Battered by storm, Staten Islanders feel forgotten

NEW YORK (AP) — Gazing at her bungalow, swept from its foundation and tossed across the street, Janice Clarkinwondered if help would ever come to this battered island off the coast of Manhattan.

"Do you see anybody here?" she asked, resignation etched on her face. "On the news, the mayor's congratulating the governor and the governor's congratulating the mayor. About what? People died."

Staten Island was devastated beyond recognition by superstorm Sandy and suffered the highest death toll of all ofNew York City's boroughs, including two young brothers who were swept from their mother's arms by the swirling sea and drowned. Yet days after the waters receded, residents feel ignored and forgotten.

That sense of isolation is deeply rooted on Staten Island, a tight-knit community that has long felt cut off from the bright lights of Manhattan.

"It's always been that way. We're a forgotten little island," said Catherine Friscia, who stood with tear-filled eyes across the street from the Atlantic Ocean in front of homes filled with water and where the air smelled like garbage and rotting fish.

"Nobody pays attention to any of us over here."

In the shadow of the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge, dazed survivors roamed Staten Island's sand-covered streets amid ruined bungalows sagging under the weight of water that rose to the rooftops. Their contents lay flung in the street: Mud-soaked couches, stuffed animals and mattresses formed towering piles of wreckage. Boats were tossed like toys into roadways.

Residents washed their muddy hands with bottled water and handed out sandwiches to neighbors as they sifted through the soggy wreckage of their homes, searching for anything that could be salvaged. Spray-painted on the plywood that covered the first floor of one flooded home were the words: "FEMA CALL ME."

Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano visited Staten Island on Friday, touring a shelter and a Red Cross distribution center where storm victims lined up to get food, water and clothing. A short distance away, a long line of cars snaked down the street, waiting to get to one of the few gas stations with fuel.

"We know that Staten Island took a particularly hard hit from Sandy, so we want to make sure that the right resources are brought here as quickly as possible to help this community, which is so very strong, recover even more quickly," said Napolitano, who was joined by Red Cross CEO Gail McGovern and Staten Island Borough President James Molinaro — who a day earlier had sharply criticized what he said was the Red Cross's inadequate response in Staten Island.

Sticking together in the aftermath of the storm has kept Staten Islanders who lost everything from completely falling apart. Self-reliance is in their blood just as the island's very geography lends itself to a feeling of isolation from the mainland: the only way to get on or off is by car, bus or ferry.

After the storm, residents who had evacuated had to wait four days until the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge finally reopened to the public.

Most of the deaths were clustered in beachfront neighborhoods exposed to the Atlantic Ocean along the island's southeastern shore, an area of cinderblock bungalows and condominiums. Many of these homes were built decades ago — originally as summer cottages — and were not constructed to withstand the power of a major storm.

Diane Fieros wept as she recalled how she and her family survived by huddling on the third floor of their home across the street from the ocean, watching as the waves slammed into the house and the water rose higher and higher, shooting through cracks in the floor. A few blocks away, several people drowned.

"The deck was moving, the house was moving," she said. "We thought we were going to die. We prayed. We all prayed."

Fieros rode out the storm with her two sons, her parents and other extended family members. She pointed to a black line on the house that marked where the water rose: at least 12 feet above the ground.

"I told them, 'We die, we die together,'" she said, her voice cracking. "You saw the waves coming. Oh my God."

The storm has reopened old frictions among local officials who maintain Staten Island's infrastructure remains inadequate and that it has little sway on City Council compared to the other, bigger boroughs. In 1997, Staten Islanders voted in favor of seceding from New York City and incorporating on its own, buoyed by a belief that the borough pays more in taxes than it receives in return and that it's typically put last on the list for city services.

Molinaro suggested earlier this week that people should not donate money to the American Red Cross because that relief agency had neglected his borough. On Friday, however, he praised the Red Cross response and said he had spoken in anger.

"You see what the Red Cross is doing here today. They got 11 trucks out here For four days, this borough was cut off. No bridges, no way of getting off or on. Sometimes you get frustrated, you get angry. So I got angry, I was frustrated. I think they're doing a good job," Molinaro said.

The controversy surrounding this weekend's New York City Marathon, which was cancelled Friday by Mayor Michael Bloomberg, had special resonance among Staten Islanders. The lucrative race begins on the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge, and would have brought nearly 50,000 runners to an area not far from the Staten Island neighborhoods where people died.

Resident George Rosado, 52, who spent two days scrubbing a thick layer of sludge from his tiled floors and was preparing to demolish the water-logged walls of his home, found the idea repulsive. Except for a lone hospital van offering bottled water and power bars, Rosado had seen no federal, state or local agencies in his neighborhood, which sits about a block from the ocean.

"Nothing, nothing," he said, choking back tears. "We're hit hard. Homes are washed away. People are dying. Look around. You hear anything? It's quiet."

The city's tourism officials have long complained that Staten Island is the one borough that nobody wants to visit. But that has never bothered the half-million people who reside in this community, which is more suburban than urban and has a high concentration of police officers and firefighters.

It's a place families are drawn to by the allure of having their own backyard and raising their children in a small-town atmosphere.

"We were all around family, you know what I'm saying?" said 68-year-old Joseph Miley, Clarkin's cousin. "A person went away and there was always somebody here to watch their house, watch their animals."

In fact, so many relatives lived on the same street that they jokingly referred to it as "The Compound."

That's all been wiped out now. The family's mud-spattered possessions lie dumped on the street; their homes will be bulldozed.

Billy Hague, 30, described paddling around the neighborhood looking for his missing 85-year-old uncle, James Rossi, who refused to evacuate before the storm.

"I kayaked back to the house and broke the windows and got in the house trying to find him," he said. "I found the dog, but I didn't find him until the next day until the waters subsided."

Rossi was among the 19 Staten Islanders claimed by the storm. His dog also drowned.

Hague, Clarkin and other now-homeless family members are bunking with relatives who live on higher ground, just beyond the reach of the devastating ocean waves. They have no idea where they will live. They do not have the money to rebuild their homes.

But they have each other. Amid the debris and the broken glass and the uprooted trees, an American flag blew in the breeze. Clarkin waved a dismissive hand at the scene of destruction. She considers herself one of the lucky ones.

"People perished," she said. "This is stuff. That's all."

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A look at atrocities in Syria's civil war

BEIRUT (AP) — International human rights groups say the vast majority of atrocities inSyria's civil war have been committed by the regime, but violations by those fighting to topple President Bashar Assad are on the rise as rebels gain more territory and a multitude of militias, jihadists and criminals join the armed opposition. Over 36,000 people have been killed since the uprising began in March 2011. The following are some of the atrocities committed over the course of the conflict.

MAJOR ATROCITIES ON THE REGIME SIDE:

— Late August, 2012: Activists reported that between 300 and 600 people were killed in the Damascus suburb of Daraya over several days in a killing spree by troops and pro-regime militiamen who stormed the town after heavy fighting and days of shelling.

— June 14, 2012: Dozens of people were killed in the town of Haffa after Assad's forces overran it as part of a major offensive to recover rebel-controlled territories, activists said.U.N. observers who visited the site a day after fighting ended said they were greeted by smoldering buildings, looted shops, smashed cars and the stench of death. The U.N. said bodies appeared to have been removed or buried before the U.N. mission arrived.

— June 6, 2012: At least 78 people were shot, hacked, or burned to death in the central Syrian village of Mazraat al-Qubair. Activists said pro-government militiamen known as "shabiha" were responsible. A U.N. spokesman called it a "horrific crime."

— May 12, 2012: Activists said men in civilian clothes gunned down people in the streets and stabbed women and children in their homes after large anti-government protests in Houla, a group of villages in central Syria. The U.N. said at least 108 people were killed, including 34 women and 49 children. Assad's regime denied its forces carried out the attack. The massacre provoked international outrage and the coordinated expulsion of Syrian diplomats from world capitals.

— Early April, 2012: Activists claimed at least 100 people, most of them civilians, were killed in a government offensive in the villages of Taftanaz and Killi in the northern Idlib province.

— Dec. 19, 2011: Activists said at least 72 military defectors were gunned down in Idlib province during an attempted escape. Scores more were reported killed over the following days during a hunt for mutinous soldiers.

MAJOR ATROCITIES ON THE REBEL SIDE:

— Nov. 2, 2012: A video appeared to show Syrian rebels killing a group of captured soldiers, spraying them with bullets after kicking and beating them as they lay on the ground. The killings took place during an assault by rebels on the northern town of Saraqeb, during which dozens of soldiers were killed in rebel attacks on military checkpoints in the area. Human rights groups warned that the gunmen may have committed a war crime.

— Sept. 10, 2012: A video showed what appeared to be the extrajudicial executions of 21 government soldiers in Hanano in the city of Aleppo. The dead soldiers, bloodied, blindfolded and with their hands tied behind their backs, were seen lying dead on the pavement as a rebel says: "These are Assad's dead dogs." Human Rights Watch said it was one of more than 15 videos on YouTube that appear to show extrajudicial executions of people in the custody of armed opposition groups.

— Aug. 2, 2012: A video showed several bloodied prisoners in Aleppo being led into a noisy outdoor crowd and lined up against a wall as men carrying assault rifles shouted slogans and sprayed them with bullets. According to activists, the executed prisoners were members of the powerful Barri clan, which has long had close ties to the Syrian government. Among them was the clan's leader, Ali Zinelabedine Barri, known as Zeino.

Gruesome video raises concerns about Syria rebels

BEIRUT (AP) — A video that appears to show a unit of Syrian rebels kicking terrified, captured soldiers and then executing them with machine guns raised concerns Friday about rebel brutality at a time when the United States is making its strongest push yet to forge an opposition movement it can work with.

U.N. officials and human rights groups believe President Bashar Assad's regime is responsible for the bulk of suspected war crimes in Syria's 19-month-old conflict, which began as a largely peaceful uprising but has transformed into a brutal civil war.

But investigators of human rights abuses say rebel atrocities are on the rise.

At this stage "there may not be anybody with entirely clean hands," Suzanne Nossel, head of the rights group Amnesty International, told The Associated Press.

The U.S. has called for a major leadership shakeup of Syria's political opposition during a crucial conference next week in Qatar. Washington and its allies have been reluctant to give stronger backing to the largely Turkey-based opposition, viewing it as ineffective, fractured and out of touch with fighters trying to topple Assad.

But the new video adds to growing concerns about those fighters and could complicate Washington's efforts to decide which of the myriad of opposition groups to support. The video can be seen at http://bit.ly/YxDcWE .

"We condemn human rights violations by any party," U.S. State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said, commenting on the video. "Anyone committing atrocities should be held to account."

She said the Free Syrian Army has urged its fighters to adhere to a code of conduct it established in August, reflecting international rules of war.

The summary execution of the captured soldiers, purportedly shown in an amateur video, took place Thursday during a rebel assault on the strategic northern town of Saraqeb, said the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an activist group.

It was unclear which rebel faction was involved, though the al-Qaida-inspired Jabhat al-Nusra was among those fighting in the area, the Observatory said.

The video, posted on YouTube, shows a crowd of gunmen in what appears to be a building under construction. They surround a group of captured men on the ground, some on their bellies as if ordered to lie down, others sprawled as if wounded. Some of the captives are in Syrian military uniforms.

"These are Assad's dogs," one of the gunmen is heard saying of those cowering on the ground.

The gunmen kick and beat some of the men. One gunman shouts, "Damn you!" The exact number of soldiers in the video is not clear, but there appear to be about 10 of them.

Moments later, gunfire erupts for about 35 seconds, screams are heard and the men on the floor are seen shaking and twitching. The spray of bullets kicks up dust from the ground.

The video's title says it shows dead and captive soldiers at the Hmeisho checkpoint. The Observatory said 12 soldiers were killed Thursday at the checkpoint, one of three regime positions near Saraqeb attacked by the rebels in the area that day.

Amnesty International's forensics analysts did not detect signs of forgery in the video, according to Nossel. The group has not yet been able to confirm the location, date and the identity of those shown in the footage, she said.

After their assault Thursday, rebels took full control of Saraqeb, a strategic position on the main highway linking Syria's largest city, Aleppo — which rebels have been trying to capture for months — with the regime stronghold of Latakia on the Mediterranean coast.

On Friday, at least 143 people, including 48 government soldiers, were killed in gunbattles, regime shelling attacks on rebel-held areas and other violence, the Observatory said.

Of the more than 36,000 killed so far in Syria, about one-fourth are regime soldiers, according to the Observatory. The rest include civilians and rebel fighters, but the group does not offer a breakdown.

Daily casualties have been rising since early summer, when the regime began bombing densely populated areas from the air in an attempt to dislodge rebels and break a battlefield stalemate.

Karen Abu Zayd, a member of the U.N. panel documenting war crimes in Syria, said the regime is to blame for the bulk of the atrocities so far, but that rebel abuses are on the rise as the insurgents become better armed and as foreign fighters with radical agendas increasingly join their ranks.

"The balance is changing somewhat," she said in a phone interview, blaming in part the influx of foreign fighters not restrained by social ties that bind Syrians.

Abu Zayd said the panel, though unable to enter Syria for now, has evidence of "at least dozens, but probably hundreds" of war crimes, based on some 1,100 interviews. The group has already compiled two lists of suspected perpetrators and units for future prosecution, she said.

Many rebel groups operate independently, even if they nominally fall under the umbrella of the Free Syrian Army. In recent months, rebel groups have formed military councils to improve coordination, but the chaos of the war has allowed for considerable autonomy at the local level.

"The killing of unarmed soldiers shows how difficult it is to control the escalation of the conflict and establish a united armed opposition that abides by the same ground rules and norms in battle," said Anthony Skinner, an analyst at Maplecroft, a British risk analysis company.

Rebel commanders and Syrian opposition leaders have promised human rights groups that they would try to prevent abuses. However, New York-based Human Rights Watch said in a report in September that statements by some opposition leaders indicate they tolerate or condone extrajudicial killings.

Free Syrian Army commanders contacted by the AP on Friday said they were either unaware or had no accurate details about the latest video.

Ausama Monajed, a member of the Syrian National Council, the main opposition group in exile, called for the gunmen shown in the video to be tracked down and brought to justice.

He added, however, that atrocities committed by rebels are relatively rare compared to what he said was a "massive genocide by the regime."

Regime forces have launched indiscriminate attacks on residential neighborhoods with tank shells, mortar rounds and bombs dropped from warplanes, devastating large areas. In raids of rebel strongholds, Assad's forces have carried out summary executions, rights groups say.

Rebels have also targeted civilians, setting off car bombs near mosques, restaurants and government offices. Human Rights Watch said in September it collected evidence of the summary executions of more than a dozen people by rebels.

In August, a video showed several bloodied prisoners being led into a noisy outdoor crowd in the northern city of Aleppo and placed against a wall before gunmen shot them to death. That video sparked international condemnation, including a rare rebuke from the Obama administration.

The latest video emerged on the eve of a crucial opposition conference that is to begin Sunday in Qatar's capital of Doha. More than 400 delegates from the Syrian National Council and other opposition groups are expected to attend to choose a new leadership.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton has called for a more unified and representative opposition, even suggesting the U.S. would handpick some of the candidates.

Clinton's comments reflected growing U.S. impatience with the Syrian opposition, which, in turn, has accused Washington of not having charted a clear path to bringing down Assad.

The Syrian National Council plans to elect new leaders during the four-day conference but is cool to a U.S. proposal to set up a much broader group and a transitional government, said Monajed, the SNC member who runs a think tank in Britain.

U.S. officials have said Washington is pushing for a greater role for the Free Syrian Army and representation of local coordinating committees and mayors of liberated cities in Syria.

Nuland said that it would be easier for the international community to deliver humanitarian assistance to civilians and non-lethal aid to the rebels once a broader, unified opposition leadership is in place.

Such a body could also help persuade Assad backers Russia and China "that change is necessary" and that Syria's opposition has a better plan for the country than the regime, she said.

___

Soldiers raid in north Nigeria kills more than 40

MAIDUGURI, Nigeria (AP) — Soldiers in northeast Nigeria shot dead more than 40 people, likely civilians, during an operation in a city long under attack by a radical Islamist sect, a hospital official said Friday.

An official at Maiduguri General Hospital said soldiers brought the corpses, mostly young men, into the hospital Thursday night. The official said Friday that the dead came from the Kalari neighborhood and did not appear to be armed combatants of the Islamist sect known as Boko Haram.

The official spoke on condition of anonymity out of fear of angering the soldiers.

Lt. Col. Sagir Musa declined to discuss the killings Friday. However, the Hausa language service of the BBC reported its journalists spoke to residents in the city who said the youths had been rounded up in house-to-house searches by soldiers and later were shot dead in a field.

Both Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have said Nigerian security, as well as Boko Haram, have probably committed crimes against humanity in their fighting. In October, soldiers shot dead more than 30 civilians and burned homes in Maiduguri after a bomb suspected to have been planted by the sect killed a lieutenant.

In a separate incident in Maiduguri, a retired general was shot dead by gunmen suspected to be the Islamist extremists. The killing of Gen. Mamman Shuwa may spark more retaliatory attacks in this city by Nigerian security forces, who already face growing international criticism for abusing and detaining civilians in its ongoing fight against the Islamist extremist sect. The general's murder also raises questions about whether an alleged Boko Haram member's offer of peace talks could be genuine, as it remains unclear whether any one person actually controls the sect's many cells.

Gunmen raided the home of Shuwa on Friday, a general who served in Nigeria's military during its 1960s civil war. The gunmen killed Shuwa and a guest in the attack, Musa said.

"The terrorists that carried out the killing of the late general will be brought to book," the lieutenant colonel said.

Boko Haram, whose name means "Western education is sacrilege" in the Hausa language of Nigeria's Muslim north, has been attacking government buildings and security forces heavily over the last year and a half. This year alone, the sect is blamed for killing more than 720 people, according to an Associated Press count.

The latest killings raise new concerns over a supposed offer for peace negotiations by an alleged member of the sect. On Thursday, a man who identified himself as Abu Mohammed Ibn Abdulaziz said the peace talks were possible if Nigeria met certain preconditions, like holding them in Saudi Arabia and involving former military ruler Muhammadu Buhari. The man said those were conditions set by Abubakar Shekau, Boko Haram's leader.

The call came through the channels that Boko Haram usually communicates with journalists, who gathered at the local office of the Nigeria Union of Journalists to listen. However, Abdulaziz spoke entirely in English, which is unusual for the sect. Also, journalists ordinarily hear from a spokesman who uses the nom de guerre Abul Qaqa in such calls. The man also did not call for the implementation of Shariah law across Nigeria, a multiethnic nation of more than 160 million people. That long has been a demand of the sect.

Rumors about indirect peace talks between Nigeria's government and the sect have floated around for some time, however the sect has denied negotiating with the government.

Frankenstorm Was Not a Freak of Nature: Hurricane Sandy Was Man Made

• Darrel Moellendorf
• in
• Science,
• Climate Change
• 20 hours ago
• 
  

Frankenstorm Was Not a Freak of Nature Hurricane Sandy Was Man Made

When someone at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association last week referred to the confluence of Hurricane Sandy with a polar trough just before Halloween as “Frankenstorm,” it may have been largely due the storm’s intensity and timing. But “Frankenstorm” produces another association. This monster, like the one in Mary Shelley’s novel, may have been human created.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), summarizing data gained from countless observations, has reported that over the hundred-year period from 1906 to 2005, the average global surface temperature increased 0.74°C. Although the oceans have warmed less quickly than land areas, they have been taking in over 80% of the heat being added to the climate system. Warm ocean waters are the energy supply for cyclones. This is why such storms lose force when they run aground. And according to the IPCC, “There is observational evidence of an increase in intense tropical cyclone activity in the North Atlantic since about 1970.”

Has the warming of the oceans caused more intense tropical storms? Are greenhouse gas emissions the creator of a Frankenstorm? Oceanic warming is consistent with intense tropical storms, but it is not possible to run the kind of test needed to infer causation in any particular case with a sufficient degree of certainty. British philosopher John Stuart Mill described a “method of difference” to determine if a certain factor caused an event. Remove the factor, keeping the other factors in place, and see if that leads to an alternative outcome. But we cannot re-run history over the last 150 years and take CO2 emissions out to make the comparison with today. And even if we could, many other things would be very different without a coal-powered industrial revolution.

Intense tropical cyclones would presumably have formed in the absence of the current warming of the oceans by the greenhouse effect. Maybe Sandy would have been one of those. But the fact is that Sandy is not one of those, but one that formed after the ocean had warmed due to human activity. And Sandy follows a summer of record heat waves and droughts in the United States and polar ice retreating to its lowest ever recorded level.

It is worth reminding ourselves of Victor Frankenstein’s response to the terror that he unleashed. His life was ruined by regret. And why not? The monster that he created was directly or indirectly responsible for multiple deaths. Of course, these deaths are bad no matter how they came about, but to see one’s own hand in them is horrific. Frankenstein was driven to do something about the monster — if not to protect others, at least to have revenge.

The possibility that the damage Sandy has caused, and that any future tropical cyclone causes, could be the result of human doings should be an occasion for regret on the part of our political leaders; regret for their failure to bring about an international climate change treaty that makes any contribution to stabilizing the concentration of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. The mere possibility that the damage this storm has wrought could be caused by our emissions should be enough to spur our political leaders to act.

Even if this one is not a real Frankenstorm, there is little doubt that such storms are forecasted. Were we to stabilize greenhouse gases in the atmosphere today, the thermal inertia of oceans would result in warming for centuries to come. The monster is on the loose. It is a mark of Victor Frankenstein’s humanity that he was profoundly disturbed after the suffering caused by his monster. Will we see any such humanity in our political leaders after Sandy is gone?

This article originally appeared on Dissent Magazine.