L'armée américaine a quitté l'Irak
L'armée américaine a quitté dimanche à l'aube l'Irak, près de neuf ans après l'avoir envahi et renversé le dictateur Saddam Hussein, laissant ce pays riche en pétrole plongé dans une grave crise politique.
Le dernier convoi composé de 110 véhicules transportant environ 500 soldats appartenant en grande majorité à la 3e brigade de la 1re division de cavalerie a traversé la frontière à 07h30 (04H30 GMT). Le dernier véhicule est passé huit minutes plus tard.
Il y a huit ans et neuf mois, les forces américaines l'avaient franchie dans l'autre sens lors de l'"Opération Iraqi Freedom" qui devait se révéler être la guerre la plus controversée depuis celle du Vietnam, un demi-siècle plus tôt.
L'armée américaine, qui a compté jusqu'à 170.000 hommes au plus fort de la lutte contre l'insurrection, a abandonné 505 bases. Il ne restera plus que 157 soldats américains chargés d'entraîner les forces irakiennes et un contingent de Marines pour protéger l'ambassade.
(...)
Certains soldats applaudissaient visiblement soulagés. Des soldats se demandent comment les Irakiens réagiront en découvrant le départ des Américains.
Face au refus de l'Irak d'accorder l'immunité à des milliers de soldats américains chargés de poursuivre la formation, le président Obama avait décidé le 21 octobre, le retrait total des troupes.
Les Américains laissent un pays plongé dans une crise politique, avec la décision du bloc laïque Iraqiya de l'ancien Premier ministre Iyad Allaoui, de suspendre à partir de samedi sa participation aux travaux du Parlement. Second groupe parlementaire avec 82 députés contre 159 à l'Alliance nationale, coalition des partis religieux chiites, il a dressé un réquisitoire contre "l'exercice solitaire du pouvoir" du Premier ministre Nouri al-Maliki. "Cette manière d'agir pousse les gens à vouloir se débarrasser de la main de fer du pouvoir central d'autant que la Constitution les y autorise", faisant allusion aux récents votes en faveur de l'autonomie des provinces à majorité sunnite d'al-Anbar, Salaheddine et Diyala.
S'estimant lésés par le gouvernement à majorité chiite, les sunnites, jadis partisans d'un Etat centralisé, sont aujourd'hui portés par un mouvement centrifuge à vouloir gérer leurs régions de manière autonome, comme les Kurdes, ce qui comporte un risque d'éclatement du pays.
Si l'Irak exporte environ 2,2 millions de b/j, lui rapportant 7 milliards de dollars par mois, les services de base comme la distribution d'électricité et l'eau potable sont toujours défectueux. Mais les Irakiens interrogés étaient satisfaits du départ.
"Je suis fier comme chaque Irakien doit l'être", déclare Safa, un boulanger de 26 ans à Karrada, dans le centre de Bagdad. "Les Américains ont renversé Saddam Hussein, mais notre vie depuis s'est dégradée", a-t-il ajouté.
Désormais, les 900.000 éléments des forces irakiennes auront la lourde tâche d'assumer seuls la sécurité alors que les insurgés, notamment Al-Qaïda, bien qu'affaiblis, peuvent encore faire couler le sang. Ils devront aussi empêcher la résurgence des milices et une réédition d'une guerre confessionnelle entre chiites et sunnites qui avait fait des dizaines de milliers de morts en 2006 et 2007.
Ainsi s'achève une invasion lancée sans l'aval de l'ONU pour trouver des armes de destruction massives que Saddam Hussein aurait cachées. Il s'est avéré depuis que celles-ci n'existaient pas.
Cette occupation en 2003, qui deviendra à partir de 2005 une "présence étrangère requise par le gouvernement irakien", aura été fort onéreuse. Le Pentagone a alloué près de 770 milliards de dollars en neuf ans alors que 4.474 soldats américains sont morts, dont 3.518 tués au combat. Plus de 32.000 militaires américains ont par ailleurs été blessés. Par ailleurs, depuis mars 2003, les pertes civiles s'étaleraient entre 104.035 et 113.680, selon l'organisation britannique IraqBodyCount.org.
(afp)
dimanche 18 décembre 2011
samedi 17 décembre 2011
Immigration Crackdown Also Snares Americans
A growing number of United States citizens have been detained under Obama administration programs intended to detect illegal immigrants who are arrested by local police officers.
In a spate of recent cases across the country, American citizens have been confined in local jails after federal immigration agents, acting on flawed information from Department of Homeland Security databases, instructed the police to hold them for investigation and possible deportation.
Americans said their vehement protests that they were citizens went unheard by local police officers and jailers for days, with no communication with federal immigration agents to clarify the situation. Any case where an American is held, even briefly, for immigration investigation is a potential wrongful arrest because immigration agents lack legal authority to detain citizens.
“I told every officer I was in front of that I’m an American citizen, and they didn’t believe me,” said Antonio Montejano, who was arrested on a shoplifting charge last month and found himself held on an immigration order for two nights in a police station in Santa Monica, Calif., and two more nights in a teeming Los Angeles county jail cell, on suspicion that he was an illegal immigrant. Mr. Montejano was born in Los Angeles.
This year the immigration agency has been rapidly extending its leading deportation program, known as Secure Communities, with a goal of covering the whole country by 2013. Under that program, fingerprints of every person booked at local jails are checked against Department of Homeland Security immigration databases. If the check results in a match, federal immigration agents can issue detainers, asking local law enforcement authorities to hold a suspect for up to 48 hours.
Detentions of citizens are part of the widening impact on Americans, as well as on immigrants, of President Obama’s enforcement strategies, which have led to more than 1.1 million deportations since the beginning of his term, the highest numbers in six decades.
John Morton, the director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, said the agency gave “immediate and close attention” to anyone who claimed to be a citizen.
“We don’t have the power to detain citizens,” Mr. Morton said in an interview on Tuesday. “We obviously take any allegation that someone is a citizen very seriously.”
Later this month, Mr. Morton said, the immigration agency will publish new forms for its detainers. The forms, in several languages, will require the police to notify suspects who are being held on federal immigration authority, he said. They will also provide a hot line where detainees can call the immigration agency directly.
Exact numbers of Americans erroneously held by immigration authorities are hard to come by, since they are not systematically recorded. In one study, 82 people who were held for deportation from 2006 to 2008 at two immigration detention centers in Arizona, for periods as long as a year, were freed after immigration judges determined that they were American citizens.
“Because of the scale of enforcement, the numbers of people who are interacting with Immigration and Customs Enforcement are just enormous right now,” said Jacqueline Stevens, the study’s author and a political science professor at Northwestern University in Evanston, Ill.
Ms. Stevens has concluded that “a low but persistent” percentage of the nearly 400,000 people held for deportation each year are citizens. (...)
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/14/us/measures-to-capture-illegal-aliens-nab-citizens.html?_r=2&ref=immigrationandemigration
In a spate of recent cases across the country, American citizens have been confined in local jails after federal immigration agents, acting on flawed information from Department of Homeland Security databases, instructed the police to hold them for investigation and possible deportation.
Americans said their vehement protests that they were citizens went unheard by local police officers and jailers for days, with no communication with federal immigration agents to clarify the situation. Any case where an American is held, even briefly, for immigration investigation is a potential wrongful arrest because immigration agents lack legal authority to detain citizens.
“I told every officer I was in front of that I’m an American citizen, and they didn’t believe me,” said Antonio Montejano, who was arrested on a shoplifting charge last month and found himself held on an immigration order for two nights in a police station in Santa Monica, Calif., and two more nights in a teeming Los Angeles county jail cell, on suspicion that he was an illegal immigrant. Mr. Montejano was born in Los Angeles.
This year the immigration agency has been rapidly extending its leading deportation program, known as Secure Communities, with a goal of covering the whole country by 2013. Under that program, fingerprints of every person booked at local jails are checked against Department of Homeland Security immigration databases. If the check results in a match, federal immigration agents can issue detainers, asking local law enforcement authorities to hold a suspect for up to 48 hours.
Detentions of citizens are part of the widening impact on Americans, as well as on immigrants, of President Obama’s enforcement strategies, which have led to more than 1.1 million deportations since the beginning of his term, the highest numbers in six decades.
John Morton, the director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, said the agency gave “immediate and close attention” to anyone who claimed to be a citizen.
“We don’t have the power to detain citizens,” Mr. Morton said in an interview on Tuesday. “We obviously take any allegation that someone is a citizen very seriously.”
Later this month, Mr. Morton said, the immigration agency will publish new forms for its detainers. The forms, in several languages, will require the police to notify suspects who are being held on federal immigration authority, he said. They will also provide a hot line where detainees can call the immigration agency directly.
Exact numbers of Americans erroneously held by immigration authorities are hard to come by, since they are not systematically recorded. In one study, 82 people who were held for deportation from 2006 to 2008 at two immigration detention centers in Arizona, for periods as long as a year, were freed after immigration judges determined that they were American citizens.
“Because of the scale of enforcement, the numbers of people who are interacting with Immigration and Customs Enforcement are just enormous right now,” said Jacqueline Stevens, the study’s author and a political science professor at Northwestern University in Evanston, Ill.
Ms. Stevens has concluded that “a low but persistent” percentage of the nearly 400,000 people held for deportation each year are citizens. (...)
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/14/us/measures-to-capture-illegal-aliens-nab-citizens.html?_r=2&ref=immigrationandemigration
Half of America is officially poor
While it’s no surprise that nearly 50 million Americans live below the poverty line, new statistics from the US Census show that almost 100 million others are counted as low-income citizens, making half of the population of America officially poor.
The latest figures out of the US Census Bureau show that in addition to the 49.1 million Americans who fall below the official poverty line, those that rake in enough to be between that level and the income equitable to double it fall into a new “low-income” category, which counts an additional 97.3 million people. Altogether, that clump of nearly 150 million Americans living in dire economic standing accounts for around 48 percent of the US population. (...)
http://rt.com/usa/news/half-poor-america-poverty-909/
The latest figures out of the US Census Bureau show that in addition to the 49.1 million Americans who fall below the official poverty line, those that rake in enough to be between that level and the income equitable to double it fall into a new “low-income” category, which counts an additional 97.3 million people. Altogether, that clump of nearly 150 million Americans living in dire economic standing accounts for around 48 percent of the US population. (...)
http://rt.com/usa/news/half-poor-america-poverty-909/
jeudi 15 décembre 2011
Nearly 20% of women in the US are raped, study reveals
Puritanisme, morale, religion, décadence...
----------
Nearly 20% of women in the US are raped or suffer attempted rape at some point in their lives, a US study says.
Even more women, estimated at 25%, have been attacked by a partner or husband, the Centers for Disease Control said.
The findings form part of the first set of results from a nationwide study surveying sexual violence by intimate partners against men and women.
More than 24 people a minute reported rape, violence, or stalking, it says, with 12 million offences reported.
Experts at the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) described the results of the first year of the National Intimate Partner and Sexual Violence Survey as "astounding".
Among the key figures included in the survey's findings were:
-more than one million women reported being raped in the 12 months prior to the survey
-more than six million women and men were a victim of stalking
-more than 12 million women and men reported rape, physical violence or stalking by an intimate partner over the course of a year.
(...)
An estimated one in seven men has been raped, or endured an attempted rape at some point in their lives, the study finds.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-16192494
----------
America's child death shame
Why is the problem of violence against children so much more acute in the US than anywhere else in the industrialised world, asks Michael Petit, President of Every Child Matters.
Over the past 10 years, more than 20,000 American children are believed to have been killed in their own homes by family members. That is nearly four times the number of US soldiers killed in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The child maltreatment death rate in the US is triple Canada's and 11 times that of Italy. Millions of children are reported as abused and neglected every year. Why is that?
Part of the answer is that teen pregnancy, high-school dropout, violent crime, imprisonment, and poverty - factors associated with abuse and neglect - are generally much higher in the US.
Further, other rich nations have social policies that provide child care, universal health insurance, pre-school, parental leave and visiting nurses to virtually all in need.
(...)
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-15193530
---------
35% of Child Sex Abuse Caused by Minors
Recent high-profile cases of child sex abuse have roused national revulsion against the adults who perpetrated them. Rarely mentioned is the sobering statistic that more than one-third of the sexual abuse of America's children is committed by other minors.
Read more: http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,2103983,00.html#ixzz1j2XO5qds
--------
For American Indian Women, More Rape, Then Less Support
(...)
One in three American Indian women have been raped or have experienced an attempted rape, according to the Justice Department. Their rate of sexual assault is more than twice the national average. And no place, women’s advocates say, is more dangerous than Alaska’s isolated villages, where there are no roads in or out, and where people are further cut off by undependable telephone, electrical and Internet service.
The issue of sexual assaults on American Indian women has become one of the major sources of discord in the current debate between the White House and the House of Representatives over the latest reauthorization of the landmark Violence Against Women Act of 1994.
A Senate version, passed with broad bipartisan support, would grant new powers to tribal courts to prosecute non-Indians suspected of sexually assaulting their Indian spouses or domestic partners. But House Republicans, and some Senate Republicans, oppose the provision as a dangerous expansion of the tribal courts’ authority, and it was excluded from the version that the House passed last Wednesday. The House and Senate are seeking to negotiate a compromise.
Here in Emmonak, the overmatched police have failed to keep statistics related to rape. A national study mandated by Congress in 2004 to examine the extent of sexual violence on tribal lands remains unfinished because, the Justice Department says, the $2 million allocation is insufficient.
But according a survey by the Alaska Federation of Natives, the rate of sexual violence in rural villages like Emmonak is as much as 12 times the national rate. And interviews with Native American women here and across the nation’s tribal reservations suggest an even grimmer reality: They say few, if any, female relatives or close friends have escaped sexual violence.
“We should never have a woman come into the office saying, ‘I need to learn more about Plan B for when my daughter gets raped,’ ” said Charon Asetoyer, a women’s health advocate on the Yankton Sioux Reservation in South Dakota, referring to the morning-after pill. “That’s what’s so frightening — that it’s more expected than unexpected. It has become a norm for young women.”
The difficulties facing American Indian women who have been raped are myriad, and include a shortage of sexual assault kits at Indian Health Service hospitals, where there is also a lack of access to birth control and sexually transmitted disease testing. There are also too few nurses trained to perform rape examinations, which are generally necessary to bring cases to trial.
Women say the tribal police often discourage them from reporting sexual assaults, and Indian Health Service hospitals complain they lack cameras to document injuries.
Police and prosecutors, overwhelmed by the crime that buffets most reservations, acknowledge that they are often able to offer only tepid responses to what tribal leaders say has become a crisis.
Reasons for the high rate of sexual assaults among American Indians are poorly understood, but explanations include a breakdown in the family structure, a lack of discussion about sexual violence and alcohol abuse.
Rape, according to Indian women, has been distressingly common for generations, and they say tribal officials and the federal and state authorities have done little to help halt it, leading to its being significantly underreported.
In the Navajo Nation, which encompasses parts of Arizona, New Mexico and Utah, 329 rape cases were reported in 2007 among a population of about 180,000. Five years later, there have been only 17 arrests. Women’s advocates on the reservation say only about 10 percent of sexual assaults are reported.
The young woman who was raped in Emmonak, now 22, asked that her name not be used because she fears retaliation from her attacker, whom she still sees in the village. She said she knew of five other women he had raped, though she is the only one who reported the crime.
Nationwide, an arrest is made in just 13 percent of the sexual assaults reported by American Indian women, according to the Justice Department, compared with 35 percent for black women and 32 percent for whites.
In South Dakota, Indians make up 10 percent of the population, but account for 40 percent of the victims of sexual assault. Alaska Natives are 15 percent of that state’s population, but constitute 61 percent of its victims of sexual assault.
The Justice Department did not prosecute 65 percent of the rape cases on Indian reservations in 2011. And though the department said it had mandated extra training for prosecutors and directed each field office to develop its own plan to help reduce violence against women, some advocates for Native American women said they no longer pressed victims to report rapes.
(...)
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/23/us/native-americans-struggle-with-high-rate-of-rape.html
----------
Nearly 20% of women in the US are raped or suffer attempted rape at some point in their lives, a US study says.
Even more women, estimated at 25%, have been attacked by a partner or husband, the Centers for Disease Control said.
The findings form part of the first set of results from a nationwide study surveying sexual violence by intimate partners against men and women.
More than 24 people a minute reported rape, violence, or stalking, it says, with 12 million offences reported.
Experts at the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) described the results of the first year of the National Intimate Partner and Sexual Violence Survey as "astounding".
Among the key figures included in the survey's findings were:
-more than one million women reported being raped in the 12 months prior to the survey
-more than six million women and men were a victim of stalking
-more than 12 million women and men reported rape, physical violence or stalking by an intimate partner over the course of a year.
(...)
An estimated one in seven men has been raped, or endured an attempted rape at some point in their lives, the study finds.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-16192494
----------
America's child death shame
Why is the problem of violence against children so much more acute in the US than anywhere else in the industrialised world, asks Michael Petit, President of Every Child Matters.
Over the past 10 years, more than 20,000 American children are believed to have been killed in their own homes by family members. That is nearly four times the number of US soldiers killed in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The child maltreatment death rate in the US is triple Canada's and 11 times that of Italy. Millions of children are reported as abused and neglected every year. Why is that?
Part of the answer is that teen pregnancy, high-school dropout, violent crime, imprisonment, and poverty - factors associated with abuse and neglect - are generally much higher in the US.
Further, other rich nations have social policies that provide child care, universal health insurance, pre-school, parental leave and visiting nurses to virtually all in need.
(...)
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-15193530
---------
35% of Child Sex Abuse Caused by Minors
Recent high-profile cases of child sex abuse have roused national revulsion against the adults who perpetrated them. Rarely mentioned is the sobering statistic that more than one-third of the sexual abuse of America's children is committed by other minors.
Read more: http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,2103983,00.html#ixzz1j2XO5qds
--------
For American Indian Women, More Rape, Then Less Support
(...)
One in three American Indian women have been raped or have experienced an attempted rape, according to the Justice Department. Their rate of sexual assault is more than twice the national average. And no place, women’s advocates say, is more dangerous than Alaska’s isolated villages, where there are no roads in or out, and where people are further cut off by undependable telephone, electrical and Internet service.
The issue of sexual assaults on American Indian women has become one of the major sources of discord in the current debate between the White House and the House of Representatives over the latest reauthorization of the landmark Violence Against Women Act of 1994.
A Senate version, passed with broad bipartisan support, would grant new powers to tribal courts to prosecute non-Indians suspected of sexually assaulting their Indian spouses or domestic partners. But House Republicans, and some Senate Republicans, oppose the provision as a dangerous expansion of the tribal courts’ authority, and it was excluded from the version that the House passed last Wednesday. The House and Senate are seeking to negotiate a compromise.
Here in Emmonak, the overmatched police have failed to keep statistics related to rape. A national study mandated by Congress in 2004 to examine the extent of sexual violence on tribal lands remains unfinished because, the Justice Department says, the $2 million allocation is insufficient.
But according a survey by the Alaska Federation of Natives, the rate of sexual violence in rural villages like Emmonak is as much as 12 times the national rate. And interviews with Native American women here and across the nation’s tribal reservations suggest an even grimmer reality: They say few, if any, female relatives or close friends have escaped sexual violence.
“We should never have a woman come into the office saying, ‘I need to learn more about Plan B for when my daughter gets raped,’ ” said Charon Asetoyer, a women’s health advocate on the Yankton Sioux Reservation in South Dakota, referring to the morning-after pill. “That’s what’s so frightening — that it’s more expected than unexpected. It has become a norm for young women.”
The difficulties facing American Indian women who have been raped are myriad, and include a shortage of sexual assault kits at Indian Health Service hospitals, where there is also a lack of access to birth control and sexually transmitted disease testing. There are also too few nurses trained to perform rape examinations, which are generally necessary to bring cases to trial.
Women say the tribal police often discourage them from reporting sexual assaults, and Indian Health Service hospitals complain they lack cameras to document injuries.
Police and prosecutors, overwhelmed by the crime that buffets most reservations, acknowledge that they are often able to offer only tepid responses to what tribal leaders say has become a crisis.
Reasons for the high rate of sexual assaults among American Indians are poorly understood, but explanations include a breakdown in the family structure, a lack of discussion about sexual violence and alcohol abuse.
Rape, according to Indian women, has been distressingly common for generations, and they say tribal officials and the federal and state authorities have done little to help halt it, leading to its being significantly underreported.
In the Navajo Nation, which encompasses parts of Arizona, New Mexico and Utah, 329 rape cases were reported in 2007 among a population of about 180,000. Five years later, there have been only 17 arrests. Women’s advocates on the reservation say only about 10 percent of sexual assaults are reported.
The young woman who was raped in Emmonak, now 22, asked that her name not be used because she fears retaliation from her attacker, whom she still sees in the village. She said she knew of five other women he had raped, though she is the only one who reported the crime.
Nationwide, an arrest is made in just 13 percent of the sexual assaults reported by American Indian women, according to the Justice Department, compared with 35 percent for black women and 32 percent for whites.
In South Dakota, Indians make up 10 percent of the population, but account for 40 percent of the victims of sexual assault. Alaska Natives are 15 percent of that state’s population, but constitute 61 percent of its victims of sexual assault.
The Justice Department did not prosecute 65 percent of the rape cases on Indian reservations in 2011. And though the department said it had mandated extra training for prosecutors and directed each field office to develop its own plan to help reduce violence against women, some advocates for Native American women said they no longer pressed victims to report rapes.
(...)
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/23/us/native-americans-struggle-with-high-rate-of-rape.html
mardi 13 décembre 2011
Bankruptcy: Wrong for You, OK for American Airlines
When American Airlines declared bankruptcy even though it could afford to pay its debts, pundits largely applauded this smart business move. Many homeowners face the same predicament, observes James Surowiecki in the New Yorker: "They can still pay their debts, but doing so is like setting a pile of money on fire every month," because home values have plummeted. But when they default, they're not praised for their business sense. "There's a real stigma to defaulting," with polls showing 81% consider it immoral.
That's in part because the banking industry launched a concerted campaign to stigmatize it. The Mortgage Bankers Association, for example, once complained that defaulters were setting a bad example for "their family and their kids"—even as it short-sold its headquarters, unloading it for $34 million less than the value of the mortgage. "The double standard here is obvious and offensive," Surowiecki writes, calling for a "De-Occupy Your Home" movement. "The banks have been relying on homeowners to do the right thing. It might be time for homeowners to do the smart thing instead." Click for the full column.
http://www.newser.com/story/135241/bankruptcy-wrong-for-you-ok-for-american-airlines.html
That's in part because the banking industry launched a concerted campaign to stigmatize it. The Mortgage Bankers Association, for example, once complained that defaulters were setting a bad example for "their family and their kids"—even as it short-sold its headquarters, unloading it for $34 million less than the value of the mortgage. "The double standard here is obvious and offensive," Surowiecki writes, calling for a "De-Occupy Your Home" movement. "The banks have been relying on homeowners to do the right thing. It might be time for homeowners to do the smart thing instead." Click for the full column.
http://www.newser.com/story/135241/bankruptcy-wrong-for-you-ok-for-american-airlines.html
dimanche 11 décembre 2011
Rape in the US military: America's dirty little secret
Aaaaah Leur patriotisme à la con...
--------------
Every four hours a sexual assault or rape is reported in the United States Military.
--------------
A female soldier in Iraq is more likely to be attacked by a fellow soldier than killed by enemy fire.
Rape within the US military has become so widespread that it is estimated that a female soldier in Iraq is more likely to be attacked by a fellow soldier than killed by enemy fire. So great is the issue that a group of veterans are suing the Pentagon to force reform. The lawsuit, which includes three men and 25 women (the suit initially involved 17 plaintiffs but grew to 28) who claim to have been subjected to sexual assaults while serving in the armed forces, blames former defence secretaries Donald Rumsfeld and Robert Gates for a culture of punishment against the women and men who report sex crimes and a failure to prosecute the offenders.
Since the lawsuit became public in February, 400 more have come forward, contacting attorney Susan Burke who is leading the case. These are likely to be future lawsuits. Right now they are anxiously awaiting a court ruling to find out if the lawsuit will go to trial. The defence team for the department of defence has filed a motion to dismiss the case, citing a court ruling, dating back to 1950, which states that the government is not liable for injury sustained by active duty personnel. To date, military personnel have been unable to sue their employer.
Whether or not the case goes to trial, it is still set to blow the lid on what has come to be regarded as the American military's dirty little secret. Last year 3,158 sexual crimes were reported within the US military. Of those cases, only 529 reached a court room, and only 104 convictions were made, according to a 2010 report from SAPRO (sexual assault prevention and response office, a division of the department of defence). But these figures are only a fraction of the reality. Sexual assaults are notoriously under-reported. The same report estimated that there were a further 19,000 unreported cases of sexual assault last year. The department of veterans affairs, meanwhile, released an independent study estimating that one in three women had experience of military sexual trauma while on active service. That is double the rate for civilians, which is one in six, according to the US department of justice.
(...)
On mydutytospeak.com, where victims of military rape can share their experiences, there are breathtaking tales of brutality and mistreatment. Only 21 years old, and weeks into her military training, Maricella Guzman says she ran to tell her supervisor in the hours after her rape at a military boot camp in Great Lakes, Illinois. "I burst into his office and said, 'I need to speak to you,' " explains Guzman, now 34, and a student at a college in Los Angeles studying psychology, who talks about many lost years when she couldn't function as a result. "One of the procedures if you want to speak to someone in the navy is you have to knock three times on the door and request permission to speak. But I didn't do that. I was too upset. So my supervisor said 'Drop', which means push-ups. So I did the push-ups. But I was still in tears. I said, 'I need to talk to you.' He said 'Drop' again. Every time I tried to say anything, he made me do push-ups. By the time I was composed in the way he wanted me to be, I couldn't say anything any more. I just couldn't." After that, Guzman didn't try to tell anyone for another eight years.
(...)
Michelle Jones says she did not want to report her rape for fear of losing her job.
(...)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2011/dec/09/rape-us-military?CMP=twt_gu
--------------
Every four hours a sexual assault or rape is reported in the United States Military.
--------------
A female soldier in Iraq is more likely to be attacked by a fellow soldier than killed by enemy fire.
Rape within the US military has become so widespread that it is estimated that a female soldier in Iraq is more likely to be attacked by a fellow soldier than killed by enemy fire. So great is the issue that a group of veterans are suing the Pentagon to force reform. The lawsuit, which includes three men and 25 women (the suit initially involved 17 plaintiffs but grew to 28) who claim to have been subjected to sexual assaults while serving in the armed forces, blames former defence secretaries Donald Rumsfeld and Robert Gates for a culture of punishment against the women and men who report sex crimes and a failure to prosecute the offenders.
Since the lawsuit became public in February, 400 more have come forward, contacting attorney Susan Burke who is leading the case. These are likely to be future lawsuits. Right now they are anxiously awaiting a court ruling to find out if the lawsuit will go to trial. The defence team for the department of defence has filed a motion to dismiss the case, citing a court ruling, dating back to 1950, which states that the government is not liable for injury sustained by active duty personnel. To date, military personnel have been unable to sue their employer.
Whether or not the case goes to trial, it is still set to blow the lid on what has come to be regarded as the American military's dirty little secret. Last year 3,158 sexual crimes were reported within the US military. Of those cases, only 529 reached a court room, and only 104 convictions were made, according to a 2010 report from SAPRO (sexual assault prevention and response office, a division of the department of defence). But these figures are only a fraction of the reality. Sexual assaults are notoriously under-reported. The same report estimated that there were a further 19,000 unreported cases of sexual assault last year. The department of veterans affairs, meanwhile, released an independent study estimating that one in three women had experience of military sexual trauma while on active service. That is double the rate for civilians, which is one in six, according to the US department of justice.
(...)
On mydutytospeak.com, where victims of military rape can share their experiences, there are breathtaking tales of brutality and mistreatment. Only 21 years old, and weeks into her military training, Maricella Guzman says she ran to tell her supervisor in the hours after her rape at a military boot camp in Great Lakes, Illinois. "I burst into his office and said, 'I need to speak to you,' " explains Guzman, now 34, and a student at a college in Los Angeles studying psychology, who talks about many lost years when she couldn't function as a result. "One of the procedures if you want to speak to someone in the navy is you have to knock three times on the door and request permission to speak. But I didn't do that. I was too upset. So my supervisor said 'Drop', which means push-ups. So I did the push-ups. But I was still in tears. I said, 'I need to talk to you.' He said 'Drop' again. Every time I tried to say anything, he made me do push-ups. By the time I was composed in the way he wanted me to be, I couldn't say anything any more. I just couldn't." After that, Guzman didn't try to tell anyone for another eight years.
(...)
Michelle Jones says she did not want to report her rape for fear of losing her job.
(...)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2011/dec/09/rape-us-military?CMP=twt_gu
jeudi 8 décembre 2011
LE FILM “INTOUCHABLES ” TAXÉ DE “RACISME” AUX ETATS-UNIS
Même le torchon du Guardian n'avait pas été aussi loin dans la bêtise que l'inénarrable Jay Weissberg de Variety, qui il a y 3 mois maintenant, nous expliquait à quel point le personnage d'Intouchables est traité comme un singe...WTF?
On attend une analyse en règle de Training Day où un noir (riche et influent) pourrit la vie, la carrière, et accessoirement met en danger de mort, un blanc (fauché et intègre)
C'est marrant ce racisme à l'envers qui cherche à inverser la supériorité morale...
En France, c'est Rue89 et Mediapart qui sont chargés de cette sale besogne.
Bizarrement, quand on compulse Google Image sur leurs employés...Il n'y a que des blancs!
http://presite.mediapart.fr/atelier-journal/equipe.html
http://www.variety.com/static-pages/about/staff/
http://www.rue89.com/qui-sommes-nous
Heureusement qu'il y a d'excellentes séries, telles Braquo en France ou Breaking Bad aux US qui ne s'embarrassent pas de considérations racialo-puristes afin de ne pas sombrer ds le dangereux monde des bisounours bien-pensants...
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C’est la bonne, l’excellente surprise, du cinéma français cette année. “ Intouchables ”, qui a par exemple déjà été vu par plus d’un Français sur 5 en salles depuis son lancement début novembre, essaye de vivre le même lancement tonitruant aux Etats-Unis. Mais là, ça coince un peu au niveau des critiques.
Le magazine référent Variety, repris par le New York Times, a vu dans le film du “racisme digne de l’Oncle Tom qui a, on l’espère, définitivement disparu des écrans américains”.
“ Driss est traité comme le singe d’un spectacle de cirque, avec toutes les associations racistes de ce terme, expliquant au blanc coincé comment s’amuser en remplaçant Vivaldi par Boogie Wonderland et lui montrant comment bouger sur le dancefloor”, note ainsi le magazine spécialisé, qui applaudit la performance et le talent d’Omar Sy mais regrette que le rôle soit si stéréotypé.
“On est mal à l’aise de voir Omar Sy, un acteur charismatique et joyeux, dans un rôle qui n’est pas bien loin du cliché de l’esclave d’antan, qui amuse son maître tout en représentant tous les stéréotypes de classe et de race”
http://www.sudpresse.be/culture/cinema/2011-12-08/le-film-intouchables-taxe-de-racisme-aux-etats-unis-923341.shtml
---------------
But “Intouchables” has also been criticized for its idealistic vision of a world without social gaps, where an aristocrat can befriend an ex-con. The newspaper Libération denounced “the dictatorship of emotion as a camouflage to the total absence of thought,” while Variety pointed at what it called the film’s primitive racism, describing Driss as “a role barely removed from the jolly house slave of yore.”
The movie, Variety’s writer added, “flings about the kind of Uncle Tom racism one hopes has permanently exited American screens.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/08/movies/intouchables-is-a-magnet-for-french-moviegoers.html?scp=1&sq=driss&st=cse
Rappel: "The United States imprisons more of its racial minorities than any other country in the world. In Washington D.C., three out of every four young black men are expected to serve some time in prison. In major cities across the country, 80% of young African Americans now have criminal records."
On attend une analyse en règle de Training Day où un noir (riche et influent) pourrit la vie, la carrière, et accessoirement met en danger de mort, un blanc (fauché et intègre)
C'est marrant ce racisme à l'envers qui cherche à inverser la supériorité morale...
En France, c'est Rue89 et Mediapart qui sont chargés de cette sale besogne.
Bizarrement, quand on compulse Google Image sur leurs employés...Il n'y a que des blancs!
http://presite.mediapart.fr/atelier-journal/equipe.html
http://www.variety.com/static-pages/about/staff/
http://www.rue89.com/qui-sommes-nous
Heureusement qu'il y a d'excellentes séries, telles Braquo en France ou Breaking Bad aux US qui ne s'embarrassent pas de considérations racialo-puristes afin de ne pas sombrer ds le dangereux monde des bisounours bien-pensants...
----------
C’est la bonne, l’excellente surprise, du cinéma français cette année. “ Intouchables ”, qui a par exemple déjà été vu par plus d’un Français sur 5 en salles depuis son lancement début novembre, essaye de vivre le même lancement tonitruant aux Etats-Unis. Mais là, ça coince un peu au niveau des critiques.
Le magazine référent Variety, repris par le New York Times, a vu dans le film du “racisme digne de l’Oncle Tom qui a, on l’espère, définitivement disparu des écrans américains”.
“ Driss est traité comme le singe d’un spectacle de cirque, avec toutes les associations racistes de ce terme, expliquant au blanc coincé comment s’amuser en remplaçant Vivaldi par Boogie Wonderland et lui montrant comment bouger sur le dancefloor”, note ainsi le magazine spécialisé, qui applaudit la performance et le talent d’Omar Sy mais regrette que le rôle soit si stéréotypé.
“On est mal à l’aise de voir Omar Sy, un acteur charismatique et joyeux, dans un rôle qui n’est pas bien loin du cliché de l’esclave d’antan, qui amuse son maître tout en représentant tous les stéréotypes de classe et de race”
http://www.sudpresse.be/culture/cinema/2011-12-08/le-film-intouchables-taxe-de-racisme-aux-etats-unis-923341.shtml
---------------
But “Intouchables” has also been criticized for its idealistic vision of a world without social gaps, where an aristocrat can befriend an ex-con. The newspaper Libération denounced “the dictatorship of emotion as a camouflage to the total absence of thought,” while Variety pointed at what it called the film’s primitive racism, describing Driss as “a role barely removed from the jolly house slave of yore.”
The movie, Variety’s writer added, “flings about the kind of Uncle Tom racism one hopes has permanently exited American screens.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/08/movies/intouchables-is-a-magnet-for-french-moviegoers.html?scp=1&sq=driss&st=cse
Rappel: "The United States imprisons more of its racial minorities than any other country in the world. In Washington D.C., three out of every four young black men are expected to serve some time in prison. In major cities across the country, 80% of young African Americans now have criminal records."
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