him the full season to confirm what he did last year instead of bringing in someone big to disrupt the chemistry in the dressing room.
“Then you have Mason’s transition that is going to happen any time soon from right-wing to No 9, and Mason is a killer. I’ve seen him first hand. He’s got something.”
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Several prominent south Florida Democrats are hosting a fundraiser for Republican Rep. Carlos Curbelo’s (Fla.) reelection bid, the Miami Herald reports.
The event is being held in the centrist congressman’s Miami district, which is in national Democrats’ sights and competitive.
Among the nine Democrats sponsoring the fundraiser are former Miami Mayor Manny Diaz and Florida City Mayor Otis Wallace.
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Other co-hosts include Hillary ClintonHillary Diane Rodham ClintonWhite House accuses Biden of pushing ‘conspiracy theories’ with Trump election claim Biden courts younger voters — who have been a weakness Trayvon Martin’s mother Sybrina Fulton qualifies to run for county commissioner in Florida MORE donor Ira Leesfield and attorney Roland Sanchez-Medina, who previously worked as the campaign treasurer for Democratic congressional candidate Joe GarciaJose (Joe) Antonio GarciaOvernight Defense: Biden honors McCain at Phoenix memorial service | US considers sending captured ISIS fighters to Gitmo and Iraq | Senators press Trump on ending Yemen civil war Biden pays tribute to McCain at emotional memorial service Mueller indictments: Congressional candidate asked Russian operatives for info on opponent MORE.
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Curbelo, a second-term congressman, defeated Garcia in both 2014 and 2016. He ran unopposed for the Republican primary in 2016.
“While we don’t agree with him on every issue, he is a voice of reason in an increasingly unreasonably partisan world, he works hard to represent Miami-Dade County in Washington, and, in particular, he is trying to bring both parties together for the good of the country,” Sanchez-Medina told the Miami Herald in an email.
“We are proud to support Carlos.”
Sen. Marco RubioMarco Antonio RubioHillicon Valley: Georgia officials launch investigation after election day chaos | Senate report finds Chinese telecom groups operated in US without proper oversight Republican Senators ask FCC to ‘clearly define’ when social media platforms should receive liability protections Trump’s tweet on protester sparks GOP backlash MORE (R-Fla.), a Cuban-American and Miami native, will also fundraise for Curbelo at another event in August, the Herald reports.
Curbelo already has his first challenger, Debbie Mucarsel-Powell (D), who announced her bid on Wednesday. Mucarsel-Powell has the support of the national party, the Herald reports.