Hawaii: Videos suggest downed power lines sparked devastating fires – National & International News – WED 16Aug2023

Videos suggest downed power lines sparked Maui’s devastating fires.

9/11 families told death penalty may be off the table for hijackers.

North Korea says US soldier fled racism in military.

NATIONAL NEWS

Hawaii: Videos suggest downed power lines sparked devastating fires

Videos captured by two homeowners show downed powerlines sparking fires in dry grass around 6:40 am on August 8. It appears this fire may have later advanced down Lahainaluna Rd., ultimately laying waste to the historic wooden-built town, leaving thousands homeless and certainly hundreds dead. The confirmed death toll has topped 100 and at last report, over a thousand people are still unaccounted for.

Authorities have confirmed that high winds from a passing hurricane and dry grass aided the spread of the fire. However they have been more resident to name its cause.

The Maui fires have drawn comparisons with the 2018 Camp Fire in California, which killed 85 people and destroyed the town of Paradise. California power company PG&E was found responsible after investigators discovered that the company’s poorly-maintained equipment had sparked the fire. Survivors of the Camp Fire later won a $13.5 billion settlement against PG&E. 

After the Camp Fire, many utilities adopted protocols that would shut off power at times when conditions are conducive to wildfires. Hawaii Electric had considered these protocols, but never implemented them. Despite forecasters issuing a “red flag warning” for wildfires on August 7, the utility’s powerlines remained live.

Survivors of the Maui fires have already filed a class-action lawsuit seeking to hold Hawaii Electric responsible for the deaths of over 100 people. One of the lawyers who filed the case says that falling trees brought down antiquated wooden poles that supported the powerlines. The attorney says the utility was supposed to replace those poles between 2019 and 2023, but this didn’t happen either. Hawaii Electric shares have already plunged 60% over fears the company will have to pay massive damages.

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9/11 families told death penalty may be off the table for hijackers

The Pentagon and FBI have informed survivors who lost family members in the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks that the perpetrators of the attacks may never face the death penalty. The notification came via letters dated August 1, but that some family members received only this week. Over a year and a half ago, prosecutors in the case began exploring negotiated pleas to resolve the criminal cases against suspected 9/11 architect Khalid Shaikh Mohammad and others, which had already been ongoing since 2008. 

Some survivors have already expressed outrage about the prospect of sparing the hijackers while others, including the group 9/11 Families for Peaceful Tomorrows, have said they are open to it.

CIA stymies “terror” prosecutions to cover its own crimes

The plea deal is necessary in part because of the thorny issue of torture. All five of the hijackers currently held at Guantanamo Bay were tortured at the hands of the CIA after their capture. Because of the legal implications of this illegal and inhumane treatment, the CIA has been stonewalling prosecutors’ efforts to obtain records.

The CIA’s resistance to transparency about its torture program has further stalled the prosecution of the hijackers. According to Alka Pradhan, an attorney on the 9/11 defense team, “The United States government failed all of us after September 11th in their decisions to use illegal techniques and illegal programs. In doing so, [they] irrevocably corrupted any legal process that could have taken place”.

This is also true in the cases of other suspected terrorists (and some likely innocent people) whom the CIA tortured. For example, CIA torturers demanded that Abu Zubaydah, another Gitmo detainee, “remain in isolation and incommunicado for the remainder of his life” to prevent him revealing publicly the details of his torture. To this day, Zubaydah remains in Guantanamo. This is despite the fact it has been proven he had no links to any terrorist organization or action, and the UN calling on the US to end Zubaydah’s “arbitrary” detention.

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INTERNATIONAL NEWS

North Korea says US soldier fled racism in military and American society

In its first official comment since Pvt. Travis King sprinted across the South Korean border last month, the North Korean government has said that Pvt. King sought refuge in North Korea after becoming “disillusioned” by racist treatment he faced in the military and in the US generally. An uncle of King’s had already said his nephew had experienced racial discrimination in the military.

North Korean investigators say King told them that he “harbored ill feeling against inhuman maltreatment and racial discrimination within the U.S. Army”. King is also alleged to have expressed “willingness to seek refuge in [North Korea] or a third country, saying that he was disillusioned at the unequal American society”.

Studies suggest that racial discrimination and harassment is rampant in the ranks of the military. Adversarial regimes, including North Korea and China, have often pointed to racism in the US to deflect from their own problematic human rights records.

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