Arms Sales versus Human Rights: US approves sale of $290m in bombs to Saudi Arabia

Arms deals with Middle East dictatorships are being rushed through by Trump, critics say, despite opposition over human rights records.

The US state department has approved the sale of $290m in bombs to Saudi Arabia as part of a flurry of arms deals with Middle Eastern dictatorships in the last weeks of the Trump administration.

Critics of the sales say they are being rushed through despite broad congressional and public opposition to such military support because of the human rights records of the regimes involved and in the case of Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), the huge civilian death toll from the war in Yemen.

Read more at: US approves sale of $290m in bombs to Saudi Arabia | US news | The Guardian

The Netherlands: Rutte Government under fire over costly healthcare and educational student loan programs - by RM

The Netherlands privatized Healthcare and Educational programs are not proving to be one of  the Dutch PM's Rutte success stories. As a matter of fact, they are both a disaster, too costly and worst of all undemocratic.

It seems that Mr. Rutte and some of his colleages in the Dutch Government don't seem to be aware that education and healthcare, are not, and can never be seen as marketable commodities.

They are a basic democratic right for everyone, poor or rich, and must be free and widely available to all citizens.

The present privatized health and educational programs, applied by the Dutch Government and a few other Governments in the EU, and around the world, are not only undemocratic, they are also proving to be a financial barrier in providing proper education and healthcare to every level of the population, and when all is said and done, actually do not benefit the overall economy.

It is regrettable that some countries, including the Netherlands, have turned these basic human rights, related to education and healthcare, into marketable commodities.

Almere-Digest

Netherlands - Social Security Fraud: UN rapporteur criticises Dutch system to identify social security fraud

UN human rights and
poverty rapporteur Philip Alston has criticised the way the Netherlands
is using an automated system to identify social security fraud,
broadcaster NOS said on Tuesday.

Alston has said in a letter to a court in The Hague that the system goes
against human rights because it appears to discriminate against people
with little money and people with a minority background.

Campaigners are taking the Dutch state to court to force officials to
stop experimenting with the scheme, known as SyrRi after a trial in
Rotterdam was abandoned this summer.

Read more at DutchNews.nl:

UN human rights and poverty rapporteur Philip Alston has criticised the way the Netherlands is using an automated system to identify social security fraud, broadcaster NOS said on Tuesday. 

Alston has said in a letter to a court in The Hague that the system goes against human rights because it appears to discriminate against people with little money and people with a minority background.

Campaigners are taking the Dutch state to court to force officials to stop experimenting with the scheme, known as SyrRi after a trial in Rotterdam was abandoned this summer.

Read more at: UN rapporteur criticises Dutch system to identify social security fraud - DutchNews.nl

Saudi Arabia: Shame on any country which supports, trades and sells weapons to this barbarian state which does not respect human rights and murders journalists

Saudi prosecutors say women's rights activists to face trial

Read more at:
https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/saudi-rights-activists-trial-1.50403

USA: Trump becomes an accomplish in Khashoggi murder by saying "no new Saudi punishment for Khashoggi murder to guarantee weapons sales"

President Donald Trump said Tuesday the U.S. will not punish Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman at this time nor cut arms sales to Saudi Arabia for the killing of U.S.-based columnist Jamal Khashoggi.

Trump called the killing of Khashoggi inside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul a "horrible crime" that the U.S. does not condone, but said Saudi Arabia is a "great ally" and canceling billions in arms sales would only benefit China and Russia, which would be glad to step in and make the sales.

Trump's decision, announced in a statement released just before he left for the long Thanksgiving weekend in Florida, will disappoint and anger critics who have called for a much firmer rebuke to the kingdom and especially bin Salman.

Note EU-Digest: This is unacceptable by any human rights respecting Government, specially that of the United states. Shame on you Donald Trump. 

Read more: Trump says no new Saudi punishment for Khashoggi murder

Middle East: Saudi Arabia and U.S. on collision course as Mohammed bin Salman's standing ebbs

Trump has pledged that he won’t whitewash the murder and that the United States will do what’s necessary regarding whoever was involved, though he hasn’t mentioned Prince Mohammed’s name. The time to cash the check has come earlier than Trump expected. 

Saudi Arabia tried last week to lighten the load for the president by announcing the arrests of 21 suspects and the indictment of 15, while the attorney general said he would demand the death penalty for five, though he didn’t provide any names. 

Earlier King Salman fired Ahmed al-Asiri, the deputy intelligence chief, and Saud al-Qahtani, Mohammed’s senior adviser. In so doing the king set a ceiling on how high the punishment could go. But now it seems there will be no choice but to examine his own son’s future. 

According to The Washington Post, Prince Mohammed’s brother Khalid, the Saudi ambassador to Washington, was the one who phoned Khashoggi and encouraged him to go to the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul. The prince’s adviser and aide, intelligence man Maher Abdulaziz Mutrib, allegedly led the ring and after the murder phoned Qahtani and asked him to tell the boss that it was mission accomplished. 

Mutrib didn’t explicitly say the boss’ name but Qahtani has only one boss and that’s Prince Mohammed. The Saudi ambassador has strongly denied having any telephone conversation with Khashoggi, and a Post reporter has written that their last meeting came in 2017; afterward they corresponded several times. The top Saudi prosecutor said Thursday that Khashoggi was murdered by a “lethal injection” and that his body was dismembered, with his organs handed to someone outside the consulate for disposal.

Read moire: Saudi Arabia and U.S. on collision course as Mohammed bin Salman's standing ebbs - Middle East News - Haaretz.com

Russia: Vladimir Putin's Top Critic Arrested as Russians Protest Election - by Damien Sharkov

Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin

Russian President Vladimir Putin’s most prominent critic has been arrested on the day of nationwide protests against the leader’s bid to stay in office for at least another six years.

Anti-corruption blogger Alexey Navalny mobilized two waves of protests in dozens of cities last year, incensed at the reported wealth of government officials under Putin’s protection.

As Putin announced last month he is seeking re-election in March’s presidential vote, Navalny has repeatedly called for a boycott at the ballot boxes in a bid to cast doubt on the legitimacy of Putin’s campaign by lowering turnout.

While Navalny is regularly arrested at his rallies, police went a step further in the early afternoon on Sunday, forcing their way into Navalny’s office and detaining six members of his team in a raid, according to independent monitoring group OVD-Info.

Protests gripped not only Moscow but Russia’s second most important city, St. Petersburg, as well as cities in the country’s east.

“They are the future of Russia,” Navalny tweeted with a photo of two young protesters. “Putin and his band of thieves are her past.”

Read more: Newsweek  Vladimir Putin's Top Critic Arrested as Russians Protest Election

Germany Turkish Relations: Germany says EU aid to Turkey could be halted over arrests

Germany raised the possibility on Wednesday (19 July) of suspending European Union aid payments to Turkey after summoning Ankara’s ambassador to Berlin to protest over the arrest of six human rights activists including a German citizen.

The moves mark a further escalation of tensions between NATO allies Germany and Turkey, who are at loggerheads over a wide range of issues.

This month, Turkey arrested rights activists including Amnesty International’s Turkey head Idil Eser and German citizen Peter Steudtner on terrorism charges, which Berlin has labelled “absurd”.

Read more: Germany says EU aid to Turkey could be halted over arrests – EURACTIV.com