The Week of April 14th, 2014
Care
1. Taliban Ceasefire Ended
On Wednesday, the Pakistan Taliban (Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan or TTP) ended a six-week old ceasefire truce with the Pakistan government. The TTP accused the government arresting and killing militants during the ceasefire. However, the TTP affirmed that they would continue peace talks the government. The Pakistan government began negotiating with the TTP earlier this year to try to end the militants’ violent struggle. Then, on March 1, the Taliban pledged a one-month ceasefire, which was later extended. Yet militant’s attacks continued in April, killing dozens of civilian in Islamabad and elsewhere.
The Taliban denied any involvement in recent attacks and instead blamed a breakaway group. However, it was just as likely that the Taliban were using violence to keep pressure on the talks. The TTP’s announcement about ending the cease-fire on Wednesday is also widely considered as an attempt to influence the peace negotiations. Some analysts pointed out that the decision might be a bid to win over the anti-dialogue group of the Taliban. The infighting between rival-groups has left more than 50 militants dead. This has highlighted the divisions within the Taliban and leaves questions as to the feasibility of bringing all the warring factions of the Pakistan Taliban on a common platform to end the long conflict.
2. NYPD Muslim Policy
The Demographics Unit (and later known as the Zone Assessment Unit), a controversial division of the New York Police Department, was disbanded this week. It was formed after the September 11 terrorist attacks in order to profile Muslims in New York City with the intention of preventing another terrorist threat. Police Commissioner William Bratton found that its duties could be carried out by other police units, and the NYPD claimed that the unit had been inactive since January. Mayor Bill de Blasio praised the decision as part of an effort to create a fairer police force.
The unit’s activities involved sending undercover agents into Muslim populations to find possible terrorists. Critics, both within and outside the Muslim community, charge that such infiltration created mistrust and suspicion among Muslims. Many Muslims claimed that they found themselves unable to trust other Muslims because of fears that they might be informants, and imams were more reluctant to offer religious counseling. Mosque-goers went to religious services less frequently and Muslims reported a chilling effect on political speech. Some informants even tried to incite inflammatory and incriminating rhetoric from Muslims.
Former mayor Michael Bloomberg defended the unit’s actions in the name of security, and a Newark judge threw out a lawsuit from Muslims and ruled that surveillance of the Islamic population was necessary for counterterrorism efforts. But the actual efficacy of such an initiative is in doubt – in 11 years of such activity, the Demographics Unit never once uncovered a terrorist lead.
3. GSK Bribery
This week allegations were made against British pharmaceutical giant GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) regarding corrupt business practices abroad. To date, eleven doctors and one regional manager have been charged with corruption and bribery in Poland. Allegations include charges that doctors were paid to promote and prescribe GSK manufactured drugs. The specific allegations are confined to employees in Poland, where a criminal investigation is under way, but an internal GSK investigation has been extended to Jordan and Lebanon where similar accusations exist. All of this news comes off the recent revelations of a money laundering and corruption scandal in China, as well as a three billion dollar health care fraud settlement in 2012, the largest in history.
Some analysts claim that with these new scandals, GSK could be in violation both of the UK Bribery Act and the US Foreign Corrupt Practices Act because it is a business that trades securities in the United States. It is still unclear whether charges will be brought in relation to either of these two laws. However, what is clear is that GSK has a long history of illegal activity that negatively impacts the health care industry. It is unclear whether this is an outlier within the industry or business as usual. Either way, GSK has yet to suffer any major consequences for their actions.
4. Drone Strikes in Yemen
This Wednesday it was discovered that two Australians and one New Zealander were killed by a US drone strike in Yemen. It is thought that the two were training and cooperating with Al Qaeda, precipitating the US strike. Although the US manages to kill many Al Qaeda operatives and innocent bystanders with its drone strikes, cases like this, or the similar, strike against an American Al Qaeda member in Yemen recently gain greater media attention simply for being from the Global West. While it is unfortunate that it takes the death of Westerners to gain media coverage of a brutal war, perhaps any media examination of the drone program is productive.
A video of one of the largest known recent meetings of Al Qaeda members was released from Yemen, including what appeared to be over 100 militants and a clip of Yemen’s crown prince Nasir al-Wuha declaring the United States as an enemy. The country of Yemen has been victim to some of the most consistent drone bombardments in the War on Terror. Although Al Qaeda’s leadership is said to have been devastated by the drone program, it is an open question whether the soft power blowback will outweigh any tactical gains. It is an even greater quandary to attempt to weigh the moral costs of innocent lives lost against the war effort.
5. North Dakota Abortion Ban Overturned
U.S. District Court ruled Wednesday, April 16 that a North Dakota law banning abortions after the heartbeat of the fetus is detected was unconstitutional. The statute, signed into law last March by Governor Jack Dalrymple, was one of the most restrictive abortion laws in the country. The law, effectively banning abortions after 6 weeks, was brought before the court by the state’s only abortion clinic, Red River Women’s Clinic. The law is unconstitutional on the basis that Roe v. Wade (1973) determined that an abortion could occur up until the fetus is viable, or able live on its own outside the womb. This generally occurs around 24 weeks.
Decided in 1973, Roe v. Wade determined that restrictions on abortions violated the fundamental right to privacy and liberty implicitly afforded in the 14th Amendment and the Bill of Rights of the Constitution. Subsequent cases established that the state can only regulate a woman’s access to an abortion in the interest of protecting the health of the mother, or “potential life”. A 1992 court ruling changed the standard of review from strict scrutiny, the most rigorous, to undue burden. As a result, procedural regulations, such as mandating a women wait 24 hours between a doctor’s visit and an abortion, are unconstitutional only if they place an “undue burden” on the woman. The year 2007 was pivotal in establishing the trend of ever increasing restrictions and outright bans on abortions. In 2007 the court upheld a federal ban on partial birth abortions that does not have an exception for the health of the woman. This and the replacement of Justice O’Connor with Justice Samuel Alito shifted the court in a conservative direction.
North Dakota attorney General Wayne Stenehjem has a month to decide if he will appeal the ruling, but taking into account that an Arizona law banning abortions after 20 weeks and Arkansas law banning them after 12 weeks have also been struck down, it does not seem likely the courts are likely to change their decision.
Don’t Care
Kathleen Sibelius Resigns
This past week, Kathleen Sebelius resigned from her position as Secretary of Health and Human Services. The resignation comes after the turbulent implementation of President Obama's healthcare law. These misfortunes were echoed in her farewell speech when it turned out a page was missing, and she had to ad lib. Sylvia Matthews Burwell, director of the Office of Management and Budget is taking over the role of Secretary of HHS and will face many of the same challenges as her predecessor.
While the resignation of Sebelius is certainly fodder for political circles (she is reportedly mulling a run for Senate back in Kansas), it most likely will not have much of an effect on policy or the direction of health care reform. Sebelius’s decision to leave was probably made months ago when issues with the federal government's healthcare exchange sign up websites first became apparent. However, having the person in charge of the program resign during the sign-up period would have made the administration look like it was panicking. Sign-ups were eventually fixed and ultimately the administration met their goal. Because the new secretary hails from within the administration, and Obama has made healthcare a cornerstone of his presidency, a sudden shift in policy is very unlikely.
Wooyoung Lee, Arkar Hein, Valerie Zuckerman, Don Gross, Ben Mandel, and Sam Houskeeper contributed