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

[Robert Naiman]

Just Foreign Policy News
October 3, 2006
http://www.justforeignpolicy.org/newsroom/index.html

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Summary:
U.S.
The New York Times has refused to publish a correction of its false
reporting that Venezuelan President Chavez said that Noam Chomsky had died.
The Times reported Sept. 21 that Chavez said he regretted not having met
Chomsky before his death. As Just Foreign Policy noted in a letter to the
Times, a report by Reuters contradicted the Times account, reporting that
Chavez expressed his regrets about not having met American economist John
Kenneth Galbraith. A report on the web carries footage of the press
conference.  The failure of the Times to print a timely and forthright
correction recalls its promulgation of the myth that Iran's President
Ahmedinijad called for Israel to be "wiped off the map." Despite being
called to account by Persian scholars for its mistranslation of
Ahmedinijad's remarks, the Times has never published a correction, although
it has since seemed to acknowledge that its translation was controversial.

A review of White House records has determined that CIA director Tenet did
brief Condoleezza Rice and other top officials on July 10, 2001, about the
looming threat from Al Qaeda, a State Department spokesman said Monday. When
details of the meeting emerged last week in a book by Bob Woodward,
administration officials questioned Woodward's reporting.

In reporting on Secretary Rice's trip to the Middle East, the Washington
Post characterizes the motivations of U.S. policymakers in terms remarkably
similar to those used by Iranian officials. The purpose of holding a meeting
on Iran's nuclear program, the Post reports, is "to emphasize the growing
gap between moderates and militants, " suggesting that the key motivation of
U.S. policymakers is to contain Iran politically and reduce the influence of
its allies, and the discussion of Iran's nuclear program is chiefly a "wedge
issue."

Iran
A top Iranian nuclear official proposed Tuesday that France create a
consortium to enrich uranium in Iran, saying that could satisfy
international demands for outside oversight of Tehran's nuclear program.
French officials distanced themselves from the idea.

The Iranian vacation island of Kish is a place where sexes mix and music
flows, and where women let slip their head scarves and frolic with their
husbands on the gleaming sands, the New York Times reports.

Iraq
Faced with unrelenting sectarian killings, Prime Minister Maliki announced a
new security plan. Details were vague, and it was not clear how effective it
would be in the face of recent unsuccessful attempts to quell the violence,
the Times reports.

Palestine
The Hamas government has been unable to pay salaries or govern effectively
because the US and the EU have cut off aid funds, and Israel has refused to
turn over customs and other fees that it collects for the Palestinians, the
Times reports. This report much more accurately describes the revenues being
withheld by Israel than the recent reporting by Steven Erlanger in the
Times.

Egypt
Some estimates of the informal sector in Egypt place its share of the
economy as high as 60%, the Times reports.

Afghanistan
In a stunning critique of the Bush Administration's policy in Afghanistan,
Senate Majority Leader Frist called for bringing Taliban supporters into the
government, saying he had learned from briefings that Taliban fighters were
too numerous and had too much popular support to be defeated on the
battlefield.

Turkey
In Turkey, even after the protest has died out elsewhere, the pope's remarks
about Islam remain headline news, the Times reports. The pope is scheduled
to visit Turkey in November.

India
The New York Times is running a series about problems of access to water in
India. The Times fails to mention the role of U.S. corporations in the
issue, although the role of the Coca-Cola company has spurred successful
efforts by student groups and labor unions to drive Coke off college
campuses in the U.S.

Brazil
Lula faces a difficult battle for re-election in the second round of voting,
the Times reports. The headline suggests that recent scandals have
threatened Lula's base, although the article doesn't address this issue at
all.

Venezuela
Robert Collier reported yesterday in the San Francisco Chronicle that
Venezuela is spending billions of dollars on anti-poverty programs, in what
may be the largest such effort in a developing nation, and is handing a
large degree of authority over these spending programs to thousands of
elected local councils.

Contents:
U.S.
1) New York Times Refuses to Print Correction of Misreporting on Chavez
Despite repeated requests from Just Foreign Policy and other organizations,
the New York Times has refused to publish a correction of its false
reporting that Venezuelan President Chavez said that Noam Chomsky had died.
The Times reported Sept. 21 that Chavez said he regretted not having met
Chomsky before his death. As Just Foreign Policy noted in a letter to the
Times, a report by Reuters contradicted the Times account, reporting that
Chavez expressed his regrets about not having met American economist John
Kenneth Galbraith. A report on Venezuelan television now carries footage of
the press conference (Spanish.) The URL is
http://www.aporrea.org/medios/n84253.html. The video shows Chavez saying:
[S]oy un lector asiduo de Noam Chomsky, como lo he sido de un norteamericano
profesor que murió hace poco, lamentablemente no pude conocerlo, chica, yo
sí traté de conocer a ese hombre, pero ya estaba un poco deteriorado,
noventa años tenía, John Kenneth Galbraith." AP translated Chavez's comments
as: "I am a fervent reader of Noam Chomsky like I've been of a North
American professor who died a little while ago. Unfortunately, I never was
able to meet him. I tried to meet this man, but he was already a little
deteriorated at 90 years of age, John K. Galbraith."
The refusal of the Times to print timely and forthright corrections is a
source of widespread harm in U.S. press coverage, since other papers follow
the Times. For example, many newspapers report routinely as a matter of
known fact that Iranian President Ahmedinijad threatened to "wipe Israel off
the map" even though Ahmedinijad never said these words. The New York Times
is the original source of the mistranslation of Ahmedinijad's remarks from
Persian. It has since backed away from this claim, acknowledging that its
translation is disputed by Persian scholars such as Juan Cole, but because
it did not do so in a timely and forthright way, the claim continues to
appear in papers which may not be aware that the Times is the original
source of the claim or that the Times has subsequently backed away from it.

2) C.I.A. Chief Warned Rice on Al Qaeda
Philip Shenon & Mark Mazzetti, New York Times, October 3, 2006
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/03/washington/03rivals.html
A review of White House records has determined that George Tenet, then
director of central intelligence, did brief Condoleezza Rice and other top
officials on July 10, 2001, about the looming threat from Al Qaeda, a State
Department spokesman said Monday. The account by the spokesman, Sean
McCormack, came hours after Rice, the secretary of state, told reporters she
did not recall the specific meeting on July 10, noting that she had met
repeatedly with Tenet that summer about terrorist threats. Rice, the
national security adviser at the time, said it was "incomprehensible" to
suggest she had ignored dire terrorist threats two months before the Sept.
11 attacks.

When details of the meeting emerged last week in a new book by Bob Woodward
of The Washington Post, Bush administration officials questioned Woodward's
reporting. Now, after several days, both current and former Bush
administration officials have confirmed parts of Woodward's account.
Officials now agree that on July 10, 2001, Tenet and his counterterrorism
deputy, J. Cofer Black, were so alarmed about intelligence pointing to an
impending attack by Al Qaeda that they demanded an emergency meeting at the
White House with Rice and her National Security Council staff.

3) Rice Meets With Saudi King on Trip to Rally Arab Allies
In Wake of Lebanon War, Secretary of State Looks to Stabilize Middle East,
Counter Momentum of Militant Movements
Robin Wright, Washington Post, Tuesday, October 3, 2006; A06
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/02/AR2006100201291.html
Secretary of State Rice held midnight talks with Saudi Arabia's King
Abdullah on Monday on the first leg of a five-day swing through the Middle
East to rally Arab allies against the growing momentum of militant movements
in the region. Many analysts believe the sixth Middle East war at least
temporarily boosted the standing of Hezbollah as well as its patron Iran and
allies such as the radical Palestinian group Hamas.

To emphasize the growing gap between moderates and militants, Rice may hold
talks on Iran on Friday with the foreign ministers of the five permanent
members of the U.N. Security Council plus Germany. The subject will be what
actions to take against Tehran for failing to comply with a U.N. resolution
to stop uranium enrichment for an energy program that could be used to
develop nuclear weapons.

[What this article seems to be saying is quite striking. The purpose of
holding a meeting on Friday about Iran's nuclear program is not in fact to
do anything about Iran's nuclear program but "to emphasize the growing gap
between moderates and militants." This suggests that the central motivation
of U.S. policymakers is to contain Iran politically and reduce the influence
of its allies, and the discussion of Iran's nuclear program is chiefly a
"wedge issue." This view of U.S. motivations is strikingly similar to that
expressed by Iranian officials. - JFP]

Iran
4) Iran Asks France to Oversee Enrichment
Associated Press, October 3, 2006, Filed at 10:00 a.m. ET
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/world/AP-Iran-Nuclear.html
A top Iranian nuclear official proposed Tuesday that France create a
consortium to enrich uranium in Iran, saying that could satisfy
international demands for outside oversight of Tehran's nuclear program.
French officials distanced themselves from the idea.

Mohammad Saeedi, deputy chief of Iran's Atomic Energy Organization, made the
proposal in an interview with French radio in Tehran, suggesting that
France's state-controlled nuclear company and one of its subsidiaries be
partners in the consortium.

French Foreign Ministry spokesman Jean-Baptiste Mattei said he was surprised
by the idea, which he called ''totally new for us.'' Mattei said any
proposals should wait until negotiations are under way and emphasized that
the current priority was talks between Iranian nuclear negotiator Ali
Larijani and EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana.

Solana gave a cautious response to the proposal, saying the idea of a
consortium had long been discussed in his talks with Larijani. ''It's an
idea that was talked about lightly, maybe now we can talk about it more
seriously,'' he said.

5) Iran Island Defies Nation's Conservatism
Associated Press, October 2, 2006, Filed at 4:25 p.m. ET
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/world/AP-Iran-Liberal-Bastion.html
This coral-rimmed vacation island is a place where the sexes mix and the
music flows, and where women let slip their head scarves and frolic with
their husbands on the gleaming sands. Although island authorities draw the
line at booze and bikinis, Kish remains a haven of freedom in the Islamic
republic. Lately Kish has lost a few freedoms. It used to boast of beaches
for foreign tourists where women could bathe in bikinis alongside men. Those
beaches proved too racy and were shut down.

Here in the Persian Gulf, 10 miles off Iran's mainland and 600 miles south
of Tehran, a woman can ride a bike with her arms bared, hair uncovered and
jeans rolled up to the calves. Women go bowling with men, they snorkel and
race around on speedy personal watercraft and cheer dolphin acrobatics at a
Sea World-style amusement park. And, although it's not really permitted, men
and women frolic together on the beach.

Iraq
6) Iraqi Leader Unveils New Security Plan Amid Rising Violence
Richard A. Oppel Jr. & Qais Mizher, New York Times, October 3, 2006
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/03/world/middleeast/03iraq.html
Faced with unrelenting sectarian killings and growing anger from Sunni Arab
leaders, Prime Minister Maliki announced a new security plan on Monday that
calls for committees of neighborhood leaders to try to defuse sectarian
crises in their own areas and also for new supervision of the news media.
But details of the plan were vague, and it was not clear how effective it
would be in the face of recent unsuccessful attempts, through both political
and military initiatives, to quell the sectarian violence and growing
militia dominance that have pushed the country to the verge of civil war.
[Note that the use of the cautious phrase "verge of civil war" puts the New
York Times outside the maintstream of US public opinion, as recent poll data
indicates 2/3 of Americans believe there is a civil war already. -JFP]

News of the plan came amid brazen sectarian abductions and killings in the
past two days that have enraged Sunni legislators, some of whom accused
Shiite lawmakers of focusing their efforts against Sunni militants while
ignoring and even empowering Shiite militiamen. The past few days have been
one of the deadliest stretches for coalition forces in months, as the
military reported the deaths of 10 more American and British servicemen
since Saturday. At least 13 troops have been killed in the past three days.

The 10 newly reported deaths included five marines killed in Anbar Province,
three of them in enemy attacks, one in a vehicle accident Sunday and one in
an attack Saturday. Three soldiers were killed in Baghdad on Monday by
small-arms fire, and another died Sunday after his vehicle was struck by a
roadside bomb.

Palestine
7) 2 Killed as Palestinian Factions Clash for 2nd Day
Greg Myre, New York Times, October 3, 2006
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/03/world/middleeast/03mideast.html
The Hamas government has been unable to pay salaries or govern effectively
because the United States and the European Union, regarding Hamas as a
terrorist group, have taken steps to cut off aid funds, and Israel has
refused to turn over customs and other fees that it collects for the
Palestinians. [This much more accurately describes the revenues being
withheld by Israel than the recent reporting by Steven Erlanger in the
Times. Note that it would not be an option for the Palestinian Authority to
collect these duties itself, since the flow of goods is under the control of
the Israeli government. It is not even an option for the duties not be to
collected at all. The Israeli government levies the same duties on goods
purchased by Palestinian residents of the occupied territories as it levies
on its own citizens. By legal agreement, the revenues collected from
Palestinians are supposed to be turned over to the Palestinian Authority. It
is this agreement that the Israeli government has violated since the
election of Hamas, with the acquiescence of the Bush Administration and the
European Union. -JFP]

Egypt
8) A Hand on the Ladle, and an Eye Out for the Law
Michael Slackman, New York Times, October 3, 2006
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/03/world/africa/03cairo.html
Salem sells ful, the fava bean stew that is a staple of Egyptian cuisine, as
a cheap, hearty breakfast for just 20 cents. But he is an unlicensed street
vendor, one of the many hundreds of thousands of Egyptians who make their
living in Egypt's informal sector: selling, delivering, cooking, cleaning,
serving, ferrying, shoeshining, anything that will provide income. Rashad
Abdou, professor of economics at Cairo University, estimated the informal
sector might account for as much as 60 percent of Egypt's economy.
"As long as I keep a low profile, they don't bother me," Salem said. The
police have forced him to move many times and have even confiscated his
cart. But it is hard to keep a really low profile when the food is good and
the prices are cheap.

Afghanistan
9) Frist: Taliban Should Be in Afghan Gov't
Associated Press, October 2, 2006, Filed at 9:18 p.m. ET
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/world/AP-Afghanistan-Frist.html
Senate Majority Leader Frist said Monday that the Afghan war against Taliban
guerrillas can never be won militarily and urged support for efforts to
bring ''people who call themselves Taliban'' and their allies into the
government. The Tennessee Republican said he learned from briefings that
Taliban fighters were too numerous and had too much popular support to be
defeated on the battlefield.

''You need to bring them into a more transparent type of government,'' Frist
said during a visit to a base in the southern Taliban stronghold of Qalat.
''And if that's accomplished, we'll be successful.'' Afghanistan is
suffering its heaviest insurgent attacks since a U.S.-led military force
toppled the Taliban in 2001. According to an AP count, based on reports from
U.S., NATO and Afghan officials, at least 2,800 people have been killed
nationwide so far this year. The count, which includes militants and
civilians, is about 1,300 more than the toll for all of 2005.

10) After Afghan Battle, a Harder Fight for Peace
Carlotta Gall, New York Times, October 3, 2006
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/03/world/asia/03afghan.html
NATO forces scored one of their biggest victories here in ferocious fighting
in September, flushing out an area of southern Afghanistan that had been
swarming with Taliban insurgents. But almost immediately a new and more
difficult battle began - for support of the local people. Villagers
trickling back to their homes broke into an argument over who was to blame
for the heavy destruction, NATO or the Taliban.

"My house was bombarded and my grape store destroyed," said a farmer from
the upper part of Pashmul. "The coalition forces are cruel, without reason.
There were no Taliban in our house. Why did they bombard the house?" Another
man countered: "Why did you let the Taliban come to your village?" Most
villagers here said they opposed the Taliban but had been powerless to stop
the groups of armed men who moved into the area over recent months.

Turkey
11) A Coming Papal Visit Focuses Anger Among the Turks
Ian Fisher, New York Times, October 3, 2006
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/03/world/europe/03turkey.html
Benedict XVI is coming to this overwhelmingly Muslim country in late
November primarily to meet the Orthodox patriarch, who lives in Istanbul.
Benedict was far from loved here even before his speech in Germany two weeks
ago quoting a medieval commentator who called aspects of Islam "evil and
inhuman." But his visit, and the book, play on one of Turkey's deepest
fears: that the secular and unified Turkish state could begin to dissolve if
the Orthodox patriarchate tries to become a sort of Vatican, a state within
a state. In Turkey, even after the protest has died out elsewhere, the
pope's remarks remain headline news.

The pope apparently did not grasp fully that his words would hit Turkey even
harder than those other Muslim countries where the reaction was violent. The
anger in this nation that uncomfortably bridges West and East - with a
strong recent tug from Islam - is far from over, and not just among the
religious. His words, secularists, government officials and religious
figures agree, hit spots already bruised. And so his visit is likely to be a
flash point for a broad array of issues, from relations between Muslims and
Christians, and Turkey's aspirations to join the EU, to the tense and
difficult local question of the nation's minorities, including the fewer
than 5,000 Greek Orthodox Christians, who complain that Turkey has yet to
grant them full rights.

India
12) Often Parched, India Struggles to Tap the Monsoon
Somini Sengupta, New York Times, October 1, 2006
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/01/world/asia/01india.html
Every year, India is crippled by floods in some areas, even as it is parched
in blighted corners elsewhere. India's average annual rainfall rate hovers
at an abundant 46 inches, as much as Ireland's. Yet water scarcity threatens
farms and cities. With the population hitting 1.1 billion, the water
available to each Indian is roughly the amount available to the average
Sudanese. India's rains tend to come in short, furious bursts, meaning that
much of that water escapes as untapped potential, washing into the sea and
wreaking havoc on the fragile villages and flourishing cities that stand in
its way. India is likely to become even more vulnerable, environmentalists
warn. Global climate change threatens to make weather patterns even more
erratic. Steadily shrinking Himalayan glaciers will inexorably melt and rush
down the flood plains. [This is the 2nd of a 3 part series the Times is
doing on water problems in India. So far the Times has not mentioned the
contribution of U.S. corporations to the problem. See
http://www.indiaresource.org/ on the role of Coca-Cola. -JFP]

Brazil
13) In Brazil Balloting, Leader Finds His Base May Turn to Sand
Larry Rohter, New York Times, October 3, 2006
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/03/world/americas/03brazil.html
Until the very end, President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva of Brazil was
predicting victory in the first round in his campaign for re-election. He
was wrong, and now faces what promises to be the most dangerous campaign of
his long career. Lula, a former factory worker and labor leader who has been
beleaguered by one scandal after another for nearly two years, polled
48.65percent of the vote in the presidential election on Sunday, short
of the
majority he needed to avoid a runoff on Oct. 29. Lula's campaign advisers
say they want to focus on the economy, which is stable, if growing slowly;
inflation, which has been contained; the minimum wage, which has risen, and
social welfare programs like the Family Allowance. [It's not clear what the
headline writer had in mind - nowhere in the article is the claim addressed
that Lula faces a serious threat to his core base of support among poor
workers. - JFP]

Venezuela
14) Venezuela's Oil Wealth Funds Gusher of Anti-Poverty Projects
Robert Collier, San Francisco Chronicle, Monday, October 2, 2006
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2006/10/02/MNGHQLGL9R1.DTL
Chavez is spending billions of dollars on anti-poverty programs, in what
experts say may amount to the largest such effort in a developing nation.
And in a gamble that turns part of his own government's power structure on
its head, he is handing a large degree of authority over these spending
programs to thousands of elected local councils. The issues in these
neighborhoods are very old fights -- water, land, decent housing," said
Andres Antillano, a professor of social psychology and criminology at the
Central University of Venezuela in Caracas who has been an adviser to many
neighborhood groups. "For many years, the only relationship with the state
was the police. They came here and put everyone against the wall," Antillano
said. "Chavez has chosen to gamble on legitimizing these issues. The
communal councils are a very serious attempt at grassroots organizing."

The government initially budgeted $857 million for social spending in 2006.
But as oil money floods in, officials keep increasing the amount. It now
stands at $7 billion, although many experts view that figure as a
guesstimate of money being spent on the fly. Public works projects are
everywhere, ranging from subway lines in Caracas and Valencia to bridges
over the Orinoco River. New medical clinics -- mostly staffed by Cuban
doctors provided under Chavez's oil aid program to Fidel Castro -- are
within reach of almost everyone in this nation of 25 million people.
Illiteracy, formerly at 10 percent of the population, has been completely
eliminated, and infant mortality has been cut from 21 deaths per 1,000
births to 16 per 1,000.

Another initiative that could change the lives of millions of poor
Venezuelans is a new program aimed at increasing land ownership.Venezuela is
the most urbanized nation in Latin America, with about 86 percent of its
people living in cities, but about one-third of those urban dwellers have no
title to their land. In legal terms they are squatters, and thus cannot
access many government programs. Over the past year, 57 cooperatives of land
surveyors have been formed to scour Caracas' hillside slums, measuring the
sprawling neighborhoods that previously were merely blank spaces on official
maps.

Ivan Martinez, director of the Urban Land Committee titling office for
Caracas, said that more than 200,000 titles had been given out, involving
about 1 million people. "People now can get basic services," he said. "We
can hook them up to water, electricity. We can help rebuild their houses.
It's a huge change."

 --------
Robert Naiman
Just Foreign Policy
www.justforeignpolicy.org

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