By Lyndsey Kelly
Impunity Watch Reporter, North America

HAVANA, Cuba – Recent news reports suggest that Russia has reached a provisional agreement with Cuba to reopen its electronic spying center which was once located on the Caribbean island and used to spy on the United States. Sources state that the agreement was made between Russia and Cuba on Friday, July 11^th when Russian President Vladimir Putin made a trip to Havana, Cuba.

The Russian base was created in Lourdes, Cuba, just south of Havana, in 1964 after the Cuban missile crisis.  At the height of the Cold War the Russian intelligence base had nearly 3,000 personnel and was the biggest center used by Russia to gather intelligence from radio signals.

The base, located just 150 miles from the United States coast closed thirteen years ago. The precise reason behind the closing of the base is unclear. The Russians claim it was a “goodwill gesture” toward the United States, while many United States officials  believed it was a result of an economic crisis at the time.

Russian defense experts say that reopening the base would be a logical move for Russia as it would significantly increase the country’s ability to gather intelligence. Vyacheslav Trubnikov, the former head of Russia’s foreign intelligence service, told a Russian newspaper, “Lourdes gave the Soviet Union eyes in the whole of the western hemisphere… For Russia, which is fighting for its lawful rights and place in the international community, it would be no less valuable for the USSR.”

Reports did not give any financial details as to the agreement between Russia and Cuba. However, it has been noted that before President Vladimir Putin’s trip to Havana, Russia agreed to forgive 90 percent of Cuba’s $32 billion Soviet-era debt.

Putin has denied all reports that Russia plans to reopen the Lourdes base, and said that Russia has no plans to resume the electronic spying center. Additionally, Cuba has remained silent as to the reports. If the reports prove to be true the efforts made by Cuban President Raul Castro to build a more pragmatic relationship with the United States may quite possibly be damaged.

Despite the alleged efforts made by Russia to reopen the intelligence base, analysts say that Russia’s ability to gather information on the United States Government would be severely limited due to the improvements in technology since the Cold War.

 

For more information, please see the following:

HAVANA TIMES – Russia to Reopen Spy Center in Cuba – 16 July 2014.

REUTERS – Putin Denies Russia to Reopen Soviet-Era Post In Cuba – 17 July 2014.

REUTERS – Russia set to reopen Soviet-Era Spy Post on Cuba: Source – 16 July 2014.

WASHINGTON TIMES – Putin Gives Obama ‘Middle Finger,’ Strikes Deal to Reactivate Spy Base In Cuba – 16 July 2014.

By Lyndsey Kelly
Impunity Watch Reporter, North America

WASHINGTON, D.C., United States of America – Recent troubles with the lethal injection process has sparked controversy over the constitutionality of the death penalty process in the United States. “Botched” lethal injections in Oklahoma and Arizona have raised questions as to whether the medical personnel tasked with carrying out the procedures are skilled enough to humanely put an inmate to death.

Currently 32 states use the death penalty to sentence those convicted of the most heinous crimes. Nearly all of those states also require a physician to attend the executions. However, due to the nature of the procedure the American Medical association prohibits licensed physicians from assisting.

More specifically, guidelines set out by the American Medical Association state that a physician can confirm the death of an executed inmate, but cannot declare death, administer drugs, monitor vital signs, select injection sites, start an IV, supervise drug injections or consult with a person carrying out the injection. Doctors whom are discovered to have participated in the lethal injection process risk losing their licensure to practice medicine. Due to these restrictions, lesser-trained medical personnel often carry out executions.

The U.S. lethal injection process underwent fundamental changes in 2011, when the drug company, Hospira, stopped making short-acting barbiturate and general anesthetic sodium thiopental, due to concerns about its use in lethal injections. Thus, recent problems with executions could be a result of medical personnel in the death chamber not being familiar with mixing or administering the new lethal cocktail.

Recently, in Arizona, the execution of convicted double murderer Joseph Wood took at least two doses of a lethal drug cocktail to execute the inmate. Witnesses say that Wood gasped and struggles for breath for more than 90 minutes before dying.  Wood’s execution was one of the longest in U.S. history. The length of time it took for the execution is not the issue. The real issue is whether the procedure constituted cruel and unusual punishment, which would be prohibited by the U.S. constitution.

Arizona has since halted executions pending a review of its death penalty procedures. Despite the stay in executions, Arizona Department of Corrections Director Charles Ryan defended the execution, stating that the execution team, including a licensed medical doctor verified multiple times during the procedure that Wood was, “comatose and never in pain.”

 

For more information, please see the following:

BBC – Arizona Halts Executions After Joseph Wood Case – 26 July 2014.

L.A. TIMES – How Did Arizona Execution Go Wrong – 26 July 2014.

REUTERS –  Troubled U.S. Executions Raise Questions About Doctors In Death Chambers – 26 July 2014.

SEATTLE TIMES – How Did The Arizona Execution Go Wrong – 26 July 2014.

By Kathryn Maureen Ryan
Impunity Watch, Managing Editor

WASHINGTON D.C., United States of America – Florida’s Department of Environmental Protection announced last week that it will be taking legal action against the Dan. A. Hughes Company, a Texas based oil company, for violating state drilling regulations at one of its wells located near the Everglades, accusing the company of disregarding the safety of Florida residents and natural resources. Among the issues of concern regarding the illegal drilling operation cited by DEP were concerns over company’s groundwater monitoring and handling of drilling wastewater. The company was extracting natural gas though the controversial practice of injecting high levels of hydrochloric acid into wells known as “acid fracking,” a practice similar to Hydraulic fracturing.

The company is accused of unauthorized drilling in the Big Cypress Swamp whose fresh water resources are essential to the health of the Florida Everglades Watershed and support marine estuaries along Florida’s southwest coast.  The Big Cypress watershed is home to a protected National Preserve, serves as a critical fresh water reservoir and supports hundreds of species including the critically endangered Florida panther. The Florida panther is one of the most endangered mammal species in the United States; it is estimated that only 160 individuals remain in the wild.

DEP Secretary Herschel T. Vinyard Jr. announced the lawsuit last week saying the state agency will “file a lawsuit against the Dan A. Hughes Company to address violations at the Collier-Hogan well. After months of holding Dan A. Hughes accountable for unauthorized activities at the Collier-Hogan well site, it is clear that the Company has not taken seriously the Department’s demands to protect Collier County families or Florida’s natural resources.”

This lawsuit will seek force the Hughes Company to shut down its operations at the Collier-Hogan site, until pending completion of appropriate environmental testing and analyses can be completed by the DEP. The company announced last week that it had shot down drilling operations at the disputed site which is located near Florida Panther habitat. According to DEP press secretary Tiffany Cowie says the company’s announcement of a temporary shutdown at the site does not change the agency’s plan to sue.

Residents and environmentalists called on the state to take action against the Hughes Company when it was discovered that the company was practicing acid fracking in the area last year Environmentalists cite concerns that the practice, which requires high volumes of fresh water, may deplete the watershed’s supply of fresh water, putting the ecosystem and residents at risk. The practice also raises concerns over the handling of toxins, including hydrochloric acid, produced for and during the drilling process. Activists and environmentalists argue that until more research is done to understand the long-term effects of such practices on the fragile ecosystems in the region drilling operations should be halted.

Environmentalists also cite convenes that fracking could increase seismic activity in the area. Seismologists say the practice of Hydraulic fracturing may be causing an increase in seismic actively in areas where drilling is allowed. Earlier this month 8 small earthquakes were recorded by the United States Geological Survey in Oklahoma over a span of about 30 hours. Jennifer Hecker, director of natural resources for the Conservancy of Southwest Florida, warned that seismic testing deployed in other regions where fracking is allowed will not be as effective in Florida because of the porous nature of Southwest Florida’s limestone bedrock. Florida’s limestone may also pose a problem for potential drilling operations because of fragility of limestone formations which are prone to erosion and are a contributing factor to the creation of sinkholes in the region

United States Senator Bill Nelson flew in to Southwest Florida Earlier this month to listen to the concerns of his constituents, environmental groups and government officials about oil drilling in Southwest Florida. “We’ve spend billions of dollars to restore the Everglades — that’s taxpayer dollars,” he said. “I want to make sure what goes on does not mess that up.” Nelson said he will bring the concerns of Florida residents back to Washington but argued that he bevies more research must be done to understand the effects of acid and hydrologic fracturing on the environment before federal action can be taken.

For more information please see:

News 13 – DEP Suing Oil Company for Using Fracking-Like Technique near Everglades – 17 July 2014

First Coast News – Oil Company Busted For Fracking In The Everglades – 16 July 2014

CBS News – 8 Small Earthquakes Shake Oklahoma As Fracking Critics Grumble – 14 July 2014

Naples Daily News – Sen. Nelson: Prevent Oil Drilling In Southwest Florida from ‘Messing Up’ Everglades – 14 July 2014

National Parks Service – Big Cypress National Preserve – 2014

By Lyndsey Kelly
Impunity Watch Reporter, North America

 WASHINGTON, D.C., United States of America – A Navy medical officer at the U.S. military prison at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba has refused an order from the Pentagon to continue force-feeding hunger-striking prisoners. This is the first known instance of a U.S. service member defying the Pentagon’s force-feeding policy.

The Pentagon calls its Guantánamo Bay tube feeding policy humane and designed to prevent prisoners from starving to death. The military refers to the controversial process as “eternal feeding.” The force-feeding practice is designed to provide prisoners with liquid nutrition and medicine via a tube inserted in the nose and directly into the stomach. Defense attorneys say that their clients consider the practices torture.

An unknown number of the 149 total detainees at Guantánamo Bay’s Camp Delta have been on a hunger strike for the past year and a half. The purpose of the strike is to protest their indefinite detention.

News of the Navy medical officer’s refusal comes to the public by way of an attorney for one of the prisoners. Abu Wa’el Dhiab, whom is part of a group of detainees participating in the hunger strike, has been imprisoned at Guantánamo Bay since August 2002. Dhiab has been cleared for release since 2009, but U.S officials said that they were reluctant to send him back to Syria because of the ongoing civil war in the country.

A Pentagon official confirmed the statements made by the defense attorney, stating, “There was a recent instance of a medical provider not willing to carry-out the eternal feeding of a detainee. The matter is in the hands of the individual’s leadership. The service member has been temporarily assigned to alternate duties with no impact to medical support operations.”

The identity of the Navy medical officer is currently unknown, but the defense attorney for Dhiab has said that his client described the nurse as a “40-year-old Latino who turned up on the cellblocks in April or May, with the rank of a ‘captain’.”

The medical officer’s refusal came one year after civilian doctors writing for the New England Journal of Medicine declared that medical professionals taking part in force-feeding was unethical. The civilian doctors urged the Guantánamo medical staff to refuse to participate in the pentagon’s designed practices.

Medical staff is allowed to refuse to participate in the eternal feeding of prisoners by invoking medical ethics. Retired Army Brig. Gen. Stephen Zenakis, a psychiatrist who visits the Guantánamo Bay facilities frequently, says that based on his talks with Pentagon policymakers, the medical officer should suffer no consequence for having refused.

 

For more information, please see the following:

CNN – U.S. Navy Nurse Won’t Force-Feed Guantanamo Detainees – 19 July 2014.

FOX NEWS –  Navy Nurse Reportedly Refuses to Force-Feed Guantanamo Prisoners– 19 July 2014.

MIAMI HERALD – Navy Nurse Refuses to Force-Feed Guantánamo Captive – 19 July 2014.

TIME – Navy Nurse Refuses Gitmo Force Feed Order – 19 July 2014.