[Peace-discuss] News notes 030413 (part 2 of 2)

[C. G. Estabrook]

[continued from part 1]

[14] ATTACKING THE REAL ENEMY (III). The Arab satellite television channel
al-Jazeera is to pull its reporters out of Iraq after one of them was
killed during a US air raid on Baghdad. "I cannot guarantee anyone's
safety," the news editor, Ibrahim Hillal, told reporters. "We still have
four reporters in Baghdad, we will pull them out. We have one embedded
with US forces in Nassiriya; we want to pull him out." The move followed a
day in which three journalists were killed by US fire in separate attacks
in Baghdad, leading to accusations that US forces were targeting the news
media. Reuters cameraman Taras Protsyuk, 35, was killed when an American
tank fired a shell directly at the Reuters suite on the 15th floor at the
Palestine hotel, where many journalists are staying. Jose Couso, 37, a
cameraman for the Spanish television channel Tele 5, was wounded in the
same attack and died later in hospital. Samia Nakhoul, the Gulf bureau
chief of Reuters, was also injured, along with a British technician, Paul
Pasquale, and an Iraqi photographer, Faleh Kheiber. Earlier, al-Jazeera
cameraman Tarek Ayyoub, a 35-year-old Palestinian who lived in Jordan, was
killed when two bombs dropped during a US air raid hit the satellite
station's office in the Iraqi capital. American forces also opened fire on
the offices of Abu Dhabi television, whose identity is spelled out in
large blue letters on the roof. All the journalists were killed and
injured in daylight at locations known to the Pentagon as media sites. The
tank shell that hit the Palestine hotel slammed into the 18-storey
building at noon, shaking the tower and spewing rubble and dirt into hotel
rooms at least six floors below. The attack brought pandemonium in the
hotel which lies on the east side of the Tigris. It was adopted by all
remaining western journalists in the city after advice from the Pentagon
to evacuate from the western side of the river. Central command in Qatar
said its troops had been responding in self-defence to enemy fire but
witnesses dismissed that claim as false. According to a central command
statement, "commanders on the ground reported that coalition forces
received significant enemy fire from the hotel and consistent with the
inherent right of self-defence, coalition forces returned fire". The
statement added: "Sadly a Reuters and Tele 5 journalist were killed in
this exchange. These tragic incidents appear to be the latest example of
the Iraqi regime's continued strategy of using civilian facilities for
military purposes." But journalists in the hotel insisted there had been
no Iraqi fire. Sky's correspondent, David Chater, said: "I never heard a
single shot coming from the area around here, certainly not from the
hotel," he said. BBC correspondent Rageh Omaar added that none of the
other journalists in the hotel had heard any sniper fire. Chater said he
saw a US tank pointing its gun at the hotel and turned away just before
the blast. "I noticed one of the tanks had its barrel pointed up at the
building. We went inside and there was an almighty crash. That tank shell,
if it was an American tank shell, was aimed directly at this hotel and
directly at journalists. This wasn't an accident. It seems to be a very
accurate shot." Geert Linnebank, Reuters editor-in-chief, said the
incident "raises questions about the judgment of the advancing US troops
who have known all along that this hotel is the main base for almost all
foreign journalists in Baghdad". Journalists, a watchdog group that
defends press freedoms, demanded an invesigation in a letter to the US
defence secretary, Donald Rumsfeld. "We believe these attacks violate the
Geneva conventions," the letter said, adding that even if US forces had
been fired on from the Palestine hotel "the evidence suggests that the
response of US forces was disproportionate and therefore violated
humanitarian law". During the Afghan war, two supposedly smart US bombs
hit the Reuters office in Kabul and many suspect the attack was no
accident. It happened at a strategic moment, two hours before the Northern
Alliance took over the city. US military officials at central command said
they were investigating and added that the casualties were "regrettable".
"We know that we don't target journalists," said Brigadier General Vince
Brooks, deputy director of operations. Al-Jazeera correspondent Tarek
Ayyoub was broadcasting live to the satellite station's 7am news bulletin
when US aircraft fired two missiles at the bureau building, killing him
and injuring a colleague. Two Iraqi staff are missing. Ibrahim Hilal,
al-Jazeera's chief editor at its headquarters in Qatar, said a US warplane
was seen above the building before the attack. "Witnesses saw the plane
fly over twice before dropping the bombs. Our office is in a residential
area and even the Pentagon knows its location," he said. Al-Jazeera
correspondent Majed Abdul-Hadi said the bombardment was probably
deliberate. In Doha last night al-Jazeera's chairman, Hamad bin Thamer,
said the channel "could not ascertain" if its Baghdad bureau had been
targeted by the US. But he dismissed American claims that there had been
gunfire coming from the building at the time of the attack. "This was
absolutely and categorically denied by other reporters and our reporters
present on the ground," he said. Mr Ayyoub, 35, a Palestinian born in
Kuwait, had not intended to go to Baghdad but as the war dragged on he
felt he had to work there, and al-Jazeera agreed to let him work in
Baghdad. His widow, Dima Ayyoub, launched a vitriolic attack on America:
"My message to you is that hatred breeds hatred," she said in a live
telephone link-up from her home in Amman, Jordan. "I cannot see where is
the cleanness in this war. All I see is blood, destruction and shattered
hearts. The US said it was a war against terrorism. Who is committing
terrorism now?" [GUARDIAN]

[15] CHILD KILLINGS (I). An extreme right-wing Jewish group called
"Revenge of the Infants" claimed responsibility for a mystery blast that
ripped through a Palestinian high school in the Jenin-area West Bank
village of Jaba'a Wednesday, injuring at least 15 Palestinian teenagers,
three of them seriously. In a statement to reporters, the group said it
had planted the bomb in revenge for the murders of Jewish children by
Palestinians. In the past, the shadowy group had claimed responsibility
for terror attacks in which Palestinians were killed on West Bank
highways. One of the students at the school apparently discovered the
bomb, which went off when the student came in contact with it. The city's
mayor, Lutfi Abu Oun, said all of the wounded were taken to hospitals in
the nearby city of Jenin. An IDF spokeswoman said no troops were in the
area at the time but rescue teams were sent to the school after the blast.
[HAARETZ

[16] CHILD KILLINGS (II). The Israeli army killed 12 Palestinians, among
them several children, in a controversial air strike on a Hamas militant
leader and a foray into a Gaza town, and an extreme right-wing Jewish
group claimed responsibility for a blast in a West Bank school that
injured 29 Palestinian pupils. As the Palestinians slammed a late Tuesday
Israeli air strike on Gaza City as a bid to "sabotage" an internationally
backed peace "roadmap", German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer pushed
their leader Yasser Arafat to hurry reforms aimed at sharing power with
his moderate new premier. Israel defended the missile strike by an F-16
fighter-bomber and two Apache helicopters, which killed seven
Palestinians, including three Hamas Islamists and four civilians. Military
sources said the raid targeted Hamas leader Saad al-Arabid, "responsable
for attacks which killed and wounded dozens of people". "Saad al-Arabid
was a particularly dangerous terrorist," said Deputy Defence Minister Zeev
Boim. "We have not changed our policy on targeted operations against
terrorists since the US intervention in Iraq," he added. Shortly after the
F-16 strike, two Apache helicopters fired two missiles at the same area,
witnesses said. That second attack raised the death toll and doubled the
number of injured as it hit emergency service workers and onlookers
staring at the wreckage from the first missile. Women and children were
among the 47 wounded, eight of whom were said to be in critical condition.
Hamas's armed wing, the Ezzedin al-Qassam Brigades, responded by firing a
home-made missile from the Gaza Strip into the southern Israeli town of
Sderot, without causing damage or injury. And around Israeli 15 tanks
rumbled into the town of Beit Hanun, just north of Gaza City, at dawn in a
raid that left five Palestinians, including a 13-year-old boy, dead as the
Israelis opened fire on crowds of stone-throwing youths. At the same time,
medics said a 12-year-old Palestinian boy who was injured in an Israeli
raid on Jabalya refugee camp early last month died from his wounds. Hamas
again swore bitter vengeance, with political leader Abdul Aziz al-Rantissi
saying the group would act "quickly" to avenge the six deaths. The
diplomatically isolated Arafat called the Gaza air raid "an unforgivable
crime" after meeting in Ramallah, in the West Bank, with Fischer, his
first meeting with such a senior foreign official in almost a year. Chief
Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erakat accused Israel of launching the attack
to "sabotage" the push to implement the international peace "roadmap",
which Israel wants to see heavily amended before being published. "Israel
is doing all it can to sabotage the roadmap with its policy of killing and
destruction," he said. "The roadmap has been delayed more than six times."
The roadmap was drawn up by US, UN, EU and Russian diplomats to end the
30-month conflict and create an independent Palestinian state alongside a
secure Israel by 2005. US President George W. Bush has said he will
publish the roadmap when new Palestinian prime minister Mahmud Abbas has
formed his cabinet. On Wednesday, Arafat gave Abbas an extra two weeks to
do so. Fischer also met with Abbas, who is pushing for reforms and for an
end to Palestinian attacks on Israelis. One official in the German
delegation said Fischer had told Arafat "that a real breakthrough in the
dynamics of change is necessary." Fischer had earlier met with Israeli
leaders, stressing the need to support the moderate Palestinian premier as
the latter struggled to form a government, mainly owing to disagreements
with Arafat. "The roadmap is an excellent proposal. The reforms in
Palestinian areas must be supported," Fisher said in Jerusalem Tuesday.
Israel said it hoped that with the fall of Saddam Hussein's regime to US
forces in Iraq, the Palestinians would "draw the right conclusions." "Now
that the Iraqi people, thanks to America and Britain, are getting rid of
their own brutal dictatorship, we hope that also our Palestinian
neighbours will draw the right conclusions and give the necessary
authority to a more peaceful leadership of their own", said Zalman Shoval,
aide to Prime Minister Ariel Sharon. Meanwhile, more violence erupted in
the northern West Bank when a bomb ripped through a school in the village
of Al-Jarba, south of Jenin. A radical right-wing Jewish group on
Wednesday claimed responsibility for the explosion that injured 29
Palestinian children, Israeli army radio said. The group, calling itself
"Revenge of the Babies," said in a message sent to the radio that the
blast was "to avenge the Jewish children killed by the Palestinians." But
Israeli security officials said they doubted the claim, and that they
believed the bomb -- possibly explosives found in the village -- was taken
into the school by a student. [AFP] Israeli security sources cast serious
doubt on a claim by an extreme right-wing Jewish group, which said it had
carried out a bombing in a West Bank school that injured 29 Palestinian
children. "It seems the explosion devices was brought in by someone
present in the school and who was there at the time," said a security
official on Wednesday who spoke on condition of anonymity. He said initial
investigations did not show whether the explosives were brought in by a
teacher or a pupil. he said the security services had "serious doubts"
about the claim to army radio by the group, calling itself "Revenge of the
Babies." "We do not take this claim very seriously. It wouldn't be the
first time the group has claimed responsibility for something they didn't
do," he told AFP. Jewish settler sources in the West Bank said for their
part they believed one of the children of a Palestinian militant had taken
an explosive device belonging to his father to school and had been playing
with it. The blast occurred in a school in the village of Al-Jarba, 10
kilometres (six miles) south of Jenin. Four of the injured were in serious
condition, Palestinian medics said. Palestinian security officials were
interviewing children to establish exactly how the explosive device went
off. Initial Palestinian reports indicated one of the children had found
the device, thought to be an Israeli-made grenade, in the school and that
it exploded while he was playing with it in a classroom. [AFP] 

[17] IT'S AN ILL WIND. The Pentagon contract given without competition to
a Halliburton subsidiary to fight oil well fires in Iraq is worth as much
as $7 billion over two years, according to a letter from the Army Corps of
Engineers that was released today. The contract also allows Kellogg Brown
& Root, the Halliburton subsidiary, to earn as much as 7 percent profit.
That could amount to $490 million. The corps released these new details in
a letter to Representative Henry A. Waxman, Democrat of California and one
of the two senior lawmakers who asked the General Accounting Office to
investigate how the Bush administration is awarding contracts for the
reconstruction of Iraq. The reconstruction effort could cost up to $100
billion and become one of the most lucrative building programs in decades.
The contract to Kellogg Brown & Root was cited in the lawmakers' request
to the G.A.O., the investigative arm of Congress. Mr. Waxman and
Representative John D. Dingell, Democrat of Michigan, asked that special
attention be paid to "allegations that Halliburton has received special
treatment from the administration." Vice President Dick Cheney was
Halliburton's chief executive from 1995 until 2000. When he left the
company to run for vice president, Mr. Cheney received over $30 million in
compensation, Mr. Waxman said. [NYT 0410] The European Commission is
examining contracts awarded by the US for reconstruction work in Iraq to
find out whether they breach World Trade Organisation rules and
discriminate unfairly against European companies. [FT 0410]

[18] IT'S A GAME TO THEM. The US military has issued a most-wanted list of
55 former leaders in Saddam Hussein's regime to be pursued, captured or
killed. The list, in the form of a "deck of cards" with pictures of the
wanted figures, was distributed to all US troops in the field to help them
find the senior members of the government. [TIL 0410]

[19] IN  WWI, IT WAS "LIBERTY CABBAGE."German linguists called on the
nation to use French words in place of their popular English equivalents
in protest at the US-led war against Iraq. A campaign launched by the
group Language in Politics proposed swapping English words such as
"ticket" with "billet" or "briefing" with "communiqué". [TELEGRAPH/UK
0410] New York's French restaurants have indeed been suffering as diners
take out on them their frustration with the French government's stance in
the Iraqi conflict. While there are no official figures to demonstrate it,
the anecdotal evidence reported by scores of French restaurants is that
patrons are not showing up, canceling reservations and being rude.
[NEWSDAY 0411]

[20] UH-OH. Colin Powell tells Pakistani TV that the U.S. "does not have ^Å
some list with nations on the list that we're going to attack one after
another." [NYT]

[21] IT'S THE ECONOMY, STUPID. The answer is that things have gradually
fallen apart. There was one quarter of good growth, early in 2002 - and
there were cries of triumph over the policy's success. After that,
however, things went steadily wrong. Growth was too slow to create jobs:
at the end of 2002, after a year of "recovery," fewer people were working
than at the end of 2001. And in the last two months the situation has
deteriorated rapidly. In February and March the U.S. economy lost 465,000
jobs, bringing the total job loss since the recession officially began in
March 2001 to more than two million. At this point the employment decline
has been bigger, and has gone on longer, than the slump that took place
during the first Bush administration. And there's no sign of an upturn:
new claims for unemployment insurance are still running well above the
level that would signal an improving labor market ^Å The answer seems to be
that there is no plan for the economy. Instead, the White House is fixated
on achieving another political triumph - the elimination of taxes on
dividends - that has little or no relevance to our current economic
troubles. I could demonstrate this irrelevance by going through an
economic analysis, but here's a telling political clue: USA Today reports
that faced with concerns in Congress about budget deficits, the
administration has indicated that it is willing to consider a phase-in of
its dividend plan. That is, it's willing to forgo immediate tax cuts - the
one piece of its proposal that might actually help the economy now - in
order to be able to pass its long-run proposal intact, and hence claim
total victory. [KRUGMAN NYT 0411]  The Bush administration is driving the
federal government to huge deficit, with enormous debt extending as far as
the eye can see, and the country has a huge trade deficit as well. Many
economists feel that it's going to collapse ... But the administration
consists of a very narrow sector of ultra-right fanatics, holding on to
political power by a shoestring, and they wouldn't be the first in history
to drive a country to disaster by pursuing ultranationalist goals."
[CHOMSKY 0409]

[22] IT WILL KEEP US OCCUPIED. Hundreds of thousands of opponents of the
US-led invasion and occupation of Iraq held new anti-war protests
Saturday, arguing that the regime's collapse was no reason to let up the
pressure. Possibly the biggest European showing was half a million
protesters on the streets of Rome ^Å In London, tens of thousands rallied
even as the first British troops were set to pull out of the Gulf. "It is
clear the war is not over," said Andrew Murray, chairman of Britain's Stop
the War Coalition: "There are still people being killed and we will also
emphasize our opposition to occupation."  In Paris, more than 10,000
rallied behind a banner: "Iraq to the Iraqis" ^Å Italian pacifists with
banners reading: "Stop Esso war," demonstrated peacefully at gas stations
of the American ExxonMobil oil group in protest at it getting a 48 million
dollar contract to supply fuel to US military in Iraq. American anti-war
demonstrators carried placards reading: "Not in our name. " One told
Italian television: "We're glad the Saddam Hussein regime has fallen, but
it wasn't necessary to impose this conflict and this humiliation on the
Iraqis." In Florence, three parties in Italy's government coalition
paraded in support of US policy in line with government support for
Washington, with banners reading: "The French are cowards" ^Å In Paris,
banners read: "Stop the occupation of Iraq" and "Yes to a democratic and
independent Iraq." Protesters chanted "US go home!" "We're very glad to be
rid of Saddam, but we don't trust the Americans," said Mazin Yassine from
Baghdad: "...We don't want a new dictator."  In Berlin anti-war protesters
carried a banner reading "Peace before occupation" to the Brandenburg Gate
^Å Police put the turnout at some 15,000 ^Å  In London tens of thousands
rallied in anger against Prime Minister Tony Blair's support for Bush.
Carrying pictures of war victims and placards reading: "No occupation, No
War," the crowd chanted: "Blair calls it liberation, it looks to us like
occupation" ^Å British film director Ken Loach said: "We have to stop the
occupation. This is illegal. This is against international law." Kate
Hudson, vice-chairwoman of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND),
said the march was a response to the fact that the war was continuing,
people were being killed and illegal weapons such as cluster bombs were
still in the field. Saturday's march is the third held in London in recent
weeks over the Iraqi conflict. On February 15, more than one million
people took to the streets and on March 22 between 200,000 and 700,000
protested.  In the Spanish city of Barcelona, tens of thousands took to
the streets, according to unofficial estimates.  They chanted "Aznar
resign!" in protest at Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar's support for the
American line on Iraq despite its rejection by the vast majority of the
Spanish public. A Spanish television cameraman and special correspondent
of the newspaper El Mundo were among journalists killed in Iraq. [AFP
0412]

[23] AND WE'RE PAYING FOR IT. Congress passed a $79 billion bill to fund
the war in Iraq, which is more money than President Bush asked for but
gives him less leeway in spending it than he had hoped for. In key areas
such as military needs, domestic security and foreign aid, the money can
only be spent via Congressional mandate, not as the administration pleases
[NYT 0413]

[24] WE'RE DRAWING UP THE EVIDENCE NOW. In a fresh warning to Syria, Mr
Powell said it should not help Iraqi officials who should be brought to
justice in their own country ^Å On Sunday, Mr Powell said: "Syria has been
a concern for a long period of time. We have designated Syria for years as
a state that sponsors terrorism, and we have discussed this with the
Syrians on many occasions. We are concerned that materials have flowed
through Syria to the Iraqi regime over the years ^Å "There's strong
evidence and no question about the fact there are weapons of mass
destruction. We will find weapons of mass destruction." [BBC 0413]

[25] SHARON, SHARON-LIKE. The United States has pledged to tackle the
Syrian-backed Hizbollah group in the next phase of its 'war on terror' in
a move which could threaten military action against President Bashar
Assad's regime in Damascus. Hizbollah is a Shia Muslim organisation based
in Lebanon, whose fighters ^Å forced an Israeli withdrawal from southern
Lebanon three years ago. The new US undertaking to Israel to deal with
Hizbollah via its Syrian sponsors has been made over recent days during
meetings between administration officials and Israeli diplomats in
Washington, and Americans talking to Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon
in Jerusalem. 'If you control Iraq, you can affect the Syrian and Iranian
sponsorship of Hizbollah, both geographically and politically,' says Ivo
Daalder of the Brookings Institution think-tank in Washington. 'The United
States will make it very clear, quietly and publicly, that Baathist Syria
may come to an end if it does not stop its support of Hizbollah.' The
undertaking dovetails conveniently into 'phase three' of what President
George Bush calls the 'war on terror' and his pledge to go after all
countries accused of harbouring terrorists. It also fits into calls by
hawks inside and aligned to the administration who believe that war in
Iraq was first stage in a wider war for American control of the region.
Threats against Syria come daily out of Washington. Hawks in and close to
the Bush White House have prepared the ground for an attack on Syria,
raising the spectre of Hizbollah, of alleged Syrian plans to welcome
refugees from Saddam Hussein's fallen regime, and of what the
administration insists is Syrian support for Iraq during the war. Deputy
Defence Secretary Paul Wolfowitz - regarded as the real architect of the
Iraqi war and its aftermath - said on Thursday that 'the Syrians have been
shipping killers into Iraq to try and kill Americans', adding: 'We need to
think about what our policy is towards a country that harbours terrorists
or harbours war criminals. 'There will have to be change in Syria,
plainly,' said Wolfowitz. Washingtom intelligence sources claim that
weapons of mass destruction that Saddam was alleged to have possessed were
shipped to Syria after inspectors were sent by the United Nations to find
them. One of the chief ideologists behind the war, Richard Perle,
yesterday warned that the US would be compelled to act against Syria if it
emerged that weapons of mass destruction had been moved there by Saddam's
fallen Iraqi regime. [OBSERVER/UK 0413]

[26] BUT WE DON'T NEED TO BE SO STUPID. "It is not clear that George W
fully understands the grand strategy that Wolfowitz and other aides are
unfolding. He seems genuinely to believe that there was an imminent threat
to the US from Saddam Hussein's "weapons of mass destruction", something
the leading neo-cons say in public but are far too intelligent to believe
themselves. The Project for the New American Century urged an invasion of
Iraq throughout the Clinton years, for reasons that had nothing to do with
possible links between Saddam and Osama Bin Laden. Public letters signed
by Wolfowitz and others called on the US to invade and occupy Iraq, to
bomb Hezbollah bases in Lebanon and to threaten states such as Syria and
Iran with US attacks if they continued to sponsor terrorism. Claims that
the purpose is not to protect the American people but to make the Middle
East safe for Israel are dismissed by the neo-cons as vicious
anti-Semitism. Yet Syria, Iran and Iraq are bitter enemies, with their
weapons pointed at each other, and the terrorists they sponsor target
Israel rather than the US. The neo-cons urge war with Iran next..." [M.
LIND, NS 0407]

  ==============================================================
  C. G. Estabrook, Ph.D., Visiting Scholar
  University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign [MC-190]
  109 Observatory, 901 South Mathews Avenue, Urbana IL 61801 USA
  office: 217.244.4105 mobile: 217.369.5471 home: 217.359.9466   
  <www.carlforcongress.org>
  ===============================================================