“We Made a Devil’s Bargain”: Fmr. President Clinton Apologizes for Trade Policies that Destroyed Haitian Rice Farming
President Bill Clinton, now the UN Special Envoy to Haiti, publicly apologized last month for forcing Haiti to drop tariffs on imported, subsidized US rice during his time in office. The policy wiped out Haitian rice farming and seriously damaged Haiti’s ability to be self-sufficient. Journalist Kim Ives of Haiti Liberté questioned Clinton about his change of heart and his stance on the return of ousted Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide.


Haitian Earthquake Survivors Freed from Immigration JailsAnd forty Haitian earthquake survivors have been freed after spending more than two months in Florida immigration jails since their arrival in the United States. Some of the survivors came in on US military planes only to be detained for not having visas. None of them have any criminal history. The survivors were released on Thursday after the New York Times published a widely circulated story on their incarceration. Lawyers say the detainees received little or no mental healthcare for the trauma they suffered during the earthquake. At least two earthquake survivors are said to remain at the jails, including one who was flown to the US for medical care.


Some Schools Reopen in Haiti
In Haiti, some schools opened on Monday for the first time since the January 12 earthquake. But many schools remain closed due to a lack of repairs or equipment. Local union representatives criticized the education ministry for what they said was poor preparation to reopen the schools.
Josue Merilien, UNNOH Teachers’ Union Coordinator: “It was a lot of high-minded rhetoric for the government to announce that the schools were opening without making any of the necessary preparations to receive the students.”
The earthquake destroyed or damaged more than 4,000 schools, as well as the education ministry itself. Haiti estimates at least 38,000 students and more than 1,300 teachers and other education personnel died in the earthquake.


Study: Homeowner Program Favors White Borrowers
A new survey from the National Community Reinvestment Coalition has raised new questions about the Obama administration’s $75 billion Home Affordable Modification Program. The program is designed to provide financial incentives for mortgage lenders and servicers to reduce monthly payments for struggling homeowners. The survey found white homeowners are almost 50 percent more likely to receive a loan modification under the mortgage program than African Americans or Latinos. Meanwhile, loan servicers foreclose on delinquent African American borrowers more quickly than white or Latino borrowers.


New Orleans Police Officer Indicted in Shooting Cover-Up
Another New Orleans police officer has been indicted for his role in the Danziger Bridge incident, during which officers shot six citizens, killing two, days after Hurricane Katrina. Michael Hunter was indicted on charges of conspiracy to obstruct justice and providing false information about a felony. Two other former New Orleans police officers have already pleaded guilty to similar offenses.


California Probe Clears ACORN of Unlawful Activity
In California, a state investigation has cleared the anti-poverty group ACORN of unlawful activity in videotapes appearing to show staffers offering advice to right-wing activists posing as intermediaries of a prostitution ring. California Attorney General Jerry Brown says a few ACORN staffers acted inappropriately but did not commit any prosecutable offenses. The videos helped fuel a new right-wing campaign against ACORN, which has long been targeted for its work helping low-income Americans with voter registration, tax problems and foreclosures. ACORN announced its disbandment as a national organization last month.


South African White Supremacist Murdered
South African President Jacob Zuma is calling for calm following the murder of a white supremacist leader named Eugène Terre’Blanche. Terre’Blanche was a longtime supporter of the apartheid government and an advocate for the creation of an all-white republic within South Africa. The killing comes ten weeks before South Africa hosts the World Cup. Police say the killing was carried out by two farmworkers over a wage dispute, but supporters of Terre’Blanche claim it was racially motivated. Jackson Mthembu of the African National Congress called on the country to act with maturity.

Jackson Mthembu, African National Congress: “Through our speculations, we might even create and fuel polarization of the various nationalities that we find in our country. We are therefore saying this time, these trying times in our country, needs all of us to act with maturity. And we, as ANC, will play our part. We expect other parties will do the same. Our condolences go to the family of Terre’Blanche, his organization and all those who were close to him.”


Report: Africa Lost $1.8T to Illegal Outflows
A new report says Africa has lost over $1.8 trillion in illegal capital flights over the last forty years. The US-based research firm Global Financial Integrity, or GFI, says commercial tax evasion, drug trafficking, racketeering and counterfeiting account for the bulk of the outflows, with most of the money flowing to Western financial institutions. Using what it calls conservative estimates, GFI says the outflows have cost the average African nearly $1,000 since 1970.


Leaked Video Shows US Killing Reuters Staff in Iraq

A leaked Pentagon video shows U.S. helicopter mowing down Iraqi journalists and civilians.

The US military has confirmed the authenticity of newly released video showing US forces indiscriminately firing on Iraqi civilians. On Monday, the website WikiLeaks.org posted footage taken from a US military helicopter in July 2007 as it killed twelve people and wounded two children.
The voices on the tape appear to believe their targets are carrying weapons, but the footage unmistakably shows some of the victims holding camera equipment. The dead included two employees of the Reuters news agency, photographer Namir Noor-Eldeen and driver Saeed Chmagh.

The Pentagon has never publicly released the footage and has previously cleared those involved of wrongdoing. WikiLeaks says it managed to de-encrypt the tape after receiving it from a confidential source inside the military who wanted the story to be known.


Environmental Groups Decry Obama Plan to Lift Moratorium on Offshore Drilling
Environmental groups are denouncing President Obama’s controversial new plan to open up large swaths of the Atlantic, Gulf and Alaskan coasts to offshore oil and gas drilling. On Wednesday, the Obama administration said it would lift a longstanding moratorium on oil drilling along the East Coast from Delaware to the central coast of Florida. New areas of the southeast Gulf Coast will also be open to drilling, as will the Arctic Ocean north of Alaska.


Obama Appoints Pesticide Executive to Top Trade Post
And food justice advocates are criticizing President Obama’s recent appointment of a top pesticide industry executive to a key trade position. The executive, Islam Siddiqui, was named the US Trade Representative’s Chief Agricultural Negotiator in a spate of recent appointments. Siddiqui is a former vice president and lobbyist at CropLife America, a group of the major industrial players in the pesticide industry, including Syngenta, Monsanto and Dow Chemical. A coalition of over eighty environmental, family farm and consumer advocacy organizations had campaigned against his nomination.


As Demolitions Begin, Community Activists See Detroit Urban Renewal Plan as Land Grab

Democracy Now! broadcasts from Detroit, where demolition crews have begun tearing town 3,000 buildings that the city has deemed dangerous as part of an estimated 10,000 buildings set to be demolished over the next four years. City officials claim the demolitions are taking place in abandoned neighborhoods and that they will be replaced with farmland. While the Mayor’s urban renewal plan has high-level backing, many have condemned it as a form of land grabbing

Also, Detroit plans to close more than a quarter of its public schools at a time when private foundations are pledging hundreds of millions of dollars to reshape the Detroit public school system. The foundations are pushing for mayoral control of the school and the opening of dozens of new schools, including charter schools. The plan is seen by critics as a move to privatize the city’s school system


25 Die in WV Coal Mine Explosion
In West Virginia, twenty-five coal miners have died after a huge explosion at a Massey Energy mine in Raleigh County. It was the worst mining disaster in the United States in more than a quarter-century. US Mine Safety and Health Administration spokesperson Kevin Stricklin said four miners are still missing.

Kevin Stricklin: "What we have is, at approximately 3:00 this afternoon, as a crew was exiting a mine, the mine in a mantrip, there appears to have been an explosion. And there was a sudden gust of air. And persons who were underground, that weren’t affected as much by it, went back into the mine and found nine miners that were in that mantrip. Unfortunately, very sadly, seven of the nine miners are now deceased, and the other two are injured.”

By early this morning, the death toll had reached twenty-five. The Charleston Gazette reports mine safety experts said initial reports are that the explosion involved methane that built up inside a sealed area of the mine or that leaked through mine seals. The Gazette reports such a scenario would be a repeat of the 2006 Sago and Darby disasters in West Virginia and Kentucky, which claimed seventeen lives. The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reports the Massey-owned mine was cited for 458 safety violations last year, and federal inspectors fined Massey more than $382,000 for repeated serious violations involving its ventilation plan and equipment. On Monday, the wives and relatives of many of the miners gathered at the Massey site.

Wife of Miner: “They told me there had been an explosion. And I said, ‘Where?’ And they said, ‘Performance.’ And he just went to that mine. He just transferred to that mine a while back, not long.”


More International News
US Forces Admit Killing Two Pregnant Afghan Women & Teenager
In Afghanistan, US-led forces have admitted to killing two pregnant Afghan women and a teenage girl during a nighttime raid on February 12. Afghan investigators told the Times of London US Special Forces soldiers tried to cover up the killings. US forces reportedly dug bullets out of their victims’ bodies, then washed the wounds with alcohol before lying to their superiors about what happened. One of the women killed was a pregnant mother of ten, and another was a pregnant mother of six. Initially NATO military officials suggested that the women were stabbed to death, or had died by some other means, hours before the raid. In other news from Afghanistan, German troops accidentally killed six Afghan soldiers on Saturday.


Obama to Issue New Nuclear Posture Review
Under a new national strategy for nuclear weapons, the Obama administration is maintaining the right to use nuclear weapons first and to use them to attack any nation accused of violating the main treaty to halt nuclear proliferation, including Iran and North Korea. Anti-nuclear activists and some Democratic lawmakers were hoping Obama would issue a blanket statement that the country would never again be the first to use nuclear weapons. The new policy, known as the Nuclear Posture Review, narrows potential US nuclear targets, and the New York Times reports that for the first time the United States is explicitly committing not to use nuclear weapons against nonnuclear states that are in compliance with the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. As part of the policy, the US is not removing any nuclear weapon from alert.


US-Backed Pakistani Troops Accused of Carrying Out Assassinations
Human Rights Watch has accused US-backed Pakistani troops of carrying out more than 200 extrajudicial killings in the past eight months of suspected Taliban sympathizers. Most of the killings have occurred in the Swat Valley. Tom Malinowski of Human Rights Watch said, “People are taken away, and sometimes they turn up a few days or weeks later having been tortured. Sometimes they disappear. Sometimes their body is dumped with a bullet in the head.” The US has given more than $15 billion in aid to Pakistan since the September 11 attacks.


Amazonian Land Activist Killed in Brazil
In Brazil, a top Amazonian land reform activist has been shot dead in a targeted attack. Pedro Alcantara de Souza was killed Thursday by two gunmen on motorcycles. Souza headed a union of landless farmers in the Brazilian state of Para. He had led a series of occupations of large farms in a campaign for equitable distribution of land. His murder came hours after a trial was delayed for the suspect accused of murdering the American nun and rainforest activist Dorothy Stang, who was killed in 2005 in the same state.

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