[Peace-discuss] Just Foreign Policy News, October 25, 2006

Wed Oct 25 14:26:44 CDT 2006

Just Foreign Policy News
October 25, 2006

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Summary:
U.S./Top News
Writing on Huffington Post, Just Foreign Policy faults the New York
Times and the Washington Post for failing to report that the OAS
election mission in Nicaragua criticized the U.S. for interfering in
the Nicaraguan presidential election.

Former UN chief weapons inspector Hans Blix on Wednesday described the
U.S.-led invasion of Iraq as a "pure failure" that had left the
country worse off than under the rule of Saddam Hussein.

More than 100 U.S. service members have signed a rare appeal urging
Congress to support the "prompt withdrawal" of all American troops and
bases from Iraq, the Washington Post reports.

The top American commander in Iraq said Tuesday that he may call for
more troops to be sent to Baghdad, possibly by increasing the overall
U.S. presence in Iraq, the Washington Post reports.

The British military wants to withdraw troops from Iraq within a year,
and London wants to focus on the war in Afghanistan, a US Defense
Department official said Tuesday. British officials told their
American counterparts that the British military was "near the breaking
point," Reuters reports.

President Bush said today he shares the American public's
dissatisfaction with the situation in Iraq, but he warned against
succumbing to "disillusionment" about the U.S. purpose there, the
Washington Post reports.

Iraqi's Prime Minister criticized the top U.S. military and diplomatic
representatives in Iraq for saying his government needed to set a
timetable to curb violence in the country, AP reports.  At a press
conference Tuesday, Ambassador Khalilzad had said al-Maliki had
agreed. "I affirm that this government represents the will of the
people and no one has the right to impose a timetable on it,"
al-Maliki said.

Overhead costs have consumed more than half the budget of some
reconstruction projects in Iraq, according to a government estimate
released yesterday, the New York Times reports.

Iran
Iran has expanded its controversial nuclear work by starting a second
cascade of centrifuges to enrich uranium, AP reports. The U.S. and its
European allies are circulating a draft U.N. Security Council
resolution that would ban the sale of missile and nuclear technology
to Iran and deny the country certain assistance from the IAEA. China
and Russia are reportedly pushing for continued dialogue with Iran
instead of punishment.

Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Tuesday called for an
end to the bloody sectarian conflict tearing apart Iraq, AP reports.
Hours after Khamenei's speech Gen. Casey lambasted Iran and Syria for
trying to undermine the American effort to stabilize Iraq.

Iraq
In trying to build support for the American strategy in Iraq, Gen.
Casey said the Iraqi military could be expected to take over the
primary responsibility for securing the country within 12 to 18
months, Michael Gordon writes for the New York Times. But given the
rise in sectarian killings, an insurgency that appears as potent as
ever and an Iraqi security establishment that continues to have
difficulties deploying motivated and proficient forces in Baghdad,
Casey's target seems an increasingly heroic assumption.

Israel
Avigdor Lieberman may be Israel's only lawmaker who has called for the
execution of fellow legislators, Greg Myre writes for the New York
Times. Lieberman said he would support the death penalty for Arab
lawmakers who met with Hezbollah or Hamas. Prime Minister Olmert has
invited Lieberman to join the government as a deputy prime minister.
"This is a man who calls for the transfer of Arab citizens out of
Israel, and he is being upgraded," said Ahmad Tibi, an Arab member of
Parliament. "This sends a message to the Arab minority in Israel that
it is legitimate to talk about expelling us from the country."

Afghanistan
An Afghan girl was killed and two other children were wounded when a
NATO mortar hit a house, a NATO spokesman said.

Korea
South Korea has slowly parted ways with the US, its largest ally and
wartime protector, on how to deal with the North, the New York Times
reports. Most South Koreans now appear to believe that their nation
has no choice but to keep building ties with the North, despite the
widespread shock and anger here over its nuclear test.

Contents:
U.S./Top News
1) OAS Criticizes US Interference in Nicaragua's Election, But the New
York Times and the Washington Post Don't Think It's Newsworthy
Robert Naiman, Huffington Post, October 25, 2006
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mark-weisbrot-and-robert-naiman/oas-criticizes-us-interfe_b_32455.html
Last weekend, election monitors from the Organization of American
States criticized the Bush Administration's interference in
Nicaragua's upcoming presidential election.

Here's how you would have known this if you follow mainstream news
sources in the US: if you saw the Reuters story on Yahoo News.

Here's how you wouldn't have known it: from reading the New York Times
or the Washington Post, even on their web sites, even though they both
subscribe to Reuters, and carry lots of Reuters articles on their web
sites.

2) Iraqis Were Better Off Under Saddam, Says Former Weapons Inspector
Associated Press, Wednesday, October 25, 2006
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines06/1025-01.htm
Former UN chief weapons inspector Hans Blix on Wednesday described the
U.S.-led invasion of Iraq as a "pure failure" that had left the
country worse off than under the dictatorial rule of Saddam Hussein.
In comments to Danish newspaper Politiken, he said the U.S. government
had ended up in a situation in which neither staying nor leaving Iraq
were good options.

"Iraq is a pure failure," Blix was quoted as saying. "If the Americans
pull out, there is a risk that they will leave a country in civil war.
At the same time it doesn't seem that the US can help to stabilize the
situation by staying there." War-related violence in Iraq has grown
worse with dozens of civilians, government officials and police and
security forces being killed every day. At least 83 American soldiers
have been killed in October - the highest monthly toll this year.

Blix said the situation would have been better if the war had not
taken place. "Saddam would still have been sitting in office. OK, that
is negative and it would not have been joyful for the Iraqi people.
But what we have gotten is undoubtedly worse," he was quoted as
saying.

Blix led the UN inspectors that searched for weapons of mass
destruction in Iraq before the U.S.-led invasion in 2003. He came
under heavy fire from Washington when he urged U.S. President George
W. Bush to allow the weapons inspectors and the IAEA to continue their
work as a way to stave off a war. Ultimately a U.S.-led coalition
invaded Iraq and no weapons of mass destruction were found.

3) Grass-Roots Group of Troops Petitions Congress for Pullout From Iraq
Ann Scott Tyson, Washington Post, Wednesday, October 25, 2006; A13
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/24/AR2006102401154.html
More than 100 U.S. service members have signed a rare appeal urging
Congress to support the "prompt withdrawal" of all American troops and
bases from Iraq, organizers said yesterday. "Staying in Iraq will not
work and is not worth the price. It is time for U.S. troops to come
home," reads the statement of a group of active-duty military
personnel and reservists.

"As a patriotic American proud to serve the nation in uniform, I
respectfully urge my political leaders in Congress to support the
prompt withdrawal of American military forces and bases from Iraq," it
reads. The group, which aims to collect 2,000 signatures and deliver
the "Appeal for Redress" to Congress in January, is sponsored by
antiwar activists including Iraq Veterans Against the War, Veterans
for Peace and Military Families Speak Out.
(http://www.appealforredress.org/)

The unusual appeal -- the first of its kind in the Iraq war,
organizers say -- makes use of a legal protection afforded by the
Military Whistle-Blower Protection Act, which provides that members of
the military, acting in their capacity as citizens, can send a
protected communication to Congress without reprisal.

4) More U.S. Troops May Be Iraq-Bound
Bigger Force Among Options, Commander Says, Citing Baghdad Violence
Ellen Knickmeyer, Washington Post, Wednesday, October 25, 2006; A01
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/24/AR2006102400171.html
The top American commander in Iraq said Tuesday that he may call for
more troops to be sent to Baghdad, possibly by increasing the overall
U.S. presence in Iraq, as rising bloodshed pushes Iraqi and American
deaths to some of their highest levels of the war. The commander, Gen.
George Casey, said he now believed Iraqi forces would be ready to take
over security responsibility from the Americans no sooner than late
2007 or early 2008. The announcement of a 12- to 18-month target again
pushes back the withdrawal of the bulk of the 145,000 or so U.S.
troops in Iraq.

Casey spoke alongside U.S. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad at a news
conference in Baghdad's Green Zone, aiming to show that U.S. and Iraqi
leaders were confronting surging sectarian violence. Both men
acknowledged that both the course and nature of the war have changed
this year, as Iraq's Shiite Muslim majority and Sunni minority battle
for power, resources and, lately, survival.

Casey said later that any additional troops for Baghdad could come
from a variety of sources, including from the Iraqi military, from
U.S. forces elsewhere in Iraq or from outside the theater.

5) Britain Hints at Iraq Pullout, U.S. Official Says
Reuters, October 25, 2006
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/25/world/middleeast/25troops.html
The British military wants to withdraw troops from Iraq within a year,
and London wants to focus on the war in Afghanistan, a US Defense
Department official said Tuesday. British officials told their
American counterparts that the British military was "near the breaking
point" because of long deployments in Iraq and weak retention of
personnel, said the official, who asked not to be identified.

The comments offered a hint that Britain's military may have a
timetable for withdrawal in mind. "It's about a year, give or take a
few months," the official said.

6) Bush Acknowledges U.S. Concern on Iraq
William Branigin,Washington Post, Wednesday, October 25, 2006; 1:02 PM
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/25/AR2006102500342.html
President Bush said today he shares the American public's
dissatisfaction with the situation in Iraq, but he warned against
succumbing to "disillusionment" about the U.S. purpose there and
expressed confidence in both Iraq's prime minister and his own defense
secretary. Bush sought to portray his administration as sticking to
the same basic strategy while remaining flexible and adjusting tactics
to deal with an adaptive enemy.

7) Iraqi Prime Minister Disavows Timetable
Associated Press, October 25, 2006, Filed at 12:46 p.m. ET
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/world/AP-Iraq.html
U.S. and Iraqi forces raided the stronghold of a Shiite militia led by
a radical anti-American cleric in search of a death squad leader in an
operation disavowed by Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki. Al-Maliki, who
relies on political support from the cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, said the
strike against a figure in al-Sadr's Mahdi militia in Sadr City "will
not be repeated."

The defiant al-Maliki also slammed the top U.S. military and
diplomatic representatives in Iraq for saying his government needed to
set a timetable to curb violence in the country. At a news conference
Tuesday, U.S. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad said al-Maliki had agreed.
"I affirm that this government represents the will of the people and
no one has the right to impose a timetable on it," al-Maliki said at a
news conference.

The prime minister dismissed U.S. talk of timelines as driven by the
upcoming midterm elections in the US. "I am positive that this is not
the official policy of the American government but rather a result of
the ongoing election campaign. And that does not concern us much," he
said.

8) Idle Contractors Add Millions to Iraq Rebuilding
James Glanz, New York Times, October 25, 2006
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/25/world/middleeast/25reconstruct.html
Overhead costs have consumed more than half the budget of some
reconstruction projects in Iraq, according to a government estimate
released yesterday, leaving far less money than expected to provide
the oil, water and electricity needed to improve the lives of Iraqis.
The report provided the first official estimate that, in some cases,
more money was being spent on housing and feeding employees,
completing paperwork and providing security than on actual
construction.

Those overhead costs have ranged from under 20 percent to as much as
55 percent of the budgets, according to the report, by the Special
Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction. On similar projects in the
US, those costs generally run to a few percent. The highest proportion
of overhead was incurred in oil-facility contracts won by KBR Inc.,
the Halliburton subsidiary formerly known as Kellogg Brown & Root,
which has frequently been challenged by critics in Congress and
elsewhere.

The actual costs for many projects could be even higher than the
estimates, the report said, because the US has not properly tracked
how much such expenses have taken from the $18.4 billion of
taxpayer-financed reconstruction approved by Congress two years ago.
The report said the prime reason was not the need to provide security,
though those costs have clearly risen in the perilous environment, and
are a burden that both contractors and American officials routinely
blame for such increases.

Instead, the inspector general pointed to a simple bureaucratic flaw:
the US ordered the contractors and their equipment to Iraq and then
let them sit idle for months at a time. The delay between
"mobilization," or assembling the teams in Iraq, and the start of
actual construction was as long as nine months.

"The government blew the whistle for these guys to go to Iraq and the
meter ran," said Jim Mitchell, a spokesman for the inspector general's
office. "The government was billed for sometimes nine months before
work began."

Iran
9) Iran Starts Second Series of Centrifuges
Associated Press, October 25, 2006, Filed at 12:52 p.m. ET
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/world/AP-Iran-Nuclear.html
Iran has expanded its controversial nuclear work by starting a second
cascade of centrifuges to enrich uranium, a semiofficial news agency
reported Wednesday. The news came as world powers moved toward
introducing a draft resolution in the U.N. Security Council that would
impose limited sanctions on Iran because of its refusal to cease
enrichment.

The Iranian Students News Agency quoted an anonymous official
Wednesday as saying that Iran had started a second cascade of
centrifuges two weeks ago and that "gas will be injected into the
cascade during the current week." "We will exploit the new product
from the injection," ISNA quoted the official as saying, meaning that
Iran would use the enriched uranium obtained by inserting gas into the
centrifuges.

Diplomats in Vienna said this week that Iran has started its second
cascade of centrifuges in Natanz. The move violates a resolution of
the International Atomic Energy Agency, a U.N. watchdog group that has
required that Iran cease all enrichment-related activity.

The U.S. and its European allies are circulating a draft U.N. Security
Council resolution that would ban the sale of missile and nuclear
technology to Iran and deny the country certain assistance from the
IAEA. China and Russia, which can veto Security Council resolutions,
are reportedly pushing for continued dialogue with Iran instead of
punishment.

In Washington, President Bush said Wednesday that more talks aren't
possible until Iran agrees to suspend uranium enrichment. "If they
would verifiably stop their enrichment, the US would be at the table
with them," he said.

Iran produced a small batch of enriched uranium in February from a
cascade of 164 centrifuges at its nuclear plant at Natanz in central
Iran. Iran says it plans to install 3,000 centrifuges at Natanz by the
end of this year. Production of enough uranium to fuel a reactor would
require 54,000 centrifuges. Although Iran is nowhere near that goal,
its successful operation of more cascades of centrifuges indicates the
country is gradually mastering the complexities of producing enriched
uranium.

10) Iran's Supreme Leader Seeks Calm in Iraq
Associated Press, October 24, 2006, Filed at 4:31 p.m. ET
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/world/AP-Iran-Iraq.html
Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Tuesday called for an
end to the bloody sectarian conflict tearing apart neighboring Iraq.
"The Iraqi people should do everything to avoid sectarian conflict,"
Khamenei told a crowd of thousands, including senior government
officials, ringing in the first day of the Eid al-Fitr holiday at a
mosque in Tehran. Iraq's Shiite Muslim-led government has maintained
close ties with Washington, as well as Shiite-dominated Iran since the
fall of Saddam Hussein's overwhelmingly Sunni Arab regime.

Iraq teeters on the brink of civil war with Sunni and Shiite factions
launching daily attacks against each other and carrying out reprisal
killings. The violence has displaced thousands of Iraqis, turning
once-mixed neighborhoods into ethnic enclaves.
Many Iraqis believe Tehran has played a role in the unrest since Iran
has ties to Iraq's largest Shiite political parties and their
militias. That view was echoed hours after Khamenei's speech when Gen.
George Casey, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, lambasted Iran and Syria
for trying to undermine the American effort to stabilize Iraq. Casey
said both countries had been "decidedly unhelpful."

Iraq
11) Iraqi Realities Undermine the Pentagon's Predictions
Michael R. Gordon, New York Times, October 25, 2006
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/25/world/middleeast/25assess.html
In trying to build support for the American strategy in Iraq, Gen.
George Casey said Tuesday that the Iraqi military could be expected to
take over the primary responsibility for securing the country within
12 to 18 months. But that laudable goal seems far removed from the
violence-plagued streets of Iraq's capital, where American forces have
taken the lead in trying to protect the city and American soldiers
substantially outnumber Iraqi ones.

Given the rise in sectarian killings, a Sunni-based insurgency that
appears to be as potent as ever and an Iraqi security establishment
that continues to have difficulties deploying sufficient numbers of
motivated and proficient forces in Baghdad, General Casey's target
seems to be an increasingly heroic assumption.

On paper, Iraq has substantial security forces. The Pentagon noted in
an August report to Congress that Iraq had more than 277,000 troops
and police officers, including some 115,000 army combat soldiers. But
those figures, which have often been cited at Pentagon news
conferences as an indicator of progress and a potential exit strategy
for American troops, paint a distorted picture. When the deep-seated
reluctance of many soldiers to serve outside their home regions,
leaves of absence and AWOL rates are taken into account, only a
portion of the Iraqi Army is readily available for duty in Baghdad and
other hot spots.

The fact that the Ministry of Defense has sent only two of the six
additional battalions that American commanders have requested for
Baghdad speaks volumes about the difficulty the Iraqi government has
encountered in fielding a professional military. The four battalions
that American commanders are still waiting for is equivalent to 2,800
soldiers, hardly a large commitment in the abstract but one that the
Iraqis are still struggling to meet.

Israel
12) New Voice on Right in Israeli Cabinet Is Likely to Be Loud
Greg Myre, New York Times, October 25, 2006
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/25/world/middleeast/25lieberman.html
Israel's Parliament has a long tradition of heated debate, but Avigdor
Lieberman may be the only lawmaker who has called for the execution of
fellow legislators. Back in May, Lieberman said he would support the
death penalty for Arab lawmakers who met with Hezbollah, the Lebanese
guerrilla group, or with Hamas, the radical Islamic faction that heads
the Palestinian Authority government.

Lieberman has made his reputation with provocative statements and
proposals, many outside the mainstream. Yet his hard-line positions
and popularity among fellow Soviet immigrants - reflected in the
strong showing of his right-wing Israel Beiteinu Party in March's
elections - have now thrust him into the senior levels of government.

With the current coalition faltering, Prime Minister Olmert announced
Monday he would make Lieberman a deputy prime minister and bring his
party into the government. The move seems likely to change the
complexion of a center-left coalition that came into office with plans
to withdraw at least some settlements from the West Bank.

Lieberman, who came to Israel in 1978 from the Soviet Union, could not
be more diametrically opposed to a withdrawal. He has called for a
land and population swap with the Palestinians that would
significantly reduce the number of Arabs in Israel. (They account for
more than a million of the seven million Israelis.)

"If we want to stop the conflict, we must separate the two peoples,"
Lieberman said when he introduced his plan two years ago. "The main
problem is the Israeli Arabs. I think separation has to include them.
I am talking about a land swap as well as a population swap. This
seems brutal and sounds brutal, but there is no other solution."

Under his plan, a cluster of Arab towns in northern Israel would
become part of the West Bank, while Jewish settlements in the West
Bank would be annexed to Israel. Olmert has never expressed any
support for such a plan, and Lieberman will not be in a position to
force it onto the agenda.

"This is a man who calls for the transfer of Arab citizens out of
Israel, and he is being upgraded, not downgraded," said Ahmad Tibi, an
Arab member of Parliament who has sparred with Lieberman. "This sends
a message to the Arab minority in Israel that it is legitimate to talk
about expelling us from the country."

Lieberman says that he decided to join the government because he wants
to focus on the major threats to Israel, and that Iran and its nuclear
ambitions are at the top of his list. He will be responsible for
"strategic threats," a portfolio that would appear to overlap with
that of the defense minister, Amir Peretz. Olmert still needs approval
from the cabinet and Parliament to formally bring Israel Beiteinu into
the coalition. The approval is expected, though the move has caused
divisions within the left-leaning Labor Party.

Some Labor Party leaders say quitting would only result in a
right-leaning government and possibly lead to further political
instability. But others in the party say that they share no common
ground with Lieberman, and that they should not sit in the same
government. "The actual appointment of Lieberman as minister for
strategic affairs could constitute a strategic threat to Israel," said
Ophir Pines-Paz, the culture minister and a senior leader in the Labor
Party.

Afghanistan
13) Afghanistan: NATO Mortar Kills Child
Abdul Waheed Wafa, New York Times, October 25, 2006
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/25/world/asia/25briefs-004.html
An Afghan girl was killed and two other children were wounded when a
NATO mortar fell short of its target in eastern Kunar Province and hit
a house, a NATO spokesman said. The mortar was one of five rounds that
NATO troops had fired toward a site where they had been attacked
before. The spokesman said the wounded children, 7-year-old girls,
were taken to Bagram Air Base, where they were described as stable.
Earlier this month, after NATO forces killed up to 20 civilians during
operations in the southern provinces of Kandahar and Helmand,
President Hamid Karzai said civil casualties were "not acceptable to
us" and urged NATO forces "to take maximum caution."

Korea
14) In South Korea, Softer Feelings Toward the North
Martin Fackler, New York Times, October 25, 2006
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/25/world/asia/25korea.html
Once fervently anti-Communist, South Korea has slowly parted ways with
the US, its largest ally and wartime protector, on how to deal with
the North. Across age groups and political persuasions, most South
Koreans now appear to believe that their nation has no choice but to
keep building ties with the North, despite the widespread shock and
anger here over its nuclear test.

This bedrock of public sentiment underlies the different responses to
the crisis by South Korea and the US. Many in Washington have called
for tougher sanctions or even a naval blockade to further isolate the
North's impoverished government and force it to relinquish its nuclear
ambitions. But Seoul has been reluctant to tighten the economic screws
on the North, hoping instead to entice it to the bargaining table with
increased links with the outside world.

--------
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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