木々と知り合う キングサリ

エンジュの仲間だろうが、３出複葉だ。花は黄色で目立つ。2011/5/18撮影。

ヨーロッパ中南部原産でゴールデンチェーンとも呼ばれる。キバナフジ，キンレンカ。

2011/6/26、民家の庭先で撮影。2階のベランダに届く大きな木だ。花期には美しかっただろう。
明年、見に行ってみよう。

歩く楽しさも最近は中位

2017/8/6は、なかなかの暑さ。これを逆手にとって発汗、グリーンサウナで健康増進とまたまた出かけました。

電車を降りて小1時間ほど歩いたら、ポツポツと雨が当たりました。ちょうど目の前に自動車修理工場があったので、その軒先を借りて雨宿り。土砂降りにはなりませんでしたが、なかなか止みません。

空の様子を見るために建物の脇に回り込むと、張り紙がありました。



数年前に、都会で個人営業のラーメン店などが急に休業、廃業する例が伝えられました。管理人は、繁華街には行きませんから、そのような例は見ていませんが、今日のこの張り紙に先週の雨戸を閉め切った民家。

長い徘徊歴ですが、これまでこのような経験はありません。ホントに少しずつではあるものの、変化は確実に生じています。

蒲の穂（ガマノホ）です。


因幡の白兎の童謡を歌ってみようとしても歌詞が出てきません。孫と散歩するときもないだろうけど。

大きなふくろを　かたにかけ
大黒さまが　来かかると
ここにいなばの　白うさぎ
皮をむかれて　あかはだか

大黒さまは　あわれがり
「きれいな水に　身を洗い
がまのほわたに　くるまれ」と
よくよくおしえて　やりました

大黒さまの　いうとおり
きれいな水に　身を洗い
がまのほわたに　くるまれば
うさぎはもとの　白うさぎ

上の写真の穂は時間が立つとばらけて来て綿状になります。その綿がタネを運びます。「がまのほわた」というのは、そのばらけた状態のものです。

そういえば、この蒲の穂の近くでハクビシンを見ました。民家の角の雨樋のある辺りを登って屋根に上がっていきました。でかーい猫という感じでした。

ナタマメです。3週間前に見たとき、花も咲いていなかったのです。




この近くでカツラの木の林を見ました。とても珍しい。黄色の強い葉、上部の枝は放射状に伸びています。


2017/8/13、電車の中で一本歯の高下駄をはいている若い男性をお見受けし下駄の写真を撮らせてもらって少しお話しました。その方は、筋肉が動かなくなる病気を病んでいるので、予防と訓練のため一本下駄を履いているそうです。それを伺って「放射能、気をつけておられますよね」と話したら、今の病気も甲状腺の機能低下と関連しているのだそうです。がんばってくださいと励ますのが精一杯でした。

最近は飲料の自販機にAEDが備えられているものもあるんですね。


三出複葉の見慣れない木。ひょろつと伸びた樹形からキングサリかと。自信ありです。来年確認して来いと言われたら、あまり歩いて楽しい場所でもなかったので、約束できません。

「実際の出来事に遅れをとるな」 ラブロフが米国務省広報担当女性の「彼は先走る」との言い草を一蹴

RT2017/7/10
‘Don’t lag behind real events’: Lavrov hits back after State Dept says he ‘gets out ahead’

「実際の出来事に遅れをとるな」　ラブロフが米国務省広報担当女性の「彼は先走る」との言い草を一蹴


この広報担当の女性は、国務省を代表して広報しているのに外交を解かっているとは思えません。外交の世界で相手国の関係者についてその個人的特性をとやかく言うのは禁物です。誉める場合は別ですが、それだって大変難しい。しかもロシアの外務大臣について一介の広報担当者がこういう発言をするのは、バカまる出しとしか言えない。若い女性だから逸脱した発言が許されるなどということは一切ありません。バシッとやられます。RTはこの記事を1ヶ月も注目記事として掲げています。日本でも同じ、ネットの中でも同じです。このブログに寄せられるコメントでも若い女性は若い男性に比べて礼儀不足の印象があります。最近、若い女性からのコメントはほぼなくなりつつありますが。

米国国務省の混乱は続いているようです。最近では、こんな報道がありましたが、それ以外にはティラーソンの発言は注目されていません。
2017年08月12日
ティラーソンがイラククルドの国民投票延期を求める

10日前に掲げた記事です。
2017年08月02日
ティラーソンは消耗している
RTなどの報道から米国国務長官ティラーソンの名前が見えなくなってしばらく経ちます。

米ロの間では、外交団が利用する施設を巡って対立が深まり、米国による対ロ経済制裁の発動に対する対抗措置として、ロシアは在モスクワ米国大使館の外交官755名の退去を命じました。 455名が残るとされていますから1210名のうち6割がモスクワを去ることになります。

米国の公式な反応を見ていませんが、これは大変なこと。ティラーソンは何をしているのでしょう。

ホワイトハウスの側近とされるスタッフの間では内輪もめが激しいようで辞任、解任が続いています。

ティラーソンもトランプのブレの激しい政策に付いていけない、辞任は近いとの観測もあるようです。

国務省の地位低下と国防総省や情報機関の相対的地位向上は、世界にとって歓迎できることではないでしょう。

米国の対ロ経済制裁について、ＥＵ内部から異論が噴出しています。

イラクが米国と距離を置いてロシアに接近する動きを見せています。

ティラーソンのステートメント、意味が取りがたいです。

・・・・・

RT2017/8/2
Rex Tillerson’s mind-boggling claim the US wants to hurt Russia with sanctions to help foster better relations is arguably just a sign of a greater problem in the Trump administration, which seems struggling to form a consistent foreign policy.
In a short statement by the US secretary of state published after Congress overwhelmingly voted for imposing new sanctions against Russia, Tillerson said the legislation represents “the strong will of the American people to see Russia take steps to improve relations with the United States.”
The statement added that the US would work to ensure the message is “clearly understood” in Russia. It provoked a barrage of rejection from Moscow, ranging in tone from a polite rebuff from the embassy in Washington to openly mocking tweets from some legislators.
“The State Department should rest assured that its signal was taken clear on our side. We hope our signal of limiting the number of US diplomatic personnel will be taken as a symbol of friendship,” wrote Senator Aleksey Pushkov from the foreign relations committee, who branded Tillerson’s words as “demagoguery.”
The secretary later shifted the responsibility for the sanctions onto US lawmakers, saying “neither the president nor I are very happy.” The statement apparently contradicts VP Mike Pence, who on a trip to the Baltics and Georgia said Congress and the White House were speaking “with a unified voice” on Russian sanctions.
Tillerson’s apparently disavowed attempt to portray the sanctions, which were met with harsh criticism by some of America’s European allies, as something potentially mending the rift between the two countries is exemplary of a wider schizoid approach in Washington’s foreign policy.
The Trump administration often flip-flops on key issues, occasionally stumbles into hilarious blunders when different branches of the government fail to coordinate their actions, and all too often appear to be at odds with itself. Some commenters say the US is a bad day away from a major foreign policy crisis.
Many US watchers blame the shifting sands of today's US foreign policy on the personality of Donald Trump. The president is notorious for changing his mind about things like the worth of NATO or whether he sees China as the big bad villain robbing the US. Occasionally his mental equilibristic on Twitter makes him seem to tell two opposite things at the same time, as was with his April tirade over America’s free trade agreement with Canada and Mexico.
“I received calls from the President of Mexico and the Prime Minister of Canada asking to renegotiate NAFTA rather than terminate,” Trump wrote at the time. “I agreed, subject to the fact that if we do not reach a fair deal for all, we will then terminate NAFTA. Relationships are good - deal very possible!”
On other occasions, Trump pulled the rug from under his team members, including Tillerson. For instance last month, he managed to undermine the secretary of state as he was trying to play mediator in the Gulf nations’ diplomatic rift by unequivocally siding with Saudi Arabia and other opponents of Qatar and branding the country a historic sponsor of terrorism.
“The White House has done everything to undermine [Tillerson],” a senior State Department official explained to Foreign Policy magazine. “The president undermines him. Qatar was seven days of work only to fall apart with a single tweet by the president.”

ようやくティラーソンが登場、外交官755名の退去についてはあえて触れていない？　シリアアサド政権に関する態度もまた変わって二転三転しています。迷走？

RT2017/8/1
US-Russia relations 'under stress' - Tillerson
Relations between the US and Russia are “under considerable stress” but Washington and Moscow are trying to work together to fight ISIS and create conditions for peace in Syria, said US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson.

“After last week, the question is if they are getting worse,” Tillerson said, alluding to Moscow’s decision to retaliate for US measures from December 2016 by locking down two properties and cutting US diplomatic mission by 755 members.

“I think the American people want the two most powerful nuclear powers in the world to have a better relationship,” Tillerson said, answering questions from reporters at the State Deparment on Tuesday.

He noted that Moscow reserved the right to react when the Obama administration expelled 35 Russian diplomats and seized two Russian properties in the US, and that President Vladimir Putin made the call to retaliate after the US Congress overwhelmingly voted to impose more sanctions on Russia, overriding the White House.

“Does it make our life more difficult? Of course it makes our life more difficult,” Tillerson said. “Neither the president nor I are very happy” about how Congress went about the sanctions bill, he added, but “we can’t let it take us off-track in trying to restore the relationship.”

Tillerson said he will be meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov on the sidelines of the upcoming ASEAN forum in Manila.

“Our conversation following the actions has been professional, there’s been no belligerence. Foreign Minister Lavrov and I understand our roles,” Tillerson said.

Tillerson singled out Syria as a testbed where the US and Russia can work together on areas of mutual interest, such as combating “radical Islamist terrorism” such as Al-Qaeda and Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL).

The US continues to insist, however, that the government of President Bashar Assad “has no role in future governing of Syria” and that Iranian troops and militias backed by Tehran currently in Syria “must go home,” Tillerson said.

President Donald Trump’s top diplomat praised the newly appointed US envoy for the crisis in Ukraine, Kurt Volker, whom he called “very clear-eyed about his mission.”

The US position is that the Minsk accords must be implemented before anything can be done about Ukraine-related sanctions, Tillerson said, adding that the peace process in Ukraine “has been stalled for quite some time” and that there is a need for a new ceasefire.

イドリブでホワイトヘルメットの救急隊員7人が殺害される

Al Jazeera News2017/8/13
Seven White Helmets medics killed in Syria's Idlib
Gunmen stormed the Sarmin office of the Syrian paramedic group that is active in opposition-controlled areas.
Gunmen early on Saturday stormed an office of a Syrian paramedic group that is active in opposition-controlled areas, killing seven of its members and stealing two vehicles and other equipment in a northwestern region, the group and opposition activists said, while a suicide attack south of the country killed at least 23 rebels.

The Syrian Civil Defence group, more popularly known as the White Helmets, said in a statement that the attack happened in the early hours in the town of Sarmin.

No one immediately claimed responsibility for the rare attack but it came amid tension in the area. Sarmin is in Idlib province, which witnessed clashes recently between al-Qaida-linked fighters and members of the ultraconservative Ahrar al-Sham group that ended with al-Qaida fighters capturing much of the region.

The al-Qaida-linked Hayat Tahrir al Sham - also known as HTS - said over the past weeks that its members have discovered sleepers cells of the Islamic State of Syria and Iraq (ISIL, also known as ISIS) group who were planning an attack. Al-Qaida's affiliate, which used by to be known as the Nusra Front, has fought deadly battles with ISIL over the past years.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the seven were killed after being shot in the head, adding that the killings were discovered when volunteers from the White Helmets arrived to start a shift and found the bodies of their colleagues.

"Until now it is mostly likely a crime. It might also be an attack aimed to harm the image of the Nusra Front and to show that Idlib is not safe," said Rami Abdurrahman who heads the Observatory.

An opposition activist based in Idlib who has been providing The Associated Press with information about the province for years said the attackers used pistols equipped with silencers, adding that people living nearby did not notice anything unusual.
Into Aleppo's war zone with the White Helmet rescuers

The activist, who asked that his name not be used for fear of reprisals, said ISIL sleeper cells have been discovered in Sarmin. He added that most likely members of ISIL carried out the attack to show that Idlib is not safe.

The activist said the HTS-linked Judicial Committee is investigating the case.

Sarmin used to be a stronghold of the Jund al-Aqsa extremist group that clashed with al-Qaida last year before many of its members were allowed to head to areas controlled by ISIL, whom they are fighting now.

The Syrian first-responders have been known to risk their lives to save people from the civil war, now in its sixth year.

The White Helmets emerged in 2013, working to rescue civilians in rebel-held areas.

They have since gained international renown for their daring rescues, often filmed and circulated on social media, and were nominated for the 2016 Nobel Peace Prize.

Although they work exclusively in rebel-held areas, they insist they are non-partisan.

Their detractors, including President Bashar al-Assad's government and his ally Russia, accuse them of being tools of their international donors.

ロシアがISIS戦闘員の遺児数十人の帰還に動く

RT2017/8/12
‘Come home, we’re waiting’: Relatives of Russian children in Iraq come forward after RT coverage

次は、チェチェン共和国の第3代首長　カディロフのインスタグラムのようです。

「数十人のロシア人幼児がイスラム国に連れ出されています」

チェチェンからは多数の戦闘員がISISに渡り、幹部もいました。その背景があってカディロフが孤児の帰国に熱心なのでしょう。

RT2017/8/8
A four-year-old Chechen boy has been brought back to Russia after living with his jihadist father, who was fighting alongside ISIS in Mosul. Russian authorities are now seeking the return of several dozen such children from Iraqi orphanages.

Bilal Tagirov’s mother hadn’t seen him for two years. In October 2015, the child was kidnapped from his native Chechnya by his father, Khasan Tagirov, who went to fight alongside Islamic State jihadists, first in Syria and then in Iraq.

“For the past two years I had cherished the hope that my son would come back,” Bilal’s mother, Zalikha Ashakhanova, 24, said.“There have been attempts to bring him home. Finally, my dream came true.”

After two years of unsuccessful searches, Zalikha finally saw her son for the first time in a video from the liberated city of Mosul, uploaded on the internet.

“After watching the video with my boy, I was in shock. I hadn’t seen him for two years, but immediately recognized him. He almost did not change… I definitely recognized his voice. The mannerisms remained the same. On this video, there was his father in the background. Everyone recognized him, my mother and his relatives," the boy's mother recalls.

The woman immediately turned for help to the prosecutor's office. The head of the Chechen Republic, Ramzan Kadyrov, helped organize the boy’s search and rescue operation.

Last week, Bilal finally came back home from Baghdad to Grozny.

“He had lived through so many tragic days it would be enough for a hundred lives. Mosul lies in ruins. Bilal and his father were found half alive in the city's ruins. The boy needed immediate help, otherwise he would not have survived,” Kadyrov wrote on Instagram.

Russian authorities are now trying to bring back home other children stuck in Mosul.

According to Samih Beno, a Jordanian politician of Chechen origin, 48 minors, presumably children of Russian citizens, are now being held in different Iraqi shelters. Beno, also the head of the Chechen Republic’s Friends Association in Jordan, helped begin the evacuation and serves as a mediator during talks between representatives of different countries and international public organizations. No concrete date as to when minors could be brought back home can be set at the moment, as the process of their return is full of legal complications. To bring the children back, it must be confirmed they are all Russian citizens, which is not easy as the minors lack documents proving their identity and can hardly tell the authorities anything about themselves or their family aside from a name. According to Beno, the kids will have to undergo a DNA test to prove they are relatives with people who claim so.

The Minister of Labor and Social Affairs, Mr. Mohamed Shiaa Al-Sudani, told RT that some of the children had arrived in the country along with foreign fighters, and others were born in Iraq.

The Iraqi Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs has developed an extensive program to take care of children from the IS-liberated areas in coordination with several ministries, civil society groups and international organizations like UNICEF.

“We have accepted a large number of children from the province of Nineveh. A lot of children. Some of them are of unknown origin, some got lost. Others were abandoned by their parents for various reasons,” Dr Abeer Mahde Alchalabi, Director General of Social Special Needs, and Office Director of the Child Welfare Commission, told RT.

“Before being placed in the shelter, their health condition was depressing. They suffered from mental and skin diseases as a result of a long stay in those [Islamic State] camps…

Some children have broken legs or hands. This is because they were abandoned by their parents and for a long time had stayed without any further care. Among them there are Iraqi children of Yazidi mothers. There are Chechen children, Chinese, there is one French child. All these children have been placed in the shelters… We consider them to be the victims. They are not guilty of anything. Of course, if the child’s father is from ISIS, the child is not to blame,” Dr Alchalabi said.

The Russian Foreign Ministry, the Chechen Republic, the Federation Council, as well as Jordanian and Iraqi politicians are involved in negotiations to return children to their homeland. Before rejoining their families, some of the children will have to first receive medical and psychological help in special rehabilitation facilities, according to Russia’s children’s ombudsman Anna Kuznetsova.

Last month Mosul was declared liberated from Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL) terrorists. Iraqi and US-led forces have faced severe criticism from human rights organizations and the international community for the eight-month-long operation to retake the city, as it caused civilian casualties and massive displacement.

ティラーソンがイラククルドの国民投票延期を求める

FARSNEWS2017/8/12
Top US Diplomat Demands Delay of Iraqi Kurdistan Referendum
TEHRAN (FNA)- The US secretary of state called on the leader of Iraq’s semi-autonomous region Kurdistan region, Massoud Barzani, to delay a controversial referendum on independence from the mainland slated for next month.

In a telephone call on Friday, Rex Tillerson said Washington “would want for the referendum to be postponed and that the issues between the Kurdistan region and the federal government in Baghdad should be addressed through dialogue,” Barzani’s office said in a statement, presstv reported.

The statement further added that “on the issue of the postponement of the referendum, the President [Barzani] stated that the people of the Kurdistan Region would expect guarantees and alternatives for their future.”

It, however, did not elaborate on Barzani’s reaction to the demand by the senior American official concerning the referendum that is due to take place on September 25.

However, Reuters on Saturday quoted Hoshyar Zebari, Barzani’s advisor, as saying that Iraq’s Kurds will maintain their plan to hold the referendum.

“The date is standing, Sept. 25, no change,” the Iraqi Kurdish official added.

The developments came on the backdrop of the US State Department’s expression of concern back in June that the referendum will distract from “more urgent priorities” such as the fight against Daesh terrorists.

Senior officials in Baghdad as well as in neighboring states of Iran and Turkey have voiced concerns over the planned vote, warning against largely Western-backed attempts to partition Iraq.

In June, Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi described as untimely the decision by Barzani to hold the referendum.

“Every part of Iraq has aspirations and has a dream, and we respect that, even if we disagree with it,” Abadi said, adding that “we live in one homeland and they are our partners.”

“We have a constitution that we've voted on, we have a federal parliament and a federal government... The referendum at this time is not opportune,” he stressed.

His remarks came after Barzani announced in a Twitter message that the Northern territory would hold an independence referendum in September not only in the three provinces that make up the Kurdish region but in the areas that are disputed by the Kurdish and the central Iraqi governments.

Following the announcement, the Iraqi government also issued a statement saying that it would reject any unilateral move by regional Kurdish authorities to push for independence.

Turkey has censured efforts to establish an independent Kurdistan as "a grave mistake.” Ankara has expressed fears that the potential of creating of an independent Kurdish state in its backyard would further embolden Turkey’s homegrown Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) militants towards an even stiffer confrontation with the government.

Iran also expressed opposition to the “unilateral” scheme, underlining the importance of maintaining the integrity and stability of Iraq and insisting that the Kurdistan region is part of the majority Arab state.

米軍の戦闘機がイラクのISIS支配地域に着陸

FARSNEWS2017/8/12
PMF Commander Confirms US Fighter Jets' Landing in ISIL-Occupied Areas
TEHRAN (FNA)- The deputy commander of the Iraqi Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF), Abu Mahdi Al-Mohandes, confirmed that the US warplanes have been witnessed as landing in areas which are under the ISIL terrorists' control.

"We have footages and documents which prove the US fighter jets are landing in regions occupied by the ISIL," al-Mohandes was quoted as saying by the Arabic-language al-Forat News on Saturday.

In relevant remarks in March, Commander of Asa'eb al-Haq Movement affiliated to the Iraqi popular forces of Hashd al-Shaabi had revealed that the US forces have carried out a rapid heliborne operation and evacuated two commanders of ISIL terrorists from Western Mosul in Northern Iraq.

Javad al-Talaybawi said that the US forces carried out the heliborne operation in one of the Western neighborhoods of Western Mosul, evacuating two senior ISIL commanders to an unknown location after the commanders came under siege by Iraqi government forces in intensified clashes in Western Mosul.

"Americans' support and assistance to the ISIL is done openly to save their regional plan in a desperately attempt," al-Talaybawi underlined.

Al-Talaybawi had warned late in February that the US forces tried hard to evacuate ISIL commanders from the besieged city of Tal Afar West of Mosul.

After photos surfaced in the media displaying US forces assisting ISIL terrorists, al-Talaybawi said that the Americans were planning to take ISIL commanders away from Tal Afar that was under the Iraqi forces' siege.

In the meantime, member of Iraqi Parliament's Security and Defense Commission Iskandar Watut called for a probe into photos and footages displaying US planes airdropping aid packages over ISIL-held regions.

Watut further added that we witnessed several times that US planes dropped packages of food stuff, arms and other necessary items over ISIL-held regions, and called on Iraq's air defense to watch out the US-led coalition planes.

Eyewitnesses disclosed at the time that the US military planes helped the ISIL terrorists in Tal Afar region West of Mosul.

"We saw several packages dropped out of a US army aircraft in the surrounding areas of the city of Tal Afar in Western Nineveh province and six people also came out of a US plane in the ISIL-controlled areas," the Arabic-language media quoted a number of eyewitnesses as saying.

人口動態統計の分析・SPM分析の結果を侮るなかれ

2017/8/12に寄せられたコメントを掲載する。
2017年08月11日
とうとう始まったな　どこでより早く強く顕在化しているのかなに寄せられたものです。この記事に次のように書きました。
「岐阜が低いが岐阜のSPM濃度は高かった。岐阜産野菜購入する人も多いがちょっと待てという感じか。東海は全般的に要注意。」

以下がコメント（原コメントは表示していません）

岐阜の野菜ですが、私の山岳関係の大先輩が岐阜に住んでおります。
以前、岐阜の野菜を食べると膝が痛くなるんだけどという相談を受け、私も先輩から頂いた岐阜県産の野菜を食べましたが、先輩の言われた通り、膝が痛くなりました。私の場合は熱まで出ましたが。

人口動態分析


SPM分析
岐阜は、SPM濃度の谷から山への上げ幅が大きい。

迎撃ミサイルの破片は地上に落ちてきます

北朝鮮憎しの愛国的読者の皆さん　あなたの地方に迎撃ミサイル配備されましたか？　防衛当局の動きを見ていると日本の領土に入ってきてから撃ち落す計画のようです。うまく当たれば向うが打ち込んだミサイルと防衛用のミサイルの両方の破片が落ちてきます。当たらなかった場合どこに落ちるのでしょう。その点はお忘れなく。


北朝鮮のミサイル迎撃するはずのテストが失敗
FARSNEWS2017/7/25
US Blames Human Error for Missile Test Failure
TEHRAN (FNA)- The US military blamed human error for a botched ballistic missile intercept test in late June, an embarrassing failure amid an ongoing row with North Korea over its missile program.

The June 22 test in the Pacific Missile Range Facility on Kauai failed after a sailor on board the USS John Paul Jones, the US Navy’s missile defense test ship, pressed the wrong button on the Aegis Combat System and caused a RIM-161 Standard Missile (SM-3) Block IIA interceptor to self-destruct mid-air, Defense News reported

An investigation by the US Missile Defense Agency sowed that the sailor, a tactical datalink controller tasked with maintaining encrypted data exchanges between ships and aircraft, had registered the incoming ballistic missile as a "friendly” rocket, the report stated.

“Though the review is still in process, the SM-3 IIA interceptor and Aegis Combat System have been eliminated as the potential root cause” of the failure, said Air Force Lt. Gen. Sam Greaves, the director of MDA.

“We are conducting an extensive review as part of our standard engineering and test processes, and it would be inappropriate to comment further until we complete the investigation,” he added.

This was the fourth overall test and the second ship launch of the SM-3 IIA system, jointly developed by Japan and the US to allegedly counter missile threats rising from North Korea.

The US, along with South Korea and Japan, have been wary of the North’s progress in developing ballistic missiles and nuclear weapons.

North Korea has threatened to attack all three countries in case it faces American aggression.

Besides the SM-3 system, the US has equipped Tokyo and Seoul, Pyongyang’s two regional adversaries, with Patriot and the Terminal High Altitude Defense System (THAAD) missiles defenses.

Earlier this month, the US and South Korea fired surface-to-surface missiles in reaction to North Korea’s successful test-launch of what Washington insists was an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM).

During the test, US and South Korean forces conducted simultaneous launches from the US Army Tactical Missile System and South Korea’s Hyunmoo Missile II system.

The US Army said in a statement that the drills showed both the US and South Korea’s military capability to “engage the full array of time critical targets under all weather conditions.”

Unfretted by the constant threats, however, North Korea says it will not give up on its missile technology and nuclear deterrence unless Washington ends its hostile policy toward Pyongyang and dissolves the US-led UN command in South Korea.

イエメン救済は 残された時間がなくなってきた

FARSNEWS2017/6/26
Horrors of Yemen's Spiralling Crisis
TEHRAN (FNA)- Yemen is in the grip of a vicious cholera outbreak and a near famine that have coincided to create one of the worst humanitarian crises on the planet. Following two years of Saudi war the UN says the country's health, water and sanitation systems are collapsing.

FARSNEWS2017/6/26
Saudis and Americans Are Making the Best Torturers in Yemen
TEHRAN (FNA)- In Yemen, the object of US-backed, Saudi-led terrorism is terrorism; the object of oppression is oppression; the object of torture is torture; and the object of murder is murder.

That’s why the war criminals always mystify, torture, mislead, and surprise the world community as much as possible. They make the best torturers because they understand defeat, desperation and fear, and they can use it:

Saudi Arabia and its partners in crime have secret detention centers in Yemen specifically designed to torture Yemeni prisoners on the pretext of fighting terror. To this end, hundreds of men have so far disappeared into a secret network of prisons in southern Yemen where abuse is routine and torture extreme - including the "grill," in which the victim is tied to a spit like a roast and spun in a circle of fire.

Not surprisingly, senior Pentagon officials acknowledge that US forces have been involved in interrogations of detainees as well. Silly enough, they deny any participation in or knowledge of human rights abuses and torture program. This is while interrogating detainees who have been abused and tortured violates International Law, which prohibits complicity in torture.

Official reports have documented at least 18 clandestine lockups across southern Yemen run by Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates – all created and trained by the United States, drawing on accounts from former detainees, families of prisoners, civil rights lawyers and Yemeni military officials. All are either hidden or off limits to Yemen's government and the United Nations, of course. This is because the secret prisons are inside military bases, ports, and even an airport – while some detainees have been flown to an Emirati base across the Red Sea in Eritrea, according to Yemen Interior Minister Hussein Arab and others.

Several US defense officials, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss the topic, have told the media that American forces do participate in interrogations and abuse of detainees at locations in Yemen, provide questions for others to ask, and receive transcripts of interrogations from Emirati allies. They say US senior military leaders are aware of allegations of torture at the prisons in Yemen, looked into them, but were satisfied that there had not been any abuse when US forces were present!

This is wishful thinking. What you are hearing from Yemen comes from history – specifically from the Bush administration era. It comes from the record of the Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo Bay Prison torture programs, persecuting terror suspects, and torturing prisoners and all that sort of stuff. And it comes from the other side, too, from those who aided and abetted the CIA’s secret rendition program and flights – mainly the UAE, Jordan and Saudi Arabia. It comes not only from the War Party in Washington but also from its regional associates. Every single ally that has a problem with the resistance front has ended up by persecuting other people, torturing them, and killing them because they don't accept their occupation and regional designs.

Wherever you look in modern history, you find that. It’s still going on: Human Rights Watch says the abuses in Yemen "show that the US hasn't learned the lesson that cooperating with forces that are torturing detainees and ripping families apart is not an effective way to fight extremist groups."

Amnesty International has also called for a UN-led investigation "into Saudi Arabia’s, the UAE's and other parties' role in setting up this horrific network of torture" and into reports the US interrogated detainees or received information possibly obtained from torture. "It would be a stretch to believe the US did not know or could not have known that there was a real risk of torture."

It is painfully clear that Saudi Arabia, the United States and their partners in crime have never tried to turn the page on the Bush era. They promised to end the torture of terror suspects, arguing that these inhuman acts had undermined their credibility. But still they worked with the Trump White House to continue the Bush administration’s use of torture in Yemen. They even helped the CIA resurrect special military courts at the Guantanamo Bay – the place the White House had promised to shut down.

By not prosecuting the torturers and those who ordered the torture, the United States and the mere extras have become accessory to the war crimes Saudi Arabia is committing in Yemen’s secret prisons. Under International Law, whoever, knowing that an offense has been committed, receives, relieves, comforts or assists the offender in order to hinder or prevent his apprehension, trial or punishment, is an accessory after the fact.

At any rate, this is a hard, simple truth, where the United Nations is expected to intervene. The world community should avoid politics and expose the truth about detainee torture and abuse, which is still part of an endemic system of abuse, not only at secret CIA prisons the world over, but in Yemen which is still under US-backed, Saudi-led occupation and terror.

With the Saudis and their American allies still crossing the line on torture and International Law, and even acknowledging it, the UN should hold the Trump administration to account for relieving, comforting and assisting Saudi Arabia and all those who torture and countenance torture in Yemen. The regime changers have lost their way at some point. The torturers have all stained themselves with crimes against humanity and cannot be allowed to escape international justice and accountability.

初出　2017-06-26 18:43:22　追記8/11