US_world07

World issues
2007
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This page includes materials on US relations with the world, with a special focus on Northeast Asia and, inevitably, the Middle East. And so Britain is brought into it. And sometimes I stray further afield, when something catches my eye. Prior to 2005 it was called 'US and the world'

Just Peace
Green Party of Aotearoa New Zealand
The Green Party is the only party in NZ to oppose the invasion of Iraq consistently and clearly

2007

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DECEMBER 2007

The Shortage Myth: The Lies at the End of the American Dream
By PAUL CRAIG ROBERTS
Last June a revealing marketing video from the law firm, Cohen & Grigsby appeared on the Internet. The video demonstrated the law firm's techniques for getting around US law governing work visas in order to enable corporate clients to replace their American employees with foreigners who work for less. The law firm's marketing manager, Lawrence Lebowitz, is upfront with interested clients: "our goal is clearly not to find a qualified and interested US worker."
Now it is white-collar employees and Americans trained in science and technology. Princeton University economist Alan Blinder estimates that there are 30 to 40 million American high end service jobs that ultimately face offshoring. As I predict, and as BLS payroll jobs data indicate, in 20 years the US will have a third world work force engaged in domestic nontradable services. [Offshoring]
From Evil Empire to Axis of Evil
- Paul Rogers November 2007 Cold War Origins Oxford Research Group (ORG) was founded twenty-five years ago at the height of one of the most dangerous phases of the Cold War. Ronald Reagan had been elected two years earlier and had dubbed the Warsaw Pact the “evil empire”, yet the Soviet Union was in the midst of a prolonged leadership crisis. An ailing Leonid Brezhnev died in November 1982 and was followed by Yuri Andropov who survived only fifteen months in office, to be replaced in turn by Konstantin Chernenko who lasted barely a year. Only in March 1985, with Mikhail Gorbachev taking power, was some semblance of order restored. -
An Assessment Jars a Foreign Policy Debate About Iran
By STEVEN LEE MYERS Published: December 4, 2007 WASHINGTON, Dec. 3 — Rarely, if ever, has a single intelligence report so completely, so suddenly, and so surprisingly altered a foreign policy debate here.
Geoeye, via Associated Press A satellite image of the Natanz nuclear complex in Iran, taken this year, after military production had stopped. An administration that had cited Iran’s pursuit of nuclear weapons as the rationale for an aggressive foreign policy — as an attempt to head off World War III, as President Bush himself put it only weeks ago — now has in its hands a classified document that undercuts much of the foundation for that approach. The impact of the National Intelligence Estimate’s conclusion — that Iran had halted a military program in 2003, though it continues to enrich uranium, ostensibly for peaceful uses — will be felt in endless ways at home and abroad. It will certainly weaken international support for tougher sanctions against Iran, as a senior administration official grudgingly acknowledged. And it will raise questions, again, about the integrity of America’s beleaguered intelligence agencies, including whether what are now acknowledged to have been overstatements about Iran’s intentions in a 2005 assessment reflected poor tradecraft or political pressure. [Disinformation]
U.S. Showed the World Exhibit A, Iran as Nuclear Threat; Now Exhibit B Upends It
By WILLIAM J. BROAD and DAVID E. SANGER Published: December 4, 2007 WASHINGTON, Dec. 3 — In the summer of 2005, senior American intelligence officials began traveling the world with a secret slide show drawn from thousands of pages that they said were downloaded from a stolen Iranian laptop computer, trying to prove that Iran was lying when it said it had no interest in building a nuclear weapon.
Robert G. Joseph helped to build the case against Iran. The slides detailed efforts to build what looked like a compact warhead for an Iranian missile and were portrayed by the Americans as suggesting that the Iranian military was working to solve the technical problems in building a bomb. Now, that assertion has been thrown into doubt by a surprising reversal: the conclusion, contained in the declassified summary of a new National Intelligence Estimate on Iran’s nuclear programs, that Iran’s effort to master the technology of building a nuclear weapon had halted two years before those briefings. [Disinformation]
The mysteries of the American empire
Fred Halliday
The narrative of the United States's long-term decline or retreat is open to detailed challenge on the basis of the historical record and current realities, says Fred Halliday. 3 - 12 - 2007 The debate on the future of American power – and what is increasingly (even casually) referred to as the American “empire” – is almost as old as the United States itself. It was Alexis de Tocqueville who, in the 1830s, anticipated a future dominated by the two continental states of Russia and America; and the Time magazine editor Henry Luce who, in 1941, on the eve of America’s decisive entry into both the Pacific and European wars, predicted “the American century”. [Imperialism] [Decline]
From Indochina to Iraq: At War With Asia
Noam Chomsky interviewed by Kevin Hewison
Vietnam and Laos 1970 Kevin Hewison: The Journal of Contemporary Asia (JCA) is now in its thirty-seventh year of publication, and you have been on the Editorial Board since Volume 1, No. 2. Could you tell us how it was that you came to be associated with this new journal, and why issue 2 rather than issue 1? [Imperialism]
Ending famine, simply by ignoring the experts
By Celia W. Dugger Published: December 1, 2007
LILONGWE, Malawi: Malawi hovered for years at the brink of famine. After a disastrous corn harvest in 2005, almost five million of its 13 million people needed emergency food aid. But this year, a nation that has perennially extended a begging bowl to the world is instead feeding its hungry neighbors. It is selling more corn to the World Food Program of the United Nations than any other country in southern Africa and is exporting hundreds of thousands of tons of corn to Zimbabwe. In Malawi itself, the prevalence of acute child hunger has fallen sharply. In October, the United Nations Children's Fund sent three tons of powdered milk, stockpiled here to treat severely malnourished children, to Uganda instead. "We will not be able to use it!" Juan Ortiz-Iruri, Unicef's deputy representative in Malawi, said jubilantly. Farmers explain Malawi's extraordinary turnaround — one with broad implications for hunger-fighting methods across Africa — with one word: fertilizer.
A Partner For Dealing With Iran?
The Lessons of U.S.-China Cooperation on Pyongyang
By Zbigniew Brzezinski Friday, November 30, 2007; Page A23 The effort to resolve by negotiations North Korea's defiance of the global nonproliferation regime may yet prove successful. If so, does that experience offer a guide for coping with the challenge posed by Iran's expanding nuclear program? Would a comprehensive dialogue on this issue between America and China be useful? If, indeed, the prolonged negotiations with North Korea result in a constructive resolution of the dangers posed by Pyongyang's open pursuit of nuclear weapons, it will have been largely due to decisive changes in the public postures of both the United States and China. America belatedly committed itself to, and then actively promoted, serious and prolonged multilateral negotiations among five concerned states and North Korea's rulers. Even more important, China's abandonment of its initial reticence eventually proved vital to convincing Pyongyang that its own political intransigence could become suicidal. [China card]

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NOVEMBER 2007

Washington discovers Islamabad
Godfrey Hodgson The American political elite's lighthouse-beam of attention is fixed on Pakistan. That's part of a wider problem, says Godfrey Hodgson. 27 - 11 - 2007 The American political scientist, the late Nelson Polsby, once pointed out to an Oxford seminar how far better informed the American government had become since the early days of the cold war. It is true. In the state department, the Central Intelligence Agency and the other components of the "intelligence community" and in the military, as well as on congressional staffs, there are thousands of men and women who have lived all over the world, sometimes for years, who speak foreign languages and in many cases have studied aspects of foreign countries to doctoral standard.
The trouble is twofold: first, that the expertise of these dedicated professionals is not heard and often not even sought; and second, that the United States government all too often goes through a solemn farce of deceiving its own news media about what it knows. [Intelligence] [Imperialism]
Iran Looks for Allies through Asian and Latin American Partnerships
Benedetta Berti 27 November 2007 ranian economic cooperation and energy policy within the developing world serve as pillars of its foreign policy strategy, helping both its quest for regional hegemony in the greater Middle East and its position vis-à-vis the international community in the context of the ongoing nuclear crisis. [SCO]
America's Days of Reckoning: Good-Bye to All That
By PAUL CRAIG ROBERTS
Pat Buchanan is too patriotic to come right out and say it, but the message of his new book, Day of Reckoning, is that America as we have known her is finished. Moreover, Naomi Wolf agrees with him. These two writers of different political persuasions arrive at America's demise from different directions.
Buchanan explains how hubris, ideology, and greed have torn America apart. A neoconservative cabal with an alien agenda captured the Bush administration and committed American blood, energy, and money to aggression against Muslim countries in the Middle East, while permitting America's domestic borders to be overrun by immigrants and exporting the jobs that had made the US an opportunity society. War and offshoring have taken a savage economic toll while open borders and diversity have created social and political division.
The Bush administration has been a catastrophe. Its failures are unprecedented. Energy prices are at all time highs. The US is deeply in debt and dependent on foreign creditors. The dollar has lost 60 per cent of its value against other tradable currencies, and its reserve currency status, the basis of American power, is in doubt. The US has lost millions of middle class jobs which have been replaced with low paid domestic service jobs. Except for the very rich, Americans have experienced no gains in real income in the 21st century. As the ladders of upward mobility are dismantled and the middle class struggles and fails, America is left with a few rich and many poor. America's reputation and credibility are damaged perhaps beyond repair. Congress and the press have enabled the executive branch's disregard of the Constitution and civil liberty. The US is mired in two lost wars which are pushing Lebanon and nuclear-armed Pakistan into deepening political crises. [Offshoring]
Rice Benefits From a Tight Bond With Bush
By ELISABETH BUMILLER Published: November 26, 2007 WASHINGTON, Nov. 25 - Condoleezza Rice and President Bush are often described as opposites, but their closest advisers say they are remarkably alike. Both are products of their own elites - Mr. Bush from the old East Coast establishment, Ms. Rice from Southern black professionals - who are supremely self-confident on the surface but harbor resentments underneath. Ms. Rice, like Mr. Bush, has been underestimated her entire life, as an African-American, as a woman and often as the youngest person in the room. Ms. Rice's unusually tight bond with Mr. Bush has helped her as secretary of state in the second term to prod the president toward diplomacy with Iran and North Korea. But administration officials have long said that her devotion to Mr. Bush made her unwilling to challenge the president when needed during his first term, when she served as a less-confident national security adviser. More often in those years, Ms. Rice used her relationship with Mr. Bush to try to gain control over the national security process as well as two powerful men who drove much of the agenda in the first term, Vice President Dick Cheney and Donald H. Rumsfeld, then the defense secretary.
In recent months, Ms. Rice has gone so often to Mr. Bush to push him on diplomacy with Iran and North Korea that he has started to needle her that she expects him to talks to people like Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the radical Islamist who is president of Iran, or Kim Jong-il, the North Korean leader whom Mr. Bush has said he loathed. “You want me to sit down with Ahmadinejad?” a White House official recalled that Mr. Bush has archly asked Ms. Rice. “Kim Jong-il? Is he next?” The White House official said that Mr. Bush had also taken to calling Ms. Rice “Madame Rice,” as in “Madame Rice, you’re not coming in to tell me that we ought to change our position?” [Bilateral]
Where the dollar’s decline is taking the world
By David Hale Published: November 22 2007 18:51 | Last updated: November 22 2007 18:51 The recent decline of the dollar is not a by-product of traditional concerns about the US current account deficit. The US economy is in the midst of an export boom that could reduce the deficit from more than 6.5 per cent of gross domestic product in 2006 to 4-5 per cent next year. Strengths in the US economy have been ignored because of concerns about credit ratings. However, dollar weakness has stemmed not just from subprime concerns, but from US foreign policy imperatives in China and the Middle East. The greatest continuing risks are not to be found on Wall Street, but in Beijing and Riyadh. [Reserve]
Qinetiq sold ‘too cheaply’, says NAO
By Alex Barker and Stephen Fidler Published: November 22 2007 22:42 | Last updated: November 22 2007 22:42 Ten civil servants enjoyed a "mind-boggling" return of £107m under a deal they helped negotiate during in the privatisation of Qinetiq, the defence research group, according to the findings of a highly critical investigation into the 2003 deal. The inquiry by the National Audit Office, the independent spending watchdog, accuses the government of selling the group too cheaply and allowing the 10 executives – who went on to lead Qinetiq through to privatisation – to negotiate the terms of their own incentive scheme even before the preferred bidder was chosen. The result was that for an initial investment of £537,000, they secured stakes worth £107m – a 19,900 per cent return. [Corruption]
Mongolia Matters
By Steve Noerper October 25th, 2007
Steve Noerper, Senior Associate at the Nautilus Institute, writes, “Welcoming Mongolia’s President to Washington this month with a frank but positive assessment of common needs and an enhanced understanding of developments in Mongolia is critical. We need to better recognize this horseman of the north – which has listened to international requests, abided with its responsibilities, supported U.S. and international efforts, and grown itself as one of the region’s most vibrant locales – as a fitting response to forces of despotism, nuclear proliferation, and hostility that have challenged the international arena of late.”
America loses faith in imperialism
By Gideon Rachman
Published: November 19 2007 19:11 | Last updated: November 19 2007 19:11 Well, that was quick. In 2003, the idea of empire became fashionable in Washington, DC. But the flirtation has lasted little more than three years. The imperial eagles are being put back in the cupboard. The challenge for the US now will be to avoid sliding straight from imperialism to isolationism. It is true that President George W. Bush always insisted that the US had no imperial ambitions. But – as ever – his vice-president had his own agenda. In 2003, just after the invasion of Iraq, the Christmas card that Dick Cheney sent to his friends read: "And if a sparrow cannot fall to the ground without His notice, is it probable that an empire can rise without His aid?" Many American conservatives were considerably less coy. Max Boot of the Council on Foreign Relations wrote an article frankly entitled: "The Case for American Empire". Charles Krauthammer, an influential columnist, panted that America "is the dominant power in the world, more dominant than any since Rome. America is in a position to ... create new realities." Mr Krauthammer recommended that this be done by "unapologetic and implacable demonstrations of will". In two influential books, Niall Ferguson, a British historian and FT contributing editor, sought to rehabilitate the reputation of the British empire and to suggest that liberal US imperialism "makes sense today in terms of both American self-interest and altruism". [Decline] [Imperialism]
Marcos . . . Pinochet . . . Musharraf?
By Charles Krauthammer
Friday, November 9, 2007; Page A21 Islamist barbarians are at the gates. The president declares de facto martial law. The country's democratic forces of the center and left, led by well-dressed lawyers and a former prime minister, take to the streets. What is America to do about Pakistan? Opposition leader Benazir Bhutto knows just how to appeal to America. In a New York Times op-ed, she quoted President Bush back to himself: "All who live in tyranny and hopelessness can know: The United States will not ignore your oppression, or excuse your oppressors. When you stand for your liberty, we will stand with you."
Bhutto (Harvard '73) is a good student of American politics. She caught Bush's democratic messianism at its apogee, the same inaugural address in which he set "the ultimate goal of ending tyranny in our world." Universal democratization is lovely, but it cannot be a description of day-to-day diplomacy. The blanket promise to always oppose dictatorship is inherently impossible to keep. It always requires considerations of local conditions and strategic necessity. [Democracy] [Double standards]
Senator: U.S. has become haven for war criminals
By Renee Schoof | McClatchy Newspapers Posted on Wednesday, November 14, 2007
WASHINGTON — More than 1,000 people from 85 countries who are accused of such crimes as rape, killings, torture and genocide are living in the United States, according to Department of Homeland Security figures. America has become a haven for the world's war criminals because it lacks the laws needed to prosecute them, Sen. Richard Durbin, D-Ill., said Wednesday. There's been only one U.S. indictment of someone suspected of a serious human-rights abuse. Durbin said torture was the only serious human-rights violation that was a crime under American law when committed outside the United States by a non-American national.
U.S. Is Looking Past Musharraf in Case He Falls
By HELENE COOPER, MARK MAZZETTI and DAVID ROHDE Published: November 15, 2007 This article is by Helene Cooper, Mark Mazzetti and David Rohde. Complete New York Times Interview with Gen. Pervez Musharraf (Nov. 13) (mp3)WASHINGTON, Nov. 14 — Almost two weeks into Pakistan’s political crisis, Bush administration officials are losing faith that the Pakistani president, Gen. Pervez Musharraf, can survive in office and have begun discussing what might come next, according to senior administration officials. In meetings on Wednesday, officials at the White House, State Department and the Pentagon huddled to decide what message Deputy Secretary of State John D. Negroponte would deliver to General Musharraf — and perhaps more important, to Pakistan’s generals — when he arrives in Islamabad on Friday. Administration officials say they still hope that Mr. Negroponte can salvage the fractured arranged marriage between General Musharraf and former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto. But in Pakistan, foreign diplomats and aides to both leaders said the chances of a deal between the leaders were evaporating 11 days after General Musharraf declared de facto martial law. Several senior administration officials said that with each day that passed, more administration officials were coming around to the belief that General Musharraf’s days in power were numbered and that the United States should begin considering contingency plans, including reaching out to Pakistan’s generals. More than a dozen officials in Washington and Islamabad from a number of countries spoke on condition of anonymity because of the fragility of Pakistan’s current political situation. The doubts that American officials voiced about whether General Musharraf could survive were more pointed than any public statements by the administration, and signaled declining American patience in advance of Mr. Negroponte’s trip. Officials involved in the discussions in Washington said the Bush administration remained wary of the perception that the United States was cutting back-room deals to install the next leader of Pakistan. "They don’t want to encourage another military coup, but they are also beginning to understand that Musharraf has become part of the problem," said one former official with knowledge of the debates inside the Bush administration.
Letter from Cuba: Trade fair draws over 100 U.S. businesses
By James C. McKinley Jr. Published: November 12, 2007
HAVANA: A trade fair in Communist Cuba is perhaps the last place you would expect to find a Republican governor from the American heartland. Yet last week Governor Dave Heineman of Nebraska was here to sign a deal to export $11 million worth of his state's wheat to the island.
Several Americans here said they were frustrated that the sanctions have proved more a source of irritation for those who want to do business with Cuba than a crippling blow to Fidel Castro. "They are doing everything they can to make it difficult," said Ralph Kaehler, a Minnesota farmer who sells cattle feed in Cuba. "It's unfortunate." American businesspeople and state officials have been coming to the fair for six years, ever since Congress gave in to pressure from the agriculture lobby in late 2000, during the waning days of the Clinton administration, and lifted a four-decade ban on selling food to Cuba. [Sanctions]
Iran, Pakistan finalize contract for gas pipeline deal
The Associated Press Published: November 10, 2007
TEHRAN, Iran: Iran and Pakistan have reached a deal to build a multi-billion-dollar pipeline to transport natural gas between the two countries, Iranian state television reported Saturday. "The text of the Peace Pipeline contract has been finalized. All the points prepared by the legal experts from each side have been restudied and agreed by both sides," the television quoted Iran's deputy minister in charge of the project, Hojatollah Ganimifard, as saying. The pipeline is expected to run 2,600 kilometers (1,625 miles) from Iran to Pakistan and should carry 150 million cubic meters (5.2 billion cubic feet) of gas a day. A formal signature to seal the contract will be held next month with the two heads of state, TV said. Washington opposes the project because it fears it will weaken efforts to isolate Iran, which it accuses of running a clandestine nuclear weapons program. Today in Africa & Middle East
India was viewed as a potential party to the deal, but has for now stayed away from the contract.
U.N. forum: Should U.S. give up Web control?
By Jack Chang | McClatchy Newspapers Posted on Sunday, November 11, 2007
RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil — When hundreds of technology experts from around the world gather here this week to hammer out the future of the Internet, the hottest issue won't be spam, phishing or any of the other phenomena that bedevil users everywhere. Instead, ending U.S. control over what's become a global network will be at the top of the agenda for many of the more than 2,000 participants expected at the United Nations Internet Governance Forum, which begins Monday. With the Internet now dominating nearly aspect of modern life, continued U.S. control of the medium has become a sensitive topic worldwide.
In Death of Spy Satellite Program, Lofty Plans and Unrealistic Bids
By PHILIP TAUBMAN Published: November 11, 2007 By May 2002, the government’s effort to build a technologically audacious new generation of spy satellites was foundering.
The contractor building the satellites, Boeing, was still giving Washington reassuring progress reports. But the program was threatening to outstrip its $5 billion budget, and pivotal parts of the design seemed increasingly unworkable. Peter B. Teets, the new head of the nation’s spy satellite agency, appointed a panel of experts to examine the secret project, telling them, according to one member, "Find out what’s going on, find the terrible truth I suspect is out there."
Jordan, Fearing Islamists, Tightens Grip on Elections
By THANASSIS CAMBANIS Published: November 11, 2007 AMMAN, Jordan, Nov. 9 — This month’s legislative elections were supposed to be a watershed in this pro-American kingdom’s slow but committed march to democratic change. But Hamas’s rise to power in the Palestinian Authority and its violent takeover of Gaza in June have cast a heavy shadow over politics in Jordan, where a Hashemite monarch maintains a tight, authoritarian grip on a restive Palestinian majority and an activist Islamic opposition. As a result, the government has dropped plans to change its byzantine electoral law, prohibited some critics from seeking office and threatened to bar independent observers from the polls. And, with less than two weeks before the Nov. 20 vote, opposition candidates are accusing the government of rampant voter fraud. The government’s fears have resonated in some quarters of the liberal elite that just two years ago was pushing for a political overhaul that would allow national parties and free, fair elections. But Jordan’s system restrains not only Islamists but also secular liberal parties and advocates of Palestinian rights. Many in the opposition accuse the government of using the specter of rising Islamism to justify autocratic rule. “We have democracy, but we don’t want it to go to an extent where the radical people could rule the country,” said Hakem Habahbeh, a pilot who was spending a recent evening at the campaign tent of Ahmed Saffadi, in a wealthy, liberal enclave. [Democracy] [Double standards]
Wanted: a new global paradigm
Paul Rogers
The destructive search for military control amid acute environmental constraint highlights the prescience of pioneering work on global sustainability. 8 - 11 - 2007 In spring 1972, two United Nations conferences were held on successive months in an effort to articulate and find answers to the problem of the deep divisions and inequalities in global society. Both their respective south/north locations (Santiago [Chile] and Stockholm) and their themes (trade and development, and the global ecosystem) have a profound resonance today. Even after a generation and more of practical experience and discussion of the issues addressed by these conferences, it is worth returning to the moment of the early 1970s to understand what it represented and what lessons it may still offer.
The confrontation with Iran
Experts: No firm evidence of Iranian nuclear weapons By Jonathan S. Landay | McClatchy Newspapers Posted on Sunday, November 4, 2007 WASHINGTON — Despite President Bush's claims that Iran is pursuing nuclear weapons that could trigger "World War III," experts in and out of government say there's no conclusive evidence that Tehran has an active nuclear-weapons program. Even his own administration appears divided about the immediacy of the threat. While Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney speak of an Iranian weapons program as a fact, Bush's point man on Iran, Undersecretary of State Nicholas Burns, has attempted to ratchet down the rhetoric. "Iran is seeking a nuclear capability ... that some people fear might lead to a nuclear-weapons capability," Burns said in an interview Oct. 25 on PBS. [Evidence]

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OCTOBER 2007

Armenian Issue Presents a Dilemma for U.S. Jews
By NEELA BANERJEE Published: October 19, 2007 LEXINGTON, Mass., Oct. 17 - On the docket for the weekly selectmen's meeting here on Monday were the location of park benches, a liquor license for Vinny T's restaurant and, not for the first time, the killing of 1.5 million Armenians in Turkey 90 years ago.
The debate in this affluent Boston suburb, home to many Jews and Armenians, centered on a local program to increase awareness of bias. The issue was not the program itself, but its sponsor, the Anti-Defamation League, the Jewish advocacy group, which has taken a stand against a proposed Congressional resolution condemning the Armenians' deaths as genocide [Double standards]
New Launch: Global Strategic Finance Initiative
The Economic Growth Program and the American Strategy Program are pleased to announce the launch of the Global Strategic Finance Initiative. The Initiative, co-directed by Douglas Rediker and Heidi Crebo-Rediker, will address the fast-changing relationship between global capital flows, financial markets, foreign policy and national security. [Reserve] [Financial sanctions]
Inside Track: The Financialization of Foreign Policy
by Douglas Rediker and Heidi Crebo-Rediker 10.17.2007 Over the first half of 2007, central banks in the world's emerging economies accumulated over $600 billion of new reserves. That’s double the total reserve position of the International Monetary Fund (IMF)—an institution whose mission used to include preventing the collapse of these same governments, and whose new managing director recently raised questions about the body’s “relevance and legitimacy.” Over the same period, China, Russia and Japan joined the list of governments establishing “sovereign wealth funds”, whose worldwide assets now approach $3 trillion. The U.S. Treasury, meanwhile, is focusing its attention on the Strategic Economic Dialogue with China, while attempting to influence governments from Iran to Myanmar by ratcheting up financial sanctions against them. A message to those who think of finance as a mere footnote to foreign policy: Wake up. Today, these two worlds are intertwined as never before. [Financial sanctions] [Reserve]
Energy-rich Caspian becomes center of U.S.-Russia power struggle
By Judy Dempsey Published: October 17, 2007 BERLIN: Is the Caspian a sea or a lake? The answer has immense repercussions for the energy industry. If it is a lake, there are no obligations by countries that flank it to grant permits to foreign vessels or drilling companies. But if it is sea, there are international treaties obliging those countries to an array of permits. The Caspian, one of the world's largest enclosed bodies of water, has become the center of a new power game involving the United States and Russia as well as its bordering countries, including Iran, over who should control the vast energy reserves under its depths. The Caspian's status has been in dispute since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. Over the past few years, the United States has been trying to establish alternative energy routes that would weaken the regional dominance of Russia and Iran, while Russia has sought to control the transportation routes across these waters. [Energy security]
Expert likens U.S. crisis to canary in a coal mine
October 18, 2007 Contrary to the widespread optimism among investors and policy makers, Asia's growth is quite vulnerable to a meaningful slowdown in U.S. consumption, Stephen Roach, chairman of Morgan Stanley Asia, said yesterday. At the World Knowledge Forum in Seoul, the New York-based investment firm's executive delivered stinging predictions for the global economy in the aftermath of the U.S. subprime crisis. This was in sharp contrast to the dominant views among global economists. He compared the subprime crisis to a canary in a coal mine. Traditionally, coal miners took live canaries into the shafts with them to test the air. As long as the birds kept singing, they knew the air supply was safe. Roach implied that the subprime worries mean the bird is dead. "The global economy is headed for trouble," he said. [Reserve]
Iraqi Contracts With Iran and China Concern U.S.
Joao Silva for The New York Times By JAMES GLANZ Published: October 18, 2007 BAGHDAD, Oct. 17 - Iraq has agreed to award $1.1 billion in contracts to Iranian and Chinese companies to build a pair of enormous power plants, the Iraqi electricity minister said Tuesday. Word of the project prompted serious concerns among American military officials, who fear that Iranian commercial investments can mask military activities at a time of heightened tension with Iran. [Unintended consequences]
Resentment and Rations as Eritrea Nears a Crisis
Shawn Baldwin for The New York Times
Eritreans stand in long lines for milk and other staples at stores. Shoppers sometimes wait for hours for a single loaf of bread. By JEFFREY GETTLEMAN Published: October 16, 2007 ASMARA, Eritrea, Oct. 9 - The first thing you notice about Eritrea is that no one ever locks up a bike.
Crisis Looms in Eritrea It is one of the poorest countries on the planet, situated in one of the world's most reliably violent regions, the Horn of Africa, yet Eritrea is virtually crime-free. Anytime, day or night, young couples stroll freely down the palm-lined avenues of Asmara, the capital. Old men in tweed jackets and vintage Ray-Bans park themselves at the 1930s chrome-trimmed Art Deco cafes and soak up the scene. But beneath the peace, harmony and South Beach style that once made Eritrea the little gem of Africa, cracks are beginning to show. There are bread lines, milk lines and lines for rationed cooking gas. At night, dissidents meet on dark streets to chat secretly in parked cars. Because of the rising prospects of war with Ethiopia, essentially Round 2 of a border conflict that has already killed 100,000 people, tens of thousands of Eritrean students have been conscripted into the army. Relations with the West, especially the United States, have deteriorated to a historic low point, with the State Department threatening to designate Eritrea, a tiny country on the Red Sea that most Americans have never heard of, as a terrorist state for its support of Islamist rebels in Somalia. [Sanctions] [Islamist resistance] [Victim]
Support Wanes in House for Genocide Vote
Representative Allen Boyd, a Florida Democrat, on Monday dropped his sponsorship of a resolution that would condemn as genocide the mass killings of Armenians nearly a century ago.
By CARL HULSE Published: October 17, 2007 WASHINGTON, Oct. 16 - Worried about antagonizing Turkish leaders, House members from both parties have begun to withdraw their support from a resolution backed by the Democratic leadership that would condemn as genocide the mass killings of Armenians nearly a century ago. [Human rights] [Double standards]
After Guantanamo, An Empty Freedom
Ethnic Uighurs Frustrated in Albania
By Jonathan Finer Washington Post Foreign Service Wednesday, October 17, 2007; Page A13
TIRANA, Albania -- For 16 months, they have shared a clutch of tidy rooms in a small refugee camp in this city, living alongside a few dozen others whose lives were unraveled by war or persecution or both. But apart from their new home, the five men from the Uighur ethnic group of western China, whose most recent address was the U.S. detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, have little in common with the camp's other residents, most of whom come from one of Albania's neighbors and blend easily into the crowd on Tirana's busy streets.
Abu Qadder Basim, 38, is one of five Uighurs from western China who now live in a refugee camp in Albania. They were released from Guantanamo Bay in May 2006 after three years, incorrectly classified as "enemy combatants." (By Jonathan Finer -- The Washington Post)
The Uighurs, all Muslims, said in recent interviews that for a while they embraced their new life in Albania. A majority-Muslim country, it was the only one willing to accept them when U.S. officials ruled that, after three years of incarceration, they posed no security risk. [Human rights] [Double standards] [Manipulation] [Separatism] [China confrontation] [Islamist resistance]
The Russia Problem
October 16, 2007 2028 GMT
By Peter Zeihan
For the past several days, high-level Russian and American policymakers, including U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates and Russian President Vladimir Putin's right-hand man, Sergei Ivanov, have been meeting in Moscow to discuss the grand scope of U.S.-Russian relations. These talks would be of critical importance to both countries under any circumstances, as they center on the network of treaties that have governed Europe since the closing days of the Cold War. Against the backdrop of the Iraq war, however, they have taken on far greater significance. Both Russia and the United States are attempting to rewire the security paradigms of key regions, with Washington taking aim at the Middle East and Russia more concerned about its former imperial territory. The two countries' visions are mutually incompatible, and American preoccupation with Iraq is allowing Moscow to overturn the geopolitics of its backyard. [resurgence]
5 Countries to Join Security Council
By WARREN HOGE Published: October 17, 2007 United Nations, Oct. 16 — Libya and Vietnam, countries once shunned by the West, were today elected overwhelmingly to two-year terms on the Security Council beginning January 1, 2008. Also named to the powerful panel in secret balloting of the 192-member General Assembly were Burkina Faso, Costa Rica and Croatia. [UNUS]
Beyond the Bomb. The Pentagon Plans for a New Hundred Years' War
Nick Turse Duane Schattle doesn't mince words. "The cities are the problem," he says. A retired Marine infantry lieutenant colonel who worked on urban warfare issues at the Pentagon in the late 1990s, he now serves as director of the Joint Urban Operations Office at U.S. Joint Forces Command. He sees the war in the streets of Iraq's cities as the prototype for tomorrow's battlespace. "This is the next fight," he warns. "The future of warfare is what we see now." He isn't alone. "We think urban is the future," says James Lasswell, a retired colonel who now heads the Office of Science and Technology at the Marine Corps Warfighting Laboratory. "Everything worth fighting for is in the urban environment." And Wayne Michael Hall, a retired Army brigadier general and the senior intelligence advisor in Schattle's operation, has a similar assessment. "We will be fighting in urban terrain for the next hundred years." [Imperialism]
Japan, the United States, and the World-Economy
Commentary No. 219, Oct. 15, 2007by Immanuel Wallerstein
Sometimes startling and revealing news items are buried in the back pages of the news media. On October 3, The New York Times ran a small table in its business section about access to the internet. It listed ten countries with strong economies and showed two figures for each: average speed of broadband connections in megabytes a second, and price per month of service (one megabyte a second). The country that was fastest and cheapest was Japan (61.0 and $0.27). The runner-up was South Korea (45.6 and $0.45). What was interesting about this table was how the United States stood in relation to Japan. The United States at 4.8 was fourteen times slower than Japan and at $3.33 twelve times more expensive The two crucial differences between Japan and the United States is that U.S. corporate executives are under great pressure to justify any capital expenditures that might eat into this year's returns, and that the U.S. government is unwilling to give financial incentives to companies to help finance long-term investment [Decline
An Internet Jihad Sells Extremism to Viewers in the U.S.
Michael Moss/The New York Times Samir Khan, 21, silhouetted in a video, spreads the message of Osama bin Laden in the blog he writes from his parents' house in North Carolina.
By MICHAEL MOSS and SOUAD MEKHENNET Published: October 15, 2007 When Osama bin Laden issued his videotaped message to the American people last month, a young jihad enthusiast went online to help spread the word.
The global jihad is as close as YouTube, which features videos like an ode to suicide attacks (top), a message "to black Americans" from a bin Laden lieutenant (center), and an Iraq insurgency promotional message (bottom). "America needs to listen to Shaykh Usaamah very carefully and take his message with great seriousness," he wrote on his blog. "America is known to be a people of arrogance." Unlike Mr. bin Laden, the blogger was not operating from a remote location. It turns out he is a 21-year-old American named Samir Khan who produces his blog from his parents' home in North Carolina, where he serves as a kind of Western relay station for the multimedia productions of violent Islamic groups. [Double standards] [Islamist resistance]
Hans Rosling: using data
You've never seen data presented like this. With the drama and urgency of a sportscaster, Hans Rosling debunks myths about the so-called "developing world" using extraordinary animation software developed by his Gapminder Foundation. The Trendalyzer software (recently acquired by Google) turns complex global trends into lively animations, making decades of data pop. Asian countries, as colorful bubbles, float across the grid -- toward better national health and wealth. Animated bell curves representing national income distribution squish and flatten. In Rosling's hands, global trends -- life expectancy, child mortality, poverty rates -- become clear, intuitive and even playful. NEW: Download this talk in full SD resolution >> [Video]
Gapminder
Gapminder is a non-profit venture for development and provision of free software that visualise human development. This is done in collaboration with universities, UN organisations, public agencies and non-governmental organisations. Gapminder is a Foundation registered at Stockholm county administration board (Länstyrelsen) (reg. nr. 802424-7721). It was founded by Ola Rosling, Anna Rosling Rönnlund and Hans Rosling on 25 February 2005, in Stockholm. Gapminder Foundation will advance software development that have been done earlier by the non-profit company Gapminder Ltd. Funding has been and is mainly by grants from Sida for the Trendalyzer project. Being a producer of global public goods Gapminder benefit from free and creative inputs from pilot-testers and other end-users in many institutions and organisations.
Can Middle Georgians find the U.S. on a world map?
Reporter Travis Fain took a camera out on the town and asked 100 people to find the United States on a world map. Of those asked, 25 percent could not [Video]
Book Faults Israeli Air War in Lebanon
By STEVEN ERLANGER Published: October 14, 2007 JERUSALEM, Oct. 13 - A study of the 2006 Israeli-Hezbollah war commissioned by the United States Air Force and to be published this month concludes that Israel's use of air power was of diminishing value as the fight dragged on because it was used without enough discrimination. Although the war was widely criticized in Israel and abroad for relying too heavily on the air force, the study argues that air power remains the most flexible tool in fighting groups like Hezbollah, because ground forces alone could not have achieved Israel's aims. Israel's error, the study concludes, was insufficient discernment in its airstrikes. By bombing too many targets of questionable importance for its aims, and not explaining why it bombed what it did, Israel lost the war for public opinion, according to the author of the study, William M. Arkin, an expert in assessing bomb damage. "Israel bombed too much and bombed the wrong targets, falling back upon cookie-cutter conventional targeting in attacking traditional military objects," Mr. Arkin wrote. "Individual elements of each target group might have been justified, but Israel also undertook an intentionally punishing and destructive air campaign against the people and government of Lebanon.
In the end, Mr. Arkin contends, the Israeli military concluded that it could prosecute a fierce and pre-emptive air war despite criticism. “Pre-emption was the theoretical underpinning of the recent attack on Syria, too,” he said, referring to Israel’s attack last month on what it reportedly believed was a nuclear facility supplied by North Korea. “Though given a bad name in Iraq, pre-emption is accepted by the military, and it thrives in the Syria attack and in the ongoing discussions about Iran.” Mr. Arkin draws two main lessons. The United States and Israel should “practice greater transparency about what you’re doing, about what you’re bombing and why you’re bombing it.” Second, militaries must properly judge the past. The United States Air Force hated the Kosovo war, which in fact succeeded in its military and political objectives, but loved the Iraq wars, which did not, he said. “We’re looking into a future that involves pre-emption and wars against terrorism” — wars like Israel’s. Mr. Arkin was a military adviser to Human Rights Watch, analyzing the American bombing campaign during the 1999 Kosovo war. He was a military adviser to a United Nations mission to Israel and Lebanon in 2006. [Double standards] [NGO]
Cities Take the Lead on Climate Change
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Published: October 14, 2007 Filed at 2:21 a.m. ET VAXJO, Sweden (AP) -- When this quiet city in southern Sweden decided in 1996 to wean itself off fossil fuels, most people doubted the ambitious goal would have any impact beyond the town limits. A few melting glaciers later, Vaxjo is attracting a green pilgrimage of politicians, scientists and business leaders from as far afield as the United States and North Korea seeking inspiration from a city program that has allowed it to cut CO2 emissions 30 percent since 1993.
Every week, foreign visitors arrive to see Vaxjo's environmental campaign. Last year, even a delegation of 10 energy officials from reclusive North Korea got a tour.
India outsources outsourcing
Thousands of jobs taken from the west are being re-exported as wages shoot up
Randeep Ramesh in Bangalore Saturday October 13, 2007 The Guardian
From his tree-top-high office, Kris Gopalakrishnan, the head of India's giant software company Infosys, explains the rise of an economic phenomenon about to engulf the world: outsourcers are outsourcing themselves. Once known for sucking jobs out of call centres and IT departments in the west, Indian technology firms are re-exporting them to wealthier nations as wage inflation and skills shortages at home reverse the process. Infosys spent $250m this year buying the Polish call centres of Philips, the electronics group, manned by workers who speak half-a-dozen European languages. The company is building up a network of offices stretching from Mexico to eastern Europe to China to provide an "anytime, anywhere" solution to its clients. "Our customers are global, so we have to become so," says Mr Gopalakrishnan. [Offshoring]
Bush, aides 'grossly misjudged Putin'
By Jonathan S. Landay | McClatchy Newspapers * Posted on Friday, October 12, 2007 WASHINGTON - The Bush administration's failure to win Russia's consent to install U.S. missile defenses in its European backyard and a growing list of other disputes suggest that President Bush and his aides have misread the man whose "soul" Bush thought he'd divined when they first met six years ago. Bush's strategy on Russia assumed that Russian President Vladimir Putin embraced democracy, wanted integration with the West and sought a "strategic partnership" in which Moscow would acquiesce to U.S. policies such as NATO expansion. Feuds could be resolved through the close personal relationship that Bush believed he had with his Russian counterpart.
Ex-Commander Says Iraq Effort Is 'a Nightmare'
By DAVID S. CLOUD Published: October 13, 2007 WASHINGTON, Oct. 12 - In a sweeping indictment of the four-year effort in Iraq, the former top commander of American forces there called the Bush administration's handling of the war "incompetent" and said the result was "a nightmare with no end in sight."
Lt. Gen. Ricardo S. Sanchez, who retired in 2006 after being replaced in Iraq after the Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse scandal, blamed the Bush administration for a "catastrophically flawed, unrealistically optimistic war plan" and denounced the current addition of American forces as a "desperate" move that would not achieve long-term stability.
The Great Tech Worker Divide
Is there really a labor shortage, or are tech companies lobbying Congress for more visas and green cards simply to avoid paying Americans better wages?
by Moira Herbst
With a B.S. in computer science, an M.A. in information systems management, and 20 years of experience, Rennie Sawade would appear to be a strong candidate for a job as a software development engineer. But all the 44-year-old can find these days are short-term, temporary jobs—like the 15-month contract he's currently on at a Seattle-based medical device company. At Microsoft, the most prominent employer in town, he's had contract jobs and even interviews for permanent positions. But after several failed attempts, he's given up on trying to land a staff position at the software giant. "I feel like my time is being wasted," he says. [Offshoring]
Work Visas May Work Against the U.S.
Indian outsourcers file the most applications for temporary H-1B visas. Are they using them to train staff for jobs abroad?
by Peter Elstrom
America's visa program for temporary workers was originally set up to allow U.S. companies to bring skilled workers who are in short supply to the U.S. Microsoft (MSFT), IBM (IBM), Intel (INTC), Oracle (ORCL), and Sun Microsystems (SUNW) have been active participants in the program, hiring foreign workers for specialized computer programming jobs and positions managing projects with overseas staff. The visas, known as H-1Bs, are popular enough that President George W. Bush is calling for an increase in the cap on the number of workers who can come to the U.S. under the program. "We've got to expand what's called H-1B visas," he said in a January speech. "It makes no sense to say to a young scientist in India, you can't come to America to help this [country] develop technologies that help us deal with our problems." [Offshoring]
Israel's Strike on Syria Reduces Chances for Peace Deal
11 October 2007 n September 6, Israeli war planes entered Syrian airspace. Syria initially claimed that the planes fled after being engaged by Syrian air defenses, dumping their ammunition on a deserted area. While Israel has remained largely silent over the incident, U.S. and British media sources, citing U.S. and Israeli officials, report that a successful military strike took place. Israeli opposition party leader Benjamin Netanyahu appeared to confirm these claims in a television interview on September 19. On October 1, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad admitted that a strike had taken place, saying that Israeli jets had struck an unused military building. Reports, however, have suggested that the target of the raid was either a shipment of arms from Iran to Hezbollah or a nuclear installation being constructed by Syria with the assistance of North Korea. Syria and North Korea both deny these claims. Regardless of the exact nature of the target, one point seems clear: Israel regards the operation as a success. This will have a significant effect on the balance of power in the region and the prospects for an Israeli-Syrian peace deal.
Syria Tells Journalists Israeli Raid Did Not Occur
By HUGH NAYLOR Published: October 11, 2007 DEIR EZ ZOR, Syria, Oct. 9 — Foreign journalists perused the rows of corn and the groves of date palms pregnant with low-hanging fruit here this week, while agents of Syria’s ever present security services stood in the background, watching closely, almost nervously.
“You see — around us are farmers, corn, produce, nothing else,” said Ahmed Mehdi, the Deir ez Zor director of the Arab Center for the Studies of Arid Zones and Dry Lands, a government agricultural research center, as he led two of the journalists around the facilities. It was here at this research center in this sleepy Bedouin city in eastern Syria that an Israeli journalist reported that Israel had conducted an air raid in early September. Ron Ben-Yishai, a writer for the Israeli daily Yediot Aharonot, grabbed headlines when he suggested that the government facility here was attacked during the raid, snapping photos of himself for his article in front of a sign for the agricultural center.
In Egypt, A Son Is Readied for Succession
On Streets, Dynasty Viewed as 'a Given' By Ellen Knickmeyer Washington Post Foreign Service Thursday, October 11, 2007; Page A01 CAIRO -- Tall and gangly, his hairline edging toward the back of his head, the man on stage in khakis and shirt sleeves spoke woodenly despite the energy and friendliness evident in his audience of well-off Egyptian college students and recent graduates. The speaker's hand gestures lagged behind his words. Passion flowed into his voice only when he talked about trade liberalization and market reform. His listeners at the youth forum applauded, but not as much as they had for some other speakers. .
Gamal Mubarak, son of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and the man most widely expected to succeed him, had not made much of an impression. Then again, Egyptians say, Gamal Mubarak probably doesn't have to.
A Bang or a Whimper
By Dan Froomkin Special to washingtonpost.com Wednesday, October 10, 2007; 12:58 PM Whose advice does President Bush value the most? Who is the last person to whisper in his ear? The answer to that question has never been entirely clear, although Vice President Cheney has generally been the most likely suspect -- certainly when it comes to foreign policy.
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But now Bush appears to be facing an ever-deepening rift among his chief advisers, with Cheney and his loyalists advocating a more confrontational response to international challenges and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice marshalling support for diplomacy. Given how trigger-happy Cheney appears to be, and how little credibility this White House has on the international stage, Bush essentially faces the choice of whether to end his tenure with a bang or a whimper. The latest backdrop for this struggle appears to be the mysterious Israeli bombing raid on Syria five weeks ago. Mark Mazzetti and Helene Cooper write in the New York Times: "A sharp debate is under way in the Bush administration about the significance of the Israeli intelligence that led to last month's Israeli strike inside Syria, according to current and former American government officials. [Dissension]
An Israeli Strike on Syria Kindles Debate in the U.S.
By MARK MAZZETTI and HELENE COOPER Published: October 10, 2007 WASHINGTON, Oct. 9 - A sharp debate is under way in the Bush administration about the significance of the Israeli intelligence that led to last month's Israeli strike inside Syria, according to current and former American government officials.
A familiar administration divide: Vice President Dick Cheney says Israeli intelligence was credible, while Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice questions whether there was a real threat. At issue is whether intelligence that Israel presented months ago to the White House - to support claims that Syria had begun early work on what could become a nuclear weapons program with help from North Korea - was conclusive enough to justify military action by Israel and a possible rethinking of American policy toward the two nations.
Mr. Cheney and his allies have expressed unease at the decision last week by President Bush and Ms. Rice to proceed with an agreement to supply North Korea with economic aid in return for the North’s disabling its nuclear reactor. Those officials argued that the Israeli intelligence demonstrates that North Korea cannot be trusted. They also argue that the United States should be prepared to scuttle the agreement unless North Korea admits to its dealing with the Syrians. During a breakfast meeting on Oct. 2 at the White House, Ms. Rice and her chief North Korea negotiator, Christopher R. Hill, made the case to President Bush that the United States faced a choice: to continue with the nuclear pact with North Korea as a way to bring the secretive country back into the diplomatic fold and give it the incentive to stop proliferating nuclear material; or to return to the administration’s previous strategy of isolation, which detractors say left North Korea to its own devices and led it to test a nuclear device last October. Mr. Cheney and Stephen J. Hadley, the national security adviser, also attended the meeting, administration officials said. [Dissension]
Bomb, Bomb Iran
By MAUREEN DOWD Published: October 10, 2007 Hillary seemed rattled.
Up until now, she has displayed remarkable imperturbability - gliding along with the help of good lighting, a hearty guffaw and a clever husband. But on Sunday in New Hampton, Iowa, Hillary lost her cool at last. Sparring with a voter on Iran, she sounded defensive and paranoid. A Democrat, Randall Rolph, asked Senator Clinton why he should back her when she did not learn her lesson after voting to authorize W. to use force in Iraq. He did not understand how she could have voted yea to urge W. to label Iran's Revolutionary Guard a terrorist organization, possibly setting the stage for more Cheney chicanery. Hillary said that "labeling them a terrorist organization gives us the authority to impose sanctions on their leadership. ...I consider that part of a very robust diplomatic effort."
When Hillary voted to let W. use force in Iraq, she didn’t even read the intelligence estimate. She wasn’t trying to do the right thing. She was trying to do the opportunistic thing. She felt she could not run for president, as a woman, if she played the peacenik.
Blinded by Ideology Cato, Trade and Outsourcing
By PAUL CRAIG ROBERTS
October 9, 2007On August 28 the Cato Institute in Washington DC published a report, "Thriving in a Global Economy: The Truth about US Manufacturing and Trade." The report confuses a company's offshored products with its import competition and wrongly concludes that US companies with the most import competition are the companies that are thriving. [Offshoring]
Thriving in a Global Economy: The Truth about U.S. Manufacturing and Trade
by Daniel J. Ikenson
Daniel Ikenson is associate director of the Center for Trade Policy Studies. He is coauthor of Antidumping Exposed: The Devilish Details of Unfair Trade Law (Cato Institute, 2003). Executive Summary Reports of the death of U.S. manufacturing have been greatly exaggerated. Since the depth of the manufacturing recession in 2002, the sector as a whole has experienced robust and sustained output, revenue, and profit growth. The year 2006 was a record year for output, revenues, profits, profit rates, and return on investment in the manufacturing sector. And despite all the stories about the erosion of U.S. manufacturing primacy, the United States remains the world's most prolific manufacturer--producing two and a half times more output than those vaunted Chinese factories in 2006. Yet, the rhetoric on Capitol Hill and on the presidential campaign trail about a declining manufacturing sector is reaching a fevered pitch. Policymakers point repeatedly to the loss of 3 million manufacturing jobs as evidence of impending doom, even though those acute losses occurred between 2000 and 2003, and job decline in manufacturing has leveled off to historic averages. In the first six months of the 110th Congress, more than a dozen antagonistic or protectionist trade-related bills have been introduced, which rely on the presumed precariousness of U.S. manufacturing as justification for the legislation. Justification for those bills is predicated on the belief that manufacturing is in decline and that the failure of U.S. trade policy to address unfair competition is to blame. But those premises are wrong. The totality of evidence points to a robust manufacturing sector that has thrived on account of greater international trade. [Offshoring]
Pakistani army's stature takes hit
Popular discontent could force Musharraf to rethink military's role in war on terror
By Kim Barker Tribune foreign correspondent October 9, 2007 http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-pakistan__barkeroct09,1,4669610.story?ctrack=1&cset=true ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — As the country struggles with its political crisis, Pakistan's powerful army—a highly trained force that has run the nation for most of its history—is facing a series of challenges that could bode poorly for its crucial role in the U.S.-led war on terror. The commander in chief, President Pervez Musharraf, has been so mired in his effort to maintain power that he has been distracted from the war against Islamic militants, many analysts say. The general won another 5-year presidential term Saturday in a parliament vote but faces a challenge to his eligibility in a case the Supreme Court may not decide for weeks. The military increasingly has been targeted by suicide bombings, even near its well-protected headquarters in Rawalpindi, just outside Islamabad. The siege by commandos of a militants' mosque in Islamabad in July intensified public resentment of anyone in uniform, and soldiers have been advised to be careful in public, vary their routes to work and avoid wearing their uniforms on the streets. In battles against Al Qaeda-linked militants who have found shelter in Pakistan, more than 220 soldiers have been killed in the past three months. About 300 soldiers have surrendered to pro-Taliban militants in the past six weeks, including 245 captured Aug. 30. "That's a very good battalion that put down their arms," said Hamid Gul, who once headed Pakistan's powerful Inter-Services Intelligence spy agency. "They didn't fire a shot. Why is that? They didn't want to fire on their own people. So they have been taken as guests of their own brothers. They are eating very well. Lovely fat-tailed sheep are being slaughtered for them," Gul said. The army has long been a symbol of pride in Pakistan, a force capable of battling rival India, and a de facto political party. Defense here has been paramount, so much so that Pakistan built a nuclear weapon before providing its people with clean drinking water. [Media] [Double standards] [Islamist resistance] [Imperialism] [Dilemma]
Realpolitik Dictates Control of Oil Assets
Syed Rashid Husain
Iraq war was about oil, Alan Greenspan admitted in his memoirs “The Age of Turbulence.”
In the run-up to the “Shock and Awe” in March 2003 and in the following months, from Bush to Condi and Powell to Bremer, every one took pains to underline it was not.
Even sprinkler systems fail at U.S. embassy in Baghdad
By Warren P. Strobel | McClatchy Newspapers * Posted on Saturday, October 6, 2007
.WASHINGTON - The latest problem with the trouble-plagued new U.S. embassy complex in Iraq is that the sprinkler systems meant to contain a fire do not work, according to officials in Congress and the State Department. The previously undisclosed problem in the $592 million project was discovered several weeks ago when the fire-safety systems were tested and pipe joints burst, State Department representatives recently informed Congress.
Who Made Hillary Queen?
By Geoffrey Wheatcroft
Sunday, October 7, 2007; Page B01 Among so much about American politics that can impress or depress a friendly transatlantic observer, there's nothing more astonishing than this: Why on Earth should Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton be the front-runner for the presidency? She has now pulled well ahead of Sen. Barack Obama, both in polls and in fundraising. If the Democrats can't win next year, they should give up for good, so she must be considered the clear favorite for the White House. But in all seriousness: What has she ever done to deserve this eminence? How could a country that prides itself on its spirit of equality and opportunity possibly be led by someone whose ascent owes more to her marriage than to her merits?
. We all, nations as well as individuals, have difficulty seeing ourselves as others see us. In this case, I doubt that Americans realize how extraordinary their country appears from the outside. In Europe, the supposed home of class privilege and heritable status, we have abandoned the hereditary principle (apart from the rather useful institution of constitutional monarchy), and the days are gone when Pitt the Elder was prime minister and then Pitt the Younger. But Americans find nothing untoward in Bush the Elder being followed by Bush the Younger.
Globalization: What Is To Be Done?
Jerome I. Levinson | October 4, 2007
Editor: Erik Leaver Foreign Policy In Focus www.fpif.org The race for the presidency has crystallized the debate about what to do about "globalization," a short-hand way of describing the increasing tendency of firms to locate production abroad, often for the purpose of exporting goods back to the United States rather than producing for the local market. Firms not only have moved production abroad but also in collective bargaining negotiations often use the threat of moving as leverage to obtain concessions from workers. While not a complete explanation for the relative stagnation in industrial wages and growing income inequality in the United States (and elsewhere in the world), it is perhaps the most visible, easily understandable, and therefore the most inflammable aspect of globalization for American workers. The political debate on globalization has focused primarily on "free trade" agreements that have given corporations additional incentives to move, or at least threaten to move jobs abroad. The leading Republican candidates all support an expansion of these policies. The Democrats each have mixed voting records on free trade—with two exceptions. Only Rep. Dennis Kucinich has consistently voted "no," while former Congressman Bill Richardson was a steadfast supporter of such deals during his time on Capitol Hill. In 1993, Richardson even stepped forward to whip the vote in favor of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). Both Senators Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama have voted in favor of some bilateral free trade deals. On the campaign trail, however, all of the Democratic contenders are promising to ensure that new trade pacts will have stronger labor and environmental protections. Most of them also propose cutting subsidies to companies that move jobs overseas, eliminating tax loopholes that encourage offshoring, and increasing training and research to keep the U.S. economy globally competitive. [Globalisation] [Offshoring]
Deaths in Iraq: how many, and why it matters
Michel Thieren
How many civilians have died in Iraq? Iraq Body Count and Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health give widely different answers. Michel Thieren examines what is at stake in their contrasting approaches and estimates. (This article was first published on 18 October 2006) 3 - 10 - 2007
Two scientifically audited numbers today constitute the best available and most cited evidence quantifying Iraqi civilian deaths directly associated with the war in that country which began in March 2003. Each is generated by a credible and independent source, though their conclusions vary widely: one gives a running total of 48,783 (as of 18 October 2006), the other gives 654,965 for the period March 2003 to July 2006. At this stage in the Iraq war, these different orders of magnitude for civilian casualties are too often relayed by a number-loving (and sensation-hungry) media in ways that both reflect and serve the preordained views of those in favour of or against the war. A statistical language about Iraqi casualties that is able to bring numbers and words, tallies and stories, into a coherent relationship requires understanding of what "48,783" and "654,965" are really measuring, how they were respectively computed, and what they reveal.
The financial crisis: burst bubble, frayed model
Robert Wade
The worldwide consequences of instability in the United States property market reveal the fragile pillars of neo-liberal globalisation, says Robert Wade. 1 - 10 - 2007
As everyone now knows, the current financial market turmoil spreading across the Atlantic economy and beyond started with rising defaults in the United States mortgage market. How did the US come to experience a gigantic house-price bubble? The explanation starts with US trade deficits and their financing. The US has been running an increasing trade (or more accurately, current-account) deficit since the early 1980s, with only one short interruption. The excess of imports over exports is paid for by newly printed dollars or Treasury bonds.
The turmoil might even induce a shift in the neo-liberal consensus about the role of government in governing the market. Even the industrial and financial sectors might become more sympathetic to the idea of more limits on some kinds of markets (including for executive remuneration) - limits decided through a political process, in line with a social-democratic vision. [Globalisation] [Reserve]
Chavez's Billion-Dollar Snub of the U.S.
Venezuela President Chavez is cutting a deal to ship oil to China, which will lessen profits—and dependence on the U.S.
by Peter Wilson
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez can't be accused of letting economic realities derail his energy policies, especially if it helps him snub the U.S. Venezuela's and China's state oil companies will invest up to $10 billion to develop a heavy oil patch in the South American country, Venezuela's Oil Minister Rafael Ramirez said last month. Production of up to one million barrels a day would be destined for the Chinese market, where the two companies may also build three refineries to process the crude. No matter that Chinese markets are 30 days away from Venezuela by tanker, compared with five to six days for U.S. Gulf ports. The cost of transporting crude to China will shave several dollars per barrel from Venezuela's take, analysts say.
Paras to lead spring offensive in Afghanistan
· Eurofighter to perform first hostile mission · Gurkha officer killed and two injured in explosion Richard Norton-Taylor Saturday October 6, 2007 The Guardian The whole of one of the army's most elite regiments, supported by the RAF's latest fighter bombers, is to be sent to Afghanistan in a military operation unprecedented since the second world war. For the first time since 1945, all three regular battalions of the Parachute Regiment - about 2,000 troops - will be deployed for combat. The Eurofighter/Typhoon, equipped with new missiles for a ground attack role, will be deployed for the first time in a hostile mission. New Merlin helicopters from an RAF squadron formed this week will also be sent to the region. The plan, being drawn up by the chiefs of staff, reflects the government's concern over the failure to win a decisive victory against the Taliban. Tomorrow marks the sixth anniversary of the first American and British missile strikes on Afghanistan in retaliation for the 9/11 attacks on the US, yet Nato-led forces are no closer to beating the Taliban, Nato commanders believe.
House's Iraq Bill Applies U.S. Laws to Contractors
By DAVID M. HERSZENHORN Published: October 5, 2007 WASHINGTON, Oct. 4 - With the armed security force Blackwater USA and other private contractors in Iraq facing tighter scrutiny, the House of Representatives on Thursday overwhelmingly approved a bill that would bring all United States government contractors in the Iraq war zone under the jurisdiction of American criminal law. The measure would require the F.B.I. to investigate any allegations of wrongdoing.
The bill was approved 389 to 30, despite strong opposition from the White House. It came as lawmakers and human rights groups are using a Sept. 16 shooting by Blackwater personnel in Baghdad to highlight the many contractors operating in Iraq who have apparently been unaccountable to American military or civilian laws and outside the reach of the Iraqi judicial system. [Extraterritoriality]
Globalization, According to the World, Is a Good Thing. Sort Of.
By BRIAN KNOWLTON Published: October 5, 2007 WASHINGTON, Oct. 4 - Buoyed and battered by globalization, people around the world strongly view international trade as a good thing but harbor growing concerns about its side effects: threats to their cultures, damage to the environment and the challenges posed by immigration, a new survey indicates. In the Pew Global Attitudes Project survey of people in 46 countries and the Palestinian territories, large majorities everywhere said that trade was a good thing. In countries like Argentina, which recently experienced trade-based growth, the attitude toward trade has become more positive. [Globalisation]
World Publics Welcome Global Trade -- But Not Immigration
Pew Research Center
Released: 10.04.07 The publics of the world broadly embrace key tenets of economic globalization but fear the disruptions and downsides of participating in the global economy. In rich countries as well as poor ones, most people endorse free trade, multinational corporations and free markets. However, the latest Pew Global Attitudes survey of more than 45,000 people finds they are concerned about inequality, threats to their culture, threats to the environment and threats posed by immigration. Together, these results reveal an evolving world view on globalization that is nuanced, ambivalent, and sometimes inherently contradictory. There are signs that enthusiasm for economic globalization is waning in the West -- Americans and Western Europeans are less supportive of international trade and multinational companies than they were five years ago. In contrast, there is near universal approval of global trade among the publics of rising Asian economic powers China and India. [Globalisation]
Iraqis to Pay China $100 Million for Weapons for Police
Experts Fear More Will Go to Insurgents By Robin Wright and Ann Scott Tyson Washington Post Staff Writers Thursday, October 4, 2007; Page A12
Iraq has ordered $100 million worth of light military equipment from China for its police force, contending that the United States was unable to provide the materiel and is too slow to deliver arms shipments, Iraqi President Jalal Talabani said yesterday. The China deal, not previously made public, has alarmed military analysts who note that Iraq's security forces already are unable to account for more than 190,000 weapons supplied by the United States, many of which are believed to be in the hands of Shiite and Sunni militias, insurgents and other forces seeking to destabilize Iraq and target U.S. troops. [Unintended consequences]
The Iraq oil grab that went awry
By Dilip Hiro
Here is the sentence in The Age of Turbulence, the 531-page memoir of former Federal Reserve chief Alan Greenspan, that caused so much turbulence in Washington last week: "I am saddened that it is politically inconvenient to acknowledge what everyone knows: the Iraq war is largely about oil." Honest and accurate, it had the resonance of Bill Clinton's election campaign mantra, "It's the economy, stupid." But, finding himself the target of a White House attack - an administration spokesman labelled his comment "Georgetown cocktail party analysis" - Greenspan backtracked under cover of verbose elaboration. None of this, however, made an iota of difference to the facts on the ground.
Here is a prosecutor's brief for the position that "the Iraq war is largely about oil".
U.S. Is Top Arms Seller to Developing World
By THOM SHANKER Published: October 1, 2007 WASHINGTON, Sept. 30 - The United States maintained its role as the leading supplier of weapons to the developing world in 2006, followed by Russia and Britain, according to a Congressional study to be released Monday. Pakistan, India and Saudi Arabia were the top buyers. [Arms sales]
Conventional Arms Transfers to Developing Nations, 1999-2006
September 26, 2007 [Arms sales]
Meeting Today's Military Demands, With an Eye on Tomorrow's
By THOM SHANKER Published: September 30, 2007 WASHINGTON, Sept. 29 - When Adm. Mike Mullen is sworn in Monday as the new chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, he will become the principal military adviser to the president and defense secretary, with the responsibility of organizing, training and equipping the United States' armed forces. That is what it says in the statute, anyway. What it means is that he must solve two critical problems.
The future battlefield is presenting itself as three challenges, according to Andrew F. Krepinevich, president of the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments. Irregular warfare — whether guerrilla or counterinsurgency missions — will remain a threat, said Mr. Krepinevich, who was an opposition analyst during the Pentagon’s quadrennial review of strategy and budgets. But the military cannot ignore traditional threats posed by nations that are not enemies but may, over time, challenge American interests through coercion, if not aggression. China tops that list. The third category is the “catastrophic challenge” of terrorists getting biological, chemical or nuclear weapons.
Hints of an important initiative can be seen in Admiral Mullen’s approach to how big a fleet the nation should buy. On his watch, the Navy counts more than 270 ships, and the service set a goal of increasing to more than 300. But Admiral Mullen envisions putting to sea “a thousand-ship Navy” — a number he could arrive at by building relations with friendly nations whose vessels would sail as partners. [US strategy] [China confrontation] [US military]

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SEPTEMBER 2007

Europeans angry after Bush climate speech 'charade'
· US isolated as China and India refuse to back policy · President claims he can lead world on emissions * Ewen MacAskill in Washington * The Guardian * Saturday September 29 2007 George Bush was castigated by European diplomats and found himself isolated yesterday after a special conference on climate change ended without any progress. European ministers, diplomats and officials attending the Washington conference were scathing, particularly in private, over Mr Bush's failure once again to commit to binding action on climate change. Although the US and Britain have been at odds over the environment since the early days of the Bush administration, the gap has never been as wide as yesterday. Britain and almost all other European countries, including Germany and France, want mandatory targets for reducing greenhouse emissions. Mr Bush, while talking yesterday about a "new approach" and "a historic undertaking", remains totally opposed. The conference, attended by more than 20 countries, including China, India, Britain, France and Germany, broke up with the US isolated, according to non-Americans attending. One of those present said even China and India, two of the biggest polluters, accepted that the voluntary approach proposed by the US was untenable and favoured binding measures, even though they disagreed with the Europeans over how this would be achieved.
As the Clock Runs Down, Bush Sends In the Pros
By Michael Abramowitz Sunday, September 30, 2007; Page B03 Here is a startling irony about George W. Bush as he nears the end of his tenure: At his hour of maximum weakness, when his presidency has been diminished and his credibility with the public is at its lowest ebb, the president has put together what's probably the most pragmatic and competent set of senior advisers he's had since taking office in 2001. Don't take my word for it. Just listen to what some smart Democrats say about the team Bush has been building since his disastrous fifth year in office in 2005.
Why Did Israel Attack Syria?
An Opening Shot for War on Iran?
By JONATHAN COOK
September 27, 2007 Nazareth
Israel's air strike on northern Syria earlier this month should be understood in the context of events unfolding since its assault last summer on neighboring Lebanon. From the leaks so far, it seems that more than half a dozen Israeli warplanes violated Syrian airspace to drop munitions on a site close to the border with Turkey. We also know from the US media that the raid occurred in close coordination with the White House. But what was the purpose and significance of the attack?
So what did Israel hope to achieve with its aerial strike?
The stories emerging from the less gagged American media suggest two scenarios. The first is that Israel targeted Iranian supplies passing through Syria on their way to Hizbullah; the second that Israel struck at a fledgling Syrian nuclear plant where materials from North Korea were being offloaded, possibly as part of a joint nuclear effort by Damascus and Tehran.
How credible are these two scenarios?
The nuclear claims against Damascus were discounted so quickly by experts of the region that Washington was soon downgrading the accusation to claims that Syria was only hiding the material on North Korea's behalf. But why would Syria, already hounded by Israel and the US, provide such a readymade pretext for still harsher treatment? Why, equally, would North Korea undermine its hard-won disarmament deal with the US? And why, if Syria were covertly engaging in nuclear mischief, did it alert the world to the fact by revealing the Israeli air strike?
Sick: Iranian Leader Sees Trip to New York as ‘Successful’
Interviewee: Gary G. Sick, executive director of the Gulf/2000 Project, Columbia University Interviewer: Bernard Gwertzman, Consulting Editor * September 26, 2007 * Gary G. Sick, a longtime Iranian expert who served on the Ford, Carter, and Reagan National Security Councils, says that he believes President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad regards his visit to the United Nations and New York City as "successful" because it allowed him to get his views out to a wide audience, and particularly to "people in the Islamic world and the Middle East, especially Arabs." Sick says an opportunity for a dialogue between Iran and the United States may have to wait until 2009 when there will be a new U.S. president, and possibly a new Iranian president. He does not think the United States will attack Iran militarily
Economic Brief: The Economic Factors Behind the Myanmar Protests
27 September 2007 The first sign of the current protests currently underway in Myanmar occurred in a rare display of public outrage over the economic conditions within the country in February 2007. A small group calling themselves the Myanmar Development Committee called on the military rulers to address consumer prices, lack of health care, education and the poor electricity infrastructure On August 15, 2007, the government made significant cuts to national fuel subsidies, which had an immediate effect of increasing the price of diesel fuel by a reported 100 percent, causing a five-fold increase in the price of compressed natural gas, and placing additional inflationary pressure on an economy already facing estimated inflation levels of 17.7 percent in 2005 and 21.4 percent in 2006.
The end of fuel subsidies were likely part of a larger package of reforms that the junta has been planning in order to, among other things, reduce the pressure of global fuel prices in a country that is dependent on diesel imports for its entire economy. Myanmar has an insignificant domestic refinery capacity and a chronic need for foreign currency. The latest Indian proposal intended to regain access to the Shwe gas fields has reportedly included diesel fuel exports, while a deal with Petronas of Malaysia is seeking similar arrangements. [See: "Pipeline Politics: India and Myanmar"]
The International Monetary Fund (I.M.F.) and World Bank made recommendations along the lines of the subsidy cut as part of a larger package of reforms as recently as last year; critically citing the trend toward extraordinarily high deficit budget deficits carried by the junta.
Even with peaceful political change, without significant international oversight, the overwhelming precedence of military intervention and control in the country will likely return Myanmar to state-sponsored economic mismanagement. [Double standards] [media]
President Ahmadinejad's address at UNGA
IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency United Nations, New York, Sept 20, 2006, IRNA
UNGA-Ahmadinejad-Speech President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Tuesday addressed the 61st annual session of the UN General Assembly in New York. In his speech, he criticized the new world order that has emerged in contemporary times as shown in global interactions where "certain powers equate themselves with the international community and whose decisions are to be controlling over those of 180 others." Following is the full text of President Ahmadinejad's speech at the General Assembly: "In the name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful. Praise be to God and peace be upon Prophet Mohammad and His Infallible Household and chosen disciples. O God, hasten the reappearance of the Imam of the times and grant to us victory and prosperity. Include us among his followers and martyrs.
"What afflicts humanity today is certainly not compatible with human dignity; the Almighty has not created human beings so that they could transgress on others and oppress them. "By causing war and conflict, some are fast expanding their domination, accumulating greater wealth and usurping all resources, while others endure the resulting poverty, suffering and misery. "Some seek to rule the world relying on weapons and threats, while others live in perpetual insecurity and danger. "Some occupy the homeland of others, thousands of kilometers away from their borders, interfere in their affairs and control their oil and other resources and strategic routes, while others are bombarded daily in their own homes; their children murdered in the streets and alleys of their own country and their homes reduced to rubble.
War Against Iran and the Logic of Dominance
by Gareth Porter If the Bush administration launches an attack on Iran, the reason won't be that Iran was about to obtain a nuclear weapon. The real reason will be that United States, as the world's only superpower, wants to establish clearly that it -- not Iran -- is the dominant power in the Middle East. That would make us all less secure, but the insistence on asserting dominance in the Middle East is the essence of the Bush administration's policy.
Commentary: Bush fulfills H.L. Mencken's prophecy
By Joseph L. Galloway | McClatchy Newspapers * Posted on Wednesday, September 19, 2007
It took just eight decades but H.L. Mencken's astute prediction on the future course of American presidential politics and the electorate's taste in candidates came true: On July 26, 1920, the acerbic and cranky scribe wrote in The Baltimore Sun: " . . . all the odds are on the man who is, intrinsically, the most devious and mediocre - the man who can most easily (and) adeptly disperse the notion that his mind is a virtual vacuum. The presidency tends, year by year, to go to such men. As democracy is perfected, the office represents, more closely, the inner soul of the people. We move toward a lofty ideal. On some great and glorious day, the plain folks of the land will reach their heart's desire at last, and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron." My late good buddy Leon Daniel, a wire service legend for 40 years at United Press International, dredged up that Mencken quote several years ago and found that it was a perfect fit for George W. Bush, The Decider. MSNBC's Keith Olberman highlighted the same quote this week. A tip of the hat to both of them, and to Mencken
Kurds denounce U.S. detention of Iranian
By Jay Price and Yaseen Taha | McClatchy Newspapers * Posted on Thursday, September 20, 2007
SULAIMANIYAH, Iraq - U.S. troops arrested an Iranian man during an early morning raid on a hotel in this northern Iraqi city Thursday and accused him of helping to smuggle a deadly type of roadside bomb into Iraq. But the Kurdistan Regional Government in a statement called the arrest "illegitimate," said the man was a member of a trade delegation that had been invited to Sulaimaniyah by the local government and demanded that he be released. [Sovereignty]
The US foreign-policy future: a progressive-realist union?
Michael Lind
The argument for a new-model American foreign policy that unites liberal internationalism and Realpolitik is intellectually and politically flawed, argues Michael Lind of the New America Foundation. 20 - 09 - 2007
During the George W Bush years, two great currents of thinking about United States foreign policy - progressive and realist - have shared a critique of a third - neo-conservative. Both liberal internationalists and proponents of hard-nosed Realpolitik have rejected a US foreign policy that aims to achieve indefinite US global hegemony - but from quite different perspectives. Indeed, most realists have been as contemptuous of the liberal-internationalist alternative as of neo-conservatism. Recently, some thoughtful observers of foreign policy have proposed that progressives and realists move beyond a shared critique of neo-conservatism in the direction of a commonly-held philosophy. Robert Wright has proposed that this be called "progressive realism", while the British writer Anatol Lieven and the American conservative foreign-policy analyst, John Hulsman (both openDemocracy contributors), have called for "ethical realism". (The need for apologetic adjectives implies - correctly, in my view - that there is something wrong with unmodified realism). [US policy]
Dry Cleaner in Washington Closes in Aftermath of Pants Lawsuit
The owners of a dry cleaner who were sued for $54 million over a missing pair of pants have closed and sold the shop involved in the U.S. dispute, their attorney said in Washington Wednesday. The South Korean immigrants are citing a loss of revenue and the emotional strain of defending the lawsuit. They will focus their energy on another dry-cleaning shop they still own, said their attorney, Chris Manning. ``This is a truly tragic example of how devastating frivolous litigation can be to the American people and to small businesses,'' Manning said in a statement. Soo Chung and her husband, Jin Nam Chung, faced more than two years of litigation after a former customer at Custom Cleaners alleged they had lost a pair of his pants, then sued for $67 million (euro47.9 million) under the city's strict consumer protection act. Plaintiff Roy L. Pearson, a local administrative law judge, later lowered his demand to $54 million (euro38.6 million). He said the ``Satisfaction Guaranteed'' and ``Same Day Service'' signs that once hung in the shop were misleading and fraudulent.
Iraq threatens action against U.S. security firm
By Leila Fadel | McClatchy Newspapers * Posted on Monday, September 17, 2007
BAGHDAD - Iraqi authorities on Monday threatened to revoke the license of a private U.S. company that guards top American officials here, including U.S. Ambassador Ryan Crocker, saying the company's employees killed at least nine people Sunday in a shooting spree in central Baghdad. Whether the Iraqi Interior Ministry will be able to enforce its decision to ban North Carolina-based Blackwater Security from operating in Iraq is likely to be a major test between the government of Prime Minister Nouri al Maliki and the United States. Blackwater, founded by a major Republican Party benefactor, is among the most prominent - and most controversial - of dozens of companies that provide security to both government and private individuals in Iraq. In 2003, the U.S.-led Coalition Provisional Authority exempted the companies and their employees from prosecution under Iraqi law, but Iraqi officials disputed whether that exemption remains in effect, and U.S. officials declined to comment.
Witnesses said the dead included the driver of one car and a mother and child whom he was transporting. Police said the dead included five Iraqi police officers who'd tried to help. At least nine cars were set on fire. State Department spokesman Sean McCormack described the incident as a "firefight," but three people who claimed to have witnessed the shooting said that only the Blackwater guards were firing.
Israeli Nuclear Suspicions Linked to Raid in Syria
By MARK MAZZETTI and HELENE COOPER Published: September 18, 2007 WASHINGTON, Sept. 17 - The Sept. 6 attack by Israeli warplanes inside Syria struck what Israeli intelligence believes was a nuclear-related facility that North Korea was helping to equip, according to current and former American and Israeli officials. Details about the Israeli assessment emerged as China abruptly canceled planned diplomatic talks in Beijing that were to set a schedule to disband nuclear facilities in North Korea. The Bush administration has declined to comment on the Israeli raid, but American officials were expected to confront the North Koreans about their suspected nuclear support for Syria during those talks.
Can shopping save the planet?
The big high-street chains are falling over themselves to 'go green'. But will any of it make any difference? Mark Lynas is far from convinced
* Mark Lynas * The Guardian * Monday September 17 2007 It isn't easy being green. You have to turn the thermostat down to a chilly 18C in winter, spend ages taping up draughty windows, eat nothing but muddy parsnips all through February and wear charity shop cast-offs instead of proper clothes. Oh, the horror. Not so fast, say today's big high-street chains. Now you can be green and gorgeous, eco-conscious and highly fashionable, simply by buying the latest climate-friendly consumer products. Never mind marching on Whitehall or Downing Street, or giving up flying: all you have to do to save the planet is shop. In today's fast-paced, mass-market society it's a tantalising vision - a march towards a low-carbon economy led by high-street spending power and requiring no great change in our affluent consumerist lifestyles. But can it happen? Marks & Spencer certainly thinks so. Perhaps the leader in the corporate ethical revolution, M&S has launched Plan A (as in: there's no Plan B), a £200m eco-refit being rolled out across the entire company. [Environment]
Syrian envoy: Israel will 'pay price' for IAF action
By Barak Ravid, Avi Issacharoff and Amos Harel, Haaretz Correspondents, Haaretz Service and News Agencies In an interview with Newsweek published Friday, Syria's ambassador to Washington Imad Moustapha denied all allegations that Israel Air Force fired on targets in Syrian territory on Thursday last week, adding that Israel would "pay a price" for violating Syria's airspace. In the Newsweek interview, the ambassador reverted to Syria's initial explanation of the incident, saying its defense systems detected the IAF jets entering its airspace and fired on them, causing them to dump their ammunition and fuel tanks in order to lighten the craft and escape quickly. No structures were damaged in the incident, Moustapha told the magazine. Moustapha also told the American publication that it was not in Syria's national interests not to respond to Israel's provocation, adding that unsubstantiated reports that Israel targeted some kind of nuclear North Korean-Syrian cooperation project were "absolutely, totally, fundamentally ridiculous and untrue."
"There are no nuclear North Korean-Syrian facilities whatsoever in Syria," Moustapha told Newsweek's reporter. An American Mideast expert said the alleged IAF strike was directly connected to a shipment Syria received from North Korea three days earlier, the Washington Post reported Saturday. [Toolkit] [Disinformation]
Israel Sets the Stage for a Massive, $60 Billion Military Buildup
By David Eshel Israel Defense Forces Chief of Staff Gabi Ashkenazi approved today (Sept 3rd, 2007) the Israel defense Forces (IDF) five year military procurement plan under the codename "TEFEN 2012" projecting expenditure of US$60 billion over five years between 2008 and 2012. The program reflects the IDF's utilization of the increased US military aid supporting about 75% of the program. The US$30 Billion additional military aid to be allocated over 10 years was committed by the USA last month to support Israel's military buildup will play an instrumental role in the new revitalization program and, will most probably influence some of the IDF procurement decisions [Arms sales]
Iraq conflict has cost 1.2 million lives, claims civilian survey
Peter Beaumont, foreign affairs editor Sunday September 16, 2007 The Observer A startling new household survey of Iraqis released last week claims as many as 1.2 million people may have died because of the conflict in Iraq - apparently lending weight to a 2006 survey in the Lancet that reported similarly high levels. More than one million deaths were already being suggested by anti-war campaigners, but such high counts have consistently been rejected by US and UK officials. The estimates, extrapolated from a sample of 1,461 adults around the country, were collected by a British polling agency, ORB, which asked Iraqis how many people living in their household had died as a result of the violence rather than from natural causes.
BAE lands Saudi plane deal
The British defence giant has secured an order for 72 Eurofighter Typhoons in a contract worth £20bn over the next 20 years Richard Wachman Sunday September 16, 2007 The Observer Aerospace giant BAE is part of a consortium that has clinched a £40bn contract to supply 72 Eurofighter Typhoons to Saudi Arabia in the world's biggest defence deal. [Arms sales] [Tribute] [Proliferation]
In Turnaround, Industries Seek U.S. Regulation
By ERIC LIPTON and GARDINER HARRIS Published: September 16, 2007 WASHINGTON, Sept. 15 - After years of favoring the hands-off doctrine of the Bush administration, some of the nation's biggest industries are pushing for something they have long resisted: new federal regulations.
Concerns about competition have led to other proposals. As imports from China have grown in recent years, low-priced Chinese products that do not meet voluntary industry standards have motivated trade groups to seek new safety mandates. After a series of recalls this year, for example, American toymakers recently asked the federal government to allow the Consumer Product Safety Commission to require premarket safety testing of all toys. [China competition] [NTB]
British Move Raises Fears on Iraq Supply Lines
By THOM SHANKER and STEPHEN FARRELL Published: September 16, 2007 WASHINGTON, Sept. 15 - As British troops pull out of their last base in Basra, some military commanders and civilian government officials in the area are concerned that the transition could leave them and a major supply route to Baghdad at greater risk of attack.
Ayn Rand’s Literature of Capitalism
By HARRIET RUBIN Published: September 15, 2007 One of the most influential business books ever written is a 1,200-page novel published 50 years ago, on Oct. 12, 1957. It is still drawing readers; it ranks 388th on Amazon.com’s best-seller list. (“Winning,” by John F. Welch Jr., at a breezy 384 pages, is No. 1,431.)
Related Atlas Shrugged Book Review: "A Parable of Buried Talents" By Granville Hicks (Oct. 13, 1957) (pdf) Letters to the Editor: 'Atlas Shrugged,' By Alan Greenspan (Nov. 3, 1957) (pdf) The 1957 novel was harshly reviewed and widely read. The book is “Atlas Shrugged,” Ayn Rand’s glorification of the right of individuals to live entirely for their own interest. For years, Rand’s message was attacked by intellectuals whom her circle labeled “do-gooders,” who argued that individuals should also work in the service of others. Her book was dismissed as an homage to greed. Gore Vidal described its philosophy as “nearly perfect in its immorality.” But the book attracted a coterie of fans, some of them top corporate executives, who dared not speak of its impact except in private. When they read the book, often as college students, they now say, it gave form and substance to their inchoate thoughts, showing there is no conflict between private ambition and public benefit. “I know from talking to a lot of Fortune 500 C.E.O.’s that ‘Atlas Shrugged’ has had a significant effect on their business decisions, even if they don’t agree with all of Ayn Rand’s ideas,” said John A. Allison, the chief executive of BB&T, one of the largest banks in the United States. “It offers something other books don’t: the principles that apply to business and to life in general. I would call it complete,” he said. One of Rand’s most famous devotees is Alan Greenspan, the former chairman of the Federal Reserve, whose memoir, “The Age of Turbulence,” will be officially released Monday.
US and Europe drain Iran's half-full glass
By Kaveh L Afrasiabi Officially, they are committed to a peaceful resolution of the Iran nuclear crisis, and yet their behavior - of refusing to endorse fully the Iran-IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency) agreement and rushing toward another sanctions resolution at the United Nations Security Council - speaks louder about the true intentions of the US government and some of its European allies. Not surprisingly, Iran has reacted to the news of the United States' determination to push for a new round of sanctions
irrespective of the positive developments in Tehran's relations with the UN atomic agency, by warning that its cooperation with the IAEA could come to a halt if the Security Council adopts a new resolution against Iran. Iran has agreed to tell the IAEA about previously secret details of its atomic program. According to the plan agreed on August 21, Iran says it will answer a series of questions on its program. The stage is now set for two diametrically opposed developments, one at the IAEA, which has hailed Iran's cooperation as a "significant step in the right direction", and the other at the UN, where secretary general Ban Ki-moon has reiterated the Security Council's demand for a complete suspension of Iran's uranium-enrichment and reprocessing activities. This is in contrast to the position of IAEA director general Mohamed ElBaradei, who has called for a "double timeout", that is, the simultaneous halt to UN sanctions and to Iran's nuclear-fuel-cycle program, to give diplomacy a "breathing chance". [Ban Ki-moon] [UNUS]
Imperialists' Moves to Spread "Democracy" Denounced
Pyongyang, September 14 (KCNA) -- The imperialists' moves to spread "democracy" are a pernicious dominationist leverage to Westernize the world and justify their aggression and interference in the internal affairs of other countries and nations, says Rodong Sinmun in an article Friday. The author of the article goes on: Through the spread of "democracy" the imperialists seek to reduce people to anarchic liberalists and manipulate them to wreck the legal order of the state and cause social disorder and then use this as a pretext to meddle in other's internal affairs and realize their sinister scheme to change power. This is proven by the "color revolution" that broke out in various countries in recent years. The imperialists' moves to spread "democracy" are still more dangerous in view of it being a prelude to a war of aggression. They make a terrific uproar over "the problem of democracy" in countries falling out of their favor and, when the opportunity presents itself, crush them by mobilizing huge armed forces. It is the lesson given by the U.S. aggression on Iraq that their "democracy" ballad is followed hard on the heel by a bloody war and military intervention. If the imperialists' moves to spread "democracy" are allowed, they will entail catastrophic consequences. The collapse of socialism in the East European countries toward the close of the last century resulted from the lack of vigilance against these moves. The world people desirous of the independent development and progress of the countries should intensify the struggle to oppose and frustrate the imperialists' moves to spread "democracy", looking straight into their reactionary and dangerous nature. [Softpower]
DETECTING EMERGING ISSUES
9/15/2007 8:19:09 P.M.As it tracks and analyzes thought and actions across the world, the Global Power Barometer (GPB) frequently catches sight of issues that will impact global politics. These are the issues that likely will move the icons in coming weeks. We'll share our peeks at the future as they pass certain momentum thresholds. In future days we'll categorize the "Emerging Issues" and provide snippets about the progress of significant trends. For now, here's what we're presently watching: [Realignment]
The Next War
It's always looming. But has our military learned the right lessons from this one to fight it and win?
By Wesley K. Clark Sunday, September 16, 2007; Page B01 Testifying before Congress last week, Gen. David H. Petraeus appeared commanding, smart and alive to the challenges that his soldiers face in Iraq. But he also embodied what the Iraq conflict has come to represent: an embattled, able, courageous military at war, struggling to maintain its authority and credibility after 4 1/2 years of a "cakewalk" gone wrong. Petraeus will not be the last general to find himself explaining how a military intervention has misfired and urging skeptical lawmakers to believe that the mission can still be accomplished. The next war is always looming, and so is the urgent question of whether the U.S. military can adapt in time to win it.
Dollar's retreat raises fear of collapse
By Carter Dougherty Published: September 13, 2007 FRANKFURT: Finance ministers and central bankers have long fretted that at some point, the rest of the world would lose its willingness to finance the United States' proclivity to consume far more than it produces - and that a potentially disastrous free-fall in the dollar's value would result. But for longer than most economists would have been willing to predict a decade ago, the world has been a willing partner in American excess - until a new and home-grown financial crisis this summer rattled confidence in the country, the world's largest economy. [Reserve]
Multiple Messages and Audiences
By DAVID E. SANGER Published: September 14, 2007 WASHINGTON, Sept. 13 - President Bush addressed three very different audiences on Thursday night, and he had to hope that each would hear a different message. Go to Complete Coverage » To an American public overwhelmingly searching for an exit from Iraq, Mr. Bush said that he was now ready to take his first, halting steps toward drawdown - even if what he described as a "return on success" was more akin, in the eyes of his critics, to a recognition that he has run out of additional forces to sustain the troop buildup he began this year, and now has no other choice.
Many times in recent months, he has told visitors to the White House that he needs to get to the Korea model — a politically sustainable American deployment to keep the lid on the Middle East.
U.S. Confirms Israeli Strikes Hit Syrian Target Last Week
By MARK MAZZETTI and HELENE COOPER Published: September 12, 2007 WASHINGTON, Sept. 11 — After days of silence from the Israeli government, American officials confirmed Tuesday that Israeli warplanes launched airstrikes inside Syria last week, the first such attack since 2003. A Defense Department official said Israeli jets had struck at least one target in northeastern Syria last Thursday, but the official said it was still unclear exactly what the jets hit and the extent of the bombing damage. Syria has lodged a protest at the United Nations in response to the airstrike, accusing Israel of “flagrant violation” of its airspace. But Israel’s government has repeatedly declined to comment on the matter.
One Bush administration official said Israel had recently carried out reconnaissance flights over Syria, taking pictures of possible nuclear installations that Israeli officials believed might have been supplied with material from North Korea. The administration official said Israeli officials believed that North Korea might be unloading some of its nuclear material on Syria. “The Israelis think North Korea is selling to Iran and Syria what little they have left,” the official said. He said it was unclear whether the Israeli strike had produced any evidence that might validate that belief. [Toolkit] [Legality]
N. Korea, Syria May Be at Work on Nuclear Facility
By Glenn Kessler Washington Post Staff Writer Thursday, September 13, 2007; Page A12
North Korea may be cooperating with Syria on some sort of nuclear facility in Syria, according to new intelligence the United States has gathered over the past six months, sources said. The evidence, said to come primarily from Israel, includes dramatic satellite imagery that led some U.S. officials to believe that the facility could be used to produce material for nuclear weapons. The new information, particularly images received in the past 30 days, has been restricted to a few senior officials under the instructions of national security adviser Stephen J. Hadley, leaving many in the intelligence community unaware of it or uncertain of its significance, said the sources, who spoke on the condition of anonymity. Some cautioned that initial reports of suspicious activity are frequently reevaluated over time and were skeptical that North Korea and Syria, which have cooperated on missile technology, would have a joint venture in the nuclear arena.
A White House spokesman and the Israeli Embassy declined to comment yesterday after several days of inquiries. A Syrian Embassy spokesman said he could not immediately provide a statement. The new intelligence comes at an awkward moment for the Bush administration, which since the beginning of the year has pursued an agreement with North Korea on ending its nuclear weapons programs. [Toolkit] [Dissension] [Evidence] [Disinformation]
American Economy: R.I.P.
By PAUL CRAIG ROBERTS
September 12, 2007 The US economy continues its slow death before our eyes, but economists, policymakers, and most of the public are blind to the tottering fabled land of opportunity. In August jobs in goods-producing industries declined by 64,000. The US economy lost 4,000 jobs overall. The private sector created a mere 24,000 jobs, all of which could be attributed to the 24,100 new jobs for waitresses and bartenders. The government sector lost 28,000 jobs. In the 21st century the US economy has ceased to create jobs in export industries and in industries that compete with imports. US job growth has been confined to domestic services, principally to food services and drinking places (waitresses and bartenders), private education and health services (ambulatory health care and hospital orderlies), and construction (which now has tanked). The lack of job growth in higher productivity, higher paid occupations associated with the American middle and upper middle classes will eventually kill the US consumer market. [Offshoring]
If shirts could speak and 'we the people' would listen
Anita Roddick
The degrading conditions of young women in Bangladesh's textile industry are shocking evidence of the need to force international corporations to observe human, workers' and women's rights. Anita Roddick calls for a new campaign that starts with insisting on maternity leave for those who make the world's clothes.
I’ve just returned from Bangladesh, and I am angry. Not, of course, with the people. They were beautiful, and incredibly warm and open, inviting us into their humble homes and often sitting with us into the night in small, windowless, poorly-lit union offices telling us stories of their lives as garment workers. They answered all of our questions with patience, and asked questions of their own. I am angry because of what is happening to these workers, who sew our garments. There are two million garment workers in Bangladesh, and 85% of them are young women 16-25 years old. Each year they sew $2.8 billion worth of clothing for export to Europe and another $2 billion for the United States. (This article was 11 September 2007; first published on 8 April 2004) [Labour] [Human rights] [Offshoring]
Israeli neo-Nazi ring caught after attacks on synagogues
Conal Urquhart in Jerusalem Monday September 10, 2007 The Guardian Police in Israel have uncovered a neo-Nazi ring which was responsible for vandalising synagogues and carrying out attacks on Jews and foreign workers in Israel, a court was told yesterday. The group of eight Russian immigrants aged between 18 and 21 appeared in court following an 18-month investigation into attacks on two synagogues in which swastikas were painted on the walls of the buildings. The men covered their heads with their shirts during the hearing, revealing arms tattooed with Nazi imagery. More than a million people from the former Soviet Union have emigrated to Israel, which has a population of seven million, since 1990, taking advantage of Israel's Law of Return which allows anyone to claim citizenship if they have a Jewish grandparent. Many of the new immigrants have little connection to Judaism and emigrated for economic reasons.
Russians feel they are victims of discrimination in Israel and many are denied the right to marry by the Jewish authorities. [Human rights]
Bin Laden transcript
Bin Laden says US is vulnerable
By Stephen Fidler in London Published: September 7 2007 23:52 | Last updated: September 7 2007 23:52 A videotape addressed to the American people apparently recorded in recent months by Osama bin Laden on Friday appeared on the internet, criticising Democrats for not stopping the war in Iraq, attacking the White House for not observing the Kyoto accord and suggesting the US could soon suffer the fate of the Soviet Union. The tape, evidently issued to coincide with the sixth anniversary of the September 11 attacks on New York and Washington, refers to the observation "a few days ago" of the 62nd anniversary of the nuclear attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki - in August.
In a tirade against capitalism, the speaker mentions the leaders of the west - George W. Bush, Tony Blair, Nicolas Sarkozy and Gordon Brown, references to the new French president and the new British prime minister. If the al-Qaeda leader is the author, it would be his first such appearance since October 2004, when he issued a videotape ahead of the US presidential election. His proclamations since then have been by audiotape. The tape contains no explicit threat to Americans, though it describes two possible solutions for the Iraq war. "The first is from our side, and it is to continue to escalate the killing and fighting against you...And the second solution is from your side." It questions why the victory of the Democrats in last November's congressional elections had failed to stop the war, suggesting the reason was that "those with real power and influence are those with the most capital" and that big corporations were profiting from the war, just as they had in Vietnam.
Bin Laden tape focuses on Iraq
By Warren P. Strobel | McClatchy Newspapers * Posted on Friday, September 7, 2007
WASHINGTON - In his first videotaped message in nearly three years, terrorist leader Osama bin Laden accuses President Bush of leading the United States to failure in Iraq and needles congressional Democrats for not stopping the war. Bin Laden asserts in the rambling, roughly half-hour video that the United States is repeating the mistake of the Soviet Union in its 1979 invasion of Afghanistan. "The mistakes of (late Soviet leader Leonid) Brezhnev are being repeated by Bush, who ... said in effect that the withdrawal will not be during his reign," bin Laden said, according to a transcript made available Friday. Bush, he said, was "like the one who plows and sows the sea: He harvests nothing but failure."
Unions Press Clinton on Outsourcing Of U.S. Jobs
By John Solomon and Matthew Mosk Washington Post Staff Writers Saturday, September 8, 2007; Page A01
When Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton flew to New Delhi to meet with Indian business leaders in 2005, she offered a blunt assessment of the loss of American jobs across the Pacific. "There is no way to legislate against reality," she declared. "Outsourcing will continue. . . . We are not against all outsourcing; we are not in favor of putting up fences." Two years later, as a Democratic presidential hopeful, Clinton struck a different tone when she told students in New Hampshire that she hated "seeing U.S. telemarketing jobs done in remote locations far, far from our shores." [Offshoring]
Why Do They Hate Us?
Review by Benjamin Fordham
Andrew Kohut and Bruce Stokes, America Against the World: How We Are Different and Why We Are Disliked. (New York: Times Books, 2006, pp. xix, 259, charts, notes, index. $25 cloth).
For a brief period after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, the United States received widespread sympathy and support from around the world. The French daily Le Monde declared that "[i]n this tragic moment…we are all Americans." This pro-American interlude did not last. By the time the United States invaded Iraq in 2003, both American foreign policy and the American people were increasingly unpopular, even in longtime European allies. This shift in international public opinion is critically important for the future of American foreign policy. If it is a short-term phenomenon driven by opposition to the war in Iraq, the burdens it imposes on the conduct of American foreign policy might be temporary. On the other hand, if recent anti-Americanism is driven by more persistent trends or deeper differences between the United States and the rest of the world, it would represent a much more serious problem.
Kohut and Stokes write that some instances of American exceptionalism, while real enough, only create anti-Americanism because they are misunderstood
The failure to find the weapons of mass destruction that were the principal justification for the war has undermined American credibility around the world. Substantial majorities in many countries believe that the Bush administration lied about these weapons in order to conceal ulterior motives ranging from the control of oil resources to the protection of Israel [Anti-Americanism] [Exceptionalism]
A Prosecutorial Brief Against Israel and Its Supporters
Greg Martin
By WILLIAM GRIMES Published: September 6, 2007 “The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy” arrives carrying heavy baggage. John J. Mearsheimer, a political scientist at the University of Chicago, and Stephen M. Walt, a professor of international affairs at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard, set off a furor last year by arguing, in an article that appeared in The London Review of Books, that uncritical American support for Israel, shaped by powerful lobbying organizations like the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, does grave harm to both American and Israeli interests.
THE ISRAEL LOBBY AND U.S. FOREIGN POLICY By John J. Mearsheimer and Stephen M. Walt 484 pages. Farrar, Straus & Giroux. $26.
A bitter debate has raged ever since, with accusations of anti-Semitism leveled by, among others, Alan M. Dershowitz, the Harvard law professor, and Abraham H. Foxman, the national director of the Anti-Defamation League, one of the principal lobbying organizations taken to task by Mr. Mearsheimer and Mr. Walt. “The Israel Lobby,” an extended, more fully argued version of the London Review article, has done nothing to calm the waters. The authors have been barred from making appearances by at least one university and several cultural centers to discuss their subject, and continue to reap a whirlwind of criticism and abuse. If they were looking for a fight, they have found it.
5 nation war games in Bay of Bengal seen as new Asia alliance to contain China
The Associated Press Published: September 5, 2007
NEW DELHI: Indian and U.S. aircraft carriers plow through the Bay of Bengal launching fighter jets into the air. American submarines cruise below Japanese, Australian and Singaporean warships. The stated aim of this week's massive war games off India's east coast is to improve the ability of the five participating militaries to fight terrorism and piracy. But in the five days of naval exercises that began Tuesday, experts see a broader strategic shift that is being driven in large part by the fear of a rising China. At the center of Asia's new strategic landscape is the warming relationship between New Delhi and Washington — and, to a lesser extent, India and Japan — after decades spent on opposite sides of the Cold War divide. [China confrontation] [India US]
East Asia, US and APEC: opportunity for reinvention
By Peter Drysdale Posted Tue Sep 4, 2007 8:45am AEST Updated Tue Sep 4, 2007 9:23am AEST
Rise of China ... huge changes are taking place that call for an entirely new way of thinking about transpacific relations. (Reuters) Renewal of the United States' partnership with Asia was never more important than it is today. But the scale and structure of the changes that are taking place in Asia require more than trying to restore an old order, however well it served American and global interests over the past six decades and more. Arguably what is needed is reinvention, not renewal, of US relations with Asia. One vehicle available through which to do that is APEC. [China confrontation]
US, China tussle for leadership in Asia
By Chris Uhlmann Posted Wed Sep 5, 2007 11:27am AEST Updated Wed Sep 5, 2007 12:57pm AEST
The manner in which leaders from the US and China have arrived for APEC has been markedly different. (AFP: Jewel Samad) * Related Link: Opinion: East Asia, US and APEC The APEC summit in Sydney has become the focus of a struggle between the United States and China for leadership in Asia. The US has been criticised for neglecting foreign policy in Asia and ignoring the fact that China is playing a more pivotal role is global political and economical circles. The criticism came from the former US deputy secretary of state, Richard Armitage, who said the US was playing foreign policy like a five-year-old plays soccer, with everyone going after the ball at once rather than covering the whole field. He said the United States was so focused on Iraq it had dropped the ball in Asia. Meanwhile Chinese President Hu Jintao arrived in Perth on Monday night, demonstrating how important Western Australian resources are to feeding China's boom. Before arriving in Sydney, Mr Hu is making his way around the country without much fuss, and his delegation is very deeply involved in APEC. [China confrontation]
Why Bush Can Get Away with Attacking Iran
When Wishful Thinking Replaces Resistance
By JEAN BRICMONT
September 4, 2007 Many people in the antiwar movement try to reassure themselves: Bush cannot possibly attack Iran. He does not have the means to do so, or, perhaps, even he is not foolish enough to engage in such an enterprise. Various particular reasons are put forward, such as: If he attacks, the Shiites in Iraq will cut the US supply lines. If he attacks, the Iranians will block the Straits of Ormuz or will unleash dormant terrorist networks worldwide. Russia won't allow such an attack. China won't allow it -- they will dump the dollar. The Arab world will explode. All this is doubtful. The Shiites in Iraq are not simply obedient to Iran. If they don't rise against the United States when their own country is occupied (or if don't rise very systematically), they are not likely to rise against the US if a neighboring country is attacked.
Big Brother Democracy
Naomi Klein
Recently, as protesters gathered outside the Security and Prosperity Partnership (SPP) summit in Montebello, Quebec, to confront US President George W. Bush, Mexican President Felipe Calderón and Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper, the Associated Press reported this surreal detail: "Leaders were not able to see the protesters in person, but they could watch the protesters on TV monitors inside the hotel.... Cameramen hired to ensure that demonstrators would be able to pass along their messages to the three leaders sat idly in a tent full of audio and video equipment.... A sign on the outside of the tent said, 'Our cameras are here today providing your right to be seen and heard. Please let us help you get your message out. Thank You.'" Yes, it's true: Like contestants on a reality TV show, protesters at the SPP were invited to vent into video cameras, their rants to be beamed to protest-trons inside the summit enclave. It was security state as infotainment--Big Brother meets, well, Big Brother. [Surveillance]
Book Tells Of Dissent In Bush's Inner Circle
White House Granted Author Unusual Access By Michael Abramowitz Washington Post Staff Writer Monday, September 3, 2007; Page A01 Karl Rove told George W. Bush before the 2000 election that it was a bad idea to name Richard B. Cheney as his running mate, and Rove later raised objections to the nomination of Harriet E. Miers to the Supreme Court, according to a new book on the Bush presidency. In "Dead Certain: The Presidency of George Bush," journalist Robert Draper writes that Rove told Bush he should not tap Cheney for the Republican ticket: "Selecting Daddy's top foreign-policy guru ran counter to message. It was worse than a safe pick -- it was needy." But Bush did not care -- he was comfortable with Cheney and "saw no harm in giving his VP unprecedented run of the place." [Dissension]
Transformed By Her Bond With Bush
Rice's Loyalty Brings Power and Pitfalls By Glenn Kessler Washington Post Staff Writer Monday, September 3, 2007; Page A01 It was just two days after President Bush's reelection in 2004, and Condoleezza Rice was planning her move back home to California and to the tranquility of life at Stanford University. But Bush had other plans. In a private meeting at Camp David on the morning of Friday, Nov. 6, the president made his pitch: Colin Powell was out as secretary of state -- though Bush hadn't told him yet -- and the president wanted Rice to take the job.
In early 2007, as the Iraq war ground on with few prospects for breakthroughs or success, Rice huddled with top aides and looked for other spots where she could deliver diplomatic results in their final two years. She decided to focus on ensuring a nuclear deal with North Korea, resolving the conflict over Iran's nuclear program and making progress toward a Palestinian state. Rice even spent the 2006 Christmas holiday reading stacks of reports from the office of the State Department historian, trying to glean lessons from President Bill Clinton's intensive Middle East diplomacy in his waning days in office. "These are scary times we live in," a senior Rice aide said last year. "Nothing's working. We can blame Iran, we can blame North Korea, and we can blame Hezbollah. You can blame them all because they are all terrible people. But at some point you have to ask yourself, are you going about this right?" [Condoleezza Rice]
In N.C., A Second Industrial Revolution
Biotech Surge Shows Manufacturing Still Key to U.S. Economy
By Peter S. Goodman Washington Post Staff Writer Monday, September 3, 2007; Page A01 PITTSBORO, N.C. -- Until the late 1950s, the low-slung brick building in the center of this minuscule town was home to the Kayser-Roth hosiery mill. Some 400 workers tended to clattering looms, churning out pantyhose. "It was the best employer in town," said Nancy May, a former worker.
The hosiery mill is gone now, along with much of the Carolina textile industry -- a casualty of the global reordering that has concentrated production in Asia and Latin America. But the old brick building is still here and still making products -- albeit modern varieties that could scarcely have been imagined a half-century ago: Today, the site is occupied by a biotechnology company, Biolex Therapeutics. [Decline]
Intellectuals and the "War on Terror":An Occident Waiting to Happen
By DAVID KEEN September 1 / 2, 2007
The 'war on terror' has an intellectual arm, and many of the most significant contributors are 'liberals'. One key problem is the prevalence of pleas for a lack of understanding. Those who have attempted to understand causes have been portrayed as themselves a cause of 9/11. A prime example is the work of Alan Dershowitz, a Harvard law professor with a reputation for liberal stances on civil liberties. For Dershowitz, attempting to understand and eliminate the root causes of terrorism was "exactly the wrong approach" - and indeed helped to explain why 9/11 happened in the first place. For Dershowitz, the sensible response to terrorism is to send out this message: "we will hunt you down and destroy your capacity to engage in terrorism." What is most troubling here is the wilful blindness to root causes, combined with the old fantasy that terrorists are finite and can be physically hunted down and destroyed. It was Ami Ayalon - head of Shabak, Israel's General Security Service between 1996 and 2000 - who observed that "those who want victory" against terror without addressing underlying grievances "want an unending war." [Double standards]
Vital Lockerbie evidence 'was tampered with'
Fragments of bomb timer that helped to convict a Libyan ex-agent were 'practically carbonised' before the trial, says bankrupt Swiss businessman Alex Duval Smith, Europe correspondent Sunday September 2, 2007 The Observer The key piece of material evidence used by prosecutors to implicate Libya in the Lockerbie bombing has emerged as a probable fake. Nearly two decades after Pan Am flight 103 exploded over Scotland on 21 December, 1988, allegations of international political intrigue and shoddy investigative work are being levelled at the British government, the FBI and the Scottish police as one of the crucial witnesses, Swiss engineer Ulrich Lumpert, has apparently confessed that he lied about the origins of a crucial 'timer' - evidence that helped tie the man convicted of the bombing to the crime.
Modern Singapore's Creator Is Alert to Perils
Published: September 2, 2007 Singapore's secret, Mr. Lee said, is that it is "ideology free." It possesses an unsentimental pragmatism that infuses the workings of the country as if it were in itself an ideology, he said. When considering an approach to an issue, he says, the question is: "Does it work? Let's try it, and if it does work, fine, let's continue it. If it doesn't work, toss it out, try another one."
The yardstick, he said, is: "Is this necessary for survival and progress? If it is, let's do it." Hoping to attract more tourists, for example, Singapore is building two huge casinos, despite Mr. Lee's expressed distaste for them. [Spin]
Iraq Far From U.S. Goals for Energy
$50 Billion Needed To Meet Demand By Dana Hedgpeth Washington Post Staff Writer Sunday, September 2, 2007; Page A01 Iraq's crucial oil and electricity sectors still need roughly $50 billion to meet demand, analysts and officials say, even after the United States has poured more than $6 billion into them over more than four years. [Victim]
Notes From a Gadfly
An outspoken linguist sounds off on American imperialism.
By Reviewed by Jonathan Rauch Sunday, September 2, 2007; Page BW02 INTERVENTIONS By Noam Chomsky
City Lights. 232 pp. Paperback, $15.95 For all his celebrity on the academic and activist left, Noam Chomsky, the linguist turned gadfly, goes all but unnoticed inside the Capital Beltway. And this neglect, according to Chomsky's new collection of op-ed articles, Interventions, is not benign. "Chomsky's op-eds have been picked up widely by the international press," according to an editor's note, but American " 'newspapers of record' have declined to publish them." When I picked up the new Chomsky collection, my first reaction was to be glad that City Lights Books -- "published at the City Lights Bookstore," in San Francisco -- had brought out what promised to be a refreshing, if sometimes infuriating, challenge to conventional smugness. No such luck. Chomsky's 44 brief essays, along with some supplementary notes added for republication, come to just over 200 loosely set pages. Yet this short book proves a chore to get through.
To be sure, Chomsky's trademark barbs and provocations are here, but so are his flights to a separate reality. In Chomsky's universe, the 2001 U.S. attack on Afghanistan's Taliban "was undertaken with the expectation that it might drive several million people over the edge of starvation." And North Korea's counterfeiting racket may actually be a CIA operation. And the Clinton administration intervened militarily in Kosovo not in order to prevent ethnic cleansing but to impose Washington's neoliberal economic agenda. And President Bush -- the first and only U.S. president to declare formal American support for a Palestinian state -- is the obstacle to a two-state solution that Hezbollah, Hamas and Iran are all prepared to accept. (I am not making that up.) [Media] [Counterfeiting]
response from Noam Chomsky
British army chief attacks US as 'intellectually bankrupt' over Iraq
Peter Richards Saturday September 1, 2007 The Guardian The former head of the British Army has attacked US postwar policy, calling it "intellectually bankrupt". General Sir Mike Jackson, who headed the army during the war in Iraq, described as "nonsensical" the claim by the former US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld that US forces "don't do nation-building". He has also hit back at suggestions that British forces had failed in Basra. Mr Rumsfeld was "one of the most responsible for the current situation in Iraq," Gen Jackson says in his autobiography, Soldier. He describes Washington's approach to fighting global terrorism as "inadequate" for relying on military power over diplomacy and nation-building.
As Her Star Wanes, Rice Tries to Reshape Legacy
By HELENE COOPER Published: September 1, 2007 WASHINGTON, Aug. 31 - On May 25, Stanford University's student newspaper, The Stanford Daily, devoted the bulk of its front page to the university's former provost, who is on leave while she serves out her term as secretary of state. "Condi Eyes Return," read the headline, "but in What Role?" Within hours, the letters to the editor started coming in. "Condoleezza Rice serves an administration that has trashed the basic values of academia: reason, science, expertise, and honesty. Stanford should not welcome her back," wrote Don Ornstein, identified by the newspaper as an emeritus professor of mathematics in a letter published May 31.
In Washington and around the world, many now believe that Ms. Rice, after two and a half years on the job, is a far better secretary of state than she was national security adviser. As President Bush’s top diplomat, she has lowered tensions somewhat between America and its allies, after four years of a go-it-alone diplomacy that had chilled trans-Atlantic relations. Despite criticism from conservatives within the administration, she has allowed her North Korea aide, Christopher R. Hill, enough space to negotiate a truce that led to the North’s shutdown of its main nuclear reactor in July. [Bilateral] [Dissension]
Bet on America
Forget the Doom and Gloom. In 50 Years, We'll Still Be No. 1. By Joel AchenbachSunday, September 2, 2007; Page B01 America, the shining city on a hill, swollen over centuries into a reluctant empire, faces a long march into the twilight of its greatness. Our duty now is to supervise our relative decline. Other superpowers shall rise to match us: China, surely, and newly consolidated Europe, and maybe Russia or Japan. From ancient Rome through the Ming Dynasty, from the days of the Spanish Armada to the British Empire, the implacable rule of history is that no one stays on top forever. We had our day. It's over. Nice while it lasted.
This, at least, is the latest word on the street (well, maybe if you eavesdropped on a couple of nerds outside one of those think tanks on Massachusetts Avenue).
The neocon notion of Pax Americana is built around the idea that, hell yes, we're a butt-kickin' empire, and we ought to act like one. Syndicated columnist Charles Krauthammer made a striking speech in 2004 sketching America's rise as the sole superpower: "We got here because of Europe's suicide in the world wars of the 20th century, and then the death of its Eurasian successor, Soviet Russia, for having adopted a political and economic system so inhuman that, like a genetically defective organism, it simply expired in its sleep. Leaving us with global dominion."
North Korea spends approximately $5 billion a year on its military. That is what the Pentagon leaves as a tip for a waiter. That's what we spend on condiments! That's our ketchup and mustard budget!
Moreover, China will be the first country to get old before it gets rich [Decline] [Imperialism]
A Maritime Security Regime for Northeast Asia?
By Mark J. Valencia
August 30th, 2007 Mark J. Valencia, a maritime security analyst in Kaneohe, Hawaii, writes “emerging from one of the most conflict prone regions of the world is a conflict avoidance regime - in short, an expectation of self-restraint and sharing in such situations. But these regimes are not multilateral nor have they evolved in that direction despite the hopes and recommendations of policy analysts and practitioners. Nevertheless, they can be expanded and have a spillover effect on relations in general and maritime regime creation in particular.”

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AUGUST 2007

US steps up probe of EU banks
By Stephanie Kirchgaessner in Washington Published: August 29 2007 22:20 | Last updated: August 29 2007 22:20 The US justice department and other authorities have stepped up investigations into several large European banks for violating US sanctions against Iran, Libya, Cuba and Sudan. One person familiar with the probes said some banks had started to discuss settlements with the authorities and could agree to financial penalties by the end of the year. [Financial sanctions] [Extraterritoriality]
Carter Headlines With Edwards
By SHANNON McCAFFREY The Associated Press Wednesday, August 29, 2007; 8:20 PM AMERICUS, Ga. -- Former President Jimmy Carter welcomed Democratic presidential hopeful John Edwards to South Georgia on Wednesday, embracing the fellow Southerner as a kindred spirit on poverty and the environment. Carter and Edwards shared the stage at Carter's alma mater, Georgia Southwestern State University. Carter stopped short of endorsing the former U.S. senator from North Carolina but called him "a candidate whom I really admire."
"I can say without equivocation that no one who is running for president has presented anywhere near as comprehensive and accurate a prediction of what our country ought to do in the field of environmental quality, in the field of healthcare for those who are not presently insured, for those who struggle with poverty," Carter said.
And he chastised Bush for losing credibility on the nuclear arms front because the administration has rejected arms agreements that he and other presidents negotiated. He said dealing with Iran and North Korea would be more effective if the United States had been loyal to its own word. "We need to set the example and we haven't," he said.
U.S. Troops Arrest Members of Iran Ministry in Baghdad
By STEPHEN FARRELL Published: August 29, 2007 BAGHDAD, Wednesday, Aug. 29 — An Iranian Energy Ministry delegation was arrested by American troops at a hotel in central Baghdad during an official visit to Iraq, the Iranian state news agency, IRNA, and hotel staff said Tuesday night. American forces confirmed that a group of Iranians was detained after coalition forces searched them and their Iraqi escorts at a checkpoint, found unauthorized weapons in their vehicles and confiscated them. The American statement did not mention the hotel, but it is near the checkpoint on the east bank of the Tigris where United States forces said the group was stopped and searched. Staff at an Iraqi state-owned hotel called the Sheraton Ishtar said Wednesday that the delegation was detained while the members were eating dinner in the ground floor restaurant, where they had apparently proceeded from the nearby checkpoint. They said six Iranians were led away blindfolded and handcuffed shortly after 10 p.m. Hotel officials said the delegation checked into the hotel on Monday bearing a letter of invitation from the Iraqi Electricity Ministry. [Sovereignty]
As Dulles Rail Staggers, Players Share in Blame
Delays, Cost Run-Ups and a Threatened Loss of Funds Combine to Cloud the Project's Future
By Amy Gardner Washington Post Staff Writer Wednesday, August 29, 2007; Page A01 Over budget and behind schedule, rail to Dulles International Airport is in trouble. Planned for more than 40 years, the 23-mile Metro extension from Falls Church to Loudoun County is among the region's highest transportation priorities. It would eliminate Washington's unenviable distinction as one of the only major world capitals without rail service to its largest airport. Yet the most critical component to the project's success -- nearly $1 billion in federal funding -- remains in doubt. And so does the fate of the rail line itself. [Railways] [Decline]
A third of UK's biggest businesses pay no tax
By Vanessa Houlder in London Published: August 27 2007 22:02 | Last updated: August 27 2007 22:02 Almost a third of the UK's 700 biggest businesses paid no corporation tax in the 2005-06 financial year while another 30 per cent paid less than £10m each, an official study has found. Of the tax paid by these businesses, two-thirds came from just three industries - banking, insurance and oil and gas - while the alcohol, tobacco, car and real estate sectors contributed only a few hundred million pounds. [Corruption]
Memo to the President, 2020
by JOHN FEFFER | Monday, August 20, 2007 As a member of the transition team, I've been asked to give a backgrounder on the "loss of global influence" issue that played such a major role in the last election. I've submitted my study entitled End of Empire and I would encourage you to read my full analysis. I've been told that you might not have the time to read all three volumes. As a historian, I find it extraordinarily difficult to boil this question down to 750 words. But I will try. Historians are divided into roughly three camps on the causes behind the end of the unipolar system headed by our country.
The largest camp is the Iraq Syndrome group.
The second camp is generally called the China Rising group.
The third camp, to which I belong, is called the Subprime group. [Realignment]
They can't see why they are hated
Americans cannot ignore what their government does abroad
Special report: Terrorism in the US
Seumas Milne Thursday September 13, 2001 The Guardian
Nearly two days after the horrific suicide attacks on civilian workers in New York and Washington, it has become painfully clear that most Americans simply don't get it. From the president to passersby on the streets, the message seems to be the same: this is an inexplicable assault on freedom and democracy, which must be answered with overwhelming force - just as soon as someone can construct a credible account of who was actually responsible.
Shock, rage and grief there has been aplenty. But any glimmer of recognition of why people might have been driven to carry out such atrocities, sacrificing their own lives in the process - or why the United States is hated with such bitterness, not only in Arab and Muslim countries, but across the developing world - seems almost entirely absent. Perhaps it is too much to hope that, as rescue workers struggle to pull firefighters from the rubble, any but a small minority might make the connection between what has been visited upon them and what their government has visited upon large parts of the world.
Army gets new 'enhanced blast' weapon to fight Taliban
Richard Norton-Taylor Thursday August 23, 2007 The Guardian British soldiers in Afghanistan are being supplied with a new "super weapon" to attack Taliban fighters more effectively, defence officials said yesterday. The "enhanced blast" weapon is based on thermobaric technology used in the powerful bombs dropped by the Russians to obliterate Grozny, the Chechen capital, and in US "bunker busters". Defence officials insisted yesterday that the British bombs were different. "They are optimised to create blast [rather than heat]", one said, adding that it would be misleading to call them "thermobaric". So-called thermobaric weapons have been used by the US against suspected al-Qaida and Taliban underground bases. Combined heat and pressure kill people over a wide area by sucking the air out of lungs and destroying internal organs. Defence officials described the new weapon as a shoulder-launched "light anti-structure munition". They said the bombs would be more effective than conventional weapons such as anti-tank missiles which often miss their targets. Even when they hit the damage is limited to a confined area. The new weapons would be more effective against buildings and structures used by the Taliban, they said. Sir Menzies Campbell, the Liberal Democrat leader, described the weapons as a "serious step change" for the British army. He added: "The continuing issue of civilian casualties in Afghanistan has enormous importance in the battle for hearts and minds. If these weapons contribute to the deaths of civilians then a primary purpose of the British deployment is going to be made yet more difficult." [WMD] [Double standards]
Texas rebuffs EU plea to halt 400th execution in 25 years
Dan Glaister in Los Angeles Thursday August 23, 2007 The Guardian The state of Texas was set to reach a milestone last night with the scheduled execution of Johnny Ray Conner for a murder he committed nearly 10 years ago. He would be the 400th person to be executed in Texas since the state resumed capital punishment in 1982, a figure that is considerably higher than in other US states with capital punishment. Twenty prisoners have been executed this year in Texas, and three more are scheduled to die by lethal injection next week. Five further executions are scheduled for September. Since 1976, 1,091 prisoners have been executed in the US. Last year, 53 people were executed in the country, putting it behind China, Iran, Pakistan, Iraq, and Sudan in a ranking of countries with the most executions. [Human rights]
Historians Question Bush's Reading of Lessons of Vietnam War for Iraq
By THOM SHANKER Published: August 23, 2007 WASHINGTON, Aug. 22 - The American withdrawal from Vietnam is widely remembered as an ignominious end to a misguided war - but one with few negative repercussions for the United States and its allies.
Now, in urging Americans to stay the course in Iraq, President Bush is challenging that historical memory. In reminding Americans that the pullout in 1975 was followed by years of bloody upheaval in Southeast Asia, Mr. Bush argued in a speech on Wednesday that Vietnam's lessons provide a reason for persevering in Iraq, rather than for leaving any time soon. Mr. Bush in essence accused his war critics of amnesia over the exodus of Vietnamese "boat people" refugees and the mass killings in Cambodia that upended the lives of millions of people. President Bush is right on the factual record, according to historians. But many of them also quarreled with his drawing analogies from the causes of that turmoil to predict what might happen in Iraq should the United States withdraw.
Foreign Aid Groups Face Terror Screens
By Walter Pincus Washington Post Staff Writer Thursday, August 23, 2007; Page A01
The Bush administration plans to screen thousands of people who work with charities and nonprofit organizations that receive U.S. Agency for International Development funds to ensure they are not connected with individuals or groups associated with terrorism, according to a recent Federal Register notice. The plan would require the organizations to give the government detailed information about key personnel, including phone numbers, birth dates and e-mail addresses. But the government plans to shroud its use of that information in secrecy and does not intend to tell groups deemed unacceptable why they are rejected. [Outsourcing] [Surveillance]
Divide et Impera
The US is using a hoary imperial tactic dating back to the Romans to dominate Iraq and to justify a long-term military presence in the country
By Stephen Gowans
A US-financed program to build a Sunni paramilitary Guardian organization in Iraq, and US proposals for a soft partition of the country, are the latest steps in a divide and rule strategy the US is pursuing to keep Iraqis fighting among themselves so they won’t fight the occupation. Sectarian strife also provides the US with the pretext it needs to establish a long-term military presence in the country. [Fragmentation] [Intelligent design]
Pakistan: "The Taliban's Godfather"?
Documents Detail Years of Pakistani Support for Taliban, Extremists Covert Policy Linked Taliban, Kashmiri Militants, Pakistan's Pashtun Troops Aid Encouraged Pro-Taliban Sympathies in Troubled Border Region
National Security Archive Electronic Briefing Book No. 227 Edited by Barbara Elias Posted - August 14, 2007
US deports mother who took sanctuary
Ed Pilkington in New York Tuesday August 21, 2007 The Guardian Elvira Arellano and her son, Saul. Photograph: Ed Pilkington The woman who became the unofficial face of the millions of illegal immigrants striving to remain in the United States has been deported to her native Mexico almost a year to the day after she took refuge in a church in Chicago. [Human rights] [Migration]
Protests over terror arrest of German academic
Kate Connolly in Berlin Tuesday August 21, 2007 The Guardian Academics from around the world have protested to Germany's federal prosecutor about the arrest and detention of a Berlin sociologist who is accused of associating with a terrorist group - apparently on the basis of his academic work. Andrej Holm, from Berlin's Humboldt University, who specialises in urban gentrification, was arrested three weeks ago on suspicion of aiding a militant organisation suspected of carrying out more than 25 arson attacks in Berlin since 2001. In protest letters the academics from across Europe, the US and Canada said Mr Holm's arrest was based on his academic writings, and the evidence used to connect him to terrorism was at best flimsy. The federal prosecutor's office arrested Mr Holm on August 1 under paragraph 129a of the anti-terrorism law, citing the repeated use of words such as "gentrification" and "inequality" in his academic papers, terms similar to those used by the urban activist organisation "militante gruppe" (mg). According to the prosecution report the frequency of the overlap between words used by Mr Holm and the group was "striking, and not to be explained through a coincidence". [Human rights]
Hey, I Wrote That! But the President Said It - Out Loud!
By CAROLYN CURIEL Published: August 21, 2007 White House speechwriting is glamorous, filled with state dinners, Oval Office meetings and no shortage of opportunities to prevail in heated internal debates that save democracy. At least that's what you might conclude from recent books, films and television shows written by a growing number of former White House speechwriters. The job really is a plum, even with the long, anxious hours spent before blank computer screens, moments that usually get lost or airbrushed, even in nonfiction versions. But speechwriters are witnesses to power, not wielders of power, and when they pull back the curtain, they tend to show themselves in predictably favorable ways.
Americans certainly have craved more transparency from the Bush White House, but this isn’t what they had in mind. Mr. Scully portrays Mr. Gerson as a credit-mongering poser who did not write the lines assigned to him and perhaps to history. Remember the "axis of evil" — Iraq, Iran and North Korea? Not Mr. Gerson’s. It was one-third Mr. Scully’s (who says he suggested the word "evil" in place of the word "hatred"), with the other two-thirds going to David Frum. Overlooking, for a moment, why anyone would want to claim a line doomed to be associated forever with spectacularly bad policy choices, the scribe smackdown is an amazing look inside the White House, and how individuals are trying to extract what little personal victories they can from their time there. [Spin]
Remittances: For Love and Money
Francis Calpotura | August 14, 2007
Globalization has transformed the lives of hundreds of millions of people in this generation. Countless individuals have moved from villages to towns, from cities to overseas in search of ways to provide for their families and escape poverty, violence, and an uncertain future. Many have come to the United States to work as low-wage laborers. Part of the largest influx of immigrants since the turn of the 19th century, they have created an unprecedented level of money transfer from the global North to the South as they send money home to their families.
These remittances have eclipsed the amount rich countries spend on foreign aid. In 2005, migrant workers sent a total of $232 billion to their country of origin, more than three times the amount of official development assistance. In many parts of the developing world, remittances account for 30% or more of the gross domestic product. Inflows from Mexicans living abroad, for example, represent the country’s second largest source of foreign income behind oil exports. [Remittances]
Entry of MFIs into the Remittance Market: Opportunities and Challenges
Written by: Anne H. Hastings, Director Fonkoze, Haiti Prepared for: The Global Microcredit Summit Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada November 13, 2006
In 2005, migrant worker remittances – the portion of migrants’ earnings returned to their country of origin – totaled approximately US$232 billion globally – three times official development aide of US$78.6 billion dollars. In fact, formal remittances constitute the second largest source of external funding for developing countries behind Foreign Direct Investment. The $46 billion in remittances sent to Latin America and the Caribbean last year by 30 million migrants was nearly equal to all foreign investment in private companies! Moreover, migration and remittance experts argue that unofficial transfers could be almost as large as, if not larger than, the formal flows.3 [Remittances]
Making the Most of Family Remittances
Second Report of the Inter-American Dialogue Task Force on Remittances May 2007 [Remittances]
When Not to Intervene
Monday, August 20, 2007; Page A14 The past five years should have taught us that elective wars are likely to unleash a host of unintended consequences that should call into question the wisdom of such intervention in the first place. Most Americans have learned this lesson. Ivo Daalder and Robert Kagan have not ["The Next Intervention," op-ed, Aug. 6]. Large-scale military intervention is often counterproductive to fighting terrorism. U.S. interventionism has prompted Iran and North Korea to accelerate their nuclear programs to deter attacks against their countries. Meanwhile, the estimated 2 million Iraqis who have fled the killings and sectarian bloodshed can legitimately question how the war has advanced the cause of human rights.
Most curious is Mr. Daalder and Mr. Kagan's advocacy of military intervention on behalf of "others whom we are obliged to protect." But they don't begin to explain from whence those obligations derive, much less why the supposed obligations benefit Americans. When we act on the assumption that we are responsible for policing the planet, dangers have often been visited on the American people. Not surprisingly, many Americans are looking for a credible candidate from either of the two major parties willing to make the case for less, rather than more, military intervention. Mr. Daalder and Mr. Kagan are satisfied with the interventionist status quo. The American public should not be. CHRISTOPHER PREBLE Director of Foreign Policy Studies Cato Institute Washington [Imperialism]
Cheney, Lieberman and the Iran War Conspiracy
By Gareth Porter, HuffingtonPost.com. Posted August 18, 2007.
Neocons beat the drums for another war.
I was never one of those who believed the Bush administration was getting ready to attack Iran in 2006 or early 2007. But it is now clear that at least Vice President Dick Cheney is conspiring to push through a specific plan for war with Iran. And Senator Joe Lieberman is an active part of that conspiracy. We have known for a long time that Cheney wants a major air attack on Iranian nuclear sites and other military and economic targets. But an August 9 story published by McClatchy newspapers reveals that, instead of waiting for a decision to go ahead with such a strategic attack against Iran, Cheney now hopes to get Bush to approve an attack on camps in Iran where Iraqi Shiite militiamen have allegedly been trained in recent years.
Padilla Case Offers a New Model of Terror Trial
By ADAM LIPTAK Published: August 18, 2007 There were two perfectly predictable schools of thought being expressed after the conviction of Jose Padilla on Thursday on terrorism-related charges. Supporters of the Bush administration said the conviction justified the more than three years Mr. Padilla spent in military detention before his criminal prosecution, while the administration's opponents said the verdict proved that the criminal justice system should have handled the case in the first place.
But the real innovation in Mr. Padilla's case, some legal experts said yesterday, was more subtle than those dueling talking points suggested. The Justice Department's strategy in the trial itself, using a seldom-tested conspiracy law and relatively thin evidence, cemented a new prosecutorial model in terrorism cases. The central charge against Mr. Padilla was that he conspired to murder, maim and kidnap people in a foreign country. The charge is a serious one, and it can carry a life sentence. But prosecutors needed to prove very little by way of concrete conduct to obtain a conviction under the law.
Indeed, the strongest piece of evidence in Mr. Padilla's case was what prosecutors said was an application form Mr. Padilla filled out to attend a training camp run by Al Qaeda in Afghanistan in 2000. "It is a pretty big leap between a mere indication of desire to attend a camp and a crystallized desire to kill, maim and kidnap," said Peter S. Margulies, a law professor at Roger Williams University who has also written on conspiracy charges in terrorism prosecutions.
The conspiracy charge against Mr. Padilla, Professor Margulies continued, "is highly amorphous, and it basically allows someone to be found guilty for something that is one step away from a thought crime." [Human rights]
U.S. May Add Eritrea to List of Nations Backing Terrorists
By MARK MAZZETTI Published: August 18, 2007 WASHINGTON, Aug. 17 - The Bush administration is considering designating Eritrea as a state sponsor of terrorism, accusing it of running arms to Islamic insurgents in Somalia, the State Department's top official for Africa said Friday. American officials say Eritrea, on the Red Sea, has been trying to destabilize the fragile government in the Somali capital, Mogadishu. That government came to power after Ethiopian troops, backed by the United States, invaded Somalia and toppled an administration run by radical Islamic militias. [Human rights]
Recruiting For Iraq War Undercut in Puerto Rico
By Paul Lewis Washington Post Staff Writer Saturday, August 18, 2007; Page A01
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico -- The political activists, brown envelopes tucked under their arms, staked out the high school gates just after sunrise. When students emerged from the graffiti-scorched streets of the Rio Piedra neighborhood here and began streaming toward their school, the pro-independence advocates ripped open the envelopes and began handing the teens fliers emblazoned with the slogan: "Our youth should not go to war." At the bottom of the leaflet was a tear sheet that students could sign and later hand to teachers, to request that students' personal contact information not be released to the U.S. Defense Department or to anyone involved in military recruiting.
The scene outside the Ramon Vila Mayo high school unfolded at schools throughout Puerto Rico this week as the academic year opened. On this island with a long tradition of military service, pro-independence advocates are tapping the territory's growing anti-Iraq war sentiment to revitalize their cause
Spare Times: For Children
By LAUREL GRAEBER Published: August 17, 2007 FOR CHILDREN 'THE WORLD IS MY CANVAS' Many young people leave their childhoods before they ever leave their countries. But in SoHo, the Children's Museum of the Arts is now offering its visitors an opportunity to view other lands through eyes that are still very young: those of their peers in nations ranging from the Netherlands to North Korea.
Amateur Hour on Iran
Editorial
Published: August 16, 2007 The dangers posed by Iran are serious, and America needs to respond with serious policies, not more theatrics. Labeling Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps as a foreign terrorist organization - as the State Department now proposes - is another distraction when what the Bush administration needs to be doing is opening comprehensive negotiations with Tehran, backed by increasing international economic pressure. Those negotiations need to deal with all real and alleged facets of Iran's many dangerous behaviors: its nuclear ambitions; its sectarian meddling in Iraq; its providing of missiles to Hezbollah in Lebanon and the charges it is arming the Taliban and others in Afghanistan. And any talks must take into account Iran's concerns about its own security - with a clear offer that it can come in from the diplomatic and economic cold if it improves its behavior. Designating Iran's Revolutionary Guard as a foreign terrorist group would trigger automatic American economic penalties against the guard leaders and companies dealing with them. But Iran does little direct business with the United States, so those penalties would cause minimal pain. That suggests that the State Department's real audience isn't Tehran, but conflict-obsessed administration hawks, who are lobbying for military strikes, and conflict-averse European allies, who have resisted more far-reaching multilateral economic sanctions. We hope the State Department prevails in both of those arguments. But it has chosen a particularly blunt instrument to wave around. If there's any doubt about that, officials should take another look at the recent North Korea nuclear deal - and the contortions and delays they had to go through to roll back the Patriot Act sanctions on North Korean bank deposits. [Financial sanctions] [BDA]
Washington’s double vision
Paul Rogers
The United States needs to keep the focus on al-Qaida while targeting Iran. It isn't easy. 16 - 08 - 2007 There's no escaping Iraq. Two incidents in recent days bear heavily on the unending conflict in that country. More broadly, they reveal how the United States administration's definition of its "war on terror" (or "long war") reflects entrapment in a way of thinking that requires it constantly to press the real world into the service of a partisan, dangerous, and self-defeating ideology. First, the four coordinated truck-bombings of 14 August 2007 which targeted the Yezidi religious minority in northern Iraq inflicted the largest death-toll of any single incident - more than 400 - since the invasion of Iraq in March 2003. Second, the US's indication that it intends to designate Iran's 150,000-strong Sepah-e-Pasdaran-e-Enghlab-e-Islami (Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, or Pasdaran) as a "foreign terrorist organisation" entails more than an escalation of rhetoric: it has serious practical implications for the relationship between Washington and Tehran, and adds a further element to an already polarised atmosphere where the possibility of military action against Iran cannot be ruled out (see Helene Cooper, "U.S. Weighing Terrorist Label for Iran Guards", New York Times, 14 August 2007).
Padilla Is Guilty on All Charges in Terror Trial
Barbara P. Fernandez for The New York Times By ABBY GOODNOUGH and SCOTT SHANE Published: August 17, 2007 MIAMI, Aug. 16 - In a significant victory for the Bush administration, a federal jury found Jose Padilla guilty of terrorism conspiracy charges on Thursday after little more than a day of deliberation.
Mr. Padilla, a Brooklyn-born convert to Islam who became one of the first Americans designated an "enemy combatant" in the anxious months after Sept. 11, 2001, now faces life in prison. He was released last year from a long and highly unusual military confinement to face criminal charges in Federal District Court here. The government's chief evidence was a faded application form that prosecutors said Mr. Padilla, 36, filled out to attend a Qaeda training camp in Afghanistan in 2000. [human rights]
Jury Convicts Jose Padilla of Terror Charges
Two Co-Defendants Also Found Guilty
By Peter Whoriskey Washington Post Staff Writer Friday, August 17, 2007; Page A01
MIAMI, Aug. 16 -- A federal jury convicted former "enemy combatant" Jose Padilla on Thursday of terrorism conspiracy charges, handing a courthouse victory to the Bush administration, which had originally sought to imprison him without a criminal trial. Padilla was arrested in 2002 for allegedly plotting a radiological "dirty bomb" attack, but prosecutors chose not to pursue those allegations in court here. But after a three-month trial, they had convinced the jury that Padilla, 36, participated in a South Florida-based al-Qaeda support cell that in the '90s began to send money and people to wage holy war in Bosnia, Chechnya, Kosovo and Somalia. [Human rights] [Double standards]
Palestinian state would endanger US, warns Giuliani
Fred Attewill and agencies Wednesday August 15, 2007 Guardian Unlimited A leading Republican presidential candidate, Rudy Giuliani, has declared he is against the creation of a Palestinian state at present because it would "support terrorism" and endanger US security. He underscored his uncompromising approach to foreign policy by adding he would be prepared to destroy Iran's nuclear plants "should all else fail". [Human rights]
Travelocity fined $183,000 for booking trips to Cuba
Travelocity claimed it booked more than 1,000 Cuba vacations by accident, resulting in an expensive lesson in global commerce and the U.S. embargo on travel to Cuba. Posted on Wed, Aug. 15, 2007 BY DOUGLAS HANKS dhanks@MiamiHerald.com
Did the Roaming Gnome book a flight to Havana? Travelocity was fined nearly $183,000 for booking roughly 1,400 Cuba trips between 1998 and 2004, apparently the first time Washington has cracked down on a major online travel provider for violating the 1963 embargo on the communist nation. Travelocity blamed the 1,458 violations on technical issues that were corrected years ago. ''In no way did the company intend to sell trips to Cuba,'' the spokeswoman, Ashley Johnson, wrote in an e-mail Tuesday. ``The trips to Cuba . . . were unintentionally booked online because of a technical issue several years ago and it's just now being settled.'' [Human rights] [Double standards]
U.S. Is Urging Musharraf to Share Power
Left, Ruth Fremson/The New York Times; Right, Press Information Department, via Agence France-Presse - Getty Images A power-sharing agreement between Benazir Bhutto, a former prime minister, and Gen. Pervez Musharraf, the president, could help defuse a confrontation in which General Musharraf has considered invoking emergency powers, American officials contend.
By MARK MAZZETTI Published: August 16, 2007 This article was reported by Mark Mazzetti, Helene Cooper and Carlotta Gall, and written by Mr. Mazzetti. WASHINGTON, Aug. 15 - The Bush administration, struggling to find a way to keep Gen. Pervez Musharraf in power amid a deepening political crisis in Pakistan, is quietly prodding him to share authority with a longtime rival as a way of broadening his base, according to American and Pakistani officials. General Musharraf, an important ally since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, has lost so much domestic support in recent months that American officials have gotten behind the idea that an alliance with Benazir Bhutto, a former prime minister, would be his best chance of remaining president.
The Mercenary Revolution
Flush with Profits from the Iraq War, Military Contractors See a World of Business Opportunities
By JEREMY SCAHILL
August 13, 2007
If you think the U.S. has only 160,000 troops in Iraq, think again. With almost no congressional oversight and even less public awareness, the Bush administration has more than doubled the size of the U.S. occupation through the use of private war companies. There are now almost 200,000 private "contractors" deployed in Iraq by Washington. This means that U.S. military forces in Iraq are now outsized by a coalition of billing corporations whose actions go largely unmonitored and whose crimes are virtually unpunished. In essence, the Bush administration has created a shadow army that can be used to wage wars unpopular with the American public but extremely profitable for a few unaccountable private companies.
"Maybe the precedent was the British and the Hessians in the American Revolution. Maybe that's the last time and needless to say, they lost. But I'm thinking that there's no democratic control and there's no intention to have democratic control here."
Moreover, this revolution means the United States no longer needs to rely on its own citizens to fight its wars, nor does it need to implement a draft, which would have made the Iraq war politically untenable. [Outsourcing] [Imperialism]
Iranian Unit to Be Labeled 'Terrorist'
U.S. Moving Against Revolutionary Guard
By Robin Wright Washington Post Staff Writer Wednesday, August 15, 2007; Page A01
The United States has decided to designate Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps, the country's 125,000-strong elite military branch, as a "specially designated global terrorist," according to U.S. officials, a move that allows Washington to target the group's business operations and finances. [Financial sanctions] [Toolkit]
Debtonation: how globalisation dies
Ann Pettifor
The global financial crisis exposes the failure of the economic model that rules the world. Ann Pettifor saw it coming. 15 - 08 - 2007
A single day, 9 August 2007, will go down in history as "debtonation day" - the beginning of the end of the deregulation and privatisation of finance that marks the era of globalisation. It is a moment that I (alongside many others) had long predicted, most notably in an article for openDemocracy written in 2003 (see "The coming first world debt crisis" [1 September 2003], and my book of the same title [Palgrave, 2006]). The problem, as with Cassandras in other areas of life, was to gauge the precise timing of the global financial crisis that we knew was approaching. A vital piece of evidence emerged in June 2007, when news broke that the New York-based Blackstone Group LP - the world's largest private-equity fund - had decided to go public. In other words its private owners had resolved (to the puzzlement of many) to make some activities transparent, and offer the company (both assets and liabilities) to shareholders. Many attributed a charitable motive to the company - a desire to ensure that the "little people" as well as the rich few should share in Blackstone's wealth (little mention was made of its losses). It was at that point that the timing of the "debtonation" appeared imminent. It took two more months. The problems revealed by "debtonation day" amount to a "system-crisis" that goes to the heart of the financial model which underpins that ephemeral economic concept, "globalisation" (see Tony Curzon Price, "The end of gentlemanly capitalism", 13 August 2007). It is the deregulated finance sector that has undermined the power and effectiveness of governments, and forced open capital and trade markets. It is deregulated finance that has forced down the price of labour, demanded excessive returns both of labour and the ecosystem, and further benefited the already very rich, most notably private-equity and hedge-fund managers and investors. And it is deregulated finance that has drowned the world in debt, and now precipitated a worldwide market crisis. [Globalisation] [Finance]
New airport agents check for danger in fliers' facial expressions
By Kaitlin Dirrig | McClatchy Newspapers
Tue, August 14, 2007
WASHINGTON - Next time you go to the airport, there may be more eyes on you than you notice. Specially trained security personnel are watching body language and facial cues of passengers for signs of bad intentions. The watcher could be the attendant who hands you the tray for your laptop or the one standing behind the ticket-checker. Or the one next to the curbside baggage attendant. They're called Behavior Detection Officers, and they're part of several recent security upgrades, Transportation Security Administrator Kip Hawley told an aviation industry group in Washington last month. He described them as "a wonderful tool to be able to identify and do risk management prior to somebody coming into the airport or approaching the crowded checkpoint." The officers are working in more than a dozen airports already, according to Paul Ekman, a former professor at the University of California at San Francisco who has advised Hawley's agency on the program. Amy Kudwa, a TSA public affairs specialist, said the agency hopes to have 500 behavior detection officers in place by the end of 2008. [Surveillance]
What 'Progress' in Iraq Really Means
by TOM ENGELHARDT
[posted online on August 13, 2007] Someday, we will undoubtedly discover that, in the term "surge" -- as in the President's "surge" plan (or "new way forward") announced to the nation in January -- was the urge to avoid the language (and experience) of the Vietnam era. As there were to be no "body bags" (or cameras to film them as the dead came home), as there were to be no "body counts" ("We have made a conscious effort not to be a body-count team" was the way the President put it), as there were to be no "quagmires," nor the need to search for that "light at the end of the tunnel," so, surely, there were to be no "escalations." The escalations of the Vietnam era, which left more than 500,000 American soldiers and vast bases and massive air and naval power in and around Vietnam (Laos, and Cambodia), had been thoroughly discredited. Each intensification in the delivery of troops, or simply in ever-widening bombing campaigns, led only to more misery and death for the Vietnamese and disaster for the U.S. And yet, not surprisingly, the American experience in Iraq -- another attempted occupation of a foreign country and culture -- has been like a heat-seeking missile heading for the still-burning American memories of Vietnam. [Statistics]
Micronesia: “An American Lake”
Kimie HARA
The post-war Asia-Pacific witnessed many conflicts involving major regional players. These include the divided Korean Peninsula, the Cross-Taiwan Strait problem, and the sovereignty disputes over the Southern Kuriles/“Northern Territories”, and the Tokdo/Takeshima, Diaoyu/Senkaku, and Spratly/Nansha islands. These and others, such as the ongoing Okinawa problem, emblematic of the large US military presence in the region, and the US-imposed outcomes in Micronesia, all share an important common foundation in the post-war disposition of Japan, notably the 1951 San Francisco Peace Treaty. Prepared and signed by multiple countries under US initiative, this treaty largely framed the post-war political and security order in the region, and with its associated security arrangements, laid the foundation for the regional Cold War structure, namely the “San Francisco System”.
Not the Way to Intervene
By Paul J. Saunders
Monday, August 13, 2007; Page A11 Ivo Daalder and Robert Kagan are frustrated that the United States has not been able to count on the U.N. Security Council to provide legitimacy for American military action, and they want the world's democracies to decide when intervention is appropriate [" The Next Intervention," op-ed, Aug. 6]. But the cure they propose is much worse than the disease -- and it could undermine not only vital U.S. interests but also American efforts to promote freedom. First, Daalder and Kagan fail to offer a persuasive answer to what they correctly call the "critical question" in winning international legitimacy for military action: who decides. Their answer -- "the world's democracies" -- is shallow. How will the world's democracies decide to endorse American use of force? Not democratically -- that would create a new General Assembly, a U.N. body even less willing to do American bidding than the Security Council.
What they want is for "the United States and its democratic partners in Europe and Asia," and especially "the world's great democratic nations," to decide. But which governments are these? Do they really think that India and Brazil, two great democracies by almost any standard, will energetically back an interventionist American foreign policy, not to mention the active and regular U.S. use of force that Daalder and Kagan advocate? What will be the consequences for America's perceived international legitimacy if they don't? [Imperialism]
Fatigue cripples US army in Iraq
Exhaustion and combat stress are besieging US troops in Iraq as they battle with a new type of warfare. Some even rely on Red Bull to get through the day. As desertions and absences increase, the military is struggling to cope with the crisis
Peter Beaumont in Baghdad Sunday August 12, 2007 The Observer
The anecdotal evidence on the ground confirms what others - prominent among them General Colin Powell, the former US Secretary of State - have been insisting for months now: that the US army is 'about broken'. Only a third of the regular army's brigades now qualify as combat-ready. Officers educated at the elite West Point academy are leaving at a rate not seen in 30 years, with the consequence that the US army has a shortfall of 3,000 commissioned officers - and the problem is expected to worsen. And it is not only the soldiers that are worn out. The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have led to the destruction, or wearing out, of 40 per cent of the US army's equipment, totalling at a recent count $212bn (£105bn).
Zimbabwe is rare bright spot for AIDS in southern Africa
By Shashank Bengali | McClatchy Newspapers * Posted on Sat, August 11, 2007
HARARE, Zimbabwe - In southern Africa for the past two decades, casual sex helped to fueled the worst epidemics of HIV and AIDS in the world. In Zimbabwe, however, fewer people are taking chances anymore, making this otherwise beleaguered nation an unlikely bright spot in Africa's battle against AIDS. "Search every guy's wallet and you'll find a condom," said Tinashe, a bespectacled, easygoing 28-year-old. "No one is having sex without a condom. People are scared of HIV." That generational shift toward less casual sex and widespread condom use among young Zimbabweans has helped reduce HIV infections here even as they keep rising in neighboring countries.
How the 'Good War' in Afghanistan Went Bad
By DAVID ROHDE and DAVID E. SANGER Published: August 12, 2007 Two years after the Taliban fell to an American-led coalition, a group of NATO ambassadors landed in Kabul, Afghanistan, to survey what appeared to be a triumph - a fresh start for a country ripped apart by years of war with the Soviets and brutal repression by religious extremists.
With a senior American diplomat, R. Nicholas Burns, leading the way, they thundered around the country in Black Hawk helicopters, with little fear for their safety. They strolled quiet streets in Kandahar and sipped tea with tribal leaders. At a briefing from the United States Central Command, they were told that the Taliban were now a "spent force." "Some of us were saying, 'Not so fast,' " Mr. Burns, now the under secretary of state for political affairs, recalled. "While not a strategic threat, a number of us assumed that the Taliban was too enmeshed in Afghan society to just disappear." But that skepticism had never taken hold in Washington. Since the 2001 war, American intelligence agencies had reported that the Taliban were so decimated they no longer posed a threat, according to two senior intelligence officials who reviewed the reports. [Unintended consequences]
Bush's Muse Stands Accused
Speeches Weren't His, Colleague Says By Peter BakerWashington Post Staff Writer Saturday, August 11, 2007; Page A01
He has been hailed as the best White House speechwriter since Kennedy's Theodore Sorensen, the muse behind President Bush's most famous phrases, the moral conscience of the West Wing. But now Michael J. Gerson is accused by a former colleague of taking credit for words he did not write. According to Matthew Scully, who worked with him for five years, Gerson is not the bard of Bushworld but rather a "self-publicizing" glory hog guilty of "foolish vanity," "sheer pettiness" and "credit hounding." In Scully's account, Gerson did not come up with the language that made him famous. "Few lines of note were written by Mike," Scully says, "and none at all that come to mind from the post-9/11 addresses -- not even 'axis of evil.' "
Scully recounts the story of the "axis of evil" phrase, which Bush used in his 2002 State of the Union to describe Iraq, Iran and North Korea. Scully notes that colleague David Frum originally came up with "axis of hatred," as reported before. Scully says he suggested changing it to "evil." He does not cite any examples of Gerson explicitly claiming the phrase as his own, pointing instead to news accounts attributing it to him that have gone uncorrected. [Spin]
Cheney urging military strikes on Iran
By Warren P. Strobel, John Walcott and Nancy A. Youssef
| McClatchy Newspapers * Posted on Thu, August 9, 2007 WASHINGTON - President Bush charged Thursday that Iran continues to arm and train insurgents who are killing U.S. soldiers in Iraq, and he threatened action if that continues. At a news conference Thursday, Bush said Iran had been warned of unspecified consequences if it continued its alleged support for anti-American forces in Iraq. U.S. Ambassador to Iraq Ryan Crocker had conveyed the warning in meetings with his Iranian counterpart in Baghdad, the president said.
U.S. Promotes Free Elections, Only to See Allies Lose
Bryan Denton for The New York Times Political analysts believe that Amin Gemayel, shown on a campaign banner, lost the election to fill his son's seat in Parliament because his party, the March 14th coalition, is strongly supported by Western governments.
By HASSAN M. FATTAH Published: August 10, 2007 DUBAI, United Arab Emirates Aug. 9 - Lebanon's political spin masters have been trying in recent days to explain the results of last Sunday's pivotal by-election, which saw a relatively unknown candidate from the opposition narrowly beat a former president, Amin Gemayel. There has been talk of the Christian vote and the Armenian vote, of history and betrayal, as each side sought to claim victory. There is one explanation, however, that has become common wisdom in the region: Mr. Gemayel's doom seems to have been sealed by his support from the Bush administration and the implied agendas behind its backing. "It's the kiss of death," said Turki al-Rasheed, a Saudi reformer who watched last Sunday's elections closely. "The minute you are counted on or backed by the Americans, kiss it goodbye, you will never win." The paradox of American policy in the Middle East - promoting democracy on the assumption it will bring countries closer to the West - is that almost everywhere there are free elections, the American-backed side tends to lose. [Unintended consequences]
British Criticize U.S. Air Attacks in Afghan Region
By CARLOTTA GALL Published: August 9, 2007 SANGIN, Afghanistan - A senior British commander in southern Afghanistan said in recent weeks that he had asked that American Special Forces leave his area of operations because the high level of civilian casualties they had caused was making it difficult to win over local people.
Other British officers here in Helmand Province, speaking on condition of anonymity, criticized American Special Forces for causing most of the civilian deaths and injuries in their area [wmd]
Cuba keeps more political prisoners than any other nation
By Frances Robles | McClatchy Newspapers * Posted on Thu, July 5, 2007
MIAMI - The number of political prisoners in Cuba dropped by 37 in the past six months, but the island still has the highest number of such prisoners per capita in the world, according to a new report by the Cuban Commission for Human Rights and National Reconciliation.
Cuba now has 246 documented cases of people imprisoned for political causes, down from 283 at the start of the year, according to the commission, tolerated but not officially recognized by the Cuban government. Among them is Jose Carlos Montero, who hijacked a plane to Cuba and later lost his parole when he dared to testify before a United Nations commission about his experience in prison. Others include: American citizen Walter Van Der Veer, who sneaked into Cuba to foment a counterrevolution; Maikel Delgado, serving a life sentence for hijacking a ferry in an attempt to break out of Cuba; and El Salvador's Raul Ernesto Cruz, on death row for Havana bombings allegedly masterminded by exile Luis Posada Carriles.
The report also estimated the number of "common criminals" jailed in Cuba to be from 60,000 to 80,000. [Terrorism] [Double standards] [Media]
Spinning the Iraq War Death Toll
By Robert Parry
August 10, 2007
Mindful of the political fallout from a rising American death toll in Iraq, the U.S. military has pulled back from widespread use of aggressive tactics on the ground this summer, helping to explain a modest reduction in the number of soldiers killed in July, according to intelligence and military sources.
Yet, however one cuts it, the future of Iraq looks bleak. In one telling passage from Cordesman’s trip report, he described plans to address the disorder in Iraq by locking up tens of thousands of Iraqis, overwhelmingly Sunnis. “The detainees have risen to over 18,000 and are projected to hit 30,000 (by the U.S. command) by the end of the year and 50,000 by the end of 2008,” Cordesman wrote. “Shiite detainees are often freed while Sunnis are warehoused.”
EU threatens tit-for-tat visa limits on Americans after US tightens law
· Homeland security law raises fears for privacy · Passengers must detail travel plans and meetings David Gow in Brussels Wednesday August 8, 2007 The Guardian The European Union is threatening to impose tit-for-tat entry restrictions on all US citizens travelling to Europe in response to new American laws designed to strengthen security at airports and prevent would-be terrorists entering the country. US tourists can now travel to Europe without a visa. Franco Frattini, justice and home affairs commissioner, is drawing up plans for an EU-wide system of "electronic travel authorisation" (ETA) similar to that written into US law by President George Bush late last week as part of new homeland security rules proposed by the 9/11 commission and endorsed by Congress.
The ETA requires tourists from 14 mostly west European states, including Britain, benefiting from the US visa waiver programme to register online and give details of their passport, travel plans and planned social and business meetings at least two days before departure. A similar scheme operates in Australia. [Human rights] [Surveillance]
Even in Baghdad, Very Little Has Changed
Why the Surge Has Failed By PATRICK COCKBURN
The war in Iraq passed a significant but little remarked anniversary this summer. The conflict that President Bush announced was effectively over on May 1, 2003 has now gone on longer than the First World War. Like that great conflict almost a century ago the Iraqi war has been marked by repeated claims that progress is being made and a final breakthrough is in the offing.
The US dilemma in Iraq goes back to the Gulf War. It wanted to be rid of Saddam Hussein in 1991 but not at the price of the Shia replacing him, something they were bound to do in fair elections because they are 60 per cent of the population. Worse, the Shia coming to power would have close relations with Iran, America’s arch-enemy in the Middle East. This was the main reason why the US did not press on to Baghdad after defeating Saddam Hussein’s armies in Kuwait in 1991. It then allowed him to savagely crush the Shia and Kurdish rebellions that briefly captured 14 out of 18 Iraqi provinces. Ever since 2003 the US has wrestled with this same problem. Unwittingly the most conservative of American administrations had committed a revolutionary act in the Middle East by overthrowing the minority Sunni Baathist regime. The Bush family has always been close to the Saudi monarchy but George W Bush dismantled a cornerstone of the Sunni Arab security order. This is why the US and Britain opted for a thorough going occupation of Iraq after the fall of Saddam Hussein. They put off elections as long as they could. When elections were held in 2005 and voters overwhelmingly chose a Shia-Kurdish government Washington tried to keep it under tight control. [Unintended consequences]
Globalisation: the ties that bind
Nayan Chanda The fervour of missionaries from the world's great universalist faiths - and of their secular partners in belief - has shaped globalisation, says Nayan Chanda. 7 - 08 - 2007
War-torn Afghanistan is a world away from South Korea in distance, culture and condition. Yet for almost three weeks millions of Koreans have been glued to their television and computer screens hoping for some good news from Afghanistan, where twenty-three of their compatriots (Christian missionaries and volunteers) were seized by Taliban rebels while travelling from Kabul to Kandahar on 19 July 2007. Two have since been killed by their captors, and thousands of Koreans have held candlelit vigils and other events to publicise the survivors' agony and press for their release. For many more Koreans, a faraway land that was once on the periphery of their consciousness has brutally taken centre-stage. In 2004, a similar drama involving Korean missionaries (one of whom was decapitated by insurgents) had brought Iraq too into the consciousness of ordinary Koreans. The plight of such missionaries arouses worldwide sympathy and concern. In this, it is a replay of countless such events that have shaped globalisation. One episode in 16th-century Japan provides an early example of the continuing global interconnectedness. In 1597, the shogun Hideyoshi had twenty-six Christian missionaries and lay persons (including ethnic Koreans, Spanish friars and Indian and Mexican-born missionaries) crucified in Nagasaki. Although there was no internet or satellite TV, the news still spread. The martyrs of Nagasaki offered the church fresh material to inspire the faithful and galvanize the conversion effort. Christian faithful in Mexico led processions bearing the images of those martyred in a faraway land called Nippon. [Globalisation] [Religion]
Asia: Casualty of the Iraq War?
Haseenah Koyakutty | August 1, 2007
When the surge is fully debated, the troops come home, the war is ended, and the losses counted, an unexpected casualty of the Iraq War could end up being the Far East. America’s longstanding relations with Asia are steadily going up in smoke. The Bush administration has upset the 10 leaders of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) by recently calling off the commemorative U.S.-ASEAN Summit planned for September. The reason: the administration’s ugly face-off with Congress over Iraq. No one in the administration foresaw that the September 5 summit in Singapore was going to conflict with General Petraeus’s report card on the surge. The congressional calendar is predictable, even if politics is not, and the 10 heads of government are being stood up over what is apparently a scheduling glitch. [Strategic incoherence]
All Fall Down: The Asian Financial Crisis, Neoliberalism and Economic Miracles
Walden Bello
Ten years after the Asian financial cataclysm of 1997, the economies of the Western Pacific Rim are growing, though not at the rates they enjoyed before the crisis. The region has been indelibly scarred by the crisis. There is greater poverty, inequality, and social destabilization than before the crisis. South Korea’s painful labor market reforms, for instance, have produced the quiet desperation behind one of the highest suicide rates among developed countries.
Meanwhile, despite all the talk about a “new global financial architecture,” there is little in place to regulate the massive amounts of capital shooting through global financial networks at cyberspeed – one of the chief causes of the 1997 crisis. Leave-it-to-the-market enthusiasts tell us not to worry and confidently point out that there’s been no major crisis since the Argentine bankruptcy in 2002.
But those who know better, like Wall Street insider and former treasury secretary Robert Rubin, are very worried even as they resist regulation. [Finance] [Globalisation]
The Asian Financial Crisis of 1997 a Decade On: Two Perspectives
Chris Giles and R. Taggart Murphy
Wrong Lessons Drawn From Asia's 1997 Financial Crisis: The IMF Revisited
Chris Giles
It is January 15 1998. Standing grim-faced and with arms folded, Michel Camdessus, the International Monetary Fund managing director, peers down as President Suharto of Indonesia signs his acceptance of the latest list of 50 IMF demands. Mr Suharto has no choice, even though many of the intended reforms are politically unpalatable. Such has been the outflow of money from Indonesia over the past six months that the economy would implode if a second international bail-out were refused.
Nicaragua defies US with Iran trade deal
Rory Carroll, Latin America correspondent Monday August 6, 2007 The Guardian
Nicaragua has signed contracts with Iran worth hundreds of millions of pounds in defiance of warnings from the United States. President Daniel Ortega brushed aside Washington's concerns by agreeing to trade bananas, coffee and meat in exchange for Iranian help with infrastructure projects. Mr Ortega and Iran's energy minister, Hamid Chitchian, signed the accords in Nicaragua's capital, Managua, on Saturday, cementing Tehran's toehold in what the US considers its backyard. In return for Nicaraguan agricultural goods, Iran is to help fund a farm equipment factory, 4,000 tractors, five milk-processing plants, a health clinic, 10,000 houses and a deep-water port.
In November Iran is also expected to choose a site for a £59m hydroelectric power station, with another three plants potentially to follow. As the head of a small, impoverished central American state lacking military might, and with his approval ratings slumping, Mr Ortega hardly poses a strategic threat to the US. However, the Sandinista leader has shown a willingness to defy and irritate the superpower. He has upgraded ties with Cuba and North Korea, and in June visited Iran, Algeria, Libya and Cuba in a jet lent by Libya's Muammar Gadafy.
A river ran through it
The Murray is the lifeblood of Australia's farming country, a legendary river that thundered 1,500 miles from the Snowy Mountains to the Indian Ocean. Now, it's choking to death in the worst drought for a thousand years, sparking water rationing and suicides on devastated farms. But is the 'big dry' a national emergency, or a warning that the earth is running out of water? Claire Scobie reports Sunday August 5, 2007 The Observer
As U.S. income stagnates, Democrats reject free trade
By Kevin G. Hall | McClatchy Newspapers
* Posted on Wed, August 1, 2007
WASHINGTON - The Democratic-led Congress won't give President Bush the special authority he needs to negotiate future free-trade deals. The Senate is moving on retaliatory trade legislation against China. The House of Representatives won't approve deals with three small neighboring Latin American countries. Global trade talks are near collapse. Washington's mood on free trade hasn't been this negative in at least two decades, and a pullback is evident. Whether this becomes a full-blown return to protectionism remains to be seen. But for now Americans, and the politicians they elect to represent them, are in no mood to expand international trade. [Globalisation] [China competition] [Protectionism]
London Gathering Defends Vision of Radical Islam
By JANE PERLEZ Published: August 6, 2007 LONDON, Aug. 4 - An international radical Islamic party that has been the focus of increasing concern in Britain launched a frontal attack on its critics at a carefully stage-managed conference in London this weekend that attracted several thousand relatively well-heeled Muslims.
"They say, 'You preach hate,' " said the party's chairman, Abdul Wahid, a doctor in Harrow, England, to an appreciative audience segregated into his and hers sections. "I preach a hatred of the lies of people in this country that send soldiers to Iraq. I preach a hatred of torture." The party, Hizb ut-Tahrir, calls for the return of the caliphate in Muslim countries, the end of Israel and the withdrawal of all Western interests in the Middle East. In the aftermath of the botched terrorist attacks in London and Glasgow, there were renewed calls in Parliament for barring the group, on the ground that though it officially advocates change by peaceful means, its pronouncements can encourage Muslims to turn toward terrorism.
The Rush for a Legacy
Promoting Democracy Overseas Is No Longer a Priority As State Pursues Elusive Prizes in Middle East and Korea
By Jackson Diehl Monday, August 6, 2007; Page A17
In a speech to a meeting of democratic freedom fighters in Prague on June 5, President Bush announced a concrete mission for his State Department. "I have asked Secretary Rice," he said, "to send a directive to every U.S. ambassador in an unfree nation: Seek out and meet with activists for democracy. Seek out those who demand human rights." Nearly two months later, the cable had not been sent. (The State Department told me that it was dispatched late Friday -- the day after I called the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor to inquire about it.) In contrast, Condoleezza Rice spent last week meeting with the Arab autocrats of the Middle East in pursuit of an entirely different agenda: "security and stability" for their unfree nations and support for a new Middle East peace process.
With less than 18 months remaining in her tenure and that of President Bush, Rice has turned her famously disciplined focus toward delivering legacy achievements. But her aims are utterly different from those with which Bush began his second term -- such as the "freedom agenda" he restated in Prague. Democracy promotion in the Middle East is out, replaced by a belated but intense effort to broker a peace deal between Israelis and Palestinians. Even more strikingly, the "regime change" strategy that once marked Bush administration policy toward North Korea has been dropped in favor of an all-out effort to negotiate a rapprochement with dictator Kim Jong Il.
Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill, who is leading the negotiations with North Korea, believes Pyongyang's unprecedented declaration of its nuclear assets -- including uranium enrichment facilities and equipment it has resolutely denied possessing for the past five years -- could be obtained within weeks. A deal to dismantle bombs and other nuclear facilities could be done by the end of the year. If all this happens, Rice will look brilliant, and the legacy of an administration weighted by Iraq and Afghanistan will get a substantial boost
The Next Intervention
By Ivo Daalder and Robert KaganMonday, August 6, 2007; Page A17
Is the United States out of the intervention business for a while? With two difficult wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and a divided public, the conventional answer is that it will be a long time before any American president, Democrat or Republican, again dispatches troops into conflict overseas. As usual, though, the conventional wisdom is almost certainly wrong. Throughout its history, America has frequently used force on behalf of principles and tangible interests, and that is not likely to change. Despite the difficulties in Iraq and Afghanistan, America remains the world's dominant military power, spends half a trillion dollars a year on defense and faces no peer strong enough to deter it if it chooses to act. Between 1989 and 2001, Americans intervened with significant military force on eight occasions -- once every 18 months. This interventionism has been bipartisan -- four interventions were launched by Republican administrations, four by Democratic administrations. Since Sept. 11, 2001, the situations in which an American president may have to use force have only grown, whether it is to respond to terrorist threats, to curb weapons proliferation, to prevent genocide or other human rights violations, or to respond to more traditional forms of aggression. [Imperialism]
Now That's a Patriot Act
WILLIAM GREIDER PERMALINK SEE ALL POSTS EMAIL THIS POST COMMENTS (43) Now here is a Patriot Act everyone can get behind. It's called the Patriot Corporation of America Act and it rewards the companies that don't screw their employees and weaken the country by moving the jobs to China and elsewhere. In these troubled times, doesn't that sound like common sense? Government policy presently works in opposite ways. It literally assists and subsidizes the disloyal free riders who boost their profits by dumping their obligations to the home country. It's called globalization. Establishment wisdom says there is nothing politicians can do about it. But the bills introduced Thursday by three senators and seven representatives, all Democrats, can begin to reverse this political perversity. Don't expect a roll call anytime soon, but I think the governing principle is pivotally important.
The principle at stake is straightforward. Multinational corporations cannot continue to have it both ways--moving more and more value-added production and jobs offshore to capture cheap labor, while still enjoying all of the rewards and benefits of claiming American identity. It's not just the outrageous tax breaks. The American military defends their freedom to operate around the globe. [Globalisation] [Offshoring] [Imperialism]
Afghan victory 'could take 38 years'
Mark Townsend in Sangin, Afghanistan Sunday August 5, 2007 The Observer British troops could remain in Afghanistan for more than the 38 years it took them to pull out of Northern Ireland. That is the bleak assessment by Army commanders on the ground in Helmand province. In an interview with The Observer at HQ in the provincial capital Lashkar Gah, Brigadier John Lorimer, commander of UK forces in Helmand, said: 'If you look at the insurgency then it could take maybe 10 years. Counter-narcotics, it's 30 years. If you're looking at governance and so on, it looks a little longer. If you look at other counter-insurgency operations over the last 100 years then it has taken time.' [Bizarre]
What Churchill said about Britain's immigrants
David Smith Sunday August 5, 2007 The Observer Sir Winston Churchill expressed alarm about an influx of 'coloured people' in Fifties' Britain and looked for a chance to restore punishment by flogging, newly released cabinet papers from the national archive reveal.
Iraqi Power Grid Nearing Collapse
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Published: August 5, 2007 Filed at 3:46 a.m. ET BAGHDAD (AP) -- Iraq's power grid is on the brink of collapse because of insurgent sabotage, rising demand, fuel shortages and provinces that are unplugging local power stations from the national grid, officials said Saturday. Electricity Ministry spokesman Aziz al-Shimari said power generation nationally is only meeting half the demand, and there had been four nationwide blackouts over the past two days. The shortages across the country are the worst since the summer of 2003, shortly after the U.S.-led invasion to topple Saddam Hussein, he said.
At U.S. base, Iraqis must use separate latrine
By Mike Drummond | McClatchy Newspapers
* Posted on Fri, August 3, 2007
FOB WARHORSE, Iraq - The sign taped to the men's latrine is just five lines: "US MILITARY CONTRACTORS CIVILIANS ONLY!!!!!" It needed only one: "NO IRAQIS." Here at this searing, dusty U.S. military base about four miles west of Baqouba, Iraqis - including interpreters who walk the same foot patrols and sleep in the same tents as U.S. troops - must use segregated bathrooms. Another sign, in a dining hall, warns Iraqis and "third-country nationals" that they have just one hour for breakfast, lunch or dinner. American troops get three hours. Iraqis say they sometimes wait as long as 45 minutes in hot lines to get inside the chow hall, leaving just 15 minutes to get their food and eat it.
For Liberal Internationalism
By Michael Lind, New America Foundation
The Nation | July 2, 2007
The ideal of liberal internationalism therefore is a world organized as a peaceful global society of sovereign, self-governing peoples, in which the great powers, rather than compete to carve out rival spheres of influence, cooperate to preserve international peace in the face of threats from aggressive states and terrorism. b The neoconservative foreign policy of George W. Bush is a catastrophic failure -- this is conceded even by a growing number of neoconservatives. As an alternative to the Bush Doctrine of US global hegemony, contempt for international law and support for regime change by armed intervention, liberal internationalism ought to be enjoying a renaissance. Instead, the body of strategic principles that guided US foreign policy at its best during the twentieth century is threatened. The greatest threat to liberal internationalism comes not from without -- from neoconservatives, realists and isolationists who reject the liberal internationalist tradition as a whole -- but from within: from schools of thought that claim the title of liberal internationalism while jettisoning some of its fundamental principles. As is often the case with a creed, the heretics are as dangerous as the infidels. In the case of liberal internationalism, the heretics come in two schools: democratic hegemonists and liberal imperialists.
In practice the concert of democracies strategy looks like neoconservatism with a human face. The manifest goal would still be US global hegemony, supported by a US-European-Japanese-Indian alliance against China and Russia, as well as against lesser powers that oppose US hegemony in their neighborhoods, like North Korea and Iran
In East Asia the "six-power talks" about North Korea could become the basis of an enduring security concert that unites the United States, Japan, China, Russia and both Koreas. To deprive North Korea of a rationale for development of nuclear weapons, the Korean War should be formally ended and the alteration of regimes and borders by violence rather than consent on the Korean Peninsula should be formally abjured. The model would be the Helsinki Accords, which stabilized borders and reduced tensions in Central Europe in the 1970s. The United States should retain its bilateral treaties with Japan and South Korea but should add a bilateral treaty with China, pledging to come to China’s support in the case of unprovoked attack. [Imperialism] [US NK policy] [China confrontation]
The List: Five Lies My Economist Told Me
July 2007
Economics prides itself on being the most scientific of the social sciences. Yet the X and Y axes can’t always capture globalization’s unpredictable turns. In this week’s List, FP looks at five ways in which the world economy is pushing economists to think outside the box. [China competition]
Rice-Gates visit shows how much U.S., Saudi Arabia have drifted apart
By Nancy A. Youssef and Warren P. Strobel | McClatchy Newspapers
* Posted on Wed, August 1, 2007
JEDDAH, Saudi Arabia - Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Defense Secretary Robert Gates failed to bridge differences with Saudi Arabia Wednesday in a growing public dispute over allegations of Saudi support for insurgents in Iraq. Instead, the talks revealed how far the onetime close allies have drifted apart.
Obama to Pakistan: Oust terrorists or risk U.S. invasion
By Margaret Talev | McClatchy Newspapers * Posted on Wed, August 1, 2007
WASHINGTON - Democrat Barack Obama said Wednesday that if he were president and had good intelligence about top terrorists in Pakistan, he'd send U.S. troops to hunt them down if Pakistan's government wouldn't do it. Seeking to establish his foreign-policy credentials a week after Democratic front-runner Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., accused him of being naive for being willing to talk with the leaders of hostile nations without preconditions, the first-term Illinois senator gave a comprehensive speech on fighting global terrorism before the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington. Obama called for withdrawing U.S. troops from Iraq and redeploying at least two more brigades to Afghanistan, along with $1 billion in additional nonmilitary aid. He reiterated a willingness to talk with leaders from nations such as Iran, Syria and North Korea: "The lesson of the Bush years is that not talking does not work. Go down the list of countries we've ignored and see how successful that strategy has been." [Imperialism] [Bilateral]
In Terrorism-Law Case, Chiquita Points to U.S.
Firm Says It Awaited Justice Dept. Advice
By Carol D. Leonnig Washington Post Staff Writer Thursday, August 2, 2007; Page A01
On April 24, 2003, a board member of Chiquita International Brands disclosed to a top official at the Justice Department that the king of the banana trade was evidently breaking the nation's anti-terrorism laws. Roderick M. Hills, who had sought the meeting with former law firm colleague Michael Chertoff, explained that Chiquita was paying "protection money" to a Colombian paramilitary group on the U.S. government's list of terrorist organizations. Hills said he knew that such payments were illegal, according to sources and court records, but said that he needed Chertoff's advice.
Chiquita, Hills said, would have to pull out of the country if it could not continue to pay the violent right-wing group to secure its Colombian banana plantations. [Double standards] [IM]
Gordon Brown's white elephants
Paul Rogers Britain needs fresh thinking about national and global security. A key military-political decision by its new prime minister closes the door to it. 26 - 07 - 2007
The current media and political attention in Britain is focusing on two main issues. The first is the large-scale flooding across extensive areas of England west of London, which some commentators see as further evidence of the early impacts of global climate change on the daily lives of millions of citizens living in one of the richest countries on the planet. The second is the announcement in parliament on 24 July 2007 by prime minister Gordon Brown of proposals designed to increase national security, of which the most eye-catching for the media is the creation of a new, specialised border-security force. The two issues are related, though in ways not immediately obvious. Perhaps the best way to illustrate this is by referring to a third issue, which has received far less attention from the media and political classes: the major defence plans the British government and defence establishment are now implementing, whose effects will - in the best tradition of Atlanticist cooperation - tie Britain even more closely to the United States for the next few decades.
What is really dismaying at this early stage of the Gordon Brown government is the missed opportunity to take a hard look at Britain's defence policy and engage in a fundamental review of the country's long-term security needs. Instead, it seems that in this key area of Whitehall - notwithstanding the rhetoric of change from the new prime minister - it is business as usual.
Britain can't have two best friends
By John Bolton
Published: July 31 2007 18:21 | Last updated: July 31 2007 18:21 Gordon Brown's first Washington visit as Britain's prime minister has prompted tea-leaf reading about the strengths and weaknesses of the US-UK relationship. Momentarily diverting - and probably unavoidable - as the frenzy of speculation is, the real tests lie ahead. Actions ultimately trump semiotics in national security affairs.
Successive UK governments have taken Britain deeper and deeper into the European Union, all the while proclaiming that nothing fundamental about Britain's status was changing.
A Mayor Who Takes the Subway - by Way of S.U.V.
He is public transportation's loudest cheerleader, boasting that he takes the subway "virtually every day." He has told residents who complain about overcrowded trains to "get real" and he constantly encourages New Yorkers to follow his environmentally friendly example. Skip to next paragraph Go to City Room blog » But Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg's commute is not your average straphanger's ride. On mornings that he takes the subway from home, Mr. Bloomberg is picked up at his Upper East Side town house by a pair of king-size Chevrolet Suburbans. The mayor is driven 22 blocks to the subway station at 59th Street and Lexington Avenue, where he can board an express train to City Hall. His drivers zip past his neighborhood station, a local subway stop a five-minute walk away.
Interventions Interview
Noam Chomsky interviewed by Sonali Kolhatkar
June 08, 2007
INTERVENTIONS By Noam Chomsky City Lights Books Open Media Series 234 pages | $15.95 ISBN – 13: 978-0-87286483-2 www.citylights.com
Since 2002, the New York Times Syndicate has been distributing op-eds written by the pre-eminent foreign policy critic and scholar of our time, Noam Chomsky. The New York Times Syndicate is part of the same company as the New York Times newspaper, and while readers around the world have had a chance to regularly read Chomsky's articles, the New York Times newspaper has never published a single one. Only a few regional newspapers in the US have picked up the Op-eds, such as the Register Guard, the Dayton Daily News, and the Knoxville Voice. Internationally, the Op-eds have appeared in the mainstream British press including the International Herald Tribune, the Guardian, and the Independent. Now, City Lights Books has just published a complete collection of these 1000 word Op-eds in a single book called Interventions. On June 1st, 2007, Noam Chomsky spoke with radio host Sonali Kolhatkar about his new book:
Can Musharraf Survive?
by Immanuel Wallerstein
Commentary No. 214, August 1, 2007 Poor Pervez Musharraf! He is not very popular, and is under pressure from just about everybody. Yet he labors on, seeking to maintain his equilibrium, and his power, while sitting on top of a seething volcano. He has in fact done better than one might have thought possible.
And this contradiction is what brings us to where we are today. The jihadists are well installed in the so-called northwest frontier areas (which have always been de facto autonomous) and Musharraf does not dare to take real action against them. The jihadists denounce Musharraf for being too pro-American. The United States, on the other hand, considers him far too accommodating to the jihadists. The United States keeps mumbling about direct action. But the United States cannot really turn against Musharraf entirely, lest an even worse regime succeed his. Meanwhile, the urban secular classes are pressing a weakened Musharraf to step down and give way to a truly civilian regime. Musharraf's key support, indeed sole support, remains the army. But as long as the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq continue, Islamist political strength continues to grow. And Pakistan has many nuclear weapons. Should the Islamists come to unrestrained power, this would pose a real geopolitical threat to the United States, unlike the invented one of Saddam Hussein.
Brown's contempt for democracy has dragged Britain into a new cold war
The prime minister has broken his word and put us all at risk by allowing a US missile defence base on the North York Moors
George Monbiot Tuesday July 31, 2007 The Guardian
In one short statement to parliament last week the defence secretary, Des Browne, broke the promises of two prime ministers, potentially misled the house, helped bury an international treaty and dragged Britain into a new cold war. Pretty good going for three stodgy paragraphs. You probably missed it, but it's not your fault. In the 48 hours before parliament broke up for the summer, the government made 46 policy announcements. It's a long-standing British tradition: as the MPs and lobby correspondents are packing their bags for the long summer break (they don't return until October), the government rattles out a series of important decisions that cannot be debated. Gordon Brown's promise to respect parliamentary democracy didn't last very long. Thus, without consultation or discussion, the defence secretary announced that Menwith Hill, the listening station on the North York Moors, will be used by the United States for its missile defence system. Having been dragged by the Bush administration into two incipient military defeats, the British government has now embraced another of its global delusions.
Des Browne's note asserted that the purpose of the missile defence system is "to address the emerging threat from rogue states". This is a claim that only an idiot or a member of the British government could believe. If, as Browne and Bush maintain, the system is meant to shoot down intercontinental missiles fired by Iran and North Korea (missiles, incidentally, that they do not and might never possess), why are its major components being installed in Poland and the Czech Republic? To bait the Russian bear for fun? [Missile defense] [Threat]

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JULY 2007

Nato plans smaller bombs for Afghanistan
By Daniel Dombey in Washington Published: July 29 2007 22:02 | Last updated: July 29 2007 22:02 Nato plans to use smaller bombs in Afghanistan as part of a change in tactics aimed at stemming a rise in civilian casualties that threatens to undermine support in the fight against the Taliban. [Bizarre] [WMD]
Bhutto ready to share power if Musharraf drops military role
· Joint rule seen as best way to beat extremists · Deal could rescue beleaguered general
Declan Walsh in Islamabad Monday July 30, 2007 The Guardian
Pakistan's exiled opposition leader, Benazir Bhutto, has said she can share power with President Pervez Musharraf, but only if he quits as army chief. Ms Bhutto's comments, in a television interview, followed a secret meeting with General Musharraf on Friday in the United Arab Emirates. Confirmation of the encounter by a cabinet minister intensified media speculation on the future of Pakistan's troubled government. "Deal done, sealed," said one newspaper headline. But there was little hard information about what transpired in the meeting, which followed months of quiet negotiations. The sticking point appears to be whether Gen Musharraf can retain his dual role as president and head of the army. In an interview with the local KTN station late on Saturday, Ms Bhutto said: "We do not accept President Musharraf in uniform. Our stand is that, and I stick to my stand."
As Rice and Gates travel to Middle East, air of futility pervades
By Nancy A. Youssef and Warren P. Strobel
* Posted on Sun, July 29, 2007
WASHINGTON - As Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Secretary of Defense Robert Gates head out Monday on a rare joint trip to the Middle East, it's not clear what they can accomplish. Aides to Rice and Gates say the trip has three primary goals, each crucial: to persuade Iraq's neighbors to do more to help stabilize the country, to counter Iran's growing ambitions and to try to get real movement on peace between Israel and the Palestinians. But America's credibility in the region has plummeted. The U.S. has failed to stabilize Iraq, destroy al Qaida, pacify Lebanon, isolate Syria or bolster moderate Palestinians. Instead, its policies have fueled Sunni Muslim extremism and emboldened Shiite Iran, which America's moderate Arab allies consider the two greatest threats to their rule.
Revealed: MI5's role in torture flight hell
· British source tells of betrayal to CIA · 'I was stripped and hauled to US base' David Rose Sunday July 29, 2007 The Observer An Iraqi who was a key source of intelligence for MI5 has given the first ever full insider's account of being seized by the CIA and bundled on to an illegal 'torture flight' under the programme known as extraordinary rendition. In a remarkable interview for The Observer, British resident Bisher al-Rawi has told how he was betrayed by the security service despite having helped keep track of Abu Qatada, the Muslim cleric accused of being Osama bin Laden's 'ambassador in Europe'. He was abducted and stripped naked by US agents, clad in nappies, a tracksuit and shackles, blindfolded and forced to wear ear mufflers, then strapped to a stretcher on board a plane bound for a CIA 'black site' jail near Kabul in Afghanistan. [Human rights]
US accuses Saudis of telling lies about Iraq
· First time administration has made concern public · Claims royal family is financing Sunni groups Ewen MacAskill in Washington Saturday July 28, 2007 The Guardian
The extent of the deterioration in US-Saudi relations was exposed for the first time yesterday when Washington accused Riyadh of working to undermine the Iraqi government. The Bush administration warned Saudi Arabia, until this year one of its closest allies, to stop undermining the Iraqi prime minister, Nouri al-Maliki. The US secretary of state, Condoleezza Rice, and the defence secretary, Robert Gates, are scheduled to visit Jeddah next week. Reflecting the deteriorating relationship, the US made public claims that the Saudis have been distributing fake documents lying about Mr Maliki.
UK wanted US to rule out Bin Laden torture
Richard Norton-Taylor Saturday July 28, 2007 The Guardian
Ministers insisted that British secret agents would only be allowed to pass intelligence to the CIA to help it capture Osama bin Laden if the agency promised he would not be tortured, it has emerged. MI6 believed it was close to finding the al-Qaida leader in Afghanistan in 1998, and again the next year. The plan was for MI6 to hand the CIA vital information about Bin Laden. Ministers including Robin Cook, the then foreign secretary, gave their approval on condition that the CIA gave assurances he would be treated humanely [human rights]
5 years later, cameraman still held at Guantanamo
By Shashank Bengali | McClatchy Newspapers
* Posted on Fri, July 27, 2007 * KHARTOUM, Sudan - He's all but unknown in the United States, the country of his jailers, but in his homeland of Sudan, Sami al Hajj is a national hero. The president has spoken out about him, demonstrations have been held in his name, and a bakery in Khartoum has printed his picture on its packaging. A 38-year-old cameraman for the Arabic news network al Jazeera, Hajj has been imprisoned as an "enemy combatant" at the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, for five years, but never charged with any crime. He was arrested by Pakistani police in December 2001 while on his way to a news assignment in Afghanistan, but he's denied having any links to terrorism. [Human rights][Media]
U.S. Plans New Arms Sales to Gulf Allies
$20 Billion Deal Includes Weapons For Saudi Arabia By Robin Wright Washington Post Staff Writer Saturday, July 28, 2007; Page A01 The Bush administration will announce next week a series of arms deals worth at least $20 billion to Saudi Arabia and five other oil-rich Persian Gulf states as well as new 10-year military aid packages to Israel and Egypt, a move to shore up allies in the Middle East and counter Iran's rising influence, U.S. officials said yesterday. sophisticated weaponry, would be the largest negotiated by this administration. [Proliferation] [Arms sales]
Toward a Win-win-win in U.S.-Japan-China Relations
Deeper cooperation possible with strategic coordination, high standards for state behavior
Leif-Eric Easley (LeifEasley)
Published 2007-07-26 18:01 (KST) Reciprocal visits by Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao have lifted Sino-Japan relations out of a difficult period. U.S.-China relations are of growing international importance and now better managed with high-level dialogues on economic and security issues. The U.S.-Japan alliance is increasingly operative and forward-looking. The demonstrated political will for improving these international ties suggests that Tokyo, Beijing and Washington all want to see "win-win-win" trilateral relations. It is yet unclear, however, what exactly win-win-win relations would look like or how to achieve them.
This article articulates the characteristics of win-win-win relations, suggests discarding old thinking about international relations, and recommends steps for strategic coordination with high standards for state behavior.
Eight Americans graduate in boost for Cuban health care
· Students plan to use skills to treat poor people · Public relations coup for Castro government Rory Carroll, Latin America correspondent Thursday July 26, 2007 The Guardian Eight American students have graduated from a Cuban medical school after six years of free tuition, giving a fresh boost to the reputation of the communist government's health care system. The first class of US graduates from the Latin American School of Medicine, a Fidel Castro brainchild on Havana's outskirts, plan to return home and take board exams for licenses to work as doctors in US hospitals. The Americans were among more than 2,100 students from about 25 countries who received diplomas this week in a high-profile ceremony at Havana's Karl Marx theatre. The six women and two men, all from US ethnic minority backgrounds, said they would use their skills to treat poor people, in keeping with the humanitarian ethos of the school.
The communist authorities rely on the US Congressional Black Caucus and a non-profit group, Pastors for Peace, to select candidates. Washington's embargo bans most Americans from travelling to Cuba but an exemption has been made for the medical students. [human rights]
£3.9bn go-ahead for new aircraft carriers
· Vessels will be largest warships built in Britain · Project approved after nine years of debate Richard Norton-Taylor Thursday July 26, 2007 The Guardian Construction of two aircraft carriers, the largest warships to be built in Britain, was approved yesterday, at a cost of £3.9bn and after nine years of debate. The long-awaited government statement, on the eve of the parliamentary recess, overshadowed the announcement that total spending by the armed forces will increase by an annual average of just 1.5% over three years in real terms, taking inflation into account. [Military balance]
Experts question U.S. strategy in Pakistan
By Jonathan S. Landay | McClatchy Newspapers WASHINGTON - The Bush administration's strategy for pursuing al-Qaida in Pakistan's tribal region could stoke support for the Islamic militants who are protecting the terrorist network's leaders and battling Pakistan's U.S.-backed military regime, some U.S. diplomatic and defense officials and experts warn.
"The battle lines are drawn in such a way (that) anyone who is fighting for Musharraf is considered fighting for the United States," Abbas said.
Wikipedia and the Intelligence Services
Is the Net's popular encyclopedia marred by disinformation?
Ludwig De Braeckeleer (ludwig) Published 2007-07-26 11:57 (KST)
While researching my next article about the Lockerbie bombing, I witnessed an incident that made me wonder whether intelligence agents had infiltrated Wikipedia. [Disinformation]
War Crimes and the White House
The Dishonor in a Tortured New 'Interpretation' of the Geneva Conventions By P.X. Kelley and Robert F. TurnerThursday, July 26, 2007; Page A21 One of us was appointed commandant of the Marine Corps by President Ronald Reagan; the other served as a lawyer in the Reagan White House and has vigorously defended the constitutionality of warrantless National Security Agency wiretaps, presidential signing statements and many other controversial aspects of the war on terrorism. But we cannot in good conscience defend a decision that we believe has compromised our national honor and that may well promote the commission of war crimes by Americans and place at risk the welfare of captured American military forces for generations to come.
German Entrepreneur's Glamour Airline: Nicotine Niche or Pipe Dream?
By Craig Whitlock Washington Post Foreign Service Wednesday, July 25, 2007; Page A08 DUESSELDORF, Germany -- At the international airport in this western German city, smokers are shunned. If you want to light up, you're restricted to a handful of bars in the terminal, or else stuck puffing on the dingy street outside. Soon, however, tobacco lovers from around the world could be beating a path to Duesseldorf. A start-up airline based here plans to offer long-haul luxury flights -- to Asia, at first -- that cater to smokers, countering a decades-long global trend that has made it impossible to enjoy a cigarette on most passenger flights. The new airline is called, naturally, Smoker's International Airways, or Smintair for short. The founder is a local entrepreneur who promises a return to the days when air travel was considered glamorous, when stewardesses were happy to bring you a glass of scotch, and when smoking in the lavatory didn't risk criminal prosecution. [IM] [Services]
Islam Now, China Then: Any Parallels?
By M. SHAHID ALAM
July 24, 2007 "History is more or less bunk. It's tradition. We don't want tradition. We want to live in the present, and the only history that is worth a tinker's damn is the history that we make today." * Henry Ford, 1916 *
On some days, a glance at the leading stories in the Western media strongly suggests that Muslims everywhere, of all stripes, have gone berserk. It appears that Muslims have lost their minds. In any week, we are confronted with reports of Islamic suicide attacks against Western targets in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan or Western countries themselves; terrorists foiled before they could act; terrorist attacks gone awry; terrorists indicted; terrorists convicted; terrorists tortured; terrorist suspects kidnapped by CIA; or warnings of new terrorist attacks against Western targets. Unprovoked, without cause--we are repeatedly told--Muslims everywhere, even those living in the West, are lashing out against the civilized West. Many in the Western world--especially in the US--are beginning to believe that the entire Islamic world is on the warpath against Civilization itself. [Imperialism] [Terrorism]
More Troops for What?
By Benjamin H. Friedman
Posted July 2007 Hoping to sound tough on terror, U.S politicians and pundits of all political stripes are calling for a massive expansion of the U.S. military. But adding more troops has nothing to do with fighting terrorism, and would merely serve the same failed strategy that gave us Iraq.
Washington is in the grips of a new arms race. But this time, the United States and the Soviet Union aren’t vying to overwhelm one another in the military arena. It’s Washington politicians and pundits who are competing to see who can add the most ground troops to the U.S. Armed Forces.
Without Iraq, the United States will have enough ground forces to fight the war in Afghanistan and defend its allies. Together, the active-duty Army, reserves, National Guard, and Marines make up about 1.2 million troops, about 500,000 of them combat troops. Even if the U.S. military still has 25,000 troops in Afghanistan in five years and a similar amount preparing to rotate there, plus 75,000 troops in Europe and Asia, ample forces would be available to defend against the unlikely prospect of Iranian or North Korean aggression. Russia’s recent behavior is troubling, but the days of worrying about Red Army tanks streaming through the Fulda Gap are gone.
what are the new troops for? The usual answer is “to fix failed states.” The basic logic is as follows: Terrorists organize in countries that lack functioning governments. These failed states also lead to civil wars and humanitarian disasters that offend our consciences and threaten regional stability. To prevent these outcomes, the United States must prop up authority abroad or create order from chaos. That requires boots on the ground. Defense analysts at think tanks like the Rand Corporation even use past occupations to tell us how many troops are needed to keep order: at least one for every 50 people in the occupied area. Apply this formula to Pakistan, a country of 169 million people (which came in at number 12 in this magazine’s Failed States Index), and you’ll quickly see that the United States and its Western allies lack the forces to pacify the world’s potential failed states. Occupying Pakistan alone would take 3.4 million troops, according to this formula, an amount greater than all the troops in NATO [Imperialism]
Support for Initial Invasion Has Risen, Poll Shows
By MEGAN THEE Published: July 24, 2007 Americans' support for the initial invasion of Iraq has risen somewhat as the White House has continued to ask the public to reserve judgment about the war until at least the fall. In a New York Times/CBS News poll conducted over the weekend, 42 percent of Americans said that looking back, taking military action in Iraq was the right thing to do, while 51 percent said the United States should have stayed out of Iraq. [Bizarre]
Debate Format, but Same Old Candidates
Perhaps the sharpest point of difference came when the candidates were asked if, during their first year as president, they would be willing to meet without preconditions with the presidents and dictators of Iran, Syria, Venezuela, Cuba and North Korea. "I would," said Senator Barack Obama of Illinois. "And the reason is this: that the notion that somehow not talking to countries is punishment to them, which has been the guiding diplomatic principle of this administration, is ridiculous." Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York, who has also criticized the Bush administration for "not talking to our enemies," took a different tack, pledging robust diplomacy but refusing to make that promise of leader-to-leader talks. "I don't want to be used for propaganda purposes - I don't want to make a situation even worse," Mrs. Clinton said. Former Senator John Edwards of North Carolina, asked if he would meet Kim Jong Il of North Korea, replied: "Yes, and I think actually Senator Clinton's right, though. Before that meeting takes place, we need to do the work, the diplomacy, to make sure that that meeting's not going to be used for propaganda purposes." [Bilateral]
Asian investment in U.S. bonds and currencies declines
Asian countries diversifying investments outside of U.S. dollar, potentially increasing burden on U.S. economy
Asian countries are unloading U.S. Treasury securities and expanding their investments in stocks and currencies in denominations other than the U.S. dollar. The resultant loss in U.S. foreign currency reserves could forecast an overall economic downturn for the United States. According to data posted on the U.S. Treasury Department's web site over the weekend, outstanding U.S Treasury securities held by Korea and Japan amounted to US$52.1 billion and US$615.2 billion as of the end of May. This year alone, net sales for the two countries amounted to $14.6 billion and $7.7 billion, respectively. China, which added $86.9 billion in U.S Treasury notes with three years or longer in maturity last year, bought a mere $10.5 billion during the first five months of this year. [finance]
With Iraq on fire, rest of world on hold
By Warren P. Strobel and Nancy A. Youssef | McClatchy Newspapers * Posted on Sun, July 22, 2007
Administration's Iraq focus trumps other foreign concerns By Warren P. Strobel and Nancy A. Youssef McClatchy Newspapers WASHINGTON - Two months ago, President Bush enthusiastically accepted an invitation to visit Singapore in September. But he abruptly changed plans, and his summit with Southeast Asian leaders is off. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is skipping an Asian meeting, too, and tossed out plans to visit Africa this week. Defense Secretary Robert Gates' mission to Latin America? Postponed. The reason is Iraq.
What Would a Diplomat Do?
Published: July 23, 2007 When Condoleezza Rice took over as secretary of state, the (wishful) thinking was that the Bush administration would finally get into the business of diplomacy. Ms. Rice can be as bullying and ad hominem as her boss, but she's also an achiever and trying her hand at persuasion was probably the only hope for salvaging the administration's failed foreign policies and her reputation. Two and a half years later we're pleased to note a preliminary success for the new era: North Korea's decision to shut down its plutonium-producing nuclear reactor in exchange for economic and eventual diplomatic payoffs. Ms. Rice managed to hold back the spoilers in the vice president's office long enough for her negotiator, Christopher Hill, to do the deal the old-fashioned way: countless hours of negotiations and a willingness to compromise with a leader President Bush once famously said he "loathed."
Nicaragua's Ortega Accuses Washington Of Scheming
By REUTERS Published: July 22, 2007 Filed at 11:40 a.m. ET Skip to next paragraph MANAGUA (Reuters) - Leftist Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega accused Washington late on Saturday of conspiring with local opposition groups to obstruct his programs to help the poor. Ortega, a Cold War foe of the United States again heading Nicaragua's government, said U.S. officials and Nicaraguan opposition groups want to undermine anti-hunger programs and other social initiatives. "They are undoubtedly working below the surface," Ortega said of Washington. "They are conspiring with puppets." Before last November's presidential election, a string of U.S. officials publicly voiced concerns about Ortega, warning that a victory for him could affect U.S. aid and investment. Ortega, speaking at a forum, said U.S. officials were giving money and advice to opposition groups and some media. An ally of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, who is trying to displace U.S. influence in Latin America, Ortega has said he wants strong relations with the United States. But since taking office, he has reached out to various U.S. antagonists -- visiting with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, reestablishing diplomatic relations with North Korea and increasing ties with Cuba. He also told Washington it should pay $300 million in welfare to former U.S.-backed Contra rebels, whom Ortega fought during his 1980s government.
Asda palm oil ban to save rainforests
Spreading plantations are blamed for a threat to wildlife Juliette Jowit, environment editor Sunday July 22, 2007 The Observer
Two of the country's biggest retail names are to ban the sale of palm oil from unsustainable sources because of fears that it is leading to the destruction of rainforests. Palm oil has become one of the world's biggest traded commodities and is now the unidentified 'vegetable oil' in an estimated one in 10 of all products sold in Britain, from chocolate to cosmetics to animal feed. The booming demand in Europe and Asia has led to growing concern that huge swaths of rainforest are being cut down to make way for plantations - damaging important eco-systems on which animals and local people depend - and threatening the survival of one of the world's last great apes, the orang-utan, the poster boy for a gathering global campaign. Rainforest destruction also accounts for about a quarter of global greenhouse gas emissions, blamed for climate change.
Asda has become Britain's first supermarket chain to tell suppliers it will not accept products unless they can guarantee their palm oil is from sustainably run plantations. Body Shop, the toiletries and cosmetics company, has established a sustainable organic supplier in Colombia. Asda has banned palm oil sourced from the worst affected regions in Borneo and Sumatra and within a year hopes to have banned all unsustainable palm oil from 500 products. [Environment]
S.E.C. Rethinks Lists Linking Companies and Terrorist States
By FLOYD NORRIS Published: July 21, 2007 A month ago, it seemed like a good idea. The Securities and Exchange Commission, at the urging of some lawmakers, released a list of public companies that do business in countries the United States considers to be state sponsors of terrorism. "No investor should ever have to wonder whether his or her investments or retirement savings are indirectly subsidizing a terrorist haven or genocidal state," the S.E.C. chairman, Christopher Cox, said in announcing that the Web site would include links to the annual reports of any company doing business in Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Sudan or Syria. "Making it easier to find significant information such as this by tapping the power of technology is central to the S.E.C.'s mission," Mr. Cox said in the June 25 announcement.
The S.E.C. list named 29 companies whose 2006 annual reports had mentioned doing business in Cuba, 57 in Iran, 8 in North Korea, 35 in Sudan and 24 in Syria.
Reuters, the media company, had reported news-gathering activities in Cuba, Iran and Syria, and made all three lists. [Bizarre] [Terrorism]
Envoy Urges Visas For Iraqis Aiding U.S.
Targets of Violence Are Seeking Refuge By Spencer S. Hsu Washington Post Staff Writer Sunday, July 22, 2007; Page A01
The American ambassador in Baghdad, Ryan C. Crocker, has asked the Bush administration to take the unusual step of granting immigrant visas to all Iraqis employed by the U.S. government in Iraq because of growing concern that they will quit and flee the country if they cannot be assured eventual safe passage to the United States. Crocker's request comes as the administration is struggling to respond to the flood of Iraqis who have sought refuge in neighboring countries since sectarian fighting escalated early last year. The United States has admitted 133 Iraqi refugees since October, despite predicting that it would process 7,000 by the end of September. [Imperialism]
Televangelist Tammy Faye Bakker Messner
By Adam Bernstein Washington Post Staff Writer Sunday, July 22, 2007; Page C08
Tammy Faye Bakker Messner, 65, a singer whose flamboyant style was an essential part of the evangelical television programs she co-hosted with her then-husband, disgraced televangelist Jim Bakker, died Friday at her home near Kansas City, Mo., a spokesman said last night. She had colon cancer that spread to her lungs. A taped interview with Mrs. Messner had appeared on "Larry King Live" Thursday night on the CNN network. The ravages of her cancer were clearly visible and she was said to weigh only about 65 pounds.
Joe Spotts, her longtime manager, told The Washington Post last night that she had been cremated and buried in a "remote location." He said she wanted to do the interview "because she knew the end was near and wanted to talk to the people and be with the people one more time." She "held on just for that," he said. In the interview, she told King that "I talk to God every day. And I say, 'God, my life is in your hands and I trust you with me.' " Mrs. Messner, whose face was once one of the most familiar in the public arena, divorced Jim Bakker in 1992 while he was serving a prison sentence for fraud and conspiracy. Her fame continued in a reduced way, and in 1993, she married Roe Messner, a business associate of her first husband who was later imprisoned for bankruptcy fraud. [Religion]
U.S. Pares Other Diplomacy to Focus on Iraq, Rest of Mideast
By Peter Baker Washington Post Staff Writer Sunday, July 22, 2007; Page A04 President Bush and his top Cabinet secretaries are scaling back their personal diplomacy around the world to focus more intently on Iraq and the rest of the Middle East as the administration concentrates its energy on top priorities for the president's last 18 months in office. In the past two weeks, Bush canceled a summit with Southeast Asian leaders in Singapore, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice scrapped a trip to Africa and decided to skip a meeting in the Philippines, and Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates put off a swing through Latin America. The domestic debate over Iraq, which may culminate with a September progress report on the war, has made such travel untenable at the moment, officials said.
And his administration has scored notable success with North Korea recently, coaxing Pyongyang into shuttering its nuclear reactor. [Media]
U.S. is still slow to admit Iraqi refugees
By Mike Drummond and Laith Hammoudi | McClatchy Newspapers
* Posted on Fri, July 20, 2007
BAGHDAD - The State Department will fall far short of the 7,000 Iraqi refugees it had said it was prepared to accept by the end of September. A State Department official told McClatchy Newspapers this week that it plans to interview 4,000 potential Iraqi refugees by then. The State Department has said that helping Iraqi refugees - particularly those who work with Americans - remains a top priority. In April, the department approved one Iraqi refugee. It allowed one in May, as well.
Bush No - Show Sends "Wrong Signal" to SE Asia
By REUTERS Published: July 20, 2007 Filed at 5:41 a.m. ET BANGKOK (Reuters) - President George W. Bush's decision to skip a Southeast Asian forum in September and a possible earlier no-show by his secretary of state sends "a wrong signal" to the region, a former Thai foreign minister says. Surin Pitsuwan, probably the next secretary-general of the 10-nation Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN), said the grouping, founded at the height of the Vietnam War, valued its relationship with America. But Washington must reciprocate, said Surin, a moderate Muslim and leading member of the Democrat Party, Thailand's oldest political party. "If it is of any value, we need to give it support and help it to be effective. It certainly sends a wrong signal to the region as a whole," he said in a written response to questions. Bush had planned to stop over in Singapore en route to an Asia-Pacific forum in Australia. But the White House said this week the meeting with ASEAN leaders would be rescheduled for "a future date." It was followed by reports that Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, expected to visit the Middle East soon to work on a major U.S. peace initiative, would skip the ASEAN Regional Forum in Manila next month. If so, it would be the second time in three years that Rice has missed the Asian security meeting,
The Pentagon Gets a Lesson From Madison Avenue
U.S. Needs to Devise a Different 'Brand' to Win Over the Iraqi People, Study Advises
By Karen DeYoung Washington Post Staff Writer Saturday, July 21, 2007; Page A01
In the advertising world, brand identity is everything. Volvo means safety. Colgate means clean. IPod means cool. But since the U.S. military invaded Iraq in 2003, its "show of force" brand has proved to have limited appeal to Iraqi consumers, according to a recent study commissioned by the U.S. military. The key to boosting the image and effectiveness of U.S. military operations around the world involves "shaping" both the product and the marketplace, and then establishing a brand identity that places what you are selling in a positive light, said clinical psychologist Todd C. Helmus, the author of "Enlisting Madison Avenue: The Marketing Approach to Earning Popular Support in Theaters of Operation." The 211-page study, for which the U.S. Joint Forces Command paid the Rand Corp. $400,000, was released this week.
In an urban insurgency, for example, civilians can help identify enemy infiltrators and otherwise assist U.S. forces. They are less likely to help, the study says, when they become "collateral damage" in U.S. attacks, have their doors broken down or are shot at checkpoints because they do not speak English [Bizarre] [IM] [Imperialism]
Fortune 500 - 2007
The greatest economic boom ever
A lot could go wrong. And it may not feel like a day at the beach to most Americans. But for your average globetrotting Fortune 500 CEO, right now is about as good as it gets, says Fortune's Rik Kirkland.
By Rik Kirkland, Fortune July 12 2007: 9:46 AM EDT
(Fortune Magazine) -- Just how red-hot is the current worldwide expansion? "This is far and away the strongest global economy I've seen in my business lifetime," U.S. Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson declared on a recent visit to Fortune's offices. That may come as news to many Americans, whose boom-time memories are stuck in the 1990s, when Silicon Valley was the epicenter of our growth fantasies. But the fellow now occupying Paulson's old office at 85 Broad Street in downtown Manhattan shares that upbeat view. Just returned from a ribbon-cutting ceremony in the Middle East, Goldman Sachs (Charts, Fortune 500) CEO Lloyd Blankfein waves out toward the East River as he explains how the rise of the "BRICs" has altered his strategy and his travel schedule. (BRIC is an acronym Goldman coined in 2001 reflecting the rising economic power of Brazil, Russia, India, and China.)

Hank Paulson takes on the world In a wide-ranging interview with Fortune, the U.S. Secretary of the Treasury explains why, despite the "strongest global economy" he has ever seen, it still "pays to be vigilant." (more) "I helped make my career by being very disciplined about opening offices," he says. Yet in nine months Blankfein has announced or opened offices in São Paulo, Moscow, Tel Aviv, Mumbai, Qatar, and now Dubai. "We've never done anything close to that before," he marvels. "The week before Dubai, I was in Turkey, and before that, Russia and China. I'm really living the BRICs-plus-Middle East kind of life." These days more and more CEOs are livin' la vida BRIC.
Globalisation, the state and the democratic deficit
Saskia Sassen The forces of globalisation and neo-liberalism are changing the power-relations within democratic states, says Saskia Sassen of Columbia University. This makes British prime minister Gordon Brown’s new proposals to transfer powers to the legislature a landmark moment.
A crucial point that Gordon Brown's programme highlights is that the common view that globalisation causes the liberal state as a whole to lose power is simply wrong. The impact of globalisation is actually more complex. Some parts of the liberal state (including the executive branch of government and some of the key agencies under its control) actually gain power; at the same time, the various policies promoting corporate economic globalisation (privatisation and liberalisation) have the effect of eliminating oversight functions and thus hollowing out the legislature. [Globalisation]
Pakistan's peril
Paul Rogers
A number of military developments are again making apparent the pivotal character of Pakistan in the war on terror. 19 - 07 - 2007 Three developments this week involving leading protagonists of the "war on terror" offer important signals of the state of play in key areas of conflict. First, a United States national-intelligence estimate (NIE) released on 17 July highlighted the potency of a resurgent al-Qaida that had been able to regroup, establish safe havens in northwestern Pakistan, and even pose the threat of further attacks in the American homeland.
International Banks Shun Cuba Under U.S. Scrutiny
By REUTERS Published: July 19, 2007 Filed at 3:02 a.m. ET HAVANA (Reuters) - Heightened scrutiny of banking transactions by the United States since the September 11 attacks has led European and Canadian banks to curtail dealings with Cuba, bankers and businesses say. Cuba ceased exporting armed revolution to Latin America two decades ago, but Washington still lists Communist Cuba as a "rogue" state that sponsors terrorism, along with Iran, Syria, Sudan and North Korea. The USA Patriot Act allows U.S. authorities to confiscate assets and penalize institutions that fail to report money laundering and terrorist financing. The result -- perhaps intended -- is that Western businessmen in Havana are having nightmares moving funds in dollars to and from Cuba because banks are increasingly refusing their business. [Financial sanctions] [Patriot Act] [Imperialism] [Double standards]
Galloway faces Commons suspension
Will Woodward, chief political correspondent Wednesday July 18, 2007 The Guardian George Galloway should be suspended from the Commons for 18 days, a committee of MPs recommended yesterday, after the parliamentary standards commissioner said it was likely that the outspoken Respect MP knew a charity appeal by him was partly financed through Saddam Hussein's Iraqi dictatorship. Sir Philip Mawer, the commissioner, said he had "no evidence" that Mr Galloway directly and personally received money from the Saddam regime via diverted funds from the UN oil for food programme. But there was "clear evidence" that his Mariam Appeal "did benefit" from money from Iraq through its chairman, Jordanian businessman Fawaz Zureikat, who donated £448,000 of the £1.4m raised by the appeal. [Human rights] [Camouflage]
Urban Britain is heading for Victorian levels of inequality
The chasm between rich and poor seen in London today resembles the Manchester that Engels described in the 1840s Tristram Hunt Wednesday July 18, 2007 The Guardian Today's super-rich are endowing a new generation of cities as divisive and ostentatious as themselves. In New York, Shanghai and London, the cosmopolitan plutocracy outdo each other in displays of ritual vulgarity from the car showroom to the restaurant table. But beneath the helipads, there lurks a growing cityscape of poverty and exploitation. Yesterday's Joseph Rowntree Foundation report on social segregation in Britain has highlighted the crisis, talking of poverty "clustering" and wealthy flight to the outskirts. With the personal wealth of the richest 1% now controlling 24% of the national share, it seems we are heading towards Victorian levels of inequality. So it is worth recalling how the most astute critic of urban geography regarded the effects of such extremities of wealth and poverty. Dividing his time between his Eccles mill, the warehouses of Princess Street and the underworld of 1840s Lancashire, Friedrich Engels was horrified by Manchester's social chasm.
Majority Of Poles Against U.S. Shield Plan: Poll
By REUTERS Published: July 17, 2007 Filed at 9:07 a.m. ET Skip to next paragraph WARSAW (Reuters) - More than half of Poles oppose the location of part of a U.S. anti-missile shield on Polish soil, a poll showed on Tuesday, a day after the Polish president said the project was a foregone conclusion. Pollster CBOS said 55 percent of those surveyed opposed the anti-missile shield plans, while 28 percent had no objections. Washington wants to place up to 10 ground-based interceptor missiles in northern Poland and a radar facility in the Czech Republic to protect against attacks from what it calls "rogue states" such as Iran and North Korea.
Yemen: murder in Arabia Felix
Fred Halliday
Yemen tends to be propelled into the media spotlight only with such incidents as the bombing of the USS Cole in October 2000 or the killing of seven Spanish tourists in July 2007. But its modern political history deserves to be more widely known on its own account, says Fred Halliday. 13 - 07 - 2007
Change in Pakistan and Britain
Paul Rogers
June 2007 - The last briefing put forward the argument that both the United States and the al-Qaida movement have motivations that transcend short-term issues in the war on terror and ensure that the current confrontation could last for some decades (A Thirty Year War, May 2007). From the US perspective, it is necessary to maintain a high degree of control over Iraq, given that neighbouring Iran is essentially an oppositional regime, the House of Saud has vulnerabilities and the Persian Gulf region is of immense importance because of its fossil fuel reserves. It would therefore take an extraordinary change in policy for the United States to consider a total withdrawal from Iraq. Even a change to a Democrat presidency in 2008 would not necessarily involve a fundamental shift, given that it may be exceedingly difficult to make the transition from military to civil engagement in the region.
Asda, Primark and Tesco accused over clothing factories
Long hours and low pay breach industry codes, say workers Karen McVeigh Monday July 16, 2007 The Guardian
Britain's second largest supermarket chain last night launched an investigation into allegations that workers who make its clothes in Bangladesh are being forced to work up to 80 hours a week for as little as 4p an hour. Asda, one of three major discount clothing retailers accused of breaching international labour standards, said it would audit its suppliers in response to a report in today's Guardian into the pay and conditions of Bangladeshi garment workers who supply British companies. [Human rights]
New Economic Populism Spurs Democrats
By ROBIN TONER Published: July 16, 2007 WASHINGTON, July 15 - On Capitol Hill and on the presidential campaign trail, Democrats are increasingly moving toward a full-throated populist critique of the current economy.
Clearly influenced by some of their most successful candidates in last year's Congressional elections, Democrats are talking more and more about the anemic growth in American wages and the negative effects of trade and a globalized economy on American jobs and communities. They deplore what they call a growing gap between the middle class, which is struggling to adjust to a changing job market, and the affluent elites who have prospered in the new economy. Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, Democrat of New York, calls it "trickle-down economics without the trickle."
While campaigning in Iowa last week, Senator Barack Obama, Democrat of Illinois, suggested that even those who followed the standard advice for coping with a globalized economy - get more education for higher-skilled jobs - were losing out.
"People were told, you've got to be trained for high-tech jobs," Mr. Obama said, "and then it turned out that some of those high-tech jobs were being outsourced. And people were told, now you need to train for service jobs. And then it turned out the call centers were moving overseas." [offshoring]
Lock terror suspects up indefinitely say police
Mark Townsend and Jamie Doward Sunday July 15, 2007 The Observer One of Britain's most senior police officers has demanded a return to a form of internment, with the power to lock up terror suspects indefinitely without charge. The proposal, put forward by the head of the Association of Police Chief Officers (Acpo) and supported by Scotland Yard, is highly controversial. An earlier plan to extend the amount of time suspects can be held without charge to 90 days led to Tony Blair's first Commons defeat as Prime Minister. Eventually, the government was forced to compromise on 28 days, a period which Gordon Brown has already said he wants to extend. [human rights]
Why Bush Will Be A Winner
By William Kristol
Sunday, July 15, 2007; Page B01 I suppose I'll merely expose myself to harmless ridicule if I make the following assertion: George W. Bush's presidency will probably be a successful one. Let's step back from the unnecessary mistakes and the self-inflicted wounds that have characterized the Bush administration. Let's look at the broad forest rather than the often unlovely trees. What do we see? First, no second terrorist attack on U.S. soil -- not something we could have taken for granted. Second, a strong economy -- also something that wasn't inevitable.
And third, and most important, a war in Iraq that has been very difficult, but where -- despite some confusion engendered by an almost meaningless "benchmark" report last week -- we now seem to be on course to a successful outcome. [Neocons]
Brown acts to avoid risk to US ties
By James Blitz, Political Editor Published: July 13 2007 20:42 | Last updated: July 13 2007 20:42 Gordon Brown has sought to avert a row with the White House over his government's approach to ties with the US by reminding his cabinet of the importance of bilateral relations with Washington. The prime minister made clear he was not contemplating any change in relations with the US following a speech in which Douglas Alexander, the international development secretary, called for a foreign policy that was "multilateralist, not unilateralist". Tom Scholar, the prime minister's chief of staff, wrote to all members of the cabinet stating Mr Brown wanted to remind them of the importance of the relationship with the US.
Lawmaker Questions SEC "Terrorist" Investor List
By REUTERS Published: July 13, 2007 Filed at 3:12 p.m. ET Skip to next paragraph WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A senior Democratic lawmaker urged the Securities and Exchange Commission on Friday to either create a more accurate Web site identifying corporations with investments in "terrorist-financing states" or pull the plug on it. Rep. Barney Frank, chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, expressed concern about how the list was compiled and asked the SEC to consider using a new methodology. "Disclosure is important, but in this instance it is my belief the disclosure needs to be absolutely accurate or not occur at all," Frank said in a letter to SEC Chairman Christopher Cox. Some business and humanitarian groups say the SEC's new online tool is ill-conceived. The Web site allows investors to search for companies whose annual reports contain some reference to business related to Sudan, Syria, North Korea, Iran and Cuba. The countries have been designated as "state sponsors of terrorism" by the U.S. State Department.
Midwest Towns Sour on War as Their Tolls Mount
By Peter SlevinWashington Post Staff Writer Saturday, July 14, 2007; Page A01 TIPTON, Iowa -- This farming town in Cedar County buried Army Spec. Aaron Sissel during the Iraq war's ninth month. It buried Army Spec. David W. Behrle during the 51st. Along the way, as a peaceable community's heart sank, its attitude toward President Bush and his Iraq strategy turned more personal and more negative. Sissel and Behrle were popular young sons of Tipton, a community of 3,100 where anonymity is an impossibility. Sissel bagged groceries at the supermarket and often bowled at Cedar Lanes. Behrle served, just two years ago, as Tipton High's senior class president and commencement speaker. The town, by all accounts, once gave Bush the benefit of the doubt for a war he said would make America safer and a mission he said was accomplished four years before Behrle died. But funeral by funeral, faith in the president and his project to remake Iraq is ebbing away.
State orders flak jackets in Baghdad's Green Zone
By Mike Drummond | McClatchy Newspapers * Posted on Sat, July 14, 2007 * email * | * print TOOL NAME close tool goes here BAGHDAD – The dress code at the Blue Star restaurant inside Baghdad’s Green Zone now calls for vest and hat. Flak vest and Kevlar helmet, to be precise. And it’s a good thing. At least four mortar rounds hit inside the Green Zone about 1:30 p.m. Saturday, killing two Iraqi civilians, according to a U.S. soldier who could not speak for attribution because he’s not authorized to talk to reporters. Meanwhile, a State Department official, after initially denying that State had ordered its 1,000 Baghdad personnel to wear protective gear, said that a copy of the order obtained by McClatchy was an undiscussable security breach. Saturday’s attack followed a barrage of up to 35 mortars and rockets that slammed into the Green Zone _ considered the safest place in Baghdad _ on Wednesday.
Iran's Jews reject cash offer to move to Israel
· Expats offer families £30,000 to emigrate · Our identity is not for sale, say community leaders Robert Tait in Tehran Friday July 13, 2007 The Guardian Iran's Jews have given the country a loyalty pledge in the face of cash offers aimed at encouraging them to move to Israel, the arch-enemy of its Islamic rulers. The incentives - ranging from £5,000 a person to £30,000 for families - were offered from a special fund established by wealthy expatriate Jews in an effort to prompt a mass migration to Israel from among Iran's 25,000-strong Jewish community. The offers were made with Israel's official blessing and were additional to the usual state packages it provides to Jews emigrating from the diaspora.
However, the Society of Iranian Jews dismissed them as "immature political enticements" and said their national identity was not for sale. "The identity of Iranian Jews is not tradeable for any amount of money," the society said in a statement. "Iranian Jews are among the most ancient Iranians. Iran's Jews love their Iranian identity and their culture, so threats and this immature political enticement will not achieve their aim of wiping out the identity of Iranian Jews." The Israeli newspaper Ma'ariv reported that the incentives had been doubled after earlier offers of £2,500 a head failed to attract any Iranian Jews to leave for Israel. Iran's sole Jewish MP, Morris Motamed, said the offers were insulting and put the country's Jews under pressure to prove their loyalty. "It suggests the Iranian Jew can be encouraged to emigrate by money," he said. "Iran's Jews have always been free to emigrate and three-quarters of them did so after the revolution but 70% of those went to America, not Israel."
Going from Hawk to Dove
Gretchen M. Griener | July 3, 2007
Foreign Policy In Focus www.fpif.org The United States is more hawk than dove and heading toward vulture status, according to the recently launched Global Peace Index (GPI) ranking of 121 countries. Finishing up far back in the pack at No. 96, the United States was deemed less peaceful than Yemen, Cambodia, and Serbia. In particular, America won demerits for the number of prison inmates, size of military, and overseas troop deployments. The GPI reveals that the United States needs to become both less violent at home and abroad while increasing real security measures on all fronts. To move from hawk to dove, the United States needs to change its feathers. In a world so hostilely disposed toward America, such “transfeatheration” not only makes sense but is vital for national security. Behind the GPI The GPI is weighted 60% on internal measures of violence and 40% on external measures of violent activities beyond borders. The subtler measures concern what a nation funds, and does not fund.
Global Peace Index Rankings
This section lists the results of the analysis into each nation's peace. This is the prime table in the Global Peace Index section. The countries are ranked from most peaceful to least peaceful, highlighting their ranking as well as their score. You can click on a country to see the detail of its peace indicators and drivers.
Overall ScoreOverall RankCountry
1.357 1 Norway
1.363 2 New Zealand
1.377 3 Denmark
1.396 4 Ireland
1.719 32 South Korea
1.980 60 China
2.317 96 USA
In cooperation with the Economist Intelligence Unit
Earth to Bush: Iraq isn’t South Korea
Anne Miller and Kevin Martin | July 3, 2007
Foreign Policy In Focus www.fpif.org The Bush Administration recently pointed to the over-five-decades-long US military presence in South Korea as a successful model for Iraq. The implications of this comparison seemed to escape them. General Raymond T. Odierno, who oversees daily military operations in Iraq, called it “a great idea,” as if agreeing with the suggestion by a colleague to order take-out sushi for lunch. While it would be nice to think that this was just a seat-of-the-pants spin job, it is unfortunately more likely a rare admission of U.S. intent to maintain a long-term, imperial military presence in Iraq and in the Middle East region. The consensus among military officials reported by The Washington Post on June 11 forecast at least 40,000 U.S. troops remaining in Iraq for a decade.
Global Unease With Major World Powers
Rising Environmental Concern in 47-Nation Survey Released: 06.27.07
A 47-nation survey finds global public opinion increasingly wary of the world's dominant nations and disapproving of their leaders. Anti-Americanism is extensive, as it has been for the past five years. At the same time, the image of China has slipped significantly among the publics of other major nations. Opinion about Russia is mixed, but confidence in its president, Vladimir Putin, has declined sharply. In fact, the Russian leader's negatives have soared to the point that they mirror the nearly worldwide lack of confidence in George W. Bush. Global distrust of American leadership is reflected in increasing disapproval of the cornerstones of U.S. foreign policy. Not only is there worldwide support for a withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq, but there also is considerable opposition to U.S. and NATO operations in Afghanistan.
Iraq’s pressure-point
Paul Rogers
The intensification of violence in Iraq is creating political fracture in Washington and narrowing the White House's options. 12 - 07 - 2007
The Iraq war has tumbled to the front of the Washington agenda in an unexpected and intense manner. The publication of an interim report on 12 July 2007 assessing the Iraqi government’s record in meeting US benchmarks for progress in security was accompanied by a White House press conference in which President Bush declared that some of its findings gave him “cause for optimism”. This is in the wake of the defection of some key Republicans to the "bring-the-troops-home" cause and the stalling of John McCain's election ambitions because of his pro-war stance have exposed domestic political fractures over Iraq (see Martha Raddatz, "'Crack in the Dike': White House in 'Panic Mode' Over GOP Revolt on Iraq", ABC News, 9 July 2007). The ferment has produced an immediate reaction from the neo-conservatives, including the latest Iraq report from Kimberley Kagan bravely making the case that the surge is working, and Bill Kristol condemning the lack of political nerve (both in the leading neocon journal the Weekly Standard.
The world’s World Bank problem
Robert Wade The crisis that led to Paul Wolfowitz's forced resignation from the World Bank raises the longer-term question of the global institution's domination by the United States, says Robert Wade. 10 - 07 - 2007
The fight between the Americans and the Europeans over the fate of Paul Wolfowitz obscured the bigger question of whether the world still needs the World Bank. The immediate contest may be over and Robert Zoellick installed as the new president (nominated by the White House / United States treasury), but the question looms over everything the bank does.
To advance in this direction the bank has to address another looming question: how to decouple itself from White House/treasury control. [Imperialism] [UNUS]
Showdown at the World Bank
Robert Wade
New Left Review 7, January-February 2001 ‘International financial institutions’ are more national than they seem. Robert Wade reveals how tightly the US Treasury monitors and controls the World Bank, and how quickly it will stamp out departures from its orthodoxy.
In April 2000, as anti-globalization protesters prepared to descend on Washington, the World Bank’s former chief economist, Joseph Stiglitz, published an article in the New Republic which began: Next week’s meeting of the International Monetary Fund will bring to Washington, DC many of the same demonstrators who trashed the World Trade Organization in Seattle last fall. They’ll say the IMF is arrogant. They’ll say the IMF is secretive and insulated from democratic accountability. They’ll say the IMF’s economic ‘remedies’ often make things worse—turning slowdowns into recessions and recessions into depressions. And they’ll have a point. I was chief economist at the World Bank from 1996 until last November, during the gravest global economic crisis in a half-century. I saw how the IMF, in tandem with the US Treasury Department, responded. And I was appalled. [1] Stiglitz went on to detail his criticisms of the IMF’s handling of the 1997–98 East Asian crisis. He pointed out that the countries of the region had liberalized their financial and capital markets in the early 1990s not because they needed to attract more funds (savings rates were already 30 per cent or more) but under international pressure—particularly from the US Treasury
The vast majority of Bank economists, whatever their nationalities, have a postgraduate qualification from a North American university (as is indeed true of large numbers of the world’s elite opinion leaders). And there are many subtle ways in which the Bank’s location—in the heart of Washington DC, just a few blocks from the White House, Treasury and Washington think-tanks—helps contribute to the way in which American premisses structure the very mindset of most Bank staff, who read American newspapers, watch American TV and use American English as their lingua franca. ‘Any signal of displeasure by the US executive director has an almost palpable impact on the Bank leadership and staff, whether the signal is an explicit complaint or simply the executive director’s request for information on a problem,’ one observer has noted. [6] Nevertheless, the US rarely resorts to proactive interventions, preferring to use negative power—to ensure, above all, that senior Bank people who do or say things contrary to Treasury wishes can be silenced or fired. More than just a source of funds to be offered or withheld, the World Bank is a fount of Anglo-American ideas on how an economy—and, increasingly, a polity—should be run. [UNUS]
Japan, the World Bank, and the art of paradigm maintenance: the East Asian miracle in political perspective
Robert Wade
New Left Review I/217, May-June 1996
To what extent is the World Bank an actor, an ‘autonomous variable’ in the international system? [1] Or to what extent are its objectives and approaches the mere manifestations of competition and compromise among its member states? Several writers have argued that the Bank has a relatively large amount of autonomy—from the state interests of its overseers, and that its staff have some autonomy from the senior management. They have traced this autonomy to variables such as ‘lack of clarity of the priorities of organizational objectives’, ‘the difficulty and complexity of accomplishing the organization’s mandate’, ‘bureaucratized structure’ and ‘professionalism of staff’. [2] But there is something strangely bloodless about this approach. It manages to discuss autonomy without conveying anything of the political and economic substance of the field of forces in which the Bank operates. By focusing only on morphological variables like ‘professionalism’ and the ‘complexity of accomplishing the organization’s mandate’, it misses other variables like ‘correspondence of organizational actions with the interests of the us state’. If the Bank is propelled by its budgetary, staffing and incentive structures to act in line with those interests, the us state need not intervene in ways that would provide evidence of ‘lack of autonomy’; yet the Bank’s autonomy is clearly questionable. This paper describes an episode in Japan’s attempts over the 1980s and 1990s to assert itself on the world stage, to move beyond the constraints of dependency in a us-centred world economic system. The episode involves a Japanese challenge to the World Bank and its core ideas about the role of the state in the strategy for economic development [UNUS] [Development] [Offshoring]
Washington Lobbyists for Hire and the US as the Avatar of Human Rights: an undercover report
Ken Silverstein In March, when the U.S. State Department announced its new global survey of human rights, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice declared that the report demonstrated America’s commitment to civil liberties, the rule of law, and a free press. “We are recommitting ourselves to stand with those courageous men and women who struggle for their freedom and their rights,” she said. “And we are recommitting ourselves to call every government to account that still treats the basic rights of its citizens as options rather than, in President Bush’s words, the non-negotiable demands of human dignity.” Flipping through the report, however, one cannot help but notice how many of the countries that flout “the non-negotiable demands of human dignity” seem to have negotiated themselves significant support from the U.S. government, whether military assistance (Egypt, Colombia), development aid (Azerbaijan, Nigeria), expanded trade opportunities (Angola, Cameroon), or official Washington visits for their leaders (Equatorial Guinea, Kazakhstan).
American lobbyists have worked for dictators since at least the 1930s, when the Nazi government used a proxy firm called the German Dye Trust to retain the public-relations specialist Ivy Lee.
Which leaves Americans to wonder: Exactly what sorts of promises do these firms make to foreign governments? What kind of scrutiny, if any, do they apply to potential clients? How do they orchestrate support for their clients? And how much of their work is visible to Congress and the public, and hence subject to oversight? To shed light on these questions, I decided to approach some top Washington lobbying firms myself, as a potential client, to see whether they would be willing to burnish the public image of a particularly reprehensible regime. The first step was to select a suitably distasteful would-be client. Given that my first pick, North Korea, seemed too reviled to be credible, I settled on the only slightly less Stalinist regime of Turkmenistan. [Image]
Missile Defense in Europe: Defensive Defence or New Cold War?
‘This missile defense cooperation … is about threats to Europe from rogue states. It is not about and does not pose a threat to Russia. Hopefully, it is also not about threats from Russia.’ (US National Security Advisor Stephen Hadley, 4 June, 2007) The notion that the deployment of ten missile interceptors and a radar station to Central Europe as part of the Theatre Missile Defence (TMD) project can somehow be seen as an aggressive threat to Russia has been rejected by more than a few American government policymakers [Missile defense] {Threat]
Iraq: the debate, the rebellion and the march to war
In this extract from his diaries Alastair Campbell reveals the intense discussions taking place around the cabinet table on the eve of the invasion
Monday July 9, 2007 The Guardian
The day before the defining Commons vote on Iraq Robin Cook resigned, adding to a sense of crisis and a prime minister's future on the line as he sought to persuade parliament to support military action. Monday March 17 2003 TB started Cabinet, introduced Goldsmith, then Clare came in and asked Sally where Robin was. "He's gone," said Sal. "Oh my God." TB's only reference to Robin was to say that he had resigned. Peter Goldsmith went through the answer on legal authority to use force. One by one, a succession of colleagues expressed support for TB, then Clare said she owed them "a short statement", that she intended to reflect overnight.
She said publication of the roadmap was significant but we shouldn't kid ourselves that it means it is going to happen. She said she admired the effort and energy that had gone into getting a second resolution but there had been errors of presentation. "I'm going to have my little agonising overnight. I owe it to you." JP, John Reid and one or two others looked physically sick. JR spoke next, said never underestimate the instincts for unity and understand that we will be judged by the Iraq that replaces Saddam's Iraq, and by the Middle East. Derry said he felt we would have got a second resolution if the French hadn't been determined to scupper it, and said we had made so much effort to get a second resolution that it had led to people thinking we actually needed one. Paul Murphy was just back from America and said what an amazing feeling there was towards us there. "It's not quite the same here," said TB.
Why do terrorists attack Britain time and again?
By Matthew Schofield | McClatchy Newspapers * Posted on Fri, July 6, 2007
LONDON - From the moment that emergency workers spotted the bomb-laden car a week ago in London's crowded West End, it was clear that for the fourth straight year - and third straight summer - this city was being readied for a major terrorist attack. Yet England isn't the Great Satan to al Qaida extremists. Terrorism experts all agree that for al Qaida operatives and sympathizers, the preferred villain is the United States. So why do attacks keep happening here? And why, since the horror of 9-11, has America avoided another assault? Karl-Heinz Kamp, the security policy coordinator at Germany's prestigious Konrad Adenauer research center, said it was easy to understand why. "The U.S. has a historical advantage; America is still the land of opportunity to the whole world. The people moving there believe the American dream of social mobility," he said. "In Europe, we've historically treated our immigrants as hired help, and waited for them to finish the work they arrived for and go home."
Cheney Fatigue Settles Over Some in GOP
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Published: July 8, 2007 Filed at 3:10 a.m. ET WASHINGTON (AP) -- Dick Cheney, who thrives on secrecy while pulling the levers of power, is getting caught in the glare of an unwelcome spotlight. Once viewed as a sage and mentor to President Bush, Cheney has approval ratings now that are as low as -- or lower -- than the president's. Recent national polls have put them both in the high 20s. Bush's decision to spare former Cheney aide I. Lewis ''Scooter'' Libby from a 2 1/2-year prison sentence has focused new attention on the vice president and his possible role in the commutation. Cheney's relentless advocacy of the Iraq war, his push to expand presidential authority and his hard-line rhetoric toward North Korea and Iran are raising concerns even among former loyalists now worried about the GOP's chances in 2008. It seems Cheney fatigue is settling in some Republican circles.
'Statecraft: And How to Restore America's Standing in the World'
By DENNIS ROSS Published: July 8, 2007 I planned, after writing my book The Missing Peace, to write another book exploring the practice of negotiations. The more I thought about negotiations and how to do them, the more I realized that such a discussion would serve as an effective way to say something more generally about American foreign policy. This was early in the second term of George W. Bush, and I was motivated in no small part by my disquiet over the superficial way the debate on American foreign policy was being conducted. I had no problem with questions about American priorities. Should the White House and the Pentagon have shifted from a war of necessity in Afghanistan to one of choice in Iraq? Was the war on terrorism being enhanced or diminished by our efforts to oust Saddam Hussein? If the "axis of evil" was such a threat, why were we so focused on Iraq, which posed the least immediate danger with regard to weapons of mass destruction, and doing so little about North Korea and Iran, which posed the greatest?
Afghans Report 133 Civilians Dead In Recent Airstrikes
Associated Press Sunday, July 8, 2007; Page A15 KABUL, July 7 -- Afghan elders said Saturday that 108 civilians were killed this week in a bombing campaign in western Afghanistan, and villagers in the northeast said 25 Afghans died in airstrikes.
The U.S. and the solution to the Iranian nuclear issue
[Column]
By Selig S. Harrison, director of the Asia Program at the Center for International Policy
Despite continuing tensions with North Korea, the danger of another Korean War is steadily receding. The most explosive region of the World now is not Northeast Asia but the Persian Gulf, where a U.S. or Israeli attack on Iran's nuclear facilities, sooner or later, is a much more plausible possibility than a U.S. or Japanese military adventure in North
Similarly, hard-line elements are strengthened by pressure tactics on the nuclear issue, such as the drive for U.N. sanctions, efforts to cut off Iranian banks from the international financial system and the clumsy saber-rattling that accompanied Vice President Cheney’s recent Persian Gulf foray. Shortly before Cheney arrived, the United States stationed two aircraft carriers equipped with nuclear-capable aircraft 150 miles off Iran’s coast. ‘‘Can you assure us that there are no nuclear weapons aboard those carriers?’’ asked Ali Reza Akbari, a National Security Council advisor and former Deputy Defence Minister - the same question that North Korean leaders ask about the U.S. carriers stationed close to Korea and Japan. [Fragmentation] [Terrorism] [Double standards] [Financial sanctions] [Denuclearisation]
Wolfowitz Joins Think Tank as Visiting Scholar
Tuesday, July 3, 2007; Page A13 He was an architect of the Iraq war who was forced from the World Bank presidency amid allegations that he improperly acted to benefit his girlfriend. Now, Paul D. Wolfowitz will turn his attention to the relatively calmer waters of Washington intelligentsia, as a visiting scholar at the American Enterprise Institute.
Europeans see US as threat to peace
By Daniel Dombey and Stanley Pignal in London Published: July 1 2007 18:09 | Last updated: July 1 2007 18:09 Europeans consistently regard the US as the biggest threat to world stability, a new poll reveals on Monday.
A survey carried out in June by Harris Research for the Financial Times shows that 32 per cent of respondents in five European countries regard the US as a bigger threat than any other state. In the US itself, North Korea and Iran are seen as the biggest risks. However, the youngest US respondents share the Europeans' view that theirs is the biggest threat, with 35 per cent of American 16- to 24-year-olds identifying it as the chief danger to stability. The level of European concern about the US has remained broadly consistent over the past year. In 11 previous polls dating back to July 2006 the proportion of respondents considering the US a threat to stability has ranged between 28 per cent and 38 per cent. The latest poll comes in the wake of the "surge" that has increased US forces in Iraq to about 160,000 troops, but which has not been accompanied by political breakthroughs or a dramatic reduction of violence. During President George W. Bush's second term the administration has also embarked on a more consensual international approach to issues such as Iran's nuclear programme and North Korea's nuclear bomb.
The Real Cost Of Offshoring
U.S. data show that moving jobs overseas hasn't hurt the economy. Here's why those stats are wrong By Michael Mandel
Whenever critics of globalization complain about the loss of American jobs to low-cost countries such as China and India, supporters point to the powerful performance of the U.S. economy. And with good reason. Despite the latest slow quarter, official statistics show that America's economic output has grown at a solid 3.3% annual rate since 2003, a period when imports from low-cost countries have soared. Similarly, domestic manufacturing output has expanded at a decent pace. On the face of it, offshoring doesn't seem to be having much of an effect at all.
But new evidence suggests that shifting production overseas has inflicted worse damage on the U.S. economy than the numbers show. BusinessWeek has learned of a gaping flaw in the way statistics treat offshoring, with serious economic and political implications. Top government statisticians now acknowledge that the problem exists, and say it could prove to be significant. [Offshoring] [Outsourcing]
How Those Deceptive Numbers Creep In
You might think the most important fact about the price of an imported chair from China, say, is how much less it costs than the comparable chair made in the U.S. After all, that cost difference has driven the offshoring boom.
But that's not a number the government tracks. Surprisingly, import price data are "not designed to measure goods as they shift from domestic to foreign production," explains William Alterman, who supervises the international price program for the Bureau of Labor Statistics. If a chairmaker in North Carolina now manufactures its wares in China, the import price data wouldn't capture its falling production costs. The import price figures also don't record the price cuts, productivity gains, or quality improvements that enabled the Chinese factory to undercut the U.S. producer in the first place. The authority of the BLS stops at the U.S. border. So when a particular new product shows up on the docks, that's the first time the import price trackers know anything about it. Why does this matter? If import prices don't reflect the big cost savings from offshoring, then measured import-price inflation is higher than it should be. As a result, the real, inflation-adjusted growth rate of imports is reported as lower than it really is. And that's bad because all of the statistics calculated using real imports--including real GDP growth, productivity, and the real value-added of manufacturing industries--are thrown off. In particular, any underestimate of real import growth will lead to an overestimate of domestic production growth. This is how phantom GDP is created. [Offshoring] [Outsourcing]
The New American Cold War
STEPHEN F. COHEN
posted June 21, 2006 (July 10, 2006 issue) EDITOR'S NOTE: This article--originally published in the July 10, 2006, issue of The Nation,--appears with a new introduction by the author restating his analyses and arguments in the context of recent developments.
Two reactions to this article were particularly noteworthy when it first appeared in The Nation almost exactly one year ago. Judging by activity on the magazine's website and by responses sent to me personally, it was very widely read and discussed both in the United States and in Russia, where it was quickly translated on a Russian-language site. And, unlike most Russian commentators, almost every American specialist who reacted to the article, directly or indirectly, adamantly disputed my thesis that US-Russian relations had deteriorated so badly they should now be understood as a new cold war--or possibly as a continuation of the old one. Developments during the last year have amply confirmed that thesis. Several examples could be cited, but two should be enough. The increasingly belligerent charges and counter-charges by officials and in the media on both sides, "Cold-War-style rhetoric and threats," as the Associated Press recently reported, read like a replay of the American-Soviet discourse of the 1970s and early 1980s. And the unfolding conflict over US plans to build missile defense components near post-Soviet Russia, in Poland and the Czech Republic, threatens to reintroduce a dangerous military feature of that cold-war era in Europe. [Imperialism]

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JUNE 2007

Century-Old Ban Lifted on Minimum Retail Pricing
John Marshall Mantel for The New York Times Manufacturers have long been forbidden to dictate prices on their goods, whether pocketbooks or Porsches.
By STEPHEN LABATON Published: June 29, 2007 WASHINGTON, June 28 - Striking down an antitrust rule nearly a century old, the Supreme Court ruled on Thursday that it was not automatically unlawful for manufacturers and distributors to agree on minimum retail prices.
The decision will give producers significantly more, though not unlimited, power to dictate retail prices and to restrict the flexibility of discounters. Five justices, agreeing with the nation's major manufacturers, said the new rule could in some instances lead to more competition and better service. But four dissenting justices agreed with 37 states and some consumer groups that abandoning the old rule could result in significantly higher prices and less competition for consumer and other goods. The court struck down the 96-year-old rule that resale price maintenance agreements were an automatic, or per se, violation of the Sherman Antitrust Act.
We Don't Pick on Israel
Thursday, June 28, 2007; Page A24 In his June 25 op-ed, "A Shadow on the Human Rights Movement," Jackson Diehl mischaracterized Human Rights Watch's position regarding the U.N. Human Rights Council. We have repeatedly criticized the council's selective treatment of Israel, including in a statement last week. While we stand by that criticism, we also believe that more can be done for human rights by working to improve the council than by writing it off. The council created an experts group that developed a road map that can be used to hold Sudan accountable for ongoing violations. It will also scrutinize the records of all U.N. members, not just Israel's, in a country-by-country review just established. The council's independent experts are already investigating abuses not only by Sudan but also by North Korea and Burma. States committed to human rights can put the council on a better track by holding poor performers such as India and South Africa responsible, rather than launching empty criticisms at the council as a whole. And improving the council requires dedicating resources to make it stronger, including appointing a senior official to work on the council in Geneva and in important capitals.
PEGGY HICKS Global Advocacy Director Human Rights Watch New York [Human rights] [Double standards]
CIA conspired with mafia to kill Castro
Simon Tisdall in Washington Wednesday June 27, 2007 The Guardian
The CIA conspired with a Chicago gangster described as "the chieftain of the Cosa Nostra and the successor to Al Capone" in a bungled 1960 attempt to assassinate Fidel Castro, the leader of Cuba's communist revolution, according to classified documents published by the agency yesterday. The disclosure is contained in a 702-page CIA dossier known as the "Family Jewels" compiled at the behest of then agency director James Schlesinger in 1973. According to a memo written at the time, the purpose of the dossier was to identify all current and past CIA activities that "conflict with the provisions of the National Security Act of 1947" - and were, in other words, illegal. [Terrorism]
A GOP Plan To Oust Cheney
By Sally Quinn Tuesday, June 26, 2007; 12:00 AM The big question right now among Republicans is how to remove Vice President Cheney from office. Even before this week's blockbuster series in The Post, discontent in Republican ranks was rising. As the reputed architect of the war in Iraq, Cheney is viewed as toxic, and as the administration's leading proponent of an attack on Iran, he is seen as dangerous. As long as he remains vice president, according to this thinking, he has the potential to drag down every member of the party -- including the presidential nominee -- in next year's elections. [Cheney]
Angler The Cheney Vice-presidency
Dick Cheney is the most influential and powerful man ever to hold the office of vice president. This series examines Cheney's largely hidden and little-understood role in crafting policies for the War on Terror, the economy and the environment. [Cheney]
A tale of two towns
Paul Rogers
Two controlled, imagined communities symbolise the global disorder and social polarisation that marks the era of war on terror. 21 - 06 - 2007
Two towns are currently taking shape, more or less at the opposite ends of Africa, although one is just into Asia. About as far south as you can go, and a few miles to the east of Cape Town lies Heritage Park.
When completed in a few months' time, Baladia really will look like any ordinary Arab town, although it might seem strange to recreate as much as a casbah in a brand new development. The reality is that Baladia will be a town entirely without Arabs, for its full name is the National Urban Training Centre (NUTC) for the Israeli Defence Forces
There is one other feature of Baladia which might give further pause for thought. Although it is located in the Negev desert in Israel and will be used initially by the Israeli Defence Forces, it is actually an American project. The entire "town" has been constructed by the United States army corps of engineers and paid for mainly through US military aid to Israel. It will, in due course, become a training centre for the US army and marine corps, readying them for deployment in Iraq or anywhere else in the middle east that US security policy takes them
It seems to occur to no one in the US military that just one effect of its commitment to the Baladia project will be to confirm in the minds of people right across the region that the war really is a joint US-Israeli operation. The crude al-Qaida propaganda of the "Crusader/Zionist war against Islam" will be so much easier to confirm in the minds of millions. For that reason alone, Baladia is likely to prove as deeply counterproductive as so many other aspects of George W Bush's disastrous war on terror. Both towns - Heritage Park and Baladia - are symbolic of the elite attitudes of the early 21st century. Heritage Park protects the few from the many and Baladia is yet another example of the imperative to maintain control. In their fundamental superficiality, they are grand evasions of the deeper issues of violence and radicalisation that they are ostensibly designed to address. [Terrorism] [Imperialism]
A Thirty Year War?
May 2007 - Paul Rogers
On 1 May 2003, President Bush made his speech on the deck of the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln, declaring that combat operations in Iraq were nearing an end. He did not use the phrase “mission accomplished”, although the speech was delivered with that banner as a backdrop and it became known by that name. What was widely expected at that time was that Iraq would make a transition to a strongly pro-American state in the heart of the Middle East and there would be a long-term US military presence. The end result of the brief war would be enhanced American status in the Persian Gulf region. At that time, a few analysts suggested otherwise, pointing to several features that might lead to a much longer conflict, possibly lasting thirty years
EU critical of U.S. farm subsidies
By Rob Hotakainen McClatchy Newspapers MOLENAARSGRAAF, Netherlands - Dutch farmer Nils den Besten wants to double the size of his 70-cow herd and begin using robotic milkers in three years. He says he doesn't need government handouts to do his job. As the European Union begins cutting its farm subsidies, den Besten figures he'll lose more than 20,000 euros per year (roughly $27,000). But he's ready to rely on the free market and says farmers in the United States shouldn't receive a guaranteed income, either. Long known for their liberal politics, many Europeans are getting increasingly conservative when it comes to agriculture. And as Congress prepares to pass a new farm bill, European critics are rankled that Washington is not moving to eliminate trade-distorting subsidies. They fear the payments are hurting farmers in the expanded 27-member European Union. "It's not fair. ... We will lose markets," said den Besten, 25. As part of a massive overhaul of agriculture, Europe is adopting a policy similar to the U.S. "Freedom to Farm" law, which was passed in 1996 as part of House Speaker Newt Gingrich's Republican Revolution. It was aimed at eliminating subsidies, but Congress scrapped it quickly when commodity prices fell. Lars Hoelgaard, the European Union's deputy director general for agriculture, said Europe has been copying U.S. policy, but the United States keeps changing its policy. With high corn prices, European officials are particularly puzzled by U.S. proposals to offer more subsidies for biofuels. "That's crazy, isn't it?" asked Hoelgaard, meeting with a group of American reporters in Brussels recently. "You don't need it." Jack Thurston, a former special adviser to the British agriculture minister, said the United States is now making agriculture a "nationalized industry." He said that violates the nation's history as a commerce-oriented country in search of new markets and innovation. "It's a very backward looking, Soviet-style approach," said Thurston. [Subsidies]
Magazine Ranks Iraq Second Most Unstable Country
By Robin Wright Washington Post Staff Writer Monday, June 18, 2007; 11:48 AM
Iraq now ranks as the second most unstable country in the world, ahead of war-ravaged or poverty-stricken countries such as Somalia, Zimbabwe, Ivory Coast, Congo, Afghanistan, Haiti and North Korea, according to the 2007 Failed State index issued today by Foreign Policy magazine and the Fund for Peace.
Online Sales Lose Steam as Buyers Grow Web-Weary
By MATT RICHTEL and BOB TEDESCHI Published: June 17, 2007 SAN FRANCISCO, June 16 — Has online retailing entered the Dot Calm era? Since the inception of the Web, online commerce has enjoyed hypergrowth, with annual sales increasing more than 25 percent over all, and far more rapidly in many categories. But in the last year, growth has slowed sharply in major sectors like books, tickets and office supplies. [E-commerce]
A Missile Defense Shield: Crazy Idea or Rational Objective?
by Immanuel Wallerstein
Commentary No. 211, June 15, 2007 George W. Bush has been pushing hard to establish what he calls a missile defense shield in the Czech Republic and Poland. Very few people think this is a sane idea. While the two east European governments seem to support it enthusiastically, public opinion polls show that their own populations are against it. Russia has denounced it openly. Germany has been fighting it more quietly. Iran has shown total indifference. And Joseph Cirincione, who has devoted his professional career to fighting nuclear proliferation, says that Bush is pushing "a technology that doesn't work against a threat that does not exist."
So is this just a crazy idea, one more piece of evidence that the Bush regime is irrational and not very astute? Not really. There is a rational objective behind all of this, and it's hardly a secret.
Donald Rumsfeld told us what is going on a long time ago. The policy of the present U.S. government is to use the so-called new Europe to constrain and limit the political role of the so-called old Europe - that is, use the east European governments against the west European governments. The United States, especially the Bush regime, does not want to see a strong Europe, one that would pursue a policy separate from that of the United States [Missile defense]
Will Sudan be Re-Colonized?
By Stephen Gowans The United States is maneuvering to introduce a UN peacekeeping force into Darfur, as a first step to securing control of the region’s vast supply of oil. US control of Darfur’s petroleum resources would deliver highly profitable investment opportunities to US firms, and scuttle China’s investment in the region, thereby slowing the rise of a strategic competitor whose continued industrial growth depends on secure access to foreign oil. Washington is using highly exaggerated charges of genocide as a justification for a UN intervention it would dominate, while at the same time opposing a workable peacekeeping plan acceptable to the Sudanese government that would see the current African Union mission in Darfur expand.
A chess match is now been played out between pro-intervention members of the Security Council (the US and Britain), those opposed (China), and Khartoum, whose approval is required before UN troops can be deployed. From Khartoum’s and China’s point of view, an outright rejection of a UN mission is undesirable because it could hand Washington and London a pretext to assemble a coalition of the willing to invade Sudan. Both countries, then, have an interest in compromising on a UN peacekeeping mission, so long as it is held in check by significant AU participation. [Manipulation}
After the Bomb
By WILLIAM J. PERRY, ASHTON B. CARTER and MICHAEL M. MAY
Published: June 12, 2007 THE probability of a nuclear weapon one day going off in an American city cannot be calculated, but it is larger than it was five years ago. Potential sources of bombs or the fissile materials to make them have proliferated in North Korea and Iran. Russia’s arsenal remains incompletely secured 15 years after the end of the Soviet Union. And Pakistan’s nuclear technology, already put on the market once by Abdul Qadeer Khan, could go to terrorists if the president, Gen. Pervez Musharraf, cannot control radicals in that country. In the same period, terrorism has surged into a mass global movement and seems to gather strength daily as extremism spills out of Iraq into the rest of the Middle East, Asia, Europe and even the Americas. More nuclear materials that can be lost or stolen plus more terrorists aspiring to mass destruction equals a greater chance of nuclear terrorism.
New State Department center aims to counter terrorists' messages
By Warren P. Strobel McClatchy Newspapers
WASHINGTON - A long-awaited Bush administration public diplomacy strategy, intended to counter the steep decline in America's global image, calls for the creation of a new State Department center aimed solely at countering the spread of terrorist ideology. U.S. officials said the Counterterrorism Communications Center, now being formed at the State Department and staffed heavily with military and intelligence officers, will provide a rapid response to propaganda by U.S. adversaries. It will develop messages "to undermine and marginalize extremist ideology and propaganda" and "aggressively rebut and efficiently respond to actions and statements by terrorist groups and leaders across the world." The recommendation is one of several in a 34-page strategy document, which was completed last month by Undersecretary of State Karen Hughes, a longtime confidante of President Bush. It has been shared with some members of Congress but hasn't been formally released. [Softpower]
Malaysia Dismisses U.S. List on Human Trafficking
By REUTERS Published: June 13, 2007 Filed at 6:38 a.m. ET KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) - Malaysia, ranked by the United States as among the worst human trafficking offenders, on Wednesday dismissed the listing which carries the threat of sanctions as unjustified. "We can't react to something that does not take into account of what we have done," Foreign Minister Syed Hamid Albar was quoted as saying by the online version of the Star newspaper. He said Kuala Lumpur had taken adequate steps to protect migrant workers. "No single country can act as investigator, prosecutor and judge against another," he said. But he added Malaysia, a U.S. ally and home to more than one million foreign workers, would not lodge a formal protest with Washington. In its annual report on human trafficking published on Tuesday, the U.S. State Department added Malaysia to its list of 16 countries subjected to possible sanctions, including the loss of U.S. aid and U.S. support for World Bank and International Monetary Fund loans. Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Algeria and Equatorial Guinea were also added to the bottom -- Tier 3 -- ranking of countries that failed to meet minimum U.S. standards on combating human trafficking or of making significant efforts to improve their record. The others in this category were Cuba, Iran, Myanmar, North Korea, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Syria, Uzbekistan and Venezuela. Under U.S. law, these countries have 90 days to improve their records or face sanctions. The Bush administration can choose not to impose sanctions if it wishes. Rights groups say such U.S. blacklists sometimes appear politically motivated. [Manipulation]
Japan, Financial Stability and the World Economy: Two Perspectives
Thomas I. Palley and R. Taggart Murphy
This architecture has been labeled “Bretton Woods II.” In contrast to the first Bretton Woods, a series of formal institutions drawn up in 1944 that enthroned the U.S. dollar at the center of the postwar global financial order, Bretton Woods II is a product of ad hoc institutional arrangements that have taken shape since 1973 when Bretton Woods I broke up. The most important of these arrangements are structural U.S. trade and current account deficits, structural Japanese trade and current account surpluses joined in the last decade by Chinese surpluses of comparable scale, accommodative monetary policy in Japan that has as its principal objective a stable yen/dollar rate at a level that gives Japanese exporters an edge in global markets, and, most recently, a rapid accumulation of dollar reserves in China. The arrangements serve the political interests of the three countries that support them. They permit Americans to enjoy standards of living higher than they otherwise could and allow the United States to project military power around the world at low cost since financing can be done in the U.S. currency and repayments postponed indefinitely. These arrangements are crucial to China’s dash for great power status since they allow for the rapid accumulation of production and employment capacity. The arrangements have enabled Japan to thrive under the political settlement put in place in the 1950s without substantive overhaul and, more recently, to maintain the essence of its political and economic system while riding out what in absolute terms was the largest financial crisis in world history. To be sure, these arrangements have had unintended and unwanted side effects that have had to be controlled – the asset bubbles stemming from the yen carry trade being one of them (the loss of much of American manufacturing capacity and concomitant effect on American middle class economic security being another). But until these side effects become intolerable to the political and economic elites of one or more of these countries, the arrangements that produced them will continue. And when one of these institutional arrangements does finally unravel – whether it be Japan’s low interest policies, China’s dollar buildup, or chronic U.S. deficits –it will not unravel in isolation.
The Real Cost Of Offshoring
U.S. data show that moving jobs overseas hasn't hurt the economy. Here's why those stats are wrong
COVER STORY By Michael Mandel JUNE 18, 2007
Whenever critics of globalization complain about the loss of American jobs to low-cost countries such as China and India, supporters point to the powerful performance of the U.S. economy. And with good reason. Despite the latest slow quarter, official statistics show that America's economic output has grown at a solid 3.3% annual rate since 2003, a period when imports from low-cost countries have soared. Similarly, domestic manufacturing output has expanded at a decent pace. On the face of it, offshoring doesn't seem to be having much of an effect at all. But new evidence suggests that shifting production overseas has inflicted worse damage on the U.S. economy than the numbers show. BusinessWeek has learned of a gaping flaw in the way statistics treat offshoring, with serious economic and political implications. Top government statisticians now acknowledge that the problem exists, and say it could prove to be significant.
Chinese Leave Guantánamo for Albanian Limbo
By TIM GOLDEN Published: June 10, 2007 TIRANA, Albania — Ahktar Qassim Basit says he is not angry about the four years he spent as an American prisoner at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, before his captors mumbled a brief apology and flew him to this drab Balkan capital to begin a new life as a refugee. It is this new life in Albania, Mr. Basit and other former Guantánamo detainees say, that is driving them to desperation. The men, Muslims from western China’s Uighur ethnic minority, were freed from their confinement in Cuba after they were found to pose no threat to the United States. They have now lived for more than a year in a squalid government refugee center on the grubby outskirts of Tirana, guarded by armed policemen. The men have been told that they will need to get work to move out of the center, they said, but that they must learn the Albanian language to get work permits.
Military Envisions Longer Stay in Iraq
Officers Anticipate Small 'Post-Occupation' Force By Thomas E. Ricks Washington Post Staff Writer Sunday, June 10, 2007; Page A01 BAGHDAD -- U.S. military officials here are increasingly envisioning a "post-occupation" troop presence in Iraq that neither maintains current levels nor leads to a complete pullout, but aims for a smaller, longer-term force that would remain in the country for years.
International Ignominy
By Gilles d'Aymery
Culture/Reviews From Swans Commentary When Denis J. Halliday tendered his resignation from his posts after 13 months on the job (September 1997 - October 1998) as UN Assistant Secretary General and UN Humanitarian Coordinator in Iraq where he managed the Oil-for-Food Programme, and with a 34-year career at the United Nations, then-Secretary-General Kofi Annan turned to another experienced international civil servant, Hans C. von Sponeck, to carry on the UN mission. Sponeck had joined the UN Development Program in 1968. He had worked in Ghana, Turkey, Botswana, Pakistan, and India, and had become the Director of the UNDP European Office in Geneva - an assignment that he had confessed to the General-Secretary he found "boring." Following his new assignment in October 1998, Sponeck arrived in Baghdad on November 8, 1998. He did not last much longer than Denis Halliday. Sponeck resigned from his positions on February 10, 2000. Like Halliday, who had said that, "We are in the process of destroying an entire society. It is as simple and terrifying as that," Sponeck decided that he could not remain associated with the punishing policies against the Iraqi people that he judged were genocidal in nature - policies that had only one goal, regime change. In the years ahead, both of them worked tirelessly to stop the inevitable march to madness, the March 2003 invasion of this ravaged and mutilated country. A Different Kind of War is not for the faint-hearted reader. The wrenching suffering of the Iraqi people it recounts cannot be read without feeling ill to the point of nausea and experiencing a deep sense of anger and outrage, as well as immense sadness, by the unfathomable tragedy that befell this peaceful people - mere pawns sacrificed on the checkerboard of great gamesmanship between an authoritarian government fallen out of grace and the parochial interests of a few Western nations, principally the U.S. and the U.K., amidst the almost total indifference of the Community of Nations. Even Mr. von Sponeck, a polished and consummate diplomat, can hardly hide his sense of anguish and shame as he meticulously reviews what author and journalist John Pilger has referred to as "one of the greatest acts of aggression: the medieval siege of Iraq." [Sanctions]
Fla. School Board Asks to Pull Cuba Book
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Published: June 6, 2007 Filed at 3:56 p.m. ET
MIAMI (AP) -- Civil-liberties lawyers Wednesday defended a book about Cuba that omits references to Fidel Castro's communist government, as a judge asked them to compare the work to a hypothetical book about Adolf Hitler that didn't mention the Holocaust. The discussion came as the Miami-Dade County School District asked the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for permission to remove 49 copies of ''Vamos a Cuba'' and its English-language version, ''A Visit to Cuba,'' from its libraries. The board argues that the books, for children ages 5 to 8, present an inaccurate view of life in Cuba. [Human rights]
Ten accused of conspiring to oust government of Laos
Ten men -- including a prominent Hmong general who commanded CIA operatives fighting communists during the Vietnam War -- were charged in Sacramento federal court Monday with plotting to overthrow the government of Laos. The men, who also include Harrison Ulrich Jack -- a 1968 West Point graduate and retired Army infantry officer from Woodland -- allegedly conspired to obtain scores of AK-47 assault rifles, ground-to-air Stinger missiles, anti-tank weapons, mines, rockets, explosives and smoke grenades with which to oust the Laotian communist regime.
Iraq: It's the Analogy, Stupid
[Opinion] Bush embrace of 'Korean model' for Iraq fails on all counts
Timothy Savage yamanin Published 2007-06-05 04:40 (KST)
While the Democratic Party continues to tie itself in knots over whether or not to set a timetable for American troop withdrawal from Iraq, President George W. Bush apparently has his own idea of when the troops will come back: never. According to a report in The New York Times (David Sanger, "U.S. Looks to Korea as Model for Iraq," 6/4/07), the White House is now contemplating applying the "Korea model" to Iraq, turning the country into a U.S. military base for the foreseeable future. For an administration that specializes in using simplistic historical analogy as a basis for policymaking, the comparison of Iraq to Korea represents a new watershed in absurdity. Even the most rudimentary examination of the history of U.S. involvement in Korea would demonstrate the folly of the comparison.
The Korean Analogy
By Harold Meyerson Wednesday, June 6, 2007; Page A23 So it turns out that Iraq is like South Korea. It took the Bush administration more than four years from the time U.S. forces invaded Iraq to formulate this thought -- or, more precisely, to promulgate it. There's substantial evidence that the administration has actually envisioned, and been building, permanent, large-scale U.S. military bases in Iraq for two years. But until the past couple of weeks, it denied it had plans for permanent bases there.
To begin -- and it is a defining trait of the Bush presidency that its critics are continually compelled to point out the obvious -- nobody is shooting at our forces in Korea. There is no sectarian violence; no war of each against all. Our soldiers are there as a deterrent to North Korea, should that malignant Stalinist fantasyland contemplate invading the South, just as our soldiers in Germany were there as a deterrent to a Soviet invasion during the Cold War.
And You Thought the Cold War Was Gone For Good?
Conn Hallinan | May 11, 2007
The current brouhaha over a U.S. plan to deploy anti-ballistic missiles (ABM) in Poland has nothing to do with a fear that Iran will attack Europe or the U.S. with nuclear tipped Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles (ICBM). It has a great deal to do with the Bush Administration's efforts to neutralize Russia's and China's nuclear deterrents and edge both countries out of Central Asia. The plan calls for deploying 10 ABMs in Poland and a radar system in the Czech Republic, supposedly to interdict missiles from "rogue states"—read North Korean and Iran. U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for International Security John Rood claims "North Korea possesses an ICBM range missile," and it is "certainly possible" that Pyongyang could sell some to Iran. Barring that, Tehran could build its own missile capable of striking Europe and the United States. But the North Korean Taepodong-2, which failed a recent test, is not a true ICBM—in a pinch it might reach Alaska. And Iran pledged in 2003 not to upgrade its intermediate missile, the Shihab-3. "Since there aren't, and won't be, any ICBMs [from North Korea and Iran], then against whom, against whom, is this system directed?" First Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Ivanov said < http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Central_Asia/ID28Ag01.html >last month, "Only against us." [Missile defense]

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MAY 2007

Pair jailed over Bush-Blair memo leak
Press Association Thursday May 10, 2007 Guardian Unlimited A civil servant and an MP's researcher were today jailed for leaking a secret memo about a meeting between Tony Blair and George Bush on Iraq. David Keogh, 50, who worked in Whitehall's communications centre, was jailed for six months at the Old Bailey for breaching the Official Secrets Act. The researcher to whom he gave the memo, Leo O'Connor, was jailed for three months on a similar charge for passing the document to his employer, the anti-war Labour MP for Northampton South, Anthony Clarke. [human rights] [double standards]
War Fears Turn to Cyberspace in Estonia
By MARK LANDLER and JOHN MARKOFF Published: May 29, 2007 TALLINN, Estonia, May 24 — When Estonian authorities began removing a bronze statue of a World War II-era Soviet soldier from a park in this bustling Baltic seaport last month, they expected violent street protests by Estonians of Russian descent. They also knew from experience that “if there are fights on the street, there are going to be fights on the Internet,” said Hillar Aarelaid, the director of Estonia’s Computer Emergency Response Team. After all, for people here the Internet is almost as vital as running water; it is used routinely to vote, file their taxes, and, with their cellphones, to shop or pay for parking.
The Russian government has denied any involvement in the attacks, which came close to shutting down the country’s digital infrastructure, clogging the Web sites of the president, the prime minister, Parliament and other government agencies, staggering Estonia’s biggest bank and overwhelming the sites of several daily newspapers. “It turned out to be a national security situation,” Estonia’s defense minister, Jaak Aaviksoo, said in an interview. “It can effectively be compared to when your ports are shut to the sea.” Computer security experts from NATO, the European Union, the United States and Israel have since converged on Tallinn to offer help and to learn what they can about cyberwar in the digital age. [Cyberwar]
Japan Tops World Auto Market, South Korea Ranks Fifth
Japan has regained its position as the world's largest car producer after 13 years. China ranks third following the United States and outdistancing Germany. According to statistics for 2006 published by the Organisation Internationale des Constructeurs d'Automobiles on Monday, Japan overtook the U.S. by producing 11.48 million cars, up 6.3 percent from 2005 (10.8 million cars). Japan was the world's top car-producing country from 1980 to 1993 but fell to second in 1994. The U.S. slipped to second for the first time since 1994, producing 11.26 million vehicles. U.S. production decreased 5.7 percent from 2005 (11.95 million cars), registering a decrease for the fourth consecutive year. China produced 7.19 million cars in 2006, overtaking Germany, which manufactured 5.82 million cars, and becoming the world's third-ranking car-producing nation. China's production showed a sharp increase of 25.9% from 2005 (5.71 million cars). South Korea ranked fifth, producing 3.94 million cars, up 4.3 percent from 2005. France, the sixth-ranked country, made 3.17 million cars, down 10.7 percent from the previous year and lagging far behind South Korea.
House of Lords Economic Affairs Committee report on economic sanctions\
Implications for policy towards North Korea and Iran
124. Reliance on sanctions as the main means of resolving the current disputes with North Korea and Iran appears to be a recipe for failure.
125. Lord Renwick stressed that fear for security in the case of either state will promote intransigence (Q 281). We found it plausible that this has been a central consideration. Iraq was unwillingly denuclearised under international control only following massive aerial bombing and then exceptionally severe economic sanctions, with regime security concerns slowing compliance. This experience suggests that Iran and North Korea can only be coerced into changing their nuclear policies by the kind of sanctions, reinforced by bombing, that are so costly in humanitarian terms that they are unlikely to be imposed due to widespread political opposition, or by invasion and occupation, with all its attendant uncertainties, costs and risks of escalation. Libya’s abandonment of its nuclear ambitions showed that substantial economic sanctions can contribute to a positive outcome only with full US commitment to abandoning regime change and normalising relations in all spheres.
126. The prospects for success would appear to be maximised by a pragmatic emphasis on securing a sustained US commitment to broader international initiatives offering lifting of sanctions, economic incentives, diplomatic recognition and security guarantees. These incentives should be phased and coordinated with verifiable, reciprocal steps by North Korea and Iran. [Sanctions]
House of Lords Economic Affairs Committee report on economic sanctions: evidence
[Sanctions]
Deal Is Offered for Chief's Exit at World Bank
By STEVEN R. WEISMAN Published: May 8, 2007 WASHINGTON, May 7 - Leading governments of Europe, mounting a new campaign to push Paul D. Wolfowitz from his job as World Bank president, signaled Monday that they were willing to let the United States choose the bank's next chief, but only if Mr. Wolfowitz stepped down soon, European officials said. European officials had previously indicated that they wanted to end the tradition of the United States picking the World Bank leader. But now the officials are hoping to enlist American help in persuading Mr. Wolfowitz to resign voluntarily, rather than be rebuked or ousted.
A Forgotten Holocaust: US Bombing Strategy, the Destruction of Japanese Cities and the American Way of War from the Pacific War to Iraq [*]
Mark Selden
World War II was a landmark in the development and deployment of technologies of mass destruction associated with air power, notably the B-29 bomber, napalm and the atomic bomb. An estimated 50 to 70 million people lay dead in its wake. In a sharp reversal of the pattern of World War I and of most earlier wars, a substantial majority of the dead were noncombatants. [1] The air war, which reached peak intensity with the area bombing, including atomic bombing, of major European and Japanese cities in its final year, had a devastating impact on noncombatant populations. What is the logic and what have been the consequences—for its victims, for subsequent global patterns of warfare and for international law—of new technologies of mass destruction and their application associated with the rise of air power and bombing technology in World War II and after? Above all, how have these experiences shaped the American way of war over six decades in which the United States has been a major actor in important wars? The issues have particular salience in an epoch whose central international discourse centers on terror and the War on Terror, one in which the terror inflicted on noncombatants by the major powers is frequently neglected. [Double standards]
Former warlord Mohamed Dheere takes control in Somali capital
By Mahad Elmi and Shashank Bengali McClatchy Newspapers MOGADISHU, Somalia - A former warlord who for a time had been on the CIA payroll was sworn in Friday as mayor of Mogadishu and announced a plan to pacify this turbulent African capital within three months by requiring residents to turn in their guns. [Imperialism]
Bush Adviser Leaving White House
By DEB RIECHMANN The Associated Press Friday, May 4, 2007; 3:26 AM WASHINGTON -- Public support for the Iraq war is wavering. Lawmakers are battling the White House over money to fund the combat. Suicide bombings continue in Baghdad. Despite it all, J.D. Crouch, who is stepping down from his national security post at the White House, is confident history will prove that invading Iraq was the right thing to do.
Crouch, who has been President Bush's deputy national security adviser for more than two years, said the president never will be swayed by opposition to the war. Instead, Crouch said, Bush will use his resolve to help convince a broad section of Americans that it's important to be in Iraq.
"These are not things that can be solved by military solutions," Crouch said. That might sound a bit soft from a man who in 1995 thought North Korea's nuclear program was so ominous that the United States should send more troops to South Korea, redeploy U.S. nuclear weapons in South Korea and plan airstrikes against Pyongyang just in case talking to the North Koreans didn't work out. "Diplomacy in Pyongyang without military power is appeasement, plain and simple," he wrote more than 10 years ago when he was associate professor of defense and strategic studies at Southwest Missouri State University. [Hawk]
U.S. Seeks Closing of Visa Loophole for Britons
By JANE PERLEZ Published: May 2, 2007 LONDON, May 1 - Omar Khyam, the ringleader of the thwarted London bomb plot who was sentenced to life imprisonment on Monday, showed the potential for disaffected young men to be lured as terrorists, a threat that British officials said they would have to contend with for a generation.
But the 25-year-old Mr. Khyam, a Briton of Pakistani descent, also personifies a larger and more immediate concern: as a British citizen, he could have entered the United States without a visa, like many of an estimated 800,000 other Britons of Pakistani origin. [Human rights] [Double standards] [Global insurgency]
Congress seeks to delay free access to U.S. roads
By Paul M. Krawzak COPLEY NEWS SERVICE May 1, 2007
WASHINGTON – Federal transportation officials announced yesterday they would delay opening U.S. highways to Mexican long-haul trucks until Mexico opens its borders to U.S. carriers. The announcement followed congressional pressure for the government to delay a one-year project to demonstrate that Mexican trucks can operate safely in the United States.
Hoon admits fatal errors in planning for postwar Iraq
Patrick Wintour, political editor Wednesday May 2, 2007 The Guardian
A catalogue of errors over planning for Iraq after the invasion, and an inability to influence key figures in the US administration, led to anarchy in Iraq from which the country has not recovered, the British defence secretary during the invasion admits today. In an exclusive interview with the Guardian, Geoff Hoon reveals that Britain disagreed with the US administration over two key decisions in May 2003, two months after the invasion - to disband Iraq's army and "de-Ba'athify" its civil service. Mr Hoon also said he and other senior ministers completely underestimated the role and influence of the vice-president, Dick Cheney. "Sometimes ... Tony had made his point with the president, and I'd made my point with Don [Rumsfeld] and Jack [Straw] had made his point with Colin [Powell] and the decision actually came out of a completely different place. And you think: what did we miss? I think we missed Cheney." [Dissension] [Dick Cheney]
April May Have Been One of Rice's Cruelest Months
By REUTERS May 1, 2007 Filed at 0:40 a.m. ET WASHINGTON (Reuters) - For U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, April may have been one of the cruelest months. There is little good news on U.S. foreign policy from Iraq and Afghanistan to North Korea and Russia. On the domestic front, Rice has been subpoenaed to testify about erroneous intelligence used to justify the Iraq war, has fended off criticism from former CIA Director George Tenet and has watched one of her top aides resign amid a sex scandal. Few analysts could cite recent diplomatic victories for the administration; all said challenges abound. Violence rages in Iraq and the U.S.-backed government there has yet to forge the political compromises that many analysts believe are mandatory to end the strife. In Afghanistan, U.S. and NATO forces face a revived Taliban insurgency more than five years after U.S.-led troops toppled the Taliban regime that harbored al Qaeda. Analysts said the U.S. commitments in both countries, as well as the complexity of the problems they face and the heavy U.S. resources they demand, are constraining U.S. foreign policy elsewhere. ``Quite clearly the fact that we have most of our forces tied up in Iraq and Afghanistan is not lost on the rest of the world,'' said Daniel Serwer of the U.S. Institute for Peace think tank. ``When Gulliver is tied down, everybody knows it.'' ``You've got some long-term trends, like the war in Iraq and the (Republican) loss of Congress, which are narrowing the options and the chickens are coming home to roost,'' said Rand Corporation analyst James Dobbins. One area where the State Department claimed success just a few months ago was North Korea, following its February 13 agreement to take steps to give up its nuclear programs in exchange for the prospect of economic and other benefits. However, Pyongyang missed one of the deal's first deadlines on April 14 by failing to shut down its nuclear reactor at Yongbyon because of a financial dispute. 'WEAK HAND' Last week alone, Rice suffered several setbacks. On Wednesday, a congressional committee subpoenaed her to testify about the 2003 White House claim -- since discredited -- that Iraq sought to acquire uranium from Niger. On Thursday, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced plans to freeze Moscow's commitments under a European arms control deal, a move that increased tensions. On Friday, Rice accepted the abrupt resignation of Randall Tobias, a U.S. deputy secretary of state in charge of foreign aid, after he told ABC News he had called an escort service ``to have gals come over to the condo to give me a massage.'' Tobias, 65, said there had been no sex, ABC reported. On Sunday, Rice spent much of her morning on television talk shows responding to Tenet's claim in his new memoir that ''there was never a serious debate that I know of within the administration about the imminence of the Iraqi threat.'' State Department spokesman Sean McCormack rejected the idea that it had been an exceptionally difficult week. ``In this business, I have lived through some really bad weeks. The week of September 11 -- that was a bad week,'' McCormack said. ``Last week -- this is what happens in the conduct of foreign policy. It's what happens in Washington.'' Carlos Pascual, the director of foreign policy studies at the Brookings Institution, gave credit to the administration for maintaining coalitions to deal with North Korea and Iran, which Washington also accuses of developing nuclear weapons. ``When you deal with rogue actors like North Korea you can't expect them to do what they say they will do. You have to build in the resilience to come back at them,'' Pascual said. ``It's too early to draw conclusions that the North Korea policy is a failure ... or that she'll never get anywhere on the Middle East, or that the Iran opening is a charade,'' said Dobbins. ``I wouldn't be drawing judgments except that, given the weak hand she is playing, the odds for success are long.'' [BDA] [Blame] [Dissension]
U.S. Strengthens Presence in Okinawa and Guam
Apr 27, 2007 David Axe
U.S. is building up forces on strategic islands in the Far East Printed headline: Fortress Hubs U.S. Air Force KC-135R Stratotanker angles toward Kadena Air Base from the sea, its four turbofans idling as it flares for landing. A Navy P-3C Orion patrol plane is visible through the bluish smoke as the tanker's tires touch the runway. The P-3C accelerates to its place in a long line of aircraft waiting to take off, including F-15C Eagle fighters and, for the first time outside the U.S., brand-new F-22A Raptor stealth fighters on a three-month deployment from Langley, Va. One by one the fighters roar into the bright blue sky over this Japanese island, heading for an ocean range where they will practice aerial combat and tanking, preparing for the day when they might be ordered to sweep the skies of Chinese or North Korean warplanes as part of the defense of Taiwan or a bombing campaign against Kim Jong Il's nuclear facilities. [China confrontation]
In the Trenches of the New Cold War: The US, Russia and the new great game in Eurasia
By M K Bhadrakumar Curiously, it had to be on the fateful day when Russia had begun brooding over former president Boris Yeltsin's final, ambivalent legacy that US Defense Secretary Robert Gates arrived on his first official visit to Moscow. Hardly had Yeltsin, archetypal symbol of post-Soviet Russia's "Westernism", departed than Gates, one of spymaster John le Carre's "Smiley's people", arrived on a mission to let the Kremlin know that no matter Russian sensitivities, Washington was going ahead with its deployment of missile-defense systems along Russia's borders. Gates reminded the Russians how little had changed since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. [Imperialism][Russia confrontation]

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APRIL 2007

Fascist America, in 10 easy steps
From Hitler to Pinochet and beyond, history shows there are certain steps that any would-be dictator must take to destroy constitutional freedoms. And, argues Naomi Wolf, George Bush and his administration seem to be taking them all Tuesday April 24, 2007 The Guardian
Last autumn, there was a military coup in Thailand. The leaders of the coup took a number of steps, rather systematically, as if they had a shopping list. In a sense, they did. Within a matter of days, democracy had been closed down: the coup leaders declared martial law, sent armed soldiers into residential areas, took over radio and TV stations, issued restrictions on the press, tightened some limits on travel, and took certain activists into custody. They were not figuring these things out as they went along. If you look at history, you can see that there is essentially a blueprint for turning an open society into a dictatorship. That blueprint has been used again and again in more and less bloody, more and less terrifying ways. But it is always effective. It is very difficult and arduous to create and sustain a democracy - but history shows that closing one down is much simpler. You simply have to be willing to take the 10 steps. As difficult as this is to contemplate, it is clear, if you are willing to look, that each of these 10 steps has already been initiated today in the United States by the Bush administration.
A Saudi Prince Tied to Bush Is Sounding Off-Key
WASHINGTON, April 28 - No foreign diplomat has been closer or had more access to President Bush, his family and his administration than the magnetic and fabulously wealthy Prince Bandar bin Sultan of Saudi Arabia. Prince Bandar has mentored Mr. Bush and his father through three wars and the broader campaign against terrorism, reliably delivering - sometimes in the Oval Office - his nation's support for crucial Middle East initiatives dependent on the regional legitimacy the Saudis could bring, as well as timely warnings of Saudi regional priorities that might put it into apparent conflict with the United States. Even after his 22-year term as Saudi ambassador ended in 2005, he still seemed the insider's insider. But now, current and former Bush administration officials are wondering if the longtime reliance on him has begun to outlive its usefulness. Bush administration officials have been scratching their heads over steps taken by Prince Bandar's uncle, King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia, that have surprised them by going against the American playbook, after receiving assurances to the contrary from Prince Bandar during secret trips he made to Washington.
Since the Iraq war and the attendant plummeting of America's image in the Muslim world, King Abdullah has been striving to set a more independent and less pro-American course, American and Arab officials said. And that has steered America's relationship with its staunchest Arab ally into uncharted waters. Prince Bandar, they say, may no longer be able to serve as an unerring beacon of Saudi intent. [Realignment]
Islamic street preachers
From Boston to Lahore and beyond, the tentacles of taqwacore - aka Islamic punk rock - are spreading. And it's giving disenfranchised young Muslims a voice, says Riazat Butt
Saturday April 28, 2007 The Guardian There can't be that many female playwrights who are deaf, punk and Muslim, so Sabina England is something of a find. With a lurid Mohawk and leather jacket slathered with slogans, she looks every inch the rebel and has an attitude to match. Sabina, who says she lives in the "shitty midwest of the United States" or the "HELL-HOLE OF BOREDOM AND YUPPIES", is part of a subculture that, until a few years ago, existed only on paper.
Tenet Details Efforts to Justify Invading Iraq
Former CIA Director Says White House Focused on the Idea Long Before 9/11 By Karen DeYoungWashington Post Staff Writer Saturday, April 28, 2007; Page A01 White House and Pentagon officials, and particularly Vice President Cheney, were determined to attack Iraq from the first days of the Bush administration, long before the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, and repeatedly stretched available intelligence to build support for the war, according to a new book by former CIA director George J. Tenet. Although Tenet does not question the threat Saddam Hussein posed or the sincerity of administration beliefs, he recounts numerous efforts by aides to Cheney and then-Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld to insert "crap" into public justifications for the war. Tenet also describes an ongoing fear within the intelligence community of the administration's willingness to "mischaracterize complex intelligence information."
The Iraq insurgents’ surge
Paul Rogers
26 - 4 - 2007 Iraqi fighters are finding new ways to counter and stall the United States’s military strategy.
The build-up of United States forces in Iraq as part of the "surge" is now past its halfway point, with three of the five additional combat brigades deployed, principally in Baghdad. The policy is evidently facing severe setbacks - including the attack on the Iraqi parliament and on one of the main bridges over the Tigris in Baghdad, and numerous bombings and murders. The relentless insurgent assault continues against both US forces (eighty-seven of whom have been killed in the first twenty-five days of April 2007) and their Iraqi allies (nine of whom lost their lives in a suicide-bomb attack at an army checkpoint in Khalis, Diyala province, on 26 April). At the same time, the supporters of the new policy remain active in insisting that it is working or can be made to work
Ex-C.I.A. Chief, in Book, Assails Cheney on Iraq
By SCOTT SHANE and MARK MAZZETTI Published: April 27, 2007 WASHINGTON, April 26 - George J. Tenet, the former director of central intelligence, has lashed out against Vice President Dick Cheney and other Bush administration officials in a new book, saying they pushed the country to war in Iraq without ever conducting a "serious debate" about whether Saddam Hussein posed an imminent threat to the United States.
U.S., Venezuelan officials clash over alleged terrorist Luis Posada
By Pablo Bachelet McClatchy Newspapers
WASHINGTON - Venezuela's ambassador to the Organization of American States on Wednesday accused Washington of protecting alleged terrorist Luis Posada Carriles, drawing a sharp reply from the lead U.S. diplomat at the session. Nelson Pineda, Venezuela's envoy to the OAS, said Posada is believed to have "planned or carried out" terrorist acts in 20 of the hemisphere's 35 nations, including Cuba, Venezuela and the United States. He charged that the State Department has ignored Venezuela's extradition request. Posada is wanted in Venezuela in connection with a 1976 bombing of a Cuban airliner that killed 73 people. He was arrested in Miami in 2005 and was freed on bond last week pending trial on immigration fraud charges. [Terrorism] [Double standards]
Obama: Bush Falls Short As World Leader
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Published: April 24, 2007 Filed at 1:56 a.m. ET CHICAGO (AP) -- Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama said Monday that President Bush has fallen short in his role as leader of the free world, and the 2008 election is a chance to change that. ''This president may occupy the White House, but for the last six years the position of leader of the free world has remained open. And it is time to fill that role once more,'' Obama said in a speech to the Chicago Council on Global Affairs.
Another would be to increase the overall size of the military by adding 65,000 soldiers to the Army and 27,000 Marines, forces stretched thin fighting wars abroad and protecting the homeland.
Also, he said the world must stop Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons and work to eliminate North Korea's nuclear weapons program. ''If America does not lead, these two nations could trigger regional arms races that could accelerate nuclear proliferation on a global scale and create dangerous nuclear flash points,'' he said.
Activists Pushing Disinvestment in Iran
By REUTERS Published: April 22, 2007 Filed at 12:45 p.m. ET Skip to next paragraph WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. efforts to force Iran to change its behavior have expanded beyond the White House to Main Street and threaten the broadest financial disinvestment campaign since South African apartheid ended. Momentum is growing for a movement that encourages Americans to withdraw investments in companies doing business with the Islamic republic, as well as other states perceived by Washington as security problems -- Sudan, North Korea and Syria. In the 1980s, an international disinvestment campaign helped undermine racial apartheid in South Africa and open the way for black-majority governance after decades of white-minority rule. Activists believe a similar strategy today could defuse threats from what the United States brands terrorism-sponsoring states. [Sanctions]
Wal-Mart's Midlife Crisis
Declining growth, increasing competition, and not an easy fix in sight
COVER STORY By Anthony Bianco John E. Fleming, Wal-Mart's newly appointed chief merchandising officer, is staring hard at a display of $14 women's T-shirts in a Supercenter a few miles from the retailer's Bentonville (Ark.) headquarters. The bright-hued stretch T's carry Wal-Mart's own George label and are of a quality and stylishness not commonly associated with America's über-discounter. What vexes Fleming is that numerous sizes are out of stock in about half of the 12 colors, including frozen kiwi and black soot.
Fleming may be America's most powerful merchant, but a timely solution is beyond him even so. Wal-Mart failed to order enough of these China-made T-shirts
The odds are that Scott, or his successor, will have to choose between continuing to disappoint Wall Street or milking the U.S. operation for profits better reinvested overseas. Only by hitting the business development equivalent of the lottery in countries like China, India, or Brazil can the world's largest retailer hope to restore the robust growth that once seemed like a birthright. [Globalisation]
Iraq Options and US Politics
March 2007 - Paul Rogers
Introduction By the early part of 2007, the results of the 2006 mid-sessional elections to Congress were beginning to have a substantial political effect in the United States. The Democrats in both Houses of Congress were seeking to link military expenditure to a timetable for withdrawal from Iraq and the Bush administration was beginning to use such policies to blame the Democrats for limitations on the conduct of the war. Given that the administration had rejected the recommendations of the Baker Hamilton Commission and was proceeding to reinforce the US military commitments in Iraq, this meant that developments in that country would be of central political importance in the United States as the 2008 Presidential Election campaign began to take shape.
Bush Passes Up Comedy at Media Dinner
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Published: April 22, 2007 Filed at 1:51 a.m. ET WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Bush, deferring to the tragedy at Virginia Tech, passed up any attempt to be funny at the White House Correspondents' Association dinner Saturday, leaving those efforts to impersonator Rich Little. Returning to the podium at the annual dinner after 23 years, Little made good on his promise to be gentle. Little's material was safe if occasionally a little raunchy. He dusted off his impersonations of six presidents, from Nixon to the current occupant of the White House, and avoided any reference to current political issues. The association also was presenting its top reporting awards, announced earlier this month: --David Sanger of the New York Times and Martha Raddatz of ABC News, the Merriman Smith Award, the top journalism award for White House reporting under deadline pressure. Sanger was recognized for his report on North Korea's nuclear test. Raddatz won for her coverage of the death of al-Qaida leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. [Media]
PBS 'America at a Crossroads': 'The Case for War'
Transcript
Richard Perle
Chairman, Defense Policy Board, 2001-2003 Tuesday, April 17, 2007; 11:00 AM Richard Perle, former assistant secretary of Defense under Reagan and a chief White House proponent of the Iraq War, was online Tuesday, April 17 at 11 a.m. ET to discuss "The Case for War: In Defense of Freedom" -- the second installment of PBS's "America at a Crossroads" series -- which follows him as he travels the globe articulating, defending and debating the neoconservative case for an assertive American foreign policy.
The transcript follows. Perle is a resident fellow at the American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research. He served the Reagan administration as assistant Secretary of Defense from 1981 to 1987, and served on the Defense Policy Board Advisory Committee from 1987 to 2004. He was Chairman of the Defense Policy Board Advisory Committee from 2001 to 2003 under the Bush administration.
Richard Perle: I hope that those who are interested enough in the program to have found time to comment this morning will watch the whole series. The Corporation for Public Broadcasting and PBS have done something different, important and innovative in inviting 20 independent filmmakers to offer contributions to these very difficult issues. I hope we will see more of this in the future. Michael Pack, who is now producing his own programs, deserves great credit for establishing this series. Do watch. Fort Myers, Fla.: Mr. Perle, are you a registered lobbyist or foreign agent, and which defense contractors do you presently work for? Thank you. Richard Perle: I do not lobby for anyone and I am not working for defense contractors. And what do you do?
Alexandria, Va.: No one said that defeating and rebuilding Iraq would be a cakewalk. Would you say that the current situation is as expected? If not, what should we have done differently? Also, how long do you think current conditions will remain -- that is, continued terrorist violence and U.S. troops playing a major role in combating terrorism?
Richard Perle: I believe that we should have handed political authority to the Iraqis the day Saddam's army collapsed. The occupation, with the U.S. trying to govern in place of Iraqis, was the seminal error. We could remove Saddam, but we could not build a new Iraq. Only the Iraqis could do that. [Neocons] [Bizarre]
Your Job Is Being Exported to India
Until recently a company named "D," a medium-sized Internet service provider, was having a hard time recruiting good software developers. After a long search, the company found the workers it needed overseas. On an U.S.-based jobs auction website, D Company discovered over 170,000 computer programmers looking for work. They come from countries around the world, including India, Romania, Pakistan, and Russia. Employer and employee seldom if ever meet in person. The programmers work on their home computers and file their finished jobs online about a month after they are assigned. So far this year D Company has assigned three jobs to programmers it has found on the auction site. "There are a lot of experienced, top-notch programmers on the site," an executive from D Company said. "And we're happy because they finish their jobs fast." In a similar manner, Naver, a local Internet portal, has employed for the last two years 230 Korean-Chinese people at a Chinese agency in Beijing to ferret out pornographic materials from Naver's web pages. The employees can speak Korean and they don't complain about working overnight, and they get paid less than half what their counterparts get in South Korea. We now live in an era of globalization when international borders have become almost meaningless
And it's not just the menial sort of white-collar jobs, like call center operators, that are being outsourced. Now some companies outsource even high-value jobs, like the American hospitals that hire doctors in India to examine CT scans taken on weekends or at nights. Some Americans joke that eventually everything except babysitting and hair-cutting will be done by foreigners over the Internet. Professor Allan Blinder, an economist and adviser to the U.S. Democratic Party, has warned that it's possible that 40 million jobs will slip out of the U.S. over the next 20 years. [Offshoring]
U.S. Releases Cuban Bombing Suspect
By ANTHONY DePALMA Published: April 20, 2007 A 79-year-old anti-Castro Cuban exile and former C.I.A. operative linked to the bombing of a Cuban airliner was released on bail yesterday and immediately returned to Miami to await trial on immigration fraud charges.
The man, Luis Posada Carriles, was released from the Otero County Prison in Chaparral, N.M., after posting a $350,000 bond on the immigration charges. His release infuriated the authorities in Cuba and Venezuela, who have been trying to extradite him to stand trial over the 1976 airliner bombing, which killed 73 people, including several teenage members of Cuba's national fencing team. [Terrorism] [Double standards]
Europe, 2057
Commentary No. 207, April 15, 2007 Immanuel Wallerstein
The European Union (UE) has just celebrated its fiftieth anniversary, dating it from the signing of the Treaties of Rome on March 25, 1957. Only one person who was at those signings, Maurice Faure of France, is still alive, and he sounded a bit dismayed at the state of Europe. The headline on this occasion in Le Monde spoke of "gloom" in Europe about Europe and the headline in the International Herald-Tribune spoke of "disquiet." The immediate cause of this less than festive fiftieth anniversary was the referendum rejections in 2005 by France and the Netherlands of the proposed new European constitution.
First of all, given the precipitate geopolitical decline of the United States, we are living amidst the creation of a truly multipolar world-system. The question for Europe is whether it can compete - economically, politically, culturally - not with the United States but with East Asia. This depends in part on whether or not East Asia (China, Japan, and Korea) will come together in a meaningful way. [realignment]
U.S. economy leaving record numbers in severe poverty
By Tony Pugh McClatchy Newspapers 22 February 2007 Chuck Kennedy, MCT John Treece, 60, leaves the Bread for the City food pantry in the Anacostia section of Washington, D.C., on Nov. 2, 2006. WASHINGTON - The percentage of poor Americans who are living in severe poverty has reached a 32-year high, millions of working Americans are falling closer to the poverty line and the gulf between the nation's "haves" and "have-nots" continues to widen. A McClatchy Newspapers analysis of 2005 census figures, the latest available, found that nearly 16 million Americans are living in deep or severe poverty. A family of four with two children and an annual income of less than $9,903 - half the federal poverty line - was considered severely poor in 2005. So were individuals who made less than $5,080 a year. The McClatchy analysis found that the number of severely poor Americans grew by 26 percent from 2000 to 2005 [Human rights]
Oversight Report Says U.S. Food Aid Practices Are Wasteful
By CELIA W. DUGGER Published: April 14, 2007 The United States government's food aid programs are riddled with wasteful practices, including the "inherently inefficient" sale of American-grown food in poor countries to finance antipoverty programs run by aid groups, according to a report by the Government Accountability Office released yesterday. The G.A.O.'s yearlong investigation of food aid also found that rising shipping and logistical costs have halved the amount of American food delivered to the hungry in Africa, Asia and Latin America over the past five years. The agency which briefed Congress last month on its preliminary findings, released its full report yesterday. It was especially critical of the practice known as monetization, which involves shipping food at great expense across oceans to the developing countries. There, managers at nonprofit groups double as grain traders, selling the food on local markets to generate cash for development programs. Thomas Melito, the G.A.O.'s director of international affairs and trade, said this practice was a highly inefficient way to raise money for development, given that over a third of food aid spending has been consumed by the rapidly rising costs of ocean shipping. Under American law, virtually all food given as aid must be grown in the United States, which means it has to be shipped out. [Subsidies]
Pressure grows on Wolfowitz to resign
By Krishna Guha and Eoin Callan in Washington Published: April 12 2007 19:03 | Last updated: April 13 2007 04:37 Paul Wolfowitz was under pressure to resign as president of the World Bank on Thursday after admitting he was personally involved in securing a large pay rise and promotion for a Bank official with whom he was romantically involved. The Bank president issued a public apology, saying: "I made a mistake for which I am sorry".
'I am plotting a new Russian revolution'
London exile Berezovsky says force necessary to bring down President Putin
Ian Cobain, Matthew Taylor and Luke Harding in Moscow Friday April 13, 2007 The Guardian The Russian tycoon Boris Berezovsky has told the Guardian he is plotting the violent overthrow of President Putin from his base in Britain after forging close contacts with members of Russia's ruling elite. In comments which appear calculated to enrage the Kremlin, and which will further inflame relations between London and Moscow, the multimillionaire claimed he was already bankrolling people close to the president who are conspiring to mount a palace coup. "We need to use force to change this regime," he said. "It isn't possible to change this regime through democratic means. There can be no change without force, pressure." Asked if he was effectively fomenting a revolution, he said: "You are absolutely correct." Although Mr Berezovsky, with an estimated fortune of £850m, may have the means to finance such a plot, and although he enjoyed enormous political influence in Russia before being forced into exile, he said he could not provide details to back up his claims because the information was too sensitive. Last night the Kremlin denounced Mr Berezovsky's comments as a criminal offence which it believed should undermine his refugee status in the UK.
In White House Plan, War 'Czar' Would Cut Through Bureaucracy
By Peter Baker and Thomas E. RicksWashington Post Staff Writers Friday, April 13, 2007; Page A13 When the commanding general in Iraq needed people for a rule-of-law initiative, he had to send a memo to the U.S. Central Command. That command forwarded it to the Joint Chiefs of Staff. The Joint Chiefs forwarded it to the Office of the Secretary of Defense. Only then was it passed along to the White House to find the people. That would change under a plan developed by President Bush's aides to create a high-powered "czar" to oversee the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The new "execution manager," as the White House termed the position, would be empowered to cut through the bureaucracy and talk directly with Army Gen. David H. Petraeus, the top U.S. military commander in Iraq, and other key figures to figure out what is needed to make progress on the ground.
Hadley said the idea is to "fix problems in Washington that are in the way," not to rewrite the chain of command or take over operational decisions. The official would work through Cabinet secretaries to solve problems, but would have enough clout to ensure follow-through. "My goal is to make the person really work for and be seen to work for the president, and be able to speak in his name," Hadley said. "I can do it, and I do do it, but I can't do it and North Korea and Iran and all the other things I've got to do." (He said he will jettison the title "execution manager" to avoid unintended double meaning.)
Inevitable Revolutions
by GYAN PRAKASH [from the April 30, 2007 issue, The Nationa] E.M. Forster's A Passage to India ends with a poignant exchange between Aziz, a young Muslim doctor, and Fielding, a Briton sympathetic to Indians. Though Aziz is acquitted of the false charge of molesting a British woman, he is deeply wounded by the experience and wants nothing to do with the colonial race. Fielding, an old friend, seeks him out and asks why they cannot be friends again. But the horses didn't want it--they swerved apart; the earth didn't want it, sending up rocks through which riders must pass single file; the temples, the tank, the jail, the palace, the birds, the carrion, the Guest House, that came into view as they issued from the gap and saw Mau beneath: they didn't want it, they said in their hundred voices. "No, not yet," and the sky said, "No, not there." This is how the novel ended, written in 1924 against the backdrop of the first mass nationalist upsurge against British rule. Gandhi, who led the movement, was a product of the Indian encounter with Western culture. He trained as a barrister in London and spent more than two decades in South Africa, developing his doctrine of nonviolent struggle in campaigning for Indian rights. Western ideas deeply influenced his political philosophy, and he maintained lifelong friendships with a number of Europeans. But anticolonialism formed the bedrock of his relationship with the West. Despite good intentions, there could be no friendship in the abstract. You could not simply wish away empire when it formed the setting in which the members of colonizing and colonized cultures met. Historians of empire have always understood this chasm in human relationships created by the fact of one culture ruling over another. But a reappraisal of this truth has been under way for some time now at the hands of revisionist historians of the British Empire. These historians dislike Edward Said and the postcolonial critics who cite French theory and argue that the British Empire established lasting Orient/Occident and East/West oppositions in politics and knowledge. [Imperialism] [Global insurgency]
World Economic Outlook 2007
Transcript of the Press Conference Washington, D.C., April 11, 2007 View a Webcast of the press briefing MR. MURRAY: Good day. I'm William Murray, Chief of Media Relations at the IMF. This is the world economic forecast briefing for the Spring 2007. Before I turn the table over to Simon Johnson, the Economic Counsellor and Director of Research at the IMF, let me also introduce Charles Collyns, Deputy Director of Research, and to his right, Timothy Callen, the Chief of the World Economic Studies Division of the IMF. Mr. Johnson. MR. JOHNSON: Good morning. As of March 26th of this year, I assumed the role of Economic Counsellor and Director of the Fund's Research Department. As part of my new job, I am pleased to brief you this morning on our latest view of the global economic outlook. Let me start by saying 2006 was another robust year for the global economy. With growth at 5.4 percent, it was the fourth consecutive year of strong global activity. Indeed, we have not seen a four-year span like this since the early 1970s. Notwithstanding the ups and downs of financial markets recently, the global economy is set for another good year in 2007. Our central forecast sees global growth slowing mildly to 4.9 percent this year with somewhat slower growth in the United States, continued solid growth in Europe and Japan, and continued impressive growth in emerging markets and developing countries led by China and India.
Wolfowitz laid out terms for partner's pay package
By Krishna Guha and Eoin Callan in Washington Published: April 12 2007 05:39 | Last updated: April 12 2007 05:39 Paul Wolfowitz personally directed the World Bank's head of human resources to offer Shaha Riza, a bank official with whom he was romantically involved, a large pay rise and a promotion as part of an external secondment package, according to two sources who saw a memorandum written by the bank president. The memorandum, which according to two sources was dated August 11 2005, specifies in detail the terms that Xavier Coll, the World Bank's vice-president for human resources, should offer to Ms Riza, who was subsequently seconded to the US State Department. [Corruption]
Moratorium on Free Trade Agreements
Laura Carlsen | April 6, 2007
Foreign Policy In Focus www.fpif.org At literally minutes to midnight on April 1, the United States signed a free trade agreement (FTA) with South Korean negotiators and rushed it to Congress. Congress now has 90 days to review the Korea, Peru, Colombia, and Panama agreements, before fast track authority expires on June 30. Any way you look at it, the clock is running out on free trade agreements. [FTA]
Budgeting for Empire: Ambitions Outweigh Strategy
David Isenberg | March 28, 2007
Foreign Policy In Focus www.fpif.org One might think that given all the stresses and strains on the U.S. military caused by fighting wars in Afghanistan and Iraq that the Defense Department would at least be doing its utmost to grasp the geostrategic realities of the day. But the Pentagon’s last Quadrennial Defense Review (QDR), released on February 6, 2006 showed that American defense plans continue to fail engagements with reality. While the QDR was big on rhetoric, it was woefully short on action. The QDR is something the Pentagon goes through every four years. Congress requires the Secretary of Defense to: Conduct a comprehensive examination (to be known as a "quadrennial defense review") of the national defense strategy, force structure, force modernization plans, infrastructure, budget plan, and other elements of the defense program and policies of the United States with a view toward determining and expressing the defense strategy of the United States and establishing a defense program for the next 20 years. But instead of taking the opportunity to rethink the U.S. military position in the world, the latest version of the QDR continues to position the U.S. as the global policeman, funds outdated weapon systems, and fails to readjust the mission of the military to meet the real threats of the 21st century.
How Iran probed, found weakness and won a triumph
By John Bolton
Published: April 8 2007 17:34 | Last updated: April 8 2007 17:34 Mahmoud Ahmadi-Nejad, an improbable Easter bunny, scored a political victory, both in Iran and internationally, by his "gift" of the return of Britain's 15 hostages. Against all odds, Iran emerged with a win-win from the crisis: winning by its provocation in seizing the hostages in the first place and winning again by its unilateral decision to release them. [Neocons]
North Koreans Arm Ethiopians as U.S. Assents
Michael Kamber for The New York Times Ethiopian tanks in Somalia. Ethiopia bought much of its military equipment from the former Soviet Union and relies on North Korean parts.
By MICHAEL R. GORDON and MARK MAZZETTI Published: April 8, 2007 WASHINGTON, April 7 - Three months after the United States successfully pressed the United Nations to impose strict sanctions on North Korea because of the country's nuclear test, Bush administration officials allowed Ethiopia to complete a secret arms purchase from the North, in what appears to be a violation of the restrictions, according to senior American officials. The United States allowed the arms delivery to go through in January in part because Ethiopia was in the midst of a military offensive against Islamic militias inside Somalia, a campaign that aided the American policy of combating religious extremists in the Horn of Africa. American officials said that they were still encouraging Ethiopia to wean itself from its longstanding reliance on North Korea for cheap Soviet-era military equipment to supply its armed forces and that Ethiopian officials appeared receptive. But the arms deal is an example of the compromises that result from the clash of two foreign policy absolutes: the Bush administration's commitment to fighting Islamic radicalism and its effort to starve the North Korean government of money it could use to build up its nuclear weapons program. [Double standards]
Mugged by reality
Mar 22nd 2007 From The Economist print edition How it all went wrong in Iraq
AP "NEMESIS" was the word The Economist printed on its front cover four years ago, when jubilant Iraqis, aided by American soldiers, hauled down the big statue of Saddam Hussein in Baghdad's Firdos Square. For a moment it looked as though all the fears that had accompanied the build-up to the American-led invasion had been groundless. The defeat of Iraq's army in three weeks turned out to be exactly the "cakewalk" that some of the war's boosters predicted. And in many places Iraqis did indeed greet the American soldiers as liberators, just as Ahmed Chalabi, Iraq's best-known politician-in-exile, had promised they would. How different it looks four years on. The invasion has been George Bush's nemesis as well as Saddam's. The lightning conquest was followed by a guerrilla and then a civil war. Talk of victory has given way to talk about how to limit a disaster. The debacle has cut short the careers of Donald Rumsfeld and Tony Blair, poisoned the Bush presidency and greatly damaged the Republican Party (see article). More important, it has inflicted fear, misery and death on its intended beneficiaries. "It is hard to imagine any post-war dispensation that could leave Iraqis less free or more miserable than they were under Mr Hussein," we said four years ago. Our imagination failed. One of the men who took a hammer to Saddam's statue told the world's media this week that although Saddam was like Stalin, the occupation is worse.
What went wrong?
'Britons Could Attack Us'
Updated: 11:38, Friday April 06, 2007 The man charged with protecting Americans from terrorist attack has told Sky News he is worried radicalised Britons could try to mount an assault on his country. Michael Chertoff, the Head of Homeland Security, said the US needed further protection from so-called "clean skins" in Britain or Europe.
That is the name given by the intelligence community to those people who feel alienated but have not come to the attention of the authorities.
Row over Wolfowitz's partner intensifies
By Krishna Guha in Washington and Mark Turner in New York Published: April 6 2007 19:22 | Last updated: April 7 2007 00:12 The dispute over the pay increase and promotion awarded to the partner of the World Bank president, Paul Wolfowitz, when she was seconded from the bank to the US State department intensified on Friday when both the then head of the board's ethics committee and its then general counsel challenged the version of events put forward by bank officials. Ad Melkert, who chaired the committee and is now number two at the United Nations development programme, is said to be unhappy at the way bank officials characterised his role in the agreement over Shaha Riza, which news reports, unchallenged by the bank, say raised her salary to $193,000 (£98,000) free of tax. [Corruption]
Karzai Says He Has Met With Some Taliban Members in an Effort at Reconciliation
By CARLOTTA GALL Published: April 7, 2007 KABUL, Afghanistan, April 6 - President Hamid Karzai said Friday, for the first time, that he had held meetings with members of the Taliban as part of a reconciliation effort, but he ruled out talks with the Taliban leader, Mullah Muhammad Omar, or foreign militants fighting with the Taliban.
Giuliani Says Nation at War Requires Him
By MARC SANTORA Published: April 7, 2007 CHARLESTON, S.C., April 6 - As Rudolph W. Giuliani introduced himself to primary voters this week, he rarely talked about the details of New York's darkest day.
Asked about his policy toward the North Koreans, he said he backed the administration's approach, mentioning in particular a Chinese role in efforts to pressure them. "I think the strategy has produced enough results so far that you have to stick with it," he said. As for Iran, Mr. Giuliani said that "in the long term," it might be "more dangerous than Iraq." He then casually lumped Iran with Al Qaeda. "Their movement has already displayed more aggressive tendencies by coming here and killing us," he said. Mr. Giuliani was asked in an interview to clarify that, inasmuch as Iran had no connection to the Sept. 11 attacks. Further, most of its people are Shiites, whereas Al Qaeda is an organization of Sunnis. "They have a similar objective," he replied, "in their anger at the modern world."
In other words, he said, they hate America. [Global insurgency]
Al-Huda Center of Islamic Banking and Islamic Economics
This is to introduce Al-Huda Center of Islamic Banking and Islamic Economics. In this part of the country this is a pioneering effort to promote Islamic Banking and Islamic Economics in Mass level through Education, Awareness and practice, with a view to support, sustain, spread and supplement SBP and Govt initiative. Al-Huda CIBE has been established as a forum for Education, Training and Sharia Advisory service support for Muslim business activity and Islamic Banking. We aim to fulfill all needs of Islamic Banking and Islamic Economics in the Country and also abroad. These facilities are available under one roof with the commitment to quality. A number of current player in the field of Islamic banking are benefiting from our services in one form or other even at this moment. Vision Riba (interest) is prohibited in divine religion revealed on prophets, be it Moses, Isa or last of Prophets Mohammad (Peace be upon them). Resurrection of Riba has nearly destroyed divine Muslim Economic thought. Mission To trace, Track and uproot Riba from divine economic system. Reconstruct Islamic Economy and Banking on foundation laid in Islam. The operative model can be traced in history. To expand the model along time line so as to reach all members of Muslim society. To provide education, training and advisory services in this direction and to make its easy to follow religion in business activities for every Muslim.
US reveals its efforts to topple Mugabe regime
· State department tells of regime change strategy · Washington funded opposition activities Ewen MacAskill in Washington Friday April 6, 2007 The Guardian
The US admitted openly for the first time yesterday that it was actively working to undermine Robert Mugabe, the president of Zimbabwe. Although officially Washington does not support regime change, a US state department report published yesterday acknowledged that it was supporting opposition politicians in the country and others critical of Mr Mugabe. The state department also admitted sponsoring events aimed at "discrediting" statements made by Mr Mugabe's government. The report will be seized on by Mr Mugabe, who has repeatedly claimed that the US and Britain are seeking regime change. [Imperialism]
Freed Britons Are Back Home but Face Questions About Their Capture and Behavior
By SARAH LYALL Published: April 6, 2007 LONDON, April 5 - The 15 British marines and sailors held captive in Iran for nearly two weeks arrived back home on Thursday. But Britain's relief at their safe return was tarnished by questions about how they behaved during their detention and why they had been captured in the first place.
In The Daily Mail, the columnist Steven Glover compared the captives with those from other conflicts. "I do not blame the hostages for their apparent willingness to confess and apologize," he wrote. "But we had better be honest with ourselves. In no previous era - not during World War II or Korea or Suez or the Falklands - would British servicemen have behaved in such a manner."
Hussein's Prewar Ties To Al-Qaeda Discounted
Pentagon Report Says Contacts Were Limited By R. Jeffrey Smith Washington Post Staff Writer Friday, April 6, 2007; Page A01
Captured Iraqi documents and intelligence interrogations of Saddam Hussein and two former aides "all confirmed" that Hussein's regime was not directly cooperating with al-Qaeda before the U.S. invasion of Iraq, according to a declassified Defense Department report released yesterday. The declassified version of the report, by acting Inspector General Thomas F. Gimble, also contains new details about the intelligence community's prewar consensus that the Iraqi government and al-Qaeda figures had only limited contacts, and about its judgments that reports of deeper links were based on dubious or unconfirmed information. The report had been released in summary form in February.
The report's release came on the same day that Vice President Cheney, appearing on Rush Limbaugh's radio program, repeated his allegation that al-Qaeda was operating inside Iraq "before we ever launched" the war, under the direction of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the terrorist killed last June. [Disinformation]
Russia Challenges the U.S. Monopoly on Satellite Navigation
By ANDREW E. KRAMER Published: April 4, 2007 MOSCOW, April 3 — The days of their cold war may have passed, but Russia and the United States are in the midst of another battle — this one a technological fight over the United States monopoly on satellite navigation. By the end of the year, the authorities here say, the Russian space agency plans to launch eight navigation satellites that would nearly complete the country’s own system, called Glonass, for Global Navigation Satellite System. The system is expected to begin operating over Russian territory and parts of adjacent Europe and Asia, and then go global in 2009 to compete with the Global Positioning System of the United States. Nor is Russia the only country trying to break the American monopoly on navigation technology. China has already sent up satellites to create its own system, called Baidu after the Chinese word for the Big Dipper. And the European Union has also begun developing a rival system, Galileo, although work has been halted because of doubts among the private contractors over its potential for profits. Russia’s system is furthest along, paid for with government oil revenue.
But what is also behind the battle for control of navigation technology is a fear that the United States could use its monopoly — the system was developed and is controlled by the military, after all — to switch off signals in a time of crisis.
The United States could theoretically deny navigation signals to countries like Iran and North Korea, not just in time of war, but as a high-tech form of economic sanction that could disrupt power grids, banking systems and other industries, he said. The United States government’s stated policy is to provide uninterrupted signals globally. [Imperialism] [Realignment] [Technology dominance]
Where are the Citizen Generals?
The Army's Road to Iraq By BRIAN M. DOWNING April 3, 2007As the war in Iraq drags on and a favorable outcome seems unlikely, Americans will ask how we got into this land war in Asia. Fingers are already pointed to the neo-conservatives, oil executives, and naive strategists, most of whom have broad ideology and narrow interests, but narrower historical knowledge and no military experience. Yet clearly our generals, who began their careers amid another insurgency, also supported the present war, or at least acquiesced to it, and so are unlikely to emerge blameless. How did our military, which after Vietnam regarded politicians with suspicion and another guerrilla war with dismay, find itself waist-deep in Mesopotamia? [US military] [Imperialism]
The Botched Raid on Arbil
US's Bungled Plan to Kidnap Iran's Top Spook Prompted Hostage Taking
By PATRICK COCKBURN April 3, 2007 CounterPunch Special Report Arbil, Iraq. A failed US attempt to abduct two senior Iranian security officers on an official visit to northern Iraq was the starting pistol for a crisis that ten weeks later led to Iranians seizing 15 British sailors and marines. Early in the morning of 11 January helicopter-born US forces launched a surprise raid on a long-established Iranian liaison office in the city of Arbil in Iraqi Kurdistan. They captured five relatively junior Iranian officials whom the US accuses of being intelligence agents and still holds. In reality the US attack had a far more ambitious objective The Independent has learned. The aim of the raid, launched without informing the Kurdish authorities, was to seize two men at the very heart of the Iranian security establishment. Better understanding of the seriousness of the US action in Arbil -- and the angry Iranian response to it -- should have led Downing Street and the Ministry of Defence to realise that Iran was likely to retaliate against American or British forces such as highly vulnerable navy search parties in the Gulf. The two senior Iranian officers the US sought to capture were Mohammed Jafari, the powerful deputy head of the Iranian National Security Council, and General Minojahar Frouzanda, the chief of intelligence of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard, according to Kurdish officials. The two men were in Kurdistan on an official visit during which they met the Iraqi President Jalal Talabani at his house beside Dokan lake and later saw Massoud Barzani, the president of the Kurdistan Regional Government, at his mountain headquarters at Salahudin overlooking Arbil.
Pain From Free Trade Spurs Second Thoughts
Mr. Blinder's Shift Spotlights Warnings Of Deeper Downside
By DAVID WESSEL and BOB DAVIS March 28, 2007; Page A1 For decades, Alan S. Blinder -- Princeton University economist, former Federal Reserve Board vice chairman and perennial adviser to Democratic presidential candidates -- argued, along with most economists, that free trade enriches the U.S. and its trading partners, despite the harm it does to some workers. "Like 99% of economists since the days of Adam Smith, I am a free trader down to my toes," he wrote back in 2001. Politicians heeded this advice and, with occasional dissents, steadily dismantled barriers to trade. Yet today Mr. Blinder has changed his message -- helping lead a growing band of economists and policy makers who say the downsides of trade in today's economy are deeper than they once realized. [Globalisation]
Offshoring: The Next Industrial Revolution?
Alan S. Blinder
From Foreign Affairs, March/April 2006
Summary: Economists who insist that "offshore outsourcing" is just a routine extension of international trade are overlooking how major a transformation it will likely bring -- and how significant the consequences could be. The governments and societies of the developed world must start preparing, and fast. Alan S. Blinder is Gordon S. Rentschler Memorial Professor of Economics at Princeton University. He served on the White House Council of Economic Advisers from 1993 to 1994 and as Vice Chairman of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve from 1994 to 1996.
A CONTROVERSY RECONSIDERED In February 2004, when N. Gregory Mankiw, a Harvard professor then serving as chairman of the White House Council of Economic Advisers, caused a national uproar with a "textbook" statement about trade, economists rushed to his defense. Mankiw was commenting on the phenomenon that has been clumsily dubbed "offshoring" (or "offshore outsourcing") -- the migration of jobs, but not the people who perform them, from rich countries to poor ones. Offshoring, Mankiw said, is only "the latest manifestation of the gains from trade that economists have talked about at least since Adam Smith. ... More things are tradable than were tradable in the past, and that's a good thing." Although Democratic and Republican politicians alike excoriated Mankiw for his callous attitude toward American jobs, economists lined up to support his claim that offshoring is simply international business as usual. [Globalisation]
Argentina's claim on the Falklands is still a good one
Regardless of the islanders' wishes, the issue of sovereignty will at some point have to get back on the agenda
Richard Gott Monday April 2, 2007 The Guardian
Nearly 40 years ago, in November 1968, I travelled to the Falklands with a group of diplomats in what was Britain's first and last attempt to get shot of the islands. Lord Chalfont, then a minister at the Foreign Office, was the leader of this expedition. He had the unenviable task of trying to persuade the 2,000 islanders that the British empire might not last for ever - and that they should start to entertain the notion they might be better off being friendly to their near-neighbour, Argentina, which had long claimed the islands. This was the moment when Britain was abandoning its "east of Suez" policy for financial reasons, and thinking of ways of winding up its residual empire. We had already forcibly deported the inhabitants of Diego Garcia in 1967 without much hostile publicity, and settled them in Mauritius and the Seychelles, handing over their islands to the Americans to build a gigantic air base. The Falklands were next on the list. Maybe the islanders could be paid to set up sheep farms in New Zealand.
People sometimes ask me why Argentinians make such an endless fuss about the islands they call Las Malvinas. The answer is simple. The Falklands belong to Argentina. They just happen to have been seized, occupied, populated and defended by Britain. Because Argentina's claim is perfectly valid, its dispute with Britain will never go away, and because much of Latin America is now falling into the hands of the nationalist left, the government in Buenos Aires will enjoy growing rhetorical support in the continent (and indeed elsewhere, from the current government in Iraq, for example), to the increasing discomfiture of Britain. All governments in Argentina, of whatever stripe, will continue to claim the Malvinas, just as governments in Belgrade will always lay claim to Kosovo. The Falklands were seized for Britain in January 1833 during an era of dramatic colonial expansion [Imperialism] [Double standards]
"A Great Little Racket": The Neocon Media Machine
Eli Clifton | March 20, 2007 Top of Form
rightweb.irc-online.org
With the United States bogged down in an increasingly ugly war in Iraq, tensions rising between Tehran and Washington, and public sentiment—which has turned en masse against deeper U.S. commitment in the Middle East—often seeming a non-factor in White House decisionmaking, it is hard to believe that in the past few months some pundits and politicos have been optimistically predicting a dramatic shift in U.S. foreign policy that could, like a deus ex machina, resolve the country's overseas debacles.
One partial answer to this puzzle is the continued strength of neoconservatism and its standard-bearers in the nation's media [Media]
Look Who’s Reboarding That Clintonian Shuttle
By HELENE COOPER
Published: April 1, 2007 WASHINGTON AT the State Department, it’s beginning to look a lot like ... Bill Clinton? Just hours before boarding her plane to fly off to the banks of the Nile for Middle East peace talks nine days ago, a reporter asked Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice whether she was prepared to advance her own proposals to the Israelis and Palestinians on the entrenched “final status” issues that have bedeviled peace negotiators since 1979. Ms. Rice gave a cheerful shrug. “I don’t rule out that at some point that might be a useful thing to do,” she said. Two days later, during another press roundtable — this one in Jerusalem — another reporter asked if she might appoint a special Middle East envoy. “I’ve not ruled out anything,” she repeated. “I’m quite flexible on what geometry we use.” Once upon a time, the Bush administration was a strict adherent of what some privately called the ABC — Anything But Clinton — approach. That meant no special Mideast envoys, no pushing the Israelis into anything they didn’t want to do — particularly no pushing them to discuss the final-status issues — and no imposing American ideas onto an Israeli-Palestinian problem.
There are two possible explanations for the new diplomacy. The first is that deep down, Ms. Rice has always held the view expressed by her former counselor, Philip D. Zelikow, that progress on the Palestinian-Israeli dispute was a “sine qua non” in order to get moderate Arabs to cooperate with the administration on the things America cares about.
The second explanation is that the shortcomings of the administration’s strategy in Iraq and North Korea, combined with the loss of Congress to the Democrats last November, have forced Mr. Bush and Ms. Rice to shift into reverse. “They have no choice,” said Gary Samore, a vice president at the Council on Foreign Relations who helped negotiate the Clinton administration’s 1994 agreement with North Korea. “They tried a new approach, it utterly failed, so now they’re trying something different.” [Backdown]
Terrorized by 'War on Terror'
How a Three-Word Mantra Has Undermined America
By Zbigniew Brzezinski
Sunday, March 25, 2007; Page B01 The "war on terror" has created a culture of fear in America. The Bush administration's elevation of these three words into a national mantra since the horrific events of 9/11 has had a pernicious impact on American democracy, on America's psyche and on U.S. standing in the world. Using this phrase has actually undermined our ability to effectively confront the real challenges we face from fanatics who may use terrorism against us. The damage these three words have done -- a classic self-inflicted wound -- is infinitely greater than any wild dreams entertained by the fanatical perpetrators of the 9/11 attacks when they were plotting against us in distant Afghan caves. The phrase itself is meaningless. It defines neither a geographic context nor our presumed enemies. Terrorism is not an enemy but a technique of warfare -- political intimidation through the killing of unarmed non-combatants.

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MARCH 2007

Event Horizon
by Robert S. Leiken 02.27.2007
Fred Charles Iklé, Annihilation from Within(New York: Columbia University Press, 2006), 142 pp., $24.50. FRED CHARLES Iklé has been called one of America's two or three remaining "strategic long-range thinkers." Undersecretary of defense for Political Affairs and chief of the Arms Control and Disarmament Agency under President Ronald Reagan, the distinguished scholar from CSIS now has written a suggestive and disturbing book. Based on his practical experience and the futuristic thinking for which he has become known, his book calls attention to developing threats that receive little official attention or discussion in the media.
Britain demands Iran free seized sailors
By JIM KRANE Associated Press Writer
March 23, 2007, 4:45PM DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Naval forces of Iran's hardline Revolutionary Guards captured 15 British sailors and marines at gunpoint Friday in the Persian Gulf — an audacious move coming during heightened tensions between the West and Iran. U.S. and British officials said a boarding party from the frigate HMS Cornwall was seized about 10:30 a.m. during a routine inspection of a merchant ship inside Iraqi territorial waters near the disputed Shatt al-Arab waterway. Iran's Foreign Ministry insisted the Britons were operating in Iranian waters and would be held "for further investigation," Iranian state television said. [media]
Al-Qaida’s standing
Paul Rogers
22 - 3 - 2007 The blindness of the Bush administration is a key weapon in the al-Qaida network’s armoury Osama bin Laden's 50th birthday on 10 March 2007 was an occasion for much media reflection on the persistence of the al-Qaida movement. One attempt to counter this was the Pentagon's release of transcripts of what were said to be confessions from its highest-ranking Guantànamo detainee, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed. These confessions included his involvement in thirty al-Qaida operations over a decade, going right back to the first bombing of the World Trade Centre in February 1993. The publicity was certainly widespread within the United States, including a marked "spin" on the main news channels to the effect that the transcripts showed just how important this figure was. As such, it served to suggest that the United States had had some real successes in its war on terror, and that the capture of this mastermind was a key example. Some of the more experienced journalists were far more sceptical, with some very good analysis of the persistent influence of al-Qaida coming in the non-US press (notably Jason Burke's assessment, "Al-Qaeda: the second coming", Observer, 11 March 2007). Paul Rogers is professor of peace studies at Bradford University, northern England. He has been writing a weekly Column on global security on openDemocracy since 26 September 2001 It never went away An obvious consideration is that Khalid Sheikh Mohammed has been in US custody for four years and there has been no decrease in the activities of the al-Qaida movement in that time.
Pipeline will help Iran in its nuclear push, so drop plan: US to India
New York Times / Associated Press Posted online: Thursday, March 22, 2007 at 0000 hrs IST NEW DELHI, WASHINGTON, MARCH 21 The US has told the Indian government that it is opposed to plans to build a natural gas pipeline from Iran to India through Pakistan, US Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman said in New Delhi today. “During my trip, I have made it clear at the highest levels of the Indian government that the United States opposes the development of the Iranian pipeline to India,” Bodman said in an interview with Dow Jones Newswires.
The regrets of the man who brought down Saddam
Audrey Gillan Monday March 19, 2007 The Guardian His hands were bleeding and his eyes filled with tears as, four years ago, he slammed a sledgehammer into the tiled plinth that held a 20ft bronze statue of Saddam Hussein. Then Kadhim al-Jubouri spoke of his joy at being the leader of the crowd that toppled the statue in Baghdad's Firdous Square. Now, he is filled with nothing but regret. The moment became symbolic across the world as it signalled the fall of the dictator. Wearing a black vest, Mr al-Jubouri, an Iraqi weightlifting champion, pounded through the concrete in an attempt to smash the statue and all it meant to him. Now, on the fourth anniversary of the US-led invasion of Iraq, he says: "I really regret bringing down the statue. The Americans are worse than the dictatorship. Every day is worse than the previous day."
Military Is Ill-Prepared For Other Conflicts
By Ann Scott Tyson Washington Post Staff Writer Monday, March 19, 2007; Page A01
Four years after the invasion of Iraq, the high and growing demand for U.S. troops there and in Afghanistan has left ground forces in the United States short of the training, personnel and equipment that would be vital to fight a major ground conflict elsewhere, senior U.S. military and government officials acknowledge. More troubling, the officials say, is that it will take years for the Army and Marine Corps to recover from what some officials privately have called a "death spiral," in which the ever more rapid pace of war-zone rotations has consumed 40 percent of their total gear, wearied troops and left no time to train to fight anything other than the insurgencies now at hand.
Result: MkOne forced to drop Burma clothing
Nick Mathiason Sunday March 18, 2007 The Observer MkOne, the high street value fashion store, has withdrawn a range of clothes after The Observer told the firm that they were made in Burma, which is ruled by a military dictatorship. The high street store, owned by Icelandic corporate raider Baugur, claimed to have had no knowledge of where the clothes came from and conducted an immediate investigation once this newspaper made them aware of the issue. A series of items were found by shoppers to have 'Made in Myanmar' labels in MkOne's Brighton store over a two-week period. [IM] [Sanctions]
Probe of Al-Qaeda Leader's Handling Sought
Senators Urge Inquiry After Mohammed Alleges Abuse By Dafna Linzer and Josh White Washington Post Staff Writers Saturday, March 17, 2007; Page A15 Two senators who observed last week's closed military proceedings against al-Qaeda leader Khalid Sheik Mohammed called for an investigation into allegations that the accused planner of the Sept. 11 attacks was physically abused while in CIA custody. Mohammed told the tribunal last Saturday that he had been mistreated during three years in CIA custody before his transfer to Guantanamo Bay, and he submitted a written description of the alleged abuse. The military panel immediately classified the submission and redacted from transcripts details of Mohammed's treatment in the CIA's secret prison program. According to one portion of the transcript made public earlier this week, however, Mohammed told the panel of three unnamed military officers that his children had been held for four months and abused during his incarceration. [Human rights]
Filling Up without Pumping Up Terror
The Terror-Free Oil Initiative has just opened the first "terror-free" gas station, in Omaha. Its mission—preventing the financing of anti-American violence by refusing to buy oil from the Middle East—makes sense for the U.S. Pro or con?
Pro: A Step in the Right Direction A U.S. consumer boycott of oil from the Middle East is difficult, no question. An estimated 60% of the world’s proved reserves lie there, with at least 20% in Saudi Arabia alone. And the U.S. is not only the world’s No. 1 oil consumer but also the top oil importer. When you fill up your car’s fuel tank, the chances that the gasoline originates, at least in part, from the Middle East are pretty good. A group called the Terror-Free Oil Initiative says it wants to reduce those chances to nil by refusing to buy oil that comes from any Middle Eastern country. For its first gas station in Omaha, the group buys fuel from Salt Lake City-based Sinclair Oil. By also promoting other companies that don’t import oil from the Persian Gulf region, the organization wants to support the idea of "terror-free" gasoline. Essentially, that means gas from oil produced by countries that aren’t linked to terrorism. (Also boycotted: oil from countries such as Venezuela, whose government is opposed to the U.S.) [IM]
The United States and Africa: eyes on the prize
Paul Rogers 15 - 3 - 2007
Three concerns – oil, China and the war on terror – are pushing the United States toward greater involvement in Africa. The new United States defence budget involves a substantial increase in spending and a redirection of many military programmes towards counterinsurgency and responding to asymmetric warfare (see "The costs of America's long war", 8 March 2007). It also entails a relatively little-noticed change in the orientation of the US military towards Africa, announced on 9 February 2007: the planned establishment of Africa Command (Africom).
Repeating Soviet mistakes
Valerio Pellizzari Published: March 15, 2007
ROME: A few weeks ago a young military spokesman representing Italian Coalition forces in Afghanistan was summarily relieved of his duties after commenting that Italian soldiers were building a Roman Catholic church in Herat dedicated to the Virgin Mary, whose religious importance he termed, "spiritually meaningful to Muslims too." A careful reading of the Koran might have made him feel otherwise. Moreover, it might have helped had he known that only one church has ever been allowed on Afghan soil. It was authorized by King Amanullah and built in 1933 in gratitude for Italy's being among the first countries to recognize Afghan independence. However, there are worse misunderstandings in Afghanistan, the worst being that senior NATO officials at their Brussels headquarters don't seem to grasp that they are repeating the same tragic mistakes made by Kremlin generals 25 years ago.
It's also the Americans, whose management of Kabul seems befuddled. For one thing, to protect their embassy in Kabul, the Americans have declared the whole city center off-limits to Afghanis, destroying any chance for normalcy there. I asked Edmund McWilliams, who was in charge of the U.S. Embassy in Kabul in the late 1980s, about this. He confirmed that life under the doomed Soviet occupation wasn't much different than it is today. There was a nightly curfew back then, when the KGB worked out of the same headquarters that the CIA uses now. The Communist president, Mohammad Najibullah, used to shut down air traffic for hours whenever he flew anywhere, just like Karzai does now. The Kabul sky teemed with armored helicopters and Mig fighters. Nevertheless, the Russians eventually were obliged to withdraw.
Filipino Military Kills the Left
Glenda Gloria Manila, Philippines Glenda Gloria is the managing editor of Newsbreak, the Philippines's leading news and current affairs online magazine. A journalist for two decades now, she writes about security issues, governance, elections, the media, and Southeast Asia. more » Main Page | Glenda Gloria Archives | PostGlobal Archives The Right is ascendant in Southeast Asia, and the Left is being pummeled -- literally, to death -- in the Philippines. When the military seized power in Thailand last year, some pro-coup Filipinos in neighboring Manila were green with envy. The Thai coup came months after young Filipino soldiers botched a mutiny to oust Philippine President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo on charges that she cheated her way through the 2004 presidential race. It was the second failed coup since Arroyo became president in 2001 through a military-backed revolt. The rebel soldiers' failed experiments pushed the Arroyo government to the right. Battling a four-decade communist insurgency -- the longest in Asia -- and faced with intermittent grumbling from the army, President Arroyo found a way to keep her soldiers preoccupied: She has given them a hefty budget to crush the communist rebellion within the next two years. Is it by coincidence then that for the last two years, at least a hundred Leftist activists have been gunned down by unknown and unpunished assailants? For a time last year, one activist was being killed every single day. The Left is accusing the military of masterminding the killings, while the government is insisting that the Left is killing its own. The government line is a hard one to bite. Last month, Philip Alston, the United Nations' special rapporteur on human rights, spent 10 days in the Philippines listening to both sides. He left with a stinging report against the government and the military, and asked the President to take more decisive steps to look into the soldiers' involvement in the extrajudicial killings. [Human rights]
Crippled, Iraq leans on longtime enemy Iran for trade
Economies of the ex-enemies are increasingly intertwined
By Edward Wong Published: March 13, 2007
NAJAF, Iraq: While the Bush administration works to stop Iran from meddling in Iraq, Iranian air conditioners fill Iraqi appliance stores, Iranian tomatoes ripen on the window sills of kitchens here and white Iranian-made Peugeots sit in Iraqi driveways. Some Iraqi cities, including the oil- producing enclave of Basra, buy electricity from Iran. The Iraqi government is relying on Iranian companies to bring gasoline from Turkmenistan to alleviate a severe shortage. Iraqi officials are reviewing an application by Iran to open a branch of an Iranian national bank in Baghdad, and Iran has offered Iraq $1 billion in soft loans. The economies of Iraq and Iran, the largest Shiite countries in the world, are becoming closely intertwined, with Iranian goods flooding Iraqi markets and Iraqi cities looking to Iran for basic services. [Unintended consequences]
Former U.N. Weapons Inspector Says Britain Embellished Intelligence on Iraq
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Published: March 12, 2007 Filed at 2:00 a.m. ET LONDON (AP) -- The British government embellished intelligence used to justify the decision to invade Iraq in 2003, the former U.N. chief weapons inspector said in an interview broadcast Monday. Hans Blix, who led the U.N. search for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq until June 2003, said a later discredited dossier on Iraq's weapons programs had deliberately embellished the case for war. British Prime Minister Tony Blair's government published a dossier before the invasion that claimed Saddam Hussein had stockpiles of chemical and biological weapons and could deploy some within 45 minutes. ''I do think they exercised spin. They put exclamation marks instead of question marks,'' [Disinformation]
Hugo Chavez Slams 'Little Gentleman from the North'
Diario Decuyo, Argentina "Bush is a true political cadaver that not only smells of sulfur but has the scent of a dead politician who will soon be transformed into cosmic dust and disappear from the scene." Translated By Barbara Howe March 9, 2007
Argentina - Diario Decuyo - Original Article (Spanish) Buenos Aires: The President of , Hugo Chavez, issued strong criticism of North American leader George W. Bush, calling him a "political corpse," while praising [Argentine President] Nestor Kirchner and emphasizing the agreements recently signed between his country and Argentina.
'Smart' rebels outstrip US
Top American generals make shock admission as Iraq leader pleads with neighbouring countries to seal off their borders Paul Beaver in Fort Lauderdale and Peter Beaumont Sunday March 11, 2007 The Observer
The US army is lagging behind Iraq's insurgents tactically in a war that senior officers say is the biggest challenge since Korea 50 years ago.
a bleak analysis, senior officers described the fighters they were facing in Iraq and Afghanistan 'as smart, agile and cunning'. In Vietnam, the US was eventually defeated by a well-armed, closely directed and highly militarised society that had tanks, armoured vehicles and sources of both military production and outside procurement. What is more devastating now is that the world's only superpower is in danger of being driven back by a few tens of thousands of lightly armed irregulars, who have developed tactics capable of destroying multimillion-dollar vehicles and aircraft. By contrast, the US military is said to have been slow to respond to the challenges of fighting an insurgency. The senior officers described the insurgents as being able to adapt rapidly to exploit American rules of engagement and turn them against US forces, and quickly disseminate ways of destroying or disabling armoured vehicles. The military is also hampered in its attempts to break up insurgent groups because of their 'flat' command structure within collaborative networks of small groups, making it difficult to target any hierarchy within the insurgency. The remarks were made by senior US generals speaking at the Association of the US Army meeting at Fort Lauderdale in Florida and in conversations with The Observer
Dismay Over New U.N. Human Rights Council
By WARREN HOGE Published: March 11, 2007 UNITED NATIONS, March 9 - The United Nations Human Rights Council begins a three-week session in Geneva on Monday amid expressions of frustration from rights advocates at its early performance and alarm over proposals that might weaken it further. "So far it's been enormously disappointing, and the opponents of human rights enforcement are running circles around the proponents," said Kenneth Roth, the executive director of Human Rights Watch. The council was created in a 170-to-4 vote of the General Assembly a year ago to replace the Human Rights Commission, which had been widely discredited for allowing participation by countries like Sudan, Libya and Zimbabwe who used membership to prevent scrutiny of their own records.
But member countries from Africa and the Organization of the Islamic Conference, an association of 57 states promoting Muslim solidarity, have dashed those hopes by voting as a bloc to stymie Western efforts to direct serious attention to situations like the killings, rapes and pillage in the Darfur region of Sudan, which the United Nations has declared the world's worst humanitarian crisis. Most notably, as happened with the commission, the council has focused its condemnation almost exclusively on Israel. It has passed eight resolutions against Israel, and the Islamic group is planning four more for the current session. The council has cited no other country for human rights violations. The United States voted against creating the council last year on the basis that it was not a sufficient improvement over the commission. This past week, it decided for the second straight year not to seek membership on the panel, and R. Nicholas Burns, the under secretary of state for political affairs, linked the decision to the council's focus on Israel.
But member countries from Africa and the Organization of the Islamic Conference, an association of 57 states promoting Muslim solidarity, have dashed those hopes by voting as a bloc to stymie Western efforts to direct serious attention to situations like the killings, rapes and pillage in the Darfur region of Sudan, which the United Nations has declared the world's worst humanitarian crisis. Most notably, as happened with the commission, the council has focused its condemnation almost exclusively on Israel. It has passed eight resolutions against Israel, and the Islamic group is planning four more for the current session. The council has cited no other country for human rights violations. The United States voted against creating the council last year on the basis that it was not a sufficient improvement over the commission. This past week, it decided for the second straight year not to seek membership on the panel, and R. Nicholas Burns, the under secretary of state for political affairs, linked the decision to the council's focus on Israel. "It spent the entire year slamming Israel," Mr. Burns told the House Foreign Affairs Committee on Tuesday. He noted that the council had conducted formal hearings against Israel "but not against Burma and not against Zimbabwe and not against North Korea and not against Iran." [Manipulation] [UNUS]
Policy Successes -- or U-Turns
Views Differ on Bush Moves on Iran, N. Korea, Mideast By Karen DeYoung and Glenn Kessler
Washington Post Staff Writers Sunday, March 11, 2007; Page A18 If all goes according to plan, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice will sit down next month with the foreign ministers of Iran and North Korea -- two "axis of evil" nations that the Bush administration has long shunned. And after criticizing her predecessors for pointless diplomatic shuttling in the Middle East, Rice now makes near-monthly negotiating trips there. Administration officials insist that what appears to be a sudden turn toward diplomacy is rather the fruit of six years of careful and deliberate policymaking. But outside experts, and even some insiders, say that the initiatives have less to do with reaping rewards than with reversing course after years of policy stagnation and failure.
"What has changed?" asked one former high-level Bush administration official. "That we finally like these people? That we finally have them where we want them? Or gee, we're at 30 percent [public approval] and we've only got 20 months to go? "Ultimately, North Korea and Iran will be solved through diplomatic means," the former official said. "I think we've been slow in applying those means and seeing the reality of the situation." This source and others who are sympathetic to the goals of the administration but who nevertheless question its path to those ends declined to be named because the discussion was about policy matters, as did several current senior officials. [US policy] [Backdown]
A shameful injustice
Cuba's 50-year defiance of US attempts to isolate it is an inspiration to Latin America's people
Philip Agee
Saturday March 10, 2007 The Guardian There is a wave of progressive change sweeping Latin America and the Caribbean after the many lonely years in which Cuba held high the torch, with free universal healthcare and education, and world-class cultural, sports and scientific achievements. Although you won't find a Cuban today who says things are perfect - far from it - probably all would agree that compared with pre-revolutionary Cuba, there is a world of improvement. George Bush, the antithesis of this process, is now in Brazil at the start of a mission to lure five countries away from regional economic integration. However, the many thousands in the streets demonstrate the region's vast repudiation of Bush and what he stands for, something polls reflect unanimously. All Cuba's achievements have been in defiance of US efforts to isolate Cuba; every dirty method has been used, including infiltration, sabotage, terrorism, assassination, economic and biological warfare and incessant lies in the media of many countries. I know these methods too well, having been a CIA officer in Latin America in the 1960s. Altogether nearly 3,500 Cubans have died from terrorist acts, and more than 2,000 are permanently disabled. No country has suffered terrorism as long and consistently as Cuba.
Zoellick: A Survey of U.S. Diplomacy Abroad
Interviewee: Robert B. Zoellick Interviewer: Bernard Gwertzman, Consulting Editor * February 21, 2007
Robert B. Zoellick, who served as deputy secretary of state and special trade representative for the Bush administration until resigning last summer, in a discussion on current world issues, says the North Korean agreement is critical for getting China’s cooperation; the Iranians must be pressed to decide on whether to cooperate on nuclear issues or defy the world; U.S. forces must be maintained in Iraq; and the main question in the Middle East is whether the countries there will remain stuck in the past or modernize as China did. *
In the case of North Korea, I don’t think either the president or the secretary sees this in narrow, nonproliferation terms. They see this as a question of trying to work with the other four parties—China, Japan, South Korea, Russia—to create a pathway for North Korea to open up if it chooses, and then to set up a framework for dealing with broader issues of peninsula security, and then even the ultimate question of relations of the major powers in northeast Asia. So what one is seeing, as the administration emphasizes, is just an initial step. It’s far from clear that the North Koreans will follow through, but the North Koreans now have a pathway developed by the United States in concert principally with China but others as well, that would give Kim Jong-Il the opportunity, if he chooses it, to follow through on reform and opening up his economy. And as part of this, there is a recognition that any opening Kim Jong-Il makes could create, in his mind, vulnerabilities. Combining the notion of confidence-building measures, security assurances, and even ultimately a peace treaty to North Korea, offers a broader framework to deal with the nuclear weapons issue. But in the president's and in Condi’s mind this is also a question of working with China as a responsible stakeholder on common security issues, and also dealing with some of South Korea’s anxieties about its powerful neighbor. [Agreement070213] [Intelligent design] [US policy]
Bush Hopes to Break the Hold of Hugo Chavez ...
"The only coherent explanation for Bush's sudden interest in Latin America (after six years of total amnesia with respect to the South) is to counter the influence of Chávez and his insistence on a Latin America united under [and against] U.S. domination."
By Víctor Flores Olea Translated By Douglas Myles Rasmussen* El Universal, Mexico February 26, 2007 Mexico - El Universal - Original Article (Spanish) From March 8 to 14, George W. Bush will visit five Latin American nations, including Mexico (also Brazil, Uruguay, Colombia and Guatemala), which has surprised both Tyrians and Trojans [everyone], since the trip was preceded by a budget proposal to drastically cut aid to the back porch of the United States - with the exception of Colombia - and while construction continues on the wall of ignominy along the Mexican border, which means that workers and technicians will actually be moved onto our territory to build it from here. Democratic Congresswoman Hilda Solís has said, "This is a vacation that Bush is taking at a moment in which everything is going badly for him."
'What Has Happened to Dick Cheney?'
By Jim HoaglandThursday, March 8, 2007; Page A23 Is the vice president losing his influence, or perhaps his mind? That question, even if it is phrased more delicately, is creeping through foreign ministries and presidential offices abroad and has become a factor in the Bush administration's relations with the world. "What has happened to Dick Cheney?" That solicitous but direct question came from a European statesman who has known the vice president for many years. He put it to me a few days ago -- even before the discovery of a blood clot in Cheney's leg and the perjury conviction of Scooter Libby, his former chief of staff, brought headline attention to the volatile state of the vice president's physical, emotional and political health.
Rice is credited by administration sources with having told Bush in January that he should devote his final two years in office to seeking diplomatic agreements with North Korea and Iran and an Israeli-Palestinian peace accord. That account emphasizes that Rice is not simply outflanking Cheney in intermittent internal policy battles but has won full agreement and support from the president on the strategic goals and methods she and her diplomats are pursuing. This remains to be confirmed by events
Mr. Bush at Bay
But in this accountability moment, there is a way back. Thursday, March 8, 2007; Page A22 THE WHITE House must have the feel of an overworked emergency room these days. From the Walter Reed story to the U.S. attorney firings to I. Lewis Libby's conviction, one mishandled crisis follows the next piece of bad news. With the grinding wars in Iraq and Afghanistan overshadowing all and the lethargic response to Hurricane Katrina rarely forgotten, President Bush in his second term has appeared battered, bruised and often bewildered -- and never more so than this past week. With each blow, it seems less likely that he might accomplish anything in his remaining time in office. And yet we'd caution once again against writing his administration off entirely.
Nor has the administration taken to its bunker and stopped trying. Progress in the six-party talks on North Korea reflects energy and flexibility. There's no similar movement yet from Iran, but the administration seems to be shaping a policy that combines pressure with diplomacy in a way that at least has potential
LOST: US$16.4 billion, FOUND: A Plan
Millions of people are choosing not to visit the US because they believe that foreigners are unwelcome, says the Discover America Partnership (DAP) in its groundbreaking A Blueprint to Discover America. As a consequence, the US economy is missing out on US$16.4 billion in new expenditure, 189,000 new jobs and US$2.6 billion in federal, state and local tax revenues.
Another "Mediterranean" in Southeast Asia
Denys Lombard,
Southeast Asia, long known as an intermediate zone between the ancient civilisations of China and India, is also an area that scholars have long portrayed as historically subject to influences coming from its west, beginning with Indianisation, then islamisation and finally westernisation. However, this article argues that it would be far more insightful, and historically more accurate for the last several centuries at least, to treat Southeast Asia and southern China as part of one region, in the same way that Fernand Braudel approached the history of the Mediterranean. This article appeared in the inaugural issue of the e-journal China Diaspora Southern Studies in February 2007. Posted at Japan Focus on March 4, 2007. [Making]
Nixon's Balancing Act
A realist president's bold trip brought America and China together to counter the Soviets.
Reviewed by Orville Schell Sunday, February 25, 2007; Page BW03
NIXON AND MAO The Week That Changed the World
By Margaret MacMillan Random House. 404 pp. $27.95 What did President Richard M. Nixon, National Security Adviser Henry A. Kissinger and Chinese leader Mao Zedong really discuss during their unprecedented February 1972 meeting in Beijing? With surprising frequency, Mao turned the conversation to the subject of women. Kissinger "doesn't look like a secret agent," said Nixon, a world-class anti-communist, to the enigmatic chairman of the Chinese Communist Party. "He is the only man in captivity who could go to Paris 12 times and Peking once and no one knew it, except possibly a couple of pretty girls." "They didn't know it," Kissinger grinned. "I used it as a cover." "In Paris?" Mao asked. "Anyone who uses pretty girls as a cover must be the greatest diplomat of all time," Nixon bragged. But the object of Nixon, Kissinger and Mao's meeting was hardly so frivolous. Since Kissinger, that most unlikely secret agent, took his furtive journey in 1971 to reestablish ties between the two erstwhile Cold War rivals, scores of books have been written on how he and Nixon boldly catalyzed a new relationship between two implacable ideological foes into a largely constructive conversation that rattled the Soviet Union and continues to this day. But few have done as well at giving us a "you are there" feel for the historic talks -- sometimes somber, sometimes comic -- as Margaret MacMillan, the bestselling author of Paris 1919, who has now applied her impressive powers of research and storytelling to this iconic episode in U.S. diplomatic history. If the power-balancing, realist school of Republican foreign policy so often derided by so many had a finest hour, this was surely it.
In U.S. Overtures to Foes, Signs of New Pragmatism
By HELENE COOPER Published: March 1, 2007 WASHINGTON, Feb. 28 — In the span of just two weeks, the United States has agreed to hold high-level contacts with Iran and Syria, and to start down the path toward formal diplomatic recognition of North Korea. Has the Bush administration gone soft on its foes? As recently as Jan. 12, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice repeated what has been a constant of Bush foreign policy: a refusal to bestow on Iran, Syria and North Korea the legitimacy of diplomatic engagement as long as they refuse to bend on disputed issues. “That’s not diplomacy,” Ms. Rice said before a Senate panel, in defending the administration’s stand on Iran and Syria. “That’s extortion.” Administration officials insisted Wednesday that the new overtures, including an agreement to join Iran and Syria in talks on Iraq, did not mean there had been a change in policy. “There is no crack,” the White House spokesman, Tony Snow, said. “A number of people have been characterizing U.S. participation in a regional meeting as a change in policy; it is nothing of the sort.” But foreign policy experts, administration critics on Capitol Hill and former diplomats disagreed, saying the administration appeared to have recognized the extent to which it had tied its own hands by insisting on talking only to friends. [Bilateral]
My enemy's enemy
James Dobbins Published: February 27, 2007 WASHINGTON: Somehow, the United States has maneuvered itself into a position were most Shiite and most Sunni, most Arabs and most Persians alike seem to regard America as their enemy. In fact, one of the few things the warring factions have in common is their opposition to the United States. American forces in Iraq are being attacked on one side by Sunni insurgents, ex-Baathists and Al Qaeda operatives, and there is no sign their hostility to the U.S. is abating. These groups are also hostile to Iran, which is backing the other side in the civil war — Shiite parties that dominate the current Iraqi government and their armed militias. How has the United States managed to provoke opposition from all sides in this conflict? [US Foreign Policy] [Strategic incoherence]
US invites Iran and Syria to talks on Iraq in reversal of Bush policy
Suzanne Goldenberg in Washington Wednesday February 28, 2007 The Guardian
The Bush administration gave up one of the central tenets of its Middle East strategy yesterday, reversing its much criticised effort to isolate Iran and Syria by inviting both states to negotiations on stabilising Iraq. The initiative, announced last night by the secretary of state, Condoleezza Rice, in testimony to the Senate appropriations committee will see America and Britain join Iraq and its neighbours in talks to try to rein in the country's sectarian violence. [Bilateralism]
Wall St. Slide Fuels Worries on Economy
By FLOYD NORRIS and JEREMY W. PETERS Published: February 28, 2007 Stock markets around the world plummeted yesterday in a wave of selling set off by a plunge in China that was reinforced by worries of weakening economies. The falling prices continued in early Asian trading today, but by midday the Chinese market seemed to be stabilizing.
While China was the first market to tumble, it was not clear what set off the selling. But once it began, it spread first to other Asian countries, then to Europe and the United States.
16 Million Americans Living in Severe Poverty
The percentage of poor Americans who are living in severe poverty has reached a 32-year high, millions of working Americans are falling closer to the poverty line and the gulf between the nation's ``haves'' and ``have-nots'' continues to widen, McClatchy Newspapers reported. A McClatchy Newspapers analysis of 2005 census figures found that nearly 16 million Americans are living in deep or severe poverty. A family of four with two children and an annual income of less than $9,903 _ half the federal poverty line _ was considered severely poor in 2005. So were individuals who made less than $5,080 a year. The analysis discovered that the number of severely poor Americans grew by 26 percent from 2000 to 2005. That's 56 percent faster than the overall poverty population grew in the same period.
One in three Americans will experience a full year of extreme poverty at some point in his or her adult life, McClatchy said citing long-term research by Mark Rank, a professor of social welfare at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. An estimated 58 percent of Americans between the ages of 20 and 75 will spend at least a year in poverty, Rank said. Two of three will use a public assistance program between ages 20 and 65, and 40 percent will do so for five years or more. These estimates apply only to non-immigrants. If illegal immigrants were factored in, the numbers would be worse, Rank said.

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FEBRUARY 2007

The Redirection
Is the Administration's new policy benefitting our enemies in the war on terrorism?
by Seymour M. Hersh Issue of 2007-03-05 Posted 2007-02-25
A STRATEGIC SHIFT In the past few months, as the situation in Iraq has deteriorated, the Bush Administration, in both its public diplomacy and its covert operations, has significantly shifted its Middle East strategy. The "redirection," as some inside the White House have called the new strategy, has brought the United States closer to an open confrontation with Iran and, in parts of the region, propelled it into a widening sectarian conflict between Shiite and Sunni Muslims. [Fragmentation]
Bush to Warn Pakistan to Act on Terror
By DAVID E. SANGER and MARK MAZZETTI Published: February 26, 2007 WASHINGTON, Feb. 25 - President Bush has decided to send an unusually tough message to one of his most important allies, Gen. Pervez Musharraf, the president of Pakistan, warning him that the newly Democratic Congress could cut aid to his country unless his forces become far more aggressive in hunting down operatives with Al Qaeda, senior administration officials say.
The decision came after the White House concluded that General Musharraf is failing to live up to commitments he made to Mr. Bush during a visit here in September. General Musharraf insisted then, both in private and public, that a peace deal he struck with tribal leaders in one of the country's most lawless border areas would not diminish the hunt for the leaders of Al Qaeda and the Taliban or their training camps
Prisons of the Stateless: The Derelictions of the UN High Commission for Refugees and the Japanese Role
By Jacob Stevens [Japan's payments towards the UN budget, at more than 19 per cent, are second only to the US. Although all its efforts thus far to secure a permanent seat on the Security Council have been in vain, many Japanese citizens serve, some at high levels, on UN bodies. None has been more prominent than Sadako Ogata, Head of the United Nations High Commission for Refugees through the decade of the 1990s. The following essay constitutes a critical analysis of the Ogata era at UNHCR.
Once the precedent had been established, the logistics of the transfer were largely handed over to the US Army, inaugurating an era of ever-closer cooperation with the military. Boutros-Ghali, concerned to preserve a veneer of independence, requested that un coordination with Coalition forces should be ‘discreet and not formal’, with particular attention paid to ensuring that US and UN flags were not raised at the same time in the refugee camps.
In the new millennium, as UNHCR becomes yet more integrated with American and British foreign policy, Ogata’s views further lose touch with reality
The shifts over the past two decades in the way UNHCR works are momentous, and have affected the lives of millions of victims of war and persecution. In part, the changes reflect the continuing debasement of the UN. If, as Peter Gowan has argued, there was no Golden Age free of US influence, the Communist bloc and the non-aligned movement did provide a check on American control of global institutions. [14] As the Soviet Union collapsed, the first Gulf War showed the new extent of US power over the UN. Ogata’s memoirs throw some light on Boutros-Ghali’s attempts to preserve the last shreds of UN independence, for example in the nominal separation of US military and UN humanitarian operations in Iraq in the early 1990s. {UNUS}
The Curve of American Power
Immanuel Wallerstein
New Left Review 40, July-August 2006 Will strategic failure in Iraq hasten a decline in US hegemony? Immanuel Wallerstein surveys the global landscape that might emerge from the longue durée of American rule, with rival regional powers competing for energy, water and markets in an unstructured world-political order.
Since the end of the Second World War, the geopolitics of the world-system has traversed three different phases. From 1945 until around 1970 the us exercised unquestioned hegemony in the world-system. This began to decline during the period between 1970 and 2001, but the extent of the decline was limited by the strategy that the us evolved to delay and minimize the effects of its loss of ascendancy. Since 2001 the us has sought to recuperate its standing by more unilateralist policies, which have, however, boomeranged—indeed actually accelerating the speed and depth of its decline
737 U.S. Military Bases = Global Empire
By Chalmers Johnson With more than 2,500,000 U.S. personnel serving across the planet and military bases spread across each continent, it's time to face up to the fact that our American democracy has spawned a global empire. The following is excerpted from Chalmers Johnson's new book, "Nemesis: The Last Days of the American Republic" (Metropolitan Books).
Once upon a time, you could trace the spread of imperialism by counting up colonies. America's version of the colony is the military base; and by following the changing politics of global basing, one can learn much about our ever more all-encompassing imperial "footprint" and the militarism that grows with it.
Fighting Iran -- With Patience
By Jim Hoagland Sunday, February 25, 2007; Page B07 Nuclear weapons have a way of forcing presidents to reverse policies thought to be carved in stone. So it was with Ronald Reagan and the Soviet Union, and so it may be now with George W. Bush and the two surviving members of the "axis of evil." To the outrage of some supporters and the mockery of his critics, President Bush has blessed a tentative, quarter-loaf diplomatic deal aimed at curbing North Korea's nuclear arsenal. And he has a shot at reaching a modus vivendi with Iran on nuclear proliferation as well -- if he disregards both the outrage and the mockery, as he should.
"There is movement behind the scenes," a European diplomat who closely follows Iran told me last week. "The Iranians are nervous and want to get engaged." Details of a confidential Iranian proposal that has been circulating in Brussels and Tehran for four months support the view that there could be an opening on the Iranian front despite the angry rhetoric from Iran triggered by last week's new indictment of its nuclear ambitions by the International Atomic Energy Agency. Bush vigorously ruled out rewarding bad behavior by foreign adversaries in his first term. Saddam Hussein's manipulation of the international community was a driving force in Bush's labeling Iraq, along with North Korea and Iran, as irredeemably evil in 2002 and invading Iraq a year later. But now Bush countenances providing economic and diplomatic rewards to North Korea, and ultimately to Iran, to reduce the threat of nuclear weapons in the hands of two regimes that behave as badly as anyone could want. The bravado of the first Bush term has been replaced by a sadder and quieter way of doing business abroad as Iraq has sapped U.S. capabilities and political cohesion. The sense of a U-turn is reinforced by Bush's reliance this time on the negotiating skills of his diplomatic corps and on European and Asian partners to reach, enforce and pay for the projected deals, which would serve as twin tombstones for a brief era of U.S. unilateralism. The change on North Korea is described by former administration officials as a strategic decision by the president to start "to pry the lid off" of that starving, tyrannized remnant of the Cold War by offering Pyongyang a path for peaceful change. Cooperation in the six-party negotiations would also help stabilize China's relations with Japan and the United States, in this view. [Agreement070213]
U.S. Used Bases in Ethiopia to Hunt Al Qaeda in Africa
By MICHAEL R. GORDON and MARK MAZZETTI Published: February 23, 2007 WASHINGTON, Feb. 22 - The American military quietly waged a campaign from Ethiopia last month to capture or kill top leaders of Al Qaeda in the Horn of Africa, including the use of an airstrip in eastern Ethiopia to mount airstrikes against Islamic militants in neighboring Somalia, according to American officials.
US intelligence on Iran does not stand up, say Vienna sources
Julian Borger in Vienna Friday February 23, 2007 The Guardian Much of the intelligence on Iran's nuclear facilities provided to UN inspectors by American spy agencies has turned out to be unfounded, according to diplomatic sources in Vienna. The claims, reminiscent of the intelligence fiasco surrounding the Iraq war, coincided with a sharp increase in international tension as the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) reported that Iran was defying a UN security council ultimatum to freeze its nuclear programme. [Intelligence][Evidence]
Gulf states plan weapons buying binge
By JIM KRANE ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER Friday, February 16, 2007 · Last updated 1:18 a.m. PT DUBAI, United Arab Emirates -- Deep fears about the war in Iraq and growing tension between the United States and Iran are driving the wealthy oil states of the Persian Gulf to go on shopping sprees for helicopters, ships and tanks, officials say. Some 900 weapons makers and security firms from around the world, including the U.S. and Russia, will compete for those military buys at the IDEX military show that opens Sunday in Abu Dhabi. At stake are contracts predicted to soar past the $2 billion signed at the last such show two years ago. "The shopping lists are directly correlated to the threat perception," said military analyst Mustafa Alani of the Dubai-based Gulf Research Center. "For the past 15 years, these countries didn't invest a lot in rearming." But now they're rushing to upgrade. The biggest fear in the region is that Iraq will collapse into civil war and its violence will spill into nearby Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Kuwait, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates, Alani said. Those countries want to protect critical sites such as oil installations, ports - and U.S. military bases that house tens of thousands of American troops. Of those five nations, only Saudi Arabia has no American bases [Arms sales] [Tribute]
Mission imperial
While Iraqis struggled in the chaos of Baghdad after the invasion, the Americans sent to rebuild the nation led a cocooned existence in the centre of the capital - complete with booze, hot dogs and luxury villas. In the first of three extracts from his new book, Rajiv Chandrasekaran exposes life in the Green Zone. Monday February 19, 2007 The Guardian A US soldier jumps from a platform as he enjoys Saddam Hussein's swimming pool at the Republican Palace. Photograph: Marco Di Lauro/Getty Unlike almost anywhere else in Baghdad, you could dine at the cafeteria in the Republican Palace in the heart of the Green Zone for six months and never eat hummus, flatbread, or a lamb kebab. The palace was the headquarters of the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA), the American occupation administration in Iraq, and the food was always American, often with a Southern flavour. A buffet featured grits, cornbread and a bottomless barrel of pork: sausage for breakfast, hot dogs for lunch, pork chops for dinner. The cafeteria was all about meeting American needs for high-calorie, high-fat comfort food.
Trial Spotlights Cheney's Power as an Infighter
David Scull for The New York Times Vice President Dick Cheney has been a central figure in the trial of his former aide, I. Lewis Libby Jr. Final arguments may be heard today.
By JIM RUTENBERG Published: February 20, 2007 WASHINGTON, Feb. 19 - A picture taking shape from hours of testimony and reams of documents in the trial of I. Lewis Libby Jr. shatters any notion that the White House was operating as a model of cohesion throughout President Bush's
The trial against Mr. Libby has centered on a narrow case of perjury, with days of sparring between the defense and prosecution lawyers over the numbing details of three-year-old conversations between White House officials and journalists. But a close reading of the testimony and evidence in the case is more revelatory, bringing into bolder relief a portrait of a vice president with free rein to operate inside the White House as he saw fit in order to debunk the charges of a critic of the war in Iraq. The evidence in the trial shows Vice President Dick Cheney and Mr. Libby, his former chief of staff, countermanding and even occasionally misleading colleagues at the highest levels of Mr. Bush's inner circle as the two pursued their own goal of clearing the vice president's name in connection with flawed intelligence used in the case for war.
A Surge in Two Wars
Paul Rogers International Security Monthly Briefing January 2007 Download this briefing in English or Spanish (pdf). In Iraq a surge in US ground forces is under way, with this accompanied by a substantial increase in the naval presence in the Gulf. In Afghanistan, coalition forces are being increased, although not to the level demanded by some senior officers. In both regions of war there is expected to be an increase in the level of conflict in the coming months, although a new conflict with Iran could develop and even overshadow the existing wars.
Chomsky on Iran, Iraq, and the Rest of the World
Michael Shank | February 16, 2007 Editor: John Feffer, IRC
Foreign Policy In Focus www.fpif.org Noam Chomsky is a noted linguist, author, and foreign policy expert. On February 9, Michael Shank interviewed him on the latest developments in U.S. policy toward Iran, Iraq, North Korea, and Venezuela. Along the way, Chomsky also commented on climate change, the World Social Forum, and why international relations are run like the mafia.
Shank: With similar nuclear developments in North Korea and Iran, why has the United States pursued direct diplomacy with North Korea but refuses to do so with Iran?
Chomsky: To say that the United States has pursued diplomacy with North Korea is a little bit misleading. It did under the Clinton administration, though neither side completely lived up to their obligations. Clinton didn’t do what was promised, nor did North Korea, but they were making progress. So when Bush came into the presidency, North Korea had enough uranium or plutonium for maybe one or two bombs, but then very limited missile capacity. During the Bush years it’s exploded. The reason is, he immediately canceled the diplomacy and he’s pretty much blocked it ever since. They made a very substantial agreement in September 2005 in which North Korea agreed to eliminate its enrichment programs and nuclear development completely. In return the United States agreed to terminate the threats of attack and to begin moving towards the planning for the provision of a light water reactor, which had been promised under the framework agreement. But the Bush administration instantly undermined it. Right away, they canceled the international consortium that was planning for the light water reactor, which was a way of saying we’re not going to agree to this agreement. A couple of days later they started attacking the financial transactions of various banks. It was timed in such a way to make it clear that the United States was not going to move towards its commitment to improve relations. And of course it never withdrew the threats. So that was the end of the September 2005 agreement.
It is not a matter of access as people often say. Once the oil is on the seas it goes anywhere. In fact if the United States used no Middle East oil, it’d have the same policies. If we went on solar energy tomorrow, it’d keep the same policies. Just look at the internal record, or the logic of it, the issue has always been control. Control is the source of strategic power.
One is simply that it is independent and independence is not tolerated. Sometimes it’s called successful defiance in the internal record. Take Cuba. A very large majority of the U.S. population is in favor of establishing diplomatic relations with Cuba and has been for a long time with some fluctuations. And even part of the business world is in favor of it too. But the government won’t allow it. It’s attributed to the Florida vote but I don’t think that’s much of an explanation. I think it has to do with a feature of world affairs that is insufficiently appreciated. International affairs is very much run like the mafia. The godfather does not accept disobedience, even from a small storekeeper who doesn’t pay his protection money. You have to have obedience otherwise the idea can spread that you don’t have to listen to the orders and it can spread to important places.
the immediate consequence of constant threats. Everyone knows that. That’s one of the reasons the reformists, Shirin Ebadi and Akbar Ganji and others, are bitterly complaining about the U.S. threats, that it’s undermining their efforts to reform and democratize Iran. But that’s presumably its purpose. Since it’s an obvious consequence you have to assume it’s the purpose. Just like in law, anticipated consequences are taken as the evidence for intention. And here’s it so obvious you can’t seriously doubt it.
I’m sure that these issues are discussed in internal planning. It’s inconceivable that they can’t think of this. But it’s out of public discussion, it’s not in the media, it’s not in the journals, it’s not in the Baker-Hamilton report. And I think you can understand the reason. To bring up these issues would open the question why the United States and Britain invaded. And that question is taboo. [Agreement070213] [Imperialism] [Fragmentation] [Intelligent design] [China confrontation]
WILL IRAN BE NEXT?
The Atlantic Monthly | December 2004 Soldiers, spies, and diplomats conduct a classic Pentagon war game—with sobering results BY JAMES FALLOWS ..... From Atlantic Unbound: Fallows@Large: "Where Congress Can Draw the Line" (February 2007) No war with Iran. By James Fallows Thoughout this summer and fall, barely mentioned in America's presidential campaign, Iran moved steadily closer to a showdown with the United States (and other countries) over its nuclear plans.
WHERE CONGRESS CAN DRAW THE LINE
No war with I FALLOWS@LARGE | by James Fallows ran ..... Dciding what to do next about Iraq is hard — on the merits, and in the politics. It’s hard on the merits because whatever comes next, from “surge” to “get out now” and everything in between, will involve suffering, misery, and dishonor. It’s just a question of by whom and for how long. On a balance-of-misery basis, my own view changed last year from “we can’t afford to leave” to “we can’t afford to stay.” And the whole issue is hard in its politics because even Democrats too young to remember Vietnam know that future Karl Roves will dog them for decades with accusations of “cut-and-run” and “betraying” troops unless they can get Republicans to stand with them on limiting funding and forcing the policy to change. By comparison, Iran is easy: on the merits, in the politics. War with Iran would be a catastrophe that would make us look back fondly on the minor inconvenience of being bogged down in Iraq. While the Congress flounders about what, exactly, it can do about Iraq, it can do something useful, while it still matters, in making clear that it will authorize no money and provide no endorsement for military action against Iran. Why? Think of the three ways war between the United States and Iran might start.
No Cold War, Perhaps, but Surely a Lukewarm Peace
o By STEVEN LEE MYERS Published: February 18, 2007 MOSCOW PRESIDENT VLADIMIR PUTIN’S acerbic assault on American unilateralism last weekend in Munich might not have heralded a return to the bad old days of global ideological confrontation — of blocs and proxy wars, dissidents and spies, arms races and mutually assured destruction — even if some were quick to say it did. The problem is, Cold War II could in its own way be just as messy and unpredictable. For all the talk of strategic partnership and even personal friendship between Mr. Putin and President Bush, the relationship between Russia and the United States has reached what is probably its lowest point since the Soviet Union collapsed a decade and a half ago.
Italy Indicts 26 Americans in C.I.A. Abduction Case
By IAN FISHER Published: February 16, 2007 ROME, Feb. 16 — An Italian judge today ordered the first trial involving the American program of kidnapping terror suspects on foreign soil, indicting 26 Americans, most of them C.I.A. agents, but also Italy’s former top spy. The indictments covered the episode in which a radical Egyptian cleric, Hassan Mustafa Osama Nasr, who disappeared near his mosque in Milan on Feb. 17, 2003, says he was kidnapped. The cleric, known as Abu Omar, was freed this week from jail in Egypt, where he says he was taken and then tortured. Despite the indictment, issued by a judge in Milan, it is unlikely that any of the Americans will ever stand trial here.
British Panel Urges Police to Apologize To Muslims for Raid
By Mary Jordan Washington Post Foreign Service Wednesday, February 14, 2007; Page A15 LONDON, Feb. 13 -- London police should publicly apologize to two Muslim families caught up in a mistaken anti-terrorist raid in which a man was shot, an independent oversight panel said Tuesday. The Independent Police Complaints Commission was investigating the dramatic dawn raid of two homes in East London last June by about 250 officers, some in chemical protective suits. Police officials later said they believed that "a highly dangerous explosive device that could be set off remotely" was being made there.
Two men, Mohammed Abdul Kahar, 23, and his brother Abul Koyair, 20, were arrested, and Abdul Kahar was accidentally shot in the shoulder during the scuffle. A week later, after an extensive search of the houses, both men were released without charge.
Man of Many Beliefs Gives a News Conference With Few Answers
By Dana Milbank Thursday, February 15, 2007; Page A02
President Bush must have heard that National Public Radio was reviving the 1950s radio program "This I Believe," because his news conference yesterday sounded like an audition.
On Iran: "I believe Iran is an unbelievably vital nation."
On his Iraq plan: "I believe that success in Baghdad will have success in helping us secure the homeland."
On the North Korea agreement: "I believe it's an important step in the right direction."
Bush has always supported a faith-based initiative, but his recitation of beliefs in the East Room yesterday -- he listed no fewer than 18 principles he holds to be true-- sounded less like a question-and-answer session than a reading of the Nicene Creed. The only thing the president did not believe in was answering the questions he was asked.
Steve Holland of Reuters asked about Iranian weapons in Iraq. "What makes you so certain that the highest levels of Tehran's government is responsible?" Bush admitted he doesn't know "whether or not the head leaders of Iran" were involved. "But here's my point: Either they knew or didn't know."
The Capitalist Conjuncture: Over-Accumulation, Financial Crises, and the Retreat from Globalisation
By Walden Bello Walden Bello can be reached at w.bello@focusweb.org. This article appeared in Third World Quarterly 27(8), 2006.
[Japan Focus 12 February 2007]
The end of the United States’ productivity miracle?
[Column] By Dean Baker, co-director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research. As the whole world knows, productivity growth in the United States took off in the mid-’90s. After having grown at just a 1.5 percent annual rate between 1973 and 1995, the annual rate of productivity growth jumped to 2.5 percent 1995. Productivity growth increased even more in the current decade, exceeding a 3 percent annual pace in the first years of the new century. This productivity surge separated the United States from other wealthy countries. In the ’70s, ’80s, and first half of the ’90s, productivity growth in the United States had lagged behind growth in Japan and West Europe. Many economists and policy figures in the United States looked to the practices in these countries for ideas to reinvigorate productivity growth in the United States. This pattern was quickly reversed with the 1995 productivity upturn. Suddenly, the United States was touted as the economic model for the world, with Europe and Japan being derided for their sclerotic systems.
Well, the basis for the story of the U.S. economic miracle may be coming to an end. New government data show that productivity in the United States grew just 2.1 percent in 2006.
A Shaky Briefing on Iran?
By Dan Froomkin Special to washingtonpost.com Monday, February 12, 2007; 1:46 PM For a long time now, Bush admininstration officials have been promising reporters proof that the Iranian government is supplying deadly weaponry to Iraqi militants.
The administration finally unveiled its case this weekend, first in coordinated and anonymous leaks to a trusting New York Times reporter, then in an extraordinarily secretive military briefing at which no one would speak on the record, journalists weren't allowed to photograph the so-called evidence, and nothing even remotely like proof of direct Iranian government involvement was presented.
The result: The White House got the headlines it wanted.
But there is plenty of reason for reporters to be suspicious of the administration's claims. And looking at the big picture, one can't help but wonder: Is this deja vu all over again? Is the Bush admininistration once again building a faulty case for war, this time against Iran? And is the press going along for the ride? [Media] [Evidence]
Regional War or Peace? Israel, Iran and the Bush Administration
By GABRIEL KOLKO
February 10 / 11, 2007There has been a qualitative leap in military technology that makes all inherited conventional wisdom, and war as an instrument of political policy, utterly irrelevant, not just to the United States but also to any other state that embarks upon it. Nations should have realized this a century ago but they did not. But there have been decisive changes in balances of power, and more accurate and destructive weapons--and soon nuclear bombs and the missiles to deliver them-are becoming more and more available to the poorer countries. Technology is moving much more rapidly than the diplomatic and political resources or will to control its inevitable consequences. The United States should have learned its lesson in Vietnam, and its public is aware of it to a far greater extent than its politicians. The war in Iraq has reaffirmed the decisive limits of technology when fighting against enemies who are decentralized and determined. It has been extraordinarily expensive but militarily ineffective, and America is ineluctably losing its vast undertaking. Rivals are much more equal, and wars more protracted and expensive for those who persist in fighting them. America's ambitions for hegemony throughout the globe can now be more and more successfully challenged. Nowhere is this truer than the Middle East, where the U.S.' long-standing alliance with Israel, which shares its fascination with military power, has produced colossal political failures for both nations.
But Olmert has explicitly said that the Bush Administration opposes a negotiated peace with Syria. Therefore he is opposed to it also Israel's power after 1947 was based on its military supremacy over its weaker neighbors. It is in the process of losing it-if it has not already. Lesser problems, mainly demographic, will only be aggravated if tension persists. It simply cannot survive allied with the United States, because the Americans will either leave the region or embark on a war that risks Israel's very existence. It is time for it to become "normal" and make peace with its neighbors, and that will require it to make major concessions. It can do that if it embarks upon an independent foreign policy, and it can start immediately to do so with Syria.
Putin’s speech Munich Conference on Security Policy
Speech and the Following Discussion at the Munich Conference on Security Policy February 11, 2007 Munich Printer-Friendly Version VLADIMIR PUTIN: Thank you very much dear Madam Federal Chancellor, Mr Teltschik, ladies and gentlemen! I am truly grateful to be invited to such a representative conference that has assembled politicians, military officials, entrepreneurs and experts from more than 40 nations. This conference’s structure allows me to avoid excessive politeness and the need to speak in roundabout, pleasant but empty diplomatic terms.
Missile weapons with a range of about five to eight thousand kilometres that really pose a threat to Europe do not exist in any of the so-called problem countries. And in the near future and prospects, this will not happen and is not even foreseeable. And any hypothetical launch of, for example, a North Korean rocket to American territory through western Europe obviously contradicts the laws of ballistics. As we say in Russia, it would be like using the right hand to reach the left ear.
Iranian Remains Defiant on Nuclear Program
By NAZILA FATHI Published: February 12, 2007 TEHRAN, Feb. 11 — President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad vowed in a speech marking the 28th anniversary of the Islamic revolution here on Sunday that Iran would not stop its nuclear program despite a United Nations deadline next week. But he stopped short of making a promised announcement about “good news” in the country’s nuclear progress, raising speculation that domestic political pressure and technological glitches may have put off a milestone in the government’s efforts to begin mass enrichment of uranium. In his speech, to a crowd estimated at more than 100,000 people who had gathered in Azadi Square in Tehran, he fell back on a formula that has become familiar as international sanctions and pressure have increased: vowing that Iran would never give up its right to enrich uranium, but promising that its program was for peaceful purposes only.
Across Arab World, a Widening Rift
Sunni-Shiite Tension Called Region's 'Most Dangerous Problem' By Anthony Shadid Washington Post Foreign Service Monday, February 12, 2007; Page A01 CAIRO Egypt is the Arab world's largest Sunni Muslim country, but as a writer once quipped, it has a Shiite heart and a Sunni mind. In its eclectic popular culture, Sunnis enjoy a sweet dish with raisins and nuts to mark Ashura, the most sacred Shiite Muslim holiday. Raucous festivals bring Cairenes into the street to celebrate the birthdays of Shiite saints, a practice disparaged by austere Sunnis. The city's Islamic quarter tangles like a vine around a shrine to Imam Hussein, Shiite Islam's most revered figure. The syncretic blend makes the words of Mahmoud Ahmed, a book vendor sitting on the shrine's marble and granite promenade, even more striking. "The Shiites are rising," he said, arching his eyebrows in an expression suggesting both revelation and fear. The growing Sunni-Shiite divide is roiling an Arab world as unsettled as at any time in a generation [Intelligent design]
U.S. Launches Artillery Into Pakistan
By ROBERT BURNS The Associated Press Sunday, February 11, 2007; 1:57 PM BAGRAM AIR BASE, Afghanistan -- Asserting a right to self-defense, American forces in eastern Afghanistan have launched artillery rounds into Pakistan to strike Taliban fighters who attack remote U.S. outposts, the commander of U.S. forces in the region said Sunday. The skirmishes are politically sensitive because Pakistan's government, regarded by the Bush administration as an important ally against Islamic extremists, has denied that it allows U.S. forces to strike inside its territory.
Resistance to Imperialism
What is the Decisive "Clash" of Our Time? By JEAN BRICMONT January 31, 2007 July 1, 1916, was the opening day of the Battle of the Somme. On that single day, the British suffered more than 50,000 casualties, of which 20,000 died. The battle went on for four months, leading to about a million casualties on all sides, and the war itself continued for another two years. In the summer of 2006, the Israeli army stopped its attacks on Lebanon after losing about a hundred soldiers. The majority of the U.S. population has turned against the Iraq war after less than 3,000 dead. That indicates a major change in the mentality of the West, and this reluctance to die in large numbers for "God and Country" is a major advance in the history of mankind. From the neoconservative point of view, however, this phenomenon is a sign of decadence; in fact, one of the positive aspects of the present conflict, from their perspective, is that it ought to strengthen the moral fiber of the American people, by making them ready to "die for a cause." But, so far, it is not working. More realistic people, the planners at the Pentagon for example, have tried to replace waves of human cannon fodder by massive "strategic" bombing. This works only rarely -- in Kosovo and Serbia it did succeed, at least in bringing pro-Western clients to power in both places. But it clearly is not working satisfactorily in Iraq, Afghanistan, Palestine or Lebanon. The only thing that might succeed, in a very special sense of course, would be nuclear weapons, and the fact that those weapons are the West's last military hope is truly frightening. To put this observation in a more global context, Westerners do not always appreciate the fact that the major event of the 20th century was neither the rise and fall of fascism, nor the history of communism, but decolonization.
Jean Bricmont teaches physics in Belgium. He is a member of the Brussels Tribunal. His new book, Humanitarian Imperialism, will be published by Monthly Review Press in February 2007. He can be reached at bricmont@fyma.ucl.ac.be.
How PR Firms and Major Media Help Military Recruiters
An Army of Thousands More By DIANE FARSETTA February 1, 2007 Increasing "the ranks of our military" is "one of the first steps we can take together" to "position America to meet every challenge that confronts us," said President Bush in last week's State of the Union address. "Tonight I ask the Congress to authorize an increase in the size of our active Army and Marine Corps by 92,000 in the next five years."
If it was that difficult for the Army to meet past recruiting goals, how will it meet future, larger ones? Some clues are offered in the Army's self-nomination for a prestigious public relations award. [IM]
Private Sector Summit on Public Diplomacy
Remarks with Under Secretary for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs Karen P. Hughes and Assistant Secretary for Educational and Cultural Affairs Dina H. Powell on Private Sector Summit on Public Diplomacy U.S. DEPARTMENT OF STATE January 10, 2007 2007/015
ASSISTANT SECRETARY POWELL: Hello, everybody. Welcome to the State Department. Welcome to the beautiful Benjamin Franklin Room. We are so delighted to be the co-host of the Private Sector Summit on Public Diplomacy with our great partners, the Public Relations Coalition, PR Coalition. We have had already a morning of tremendous panels, speakers and we have already, I think, planted several seeds that will bear fruit. Our desire, as we mentioned this morning, is to ensure that public diplomacy cannot be seen as the work of government alone. And with the help of all of our partners in this room, I truly believe we're going to leave a lasting legacy of these kinds of partnerships because we have such a common goal in promoting mutual understanding of Americans and American values with people all around the world. [IM]
Why won't the US tell us how Matty died?
Trooper Hull died in a hail of 'friendly fire' from our American allies in Iraq in 2003. Last week an inquest echoed to the fury of a coroner and the grief of a widow, but failed to answer why such a terrible accident happened. Here we reveal how ministers have battled for years to force the US to uncover the truth of this tragedy Mark Townsend Sunday February 4, 2007 The Observer Maybe she was naive to expect the truth. Four years after being killed by an American pilot, Mandy Hull has still to discover why her son was shot by US forces one morning in Iraq. As she left Oxford coroners court shortly before midday last Friday, she wept briefly. Her sense of betrayal had never felt keener. The British government had, she suspected, misled her. The Pentagon had point-blank refused to even identify the American servicemen who shot her 25-year-old son. Her only son. 'It makes you sick,' she said. The inquest into the death of Lance Corporal Matthew 'Matty' Hull is more than the tale of a man killed by people who were supposed to be on the same side. His death at the hands of American pilots who ignored British army pleas to stop shooting has led to strained relations between both sets of soldiers and frayed diplomatic ties amid fresh fears of an increasingly lopsided relationship between Britain and its closest ally in the 'war on terror'. The refusal of American authorities to discipline US servicemen who have killed British troops bolsters a perception among UK soldiers that the Pentagon has little regard for the sacrifices made by the British army in its support of the US-led coalition.
Iran: A War Is Coming
by John Pilger
February 3, 2007 The United States is planning what will be a catastrophic attack on Iran. For the Bush cabal, the attack will be a way of "buying time" for its disaster in Iraq. In announcing what he called a "surge" of American troops in Iraq, George W. Bush identified Iran as his real target. "We will interrupt the flow of support [to the insurgency in Iraq] from Iran and Syria," he said. "And we will seek out and destroy the networks providing advanced weaponry and training to our enemies in Iraq." "Networks" means Iran.
U.S. contractors becoming a fourth branch of government
By SCOTT SHANE and RON NIXON Sunday, February 4, 2007
WASHINGTON In June, short of people to process cases of incompetence and fraud by federal contractors, officials at the General Services Administration responded with what has become the government's reflexive answer to almost every problem. They hired another contractor.
What to Ask Before the Next War
By Paul R. Pillar Sunday, February 4, 2007; B07 Imagine that the famously flawed intelligence judgments about Iraq's programs to develop unconventional weapons had been correct. What difference would that have made to the American effort in Iraq? The Bush administration would have had fewer rhetorical difficulties in defending its decision to go to war, even though any discoveries of weapons programs would have confirmed nothing about the use to which Saddam Hussein might someday have put such weapons or whether Iraq would eventually have acquired nuclear weapons. But the war itself would be the same agonizing ordeal. An insurgency driven by motives having nothing to do with weapons of mass destruction and little to do with Hussein would still be going on.
The United States and Iran: the logic of war
Paul Rogers 1 - 2 - 2007 The Bush administrations's hardline rhetoric, backed by more military hardware in the Persian Gulf, brings a devastating confrontation nearer. The surge in United States troop levels in gathering pace. As it does so, the civilian losses in Iraq continue at an appalling rate: as many as a hundred people often die each day as a result of car-bombs, shootings and other attacks. American soldiers themselves continue to fall. A relatively low level of casualties in the first two weeks of January may have reflected a reduced number of patrols, but from the middle of the month the US casualty rate soared. In the four weeks to 24 January, eighty were killed and 400 wounded.

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JANUARY 2007

George Galloway’s speech to the UK Parliament on Iraq, January 2007
Saudi Arabia, Iran Cooperating on Crises
By ABDULLAH SHIHRI Associated Press Writer January 30,2007 | RIYADH, Saudi Arabia -- Saudi Arabia and Iran are working together to try to calm the crises in Iraq and Lebanon, the Saudi foreign minister said Tuesday, despite Washington's efforts to isolate Tehran and limit its influence in the Middle East. The mediation is an unusual step by two rivals, Saudi Arabia and Iran, that compete for regional influence. President Bush has rejected calls that the United States win Iran's help in easing Iraq's bloodshed and resolve the political crisis in Lebanon that erupted into violence last week. Instead, he has vowed to break what he called Iranian support for militants in both countries. Saudi Arabia's willingness to work with Iran likely indicates the growing alarm in the kingdom's leadership over the two simultaneous crises, which have inflamed Sunni-Shiite tensions throughout the Middle East. At the same time, Saudi Arabia has given tepid support to a new U.S. strategy in Iraq but has expressed skepticism over whether it will succeed
With Iran Ascendant, U.S. Is Seen at Fault
Arab Allies in Region Feeling Pressure By Anthony Shadid Washington Post Foreign Service Tuesday, January 30, 2007; Page A01 DUBAI, United Arab Emirates -- Kuwait rarely rebuffs its ally, the United States, partly out of gratitude for the 1991 Persian Gulf War. But in October it reneged on a pledge to send three military observers to an American-led naval exercise in the Gulf, according to U.S. officials and Kuwaiti analysts. "We understood," a State Department official said. "The Kuwaitis were being careful not to antagonize the Iranians."
Four years after the United States invaded Iraq, in part to transform the Middle East, Iran is ascendant, many in the region view the Americans in retreat, and Arab countries, their own feelings of weakness accentuated, are awash in sharpening sectarian currents that many blame the United States for exacerbating.
Spiegel interview with CIA's former Europe director
"We Probably Gave Powell the Wrong Speech" The former chief of the CIA's Europe division, Tyler Drumheller, discusses the United States foreign intelligence service's cooperation with Germany, the covert kidnapping of suspected terrorists and a Bush adminstration that ignored CIA advice and used whatever information it could find to justify an invasion of Iraq.
SPIEGEL: Mr. Drumheller, do you still dare to travel to Europe? Drumheller: Yes, absolutely. I was a great friend of the Europeans. I grew up in Wiesbaden. I love Germany very much. SPIEGEL: Arrest warrants have been issued in Europe for a number of your former colleagues. They are suspected of involvement in the illegal kidnappings of suspected terrorists as part of the so-called "renditions" program. Doesn't this worry you? Drumheller: No. I'm not worried, but I am not allowed to discuss the issue.
SPIEGEL: Perhaps the White House wanted to gloss over its own responsibility. Drumheller: Let me give you a general thought: From the perspective of the White House, it was smart to blur the lines about what was acceptable and what was not in the war on terrorism. It meant that whenever someone was overzealous in some dark interrogation cell, President (George W.) Bush and his entourage could blame someone else. The rendition teams are drawn from paramilitary officers who are brave and colorful. They are the men who went into Baghdad before the bombs and into Afghanistan before the army. If they didn't do paramilitary actions for a living, they would probably be robbing banks. Perhaps the Bush Administration deliberately created a gray area on renditions. [Double standards]
Geopolitics of the Afghanistan War
: US Elevates Pakistan to Regional Kingpin. Implications for Russia, NATO, Iran and the Arab States
By M K Bhadrakumar The hearings of the US congressional committees on intelligence in Washington in the past two successive weeks make it clear that the administration of President George W Bush has no intention of pressuring Pakistan over the resurgence of the Taliban in Afghanistan.
Moreover, there may be no need for the Bush administration to pressure President General Pervez Musharraf. The Pakistani leader seems to be positioning to play a profoundly meaningful role in US regional policy as a whole that will go far beyond the limited turf of Afghanistan. In return, he can be confident of solid US backing for his controversial re-election bid as Pakistan's president in September. (Musharraf seized power in a bloodless coup in 1999.)
The east moves west
Paul Rogers
25 - 1 - 2007 The United States's calculations in relation to Iran and Syria cannot ignore the influence in the region of China and Russia. Two weeks after the announcement by President Bush of a 20,000-strong "surge" in the number of United States troops in Iraqi, it is already clear that an assessment of the initiative's impact on the overall levels of violence in Iraq will take months. Of equal or even greater concern to US military planners is the wider middle-east strategic environment, and evidence of evolving relationships between several of the US's key strategic rivals.
Iran and China China is providing another range of weapons systems in the region, this time to Iran. Over the last decade or so, the Chinese armaments industry has invested heavily in producing a wide range of anti-ship missiles, many of them designed to be fired from coastal batteries. The fact that the United States has by far the world's most powerful navy, and includes a fifth fleet dedicated almost entirely to ensuring a strong presence in the Persian Gulf and the Arabian Sea, makes any enhancement of Iran's anti-ship defences a major worry.
Iranian Reveals Plan to Expand Role in Iraq
By JAMES GLANZ Published: January 29, 2007 BAGHDAD, Jan. 28 — Iran’s ambassador to Baghdad outlined an ambitious plan on Sunday to greatly expand its economic and military ties with Iraq — including an Iranian national bank branch in the heart of the capital — just as the Bush administration has been warning the Iranians to stop meddling in Iraqi affairs.
Iran’s ambassador to Iraq, Hassan Kazemi Qumi, said his country hoped to bolster financial and military ties. Go to Complete Coverage » Iran’s plan, as outlined by the ambassador, carries the potential to bring Iran into further conflict here with the United States, which has detained a number of Iranian operatives in recent weeks and says it has proof of Iranian complicity in attacks on American and Iraqi forces. The ambassador, Hassan Kazemi Qumi, said Iran was prepared to offer Iraq government forces training, equipment and advisers for what he called “the security fight.” In the economic area, Mr. Qumi said, Iran was ready to assume major responsibility for Iraq reconstruction, an area of failure on the part of the United States since American-led forces overthrew Saddam Hussein nearly four years ago.
The Unraveling of Dick Cheney
By Dan Froomkin Special to washingtonpost.com Monday, January 29, 2007; 12:18 PM While Dick Cheney undoubtedly remains the most powerful vice president this nation has ever seen, it's becoming increasingly unclear whether anyone outside the White House believes a word he says.
Interview of the Vice President by Wolf Blitzer, CNN "Situation Room"
Vice President's Ceremonial Office 9:50 A.M. EST Q And joining us now, the Vice President of the United States, Dick Cheney. Mr. Vice President, thanks very much for doing this.
U.S. Missiles in E. Europe Opposed by Locals, Russia
Kremlin Calls Proposed Interceptors a 'Clear Threat' By Bruce I. Konviser Special to The Washington Post Sunday, January 28, 2007; Page A16 PRAGUE -- A Bush administration plan to deploy a missile defense shield in Eastern Europe is drawing protests from Russia and from residents who oppose hosting foreign military bases and fear the facilities might make their countries targets for attack. The proposed placement of about 10 interceptor missiles in Poland and a radar tracking station in the Czech Republic would pose a "clear threat" to Russia, Col. Gen. Vladimir Popovkin, chief of Russia's Space Forces, told reporters last week. He spoke after the United States announced it would open formal negotiations with the two former client states of the Soviet Union. Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman Mikhail Kamynin underlined his government's opposition Friday, saying in an interview with the ITAR-Tass news agency that "the creation of a U.S. European anti-missile base can only be regarded as a substantial reconfiguration of the American military presence in Europe." He called the move "a mistaken step with negative consequences for international security."
The Bush administration maintains that the missile system is limited and not meant to counter Russia, with its huge nuclear arsenal, but to protect against a "rogue state" such as Iran or North Korea attacking with a small number of intercontinental ballistic missiles. Eastern Europe lies along the flight path such rockets would follow from the Middle East to the United States. [Missile defense]
Selective Justice for Failed States Only
Do We Really Need an International Criminal Court?
By DIANA JOHNSTONE January 27 / 28, 2007
the fact that the United States and its citizens are immune to prosecution, first of all because the United States has not ratified the ICC Statute, and secondly, because the United States has used its unprecedented economic and political clout to pressure countries into signing Bilateral Immunity Agreements (BIAs) that exempt Americans from prosecution. One hundred and two countries have signed BIAs with the United States.
The formal reason is that aggression is "not defined". This is a specious argument since aggression has been quite clearly defined by U.N. General Assembly Resolution 3314 in 1974, which declared that: "Aggression is the use of armed force by a State against the sovereignty, territorial integrity or political independence of another State", and listed seven specific examples including: -- The blockade of the ports or coasts of a State by the armed forces of another State...
It appeared from the Tripoli symposium that Arab intellectuals have an ambivalent attitude toward the ICC. On the one hand, many fear that the ICC can be instrumentalized to serve what they see as the long term U.S.-Israeli policy of breakig up Arab States and fragmenting the Middle East along ethnic or religious lines, as a way of "divide and rule". In such a strategy, ethnic conflicts over territory and resources can be depicted by Western media and NGOs as one-sided cases of "genocide" requiring urgent international intervention. The trial run was Yugoslavia, and Iraq is the prime example. [Fragmentation] [Double standards] [Bilateral] [PSI]
If Tesco and Wal-Mart are friends of the earth, are there any enemies left?
The superstores compete to convince us they are greener than their rivals, but they are locked into unsustainable growth George Monbiot Tuesday January 23, 2007 The Guardian You batter your head against the door until you begin to wonder whether it is a door at all. Suddenly it opens, and you find yourself flying through space. The superstores' green conversion is astonishing, wonderful, disorientating. If Tesco and Wal-Mart have become friends of the earth, are there any enemies left? [Environment] [IM]
Text President Bush’s State of the Union Address
Published: January 23, 2007 Following is a transcript of President Bush’s State of the Union address as recorded by The New York Times, with links to related articles, documents and Web sites.
Together with our partners in China and Japan, Russia and South Korea, we’re pursuing intensive diplomacy to achieve a Korean Peninsula free of nuclear weapons.
Analysis of State of union Addresses
President Bush’s speeches have included over 34,000 words. Some appear frequently; others vary year to year.
Bush Insists U.S. Must Not Fail in Iraq
By DAVID E. SANGER and JIM RUTENBERG Published: January 24, 2007 WASHINGTON, Jan. 23 — President Bush tried to resuscitate his ailing presidency Tuesday night, using his State of the Union address to present a modest agenda of energy and health care proposals while warning an increasingly assertive Congress against undercutting his new Iraq strategy.
It was a speech that reflected Mr. Bush’s difficult circumstances. It was limited in ambition and political punch at home, with no proposals to rival his call two years ago to remake Social Security, no mention of rebuilding New Orleans and no allusions to limiting stem cell research or banning gay marriage.
Mr. Bush was careful in describing what many in his administration believe could be a coming confrontation with Iran. While he vowed that the world would never allow Iran to obtain a nuclear weapon, he made no threats, saying he was relying on diplomacy to deal with both Iran and North Korea, the two countries that, five years ago, he declared in a State of the Union address made up an “axis of evil” with Mr. Hussein’s Iraq.
There were no such labels on Tuesday, a reflection of the reality that with American forces tied down in Iraq, Mr. Bush’s options are limited.
NSC seeks to place Israel in NATO
By YAAKOV KATZ AND TOVAH LAZAROFF Jan. 23, 2007 3:57 | Updated Jan. 23, 2007 17:24 In an effort to establish more effective deterrence in the face of Iran's race to obtain nuclear weapons, government ministries are, for the first time, working on drafting a position paper that will include guidelines and a strategy for turning Israel into a full-fledged member of NATO, The Jerusalem Post has learned. The paper is being drafted by an interministerial committee made up of representatives from the Defense Ministry and the Foreign Ministry and headed by the National Security Council. The committee plans to complete the paper by the end of February and present it to Prime Minister Ehud Olmert for approval.
Pakistani Role Seen in Taliban Surge at Border
Banaras Khan/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images In August, the police in Quetta, Pakistan, arrested 27 men suspected of being Taliban fighters. A policeman, above, counted a group of detainees headed to a police station.
QUETTA, Pakistan — The most explosive question about the Taliban resurgence here along the border between Afghanistan and Pakistan is this: Have Pakistani intelligence agencies been promoting the Islamic insurgency?
Is the Bush Administration Planning a Nuclear Holocaust?
Will the US launch "Mini-nukes" against Iran in Retaliation for Tehran's "Non-compliance"?
by Michel Chossudovsky
PM: U.S. Wants Base in Czech Republic
By KAREL JANICEK The Associated Press Saturday, January 20, 2007; 2:08 PM PRAGUE, Czech Republic -- The United States has asked the Czech Republic to host a radar base that would be part of a global missile defense system, the prime minister announced Saturday, drawing a warning from Russia of retaliatory actions.
Tony Blair's long war
Paul Rogers
18 - 1 - 2007 The British prime minister's vision of a country engaged in long-term global struggle against radical Islamism is fortified by gargantuan and costly military commitments. In September 2006, on the eve of the Labour Party conference in Manchester, Tony Blair announced his intention to resign at some point during 2007. The British prime minister has opened the new year with something of a "legacy tour", travelling round the country to deliver a series of "lectures" on "our nation's future" in an effort to define his political achievement and, perhaps, to influence the priorities of his successors. On Friday 12 January he gave a keynote speech on defence policy in a location designed for the purpose:
The second is the extraordinary plan to build two massive new aircraft-carriers. These, each weighing 65,000 tons and deploying the new and hugely expansive US F-35 joint strike fighter, will be far larger than any other warship ever deployed in the Royal Navy's history - three times the size of the current Invincible-class and much larger even than the battleships of the global 1939-45 war (see "British sea power: a 21st-century question", 13 July 2006). The new carriers will give Britain a global expeditionary capability unmatched by any other country except the United States.
Johnny Got His Gun
By WILLIAM BLUM In the past year Iran has issued several warnings to the United States about the consequences of an American or Israeli attack. One statement, issued in November by a high Iranian military official, declared: "If America attacks Iran, its 200,000 troops and 33 bases in the region will be extremely vulnerable, and both American politicians and military commanders are aware of it."[1] Iran apparently believes that American leaders would be so deeply distressed by the prospect of their young men and women being endangered and possibly killed that they would forswear any reckless attacks on Iran. As if American leaders have been deeply stabbed by pain about throwing youthful American bodies into the bottomless snakepit called Iraq, or were restrained by fear of retaliation or by moral qualms while feeding 58,000 young lives to the Vietnam beast. As if American leaders, like all world leaders, have ever had such concerns.
In the famous exchange on TV in 1996 between Madeleine Albright and reporter Lesley Stahl, the latter was speaking of US sanctions against Iraq, and asked the then-US ambassador to the UN, and Secretary of State-to-be: "We have heard that a half million children have died. I mean, that's more children than died in Hiroshima. And -- and you know, is the price worth it?" Replied Albright: "I think this is a very hard choice, but the price -- we think the price is worth it."[14] 14] CBS "60 Minutes", May 12, 1996
Blair faces Rice after Hain outburst
Matthew Tempest and agencies Thursday January 18, 2007 Guardian Unlimited
Tony Blair is to host talks with Condoleezza Rice in Downing Street tonight - just a day after Peter Hain described the US Republican administration as a failure at home and abroad. The timing of the Northern Ireland secretary's outburst is highly embarrassing for the prime minister, who is keen to talk to the US secretary of state about the Middle East peace process.
Mr Hain, a candidate for the party's deputy leadership, used an interview with the New Statesman to attack George Bush's neocon agenda. Mr Hain, who appears to be tacking to the party's left in his bid for the deputy leadership, told the weekly magazine that Mr Bush was the most rightwing president in living memory.
Pentagon Sets Rules for Detainee Trials
By ANNE FLAHERTY The Associated Press Thursday, January 18, 2007; 3:59 PM WASHINGTON -- The Pentagon's rules for upcoming detainee trials would allow terrorism suspects to be convicted and perhaps executed using hearsay evidence and some coerced testimony. [Human rights]
Next target Tehran
All the signs are that Bush is planning for a neocon-inspired military assault on Iran Dan Plesch Monday January 15, 2007 The Guardian
The evidence is building up that President Bush plans to add war on Iran to his triumphs in Iraq and Afghanistan - and there is every sign, to judge by his extraordinary warmongering speech in Plymouth on Friday, that Tony Blair would be keen to join him if he were still in a position to commit British forces to the field.
In the aftermath, the US will support regime change, hoping to replace the ayatollahs with an Iran of the regions. The US and British governments now support a coalition of groups seeking a federal Iran. [Fragmentation]
MI6 and Blair at odds over Saudi deals
No national security issue says agency
David Leigh, Richard Norton-Taylor and Rob Evans Tuesday January 16, 2007 The Guardian
Britain's secret intelligence service, MI6, has challenged the government's claim that a major corruption inquiry into Saudi Arabian arms deals was threatening national security. The attorney general, Lord Goldsmith, told parliament before Christmas that the intelligence agencies "agreed with the assessment" of Tony Blair that national security was in jeopardy because the Saudis intended to pull out of intelligence cooperation with Britain. But John Scarlett, the head of MI6, has now refused to sign up to a government dossier which says MI6 endorses this view.
The decision was condemned by MPs and anti-corruption campaigners, and is now the subject of an inquiry by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), which is responsible for rooting out corruption around the world. Britain signed up to its anti-bribery convention which made the payment of bribes a specific criminal offence under UK law in 2002. The OECD has demanded an explanation of the government's decision to abruptly close down an inquiry which was investigating secret payments made to Saudi royals. [Corruption] [OECD] [IM]
We are not leaving, Gates warns Iran as troop surge begins
Tehran sends out diplomatic feelers amid row over arrests
Julian Borger, Ian Traynor in Brussels and Ewen MacAskill in Washington Tuesday January 16, 2007 The Guardian
The US defence secretary, Robert Gates. Photograph: Steve Parsons/PA The US defence secretary, Robert Gates, said yesterday that Iran believed it had gained the upper hand over Washington in the Middle East, but he declared the US military buildup was intended to signal American determination to remain a dominant player in the region.
Iran yesterday appeared to offer an olive branch to Washington. A senior Iranian official, Ali Larijani, delivered a joint letter to King Abdullah from the Iranian supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad asking the Saudi monarch to act as an intermediary with the US. The letter was delivered on the eve of a visit to Riyadh by the US secretary of state, Condoleezza Rice. Reuters news agency quoted an unnamed Saudi official as saying Iran wanted the Saudi king to relay a goodwill message to Washington to "help bring opinions together" between Iran and the US. The Bush administration has made any resumption in bilateral diplomatic relations conditional on Tehran giving up its ambitions to enrich uranium as part of its nuclear programme, a condition the Iranian leadership has so far rejected. [Bilateral]
Political theater awaited at Libby trial
The CIA leak case promises a rare glimpse into the White House. By Richard B. Schmitt, Times Staff Writer January 16, 2007
WASHINGTON — By his own account, I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby was a very busy man on July 10, 2003. That day, according to his calendar, he had a senior staff meeting; an intelligence briefing with his boss, Vice President Dick Cheney; a CIA briefing; and lunch with Cheney and then-House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.). He was reviewing more than a dozen terrorist threats and checking up on trouble spots around the globe, such as the ouster of Liberian president Charles Taylor and North Korea's escalating plans for developing nuclear weapons.
Steel tycoon Mittal donates £2m to Labour
Matthew Tempest, political correspondent Tuesday January 16, 2007 Guardian Unlimited
The Labour party confirmed tonight it had been partially bailed out of its current financial woes with a £2m donation from the controversial Indian steel tycoon, Lakshmi Mittal. Mr Mittal - estimated to be the fifth richest man in the world - hit the headlines after a previous gift in 2002 was swiftly followed by a letter from Mr Blair to the Romanian government, backing his company's bid for the country's formerly state-owned steel industry. [IM] [Corruption]
The Trial of Tony Blair
Last night's TV
Blair's legacy should be a subject ripe for sending up, but this political satire lacked bite
Sam Wollaston Tuesday January 16, 2007 The Guardian
It's no surprise really that the print media get all excited about television dramas that have the same concerns as the papers themselves - when the people on the screen represent the people on their own front pages. So The West Wing is adored by every journalist I know (while being largely ignored by the rest of the world). And scenes from The Thick of It have been re-enacted around all the water coolers in Fleet Street - well, here in Farringdon Road certainly. So of course there's been a bit of noise about The Trial of Tony Blair (More4). Its creator, Alistair Beaton, has been interviewed in this paper, as has Robert Lindsay, who plays Blair (again - he did so last year in Beaton's Blunkett drama, A Very Social Secretary). There have been articles all over the place, wondering how far-fetched Beaton's vision is. Article continues -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- We're in the year 2010, and guess who the prime minister is. Yep, Tony Blair. He stayed on a while, to bomb Iran and deal with more terrorist attacks on London. Now he's finally stepping aside so Gordon Brown can take the wheel - and to worry about his legacy, his memoirs, a super-quick conversion to Catholicism and, most of all, about whether he did the right thing in going to war in Iraq. Robert Lindsay's Blair is a haunted man, racked with self-doubt and guilt, but also stubborn and blind. So far, so plausible. Brown - whose remaining embers of charisma appear to have been quenched with a bottle of whisky - wins the general election, but only by two seats, after Blair sabotages his old rival's campaign. Ouch, says Gordon, who gets Tony back by having him sent to a war crimes tribunal in The Hague. OK, so maybe we're stretching things a little here, but that's allowed - this is satire.
It isn't very good satire though.
'Bird Flu Poses Threat to Global Markets'
The risk of a bird flu pandemic hitting the world this year is rising and it could cause a notable fall in global stock markets, the Financial Times said Monday citing a new research project based on market surveys. If avian flu spreads across 60 countries this year, the losses to the Dow Jones Industrial Average might be as a high as 10 per cent, according to analysis from Thomson Financial and the World Economic Forum (WEF). The times reported the analysis implies that avian flu now presents one of the biggest risks to the behavior of stock markets this year, potentially larger than the threat posed by a terrorist attack. [IM]
U.S. Says Attacks Are Surging in Afghanistan
By DAVID S. CLOUD Published: January 16, 2007 KABUL, Afghanistan, Jan. 15 — Senior American officials said Tuesday that they had seen a threefold surge in insurgent attacks in Afghanistan in recent months, caused by militants coming across the border with Pakistan, and they vowed to hold new talks with Pakistani officials on curbing the influx.
HK, Singapore ranked world's freest economies in '07
By James Pomfret Reuters Tuesday, January 16, 2007; 3:46 AM
HONG KONG (Reuters) - Asia again topped a survey which ranks the world's freest economies in 2007, with Hong Kong in first place and Singapore in second position. Australia clinched the third spot in the latest Index of Economic Freedom survey for 2007 conducted by the Wall Street Journal and The Heritage Foundation.
The worst ranked country was North Korea with three points.
Restoring Order: Conquering Iraq in the 13th and 21st Centuries. Could Genghis Khan teach the US?
By Jack Weatherford In his final televised speech to the Iraqi people in 2003, Saddam Hussein denounced the invading Americans as "the Mongols of this age," a reference to the last time infidels had conquered his country, in 1258. But the comparison isn't very apt — unlike the Mongols, the Americans don't have the organizational genius of Genghis Khan. In the 13th century, Temujin — better known by his title, Genghis Khan ("world leader") — headed a tribal nation smaller than the workforce of Wal-Mart, yet he conquered and ruled more people than anyone in history.
Film of Saddam aides' hanging shown
Staff and agencies Monday January 15, 2007 Guardian Unlimited Saddam's half-brother and former intelligence chief Barzan Ibrahim al-Tikriti (r) and Awad Hamed al-Bandar, the former head of the revolutionary court that ordered 148 Shia villagers executed. Photographs: David Furst (l) and Scott Nelson/AFP/Getty Images Journalists saw video footage of the execution of two of Saddam Hussein's top aides today that showed the former dictator's half-brother having his head severed as he fell from the gallows.
Secret CIA Operation Won Zhivago Nobel Prize
The U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and the British spy agency secretly worked to have Russian writer Boris Pasternak awarded the Nobel prize for his epic Doctor Zhivago in 1958, the Sunday Times reported on Sunday. The newspaper said that ``it has emerged that British intelligence and the CIA secretly facilitated the accolade to embarrass the Kremlin, which banned the novel.’’ [Softpower] [Camouflage]
A Counter-Revolution in Military Affairs?
Notes on US High-Tech Warfare — Jacob Levich
When Colonel Harry Summers told a North Vietnamese counterpart in 1975 that "[y]ou know you never defeated us on the battlefield," the reply was: "That may be so, but it is also irrelevant.2 News stories surrounding the US invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq proclaimed the arrival of a long-promised "Revolution in Military Affairs" (RMA), a new system of warfare that was said to combine innovative battlefield tactics with high-tech weaponry, networked communications, and sophisticated surveillance technology. The US military promoted its latest toys as "force multipliers" — factors that promised dramatically to increase US combat effectiveness without requiring additional troops. Advanced weapons systems publicly acknowledged by the Department of Defense included unmanned spy drones, powerful "bunker buster" explosives, and precision-guided munitions; additionally, the US arsenal was rumored to contain fearsome new weapons from the realm of science fiction: battlefield death rays, "E-bombs", even devices that would allow GIs to see through walls. "Wired" or "postmodern" warfare, it was widely claimed, would transform the 21st-century battlefield and assure American supremacy for generations to come. As one television commentator gushed: "It is hard to imagine a technological change that has had a similar impact on international affairs. The development of the tank? The first flight of a military aircraft? The invention of gunpowder? It is somewhere at that level."3 This degree of enthusiasm for RMA did not long survive the first flush of triumph.
Taiwan Quake Exposes Internet Vulnerability
Adam Wolfe 15 January 2007 he December 27, 2006 earthquake off the coast of Taiwan caused little structural damage and remarkably few deaths for a 7.1 magnitude tremor. Nevertheless, it disrupted telecommunication networks in Asia severely and exposed a vulnerable "choke point" in the network of fiber-optic cables that form the physical layer of the Internet. While the Internet's built-in protocol automatically reroutes traffic over alternative routes when there is a disruption, the vast majority of the physical cables that connect the United States and Asia run through the Luzon Strait between Taiwan and the Philippines -- leaving few alternative paths for the bandwidth. The "choke point" in the Luzon Strait and other potential points of failure in the worldwide telecommunications network are obvious causes of concern economically, but the outage raises geopolitical questions as well.
Bush’s surge, Iraq’s insurgency
Paul Rogers 11 - 1 - 2007 The decision to increase the number of United States troops in Iraq is a gift to al-Qaida. In a major address on the evening of 10 January 2007, President Bush confirmed that he planned to order a "surge" in the number of United States troops in Iraq. The vast majority of the 20,000 extra boots on the ground, amounting to five brigades, will be deployed to Baghdad and the insurgent stronghold of Anbar province. The speech took place against the background of a deepening American predicament in Iraq, highlighted by three separate news items in the previous few days.
The Coming Big Bush "Sacrifice" Gambit
By John Doraemi
Al-Jazeerah, January 9, 2007
In chess, it is sometimes preferable to sacrifice a high value piece, your queen, bishop, rook or knight, in order to manipulate your opponent into giving up a desired slice of real estate. Pay close attention to Bush's new strategy, and to his repeated mention of the word "sacrifice", for it may hold the key to understanding what is about to unfold. A real-world chess "sacrifice" gambit could go something like this. 1. US forces attack the Shi'i militias in Baghdad. 2. The Shi'is throughout Iraq retaliate and cut off US supply lines. 3. The US army is overrun in many places suffering huge and catastrophic casualties (the "sacrifice"). 4. This stunning defeat causes another "helpful wave of indignation" [1] across the "homeland," preordaining a new US response. 5. The US regime will reinstate the draft, and it will use nuclear weapons in a first strike against Iran, who will be linked to the Shi'is of Iraq, and thus provide the pretext for this next all-out war.
Globalization in Retreat
Walden Bello
| December 27, 2006
When it first became part of the English vocabulary in the early 1990s, globalization was supposed to be the wave of the future. Fifteen years ago, the writings of globalist thinkers such as Kenichi Ohmae and Robert Reich celebrated the advent of the emergence of the so-called borderless world. The process by which relatively autonomous national economies become functionally integrated into one global economy was touted as “irreversible. ” And the people who opposed globalization were disdainfully dismissed as modern day incarnations of the Luddites that destroyed machines during the Industrial Revolution. Fifteen years later, despite runaway shops and outsourcing, what passes for an international economy remains a collection of national economies. These economies are interdependent no doubt, but domestic factors still largely determine their dynamics. Globalization, in fact, has reached its high water mark and is receding.
U.S. patents: Samsung No. 2
January 15, 2007 ? Samsung Electronics had the second most patents registered in the United States last year among private corporations, the company announced yesterday. Citing preliminary data released by the United States Patent and Trademark Office, Samsung said the number of Samsung Electronics patents registered in the United States last year totaled 2,453, a 49-percent increase from 2005. It was the highest rank that the Korean electronics maker has achieved. In 2005, Samsung had the fifth-most patents among private firms in the United States. The company entered the top 10 in 2003, and was sixth in 2004. IBM topped the list with 3,651 patents, holding its No. 1 spot for the 15th consecutive year. Of the top 25 companies that hold patents in the United States, Japan had the most with nine firms, followed by the United States with seven. [IM] [R&D] [Realignment]
Argentina Pursues Iran in '94 Blast As Neighbors Court Ahmadinejad
By Monte Reel Washington Post Foreign Service Sunday, January 14, 2007; Page A14 BUENOS AIRES -- As Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad visits Latin America this weekend to strengthen economic and political ties with the region, Argentina's Néstor Kirchner will not be in the line of presidents turning out to greet him. Kirchner's government has reinvigorated attempts to prosecute Iranian figures for their alleged role in the 1994 bombing of a Jewish community center here, recently issuing arrest warrants for nine former Iranian officials. Among those sought is former president Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, accused of ordering the attack that killed 85 people and injured more than 200. The pursuit of Iran has been frustrated over the years by blatant corruption in the Argentine judicial system and accusations of coverups. The latest efforts to resolve the case come as much of the region is expanding relations with Iran, and several of Argentina's regional allies are pledging support for Ahmadinejad's government.
How US forged an alliance with Ethiopia over invasion
Xan Rice in Nairobi and Suzanne Goldenberg in Washington Saturday January 13, 2007 The Guardian
On December 4, General John Abizaid, the commander of US forces from the Middle East through Afghanistan, arrived in Addis Ababa to meet the Ethiopian prime minister, Meles Zenawi. Officially, the trip was a courtesy call to an ally. Three weeks later, however, Ethiopian forces crossed into Somalia in a war on its Islamist rulers, and this week the US launched air strikes against suspected al-Qaida operatives believed to be hiding among the fleeing Islamist fighters.
History-maker Beckham reveals American dream
· MLS ready to launch 'massive advertising push' · More stars set to follow across the Atlantic Matt Scott Saturday January 13, 2007 The Guardian
David Beckham yesterday set out his vision to become "part of history" in transforming the landscape of American sport and making football a mainstream concern in the States. Beckham signed a deal for five years on Thursday that takes him to Major League Soccer's LA Galaxy this summer. Though the timetable is not expected to allow him to move until July or August, his first act yesterday was to introduce himself to the public with an interview on the ABC network's Good Morning America show. [IM}
Starbucks Loses Trademark Dispute
By Kim Tong-hyung Staff Reporter The Supreme Court on Friday upheld a lower court ruling that dismissed a claim from U.S. coffee shop chain Starbucks that a little-known Korean brand had infringed on its trademark. Starbucks Corp. first filed a lawsuit against the local coffee shop chain, Elpreya, last year, claiming that the Korean company’s green and black logo, similar in design and shape to the coffee giant’s iconic mark, could cause confusion among consumers. ``The trademarks of Starbucks and Elpreya differ in appearance and title,’’ the court said in Friday’s ruling. ``Considering the period of time Starbucks has used its trademark in business, how it was represented in advertisements, and the frequency of such advertisements, we cannot conclude that the Starbucks trademark was well-known in the local market at the time Elpreya registered its trademark,’’ said the court. The Seattle-based coffee chain opened its first shop in South Korea in 1999 and now has more than 180 shops. The Elpreya coffee shops, branded Starpreya, appeared in the same year. Starbucks’s lengthy court battle against Elpreya has so far failed to yield anything from Korean judges. The U.S. chain brought the case to the Supreme Court after losing a lawsuit in the Patent Court of Korea in March 2005. The patent court said the two logos are not alike because Elpreya uses the image of a woman while Starbucks put a mermaid at the center of its symbol. The court also said that the word ``star,'' which is used by both companies, is commonly used by brands. thkim@koreatimes.co.kr 01-12-2007 19:29 [IM]
Military Expands Domestic Surveillance
By ERIC LICHTBLAU and MARK MAZZETTI Published: January 14, 2007 WASHINGTON, Jan. 13 — The Pentagon has been using a little-known power to obtain banking and credit records of hundreds of Americans and others suspected of terrorism or espionage inside the United States, part of an aggressive expansion by the military into domestic intelligence gathering. The C.I.A. has also been issuing what are known as national security letters to gain access to financial records from American companies, though it has done so only rarely, intelligence officials say. Banks, credit card companies and other financial institutions receiving the letters usually have turned over documents voluntarily, allowing investigators to examine the financial assets and transactions of American military personnel and civilians, officials say. The F.B.I., the lead agency on domestic counterterrorism and espionage, has issued thousands of national security letters since the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, provoking criticism and court challenges from civil liberties advocates who see them as unjustified intrusions into Americans’ private lives. But it was not previously known, even to some senior counterterrorism officials, that the Pentagon and the Central Intelligence Agency have been using their own “noncompulsory” versions of the letters. Congress has rejected several attempts by the two agencies since 2001 for authority to issue mandatory letters, in part because of concerns about the dangers of expanding their role in domestic spying. [Surveillance]
Southeast Asians Agree to Trade Zone
By CARLOS H. CONDE Published: January 14, 2007 CEBU, the Philippines, Jan. 13 — The Association of Southeast Asian Nations made progress toward its goal of economic and political integration at a summit meeting here on Saturday, but it was sidetracked by tensions over how to deal with Myanmar, which has come under fire for its poor human rights record. Leaders of the 10 members of the organization, known as Asean, agreed to establish a free-trade zone by 2015, intensify their fight against terrorism, protect the region’s migrant workers and improve their campaign against H.I.V./AIDS. They also agreed to draft a new charter with broad enforcement powers — a break from the 40-year-old group’s tradition of consensus and noninterference. [IM]
Rice Says Bush Authorized Iranians’ Arrest in Iraq
By DAVID E. SANGER and MICHAEL R. GORDON Published: January 13, 2007 WASHINGTON, Jan. 12 — A recent series of American raids against Iranians in Iraq was authorized under an order that President Bush decided to issue several months ago to undertake a broad military offensive against Iranian operatives in the country, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Friday. [Sovereignty]
Britons to be scanned for FBI database
· Anger over airport fingerprint plan · Terror tests to start this summer Paul Harris in New York, Jamie Doward and Paul Gallagher Sunday January 7, 2007 The Observer
Millions of Britons who visit the United States are to have their fingerprints stored on the FBI database alongside those of criminals, in a move that has outraged civil rights groups. The Observer has established that under new plans to combat terrorism, the US government will demand that visitors have all 10 fingers scanned when they enter the country. The information will be shared with intelligence agencies, including the FBI, with no restrictions on their international use. [Surveillance]
Cairo dismayed at 'primitive' Saddam death
Staff and agencies Friday January 5, 2007 Guardian Unlimited Israeli prime minister Ehud Olmert (r) arrives for a joint press conference with Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak in the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh. Photograph: Khaled Desouki/AFP/Getty Images Saddam Hussein was made into "a martyr" by the manner of his execution, the Egyptian president, Hosni Mubarak, warned today, saying he had urged Washington not to hang him during the Muslim festival of Eid al-Adha.
Mr Mubarak labelled the video footage of Saddam's death as "shocking pictures, primitive pictures," adding, "It was disgraceful and very painful". "I'm not going to say whether Saddam deserved the death penalty or not," Mr Mubarak said. "I'm also not going to go into the question of whether that court is legal under the occupation.? "When all's said and done, nobody will ever forget the circumstances and the manner in which Saddam was executed. They have made him into a martyr, while the problems within Iraq remain."
Cartoon protester guilty of calling for murder
Press Association Friday January 5, 2007 Guardian Unlimited A Muslim demonstrator who took part in a protest march against cartoons of the prophet Muhammad was found guilty today of calling for the murder of American and Danish people. There were shouts of protest from the public gallery as Umran Javed, 27, from Birmingham, was found guilty of soliciting murder and stirring up racial hatred during the demonstration in London last February. He was recorded on a police video shouting "Bomb, bomb Denmark. Bomb, bomb USA" to fellow demonstrators.
He remains in custody until April when he will be sentenced.
All change?
Ed Koch's blogging debut has raised some interesting questions about America's opinion of Tony Blair's replacement.
Jonathan Freedland So Ed Koch, the motor mouth former mayor of New York, has started a new line of work as a blogger. That kind of figures. Opinions were the one commodity Hizzoner the Mayor never ran out of. In his debut, he's been musing about life post-Blair: Our major ally in this war against the forces of darkness, Great Britain, is still being led by an outstanding prime minister, Tony Blair. However, Blair will soon be set out to pasture, which means Great Britain will leave our side and join France, Germany, Spain and other countries that foolishly believe they can tame the wolf at the door and convert it into a domestic pet that will live in peace with them. He then follows with the standard neo-con line against all those who opposed the 2003 invasion of Iraq: that these "dreamers naively believe that if we feed the wolves what they demand, they will go away." Such dreamers would have crumbled before Hitler too. Because they don't understand that "Appeasement never works." Now, none of this is surprising: it's the standard, neocon line. What's interesting is its implied assumption that the government's support for the Iraq invasion was entirely personal, a Tony Blair project that had no deeper support. Second, Koch assumes that Gordon Brown (and this presumes he even knows about Brown at all) will automatically abandon the Bush/Blair project and join the cheese-eating surrender monkeys of Paris, Berlin and Madrid.
It's odd that because, here in Britain, none of us is quite sure what Brown would do on Iraq or wider foreign policy.
What New Strategy in Iraq?
Immanuel Wallerstein
Commentary No. 200, Jan. 1, 2007 President George W. Bush has been proclaiming for a month now that he is in search of a "new strategy" for "victory" in Iraq, and that he is consulting far and wide about what this strategy will be. Given all the hints and leaks, there are few people waiting breathlessly for the presidential speech in which he will reveal his decisions. The new strategy promises to be the old strategy, with perhaps an additional small number of U.S. troops in Baghdad
Captives at Guantánamo Bay
Captives at Guantánamo Bay were chained hand and foot in a fetal position to the floor for 18 hours or more, urinating and defecating on themselves, an FBI report has revealed. The accounts of mistreatment were contained in FBI documents released yesterday (pdf) as part of a lawsuit involving the American Civil Liberties Union, a civil liberties group. In the 2004 inquiry, the FBI asked nearly 500 employees who had served at Guantánamo Bay to report possible mistreatment by law enforcement or military personnel. Twenty-six incidents were reported, some of which had emerged in earlier document releases. [Human rights]
FBI Reports Duct-Taping, 'Baptizing' at Guantanamo
By Dan Eggen Washington Post Staff Writer Wednesday, January 3, 2007; Page A01
FBI agents witnessed possible mistreatment of the Koran at the military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, including at least one instance in which an interrogator squatted over Islam's holy text in an apparent attempt to offend a captive, according to bureau documents released yesterday. In October 2002, a Marine captain allegedly squatted over a copy of the Koran during intensive questioning of a Muslim prisoner, who was "incensed" by the tactic, according to an FBI agent. A second agent described similar events, but it is unclear from the documents whether it was a separate case
Somali Islamic Force Flees Last Stronghold
By Stephanie McCrummen Washington Post Foreign Service Monday, January 1, 2007; Page A10 NAIROBI, Jan. 1 -- Islamic fighters fled their last stronghold in Somalia near the port city of Kismaayo early Monday in the face of battle with Ethiopian troops backing Somalia's weak transitional government, according to news reports.
"Everything is out of control. Everyone has a gun, and gangs are looting everything now that the Islamists have left," Sheik Musa Salad, a businessman, said.
Saddam deputy calls for formation of broad resistance front
Izzat Ibrahim al-Duri vows Saddam's hanging will boost insurgency, strengthen Baath determination. DUBAI - Saddam Hussein's fugitive deputy Izzat Ibrahim al-Duri vowed that the ousted president's execution would only strengthen the anti-US insurgency in an internet statement posted Tuesday. "Saddam Hussein's assassination at the criminal hands of the US administration and its English, Zionist and Persian Safavid allies will only strengthen the determination of the Baath, its people and the Arab nation to wage jihad and resistance until the enemy is destroyed and Iraq liberated," the statement said. Ibrahim, the most senior leader of the ousted regime still at large, called for the formation of a broad resistance front to free Iraq from US occupation.
Central Banks Tiptoeing Away From the Dollar
By JEREMY W. PETERS Published: January 2, 2007
Countries with large holdings of dollars in their foreign-exchange reserves are showing a new willingness to dump the dollar in favor of the rising euro. The latest to make a major move is the United Arab Emirates, which joined Russia, Switzerland, Venezuela and others late last month when it shifted a chunk of its reserves into euros. There have also been ambiguous signals from China about a possible pullback from the dollar, and recent word from Iran, the world’s fourth largest oil producer, that it would prefer to be paid in euros rather than the usual dollars for its oil shipments. [Reserve]

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