[Peace-discuss] Just Foreign Policy News, November 3, 2006

[Robert Naiman]

Just Foreign Policy News
November 3, 2006

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Summary:
U.S./Top News

The termination of the Office of the Special Inspector General for
Iraq Reconstruction, slipped into a military authorization bill, has
generated outrage among lawmakers who say they didn't know it was in
the legislation, the New York Times reports. Investigations by the
office have sent American occupation officials to jail on bribery
charges, exposed poor construction work by companies like Halliburton
and Parsons, and discovered the military didn't track hundreds of
thousands of weapons it shipped to Iraq.

Despite heavy-handed interference from the US, Daniel Ortega appears
poised for victory in Nicaragua's presidential elections, the
Independent reports.

Lawyers will soon ask the German federal prosecutor open a criminal
investigation of Donald Rumsfeld and Alberto Gonzales for war crimes,
Jeremy Brecher and Brendan Smith report in The Nation. The passage of
the Military Commissions Act provides a central argument for the legal
action: it demonstrates the intent of the Bush Administration to
immunize itself legally from prosecution in the US.

A new protest movement inside the U.S.  military echoes similar
protests during Vietnam, Mark Benjamin writes in Salon. Last week a
group of current troops announced plans to petition Congress with a
collection of "appeals for redress," which call for an immediate
withdrawal from Iraq. Since then, the effort has swelled to nearly 500
troops, and continues to grow.

The government shut down a Web site containing an archive of captured
Iraqi documents, after The New York Times asked about complaints from
IAEA officials about the posting of detailed accounts of Iraq's secret
nuclear research before the 1991 Persian Gulf war. The documents,
experts say, constitute a guide to building an atom bomb. One diplomat
said the agency's experts "were shocked" at the public disclosures.

The Pentagon has stepped up planning for attacks against North Korea's
nuclear program and is bolstering nuclear forces in Asia, the
Washington Times reports. Officials said the accelerated military
planning includes detailed programs for striking a North Korean
plutonium-reprocessing facility at Yongbyon. The planning was already
underway before North Korea's recent nuclear test.

Nuclear experts see a world on the threshold of a dangerous arms race,
the Washington Post reports.  Some fault the Bush administration for
policies that rewarded nuclear-armed friends while denouncing foes
accused of building the same weapons. Others say the current situation
is a byproduct of a world in which countries no longer have to choose
between the US and the Soviet Union, but can build independent
alliances.

America is now seen as a threat to world peace by its closest allies,
according to an international survey of public opinion that reveals
how far the country's reputation has fallen since the invasion of
Iraq, the Guardian reports.

Iran
Russia is ready to back a U.N. resolution to curb Iran's nuclear
program but sanctions drawn up by European leaders greatly exceed what
Moscow agreed with Western powers, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said
on Friday. Lavrov has said the resolution should focus only on areas
the International Atomic Energy Agency has defined as serious, such as
uranium enrichment, chemical processing and heavy-water reactors.

Iraq
An Army dog handler convicted of abusing detainees at the Abu Ghraib
prison in Iraq has returned to the country with his military police
unit, AP reports.

While it might be unpalatable to U.S. politicians, an amnesty might
help reduce violence in Iraq, writes US Army historian Dale Andrade in
the Washington Post.

Israel/Palestine
Israeli troops fired at a large crowd of unarmed Palestinian women in
the Gaza Strip today as the women approached a mosque to help
Palestinian militants holed up inside, the New York Times reports. Two
women were killed and about 10 were injured. The shooting provoked
widespread outrage among Palestinians.

Afghanistan
The next opium harvest in Afghanistan will likely rival this year's
record high, AP reports.

Mexico
Protesters forced federal police to retreat from the gates of the
state university in Oaxaca after six hours of pitched fighting and the
rector's call for an end to the government "attack, " AP reports.

North Korea
The Bush administration claim that North Korea cheated or reneged on a
1994 agreement with the U.S. to freeze its nuclear program is
"completely false and ridiculous," former President Carter said.

Contents:
U.S./Top News
1) Congress Tells Auditor in Iraq to Close Office
James Glanz, New York Times, November 3, 2006
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/03/world/middleeast/03reconstruct.html

Investigations led by Republican lawyer Stuart Bowen in Iraq have sent
American occupation officials to jail on bribery and conspiracy
charges, exposed disastrously poor construction work by well-connected
companies like Halliburton and Parsons, and discovered that the
military did not properly track hundreds of thousands of weapons it
shipped to Iraqi security forces. Tucked away in a huge military
authorization bill that President Bush signed two weeks ago is what
some of Bowen's supporters believe is his reward for repeatedly
embarrassing the administration: a pink slip.

The order comes in the form of an obscure provision that terminates
his federal oversight agency, the Office of the Special Inspector
General for Iraq Reconstruction, on Oct. 1, 2007. The clause was
inserted by the Republican side of the House Armed Services Committee
over the objections of Democratic counterparts during a closed-door
conference, and it has generated surprise and some outrage among
lawmakers who say they had no idea it was in the final legislation.

Bowen's office, which began operation in January 2004 to examine
reconstruction money spent in Iraq, was always envisioned as a
temporary organization, permitted to continue its work only as long as
Congress saw fit. Some advocates for the office, in fact, have
regarded its lack of a permanent bureaucracy as the key to its
aggressiveness and independence. But as the implications of the
provision in the new bill have become clear, opposition has been
building on both sides of the political aisle. One point of contention
is exactly when the office would have naturally run its course without
a hard end date.

Susan Collins, a Maine Republican who followed the bill closely as
chairwoman of the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Government
Affairs, says that she still does not know how the provision made its
way into the conference report. Neither the House nor the Senate
version contained such a termination clause before the conference, all
involved agree. "It's truly a mystery to me," Collins said. "I looked
at what I thought was the final version of the conference report and
that provision was not in at that time."

But like several other members of the House and Senate who were
contacted on the bill, Collins said that she feared the loss of
oversight that could occur if the inspector general's office went out
of business, adding that she was already working on legislation with
several Democratic and Republican senators to reverse the termination.

2) Ortega on Threshold of Power Despite US Hand in Nicaragua
Andrew Buncombe, Independent, Friday, November 3, 2006
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines06/1103-04.htm

More than two decades after they first swept to power, Daniel Ortega
and the Sandinistas appear poised for victory in Nicaragua's
presidential elections. Despite heavy-handed interference from the US,
which has actively campaigned against Ortega, the 60-year-old former
president is eight to 10 points ahead of his rivals, just days away
from Sunday's vote. Polls suggest he is less than one point away from
the 35 per cent he needs to win in the first round and avoid the need
for a run-off.

If Ortega secures victory he will do so despite remarkable
interference from the US, whose ambassador in Nicaragua, Paul
Trivelli, has been outspoken in his disapproval of the Sandinista
leader and in support of Eduardo Montealegre, the candidate for the
National Liberal Alliance who is currently placed second in the polls.
Ortega's previous attempts at securing the presidency, which he lost
in 1990, have also met with strident US opposition.

The US has a long and bloody history of interference in Nicaragua. In
the Eighties, the administration of Ronald Reagan spent an estimated
$300m (£160m) to provide arms and support to Contra rebels who
launched a brutal war against the Sandinista government, leading to
the deaths of up to 30,000 people. At the time of the Sandinistas'
victory in the 1984 election, Reagan said Nicaragua was only "two
days" from Brownsville, Texas - implying that the Sandinistas
represented a direct threat to the US.

While Ortega has regularly criticised American interference during
this campaign, he has also spoken of reconciliation and portrayed
himself as someone who will be able to create jobs and boost the
country's economy, which is heavily dependent on trade with
Washington.

3) War Criminals, Beware
Jeremy Brecher & Brendan Smith, The Nation, November 20, 2006
http://www.thenation.com/doc/20061120/brechersmith

On November 14 a group of lawyers will come before the German federal
prosecutor and ask him to open a criminal investigation targeting
Donald Rumsfeld, Alberto Gonzales and other key Bush Administration
figures for war crimes. The recent passage of the Military Commissions
Act provides a central argument for the legal action, under the
doctrine of universal jurisdiction: It demonstrates the intent of the
Bush Administration to immunize itself legally from prosecution in the
US, even for the most serious crimes.

4) A new protest movement inside the military
Mark Benjamin, Salon, Nov. 2, 2006
http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2006/11/02/mil_protest/
An extraordinary full-page antiwar ad appeared in the Sunday edition
of the New York Times on Nov. 9, 1969. In it, 1,366 active-duty U.S.
service members signed a statement calling for an end to the war in
Vietnam. Behind those signatures was a groundswell of dissent inside
the military.

Today, there are echoes of the Vietnam experience in the protracted
Iraq war - including a growing protest movement in the military. It
has formed around a form-letter campaign, presumably conducted within
the bounds of military regulations that restrict what soldiers are
allowed to say. Last week, a group of current troops, with support
from a handful of antiwar organizations, announced plans to petition
Congress with a collection of "appeals for redress," which call for an
immediate withdrawal from Iraq. They had 65 signatures from
active-duty troops and reservists. Since then, the effort has quietly
swelled to nearly 500 troops, and continues to grow.

5) U.S. Web Archive Is Said to Reveal a Nuclear Primer
William J. Broad, New York Times, November 3, 2006
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/03/world/middleeast/03cnd-documents.html
Last March, the federal government set up a Web site to make public a
vast archive of Iraqi documents captured during the war. The Bush
administration did so under pressure from Congressional Republicans
who had said they hoped to "leverage the Internet" to find new
evidence of the prewar dangers posed by Saddam Hussein.

But in recent weeks, the site has posted some documents that weapons
experts say are a danger themselves: detailed accounts of Iraq's
secret nuclear research before the 1991 Persian Gulf war. The
documents, the experts say, constitute a basic guide to building an
atom bomb.

Last night, the government shut down the Web site after The New York
Times asked about complaints from weapons experts and arms-control
officials. A spokesman for John Negroponte, the director of national
intelligence, said access to the site had been suspended "pending a
review to ensure its content is appropriate for public viewing."

Officials of the International Atomic Energy Agency, fearing that the
information could help states like Iran develop nuclear arms, had
privately protested last week to the American ambassador to the
agency, according to European diplomats. One diplomat said the
agency's technical experts "were shocked" at the public disclosures.

6) U.S. Speeds Attack Plans For North Korea
Bill Gertz, Washington Times, Published November 3, 2006
http://www.washingtontimes.com/national/20061103-122702-4895r.htm
The Pentagon has stepped up planning for attacks against North Korea's
nuclear program and is bolstering nuclear forces in Asia, said defense
officials familiar with the highly secret process. The officials said
the accelerated military planning includes detailed programs for
striking a North Korean plutonium-reprocessing facility at Yongbyon
with special operations commando raids or strikes with Tomahawk cruise
missiles or other precision-guided weapons.

The effort, which had been under way for several months, was given new
impetus by Pyongyang's underground nuclear test Oct. 9 and growing
opposition to the nuclear program of Kim Jong-il's communist regime,
especially by China and South Korea. A Pentagon official said the
Department of Defense is considering "various military options" to
remove the program. "Other than nuclear strikes, which are considered
excessive, there are several options now in place. Planning has been
accelerated," the official said.

7) Optimism Turns To Anxiety On Curbing Nuclear Arms
Dafna Linzer, Washington Post, Friday, November 3, 2006; A23
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/11/02/AR2006110201581.html
In the waning days of the 20th century, nearly a dozen countries
abandoned nuclear weapons programs, betting on the promised security
of a post-Cold War world. But the trend toward disarmament seems to
have tapered off almost as quickly as it began. In the first six years
of the 21st century, one country - Libya - agreed to give up the
possibility of making a weapon. But North Korea accelerated its
program, and many believe Iran is doing the same. More countries are
exploring uranium enrichment and nuclear power programs that could be
diverted to produce weapons.

Officials and nuclear experts who felt nothing but optimism in the
early 1990s now see a world on the threshold of a dangerous arms race.
Some fault the Bush administration for policies that rewarded
nuclear-armed friends while denouncing foes accused of building the
same weapons. Others say the current situation is a natural byproduct
of a fragmented world in which countries no longer have to choose
between the US and the Soviet Union, but can go separate ways and
build independent alliances.

8) British believe Bush is more dangerous than Kim Jong-il
US allies think Washington threat to world peace
Only Bin Laden feared more in United Kingdom
Julian Glover, The Guardian, Friday November 3, 2006
http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,,1938434,00.html

America is now seen as a threat to world peace by its closest
neighbours and allies, according to an international survey of public
opinion published today that reveals just how far the country's
reputation has fallen among former supporters since the invasion of
Iraq.

Carried out as US voters prepare to go to the polls next week in an
election dominated by the war, the research also shows that British
voters see George Bush as a greater danger to world peace than either
the North Korean leader, Kim Jong-il, or the Iranian president,
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Both countries were once cited by the US
president as part of an "axis of evil", but it is Bush who now alarms
voters in countries with traditionally strong links to the US.

In Britain, 69% of those questioned say they believe US policy has
made the world less safe since 2001, with only 7% thinking action in
Iraq and Afghanistan has increased global security.

The finding is mirrored in America's immediate northern and southern
neighbours, Canada and Mexico, with 62% of Canadians and 57% of
Mexicans saying the world has become more dangerous because of US
policy.

Even in Israel, which has long looked to America to guarantee national
security, support for the US has slipped. Only one in four Israeli
voters say that Bush has made the world safer, outweighed by the
number who think he has added to the risk of international conflict,
36% to 25%. A further 30% say that at best he has made no difference.

Iran
9) Russia Says Iran Sanctions Draft Goes Too Far
Reuters, November 3, 2006, Filed at 11:42 a.m. ET
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/world/international-nuclear-iran.html
Russia is ready to back a U.N. resolution to curb Iran's nuclear
program but sanctions drawn up by European leaders greatly exceed what
Moscow agreed with Western powers, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said
on Friday. Negotiations on the draft resolution, authored by Britain,
France and Germany with general U.S. support, promise to be tough,
possibly lasting weeks, because veto-wielding Russia and China oppose
punitive action against Tehran.

Lavrov was speaking in Brussels as envoys of the six world powers
prepared to meet at the UN later in the day to tackle differences over
steps toward sanctions. He said the six had agreed that measures
against Iran should be "reasonable ... be proportional given the
actual situation as regards the nuclear program in Iran and should
also be in stages."

"We were prepared and are still prepared to draw up measures of that
sort," he said.
"We do not intend to drop back our efforts as regards the problem of
Iran and nuclear power," Lavrov said, but added: "What the EU troika
drew up went way beyond what was agreed." On Wednesday, Lavrov said
Russia rejected steps that would corner Iran, alluding to a travel ban
in the draft on Iran's nuclear ambitions, which the West believes are
a cover for bombmaking but Tehran says involve generating electricity
only.

The draft orders all countries to prevent the sale and supply of
equipment, technology and financing contributing to Iran's nuclear and
ballistic missile programs. It would freeze assets of people and
entities involved in these programs and prevent them from traveling
except for special events.

"I would think we will get a resolution imposing some minor
sanctions," said a Western diplomat at the UN. "But that would require
substantive concessions from both the Americans, who want tougher
sanctions, and the Russians, who (really) want no sanctions at all."

Russia's demands are expected to include softening the sanctions and
redefining an exemption for a nuclear reactor Moscow is building for
Iran, Security Council diplomats said. The European-authored draft
exempts from sanctions the $800 million Bushehr reactor in
southwestern Iran, expected to go into operation late next year.

But the draft says Russia must check with a Security Council committee
if it delivers material that can be used for weapons, such as parts
used for the uranium enrichment cycle. Russia has objected to
including Bushehr in the resolution in the first place, saying it was
a power plant that is legal under the 1970 nuclear Non-Proliferation
Treaty.

Lavrov has said the resolution should focus only on areas the
International Atomic Energy Agency, the U.N. nuclear watchdog, has
defined as serious, such as uranium enrichment, chemical processing
and heavy-water reactors.

Iraq
10) Convicted soldier now back in Iraq
The ex-sergeant was sentenced for abusing Abu Ghraib prisoners.
Associated Press, November 3, 2006
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-ghraib3nov03,1,6075689.story
An Army dog handler convicted of abusing detainees at the Abu Ghraib
prison in Iraq has returned to the country with his military police
unit, a spokesman said Thursday. Spc. Santos A. Cardona boarded a
plane Monday at Pope Air Force Base, which is adjacent to Ft. Bragg,
for the trip to Iraq.

Cardona is assigned to the 23rd Military Police Company, said Maj.
James Crabtree, a spokesman for the 18th Airborne Corps. Crabtree said
it wasn't known exactly what Cardona's job would be. The unit will
focus on law enforcement, detainee operations and route security and,
to a lesser extent, training Iraqi police.

A military jury at Ft. Meade, Md., sentenced Cardona in June to 90
days of hard labor with no prison time. He was convicted of using his
dog to threaten a former Baath Party member at the prison. At the time
a sergeant, he also was reduced in rank, given a pay cut and ordered
to give up $600 a month for a year. He was one of 11 soldiers
convicted of crimes related to prisoner abuse at the prison in late
2003 and early 2004.

He was convicted of dereliction of duty and aggravated assault after
he was accused of letting his shepherd dog bark inches from the face
of a prisoner kneeling in front of him.

11) Too Soon To Rule Out Amnesty
It Might Help in Iraq
Dale Andrade, U.S. Army historian, Washington Post, Friday, November
3, 2006; A21
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/11/02/AR2006110201600.html
When Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki took office in May, he spoke
of reconciliation between Sunnis and Shiites. Five months later, as
the country tumbles deeper into the abyss of sectarian violence, that
seems increasingly unlikely. National security adviser Stephen J.
Hadley traveled to Baghdad this week in hopes of working out some sort
of solution to the parade of kidnappings, assassinations and bombings.
One of the items likely to be on the agenda is an amnesty program - a
proposal brought up this past summer but quickly killed by objections
from all sides.

Shiites oppose granting amnesty to those responsible for repression
under Saddam Hussein and killings by Sunni gangs after his overthrow.
Sunnis want to exclude Shiites involved in local religious militias.
And U.S. officials have resisted amnesty for Iraqis who killed
American soldiers.

When the Iraqi government first announced an amnesty plan, Sen. Carl
Levin said, "The idea that they should even consider talking about
amnesty for people who have killed people who liberated their country
is unconscionable." The result of all this is sure to be a very fuzzy
definition of who is eligible for amnesty. "The fighter who did not
kill anyone will be included in the amnesty," Maliki said in an
interview in May, "but the fighter who killed someone will not be."
Whom does that leave?

It's natural to balk at the idea of giving bloodthirsty terrorists a
free pass, but the key question is this: Will an amnesty program
weaken the insurgency and reduce the violence? Probably not in the
short term, but most successful counterinsurgency campaigns have
included some sort of amnesty along the path toward peace.

Israel
12) Israel Kills 2 Women During Mosque Siege
Greg Myre, New York Times, November 3, 2006
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/03/world/middleeast/04mideastcnd.html
Israeli troops fired at a large crowd of unarmed Palestinian women in
the Gaza Strip today as the women approached a mosque to help
Palestinian militants holed up inside. Two women were killed and about
10 were injured, according to hospital workers. The shooting provoked
widespread outrage among Palestinians.

The Israeli military said its fire was directed at Palestinian gunmen
who were hiding among the women as they marched toward the Um al-Nasir
mosque in Beit Hanun, the town in the northeastern Gaza Strip where
Israeli troops and militants have been battling for the past three
days. The Israelis said eight militants were shot, and that they were
not aware that women were hit, but were investigating.

Ismail Haniya, the Palestinian prime minister, angrily called on the
international community to "come here and witness the daily massacres
that are being carried out against the Palestinian nation." Haniya
also praised the women "who led the protest to break the siege of Beit
Hanun."

The shooting, which was captured by television cameras, was the most
dramatic episode so far in the fighting in Beit Hanun. Israeli forces
entered the town early on Wednesday in an attempt to stop Palestinian
militants from firing rockets from the area into Israel. As Israeli
forces pursued the militants in the town on Thursday, an estimated 60
gunmen dashed inside the Um al-Nasir mosque, initiating a standoff
that lasted through the night.

Early this morning, a Palestinian radio station called on women in the
town to march to the mosque and support the gunmen inside. A short
time later, hundreds of women, dressed in flowing black abayas and
wearing head scarves, headed to the the scene.

As they approached the mosque, shots rang out, but the women continued
marching. A moment later, a number of women were hit, and the crowd
scattered. Some of the wailing women turning back, while others kept
advancing toward the mosque, climbing over improvised dirt barriers
set up by the Israeli forces. "We heard the call for women to help the
fighters, and we decided to go," said Mona Abu Jasir, 37, who was hit
by a bullet in the right leg. "We had no weapons, and we were walking
toward the mosque when I was shot."

Afghanistan
13) Opium Production Appears Near Record High
Jason Straziuso, Associated Press, Thursday, November 2, 2006; 3:31 PM
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/11/02/AR2006110200776.html
Afghan farmers now planting opium poppies will probably reap a harvest
comparable to this year's record crop, in part because insurgents are
preventing effective counter-narcotics work, officials said Thursday.
Planting is under way in southern regions responsible for the bulk of
the estimated 6,100 tons of Afghan opium produced in the 2005-06
growing season. Anti-drug officials say that despite anti-cultivation
campaigns, they foresee little improvement by harvest time next
spring.
	
Drug production has skyrocketed since a U.S.-led offensive toppled the
Taliban regime five years ago for giving refuge to Osama bin Laden and
al-Qaida camps. Last spring's poppy harvest accounted for 92 percent
of the global opium supply and was enough to make 610 tons of heroin -
more than all the world's addicts consume in a year.

Police and government officials are deeply implicated in the trade,
which adds to the corruption and lawlessness threatening Afghanistan's
fledgling democracy. Taliban militiamen had all but eradicated opium
cultivation by 2000 but now profit from it, protecting poppy farmers.

Mexico
14) Protesters in Oaxaca Make Police Retreat
Associated Press, November 3, 2006, Filed at 11:34 a.m. ET
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/world/AP-Mexico-Oaxaca-Unrest.html
Protesters besieging Oaxaca City forced federal police to retreat from
the gates of the state university after six hours of pitched fighting
and the rector's call for an end to the government "attack." The clash
Thursday occurred at the entrance to the university, which protesters
demanding the ouster of the Oaxaca state governor have used as their
headquarters since police drove them from the city's picturesque
central plaza on Sunday. Police control in other areas of the city
remained spotty.

Reverberations from the ongoing fight in Oaxaca city - seized five
months ago by a coalition of striking teachers and leftist protesters
- also reached Mexico City, where sympathizers temporarily blocked
some downtown streets to demand police withdraw from Oaxaca.

In Oaxaca City, about 200 police wearing body armor and carrying riot
shields advanced to the university gates and fought the protesters for
more than six hours before retreating. The retreat left protesters
claiming victory and pledging to re-establish barricades that had been
dismantled in previous days.

Under Mexican law, the university rector must give the police
permission to enter. Rector Francisco Martinez, speaking on the
university radio station controlled by the protesters, called the
operation an "attack" and demanded police withdraw.

North Korea
15) Carter Says Claim That North Korea Cheated 'Completely False'
Judy Mathewson, Bloomberg, Friday, November 3, 2006
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines06/1103-07.htm
The Bush administration claim that North Korea cheated or reneged on a
1994 agreement with the U.S. to freeze its nuclear program is
"completely false and ridiculous," former President Carter said.
Carter, who helped broker the agreement with the North Koreans on
behalf of then-President Clinton, said the pact was "observed pretty
well by both sides" for eight years.

"It lasted until 2002 when the US in effect abandoned that agreement
and branded North Korea as an axis of evil," Carter said in an
interview to be broadcast this weekend. Carter also said the U.S.
further undermined the agreement by condemning summit meetings that
took place in 2000 between North Korea and South Korea.

President Bush said on Oct. 11, two days after North Korea tested a
nuclear bomb, that the 1994 agreement "just didn't work." Secretary of
State Rice on Oct. 10 said the North Koreans "cheated" on that
agreement. Bush and Rice also said such a history justified the
administration's refusal to talk directly with North Korea and instead
urged the Asian nation to return to six-nation disarmament talks.

North Korea said Oct. 31 it will rejoin that six-country forum if the
U.S. agrees to discuss lifting financial sanctions imposed last year.

It's wrong to say that North Korea cheated on the 1994 agreement,
Carter said. Under Clinton, North Korea agreed to bring back
international atomic inspectors, freeze its nuclear program and put
its spent fuel rods in cold storage, he said.

Carter, the 2002 winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, called for direct
U.S.-North Korea talks, though he said they would probably have to be
arranged discreetly at the six-party negotiations.

To arrange talks between just the U.S. and North Korea at a separate
forum "would result in too much loss of face by the current
administration, but they could do it under the aegis of the umbrella
of the so-called six-power talks, assembled with a secret, private,
unpublicized agreement by the North Koreans in advance," Carter said.
The Bush administration has said that bilateral conversations with
North Korea have already taken place at the six-party talks and can
again.

-
Robert Naiman
Just Foreign Policy
www.justforeignpolicy.org

Just Foreign Policy is a membership organization devoted to reforming
U.S. foreign policy so it reflects the values and interests of the
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