Artillery fire on Korean border
BBC
North Korea has fired artillery shells across its western maritime border, prompting return fire from South Korea, reports say.
Dozens of the shells landed on a South Korean island, witnesses say.
A television station said some houses on the island were on fire, and Yonhap news agency said that four South Korean soldiers had been hurt.
South Korea has issued its highest non-wartime alert in response to the incident, the defence ministry said.
Top leaders are meeting in an underground bunker in Seoul over the incident, Reuters news agency reported.
The incident comes days after North Korea revealed it had a modern uranium enrichment plant - potentially giving it a second route to a nuclear weapon.
Earlier, the US ruled out more denuclearisation talks while Pyongyang continued to work on the facility.
'Illegal firing'
South Korean officials said artillery rounds landed on Yeonpyeong island, near the disputed inter-Korean maritime border to the west of the Korean Peninsula.
"A North Korean artillery unit staged an illegal firing provocation at 1434 PM (0534 GMT) and South Korean troops fired back immediately in self-defence," a defence ministry spokesman told AFP.
To Read the Rest of the Report
Showing posts with label Borders. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Borders. Show all posts
Tuesday, November 23, 2010
On the Media: Suspicionless Laptop Searches at the Border
Suspicionless Laptop Searches at the Border
On the Media (NPR)
... the American Civil Liberties Union and two other groups filed a lawsuit against the Department of Homeland Security over its suspicionless border searches of electronic devices. While the government considers its authority to search laptops and PDAs to be consistent with its power over briefcases and backpacks, ACLU attorney Catherine Crump says that the nature of information on a personal laptop can make these searches unconstitutionally intrusive.
To Listen/Read the Episode
On the Media (NPR)
... the American Civil Liberties Union and two other groups filed a lawsuit against the Department of Homeland Security over its suspicionless border searches of electronic devices. While the government considers its authority to search laptops and PDAs to be consistent with its power over briefcases and backpacks, ACLU attorney Catherine Crump says that the nature of information on a personal laptop can make these searches unconstitutionally intrusive.
To Listen/Read the Episode
Tuesday, September 07, 2010
Julianne Hing: Leaving Water for Migrants Not a Crime, Court Says
Leaving Water for Migrants Not a Crime, Court Says
by Julianne Hing
Colorlines
A border activist charged with littering for leaving jugs of water in the Arizona desert for migrants was cleared of any wrongdoing by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals on Thursday.
Dan Millis, a volunteer with the humanitarian aid group No More Deaths, was convicted in a federal court of littering when he and three other volunteers left water for border crossers in 2008 along a section of the Arizona desert that was a designated wildlife refuge. He faced a $5,000 fine and six months in jail for refusing to pay the $125 ticket.
On Thursday the Ninth Circuit overturned his conviction and ruled 2-1 that the statute was vague enough such that water did not constitute garbage. The dissenting opinion was written by Judge Jay Bybee, a former Bush administration assistant attorney general who co-wrote that administration’s torture memos. Bybee wrote: “Leaving plastic bottles in a wildlife refuge is littering under any ordinary, common meaning of the word.”
“It’s a win,” Millis said. “We’re happy with the outcome but we’re not happy with the situation that continues to exist. I’m thinking about how this can hopefully turn into better border policy.”
Not if the federal government can help it. Millis said that his defense, led by Arizona attorney Bill Walker, was forbidden to mention in court why he was out there in the first place, and why No More Deaths does its work. Millis was forced to argue his case without what he called a necessity defense.
“We are out there because of a flawed, inhumane border policy,” Millis said. “There are human lives at stake.”
Since 2001, No More Deaths has provided water and operated medical stations for border crossers in the Southern Arizona deserts. It’s organizational policy to return to the locations of their water drops to pick up emptied jugs, and pick up any trash they find when they’re out and about. Millis said they recycle, too.
On February 22, 2008 he was stopped by two U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service officers who cited Millis for “dumping of waste” along oft-traveled trails. Millis said that while they confiscated the 22 gallons of water he planned to leave for migrants that day, they did not take away the trash Millis had also collected. Just two days prior to his run-in, Millis had also discovered the body of a 14-year-old Salvadoran girl named Josseline Jamileth Hernandez Quinteros. Hernandez was traveling with her younger brother. The two were traveling to the U.S. to be reunited with their family in Arizona. But he arrived alone.
The verdict comes on the heels of reports of a year of unprecedented deaths along the border. Millis said that in the six months between when the Ninth Circuit first heard his case and yesterday, when they issued their verdict, 126 migrants had perished in Arizona. Most die from dehydration and heat-related illnesses in the region where daytime temperatures soar into the triple digits.
To Read the Rest
by Julianne Hing
Colorlines
A border activist charged with littering for leaving jugs of water in the Arizona desert for migrants was cleared of any wrongdoing by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals on Thursday.
Dan Millis, a volunteer with the humanitarian aid group No More Deaths, was convicted in a federal court of littering when he and three other volunteers left water for border crossers in 2008 along a section of the Arizona desert that was a designated wildlife refuge. He faced a $5,000 fine and six months in jail for refusing to pay the $125 ticket.
On Thursday the Ninth Circuit overturned his conviction and ruled 2-1 that the statute was vague enough such that water did not constitute garbage. The dissenting opinion was written by Judge Jay Bybee, a former Bush administration assistant attorney general who co-wrote that administration’s torture memos. Bybee wrote: “Leaving plastic bottles in a wildlife refuge is littering under any ordinary, common meaning of the word.”
“It’s a win,” Millis said. “We’re happy with the outcome but we’re not happy with the situation that continues to exist. I’m thinking about how this can hopefully turn into better border policy.”
Not if the federal government can help it. Millis said that his defense, led by Arizona attorney Bill Walker, was forbidden to mention in court why he was out there in the first place, and why No More Deaths does its work. Millis was forced to argue his case without what he called a necessity defense.
“We are out there because of a flawed, inhumane border policy,” Millis said. “There are human lives at stake.”
Since 2001, No More Deaths has provided water and operated medical stations for border crossers in the Southern Arizona deserts. It’s organizational policy to return to the locations of their water drops to pick up emptied jugs, and pick up any trash they find when they’re out and about. Millis said they recycle, too.
On February 22, 2008 he was stopped by two U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service officers who cited Millis for “dumping of waste” along oft-traveled trails. Millis said that while they confiscated the 22 gallons of water he planned to leave for migrants that day, they did not take away the trash Millis had also collected. Just two days prior to his run-in, Millis had also discovered the body of a 14-year-old Salvadoran girl named Josseline Jamileth Hernandez Quinteros. Hernandez was traveling with her younger brother. The two were traveling to the U.S. to be reunited with their family in Arizona. But he arrived alone.
The verdict comes on the heels of reports of a year of unprecedented deaths along the border. Millis said that in the six months between when the Ninth Circuit first heard his case and yesterday, when they issued their verdict, 126 migrants had perished in Arizona. Most die from dehydration and heat-related illnesses in the region where daytime temperatures soar into the triple digits.
To Read the Rest
Friday, June 11, 2010
Democracy Now: Mexican Teenager Shot Dead on Mexican Soil by US Border Agent
Mexican Teenager Shot Dead on Mexican Soil by US Border Agent
Democracy Now
US authorities have said fifteen-year-old Sergio Adrian Hernandez Güereca was part of a group of boys throwing rocks at Border Patrol agents who were trying to detain two people at the border crossing. But a cell-phone video obtained by the Spanish language network Univision shows otherwise. The grainy footage shows the Border Patrol agent detaining one man at gunpoint. While he has the man on the ground, he points his gun toward a second person on the Mexican side of the border. The video shows that person running away as the agent fires several shots. The video then shows a body next to a column under the bridge. We speak to Fernando Garcia, the director of the Border Network for Human Rights.
To Read/Listen/Watch
Democracy Now
US authorities have said fifteen-year-old Sergio Adrian Hernandez Güereca was part of a group of boys throwing rocks at Border Patrol agents who were trying to detain two people at the border crossing. But a cell-phone video obtained by the Spanish language network Univision shows otherwise. The grainy footage shows the Border Patrol agent detaining one man at gunpoint. While he has the man on the ground, he points his gun toward a second person on the Mexican side of the border. The video shows that person running away as the agent fires several shots. The video then shows a body next to a column under the bridge. We speak to Fernando Garcia, the director of the Border Network for Human Rights.
To Read/Listen/Watch
Democracy Now: After First Reunion in 10 Months, Mothers of 3 Jailed US Hikers in Iran on Visiting Their Children and Continuing the Fight for Release
(I was really impressed by the actions and words of the three imprisoned hikers--inspiring to me, the level of passion, intellectualism and creativity of people who have every right to be bitter, broken, or fearful......)
After First Reunion in 10 Months, Mothers of 3 Jailed US Hikers in Iran on Visiting Their Children and Continuing the Fight for Their Release
Democracy Now
The mothers of the three American hikers jailed in Iran have returned to the United States after seeing their imprisoned children for the first time in ten months. Shane Bauer, Sarah Shourd and Josh Fattal were detained in July after straying across Iran’s border during a hiking trip in northern Iraq. The mothers of the three jailed hikers—Cindy Hickey, Nora Shourd, and Laura Fattal—join us to discuss their visit with their children and their continued fight for their release.
To Read/Listen/Watch
After First Reunion in 10 Months, Mothers of 3 Jailed US Hikers in Iran on Visiting Their Children and Continuing the Fight for Their Release
Democracy Now
The mothers of the three American hikers jailed in Iran have returned to the United States after seeing their imprisoned children for the first time in ten months. Shane Bauer, Sarah Shourd and Josh Fattal were detained in July after straying across Iran’s border during a hiking trip in northern Iraq. The mothers of the three jailed hikers—Cindy Hickey, Nora Shourd, and Laura Fattal—join us to discuss their visit with their children and their continued fight for their release.
To Read/Listen/Watch
Wednesday, March 17, 2010
Charles Bowden: The War Next Door -- Adam Smith's invisible hand meets magical realism on the border
The War Next Door: Adam Smith's invisible hand meets magical realism on the border
by Charles Bowden
High Country News
...
The Mexican border functions as a drum that both the left and the right like to thump. For the left, it means imperialism. They decry the death of migrants, the newly built wall and the tens of thousands of armed agents patrolling the line. The right sees the border as the only thing separating us from the disintegration of our national security. They decry migrants (illegal invaders), violence spilling over the border and, in certain zany moments, see Islamic terrorists crossing the desert and leaving a litter of prayer rugs.
The migration of the Mexican poor is the largest human movement across a border on the planet. It was triggered by the destruction of peasant agriculture at the hands of the North American Free Trade Agreement, by the corruption of the Mexican state, by the growing violence in Mexico, and exacerbated by the millions of Mexicans working illegally in the U.S. who send money home to finance their families' trips north. It should be seen as a natural shift of a species. We need ecologists on the border; the politicians have become pointless.
The drug industry is the second-largest source of foreign currency in Mexico, just behind oil. It earns somewhere between $30 billion and $50 billion a year -- no one really knows, including the people in the industry. It also creates enormous numbers of jobs in the U.S.: We spend billions a year on narcs, maintain the world's largest prison industry, which is absolutely dependent on the intake of drug felons, and we have about 20,000 agents on the border who feed off drug importation. The rehab industry is also a source of a large number of jobs since many well-heeled defendants pick mandatory treatment over prison. Many county and local police departments now get fat off of RICO suits based on drug offenses.
The official line of the U.S. government, one most recently voiced by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, is that drug consumers in the United States are responsible for drug murders in Mexico. Only someone who is drugged could believe this claim. The sole source of the enormous amount of money in the drug business and the accompanying violence is the U.S. prohibition of drug use by its citizens. Since President Richard Nixon proclaimed the War on Drugs 40 years ago, there have been two notable accomplishments: Drugs are cheaper than ever, and they are of much higher quality. But then, NAFTA was promoted by presidents George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton as something that would buoy up the Mexican economy and reduce or end illegal immigration -- two claims that now are clearly refuted by facts.
The left seeks open borders or No More Deaths, the latter a protest of the 500 or so migrant deaths per year -- a rather low fatality rate, considering that at least a half-million Mexicans move illegally across the border each year. But the left seldom if ever mentions the slaughter in Mexico during the last three years that has left 17,000 citizens dead, a killing of Mexicans by Mexicans. The right constantly speaks of fortifying the border, as if this could stop a human tide lashed northward by misery. And, of course, the right promotes draconian drug laws even though the failure of such laws is increasingly apparent.
On the border, Adam Smith meets magical realism. Here the market tenets of supply and demand, the basic engine of both the migration and the drug industry, are supposed to be overturned magically by a police state. Consider one simple number: The border is 1,900 miles long. If two people slipped through each mile in a 24-hour period, that would amount to 3,800 people a day. That adds up to 1,387,000 people a year. Or consider this: One bridge from Juarez to El Paso handles 600,000 semi-trucks a year. One semi with a freight load of 24 tons could probably tote enough heroin to satisfy the U.S. market for a year. Add to the mix the inevitable corruption of the police agencies: A few months ago, a Border Patrol agent in southern Arizona was busted for running dope in his official car for 500 bucks a load.
Few discussions about the border come from facts. Most discussions of the border come from fears. We seem to prefer slogans and fantasies: free trade, "just say no," gigantic walls.
To Read the Entire Essay
More resources:
Also in High Country News: Julian Cardona's photodocumentary "Failed State"
by Charles Bowden
High Country News
...
The Mexican border functions as a drum that both the left and the right like to thump. For the left, it means imperialism. They decry the death of migrants, the newly built wall and the tens of thousands of armed agents patrolling the line. The right sees the border as the only thing separating us from the disintegration of our national security. They decry migrants (illegal invaders), violence spilling over the border and, in certain zany moments, see Islamic terrorists crossing the desert and leaving a litter of prayer rugs.
The migration of the Mexican poor is the largest human movement across a border on the planet. It was triggered by the destruction of peasant agriculture at the hands of the North American Free Trade Agreement, by the corruption of the Mexican state, by the growing violence in Mexico, and exacerbated by the millions of Mexicans working illegally in the U.S. who send money home to finance their families' trips north. It should be seen as a natural shift of a species. We need ecologists on the border; the politicians have become pointless.
The drug industry is the second-largest source of foreign currency in Mexico, just behind oil. It earns somewhere between $30 billion and $50 billion a year -- no one really knows, including the people in the industry. It also creates enormous numbers of jobs in the U.S.: We spend billions a year on narcs, maintain the world's largest prison industry, which is absolutely dependent on the intake of drug felons, and we have about 20,000 agents on the border who feed off drug importation. The rehab industry is also a source of a large number of jobs since many well-heeled defendants pick mandatory treatment over prison. Many county and local police departments now get fat off of RICO suits based on drug offenses.
The official line of the U.S. government, one most recently voiced by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, is that drug consumers in the United States are responsible for drug murders in Mexico. Only someone who is drugged could believe this claim. The sole source of the enormous amount of money in the drug business and the accompanying violence is the U.S. prohibition of drug use by its citizens. Since President Richard Nixon proclaimed the War on Drugs 40 years ago, there have been two notable accomplishments: Drugs are cheaper than ever, and they are of much higher quality. But then, NAFTA was promoted by presidents George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton as something that would buoy up the Mexican economy and reduce or end illegal immigration -- two claims that now are clearly refuted by facts.
The left seeks open borders or No More Deaths, the latter a protest of the 500 or so migrant deaths per year -- a rather low fatality rate, considering that at least a half-million Mexicans move illegally across the border each year. But the left seldom if ever mentions the slaughter in Mexico during the last three years that has left 17,000 citizens dead, a killing of Mexicans by Mexicans. The right constantly speaks of fortifying the border, as if this could stop a human tide lashed northward by misery. And, of course, the right promotes draconian drug laws even though the failure of such laws is increasingly apparent.
On the border, Adam Smith meets magical realism. Here the market tenets of supply and demand, the basic engine of both the migration and the drug industry, are supposed to be overturned magically by a police state. Consider one simple number: The border is 1,900 miles long. If two people slipped through each mile in a 24-hour period, that would amount to 3,800 people a day. That adds up to 1,387,000 people a year. Or consider this: One bridge from Juarez to El Paso handles 600,000 semi-trucks a year. One semi with a freight load of 24 tons could probably tote enough heroin to satisfy the U.S. market for a year. Add to the mix the inevitable corruption of the police agencies: A few months ago, a Border Patrol agent in southern Arizona was busted for running dope in his official car for 500 bucks a load.
Few discussions about the border come from facts. Most discussions of the border come from fears. We seem to prefer slogans and fantasies: free trade, "just say no," gigantic walls.
To Read the Entire Essay
More resources:
Also in High Country News: Julian Cardona's photodocumentary "Failed State"
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