World News Pakistani leader was KGB agent
The Carroll News
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Carly Cundiff Managing Editor
Soviet documents that were recently declassified by the Russian government revealed that Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas was a former KGB agent. Abbas was a KGB agent while working in the Palestinian Liberation Organization, according to CNN. Israeli researchers Gideon Remez and Isabella Ginor discovered the documents while studying the Mitrokhin Archive at Churchill College at the University of Cambridge, according to BBC News. The Palestinian government denied that Abbas, who received a PhD in Moscow in 1982, was a Soviet spy. They described the report as a “smear campaign” aimed at defaming the Palestinian president. “The Israeli government and its surrogates are using smoke and mirrors to confuse the public and deceive the international community in order to derail any efforts to revive the peace process, while appropriating more Palestinian land and building new illegal settlements,” said Jamal Dajani, director of strategic communications at the Palestinian Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah’s office. Abbas’s office did not respond directly to the reports, instead standing behind the statement from the Prime Minister’s office. The story was first reported by Israeli television station Channel 1, who learned about the documents from a researcher studying the Mitrokhin Archive, according to USA Today. The Mitrokhin Archive is a collection of reports taken by Maj. Vasiliy Mitrokhin, a Soviet archivist who recorded the actions
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of the KGB from 1972 to 1984. While working as an archivist, Mitrokhin took secret notes of the material he was responsible for, which included hundreds of thousands of documents from the KGB’s worldwide network, according to CNN. Paragraph 244 of one of the files, labeled Envelope K-24, refers to Abbas in one of the handwritten notes, stating “Mole’ - Abbas Mahmoud 1935. Native Palestinian. Executive Committee FATAH, PLO in Damascus. KGB Agent,” according to Reuters. Abbas worked under Mikhail Bogdanov while working for the KGB. Now, Bogdanov is the special envoy to the Middle East for Russia, according to The Washington Post. This report comes to light as Russia pressed ahead with an offer made by Russian President Vladimir Putin to host
Sept. 15, 2016
Ryan’s Report
a meeting between Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanhyahu, according to Reuters. Meeting dates have been pushed back in light of the accusations, according to BBC News. Abbas was born in 1935 in what was then the British controlled territory of Palestine. After the creation of the State of Israel, Abbas and his family fled to Damascus, where Abbas was educated, according to BBC. Abbas would later found the Fatah movement with Yasser Arafat in 1959 and would become a key figure in the Palestinian Liberation Organization after it’s creation in 1964. He was elected president in 2005. Editor’s Note: Information from CNN, BBC News, The Washington Post, USA Today and Reuters was used in this report.
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Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, left, meets with Polish President Andrezj Duda. Abbas was recently linked to the Soviet Union spy agency, the KGB.
Judge overturns Sioux’s request Bridget Bycraft Staff Reporter
The company Dakota Access, LLC applied to the Public Service Commission for permission to build a 358-mile long oil pipeline that would transport crude oil– nearly 500,000 barrels a day–from North Dakota to South Dakota through Iowa and Illinois on Dec. 22, 2014, according to ABC. In late January, the PSC and the Army Corps of Engineers approved the application, according to North Dakota local news station KFYR. While this seemed to be good news for the company, which hopes to provide less expensive, domestic oil to American consumers, the news was not positively received by all. The proposed route for the pipeline goes through the Missouri River, specifically under Lake Oahe, which is less than half a mile upstream from the reservation of the Standing Rock Sioux tribe of Native Americans. According to EarthJustice, a nonprofit law organization dedicated specifically to environmental issues, this caused much concern from the residents of the reservation about the damage to their water source as well as local ecology that could take place if the pipeline were to be breached or damaged. Additionally, EarthJustice reports that the pipeline passes through spiritually significant areas for the Sioux people, such as burial grounds and sacred sites. As a result, mass protests broke out in the area. These protests were initially solely Standing Rock Native Americans and sympathetic locals. However, the protests quickly expanded to include members from multiple different tribes. However, protests are not the only way in which the tribe has fought back against the
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People in Chicago and the Standing Rock tribe protest the Dakota oil pipeline.
proposed pipeline. UpToUs reports that youth from the Standing Rock tribe gathered more than 140,000 signatures for a petition to the Army Corps of Engineers to halt construction. The petition is being delivered from North Dakota to Washington D.C. by hand. This is being accomplished by a 1,500 mile relay run featuring dozens of Standing Rock children and teenagers. Additionally, tribe officials have filed a lawsuit against the Army Corps of Engineers for failing to properly engage with and protect the tribe and their land. Fox News reports that the tribe claims that they were “not properly consulted” before the project was approved. Shortly after the lawsuit was filed, Dakota Access, LLC intervened, “making them a full party” in the lawsuit as well, reported EarthJustice. On Sept. 9, a federal judge overturned the tribe’s request to have construction halted, claiming that the pipeline did not pose enough
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of a tangible threat to the tribe’s lands and sacred sites for construction to be halted. However, the Justice did acknowledge that the tribe had raised important issues and agreed to pause the construction of the pipeline until more environmental assessments could be taken, reported The Hill. However, The Hill also reports that on Sept. 9, President Barack Obama’s administration declared that they would not authorize construction on the stretch of pipeline that the tribe aims to protect. Many view this as a huge victory for the protestors. Federal agents have yet to release the final easements necessary for the construction to take place. Whether these easements are granted will determine the future of the Dakota Access Pipeline project. Editor’s Note: Information from KFYR, Fox59, UpToUS, EarthJustice and The Hill was used in this report.
Ryan Brown
World News Editor
Even the greats make mistakes All of us here at John Carroll University were a bit surprised this week when we got an e-mail from the President of JCU, Fr. Robert Neihoff S.J., explaining our namesake’s past dealings with slaves in the early days of the Catholic Church in the United States. If you haven’t heard the news, Archbishop John Carroll had some dealings in the slave trade in order to help found Georgetown University. John Carroll, the University, has no past history of owning or selling slaves. However, we are affected by Archbishop John Carroll owning slaves because, well, we are called John Carroll University. In conversations I have heard on campus, I’m hearing some people think John Carroll University is going to change its name back to St. Ignatius College, the original name of our school. I think this would be a gross over-reaction and should not even be in the conversation. Of course, Archbishop Carroll owning slaves and running a planation is troubling and a stain on the past of the Jesuit order in the United States. But just because someone makes mistakes does not mean we need to erase them from our history. We are seeing more of this around college campuses and other places across our nation. One of our most well-known founding fathers, Thomas Jefferson, has his name on many buildings, and for good reason. He helped create a country out of nothing but the bravery and ideas of a people longing for freedom. And yes, he also owned slaves. George Washington, the general who lead us to victory over the greatest military of the era and first President of the United States, deservedly has a whole memorial named after him in our nation’s capital. And yes, he also owned slaves. Then we have Archbishop John Carroll who played a key role in bringing the Catholic Church to the young United States. He was the first Catholic bishop in our nation’s history. If you are Catholic and live in the United States you owe John Carroll a thank you. And yes, he also owned slaves. The cold hard truth of it is that back when these old schools were founded slavery was a common practice. Again, that does not mean slavery is moral or we should just forget that these men owned slaves. It was a wrong that our country fixed long ago. But just because someone owned slaves in the past does not mean that person is completely discredited and deserves no honors or recognitions. If you dig deep enough into any great public figure’s past you are going to find some skeletons in their closet. Martin Luther King Jr. had a history of cheating on his wife. Does that mean we need to rename every Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd. in America? Absolutely not. John F. Kennedy had a whole host of rumored affairs. Does that mean his assassination is any less of a major event in history? No! Even if we did decide to change our name back to St. Ignatius College, before his conversion, Ignatius of Loyola was not a nice guy. He was a savage warrior who I would imagine did some not-so-Jesuit things while in the heat of battle. So let’s not be so narrow-minded when looking at who we are honoring and focus on the good people have done for the world. Contact Ryan Brown at rbrown18@jcu.edu