Archive - Jan 14, 2010

• Relief agencies struggle to get aid to Haiti as survivors of earthquake spend a second day without basic services
• US announces $100 million in recovery aid to Haiti, including military deployment
• Federal judge rules that New York City discriminated against black applicants to fire dept
• Administration officials say lack of regulation led to financial crisis
• Activists sue military and police over alleged spying of anti-war groups

• Suicide bombing in Afghanistan leaves 20 dead
• Nigeria agrees to allow armed US Marshals on flights
• British judges calls for review of US extradition case
• Study: Large public universities shifting financial aid to wealthier students
• Seattle man sentenced for anti-Semitic murder, ruled hate crime

Haiti continues to grapple with one of the worst natural disasters the country has faced, two days after a 7.0 magnitude earthquake destroyed most of the capitol, Port au Prince. While the death toll is still unknown, bodies are piling up on the streets, and rescuers and civilians continue to look for people trapped in the rubble. Food and water are scarce, electricity and telecommunications continue to be down in much of the city. Many hospitals were destroyed and thousands injured have no medical care. Doctors Without Borders, which is treating people under four tents, says people have fractures, head injuries and other major trauma from the quake.

Other international aid organizations are struggling to get people and equipment to the area. Oxfam international humanitarian spokesperson Louis Belanger, spoke from Santo Domingo earlier today en route to Port Au Prince. He said the group's first priority will be to coordinate clean water and sanitation facilities for survivors of the quake. But he added that relief services still face serious challenges:

"Now flying into the country and doing aid delivery I think we're going to have to be honest and say that in the next thirty six if not forty-eight hours in terms of aid delivery will be a bit difficult just because the airport is still shut down and the infrastructure in terms of roads is still very difficult for us to operate in so in temrs of aid delivery we're looking at a bit of a pause and we're going to see that happening a little later this week,  but hopefully as soon as possible."

Many people off and on the island are still waiting to hear from missing colleagues and family members. In an effort to connect people, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has set up a special website, www.icrc.org/familylinks. People in Haiti and abroad can register relatives' names and information on the website. ICRC spokesman Marcel Izard says in the first few hours they registered more than 1,300 names:

"It's a system that we have been using since 1995, since the Bosnia War. It's quite a successful means because although phone lines are not working, through satellite you can still have access to the Internet. So far on this Internet website people can actually look for a relative they are looking for and ask for their whereabouts. Also survivors can log in and say that they are safe and well."

Also today President Obama announced that the US is sending $100 million in US recovery aid to Haiti. That aid includes food, medical supplies and personnel and the military. FSRN's Karen Miller has more.

The city of New York has intentionally discriminated against black applicants to the city's fire department, by using a test that it knew to be unfair. That's according to a decision handed down Wednesday by a federal judge in Brooklyn. The judge said the practice was "part of a pattern" that has "deep historical antecedents and uniquely disabling effects.” Black firefighters compose just 3.4 percent of the department. Black residents make up about 25 percent of the city's population.

We're joined by Anjana Samant, an attorney with the Center for Constitutional Rights. She is part of the team that represented the firefighters in the case.

In a statement to FSRN, the city's law department said that it disagrees with the court's opinion. And added that "there is simply no evidence that the City ever intended to discriminate against black applicants."

In Washington DC, today President Obama announced a tax on firms that received TARP bail out money. The President’s announcement was made as administration officials testified at the second day of  hearings to investigate the financial crisis. Officials said a lack of regulation and unscrupulous practices by financial firms resulted in the crisis. FSRN’s Leigh Ann Caldwell reports.

Anti-war activists in Washington state are suing police officials and a military analyst who they say infiltrated and spied on their organization, violating their right to freedom of speech. The lawsuit was filed in Seattle’s US District Court on the behalf of 13 people involved with the activist group Olympia Port Militarization Resistance, which opposes using civilian ports to ship military equipment to Iraq and Afghanistan. Larry Hildes is the attorney representing the plaintiffs in the lawsuit. He explains how the group was infiltrated.

“They had an Army spy in their midst, a man named John Towery who works for the Force Protection Office at First Corps at Fort Lewis who was spying on meetings, having private discussions with activists who thought he was their friend, but gathering information to the point that there meetings when he would go out every hour and send text messages to his boss Tom Rudd, who was the head of the Force Protection Office at Fort Lewis about what was happening at meetings, where the demonstrations were going to be at, who the players were, who to watch for…And often times people would get arrested. People would get brutalized, people would get followed and harassed.”

Hildes says in addition to violating his clients’ First and Fourth Amendment rights, it's also a violation of a federal law enacted in 1878.

“Under the Posse Comitatus Act, it is illegal for the US Army or any branch of the military to engage in civilian law enforcement. Spying on meetings, unless there’s a threat of actual terrorist activity, is civilian law enforcement. And certainly arresting people in a public street is civilian law enforcement. They can’t do this.”

The plaintiffs discovered the spy after filing a public records request from the City of Olympia and receiving hundreds of pages of "Force Protection" memos that included Towery's name as a source of information on anti-war activists. According to the News Tribune, officials at Fort Lewis have confirmed Towery's employment with them. Military officials have declined further comment. The suit also names the City of Olympia and a U.S. Coast Guard employee.

Thanks to Mark Taylor Canfield for production assistance on this story.