Civil Rights Defense Organizations Request Arizona Governor’s Book Notes

Civil Rights Defense Organizations Request Arizona Governor’s Book Notes

TUCSON, Arizona – Civil rights defense organizations requested that a judge order Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer to turn over the notes she used to write her book “Scorpions for Breakfast” to use in their legal battle against Law SB1070, local media reported Monday.

In her controversial book, Brewer discusses her fight against what she called – the book’s subtitle – “special interests, liberal media and cynical politicos” to secure America’s border.

Lawyers for the American Civil Liberties Union and the Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund subpoenaed the notes and any other documents Brewer consulted in writing her book, published in 2011, including emails and interviews.

The attorneys hope to find in the governor’s notes some kind of indication of racial profiling, and they have requested all of her communications including the words “illegal,” Mexican” and “wetback,” among others.

Law SB1070 was approved in 2010 becoming the first state law to criminalize the presence on U.S. territory of undocumented immigrants.

After a long battle in the courts that ultimately went to the U.S. Supreme Court, several sections of the law were overturned, although a key portion of it, Section 2(b), authorizing police departments to “question” the immigration status of people they suspect might not have the proper papers, was later revived.

Activists say that this provision is being used to discriminate against Hispanic citizens and residents. 

Severed Heads Found in Western Mexico

MEXICO CITY – Two severed human heads were found Monday on the edge of a village in the western Mexican state of Michoacan, authorities said.

The heads belonged to two unidentified males, the state Attorney General’s Office said.

Agents from the AG’s office transported the heads from the village of Tiamba to the Michoacan medical examiner’s office and a criminal investigation is under way.

Mexico’s criminal organizations often dump victims’ bodies or body parts in public spots to send a message, whether to rival gangs, authorities or local populations they are trying to intimidate.

The Mexican federal government dispatched additional police and military personnel to Michoacan in January amid escalating conflict between the Caballeros Templarios drug cartel and local militias who took up armies to defend their communities against the group.

The offensive has led to a number of Templarios leaders’ being killed or captured. 

ISIS stones 2 ‘gay men’ to death in Syria: observer

Tuesday, 25 November 2014

The Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) group stoned two men to death in Syria Tuesday after claiming they were gay, a monitor said, in the militant organization’s first executions for alleged homosexuality.
“The ISIS today stoned to death a man that it said was gay,” the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said, adding that the victim was around 20 years old.

He was killed in Mayadeen in the eastern province of Deir Ezzor, near the border with Iraq.

The Britain-based Observatory said ISIS claimed it found videos on his mobile phone showing him “practicing indecent acts with males.”

In a separate incident on Tuesday, an 18-year-old was also stoned to death in Deir Ezzor city after the group said he was gay, the Observatory said.

Activists on social media said that the dead men were opponents of ISIS and that the group had used the allegation as a pretext to kill them.

The United Nations said this month the ISIS had carried out several executions by stoning of women in Syria it accused of adultery.

The militants proclaimed a “caliphate” in June after seizing swathes of Iraq and Syria.

Activists say ISIS carries out regular public executions -- often beheadings -- in areas it controls.

Syrian govt bombs ISIS stronghold of Raqqa, 63 killed

Tuesday, 25 November 2014

More than 63 people were killed in militant-held Syrian city of Raqqa after Syria regime war planes struck the militant group’s stronghold on Tuesday, an observer group monitoring the war said.

Half of those killed were civilians, Reuters news agency reported adding that Syrian government officials were not immediately available to comment. 

Rami Abdulrahman, who runs the Britain-based Observatory, said 10 war planes struck at least 10 times in Raqqa, a stronghold of the ultra-hardline group Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS).

"The majority of the strikes were in the eastern part of the city," Abdulrahman said. "At least 36 of those killed are civilians. As for the rest, we are not sure yet if they were fighters."

According to the Associated Press, the Local Coordination Committees said the strikes killed at least 70 people.

Additionally, another Raqqa-based collective called Raqqa is Being Silently Slaughtered said it documented over 80 deaths. 

ISIS, which has seized wide expanses of territory in Iraq and Syria, drove the last Syrian government forces out of Raqqa province in late August. Its fighters seized an air base then, capturing and later executing scores of Syrian soldiers.

An ISIS fighter in the province confirmed that the government carried out the air strikes, which he said killed at least 70 people, Reuters reported. 

The Syrian air force has increased its strikes across Syria since a U.S.-led coalition started attacking Islamic State positions inside Syria in September.

Analysts say the increase could be because the Syrian military wants to weaken rebel groups before they get training and equipment promised by the United States.

JOE'S CRIME BLOG/HUMAN RIGHT'S SITE: A Girl I Know - The Lost Tapes by Carolina Hoyos

JOE'S CRIME BLOG/HUMAN RIGHT'S SITE: A Girl I Know - The Lost Tapes by Carolina Hoyos

JOE'S CRIME BLOG/HUMAN RIGHT'S SITE: At Least 33 Jihadists Killed in Mosul

JOE'S CRIME BLOG/HUMAN RIGHT'S SITE: At Least 33 Jihadists Killed in Mosul: MOSUL, Iraq – At least 33 jihadists of the Islamic State radical group have died over the past several hours in the Iraqi city of Mosul a...

At Least 33 Jihadists Killed in Mosul

MOSUL, Iraq – At least 33 jihadists of the Islamic State radical group have died over the past several hours in the Iraqi city of Mosul and the surrounding area, including a leader who was responsible for the sale of kidnapped Yazidi women.

A spokesman for the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, Ghayath al-Surji, told Efe that 20 jihadists were killed early Monday in clashes with the peshmerga Kurdish forces in Ba’shiqah Mountain, 14 kilometers (9 miles) northeast of Mosul.

The fighting lasted over four hours and was triggered after IS members attacked a pershmerga position, according to al-Surji, who did not specify whether the Kurdish forces suffered casualties.

After these clashes, international coalition aircraft hit IS posts in Ba’shiqah, where large plumes of smoke rose in the air, but there was no immediate report of casualties.

Meanwhile, the bodies of 13 jihadists were transferred on Monday to the morgue in Mosul, a source at the forensic center told Efe.

One of the dead was identified as Mostafa Qerbash, nicknamed Abu Hosam, who was killed in fighting in Tel Afer, according to a statement the group posted on the internet.

Qerbash was one of the leaders of the IS and was responsible for selling women from the Yazidi minority to other members of the jihadist group.

Human Rights Watch reported in October that the IS holds hundreds of Yazidis as hostages in Iraq, many of them forced to convert to Islam and the women forced to marry jihadists.

Mosul, the capital of Nineveh province, fell into the hands of the IS in June when the jihadists launched an offensive in northern Iraq and proclaimed a caliphate in the country and in neighboring Syria.