[Peace-discuss] Just Foreign Policy News, August 18, 2006

[Robert Naiman]

Just Foreign Policy News
August 18, 2006

In this issue:
1) Marines May Have Excised Evidence on 24 Iraqi Deaths
2) 7 Killed as Full-Scale Sectarian Fighting Rages in Baghdad
3) U.S. tries to counter Hezbollah rebuilding efforts in s. Lebanon
4) With a cease-fire in place between Israel and Hezbollah, it's in
neither party's interest to resume the fight.
5) Op-Ed Contributor: Start Talking to Hezbollah
6) The Cease-Fire: Lebanese Army Sets Up in Hezbollah's Territory
7) Diplomacy: U.N. Aide Says Peace Force Can Be in Lebanon in 10 Days
8) C.I.A. Contractor Guilty in Beating of Afghan
9) The Environment: U.N. Pledges $64 Million for Cleanup of Oil Spill
Off Lebanon
10) The Aftermath: With Guns Silent, Wartime Unity Unravels in Israel
Amid Fierce Criticism of War Effort
11) U.S. Predicts Fast Action at U.N. if Sanctions on Iran Are Needed
12) Ruling for the Law
13) Zogby Poll: U.S. Should Be Neutral in Lebanon War
14) Preliminary "Lessons" of the Israeli-Hezbollah War
15) More Propaganda Than Plot - Former British Ambassador on Alleged
UK Terror Plot
16) France Declines to Contribute Major Force for U.N. Mission
17) Kiss Controversy Claims Israeli Official
18) Mexico Left Gives Up on Vote Court

Contents:
1) Marines May Have Excised Evidence on 24 Iraqi Deaths
David S. Cloud
New York Times
August 18, 2006
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/18/world/middleeast/18haditha.html
Marines May Have Excised Evidence on 24 Iraqi Deaths
A high-level military investigation into the killings of 24 Iraqis in
Haditha last November has uncovered instances in which American
marines involved in the episode appear to have destroyed or withheld
evidence. The investigation found that an official company logbook of
the unit involved had been tampered with and that an incriminating
video taken by an aerial drone the day of the killings was not given
to investigators. Those findings, contained in a report that was
completed last month but not made public, go beyond what has been
previously reported about the case. It has been known that marines who
carried out the killings made misleading statements to investigators
and that senior officers were criticized for not being more aggressive
in investigating the case, in which most or all of the Iraqis who were
killed were civilians. But this is the first time details about
possible concealment or destruction of evidence have been disclosed.

2) 7 Killed as Full-Scale Sectarian Fighting Rages in Baghdad
Damien Cave
New York Times
August 18, 2006
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/18/world/middleeast/18iraq.html
A car bombing in the Sadr City district of Baghdad killed at least
seven people and wounded more than 20 on Thursday morning, the
authorities said. The blast was the latest of several recent attacks
in the district, a densely populated area controlled by the Mahdi
Army, a Shiite militia loyal to the cleric Moktada al-Sadr. It
signaled that full-scale sectarian fighting was continuing in the
capital despite the extra American troops deployed there.

3) U.S. tries to counter Hezbollah rebuilding efforts in s. Lebanon
Reuters
18/08/2006  	 		
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/751920.html
Concerned that Hezbollah has an early advantage in rebuilding
shattered south Lebanon, the Bush administration is trying to speed up
aid and encouraging Arab states to step in quickly, US officials said.
The White House is "cracking the whip" on rebuilding efforts so
Iranian-backed Hezbollah is not seen taking the lead and winning any
more support among the local population

4) With a cease-fire in place between Israel and Hezbollah, it's in
neither party's interest to resume the fight.
Robert Padavick
Yahoo News
Aug 17
http://hotzone.yahoo.com/b/hotzone/blogs8692
With a cease-fire taking hold after over a month of fighting between
Israel and Hezbollah, parties loyal to both sides are claiming
victory. For former senior CIA official Milt Bearden, the winners and
losers are clear. "Where it counts, Hezbollah is clearly the winner,"
Bearden says. "For Israel ... not winning is losing. And for an
irregular force like Hezbollah, not losing is winning." Bearden
stresses that with fighting over it is in neither Hezbollah's nor
Israel's interest to restart it. "The very concept of destroying
Hezbollah or dismantling it is based on a faulty belief that it is
somehow external to the fiber of Lebanon. It is not," he says.
"There's nobody tough enough to disarm Hezbollah, or willing to do it
if they are tough enough." There are reports in the Israeli press that
Defense Minister Amir Peretz this week hinted at renewed dialogue with
Lebanon, the Palestinians, and even Syria. Bearden, a staunch advocate
for dialogue, even sees the possibility for Israeli dialogue with
Iran. Those on the more "realist side" in Israeli politics, Bearden
says, "are going to start saying, 'We need to talk with Iran; we need
to talk with Syria.' But also, I can guarantee you, sooner or later
they're going to want to talk with Hezbollah and Hamas."

5) Op-Ed: Start Talking to Hezbollah
Lakhdar Brahimi, former special adviser to the UN Secretary General
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/18/opinion/18brahimi.html
August 18, 2006
Op-Ed
What a waste that it took more than 30 days to adopt a UN Security
Council resolution for a cease-fire in Lebanon. Thirty days during
which nothing positive was achieved and a great deal of pain,
suffering and damage was inflicted on innocent people.
Yet all the diplomatic clout of the US was used to prevent a
cease-fire, while more military hardware was rushed to the Israeli
Army. It was argued that the war had to continue so that the root
causes of the conflict could be addressed, but no one explained how
destroying Lebanon would achieve that. And what are these root causes?
It is unbelievable that recent events are so regularly traced back
only to the abduction of three Israeli soldiers. Few speak of the
thousands of Palestinian prisoners held by Israel, or of its Lebanese
prisoners, some of whom have been held for more than 20 years. And
there is hardly any mention of military occupation and the injustice
that has come with it.

6) The Cease-Fire: Lebanese Army Sets Up in Hezbollah's Territory
Sabrina Tavernise And John Kifner
New York Times
August 18, 2006
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/18/world/middleeast/18mideast.html
Lebanese government soldiers began crossing the Litani River at dawn
Thursday. The Lebanese Army's move into the separate southern fief
that Hezbollah ran for nearly two decades was the potential beginning
of a diplomatic way out of the bitter monthlong battle with Israel,
whose vaunted army bogged down against a smaller force of skilled and
entrenched guerrillas. But while Israel and the US have said that the
Lebanese Army is supposed to disarm Hezbollah under the terms of a UN
Security Council resolution, the reality on the ground is a kind of
murky backroom deal in which Hezbollah takes its weapons off the
street and the army will not look too hard for them, if at all. "Well,
it's not like they will be breaking into houses, searching every
store, looking into every ravine," said an adviser to Prime Minister
Siniora. "It's not a search-and-seizure operation." But if the
deployment was largely for show, it was one that the combatants seemed
willing to accept as a face-saving way out of the bloody impasse.

7) U.N. Aide Says Peace Force Can Be in Lebanon in 10 Days
Warren Hoge
New York Times
August 18, 2006
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/18/world/middleeast/18nations.html
France on Thursday made a disappointing offer of support for the UN
force in Lebanon, but by the end of the day a top UN official said the
organization was on track to meet its goal of having 5,500 foreign
troops on the ground there in 10 days. "I would say the show is on the
road, we're in business," Mark Malloch Brown, the deputy secretary
general, said after he emerged from a meeting of 49 countries that had
expressed interest in contributing to the peacekeeping force. He said
he had been encouraged by the responses at the meeting and expected
that once the documents covering the rules of engagement had been
studied in capitals over the weekend, there would be firm commitments
of needed troops.

8) C.I.A. Contractor Guilty in Beating of Afghan
Scott Shane
New York Times
August 18, 2006
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/18/washington/18detain.html
A C.I.A. contractor accused of severely beating an Afghan prisoner who
died the next day was convicted Thursday of felony assault. The former
contractor, David Passaro, a onetime Special Forces medic who went to
work for the CIA in Afghanistan in 2003, is the only civilian ever
charged as a result of accusations of prisoner abuse there, in Iraq
and in the broader campaign against terrorism. He faces a maximum of
11.5 years in prison. The trial drew close attention from human rights
advocates. Using a flashlight and his fists, witnesses said, Mr.
Passaro repeatedly hit Abdul Wali, a 28-year-old farmer suspected of
firing rockets at American troops. Mr. Wali was in such pain, they
said, that he pleaded to be shot, and he died the day after a second
day of abuse by Mr. Passaro.

9) U.N. Pledges $64 Million for Cleanup of Oil Spill Off Lebanon
Anthee Carassava
New York Times
August 18, 2006
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/18/world/middleeast/18spill.html
The UN Environment Program on Thursday pledged $64 million to help
clean up and contain a major oil spill caused by the conflict in
Lebanon. The 87-mile-long slick, described by experts as the worst
environmental disaster in Lebanese history, stained Lebanon's shores
after Israeli warplanes bombed an oil storage depot at Jiyeh, about 19
miles south of Beirut, on July 13 and 15. The continuing hostilities
between Israel and Hezbollah barred marine experts from inspecting the
most severely affected areas. But the cease-fire that took effect on
Monday cleared the way for the start of an international effort to
clean up and contain the spill, said UN, European and maritime
officials.

10) With Guns Silent, Wartime Unity Unravels in Israel Amid Fierce
Criticism of War Effort
Greg Myre
New York Times
August 18, 2006
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/18/world/middleeast/18israel.html
In a country where raucous debate is the norm, Israelis set aside
differences during war. They even have an expression for it: "Quiet.
We're shooting." But the guns have gone silent, the debate has resumed
and the wartime unity has shattered. Prime Minister Ehud Olmert,
Defense Minister Amir Peretz and the military's chief of staff, Lt.
Gen. Dan Halutz, are all facing fierce, even vitriolic criticism in a
country accustomed to swift and decisive battlefield triumphs against
Arab enemies. "Because everyone served in the army, every Israeli
thinks he's a generalissimo," said Shlomo Avineri, political science
professor at Hebrew University. "The achievements were less than
expected, and the price was too high." He added: "From the beginning
we should have set more modest goals. A lot of this agonizing is
self-inflicted." A sizable number of Israelis have challenged the
claims of their leaders that Israel won the war against Hezbollah.
"It's not a victory at all," said Ziona Dotan, who returned to her
rocket-damaged apartment in the hard-hit northern town of Kiryat
Shmona on Wednesday. "It's going backwards. They keep getting more
weapons. I don't see what we got out of this. Many people were killed,
and what was it all for?" An Israeli poll released Thursday found 28
percent of the respondents believed Israel won, 24 percent believed
Hezbollah won, and 36 percent thought neither side came out on top.

11) U.S. Predicts Fast Action at U.N. if Sanctions on Iran Are Needed
Thom Shanker
New York Times
August 18, 2006
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/18/world/middleeast/18iran.html
A senior Bush administration official said Thursday that he
anticipated that the UN would move rapidly in September to impose
sanctions on Iran if it refused to halt uranium enrichment. Nicholas
Burns, the under secretary of state for political affairs, said the
punishment "will be well deserved" if Iran failed to act by a looming
deadline set by the Security Council. The Council voted last month to
give Iran until Aug. 31 to accept a package of EU-led incentives for
suspending uranium enrichment or suffer economic sanctions. "I think
we would want to move very quickly in the first part of September
toward a debate in the Security Council about sanctions," he said.
Burns emphasized that the US already had agreements from Russia, China
and other Security Council members to move to economic sanctions under
Chapter VII of the UN Charter if Iran failed to comply. The resolution
passed by the Security Council on July 31 demands that Iran suspend
its uranium enrichment and reprocessing work by the end of August or
face the possibility of sanctions. It noted the need for "further
decisions," however, before any punishments for noncompliance could be
pursued. Some diplomats have suggested that Russia and China may not
in the end vote to approve sanctions and may even exercise their veto
power in the Security Council. Burns said Iran's role in creating,
financing and arming Hezbollah forces in southern Lebanon in their
fight against Israel "will reinforce the effort to hold Iran
accountable should they not provide the clear answer needed" on the
nuclear issue. "The will of a lot of countries has been strengthened
by watching the Iranian government trying to destabilize both Lebanon
and Israel over the last 30 to 40 days," he said. Iran has said it set
a deadline of next Tuesday to respond to the offer of economic
incentives from six major powers in exchange for ending its uranium
enrichment program. But Burns dismissed the Tuesday deadline as a
"mythical date."

12) Ruling for the Law
Editorial
New York Times
August 18, 2006
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/18/opinion/18fri1.html
Ever since President Bush was forced to admit that he was spying on
Americans' telephone calls and e-mail without warrants, his lawyers
have fought to keep challenges to the program out of the courts.
Yesterday, that plan failed. A federal judge in Detroit declared the
eavesdropping program to be illegal and unconstitutional. She also
offered a scathing condemnation of what lies behind the wiretapping,
Bush's attempt to expand his powers to the point that he can place
himself beyond the reach of Congress, judges or the Constitution.
"There are no hereditary kings in America and no powers not created by
the Constitution," wrote Judge Anna Diggs Taylor of the United States
District Court in Detroit.

13) Zogby Poll: U.S. Should Be Neutral in Lebanon War
Americans split over whether Israel used excessive force during the
recent fighting
August 17, 2006
http://www.zogby.com/news/ReadNews.dbm?ID=1159
A majority of Americans thinks the U.S. should not ally itself with
either Israel or Lebanon in the current conflict that spans the
borders of those countries, a new Zogby International telephone poll
shows. While 52% said the U.S. should remain neutral, 34% said it
should back Israel in its fight against Hezbollah forces in Lebanon.
Among Republicans, 51% said Israel should get the backing of the U.S.,
while just 22% of Democrats agreed. Instead, most Democrats (62%) said
the U.S. should remain neutral.
Americans were split as to whether current U.S. policy is as fair with
the government in Lebanon as it is with Israel. 35% agreed the U.S.
was equally fair to both nations, while 37% said the U.S. favored
Israel.

14) Preliminary "Lessons" of the Israeli-Hezbollah War
http://www.csis.org/media/csis/pubs/060817_isr_hez_lessons.pdf
One key lesson is a familiar one: limited wars tend to have far more
limited results and
uncertain consequences than their planners realize at the time that
they initiate and
conduct them. It is difficult to know how many goals Israel achieved
by the fighting to
date or can keep in the future, but both Israel and Hezbollah face
major uncertainties in
claiming any form of meaningful victory.

15) More Propaganda Than Plot - Former British Ambassador on Alleged
UK Terror Plot
Democracy Now	
Friday, August 18th, 2006
http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=06/08/18/1352248
Questions have been raised over whether British authorities were
pressured by the US to make the arrests last week in the alleged
terror plot to blow up transatlantic airliners. We speak with former
British ambassador Craig Murray who says, "The one thing of which I am
certain is that the timing is deeply political. This is more
propaganda than plot."

16) France Declines to Contribute Major Force for U.N. Mission
Colum Lynch
Washington Post
Friday, August 18, 2006; A16
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/08/17/AR2006081700813.html
France on Thursday rebuffed pleas by U.N. officials to make a major
contribution to a peacekeeping mission in southern Lebanon, setting
back efforts to deploy an international military force to help police
a cease-fire between Israel and Hezbollah. French President Jacques
Chirac said Thursday that France would contribute only 200 additional
troops to the U.N. operation in southern Lebanon, which the Security
Council wants to expand from 2,000 troops to 15,000. Chirac said that
a force of about 1,700 French troops and crew members on warships off
the coast would provide logistical support. Senior U.N. peacekeeping
officials said they had hoped France would send thousands of troops,
forming the backbone of a large and robust mission that would spur
other countries to join. The French decision on troop levels sent U.N.
officials scrambling during a meeting here to find countries willing
to fill the void.

17) Kiss Controversy Claims Israeli Official
Ramit Plushnick-Masti
Associated Press
Friday, August 18, 2006; 11:33 AM
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/08/18/AR2006081800380.html
Israel's justice minister, a key ally of Prime Minister Ehud Olmert,
announced Friday that he will resign, clearing the way for him to
stand trial on accusations he forcibly kissed an 18-year-old female
soldier. Haim Ramon's announcement came a day after Israel's attorney
general announced plans to indict him, the latest blow to a government
politically weakened by the 34-day war against Lebanese guerrillas.
Ramon is suspected of forcibly kissing the soldier during a farewell
party at a government office. The incident allegedly took place July
12, the day the war erupted. The indecent assault charge against Ramon
carries a maximum penalty of three years in prison, justice officials
said.

18) Mexico Left Gives Up on Vote Court
Reuters
August 17, 2006
Filed at 7:25 p.m. ET
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/world/international-mexico-election.html
Mexico's leftist opposition party has given up hope of the electoral
court handing it a victory in a disputed presidential vote and plans
to step up protests to make life tough for the country's next leader.
After weeks of legal battles, street marches and rain-sodden blockades
that have brought the center of Mexico City to a standstill, the
left-wing party whose candidate narrowly lost July 2 elections said it
was prepared for the worst. The Party of the Democratic Revolution
says the election was stolen from their candidate and wants every vote
recounted, but expects Mexico's top electoral court to confirm
conservative Felipe Calderon's slim victory. "We are not naive,''
party spokesman Gerardo Fernandez said on Thursday. "The court is
preparing the conditions to impose the candidate of the right.''

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Robert Naiman
Just Foreign Policy
www.justforeignpolicy.org