By Lyndsey Kelly
Impunity Watch Reporter, North America

 

WASHINGTON D.C., United States of America – U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth sentenced former Blackwater security guard Nicholas Slatten to life in prison and three others, Paul Slough, Evan Liberty, and Dustin Heard to 30-year terms for their roles in a 2007 shooting hat killed 14 Iraqi civilians in Baghdad’s Nisoor Square, after being convicted in October.

Judge Lamberth announced the sentences after a daylong hearing at which defense lawyers have argues for leniency and presented character witnesses for their clients. The defense argued, saying decades-long sentences would be unconstitutionally harsh for men who operated in a war-torn environment. Prosecutors described the shooting as an unprovoked ambush of civilians and said that the men have not shown any remorse or taken responsibility for their part in the incident. Lamberth stated, “based on the seriousness of the crimes, I find the penalty is not excessive.”

Families of the victims spoke in favor of harsh sentences, including Mohammad Kinani Al-Razzaaq, whose 9-year-old son was killed in the incident. Al-Razzaq demanded that the court show Blackwater “what the law is.”

However, it is unlkely that the sentencing hearing will be the last for these men. Even before the trial began, defense lawyers identified issues, which would form the basis of an appeal, including whether there was proper jurisdiction to charge the defendants in the first place.

The men were charfed under the Military Extraterritorial Jurisdiction Act, which covers overseas crimes of Defense Department civilian employees, military contractors and others who are supportingthe American war mission. The defense argues that the Blackwater defendants worked as State Department contractors and were not military.

 

For more information, please see the following:

AL JAZEERA – Blackwater Guards Sentences in 2007 Shooting – 13 April 2015.

MSNBC – Ex-Blackwater Guards Hit With Lengthy Prison Sentences – 13 April 2015.

US NEWS – Blackwater Guards Who Slaughtered 14 Iraqis Get 30 Years, Life – 13 April 2015.

By Lyndsey Kelly
Impunity Watch Reporter, North America

WASHINGTON D.C., United States of America – A lawsuit filed in Baltimore City Circuit Court seeks $1 billion in damages from defendant Johns Hopkins University for its alleged role in the deliberate infection of hundreds of Guatemalans with syphilis, gonorrhea and other sexually transmitted diseases (STDs), during a government medical experiment program in the 1940s and 1950s.

The lawsuit, which also names the philanthropic Rockefeller Foundation, alleges that both institutions helped design, support, and finance the experiments by employing scientists and physicians. According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, researchers initially infected Guatemalan sex workers in order to research the spread of STDs and then ascertain if penicillin could prevent the diseases. Later the experiment extended to orphans, prisoners and mental health patients.

The experiments were kept secret until they were discovered in 2010 by a college professor, Susan Reverby. The then secretary of state, Hillary Clinton apologized for the program after a presidential bioethics commissions found the experiments “involved unconscionable basic violations of ethics.” Ultimately, the program published no findings and did not inform the Guatemalans of the consequences of the infection, and they were also not provided with the necessary follow up medical care to inform them of ways to prevent the infections from spreading.

A federal lawsuit for damages under the Federal Tort Claims Act failed in 2012 after a judge determined that the United States Government could not be held liable for actions outside the United States. Lawyers for the victims believe that the new lawsuit stands a a greater chance for success as it is against private entities.

 

For more information, please see the following:

AL JAZEERA – Johns Hopkins Sued Over STD Study in Guatemala – 1 April 2015.

FOX NEWS – Johns Hopkins Sued For $1B Over Guatemala Venereal Disease Study – 3 April 2015.

THE GUARDIAN – Guatemalans Deliberately Infected With STDs Sue Johns Hopkins University for $1bn – 2 April 2015.

WASHINGTON POST – Johns Hopkins Faces $1 Billion Lawsuit For Role In STD Study in Guatemala – 1 April 2015.

By Lyndsey Kelly
Impunity Watch Reporter, North America

GUATEMALA CITY- Guatemala – A planned mega-dam in Guatemala has been linked to grave human rights abuses, including the killing of six indigenous people, two of them children. The dam’s carbon credits will be tradable under the European Union’s trading system. Several European banks and the World Bank’s International Finance Corporation have provided funds for the $250 million Santa Rita dam.

 

The Mayan community stated that they were never consulted about the hydro project, as it is reported to forcibly displace thousands of people in order to generate 25MW of energy, which will me mostly exported to neighboring countries. The issue has caused the indigenous protest in Guatemala. The People’s Council of Tezulutlan wrote a letter to the UNFCCC’sCDM executive board, which outlined human rights abuses that have occurred in the region attributable to the planned dam. The abuses included kidnappings, evictions, house burnings, physical attacks, and the arrest of community leaders.

The situation started to deteriorate last August, when 1,500 people were sent into Q’eqchi’ communities of Coban, Chisec, and Raxruha, to evince residents for dam construction. Citizens said that the police fired tear-gas at villagers who has set up a blockade, and proceeded to occupy the area. It is alleged that the officers pillaged the community, stealing animals, food, property and money, forcing families to take refuge in the mountains.

The annual report of the UN’s High Commissioner for Human Rights implicitly blamed the approval of the dam for the outbreak in violence. A member of the European Parliament’s development committee said, “These allegations are well-documents and it is outrageous that the UN’s CDM can register such projects that are clearly violating the human rights of indigenous peoples.”

A spokesman for the IFC told the Guardian that the project has only been given the green light for funding on the understanding that it would increase access to local, affordable electricity. “The project is on hold, as the fund manager discuses further with the local communities,” the spokesman said.

 

Fore more information, please see the following:

ECO NEWS TODAY – ‘Green’ dam linked to killings of six indigenous people in Guatemala – 26 March 2015.

THE GUARDIAN – ‘ Green’ dam linked to killings of six indigenous people in Guatemala – 26 March 2015.

 

By Lyndsey Kelly
Impunity Watch Reporter, North America

WASHINGTON D.C., United States of America – Unless Congress extends a law authorizing bulk collection of data on calls by U.S. telephone subscribers, U.S. intelligence agencies will be forced to stop the practice in June. A spokesman for President Barack Obama’s National Security Council said that abandoning the practice of mass collection of domestic telephone data would deprive the country of a “critical national security tool.” The law, set to expire on June 1, allows the NSA to collect data on numbers called and time and length of the calls, but not their content.

The revelation by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden that the National Security Agency was collecting this data was one of the most controversial revelations in recent history. The public is split on views regarding bulk collection, some see it as violating individual freedoms, while others consider it a vital tool for preventing terrorist attacks. Some legal experts have suggested that even if Congress does not extend the law, the President’s administration may be able to convince the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court to authorize collection under other authorities.

However, National Security Council spokesman, Ned Price, has told the media that the administration intends to enact the legislation that would allow the collection to continue. A Senate Intelligence Committee spokeswoman said a panel is developing legislation. However, it seems as though any NSA reform bill is unlikely and efforts by Congress to extend the law so far have proved fruitless.

 

For more information, please see the following: 

CNBC – US To Stop Collecting Bulk Phone Data If Law Expires – 23 March 2015.

THE GUARDIAN – US To Stop Collecting Bulk Phone Data If Congress Lets Law Expire -23 March 2015.

REUTERS – U.S. To Stop Collecting Bulk Phone Data If Spying Law Expires – 23 March 2015.

By Kathryn Maureen Ryan
Impunity Watch, Managing Editor

WASHINGTON D.C., United States of America – Excide Technologies immediately began shutting down its battery recycling plant in Vernon California after reaching an agreement allowing the company to avoid facing criminal prosecution for decades of pollution in a lower income community just five miles southeast of the city of Los Angeles. Under the deal struck by federal officials and the company, Exide acknowledges criminal conduct, including the illegal storage and transportation of hazardous waste products. Company officials will avoid criminal charges in exchange for shutting down, demolishing and cleaning the 15-acre battery recycling plant.

Over decades of operation, the Excide recycling facility has polluted soil beneath the plant with high levels of lead, arsenic, cadmium and other deadly toxic metals, according to state environmental records. Pollutants from the plant have also contaminated groundwater and released battery acid onto roads. The plant also contaminated homes and yards in surrounding low-income Hispanic communities with lead emissions. Following the announcement of the closure Msgr. John Moretta, of Resurrection Catholic Church in Boyle Heights, whose parishioners had raised health concerns about the plant and have argued for its closure for several years, said “our long nightmare is over. He continued; “we now look forward to a thorough and just cleanup of our homes and neighborhoods.”

Roberto Cabrales, a community organizer with the organizations, Communities for a Better Environment, said news of the plant closure was “a shocker.” His organization and others fought for years to see the plant closed and had expected that state officials would allow Exide, which has been operating on a temporary license, to remain open. “We’re concerned that they will not be pursued for criminal prosecution,” Cabrales said. “But if that means that Exide will stay closed, then that’s in itself a victory for the community.”

State Senator Ricardo Lara (D-Huntington Park), who wrote legislation requiring the state agency to issue Exide a permit or shut it down by the end of 2015, said the plant’s closure will bring relief to the residents of the community neighboring the plant. “But the legacy of impacts of this facility will not go away overnight,” he said in a statement. “To truly understand the magnitude of this issue, we need a comprehensive review of soil contamination and better data on the health impacts to people who continue to be exposed to unhealthy levels of lead and arsenic.”

Federal officials have insisted the agreement would require Exide International to pay the cost of the entire cleanup, even if the costs exceed $50 million. “They’re on the hook with this agreement to pay whatever it takes to clean that site up,” said Joseph Johns, assistant U.S. attorney and chief of the environmental crimes section. Johns said he would have liked to secure a conviction and penalties against the company but argued that prosecuting the corporation would have resulted in the liquidation of the company which would have left taxpayers with the bill for the cost of the cleanup. “We decided that the balance of justice required us to think out of the box,” Johns said. “We struggled with this, and we decided that the right thing to do was not worry about sending one or two people to jail for a year or two, but rather, to prevent another 50-to-100-year sentence for the 110,000 people, the children and grandchildren that live in the communities.”

For more information please see:

The Lost Angeles Times – Exide faces a long, costly cleanup of closed Vernon plant – 21 March 2015

The Natural Resources Defense Council – Exide’s L.A. Lead Battery Facility to Close — Next Up, Clean Up – 16 March 2015

The Los Angeles Times – Q&A: Exide closure a long-sought win for working-class neighborhood – 12 March 2015

Reuters – UPDATE 2-Exide to close California battery recycling plant to avoid prosecution – 12 March 2015