Adam Klasfeld Profile picture
Sep 28, 2018 14 tweets 3 min read Twitter logo Read on Twitter
At the UN Trusteeship Chamber, where @PressFreedom's Joel Simon is introducing an #UNGA side event involving Amal Clooney.

It begins with a short video about the jailing of two Reuters journalists: Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo, who discovered and investigated a Rohingya massacre.
Before the video rolled, Simon said of incarcerating journalists: "There has been one issue around which it has been difficult to engage with the UN," because, he said: "The UN has a culture of rarely calling out its members."
Reuters president and editor-in-chief Stephen Adler takes the podium: He notes that the UN has called the treatment of the Rohingya "ethnic cleansing."
"We know about the massacre because Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo entered into Myanmar with open minds," Adler said, adding that the reporters ended up with "facts."

"Intimidation was severe," Adler says.
Amal Clooney is now up: "Good morning everyone."

"As we gather here today, two men are locked up in Myanmar for only doing their jobs," Clooney said.

She slams the "fabricated" and "totally implausible" story against the two reporters.
The Myanmar government claims that officers found top secret docs, coincidentally, as the journalists were working on their story.

"Of course, what really happened is that officials found out about the story and didn't want it to come out," Clooney said.
Senior officer gave "explosive testimony" confirming plot to plant the documents, and he was prosecuted for telling the truth, Clooney said.
Journalists were held incommunicado, hooded, forced to kneel and sign inculpatory statements against their will, she notes.

"So, what can now be done?" she asked.

She notes that the president can give a pardon at any time. The journalists' families have filed a pardon request.
"The government can, if it wants to, end it today," Clooney said, adding that she directs her speech today to Aung San Suu Kyi, the Nobel laureate and politician.

"Aung San Suu Kyi knows better than anyone what it's like to be a political prisoner in Myanmar," Clooney notes.
"Now, she holds the key," she said, referring to Aung San Suu Kyi.
CPJ's Simon back up, and he's talking about Egypt's 5-year imprisonment of Mahmoud Abu Zeid (widely known as Shawkan).

"Part of the problem," Simon says, is that the UN and other bodies follow protocol and decline to name names.
Last speaker was permanent rep from Germany, where he notes that Turkish President Erdogan is visiting. He says Germany spoke out to him about Turkey's role as the world's leading jailer of reporters.

"We have many Turkish journalists in Germany who had to flee there," he said.
Background: A story on one such German-Turkish journalist Deniz Yücel courthousenews.com/turkey-6-journ…
CPJ opens up questions to the floor.

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More from @KlasfeldReports

Oct 9, 2018
Second Circuit REJECTS petition to stay Wilbur Ross's deposition in the #2020Census case, but allows for a 48-hour stay for a SCOTUS appeal.

All eyes on Kavanaugh, who could spare a Trump cabinet member from the hot seat in a case affecting U.S. political power for a decade.
NOTE: A three-judge panel of bipartisan appointees - USCJ Walker (H.W. Bush), USCJ Lohier (Obama) and USDJ Pauley (Clinton) - unanimously rejected the stay the DOJ wanted in a summary order.

We'll learn w/in two days whether post-Kavanaugh SCOTUS divides along partisan lines.
This is an important one to watch.

* Depositions of presidential cabinet members are rare.
* Ross will face questions about false testimony to Congress about why he added the citizenship question. (Cited in "bad faith" quote here)
* Census apportions political power for 10 years
Read 4 tweets
Oct 8, 2018
This chart from the @IPCC_CH climate report is particularly chilling.

Look at our current warming rate: Without dramatic action, scientists predict we hit 1.5 degrees by 2040.

My summary on @CourthouseNews. courthousenews.com/landmark-un-cl…
U.N. Secretary-General @AntonioGuterres on the half-degree difference between 1.5- and 2-degree goal.

* Heat waves for tens of millions.
* Extinctions
* Water scarcity
* 10x more Arctic ice free summers
* "Total wipe-out of the world's coral reefs."
Major obstacles from right-wing leaders of two of the world's biggest polluters:

* The US, the 2nd biggest CO2-spewer in 2017, pulling out of the Paris under Trump (effective 2020, per treaty's terms)

* If Brazil, 7th largest, elects Bolsonaro, he will likely withdraw.
Read 5 tweets
Oct 5, 2018
Looks like @TheDemocrats successfully served the GRU in their racketeering suit...
The Russian Federation also got served.

Though both have a receipt date for much earlier, the docket entries appeared for the first time this morning.
Takeaway:

When serving the Russian government and intelligence service with racketeering allegations, the clear choice is @FedEx.
Read 4 tweets
Oct 4, 2018
You know who else pined for a thousand years of rule?
I hesitated about posting this tweet because it’s folks shouldn’t be flippant about these historical analogies.

But that also means not letting rhetoric and slogans like this pass without mention.
Either by ignorance, by design, or a combination of the two, Trump keeps echoing the darkest rhetoric and slogans of early 20th century - to the point where we’re collectively desensitized to them.

“America First.” “Enemy of the people.” And now, “1,000 years” rule.
Read 4 tweets
Oct 3, 2018
In the courtroom right now to watch this challenge to the presidential alert system. More to come.
Lead plaintiff, reporter J.B. Nicholas, has had some success with pro se lawsuits in the past.

An ex-researcher for star attorney Ron Kuby, Nicholas was behind a Second Circuit decision letting prisoners unionize and another on NYPD press creds. courthousenews.com/judge-holds-ny…
The motion to block today’s test of the presidential alert system was denied, and the test alert will be sent out this afternoon.

More to come later.
Read 5 tweets
Sep 30, 2018
BREAKING: A federal judge denies @CommerceGov's request to stay @SecretaryRoss's deposition in the #2020census case, pending their appeal to the Supreme Court.

Judge Furman calls the government's application "particularly frivolous - if not outrageous."

Scorching ruling.
Note: As the ruling states, the Second Circuit placed an administrative stay on Ross‘s deposition pending their review of that appeal. The government lost a recent appeal involving a DOJ official.

If they lose again, Judge Furman emphasizes, he won’t wait for SCOTUS to weigh in.
NEW: In back-to-back defeats, @CommerceGov loses bid to avoid a trial by resolving the lawsuit on summary judgment.

“The court remains firmly convinced that a trial will be necessary to resolve the claims of this case,” Furman wrote.
Read 5 tweets

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