[Peace-discuss] Just Foreign Policy News, December 27, 2006

[Robert Naiman]

Just Foreign Policy News
December 27, 2006
http://www.justforeignpolicy.org/newsroom/blog/

U.S. Should Promote Diplomacy, Not War, in Somalia
Ask Congress to push the Bush Administration to support diplomacy in
Somalia, not war.
http://www.justforeignpolicy.org/involved/somalia.html

Time to Talk to Iran: Petition
More than 27,500 people have signed the Peace Action/Just Foreign
Policy petition. Please sign/circulate if you have yet to do so.
http://www.justforeignpolicy.org/involved/iranpetition.html

Tell Your Representatives: Stop the Money and Bring the Troops Home
Please write/call your Members of Congress if you have not done so
recently. The Congressional recess is also a good time to call the
local office. These phone numbers are given on the representatives'
web pages, which can be found at http://www.senate.gov
and http://www.house.gov. To send a letter:
http://www.justforeignpolicy.org/involved/iraq.html

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Summary:
U.S./Top News
The State Department "came out of the closet" and openly declared its
support for the Ethiopian invasion of Somalia, writes Robert Naiman on
Huffington Post. The State Department instructed officials to play
down the Ethiopian invasion, and divert the press from talking about
it. Press criticism does seems to be waning as the Bush Administration
supports the invasion more openly and many members of Congress remain
silent.

The US on Tuesday signaled its support for the Ethiopian offensive in
Somalia, the New York Times reports. The State Department instructed
officials to play down the Ethiopian invasion in public statements.
"Should the press focus on the role of Ethiopia inside Somalia," the
State Department memo said, "emphasize that this is a distraction from
the issue of dialogue between the [transitional government] and
Islamic courts and shift the focus back to the need for dialogue."
"The press must not be allowed to make this about Ethiopia, or
Ethiopia violating the territorial integrity of Somalia," the guidance
said.

The American military said Tuesday it had credible evidence linking
Iranians and their Iraqi associates, detained in raids last week, to
attacks against American forces, the New York Times reports. Some
Iraqis questioned the timing of the arrests, suggesting that the Bush
administration had political motives. Some political leaders
speculated that the arrests had been intended to derail efforts by
Iraqis to deal with Iran on their own by making Iraqis look weak.

Iran has distributed more than $200 million in aid in Afghanistan in a
bid to increase its influence, the New York Times reports. Iran's
ambassador, Muhammad Reza Bahrami, portrayed his government's
activities as neighborly good works, with a certain self-interest.
Iran, he said, is eager to avoid repeating the calamities of the last
20 years, when two million Afghan refugees streamed over the border.

Joseph Biden, incoming chair of the Senate Foreign Relations
Committee, said yesterday that he would oppose any plan by President
Bush to increase the number of U.S. troops in Iraq, the Washington
Post reports. He said he plans to hold hearings for his panel next
month in a bid to influence the president's decision.

The African Union, supported by the Arab League and the east African
grouping IGAD, has called on Ethiopia to withdraw thousands of troops
from Somalia immediately, BBC reports.

The Bush administration has opened another battlefront in the Muslim
world, writes former UN official Salim Lone in the International
Herald Tribune. With full U.S. backing and military training, at least
15,000 Ethiopian troops have entered Somalia in an illegal war of
aggression. The U.S. instigation of war between Ethiopia and Somalia,
two of world's poorest countries already struggling with massive
humanitarian disasters, is reckless in the extreme. Independent
experts were united in warning that this war could destabilize the
whole region even if America succeeds in its goal of toppling the
Islamic Courts. As in other Muslim-Western conflicts, the world needs
to engage with the Islamists to secure peace, he writes.

As leaders in Washington debate Iraq war strategies, nearly everyone
appears to agree on one thing: the military advisor program needs to
be expanded, the Los Angeles Times reports. But the actual experience
of those now doing the training suggests that optimism may be
misplaced.

Iran
Iran's parliament passed a bill Wednesday obliging the government to
"revise" the level of its cooperation with the IAEA nuclear watchdog
after the UN Security Council approved sanctions on Tehran over its
atomic program, Reuters reports. The bill stopped short of approving
demands by some conservative parliamentarians who wanted a tougher
line against the IAEA and an end to inspections of atomic facilities.

Israel/Palestine
The Israeli government's approval of a new Israeli settlement in the
occupied West Bank is fueling tension in the region, the New York
Times reports. The government decision was denounced by Peace Now,
which called the action a "scandal."

Chile
Foreign mining companies are purchasing land in Chile for a pittance,
the Washington Post reports.

Ecuador
Ecuador will not break diplomatic relations with Colombia despite
mounting tensions over that Colombia's refusal to halt U.S.-backed
aerial fumigation of coca crops along the shared border, the Los
Angeles Times reports. Ecuador is demanding Colombia respect a 6-mile
buffer zone established in January, arguing the herbicide glyphosate
drifts across the border, killing legal crops and causing health
problems.

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-
Robert Naiman
Just Foreign Policy
www.justforeignpolicy.org