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Muslims Demand Resignation of New York’s Top Cop
The screening of an anti-Muslim film for nearly 1,500 New York Police officers has sparked a call for the resignation of the city's police commissioner.
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A coalition of Muslim groups is calling for Police Commissioner Ray Kelly's dismissal. Kelly appears in the controversial documentary The Third Jihad, widely available on Youtube. It portrays even ordinary Muslims as suspects in a radical Islamic quest to destroy Western civilization and take control of the United States.
“About 18 percent, at last count, of prisoners in New York State are Islamic,” he stated.
Police officials initially denied using the film at training sessions. But a Freedom of Information request revealed documents confirming such use. Kelly has issued an apology and enjoys the support of Mayor Michael Bloomberg.
“Commissioner Kelly should not step down," Bloomberg said. "I think it’s fair to say that it was a little bit of an embarrassment that this film was made.”
Activists say actions, not apologies are needed, first of all Kelly’s resignation or dismissal. Shahid Farooqi represents the Islamic Circle of North America, an organization of mostly South Asian Muslims.
“Second is [an] independent investigation. The third is to start respecting our Muslim community members,” Farooqi demanded.
The Third Jihad is filled with images of Muslim violence accompanied by threatening rhetoric and music. It was produced by the Clarion Fund, a conservative non-profit organization and played on a continuous loop in the last quarter of 2010 on the sidelines of police counterterrorism training sessions. Muslim activists say the documentary poisoned the minds of New York City Police officers. They demand that those officers be retrained.
An earlier controversy over alleged random police surveillance of New York’s Muslim community triggered protests and also a boycott by some Muslim clerics of Mayor Bloomberg’s annual prayer breakfast.
US Republican Presidential Candidates Engage in Spirited Debate
The four remaining candidates for the U.S. Republican Party's presidential nomination met in a sometimes heated debate in Jacksonville, Florida, Thursday ahead of that state's January 31 primary.
The debate quickly produced fireworks on issues like immigration and foreign bank accounts. Former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney reacted angrily to former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich calling him anti-immigrant.
“I think you should apologize for it and I think you should recognize that having differences of opinions on issues does not justify labeling people with highly charged epitaphs,” Romney said.
Romney noted that his father was born in Mexico and he defended his immigration plan as one that favors legal immigration, but strengthens the enforcement of laws designed to prevent illegal entrants from getting jobs.
Gingrich struck back by saying that he would not favor any policy that would force older people, many of them grandparents who have lived in the United States for many years, to leave the country.
Gingrich said “All I want to do is allow the grandmother to be here legally with some rights to have residency, but not citizenship, so that he or she can finish their life with dignity within the law.”
Romney countered by saying “You know, there are not 11 million .. the problem is not 11 million grandmothers.”
The two front-runners also sparred over Gingrich's attacks on Romney's investments, including funds in foreign bank accounts, which Romney defended as being in a blind trust not directly under his control.
Former Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum chided both candidates for taking their focus off the more important issues facing the country.
“Can we set aside that Newt was a member of Congress and used the skills that he developed as a member of Congress to go out and advise companies and that is not the worst thing in the world and that Mitt is a wealthy man because he went out and worked hard and you guys should just leave that alone and focus on the issues” he said.
There were some questions from the audience about foreign policy issues, including the Middle East peace process, but the sharpest divide resulted from Texas Congressman Ron Paul's response to a question about U.S. relations with Latin America.
“I believe that with friendship and trade you can have a lot of influence and I strongly believe that, with time, we have friendship and trade with Cuba,” he said.
The other three candidates expressed disagreement with Paul. In Florida the large Cuban exile community has traditionally supported strong measures against the communist government of Cuba. Many Cuban-Americans also call for more U.S. engagement in Latin America to offset both Cuba and the government of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez.
Recent polls have shown a tight race between Romney and Gingrich, both of whom have been campaigning actively in Florida ever since Gingrich won the South Carolina primary on January 21, upsetting Romney's status as frontrunner. Voters in Florida go to the polls next Tuesday to decide which candidate they think should run against President Barack Obama in November's presidential election.
Documentary Highlights Burma’s Jailed Political Activists
A documentary film about Burma’s political prisoners and the underground movement to help them premiered this week in Asia, drawing attention to the plight of the country’s activists as the government releases hundreds of prisoners in an amnesty program.
Director Jeanne Hallacy said former political prisoner and activist Ko Bo Kyi inspired her to make “Into the Current,” which made its regional debut in Bangkok Thursday to a sold-out audience at the Foreign Correspondents' Club.
“His mandate was, as a former political prisoner, he was going to work every which way he could on the global stage, to ensure that all these prisoners could be released,” she said.
Ko Bo Kyi spent seven years in prison in Burma before escaping to Thailand, where he co-founded the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners in 1999.
Burmese authorities announced this month that they would be releasing 651 of the estimated 2,000 political activists behind bars in an effort to promote national reconciliation.
Ko Bo Kyi said those who remain in prison should not be forgotten.
“Political prisoners do not receive timely medical treatment, so there is not enough medication, and there are not enough doctors for the prisoners, therefore the prisoners suffer a lot,” he said, adding that even after their release, life is not easy.
He pointed to the case of Thet New, who died shortly after being freed under the government amnesty this month. The activist is believed to have died from the effects of torture suffered in prison.
Free, but not
Ko Bo Kyi said those who survive are still punished professionally and personally.
“The Burmese government doesn’t recognize the existence of political prisoners. Therefore, even after they were released, they are blacklisted. They do not receive passports. They do not get back their license,” he said.
Another focus of the film, co-produced by the Democratic Voice of Burma, is Ko Bo Kyi’s lifelong friend, the writer and poet Min Ko Naing. He is considered Burma’s most prominent opposition leader after Nobel Peace Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, and was released earlier this month.
Associated Press
Min Ko Naing forms a human chain with the '88 Generation Student Group. Rangoon, May 27, 2007.“It was because of his unyielding stance, and the enormous risks that he took, over and over again, that put him in that position of being a leader of what was called the ‘88 Generation Group,” said Hallacy.
Min Ko Naing spent 16 years in solitary confinement, and emerged from prison in 2007, only to lead another protest that returned him to jail later that year.
The human toll
The human toll exerted on the government’s opponents is explored in “Into the Current.” Min Ko Naing speaks ruefully of his former girlfriend, who he says, “now belongs to someone else,” following his many years in prison. Ko Bo Kyi bid farewell to his parents when he fled Burma more than a decade ago. And Aung San Suu Kyi had to give up her family life with her late husband Michael Aris and her sons.
“Despite all of that, what is their response? It’s informed by their Buddhist belief, Metta, loving kindness,” said Hallacy.
In the film, Aung San Suu Kyi is asked if the National League for Democracy will show mercy to members of the former military government. “We all need mercy,” she said.
Aung San Suu Kyi spent 15 years under house arrest over the past two decades. She was released in 2010, just days after controversial elections that gave Burma its first nominally civilian government since 1962.
She will be among the candidates vying for a seat in parliamentary by-elections in April. It will be the first time that she has been allowed to seek political office.
Obama Promotes Energy, Tax Proposals on Cross-Country Trip
President Barack Obama Thursday continued his three-day cross-country trip reinforcing major themes of his State of the Union address. He used remarks in the western state of Nevada to discuss his proposals for boosting development of U.S. natural gas and energy reserves.
In Las Vegas, the president chose for his remarks a UPS company facility that used money from his $787 billion economic stimulus three years ago to construct a public liquefied natural gas fueling station.
Addressing the nation Tuesday, he proposed steps to further develop U.S. natural gas and oil reserves, and investments in alternative energy sources, emphasizing that this must be done safely while protecting the environment.
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The administration announced it is opening a more than 150,000-square-kilometer area in the Gulf of Mexico for lease, which the government estimates contains nearly 31 billion barrels of oil and 134 trillion cubic feet of natural gas.
The Bureau of Ocean Energy, Management, Regulation and Enforcement estimates the available amount of unrecovered oil and natural gas in the Gulf of Mexico could result in the production of one billion barrels of oil and about 113 billion cubic feet of natural gas.
The administration says the land for lease is located about five to 370 miles off the coast of the southern states of Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama. Drilling leases will be auctioned off in June.
Obama said the United States is moving in the right direction away from reliance on foreign oil imports, but he repeated the call in his State of the Union address for an "all-out" strategy to develop every source of American energy.
"We have got to have an all-out, all-in, all-of-the-above strategy that develops every source of American energy. A strategy that is cleaner, cheaper and full of new jobs," said Obama.
The president said he has directed his secretary of energy, Steven Chu, to launch a new competition to encourage U.S. scientists, engineers and entrepreneurs to come up with new breakthroughs in natural gas-powered vehicles.
Opposition Republicans in Congress, and Republican candidates seeking to replace Obama in the White House, have called his proposals insufficient. They sharply criticized his recent decision to reject a proposal pipeline to carry natural gas from Canadian tar sand fields to the southern U.S. state of Texas.
At every stop on this three-day five-state tour, Obama also has re-played other major themes of his State of the Union address, calling for more fairness in the U.S. economy, and proposing that wealthy Americans pay more in taxes.
He is setting the stage for the expected next big battles with Republicans over extending a payroll tax cut for Americans through this year, and ending tax cuts that were supposed to be temporary when passed by Congress under former president George W. Bush.
Obama said repairing the U.S. fiscal mess will require "tough choices" beyond cutting government spending and inefficiencies, and he fired back again at Republicans suggesting that he is using the tax issue to wage "class warfare."
"We don't shy away from financial success, we don't apologize for it," Obama said. "But what we do say is when this nation has done so much for us, shouldn't we be thinking about the country as a whole?"
Obama's remarks later Thursday at an Air Force base in Colorado focused on proposals to boost renewable energy through billions of dollars in tax incentives for clean energy industries.
The five states on the president's post-State of the Union address trip - Iowa, Nevada, Arizona, Colorado, and Michigan - are important political "swing states" he has visited frequently, and hopes to win against a Republican challenger in this November's presidential election.
Panetta Outlines US Defense Budget Decisions
The U.S. Defense Department says the Obama administration will propose to Congress that U.S. ground forces be cut by 100,000 as part of nearly $500 billion in defense budget cuts during the next decade.
Watch related report by Luis Ramirez:
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U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta told reporters at the Pentagon Thursday that the administration will request a 2013 defense budget of $525 billion. That is $6 billion less than the request for the current fiscal year, which ends September 30.
| Highlights of the U.S. Defense Department's proposed budget for fiscal year 2013: -Billions of dollars in cuts: The Pentagon wants $525 billion for 2013, $6 billion less than this year's request. For Afghanistan and other overseas operations, the department seeks another $88 billion, down from $115 billion this year. Overall, the plan aims to save $259 billion in the next five years and $487 billion in the next decade. -A "smaller," "leaner" military: The Army would shrink from 562,000 active duty soldiers today to 490,000 by 2017. The force would still be larger than it was when the United States was attacked September 11, 2001. The Marine Corps numbers would fall from 202,000 to 182,000. -Out with the old, delaying the new: The Air Force would retire a number of older planes, including about two dozen C-5A cargo aircraft and 65 C-130 cargo planes. The Navy would keep 11 aircraft carriers, but retire seven cruisers earlier than planned, and delay purchase of other vessels, including a submarine. The purchase of F-35 fighter jets also would be slowed. -Focus on Asia and the Middle East: The U.S. would maintain its presence in the Asia-Pacific region and the Middle East and base combat ships in Singapore and patrol craft in Bahrain. The budget would also eliminate two Army brigades in Europe. -New investments for new challenges: The military would increase the number of special operations forces and invest in more capability in the cyber world. -Closing domestic military bases: To identify additional savings, the Obama administration will ask Congress to consider a new round of domestic base closures. |
Panetta said the plan is to increase the Pentagon budget to $567 billion by 2017.
He said the defense department is also asking for an additional $88 billion for overseas operations to maintain support for troops in Afghanistan.
The plan also includes a shift in focus to the Asia Pacific region and the Middle East.
The announcement marks the start of this year's annual budget debate. The White House is expected to send its national budget plan to Congress in mid-February.
President Barack Obama unveiled the new strategic plan for the military earlier this month.
More cuts are expected in the years ahead, as the Pentagon reduces the number of troops, delays or trims plans for buying new ships, aircraft and weapons, and shifts its focus to creating a more agile force.
Congress and the Obama administration battled all last year over the federal budget and national debt. Republicans in Congress have opposed White House efforts to raise revenue in addition, and said the administration's proposed budget cuts were insufficient.
However, many Republicans support deeper cuts in domestic programs rather than the military.
Some information for this report was provided by AP and Reuters.