[Peace-discuss] Just Foreign Policy News, October 30, 2006

[Robert Naiman]

Just Foreign Policy News
October 30, 2006

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Summary:
U.S./Top News
Hundreds of residents of Baghdad's Sadr City demonstrated on Sunday against
what they called the siege of their district by US forces. Traffic into and
out of the area has been delayed by searches. A local cleric complained that
for several days the city has been under siege. "When we want to get someone
sick or injured to the hospital we can't get out," he said.

The federal government in Mexico sent troops into Oaxaca Saturday, ending a
protest demonstration that had occupied the main square for months, a day
after gunfire killed a U.S. activist and two residents.

President Lula of Brazil won re-election in a runoff vote Sunday with 61
percent of the vote. Analysts attributed the strong victory to his
anti-poverty programs.

The new Military Commissions law could violate international treaties
protecting detainees, with some provisions denying suspects the right to a
fair trial, a U.N. rights expert said Friday. Martin Scheinin, the UN's
expert on protecting human rights in the fight against terrorism, said the
Military Commissions Act contains provisions "incompatible" with U.S.
obligations to adhere to treaties on human rights and humanitarian law.

Alabama's condom production has survived Asian competition, thanks to the
patronage of its congressmen, the New York Times reports. The politicians
have ensured that companies in Alabama won federal contracts to make
billions of condoms over the years for AIDS prevention and family planning
programs overseas, though Asian factories could do the job at less than half
the cost.

Iran
Four weeks ago, Congress enacted and President Bush signed the Iran Freedom
Support Act, a resolution very much in the spirit of the 1998 Iraq
Liberation Act, Jon Sawyer wrote in the Los Angeles Times. The Act, which
got little press coverage, mandates sanctions against any country aiding
Iran's nuclear programs, even those to which that country is legally
entitled under the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty. But if the confrontation
over Iran's alleged nuclear weapons program ends in war, this law will be
cited as proof Congress was onboard all along.

A naval training exercise led by the U.S. and aimed at blocking smuggling of
nuclear weapons began Sunday in the Persian Gulf. Iran called the two-day
maneuvers "adventurist."

President Ahmadinejad said Iran would make an "appropriate and firm
response" to any sanctions imposed by the U.N. Security Council, as Council
members deliberated a draft European resolution that would impose sanctions
over Iran's nuclear program. Russia has indicated that the measure is too
tough, while the US says it's not tough enough.

Iranians hailed the recent voyage of the first woman to go into space as a
private explorer, an Iranian-American. Nazila Fathi writes in the New York
Times that fascination with the woman's odyssey has gripped Iran,
particularly the country's young women.

Iraq
The U.S. military announced the death of the 100th servicemember in Iraq
this month, making October the fourth deadliest month for U.S. troops since
the war began.

The US military has not tracked hundreds of thousands of weapons intended
for Iraqi security forces, a federal report has concluded. The US military
did not even record the serial numbers of half a million weapons making it
impossible to identify any that might be in the wrong hands.

Tony Blair is facing parliamentary defeat unless he agrees to set up a
high-level inquiry into the Iraq war and the failure to plan for the
aftermath of the invasion, the Independent reports.

Israel
The UN Environment Program is investigating allegations that Israel may have
used uranium-based weapons during this summer's war in Lebanon, the
Independent reports.

Israel's summer war with Hezbollah has revived the contest over the Golan
Heights, the Washington Post reports. Settler leaders have launched a
$250,000 advertising campaign to attract Israeli yuppies to settle in the
Israeli-occupied Syrian territory with the lure of free land.

Bolivia
President Morales clinched a major victory as foreign energy companies
agreed to remain in the country and operate under state control, ceding a
larger share of their profits to the Bolivian state, Reuters reports.

Forced Labor
A New York Times article highlights the issue of forced child labor. The ILO
estimates that 1.2 million children are sold into servitude every year.

Contents:
U.S./Top News
1) Baghdad's residents protest US siege
The News (Pakistant), Monday, October 30, 2006
http://www.thenews.com.pk/daily_detail.asp?id=29942
Hundreds of residents of Baghdad's Sadr City demonstrated on Sunday against
what they branded the siege of their notorious district by US forces
searching for a kidnapped comrade. American troops set up a cordon around
Sadr City, a huge slum and a bastion of Shia militia fighters, after one of
their number was abducted by gunmen in another city district on Monday
night.

Traffic into and out of the area has been delayed by searches and US forces
have made two incursions into the flashpoint suburb, at one point clashing
with militants and calling in an air strike that left four civilians dead.
"No, no to America! No, no, to Israel! Yes, yes to Islam! Yes, yes to
unity!" ran the chant as more than 2,000 flag-waving protesters marched
through the area from the office of radical cleric Moqtada al-Sadr's
movement.

Sadr City is a stronghold of Sadr's Mahdi Army militia and, while no weapons
were openly on display, black-uniformed cadres from its political wing the
Office of the Martyr Sadr policed the march and searched participants. "The
reason for this demonstration is to lift the siege on this city, this
bleeding city, this city that was oppressed under Saddam and is now
oppressed under the Americans," said Sheikh Rahim al-Alak, a Sadr supporter.

"We demand that the siege be lifted immediately. If it's not lifted in the
next few days, we'll declare a general strike. We'll shut down the
ministries," he declared, complaining about the nightly roar of US jets and
helicopters. Alak was dismissive of talk of the kidnapped US soldier. "This
story is a lie and, if he was really kidnapped, it happened in Karrada, not
here. We're a peaceful city," he said. A local cleric, Haider al-Saedi,
complained: "For several days the city has been under siege because of the
alleged kidnapping. We can't move around. When we want to get someone sick
or injured to the hospital we can't get out." US commanders have said that
they had intelligence information that the missing soldier was held in a
Sadr City mosque, where they arrested three suspects earlier this week after
a gunbattle left 10 activists dead. They have yet to find the captive-an
American of Iraqi descent who left his base to see a secret Iraqi wife in
the city-but say that the cordon around Sadr City may have contributed to a
city-wide fall in violence.

2) Mexican Protesters Regroup in Oaxaca
Mark Stevenson, Associated Press, Monday, October 30, 2006; 12:02 PM
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/30/AR2006103000127.html
[Some] strike-weary residents took to the streets Monday to thank federal
police for intervening in violent demonstrations that had held their city
hostage for months, but demonstrators said they would take back the city
center in their push for the governor's resignation. Teachers had promised
to end their five-month strike for higher wages and go back to work Monday,
but no students returned to classes in the tense capital.

On Sunday, federal police tore down protest blockades and pushed
demonstrators out of the main square that had served as their home base for
five months. The city resembled a battleground early Monday, with streets
littered with charred cars and lines of federal police blocking some
entrances to the main zocalo plaza.

The city was deeply divided between protesters demanding Gov. Ulises Ruiz's
resignation and those wanting a return to the tranquil days when foreign
tourists browsed shops. Ignoring protesters who screamed "Sellout!" a group
of about 20 residents welcomed the police, thanking authorities for taking
control of the city. "I don't want them to leave. Let them stay," Edith
Mendoza, a housewife, said of police. "We were held hostage for five
months."

The federal government's decision to send forces into Oaxaca came after
teachers agreed to return to work by Monday, ending a strike that kept
1.3million children out of classes across the southern state. But
Enrique
Rueda, leader of the teachers' union, told The Associated Press that no
students had returned to class in the capital on Monday, although some had
in cities and towns outside of Oaxaca City.

While some teachers planned to return, others said they would stay home. "We
are not willing to go back (to work) until we get written guarantees" for
teachers' safety, said Daniel Reyes, one of the last of the striking
teachers to leave the main square as police surrounded it Sunday night.

Protest spokesman Roberto Garcia said 50 supporters had been arrested and
police were searching houses, looking for protest leaders. A scattering of
businesses, including the city's famous public marketplace, reopened Monday.
But most of the city remained shuttered. President Fox, who leaves office
Dec. 1, resisted repeated calls to send federal forces to Oaxaca until
Saturday, a day after gunfire killed a U.S. activist-journalist and two
residents.

3) Brazil's President Roars Back to Win Vote
Larry Rohter, New York Times, October 30, 2006
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/30/world/americas/30brazil.html
Overcoming a series of corruption and political scandals that tarred his
image and undermined his credibility, President Lula da Silva of Brazil won
a landslide re-election victory in a runoff vote Sunday. With 99 percent of
the vote counted, Lula, running as the candidate of the Workers Party, had
60.8 percent of the vote. The percentage of the vote going to his opponent,
Geraldo Alckmin of the Brazilian Social Democratic Party, dropped in
comparison with the 41.6 percent he won in the first round of balloting on
Oct. 1, when Lula fell just short of the majority he needed to win outright.

"This is an extraordinary result, one that gives him a legitimacy that all
the accusations had perhaps broken," said Jairo Nicolau, a television
commentator and political science professor at the Candido Mendes
University. "It's one thing to win a narrow victory and something else
altogether to register this level of support after all that has happened."

Lula took office in 2003, promising a new era of social justice and clean
government in this nation of 185 million people. But his luster began to
fade a year later, when an aide was caught on film soliciting campaign
donations from numbers-game kingpins here. Last year, a much larger scandal
erupted. Investigations by congressional committees and the news media
established the existence of an illegal multimillion-dollar slush fund used
to finance Lula's 2002 campaign, and to pay off legislators from small
political parties to support his government.

The scandals forced the resignation of Lula's chief of staff and his
minister of finance, as well as the president, treasurer and secretary
general of the Workers Party. As a result, opinion polls taken late last
year consistently indicated the president would be defeated if he ran for
re-election. The police last month apprehended operatives of Lula's party as
they were about to pay $792,000 in cash for a dossier they apparently
thought would damage Alckmin's chances. Though that weakened Lula in the
first round of balloting, he benefited from an improved economy and a
welfare program that delivers a monthly stipend of about $45 to nearly 12
million poor families.

"Lula cares about the poor, and that's what matters to me, more than all
this talk about corruption, which we've always had," Jane Cunha, a maid,
said Sunday morning. "I earn the minimum wage, and thanks to him, my salary
has gone up $20 a month and the price of food has gone down enough that I'm
eating a lot more meat than in the past."

Lula has governed on the right, at least as regards his conservative
economic policy. He has run up the kind of budget surpluses that delight
Wall Street and the IMF, and bank profits are at an all-time high. But in
recent weeks, he "campaigned on the left," in the words of Marco Aurelio
Garcia, Lula's national security adviser. A loan repayment to the I.M.F. was
repackaged as Lula giving the organization its walking papers, and telling
it to keep its nose out of Brazil's affairs. Lula accused Alckmin of
planning to dismantle the government's social welfare programs and to
privatize state-owned companies and banks.

4) UN Official: US Terror Law May Violate International Treaties
Associated Press, Friday, October 27, 2006
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines06/1027-08.htm
Washington's new anti-terrorism law could end up violating international
treaties protecting detainees, with some provisions denying suspects the
right to a fair trial, a key U.N. rights expert said Friday. Martin
Scheinin, the UN's expert on protecting human rights in the fight against
terrorism, said the Military Commissions Act signed into law earlier this
month by President Bush contains provisions "incompatible" with U.S.
obligations to adhere to treaties on human rights and humanitarian law.

"One of the most serious aspects of this legislation is the power of the
president to declare anyone, including U.S. citizens, without charge as an
'unlawful enemy combatant' - a term unknown in international humanitarian
law," said Scheinin, a legal expert from Finland. As a result, he said,
those detainees are subject to the jurisdiction of a military commission
composed of military officers - rather than a civilian court of law.

He also deplored the denial of the habeas corpus rights of foreigners -
including legal, permanent U.S. residents - to challenge the legality of
their detention, "in manifest contradiction with" the International Covenant
on Civil and Political Rights, a treaty the U.S. ratified in 1992.

5) U.S. Jobs Shape Condoms' Role in Foreign Aid
Celia W. Dugger, New York Times, October 29, 2006
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/29/world/29condoms.html
Alabama's condom production has survived an onslaught of Asian competition,
thanks to the patronage of straitlaced congressmen from this Bible Belt
state. Behind the scenes, the politicians have ensured that companies in
Alabama won federal contracts to make billions of condoms over the years for
AIDS prevention and family planning programs overseas, though Asian
factories could do the job at less than half the cost.

In recent years, the state's condom manufacturers fell hundreds of millions
of condoms behind on orders, and the federal aid agency began buying them
from Asia. The use of Asian-made condoms has contributed to layoffs that are
coming next month. But Senator Jeff Sessions, Republican of Alabama, has
quietly pressed to maintain the unqualified priority for American-made
condoms and is likely to prevail if the past is any guide. "What's wrong
with helping the American worker at the same time we are helping people
around the world?" asked the senator's spokesman.

That question goes to the heart of an intensifying debate among wealthy
nations about to what degree foreign aid is about saving jobs at home or
lives abroad. Britain, Ireland and Norway have all sought to make aid more
cost effective by opening contracts in their programs to fight global
poverty to international competition. The US, meanwhile, continues to
restrict bidding on billions of dollars worth of business to companies
operating in America.

The wheat to feed the starving must be grown in US and shipped to Africa,
enriching agribusiness giants like Archer Daniels Midland and Cargill. The
American consulting firms that carry out antipoverty programs abroad do work
that some advocates say local groups in developing countries could often
manage at far less cost.

The history of the federal government's condom purchases embodies the
tradeoffs that characterize foreign aid American-style. Alabama's
congressmen have long preserved several hundred factory jobs here by
insisting the US Agency for International Development buy condoms made here,
though, probably in a nod to their conservative constituencies, most have
typically done so discreetly.

Those who favor tying aid to domestic interests say that it not only
preserves jobs and supports American companies, but helps ensure broad
political support for foreign aid, which is not always popular.

On the other hand, skepticism of foreign aid is frequently rooted in the
perception that the money is not well spent. Blame often falls on corrupt
leaders in poor countries, but aid from rich nations with restrictions
requiring it to be spent in the donor country can also reduce effectiveness.

Iran
6) Iran sounds an awful lot like Iraq
There is a disturbing sense of déjà vu in Washington's actions and rhetoric.
Jon Sawyer, Los Angeles Times, October 29, 2006
Jon Sawyer is director of the Washington-based Pulitzer Center on Crisis
Reporting.
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/sunday/commentary/la-op-sawyer29oct29,0,2878263.story
An embattled president, looming midterm elections, and overwhelming
agreement, with scant debate or publicity, on legislation that set the
nation on a path to war. It happened when the House and Senate voted for
regime change in Iraq. Has it happened again, on Iran? Four weeks ago,
Congress enacted and President Bush signed the Iran Freedom Support Act, a
resolution very much in the spirit of the 1998 Iraq Liberation Act. It
mandates sanctions against any country aiding Iran's nuclear programs, even
those to which that country is legally entitled under the Nuclear
Nonproliferation Treaty.

The new law got virtually no coverage. But if the confrontation over Iran's
alleged nuclear weapons program ends in war, this law will be cited as proof
Congress was onboard all along. The congressional action isn't the only sign
of déjà vu. Recent months have seen the creation of an "Iran directorate" at
the Pentagon, using some of the same personnel as the Office of Special
Plans, the Pentagon outfit led by former Undersecretary of Defense Douglas
Feith that was accused of massaging intelligence on Iraq to make the case
for war.

Iran has now supplanted Iraq as the greatest single threat to the US,
according to the National Security Strategy released earlier this year.
Articles in the New Yorker and Time describe an accelerated rate of
contingency military planning in an environment in which many senior
officials consider war with Iran more a question of when rather than if.

As in the run-up to the Iraq war, there are assertions of a broad consensus
of experts' views that Iran is intent on developing a nuclear weapons
capability; and, as in 2003, there are muted voices questioning how
definitive the evidence is. (The most recent National Intelligence Estimate
found that Iran's progress toward weapons capability was actually slower
than previously thought, and Director of National Intelligence John
Negroponte says Iran is still four to nine years away from having the bomb.)

Once again, U.S. officials are discounting the work of U.N. weapons
inspectors on site, and, once again, those inspectors are saying that the
best way to contain the nuclear threat is to keep them in place. "People
confuse knowledge, industrial capacity and intention," Mohamed ElBaradei,
director of the IAEA, told Newsweek. "A lot of what you see about Iran right
now is assessment of intentions."

He and other IAEA officials warn the Bush administration's hard-line on Iran
could make reading those intentions even harder. Tehran has suspended IAEA
access to some nuclear facilities and could expel the international
inspectors entirely. It happened in Iraq in 1998, and the vacuum that
followed made possible ever-more speculative estimates as to Iraq's imagined
progress toward fielding weapons of mass destruction.

War with Iran is nowhere near as inevitable as the proponents of aggressive
action would make it appear. The U.S. military is mired in Iraq. The
combination of vast oil reserves and 70 million people make Iran a
formidable adversary. Here at home public opinion surveys show little
appetite for another go at preventive war.

But the most extraordinary parallel to the pre-Iraq-war environment is that
so many Democrats have given the administration a vote on Iran that amounts
to yet another blank-check endorsement of U.S. unilateralism - even as
diplomats struggle in New York to craft a multilateral approach to Iran.
Rep. Maxine Waters voted for the Iran Freedom Support Act. So did all but 21
members of the House and every member of the Senate, which approved the
measure by unanimous voice vote.

The law they backed codifies existing U.S. sanctions against Iran and
extends those sanctions to any countries or companies deemed to have aided
Iran in the development or acquisition of nuclear weapons or of
"destabilizing numbers and types" of advanced conventional weapons. It
states the sense of Congress that the US shall not enter into any form of
cooperation with the government of any country that so aids Iran, until Iran
has suspended all uranium enrichment-related and reprocessing-related
nuclear activity and has "committed to verifiably refrain from such activity
in the future," even though such activities are permitted under the Nuclear
Nonproliferation Treaty.

Democrats who voted for the measure were at pains to distinguish it from the
Iraq Liberation Act, noting that the legislation specifically rejected
military aid to opponents of Iran's current government, and that it calls
for Iran's "democratic transformation," not regime change. Among those who
favor both this is seen as a fig leaf.

Michael Ledeen of the American Enterprise Institute has beaten the Iran war
drums for years. He told the House International Relations Committee he was
untroubled the new law stops short of explicitly calling for regime change.
"People are just afraid of coming out and using the language," he said. "You
cannot have freedom in Iran without bringing down the mullahs, so what are
we talking about?"

For all its bellicose rhetoric, the Bush administration appeared to have
reservations about the Iran Freedom Support Act. It staved off congressional
action for more than a year, contending mandatory sanctions would
short-circuit the diplomacy of taking Iran to the U.N. Security Council. To
critics within the administration, the law raised the specter of U.S.
unilateralism at a moment when Washington needed allies more than ever. The
administration eventually gave in to congressional insistence on tough talk
- not just from Republicans but from Democrats.

Smart politics? Most Republicans and most Democrats appear to believe that
it is - that it's a good idea to take Iran off the table, to make sure it
doesn't figure as an issue in the elections. It's reminiscent of the
decision many of them made before the midterms in 1998 and again in 2002,
when the bipartisan vote authorizing use of force against Iraq made the
looming war almost a nonissue in that year's midterm elections. Maybe this
time someone will decide it's worth taking the debate to the people.

7) Iran Criticizes U.S. - Led Nuke Exercise
Associated Press, October 29, 2006, Filed at 3:16 p.m. ET
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/world/AP-Gulf-Maneuvers.html
A naval training exercise led by the U.S. and aimed at blocking smuggling of
nuclear weapons began Sunday in the Persian Gulf. Iran called the two-day
maneuvers "adventurist," but the Foreign Ministry said the Islamic
Republic's response would be "rational and wise." Foreign Ministry spokesman
Mohammad Ali Hosseini said the exercises would not improve security in the
gulf, through which about 20 percent of the world's oil transits.

The maneuvers were taking place under the U.S.-led Proliferation Security
Initiative, which is designed to counter trafficking in weapons of mass
destruction, their delivery systems and related materials, the U.S. Navy
said. Two previous exercises have taken place in this region under the
75-nation initiative, among two dozen held around the world since such
maneuvers began in 2003.

South Korea, which has balked at joining the initiative, sent an observer
delegation to the gulf but declined to participate. "We have not (fully)
participated in the PSI because there is a high possibility of armed clashes
if the PSI is carried out in waters around the Korean peninsula," South
Korean Vice Foreign Minister Yu Myung-hwan told parliament Friday.

Two U.S.-led multinational task forces already intercept and search
suspicious ships in the gulf and nearby waters but focus on shipments headed
to Iraq, not Iran. But a U.S. State Department official said PSI members can
halt and board Iran-bound ships if they are suspected of carrying banned
shipments. Washington has sought deeper cooperation from its Arab allies in
halting nuclear-related shipments to Iran, but many governments are loath to
be seen publicly backing the Americans.

Countries taking part are Italy, France, Australia, the US, Britain, and
Bahrain. Bahrain's participation marks the first time an Arab nation has
joined an exercise under the three-year-old PSI. Kuwait, Qatar and the
United Arab Emirates offered a measure of support as observers. Saudi Arabia
has not joined them.

8) Iran Plans 'Firm Response' to Sanctions
Nasser Karimi, Associated Press, Monday, October 30, 2006; 9:56 AM
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/30/AR2006103000365.html
President Ahmadinejad said Monday Iran would make an "appropriate and firm
response" to any sanctions imposed by the U.N. Security Council because of
the country's nuclear program. Ahmadinejad made the comments as key Security
Council members are deliberating a draft European resolution that would
impose sanctions on Iran over its disputed nuclear program. Russia has
indicated that the measure is too tough, while the US says it's not tough
enough.

9) Iranians Find Space Tourist Fascinating
Nazila Fathi, New York Times, October 30, 2006
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/30/world/middleeast/30tehran.html
Iranians hailed the recent voyage of the first woman to go into space as a
private explorer, an Iranian-American, with two jokes that circulated widely
on cellphones. Muslim clerics, went the first, were refusing to look into
the sky for the moon so that they could announce the beginning of Ramadan
because they feared seeing the amateur astronaut without her veil. The
second said the clerics had announced that fasting should last for two
months instead of one, because they had seen two moons in the sky. In
Persian, the moon is often used as a metaphor for a beautiful woman.

Fascination with the odyssey of the woman, Anousheh Ansari, an Iranian-born
business executive, has gripped Iran, particularly the country's young
women. Iranian television and newspapers have reviewed Ansari's life and
covered her 10 days in space. Not all the attention has been positive. Some
Iranians wondered why she went to space instead of using the money to help
poor Iranians. And one comment posted on her blog said: "Wow! I got to get
me $30 million so I can become the poster child for the military-industrial
complex. Good to know the rich can still do stuff that the rest of us
can't."

The tone was far warmer at an event that celebrated Ansari's safe departure,
held in Tehran on Sept. 21. It was sponsored by the state television network
and drew more than 500 people, many of them young women. "I had never seen
so much enthusiasm for an Iranian woman," said Roya Karimi, a journalist
covering the event for Zanan magazine, a feminist publication. "Young girls
talked about their dreams, and it was like their own dreams had come true."

Some women's rights advocates have distanced themselves from Mrs. Ansari.
"Feminists believe that Ansari has done nothing for their cause," said
Mahnaz Mohammadi, a feminist filmmaker who is currently helping to organize
a campaign to gather a million signatures for a petition demanding equal
rights for Iran's women. "What she did was great, but they decided to
distance themselves from her because of the way the Islamic Republic
proclaimed her," she said.

The state news media, as well as opposition satellite channels, broadcast
news about Ansari's trip. State television conducted a telephone interview
with Ansari before her flight, and other news outlets reported the details
of her journey. A state-run newspaper with the largest circulation in Iran
published daily columns with her photo showing her without the obligatory
veil worn by women in Iran. Only one daily has criticized the attention paid
to Ansari, warning she was a bad role model and accusing her of being a
royalist.

In contrast, all of the state news media criticized Shirin Ebadi, an Iranian
human rights lawyer, for not wearing a veil when she accepted the 2003 Nobel
Peace Prize. In her acceptance speech, Ebadi declared that the prize would
inspire women across the Muslim world to fight for equality. It certainly
galvanized the Iranian women's movement, which has grown more active,
despite government pressure. Last month, they won a major campaign with the
passage of a law permitting the children of Iranian mothers and foreign
fathers to receive Iranian citizenship after they reach 18.

Iraq
10) October U.S. Death Toll in Iraq Hits 100
Christopher Bodeen, Associated Press, Monday, October 30, 2006; 7:58 AM
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/30/AR2006103000152.html
A bomb tore through food stalls and kiosks in a sprawling Shiite slum
Monday, killing at least 31 people, while the U.S. military announced the
death of the 100th servicemember in Iraq this month. October has seen rising
civilian casualties and has been the fourth deadliest month for American
troops since the war began in March 2003. The highest was November 2004,
with 137 killed, followed by 135 in April 2004 and 107 in January 2005.

New details emerged about a U.S. soldier who went missing last week,
sparking a massive manhunt. A woman claiming to be his mother-in-law said
Monday that the soldier was married to a Baghdad college student and was
with the young woman and her family when hooded gunmen handcuffed and threw
him in the back seat of a white Mercedes. The marriage would violate
military regulations.

On Monday, gunmen killed Essam al-Rawi, head of the University Professor's
Union and a senior member of the Sunni group, the Association of Muslim
Scholars. The association, which is believed to have links to the
insurgency, has boycotted elections. At least 154 university professors have
been killed since the March 2003 U.S. invasion, an Education Ministry
spokesman said Monday. Hundreds, possibly thousands, more are believed to
have fled to neighboring countries. While sectarian hatred is blamed for
some of those attacks, professors have also been killed because of past
membership in the now-outlawed Baath Party, or by students angered over poor
grades or with other grievances.

11) U.S. Is Said to Fail in Tracking Arms for Iraqis
James Glanz, New York Times, October 30, 2006
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/30/world/middleeast/30reconstruct.html
The American military has not properly tracked hundreds of thousands of
weapons intended for Iraqi security forces and has failed to provide spare
parts, maintenance personnel or even repair manuals for most of the weapons
given to the Iraqis, a federal report released Sunday has concluded.

The Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction found major
discrepancies in American military records on where thousands of
9-millimeter pistols and hundreds of assault rifles and other weapons have
ended up. The American military did not even take the elementary step of
recording the serial numbers of nearly half a million weapons provided to
Iraqis, the inspector general found, making it impossible to track or
identify any that might be in the wrong hands.

12) Blair faces defeat on Iraq war inquiry
George Jones, Telegraph (UK) 2:02am GMT 30/10/2006
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2006/10/30/wirq130.xml
Tony Blair is facing the prospect of a Commons defeat on Iraq tomorrow
unless he agrees to set up a high-level inquiry into the conflict and the
failure to plan for the aftermath of the invasion. The Conservatives are
taking the unusual step of preparing to support a motion tabled by the
Scottish and Welsh Nationalists calling for a parliamentary inquiry if the
Government fails to promise an investigation after an expected British
withdrawal next year. The motion put down by the SNP and Plaid Cymru [Welsh
Nationalists] will provide the opportunity for the first full debate on Iraq
since the invasion three-and-a-half years ago.

Israel
12) UN Investigates Israel's 'Uranium Weapons'
Eric Silver, Independent (UK), Monday, October 30, 2006
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines06/1030-05.htm
The UN Environment Program is investigating allegations, first published in
The Independent, that Israel may have used uranium-based weapons during this
summer's war in Lebanon. UN experts, working with Lebanese
environmentalists, have spent two weeks assessing various samples. They are
planning to report their findings in December. Unep's Middle East director
told a Lebanese radio interviewer at the weekend: "If uranium was used, we
will find out and we will announce it." Yesterday Israel issued its most
explicit denial yet. A spokeswoman for the Israeli army said: "We deny using
any weapons containing uranium."

Chris Busby, scientific secretary of the European Committee on Radiation
Risk, reported last week that two soil samples thrown up by Israeli bombs in
the south Lebanese villages of Khiam and At Tiri, centres of fierce fighting
between Israel and Hizbollah, showed "elevated radiation signatures". Dr
Busby warned that particles from the explosions were long-lived in the
environment and could be inhaled into the lungs, causing "significant"
health effects on civilians.

13) Golan Heights Land, Lifestyle Lure Settlers
Lebanon War Revives Dispute Over Territory
Scott Wilson, Washington Post, Monday, October 30, 2006; A01
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/29/AR2006102900926.html
Moti Bar is building a stylish microbrewery and restaurant in a shopping
mall that opened a few months ago. His venture is a bet that Israel will
remain in the Golan Heights for years to come. The high-end beer and view of
the Sea of Galilee are designed to appeal to Israeli yuppies, who are being
encouraged more aggressively than ever to move to this plateau seized from
Syria in the 1967 Middle East war.

Israel's summer war with Hezbollah has revived the contest over the Golan
Heights. This latest phase is also being shaped by demographic changes.
Israel annexed the Golan Heights in 1981 and offered its Arab residents
citizenship, something it has not extended to Palestinians in the West Bank
and Gaza. The annexation was not recognized internationally, and most of the
Arabs refused the offer as a protest against what they consider an illegal
occupation. But they do have residency rights that allow them to travel
throughout Israel and vote in local elections.

Most of the Arabs in Golan are Druze. Unlike most Druze in Israel, they
identify as Arabs and do not serve in the Israeli military. The vast
majority consider themselves citizens of Syria, although a small percentage
support Israel's presence.

For years, the Israeli military discouraged civilian settlement in Golan,
particularly along the frontier with Syria, for fear the area would emerge
again as a battlefield. Some small Israeli settlements were established
there anyway, but in the past 15 years all new growth has occurred within
existing settlement boundaries rather than in new areas. The pace has picked
up in recent years. Now, for the first time, the number of Jewish settlers
in Golan may soon exceed the nearly 20,000 Arab residents whose families
remained here after the war. The milestone may have already been passed,
Arab leaders concede, with 400 Jewish families moving into Golan each year.

Since the Lebanon war ended Aug. 14, settler leaders have launched a
$250,000 advertising campaign to attract young Israelis with the lure of
free land and a lifestyle ethic that blends Marlboro Country, Napa Valley
and the X Games. Their goal is to double the Jewish population in Golan to
40,000 within a decade through an appeal that emphasizes cowboy hats over
skullcaps.

At the same time, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has called for new
negotiations on Golan, emboldened by Israel's inconclusive fight against
Hezbollah. For years, the Syrian government has helped arm and fund
Hezbollah to strengthen its own hand in talks on the region. The Syrian army
has maintained quiet along the heavily mined frontier. In a recent
interview, Assad added an ominous note to his previous calls for talks,
warning that "when the hope disappears, then maybe war really is the only
solution." In response, Prime Minister Olmert called Golan "an inseparable
part of the state of Israel."

"No doubt the steadfastness of the resistance in Lebanon, ending the legend
of the undefeatable Israeli army, has strengthened our belief that the end
of the occupation is closer than ever," said Hail Abu Jabal, a Druze
political leader in the town of Majdal Shams who spent seven years in
Israeli prisons for campaigning against Israel's hold on Golan. "But
expanding these settlements is a mistake, making peace more distant and
violent confrontation closer."

For decades, Israeli military leaders considered Golan an essential
high-ground buffer against Syrian invasion and peppered the region with
bases. In recent years, though, some Israeli generals have argued that air
power has reduced the strategic importance of the heights. It still remains
a training ground for the infantry and armored corps. Perhaps more
important, the region provides a third of Israel's drinking water.

In Taiseer Maray's Israeli travel document, the space beside "Nationality"
reads "undefined." It is an apt description of a population that gathers
Fridays at an overlook on the edge of the town to shout to relatives across
the border with Syria.

Bolivia
14) Energy Firms Bow to Demands Set by Bolivia
Reuters, October 30, 2006
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/30/world/americas/30bolivia.html
President Evo Morales clinched a major political victory Sunday after
foreign energy companies agreed in last-minute talks to remain in the
country and operate under state control. The deals affirm Morales's effort
to give the state a larger role in the economy of Bolivia, South America's
poorest country. The companies, including the Brazilian state-owned energy
company Petrobras and Repsol YPF of Spain, agreed to new contracts late
Saturday, ceding a larger share of their profits to the Bolivian state.

Analysts said the agreements signaled a significant boost for Morales. He
had faced mounting criticism about the uncertainty and slow pace of the
nationalization drive, which had been one of his major campaign pledges.
"This gives a very solid foundation to the Morales administration, from an
economic and political view," said Roger Cortés, a political analyst. "It
means the administration has been strengthened after facing gloomy forecasts
that this step was going to be impossible."

Morales nationalized Bolivia's oil and gas industry on May 1, giving foreign
companies six months to hand over a majority stake in their Bolivian
operations or abandon the country. He has called it his first step in a
quest to recover Bolivia's natural resources. On Tuesday, Morales is
expected to announce a plan to nationalize the country's mining industry.

Months of frequently tense talks over the new gas contracts had raised
tensions with Petrobras, the country's biggest foreign investor, followed by
Repsol, and Brazil, Bolivia's biggest customer of natural gas exports. Under
the new deals, foreign energy firms will hand over between 50 and 82 percent
of their revenue to the Bolivian government and will operate as service
providers to Bolivia's state-owned energy company, YPFB.

In a signing ceremony Saturday, Morales said the agreements would quadruple
Bolivia's energy revenues over the next four years, from a current $1
billion. "What we are doing here is exercising our property rights, as
Bolivians, over our natural resources without evicting anyone, without
confiscating," he said. "With these new contracts we want to generate more
economic resources to solve the economic and social problems of our country.
That's our great wish."

Morales's resource nationalization drive is part of a growing regional
trend. Ecuador and Venezuela have taken similar steps. Analysts said it
could be the basis for similar deals in other countries. "It seemed the
energy companies would never accept this," said Humberto Vacaflor, a
Bolivian energy analyst. "But this seems to be nationalization in the 21st
century - based on higher tax payments."

Forced Labor
15) Africa's World of Forced Labor, in a 6-Year-Old's Eyes
Sharon Lafraniere, New York Times, October 29, 2006
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/29/world/africa/29ghana.html
The International Labor Organization, a UN agency, estimates that
1.2million children are sold into servitude every year in an illicit
trade that
generates as much as $10 billion annually. Studies show they are most
vulnerable in Asia, Latin America and Africa. Africa's children, the world's
poorest, account for roughly one-sixth of the trade, according to the labor
organization. Data is notoriously scarce, but it suggests victimization of
African children on a huge scale.

A 2002 study supervised by the labor organization estimated that nearly
12,000 trafficked children toiled in the cocoa fields of Ivory Coast alone.
The children, who had no relatives in the area, cleared fields with
machetes, applied pesticides and sliced open cocoa pods for beans. In an
analysis in February, Unicef says child trafficking is growing in West and
Central Africa, driven by huge profits and partly controlled by organized
networks that transport children both within and between countries.

--
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 majority of
Americans.
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