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Disputing Trump, Barr says no widespread election fraud

By MICHAEL BALSAMO

Disputing President Donald Trump’s persistent, baseless claims, Attorney General William Barr declared Tuesday the U.S. Justice Department has uncovered no evidence of widespread voter fraud that could change the outcome of the 2020 election.

Barr’s comments, in an interview with the The Associated Press, contradict the concerted effort by Trump, his boss, to subvert the results of last month’s voting and block President-elect Joe Biden from taking his place in the White House.

Barr told the AP that U.S. attorneys and FBI agents have been working to follow up specific complaints and information they’ve received, but “to date, we have not seen fraud on a scale that could have effected a different outcome in the election.”

The comments, which drew immediate criticism from Trump attorneys, were especially notable coming from Barr, who has been one of the president’s most ardent allies. Before the election, he had repeatedly raised the notion that mail-in voting could be especially vulnerable to fraud during the coronavirus pandemic as Americans feared going to polls and instead chose to vote by mail. More to Trump’s liking, Barr revealed in the AP interview that in October he had appointed U.S. Attorney John Durham as a special counsel, giving the prosecutor the authority to continue to investigate the origins of the Trump-Russia probe after Biden takes over and making it difficult to fire him. Biden hasn’t said what he might do with the investigation, and his transition team didn’t comment Tuesday.

Trump has long railed against the investigation into whether his 2016 campaign was coordinating with Russia, but he and Republican allies had hoped the results would be delivered before the 2020 election and would help sway voters. So far, there has been only one criminal case, a guilty plea from a former FBI lawyer to a single false statement charge.

Under federal regulations, a special counsel can be fired only by the attorney general and for specific reasons such as misconduct, dereliction of duty or conflict of interest. An attorney general must document such reasons in writing.

Barr went to the White House Tuesday for a previously scheduled meeting that lasted about three hours.

Trump didn’t directly comment on the attorney general’s remarks on the election. But his personal attorney Rudy Giuliani and his political campaign issued a scathing statement claiming that, “with all due respect to the Attorney General, there hasn’t been any semblance” of an investigation into the president’s complaints. Other administration officials who have come out forcefully against Trump’s allegations of voter-fraud evidence have been fired. But it’s not clear whether Barr might suffer the same fate. He maintains a lofty position with Trump, and despite their differences the two see eye-to-eye on quite a lot.

Still, Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer quipped: “I guess he’s the next one to be fired.”

Last month, Barr issued a directive to U.S. attorneys across the country allowing them to pursue any “substantial allegations” of voting irregularities before the 2020 presidential election was certified, despite no evidence at that time of widespread fraud. That memorandum gave prosecutors the ability to go around longstanding Justice Department policy that normally would prohibit such overt actions before the election was certified. Soon after it was issued, the department’s top elections crime official announced he would step aside from that position because of the memo. The Trump campaign team led by Giuliani has been alleging a widespread conspiracy by Democrats to dump millions of illegal votes into the system with no evidence. They have filed multiple lawsuits in battleground states alleging that partisan poll watchers didn’t have a clear enough view at polling sites in some locations and therefore something illegal must have happened. The claims have been repeatedly dismissed including by Republican judges who have ruled the suits lacked evidence.

But local Republicans in some battleground states have followed Trump in making unsupported claims, prompting grave concerns over potential damage to American democracy.

Trump himself continues to rail against the election in tweets and in interviews though his own administration has said the 2020 election was the most secure ever. He recently allowed his administration to begin the transition over to Biden, but he still refuses to admit he lost. The issues they’ve have pointed to are typical in every election: Problems with signatures, secrecy envelopes and postal marks on mail-in ballots, as well as the potential for a small number of ballots miscast or lost. But they’ve gone further. Attorney Sidney Powell has spun fictional tales of election systems flipping votes, German servers storing U.S. voting information and election software created in Venezuela “at the direction of Hugo Chavez,” – the late Venezuelan president who died in 2013. Powell has since been removed from the legal team after an interview she gave where she threatened to “blow up” Georgia with a “biblical” court filing.

Barr didn’t name Powell specifically but said: “There’s been one assertion that would be systemic fraud and that would be the claim that machines were programmed essentially to skew the election results. And the DHS and DOJ have looked into that, and so far, we haven’t seen anything to substantiate that.”

In the campaign statement, Giuliani claimed there was “ample evidence of illegal voting in at least six states, which they have not examined.”

“We have many witnesses swearing under oath they saw crimes being committed in connection with voter fraud. As far as we know, not a single one has been interviewed by the DOJ. The Justice Department also hasn’t audited any voting machines or used their subpoena powers to determine the truth,” he said.

However, Barr said earlier that people were confusing the use of the federal criminal justice system with allegations that should be made in civil lawsuits. He said a remedy for many complaints would be a top-down audit by state or local officials, not the U.S. Justice Department. “There’s a growing tendency to use the criminal justice system as sort of a default fix-all,” he said, but first there must be a basis to believe there is a crime to investigate.

“Most claims of fraud are very particularized to a particular set of circumstances or actors or conduct. ... And those have been run down; they are being run down,” Barr said. “Some have been broad and potentially cover a few thousand votes. They have been followed up on.” https://apnews.com/article/election-2020-joe-biden-donald-trump-elections-william-barr-b1f1488796c9a98c4b1a9061a6c7f49d

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Muslim World’s Changing Dynamics: Pakistan Struggles To Retain Its Footing – Analysis

By James M. Dorsey 

Increasing strains between Pakistan and its traditional Arab allies, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates, is about more than Gulf states opportunistically targeting India’s far more lucrative market.

At the heart of the tensions, that potentially complicate Pakistan’s economic recovery, is also India’s ability to enhance Gulf states’ capacity to hedge their bets amid uncertainty about the continued US commitment to regional security.

India is a key member of the Quad that also includes the United States, Australia and Japan and could play a role in a future more multilateral regional security architecture in the Gulf.

Designed as the backbone of an Indo-Pacific strategy intended to counter China across a swath of maritime Asia, Gulf states are unlikely to pick sides but remain keen on ensuring that they maintain close ties with both sides of the widening divide.

The mounting strains with Pakistan are also the latest iteration of a global battle for Muslim religious soft power that pits Saudi Arabia and the UAE against Turkey, Iran, and Asian players like Indonesia’s Nahdlatul Ulama, the world’s largest Islamic movement.

A combination of geo- and domestic politics is complicating efforts by major Muslim-majority states in Asia to walk a middle line. Pakistan, home to the world’s largest Shiite Muslim minority, has reached out to Turkey while seeking to balance relations with its neighbour, Iran.

The pressure on Pakistan is multi-fold.

Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan charged recently that the United States and one other unidentified country were pressing him to establish diplomatic relations with Israel. Pakistani and Israeli media named Saudi Arabia as the unidentified country. Representing the world’s second most populous Muslim nation, Pakistani recognition, following in the footsteps of the UAE and Bahrain, would be significant.

Pakistan twice in the last year signalled a widening rift with the kingdom.

Mr. Khan had planned to participate a year ago in an Islamic summit hosted by Malaysia and attended by Saudi Arabia’s detractors, Turkey, Iran and Qatar, but not the kingdom and a majority of Muslim states. The Pakistani prime minister cancelled his participation at the last moment under Saudi pressure.

More recently, Pakistan again challenged Saudi leadership of the Muslim world when Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi complained about lack of support of the Saudi-dominated Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) for Pakistan in its conflict with India over Kashmir. The OIC groups the world’s 57 Muslim-majority nations. Mr. Qureshi suggested that his country would seek to rally support beyond the realm of the kingdom.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, on a visit to Pakistan earlier this year, made a point of repeatedly reiterating his country’s support for Pakistan in the Kashmir dispute.

By openly challenging the kingdom, Mr. Qureshi was hitting Saudi Arabia where it hurts most as it seeks to repair its image tarnished by allegations of abuse of human rights, manoeuvres to get off on the right foot with incoming US President-elect Joe Biden’s administration, and fends off challenges to its leadership of the Muslim world.

Pakistan has not helped itself by recently failing to ensure that it would be removed from the grey list of the Financial Action Task Force, an international anti-money laundering and terrorism finance watchdog, despite progress in the country’s legal infrastructure and enforcement. Grey listing causes reputational damage and makes foreign investors and international banks more cautious in their dealings with countries that have not been granted a clean bill of health.

Responding to Mr. Qureshi’s challenge, Saudi Arabia demanded that Pakistan repay a US$1 billion loan extended to help the South Asian nation ease its financial crisis. The kingdom has also dragged its feet on renewing a US$3.2 billion oil credit facility that expired in May.

In what Pakistan will interpret as UAE support for Saudi Arabia, the Emirates last week included Pakistan on its version of US President Donald J. Trump’s Muslim travel ban. Inclusion on the list of 13 Muslim countries whose nationals will no longer be issued visas for travel to the UAE increases pressure on Pakistan, which relies heavily on exporting labour to generate remittances and alleviate unemployment.

Some Pakistanis fear that a potential improvement in Saudi-Turkish relations could see their country fall through geopolitical cracks.

In the first face-to-face meeting between senior Saudi and Turkish officials since the October 2018 killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi in the kingdom’s consulate in Istanbul, the two countries’ foreign ministers, Prince Faisal bin Farhan and Mevlut Cavusoglu, held bilateral talks this weekend, on the sidelines of an OIC conference in the African state of Niger.

“A strong Turkey-Saudi partnership benefits not only our countries but the whole region,” Mr. Cavusoglu tweeted after the meeting.

The meeting came days after Saudi King Salman telephoned Mr. Erdogan on the eve of a virtual summit hosted by the kingdom of the Group of 20 (G20) that brings together the world’s largest economies.

“The Muslim world is changing and alliances are shifting and entering new, unchartered territories,” said analyst Sahar Khan.

Added Imtiaz Ali, another analyst: “In the short term, Riyadh will continue exploiting Islamabad’s economic vulnerabilities… But in the longer term, Riyadh cannot ignore the rise of India in the region, and the two countries may become close allies – something that will mostly likely increase the strain on Pakistan-Saudi relations.”

https://www.eurasiareview.com/01122020-muslim-worlds-changing-dynamics-pakistan-struggles-to-retain-its-footing-analysis/

Coronavirus, economic crisis compound Pakistan's malnutrition scourge

 Author S. Khan

Health experts have expressed disappointment over the government's failure to address the issue of malnutrition and children's stunted growth. Coronavirus, inflation and unemployment have exacerbated the situation.

Prime Minister Imran Khan vowed to deal with the issue of malnutrition after he came to power in August 2018. As opposition leader, Khan was very critical of the previous administrations' inability to tackle the problem. But many in Pakistan believe his government hasn't done much to improve the situation in the past two years.

Even members of the ruling Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party admit that the government could have done better when it came to addressing rising levels of malnutrition and stunted growth in children.

"It seems the government is not paying attention to this important issue. If we do not take immediate measures to tackle it, around 50% of the country's children might suffer from stunted growth and a large population of the country will be malnourished," Ishaq Khakwani, a PTI official, told DW.

Only after completing two years in power, Khan's government launched the Ehsaas Nashonuma program, which aims to improve nutrition and prevent stunted growth. But the government's efforts are too late and too little, say experts.

Pakistan is witnessing a double-digit inflation and widespread unemployment. The coronavirus pandemic has exacerbated the situation. Thousands of people have lost their jobs in the past few months.

Rising poverty and malnutrition

In May, Asad Umar, the federal planning minister, warned that millions of Pakistanis could fall below the poverty line as a result of the pandemic. Umar also said that one out of four Pakistanis saw their diets reduced as a result of the dire economic situation. The minister said thousands of small businesses could be closed permanently.

But other officials say the government is doing its best to deal with the malnutrition issue. According to the government's Demographic and Health Survey, the stunted growth in children under the age of 5 had decreased from 45% in 2012-2013 to 38% in 2017-2018. The 2018-19 National Nutrition Survey says that around 40% of children under the age of 5 are facing stunted growth. "Pakistan is likely to see an increase in malnourishment in the next two years. The percentage of people living below the poverty line has increased from 26% to 32% in recent years, partly due to coronavirus and government's misplaced economic priorities," Amir Hussain, an Islamabad-based social expert, told DW, adding that 48% to 50% of the population is projected to face malnutrition in 2021.

Massive unemployment

Karamat Ali, executive director of the Pakistan Institute of Labor Education and Research (PILER), said the government's figures on malnutrition and stunted growth couldn't be trusted.

Out of Pakistan's total 68 million labor force, only a little over 1.5 million laborers have any social security. This means the rest don't receive any government assistance, such as unemployment allowance or medical treatment," Ali told DW. "Around 45% of this labor force are associated with the garment and textile industry, and around 90% of these sectors have either been shut or are seeing very little manufacturing activity. At the same time, the government is rapidly privatizing state-run enterprises, which has rendered thousands of people jobless," Ali said, adding that people's nutrition and health are bound to be affected by these economic policies. "We conducted a survey, which revealed that around 30% of respondents reduced their food intake as a result of rising food prices. There has been a sharp rise in food prices in the past few months. Medicines, among other things, have also become very expensive. All this has augmented malnutrition and stunted growth among children," he added.

Misplaced priorities

Said Alam Mehsud, a health expert and rights activist, told DW that Pakistan's "security state" model leaves very little money for social security or human development.

"We spend more on the military than on common citizens. If we really want to tackle the issue of malnutrition, we need to substantially reduce our defense budget and increase the health budget — from the current 2% to at least 10%. It is crucial to transform this country," Mehsud underlined.

Health expert Muhammad Ashraf Nizami says the government must include health experts and doctors in policymaking. "The government appoints bureaucrats to deal with health issues. They don't know anything about these things," Nizami told DW.

 https://www.dw.com/en/coronavirus-economic-crisis-compound-pakistans-malnutrition-scourge/a-55775451

Benazir Bhutto’s Daughter Officially Enters Pakistani Politics

By Ayesha Tanzeem

Waving her hands, chanting party slogans and making victory signs Monday in Pakistan’s central city of Multan, the youngest daughter of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto reminded people of her firebrand mother.

“In my opinion, the content of her speech was not as important as her aura, which generates the same feel and energy as her mother,” said Nusrat Javed, a senior Pakistani journalist who has spent decades interacting with three generations of the Bhutto family.

This was 27-year-old Aseefa Bhutto-Zardari’s official launch into politics, almost by chance. She was filling in for her brother, Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari, who was quarantined after testing positive for COVID-19 and could not lead his party in a pre-planned opposition rally.

The chance appearance had its own significance, said Sherry Rehman, a senior leader of the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) and a close political companion of the late Benazir Bhutto.

“Circumstances have always catapulted key members of the Bhutto family into the churn of the political mainstream in Pakistan,” Rehman said, pointing out that both Benazir and Bilawal “found the life of politics choosing them, instead of the other way around.” Benazir Bhutto was compelled to join politics when her prime minister father, Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, was ousted in a military coup, jailed and executed. She went on to lead the PPP, which her father founded, and became the first female head of government of a Muslim-majority nation. Bilawal, who was always considered his mother’s heir apparent, was prematurely thrust onto the political stage when Benazir was assassinated in 2007.

His two younger sisters, Bakhtawar and Aseefa, mostly stayed on the sidelines, only delving into political commentary on social media. Meanwhile, Aseefa, who has a master’s degree in global health from University College London, established herself as a health activist. She became a United Nations ambassador for polio eradication.

All three siblings were exposed to politics from childhood. While Bakhtawar showed little interest in pursuing life as a politician, Aseefa seemed to have it in her even as a child, according to Sohail Warraich, a senior Pakistani journalist and analyst.

“I remember Mohtarma (Benazir Bhutto) used to tell me that as a child, when Aseefa wanted to change her school, she would make placards with slogans on them and display them around the house,” he said.

PDM leaders accused the government of using the spread of the novel coronavirus as an excuse to shut down opposition activities, even as it was holding its own large gatherings. The government has banned gatherings of more than 300 people until the virus is controlled and threatened the opposition with arrests if they violate the protocols.

“They think we are scared of getting arrested. They are mistaken. If they arrest our brothers, remember, every woman in the Pakistan People’s Party is ready for battle,” Aseefa Bhutto said in her debut speech.

Aseefa is also the closest to her mother in physical appearance. She has also inherited qualities from both of her maternal grandparents, Javed, the journalist, said.

“She triggered the accumulated memories (of the Bhutto family) in a very powerful way,” he said.

Her presence at party rallies, he said, might become a necessity if the party wants to harness “a kind of forgotten energy” that she generates.

https://www.voanews.com/south-central-asia/benazir-bhuttos-daughter-officially-enters-pakistani-politics

Former President Asif Ali Zardari thanks PDM leadership and praises the political workers

Former President of Pakistan and President Pakistan Peoples Party Parliamentarians, Asif Ali Zardari has thanked leadership of all the parties of Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) for participating in the Founding Day public gathering in Multan and saluted all the political workers who proved that political workers do not fear baton charge, bullets and imprisonment.

Asif Ali Zardari said that it is really satisfying that youth has taken over the leadership role in the struggle for democracy. Now the struggle for supremacy of parliament and rule of constitution will succeed. He said that the state becomes weak and national unity is harmed by undermining the political forces. The country’s credibility is affected by the agenda of vilification of political leadership.

Former President Zardari also paid rich tributes to the PPP workers who participated in the Founding Day jalsa of PPP under PDM banner and proved that they are dedicated to the party’s ideology and will not shy away from offering any sacrifice for the philosophy of Shaheed Zulfikar Ali Bhutto and the mission of Shaheed Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto, he concluded.

https://www.ppp.org.pk/pr/24138/