[Peace-discuss] News notes 030824

[C. G. Estabrook]

	Notes from this week's "war on terrorism" -- 
	for the AWARE meeting, Sunday, August 24, 2003.

Theme. "Occupied territory," in SW Asia, the Andes, and the public mind.

SOUTHWEST ASIA

ISRAEL MANAGED THIS WEEK TO BRING TO AN END THE PALESTINIAN CEASE-FIRE by
assassinating Ismail Abu Shanab, a key official of Hamas. The Israelis
used American-supplied helicopter gunships to send four missiles into his
car in Gaza city; he and his two bodyguards were burnt to death.  A
correspondent to Doug Henwood's Left Business Observer listserv wrote, "I
knew him well and spent many hours interviewing him. And while I certainly
did not agree with many of his positions, if ever a person existed in
Hamas who was open to discussion and compromise, it was this man. To me,
he wasn't a faceless "terrorist" but an intelligent person, dedicated to
his people, a husband and father. He got his PhD in the US -- in the
Midwest somewhere -- and I remember him telling me how much he enjoyed
living in the Midwest, and how kind and helpful people were to him and his
family. He said it reminded him of Gaza."  Henwood comments, "So it seems
that the Israelis want only 'unreasonable' enemies, the better to demonize
them." On Sunday Israel repeated the assassination - same M.O. -- and
killed Ahmed Shtewe, a 24-year-old Hamas member, and three other men.

WHAT'S SHOCKING IS THE AGREEMENT THAT ISRAEL IS CARRYING OUT
ASSASSINATIONS AND ENCOURAGING REPRISALS TO FORESTALL "PEACE BREAKING
OUT." The Israeli peace group Gush Shalom wrote this week, "The renewed
cycle of bloodshed began with the decision by Israeli political and
military authorities to implement - in the middle of the cease-fire - a
series of 'targeted liquidations,' knowing full well that that would lead
to retaliation bombings and to the breaking of the cease-fire. The
perpetrators of the bombings came from Nablus and Hebron, two cities under
full control of the Israeli army, and their deed of blood was committed in
West Jerusalem, where the Israeli police are in charge. In none of these
places does the Palestinian Authority exercise any measure of real
control, and its police have no ability to operate there. The real,
immediate solution is to remove the IDF from the Palestinian territories
and hand over full control to the Palestinian Authority - as was laid out
in the Road Map."

"IS THE ROAD MAP DEAD? I DON'T THINK IT EVER REALLY STARTED," an unnamed
Palestinian said to the WSJ this week.  Implicitly admitting that,
Secretary of State Colin Powell specifically called on Palestinian leader
Yasir Arafat to use his power to shut down Hamas. As the NYT notes, this
is a distinct shift - for a year the Bush administration has been barely
acknowledging Arafat at all. [SLATE 0822]

AT THE BEGINNING OF THE WEEK, THERE WERE THREE SERIOUS ATTACKS growing out
of the several American imperial occupations in Southwest Asia: 23 people
died and more than 100 were injured at UN headquarters in Baghdad; at
least 20 were killed and more than 100 were injured in a bus bombing in
Jerusalem; and 80 people were killed in the last week in Afghanistan:

[1] IN BAGHDAD, a suicide bomb truck attack destroyed the U.N.'s
headquarters and killed 20, among them the U.N.'s top representative in
Iraq, the Brazilian Sergio Vieira de Mello, the U.N.'s High Commissioner
for Human Rights. U.N. officials said that Vieira de Mello is the most
senior U.N. official to be killed in the Middle East since a top mediator,
Folke Bernadotte, was assassinated by an Israeli militant group in 1949.
Supposed al-Qaida ally Ansar al-Islam may have done it, perhaps because
Vieira de Mello had recently expressed support for the US occupation and
its Iraqi Governing Council. (As the NYT suggests, neither al-Qaida nor
Ansar al-Islam may be "the single, cohesive group many assume.") One U.S.
officer told the WSJ that over the past week the military has arrested "at
least a dozen people with clear connections to al-Qaida." Meanwhile, Iraq
proconsul Paul Bremer accused Syria of letting militants cross into Iraq. 

[2] IN JERUSALEM, a suicide bus bombing that killed five children and 15
adults was claimed by both Hamas and Islamic. Hamas political leaders in
Gaza denied responsibility for the attack but a local cell in Hebron
claimed credit. The bus was carrying religious Jews who had been visiting
the holy site of the Wailing Wall. Both Islamic Jihad and Hamas reps said
they still stand by the ceasefire and said the attack was one-time revenge
for Israeli assassinations of some of their groups' leaders.  Israel
responded by declaring, "No Palestinian can enter Israel." [NYT 0820] 

(A SUBTLE BUT TELLING DIFFERENCE in how the Baghdad and Jerusalem bombings
are connected: "USAT and the LAT symbolically link yesterday's two attacks
in their headlines, giving one casualty count for both bombings ... The
NYT does the most to keep the events apart, not including the Jerusalem
bombing in its lead headline and instead putting it in the off-lead."
[SLATE 0820] The NYDN, insisting in an editorial "Baghdad & Jerusalem --
two different terror acts," is particularly gnomic: "Both peoples seek the
past. One can have it, the other can't. It makes all the difference." That
seems to mean that the US will reestablish the former Iraqi standard of
living under a government we like, but "The trick for Israel is, as
always, to pull out of the territories, build its defensive fence -- and
wait for a new generation to accept the status quo."  This is of course
fantasy land...)

[3] IN AFGHANISTAN, the fourth reported attack on Afghan government
employees or aid workers in two days killed nine police officers in
eastern Afghanistan on Monday ... Some 80 people are believed to have died
in the last week, one of the deadliest since the fall of the Taliban in
December 2001 ... Kabul government officials said the attackers were "most
probably" Taliban fighters or supporters of Gulbuddin Hekmatyar - a
fanatical Muslim who once received large amounts of money form the US.
[NYT 0820]

"MAJOR COMBAT OPERATIONS" IN IRAQ ARE OVER, declared Bush in national TV
on May 1. But this week in a new interview with the Armed Forces Radio
Bush said: "We still have combat operations going on. It's a different
kind of combat mission, but, nevertheless, it's combat, just ask the kids
that are over there killing and being shot at." Questions also arose as to
whether Bush knows how many U.S. troops he has sent into war. He said
during the interview that the U.S. has about 10,000 troops in Afghanistan
which he said is "down from, obviously major combat operations." But the
Washington Post points out 10,000 troops in Afghanistan actually
represents the highest number of US soldiers there since the war began
almost two years ago. The U.S. used only 3,000 troops to take on the
Taliban in the fall of 2001. [DN 0819] - because the major killing was
carried out by the US Air Force and US mercenaries from the "Northern
Alliance."

IN IRAQ, SHARP DIFFERENCES EMERGED at midweek between the top American
administrator in Iraq and the country's interim government ... Iraqi
officials described a tense meeting between L. Paul Bremer III and the
Iraqi Governing Council. Mr. Bremer, they said, demanded that the
25-member Council exert more authority, condemn the bombing strongly and
communicate better with the Iraqi people ... he called on Iraqis to "take
responsibility for their own security" by joining a newly created Iraqi
civil defense force and holding "town hall meetings" in their local
districts ... Iraqi officials said the Council had responded by saying it
lacked authority to convince Iraqis it was effective or relevant ... "You
can't blame for us anything," said Adnan Pachachi, a council member, in a
recent interview. "We don't have any responsibility." [NYT 0820]

THE UNITED STATES SHOULD SPEND "WHATEVER IT TAKES" TO COMPLETE ITS MISSION
IN IRAQ said Senator John McCain (R-Ariz.) on Wednesday; he's leading a
seven-member delegation of U.S. lawmakers to Iraq. [AP 0820] Republican
Senator Kay Bailey Hutchinson, a member of the delegation, called for an
expansion of the regular Army and Marines. She quoted a military historian
to say that the US must conduct its occupations "the way the Roman legions
did, by putting your young men into the mud," [WT 0820]

"IRAQ IS AT THE CENTER OF THE GLOBAL WAR ON TERRORISM," said the head of
Central Command [sic], Army Gen. John Abizaid.  Remember that the Bush
administration suggested links between Saddam Hussein's government and
al-Qaida to build up their case for war; then the CIA refuted the claims
and warned that a war might actually cause the two groups to work
together. Now, as the WP points out, Abizaid himself seems to agree that
the prophecy is coming true. [SLATE 0822]

SOS POWELL WENT TO THE SECURITY COUNCIL TO SOLICIT HELP WITH PEACEKEEPING
[sic]. Most nations were predictably unimpressed with the idea of sharing
the burden but not the authority, and France reacted with what the NYT
calls "an icy rebuke." [SLATE 0822]
 
ISRAELI WARPLANES ENTERED INTO SYRIA LAST WEEK and buzzed by the palace of
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to warn Syria about its support for
Hezbollah, according to the Israeli press. [DN 0818]

SIXTEEN VETERANS FROM THE PERSIAN GULF WAR FILED SUIT Tuesday in U.S.
District Court in Brooklyn, NY, against 11 chemical companies and 33 banks
from throughout the world that [they allege] "built Saddam Hussein's nerve
gas and mustard gas factories, supplied him with chemical weapons
production equipment, and sold him the bulk chemical precursors used to
make his chemical weapons." It asks to become a class action on behalf of
all veterans of the 1991 gulf war who can prove they became sick from
chemical weapons' fallout. These companies and banks, the suit claims, are
identified in the official written Iraqi disclosures given to the U.N.
weapons inspectors after the war. [HARTFORD COURANT 0820]

ANDEAN REGION

WAR SECRETARY DONALD H. RUMSFELD, ON A ONE-DAY VISIT TO COLOMBIA, said
today that the United States would support Colombia [sic] in resuming a
policy that allows Colombian fighter pilots to shoot down planes suspected
of ferrying drugs ... Such a policy, which has been criticized by human
rights groups, was suspended in Colombia and Peru after a Peruvian jet
fighter shot down a private plane carrying American missionaries, killing
two people, one an infant, in 2001. [A similar program may be put in place
in Peru.] The government of President Alvaro Uribe in Colombia has
received $2.5 billion from Washington, largely in military aid, since 2000
... This American role will be overseen by the State Department, which has
taken over the program from the C.I.A. The State Department has contracted
with Arinc, a Maryland-based aviation company, to train Colombian pilots
for the surveillance aircraft and other technicians. Previously, the work
was conducted by DynCorp, another company with close links to the C.I.A.
... "To use force is equivalent to an extra-judicial execution," said José
Miguel Vivanco, director of the Americas division of Human Rights Watch
... Mr. Vivanco also criticized Air Force General Velasco's role ...
because of the air force's role in the 1998 bombing of the village of
Santo Domingo, in which 18 civilians were killed. Washington has banned
aid *to the air force unit responsible for the bombing*. [NYT 0820]

PUBLIC INFORMATION

NO PROOF OF ANY THREAT FROM BAGHDAD was contained in the dossier on which
British Prime Minister Tony Blair justified war against Iraq, according to
an e-mail from a top Blair aide released on Monday. The e-mail is the
first public sign of the debate in Blair's inner circle about the strength
of intelligence used to justify a war that most Britons opposed. "The
document does nothing to demonstrate a threat, let alone an imminent
threat from (Iraqi President) Saddam (Hussein)," Blair's chief of staff
and long-time confidant Jonathan Powell wrote to a senior intelligence
official. "It shows he has the means but it does not demonstrate he has
the motive to attack his neighbors, let alone the West," Powell wrote in
an e-mail one week before the controversial dossier was published on
September 24, 2002, six months ahead of the U.S.-British invasion of Iraq
... A poll last week showed 68 percent of the British public think the
government was dishonest over the Iraq war. [REUTERS 0818]

SINCE NOVEMBER 2001 -- which the National Bureau of Economic Research, in
a controversial decision, has declared the end of the recession -- the
U.S. economy has grown at an annual rate of about 2.6 percent. That may
not sound so bad, but when it comes to jobs there has been no recovery at
all. Nonfarm payrolls have fallen by, on average, 50,000 per month since
the "recovery" began, accounting for 1 million of the 2.6 million jobs
lost since March 2001. Meanwhile, employment is chasing a moving target
because the working-age population continues to grow. Just to keep up with
population growth, the U.S. needs to add about 110,000 jobs per month.
When it falls short of that, jobs become steadily harder to find. At this
point, conditions in the labor market are probably the worst they have
been for almost 20 years. (The measured unemployment rate isn't that high,
but that's because many people have given up looking for work.) [Krugman
CD 0818]

REUTERS' CAMERAMAN MAZEN DANA WAS SHOT AND KILLED BY U.S. TROOPS IN
BAGHDAD LAST SUNDAY ... His camera captured the last moments of his life.
The video shows a US tank driving towards Dana outside the prison. Two
shots ring out. His camera falls to the ground. Dana is hit in the chest.
Blood pours from a huge exit wound in his back. His sound engineer told
reporters that they had talked to US soldiers just minutes before. He said
"They saw us and they knew about our identities and our mission" ...
Reuters Press, the Committee to Protect Journalists and Reporters Without
Borders all expressed outrage yesterday at the killing of Dana. They
demanded a full, public investigation by the U.S. military and contested
U.S. troops' rules of engagement. Dana is the eleventh journalist to die
in combat in Iraq since the U.S. invasion in March. That makes Iraq one of
the world's most dangerous places for journalists, outranking hot spots
like the West Bank and Colombia. Dana was the second Reuters cameraman to
die since the war began March 20. Taras Protsyuk died April 8 after an
American tank fired at the Palestine Hotel in Baghdad as U.S. troops took
the city. [DN 0819]

GOVERNOR HOWARD DEAN OF VERMONT HAS NAMED STEVEN GROSSMAN TO A TOP
CAMPAIGN POST. Grossman is the former head of AIPAC, the American Israel
Public Affairs Committee, a major Israeli lobby, and the
Clinton-appointed ex-chairman of the Democratic National Committee. [DN
0818]

SOME 5.6 MILLION PEOPLE LIVING IN THE U.S. HAVE BEEN INCARCERATED AT ONE
TIME, according to a new Justice Department study. Over the last 30 years
the number of current and former inmates has risen by 3.8 million. About
17 percent, or nearly one in five, African-American male adults have been
or are in prison. That's compared to nearly 8 percent of Latino men and
about 2 and a half percent of white men. The study went on to determine
that if the incarceration rate from 2001 stays steady, one in three
African-American men born in the year 2001 will serve time in jail at some
point in their lives. [DN 0818]

SIXTY-NINE PERCENT OF AMERICANS POLLED SAY THEY ARE VERY CONCERNED (40
PERCENT) OR SOMEWHAT CONCERNED (29 PERCENT) THAT THE UNITED STATES WILL BE
BOGGED DOWN FOR MANY YEARS IN IRAQ without making much progress in
achieving its goals. Just 18 percent say they're confident that a stable,
democratic form of government can take shape in Iraq over the long term;
37 percent are somewhat confident. Just 13 percent say U.S. efforts to
establish security and rebuild Iraq have gone very well since May 1, when
combat officially ended; 39 percent say somewhat well.  Nearly half of
respondents, 47 percent, say they are very concerned that the cost of
maintaining troops in Iraq will lead to a large budget deficit and
seriously hurt the U.S. economy. And 60 percent of those polled say the
estimated $1 billion per week that the United States is spending is too
much and the country should scale back its efforts. One-third supports the
current spending levels for now, but just 15 percent of those polled say
they would support maintaining the current spending levels for three years
or more. Against this backdrop, President George W. Bush's approval
ratings continue to decline. His current approval rating of 53 percent is
down 18 percent from April. And for the first time since the question was
initially asked last fall, more registered voters say they would not like
to see him re-elected to another term as president (49 percent) than
re-elected. Forty-four percent would favor giving Bush a second term; in
April, 52 percent backed Bush for a second term and 38 percent did not.
Despite the costs and the continued attacks against both U.S. and United
Nations personnel, most Americans support maintaining current military
levels in Iraq--for now anyway. Fifty-six percent approve of keeping large
numbers of U.S. military personnel in Iraq for two years or less; 28
percent would support a stay of one to two years, while another 28 percent
would support a stay of up to one year. Eighteen percent support keeping
large numbers of troops in Iraq for three to five years, three percent for
six to 10 years, and 11 percent for more than 10 years (just five percent
want to bring troops home now). Sixty-one percent still believe that the
United States was right to take military action against Iraq in March; 33
percent do not. But respondents are split on how effective the U.S. war
with Iraq has been in fighting Al Qaeda and terrorism in general.
Forty-five percent say the war has reduced the terror network's power by
removing an oil-rich regime that supported terrorism while 38 percent say
the war has actually increased Al Qaeda's power by inspiring a new
generation of terrorists to take up arms against the United States and its
allies. The failure to capture Saddam Hussein or Osama Bin Laden, and the
slow progress in Iraq have also affected Americans' views on the Bush
administration's efforts to fight terrorists at home and abroad--but not
drastically. A slim majority (54 percent) still approve of the way Bush is
handling the situation in Iraq, though Bush had a 74 percent approval
rating in his handling of Iraq in mid-April  Fifty-seven percent say Bush
is doing a better job than Democrats in finding and defeating terrorists
abroad, while 21 percent say Democratic party leaders in Congress are
dealing better with terrorists. At the beginning of last year, nearly
three-quarters of those surveyed thought Bush was doing a better job than
the Democrats on fighting terrorism overseas--just 9 percent gave higher
marks to Democrats. Fifty-seven percent say Bush is best at handling the
fight against terror at home, down from 74 percent in January 2002. Nearly
a quarter (24 percent) now think the Democrats do a better job at handling
homeland security, versus 11 percent in January 2002. The biggest shift in
opinion, however, comes in Bush's handling of non-terror issues. A
plurality of voters now think the Democratic leaders in Congress have a
better approach to dealing with the economy, tax cuts, healthcare,
education, social security, the environment and energy policy. In January
2002, more thought Bush had the best approach to handling all the issues
above, except the environment. Forty-five percent of respondents now think
the Democratic party leaders are doing a better job of finding ways to
stimulate the economy (36 percent say Bush is)--a huge shift from January
2002, when 55 percent thought Bush was better on the economy and just 29
percent thought Congressional Democrats were. Over the past
year-and-a-half, Americans have also shifted their views of Bush's tax
cuts--45 percent prefer his cuts to those supported by Democratic leaders
now, but that's down 12 percent from January 2002. Nearly half of those
polled (47 percent) say Democratic leaders have the best approach to
health care (31 percent say Bush does), a flip from January 2002, when 45
percent preferred Bush's approach and 36 percent liked the Democrats'.
Bush has lost the most support for his handling of education issues. Just
39 percent prefer his approach now--down 16 percent from January 2002.
Forty-three percent say the Democrats are now doing the better job in
their approach to education issues. Similarly, more Americans (45 percent)
say Democrats have the better approach to handling Social Security issues.
About one-third (32 percent) say Bush has the best approach to Social
Security, down 12 points from January 2002. On the environment, 53 percent
prefer the Democrats' approach, while 29 percent support Bush's handling
of environmental issues versus 43 percent and 38 percent respectively in
January 2002. Finally, 42 percent of Americans prefer the Democrats'
approach to energy policy, while 33 percent say Bush is doing a better job
on the issue (versus 33 percent and 46 percent respectively in January
2002). Bush has the lead over Democrats in his handling of foreign policy
in general, with 48 percent of Americans preferring his approach to
foreign-policy issues (37 percent prefer the Democrats' approach).
[NEWSWEEK 0823]

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