By Kenneth J. Theisen
Israel charged with violating international law by Physicians for Human Rights
On Monday, March 23rd Israel’s army was charged in a report by Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) of violating codes of ethics and international law during its war against Gaza. According to the report, “Israel placed numerous obstacles in the course of the operation that impeded emergency medical evacuation of the sick and wounded and also caused families to be trapped for days without food, water and medications. The actions … violate directives of international law which forbid attacks on medical centres and medical teams during fighting” and “blatantly violated codes of ethics.”
The World Health Organization claims that during the war, Israel killed 16 medical personnel, while wounding an additional 25. Israeli forces also attacked 8 hospitals and 26 primary care clinics. More than 1400 Palestinians were killed by Israeli forces during the war.
The report describes one particular egregious incident. On January 16th a Mr. Shurrab and his two sons were shot at by Israeli forces while they were driving. In the words of the report, “One of the sons died immediately, the other bled to death for 12 hours. All that time the Israeli soldiers were within a short distance from the Shurrabs but did not provide any assistance despite the father’s repeated requests.”
PHR accused the Israelis of demonizing Palestinians in a process that “reached its nadir when soldiers in an army that flaunts its morality declined to help evacuate injured civilians and trapped families, when soldiers acted in a trigger-happy manner as they opened fire on ambulances, medical installations and medical personnel.” According to Dani Filc, the chair of PHR, “We have noticed a stark decline in IDF (Israeli Defense Forces) morals concerning the Palestinian population of Gaza, which in reality amounts to a contempt for Palestinian lives. It is critical that the investigation of Operation Cast Lead is completed by a neutral, external investigator without ties to the IDF.”
To date, as usual when Israel is accused on international law violations, no one from the Obama administration has spoken about the latest charges.
“Overseas contingency operations” replace “war on terror”
The “war on terror” is over. Okay so it has been replaced by "overseas contingency operations". The Obama administration has recently sent an email to senior Pentagon staff explaining that "this administration prefers to avoid using the term Long War or Global War On Terror (Gwot) … please pass this on to your speechwriters". The new way to talk of the U.S. wars is to designate them as "overseas contingency operations" according to the email.
When I first worked on my grandfather’s farm, as a child, my grandfather told me to call the cow manure – “cow pies.” I did, but they still stunk. Calling the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq overseas contingency operations does not change their nature. The use of hellholes to hold prisoners of these overseas contingency operations does not make it less of a crime. Torturing prisoners of the overseas contingency operations is just as immoral as those tortured in the war on terror. Conducting massive spy operations on citizens and foreigners is still a violation of civil rights. All the crimes are the same under any name used. U.S. imperialism can change the words it uses all it wants, but imperialism still stinks.
Labor Department fails to protect workers
On March 25th the Government Accountability Office (GAO) issued a report that indicates that the Labor Department’s Wage and Hour Division (WHD) has failed to protect workers. (The report can be read at: http://www.gao.gov) Contrast this to the government’s great concern for the welfare of the top executives of financial institutions who loot the treasury of billions. When the executives screw-up, they are given billions of dollars as a bailout.
GAO mounted an undercover operation to discover how the average worker was treated when he or she made a complaint to the Labor Department’s WHD. GAO reported that WHD mishandled nine of the ten cases investigated by a team of undercover agents who posed as workers with complaints.
In one case cited in the report, an undercover agent posed as a dishwasher. He called the agency 4 times complaining that he had not been paid overtime for 19 weeks. The agency’s Miami office did not even call him back for 4 months. When the agent finally received a call he was told it would take between 8 and 10 months to even begin to investigate the case.
In another case an agent complained about the use of child labor at a meat packing plant. The children were alleged to be working during school hours and using heavy machinery. The complaint was never even entered into the agency’s data base and four months after it was made no investigation had yet been begun.
Not entering complaints into the agency’s database appears to be a major problem. Fifty percent of the labor complaints that undercover agents made were not recorded in the Wage and Hour Division’s database. Thirty percent of the cases were not even investigated, and in 20 percent the labor officials recorded that the back wages had been paid, when in reality they had not.
In addition to the undercover operation, GAO also identified 20 other real cases involving at least 1,160 employees. GAO found that these cases resulted in inadequate investigations. GAO found cases where it took over a year to respond to the complaint, cases regularly closed based on unverified information provided by the employer, and even cases that were simply dropped when the employer did not respond at all to the agency.
In one of these real cases, GAO concluded that workers at a Montana boarding school were not paid more than $200,000 in overtime that they were owed. The employer offered to pay only $1,000 in back wages and then WHD dropped the case.
According to the report, “GAO’s overall assessment of the WHD complaint intake, conciliation, and investigation processes found and ineffective system that discourages wage theft complaints…GAO found that WHD does not fully investigate these types of complaints or compel employers to pay.” The GAO report indicated that WHD mishandled more serious cases 19 percent of the time. The report states, “This investigation clearly shows that Labor has left thousands of actual victims of wage theft who sought federal government assistance with nowhere to turn.”
The Labor Department has used the excuse of inadequate funding to justify its inadequate response to labor violations. There may be truth in this. But what kind of government do we have that can dispense hundreds of billions to financial institutions, but that can not afford to spend money to enforce laws that protect the real workers that create the wealth of this nation?
Blackhawk not down as Justice Department plays lets make a deal to settle contract fraud allegations
On March 25th Obama’s Department of Justice (DOJ) announced that Sikorsky Aircraft Company, a division of United Technologies Corporation, has agreed to pay the United States $2,941,000 to resolve fraud allegations in connection with its contract for the manufacture of Black Hawk helicopters for the Army.
Under Sikorsky’s contract with the Army, Sikorsky was required to install armored plates in the Black Hawk to the left of the pilot and to the right of the co-pilot that were ballistically tested to ensure that the helicopters could withstand combat. The government alleged that from 1991 to 2006, Sikorsky knowingly installed armored plates purchased from Ceradyne Corporation of Costa Mesa, Calif., that had not been ballistically tested as required under the contract.
According to Michael F. Hertz, Acting Assistant Attorney General for the Department of Justice’s Civil Division "This settlement sends a message that fraud, especially when it concerns the safety of our men and women in uniform, cannot and will not be tolerated in Government contracts. As demonstrated here, the Department, including the United States Attorneys’ offices, and investigative agencies such as the ones here, are committed to rooting out such fraud and prosecuting it."
But what the settlement really shows is that defense contractors can rip off the government and then if they get caught they can pay a small fine and write it off as the cost of doing business. This is what occurred under the Bush regime and what is continuing now with the new Obama administration.
A spokesman for Sikorsky Paul Jackson stated, "As the settlement agreement recognizes, Sikorsky believes it has done nothing wrong." The company did not even have to admit any guilt or responsibility as part of the sweetheart settlement. Jackson even bragged about the Blackhawk when he said, “Although these claims are based on a subcontractor’s alleged failure to perform required testing, there is no evidence that any of the armor panels in question have failed in service. The Black Hawk helicopter continues to perform with an outstanding safety record."
For decades this type of settlement has been used to settle defense contractor fraud cases. Trillions of dollars are wasted in supporting the U.S. war machine. Billions of these dollars are stolen in outright fraud. Many of the biggest defense contractors have been caught in such fraud. But instead of being prosecuted and sending company bigwigs to jail, they cut a deal, get a fine, and then move on to the next defense contract.
The DOJ under Obama is following a long tradition in the way they are handling this case. See http://www.pogo.org/pogo-files/reports/contract-oversight/survey-of-defense-contractor-signatories/co-fca-1994.html for a listing of defense contractors who have stolen from the government and gotten away with little consequence. It is a who’s who of the top corporations working with the Department of Defense.