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"Historical hypocrites have themselves carried out the very human rights abuses that they suddenly decide warrant intervention elsewhere."

-- Samantha Power

News and Opinion

Alleged mastermind tells Obama 9/11 was America’s fault

The alleged mastermind of the Sept. 11 terror attacks wrote former President Barack Obama in a long suppressed letter that America brought the 9/11 attacks on itself for years of foreign policy that killed innocent people across the world.

“It was not we who started the war against you in 9/11. It was you and your dictators in our land,” Khalid Sheik Mohammed, 51, writes in the 18-page letter to Obama, who he addressed as “the head of the snake” and president of “the country of oppression and tyranny.” It is dated January 2015 but didn’t reach the White House until a military judge ordered Guantánamo prison to deliver it days before Obama left office. ...

The Kuwait-born Pakistani citizen of Baluch ethnic background, lists a long litany of U.S. overseas interventions — from Iraq and Iran to Vietnam and Hiroshima — to justify the worst terror attack on U.S. soil. But he is particularly focused on the cause of the Palestinians, highlights civilian suffering and accuses Obama of being beholden to special interests, notably Israel and “the occupier Jews.” ...

Mohammed began drafting the letter during 2014 when Israel had an offensive in the Gaza Strip that claimed civilian lives, according to his military attorney, Marine Maj. Derek Poteet.

“He’s upset at U.S. foreign policy and he plainly perceives that the United States has signed a blank check to Israel,” Poteet said. In the opening paragraph Mohammed tells Obama: “Your hands are still wet with the blood of our brothers and sisters and children who were killed in Gaza.”

Noted 'neocon' finds surprising support from Democrats in Trump's America

If any other Republican president were running the country, Elliott Abrams' hawkish pro-democracy views would be a liability with Democrats. With Donald Trump in charge, they're a badge of honor. ...

Ever since Abrams' name began to be floated as a contender for a top spot, familiar complaints have emerged on both the left and right: his unwavering support for repressive right-wing governments in Central America when he was assistant secretary of state under President Ronald Reagan; his conviction — and subsequent pardon by President George H.W. Bush — for withholding evidence from Congress in the Iran-Contra affair; and his enthusiastic embrace of the war in Iraq as senior director of Middle East affairs in President George W. Bush's National Security Council. But Democrats who would play a key role in confirming him in the Senate Foreign Relations Committee are paying especially close attention to Abrams' more recent comments critical of Trump and of undemocratic US allies in the Middle East. ...

Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., the top Democrat on the committee's Middle East panel, said senators of both parties have an "existential worry" about some of Trump's advisers, including Bannon, National Security adviser Michael Flynn and senior White House adviser Stephen Miller. He said Abrams appears to have "sound judgment" as opposed to "conspiracy theorists prone to make quick and rash decisions." ...

Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., pplauded Abrams for speaking up during the presidential race, during which Abrams notably criticized Trump's propensity to "insult" US allies in the Middle East, Europe and Asia.

Trump Confronts New McCarthyism

For all his blustery and egotistical faults, Donald Trump has punched huge holes in the dominant neocon ideology that underlay the Washington Consensus on foreign policy during the presidencies of both George W. Bush and Barack Obama. Trump’s tweets and campaign messages asked, aloud and repeatedly, what could be wrong with the United States getting along with Russia and cooperating on common interests, starting with a joint campaign against ISIS.

Yet, Trump’s rejection of Washington’s foreign-policy orthodoxy went beyond relations with Russia; Trump was questioning the consensus on how America has conducted its role as global leader and he was challenging the arrogance of intervening in other nations’ affairs, whether by finger-waving lectures or various regime-change schemes.

As noisy and messy as Trump’s political approach has been – with a number of unnecessary diversions and self-inflicted wounds – there is a significant and “revolutionary” side of Trump’s approach. It represents a potential reordering of the two major political parties, a revamped struggle for power within the Right-Left dimension.

He restated this “revolutionary” aspect of his foreign policy in his Inaugural Address when he renounced the idea of endless interference in other countries’ politics and a return to the traditional role of America as an example, not an interventionist. This was an in-your-face condemnation of most of those sitting beside and behind him on the rostrum who favored a “values-based” foreign policy, globalization and American exceptionalism.

From the Oval Office, Trump has continued his frontal assault on this foreign-policy orthodoxy with his closely watched and disputed tweets. ... In a Jan. 30 tweet, Trump urged Republican neocon Senators John McCain and Lindsey Graham to “focus their energies on ISIS, illegal immigration and border security instead of always looking to start World War III” This was, in its own way, as significant as the pithy and devastating rebuke issued by attorney Joseph N. Welch to Sen. Joe McCarthy on June 9, 1954, after McCarthy attacked the patriotism of a young Army lawyer: “Have you no sense of decency, sir? At long last, have you left no sense of decency?” Welch asked. ...

To stymie any new détente with Russia, McCain also introduced a bill in the Senate calling for new and expanded sanctions against Russia. So, the White House tweet was a direct challenge to McCain for his actions that Trump warned were inviting World War III. In doing so, Trump is at least prying open space for a fuller debate about U.S. foreign policy and the wisdom of neocon interventionism.

An interesting article worth reading in full:

You Can’t Fight Trump Without Understanding The Anti-Globalization Movement

Trump, like Sanders, and like all progressives who are worth a damn, is an anti-globalist. He opposes the way multinational corporations and banks have used legislation, war, and predatory trade deals to subvert the needs of the nation to powerful elites who are not limited by or loyal to it. You cannot understand the Trump movement without understanding globalism and the anti-globalization movement, and most Democrats don’t. Anti-globalization was the crux of Trump’s entire campaign, and most liberals are still squealing about racism and sexism as the thing that got him elected. This is wrong, and the rank-and-file left will be unable to mount any meaningful grassroots counteroffensive until this changes.

I doubt any of the hyperventilating Democrats who are breathlessly gasping that Trump is the next Adolf Hitler have taken a moment to reflect on the fact that Hitler was not exactly the posterboy for non-interventionism. Trump has been advocating non-interventionism so extensively that some critics have been accusing him of isolationism, which, if you haven’t figured it out yet, is kind of the exact opposite of trying to conquer the world and make everyone look like Ryan Gosling. Non-interventionism happens to be an essential part of both the progressive and anti-globalist movements; if you support America’s policy of military interventionism and world-policing, you are not progressive, you are a war hawk like Clinton and Bush. ...

So when you hear about Trump killing predatory trade deals and threatening penalties on corporations who move jobs overseas (as Bernie also wanted to do), that is a movement in the exact opposite direction of the neoliberal/corporatist/globalist agenda, because it’s placing nation above corporation. It infuriates the neoliberals, including the so-called neocons who are just neoliberals that pander to the right (which is the singular reason that neocons like McCain and Graham oppose Trump so aggressively). So when you see the neoliberal establishment Dems forming an alliance with the neocons to oppose Trump, you’re seeing a battle between globalists vs. anti-globalists. Globalism is shaping the primary battle line.

This is why it’s essential for the political left to get a solid understanding of what globalism is before Trump can be opposed effectively. For one thing, you can’t fight an enemy you don’t understand, and all the “Trumpsters are Nazis” schtick is doing nothing but swinging at shadows and digging the opposition in tighter. For another, the globalists on both the left and the right are doing everything they can to exploit the good intentions of progressives and manipulate their energy and enthusiasm to undermine Trump’s anti-globalist agenda and advance their globalist one. We need accuracy and efficiency, and we need to prevent hijacking. If we can’t do both of these things, we’ll either be ineffectual or we’ll be highly effectual for the benefit of the globalists.

Court: Trump’s ‘Muslim ban’ promise is ‘evidence’ against executive order

President Trump’s own loose campaign rhetoric may be coming back to bite him, after a federal court said his brash call for a Muslim ban is “potential evidence” that could be used against him in the legal battle over his new extreme vetting executive order.

The Justice Department tried to argue against that, telling the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Tuesday that campaign quotes shouldn’t be used to try to interpret the intentions of Mr. Trump’s executive order.

But Judge Richard R. Clifton wasn’t satisfied with that dodge, saying that if Mr. Trump and his advisers did in fact say they were trying to impose a Muslim ban, that could inform the way the court looks at the order Mr. Trump signed on Jan. 27.

“I understand the argument they shouldn’t be given much weight, but when you say we shouldn’t be looking at newspaper articles — we’re all on the fast track here,” Judge Clifton said. “Either those kinds of statements were made, or they’re not. Now if they were made not to be a serious policy principle, I can understand that. But if they were made, it is potential evidence, it is the basis for an argument.”

Which Foreign Group Will the Trump Administration Designate as a Terrorist Organization Next?

CIA chief Mike Pompeo visits Turkey to discuss policy on Syria and Isis

Less than 48 hours after a phone call between Donald Trump and Turkish leader Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, the head of the CIA is due in Ankara on Thursday to map out ways of dealing with two of the region’s most contentious issues: tackling the Islamic State (Isis) and dousing the Syrian war.

The visit by the CIA director, Mike Pompeo, is being cast in Turkey as a reset of bilateral relations that grew fraught during the last three years of the Obama administration, particularly over Washington’s choice of a proxy to fight Isis: Kurdish groups linked to the PKK militants who have fought a four-decade insurgency against Turkey.

Pompeo’s hastily scheduled trip foreshadows greater US support for Turkish efforts to defeat the terror group, using Arab proxies.

Officials said the talks aim to coordinate efforts on the ground, where Turkish-backed Arabs are edging towards the town of al-Bab, while US-backed Kurds have neared the Isis stronghold of Raqqa, further to the east. ...

The talks could also consider a US contribution to a safe zone for refugees, Turkish officials claim. Establishing a haven for people fleeing the fighting had been one of Ankara’s core demands since 2013, and a de facto zone has taken shape since August, when Turkish forces entered Syria – first to stop Kurdish forces from taking a presence along the entire border, and also to combat Isis.

US - CIA chief Mike Pompeo to visit Ankara as Washington aims to improve ties

Yemen's food crisis: 'We die either from the bombing or the hunger'

Broom-maker Taie al-Nahari is kneeling on the sand, shirtless, outside his thatched hut in al-Qaza village in Yemen’s al-Hudaydah governorate. His bones show through his skin.

Before the conflict began in 2015, the 53-year-old was a fisherman. Now he makes two brooms a day, which earns him a daily income of $1. “The boats that we were working on were bombed [by Saudi jets]. Now my family and I don’t have enough to eat,” he says.

The conflict is the primary driver of a hunger crisis that the UN has warned could turn to famine this year if nothing is done.

On Wednesday, the UN launched a $2.1bn (£1.6bn) appeal to prevent famine in the Arab world’s poorest nation, where nearly 3.3 million people – including 2.1 million children – are acutely malnourished. The humanitarian appeal is the largest launched for Yemen and aims to provide life-saving assistance to 12 million people this year.

Jamie McGoldrick, the UN humanitarian coordinator in Yemen, said: “The situation in Yemen is catastrophic and rapidly deteriorating”. At least 10,000 people have lost their lives in the conflict.

Trump to approve weapons packages to Saudi Arabia, Bahrain blocked by Obama

The Trump administration is poised to move quickly to approve major weapons packages for Saudi Arabia and Bahrain that President Obama blocked during his final months in office over human rights concerns in both nations, U.S. officials and congressional sources say.

While the White House declined to discuss its plans, one U.S. official directly involved in the transfers told The Washington Times that a roughly $300 million precision-guided missile technology package for Riyadh and a multibillion-dollar F-16 deal for Bahrain are now in the pipeline ready for clearance from the new administration.

The deals, if approved, would send a significant signal about the priorities of the new administration, where the security challenge posed by forces such as Islamist jihadi groups and Iran is taking a much greater precedence in setting foreign policy.

Donald Trump keeps China on hold with letter but no phone call for Xi Jinping

Donald Trump has reportedly yelled down the telephone at Australia’s prime minister and veered off into rants about China and Nato with French leader François Hollande.

So the leader of the world’s second largest economy, Xi Jinping, may feel he got off lightly with nothing more than a letter.

Almost three weeks after Trump’s inauguration, that was how the US president decided to engage with his Chinese counterpart, in what observers described as a further indication of the dark clouds now gathering over US-China relations.

In a statement, White House press secretary Sean Spicer said Trump had used the missive to tell Xi he was looking forward to working with him “to develop a constructive relationship that benefits both the United States and China”.

Trump also wished the Chinese people a happy Year of the Rooster, although those tidings came almost a fortnight late.

Ecuador presidential hopeful promises to evict Julian Assange from embassy

Julian Assange will be given a month’s notice to leave the Ecuadorian embassy if the country’s main opposition candidate wins the presidency in next week’s election.

In an interview with the Guardian, Guillermo Lasso, of the rightwing Creo-Suma alliance, said it was time for the WikiLeaks founder to move on because his asylum was expensive and no longer justified.

“The Ecuadorian people have been paying a cost that we should not have to bear,” he said during an interview in Quito. “We will cordially ask Señor Assange to leave within 30 days of assuming a mandate.”

That possibility is still some way off. In the most recent poll, Lasso is seven points behind the ruling party candidate Lenín Moreno, but the former banker has been gaining ground ahead of the first round of voting on 19 February and is widely tipped to force a runoff.

Leaked Trump Presidential Memo Would Free U.S. Companies to Buy Conflict Minerals From Central African Warlords

The leaked draft of a presidential memorandum Donald Trump is expected to sign within days suspends a 2010 rule that discouraged American companies from funding conflict and human rights abuses in the Democratic Republic of Congo through their purchase of  “conflict minerals.”

The memo, distributed inside the administration on Friday afternoon and obtained by The Intercept, directs the Securities and Exchange Commission to temporarily waive the requirements of the Conflict Mineral Rule, a provision of the Dodd Frank Act, for two years — which the rule explicitly allows the president to do for national security purposes. The memorandum also directs the State Department and Treasury Department to find an alternative plan to “address such problems in the DRC and adjoining countries.”

The idea behind the rule, which had bipartisan support, was to drain militias of revenue by forcing firms to conduct reviews of their supply chain to determine if contractors used minerals sourced from the militias.

The impending decision comes as Trump held a meeting Wednesday with Brian Krzanich, the chief executive of Intel, one of the leading firms impacted by conflict mineral regulations. At the White House today, Krzanich appeared with the president to announce a new manufacturing plant in Arizona.

Jeff Sessions confirmed as attorney general despite controversies

A closely divided Senate confirmed the nomination of Jeff Sessions to be attorney general on Wednesday after a historically tumultuous confirmation process that saw the senator from Alabama come under fire for his views on race and civil rights.

All but one Democrat voted against confirming Sessions, while his Republican colleagues unanimously backed him. The final tally of senators was 52 to 47.

Many senators broke into applause after the vote over one of the chamber’s own members being elevated to the cabinet. But they were almost all Republicans. A handful of Democrats, including Joe Donnelly of Indiana and Bill Nelson of Florida, gave a few polite claps.

Sessions gave a conciliatory speech from the floor after his vote where he expressed his hope for reduced tensions and more civil debate after the hard-fought battle over his nomination. He amplified this on his way out, expressing his appreciation for “the friendship of my colleagues, even those who, many of them, didn’t feel able to vote for me. They were cordial, so we’ve continued to have good relations.”

The one Democrat to vote for Sessions, Joe Manchin of West Virginia, explained his decision to reporters after the vote. “You know, in West Virginia, we basically build on a relationship if we have a relationship, and Jeff Sessions and I have had a relationship for over six years. And everything he was accused of, I’ve never seen, so I am basing on what my knowledge of Jeff Sessions is and I think he’ll be fair and very deliberate in what he does [as attorney general].”

Meet the ACLU Attorney Interrogated by Border Agents About Her Work, Nationality & More

The Donald is making apophasis an artform.

Trump Once Again Attacks the Judiciary, Dismissing Courts as 'So Political'

'I don't ever want to call a court biased, so I won't call it biased," President Donald Trump said. "But courts seem to be so political."

President Donald Trump once again attacked the U.S. court system on Wednesday, complaining that the judiciary branch is "so political" while a federal appeals court weighs arguments regarding the administration's travel ban for immigrants and refugees from seven Muslim-majority countries.

"I don't want to call a court biased, so I won't call it biased," Trump told a gathering of law enforcement officials in Washington, D.C. "Courts seem to be so political and it would be so great for our justice system if they could read a statement and do what's right."

Supreme court nominee Neil Gorsuch calls Trump judge attacks 'demoralizing'

Neil Gorsuch, Donald Trump’s nominee to the supreme court, called the president’s tweet attacking the federal district court judge James Robart “disheartening and demoralizing”, his spokesman has confirmed.

Gorsuch criticized Trump in a private meeting with Senator Richard Blumenthal on Wednesday.

Gorsuch’s spokesman, Ron Bonjean, confirmed to the Guardian that the supreme court nominee called Trump’s tweet attacking Robart “disheartening and demoralizing”.

On Thursday, the president attacked Blumenthal for “misrepresenting” his conversation with Gorsuch, which he equated to Blumenthal’s prior mischaracterization of his military record.

“Sen.Richard Blumenthal, who never fought in Vietnam when he said for years he had (major lie),now misrepresents what Judge Gorsuch told him?” Trump tweeted on Thursday morning.

Sean Spicer Makes Up Atlanta Islamist Terror Attack

Kellyanne Conway’s “Bowling Green massacre” isn’t the only case of a White House aide pointing to a terror attack that didn’t happen to make the case for President Donald Trump’s controversial executive order limiting travel from seven majority-Muslim countries.

White House press secretary Sean Spicer has repeatedly pointed to Atlanta, along with San Bernardino and Boston, as one of three U.S. cities that have been attacked by Islamist terrorists to argue that the Trump administration needed to act quickly to prevent another attack in the future.

While the Boston bombing and shootings in San Bernadino were both carried out by Islamist terrorists, neither involved foreign nationals from the seven countries in Trump’s executive order. There has never been an Islamist terror attack in Atlanta. ...

While Conway and Spicer have been naming attacks that haven’t happened, President Trump yesterday accused the press of not adequately reporting terror attacks that did happen.

Aretha Franklin announces her retirement

Aretha Franklin, the queen of soul, has said she plans to retire this year. She told the Detroit TV station WDIV Local 4, the city’s NBC affiliate, that she planned to record an album for release in September before retiring.

“I must tell you, I am retiring this year,” she told reporter Evrod Cassimy. She said her new album would feature production by Stevie Wonder, and she was “exuberant” about it. However, she said that despite retirement, she wouldn’t be stopping completely.

She said she planned to do “some select things, many one a month, for six months out of the year”, but that she wanted to spend more time with her grandchildren as they went off to college.

Glenn Greenwald has an excellent piece up about the race for the DNC chair and the condition of the Democratic Party.

Tom Perez Apologizes for Telling the Truth, Showing Why Democrats’ Flaws Urgently Need Attention

Two recent incidents vividly highlight why Tom Perez so perfectly embodies the Democratic Party status quo. ... With the domination by the Democratic Party of [Haim] Saban and others looming, just watch how this profile in courage who wants to lead the Democratic Party responded to being asked about his opinions on this matter:

Tom Perez condemned BDS at the DNC Chair Debate so I asked him what he thought about Israeli home demolitions.. pic.twitter.com/8QI8FRVhHl

— Zaid Jilani (@ZaidJilani) January 21, 2017

An even more illustrative episode occurred late Wednesday. Perez was in Kansas campaigning for votes from county leaders and was asked about the need for the Party to retain the support of the Sanders contingent. Perez unexpectedly blurted out a truth which party functionaries to this day steadfastly bury and deny even in the face of the mountain of evidence proving it. This is what Perez said:

We heard loudly and clearly yesterday from Bernie supporters that the process was rigged and it was. And you’ve got to be honest about it. That’s why we need a chair who is transparent.

But Perez’s commitment to “transparency” and “being honest” had a very short life-span. After his admission predictably caused controversy – with furious Clinton supporters protesting the truth – Perez demonstrated the same leadership qualities that were so evident when Zaid Jilani asked him about Israeli human rights abuses.

He quickly slinked onto Twitter with a series of tweets to retract what he said, claim that he “misspoke” (does anyone know what that word means?), apologize for it, and proclaim Hillary Clinton the fair and rightful winner. ...

So in Tom Perez’s conduct, one sees the mentality and posture that has shaped the Democratic Party: a defense of jobs-killing free trade agreements that big corporate funders love; an inability to speak plainly, without desperately clinging to focus-grouped, talking-points scripts; a petrified fear of addressing controversial issues even (especially) when they involve severe human rights violations by allies; a religious-like commitment never to offend rich donors; and a limitless willingness to publicly abase oneself in pursuit of power by submitting to an apology ritual for having told the truth.

'Traitor': West Virginia Democrat Manchin Under Fire for Pro-Sessions Vote>

Democrat Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia is under fire Thursday for his Wednesday evening vote to confirm Jeff Sessions as U.S. attorney general. 

According to Guardian political reporter Ben Jacobs, Manchin "flash[ed Sessions] a thumbs up on his way in the chamber," before breaking with his party to cast the only Democratic vote in favor of Sessions' confirmation. 

Joe Manchin (Democrat) voted to confirm Jeff Sessions and this is what his Wikipedia page looks like now. Y'all are quick pic.twitter.com/gIFlhnHKaH

— Logan (@LoganPhares) February 9, 2017

'This is not over': Dakota Access pipeline work restarts amid tribe's legal challenge

Dakota Access pipeline workers have begun the final phase of drilling across the Missouri river despite massive international protests and a legal challenge from the Standing Rock Sioux tribe.

The restarting of the drilling operation, which a pipeline spokeswoman confirmed on Thursday morning, began soon after after the US government gave the oil corporation the green light to proceed on Wednesday. The controversial pipeline could be transporting crude oil from North Dakota to Illinois within three months. ...

The construction is a devastating blow to the Standing Rock Sioux tribe, whose fight against the $3.7bn pipeline became a flashpoint across the globe for indigenous rights and climate change activism. ...

“They were already ready to drill,” LaDonna Brave Bull Allard, founder of the Sacred Stone camp, said in an interview on Thursday. At this stage in the fight, the Standing Rock Sioux tribe member said she was hoping to see continued mass actions across the country along with a renewed push to target the company’s finances with the #defundDAPL campaign.

Billions Divested from Banks Backing Dakota Access Pipeline

Activists Plan Emergency Actions Across the Country to Protest Approval of Dakota Access Pipeline

Although the Standing Rock Sioux tribal government once supported the string of anti-pipeline camps that began popping up last spring, leaders have since insisted that pipeline opponents go home and stay away from the reservation. “Please respect our people and do not come to Standing Rock and instead exercise your First Amendment rights and take this fight to your respective state capitols, to your members of Congress, and to Washington, D.C.,” tribal chairman Dave Archambault said in a statement.

Still, the easement announcement is already activating pipeline opponents to return. A “couple thousand people” are headed back to the camps, including contingents of veterans, said former congressional candidate Chase Iron Eyes, a member of the tribe, in a video posted to Facebook. ...

A message titled “This is the #NoDAPL Last Stand” posted by various native-led groups fighting the pipeline called for an “international day of emergency actions” on Wednesday. By Wednesday morning, a website described actions planned in 18 states. ...

Meanwhile, on Monday, the North Dakota House of Representatives approved four anti-protest bills, including one that would create a new misdemeanor for wearing a mask while committing a crime. Two others would increase penalties for trespassing and riot charges, which have been liberally bestowed upon Dakota Access protesters by police. A fourth would make it a felony to cause over $1,000 in economic harm while committing a misdemeanor. Still awaiting consideration is a bill that would shield from liability drivers who hit and kill demonstrators protesting on a road.

Trump Administration Considering Eradication of EPA's Enforcement Arm

The Trump administration is considering eradicating the enforcement arm of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), reported Inside EPA late Wednesday.

The administration is deciding whether to shutter the Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance (OECA) and force individual program offices to take over all enforcement duties, a "source familiar with the plan" told Inside EPA.

"Closing the office would almost certainly mean less enforcement work happens at the agency," explained the Huffington Post:

OECA handles both civil and criminal enforcement of the country's core environmental laws, including the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act, the Oil Pollution Act and the Safe Drinking Water Act. The office is an independent body with about 3,000 employees who "work to advance environmental justice by protecting communities most vulnerable to pollution."

"Dissolving OECA would have a disastrous effect on EPA's ability to do its job," said Nicholas Conger, who served as communications director for OECA from July 2013 through March 2016 and later worked in the EPA administrator’s public affairs office. Conger is now the press secretary of the Natural Resources Defense Council. "Americans depend on a strong federal enforcement presence, and that depends on having a program that is directly focused on holding polluters accountable and ensuring they fix their problems."

The plan to shutter the OECA is similar to Scott Pruitt's 2011 efforts to close his agency's environmental enforcement office during his tenure as Oklahoma attorney general, observers note. ...

Another source who spoke to Inside EPA further explained that by moving enforcement to program offices—which are tasked with taking input on and revising regulations—enforcement of environmental regulations will become political.

"[C]ollapsing these two functions ... into one office headed by a political appointee for the regulatory office is quite dangerous and fundamentally threatens enforcing protections," the source said.

Blast at French nuclear plant does not pose contamination risk, say experts

Authorities have said there is no risk of contamination from an explosion that occurred at EDF’s Flamanville nuclear plant in northern France.

EDF said the blast at 9.40am on Thursday was caused by a fire in the turbine hall, which is outside the nuclear zones of the power station, located 15 miles west of the port of Cherbourg. Five people were treated for smoke inhalation.

The nuclear operator said an on-site team brought the fire under control, and the incident was declared over by 11am. One of the plant’s two water-pressurised reactors was shut down after the explosion and remains offline.

The cause of the fire is unknown, though authorities have ruled out sabotage. Experts said the explosion appeared to be a relatively minor event and did not pose a safety risk.

“Though any accident at a nuclear site must be taken seriously, I wouldn’t call this a nuclear accident as there was no release of radioactive material and the reactor was not affected,” said Jim Smith, professor of environmental science at the University of Portsmouth. “There doesn’t appear to be any risk to the general public.”

Also of Interest

Here are some articles of interest, some which defied fair-use abstraction.

Intercepted Podcast: President Trump’s Cabinet of Killers and Why Orange Is the New Anti-Black

Ten Reasons Why Elliott Abrams Would Make a Dreadful Deputy Secretary of State

The Establishment Is Incapable Of Winning The Media War

Situational Assessment 2017: Trump Edition

Wall Street Financed Jeb Hensarling for its Propaganda War – Now In Full Swing

#PostcardstoBannon: the campaign to send missives to the 'real' US president

Should California Secede? An Interview with David Swanson

A Little Night Music

Louisiana Red - The Seventh Son

Louisiana Red - The Sky Is Crying

Louisiana Red - I'm Too Poor To Die

Louisiana Red - I Done Woke Up

Louisiana Red - Ride On Red, Ride On

Louisiana Red - I Had A Feeling

Louisiana Red, Lazy Lester & Dave Maxwell - Cotton Pickin' Blues

Louisiana Red & David Maxwell - You Got To Move

Louisiana Red w/Norman Beaker - Red's New Dream

Louisiana Red - Thirty Dirty Women

Louisiana Red & Carey Bell 1991 Tiel, The Netherlands