“Drone Attacks Are Fueling Terrorism”
Malala Yousafzai, the Pakistani schoolgirl shot in the head by Taliban gunmen, has criticized U.S. drone strikes during a meeting with President Obama. The Obamas invited Yousafzai to the White House Friday in order to honor her work on behalf of girls’ education. But the White House statement did not mention another topic raised at the meeting. In her own statement, Yousafzai wrote: “I also expressed my concerns that drone attacks are fueling terrorism. Innocent victims are killed in these acts, and they lead to resentment among the Pakistani people. If we refocus efforts on education it will make a big impact,” she said.
Indigenous People Protest Columbus Day
In Chile, thousands of Mapuche indigenous people and their supporters took to the streets of the capital Santiago in an anti-Columbus Day march Saturday. The Mapuche are Chile’s largest indigenous group. They are calling for the return of ancestral lands and an end to the targeting of Mapuche activists under an anti-terrorism law. One protester condemned the day marking 521 years since Christopher Columbus’s arrival in the Americas.
Brazil Gov’t to Use Encrypted Email to Block Foreign Spying
Brazil has announced government employees will begin using an encrypted email service in an effort to avoid foreign spying. Brazil’s communications minister says the new government system will become mandatory for all federal officials in the coming months. Documents revealed by Edward Snowden show Brazil is the leading target of U.S. spying in Latin America.
Complaint filed against British coal miner GCM over Bangladesh mine
Campaigners have filed a complaint against British coal miner GCM Resources over a controversial open-pit coal mine in Bangladesh, ahead of the company’s AGM in London today. The complaint by the World Development Movement and International Accountability Project claims that the mine planned by the London-based and AIM-listed company would breach OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises by violating the human rights of the people who would be forcibly displaced and impoverished by the project. Its Phulbari Coal Project has been stalled since 2006 by fierce opposition within Bangladesh. A series of emails obtained via Freedom of Information requests made by London Mining Network reveal attempts by the UK government to avoid disclosing the nature of its relationship with GCM. Information requested by the group was refused on the basis that it would “prejudice the UK Government’s internal relations with the Bangladesh Government”.
CIA Study Warned of U.S. Failures in Propping Up Rebel Forces
Comments by Special Envoy Gen. John Allen follow the leak of a CIA study that said previous U.S. efforts to arm and train rebel groups have mostly failed. President Obama first commissioned the study in 2012 as he weighed arming Syrian rebels fighting the regime of Bashar al-Assad. The findings fueled White House skepticism about backing the rebels, but Obama went ahead with training efforts that have recently expanded to Saudi Arabia. Although the CIA found most U.S. attempts to prop up insurgent forces failed in countries such as Cuba and Nicaragua, there was one exception: the mujahideen rebels who fought the Soviet Union in Afghanistan. Its members would go on to form the core of al-Qaeda.