The Whistleblower: UN decades long involvement in Bosnian sex trade

The film will be released in LA and NY on Aug 5

Amplify’d from turtlebay.foreignpolicy.com

After weeks of internal deliberations, the United Nations recently held a pair of private viewings of a controversial new film, The Whistleblower, which explores U.N.  complicity in sex crimes in Bosnia over the past two decades.

Based on real events and reviewed last month by Turtle Bay, the film recounts how U.N. peacekeepers became involved in the illegal sex trade in Bosnia in the late 1990s and the early 2000s. Top officials have been concerned that the film's imminent release -- it hits theaters in Los Angeles and New York on August 5 -- could harm the institution's international reputation.

The horrific incidents depicted in the film occurred well before Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and his leadership team arrived at the United Nations. But Ban's tenure is also implicated in the story, Read more at turtlebay.foreignpolicy.com

 

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FP on Obama, UN resolution and Palestinian Statehood

The article very accurately notes Obama cannot merely declare opposition to the upcoming UN resolution, but must put an alternative proposal on the table.

Amplify’d from www.foreignpolicy.com

President Obama must act now to prevent the Israel-Palestinian conflict from descending into chaos.

Something -- or someone -- has got to give. With international momentum building for a U.N. resolution recognizing Palestinian statehood, Washington is finally coming to the realization that the Israeli-Palestinian status quo is unsustainable.

President Barack Obama's administration signaled once again this week that it will oppose the Palestinian application for full membership to the United Nations when the issue arises in September. But if Obama wants to forestall a vote by the U.N. General Assembly, he needs to do a lot more than recite the usual platitudes about the need to revive peace talks. He needs to put his own plan on the table and take the lead in resolving the seemingly intractable conflict. Time is not on anyone's side.

Obama has made a convincing argument for why the world needs to move on the peace process today. He has described how the shifting demographic balance poses a problem for Israel, how technology will make it more difficult for Israel to defend itself, and how the Arab uprisings and the fast-approaching U.N. vote will pose new challenges. But he has not gone far enough. If Washington wants to oppose action in the General Assembly, it must offer an alternative.

At the very least, the president must lay out a U.S vision of what can be an acceptable solution to the conflict -- much as Clinton did more than a decade ago. That vision must include the issues of a shared Jerusalem, an agreed solution to the refugee problem, and settlements.

See more at www.foreignpolicy.com

 

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FP's Toby Archer on Breivik

Toby Archer quickly has set the standard for journalism and reflection on Breivik. This is an informed piece.

Amplify’d from www.foreignpolicy.com

We hope, and perhaps need, a man who would gun down teenagers in cold blood to be mad.

So when Anders Behring Breivik says that his killing spree on Friday, July 22, was "gruesome but necessary" -- as he reportedly told his lawyer -- we must not just dismiss him as mad, but ask why he thinks so. Having left a 1,500-page manifesto and a YouTube video -- all conveniently in serviceable English for the international audience -- he clearly wants to be understood.

To do so requires an appreciation of a transatlantic movement that often calls itself "the counter-jihad." As his writings indicate, Breivik is clearly a product of this predominantly web-based community of anti-Muslim, anti-government, and anti-immigration bloggers, writers, and activists -- no matter how much the movement's leading lights may deny this and denounce his actions.

See more at www.foreignpolicy.com

 

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What is the difference between spirituality, religion, and church?

The response trades on an important insight found in Buddhist teachings.



The IRFWP link http://bit.ly/rgwaBN provides the entire response to this question.

Amplify’d from www.irfwp.org

Recently a Quora participant posted this question: "What is the difference between spirituality, religion, and church? I have heard people say they are all the same (almost like a three in one) and others say they are very different ideas."

This is an excellent and important question.

especially important in our current time because a great many people have interest in and seriousness toward the spiritual dimensions of life (both personally and communally), but have come to have serious misgivings about what they perceive or understand to be "religion," and "church." Heard constantly "I'm spiritual, but I am not religious." If pressed, the average person who describes him or herself so often is incapable of explaining this declaration any further, but it becomes clear that the core impulse in the declaration is that "religion" is bad, but "spirituality" is good. Read more at www.irfwp.org

 

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China’s ‘eye-in-the-sky’ nears par with US

Until now analysts have taken an unimaginative view of US-China relations obsessed primarily with economic development, essentially a materialist-dominated analytical foundation.



There is hope that shared need and interest in stability might trump the impulse to supremacy, but this requires a more complicated inquiry into how these two powers should relate

Amplify’d from www.ft.com

China’s rapidly expanding satellite programme could alter power dynamics in Asia and reduce the US military’s scope for operations in the region, according to new research.

“Starting from almost no live surveillance capability 10 years ago, today the PLA has likely equalled the US’s ability to observe targets from space for some real-time operations,” two of the institute’s China researchers, Eric Hagt and Matthew Durnin, write in the Journal of Strategic Studies.

China’s rapidly growing military might has unnerved its neighbours, many of whom are US allies, while a series of disputes this year with Vietnam and the Philippines have added to the concerns. Read more at www.ft.com

 

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Catholic Church explores Crystal Cathedral bid

Do Catholics have a better tradition of succession?

Amplify’d from www.irfwp.org

The Roman Catholic Diocese of Orange, California, announced this week that it is exploring the possibility of buying the controversy-vexed church, which declared bankruptcy last fall.

"The Diocese of Orange does not currently have an adequate cathedral to meet the needs of its 1.2 million Catholics in Orange County, the 11th largest diocese in the nation," the statement said.

The diocese's announcement came on the same day Chapman University, a Southern California school, revealed that it had offered $46 million for the Crystal Cathedral. Read more at www.irfwp.org

 

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Obama's Libya missions with no congressional approval

Among the many questions President Obama dodged during his Wednesday press conference was this: “Do you believe the War Powers Act is constitutional?”



The War Powers Resolution requires the President to receive the approval of Congress within 62 days after introducing U.S. forces into three types of hostilities, including “into the territory, airspace or waters of a foreign nation, while equipped for combat, except for deployments which relate solely to supply, replacement, repair, or training of such forces.”



Obama maintains that the United States is not engaged in “hostilities” in Libya.

Amplify’d from www.airforcetimes.com

Air Force and Navy aircraft are still flying hundreds of strike missions over Libya despite the Obama administration’s claim that American forces are playing only a limited support role in the NATO operation.

An Africa Command (AFRICOM) spokeswoman confirmed Wednesday that since NATO’s Operation Unified Protector (OUP) took over from the American-led Operation Odyssey Dawn on March 31, the U.S. military has flown hundreds of strike sorties. Previously, Washington had claimed that it was mostly providing intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) and tanker support to NATO forces operating over Libya.

“U.S. aircraft continue to fly support [ISR and refueling] missions, as well as strike sorties under NATO tasking,” AFRICOM spokeswoman Nicole Dalrymple said in an emailed statement. “As of today, and since 31 March, the U.S. has flown a total of 3,475 sorties in support of OUP. Of those, 801 were strike sorties, 132 of which actually dropped ordnance.”

A White House report on Libya sent to Congress on June 15 says that “American strikes are limited to the suppression of enemy air defense and occasional strikes by unmanned Predator UAVs against a specific set of targets.” The report also says the U.S. provides an “alert strike package.” Read more at www.airforcetimes.com

 

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