President Obama grants waiver allowing U.S. military aid to four countries using child soldiers.

[Better Believe It]

Obama grants waiver that allows U.S. aid to continue to four countries using child soldiers
By Mary Beth Sheridan
Washington Post Staff Writer
October 28, 2010

President Obama has granted a waiver allowing four countries to continue receiving U.S. military aid even though they use child soldiers, officials said Wednesday.

Human rights groups reacted with surprise and concern, saying the decision would send the wrong message.

"What the president has done is basically given everybody a pass for using child soldiers," said Jo Becker, children's rights director at Human Rights Watch.

Obama sent a memo to Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, dated Monday, saying that it was "in the national interest" to waive a cutoff of military assistance for Chad, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Sudan and Yemen.

Jesse Eaves, policy adviser on children's issues for the humanitarian group World Vision, noted that the law did not mandate a cutoff of all forms of military assistance for offenders. For example, they could have still gotten help in eliminating their use of child soldiers. "That kind of assistance is still allowed under the law without invoking the waiver. That's why this is a disturbing step," he said.

Read the full article at:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/10/27/AR2010102707171.html


--------------------------------------------




Cable exclusive: The secret Obama administration memo on child soldiers
By Josh Rogin
October 28, 2010

Most officials on Capitol Hill and human rights advocates received no warning or explanation prior to the Obama administration's quiet announcement Monday that it would waive sanctions against four countries that forcibly recruit child soldiers. However, an internal State Department document obtained by The Cable sheds light on the reasons behind the Obama administration's decision to pull back on a bill that Barack Obama himself co-sponsored as a senator.

On Wednesday, after The Cable reported that Obama had decided not to cut off military assistance -- as required under the Child Soldiers Prevention Act -- against Chad, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Sudan, and Yemen, the White House offered only a terse explanation for the decision. Today, we bring you the internal State Department document dated Monday, Oct. 25 (PDF) that lays out the arguments State made in favor of not implementing these sanctions. The document is signed by Obama, but we're told it was prepared by State.

"We're going to ask for some greater explanation on some of these. To do the waiver on all of the countries certainly caught our attention," said one Democratic Senate aide involved in the issue. "When using American tax money to help governments that use child soldiers, there should be a pretty high bar."

"This was landmark legislation that Obama supported as a senator and now he's undercutting it. It's really a shame," said Jo Becker, advocacy director for the children's rights division at Human Rights Watch.



Read the full article at:

http://thecable.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2010/10/28/cable_exclusive_the_secret_obama_administration_memo_on_child_soldiers


-------------------------------------------

The White House

Office of the Press Secretary

For Immediate Release October 25, 2010
Presidential Memorandum--Child Soldiers Prevention Act
Presidential Determination
No. 2011-4

MEMORANDUM FOR THE SECRETARY OF STATE

SUBJECT: Presidential Determination with Respect to Section 404(c) of the Child Soldiers Prevention Act of 2008

By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, pursuant to section 404(c) of the Child Soldiers Prevention Act of 2008 (CSPA), title IV of the William Wilberforce Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act of 2008 (Public Law 110 457), I hereby determine that it is in the national interest of the United States to waive the application to Chad, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Sudan, and Yemen of the prohibition in section 404(a) of the CSPA.

You are authorized and directed to submit this determination to the Congress, along with the accompanying memorandum of justification, and to publish it in the Federal Register.

BARACK OBAMA

http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2010/10/25/presidential-memorandum-child-soldiers-prevention-act


MEMORANDUM OF JUSTIFICATION
REGARDING THE WAIVER OF RESTRICTIONS
PURSUANT TO THE CHILD SOLDIERS PREVENTION ACT OF 2008

In PDF Format At:


http://www.foreignpolicy.com/files/fp_uploaded_documents/101028_2010%20Child%20Soldiers%20Prevention%20Act-PD%20%20MOJ0001.pdf

[bighart]

1. Crazy to do this.

[dflprincess]

2. So the U.S. has enough money to send military support to child abusers

while in Indiana parents are having trouble getting help from Medicaid to care for disabled children and being advised that they can leave them at homeless shelters if they can't care for them.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x4591056

I just don't understand this government's priorities.

[bighart]

3. Imagine what it will be like in a few years with half a billion in federal funds

taken out of medicare and the states having to foot more of the bill.

[inna]

14. Deeply, deeply disturbing. nt

[Bluenorthwest]

4. How does he explain this in context of his Christian faith?

I am tired of the hypocrisy of the Obama administration. Too holy for equality, but not holy enough to refuse to fund child soldiers. Some religion that is, folks, some religion.

[jgraz]

10. Hey, it's not like they're letting the kids get gay-married.

What's the problem?

[bullwinkle428]

42. Or the context of Nobel Peace Prize winner?

[Bluebear]

53. you said it.

[girl gone mad]

56. It was ironic..

like Kissinger's.

[WHEN CRABS ROAR]

5. I'm 69 years old, this shit has been going on for far to long.

Just a different time and a different country, nothing ever seems to change, so sad. Goddamn military aid.

[Sirveri]

6. So if we send military support will they stop using child soldiers?

That's really the ONLY way this would make any sense...

[Better Believe It]

8. They want the military equipment for their child soldiers. So no.

[laughingliberal]

11. No. The law was written allowing monetary assistance for eliminating the use of child soldiers. nt

[Brickbat]

7. Disgusting. What the fuck is going on?

[dgibby]

9. Well, considering how our govt treats child soldiers caught on the battlefield,

this move would, at least, be consistent. WRONG, but consistent.

[laughingliberal]

12. Disturbing. nt

[depakid]

13. Since the US refuses to ratify the Convemtion on the Rights of the Child

I don't see what the problem is.

:sarcasm:

[dflprincess]

39. Gee, you'd think the "prolifers" would be all over that as well as the child soldier issue

Though, of course, we are talking about children who have been born and in the case of child soldiers, kids whose skin is not white.

[Zhade]

15. Fuck. It never stops.

NT!

[Bluebear]

16. Not one 'ignored' post in the thread.

Funny thing.

[Occulus]

28. Isn't it, though?

Oh, I see one, but nobody responded.

I've noticed that when the news is so bad there's no way to spin it, Ignored is absent.

Odd, that.

[BlueCheese]

17. Generally....

... be very afraid of countries whose names include "Democratic Republic of ..."

Whether it's the Democratic Republic of Congo, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, or the German Democratic Republic, there's definitely a bit of protesting too much.

[KG]

18. more change!!!

:eyes:

[txaslftist]

50. ... but very little hope.

[Chan790]

19. Why are we providing military aid to Sudan anyway?

It's governed by a brutal regime under Omar al-Bashir which has a history of providing material support for both Al Qaeda and Janjaweed militants, including providing a base of operations to Osama bin Laden during most of the 1990s. They're on the OFAC registry as a state sponsor of terror meaning it's a felony punishable by severe fines (measured in millions of dollars) & seizure and forfeiture of assets and/or businesses to even inadvertently do business with them or materially profit them in any way...and we're giving them military aid to arm children as cannon-fodder.

Why don't we give military aid to Somalia, Myanmar and the DPRK (North Korea) while we're at it? It's about an equivalently good idea.

[Touchdown]

20. This is awful.

I don't know what to say. We can't do this. This is wrong.

[AlabamaLibrul]

21. Clearly the Peace Prize should go to those who fund child soldiers.

Chilling, indeed.

[cornermouse]

22. This is wrong.

There is no justification for supporting a regime that sends children out to kill. The idea that allowing children to be sent out to die based on the theory that you're going to reduce or eliminate child soldiers based on a vague statement that the children's ages will be checked (by who and using what for documentation?) is just dumb.

[bahrbearian]

23. Is it going to be aid in the form Ponies

[bahrbearian]

24. dupe

[Occulus]

25. "MAKE me do it." What? MAKE you not turn your back on children training to go to war?!?

"President Obama has granted a waiver"
"By the authority vested in me as President"
"The document is signed by Obama, but we're told it was prepared by State"

What the FUCK is going on

Who IS this man I helped into office

[howmad1]

48. Can't wait for 2012:

To get rid of this empty suit sitting in the White House.

[Solly Mack]

26. k/r

[ima_sinnic]

27. my blood pressure

can no longer take this president.

[SammyWinstonJack]

45. +1 nt

[pecwae]

29. Good thing all those human rights

groups are "surprised and concerned", calling it "a shame". Guess the lives of children and the corrupt governments utilizing them are of no interest and not nearly as important as the national interest.

[Stinky The Clown]

30. The hits just keep on keepin' on

[Dinger]

31. Kicking For The Truth

[blindpig]

32. Disgusting but typical

The US Government supports tyrants, torturers, genocidal regimes. And behind it all, that so-called Invisible Hand.

[QC]

33. HOPETASTIC!

:toast:

[piratefish08]

74. Changer-iffic!

:wtf:

[Better Believe It]

34. New York Times: Nations With Child Soldiers Keep U.S. Aid

Nations With Child Soldiers Keep U.S. Aid
By Brian Knowlton
October 28, 2010

WASHINGTON — In 2009, the government of Chad conscripted refugee children for unlawful use as guards and combatants in its desert battles against rebel forces; the army of the Democratic Republic of Congo forced children to carry ammunition and supplies through the jungle, and some died under their weight; hundreds of boys and girls were forced into the army of southern Sudan, despite a commitment to release them; and in Yemen, children as young as 14 make up perhaps half the ranks of both the government’s forces and the rebels opposing them.

Despite those findings, in an annual State Department report on human trafficking, the Obama administration is allowing American military aid to continue to the four countries, issuing a waiver this week of a 2008 law, the Child Soldiers Prevention Act.

In a memorandum to Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton on Monday, President Obama said he had determined that the waiver was in “the national interest.”

The memo offered no elaboration. But administration spokesmen said that the law, signed by President George W. Bush but effective only as of this year, would have penalized countries providing crucial cooperation with the United States, including in the fight against Al Qaeda militants. In some cases, they said, it was easier to press countries to stop using young soldiers if the United States remained closely engaged with them.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/29/world/africa/29soldiers.html?_r=1&partner=rss&emc=rss

[MadHound]

35. More administration hypocrisy

Of course they're not going to cut military aid to Yemen. That's the next hot spot, where our covert war will become overt.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

36. We're providing the kids with valuable occupational skills. It's for their own good.

We wouldn't want the poor tykes roaming the streets and making nuisances of themselves...unarmed.

[Better Believe It]

37. Senator Durbin: "use of children is one of the most despicable human rights violations in the world"

News Release (Excerpt)

Durbin, Coburn Bill to Deny Safe Haven to War Criminals Who Exploit Child Soldiers Sent to President
Monday, September 15, 2008


– Legislation that would make it a crime to recruit or use child soldiers was sent to the President for his signature today, following final passage of the measure by the Senate. The bipartisan bill, which the President is expected to sign this week, was authored by U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL) and Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK). The Child Soldiers Accountability Act would give the federal government the authority to prosecute, deport or deny admission to an individual who recruited or used child soldiers under the age of 15. When signed, the bill will become the second piece of legislation from Durbin and Coburn’s Subcommittee on Human Rights and the Law to be enacted into law.

“The United States must not be a safe haven for those who exploit children as soldiers. Period,” Durbin said. “The use of children as combatants is one of the most despicable human rights violations in the world today and affects the lives of hundreds of thousands of boys and girls who are used as combatants, porters, human mine detectors and sex slaves. The power to prosecute and punish those who violate the law will send a clear signal that the U.S. will in no way tolerate this abhorrent practice.”

“Children should never participate in hostilities. Yet, tragically, more than 2 million children around the world have lost their childhoods, their innocence, and ultimately their lives following forced or coerced recruitment into militaries or militias,” Dr. Coburn said. “Another 6 million have suffered disabling injuries, and 250,000 children continue to be exploited today. This bill helps ensure that those who recruit or use child soldiers will not be able to seek safe haven in the United States and in the event they are found in this country, it allows us — for the first time — to punish them under U.S. criminal laws.”

“The conduct prohibited by the Child Soldiers Accountability Act is appalling, but happens all too often throughout the world,” said Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-VT). “Our country should do everything it can to stop this offense to human rights and human dignity. Senator Durbin has been a leader on this issue and I commend him for his work to address human rights violations around the world. I hope the President will quickly sign this bill into law.”

Children are currently fighting as soldiers in over twenty countries. Denied a childhood and often subjected to horrific violence, an estimated 200,000 to 300,000 children are serving as soldiers for both rebel groups and government forces. Physically vulnerable and easily intimidated, children typically make obedient soldiers and participate in all aspects of warfare. Many are recruited by force, and often compelled to follow orders under threat of death.

The Child Soldiers Accountability Act was cosponsored by Senators Russ Feingold (D-WI) and Sam Brownback (R-KS).

“Child soldiers in Africa and across the globe are forced to perpetrate atrocious acts while often being victimized by drug addiction, psychological manipulation, and sexual abuse,” Feingold said. “Forcing children to fight robs them of their innocence, violates their basic human rights and poses a threat to the security of communities and entire countries. With passage of this legislation, which ensures that those who recruit and use child soldiers are held accountable, we renew our nation’s commitment to ending the use of child soldiers.”

“I am very proud to see Senate passage of the Child Soldiers Bill,” said Senator Brownback. “We as a society must not tolerate the recruiting, enlistment or conscription of children under the age of 15 for use in military actions. Child soldiers are subjected to unspeakable atrocities; in some cases these children are forced to kill their own family members. It is time the global community holds accountable the responsible parties who are subjecting innocent children to a brutal life of violence.”

http://durbin.senate.gov/showRelease.cfm?releaseId=303034

[ProSense]

47. Here is the page from GOP outrage

The GOP is outraged

It will be interesting to find out more about the administration's position and reasoning. The FP article touched on it a bit.

[TBF]

54. Everyone should be outraged by this -

of course the Republican Party will use this politically. Wouldn't you?

[ima_sinnic]

57. "the GOP is outraged" but you're not --

nor, apparently, is Obama.

afaic, any human being on the face of the earth should be outraged by the giving of military aid for the recruiting, abuse, and murder of children--and especially the American taxpayers, who are paying for these inhumane, despicable imperialist adventures.
Yes, I'm sure the "reasoning" will make everything all right for you. I have no doubt.

[Better Believe It]

59. Republicans are attacking President Obama from the left on human rights!!!

Even the Republican Party has to take a position against this.

President Obama has given Republicans more ammunition .... along with reactionary regimes that arm child soldiers.

And Republicans are attacking Obama from the left on human rights!!!!!

Masterful chess move President Obama.

[Bluebear]

60. 3-D!

[Better Believe It]

62. It's clearly far too difficult for a mere mortal like me to understand and play well.

[Bluebear]

66. You answered...

my only "ignored" poster in this thread. Thank you, I am always glad to know the list is stocked properly :)

[Better Believe It]

69. Same here!

#47 is also on my ignore list probably because of personal attacks and/or a refusal to engage in civil debate.

[ima_sinnic]

70. probably because of

a preponderance of little blue links :eyes:

[ck4829]

38. What is this "national interest"? What do we reap by putting a machine gun in a child's hands?

What exactly is this making us safe from? What kind of safety is delivered by a child killing and dying in war instead of being allowed to be a child?

[pattmarty]

40. What the fuck is this? Why don't we just give up all the "progress"........

.........of the twentieth century and start working our way back to the 17th or so?

[Better Believe It]

41. “Profound Equities with Yemen in Terms of Counter-Terrorism” Justify Child Soldiers?

“Profound Equities with Yemen in Terms of Counter-Terrorism” Justify Child Soldiers?
By: emptywheel
October 28, 2010

As I suspected, the Administration rationale for exempting Yemen from sanction explicitly has to do with our counter-terrorism efforts there.

It’s bad enough that our assistance in Yemen will contribute to a war in which half the soldiers are boys.

But I really am saddened by the coincidence in this timing. At this very moment, we’re going to great lengths in Gitmo to villainize Khadr, at least partly to dismiss all the criticism about trying a child soldier (for a crime that is not a crime). It’s as if those involved are trying to convince themselves that their war on terror trumps international norms of decency.

And even as we’re doing that, the President is taking affirmative steps to make it more likely that another boy, like Khadr, will be put in the same situation as him, attacked for following the orders of the adults around him.

http://emptywheel.firedoglake.com/2010/10/28/profound-equities-with-yemen-in-terms-of-counter-terrorism-justify-child-soldiers/

[JDPriestly]

43. Now that is what I call a Godless act.

The President needs to review this heinous decision.

I do not want to see American military aid given to any nation that abuses its children in this way. This child abuse is far more serious child abuse than anything perpetrated by Catholic priests or the most depraved sex offender.

The few children fortunate enough to survive their experience as enslaved killers will live with the horrible memories and emotional scars, their entire nervous systems tuned to an inner state of war at all times, everywhere they go.

Like all small children who survive bombing raids and who live in the eye of the storm of war, these children will wake up screaming in the night. Their screams will wake their mothers and when, as young men, they marry, their young brides and their children.

Has President Obama thought about the effects of what he is doing here?

There is simply no excuse, no excuse, no excuse.

Yes, we can stop the use of child soldiers if we make our aid depend on ending it.

[Name removed]

51. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[fascisthunter]

44. But Hey everyone... wasn't that such a slammin' interview the other night

thank you for keeping it real.

[JDPriestly]

46. Perhaps George Clooney can clarify what this means.

GEORGE CLOONEY brought his campaign for peace in the Sudan to the White House on Tuesday (12Oct10) by meeting with U.S. President BARACK OBAMA to discuss the issue.

. . . .

Speaking after the meeting, Clooney told reporters, "We have got 90 days to do this, it doesn't cost a dime and it doesn't cost any lives and no American troops. This is not a right or left issue...

"There are pressures that we can put on the government that we in many ways in the United States have already used up - short of military power - and no one is suggesting that."

http://www.wxyz.com/dpp/entertainment/celebrity/Clooney-meets-with-Obama-over-Sudan_01531033

I hope someone on MSNBC talks to Clooney about this. He could get some publicity for his fund for work there if he appeared, so he might be willing to give it a try.

I cannot believe that Obama would help a country that uses child soldiers. Makes me want to cry.

[Starry Messenger]

49. k & r

[Panaconda]

52. Add it to the list

Disgusting.

[maryf]

55. disgusting, dispicable, egregious, inhumane...

evil. K&R

[Duncan Grant]

58. The next time we see photos of children staring wide-eyed at Obama, I'm going to remember this.

Who needs the right-wing to suppress the vote? Jesus.

[w8liftinglady]

61. countries using child soldiers/child laborers...seem to be popular.

This is simply disgusting.


http://ihscslnews.org/view_article.php?id=57
http://www.freethechildren.com/getinvolved/geteducated/childlabour.htm
http://www.un.org/works/goingon/soldiers/childsoldiersmap.html
http://www.childsoldiersglobalreport.org/content/facts-and-figures-child-soldiers

[maryf]

68. from your links...

this map from your 3rd link shows countries using child soldiers in 2000-2001,

[jeanpalmer]

63. Four days before the election

he pulls a stunt like this. How else to interpret it except as an intentional slam to his base and an effort to diminish the vote. You'd need a team of psychiatrists to go inside his head to figure out why he sets out to piss us off. The RW would never do this to its base. I really believe he is a head case, a smooth talking one who sucked in many good hearted trusting people.

[Bluebear]

65. Call the psychiatrists...

to also explain why behavior that would be unacceptable to some people if Bush did it is just dandy if Obama does it. I don't get it.

[Better Believe It]

64. Republican Party attacks President Obama from "the left" on Human Rights !!??

I never thought in my wildest imagination I would see this.

President Obama has given the Republican Party ammunition to use against him and other Democrats in this election.

The Republican Party is shedding crocodile tears over the Obama administrations decision to send military arms to nations that use child soldiers. Like the Republican Party leadership really cares about human rights.

Can anyone imagine any candidate from either major party campaigning in defense of sending military help to nations that deploy young children on the battlefields? Their chances of being elected would be someone near zero.

And yet the Republican Party will now use this horrible decision by the Obama administration in their attempt to win control of the House and Senate.

This is sickening.

Is this really another masterful political chess move by President Obama that I'm just not intelligent enough to understand?

I just don't get it.

Check out the Republican propaganda machine for yourself.




Research BriefingIndefensible
27 October 2010
Posted by: Research

Obama Opens Door To Military Aid For Repressive Regimes That Exploit Child Soldiers

“THE OBAMA ADMINISTRATION SAYS IT’S IN OUR “NATIONAL INTEREST” TO TURN A BLIND EYE TO TYRANNY AND CHILDREN ON THE BATTLEFIELD

http://www.gop.com/index.php/briefing/comments/indefensible

[WinkyDink]

67. How can Obama justify breaking this law (is not an Act a law?)?

[Fumesucker]

71. Error: you can only recommend threads which were started in the past 24 hours

[CRH]

72. My oh my, in the lost continent, wrong is still wrong, ...

find another way.

[de novo]

73. That is indefensible and it saddens me.