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Editorial: Iranian President Ahmadinejad's letter to the American people
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad
11/29/06
In the name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful
O, Almighty God, bestow upon humanity the perfect human being promised to all by You, and make us among his followers.
Noble Americans,
Were we not faced with the activities of the US administration in this part of the world and the negative ramifications of those activities on the daily lives of our peoples, coupled with the many wars and calamities caused by the US administration as well as the tragic consequences of US interference in other countries;
Were the American people not God-fearing, truth-loving, and justice-seeking, while the US administration actively conceals the truth and impedes any objective portrayal of current realities;
And if we did not share a common responsibility to promote and protect freedom and human dignity and integrity;
Then, there would have been little urgency to have a dialogue with you.
While Divine providence has placed Iran and the United States geographically far apart, we should be cognizant that human values and our common human spirit, which proclaim the dignity and exalted worth of all human beings, have brought our two great nations of Iran and the United States closer together.
Both our nations are God-fearing, truth-loving and justice-seeking, and both seek dignity, respect and perfection.
Both greatly value and readily embrace the promotion of human ideals such as compassion, empathy, respect for the rights of human beings, securing justice and equity, and defending the innocent and the weak against oppressors and bullies.
We are all inclined towards the good, and towards extending a helping hand to one another, particularly to those in need.
We all deplore injustice, the trampling of peoples' rights and the intimidation and humiliation of human beings.
We all detest darkness, deceit, lies and distortion, and seek and admire salvation, enlightenment, sincerity and honesty.
The pure human essence of the two great nations of Iran and the United States testify to the veracity of these statements.
Noble Americans,
Our nation has always extended its hand of friendship to all other nations of the world.
Hundreds of thousands of my Iranian compatriots are living amongst you in friendship and peace, and are contributing positively to your society. Our people have been in contact with you over the past many years and have maintained these contacts despite the unnecessary restrictions of US authorities.
As mentioned, we have common concerns, face similar challenges, and are pained by the sufferings and afflictions in the world.
We, like you, are aggrieved by the ever-worsening pain and misery of the Palestinian people. Persistent aggressions by the Zionists are making life more and more difficult for the rightful owners of the land of Palestine. In broad day-light, in front of cameras and before the eyes of the world, they are bombarding innocent defenseless civilians, bulldozing houses, firing machine guns at students in the streets and alleys, and subjecting their families to endless grief.
No day goes by without a new crime.
Palestinian mothers, just like Iranian and American mothers, love their children, and are painfully bereaved by the imprisonment, wounding and murder of their children. What mother wouldn't?
For 60 years, the Zionist regime has driven millions of the inhabitants of Palestine out of their homes. Many of these refugees have died in the Diaspora and in refugee camps. Their children have spent their youth in these camps and are aging while still in the hope of returning to homeland.
You know well that the US administration has persistently provided blind and blanket support to the Zionist regime, has emboldened it to continue its crimes, and has prevented the UN Security Council from condemning it.
Who can deny such broken promises and grave injustices towards humanity by the US administration?
Governments are there to serve their own people. No people wants to side with or support any oppressors. But regrettably, the US administration disregards even its own public opinion and remains in the forefront of supporting the trampling of the rights of the Palestinian people.
Let's take a look at Iraq. Since the commencement of the US military presence in Iraq, hundreds of thousands of Iraqis have been killed, maimed or displaced. Terrorism in Iraq has grown exponentially. With the presence of the US military in Iraq, nothing has been done to rebuild the ruins, to restore the infrastructure or to alleviate poverty. The US Government used the pretext of the existence of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, but later it became clear that that was just a lie and a deception.
Although Saddam was overthrown and people are happy about his departure, the pain and suffering of the Iraqi people has persisted and has even been aggravated.
In Iraq, about one hundred and fifty thousand American soldiers, separated from their families and loved ones, are operating under the command of the current US administration. A substantial number of them have been killed or wounded and their presence in Iraq has tarnished the image of the American people and government.
Their mothers and relatives have, on numerous occasions, displayed their discontent with the presence of their sons and daughters in a land thousands of miles away from US shores. American soldiers often wonder why they have been sent to Iraq.
I consider it extremely unlikely that you, the American people, consent to the billions of dollars of annual expenditure from your treasury for this military misadventure.
Noble Americans,
You have heard that the US administration is kidnapping its presumed opponents from across the globe and arbitrarily holding them without trial or any international supervision in horrendous prisons that it has established in various parts of the world. God knows who these detainees actually are, and what terrible fate awaits them.
You have certainly heard the sad stories of the Guantanamo and Abu-Ghraib prisons. The US administration attempts to justify them through its proclaimed "war on terror." But every one knows that such behavior, in fact, offends global public opinion, exacerbates resentment and thereby spreads terrorism, and tarnishes the US image and its credibility among nations.
The US administration's illegal and immoral behavior is not even confined to outside its borders. You are witnessing daily that under the pretext of "the war on terror," civil liberties in the United States are being increasingly curtailed. Even the privacy of individuals is fast losing its meaning. Judicial due process and fundamental rights are trampled upon. Private phones are tapped, suspects are arbitrarily arrested, sometimes beaten in the streets, or even shot to death.
I have no doubt that the American people do not approve of this behavior and indeed deplore it.
The US administration does not accept accountability before any organization, institution or council. The US administration has undermined the credibility of international organizations, particularly the United Nations and its Security Council. But, I do not intend to address all the challenges and calamities in this message.
The legitimacy, power and influence of a government do not emanate from its arsenals of tanks, fighter aircrafts, missiles or nuclear weapons. Legitimacy and influence reside in sound logic, quest for justice and compassion and empathy for all humanity. The global position of the United States is in all probability weakened because the administration has continued to resort to force, to conceal the truth, and to mislead the American people about its policies and practices.
Undoubtedly, the American people are not satisfied with this behavior and they showed their discontent in the recent elections. I hope that in the wake of the mid-term elections, the administration of President Bush will have heard and will heed the message of the American people.
My questions are the following:
Is there not a better approach to governance?
Is it not possible to put wealth and power in the service of peace, stability, prosperity and the happiness of all peoples through a commitment to justice and respect for the rights of all nations, instead of aggression and war?
We all condemn terrorism, because its victims are the innocent.
But, can terrorism be contained and eradicated through war, destruction and the killing of hundreds of thousands of innocents?
If that were possible, then why has the problem not been resolved?
The sad experience of invading Iraq is before us all.
What has blind support for the Zionists by the US administration brought for the American people? It is regrettable that for the US administration, the interests of these occupiers supersedes the interests of the American people and of the other nations of the world.
What have the Zionists done for the American people that the US administration considers itself obliged to blindly support these infamous aggressors? Is it not because they have imposed themselves on a substantial portion of the banking, financial, cultural and media sectors?
I recommend that in a demonstration of respect for the American people and for humanity, the right of Palestinians to live in their own homeland should be recognized so that millions of Palestinian refugees can return to their homes and the future of all of Palestine and its form of government be determined in a referendum. This will benefit everyone.
Now that Iraq has a Constitution and an independent Assembly and Government, would it not be more beneficial to bring the US officers and soldiers home, and to spend the astronomical US military expenditures in Iraq for the welfare and prosperity of the American people? As you know very well, many victims of Katrina continue to suffer, and countless Americans continue to live in poverty and homelessness.
I'd also like to say a word to the winners of the recent elections in the US:
The United States has had many administrations; some who have left a positive legacy, and others that are neither remembered fondly by the American people nor by other nations.
Now that you control an important branch of the US Government, you will also be held to account by the people and by history.
If the US Government meets the current domestic and external challenges with an approach based on truth and Justice, it can remedy some of the past afflictions and alleviate some of the global resentment and hatred of America. But if the approach remains the same, it would not be unexpected that the American people would similarly reject the new electoral winners, although the recent elections, rather than reflecting a victory, in reality point to the failure of the current administration's policies. These issues had been extensively dealt with in my letter to President Bush earlier this year.
To sum up:
It is possible to govern based on an approach that is distinctly different from one of coercion, force and injustice.
It is possible to sincerely serve and promote common human values, and honesty and compassion.
It is possible to provide welfare and prosperity without tension, threats, imposition or war.
It is possible to lead the world towards the aspired perfection by adhering to unity, monotheism, morality and spirituality and drawing upon the teachings of the Divine Prophets.
Then, the American people, who are God-fearing and followers of Divine religions, will overcome every difficulty.
What I stated represents some of my anxieties and concerns.
I am confident that you, the American people, will play an instrumental role in the establishment of justice and spirituality throughout the world. The promises of the Almighty and His prophets will certainly be realized, Justice and Truth will prevail and all nations will live a true life in a climate replete with love, compassion and fraternity.
The US governing establishment, the authorities and the powerful should not choose irreversible paths. As all prophets have taught us, injustice and transgression will eventually bring about decline and demise. Today, the path of return to faith and spirituality is open and unimpeded.
We should all heed the Divine Word of the Holy Qur'an:
"But those who repent, have faith and do good may receive Salvation. Your Lord, alone, creates and chooses as He will, and others have no part in His choice; Glorified is God and Exalted above any partners they ascribe to Him." (28:67-68)
I pray to the Almighty to bless the Iranian and American nations and indeed all nations of the world with dignity and success.
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad President of the Islamic Republic of Iran 29 November 2006
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Editorial: You Don't Have To Be Crazy...But It Helps
Sara Robinson
29 November 2006
Orcinus
Here's Andy Bromage, writing this week in the New Haven Advocate:
A collective "I told you so" will ripple through the world of Bush-bashers once news of Christopher Lohse's study gets out.
Lohse, a social work master's student at Southern Connecticut State University, says he has proven what many progressives have probably suspected for years: a direct link between mental illness and support for President Bush.
Lohse says his study is no joke. The thesis draws on a survey of 69 psychiatric outpatients in three Connecticut locations during the 2004 presidential election. Lohse's study, backed by SCSU Psychology professor Jaak Rakfeldt and statistician Misty Ginacola, found a correlation between the severity of a person's psychosis and their preferences for president: The more psychotic the voter, the more likely they were to vote for Bush.
But before you go thinking all your conservative friends are psychotic, listen to Lohse's explanation.
"Our study shows that psychotic patients prefer an authoritative leader," Lohse says. "If your world is very mixed up, there's something very comforting about someone telling you, 'This is how it's going to be.'"
The study was an advocacy project of sorts, designed to register mentally ill voters and encourage them to go to the polls, Lohse explains. The Bush trend was revealed later on.
The study used Modified General Assessment Functioning, or MGAF, a 100-point scale that measures the functioning of disabled patients. A second scale, developed by Rakfeldt, was also used. Knowledge of current issues, government and politics were assessed on a 12-item scale devised by the study authors.
"Bush supporters had significantly less knowledge about current issues, government and politics than those who supported Kerry," the study says.
Lohse says the trend isn't unique to Bush: A 1977 study by Frumkin & Ibrahim found psychiatric patients preferred Nixon over McGovern in the 1972 election.
Rakfeldt says the study was legitimate, though not intended to show what it did.
"Yes it was a legitimate study but these data were mined after the fact," Rakfeldt says. "You can ask new questions of the data. I haven't looked at" Lohse's conclusions regarding Bush, Rakfeldt says.
"That doesn't make it illegitimate, it just wasn't part of the original project."
For his part, Lohse is a self-described "Reagan revolution fanatic" but said that W. is just "beyond the pale."
As Stephen Colbert reminds us: Reality has a liberal bias.
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Editorial: Journalist Mohammed Omer on the Hell that is Gaza
by William Hughes
Published, Baltimore's Indy Media Center
Nov. 29, 2006
"No man is justified in doing evil on the ground of expediency." -
Theodore Roosevelt
Washington, D.C. - On Tuesday, Nov. 28, 2006, Mohammed Omer, a 22- year-old Palestinian journalist/photographer, shared his eyewitness account of living and working in Israeli-Occupied Gaza, a densely population area that 1.4 million people call home. He was raised there in the Rafah refugee camp, located near the border with Egypt. He had the opportunity to know and admire Olympia, WA-based peace activist, Rachel Corrie, who was viciously bulldozed to death at Rafah by the Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) on March 16, 2003. She was protesting the Zionists' draconian policy of home demolitions when she was killed. (1) Omer showed a photo of Corrie's dead body, wrapped in an American flag, to the near capacity audience at the Palestine Center, where he was giving his lecture. He said that many of the children in the camp, who had grown to love Corrie because of her generous personality and passion for justice, "couldn't believe that she was dead." (2)
Omer's 15-U.S.-cities speaking tour is sponsored by the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs magazine, a highly respected news journal, headquartered in this city. He is also their Gazan correspondent. Omer's talk was entitled, "Gaza: Reports from the Ground." He continued: "I've been writing to tell the world what is happening. What we are facing every day under the IOF. Just to inform the people, not to use a gun, but a camera in a very simple way. Just to take a photo and to share it with people, and to let them judge in the end." He said he began his journalism career about four years ago, and that his work has appeared "on Sky News, BBC and Norway's NRK-TV. The oldest of eight children, Omer had to go to work at age six, since his father's was languishing in an Israeli hell hole for 12 years, and it was the "only way to get money for the family." His father's crime, he said: "Just simply because he asked for his rights." Meanwhile, the IOF's seizure of Gaza continues unabated, including the latest outrage, on Nov. 8, 2006, the killing of 19 civilians at Beit Hanoun. Eleven of the dead were from one family, including a one-year-old child. (3) Before the most recent rampage against the Palestinians began in early July, 2006, Israel's Right Wing Prime Minister, Ehud Olmert, arrogantly remarked: "Nobody dies from being uncomfortable." (4) Since that insensitive wisecrack, hundreds of Palestinians have reportedly been killed by the IOF. (3)
Rafah's sprawling refugee camp is on the southern tip of the Gaza Strip. The area where Omer once lived was called, "Block O." He said: "The Israelis totally splattered it with their bulldozers. They were trying to make a wall between Egypt and the Gaza Strip. So, to make room for the wall, they demolished our houses." Omer added, that his mother was lucky to get out of her house alive. She ended up in the hospital "with a broken leg." The Israelis then took all the furniture from the demolished homes, dug a huge hole near the wall, and "burned it. There is nothing. I've lost everything. I can't describe these moments...There are no police in Gaza. The stations have been bombed by the Israelis...There are no salaries for government workers. What you see or hear are riots...burned cars...targeted assassinations...not enough food for the people to eat...tanks...artillery shellings...border closures...F-16 Israeli aircrafts...contant sonic booms...bulldozers...helicopters. There are no bridges. All the bridges in Gaza have been destroyed...There is little electricity...We are under siege...children...families, living in fear...with few medicines...This is life in Gaza."
Human Rights Watch (HRW) wrote a scathing report condemning the cruel Israeli tactic of home demolitions, which smacks of collective punishment. That practice is proscribed by the terms of the Geneva Convention. HRW's "Razing Rafah" documents how thousands of Palestinian homes were recklessly destroyed by the IOF under the guise of erecting a "buffer zone." (5) I've always wondered: If the U.S. government had lost its mind after the Israelis slaughtered 34 Americans, in an unprovoked assault on the USS Liberty, in July 8, 1967, and decided to destroy the homes of some of the leading Zionists in the U.S. as a pay back, if the barbaric Israeli policy of home demolitions would have continued in the Occupied Territories? Instead of then-President Lyndon B. Johnson taking the Zionist state to task for its deliberate attack on Liberty, he disgraced himself and pretended it was "an accident." (6) Even after that raving Zionist Jonathan Pollard got caught stealing our most sensitive military secrets for Israel, U.S. foreign aid to Tel Aviv actually increased! (7) Go figure.
Omer told a chilling tale of how one of his brothers, Hussam, was killed recently by an Israeli sniper. He said that he was only "17 years of age and was going to school, at six in the morning." Omer called him: "The most peaceful guy I have ever seen. He was not going to fight. He was not carrying a gun. What was worse, he was killed by seven bullets." When a 32-year-old neighbor, Wedad Al Ajrami, tried to evacuate his brother's punctured, badly bleeding, body to the hospital, she was killed, too, by the deadly, cowardly Israeli sniper, who was shooting from high up in a watchtower. Her husband was also shot twice, when he arrived on the scene and attempted to help out. Mercifully, he survived the horrific ordeal. Omer said, "I feel guilty for this sometimes." He added, they were all gunned down "because of my brother." (8)
During the Q & A period, a man who identified himself as an Israeli stood up and requested the microphone. Instead of asking a question, however, he went into a long rant about violence, without of course, mentioning the root cause of the Palestine/Israel conflict, the occupation. He had to be chided by the moderator to ask a specific question. When I left the Center, I noticed that this same individual got into a black limousine with official "Diplomat" tags on it. I was sorry that I didn't have the presence of mind to jot down the tag number. It would have been interesting to see exactly who this character was fronting for.
Finally, as part of Omer's riveting presentation, which included many photos, too, he showed a remarkable video of a protest action in Rafah, in May, 2004. (9) It began as a peaceful demonstration, led mostly by children and teenagers objecting to the onerous conditions in Gaza. However, Israeli helicopters soon fired numerous rockets at the unarmed civilians, killing and wounding many. It was a scene of gore and chaos that reminded me of the pictures that I had seen years ago of "Bloody Sunday," in Occupied Derry, in the north of Ireland, on Jan. 30, 1972, where 13 unarmed Irish civilians were ruthlessly slain by British paratroopers. (10) At press time, Israeli's hawkish Olmert is making a lot of noise about "a ceasefire" and about extending his "hand in peace" to the Palestinians. If that is true, I hope he has the common decency to wash the blood off of it first!
Notes:
1. http://www.rachelcorrie.org/news.htm
2. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FWuRQJeIRyQ
3. http://www.pchrgaza.ps/ and
http://www.counterpunch.org/christison11222006.html
4. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/13773304/site/newsweek/
5. http://hrw.org/campaigns/gaza/
6. http://www.ussliberty.org/
7. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15222134/
8. http://rafahnotes.blogspot.com/
9. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qxBU-Otdefk
10. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bloody_Sunday_(1972)
© William Hughes 2006.
William Hughes is the author of "Saying 'No' to the War
Party" (Amazon.com). He can be reached at liamhughes@comcast.net.
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US Government's Iraq Insanity
Iranian president blasts U.S. policy, urges troops withdrawal
www.chinaview.cn 2006-11-30 04:46:04
UNITED NATIONS, Nov. 29 (Xinhua) -- Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Wednesday blasted U.S. President George W. Bush's foreign policy in a letter to the American people and called for withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq.
"The legitimacy, power and influence of a government do not emanate from its arsenals of tanks, fighter aircraft, missiles or nuclear weapons," Ahmadinejad said in the letter released by Iran's UN mission here.
"Legitimacy and influence reside in sound logic, quest for justice and compassion and empathy for all humanity."
"The global position of the United States is in all probability weakened because the administration has continued to resort to force, to conceal the truth and to mislead the American people about its policies and practices."
The Iran leader urged the Bush administration to withdraw its troop from Iraq, saying "Now that Iraq has a constitution and an independent assembly and government, would it not be more beneficial to bring the U.S. officers and soldiers home and to spend the astronomical U.S. military expenditures in Iraq for the welfare and prosperity of the American people?"
"Undoubtedly the American people are not satisfied with this behavior and they showed their discontent in the recent elections," Ahmadinejad noted. "I hope that in the wake of the mid-term elections, the administration of President Bush will have heard and will heed the message of the American people.
In mid-term election on Nov. 7, Bush's Republican Party lost control of both the Senate and the House of the Representatives.
In his unprecedented letter to the American people, Ahmadinejad also tried to seek for direct dialogue between Iran and the United States.
"Noble Americans, our nation has always extended its hand of friendship to all other nations of the world."
"Hundreds of thousands of my Iranian compatriots are living amongst you in friendship and peace, and are contributing positively to your society," he said, noting "Our people have been in contact with you over the past many years and have maintained these contacts despite the unnecessary restriction of the US authorities."
Prior to his latest letter, Ahmadinejad wrote an 18-page letter to U.S. President George W. Bush in May, which Washington criticized for not addressing Iran's nuclear program - where the U.S. is leading the drive to impose UN sanctions on Tehran for its refusal to stop enriching uranium.
Iran and the United States have had no diplomatic relations since 1979 when Iranian protesters seized the U.S. Embassy in Tehran and kept 52 people hostage for 444 days.
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Moscow: Iraqi violence must be discussed internationally
www.chinaview.cn 2006-11-30 18:11:49
MOSCOW, Nov. 30 (Xinhua) -- It is necessary to call an international conference to discuss the situation in Iraq, a senior Russian official said on Thursday.
"Tensions have escalated in Iraq, and each day adds to the frightening toll of casualties amongst local civilians and forces deployed in that country," said Anatoly Safonov, Russia's presidential envoy on countering terrorism and international crime.
"We need a conference, probably, one under the UN. It should bea big forum to discuss the problems of Iraq," he was quoted by the Interfax news agency as saying.
"The international community should work out proposals on economic, political and, above all, security issues," Safonov specified.
UN's top human rights official Louise Arbour said on Wednesday that violence in Iraq is now worse than ever, urging the country's leaders and U.S.-led coalition forces to reassert the government's authority and ensure respect for the rule of law.
Violence rages in Iraq as sectarian killings, car bombings, and roadside bombs cause dozens of Iraqi casualties per day.
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UN rights chief says violence in Iraq worse than ever
www.chinaview.cn 2006-11-30 05:47:00
GENEVA, Nov. 29 (Xinhua) -- Violence in Iraq is now worse than ever, the UN's top human rights official said on Wednesday, urging the country's leaders and U.S.-led coalition forces to reassert the government's authority and ensure respect for the rule of law.
"In Iraq, despite the government's efforts to address the deteriorating human rights situation, violence has reached unprecedented levels," said Louise Arbour, the UN high commissioner for human rights.
"In many parts of the country, scores of civilians are willfully killed and injured every day," Arbour told a session of the UN Human Rights Council.
She said ever growing unemployment, poverty, discrimination and diminishing access to basic services were severely affecting the economic and social rights of the Iraqi people.
"The inability of law enforcement agencies and the justice system to protect the Iraqi population has further reduced confidence that perpetrators will be held accountable," Arbour told the 47-nation UN rights watchdog.
She also urged Iraqi leaders from all sides, multi-national forces in Iraq and the international community as a whole to increase efforts to reassert the authority of the Iraqi government and ensure respect for the rule of law.
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U.S. panel on Iraq reaches agreement on Iraq policy
www.chinaview.cn 2006-11-30 10:10:28
WASHINGTON, Nov. 29 (Xinhua) -- A U.S. bipartisan group examining the Bush administration's Iraq policy on Wednesday reached consensus on its recommendations to the White House and Congress, its co-chairman said.
Lee Hamilton, a former Democratic House member from Indiana, said the 10-member Iraq Study Group had reached consensus Wednesday afternoon and would announce its report on Dec. 6.
"This afternoon, we reached a consensus," Hamilton said at a forum on national security at the Center for American Progress.
He refused to disclose details of the group's recommendations, to be included in a report the commission would issue on Dec. 6.
President George W. Bush and lawmakers were likely to be briefed on recommendations before the public release of the report.
The group, which was headed by Hamilton and former secretary of state James A. Baker III, a Republican, favored a regional diplomatic initiative that includes direct talks with Iran and Syria.
Media reports have said the panel, created in March, was divided on whether to include a declaration that within a specified period of time a significant number of American troops should be withdrawn from Iraq, and might link American withdrawal to the performance of the Iraqi military.
The group was expected to recommend regional talks involving Syria and Iran, despite the Bush administration's reluctance to engage those two countries, but it was not clear what recommendations it would make regarding U.S. troops levels in Iraq.
Earlier this month, the commission met with Bush and members of his foreign policy team, and interviewed British Prime Minister Tony Blair by videoconference, as part of its final round of interviews.
The White House, which has faced enormous pressure for a major change in its Iraq policy following the midterm elections on Nov. 7 in which Democrats retook control of both houses of Congress, also launched an internal review of its Iraq policy this month, to assess the situation in Iraq, review the options and recommend the best way forward.
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Powell: Iraq Is In A Civil War And Bush Should Stop Denying It
Posted by Think Progress
November 29, 2006 11:23 am
Speaking with CNN reporter Hala Gorani in Dubai today, former Secretary of State Colin Powell said Iraq's violence meets the standard of a civil war and thinks President Bush needs to acknowledge that. According to Gorani's report, Powell said if he were heading the State Department right now, he would recommend that the Bush administration adopt that language "in order to come to terms with the reality on the ground." Watch it:
GORANI: Well, within the context of the leaders conference in Dubai and also within the context of this debate, this semantics debate, over whether to call what is going on on in Iraq a civil war, the former Secretary of State Colin Powell says he thinks we can call it a civil war and added if he were still heading the State Department, he probably would recommend to the Bush administration that those terms should be used in order to come to terms with the reality on the ground.
I'm paraphrasing what he told me. This was closed to cameras and this was something he said within the context of this academic debate with 2 or 3,000 people watching on in the region.
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Is There a Way Out of Iraq?
By JOHN BERMAN and JONATHAN KARL
Nov. 29, 2006
Is there a way out? Will Iraq be in a better situation next week, next month or next year? Can an emergency summit in Jordan make a difference?
All eyes are on Amman as President Bush meets with Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Kamel al-Maliki looking for solutions to the political and military morass in Iraq.
Prospects for the already-delayed meeting were put into further doubt when al-Maliki canceled a presummit dinner with Bush. But White House Spokesperson Dan Bartlett denied there was a snub, saying it was nothing more then a schedule change.
Even before the meetings began, ABC News had learned the Pentagon was considering essentially writing off Iraq's deadliest province for American forces, pulling U.S. troops out of Anbar, and moving them to fight what may be an even more difficult battle: the fight for Baghdad.
Professor Noah Feldman from New York University helped write the Iraqi constitution.
He said, "As Baghdad goes, so goes the nation."
But the fact that the Pentagon is considering abandoning Anbar shows the "ineffectiveness of the strategy and troop commitment to this point," Feldman said. "We have spent so much blood there."
Feldman said, "In a perfect world, I would not walk away from Anbar. But Iraq is far from a perfect world."
From the beginning of the war, Anbar province has been the heart of the Sunni insurgency, and more recently al Qaeda's main base of operations in Iraq.
But it is a place of increasing frustration to the 30,000 U.S. troops there, most of them Marines.
A recent assessment by the top Marine intelligence officer in Anbar concluded that without a massive increase in U.S. forces, the insurgency in Anbar could not be defeated militarily, a bleak assessment shared by top military commanders.
Under the plan now being considered by Joint Chiefs Chairman Peter Pace, U.S. forces would turn Anbar province over to Iraqi forces.
A senior military official told ABC News, "If we are are not going to do a better job doing what we are doing out there, what's the point of having them out there?"
The U.S. general in charge of the region, John Abizaid, told Congress: "Al-Anbar province is critical, but, more critical than al-Anbar province is Baghdad. Baghdad's the main military effort."
Senior Pentagon officials say they are moving three battalions (about 2,000 troops) into Baghdad from other more peaceful areas in the country.
These troops will come from the north, in the Kirkuk area.
The movement of forces will happen "soon," and in fact may have already started.
This is the first in what may be several steps to reposition forces to concentrate on the battle to secure Baghdad, and is in addition to whatever plans the Pentagon has for Anbar.
The major fear in having U.S. forces leave Anbar is that insurgents could use the area to organize and stage attacks, creating a quasi-state, much like they did in the region prior to the American siege of Fallujah in 2004.
But the Pentagon might be willing to risk a political and military vacuum there in an effort to stabilize Baghdad.
Meanwhile, the Iraqi prime minister is facing political pressure from home.
The party led by the anti-American Shiite cleric Moqtada al Sadr says it is temporarily suspending participation in the cabinet and the Iraqi National Assembly.
It is seen as a temporary protest against the Maliki/Bush summit.
But a spokesman for al Sadr told the Reuters News Service that the bloc also had made the move to oppose the extension of the U.N. mandate allowing U.S.-led forces to stay in Iraq to the end of 2007.
The U.N. Security Council approved the extension on Tuesday at the request of the Iraqi government.
"This was done without the Iraqi parliament's approval," said Al Sadr's spokesman Faleh Shanshal said, adding that Maliki had promised a debate in parliament on the extension.
"We will not return to parliament and the government unless the government responds to our request. ... Although we are suspending our membership, we will go to parliament to raise this issue [the U.N. mandate]. It is a violation of the law."
But Feldman sees the al Sadr statement as a message: "The root to a solution in Iraq must go through Sadr."
Al Sadr is telling Maliki that "without him, he doesn't have a government."
Bush is facing political pressures of his own: a rebuke by the voters and even sniping from his own party over whether the country is now in a civil war.
"I would call it a civil war," former Secretary of State Colin Powell told a business forum in the United Arab Emirates. "I have been using it [civil war] because I like to face the reality,"
The stakes could not be higher for Bush and Maliki.
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Iraq panel to recommend U.S. pull back from combat
By Arshad Mohammed
Reuters
30 Nov 06
WASHINGTON - The Iraq Study Group has decided to recommend the U.S. military transition from a combat to a support role in Iraq roughly over the next year, a source familiar with the panel's deliberations said.
The recommendation by the independent, bipartisan panel would be to pull U.S. fighting forces back to bases inside Iraq, and in the region, as the U.S. military sought to begin to withdraw from combat, the source said on Wednesday.
"The main thing is (the group is) calling for a transition from a combat role to a support role," said the source, who asked not to be named because the recommendations are not due to be released until December 6. "It's basically a redeployment."
Many in Washington have held out hope that the group's report would provide a way for the United States to extricate itself from an increasingly deadly and unpopular war or, at least, a set of recommendations on how to move forward that could attract support from both Democrats and Republicans.
Their conclusions are likely to carry significant political weight even if President Bush chooses to ignore them, especially after his fellow Republicans lost control of the U.S. Congress in November 7 elections largely because of deep public discontent with the Iraq war.
The New York Times earlier reported that there was no hard timetable for the proposed U.S. pullback, but the source said: "There is a kind of indication in the report as to when that ought to be completed ... sometime within the next year."
The newspaper said the pullback of the 15 U.S. combat brigades in Iraq could still leave more than 70,000 American trainers, logistics experts and members of a rapid reaction force in the country.
The source declined to say whether the report recommended the withdrawal of specific numbers of U.S. troops.
REGIONAL CONFERENCE
He said the group's recommendations would include a call for a regional conference that could lead to direct U.S. talks with Iran and Syria, both accused by the United States of fomenting violence in Iraq.
The 10-member panel is led by former U.S. Secretary of State James Baker, a Republican and close Bush family friend, and by former Rep. Lee Hamilton, an Indiana Democrat.
Bush, who has ordered up his own parallel reviews by the Pentagon and the White House National Security Council, has said he is willing to make adjustments and listen to the suggestions of others, including the Iraq Study Group.
But he has shown little appetite for a major change in strategy such as pulling out U.S. forces.
Some Democrats have urged a phased withdrawal beginning in four to six months. There are now roughly 140,000 U.S. troops in Iraq and more than 2,800 have been killed since the March 2003 U.S.-led invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein.
"We'll continue to be flexible, and we'll make the changes necessary to succeed," Bush said in Latvia on Tuesday. "But there's one thing I'm not going to do: I'm not going to pull our troops off the battlefield before the mission is complete."
Bush and White House aides also have so far spurned the idea of Washington negotiating directly with Syria and Iran to stabilize Iraq. Their message has been that such talks should be left to the sovereign government of Iraq and that the United States, as an outsider, should not interfere.
As expectations for the Iraq Study Group soared and bloodshed in Iraq reached new heights in November, analysts and experts said there was no magic bullet to resolve the crisis and that the panel was facing a virtually impossible task.
"I think the odds that it will get much worse, that we can't contain it, are considerably better than even," Anthony Cordesman, an analyst at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, told reporters on Wednesday.
He also offered a deeply pessimistic assessment of Iraqi forces' ability to provide security in the short term, saying: "The reality is that out of the supposed Iraqi battalions, which are formed, and in the lead, only a small fraction actually exist and have combat capability."
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Think We're Leaving Iraq? Not So Fast
By Erik Leaver
Foreign Policy in Focus
November 30, 2006
As Iraq spirals into chaos and support for withdrawl balloons, the Pentagon considers committing 20,000 more U.S. troops to a mission with an unclear end.
The Iraq War dominated the electoral landscape during the recent mid-term elections. Voters swept in candidates across the nation who vowed for change in Iraq. But making good on his pledge that "I will not withdraw even if Laura and Barney [his dog] are the only ones supporting me," President George W. Bush is readying the largest request for funds so far to continue the war. Even worse, he's on the cusp of actually increasing troops.
Both in polls before the elections and in exit polling, voters were clear that they wanted a change in Iraq. Polls report that 56 percent support withdrawing some or all U.S. troops. But a series of high-level reviews and reports requested by Mr. Bush and Republicans in Congress in order to look like they are "doing something," are likely to take a different direction than voters want.
The Iraq Study Group (also known as the Baker-Hamilton commission because it's headed by former Secretary of State James Baker and former Indiana Representative Lee Hamilton) will likely push greater international involvement in the conflict, urging the United States to conduct talks with Iraq's closest neighbors, Iran and Syria. Though incredibly tight-lipped about the group's forthcoming recommendations, in interviews Baker has ruled out a U.S. withdrawal from Iraq over the next year.
Worried that the independent Iraq Study Group wouldn't produce a policy in line with the administration's, Bush requested a review by the Pentagon. Its review is considering an increase of at least 20,000 American troops and the addition of several thousand more trainers to work with Iraqi forces.
The Pentagon's proposed increases would be on top of the additional 12,000 U.S. troops Mr. Bush sent to Iraq and the 100,000 newly trained Iraqis in 2006. With these increases, the number of coalition and Iraqi security forces Iraq top 500,000. Yet, violence has reached new heights. In November, well over 1,300 Iraqis died, representing the highest monthly total since the initial invasion. And the U.S. death toll will top 800 for the year -- the most deaths in a single year since the war began.
Also reaching epic proportions is the war's cost. President Bush will be asking Congress in January for $124 billion for the war. Add in the $70 billion Congress has already approved for the year and the tab nearly reaches $200 billion for the fiscal year -- a 60 percent increase from the previous year. Put in perspective, spending on the Iraq War in 2007 will equal that for the U.S. departments of health, education, international affairs, and veteran's affairs combined.
The long-term financial picture is grim. Because the funds have been borrowed and we have a moral and medical obligation to care for the 20,000 wounded veterans over their lifetimes, taxpayers can expect to shell out between $1 trillion and $2 trillion over the next decade.
Given the strategic failures, great expense, and mid-term voters backing withdrawal, it is incomprehensible why Mr. Bush would opt to increase U.S. troops in Iraq. Reminiscent of Vietnam, troop increases in Iraq have not created better conditions for Iraqis. Adding more troops and trainers will not produce a different result on the ground, but it will add to the terrible stress our troops are under and raise the human and economic costs even higher.
The trap that Mr. Bush and the various commissions have fallen into is the belief that "doing something" is better than withdrawing. While the commissions are right in stating that there are no good options, the least bad option is phased withdrawal. It is simply wishful thinking that the United States can tweak the formula of troops, training, and international support to produce a "victory."
Despite digging in, sending more troops, training more Iraqis, and spending more money, 2006 has been the worst year of the Iraq War by far. The late Rear Admiral Eugene Carroll noted, "There is an old military doctrine called the 'First Rule of Holes': if you find yourself stuck in one, stop digging." The official commissions making recommendations on Iraq are side-by-side with Bush's dog Barney digging deeper. It's time to stop.
Erik Leaver is policy outreach director for the Foreign Policy In Focus project at the Institute for Policy Studies in Washington, D.C.
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Damage control on leak of Iraq memo
By Mark Silva
Tribune correspondent
11/29/06 "Chicago Tribune "
RIGA, Latvia -- Following the leak of a memorandum in which President Bush's national security adviser pointedly questioned the competence of Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's young government in confronting sectarian violence within Iraq, the Bush administration insisted today it has faith in al-Maliki.
"The president has confidence in Prime Minister Maliki, and also the administration is working with the prime minister to improve his capabilities in terms of dealing with the fundamental challenges in Iraq,'' Tony Snow, the White House press secretary, told reporters in Riga this morning.
This stood in dramatic contrast to a classified Bush administration memo stating that "the reality on the streets of Baghdad suggests Maliki is either ignorant of what is going on, misrepresenting his intentions, or that his capabilities are not yet sufficient to turn his good intentions into action.''
"Prime Minister Maliki also has been very aggressive in recent weeks in taking on some of the key challenges,'' Snow said. "He has been taking a good hard look at police forces in trying to comb out those taking part in acts of violence... He understands that ultimately it is going to be the Iraqi people who have to government, sustain and defend themselves.''
Yet the published report of National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley's five-page memo, written Nov. 8 following a visit to Baghdad, increases the tension surrounding President Bush's planned meetings with al-Maliki in Amman, Jordan, tonight and Thursday. The two leaders plan a meeting and then dinner at the palace with their Jordanian host, King Abdullah II, this evening and then further meetings on Thursday.
Senior administration officials acknowledged today that Bush and al-Maliki will face some "candid'' discussions, following the publication of the memo on the New York Times Web site:
"The reality on the streets of Baghdad suggests Maliki is either ignorant of what is going on, misrepresenting his intentions, or that his capabilities are not yet sufficient to turn his good intentions into action,'' Hadley reportedly wrote in his memo classified as secret, noting that U.S. military commanders in Iraq had voiced concerns about al-Maliki.
"Despite Maliki's reassuring words, repeated reports from our commanders on the ground contributed to our concerns about Maliki's government,'' wrote Hadley, citing a failure to deliver services to Sunni areas, lack of intervention by the prime minister's office in the prevention of military action against Shia targets while acting "to encourage them against Sunni ones'' and the removal of Iraq's "most effective commanders'' on a sectarian basis as part of efforts "to ensure Shia majorities in all ministries.''
"While there does seem to be an aggressive push to consolidate Shia power and influence, it is less clear whether Maliki is a witting participant,'' Hadley reported in his five-page memo. "The information he receives is undoubtedly skewed by his small circle of Dawa advisers, coloring his actions and interpretation of reality. His intentions seem good when he talks with Americans, and sensitive reporting suggests he is trying to stand up to the Shia hierarchy and force positive change.''
Senior administration officials say al-Maliki already has taken some of the steps that Hadley recommended in the memo, such as cracking down on violent police forces within the Interior Ministry. Yet the Hadley memo notes: "It is important that we see some tangible results in this strategy soon.''
The judgments contained in Hadley memo contrast sharply with his own public words in recent days as well the administration's public pronouncements about the al-Maliki-led government in Iraq
"When you're in war-time, you're going to ask tough questions,'' a senior administration official said today in Riga, insisting on anonymity when discussing a classified document and insisting the administration has not "cast judgment'' on al-Maliki's government. "The bulk of the memo demonstrates that it's a capability issue,'' this official said. "Because you raise the range of possibilities, doesn't mean you're casting judgment... It's not to say that it's a slap in the face, but how do we raise his capability?
"Obvious points of assessment are being made,'' this official said. "But the raw conclusion, as identified in that memo, is capability...We have acknowledged that one of the central tents of this meeting is how to turn (al-Maliki's) good intentions into concrete action.... He believes he needs greater autonomy and control.''
The two leaders expect to discuss the transfer of responsibility for security in Iraq from U.S.-led forces to Iraqi forces, which Bush has maintained is essential before the U.S. discusses any troop withdrawal.
"If you take a look at key parts of the memo, you have a constant reiteration about strengthening the Maliki government,'' another senior administration official said. "This, in fact, has become the focal point of U.S.-Iraqi cooperation...The approach of this government is how we can help.
"There is not a summary judgment of Prime Minister Maliki,'' this official said. "Instead, there is enormous respect for the challenges that he faces.''
While the Bush administration has accused Iran and Syria of abetting terrorists inside Iraq - yet has remained reluctant to speak directly with either Iran or Syria - Hadley's memo suggests that his predecessor as national security adviser, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, hold an "Iraq-plus neighbors meeting in the region in early December.'' Asked if this might include Iran and Syria, officials declined to comment today.
Hadley also has recommended "getting Saudi Arabia to take a leadership role,'' including "cutting off any public or private funds to insurgents or death squads'' and acting aggressively "to lean on Syria.'' Vice President Dick Cheney traveled to Saudi Arabia over the weekend for a meeting with King Abdullah, which the Bush administration has refused to publicly comment on - with Hadley calling it a "confidential conversation.''
Hadley's memo outlined "steps'' that al-Maliki should take to improve the situation: Compelling his ministers to provide health services and open bank branches in Sunni neighborhoods "to demonstrate that his government serves all ethnic communities: Confronting the Shiite cleric leader Moktada al-Sadar and "bring to justice'' any "actors'' who do not eschew violence; Shaking up his Cabinet by appointing "non-sectarian, capable technocrats;'' Overhauling his own staff to "reflect the face of Iraq;'' demanding that all government workers publicly renounce violence as condition for keeping their jobs; supporting the renewal of a United Nations mandate for multinational forces; negotiating a "status of forces agreement'' with the United States over the next year; expanding the Iraqi army and immediately suspending "suspect Iraqi police units.''
Yesterday -- upon arrival in Riga, and as Bush prepares for meetings with al-Maliki in Jordan tonight and Thursday - Hadley had offered a more optimistic assessment of Maliki's government: "We think that this unity government is doing pretty well in a very difficult situation,'' Hadley had said here in Riga. "What I'm saying to you is Maliki has been impatient, and has said that his government has not produced the results that they seek, and he's got some ideas about how to enhance their capabilities to do so.
"This is a pretty tall order for a government, and, at the same time, you're building your government institutions and your security institutions from the ground up,'' Hadley said Tuesday. "This is a big challenge. This is a big challenge for a very sophisticated and well-established democracy, much less a country -- a big challenge for a country with the political institutions he's got.
"So I don't think one should be surprised that it is not moving at the speed that he wants it to move,'' Hadley had added. "This is a huge challenge, and this government needs our support. All I'm saying is, they are not making the progress we would like, they are not making the progress they would like, and there's some reasons for that, because they face a very challenging situation.'' But the president's national security adviser had returned from Iraq on Oct. 30 with a far more candid and sobering assessment, detailed in a Nov. 8 memo which has been classified as secret and was read to and reported by the Times, which published a text of the memo on its Web-site today. Senior Bush administration officials commented in detail on the leaked memo today, insisting upon anonymity when commenting on a classified document. This is the published text:
"We returned from Iraq convinced we need to determine if Prime Minister Maliki is both willing and able to rise above the sectarian agendas being promoted by others. Do we and Prime Minister Maliki share the same vision for Iraq? If so, is he able to curb those who seek Shia hegemony or the reassertion of Sunni power? The answers to these questions are key in determining whether we have the right strategy in Iraq. Maliki reiterated a vision of Shia, Sunni, and Kurdish partnership, and in my one-on-one meeting with him, he impressed me as a leader who wanted to be strong but was having difficulty figuring out how to do so.
" Maliki pointed to incidents, such as the use of Iraqi forces in Shia Karbala, to demonstrate his even hand. Perhaps because he is frustrated over his limited ability to command Iraqi forces against terrorists and insurgents, Maliki has been trying to show strength by standing up to the coalition. Hence the public spats with us over benchmarks and the Sadr City roadblocks.
"Despite Maliki's reassuring words, repeated reports from our commanders on the ground contributed to our concerns about Maliki's government. Reports of nondelivery of services to Sunni areas, intervention by the prime minister's office to stop military action against Shia targets and to encourage them against Sunni ones, removal of Iraq's most effective commanders on a sectarian basis and efforts to ensure Shia majorities in all ministries -- when combined with the escalation of Jaish al-Mahdi's (JAM) [the Arabic name for the Mahdi Army] killings -- all suggest a campaign to consolidate Shia power in Baghdad.
"While there does seem to be an aggressive push to consolidate Shia power and influence, it is less clear whether Maliki is a witting participant. The information he receives is undoubtedly skewed by his small circle of Dawa advisers, coloring his actions and interpretation of reality. His intentions seem good when he talks with Americans, and sensitive reporting suggests he is trying to stand up to the Shia hierarchy and force positive change. But the reality on the streets of Baghdad suggests Maliki is either ignorant of what is going on, misrepresenting his intentions, or that his capabilities are not yet sufficient to turn his good intentions into action.
"Steps Maliki Could Take
"There is a range of actions that Maliki could take to improve the information he receives, demonstrate his intentions to build an Iraq for all Iraqis and increase his capabilities. The actions listed below are in order of escalating difficulty and, at some point, may require additional political and security resources to execute, as described on Page 3 of this memo. Maliki should:
"Compel his ministers to take small steps -- such as providing health services and opening bank branches in Sunni neighborhoods -- to demonstrate that his government serves all ethnic communities.
"Bring his political strategy with Moktada al-Sadr to closure and bring to justice any JAM actors that do not eschew violence.
"Shake up his cabinet by appointing nonsectarian, capable technocrats in key service (and security) ministries.
"Announce an overhaul of his own personal staff so that "it reflects the face of Iraq.
"Demand that all government workers (in ministries, the Council of Representatives and his own offices) publicly renounce all violence for the pursuit of political goals as a condition for keeping their positions.
"Declare that Iraq will support the renewal of the U.N. mandate for multinational forces and will seek, as appropriate, to address bilateral issues with the United States through a SOFA [status of forces agreement] to be negotiated over the next year.
"Take one or more immediate steps to inject momentum back into the reconciliation process, such as a suspension of de-Baathification measures and the submission to the Parliament or "Council of Representatives" of a draft piece of legislation for a more judicial approach.
"Announce plans to expand the Iraqi Army over the next nine months; and
Declare the immediate suspension of suspect Iraqi police units and a robust program of embedding coalition forces into MOI [Ministry of the Interior] units while the MOI is revetted and retrained.
"What We Can Do to Help Maliki
"If Maliki is willing to move decisively on the actions above, we can help him in a variety of ways. We should be willing to:
"Continue to target al-Qaeda and insurgent strongholds in Baghdad to demonstrate the Shia do not need the JAM to protect their families -- and that we are a reliable partner;
"Encourage Zal [Zalmay Khalilzad, the American ambassador] to move into the background and let Maliki take more credit for positive developments. (We want Maliki to exert his authority -- and demonstrate to Iraqis that he is a strong leader -- by taking action against extremists, not by pushing back on the United States and the Coalition.);
"Continue our diplomatic efforts to keep the Sunnis in the political process by pushing for the negotiation of a national compact and by talking up provincial council elections next spring/summer as a mechanism for Sunni empowerment;
"Support his announcement to expand the Iraqi Army and reform the MOI more aggressively;
"Seek ways to strengthen Maliki immediately by giving him additional control over Iraqi forces, although we must recognize that in the immediate time frame, we would likely be able to give him more authority over existing forces, not more forces;
"Continue to pressure Iran and Syria to end their interference in Iraq, in part by hitting back at Iranian proxies in Iraq and by Secretary Rice holding an Iraq-plus-neighbors meeting in the region in early December; and
"Step up our efforts to get Saudi Arabia to take a leadership role in supporting Iraq by using its influence to move Sunni populations in Iraq out of violence into politics, to cut off any public or private funding provided to the insurgents or death squads from the region and to lean on Syria to terminate its support for Baathists and insurgent leaders.
Augmenting Maliki's Political and Security Capabilities
"The above approach may prove difficult to execute even if Maliki has the right intentions. He may simply not have the political or security capabilities to take such steps, which risk alienating his narrow Sadrist political base and require a greater number of more reliable forces. Pushing Maliki to take these steps without augmenting his capabilities could force him to failure -- if the Parliament removes him from office with a majority vote or if action against the Mahdi militia (JAM) causes elements of the Iraqi Security Forces to fracture and leads to major Shia disturbances in southern Iraq. We must also be mindful of Maliki's personal history as a figure in the Dawa Party -- an underground conspiratorial movement -- during Saddam's rule. Maliki and those around him are naturally inclined to distrust new actors, and it may take strong assurances from the United States ultimately to convince him to expand his circle of advisers or take action against the interests of his own Shia coalition and for the benefit of Iraq as a whole.
"If it is Maliki's assessment that he does not have the capability -- politically or militarily -- to take the steps outlined above, we will need to work with him to augment his capabilities. We could do so in two ways. First, we could help him form a new political base among moderate politicians from Sunni, Shia, Kurdish and other communities. Ideally, this base would constitute a new parliamentary bloc that would free Maliki from his current narrow reliance on Shia actors. (This bloc would not require a new election, but would rather involve a realignment of political actors within the Parliament). In its creation, Maliki would need to be willing to risk alienating some of his Shia political base and may need to get the approval of Ayatollah Sistani for actions that could split the Shia politically. Second, we need to provide Maliki with additional forces of some kind.
"This approach would require that we take steps beyond those laid out above, to include:
"Actively support Maliki in helping him develop an alternative political base. We would likely need to use our own political capital to press moderates to align themselves with Maliki's new political bloc;
"Consider monetary support to moderate groups that have been seeking to break with larger, more sectarian parties, as well as to support Maliki himself as he declares himself the leader of his bloc and risks his position within Dawa and the Sadrists; and
"Provide Maliki with more resources to help build a nonsectarian national movement.
"- If we expect him to adopt a nonsectarian security agenda, we must ensure he has reasonably nonsectarian security institutions to execute it -- such as through a more robust embedding program.
"- We might also need to fill the current four-brigade gap in Baghdad with coalition forces if reliable Iraqi forces are not identified.
"Moving Ahead
"We should waste no time in our efforts to determine Maliki's intentions and, if necessary, to augment his capabilities. We might take the following steps immediately:
"Convince Maliki to deliver on key actions that might reassure Sunnis (open banks and direct electricity rebuilding in Sunni areas, depoliticize hospitals);
"Tell Maliki that we understand that he is working his own strategy for dealing with the Sadrists and that:
"- You have asked General Casey to support Maliki in this effort
" - It is important that we see some tangible results in this strategy soon;
"Send your personal representative to Baghdad to discuss this strategy with Maliki and to press other leaders to work with him, especially if he determines that he must build an alternative political base;
"Ask Casey to develop a plan to empower Maliki, including:
"- Formation of National Strike Forces
"- Dramatic increase in National Police embedding
"-- More forces under Maliki command and control
"Ask Secretary of Defense and General Casey to make a recommendation about whether more forces are need in Baghdad;
"Ask Secretary of Defense and General Casey to devise a more robust embedding plan and a plan to resource it;
"Direct your cabinet to begin an intensive press on Saudi Arabia to play a leadership role on Iraq, connecting this role with other areas in which Saudi Arabia wants to see U.S. action;
"If Maliki seeks to build an alternative political base:
"- Press Sunni and other Iraqi leaders (especially Hakim) [Abdul Aziz al-Hakim, the leader of the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, a Maliki rival] to support Maliki
"- Engage Sistani to reassure and seek his support for a new nonsectarian political movement.
Source of memo text: The New York Times, which senior Bush administration officials commented on in detail today while refraining from confirming the accuracy of a classified document which was leaked.
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Iran, Iraq vow to strengthen security cooperation
www.chinaview.cn 2006-11-30 08:23:34
TEHRAN, Nov. 29 (Xinhua) -- Iran and Iraq vowed on Wednesday to strengthen security cooperation as Iraqi President Jalal Talabani wrapped up a three-day visit aimed at seeking help from his neighbor in stemming bloodshed in his violence-torn country.
At a joint press conference with his Iranian counterpart Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Talabani described his visit as "100 percent successful" and promised that results of his trip "will appear soon."
"We discussed security, economy, oil and industry and reached general agreement," he said.
For his part, Ahmadinejad voiced his support for the Iraqi people and reiterated his call for the United States to withdraw forces from Iraq.
"I advise you to leave Iraq ...(and) transfer the responsibilities to the Iraqi government according to a timetable as it wants," he said.
He said that enemies of Iraq were determined to prevent the formation of a powerful Iraq and seek to sow seeds of discord and enmity in the war-torn country.
"We all should strive to forge unity among the Iraqi nation,"he said.
In a joint statement on Wednesday, the two countries called for upgrading current level of relations and cooperation in political,security, oil, industry, economic and cultural affairs, according to Iran's official IRNA news agency.
The Islamic Republic of Iran underlined the need to maintain Iraq's national unity, territorial integrity and independence, the statement said.
The two sides also strongly condemned continued atrocities and sabotage activities of terrorist groups in Iraq and emphasized the necessity of serious confrontation with such criminal and terror activities.
Talabani arrived in Tehran on Monday for his second trip to Iran as the Iraqi president. In November 2005, Talabani held a historic meeting with Ahmadinejad as the first Iraqi president to visit Iran in 40 years.
Upon his arrival in Tehran on Monday evening, Talabani called for Iran's "comprehensive" help to stem escalating violence in war-torn Iraq.
"We need Iran's comprehensive help to fight terrorism, restore security and stabilize Iraq," Talabani told reporters at Iran's Presidential Office.
In response, Ahmadinejad pledged to support Talabani's request,saying "we will help our Iraqi brothers with all we can to implement and reinforce security in Iraq."
Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, in his meeting with Talabani on Tuesday, also pledged that Iran would do its best to help Iraq establish stability and security.
"Iran will spare no efforts to promote stability and security in Iraq, if Iraqi officials call for such help," Khamenei was quoted by the state television as saying.
Talabani's visit came as Iraq was increasingly plagued by killings and kidnappings on a scale that some feared would slip into a civil war.
Iran had reportedly invited Talabani and Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to attend a three-way meeting last weekend, but Tehran denied later that such a meeting was on agenda.
The Iraqi president had planed to visit Iran on Saturday, but his trip was delayed due to a huge attack on Shiites in Baghdad's suburban Sadr City, which killed over 200 people and caused a three-day curfew to stave off further violence.
Observers say that as Iran has great influence on Iraqi Shiites,Talabani's Iran tour was to seek help to stem bloodshed that has been wracking the war-torn country.
The United States has said that it welcomed any talks that could help stabilize Iraq's situation, but doubted effect of a meeting between Iran, Iraq and Syria.
U.S. President George W. Bush has been under mounting domestic pressure for him to contact Iran and Syria in an effort to calm down the situation in Iraq.
Ahmadinejad said on Sunday that he would assist the United States to stabilize the situation in Iraq if Washington changes its "bullying" policy toward Iran.
But, U.S. State Department spokeswoman Julie Reside replied, "The Iranians have made comments similar to this in the past. There's nothing new there."
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Be All That You Can Be: Leave the Army - With a military badly in need of reform and a war based on lies, desertion is an act of bravery.
By David Swanson
davidswanson.org
November 30, 2006
As long as there has been a U.S. military, people have been leaving it. That choice has never been more appropriate than today. Individuals who signed up to defend the United States are engaged in a war that was sold on the basis of lies, was entirely unnecessary, is making us less safe, has nothing to do with defending anyone, and which involves the horror of slaughtering men, women, and children by the hundreds of thousands. The majority of Americans want the war to end and just voted accordingly in the Congressional elections. The majority of Iraqis want the war to end. The majority of American service men and women in Iraq want the war to end. And taking part in this war is illegal, whether you are ordered to do so or not.
Approximately 8,000 Americans have refused to report for duty or deserted in order to avoid taking part in this war, or to avoid taking further part in it. Many have objected to the stop loss program that requires them to serve longer than they had agreed to. Others have objected to the rationale behind the war and the horrors that are part of it. Many are best able to support their families by avoiding military service that is poorly compensated. In the cases we know the most about, one motivation for desertion that is clearly absent is cowardice. While quiet desertion tends not to result in any penalty, public opposition and resistance often means prison.
Lt. Ehren Watada, the first U.S. military commissioned officer to publicly refuse to fight in Iraq, has said that he will not obey an illegal order. He faces court martial on February 4, 2007, for obeying the law. Sgt. Camilo Mejia was one of the first Iraq War vets to publicly refuse to return to Iraq -- for which he served 9 months in prison. Mejia objected to the war as based on lies and to the murdering and torturing of civilians that he witnessed. Sgt. Kevin Benderman is serving a 15-month sentence for the crime of applying for conscientious objector status and refusing to serve any longer in Iraq. Marine Corps reservist Stephen Funk was the first enlisted man to publicly refuse deployment to Iraq, and he spent 6 months in prison as a result. He said: "I will not obey an unjust war based on deception by our leaders." Dan Felushko enlisted as a Marine after September 11, 2001. When ordered to Iraq he deserted, commenting: "I didn't want 'Died Deluded in Iraq' over my gravestone. I didn't see a connection between the attack on America and Saddam Hussein."
Some who have deserted and been AWOL for months or years have decided that it is their proper duty to turn themselves in and face court martial. Ricky Clousing has done this. (Watch his explanation on video.).
Agustin Aguayo has done the same and faces charges with a maximum penalty of 7 years.
In many cases, turning yourself in is not easy. Pvt. Kyle Snyder, who spent Thanksgiving helping restore houses in New Orleans with Iraq Veterans Against the War, is currently AWOL and says that his lawyer has tried to contact the military 75 times.
The Army used to pay bounties for turning in deserters. Now the U.S. military leaves deserters alone but requires the troops who don't desert to serve longer than they agreed to. (These days we even elect deserters president. Bush was AWOL during the Vietnam War, and Clinton too avoided serving.) This is a break with the past, but much about resistance to the military has changed little since 1776.
Robert Fantina has just published a careful survey of past wars titled "Desertion and the American Soldier, 1776-2006." During the Revolutionary War, he tells us, one reason for desertion was the corporal punishment endured in the military. Men were often given 100 lashes. When George Washington was unable to convince Congress to raise the legal limit to 500 lashes, he considered using hard labor as a punishment instead, but dropped that idea because the hard labor was indistinguishable from regular service in the Continental Army. Soldiers also left because they needed food, clothing, shelter, medicine, and money. They signed up for pay, were not paid, and endangered their families' well being by remaining in the Army unpaid.
During the Mexican-American War, in a tribute to a future president, soldiers were branded on the face with a "W" if for some reason they were deemed worthless. This sort of treatment, as in the Revolutionary War, was one reason for desertions, but another reason played a large role and would play an increasingly prominent role in desertions through the course of later wars: lack of belief in the cause.
Through the course of recounting the types of desertions prevalent during the various U.S. wars and peace time, Fantina slowly begins to make a case for reforms in the military that he believes would reduce desertions. By the time he's discussing World War I he's arguing as follows: "Without fundamental change that allows a man or woman to be, first and foremost a human being, and a soldier only by chosen occupation, the military will continue to struggle with desertion."
But if, as Fantina proposes, soldiers are permitted to resign at any time, will we not see mass resignations? If troops now serving in Iraq could legally choose to quit, wouldn't many of them do so?
Fantina lists the various rights that soldiers die fighting to supposedly protect but which, as soldiers, they are denied. He views this as hypocrisy and injustice. But is it not necessary in order to get people to kill each other? Fantina describes cases in which deserters have been executed, deserters whose desertion put no one at risk, whose desertion was arguably justified, whose current lives were a threat to no one. "One can only wonder what good such [executions] accomplish," writes Fantina. But those who make war don't wonder much, I think. Does Fantina not see that he is calling into question the entire logic of war?
In the book's final pages, Fantina writes: "The following list of military reforms was suggested in 1903: Over 100 years later, most of them are yet to be implemented, yet they would certainly contribute to a more stable military force:
* 1. Private soldiers to receive a substantial increase in pay.
* 2. The employment of trained cooks.
* 3. Recognition of the right of all soldiers of whatever position to engage in criticism and in free speech at all times and under all circumstances.
* 4. All the food a soldier wishes to eat, instead of being limited as at present, to an inadequate 'ration.'
* 5. Absolute amnesty to all deserters from the army and navy.
* 6. The erection of modern sanitary buildings at all places where troops are quartered.
* 7. Service in the army to be limited to two years.
* 8. Abolition of military salutes and all other imbecile and servile practices.
* 9. Thorough practice in mobility, rapid field movements, quick concentration, with special attention to supplying the troops promptly and regularly with abundant, wholesome nourishing food.
* 10. All soldiers and officers, whatsoever, to eat exactly the same food, and to be housed or quartered alike at all times and in all places.
* 11. Prohibition of all forms of torture and violence." Of course, Fantina is right. It is a disgrace the way we mistreat those who risk their lives for us. But would rectifying this produce a more stable force or a force likely to collapse when ordered to kill innocent people for power-mad cowboys and their oil profits?
Then again, would that be such a bad thing? Does anyone doubt for a minute that if the United States were actually threatened soldiers would sign up to fight proudly in its defense? Many did so following September 11, 2001. Many of them have since deserted. And rightly so. They, the deserters and resisters, are the ones to whom we owe the most gratitude.
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Taliban scoff at NATO troop increase
Reuters
30 Nov 06
KABUL (Reuters) - NATO's plans to send more soldiers to Afghanistan to quell a resurgent Taliban would simply give the rebels more targets, a guerrilla commander said on Thursday.
"Increasing or expanding NATO troops in Afghanistan is not a worry for the Taliban, instead it will make targets for the Taliban mujahideen much easier," Commander Mullah Obaidullah told Reuters, adding the hardline Islamists could fight for 20 years.
"After five years of continuous fighting against foreign troops, the Taliban have become a strong military power and the Taliban are able to fight and defeat the strongest army."
After months of requests for more troops from NATO commanders on the ground, a summit of alliance leaders this week agreed to a small increase in troop numbers and to ease some restrictions on how and where their forces can be deployed.
Obaidullah repeated Taliban threats to step up the suicide attacks which killed several foreign soldiers before and during the NATO summit in the Latvian capital, Riga.
Fighting in Afghanistan this year has been the worst since a U.S.-led coalition ousted the Taliban government in 2001.
NATO and U.S. officials say the rebels have been bolstered by the country's blossoming illegal opium trade -- hitting record levels this year -- and sanctuary in Pakistan.
NATO leaders pledged at the summit on Wednesday to stay the course to restore peace and stability in Afghanistan.
"It is winnable, it is being won, but not yet won," said NATO Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer of the most dangerous ground combat in the alliance's 57-year history.
In October, NATO's International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) took over command of the country from U.S. forces.
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Zionism = Racism
Israel warns losing patience over truce violations
by Jean-Luc Renaudie Wed Nov 29, 11:59 AM ET
JERUSALEM (AFP) - Israel has warned that the Jewish state was losing patience with Palestinian rocket attacks that have violated a fragile four-day ceasefire in the Gaza Strip.
Wednesday's warnings of a limit to Israeli restraint came amid a flurry of diplomatic efforts to shore up the truce.
Egypt's intelligence chief Omar Suleiman held talks in Israel and US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was to meet separately with Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert on Thursday.
"The test period accorded by the prime minister to the Palestinians is nearing the end," said Tzahi Hanegbi, a key ally of Olmert and chairman of parliament's influential defence and foreign affairs committee.
"The prime minister said the policy of restraint will only last a few days," the MP added, speaking on public radio.
Militants in Gaza fired isolated rockets towards southern Israel on each of the first three days of the truce, violating an accord brokered after 400 Palestinians and three Israelis were killed in Gaza in five months.
A source in Olmert's office similarly emphasized that "Israel's patience has limits", in comments to AFP on Wednesday.
"The prime minister ordered the army not to respond although since the start of the ceasefire 12 rockets have been fired from the Gaza Strip towards Israeli territory," added the official.
The latest projectile landed on Tuesday in the cemetery of Sderot, Defence Minister Amir Peretz's hometown that has borne the brunt of rockets fired from Gaza into Israel over the past six years.
One of the nebulous cells of the radical Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, which is linked to Abbas's Fatah party, claimed the attack, which it said was retaliation for Israeli operations in the West Bank.
Although Palestinian rockets are frequently inaccurate, they have killed 10 people inside the Jewish state since the Palestinian uprising broke out in September 2000, causing misery and fear in communities close to the Gaza Strip.
Consolidating the truce will be a priority of the visit by Washington's top diplomat Thursday.
Rice is to meet Abbas in the West Bank oasis town of Jericho followed by an afternoon visit to Jerusalem to meet Olmert and Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni. The talks come amid international hopes of kickstarting Middle East peace efforts after a six-year hiatus.
State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said Rice would press Abbas to cement the truce and pointed out that while the president had deployed security forces in northern Gaza, they had so far failed to stop the sporadic attacks.
"We would hope that they would be effective in stopping any further rocket attacks or any terrorist attacks that might emanate from Gaza," he said.
In Israel, Egypt's intelligence chief Suleiman, who last week met the exiled political chief of the Palestinian ruling Islamist party Hamas, Khaled Meshaal, held talks with Olmert and Peretz on Wednesday.
The talks, shrouded in secrecy, were to focus on efforts to release an Israeli soldier captured by militants in June, the truce, and ending arms smuggling from Egypt into Gaza, an Israeli official said before the meetings.
Apart from Olmert and Peretz, Suleiman was also to meet the head of Israel's Mossad intelligence agency, Meir Dagan, and Infrastructure Minister Benyamin Ben Eliezer.
Israeli army radio reported that Hamas and Israel are at odds over the details of a prisoner swap in exchange for the conscript Gilad Shalit.
While the Islamists want 1,400 Palestinian detainees released simultaneously with Shalit, Israel wants to release only 1,000 prisoners after the soldier has been returned, according to the radio.
Comment: How are Palestinians expected to hold to a truce when, on daily basis Israel the Israeli army carries out operations like those in the following four stories?
What is clear is that the Zionist politicians have always done everything in their power to thwart any possibility for peace with the Palestinians. The "logic" for this stance is obvious: Israel is in a position of complete and utter domination over the Palestinians. The day that Zionist politicians are forced to sit at the negotiating table with Palestinians is the day that they will be forced to cede some of their ill-gotten gains, which is something the psychopaths in power in Israel are not willing to do...ever.
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"Israel violated all articles of Crossings agreement"
IMEMC & Agencies
30 November 2006
The United Nations office for Human Affairs in the West Bank published a report on Thursday morning accusing Israel of violating every article of the Crossings agreements, and stated that Israel imposed strict siege and closure on the Palestinian people.
The report, marking one year since the agreement was reached, stated that border crossings remained closed most of the year.
Also, the report revealed that the closure caused a significant increase in unemployment in the Gaza Strip since the level jumped from 33.1% in 2005 to 41.8% in 2006.
The percentage of closures reached 86% since Palestinian resistance groups captured the Israeli corporal Gilad Shalit in June 25.
Only 12 trucks per day managed to cross the Karni Trade Crossing since mid January 2006, while Israel vowed to allow 400 trucks to cross per day before the end of the year.
In the West Bank, Israel violated the article that states that Israel should ease the suffering of the residents in the West Bank by easing restrictions on their movement and the movements of good.
It also violated the article regarding allowing freedom of movement between the Gaza Strip and the West Bank.
Number of roadblocks increased by 44%, and movement between the West Bank and the Gaza Strip is totally blocked, the report added, the West Bank is currently divided in 10 isolated sections.
Israel also violated its own vow to open a safe passage between the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, and its vows to allow the operation of Gaza naval and ground ports.
The agricultural sector suffered a 30 Million US Dollar loss this year, the shelling and bulldozing of agricultural hothouses and barracks caused additional 6 Million US Dollar losses, and 4200 employee in the agricultural sector are jobless.
The Eretz Border Crossing between the Gaza Strip and Israel had been closed since eight months.
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Israeli Army takes 21 Palestinian civilians Prisoner in pre-dawn raid
IMEMC & Agencies
30 November 2006
The Israeli army invaded several West Bank cities on Thursday at dawn and took prisoner 21 residents.
In the southern West Bank city of Bethlehem Israeli army vehicles surrounded Al Azzah refugee camp on Wednesday late at night. Troops attacked residents' homes and searched and ransacked them. Families were forced outside during the search, eyewitnesses told IMEMC, adding that soldiers threatened to kill them if they did not leave their homes.
Soldiers left the refugee camp at around 5:00 AM taking with them 10 residents to unknown locations. The 10 were identified as: Majed Al Azzah, 34, his brother Nihad 37, Jihad Nufal, 44, Issa Al Barbari, 46, Rami Mriziek, 28, Rami Qaraq'e, 31, Mohamed Abu Sha'ira, 35, Yasser Al Badawi, 33, Ossamah Abu Sha'ira, 23, and Amer Abu Sha'ira.
Moreover, another army force invaded the village of Al Shawawra, north of Bethlehem, and took prisoner four residents. Troops attacked houses and searched them then left the village, taking Ali Hamdan Nadier Salem, and his brothers Bassem and Shakier to unknown locations.
Mohamed Al Badan, 20, and Isma'el Abd Al Jalil, 19, were taken prisoner form the village of Taqua, east of Bethlehem; they were taken to unknown locations after troops searched and ransacked their homes, the families reported.
By Thursday morning the number of residents taken prisoner by the army during the predawn invasion to Bethlehem stops at 16 residents at the time of this report.
Elsewhere, in the northern part of the West Bank, Israeli forces took prisoner five residents from the city of Nablus and its Balata refugee camp.
Army vehicles and bulldozers stormed the city and the refugee camp and troops opened fire randomly at residents' houses. Residents also heard explosions ringing throughout the city. The army searched and ransacked scores of houses and took Amjidi Al Bakar, 22, Mohamed Abu Al Haiat, 22, Hamid Bashier, 42, Jamal Akup, 35- all are from the city of Nablus while Mohamed Abu Saleem, 21 was taken from his home in Balata refugee camp. All where taken to unknown locations.
Israeli army sources said that the arrest campaign troops conducted in the West Bank on Thursday at dawn targeted what the army calls "Wanted Palestinians."
None of these families were told why their relatives were taken, nor were they told where they were taken to.
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Army demolishes two homes in Hebron
IMEMC & Agencies
29 November 2006
Israeli troops demolished on Wednesday two houses in Hebron city, in the southern part of the West Bank, local sources reported.
On Wednesday afternoon, soldiers leveled a house that belongs to resident Faraj Jaber located al Al Baq'a, in the norther side of Hebron.
Army claims that the house was illegally constructed. The leveled house is only a few hundred meters away from the Kharishna Israeli illegal settlement outpost.
Eyewitnesses reported that soldiers forced the family out of their home, while settlers gathered there to "celebrate" the leveling of the Palestinian house.
On Wednesday morning, soldiers leveled one house in Hebron in spite that the family recently obtained a ruling from an Israeli court barring the army from leveling the house.
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Several Palestinian school girls injured as army takes over house in village near Hebron
IMEMC & Agencies
29 November 2006
Several school girls were injured when army fired tear gas bombs at their school in Al Samu'a village south of the West Bank city of Hebron on Wednesday morning.
Eyewitnesses said, that Israeli troops stopped and assualted several residents at the checkpoint located on the village entrance. Also, soldiers attacked the school boys and fired rubber-coated metal bullets and tear gas at the students, who responded by throwing stones at the soldiers.
Later soldiers attacked the girls school in the village and fired tear gas bombs at the classrooms and the school playground causing several chocking cases as a result of gas inhalation, medical sources reported.
Troops also attacked the house of Hatem Abu Al Kabash, located on the northern entrance of Al village and forced him and his family in one room and took over the house and turned it to a military post, eyewitnesses reported.
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Israelis adopt what South Africa dropped
By JOHN DUGARD
Published on: 11/29/06
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Former President Jimmy Carter's new book, "Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid," is igniting controversy for its allegation that Israel practices a form of apartheid.
As a South African and former anti-apartheid advocate who visits the Palestinian territories regularly to assess the human rights situation for the U.N. Human Rights Council, the comparison to South African apartheid is of special interest to me.
On the face of it, the two regimes are very different. Apartheid was a system of institutionalized racial discrimination that the white minority in South Africa employed to maintain power over the black majority. It was characterized by the denial of political rights to blacks, the fragmentation of the country into white areas and black areas (called Bantustans) and by the imposition on blacks of restrictive measures designed to achieve white superiority, racial separation and white security.
The "pass system," which sought to prevent the free movement of blacks and to restrict their entry to the cities, was rigorously enforced. Blacks were forcibly "relocated," and they were denied access to most public amenities and to many forms of employment. The system was enforced by a brutal security apparatus in which torture played a significant role.
The Palestinian territories - East Jerusalem, the West Bank and Gaza - have been under Israeli military occupation since 1967. Although military occupation is tolerated and regulated by international law, it is considered an undesirable regime that should be ended as soon as possible. The United Nations for nearly 40 years has condemned Israel's military occupation, together with colonialism and apartheid, as contrary to the international public order.
In principle, the purpose of military occupation is different from that of apartheid. It is not designed as a long-term oppressive regime but as an interim measure that maintains law and order in a territory following an armed conflict and pending a peace settlement. But this is not the nature of the Israeli occupation of Palestine. Since 1967 Israel has imposed its control over the Palestinian territories in the manner of a colonizing power, under the guise of occupation. It has permanently seized the territories' most desirable parts - the holy sites in East Jerusalem, Hebron and Bethlehem and the fertile agricultural lands along the western border and in the Jordan Valley - and settled its own Jewish "colonists" throughout the land.
Israel's occupation of the Palestinian territories has many features of colonization. At the same time it has many of the worst characteristics of apartheid. The West Bank has been fragmented into three areas - north (Jenin and Nablus), center (Ramallah) and south (Hebron) - which increasingly resemble the Bantustans of South Africa.
Restrictions on freedom of movement imposed by a rigid permit system enforced by some 520 checkpoints and roadblocks resemble, but in severity go well beyond, apartheid's "pass system." And the security apparatus is reminiscent of that of apartheid, with more than 10,000 Palestinians in Israeli prisons and frequent allegations of torture and cruel treatment.
Many aspects of Israel's occupation surpass those of the apartheid regime. Israel's large-scale destruction of Palestinian homes, leveling of agricultural lands, military incursions and targeted assassinations of Palestinians far exceed any similar practices in apartheid South Africa. No wall was ever built to separate blacks and whites.
Following the worldwide anti-apartheid movement, one might expect a similarly concerted international effort united in opposition to Israel's abhorrent treatment of the Palestinians. Instead one finds an international community divided between the West and the rest of the world. The Security Council is prevented from taking action because of the U.S. veto and European Union abstinence. And the United States and the European Union, acting in collusion with the United Nations and the Russian Federation, have in effect imposed economic sanctions on the Palestinian people for having, by democratic means, elected a government deemed unacceptable to Israel and the West. Forgotten is the commitment to putting an end to occupation, colonization and apartheid.
In these circumstances, the United States should not be surprised if the rest of the world begins to lose faith in its commitment to human rights. Some Americans - rightly - complain that other countries are unconcerned about Sudan's violence-torn Darfur region and similar situations in the world. But while the United States itself maintains a double standard with respect to Palestine it cannot expect cooperation from others in the struggle for human rights.
Comment: For a deeper analysis of the forces at work behind the Apartheid state of Israel see this Signs editorial.
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Human Rights Watch Must Retract Its Shameful Press Release
By NORMAN G. FINKELSTEIN
November 29, 2006
Even by the grim standards of Gaza, the past five months have been cruel ones.
Some four hundred Palestinians, mostly unarmed civilians, have been killed during Israeli attacks. (Four Israeli soldiers and two civilians have been killed.) Israel has sealed off Gaza from the outside world while the international community has imposed brutal sanctions, ravaging Gaza's already impoverished economy.
"Gaza is dying," Patrick Cockburn reported in CounterPunch, "its people are on the edge of starvation.A whole society is being destroyed.The sound that Palestinians most dread is an unknown voice on their cell phone saying they have half an hour to leave their home before it is hit by bombs or missiles. There is no appeal. "
"Gaza is in its worst condition ever," Gideon Levy wrote in Haaretz, "The Israeli army has been rampaging through Gaza--there's no other word to describe it--killing and demolishing, bombing and shelling indiscriminately....This is disgraceful and shocking collective punishment."
Predictably Gaza teetered on the precipice of fratricidal civil war. "The experiment was a success: The Palestinians are killing each other," Amira Hass wryly observed in Ha'aretz, "They are behaving as expected at the end of the extended experiment called 'what happens when you imprison 1.3 million human beings in an enclosed space like battery hens.'"
It is at times like this that we expect human rights organizations to speak out.
How has Human Rights Watch responded to the challenge? It criticized Israel for destroying Gaza's only electrical plant, and also called on Israel to "investigate" why its forces were targeting Palestinian medical personnel in Gaza and to "investigate" the Beit Hanoun massacre.
On the other hand, it accused Palestinians of committing a "war crime" after they captured an Israeli soldier and offered to exchange him for Palestinian women and children held in Israeli jails. (Israel was holding 10,000 Palestinians prisoner.) It demanded that Palestinians "bring an immediate end to the lawlessness and vigilante violence" in Gaza. (Compare Amira Hass's words.) It issued a 101-page report chastising the Palestinian Authority for failing to protect women and girls. It called on the Palestinian Authority to take "immediate steps to halt" Palestinian rocket attacks on Israel.
Were this record not shameful enough, HRW crossed a new threshold at the end of November.
After Palestinians spontaneously responded to that "unknown voice on a cell phone" by putting their own bare bodies in harm's way, HRW rushed to issue a press release warning that Palestinians might be committing a "war crime" and might be guilty of "human shielding." ("Civilians Must Not Be Used to Shield Homes Against Military Attacks")
In what must surely be the most shocking statement ever issued by a human rights organization, HRW indicted Palestinian leaders for supporting this nonviolent civil disobedience:
Prime Minister Haniyeh and other Palestinian leaders should be renouncing, not embracing, the tactic of encouraging civilians to place themselves at risk.
The international community has for decades implored Palestinian leaders to forsake armed struggle in favor of nonviolent civil disobedience. Why is a human rights organization now attacking them for adopting this tactic?
Is it a war crime to protect one's home from collective punishment?
Is it human shielding if a desperate and forsaken populace chooses to put itself at deadly risk in order to preserve the last shred of its existence?
Indeed, although Israeli soldiers have frequently used Palestinians as human shields in life-threatening situations, and although HRW has itself documented this egregious Israeli practice, HRW has never once called it a war crime.
It took weeks before HRW finally issued a report condemning Israeli war crimes in Lebanon. Although many reliable journalists were daily documenting these crimes, HRW said it first had to conduct an independent investigation of its own.
But HRW hastened to deplore the nonviolent protests in Gaza based on anonymous press reports which apparently got crucial facts wrong.
Why this headlong rush to judgment?
Was HRW seeking to appease pro-Israel critics after taking the heat for its report documenting Israeli war crimes in Lebanon?
After Martin Luther King delivered his famous speech in 1967 denouncing the war in Vietnam, mainstream Black leaders rebuked him for jeopardizing the financial support of liberal whites. "You might get yourself a foundation grant," King retorted, "but you won't get yourself into the Kingdom of Truth."
HRW now also stands poised at a crossroads: foundation grants or the Kingdom of Truth?
A first step in the right direction would be for it to issue a retraction of its press release and an apology.
HRW executive director Kenneth Roth "commended" Israel during its last invasion for warning people in south Lebanon to flee--before turning it into a moonscape, slaughtering the old, infirm and poor left behind. It would seem that Palestinian leaders and people, too, merit some recognition for embracing the tactics of Gandhi and King in a last desperate bid to save themselves from annihilation.
Email HRW Middle East director Sarah Leah Whitson--whitsos@hrw.org - and HRW executive director Kenneth Roth--RothK@hrw.org.
Norman Finkelstein's most recent book is Beyond Chutzpah: On the misuse of anti-Semitism and the abuse of history (University of California Press). His web site is www.NormanFinkelstein.com.
Comment: What can one respond to an article such as this? To the blatant pro-Israeli positions of Human Rights Watch?
To suggest that it is the Palestinians who are committing the war crimes while defending their homes is outrageous!
But there is no Israeli Lobby. Heavens, no!
Palestine is the future. If normal people do not take a stand, then we share all suffer the fate of the Palestinians. That is no joke. The pathocrats have plans to get rid of people of conscience. War and disease, starvation and natural disaster, these will be the means used. And there will always be a veil of ambiguity to lead you astray, to convince you that is was an accident, like the repeated "errors" on the part of the IDF when they kill sleeping families in Gaza.
But these are not accidents. And just as the unstated policy of Israel is genocide, so is the unstated policy of all pathocrats to eliminate people of conscience.
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Non-Aligned Concern Over Palestine
United Nations, Nov 30 (Prensa Latina)
The Non Aligned Movement expressed serious concern over constant deterioration of the situation in occupied Palestinian Territory due to the excessive, indiscriminate and out of proportion force used by Israel.
Cuban ambassador Ileana Nunez gave a speech on behalf of the Non Aligned Movement during a debate in the General Assembly and pointed out that those territories are suffering a growing economic, social and humanitarian crisis caused by Israeli intervention.
"The Movement condemns the imposition of illegal policies and collective punishment of the Palestinian people," the diplomat expressed.
She added that Israel should end its occupation and illegal practices in that region, including the building of the wall that is intended to annex Palestinian land and property.
She also called on Tel Aviv to immediately halt military operations, acts of violence and provocation as well as the bombing of the Palestinian civilian population.
On behalf of NAM she called for the withdrawal of occupation forces in the Gaza strip and for Israel to comply with its responsibility of repairing all the harm caused to the infrastructure.
The release of all Palestinian officials detained by Israel since June 28, 2006 also appears in the document.
"We call on all States and the international community as a whole to offer economic and financial assistance for the Palestinian people, with all urgency, to alleviate the current financial and humanitarian crises," the Ambassador said.
Nunez insisted that the Security Council take the necessary measures to make Israel respect international law and put an end to the occupation.
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Rice seeks wide Middle East truce to restart talks - War Whoring isn't the right "Diplomacy" it seems
By Sue Pleming
Reuters
30 Nov 06
JERUSALEM (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice pushed Israelis and Palestinians to broaden their fragile ceasefire as she began a new drive on Thursday to revive stalled peace talks in the Middle East.
In a move likely to please Washington, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas told Rice he had reached a "dead end" in talks on forming a coalition with Hamas Islamists, whose control of the Palestinian Authority has dimmed hopes for peacemaking.
Rice, who met Abbas in the West Bank town of Jericho and later moved to Jerusalem for talks with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, said she wanted to build on a truce that took hold in the Gaza Strip at the weekend.
"It is quite fragile and we would like to see it consolidated and extended," Rice said in Jerusalem.
Both Olmert and Abbas support widening the ceasefire to the occupied West Bank, but it was unclear whether Rice's intervention meant agreement was near.
Arab allies of Washington such as Jordan, Egypt and Saudi Arabia are pushing hard for the United States to become more involved in trying to resolve the Arab-Israeli conflict in the hope that this will help the situation in Iraq.
Peace talks collapsed in 2000 before the start of a Palestinian uprising. Prospects for reviving negotiations sank further after Hamas Islamists won Palestinian elections in January and took over the government.
But the atmosphere has changed since the Gaza truce and a speech by Olmert this week pledging to reach out for peace.
"Hopefully we can take this moment to accelerate our efforts toward the two-state solution that we all desire," Rice said in Jericho with Abbas at her side.
Abbas has tried to form a unity government with Hamas or get the group to agree to Western demands to recognize Israel, renounce violence and accept past peace accords.
DOORS LOCKED
But he said talks with Hamas were now at an impasse, his strongest indication yet that he had abandoned the effort.
"In the past few days we have come to the conclusion that the doors are locked," he said, without specifying what he would do next. An aide, Yasser Abed Rabbo, said Abbas would take "unprecedented political steps".
Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas, speaking before Abbas, said in Cairo that "the door must not be closed."
The collapse of talks could mean Abbas tries to appoint a government more acceptable to the United States, which has spearheaded a Western aid blockade. But some fear that could lead to civil war.
In Amman, President Bush emphasized his backing for strong moves by Abbas. "He deserves support in peeling his government away from those who do not recognize Israel's right to exist," Bush said.
Hamas accused Bush of trying to encourage civil war.
An end to unity government talks, though, could complicate efforts to extend the ceasefire and to broker an exchange of Palestinian prisoners for an Israeli soldier who was captured by militants in a raid out of the Gaza Strip.
As preconditions for major peace moves, Israel has demanded the establishment of a Palestinian government that recognizes its right to exist, as well as the release of Corporal Gilad Shalit, who was captured in June.
Thursday's visit was Rice's seventh to Israel and the Palestinian territories in nearly two years but she has failed to achieve any major breakthrough.
After meeting the Palestinians and the Israelis, Rice is set to go to the Dead Sea in Jordan to meet ministers from the Gulf Cooperation Council as well as Egypt and Jordan.
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Nobel laureate Desmond Tutu to head UN mission to Beit Hanun
By Haaretz Service
29 Nov 06
Nobel laureate Desmond Tutu has been named to head a United
Nations fact-finding mission to the Gaza Strip town of Beit Hanun, where at least 18 civilians were killed earlier this month, UN officials said Wednesday.
The South African anti-Apartheid campaigner and former Anglican archbishop of Cape Town will travel to the Palestinian territory to "assess the situation of victims, address the needs of survivors and make recommendations on ways and means to protect Palestinian civilians against further Israeli assaults," according to the president of the UN Human Rights Council, Luis Alfonso De Alba.
Tutu chaired South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation Commission after the end of white rule.
Meanwhile, Anti-Defamation League National Director Abraham Foxman has condemned as an "overwhelming failure" efforts to reform and replace the UN Commission on Human Rights - an organization widely criticized for concentrating its efforts on condemnations of Israel - calling its replacement a political tool of its Arab and Muslim majority.
The ADL said the new UN Human Rights Council has "ignored the world's worst human rights atrocities and instead has pursued Israel for political gain."
The 47-member council, which earlier this year replaced the discredited Human Rights Commission, has been severely criticized by some countries, including the United States, for moving four times to condemn Israel but not taking up human rights violations in Myanmar, North Korea or Sudan.
The Council has come under similar criticism from outgoing Secretary-General Kofi Annan.
"From the day it opened for business, the UN Human Rights Council has never operated with any moral authority," Foxman said in a statement released on Tuesday.
"The Council has failed in its most fundamental purpose: to monitor human rights abuses in all parts of the world. Instead, it has become a political tool wielded by its Arab and Muslim members who have the power of an automatic majority. The Council has ignored the world's worst human rights atrocities and instead has pursued Israel for political gain."
Earlier this month, the Council condemned an IDF artillery attack that killed 20 civilians in the northern Gaza Strip and ordered an on-site investigation by UN Human Rights Commissioner Louise Arbour.
The organization made no reference to Palestinian Qassam attacks. But when Arbour visited the area last week, she and her party were nearly hit by a Qassam that slammed into the Negev town of Sderot, in a salvo that killed a local factory worker.
"Closing in on six months since its first meeting, the Council has held one regular session and three special sessions and has yet to address a single state besides Israel," the ADL said in the statement. "The Council passed two resolutions yesterday condemning Israel while ignoring other more pressing problems around the world."
Annan chides Council 'preocupation with Israel'
Earlier this month, Annan declared that the Human Rights Council should broaden its focus beyond the Palestinian-Israeli issue to avoid accusations it is one-sided.
Speaking to reporters in Geneva for the last time before he is to step down as secretary-general at the end of the year, Annan said the council's preoccupation with Israel's actions in Lebanon and the Palestinian territories while ignoring the situation in Darfur had caused some to wonder whether it had "a sense of fair play."
"They [the council members] have tended to focus on the Palestinian issue, and of course if you focus on the Palestinian-Israeli issue without even discussing Darfur and other issues, some wonder 'what is this council doing?"' he said.
Annan's remarks coincided with the release of a council inquiry into Israel's actions during the monthlong conflict this summer, which accused Israel of "a significant pattern of excessive, indiscriminate and disproportionate use of force... against Lebanese civilians."
The inquiry, which was instigated by members of the Organization of the Islamic Conference, was not mandated to look at the conduct of the Lebanon-based militant group Hezbollah during the fighting.
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China reaffirms efforts to continue push for Middle East peace
www.chinaview.cn 2006-11-30 05:00:55
BEIJING, Nov. 30 (Xinhua) -- Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao has reiterated his country's readiness to join international efforts to push for peace and stability in the Middle East region.
In a message to the Conference in Commemoration of the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People held at the UN headquarters in New York on Wednesday, Wen extended warm congratulations on the occasion of its convocation on behalf of the Chinese government.
In the message, Wen stressed the Palestinian issue is at the core of the Middle East conflict. "China supports restart of the Middle East peace process and resumption of political negotiations as soon as possible, so as to establish an independent state of Palestine that co-exists peacefully with Israel, on the basis of relevant UN resolutions and the 'land for peace' principle," he said.
The settlement of the Palestinian issue calls for political will and courage of the Palestinians and Israel as well, and needs support and assistance from the international community, Wen said.
As a permanent member of the UN Security Council, China would continue its support for a larger UN role in the Middle East issue, he said.
"China is ready to make unswerving efforts with the international community for a fair and overall solution to the Palestinian issue and an early realization of peace and stability in the Middle East region," the Chinese premier said.
The United Nations set Nov. 29 as the Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People.
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Spies R Idiots
Ex-spy's poison on the Internet - $69 can get you a trace of the commonly used lethal industrial chemical
Keay Davidson,
SF Chronicle Science Writer
November 28, 2006
It's one of the deadliest imaginable poisons, a radioactive substance about 100 billion times as deadly as cyanide -- and a Web site run by a physicist and flying saucer enthusiast offers to sell you a trace amount of it for $69 and send it via the U.S. Postal Service or UPS.
Contrary to early news reports, polonium-210 -- the poison suspected in the death of an ex-Russian spy in England -- is not some exotic material available solely from nuclear laboratories. The isotope is available from firms that sell it for lawful and legitimate uses in industry, such as removing static electricity from machinery and photographic film.
If ingested in large enough amounts, polonium-210 causes a hideous death.
"This is not a way you'd want to die -- it's a very slow, painful death," said Kelly L. Classic, a radiation physicist at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., and the media liaison for the Health Physics Society, a national organization of experts on the health effects of radiation.
Polonium is an "alpha emitter," which, when it decays, emits high-speed volleys of subatomic alpha particles -- each one composed of two protons and two neutrons bound together -- that rip apart DNA coils and bust up the cells within which they reside.
An alpha particle "is huge on an atomic scale," Classic said. "If an electron was a piece of popcorn, the alpha particle (would be) like a bowling ball."
Former KGB agent Alexander Litvinenko died Thursday in London, the victim of what health officials said was polonium-210 poisoning at a hotel bar or a sushi restaurant on Nov. 1. Before he died, he insisted that he was poisoned on behalf of Russian President Vladimir Putin.
His illness developed rapidly, causing his hair to fall out and ravaging his immune and nervous systems. Police have reported finding traces of radiation at the restaurant and bar.
Classic, who is not involved with the British police investigation, speculated that, assuming the ex-spy was poisoned, his killer might have done so by sprinkling the poison in liquid rather than powdered form -- perhaps on the spy's food. A powder would have quickly traveled around a large area, whereas British police say that traces of the poison seem to be limited to small locations, as one would expect if the liquid were spattered here and there in small drops.
Experts at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, the nuclear weapons lab in Livermore, declined Monday to say how much polonium-210 would be needed to harm anyone. They said they were calculating how much would be needed -- but even if they knew the answer, they wouldn't reveal it publicly for ethical reasons.
"In this day and age, we need to be extraordinarily careful about how to give out 'how-to' instructions," Livermore health physicist Gary Mansfield said, alluding to the threat of terrorism. "We're not going to provide you a recipe to help the bad guys harm (people)."
Polonium-210 is "approximately 100,000 million times more toxic than cyanide," according to "A Guide to the Elements, Second Edition," by Albert Stwertka, published in 2002 by Oxford University Press. (That amount equals 100 billion.)
The isotope has a short half-life of 138 days, which might make it difficult to trace after a relatively short time. Although the alpha particles can wreak devastating damage inside a cell, paradoxically they're too frail to break through human skin -- meaning that no one would be able to detect them escaping from the human body.
In the United States, it is legal for vendors licensed by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission to sell small amounts of polonium-210 and other radioactive sources without the buyers having to receive special permission from the government.
United Nuclear Scientific Equipment & Supplies of Sandia Park, N.M., will sell you a small amount of polonium-210 for $69 in a small, yellow, disk-shaped container. The firm offers a long list of available radioactive sources on its commercial Web site -- which includes buttons marked, "Add to Cart" next to items for purchase.
"Because our products can be potentially hazardous in the wrong hands," the site states, "we will occasionally terminate and refund orders if we feel you are juvenile posing as an adult, inexperienced with the materials ordered, or using our products to make any sort of explosive device. All packages containing hazardous chemicals will require an adult signature on delivery."
United Nuclear is run by Bob Lazar, who attracted national attention when he claimed to have worked on crashed alien spaceships at a U.S. military base in Nevada called Area 51. In May, the Albuquerque Journal reported that agents from the U.S. Department of Justice raided Lazar's firm in 2003. Lazar claimed that federal government officials wanted his firm to stop selling chemicals that they said could be used to make explosives, the paper reported.
A woman at Lazar's company, who identified herself only as "Michelle," said the firm sells polonium-210 in "small, small, minuscule" amounts ... What we carry is so small you can't see it with your naked eye." She said she is only an employee at the firm and doesn't know where Lazar obtains the polonium-210.
Lazar couldn't be reached for comment Monday.
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Italian Contact Denies Poisoning Litvinenko
Created: 30.11.2006 14:00 MSK (GMT +3), Updated: 15:18 MSK
MosNews
An Italian contact of Alexander Litvinenko denied on Thursday he had poisoned the former Russian security agent and said British police were looking elsewhere in the murder investigation, Reuters news agency reports.
Mario Scaramella, who is under British police protection, met Litvinenko on Nov. 1 at a London sushi restaurant where traces of the deadly poison Polonium 210 were also found.
Scaramella told Reuters by telephone that medical tests in Britain showed he had not been contaminated by the poison.
Media in Britain and Italy said on Wednesday that Litvinenko told a friend shortly before dying that the Italian might have killed him.
"This is all completely absurd," Scaramella said, adding "I am not being investigated or a suspect. I am collaborating with the investigations, which are headed in every other direction."
Scaramella, who has advised Italy's parliament on Soviet-era espionage and describes himself as a security consultant, said he would be able to fully explain himself and speak more freely this weekend.
"But I can't make any statements. Be patient," he said.
Italian Foreign Minister Massimo D'Alema told parliament Scaramella had advised a committee on espionage between 2003 and this year but was not part of the Italian secret services.
At the meeting in the London sushi bar, Scaramella showed Litvinenko emails warning that their lives might be in danger from St. Petersburg-based criminals.
Beyond the sushi bar, traces of radiation have been detected at several more sites, including Litvinenko's home, a hotel he visited, the offices of Russian tycoon Boris Berezovsky and the offices of Erinys, a security and risk management company. British Airways said on Wednesday that police probing Litvinenko's death had found "very low traces" of radiation had been found on two of its aircraft.
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UK monitoring five planes in radiation probe
By Paul Majendie and Adrian Croft
Reuters
30 Nov 06
LONDON - Britain is monitoring five planes for radiation in an ever widening probe into the poisoning of a former Russian spy that has heightened tensions with Moscow.
British Home Secretary John Reid told parliament on Thursday that radioactive traces had been found at 12 out of 24 locations being checked by police and pledged there would be no political barriers to the probe.
The Kremlin and Russia's foreign spy service have denied any involvement in the death of Alexander Litvinenko, a former Russian spy who became an outspoken critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Litvinenko, who became a British citizen while living in London, died in the capital a week ago after being poisoned with radioactive polonium 210.
British Airways said three aircraft had been taken out of service as part of the probe. All had flown between Moscow and London, and one is still in Moscow.
The airline said "very low traces" of a radioactive substance had been found on the two planes being held in London.
Reid told parliament scientists were monitoring a fourth aircraft for possible contamination. The plane, a Boeing 737 leased by the Russian carrier Transaero, arrived at London's Heathrow airport on Thursday morning, he said.
Transaero spokesman Sergei Bykhal said the plane was being held in Britain for checks and that the company would cooperate fully with any official body.
Reid said Britain was also interested in a fifth plane -- a Russian aircraft -- and there could be more involved.
"Those are the five we know of," he told parliament.
SUSPICIONS
The announcement about the planes and their destinations could rekindle suspicions of a Moscow link to the death of Litvinenko, who himself accused Putin of ordering his murder.
In Moscow, Anatoly Safonov, President Putin's counter-terrorism adviser, told Reuters: "As we said before, we are open and willing to offer all the help needed."
"Russia has expressed at the highest levels the political will to cooperate in the fullest way in all aspects of this affair," Safonov told state television.
Reid told parliament that Moscow had promised cooperation to the "highest level" and that British police would use all the powers they needed to search planes.
"There certainly will be no political prohibition on the police following where the evidence leads them," he said.
In Britain, thousands of BA passengers sought health reassurances from the airline after the announcement.
BA says the risk to health is low. But it faces a huge task tracing the 33,000 passengers who used the planes over a five-week period. It has set up helplines to give guidance to them.
Reid said Britain would contact the governments of every country where the planes may have landed.
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Radiation found at 12 sites linked to spy probe - Fourth aircraft under investigation after Litvinenko's fatal poisoning
Reuters
30 Nov 06
LONDON - Traces of radiation have been found at a dozen sites in Britain during the investigation of the poisoning of a former Russian spy, Home Secretary John Reid said Thursday.
Reid also told Parliament that a fourth jetliner is being investigated for possible radiation contamination. On Wednesday, British Airways said two of its Boeing 767s at London's Heathrow Airport tested positive and a third was grounded in Moscow awaiting examination.
The fourth aircraft, a Boeing 737 operated by the Russian airline Transaero, arrived at Heathrow airport Thursday morning, Reid said, but he gave no further details.
The search for contaminated sites has intensified since the Nov. 23 death in a London hospital of former KGB agent Alexander Litvinenko, a Kremlin critic who was found to have polonium-210 in his body.
Reid said 1,700 calls had been made to the National Health Service, and 69 people were referred to the Health Protection Agency. Of those, 18 who may have been exposed to polonium-210 have been referred to specialist clinics, but all urine tests so far have been negative, he said.
The Health Protection Agency expected to clear one of the three British Airways aircraft that operate the London-Moscow route - which were identified Wednesday night as having possible radioactive contamination, Reid said. Tests continue on the other two, he said.
Reid said "around 24 venues" have been or are being monitored and that experts had confirmed traces of contamination at "around 12 of these venues."
British Airways said "the risk to public health is low" but that it was attempting to contact to some 33,000 passengers who have flown on the jets since Oct. 25.
Radiation found at sushi bar, homes, hotel
Radiation was detected at the sushi bar where Litvinenko met Mario Scaramella, an Italian KGB expert, on the day he fell ill.
Scaramella denied suggestions he had played any role in the poisoning.
"This is all completely absurd," he told Reuters by telephone, adding: "I am not being investigated or a suspect. I am collaborating with the investigations, which are headed in every other direction."
Traces of radiation have been detected at several more sites, including Litvinenko's home, a hotel he visited, the offices of Russian tycoon Boris Berezovsky and the offices of Erinys, a security and risk management company.
London police had said they were also searching the Sheraton Park Lane Hotel Piccadilly and another London address.
BA investors shrugged off concerns that the radiation scare would frighten off passengers. BA shares were trading 1.1 percent firmer at 500-3/4 pence at 0857 GMT.
But it is another public relations setback for Europe's third-largest carrier, which has suffered four successive summers of disruptions from industrial action and security alerts.
Copyright 2006 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved. Republication or redistribution of Reuters content is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Reuters.
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Doctors Suspect Former Russian PM Gaidar Was Poisoned - Report
Created: 30.11.2006 15:31 MSK (GMT +3), Updated: 15:31 MSK
MosNews
Doctors treating former Russian prime-minister Yegor Gaidar in a Moscow hospital have said he was likely poisoned, a Russian newspaper is quoted by AFP news agency.
"The doctors are leaning towards the conclusion that all the symptoms ... point specifically to poisoning," Gaidar's daughter Maria told the Kommersant newspaper.
The doctors will make their final diagnosis on Friday, with "a poison unknown to civilian medicine," the most likely cause of his illness, she said.
Gaidar was in satisfactory condition late Wednesday but "there was a serious threat to his life" after he fell ill on November 24 in Ireland, where he had been attending a conference, his daughter said on NTV television.
Gaidar's illness came one day after the death in London of former Russian secret services agent Alexander Litvinenko, who was poisoned by a rare radioactive substance in an incident that Litvinenko himself blamed on President Vladimir Putin. The Kremlin has rejected the charges.
Putin telephoned Gaidar to wish him a quick recovery, London's Financial Times reported Thursday, citing the Kremlin.
Anatoly Chubais, the influential head of Russia's state electricity company and a longtime associate of Gaidar's, connected the former premier's illness with Litvinenko's death and the recent murder of journalist Anna Politkovskaya, suggesting the Kremlin's enemies were behind all three.
"This deadly design would have been extremely attractive for those supporting unconstitutional, violent means of changing power in Russia," Chubais told RIA Novosti.
Ultra-nationalist parliament deputy Vladimir Zhirinovsky blamed Gaidar's condition on foreign powers attempting "to destabilize the situation or create an atmosphere of suspicion" in the run-up to Russia's 2007 parliamentary elections, RIA Novosti reported.
Gaidar fell ill after eating breakfast where he was staying outside Dublin, he told the Financial Times.
The former prime minister managed to answer questions about his book, "The Death of the Empire: Lessons for Contemporary Russia", in an appearance at the National University of Ireland, Maynooth, before he had to be hospitalized.
He was transferred to a Moscow hospital on Sunday.
"We are concerned by the very fact of the poisoning and would not like to make premature conclusions," said opposition politician Leonid Gozman, one of the leaders of the liberal Union of Right Forces Party, of which Gaidar was a co-founder.
As Russia's first post-Soviet prime minister, Gaidar was a chief architect of reforms known as "shock therapy", which helped transform the communist economy but are widely blamed in Russia for capital flight and a 1998 economic collapse.
Utilities chief Chubais, who also helped organize the reforms, survived an assassination attempt in 2005.
Gaidar now heads an economic think tank in Moscow that frequently criticizes Putin's policy of increasing state control over the economy.
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UK terror suspects lose extradition battle
Staff and agencies
Thursday November 30, 2006
Guardian Unlimited
Two terrorist suspects today lost their high court battle to avoid extradition to the United States.
Lawyers for Haroon Rashid Aswat and Babar Ahmad argued that, despite US assurances to the contrary, there was "a real risk" that the men would be mistreated, or tried and sentenced as enemy combatants if sent to America.
Dismissing their appeal, Lord Justice Laws, sitting in London with Mr Justice Walker, said the allegation that the US might violate undertakings given to the UK "would require proof of a quality entirely lacking here".
Mr Ahmad, a computer expert from Tooting, south London, is accused of running websites inciting murder and urging Muslims to fight a holy war. The sites allegedly also aimed to raise money for the Taliban and Chechen rebels.
Mr Aswat, who grew up in West Yorkshire and was arrested in Africa, faces trial on charges of plotting to set up a "jihad training camp" in Bly, Oregon, to train fighters for war in Afghanistan. He has been fighting extradition to the US since being arrested in Zambia and held in the UK.
The judges said they would take time to consider whether both men should be given permission to take their case to the House of Lords, the highest court in the UK, for a final ruling. They will announce their decision at a later date.
Mr Fitzgerald argued that the case raised human rights issues of public importance which should go before the law lords.
Afterwards, Ashfaq Ahmad, the father of 32-year-old Babar, said: "We are very disappointed with the high court verdict today.
"We are hopeful that the high court will certify that a point of law of public importance on military detention and rendition has been raised and recommend this matter should go to the House of Lords."
At a hearing in July, Edward Fitzgerald QC, appearing for both men, asked two senior judges to halt extradition, arguing there was a danger that their human rights would be abused, despite assurances from the US government.
Mr Fitzgerald said the men were in danger of being indefinitely detained at Guantánamo Bay under a military order applying to foreign citizens, or tried and sentenced by a military commission as enemy combatants in what would amount to "a flagrant denial of justice" and European human rights laws. He said they also faced the risk of extraordinary rendition - the process of removing terrorist suspects to third countries for interrogation - and being held in solitary confinement.
Washington has promised that the two British men will not be sent to Guantánamo Bay or turned over to a third country. But Mr Fitzgerald told the judges they should not rely on American assurances that the men would be treated fairly.
Mr Ahmad is a cousin of Mohammed Noor Khan, described by the pressure group Human Rights Watch as a "ghost detainee". He is believed to be in joint US-Pakistan custody, with no access to legal counsel. Mr Khan was arrested in Pakistan in 2004 and accused of sending messages for Osama bin Laden. Mr Khan "has simply disappeared", according to the two men's lawyers.
Mr Ahmad argues that support for Chechen separatists between 1997 and 2000 and for the Taliban does not constitute supporting terrorism. According to his campaign website, he was "deeply affected and saddened" by the September 11 2001 attacks, in which a female relative of his died in the World Trade Centre.
The case against Mr Aswat is based on the evidence of James Ujaama, an American jailed for assisting the Taliban in Afghanistan, whose sentence was reduced in return for his cooperation as a witness.
Comment: Sure you can trust the US. You know that the men will be mistreated. There is no doubt about it. They've just legalised torture in the US, for God's sake!
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MEPs condemn Britain's role in 'torture flights'
Richard Norton-Taylor and Nicholas Watt in Brussels
Wednesday November 29, 2006
The Guardian
Britain's role in CIA "torture flights" was roundly condemned yesterday by the European parliament in a scathing report which for the first time named the site of a suspected secret US detention centre in the EU - at Stare Kiejkuty in Poland.
It says EU governments, including the British, knew about the practice known as extraordinary rendition - secret CIA flights transferring detainees to locations where they risked being tortured - but made a concerted attempt to obstruct investigations into it.
The MEPs singled out Geoff Hoon, the minister for Europe, saying they deplored his attitude to their special committee's inquiry into the CIA flights. They expressed outrage at what they said was the view of the chief legal adviser to the Foreign Office, Sir Michael Wood, that "receiving or possessing" information extracted under torture, if there was no direct participation in the torture, was not per se banned under international law. They said Sir Michael declined to give evidence to the committee.
The report condemned the extraordinary rendition of two UK residents, Bisher al-Rawi, an Iraqi citizen , and Jamil el-Banna, a Jordanian citizen, seized in the Gambia in 2002. They were "turned over to US agents and flown to Afghanistan and then to Guantánamo, where they remain detained without trial or any form of judicial assistance", it said. The men's abduction was helped "by partly erroneous information" supplied by MI5. It also condemned the treatment of Binyam Mohammed, an Ethiopian citizen and UK resident arrested in Pakistan and at one point held in Morocco where questions "appear to have been inspired by information supplied by the UK". His lawyer has described what the report called "horrific torture".
It referred to the rendition of Martin Mubanga, a UK citizen arrested in Zambia in 2002 and flown to Guantánamo Bay. It said he was interrogated by British officials at the US detention centre in Cuba where he was held and tortured for four years and then released without trial.
It expressed "serious concern" about 170 stopovers at British airports by CIA-operated aircraft which on many occasions came from, or were bound for, countries linked with "extraordinary rendition circuits". The Guardian gave evidence to the committee on the CIA flights. The MEPs also praised help they were given by the all-party parliamentary group on rendition chaired by Conservative MP Andrew Tyrie. "Parliamentary concern about extraordinary rendition is not going to go away," Mr Tyrie said. Next week he will meet John Rockefeller, new chairman of the US Senate intelligence committee.
Shami Chakrabarti, director of civil rights group Liberty, said: "Our government wept hot tears for torture victims in Saddam Hussein's Iraq but adamantly refuses to investigate CIA torture flights despite growing international pressure. The silence in Whitehall is damning."
Yesterday's report described in detail how CIA Gulfstream jets landed in secret at Szymany airport in Poland. There was circumstantial evidence, it said, that there may have been a secret detention centre at the nearby intelligence training centre at Stare Kiejkuty. It disclosed that records, from a confidential source, of an EU and Nato meeting with the US secretary of state, Condoleezza Rice, last December confirmed "member states had knowledge of the [US] programme of extraordinary renditions and secret prisons".
It criticised EU officials such as foreign policy chief Javier Solana and counter-terrorism coordinator Gijs de Vries for a lack of cooperation with the inquiry, and Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, Nato's secretary general, for declining to give evidence.
Sarah Ludford, a Liberal Democrat MEP and vice-chair of the European parliament's committee, said last night: "If the EU's aspirations to be a 'human rights community' have any meaning whatsoever, there must now be a forceful EU response to this strong evidence that the CIA abducted, illegally imprisoned and transported alleged terrorists in Europe while European governments, including the UK, turned a blind eye or actively colluded with the United States."
At least 1,245 CIA rendition flights used European airspace or landed at European airports, the report said. It accused the former head of Italy's Sismi intelligence service, Nicolo Pollari, of "concealing the truth" when he told the committee Italian agents played no part in the CIA kidnapping of an Egyptian cleric in 2003. It says Sismi officials had an active role in the abduction of Abu Omar, who had been "held incommunicado and tortured ever since".
The Foreign Office said last night that Mr Hoon had answered all the questions put to him. He said the government did not approve of any transfer of individuals through the UK where there were substantial grounds to believe they would face the real risk of torture.
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Black-hooded CIA paramilitaries tried to "disappear" German national
by Joshua Holland
November 29, 2006.
I often give the commercial media a hard time, but it's important -- if we want a better media -- to give them a bit of praise when they earn it. So let me offer kudos to the Washington Post's Dana Priest for not mincing words in this lede:
Khaled al-Masri was supposed to have been disappeared by black-hooded CIA paramilitaries in the dead of night. One minute he was riding a bus in Macedonia, the next -- poof -- gone. Grabbed by Macedonian agents, handed off to junior CIA operatives in Skopje and then secretly flown to a prison in Afghanistan that didn't officially exist, to be interrogated with rough measures that weren't officially on the books. And then never to be heard from again -- one fewer terrorist in the post-9/11 world.
Masri is now trying to use the courts to get a modicum of justice for that treatment -- a radical idea, apparently, in the aftermath of 9/11:
...Masri is waiting to see if the judges will allow the CIA to disappear him again.
This time, it's not the physical, flesh-and-blood, burly, ponytailed German citizen with six kids whom the U.S. government wants to make vanish from the face of the Earth. It's his legal case, his very right to have his argument heard in open court, that the CIA is seeking to have disappeared. They argue, citing the state-secrets privilege, that to proceed with the case would damage national security and that this damage outweighs any legal rights Masri may have.
The U.S. District Court for the Eastern District agreed with the government in May.
If they have their way this time, the pale Justice Department lawyers swaying back in their chairs before the three judges of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit would prohibit any judge and any jury anywhere from ever hearing the arguments in Masri's six legal pleadings and 40 exhibits, more than 1,000 pages in all. Much of the evidence was unearthed by German prosecutors and European Parliament investigators.
"Pale Justice Department lawyers swaying back in their chairs " -- there's a word-picture for you.
There are also the eight U.S. officials who confirmed to at least one American reporter that Masri spent months in a dank Afghan cell because a couple of CIA officials in Washington had a hunch he was someone he was not and that they just didn't move fast enough when they found out he wasn't.
Read the whole thing -- it's quite a tale.
Speaking of CIA paramilitaries disappearing Europeans, the EU Parliament released a draft resolution that makes for an interesting read (you can grab a PDF here). It builds on an earlier investigative report that showed conclusively that the CIA flew 1,245 secret flights into European airspace, ferrying uncounted numbers of suspected -- that's a key word, I think -- terrorists to countries where they were held incommunicado and subjected to torture.
Highlights:
...The programme of extraordinary rendition is an extra-judicial practice whereby an individual suspected of involvement in terrorism is illegally abducted, arrested and/or transferred into the custody of US officials and/or transported to another country for interrogation which, in the majority of cases, involves incommunicado detention and torture ...
...[The Parliament condemns] extraordinary rendition as an illegal and systematic instrument used by the United States in the fight against terrorism... [and] condemns, further, the acceptance and concealing of the practice, on several occasions, by the secret services and governmental authorities of certain European countries...
...Participating in the interrogation of individuals who are victims of extraordinary rendition represents a deplorable legitimisation of that type of illegal procedure, even where those participating in their interrogation do not bear direct responsibility in the kidnapping and detention of the victims...
...The practice of extraordinary rendition has been shown to be counterproductive in the fight against terrorism and that, in some cases, extraordinary rendition in fact damages and undermines regular police and judicial procedures against terrorism suspects ...
That gets to the heart of what's wrong with so many of the arguments in favor of shredding the Constitution or the central tenets of international law: it is so often counter-productive and actually makes us less safe -- a reality that eludes many of the blood-and-guts types on the hysterical right.
Joining them, of course, is Tony Blair, and I imagine that Bush's Poodle will have the Foreign Office working overtime trying to water down the language of the draft. After all, it contains heresies like this:
...The fight against terrorism cannot be won by sacrificing the very principles that terrorism seeks to destroy, notably, the protection of fundamental rights must never be compromised ... terrorism must be fought by legal means and must be defeated while respecting international and national law and with a responsible attitude on the part of governments and public opinion alike ...
The resolution also "condemns the illegal pursuing of Italian journalists investigating the extraordinary rendition of Abu Omar and the tapping of their telephone conversations." That oart of this story -- the one that's been playing out in Italy -- has been absolutely riveting. If you haven't been following it, see this piece by Stephen Grey and Elisabetta Povoledo in the International Herald Tribune, and this AlterNet story by Jeffrey Klein and Paolo Pontoniere.
Anyway, as I've written before, the idea that the U.S. and its allies are engaged in some sort of global "Clash of Civilizations" is especially unserious given the fact that our tactics violate the underlying principles of Western liberal thought, and that the entire Western world unambiguously rejects our leadership. Oh well.
Let me wrap up with a bit of good news for those of a civil libertarian bent, via Reuters:
A federal judge in Los Angeles, who previously struck down sections of the Patriot Act, has ruled that provisions of an anti-terrorism order issued by President George W. Bush after September 11 are unconstitutional.
U.S. District Judge Audrey Collins found that part of the law, signed by Bush on September 23, 2001 and used to freeze the assets of terrorist organizations, violated the Constitution because it put no apparent limit on the president's powers to place groups on that list.
Ruling in a lawsuit brought against the Treasury Department in 2005 by the Center for Constitutional Rights, Collins also threw out a portion of Bush's order which applied the law to those who associate with the designated organizations.
"This law gave the president unfettered authority to create blacklists, an authority president Bush then used to empower the Secretary of the Treasury to impose guilt by association," said David Cole of the Washington-based Center for Constitutional Rights.
"The court's decision confirms that even in fighting terror, unchecked executive authority and trampling on fundamental freedoms is not a permissible option," he said in a statement.
Here, again, we have a court upholding the government's right to take steps to stop terrorists, but rejecting the argument that Bush's executive branch is the government. I'm not sure why so many people seem to have such a hard time understanding that, but good for District Judge Audrey Collins for not being among them.
Joshua Holland is a staff writer at Alternet and a regular contributor to The Gadflyer.
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Right-wingers wrong about AP story - where are the retractions? The agonizing routine of being wrong
by Bob Geiger
November 29, 2006.
When I think of every time our right-wing counterparts in the political blog world humiliate themselves, I'm reminded of former NBA star Charles Barkley who, upon hearing that Tonya Harding was calling herself "the Charles Barkley of figure skating," said "I was going to sue her for defamation of character, but then I realized I have no character."
And here we have so many conservative bloggers, after days of castigating the Associated Press for running what the wingnuts claimed was a fictitious story about six Sunnis being burned alive in sectarian violence in Iraq on Friday, having to once again face what a bunch of putzes they really are.
The AP reported last night on eyewitnesses to the immolations, that occurred when Sunni worshippers were leaving a Mosque on Friday and have also substantiated the identity of Iraqi police Capt. Jamil Hussein, who the AP cited as the primary source for its story that the Sunnis were killed while the Iraqi military stood by and did nothing.
Said the most recent AP story:
"Seeking further information about Friday's attack, an AP reporter contacted Hussein for a third time about the incident to confirm there was no error. The captain has been a regular source of police information for two years and had been visited by the AP reporter in his office at the police station on several occasions. The captain, who gave his full name as Jamil Gholaiem Hussein, said six people were indeed set on fire."
You can read the rest of the AP story, which includes the eyewitness accounts, here.
But over the last few days -- ever since a Naval Public Affairs officer demanded in writing that the AP publish a retraction for the article, which the military claimed was false -- our little Bloggers for Bush have been more excited about all of this than Mark Foley at a Boy Scout Jamboree.
"MSM credibility, R.I.P." said Michelle Malkin on her blog, while the Powerline dudes headlined it all with " Story of Sunnis Burned Alive Going Up In Smoke."
Here's Powerline:
"There is no doubt plenty of violence in Baghdad to go around. But the current attitude toward the situation in Iraq is one of hysteria. That hysteria is being shamelessly stoked by news organs like the Associated Press, who rely--apparently uncritically--on reports from stringers who may be imposters, and may be agents of the insurgency. Such reports are repeated endlessly and thereby add to the momentum for surrender in Iraq. The difficulty of getting reliable reporting out of Iraq should not become an excuse for an abandonment of all journalistic standards."
How funny is it to hear lectures on "journalistic standards" coming from these guys?
"It's Official: Media Body Burning Story is Bogus," crowed Newsbusters -- the wingnut National Enquirer -- who just went mad with glee proclaiming that "The news that six Sunnis were captured by Shiites, doused with kerosine [sic] and burned alive, was too sensational to not be picked up by the mainstream media. But it turns out that the event never happened. Furthermore, the Iraqi 'spokesman' relied on to give all information regarding this event is as fictional as the story itself."
Newsbusters took it a step further by also concluding that NBC's decision to begin calling what's going on in Iraq a "civil war" was based in part on the "bogus" nature of that story.
Flopping Aces, which seems to have started this embarrassing affair, has been running a lengthy series ominously called "Getting The News From The Enemy" while The Jawa Report really stands proud and proclaims that "It's unlikely that the Associated Press and other news agencies will issue corrections approaching the sensationalism with which they originally pushed the false stories."
Ouch. That kind of strident crap's got to make their red-state faces pretty damned crimson about right now.
But then, to grotesquely paraphrase Sir Charles Barkley, they would feel the shame that's coming to them, but then they realized that they have no shame.
Bob Geiger is a writer, activist and Democratic District Leader in Westchester County, NY. You can reach Bob at geiger.bob@gmail.com and read more from him at BobGeiger.com.
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Scary Science
Top U.S. court hears global warming case
Last Updated: Wednesday, November 29, 2006 | 4:54 PM ET
CBC News
The U.S. Supreme Court is hearing a case Wednesday intended to force the federal government's environmental agency to regulate some greenhouse-gas emissions.
A group of applicants including 12 states, 13 environmental organizations and three cities wants the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to regulate carbon dioxide tailpipe emissions from new vehicles. Carbon dioxide is believed to contribute to global warming.
The applicants say that the EPA should regulate the emissions under the Clean Air Act because they are air pollutants which could harm public health.
The EPA said it cannot regulate global warming under the act, and therefore carbon dioxide, as a greenhouses gas, is not an air pollutant.
The agency also said it would not regulate such gases, even if it could, because there is uncertainty about global warming.
The government position is supported by car-industry groups and nine states where vehicles are made.
The applicants took their case to the top court after the EPA refused an environmental group's request to regulate emissions. A lower court in Washington, D.C., backed the EPA.
The Supreme Court is expected to rule by July 2007.
The court is also hearing a second, related case regarding an EPA decision that it lacked the authority to regulate greenhouse-gas emissions from power plants.
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Study: Violent video games affect teens' brain
www.chinaview.cn 2006-11-30 09:42:06
BEIJING, Nov. 30 (Xinhuanet) -- Teens who play violent video games show increased activity in areas of the brain linked to emotional arousal and decreased responses in regions that govern self-control, a recent study found.
The study used functional magnetic resonance imaging to record tiny metabolic changes in brain activity in 44 adolescents who were asked to perform a series of tasks after playing either a violent or nonviolent video game for 30 minutes.
The children, with no history of behavior problems, ranged in age from 13 to 17. Half played a T-rated (for Teen) first-person shooter game called Medal of Honour: Frontline, involving military combat, while the other group played a nonviolent game called Need for Speed: Underground.
Those who played the violent video game showed more activation in the amygdala, which is involved in emotional arousal, and less activation in the prefrontal portions of the brain associated with control, focus and concentration than the teens who played the nonviolent game.
"Our study suggests that playing a certain type of violent video game may have different short-term effects on brain function than playing a nonviolent, but exciting, game," said Vincent Mathews, a professor of radiology at Indiana University School of Medicine in Indianapolis and the study's author.
The findings were presented at a meeting of the Radiological Society of North America. The 13 billion dollars U.S. video game industry, with revenue rivaling Hollywood box office sales, is at the center of a cultural battle over violent content.
Lawmakers' various attempts to ban the sale of violent video games to children have been blocked by courts in Louisiana, Illinois, California. Michigan and Minnesota.
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Bush's Failed Global AIDS Plan
By Sarah Fort
Ms. Magazine
November 30, 2006
The President's relief plan ignores the gender dimensions of the AIDS epidemic, and women are paying for it with their lives.
In his January 2003 State of the Union address, President George W. Bush announced a $15 billion initiative to "turn the tide" against AIDS, targeted mainly at 14 of the hardest-hit African and Caribbean countries, plus Vietnam. That would virtually triple the U.S. commitment, offering renewed hope to the nearly 30 million AIDS sufferers in Africa alone.
It all sounded grand.
But very quickly, the strings of the plan -- now known as PEPFAR, the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief -- began to show. Starting in 2004, the United States recommended -- and by 2006 required -- that 33 percent of all prevention funding be earmarked for abstinence and fidelity programs. Condoms could be recommended only for high-risk groups, not for sexually active people in general. No funds would be provided to groups that don't explicitly condemn prostitution. Finally, the Bush administration seemed to be spreading a significant share of AIDS funding through faith-based groups.
Meanwhile, the AIDS pandemic has been rapidly feminized over the past 15 years. But PEPFAR -- underpinned by the political and religious philosophies of the Bush administration -- often doesn't take into account the facts of life for women in the countries it serves.
"The gender dimensions of the epidemic are completely ignored," says Beatrice Were, a Ugandan mother of three who has devoted herself to AIDS activism since 1993. "We know very well that women don't [always] have control [over sexual decisions]. There is rape in marriage. ... Many women can't make a decision on whether to have protected sex or not, even whether to have sex or not, because it's their husbands [who] make the decision."
In Uganda polygamy and promiscuity among men is both significant and socially acceptable. "This [PEPFAR] approach places a huge burden on a woman to abstain and, when she's married, be faithful," says Were. "Personally, I did all of that, but I still got infected, too. It just doesn't work."
Nonetheless, the ABC plan -- Abstinence, Be faithful and use Condoms -- continues to be the preferred U.S. strategy for preventing sexually transmitted HIV infections. Indeed, service providers often have to reduce other programs -- such as those to prevent mother-to-child HIV transmission -- in order to redirect dollars toward abstinence and thus meet the 33 percent requirement.
But an abstinence-only approach has not proven effective in preventing AIDS transmission; in fact, it may have an opposite effect. In Uganda, which successfully promoted a comprehensive program before PEPFAR, the incidence of the virus has nearly doubled since shifting its focus to comply with PEPFAR's A and B guidelines. When first recognized in the early 1980s, AIDS was pegged as a disease affecting primarily men, homosexuals, Haitians or intravenous-drug-users. But over the years, HIV has increasingly infected women who are married, have children and are nonwhite and poor. Today, 17.3 million women in the world live with HIV/AIDS, and of the 16,000 new HIV infections daily, as many as 55 percent occur among women. The proportion of women among the total infected population has risen at a steady and frightening rate: from 35 percent in 1990 to 41 percent in 1997, to 48 percent in 2004.
The women of sub-Saharan Africa are particularly hard-hit. They comprise 54 percent of all HIV/AIDS cases in the region, and three of four newly infected young people (15 to 24 years old) are women.
A number of studies have found that male-to-female transmission of HIV during sex is about twice as likely to occur as female-to-male transmission, because the HIV virus can more easily penetrate vaginal mucus during intercourse. The risk runs even higher if intercourse is violent, as abrasions caused by forced penetration facilitate entry of the virus -- which puts adolescent girls at increased risk. As Stephen Lewis, U.N. Special Envoy for HIV/AIDS in Africa, pointed out at the 2006 International AIDS Conference in Toronto, "In Africa... the violence and the virus go together."
The risk of sexual violence and rape should therefore be a crucial component in HIV-prevention policies, says the Rev. Mpho Tutu, daughter of South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu and an Episcopal priest in Alexandria, Va. "One of the reasons for the feminization of the pandemic is the instability of war and displacement," she explains. "Refugee women are vulnerable because rape and sexual exploitation are weapons of war.... And as communities are destabilized, more and more often you'll see women trading sexual favors for economic support."
Sex-for-survival can also occur in the home, especially when women are poor, as they are in great swatches of the PEPFAR countries. As for using condoms, studies in Haiti, another PEPFAR focus country, show that more than 60 percent of Haitian women feel that the decision about whether to use condoms is exclusively the man's right. Discussion of safe sex, as suggested by the ABC plan, requires a discussion of sex itself. Yet the PEPFAR policy is to restrict comprehensive sexual-education programs to only certain sectors of the population. Children up to age 14, for example, are not to be introduced to condoms in any PEPFAR- funded school programs. Unmarried youth are often taught only about abstinence and being faithful. This policy does not reflect the reality of Haitians' sex lives, of course: Recent surveys show that 60 percent of young males and 36 percent of young females reported having their first sexual contact before 15 years of age.
Even when condoms are offered by health providers, U.S. requirements stipulate that they must always be accompanied by a notice of their failure rates. Says HIV/AIDS consultant David Veazey, "This is not something you would put in a campaign slogan to promote condoms. It would be the same as a seat-belt commercial saying, 'Buckle Up! But there is a 10 percent chance that the seat belt won't save you in an accident.' Not only would people continue to drive -- because they have to -- but they probably wouldn't see the point in wearing a seat belt either."
The U.S. has recognized that the ABC policy isn't always appropriate, so it has allowed some of the PEPFAR "teams" within the focus countries to direct less of their programs to abstinence and fidelity. But then the rest of the countries' provider teams have to spend more on A and B, which means cutting back on other programs.
"We continue to act as if poor people are stupid people," says Rev. Tutu. "They aren't stupid, they're just poor. They are entitled to make full decisions. [If you provide ABC] and [say] that's all that's available, it's dishonest and it infantilizes those to whom we provide the message."
PEPFAR isn't the only source of significant global funding on AIDS, just the biggest. But its prevention guidelines are quite different from those of another significant player, the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. The internationally supported Fund, started in 2002, is not required to follow the ABC policy, although its resources are fewer than those of PEPFAR.
"I think the position of PEPFAR is guided by some religious aspect," says Dr. Émile Charles, head of a Global fund-sponsored health program in Haiti. "But it's important ... for a country like Haiti ... to continue to focus on condoms. I think that promoting abstinence is an error, a scientific error."
Restrictive U.S. guidelines have caused some countries and providers to refuse its funding. Brazil turned down $40 million in U.S. AIDS funding in 2005 because it refuses to take a required pledge against "the legalization or the practice of prostitution" (which is already decriminalized in Brazil). The country's AIDS program, considered among the world's most progressive, counts its commercial sex workers among its most determined AIDS activists. Other AIDS providers are reluctant to sign the pledge because they don't want to increase the stigma and isolation of sex workers, which would thus raise further barriers to getting them needed HIV services.
Congress has recently begun to weigh in on PEPFAR: The bipartisan Protection Against Transmission of HIV for Women and Youth Act of 2006 (PATHWAY), announced in June, would require the program's administrators to establish a prevention strategy that addresses the vulnerabilities of women and girls to HIV, eliminates the funding earmark for abstinence, increases access to male and female condoms and addresses gender violence as a cause of HIV/AIDS.
"A growing number of Congress members agree that this bill is important, as it continues to attract new cosponsors from both parties every month," says Jodi Jacobson, director of the Center for Health and Gender Equity, a nonprofit that advocates accountability for U.S. health policies abroad. "PATHWAY...forces the hand of the administration ... to do the right thing when constructing a truly comprehensive approach to prevention.
"We should pass it tomorrow."
Sarah Fort is a writer for the Center for Public Integrity. She works with the center's international project.
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NIH Secrets - Big Pharma is Killing And Bush Admin Burying the Bodies
by Jeanne Lenzer
New Republic
24 October 06
It's not news that the pharmaceutical industry routinely suppresses negative data, with the effect of exaggerating the benefits of its drugs and glossing over their risks. Take, for example, the painkiller Vioxx.
According to court testimony, the drug's manufacturer, Merck, withheld data showing that the drug caused five times as many heart attacks as a similar painkiller, naproxyn. The result? Food and Drug Administration (FDA) safety expert David Graham calculated that Vioxx caused an estimated 39,000 to 60,000 heart-attack deaths before it was pulled from the market in 2004.
Or take the example of the anti-depressants known as ssris, which include Prozac and Paxil. Recent analyses of several papers touting the benefits of the drugs for children found that the authors had accentuated the positive and downplayed the negative. It was only when the FDA analyzed all the data, in a 2004 study that was initially suppressed, that it was discovered that taking the drugs doubled the risk of suicide for young people....
Thank goodness these secretive, corporate drug trials are counterbalanced by taxpayer-funded studies at the National Institutes of Health (NIH), whose results are open to public scrutiny, right?
Actually, wrong.
You would think that, because taxpayers paid for the studies, the data ought to be available for independent verification. But that's not how it actually works.
When several leading researchers contacted me, frustrated because they couldn't obtain data from NIH-funded studies, I filed Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests for the data they were unable to obtain.
My FOIA requests were denied.
Indeed, despite a 1999 law clearly stating that such information should be available to the public, it appears that no data have ever been released under the law. And the price for that secrecy may be paid in American lives.
The use of steroids to treat spinal-cord injuries offers a sobering example. In late March 1990, the NIH announced, with great fanfare, the results of the Second National Acute Spinal Cord Injury Study (NASCIS 2), a 487-persontrial that appeared to show that high-dose steroids reduced paralysis caused by acute spinal cord injury. Underscoring the urgency of its results, the NIH issued an unprecedented prepublication press release. This was followed by a "Dear Doctor" letter, which was faxed to emergency departments across the nation, instructing physicians in the correct dosing of steroids for patients with such injuries. Given what was at stake, the NIH's actions appeared to be warranted. Each year, approximately 10,000 people, most of them young and healthy, suffer spinal-cord injuries in car accidents, falls, or shootings. If, as NASCIS 2 suggested, steroids helped prevent paralysis in these cases, it heralded a significant advance in treating people who might otherwise spend their lives on breathing machines and in wheelchairs. The "Dear Doctor" letter ensured that emergency-room physicians would make high-dose steroids the standard of care for victims of spinal-cord injuries.
But not all doctors were as enthusiastic about high-dose steroids as the NIH. Fred H. Geisler, a neurosurgeon with the Illinois Neuro-Spine Institute, had seen not only patients treated with steroids who failed to improve, but also patients who got worse and died--not from their injuries, but from the side effects of the steroids, such as overwhelming infections and gastrointestinal bleeding. Geisler was surprised by the NIH claims, but he knew enough to wait for the published paper so that he could go over the data himself. When the report was published in The New England Journal of Medicine, six weeks after the NIH announcement, it did nothing to allay his doubts. Instead of reporting on all the subjects included in the study, as is customary, the authors wrote up the outcomes on only a subset of patients.
Geisler knew the only way he could confirm his suspicions, or lay them to rest, would be to reanalyze the raw data from the study. But the lead author of NASCIS 2, Michael Bracken of the Yale School of Public Health, refused to release the study data to Geisler and to other critics despite multiple requests. After being contacted by some of these critics in 2003, I filed a formal FOIA request with the NIH for the data. The NIH directed me to Bracken and Yale, saying they did not possess the data. I then requested the data from Bracken and, separately, from Yale. Both denied my requests.
Lacking access to the data underlying the NASCIS 2 claims, most doctors feel obligated to prescribe steroids as the "standard of care." But it's a standard of which many are skeptical. On May 5, 2004, for instance, more than 1,000 neurosurgeons gathered at the annual meeting of the American Association of Neurological Surgeons in Orlando, Florida, to hear a debate between Bracken and Geisler on high-dose steroids. An electronic poll of the audience showed that, prior to the debate, only 21 percent of the neurosurgeons present believed that steroids lead to a significant improvement in outcome (compared with 48 percent who said it didn't improve outcome and 31 percent who responded "don't know"). After the debate, those who said steroids improved outcome dropped from 21 percent to 11 percent, and a mere 6 percent said it ought to be the standard of care. Nonetheless, when asked if they would personally prescribe high-dose steroids for patients with acute spinal cord injuries in the future, 60 of the surgeons present said they would. When asked why, 11 percent said they believed it improved outcome, 31 percent claimed they feared litigation, and 38 percent said there was no better alternative.
The concerns of skeptics like Geisler were recently amplified when the results of another study, known as the CRASH trial, were announced. The study compared patients with serious brain injuries who were treated with steroids with those treated with a placebo. For every 100 patients treated with steroids, three more patients died than did patients treated with the placebo. From these results, Geisler estimates that 5,000 people with spinal-cord injuries have already died from treatment with high-dose steroids--and that stopping steroid treatment could save 300 lives per year in the United States.
Nor is Geisler alone in his concerns. Karim Brohi, a British trauma surgeon at the Royal London Hospital, concurs: "Patients around the world are suffering due to the inappropriate reporting and application of this data," he says. "I believe it is highly questionable that Bracken should be refusing to release the original data given the potential associated morbidity and mortality associated with high-dose steroids." Perhaps the most surprising support for Geisler's views comes from an unexpected source: William Collins, a now-retired Yale neurosurgeon who was Bracken's co-principal investigator on NASCIS 2. Collins says he broke with Bracken and withdrew his name from the third trial in the series in protest because "[Bracken] was always trying to find something that I couldn't find"--i.e., a clinical benefit from steroid treatment.
Nor is this a unique case of taxpayer-funded research being kept hidden. In 2004, an NIH-sponsored study was reported to show that Prozac was effective in treating depressed teenagers. But the NIH and the study authors have refused to release the data in response to FOIA requests--requests, significantly, that were made while Congress and the FDA were holding hearings on the safety of antidepressants. In another NIH study, published in 2003, researchers reported that the brains of children with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) were smaller than those of children who had not been diagnosed with the disorder. Critics questioned whether the problem might actually be caused by the drugs used to treat ADHD. But, when a researcher asked for the underlying data, his request was denied.
This isn't how it was supposed to be. The Shelby Amendment, passed in 1999, specifically directs federal agencies to "ensure that all data" from federally funded research are "made available to the public through the Freedom of Information Act." The NIH, in its data-sharing guide known as Circular A-110, asserts that data-sharing "is essential ... to improve human health." Although the NIH officially encourages data-sharing, adherence to the policy is voluntary. It is ultimately left to the individual researcher or research institution to decide whether or not to share their data. As Norka Ruiz-Bravo, NIH Deputy Director for Extramural Research, acknowledged, "Some people share their toys better than others." But the explanation for why so much NIH data are kept under wraps may be more serious than that. Data secrecy is becoming the norm rather than the exception, in an era when researchers--even those who have public funding--are increasingly likely to have commercial interests to protect.
According to a 2003 survey of 171 universities that received NIH grants by the then-General Accounting Office, 91 percent held equity options in the very companies for which they were developing technologies. Some academic institutions receive over $10 million in royalties per year for technologies they have developed. And individual researchers--including some who have refused to release their data in response--have also received funding from sponsoring drug companies. These commercial ties, and the secrecy they spawn, have real consequences for physicians who must rely on research results that may not be entirely disinterested.
It is difficult to know how many dangerous treatments might remain on the market, unchallenged, because of data secrecy. In the case of Prozac for teens, the data withheld by researchers could show that Prozac is not safe for children--an important development, given that it is currently the only anti-depressant approved by the FDA for the treatment of children. In the case of the study showing that the brains of children with ADHD are smaller, it means that stimulant drugs continue to be prescribed even though it is not clear whether brain shrinkage in children with ADHD is caused by the disease--or by the drugs used to treat the disease.
Wondering how widespread the problem of NIH secrecy was, I reviewed the data-sharing exemptions in Circular A-110 and all extramural grants awarded by the NIH in 2005. What I found was that, despite the lofty claims of data-sharing, there are so many exemptions in the guide and the Shelby amendment that they actually serve to codify data secrecy. For example, only researchers conducting studies that cost more than $500,000 in direct costs annually are required to file a data-sharing plan. Data are also exempt if they are not cited as part of a federal policy or regulation that has the "force and effect of law"--an exclusion that single-handedly eliminates virtually all NIH data. After reviewing all of the grants awarded by the NIH during 2005 and finding that virtually none of the data would fall under the conditions of mandatory release, I asked the NIH to identify any studies that had been released under the Shelby Amendment. Their answer was surprisingly frank: I was told that, "despite numerous requests" for data since the Shelby Amendment was passed in 1999, "none met the criteria of the regulation."
JEANNE LENZER is a freelance medical investigative journalist and a Knight Science Journalism Fellow at MIT.
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Humans must colonize other planets: Hawking
Reuters
30 Nove 06
LONDON (Reuters) - Humans must colonize planets in other solar systems traveling there using "Star Trek"-style propulsion or face extinction, renowned British cosmologist Stephen Hawking said on Thursday.
Referring to complex theories and the speed of light, Hawking, the wheel-chair bound Cambridge University physicist, told BBC radio that theoretical advances could revolutionize the velocity of space travel and make such colonies possible.
"Sooner or later disasters such as an asteroid collision or a nuclear war could wipe us all out," said Professor Hawking, who was crippled by a muscle disease at the age of 21 and who speaks through a computerized voice synthesizer.
"But once we spread out into space and establish independent colonies, our future should be safe," said Hawking, who was due to receive the world's oldest award for scientific achievement, the Copley medal, from Britain's Royal Society on Thursday.
Previous winners include Albert Einstein and Charles Darwin.
In order to survive, humanity would have to venture off to other hospitable planets orbiting another star, but conventional chemical fuel rockets that took man to the moon on the Apollo mission would take 50,000 years to travel there, he said.
Hawking, a 64-year-old father of three who rarely gives interviews and who wrote the best-selling "A Brief History of Time", suggested propulsion like that used by the fictional starship Enterprise "to boldly go where no man has gone before" could help solve the problem.
"Science fiction has developed the idea of warp drive, which takes you instantly to your destination," said.
"Unfortunately, this would violate the scientific law which says that nothing can travel faster than light."
However, by using "matter/antimatter annihilation", velocities just below the speed of light could be reached, making it possible to reach the next star in about six years.
"It wouldn't seem so long for those on board," he said.
The scientist revealed he also wanted to try out space travel himself, albeit by more conventional means.
"I am not afraid of death but I'm in no hurry to die. My next goal is to go into space," said Hawking.
And referring to the British entrepreneur and Virgin tycoon who has set up a travel agency to take private individuals on space flights from 2008, Hawking said: "Maybe Richard Branson will help me."
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An Ancient Computer Surprises Scientists
By JOHN NOBLE WILFORD
NY Times
November 29, 2006
A computer in antiquity would seem to be an anachronism, like Athena ordering takeout on her cellphone.
But a century ago, pieces of a strange mechanism with bronze gears and dials were recovered from an ancient shipwreck off the coast of Greece. Historians of science concluded that this was an instrument that calculated and illustrated astronomical information, particularly phases of the Moon and planetary motions, in the second century B.C.
The Antikythera Mechanism, sometimes called the world's first computer, has now been examined with the latest in high-resolution imaging systems and three-dimensional X-ray tomography. A team of British, Greek and American researchers was able to decipher many inscriptions and reconstruct the gear functions, revealing, they said, "an unexpected degree of technical sophistication for the period."
The researchers, led by Tony Freeth and Mike G. Edmunds, both of the University of Cardiff, Wales, are reporting the results of their study in Thursday's issue of the journal Nature.
They said their findings showed that the inscriptions related to lunar-solar motions and the gears were a mechanical representation of the irregularities of the Moon's orbital course across the sky, as theorized by the astronomer Hipparchos. They established the date of the mechanism at 150-100 B.C.
The Roman ship carrying the artifacts sank off the island of Antikythera around 65 B.C. Some evidence suggests that the ship had sailed from Rhodes. The researchers speculated that Hipparchos, who lived on Rhodes, might have had a hand in designing the device.
In another article in the journal, a scholar not involved in the research, François Charette of the University of Munich museum, in Germany, said the new interpretation of the Antikythera Mechanism "is highly seductive and convincing in all of its details." It is not the last word, he concluded, "but it does provide a new standard, and a wealth of fresh data, for future research."
Historians of technology think the instrument is technically more complex than any known device for at least a millennium afterward.
The mechanism, presumably used in preparing calendars for seasons of planting and harvesting and fixing religious festivals, had at least 30, possibly 37, hand-cut bronze gear-wheels, the researchers reported. An ingenious pin-and-slot device connecting two gear-wheels induced variations in the representation of lunar motions according to the Hipparchos model of the Moon's elliptical orbit around Earth.
The functions of the mechanism were determined by the numbers of teeth in the gears. The 53-tooth count of certain gears, the researchers said, was "powerful confirmation of our proposed model of Hipparchos' lunar theory."
The detailed imaging revealed more than twice as many inscriptions as had been recognized from earlier examinations. Some of these appeared to relate to planetary as well as lunar motions. Perhaps, the researchers said, the mechanism also had gearings to predict the positions of known planets.
Dr. Charette noted that more than 1,000 years elapsed before instruments of such complexity are known to have re-emerged. A few artifacts and some Arabic texts suggest that simpler geared calendrical devices had existed, particularly in Baghdad around A.D. 900.
It seems clear, Dr. Charette said, that "much of the mind-boggling technological sophistication available in some parts of the Hellenistic and Greco-Roman world was simply not transmitted further," adding, "The gear-wheel, in this case, had to be reinvented."
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Meth: The Overstated Addiction
By Margaret Dooley
Drug Policy Alliance
November 30, 2006.
Methamphetamine abuse is not as prevalent as the government would have you believe.
The Department of Justice has declared today National Methamphetamine Awareness Day. What better way to observe it than taking a break from the hype? Rather than repeating the popular fiction about methamphetamine (that use is skyrocketing, that only stepped up policing will counter the trend, and that addiction is untreatable), let's take a moment today to consider the evidence.
First, methamphetamine use is not prevalent. Although some 12 million Americans have tried methamphetamine, this is far fewer than the number who have tried inhalants (23 million), hallucinogens (34 million), cocaine (34 million), or marijuana (96 million). Of those who have tried methamphetamine, only 1.5 million have used the drug in the last year; and only 583,000 have used it within the last 30 days.
There is no indication that methamphetamine use is increasing. The proportion of Americans who use methamphetamine on a monthly basis has hovered in the range of 0.2 percent-0.3 percent since 1999. In fact, according to the 2005 Monitoring the Future survey, the percentage of high school seniors who reported using methamphetamine in the last year fell to a low of 2.5 percent in 2005. (Use of depressants, meanwhile, increased from a low of 2.8 percent in 1992 to around 7 percent in 2005.)
Second, policing is not "taking care" of methamphetamine. While limits on purchases of precursors have pushed many illicit labs out of our neighborhoods, the drug is still being manufactured -- just now it's across the border. Indeed, methamphetamine is now as available and cheap as it has ever been. This comes as no surprise. As long as demand for an illegal drug exists, there will be supply to meet it.
While policing has failed to curtail use of methamphetamine, it has successfully overloaded our jails and prisons. In the 1980s-90s, California followed national trends by relying increasingly on punishment and prisons as its primary response to arrests for illicit drug use. The total number of people imprisoned in California for drug possession quadrupled between 1988 and 2000, peaking at 20,116.
It was in response to this trend that California voters decided to change tactics. In 2000, 61 percent of California voters passed Proposition 36, the treatment-instead-of-incarceration law, which provides treatment to over 35,000 Californians convicted of nonviolent low-level drug offenses each year. Over half (53 percent) of Prop. 36 participants -- over 19,000 people -- enter treatment for methamphetamine abuse each year.
Prop. 36 has provided valuable evidence that methamphetamine addiction is quite treatable. According to state data on Prop. 36, methamphetamine users have a treatment completion rate of 35 percent, higher than users of cocaine/crack (32 percent) or heroin (29 percent). Although this was an important learning opportunity for policymakers, it was not news to treatment specialists. In fact, there have been at least twenty recent studies showing the efficacy of methamphetamine treatment.
The next step for policymakers is to provide treatment on demand, so that people suffering from addiction have access to treatment outside of the criminal justice system. It is both cheaper and better for public safety to provide treatment to those who need it sooner rather than later.
Other evidence shows that California's public health measures have not gone far enough. Although the Governor signed the Pharmacy Syringe Sale and Disease Prevention Act in 2004, well under half of California's 58 counties have implemented the program to allow nonprescription purchases of up to ten syringes at pharmacies. This is literally killing some of our state's most vulnerable residents.
According to the California Society of Addiction Medicine, 30-50 percent of those with newly identified HIV-infection use methamphetamine. Increasing the availability of sterile syringes through syringe exchange programs, pharmacies, and other outlets is proven to reduce unsafe injection practices, curtail transmission of HIV/AIDS and hepatitis, increase safe disposal of used syringes, and help intravenous drug users obtain drug education and treatment.
The truth about methamphetamine is that its use is not growing exponentially, that addiction is treatable, and that the risks it poses to public health can be mitigated.
Margaret Dooley, who is based in San Diego, is the outreach coordinator for the Drug Policy Alliance.
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Russian Official Says New U.S. Space Policy Will Lead to Military Confrontation
Created: 30.11.2006 13:27 MSK (GMT +3), Updated: 15:18 MSK, 53 minutes ago
MosNews
A senior Russian space official sharply criticized an assertive new U.S. space policy signed by President George W. Bush, saying Wednesday that it would increase tension and could lead to military confrontation in space, The Associated Press news agency reports.
In the first revision of U.S. space policy in nearly a decade, Bush signed an order earlier this year asserting the United States' right to deny adversaries access to space for hostile purposes and saying the United States will oppose treaties or other restrictions that seek to prohibit or limit U.S. access to or use of space.
"This document can be seen today as the first step toward a serious deepening of the military confrontation in space," the Interfax news agency quoted Vitaly Davydov, deputy head of the Russian space agency Roskosmos, as saying.
"Now the Americans are saying that they want not only to go to space but they want to dictate to others who else is allowed to go there," Davydov said, according to the report.
The order says the United States will "preserve its rights, capabilities, and freedom of action in space; dissuade or deter others from either impeding those rights or developing capabilities intended to do so" and "deny, if necessary, adversaries the use of space capabilities hostile to U.S. national interests."
Davydov criticized what he said were U.S. plans to deploy weapons in space and said that Russia could respond if the United States does so.
The White House has said the policy does not call for the development or deployment of weapons in space.
As the U.S. space policy was being reviewed last year, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov threatened retaliatory steps if any country put weapons in space.
Moscow's concerns about space-based weapons go back to the Soviet-era space race and U.S. President Ronald Reagan's 1980s plans for a "Star Wars" missile defense system.
Bush's order, signed more than two months ago, was not publicly announced.
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Upping The Ante In Latin America
Bolivia passes sweeping land law
WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 29, 2006
7:37 MECCA TIME, 4:37 GMT
Bolivia's Senate met in a surprise session late on Tuesday and quickly passed a controversial land redistribution bill after opposition unity collapsed in the face of marches for weeks by thousands of landless Indians in support of the measure.
Bolivia's Senate met in a surprise session late on Tuesday and quickly passed a controversial land redistribution bill after opposition unity collapsed in the face of marches for weeks by thousands of landless Indians in support of the measure.
The vote came after conservative legislators ended their week-long boycott of the 25-member upper house, as three opposition members established the necessary quorum for voting along with the ruling party's 12 senators.
The bill had been passed by the chamber of deputies two weeks ago.
The Senate about-face came amid political tensions between Morales and the opposition. Civil society leaders in eight of nine provinces have called for a general strike on Friday.
Government officials said that large landowners from the eastern region of Santa Cruz, the country's agricultural heartland and a bastion of the conservative opposition, had been behind the Senate protest.
Evo Morales, Bolivia's leftist president, told the protesting landless Indians this week that he would issue a presidential decree to redistribute idle land to poor peasants if the boycott continued.
Morales' "land reform", a key campaign promise, aims to redistribute some 48 million acres, or almost a fifth of Bolivia's territory, within five years.
The plan, which calls for redistribution of idle land to poor peasants, enjoys widespread support.
But estate owners in Santa Cruz, where vast cattle ranches and soy plantations abound, are fearful their land might be confiscated.
Morales has ruled out mass expropriations, saying only unproductive or illegally owned land will be targeted.
But, analysts say, some of his plans are fuelling economic and racial tensions between the European-descended minority of the eastern regions and the indigenous majority that populate the Andean highlands.
Landowners' protest
Earlier this week thousands protested in the city against against the measure. The protesters also called for more autonomy from the central government.
A former opposition presidential candidate is on a hunger strike, and opposition legislators walked out of the Senate to protest against Morales' drive to control an assembly that is rewriting the country's constitution.
Dozens of indigenous activists attended the Senate session and celebrated outside the legislative palace when the bill was passed.
Morales' drive to nationalise the energy industry has enjoyed widespread political support, but his plan to redistribute what he calls idle land to the poor, indigenous majority that forms his power base had been blocked by opposition senators.
"We are not afraid to issue a decree to put an end to large estates," Morales told supporters shortly after returning to Bolivia from a two-day visit to the Netherlands, and before heading to Nigeria for a summit of African and Latin American leaders.
At the rally in La Paz on Tuesday, the crowd called for him to close the Senate, but Morales ruled this out.
I cannot close down the Senate ... those that have [already] closed it are dealing a blow to democracy," said Morales, the country's first indigenous president who gained prominence as a protest leader and head of a nationwide coca leaf growers' group.
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Dispatch from Oaxaca
By ROCHELLE GAUSE
November 29, 2006
Running as fast as I can, surrounded by hundreds of others, I can hear screams behind me. Glancing back, through the darkness of night I can only differentiate between the masses running with me and the federal police by the light reflecting off their shields and face masks. They are still advancing. A hand pushes my left shoulder and I realize there are medics behind me trying to run from the police while carrying a man on a stretcher clasping a bloody cloth to his head. The medics are trying to reach the makeshift clinic that the movement set up in a building just a few feet ahead. I continue to run block after block as more people pour in from side streets. The police are obviously advancing on multiple streets simultaneously. Panic is starting to set in. Rushing through my mind are the stories I have listened too over an over in the past two weeks while interviewing those who have suffered human rights violations at the hands of the federal police; the stories of sexual assault, of beatings, of psychological torture, of death threats. A few men duck in to an alley, I follow unsure if I am escaping the danger or running directly into it. A woman and her daughter, who recognize me from the internet cafe, motion us into their home. Inside I lean against the wall and slide to the floor. Immediately I think of those who were unable to find a place to hide, of those who could not run, people of all ages had been in the streets all day. I hear gunshots.
7th Mega March Turned Confrontation
Saturday, November 25th, had begun with the 7th Megamarch. Thousands had marched from the outskirts of Santa María Coyotepec to the Oaxaca City center. It was yet another incredible showing of support for the Popular Assembly of the Peoples of Oaxaca (APPO). The march was calling for the removal of both the corrupt governor of Oaxaca, Ulises Ruiz Ortiz, and the Federal Preventative Police (PFP) who have been in Oaxaca for almost a month now. The demonstrators were a highly diverse group, including people of all ages, from various indigenous groups, unions, social organizations and rural villages. People gathered along the streets applauding as the march passed. Many handed out tangerines, water and sandwiches to the crowd.
When they arrived in the city the plan was to encircle the center square for 48 hours. This is the square where striking teachers from all over the state of Oaxaca created an encampment which led to the beginning of the movement over 6 months ago. The federal police have occupied it since they entered Oaxaca on October 29th. As the people began the circle, the police in full riot gear, refined their formation at each of the entrances backed by a police officer armed with live ammunition on top of an armoured vehicle. Although APPO had made it clear that the plan was to remain completely non-violent, within half an hour street battles broke out between the movement and the police in at least two of the entrances. Some members of the movement, armed with rocks, Molotov cocktails and fireworks, faced off with the police who used an incredible amount of tear gas, rocks and marbles shot with slingshots. Also, according to LIMEDDH, the Mexican League in Defense of Human Rights, state government backed paramilitaries were seen on the roofs of buildings helping to provoke the confrontations. Earlier in the day the radio station affiliated with Ulises political party (Institutional Revolutionary Party or PRI) had called for people to dump boiling water and acid on the demonstrators.
Federal Police Advance
After awhile the police pushed the people north up the hill, at one point taking over the Santo Domingo plaza where the movement has been centered since the police forced them out of the main square. The police continued to fire teargas into the crowd and burnt the tarps and other belongings of the movement and vendors in the Santo Domingo plaza. The report from APPO's most recent Constitutive Congress were scattered all over the ground. During this time plain clothed police were detaining people in the streets. After the police retreated back to the main square, many movement members regrouped in Santo Domingo as night was falling.
Suddenly the police advanced over eight blocks forcing the crowd to continue running north of the main square. Paramilitary groups also arrived on the scene shooting into the crowd as people ran for their lives. Movement members attempted to set up barricades, I witnessed many women scrambling to gather rocks for defense, breaking stones off the fancy plazas were Ulises has squandered the states money. Cars and government buildings were lit on fire. Throughout the next few hours federal police and plain clothed gunmen continued to attack members of the movement who had taken cover in various locations. Three movement members were killed, 39 disappeared, 149 detained, and over 140 injured (20 with live ammunition), not including the hundred people the medics assisted who were overwhelmed by the gas and pepper spray. And this is just on November 25th.
The people of Oaxaca who are facing this fate are guilty of the crime of demanding justice and trying to organize a democratic alternative to the corrupt and repressive leadership that governs their state. The Mexican federal government's response, supposedly to restore order, has instead attempted to maintain the exploitive status quo through further repression and with no regard for the true root causes of this conflict, the extreme poverty and unjust government policies that benefit a few at the cost of the majority. According to Yessica Sanchez of LIMMEDH, "It is clear that the PFP are not interested in instilling peace, what they come to do is intimidate and try to criminalize the social movement in Oaxaca." If the federal police had come to Oaxaca with the true intention of restoring order, those who have committed the violence in the last 6 months of the struggle would be brought to justice. Nowhere are movement members safe from the threat of armed attack. Members of the movement have been killed while handing out coffee to late night barricades, while participating in a march, or while leaving a neighborhood APPO meeting. Their murderers still walk the streets, now with the added protection and assistance of the PFP.
Ulises Claims Victory
On the morning after the mass repression, standing in the very spot where hundreds had run for their lives less than 18 hours before, Governor Ulises claimed victory. It had been months since he had been able to show his face in the city. As helicopters flew overhead, Governor Ulises, surrounded by plain clothed police, explained that now Oaxaca belongs to the true Oaxaqueños. "We who love Oaxaca, its history and its traditions feel profoundly offended and attacked by the vandals' actions on Saturday. The responsible are being arrested and should be held accountable for their actions in the face of justice. Today with the help of the PFP and the state forces we have recuperated the heart of Oaxaca for the Oaxaqueños and for all Mexicans." For hours prior to this press spectacle workers had cleaned up the remains of the police repression, they has picked up the tear gas canisters, the graffiti and stencils had been painted over. A large water truck has sprayed away the dried blood and burnt remains of the movement from the square.
Since November 25th the federal police have surrounded the Santo Domingo plaza and most large parks in the city, they are routinely patrolling the streets of Oaxaca. Reports of people being taken out of their homes or picked up off the streets by armed gunmen are being called in to Radio Universidad regularly. The station has once again called for support in fear that the police will manage to ignore the autonomous nature of the university and destroy the station, the primary means of communication remaining for the movement. Students of the College of Medicine at the Benito Juárez Autonomous University organized a press conference to share their testimonies of witnessing municipal police kill three demonstrators during Saturday's repression, taking their bodies with them. During the press conference armed gunmen fired into the building and took one student. There were 60 more detentions on November 27th. The PRI radio station has called for the burning of EDUCA offices, a well respected social organization that operates throughout the state. The station has also been reading on the air the addresses where suspected movement members and internationals are hiding. Over 140 of the movement members detained by the police have been transported far from their families, out of the state of Oaxaca, to federal prison.
Those in power continue to try to suppress this movement with intimidation, with violence, with murder because change is in motion. According to Cesar Chavez, "once social change begins, it cannot be reversed. You cannot uneducate the person who has learned to read. You cannot humiliate the person who feels pride. You cannot oppress the people who are not afraid anymore. We have seen the future, and the future is ours." On November 10th-12th, the movement held a Constitutive Congress where they elected 220 representatives from all seven regions, formalizing the popular governance structure of APPO. 3000 people attended the forum further defining their program of struggle and creating a true bottom up alternative to the corrupt political parties that run the state. I still fear for the people, how much suffering they will have to face. On November 20th there were an incredible number of actions worldwide in solidarity with the people of Oaxaca but there needs to be an even larger outcry. Please consider getting involved in solidarity actions. This is not simply to support the people of Oaxaca achieve self determination and social justice. They are providing a model for the rest of Mexico to also stand up in the face of poverty estimated at over 50 percent of the population, of losing their land and resources to foreign corporations, of having to flee to the US illegally to be able to provide for their families.
On the national level, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador held his own swearing in ceremony on November 20th as the "legitimate president" of Mexico in front of hundreds of thousands of supporters. Two days prior he told his supporters "Those neo-fascist reactionaries better not think they'll have room to maneuver, we're going to keep them on a short leash." Massive civil disobedience is planned for December 1st, the date of the inauguration ceremony for Felipe Calderon, who "won" the presidential election by less than one percentage point with clear evidence of fraud. The trend of electing leftist leadership continues in Latin America, confronting the injustice of neoliberal policies and beginning to unravel the exploitive policies that have left the majority of their population in immense poverty. At the same time, President Bush has quietly dropped the ban on training the militaries of Latin America. As our country readies itself to carry on our legacy of genocide to prevent the much needed changes the people are demanding, we must become active. Not only for the people of Oaxaca, or Mexico, or Latin America but for the global struggle that is taking root.
Rochelle Gause lives in Olympia, Washington. She can be reached at rochelle@riseup.net
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Russia sends first Su-30 MK2 planes to Venezuela
www.chinaview.cn 2006-11-30 18:09:31
MOSCOW, Nov. 30 (Xinhua) -- The Russian Sukhoi company is delivering the first batch of two Su-30 MK2 airplanes ordered by Venezuela, the Interfax news agency reported on Thursday.
The aircraft have been made by a firm in Komsomolsk-on-Amur that is part of the Sukhoi aircraft-building company.
"These two Su-30 MK2 airplanes are being airlifted in a Ruslan heavy transport plane. They are intended for the Venezuelan Air Force," a source in the Russian defense sector said.
The planes are expected to take part in a military parade in Venezuela on December 10.
Russian and Venezuela this summer signed a 1.5-billion U.S. dollars contract for the sale of 24 Su-30 MK2 airplanes.
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Claims of militia links rock Colombian presidency
Sibylla Brodzinsky in Bogotá
Thursday November 30, 2006
The Guardian
Colombia's political establishment has been shaken by near-daily allegations of how President Álvaro Uribe's allies worked with rightwing militias who for more than a decade used terror in pursuit of their own ends.
The supreme court has ordered six pro-Uribe lawmakers, including the foreign minister's brother, to answer questions about alleged links with the paramilitaries who are blamed for the murder and torture of thousands of Colombians. Two senators, an acting representative and a former congresswoman from the northern coastal province of Sucre, have been arrested, while one former governor remains at large.
Senator Álvaro García, the grandfather of Sucre politics, is facing charges of murder for allegedly planning the killing of 14 villagers in 2000 and ordering the murder of an election agency official.
Political analyst Vicente Torrijos, from Rosario university in the capital, Bogotá, said the claims could have a domino effect on the establishment as politicians implicate others to save themselves.
Senator Miguel de la Espriella from northern Córdoba province revealed in a Sunday newspaper that he was among some 40 politicians who signed a political pact with paramilitary leaders at the height of their power in 2001. On Tuesday the claim prompted a minor government official to quit after admitting signing the pact as a congressman.
"No one knows how high this goes," said Adam Isacson, who monitors Colombia for the Centre for International Policy, a Washington-based thinktank.
Senator Álvaro Araújo, who is among the six lawmakers called to testify before the supreme court and is the brother of Mr Uribe's foreign minister, María Consuelo Araújo, warned that if he went down other heads in the government would roll.
The former head of Colombia's intelligence agency during Mr Uribe's first term is also being investigated for collusion.
There is no evidence that the president is linked to the paramilitaries. In a recent speech Mr Uribe challenged the militia leaders to implicate him. "If any of those 30,000 paramilitaries can say that the president has been complicit, let them come forward," he said.
The paramilitaries were formed by wealthy ranchers, businessmen and drug mafias in the 80s to fight extortion and kidnapping by leftist guerrillas. The paramilitaries later turned into powerful armies involved in drug trafficking and extortion who used their power to control local politics and politicians.
Collusion between the militias and the military and police forces is well documented but the extent to which paramilitaries colluded with politicians and local officials was an open secret.
While some claims against lawmakers were filed, but not pursued, more than five years ago, the allegations resurfaced after their names were mentioned in files found on the confiscated laptop of a top paramilitary leader known as Jorge 40.
The files allegedly include detailed accounts and recordings of meetings between politicians and paramilitaries to ensure the election of chosen candidates, and describe scams in which militias stole state funds from local health services.
The former militia chiefs are awaiting prosecution under a controversial law that grants them reduced prison sentences in return for confessing their crimes.
Comment: Why is it that so many politicians with close ties to the United States end up being completely corrupt? Coincidence?
We think not.
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Mexico Transfer of Powers Hanging
Mexico, Nov 30 (Prensa Latina)
Political parties of the Mexican congress will release on Thursday an agreement on president-elect Felipe Calderon s swear-in ceremony, seriously threatened by the opposition.
Jorge Zermeño, president of the Chamber of Deputies Board, warned that the situation at the Legislative building is still difficult as groups of the National Action and the Democratic Revolution (PRD) parties are clashing over the ceremony.
Tuesday, parliamentarians from both organizations took the main hall of that facility in an attempt to facilitate Calderon s inauguration on Dec 1 and others to prevent it.
For their part, deputies of the Institutional Revolutionary Party suggested the investiture take place inside the Congress and not at the main hall.
They also insist that outgoing President Vicente Fox does not appear at the legislative headquarters to give the ceremonial sash, in an effort to guarantee peace at the investiture.
Faced with the current situation, the PRD said it will move to an alternative swear-in site to try to impede that Calderon takes office.
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Oaxaca, Another Neoliberal Fiasco
Mexico, Nov 29 (Prensa Latina)
Mexican human rights activists declared Wednesday that the demand for replacement of Oaxaca Gov. Ulises Ruiz, which has produced flagrant violations of human rights, is an example of the failure of the neoliberal model.
Representatives of the Mexican Human Rights Network, gathered at the State Indigenous Peoples Forum that ends Wednesday, stated the problems in Oaxaca are the expression of the non viability of this strategy, particularly in a state with great social marginalization.
Since June 14, when the local government used violence to disperse striking teachers, 307 people have been arrested, many of whose whereabouts are unknown, and more than 15 people have been killed, chiefly teachers and members of the supporting APPO (Popular Assembly of the Peoples of Oaxaca).
Mexican Interior Minister Carlos Abascal justified the present actions and permanence of the Federal Preventive Police (PFP) in Oaxaca on Wednesday, declaring they were there to stop loss of human lives and denying the PFP was sent for further repression.
However, Miguel Alvarez, from Consultancy Services Office for Peace, said that there has been a drastic government change in the treatment of the Oaxaca conflict, with violent repression and transfer of prisoners to other Mexican states.
As part of the agenda to the State Indigenous Peoples Forum, its representatives demanded peace with dignity, and cessation of repression and aggression.
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The Long Arm Of The US
New Dem to Bush: None of your beeswax - But don't break out the bubbly quite yet...
Evan Derkacz
November 29, 2006.
One of the Senate's newest members took steps to avoid Bush recently, but the wily prez is apparently smarter than he's given credit for being:
At a recent White House reception for freshman members of Congress, Virginia's newest senator tried to avoid President Bush. Democrat James Webb declined to stand in a presidential receiving line or to have his picture taken with the man he had often criticized on the stump this fall. But it wasn't long before Bush found him.
"How's your boy?" Bush asked, referring to Webb's son, a Marine serving in Iraq.
"I'd like to get them out of Iraq, Mr. President," Webb responded, echoing a campaign theme.
"That's not what I asked you," Bush said. "How's your boy?"
"That's between me and my boy, Mr. President," Webb said coldly, ending the conversation on the State Floor of the East Wing of the White House.
Apparently, this episode made him want to slug the commander-in-chief.
Before you break out the bubbly and start high-fiving, it's good to remember that this brand of maverick-dom goes both ways. Webb, first of all, is no liberal. Far from it.
While many were dissing his opponent George Allen's legislative swan song, legalizing the possession of concealed weapons in national parks, they'd have been smart to note that Webb supports the bill as well.
According to Bloomberg: "He's pro-gun ownership, and he takes a harder line on illegal immigration than many Senate Republicans."
But he is against the war, and having one senator with a son serving in the military can't be a bad thing...
Evan Derkacz is an AlterNet editor. He writes and edits PEEK, the blog of blogs.
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Press Freedom, World Review, June - November 2006
World Association of Newspapers
The second half of 2006 will be the most murderous period for journalists in the past ten years. As many as 71 journalists have been killed worldwide since June, bringing the total for the year to 105. Iraq surpassed all other countries, with a total of 23 media workers having lost their lives.
In other parts of the world, legislative measures, financial harassment and security laws continue to be used as means to harass journalists and limit press freedom. Self-censorship, a natural response to repression and the threat of violence or death, is an endemic problem in Central Asia, Latin America and the Middle East.
In Africa, the media continue a praiseworthy battle in a media environment that imposes substantial challenges both with regards to infrastructure, legal aspects and widespread illiteracy.
THE MIDDLE EAST AND NORTH AFRICA
Journalists killed: Iran (1) Iraq (23), Lebanon (2), Yemen (1) (please note these are half-year totals. Click here for the list of journalists killed in the entire year).
Conflict and political instability throughout the Middle East and North Africa continues to undermine the ability of press freedom to make serious advances in region. Increasing violence and insecurity in Iraq has once again made the country the most dangerous environment in the world for media practitioners, and the war between Lebanon and Israeli cost the lives of two media employees in July of this year. In Algeria, Morocco and Egypt, arguably the most tolerant environments for journalists in the region, the governments rely on criminal defamation laws as a means to exert pressure and control on the media.
Suicide bombings and lawlessness have defined Iraq in the past six months as conflict within the country has raged unabated. Human rights organisations report that violence has claimed the lives of more than 100 journalists and media workers since the U.S. invasion of the country in 2003. In one of the worst recorded attacks so far, in October, masked gunmen executed eleven newspaper employees and critically wounded two others at the Al-Shaabiya satellite television station in Baghdad's Zayouna district.
Bloodshed in the country continued over the summer months. In November, unidentified gunmen shot Muhammad al-Ban, a reporter and cameraman for the privately owned Al-Sharqiya TV, as he was leaving his home in Mosul's Al-Nour neighbourhood. A few weeks earlier, Ahmad Al-Rashid, a correspondent for the privately owned Al-Sharqiya television station, was ambushed by gunmen in Baghdad's Al-Aathamiya neighbourhood. The 28 year-old journalist had been working with the network for only two months. In the beginning of August, Mohammad Abbas Mohammad, an editor for the Shiite-owned newspaper Al Bayinnah Al-Jadida, was shot in his house by gunmen in the capital city. That same day, the body of freelance journalist Ismail Amin Ali was discovered by police in the eastern section of Baghdad known as al-Sadr city. His body was riddled with bullets, and Iraqi police said they found signs of torture. In the end of July, unidentified gunmen shot and killed Adel Naji al-Mansouri in the Al-Amariyeh district of Baghdad. Al-Mansouri was a correspondent for the Iranian state-run Arabic language satellite channel Al-Alam. These cases represent a fraction of the total number of journalists killed in the past six months.
The November conviction to death by hanging of former leader Saddam Hussein prompted further agitation in the country, causing a media storm and an abrupt retaliation by authorities in pockets of the country. A reported 50 police officers raided the Baghdad studios of Al-Sharqiya TV and threatened to close it down if it broadcast programmes about the recent conviction of former Iraqi dictator. Two other news stations, Zawraa TV in Baghdad and Saleheddin TV in Tikrit, were raided by security forces and ordered shut by the interior ministry of the grounds of inciting violence.
Iran continues to pursue those who seek to make their views known, and judicial harassment of journalists and bloggers has continued unabated over the past six months. The August killing of Ayfer Serçe, a Kurdish journalist with Turkish citizenship, remains unclear. The young reporter had travelled to Iran to report on suicides among Kurdish women, and was murdered under unclear circumstances once she had completed her reporting. Her family was not allowed to recover her body, which had been taken away by the Iranian authorities.
In August, a Tehran court sentenced Issa Sahakhiz, the editor of the newspapers Aftab and Akhbar Egtesadito to four years in prison and a five-year ban on working as a journalist. Saghi Baghernia, the editor of the business daily Asia, was sentenced to six months in prison by the Tehran Supreme Court in August for "propaganda against the regime". The charges stem from the newspaper's 5 July 2003 issue, which included a photo of Maryam Rajavi, leader of the People's Mujahideen opposition group. And in October, the pro-reform, Farsi-language weekly Safir Dashtestan was closed following the publishing of a satirical article about the Supreme Guide, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, in their most recent issue.
The dogged determination of journalists to seize upon new media to express their views has landed dozens of bloggers in prison over the past few years in Iran, however, the early release in September of blogger Mojtaba Saminejad, who was serving a combined sentence of two years and 10 months in prison, was a welcomed development. Arash Sigarchi, who was imprisoned for 'insulting the Supreme Guide,' remains in prison. The journalist was first arrested in November 2004 for criticising the arrest of three fellow bloggers online. Upon leaving prison in January 2005, Sigarchi resumed his blog using a new address, which led to his re-arrest a few days later.
11 July marked the third anniversary of the death of Canadian-Iranian photojournalist Zahra Kazemi who died from her injuries after being beaten while in custody in Tehran. Kazemi was arrested for photographing the relatives of detainees outside Evin prison in north Tehran. She was beaten to death while in custody.
Press freedom took a tentative step forward in Yemen with the country's September general elections. Although restrictions in reporting on the elections were recorded, according to regional press freedom groups the unprecedented coverage of rallies held by all presidential candidates was a notable first in the country. Despite this progress, local observers recorded various violations of media freedom, including heightened internet censorship, biased media coverage, and government interference with media in the lead up and during the elections. In July, journalist Abed Al-Usaili was killed, allegedly for an article he had written, criticising district officials for obstructing a local water project.
The government of Bahrain continues to take significant measures to restrict freedom of expression on the internet. Eight of the country's most active opposition websites and forums, including the popular political blog, www.bahrainonline.org, are currently blocked. The vague wording of an anti-terrorism law enacted in August has caused alarm by regional watchdogs that the law could give authorities more grounds to crack down on opposition critics and civil society groups with its vague language and definitions.
Israeli military strikes on Lebanon in reaction to offences made by the Hezbollah insurgent group in July, put media on both sides of the border under threat and led to the death of two media employees in Lebanon. On 23 July, Lebanese photographer Layal Nagib was killed when an Israeli missile exploded near her car between the villages of Sadiqueen and Qana. Nagib, 23, was covering the bombings of southern Lebanon for Agence France Presse and the Al Jarass magazine. Her driver was also killed. The previous day, Suleiman Chidiac, a technician working for the Lebanese Broadcasting Corporation (LBC), was killed during Israeli air raids on television transmitters and telephone towers in northern Lebanon. Chidiac managed LBC's transmission facility at Fatqa, which was destroyed.
In the past three months, several journalists have been threatened, beaten and harassed by members of Hamas and the Palestine Liberation Organization's Fatah wing in Palestine. In the beginning of June, 50 armed militants stormed the studios of Palestine Television in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip. The assailants ordered staff to leave and assaulted several cameramen and technicians. They also destroyed broadcasting equipment, archives, computers and furniture worth more than US$1 million making the studio unusable.
Algeria, a country still marked by the intense civil war of the 1990s that claimed the lives of dozens of journalists, has a chequered history when it comes to press freedom. Leading private dailies find themselves before the courts on a weekly basis on charges of defamation and libel, keeping the heads of the newspapers tied up in courts rather than in the daily operations of their news and boardrooms. In July, President Bouteflika pardoned all journalists convicted of defamation offences, releasing the well known editor Mohamed Ben Chicou of Le Matin, who was imprisoned in 2004 following the publication of a book that was highly critical of the president. Despite this welcomed development, currently anyone convicted of defaming the president or a public institution can be jailed for up to one year and fined up to 250,000 dinars (US$3,200). On 31 October, an Algerian court suspended the daily newspaper Ech-Chourouk for two months and ordered it to pay the Libyan president Moammar Gaddafi a large fine in damages. The Algerian newspaper was sued by the General through Libya's Algiers Embassy.
Following a September mission to Libya made by Reporters Without Borders, the media community was provided a rare glimpse to the press freedom situation in the country. According to the Paris-based press freedom group, the country's Revolutionary Committees Movement, the central pillar of the Muammar Gaddafi regime, continues to monopolise power, using the press as a propaganda tool. Libya has no privately owned press. Three of the four leading dailies (Al-Jamahiriya, Al-Shams, and Al-Fajr-al-Jadid) are financed by the General Press Office, an offshoot of the information ministry. The broadcast media, consisting of a national terrestrial TV station and six satellite stations, are entirely controlled by the government. And a media law dating from 1972 provides for prison sentences ranging from one month to two years for press offences. Despite this, thanks to the Al-Jazeera television channel and public internet access points, Libyans are no longer as isolated from the rest of the world as they were in the past and a number of journalists are very critical when they are assured of anonymity.
After years of licensing restrictions and official harassment, Egypt's burgeoning private newspaper industry continues to be plagued by the antiquated use of criminal defamation in the country. Despite President Mubarak's 2004 promise to abolish laws criminalising press offences, Egypt's newly amended press law still mandates prison sentences for insulting public officials in the media. Journalists convicted of publishing "false" information, defaming the president and foreign heads of state, and insulting state institutions such as parliament, the judiciary, and the armed forces, will be subject to prison terms up to five years. The law also doubles fines for defamation and other offences, raising fears that the government may attempt to financially cripple critical media outlets. The country's National Assembly approved the amendments in July. The amendments come just two weeks after a court sentenced two journalists, Ibrahim Issa and Sahar Zaki, to a year in prison for publishing a report about an Egyptian lawyer's efforts to take the president and his family to court on allegations of corruption and the misuse of foreign aid.
SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA
Journalists killed: Angola (2), Democratic Republic of Congo (1), Somalia (1), Sudan (1)
Africa's media and its journalists face manifold threats: war, lack of infrastructure and funding, censorship, harassment, criminalizing media laws, and violence. Additionally, attackers, harassers, and murderers of journalists have largely acted with impunity on the continent thus contributing to continuing the cycle of violence. Despite this gloomy picture, improvements have been noted; for example the abolition of censorship in Mauritania.
Despite a considerable improvement in press freedom in Angola since 2002, two of the total of five journalists murdered in Africa in 2006 were killed in Angola in the space of eight days this past July. Augusto Sebastiao Domingos Pedro, correspondent for state run paper Jornal de Angola was beaten to death, and Benicio Wedeinge, director of public television station TPA, was shot dead. These two murders are regarded to be part of a campaign of intimidation of the media initiated prior to Angola's first free elections in 15 years.
In the Democratic Republic of Congo journalists are faced with the threats of criminalized media laws as well as physical violence, and even death. Those who have murdered and attacked journalists in the Democratic Republic of Congo have largely acted with impunity. Freelance journalist Bapuwa Mwamba was shot dead in July 2006. Prior to his murder, Mwamba had been assaulted and received death threats that were not properly investigated by the police. Numerous attacks on journalists were recorded prior to general elections held in July, sparking fears that self-censorship will ensue as journalists act to protect themselves.
The state of press freedom in Eritrea has remained critical over the past six months. Since 2001 no independent media has operated in the country. It is among the top ten most censored countries in the world; access to independent information is virtually unattainable, internet access is confined to a privileged few, and foreign journalists are strictly controlled by the government. Eritrea is also the African continent's biggest jailor of journalists. Thirteen journalists are still being held in secret prisons without access to their families or any legal counsel. Serious concerns have been voiced that these journalists may be subjected to physical and psychological torture.
Freedom of expression shows signs of improving in Mauritania, previously one of Africa's most censored countries, since former president Taya was ousted. The country's new president committed to abolishing censorship. Additionally, journalists are currently taking part in judicial and legal reform, which includes drawing up new press laws.
In Somalia, Martin Adler, a Swedish freelance journalist, was shot dead in the end of June while filming a demonstration in favor of a peace agreement between the transitional government and the Islamic court. Two journalists were murdered in Somalia in 2005 and their killers are still at large.
No improvements have been seen in freedom of expression in Equatorial Guinea in the past six months. The country remains one of the most censored in the world; all broadcast media is state-owned, except for one station owned by the president's son. A number of private newspapers operate, but publish sporadically as a result of the political pressure exerted upon them. No criticism of the current regime is accepted.
Although 2005 saw an improvement in press freedom in Sudan with the abolition of official censorship, 2006 was a violent year for journalists in this country, who were subjected to harassment and beatings. Also, two foreign journalists were charged with espionage and subsequently cleared. These clamp downs have largely been considered to be a result of local and foreign journalists' coverage of the Darfur crisis. Mohammed Taha Mohammed Ahmed, editor-in-chief of a private daily, was murdered in September 2006; his decapitated body was found in southern Khartoum the day after his abduction. It is believed he was killed by Islamic militants whom he had angered with an article he wrote questioning the parentage of the prophet Mohammed.
THE AMERICAS
Journalists killed: Brazil (1), Colombia (3), Dominican Republic (2), Guatemala (1), Guyana (5), Mexico (5), Venezuela (2)
In the Americas, 17 journalists have been killed in a series of ruthless murders over the past six months. Other press freedom concerns have been mainly of a legal character, prompting calls for greater freedom of expression in Brazil, Bolivia and Peru. More than 20 journalists continue to linger in prison in Cuba.
Although Fidel Castro has been largely absent from the Cuban political scene in recent months, the situation has not changed for the 24 journalists who continue to serve prison sentences they were handed during a clampdown on independent media in March 2003. The imprisoned journalists - some of who are serving sentences as long as 27 years - are plagued with deteriorating health, malnutrition and depression. They are prevented from seeing their families or lawyers on a regular basis. The Cuban government remains indifferent to repeated calls for their release by the international community.
In Peru, the government approved a controversial bill in the beginning of November, putting freedom of expression at risk in the country. The law gives the government the possibility to control financial contributions made for the promotion of press freedom, through allowing them to set a number of criteria with the aim to act in "the public interest". The Peruvian President, Alan Garcia, still needs to approve the bill.
In Bolivia, where press freedom does not enjoy full legal protection, a new constitution is currently being drafted. The lawmakers responsible for the new texts have been called by international press freedom organisations to include strong guarantees of protection for free expression and press freedom rights in the texts. Once a draft of the constitution is approved, it will be presented to voters in an August 2007 referendum.
Similar request were made in Mexico in connection the presidential election that took place in July. A number of civil society groups have urged the new government to publicly pledge its commitment to transparency, accountability and the right to access information. They have also called for a formal dialogue between the new government and civil society, academics and the general public to identify the political reforms they say are needed to ensure that the right to access information is fully guaranteed and respected.
In Mexico, five journalists have been killed in the past six months. In November alone, three media employees were murdered. Investigative reporter Marcos Garcia was brutally killed after having been toppled from his motorcycle by unidentified men, run over and shot four times. Garcia, who worked for the weekly Testimonio, covered topics such as drug trafficking and corruption among local officials. José Manuel Nava Sanchez, who had been a Washington correspondent for the Mexican daily Excelsior for 22 years, was found stabbed to death in his home. The body of Misael Tamayo Hernandez, editor of El Despertar de la Costa, was found stripped of his clothes and his hands tied behind his back in a hotel room in city of Zihuatanejo. The day before his killing, Hernandez had published articles about organized crime and corruption in the municipal government. In late October, U.S. journalist Bradley Will was killed, and a Mexican photographer was wounded, when they were fired upon by armed men in Oaxaca City while covering clashes between protesters and paramilitary groups linked to the ruling provincial PRI party. Four public officials, including two policemen, have been detained in connection with Will's killing. In August, editor and journalist Enrique Perea Quintanilla was killed in the city of Chihuahua. His body, which showed signs of torture, was found on the outskirts of the city with bullet wounds in the head and back. Perea regularly reported on local drug trafficking and unsolved murder cases. These latest killings bring the number of journalists killed in Mexico this year to six.
A wave of attacks against journalists shook Guatemala in early autumn. Within the space of three weeks, one journalist was killed, another shot and two more threatened. Eduardo Heriberto Maas Bol was shot dead in the city of Coban in September. His body was found in his car with five bullet wounds. Another journalist who works at the same paper as Bol has received death threats since the killing. The police are currently investigating possible motives for the murder.
In Brazil, some grave violations of press freedom were committed by federal police in connection to the presidential elections in October: three journalists from the weekly Veja newspaper were summoned by federal police in what was an apparent attempt to discredit them as well as get them to reveal their sources when they reported on a scandal linked to the elections, which involved the federal police. Another newspaper, the daily A Folha de São Paulo had its telephones tapped by federal police, also in connection to the same scandal. Among legal actions taken against journalists in Brazil was the sentencing to ten months in prison of Fausto Brites, the editor of the Correio do Estado newspaper, over a report on money laundering published by the paper in March 2005.
Also in Brazil, a journalist was beaten to death in the city of Guapirimim in July. Ajuricaba Monassa de Paula was attacked and beaten by a local councillor whom he had accused of questionable administrative practices in a series of articles. The journalist later died from his injuries.
In Colombia, journalists continue to exercise their profession under grievous threat. In the past six months, three reporters have been killed. Francisco Bonilla Romero, founder of the Colombian Association of Foreign Correspondents, was shot in the face by a masked gunman in October. In August, radio commentator Atilano Segunfo Pérez Barrios was killed at his home in the city of Cartagena by an unidentified man who shot the journalist twice in the stomach. Also in August, Milton Fabian Sanchez, a radio journalist, was shot to death by a masked assailant outside his home.
In Guyana, an attack on a printing plant of the Kaieteru News newspaper in August left five print technicians dead. Mark Maikoo, Chitram Persaud, Eon Wigman and Richard Stuart were killed after an armed gang entered the printing plant and forced the men to lie face down on the ground before shooting them. Shazim Mohamed was injured in the attack and died later in hospital. The attack is thought to have been in connection to reporting by the newspaper on a number of sexual assaults on women that had recently taken place in the capital city of Georgetown.
Two murders also occurred in the Dominican Republic in the past six months. Radio commentator Domingo Disla Florenito was shot dead when he was returning home in the evening a night in August. In September, Facundo Labata Ramirez was shot by unknown assailants as he was playing dominoes in front of a grocery store in his hometown.
In Venezuela, journalist Pedro Bastardowazs was shot to death in October. An eyewitness has reported that an argument took place between Bastardo and his assailant prior to the murder. Jésus Rafael Flores Rojas, a columnist with the daily La Región was murdered in August as he was parking his car together with his daughter. Rojas reportedly begged the assailant for mercy, offering him to take his money or his car, but the gunman refused, saying that he was not there for either, and shot him. The journalist had received death threats due to his critical comments about local government officials.
A positive development in the region was the October recognition by the Inter-American Court of Human Rights of access to government-held information as a basic human right in Chile. In the case, three environmental activists sought information on a controversial logging project from the government, which they were denied. The court found that the Chilean government had violated the right to information. The ruling established a precedent that could be applied to other Latin American countries, as well as several countries in Europe, which may now have to consider reforms to respect international standards.
EUROPE AND CENTRAL ASIA
Journalists killed: Russia (3), Turkmenistan (1)
The region covering the former Soviet Union and Eastern Europe is one of stark contrasts when it comes to the state of press freedom. Countries such as Ukraine and those in Eastern Europe have shown steady progress in the fifteen years since the collapse of the Soviet Union. Press freedom in Belarus and the Central Asian countries of Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan has declined considerably in recent years, and the past few months have proved no different. Russia is characterized by a complex and often contradictory media environment.
The case of Ogulsapar Muradova is a tragic illustration of the still appalling state of press freedom in Turkmenistan. Muradova, a reporter for Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, was detained by police in June. Charged with possessing illegal weapons, the journalist was sentenced to six years in prison on 26 August. She was denied all rights to a legal defence, and held incommunicado. In September, news broke that Muradova had died while in custody. Requests for an autopsy by the journalist's family were denied, and all information on the cause and date of her death were withheld.
In Uzbekistan, six journalists from state-owned news media were dismissed in August for freelancing for independent or foreign media. The journalists were reportedly fired after Pravda Vostoka editor Alisher Usmanov was summoned by a presidential aide during the first half of July and was told he had to "get rid of" some of his journalists. In September, freelance reporter Dzhamshid Karimov went missing following a visit to his mother. It was later discovered the journalist had been forcibly detained in a psychiatric institution. He is not the first of his colleagues to meet such a fate. Just over a year ago, human rights defender Elena Urlaeva was forcibly hospitalised and administered anti-psychotic drugs after being arrested during a protest.
Media freedoms are again under threat in Kazakhstan as further amendments to existing media laws were approved by President Nazarbayev in July. Among other provisions, the amendment bans any editor whose media outlet had been closed in the past from opening a new one, prohibits the re-use of the name of any banned media outlet, introduces a tax for any media outlet wanting to register, introduces compulsory re-registration to replace an editor-in-chief or to move to another location, as well as the cancellation of the license or suspension of a media outlet in the event of administrative violations.
Press freedom in Russia remains illusive, despite assurances by President Putin to the international community of the contrary. The approval in July by Russia's Upper House of a bill to broaden the definition of "extremism" to include media criticism of state officials, including a provision to imprison journalists for up to three years and the closure of their publications is of significant concern, and the arrests of journalists and harassment of civil society activists during the G8 summit in St. Petersburg in July are another blemish on the government's track record when it comes to dissenting voices. Journalists continued to be prosecuted for criticisms against the president. In October, Vladimir Rakhmankov, editor-in-chief of the Internet publication Kursiv, was sentenced to pay a fine of 20,000 roubles (US$745) for publishing an article entitled "Putin as a Phallic Symbol of Russia" on his news website.
Most alarming, however, has been the murder of journalists over the past six months, including the 7 October murder of renowned Russian journalist and author, Anna Politkovskaya, who was found shot dead in her apartment building in Moscow. Politkovskaya covered the conflict in Chechnya extensively throughout her career. In 2002, she was one of few people allowed into a Moscow theatre in an attempt to negotiate the release of hundreds of hostages with Chechen rebels. In 2004, the journalist was allegedly poisoned as she was on her way to Beslan to cover the hostage crisis there. In 2003, Politkovskaya published "A Dirty War: A Russian Reporter in Chechnya". Her most recent book, "Putin's War: Life in A Failing Democracy" has been translated into a number of languages. Two other journalists have been murdered in the past six months in Russia; Anatoly Voronin, the chief of the property management department of Russian news agency Itar-Tass, who was found stabbed to death in his apartment in Moscow in October, and Yevgeny Gerasimenko, a correspondent for the independent weekly Saratovsky Rasklad in the southern city of Sarato, who was reportedly tortured to death in July.
In Poland, the decision by the constitutional court to uphold Article 212 of the Criminal Code, under which defaming or publicly humiliating someone is punishable by up to a year in prison, or two years if done in the media, represents a significant setback to press freedom in the country. The decision is in violation of article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights.
Continuing investigations into the year 2000 murder of journalist Georgiy Gongadze has become a symbolic for press freedom in Ukraine. As of July 2006, the trial of three policemen implicated in the journalist's disappearance continued. Former president Leonid Kuchma remains implicated in the case.
Those countries which recently gained entry to the European Union have all demonstrated impressive press freedom records; the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Slovakia and Slovenia, with Poland being the one exception to this rule. The May 2006 abolishment of prison sentences for journalists in Macedonia, a candidate for membership to the EU, set an example for all EU members, many of who have not eradicated criminal defamation from their legal frameworks.
ASIA
Journalists killed: Afghanistan (3), Bangladesh (1), China (1), India (2), Pakistan (3), Philippines (4), Sri Lanka (2)
Asia's press freedom record continues to be largely influenced by the repressive governments of Burma, China and North Korea. As the political situation in Afghanistan deteriorates, journalists are among the latest victims. A number of killings have occurred across the region, contributing to the overall high number of journalists killed this year in the world.
In October, two German freelance journalists on assignment in Afghanistan were shot dead while they were visiting the country to do research for a documentary they were working on. Karen Fisher and Christian Struwe were murdered while they were sleeping in their tent. Local cameraman Abdul Qodus was killed in July while covering a suicide bombing: as he was filming the scene a second bomber blew himself up, killing the journalist. An Italian photographer was kidnapped in October, but released three weeks later. The escalating violence in Afghanistan is likely to deter foreign correspondents from travelling to the country, which in the prolongation can have very negative effects for the Afghan people.
Pakistan has seen a dramatic increase in journalist killings over recent months. In November, Mohammad Ismail, the Islamabad bureau chief of Pakistan Press International was found murdered near his home. In September, journalist and district correspondent Maqbool Hussian Siyal was shot dead while on his way to a meeting with a local politician. In June, the body of Hayatullah Khan, a reporter and journalist who had gone missing in December 2005, was found with multiple gun wounds to his head.
Brutal cases of murder have occurred in India and Bangladesh in the past six months. In India, newspaper reporter Arun Narayan Dekate died following the injuries sustained in an attack two days earlier when he was stoned by four people while riding a motorcycle. September saw the murder of photographer Shabir Ahmad Dar, whose decapitated body was found in a field close to his home village he had been abducted from the previous night. The same month, Bengali journalist Bellal Hossain Dafadar was attacked and stabbed to death by five assailants.
The Chinese government continues to keep the media under an iron grip. In the past six months, one journalist was killed by a government official, three internet writers received prison sentences, the editor-in-chief of a newspaper was removed, blogs were closed down and websites closed. In October, the authorities rejected the appeal hearing requested by two jailed journalists: New York Times researcher Zhao Yan and the Singapore-based The Straits Times correspondent Ching Cheong. Also in October, the Internet Society of China recommended that Chinese bloggers should in the future be required to register under their real names, which would endanger the whole existence of blogs in the country. Finally, in September the Chinese authorities imposed new regulations that increase state control of foreign media, arguing that they wanted to protect the intellectual property rights of these. In reality, the regulations are likely to increase censorship of foreign media. The killed journalist, Xiao Guopeng, was the victim of the rage of a policeman who beat him to death in the street. Authorities are investigating the motives for the murder.
As the tropical island of Sri Lanka has once again become the scene of clashes between the government and Tamil rebels, press freedom has suffered, and the upsurge in violence has resulted in the murder of two journalists over the past six months. Sinnathamby Sivamaharajah, the managing director of a Tamil newspaper, was killed in his home in August. In July, freelance journalist Sampath Lakmal de Silva was abducted from his home and shot dead by unknown assailants. In recent months foreign media have also been the target of attacks: in November, George Davis of the Reuters news agency was threatened by government soldiers and the BBC has been accused by the Sri Lankan government of supporting the Tamil rebels.
The Philippines continues to be an inhospitable environment for journalists. Although the county enjoys a significant degree of press freedom, media employees continue to be the victims of gang-style murders. In July, photojournalist Prudencio Melendres was shot dead in front of his house by three gunmen and radio broadcaster Armando Pace was killed by two unidentified men while riding home on his motorcycle. George Vivo and his wife Maricel Alave-Vigo, both radio hosts in the city of Kidapawan, were gunned down by two unidentified men in June when they were on their way home.
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Republican Jews' poll 'a hoax' - Jews just don't vote Republican, k?
Evan Derkacz
Alternet.org
November 29, 2006.
I'm pretty sure there's some important symbolism in the fact that a rigged poll for the Jewish Republicans was done by a gay man (Arthur J. Finkelstein), even if I can't figure out what it is.
In an effort to carry water for its party, the Republican Jewish Coalition conducted a post-election poll of Jews showing that a hulking 26.4% of Jews voted Republican. Wow. And that'd actually be an improvement.
That number stands in contrast to national polls showing Jewish support for Democrats up around 90% in the midterms.
So what accounts for the significant difference? Jennifer Siegel writes: "[The poll] bypassed Jews who never attend synagogue or do not associate with a major movement." Or: half of America's Jewish population.
The RJC like Joe Lieberman and a host of other right wing Jews, it should be noted, doesn't have problems breaking bread with anti-semites, so long as they support the most paranoid and militaristic elements in Israel.
Evan Derkacz is an AlterNet editor. He writes and edits PEEK, the blog of blogs
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U.N. evacuates staff after south Sudan clashes
By Opheera McDoom
Reuters
30 Nov 06
KHARTOUM (Reuters) - Heavy fighting between Sudan's army and former rebels in the south has forced the United Nations to evacuate staff.
Frightened residents of the town of Malakal, where the fighting took place, spoke on Thursday of bodies lying in the streets, and of looting and sporadic gunfire because the withdrawal of one side's troops had left a security vacuum.
The first sustained clashes between the two sides since a north-south peace deal last year caused U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan to express deep concern and call for calm.
The former rebel Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA) and the Islamist Khartoum-based government signed a peace deal in January 2005 ending Africa's longest civil which killed 2 million people and drove 4 million from their homes.
"These hostilities constitute a serious violation of the security arrangements of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement," Annan said in a statement on Wednesday.
The United Nations has temporarily evacuated around 240 civilian staff from Malakal town close to the north-south border, U.N. officials in New York said.
The evacuation was dangerous because many of the clashes centered on the Sudan army barracks next to the airport.
Annan said U.N. commanders along with a delegation of SPLA and Sudanese army officers were now in Malakal to calm the dispute.
Terrified residents called relatives in Khartoum to tell them SPLA forces had withdrawn from Malakal town, leaving a security vacuum, and looting and random gunfire were rife.
"I have lost two relatives and my neighbor lost her son," one resident told Reuters, declining to be named. He said dead bodies could be seen in the streets.
"People are desperate as the water was cut off and despite the gunfire they are still trying to go to the river to get water," he added.
AT LEAST A DOZEN DEAD
Sudan's southern press reported on Thursday that at least a dozen people had been killed in the clashes which began three days ago. Another source in Malakal said the town was under curfew from 10 p.m. until dawn.
The South African Foreign Ministry said on Thursday that Salva Kiir, president of the southern Sudan government, had cut short a visit to return to Sudan. Kiir had been on an official visit to South Africa since Tuesday.
There have been small clashes between militia allies of both armies before now, but this was the first sustained heavy fighting between the two sides since the 2005 peace deal was signed.
According to U.N. reports from New York, Maj. Gen. Gabriel Tang of the northern Sudanese Armed Forces attacked two SPLA soldiers, killing one and wounding one. SPLA troops then attacked and seized Tang's house.
"At some points there was heavy exchange of fire," U.N. spokeswoman Radhia Achouri said in Khartoum. She said it was not yet clear who was to blame for the ceasefire violation.
The peace deal formed separate north and south armies with joint armed units in main towns including Malakal. It also shared power and wealth between the north and south, but implementation has been slow on key issues such as the demarcation of borders and ownership of the oil fields.
The Upper Nile region of Malakal is potentially one of the most oil-rich regions in Sudan, which produces at least 330,000 barrels per day of crude.
The United Nations has some 10,000 peacekeepers in the south to monitor the agreement, help train police and human rights workers and provide other services.
The southern conflict is separate from violence in the western region of Darfur, where U.N. peacekeepers are not permitted, and where an estimated 200,000 people have been killed and 2.5 million forced to flee their homes since 2003.
Comment: "Opheera McDoom"???
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Strange Lights In The Sky
Light in sky probably space junk or meteor
By Eric Fleischauer and Seth Burkett
Decatur Daily (Tennessee Valley)
LACON - At 5:28 p.m. Tuesday, Morgan County 911 lines began ringing. A brilliant lime-green light had appeared, callers said, possibly a downed aircraft.
Callers to The Daily described the same thing, some saying they saw an object falling from the sky and breaking into pieces before the light appeared.
No airplanes crashed, and astronomers said the event was probably a "bolide," a random meteor that could have been natural or man-made.
Morgan County Sheriff Chief Deputy Mike Corley said the reports came from southern Morgan County and Cullman County. Firefighters and various police agencies searched the area but found no crash site.
"(We found) no fires, no explosions or anything to explain it," said Corley. "It was like a falling star."
Decatur astronomer Loren Ball said the bolide likely came from "space junk." He said the North American Aerospace Defense Command is tracking 9,000 pieces of man-made junk including nuts, bolts, gloves and pieces of expired satellites that, because of friction with the upper atmosphere, are gradually approaching Earth.
The lime-green color, Ball said, is consistent with the color that would come from burning aluminum as it entered Earth's atmosphere.
The fact that the object broke into pieces is no surprise, whether the object was natural or man-made. Moving at 10 to 40 miles per second, it would generate tremendous energy, much of it in the form of light. He said a bolide the size of a golf ball generates enough light to trigger calls to the media.
"Something like this happens every day, but there are not always people around to see it," Ball said.
Space junk
According to some studies, there are 4 million pounds of space junk - as many as 110,000 objects larger than 1 centimeter - in low-Earth orbit. They provide a brilliant display on Earth, but can be hazardous to astronauts.
A small speck of paint from a satellite shooting around the Earth once dug a quarter-inch pit in a space shuttle window.
Earth's atmosphere extends 250 miles above its surface, Ball said, a fact that forces the International Space Station and the Hubble Space Telescope to periodically correct their orbit so they won't be pulled into a downward spiral.
Gene Byrd, professor of astronomy at The University of Alabama, said the sightings were too late to be explained by a meteor shower that took place last week.
Bolide explanation
He said the composition of the bolide could explain its greenish color, but the human eye might also explain it. The eye has greater sensitivity to blue and green colors, he said.
Byrd's guess was that it was "a large, sporadic meteor." He said such meteors occasionally emit a sonic boom, and usually are rock fragments from the asteroid belt.
In the 1950s, he said, a small meteor actually struck a woman in Sylacauga, sending her to the hospital with a severe bruise. Astronomers believe a 10-mile-wide meteor that hit Mexico caused the extinction of the dinosaurs, Byrd said.
Corley said he saw the event from his home.
"It did have an unusual color. It had a bright, glowing, lime-green color to it," Corley said.
The Alabama sightings came a day after a similar green fireball was seen in the skies above Australia.
Meteorologists there identified the object as a meteor, likely produced as the Earth passed through the tail of the comet Tempel-Tuttle according to news reports.
Last week, a Russian cosmonaut hit a golf ball into orbit from the International Space Station as part of a publicity campaign to raise money for the Russian space program.
The golf ball joined the other pieces of space junk that will eventually burn up in the upper atmosphere.
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Mystery lights reported for second night
The Age, Australia
29 Nov 06
For the second night in a row residents in western Victoria have reported seeing a bright light in the sky.
Residents at Ballarat, west of Melbourne, said they saw something that looked like a UFO after spotting an orange-coloured light in the sky about 10pm yesterday.
The object hovered for more than one minute. But one resident said it could have been a model helicopter.
"A lot of guys fly night choppers here and they have the LCD lights around the blades and they have lights all down the boom and tail rotor," the man, identified only as Ian, told Southern Cross Broadcasting.
"These models can hover and they can go from zero to about 100 kph in a few seconds."
On Monday night, people in South Australia and western Victoria deluged police and media with reports of a spectacular meteor sighting.
Police in SA said they took calls from just after 8pm (CST) on Monday from Renmark and Loxton in the Riverland, most Adelaide suburbs and then from people living south of the city, with reports of something looking like a fireball in the sky.
In Victoria, callers to ABC Radio from Bendigo to Horsham in the state's north-west down to Colac in the south-west, reported seeing a bright green coloured object shooting westward in the sky.
A South Australia Police spokesman said later that the Bureau of Meteorology confirmed the object seen on Monday night was a meteor.
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We need a statue of Ms Hodges and her meteor
Nov 30 2006
David Williamson, Western Mail
LET'S pause for a moment and ponder Elizabeth Hodges of Sylacauga, Alabama.
On this day in 1954 she was napping in her living room when a meteorite the size of grapefruit crashed through the ceiling, bounced off her radio, and gave her a nasty bruise.
This is the only time in human history that we can say with certainty someone was hit by a space rock.
What's fascinating about this story is the collision between the ordinary and the extraordinary.
American universities are crammed with scientists who nightly abandon their families to search the skies for heavenly bodies. Like pond-dwelling creatures looking up through murky waters at the strange shapes of fishermen standing on dry land, these astronomers yearn to see with certainty the universe beyond the foggy stratosphere.
Kindly gods might have made their day and directed a meteorite to their front door, but instead one plummeted into the abode of snoozing Ms Hodges.
How did this change her life? Did she feel incredibly lucky that out of all our species she was the one "chosen" to so dramatically encounter a celestial rock? Or did she spend her subsequent years with sensations of victimhood, disturbed that the movement of planets had conspired to direct a meteorite on a centuries- long journey to wreck her living room?
Magazines which detail the lives of celebrities sell more than those chronicling the movements of monarchs because they throb with the tantalising myth of stardom: that individuals are periodically plucked from obscurity.
We love to read of the moment when the dog of Hollywood super-agent Joyce Selznick sunk its teeth into the leg of David Hasselhoff and inadvertently dragged the ambitious waiter onto fame's runway.
Such seemingly random incidents are laced with destiny: If you or I had been bitten by the dog, would we one day be filmed saving Californians from choppy waters with Pamela Anderson - or was there something intangibly special about the man who would one day thrill Germans with his passionate range of self-expression?
Of course, as Ms Hodges herself might feel inclined to tell us with a wag of a figure, our entire species could be heading for a decidedly disastrous date with destiny.
According to some calculations, on St Patrick's Day 2880 there is a one in 300 chance that the cheerfully named asteroid 1950 DA will strike our planet. An ocean hit would send waves of up to 400 ft soaring towards cities in an Armageddon-style day of destruction.
The notion is horrendous, but such a prospect triggers an equal and opposite pulse of excitement. If humanity was threatened with annihilation, we like to think, we would all respond with the alacrity of Hasselhoff in his prime and do whatever might be conceivably necessary to avert such a calamity.
We dearly need such dreams at a time when the world is riven with division. Wales has far fewer statues than Rome - maybe there's space to erect one of Ms Hodges and her meteor?
Comment: Poor guy. He still thinks that our political leaders would clue us in in such an eventuality!
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Professor attempts to uncover Brown Mountain mystery
by JULIA MERCHANT
The Appalachian Online
28 Nov 06
A mystery that has eluded Boone researchers for centuries may soon be solved.
Long before the establishment of Appalachian State University, reports existed of mysterious lights appearing in the vicinity of the Linville Gorge, known as the Brown Mountain Lights.
Astronomy and physics professor Dr. Dan B. Caton said the lights appear at completely random intervals and 90 to 95 percent of the occurrences can be explained.
But Caton isn't interested in those; instead, he is making it his goal to study the other 5 percent - the occurrences that science has tried to explain, but has not been able to.
Observers of the lights have reported them to appear as bright, glowing orbs above Table Rock, Linville Gorge and Brown Mountain.
Caton said they have been reported in every color, and sometimes last for a few hours. Caton received an e-mail from someone who saw the lights from a distance of eight feet in a parking area.
Caton's idea to research the Brown Mountain Lights is in the form of a web-cam, which he has already procured through university funding.
Caton received permission from the U.S. Forest Service to place the web-cam on a pulpit at the Wiseman's View overlook off the Blue Ridge Parkway, but realized the camera might be destroyed by vandalism.
To solve that problem, Caton and his associates proposed the building of a tower to house the web-cam. Permits for the tower are expected to be approved by the Forest Service next month.
However, the funding for construction of the tower through the University Research Council was recently denied.
"Now we're in the odd position that the U.S. Forest Service is likely to approve the permit, but we lack funding," Caton said.
"If I get approval, I will make it happen somehow," Caton said.
Ultimately, Caton hopes to set up a system where viewers around the globe will be able to access the web-cam via the Internet and monitor activity of the lights, using an instant-messaging service to notify Caton and his associates of any possible sightings.
The signpost at the Wiseman's View overlook cites a few myths associated with the existence of the Brown Mountain Lights. For example, stories circulate that they are the lights of Cherokee maidens looking for their lost lovers who were killed in war.
DE Brahm, George Washington's surveyor, reported witnessing the lights and sounds associated with them in the 1770s.
In 1913, The Charlotte Observer ran a story about the lights, reporting that residents of Burke County, near Brown Mountain, witnessed them rising above the horizon almost every night, looking similar to "toy fire balloons."
Caton estimates he has traveled to study the lights about 20 times, but has yet to actually witness them firsthand.
An Associated Press reporter interviewed Caton for a story about the lights about a year ago, at which time Caton said he was "really discouraged."
However, the article prompted a surge of e-mails to Caton, among which he found a "core of very interesting sightings."
Caton began to examine the possibility that the lights could be a phenomenon known as ball lightning, something that is little understood by physics.
The idea of ball lightning renewed Caton's interest in studying the Brown Mountain Lights.
Currently, 90 to 95 percent of sightings can be attributed to campers on Table Rock, hikers, headlights, trains and roads in the area, Caton said.
Students Patrick T. McCaully, a senior interdisciplinary studies major, and Chase R. Casadonte, a senior philosophy and religion major, think they may have witnessed the Brown Mountain Lights on a class field trip to the Blue Ridge Parkway.
"They looked like eerie, glowing, pulsating lights hovering over the ridge," Casadonte said.
However, every sighting seems to be the source of some debate.
The teacher of Casadonte and McCaully's class, Outdoor Programs Adventure Education Specialist Andrew Miller, does not recall witnessing them.
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Strange story of the king and hypnotist doctor
By Ben Fenton
Telegraph
30 Nov 06
In the months immediately before his abdication, Edward VIII was hypnotised by a doctor who was fascinated by the occult and counted fascists among his patients, it was claimed last night.
A report from a country vicar that Dr Alexander Cannon, a qualified psychiatrist who used spirit mediums to "advise" hypnotised patients on how to counter alcoholism and other problems of addiction, reached the Archbishop of Canterbury on Dec 4, 1936.
So seriously did the archbishop, Dr Cosmo Lang, take the information that he immediately questioned a Harley Street doctor to find out about Dr Cannon and later informed Downing Street of the news.
According to a BBC documentary broadcast last night, the news reached Lambeth Palace when a parishioner in Eye, Suffolk, told her vicar she had heard Dr Cannon boasting that he was treating the king for alcoholism.
Dr Cannon's other patients included George Drummond, a banker who subsidised Oswald Mosley, the fascist leader, and his British Union movement.
The timing of the information was critical.
Two days earlier, a speech by the Bishop of Bradford had brought into the open what everyone "in the know" in Britain had been gossiping about for months: the affair that the king had been conducting with Mrs Wallis Simpson, a divorced Roman Catholic American.
Both Church and State were in a fevered state of uncertainty as to how the King would act and whether his mental frailties would cause an implosion of the royal dignity.
It was in this context that the vicar contacted the archbishop to tell him about the King's hypnosis treatment, the programme claimed. Dr Lang's chaplain immediately replied asking for further details.
Tellingly, the chaplain wrote: "He regards the information which you have supplied as worthy of consideration as it appears to offer a possible explanation of certain things which are known to His Grace.
"You will of course treat this as strictly confidential."
By then, Dr Lang had already contacted Dr William Brown, an eminent Harley Street psychiatrist, for his opinion of the eccentric doctor.
Dr Brown replied that one of his own patients had consulted Dr Cannon and described how he "put a medium into a trance and invited her to ask questions of the medium".
It was not a procedure he himself would use.
By the time his information reached the archbishop, on Dec 10, the King had just been persuaded to abdicate, but it seems likely that this information would have been used as part of the effort by Dr Lang and Stanley Baldwin, the Prime Minister, to achieve exactly that end.
Philip Ziegler, official biographer of the Duke of Windsor, as the King became, said last night: "I find this very intriguing.
"I very much doubt that Edward would have consulted this man for alcoholism: it was the one thing his critics never accused him of and although, of course, he did drink, it did not become a problem."
He agreed it was possible that the King was being treated for a sexual problem and perhaps even Dr Cannon, a profound bragger, stopped short of committing that degree of indiscretion against his royal subject.
The second part of the report on the King and the hypnotist is on BBC Look North at 6.30pm tonight.
Comment: Is this supposed to link interest in the paranormal, hypnosis, and occult matters in general to Fascism?
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Bird? Plane? No, Levitating Gerbil
Rocketeer Captures Strange Ariel Object
by Dirk Vander Ploeg
UFO Digest
29 Nov 06
I received an email from Mark Cooper on October 20, 2006.
He was wondering if I was interested in watching a video he had taken. This is a very common question that I am asked on a regular basis. But this video was different. To begin this video from taken from a CCD camera attached to a homemade rocket.
A few days ago before he sent me the email, Mark and his girls, who are from Texas, launched a home built rocket with a small camcorder inside. The quality of the video was excellent. At regular speed, he noticed an object or objects that appeared throughout the video. These objects were not seen by Mark and his girls while they were watching the rocket. Mark also saw a large jet in the video.
The camera is from CVS - cvs electronic camcorder - with 20 minutes of recording time.
Mark made the rocket himself. He is truly the rocket man!.
He is an electrical engineer by trade and looked for a natural explanation to explain the objects on his video. Possible explanations could include the CCD interpretation of the sun or its reflected energy. However, Mark claims that the video was not altered by him in anyway. He also does not have Adobe PhotoShop or possess the knowledge to work with PhotoShop.
His wife was with him when they saw the object in the video.
Mark invites serious scrutiny of his video and will make it available for video and photographic experts.
He states that, "This is not a hoax. I am an engineer I deal in facts. The video does not lie."
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Researchers see link between moon cycles and stock market
By TOM WALKER
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
29 Nov 06
If you've always suspected there's a little lunacy in the stock market, now there's proof.
It's the full moon, of course, which legend says brings on depression and pessimism, not to mention werewolves. If that's true, presumably it would also trigger a gloomy outlook about future cash flows, causing investors to take fewer risks, and stock prices to fall.
"We find strong lunar cycle effects in stock returns," say University of Michigan Business School professors Ilia D. Dichev and Troy D. Janes in a research report.
"Specifically, returns in the 15 days around new moon dates are about double the returns in the 15 days around full moon dates. This pattern of returns is pervasive," they report.
The scholars set out to examine the folk wisdom that moon cycles affect human behavior, especially abnormal behavior around full moons. They turned to stock markets to get a big enough sample, as millions of people make billions of trades on a regular basis.
They gathered data on major U.S. stock markets over the past 100 years, and on the markets of 24 other nations going back 30 years.
"Taken as a whole, this evidence is consistent with popular beliefs that lunar cycles affect human behavior," the researchers concluded.
The Harvard Business Review, reporting the research in its current issue, says that while these findings "are a bit off the beaten path, they're the product of rigorous research."
"So even though we might not be ready just yet to consult lunar cycles for guidance on all our stock trades and other major decisions," the Harvard Business Review says, "we should keep in mind that unexpected sources can beget robust data and analysis, and that correlation and causality must be carefully examined."
Long list of indicators
Indeed, lunar cycles are not the only phenomena that investors have consulted over the years for a leg up in the market. Many bizarre and sometimes seemingly logical schemes have emerged, either for general or specific guidance.
Generations of astrologers have probed the planets and stars for clues to which way the market will go. Others advocate various versions of cycle theory - the idea that stocks move in regular and predictable up-and-down patterns.
The most famous cycle theorist, perhaps, was a Russian, Nokolai Kondratieff, who saw the markets moving in long waves of about 50 years. Unfortunately, he was arrested and sent to the Soviet Gulag, where he apparently was executed in 1938.
There are other principles:
- There's the "skirt length theory," which holds that the market rises and falls in tempo with the ladies' hemlines. Shorter skirts appear when times are good, according to the theory, reflecting confidence and leading to bullish markets.
- And, of course, there's the "Super Bowl theory," which holds that a win by a team from the old American Football League (now the AFC) foretells a declining market for the coming year, while a win by an old National Football League team (the NFC division) means stocks will be up.
- The "presidential election cycle" actually has considerable credibility on Wall Street. This is the thesis that the market is weakest in the first two years of a presidential term, when the White House occupant is most likely to make enemies. The last two years of the term are the strongest, as the president promotes policies aimed at boosting the economy and the markets at election time.
Behavioral psychology has also contributed theories of market movements.
A pair of psychologists at Princeton University in New Jersey recently concluded that stocks with names that are easy to pronounce consistently outperform those with more confusing names.
Adam Alter and Daniel Oppenheimer asked undergraduates to grade the fluency of 89 stock names on a sliding scale. The professors then checked the stocks' performances.
As expected, "the more complex a share's name, the poorer it performed on the first day of trading." This effect appeared to wane over time, however, as more information about the companies became available to investors.
The professors warned, however, that name alone shouldn't be used to predict the performance of an individual stock.
Watching the Fed chief
Everybody knows, of course, that when the Federal Reserve speaks, everybody listens. Remember Alan Greenspan?
"Any remark, whether expected or surprising, can send the bond and equity markets soaring or falling," Lord Abbett senior analyst Kathleen Madigan says in a recent study. "New Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke found this out when in the spring a remark he made to a reporter at a dinner party caused a sharp sell-off in equities and bonds."
Can a savvy investor watch the news and move fast enough to gain an advantage on comments by Fed officials, especially the chairman?
To be sure, Fed-speak causes the markets to squiggle, but it's likely to be a short-term event, Madigan says. At least 25 percent of the time stock and bond movements are one-day affairs.
"The lesson here is that keeping an eye on the long term remains the best investment strategy," Madigan writes. "The examination of market performance and Fed speeches suggests that market fundamentals such as the outlook for profits, economic growth and inflation still are the best drivers of market performance."
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Mystery solved: Chemicals made Stradivarius violins unique, says professor
Texas A&M University
29 Nov 06
Answering a question that has lingered for centuries, a team of scientists has proved that chemicals used to treat the wood used in Stradivarius and Guarneri violins are the reasons for the distinct sound produced by the world-famous instruments.
The conclusions, published in the current issue of Nature magazine, have confirmed 30 years of work into the subject by Joseph Nagyvary, professor emeritus of biochemistry at Texas A&M University, who was the first to theorize that chemicals - not necessarily the wood - created the unique sound of the two violins. Nagyvary teamed with collaborators Joseph DiVerdi of Colorado State University and Noel Owen of Brigham Young University on the project.
"This research proves unquestionably that the wood of the great masters was subjected to an aggressive chemical treatment and the chemicals - most likely some sort of oxidizing agents - had a crucial role in creating the great sound of the Stradivarius and the Guarneri," Nagyvary says.
"Like many discoveries, this one could have been accidental. Perhaps the violin makers were not even aware of the acoustical effects of the chemicals. Both Stradivari and Guarneri wanted to treat their violins to prevent worms from eating away the wood. They used some chemical agents to protect the wood from worm infestations of the time, and the unintended consequence from these chemicals was a sound like none other," he adds.
The team tested several instruments, including violins and cellos, produced by Stradivari and Guarneri from 1717 to around 1741, using spectra analysis and other methods.
The results and those previously reported by Nagyvary showed that two specific areas of the instruments accounted for their unique sound - chemicals used in the varnish and fillers of the instruments, and the overall wood treatment process used by Stradivari and Guarneri.
"This is highly gratifying for me, because it proves what I first proposed 30 years ago - that the chemicals used to treat instruments and not the unadulterated wood itself - were the reasons for the great sound of these instruments," Nagyvary explains.
The conclusions, published in the current issue of Nature magazine, have confirmed 30 years of work into the subject by Joseph Nagyvary, professor emeritus of biochemistry at Texas A&M University, who was the first to theorize that chemicals - not necessarily the wood - created the unique sound of the two violins. Nagyvary teamed with collaborators Joseph DiVerdi of Colorado State University and Noel Owen of Brigham Young University on the project.
"This research proves unquestionably that the wood of the great masters was subjected to an aggressive chemical treatment and the chemicals - most likely some sort of oxidizing agents - had a crucial role in creating the great sound of the Stradivarius and the Guarneri," Nagyvary says.
"Like many discoveries, this one could have been accidental. Perhaps the violin makers were not even aware of the acoustical effects of the chemicals. Both Stradivari and Guarneri wanted to treat their violins to prevent worms from eating away the wood. They used some chemical agents to protect the wood from worm infestations of the time, and the unintended consequence from these chemicals was a sound like none other," he adds.
The team tested several instruments, including violins and cellos, produced by Stradivari and Guarneri from 1717 to around 1741, using spectra analysis and other methods.
The results and those previously reported by Nagyvary showed that two specific areas of the instruments accounted for their unique sound - chemicals used in the varnish and fillers of the instruments, and the overall wood treatment process used by Stradivari and Guarneri.
"This is highly gratifying for me, because it proves what I first proposed 30 years ago - that the chemicals used to treat instruments and not the unadulterated wood itself - were the reasons for the great sound of these instruments," Nagyvary explains.
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Scientists Levitate Small Animals
By Charles Q. Choi
LiveScience
29 November 2006
Scientists have now levitated small live animals using sounds that are, well, uplifting.
In the past, researchers at Northwestern Polytechnical University in Xi'an, China, used ultrasound fields to successfully levitate globs of the heaviest solid and liquid-iridium and mercury, respectively. The aim of their work is to learn how to manufacture everything from pharmaceuticals to alloys without the aid of containers. At times compounds are too corrosive for containers to hold, or they react with containers in other undesirable ways.
"An interesting question is, 'What will happen if a living animal is put into the acoustic field?' Will it also be stably levitated?" researcher Wenjun Xie, a materials physicist at Northwestern Polytechnical University, told LiveScience.
Xie and his colleagues employed an ultrasound emitter and reflector that generated a sound pressure field between them. The emitter produced roughly 20-millimeter-wavelength sounds, meaning it could in theory levitate objects half that wavelength or less.
After the investigators got the ultrasound field going, they used tweezers to carefully place animals between the emitter and reflector. The scientists found they could float ants, beetles, spiders, ladybugs, bees, tadpoles and fish up to a little more than a third of an inch long in midair. When they levitated the fish and tadpole, the researchers added water to the ultrasound field every minute via syringe.
The levitated ant tried crawling in the air and struggled to escape by rapidly flexing its legs, although it generally failed because its feet find little purchase in the air. The ladybug tried flying away but also failed when the field was too strong to break away from.
"We must control the levitation force carefully, because they try to fly away," Xie said. "An interesting moment was when my colleagues and I had to catch escaping ladybugs."
The ant and ladybug appeared fine after 30 minutes of levitation, although the fish did not fare as well, due to the inadequate water supply, the scientists report.
"Our results may provide some methods or ideas for biology research," Xie said. "We have tried to hatch eggs of fish [during] acoustic levitation."
The research team reported their findings online Nov. 20 in the journal Applied Physics Letters.
Go to the SOURCE to see the cool images!
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Birds Of A Feather
Sarkozy says he will run for president
Angelique Chrisafis in Paris
Thursday November 30, 2006
The Guardian
France's ambitious interior minister, Nicolas Sarkozy, last night formally announced that he will run for the presidency, appearing to deal the final Oedipal blow to his former political father figure and now bitter foe, Jacques Chirac, by overshadowing his birthday celebrations.
Mr Sarkozy, charismatic leader of the ruling conservative party, the UMP, had long been expected to announce his candidacy and for months has been running neck and neck with the Socialist candidate, Ségolène Royal, in opinion polls.
But even his own advisers briefed this week that it was unlikely he would make an announcement on the day Mr Chirac turned 74, overshadowing what is likely to be the president's last birthday in power. Mr Chirac was once political mentor to Mr Sarkozy but their decade-old feud has become a drama that has gripped France and threatened to divide the party.
Mr Sarkozy had granted an interview to French regional newspapers that was not supposed to be published until this morning, but the left-leaning daily Libération, which has been critical of Mr Sarkozy, obtained a copy and released it on its website last night.
In the interview Mr Sarkozy was asked if he would run for president and replied: "My answer is yes."
He reasserted his plan for a "clean break" with the politics of the past, aimed at attracting voters deeply disillusioned with the political class after 12 years under Mr Chirac.
He said he wanted to break with the misguided idea in France that people could work less and earn more, and that welcoming immigrants meant they could be integrated. Echoing Ms Royal's promise to "listen" to the people, he said his ambition was "to create a new relationship with the French that rests on two words: confidence and respect".
Mr Sarkozy, 51, the son of a Hungarian aristocrat who studied law rather than attending the elitist postgraduate colleges that have shaped France's political class, has been eyeing the presidency for most of his career. Last night he described his decision to run as a "life choice".
He is best known for his tough stance on immigration and youth crime, and is angry that he is unable to shake off his pejorative comments that youths on France's rundown housing estates were "rabble" and the estates should be cleaned with a powerhose.
An economic liberal, he is aware that France's presidency hinges on international diplomacy and he has established himself, in contrast to Mr Chirac, as a "friend of America". But his tough stance on crime and immigration has led him to be accused, even by some in his own party, of fishing in the waters of the extreme right.
His biggest challenge in the elections next April and May is to establish himself as something radically different from the current ruling class, despite his role at the heart of the government for years. With no incumbent running for president for the first time in decades, he risks taking the flak of a disillusioned electorate.
The UMP party must formally nominate him at a party congress on January 14, but with 77% of party sympathisers' support, he is certain to win party backing.
Comment: If there is a more dangerous politician in France than Sarko, we don't know about him. Le Pen, for his overt fascism, is marginalised... if 20% of the vote is on the margins. Sarko the closet fascist, however, gets ratings over 60%. He is a convinced Zionist and an equally convinced Atlantist. He wants to bring France closer to the American way of doing things... and we can see from life in the US what a great advance that would be. Not.
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Blair insists Nato is winning the war in Afghanistan
Ewen MacAskill in Riga
Thursday November 30, 2006
The Guardian
Tony Blair made the startling claim yesterday that Britain and other Nato members were "winning" the war in Afghanistan despite increased Taliban activity and a sharply rising death toll.
The prime minister was speaking to the press at the end of a two-day Nato summit in Latvia which exposed continuing divisions within the 26-member transatlantic organisation over the level of commitment to the Afghanistan venture.
Doubts about the military operation have grown this year as a result of a resurgence in Taliban operations that has left thousands of Afghans dead, as well as Nato troops. Two Nato soldiers were killed by a roadside bomb south of Kabul yesterday.
But Mr Blair, who along with George Bush is among the most bullish of the Nato leaders about the prospects for Afghanistan, said: "I think there is a sense that this mission in Afghanistan is not yet won, but it is winnable and, indeed, we are winning."
Nato members agreed a messy and inconclusive compromise on reinforcements for British, American, Canadian and Dutch troops fighting in the south.
Other members have reluctantly promised to supply reinforcements in the event of "an emergency", but there was no agreement on a definition of emergency and no new promises of significantly more troops.
Officials predicted that the test of what constitutes an emergency would come when British or other forces face an onslaught similar to this summer's.
Mr Blair, who had been seeking a promise of 2,000 more troops, admitted that the British government had not secured all he had been hoping for from the summit. Nevertheless, he described the compromise as "significant progress".
But the Polish president, Lech Kaczynski, who has allied himself closely with Mr Bush and Mr Blair on Afghanistan and Iraq, said: "The summit did not have the character of a major breakthrough. Not all countries showed the same level of determination." The Polish government pledged several months ago to send an extra 1,000 troops, due to be deployed in January. The Czech Republic, Bulgaria, Spain and Macedonia announced at the summit that they would also send extra troops, but only modest numbers.
The French president, Jacques Chirac, said that, as a concession, he would allow a unit of French troops to operate outside Kabul. Mr Chirac, who was 74 yesterday, an occasion marked by other leaders with the presentation of a birthday cake, will also send planes and two helicopters, but no more troops to Afghanistan.
In an attempt to engage Afghanistan's neighbours, Pakistan and Iran, in trying to establish security, the summit agreed to Mr Chirac's plan, set out in an article in the Guardian on Tuesday, to set up a regional "contact group" to discuss ways of helping with the country's reconstruction. Nato's secretary general, Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, has been given the task of sounding out Iran, Pakistan and other neighbours about joining such a group.
The US, though agreeing in principle, may in the end decide against sitting round the table with the Iranians until they abandon their alleged nuclear weapons programme, or establish the group without an Iranian presence.
Mr de Hoop Scheffer echoed Mr Blair's upbeat assessment. "There is not the slightest reason for gloom over Afghanistan," he said. The mission "is winnable, it is being won, but not yet won".
In a separate development, Nato leaders yesterday took the controversial decision to invite Serbia and Bosnia to take the first step towards joining the transatlantic organisation, despite their failure to hand over wanted war criminals. The chief UN war crimes prosecutor, Carla del Ponte, expressed surprise and regret at the move.
Nato leaders also declared that a new 25,000-member rapid response force made up of specialist troops to deal with terrorist attacks, natural disasters and other major incidents, was ready for action after four years of preparation.
Comment: Did you catch that? Blair said:
"I think there is a sense that this mission in Afghanistan is not yet won, but it is winnable and, indeed, we are winning."
A "sense"? What's that, Tony, your predator's nose is picking up a scent?
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'London's bridge is falling down'
Tom Baldwin in Washington and Philip Webster, Political Editor
The Times
November 30, 2006
In a devastating verdict on Tony Blair's decision to back war in Iraq and his "totally one-sided" relationship with President Bush, a US State Department official has said that Britain's role as a bridge between America and Europe is now "disappearing before our eyes".
Kendall Myers, a senior State Department analyst, disclosed that for all Britain's attempts to influence US policy in recent years, "we typically ignore them and take no notice - it's a sad business".
He added that he felt "a little ashamed" at Mr Bush's treatment of the Prime Minister, who had invested so much of his political capital in standing shoulder to shoulder with America after 9/11.
Speaking at an academic forum in Washington on Tuesday night, he answered a question from The Times, saying: "It was a done deal from the beginning, it was a onesided relationship that was entered into with open eyes . . . there was nothing. There was no payback, no sense of reciprocity."
His remarks brought calls from British politicians last night for the special relationship to be rethought, but also attracted scathing criticism from one close supporter of the Prime Minister.
Dr Myers had hard words for his own Administration's record in the Iraq war: "It's a bad time, let's face it. We have not only failed to do what we wanted to do in Iraq but we have greatly strained our relationship with [Britain]."
Dr Myers, a specialist in British politics, predicted that the tight bond between Mr Bush and Mr Blair would not be replicated in the future. "What I think and fear is that Britain will draw back from the US without moving closer to Europe. In that sense London's bridge is falling down."
The extraordinarily frank remarks will be seen as further evidence of the long-standing unease felt within some parts of the State Department over the direction of White House policy. They may also be an indication of the weakness of President Bush as he struggles to stop Iraq sliding into civil war and faces a Democrat-dominated Congress elected this month.
Sir Menzies Campbell, the Liberal Democrat leader, said: "These remarks reflect a real sense of distaste among thinking Americans for Mr Blair's apparent slavish support for President Bush . . . The special relationship needs to be rebalanced, rethought and renewed."
But Denis MacShane, Labour MP for Rotherham and a former Foreign Office minister, who supported the Iraq war, said: "After the Republican defeat in the midterm election, every little rat who feasted during the Bush years is now leaving the ship. I would respect this gentleman, who I have never heard of, if he had had the guts to make any of these points two or five years ago."
Last night Dr Myers, who is thought to have attended the discussions over the infamous Downing Street memo in 2002 before the Iraq war, was disowned by the State Department. Terry Davidson, a spokesman, said: "The US-UK relationship is indeed a special one. The US and the UK work together, along with our allies in Europe and across the world, on every issue imaginable. The views expressed by Mr Myers do not represent the views of the US Government. He was speaking as an academic, not as a representative of the State Department."
Privately, US officials are furious about the comments made by a man not even involved in the policymaking process, which can only rock relations at a time of high-wire tension in international diplomacy. Dr Myers himself was said to be considering early retirement.
He said on Tuesday that Mr Blair had been left "ruined for all time" by the Iraq war and that if he had "only read a book" on the last British invasion of Iraq in the 1920s, "he might have hesitated".
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Money Makes The World....
Once-secret Santa hands out US$100 bills to strangers in Chicago
Published: Thursday, November 30, 2006 | 12:02 AM ET
Canadian Press
CHICAGO (AP) - A Missouri millionaire and one-time secret Santa spread holiday cheer and crisp US$100 bills to residents of the Windy City's southwest side Wednesday.
"I'm just passing on a little of what the Lord left me," Larry Stewart, 58, said as he pressed money into the hands of convenience store workers near Chicago's Midway Airport.
The businessman from the Kansas City suburb Lee's Summit, Mo., made headlines earlier this month when he revealed he was the man who has been anonymously handing out cash to strangers during the holidays for nearly 26 years.
Stewart began giving out $5 and $10 bills. But as he made millions in cable television and long-distance telephone service, Stewart began passing out $100 bills - sometimes two or three at a time.
By Stewart's count, he's anonymously given out about $1.3 million over the years.
But the Santa stint may be coming to an end because of a recent cancer diagnosis. He said he decided to come forward with his story in the hope it would inspire others to give.
On Wednesday, Stewart, dressed in white overalls, a red turtleneck and a red cap, visited a disabled Chicago police officer and then headed for Chicago's southwest side.
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Bruce Lee theme park set to open in Guangdong
www.chinaview.cn 2006-11-30 13:43:03
BEIJING, Nov. 30 -- A theme park with a statue and memorial hall will be built at Bruce Lee's southern Chinese ancestral home of Shunde, Guangdong Province. The park will also contain a martial arts academy and conference centre, said Wong Yiu-keung, chairman of the Hong Kong-based Bruce Lee Club.
Wong said he couldn't confirm details of a report on Monday in the Apple Daily newspaper that said the park was budgeted at 25.5 million U.S. dollars and was expected to be completed in three years.
Wong said he attended the laying of the theme park's foundation in Shunde, near Hong Kong, on Sunday. He said Lee's younger brother, Robert Lee, and actress Betty Ting Pei also attended.
The newspaper said Ting donated a set of nun chucks a weapon consisting of two sticks joined by a chain or rope that Lee once used.
Lee, who was born in San Francisco 66 years ago on Nov. 27, died of an oedema, or swelling of the brain, in Hong Kong in 1973. He was 32. His action films included "Fists of Fury" and "Enter the Dragon."
Tuesday marked the birth of legendary Chinese-American icon Bruce Lee (1940-73). Known as a lean, mean fighting machine who single-handedly popularized the martial arts movie genre, Lee also revolutionized fight choreography in film with his lightning-fast kicks and mastery of the nun chucks.
But he was more than a movie star. Lee was also a philosophical and innovative martial artist with an original approach to traditional martial art styles.
He fought against Chinese tradition by teaching Kung Fu to Westerners, and trained with champions from a variety of fighting systems.
This cultural mix led to the invention of his own martial art, Jeet Kune Do, in which Lee embraced the philosophical idea of "being like water."
By mimicking the flexibility of water, he avoided set forms and fluidly adapted the most effective elements of as many fighting techniques as possible an inspiration to modern mixed martial arts.
This, in combination with his extraordinary physical feats and killer physique, inspired many fans to label Bruce Lee as "the greatest martial artist of all time."
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States Upping The Minimum Wage
By Peter Dreier
TomPaine.com
November 30, 2006.
Fed up with Congress after watching the minimum wage stagnate at poverty level for nearly a decade, a growing number of states are introducing their own pay raises and bolstering buying power.
Americans are divided about many things, but on at least one issue they stand united: During the past decade, polls have consistently shown that Americans overwhelmingly want Congress to raise the minimum wage. According to a report earlier this year from the Pew Research Center, 83 percent of the American public -- including 72 percent of Republicans and 75 percent of those who earn over $75,000 a year -- favor boosting it to more than $7 an hour. But, since 1997, Congress has refused to act, leaving the minimum wage stuck at $5.15 an hour.
Frustrated by Congress' intransigence, a growing number of states have made an end run around Washington. Before Election Day, 22 states had enacted laws -- by passing ballot measures or by legislative action -- to raise their minimum wages above the federal level.
On November 7, voters in another six states -- Arizona, Colorado, Missouri, Montana, Nevada and Ohio -- approved measures to raise state minimum wage levels by $1 to $1.70 an hour. But in each of these six states, voters took another important step. They agreed to increase the minimum wage each year by indexing it to inflation. Four other states -- Oregon, Florida, Washington and Vermont -- had already approved minimum wage laws that are not only higher than the federal level, but also include annual cost-of-living adjustments (COLAs). Washington State's minimum wage, now $7.63, is the nation's highest.
Nancy Pelosi, who will become Speaker of the House in January, has pledged to hike the federal minimum wage to $7.25 an hour as one of the Democrats' first acts after taking control of the House and Senate. This would give at least 6.6 million low-wage workers a direct pay increase; millions more will have their wages hiked because the floor has been raised.
But with the Democrats now in a stronger position in Congress, many union leaders and community groups want them to push not only to raise the federal minimum wage, but also to include a path-breaking cost of living adjustment, so that inflation doesn't continue to erode its purchasing power.
Since 1997, when Congress last raised the minimum wage, its buying power has declined by 20 percent. The federal minimum wage is now the lowest it's been since 1955 (in inflation-adjusted dollars). The highest during that period was in 1968, when it was worth almost $8 an hour in today's dollars. Progressive Democrats in Congress should up the ante and demand a minimum wage hike to at least the poverty level -- $20,000 a year, or $9.60 an hour -- with a COLA clause, too.
"Periodically adjusting the minimum wage to keep up with inflation just makes common sense," said John J. Sweeney, President of the AFL-CIO, a major proponent of hiking the wage.
"Whenever we have given them the chance, a large majority of voters -- including large numbers of Republican voters -- voted for minimum wage increases with indexing," said Maude Hurd, president of ACORN, the national community organizing group that has played a key role in many of the state-level minimum wage battles. "The President and Congress should follow their lead."
In November 2004, ACORN and several labor groups led a successful battle in Florida to raise the minimum wage by one dollar to $6.15 an hour and to increase it annually based on the consumer price index. There, where Bush beat John Kerry by 381,000 votes, voters favored the minimum wage increase by 3.1 million votes -- or 71.3 percent to 28.7 percent -- despite the opposition of the state's business community and Governor Jeb Bush.
ACORN and its union allies then looked for other key states in this year's races where they could not only win ballot measures to hike the minimum wage with a COLA provision but also target voter mobilization efforts to increase turnout among likely Democrats -- a liberal counterpart to conservative efforts to put anti-gay marriage measures on the ballot.
They identified six states with potentially close Senate, House or gubernatorial races.
In Missouri, Proposition B -- which will increase the state's minimum wage from the current federal base to $6.50 and index it to inflation -- garnered 76 percent of the statewide vote and won a majority in every county. It was supported by all age groups and income levels. Four-fifths of voters earning less than $50,000 supported raising the minimum wage, as did almost three-quarters of those earning over $50,000. In Montana, 73 percent of voters approved an initiative to raise the state minimum wage to $6.15 and require annual cost-of-living increases. The grassroots campaigns to hike the minimum wage increased voter turnout, especially in the cities, and helped Democrats Claire McCaskill and John Tester win close victories in Missouri and Montana, respectively, helping their party to a majority in the U.S. Senate.
After he was elected in 2002, one of Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich's first acts was to sign a bill to raise the state minimum wage from the federal level to $6.50. During his successful campaign for re-election this fall, Blagojevich, a Democrat, frequently pledged to hike it again. A week after his victory, he proposed and the state Senate approved an increase to $7.50 an hour with an annual inflation adjustment. This proposal now moves to the state House. If the Illinois House approves Blagojevich's plan, it will be only the second state -- after Vermont -- to raise the minimum wage with a COLA clause through the legislative, rather than ballot measure, route.
In 2004 and 2005, California's Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger vetoed bills passed by the Democrat-controlled legislature that would have raised the minimum wage by a dollar and included a cost-of-living adjustment. This year the Democrats approved legislation to raise the minimum wage from its current $6.75 an hour to $7.50 in January 2007 and $8 in January 2008 and include an indexing provision. Seeking to attract Democratic voters in his ultimately successful re-election bid, Schwarzenegger agreed in September to sign the bill if its sponsors eliminated the COLA clause.
"We had a choice -- give him an ideal bill that he would veto or get a dollar and a quarter per hour more for our workers," said Assembly Speaker Fabian Núñez, explaining why the Democrats accepted the deal. "We decided to side with doing the right thing for the poor people."
While business groups invariably oppose any proposal to raise the minimum wage, they are particularly adamant against incorporating a COLA provision. But linking increases to inflation is neither a new nor radical idea. Just last month President Bush signed legislation providing COLA to military veterans who receive disability benefits. Many union contracts require employers to give annual wage increases based on the consumer price index. The federal government already has a cost-of-living adjustment (based on the annual increase in consumer prices) for the 48 million seniors who receive Social Security. Indeed, this 1975 provision has kept many seniors from falling into poverty. Since then, seniors don't have to await a special act of Congress to receive a benefit increase; no longer does inflation drain value from their Social Security checks.
Since 1997, the last time they raised the minimum wage, the Republican-controlled Congress has voted to give members cost-of-living pay raises totaling $31,600. Corporations routinely provide their top executives with huge pay and bonus increases that far exceed the inflation rate, even in years when these companies' own profits and stock value decline. In one year alone, for example, the median pay for the CEOs of America's 100 largest companies increased 25 percent to $17.9 million in 2005.
What about the working poor?
Labor unions, anti-poverty community organizations and faith-based groups will be pushing Pelosi and her Democratic colleagues to take up the COLA cause when they take power in January. Shouldn't workers at the bottom end of the American economy -- who spend almost all of their hard-earned wages on basic necessities -- get an annual raise to help them keep up with the steadily rising cost of housing, food, gasoline, clothing and health care?
Peter Dreier, professor of politics at Occidental College, is coauthor of "The Next Los Angeles: The Struggle for a Livable City" and "Place Matters: Metropolitics for the 21st Century."
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Dollar woes poised to carry over into next year
Market Watch
29/11/2006
Greenback is down about 50% vs. euro in past five years; down 6% vs. yen
After a precipitous slide in the last week that caught many traders off guard, the dollar is vulnerable to further losses and may continue to weaken against major rivals heading into 2007, analysts said Tuesday
"Sentiment for the dollar has been deteriorating steadily over recent weeks," said Mitul Kotecha, head of global foreign-exchange strategy at French investment bank Calyon. The decline was not prompted by a particular piece of news or data release, "but rather a general worsening in sentiment that saw long held technical levels breached," he said.
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Sino Supremacy?
China's growing stake in Pakistan
By Syed Fazl-e-Haider
Asia Times
30 Nov 06
QUETTA, Pakistan - Under the free-trade agreement (FTA) signed last Friday between Pakistan and China, the two countries will implement the first phase of customs duty reduction from next July 1.
A five-year tariff deal is expected to provide a level playing field for Chinese firms investing in various sectors in Pakistan, and the two countries have agreed to increase bilateral trade to US$ 8 billion by 2008.
China has rapidly increased its stake in Pakistan in recent years, and the country's Indian Ocean port of Gwadar provides Beijing with a strategic base, allowing it to extend its sphere of influence to the Middle East and Central Asia.
During the past four years, investment from China has continuously risen in different sectors of the Pakistani economy. More than three dozen Chinese companies are operating in the oil-and-gas, information-technology, telecommunications, power-generation, engineering, automobile-manufacturing, infrastructure and mining sectors. In Karachi, as many as 30 Chinese companies and about 400 Chinese engineers are participating in various projects.
Scores of formal agreements have increased the total trade volume between Pakistan and China from less than $1 billion in 2000-01 to about $5 billion by the end of 2006.
Beijing believes there is vast potential for Chinese companies to invest in various sectors of Pakistan's economy. During a visit to China by Pakistani Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz in 2004, Islamabad announced "free market economy" status for China, and Beijing pledged to provide $150 million for Chashma Nuclear Power Plant (Phase II).
Under the FTA signed last week, Pakistan will gain access to the vast Chinese market, while China will sell Pakistan more and more goods, as well as get cheap raw materials and the use of Pakistani ports for the onward export of its goods to world destinations at reduced freight rates.
The biggest chunk of Chinese investment in Pakistan is being spent on development projects in the country's largest province, strategically located Balochistan. The most important projects being launched with Chinese assistance in Pakistan include construction of the Gwadar deepsea port in Mekran, the Saindak copper and gold project in Chaghm, and the lead-zinc-mining project in Balochistan's Lasbela district.
The Chinese have invested about $230 million in the Gwadar port and the Saindak copper project, which is more than 50% of their total investment in the country.
At present, Chinese firms and engineers are helping develop key sectors of the Balochistan economy, including infrastructure, mining, and oil and gas exploration. Chinese companies working in Balochistan include Tianjin Zhongbei Harbor Engineering Supervision Corporation of China, China Harbor Engineering Company Group (CHECG), Metallurgical Construction Corp and its subsidiary MRDL, and the Bureau of Geophysical Prospecting.
Some security analysts believe that the real motive behind China's provision of technical assistance, personnel and funding for the construction of the Gwadar port is that it wants to turn it into a transit terminal for Iranian and African crude-oil imports.
As a long-term strategic asset, the port could provide access for its navy to patrol Indian Ocean sea lanes, as well as an alternative land-based route for crude-oil imports.
The Chinese stake in Gwadar has been growing since construction of the seaport began in March 2002. The total cost of the project is estimated at $1.6 billion. China has so far contributed about $198 million and Pakistan has allocated $50 million.
China has also spent $200 million building a coastal highway connecting Gwadar port with Karachi.
The first phase has been completed by the CHECG. During Pakistani Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz's China visit in December 2004, an agreement with Beijing was signed for the dredging of the Gwadar port channel up to a depth of 14.7 meters, allowing big vessels access to the port.
A proposal for the establishment of Gwadar Economic and Energy Zone (GEEZ) is being considered. The proposed zone will comprise an oil refinery, liquefied-natural-gas terminals and petrochemical sites. The two countries will set up a joint-venture consortium to finalize the preferential policy and tax-incentives package for the establishment of GEEZ.
China has also expressed interest in constructing an oil refinery in Gwadar. As Pakistan's biggest, it would refine 60,000 barrels per day. A feasibility study is being considered by Islamabad and Beijing for an oil pipeline from Gwadar port to western China to transport China's oil imports from the Persian Gulf rapidly. During his last visit to China in February, Pakistani President General Pervez Musharraf offered a "trade corridor" to meet Beijing's energy requirements. Pakistan would help China with the construction of the strategic pipeline from Gwadar to its borders, enabling it to import oil from Saudi Arabia.
On the security front, the Chinese have paid heavily for investing in Balochistan. A military operation is being undertaken to quell a rebellion by Baloch militants in the province. In May 2004, three Chinese engineers lost their lives in an act of terrorism in Gwadar. In the first quarter of this year, two Chinese engineers were killed in an act of terrorism in the Hub area of Balochistan.
Some experts believe that the FTA is unlikely to increase bilateral trade volume to $15 billion, as Pakistan still needs to do a lot to improve internal security, promote its exports and encourage its business community to invest in China.
Syed Fazl-e-Haider, sfazlehaider05@yahoo.com, is a Quetta-based development analyst in Pakistan. He is the author of six books, including The Economic Development of Balochistan, published in May 2004.
(Copyright 2006 Asia Times Online Ltd.)
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Energy-hungry China breaks ground in Middle East - Counterweight to America
By Alistair Lyon
Special Correspondent
Reuters
28 Nov 06
ZEBQIN, Lebanon - At the bottom of a deep pit gouged by a bulldozer, a Chinese soldier in a protective visor shovels aside earth to reveal an unexploded bomb left over from Israel's war with Hezbollah guerrillas in south Lebanon.
Sweating at his perilous task in Zebqin village, 2nd Sergeant Liu Sinpshi is part of a 190-strong Chinese contingent in a U.N. peacekeeping force trying to stabilize the south.
The Chinese demining mission in Lebanon is a small sign of Beijing's rapidly expanding engagement in the Middle East, where its voracious quest for secure energy supplies in the 21st century has sharpened its interest in regional stability.
China is striving to build economic and political ties in a region which the International Energy Agency expects to supply 70 percent of its oil imports by 2015, but in doing so it risks antagonizing its key trading partner, the United States.
For China woos U.S. allies such as Saudi Arabia with the same fervor it uses to court Iran, Syria and Sudan -- all at odds with the West and seen by Washington as "sponsors of terrorism."
From Tehran to Rabat, few capitals seem worried by China's growing weight, at least as a trading power, in a region where it had a low profile before becoming a net oil importer in 1993.
"Hegemony, domination, imperialism are associated with the United States and Europe. China is not seen that way," said Sami Baroudi, a Lebanese political scientist. "Arabs appreciate its economic might, but don't see it as a political threat."
NO QUESTIONS ASKED
Ruling elites in Iran and the Arab world appreciate China's eagerness to do business without fussing about human rights and democracy. They prefer Beijing's calls for international dialogue on conflicts such as the Iran nuclear dispute to the unilateralist and militarist urges of the U.S. administration.
Even those close to the West are frustrated by Washington's support for Israel, the chaos created by its Iraq invasion and its threats to those defying its plans to reshape the region.
Many also welcome China's stress on national sovereignty, one reason for its opposition in the U.N. Security Council to the Iraq war and more recently to tough trade sanctions against Iran or U.N. military intervention in Sudan's Darfur region.
Baroudi argues that ordinary Middle Easterners, not just their rulers, admire China for its explosive economic growth, which many believe -- rightly or wrongly -- has occurred without sacrificing social justice, law and order or traditional values.
In Egypt, a recent government poll showed China as the most favorably viewed non-Arab country, with 73 percent of Egyptians seeing it as friendly and only 4 percent as hostile.
"China has no colonial ambitions in the past or now and it has emerged as an economic power with an interesting experience so in Egypt there is a strong tendency to establish relations in economic cooperation and energy projects," said Abdel-Raouf el-Reedy, who chairs the Egyptian Council on Foreign Relations.
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, who briefly allowed a climate of debate after he took power in 2000, soon made clear that reform of the state-dominated economy would take priority over political change in a policy that his liberal critics said was inspired by the "Chinese model."
Those critics argued that China, unlike Syria, had axed its "old guard" and had generated huge economic opportunities, whereas Damascus could offer nothing comparable to deflect demands for political, social and judicial reforms.
COUNTERWEIGHT TO AMERICA
Assad has looked openly to China to carve out a bigger role in the Middle East after the demise of Syria's Soviet ally.
"China is now a superpower and is very important after the absence of the Soviet Union," he was quoted as saying in 2004.
For Saudi Arabia, China is also a counterweight to U.S. dominance, not just a booming market for oil and investment.
The kingdom, the birthplace of Islam and former bulwark against what it saw as the threat posed by atheist Chinese communism, has embraced Beijing partly to offset strains in its longstanding alliance with the United States which became acute after the September 11 attacks and which have not fully dissipated.
King Abdullah chose China for his first trip abroad as Saudi monarch in April and described it as a "truly friendly country."
China's combination of political control and economic growth has attractions for Saudi Arabia and other Gulf oil producers, buoyed by a vast oil price windfall they can use to assuage discontent with autocratic rule and reduce religious militancy.
In Iran, China is welding an ambitious economic relationship that it is struggling to insulate from any disruptions sparked by the international nuclear dispute with the Islamic Republic.
China has consistently urged peaceful diplomacy, but Tehran cannot assume it will use its Security Council veto to block eventual U.N. sanctions for its pursuit of a nuclear fuel cycle.
Even if sanctions threaten immense harm to the web of energy and other deals China has spun in Iran, Beijing has far greater trade interests in the West, especially the United States.
NO ILLUSIONS
Aware of such constraints on China, as well as its newcomer status and lack of military muscle in the Middle East, Iranians and Arabs have few illusions that Beijing is able or willing to challenge U.S. primacy, at least in the short run.
"China has been kow-towing to the United States (because of its economic interests) and will do until at least the middle of the next decade," said Mohamed el-Sayed Said, an analyst at Cairo's al-Ahram Center for Political and Strategic Studies.
"Also Chinese diplomacy is totally pragmatic and the China of the future may not be a better partner (than Washington)."
For now, China's growing reliance on Middle East energy has given it a vital stake in regional stability -- including non-proliferation of nuclear and unconventional weapons.
It has reined in sales of arms and military technology to the Middle East that marked earlier decades and it shares U.S. concern about al Qaeda, especially the group's backing for Muslim militants in its own northwestern Xinjiang Uighur region.
Since 2002, China has even had its own envoy working on Arab-Israeli peace, although without perceptible success.
"China is emerging as a more influential political power and their attitude is always based on dialogue," Reedy said.
Beijing has become more involved with U.N. efforts to mitigate Middle East conflicts, joining pre-war arms inspections in Iraq and this year the U.N. peacekeeping mission in Lebanon.
The Chinese have cleared thousands of cluster bombs and other ordnance -- including the bomb 2nd Sergeant Liu was tackling in Zebqin -- since the Israeli-Hezbollah war ended on August 14, winning them a degree of affection from Lebanese villagers.
"The people are quite friendly because they know we're doing something for them," says liaison officer Major Xu Hongcai.
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Get out of nuclear business, U.S. tells North Korea
By Nick Macfie and Anil Ekmecic
Reuters
30 Nov 06
BEIJING (Reuters) - The U.S. envoy to nuclear talks headed back to Washington on Thursday with a promise from North Korea that it would study ideas proposed in two days of talks, and said the ball was now in Pyongyang's court.
Urging North Korea to get out of the nuclear business and rejoin a non-proliferation treaty, U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill said Pyongyang had tough decisions to make ahead of a resumption of talks on dismantling its nuclear weapons program, which is expected in mid-December.
The reclusive state agreed to return to the negotiations -- which also involve South Korea, the United States, host China, Japan and Russia -- after its first nuclear test on October 9 triggered U.N.-backed sanctions.
"The ball is very much in the North Korean court," Hill told reporters during a brief stopover at Tokyo airport after meetings in Beijing with his North Korean and Chinese counterparts.
"The problem is not setting a date. We can set a date any day -- that's not a problem. The problem is getting to the talks and making progress."
"They must get out of the nuclear business and into the NPT," he said, referring to the Non-Proliferation Treaty, which North Korea quit in 2003.
North Korean envoy Kim Kwe-gwan was amicable, but adamant about not giving up the country's nuclear programs.
"The results to come will eventually surface after time goes by, and that is part of the diplomatic progress," he told reporters after a meeting with South Korea's envoy in Beijing.
"... about giving up nuclear weapons, we cannot unilaterally give them up," he added.
Hill said his team, "working with the Chinese consistently throughout", had shared ideas with the North Koreans. The U.S. embassy -- referring to North Korea by its official acronym -- said: "The DPRK promised to study these ideas".
"NOTHING NEW"
"We have given them ideas for how we can proceed. I invited Mr Kim Kwe-gwan to give me ideas if he had any. Unfortunately he did not have anything new," Hill said.
In Washington, the Bush administration kept up pressure on Pyongyang, listing luxury items it would seek to block under U.N. trade sanctions, including cognac, cigars and jet skis.
"While North Korea's people starve and suffer, there is simply no excuse for the regime to be splurging on cognac and cigars," Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez said.
"We will ban the export of these and other luxury goods that are purchased for no other reason than to benefit North Korea's governing elite," he added in a written statement.
Kim has long been known for his fondness for cognac and is said to have a wine cellar with space for 10,000 bottles.
U.S. officials argue that if the elite directly feel the sting of international outrage, it could loosen Kim's control.
"It's a creative idea. Somebody's got a sense of humor over there" at the Commerce Department, said William Reinsch, a former senior Commerce Department official who administered trade restrictions with North Korea for former president Bill Clinton.
"I don't think it'll do any good, but it'll certainly send a message," he said.
The U.N. Security Council has already voted to ban military supplies and weapons shipments, echoing sanctions already imposed by the United States. It also prohibited sales of luxury goods but left each country to define such items.
South Korea's Yonhap news agency said Pyongyang wanted sanctions dropped and Washington to free the North's overseas bank accounts as preconditions for ending its nuclear program.
U.S. officials have said they want North Korea, without condition, to stand by an agreement last year to abandon all nuclear weapons and nuclear programs. In return, the other nations held out economic, political and security incentives.
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Religion: What Is It Good For?
Former Catholic school principal pleads not guilty to kissing students' feet
Published: Wednesday, November 29, 2006 | 7:42 PM ET
Canadian Press
LORAIN, Ohio (AP) - A former Roman Catholic school principal accused of kissing three male students' feet has pleaded not guilty to misdemeanour charges of sexual imposition.
Robert Holloway, the former principal at St. Anthony of Padua School in Lorain, entered the plea Monday. He also pleaded not guilty to charges of unauthorized use of public property.
Police Sgt. Mark Carpentiere said foot fetish material was found on two school computers seized from Holloway's office, despite the educator's claims he did not have a foot fetish.
Holloway, 50, resigned as principal in the spring after the 14-year-old students and their parents reported the foot-kissing to police.
The principal told authorities that the kissing was pay-up for a bet over a student-teacher volleyball game. He paid each student $15 and kissed their feet 50 times in the school's library and gym.
Holloway's lawyer, Carmen Roberto, would not allow his client to speak to reporters after the hearing.
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Preacher Arrested in Alleged Murder Plot
Thursday November 30, 2006 10:16 AM
By OLIVIA MUNOZ
Associated Press Writer
FRESNO, Calif. (AP) - Even in 2004, when the Rev. Howard Douglas Porter eulogized a friend killed in a car crash in which Porter was driving, the victim's friends and relatives were suspicious. They feared Porter deliberately planned the crash to get his hands on the multimillion-dollar trust fund of Frank Craig, an 85-year-old farmer.
Now authorities believe they have enough evidence to confirm those fears.
Porter, 55, of La Grange, was detained this week at a border checkpoint at San Ysidro while attempting to return to the United States from Mexico, where he was starting a new mission, authorities said.
He was expected to be returned to Stanislaus County on Thursday to face charges of murder, attempted murder and embezzlement from an elderly person.
A well-known high school wrestling coach, Porter was pastor at Hickman Community Church, a nondenominational Christian church, when he befriended Craig.
The elderly man hired Porter to help him develop a museum in Hickman, a town of about 450 residents some 90 miles north of Fresno, said Stanislaus County sheriff's detective Mark Copeland.
Eventually, Porter was named trustee of Craig's reported $4 million in stocks and real estate left to him when his brother died, Deputy Royjindar Singh said. Family members were replaced by the church as heir, Craig's family told authorities.
Porter spent money on museum plans, but nothing was ever built, authorities said.
Investigators said they believe Porter first tried to kill Craig in 2002 when he veered his truck off a rural road and struck an oak tree. The crash crippled Craig, but did not initially raise suspicions.
In April 2004, Porter plunged his pickup truck into an irrigation canal, Singh said. Craig drowned, while Porter walked away from the crash.
"The first crash we had investigated as an accident,'' Singh said. "But after the second one, the family came to us and said there was something more going on.''
Craig's family sued Porter for fraud, contending the elderly man's two sisters were deprived when the trust was changed to benefit Porter's church, said attorney David Jamieson. The family and Porter also settled a wrongful death lawsuit, Jamieson said.
The criminal case languished as prosecutors focused on convicting Scott Peterson and sending him to death row for the murder of his pregnant wife, Laci. Porter resigned as pastor last year as suspicions about him mounted.
His home was recently listed for sale at $895,000, but has been taken off the market, real estate agents said.
Porter's lawyer, Robert Orenstein, did not return calls for comment Wednesday. Nor did the church or Porter's wife.
The district attorney's office planned to file charges when Porter is returned from San Diego, where he's being held without bail, said Deputy District Attorney John Goold. Porter is expected to be arraigned Friday.
"We're just at the start of this and have to wait and see how the case plays itself out,'' Goold said. "He is still innocent until proven guilty.''
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French police detain man who claimed to sell mummy hair on Internet
Published: Wednesday, November 29, 2006 | 7:41 PM ET
Canadian Press: THIERRY BOINET
GRENOBLE, France (AP) - Police detained a French postman behind an Internet operation selling strands of hair and tiny pieces of cloth allegedly taken from the mummy of Egyptian Pharaoh Ramses II.
If authenticated, Egypt wants the hair back. The suspect, identified as Jean-Michel Diebolt, allegedly obtained the items from his late father, a French researcher who analyzed the 3,200-year-old mummy in the 1970s, judicial officials said on condition of anonymity because the case is ongoing.
The 50-year-old suspect, a postman who also writes for a local newspaper, was detained late Tuesday at his home in the town Saint-Egreve, a suburb of Grenoble in southeastern France, the officials said. He was released Wednesday but is being investigated for allegedly possessing stolen goods, they said.
Police seized a dozen small plastic sachets and boxes containing minuscule samples of hair and cloth he alleged came from Ramses II.
"Selling strands of hair from the mummy of Ramses II: euro2,000," (C$3,000), read the entry on the website. It said strands of cloth from the mummy also were available.
Diebolt's wife, Sonia, insisted in an interview the pieces were authentic and she didn't know if the late scientist had the right to possess them.
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