[Peace-discuss] News notes 041003

[C. G. Estabrook]

        Notes from last week's "global war on terrorism" [GWOT],
        for the AWARE meeting, Sunday, October 3, 2004.
        (Sources provided on request.)

	"...elections are a matter of secondary significance:
	what's far more important is to build a democratic culture,
	in which they will be meaningful.  But they are not of zero
	significance.  In a swing state, anything but a vote for Kerry
	is in effect a vote for Bush.  Those who want to help give the
	Bush crowd a mandate can do so if they like, but they should not
	delude themselves about what they are doing." --Noam Chomsky

[1. OCCUPATIONS] There is something contradictory, not to say criminal,
about an occupying army attacking cities in a country it occupies, but
that's what the US (and its chief client) did this week.  The US sent a
3,000-strong force against the Iraqi city of Samarra and attacked Falluja
and Baghdad from the air, killing what it said were terrorists; but
Reuters showed pictures of dead children being pulled from the rubble.
	The New York Times reports that an examination of recent attacks
in Iraq show the resistance to the U.S. presence and the U.S.-backed
government is far greater than the Bush administration is admitting. Over
the last 30 days the country has seen 2,368 attacks spread across the
country.
	Three dozen children died in a series of car bombings in Baghdad.
That bombing Thursday capped a deadly month for Iraqis: Agence France
Press put the month's death toll at 585.
	U.S. and Iraqi forces will retake rebel-held cities in Iraq in
October, puppet Iraqi Defense Minister Hazim al-Shalaan told Reuters on
Wednesday.  But the President of Iraq Ghazi Ajil Yawer called the attacks
"collective punishment" and compared them explicitly to Israeli raids in
the West Bank and Gaza.
	At the time in Gaza, supposedly in revenge for dead children, the
Israeli army attacked northern Gaza and the refugee camp of Jabalya,
killing some 55 Palestinians. Israeli PM Sharon promised on Sunday to
widen the offensive.

[2. MILITARY] The Financial Times (UK) has obtained a new report by the
Pentagon's Defense Science Board, that says that the U.S. can not maintain
its current troop commitments in Iraq and Afghanistan without a
significant increase in the size of the armed forces or scaling back the
objectives in each country.
	Colorado Congresswoman Diana DeGette is demanding a congressional
investigation into allegations that the “all-volunteer” US Army is
trying to coerce soldiers to re-enlist. The Democrat's request comes after
the Rocky Mountain News reported that soldiers stationed at Fort Carson
were threatened to be sent to Iraq if they did not re-enlist for three
more years.
	A Washington Post article finds that as thousands of troops return
from Iraq and Afghanistan, a “resource drought” at the Department of
Veterans Affairs has that organization strained nearly to the breaking
point. Between 60,000 and 70,000 new claims come in each month, and with
each one taking about 160 days to process, the backlog has now reached
almost 300,000—with no relief in sight. "At the same time," the piece
notes, "President Bush's budget for 2005 calls for cutting the Department
of Veterans Affairs staff that handles benefits claims."
	An Army Reserve staff sergeant serving in Iraq may face up to 20
years in prison after the publication of an article he wrote titled "Why
We Cannot Win" about the situation in Iraq.
	{The soldier, Al Lorenz, has told Salon.com that his commanders
are investigating whether the publication of the article constituted
disloyalty and insubordination. If charges are filed, Salon reports the
case could mark the first disloyalty prosecution since the Vietnam War. In
his article that appeared on the site LewRockwell.com, Lorenz wrote, "I
have come to the conclusion that we cannot win here for a number of
reasons. Ideology and idealism will never trump history and reality." He
then gave four key reasons for the likely failure: a refusal to deal with
reality, not understanding what motivates the enemy, an overabundance of
guerrilla fighters, and the enemy's shorter line of supplies and
communication. Lorenz has served in the military for over 20 years. }

[3. ELECTIONS] Time Magazine has revealed that the White House had
developed a secret plan whereby it would covertly use the CIA to help
pro-U.S. candidates win in the upcoming Iraqi election. The plan was
reportedly discarded after protests from lawmakers on Capitol Hill ...
This comes as the Los Angeles Times is reporting that in Afghanistan
numerous Afghan presidential candidates have complained that U.S.
officials are pressuring them to drop out of the race against the
U.S.-backed Hamid Karzai ...
	Former President Jimmy Carter is warning that voting arrangements
in Florida do not meet "basic international requirements" ... He added,
"With reforms unlikely at this late stage of the election, perhaps the
only recourse will be to focus maximum public scrutiny on the suspicious
process in Florida."

[4. CAMPAIGN] Thursday's Washington Post alleged that puppet Iraqi PM
Allawi was coached by US officials -- including Dan Senor, former
spokesman for the Coalition Provisional Authority in Iraq-- in perfecting
his delivery of the speech delivered before a joint session of Congress
one week ago – a speech in fact that shows remarkable similarities to
the Bush's stump speech and may have been written by the White House.

[5. PROPAGANDA] The Washington Post reports that “The Bush
administration, battling negative perceptions of the Iraq war, is sending
Iraqi Americans to deliver what the Pentagon calls 'good news' about Iraq
to U.S. military bases, and has curtailed distribution of reports showing
increasing violence in that country ... USAID said this week that it will
restrict distribution of reports by contractor Kroll Security
International showing that the number of daily attacks by insurgents in
Iraq has increased.”

[6. DEBATE] In the “debate on foreign policy” between the official
presidential candidates – unofficial candidates such as Nader, Cobb and
Badnarik were excluded – what was *not* said was important.  Haiti
wasn't mentioned.  Israel was mentioned once by each candidate, remarkably
similarly.  Bush said that “A free Iraq [of course, under his definition
of 'free'] will help secure Israel ... [help] the reformers in ... Iran
... [and] the security of this country” -- the strict Neocon order.
Kerry agreed with the Neocon analysis: he wants to “get [Iraq] right ...
because it's important to Israel ... to America ... to the world ... [and]
to the fight on terror.” Meanwhile, Fox news star reporter Carl Cameron
fabricated a bunch of quotes to make Kerry look bad.

[7. GESTAPO] Newsweek is reporting that the Department of Homeland
Security is considering detaining 2,000 foreigners -- mostly from Middle
East and Muslim nations -- ahead of the November election.  The Washington
Post is reporting the Bush administration is supporting a provision in a
new House intelligence bill would allow U.S. authorities to deport certain
foreigners to countries where they are likely to be tortured or abused
even though the action was prohibited by international laws against
torture that the United States signed 20 years ago. The provision appears
as part of the massive bill introduced Friday by Republican House Speaker
Dennis Hastert. According to the Post, it would apply to non-U.S. citizens
who are suspected of having links to terrorist organizations but have not
been tried or convicted of any charges.

[8. WORLD] The LA Times has a report today on why the world has lost
confidence in America: According to polls in 30 countries, the
international community "no longer look[s] to the U.S. for leadership and
sanctuary." Most of those interviewed believe the Bush administration's
unilateralist action in Iraq has made the world more dangerous, and that
the U.S. is falling further out of touch with global realities.

[9. TERROR] The US government has denied visas to 61 Cuban scholars who
were scheduled to take part in the Latin American Studies Association
convention next week in Las Vegas. Meanwhile the U.S has allowed three
anti-Castro militants who were recently released from a Panamanian jail to
enter the country. The three men were arrested after being caught
attempting to assassinate Cuban President Fidel Castro during a visit to
Panama. A column in the NY Daily News summarizes the US policy towards
Cubans as "Terrorists yes, scholars no."

[10. CURIOUS] Reuters reports that Paul Bigley, the brother of Kenneth
Bigley, a British hostage in Iraq, said Saturday that intelligence
officers had raided his home here, copied data from his computer and
forced him to make a five-page statement about his activities. A
spokeswoman for the British Foreign Office said neither British nor Dutch
officials had carried out such a raid. US GWOT?

[11. LAWLESSNESS] From Harper's Weekly Review: After maintaining for three
years that Yaser Esam Hamdi, an American citizen captured in Afghanistan,
was so grave a threat to the United States that merely permitting him to
meet with his lawyer would fatally compromise national security, the Bush
Administration (having been told by Justice Antonin Scalia that "the very
core of liberty secured by our Anglo-Saxon system of separated powers has
been freedom from indefinite imprisonment at the will of the Executive")
declined to defend its case against Hamdi in open court and announced that
he will be stripped of his citizenship and released in Saudi Arabia.

  ==============================================================
  C. G. Estabrook
  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.newsfromneptune.com> <www.carlforcongress.org>
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