[Peace-discuss] Just Foreign Policy News, October 31, 2006

[Robert Naiman]

Just Foreign Policy News
October 31, 2006

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Summary:
U.S./Top News
North Korea agreed today to return to the stalled six-nation talks on
its nuclear weapons programs, the New York Times reports. The
development raised hopes for easing of tensions created by North
Korea's recent nuclear test.

More American military officers are warming to the idea of setting a
deadline for US troop reductions in Iraq, the Los Angeles Times
reports.

U.S. forces quickly complied with Prime Minister al-Maliki order
lifting checkpoints around Sadr City, AP reports, calling the order
another move to assert his authority with the Americans.

Of more than 500,000 weapons turned over to the Iraqi Ministries of
Defense and Interior since the American invasion the serial numbers of
only 12,128 were properly recorded, notes the New York Times in an
editorial. Some 370,000 of these weapons, some of which are
undoubtedly being used to kill American troops, were paid for by US
taxpayers.

The US upset the regional balance in the Middle East when it invaded
Iraq, writes retired general William Odom in the Los Angeles Times.
Restoring it requires bold initiatives, but "cutting and running" must
precede them all. Odom places particular emphasis on the need to
cooperate with Iran, suggesting the U.S. should end its confrontation
with Iran over Iran's nuclear program.

Iran
Iran has yet to satisfy the IAEA its nuclear program seeks only to
produce electric power and not bombs, the head of the U.N. nuclear
agency told the General Assembly on Monday. But Mohamed ElBaradei said
he remained hopeful Iran would enter negotiations aimed at addressing
concerns about Iran's aims and Iran's concerns about its security.
Iran's representative told the assembly that Iran was ready for
negotiations without conditions, Reuters reports.

China on Tuesday criticized a U.S. Congressional commissioin that had
attacked its relationship with Iran. The Commission, which tends to
reflect concerns from U.S. conservative political circles about
China's rise, accused Beijing of failing "to meet the threshold test
of international responsibility" by aiding Iran's nuclear program,
Reuters reports.

Iraq
Federal auditors say the Iraqi government is spending little of its
own money on reconstruction projects, while the process for handing
off U.S.-funded work "appears to have broken down," the Washington
Post reports.

Israel
A far-right party opposed to relinquishing occupied land joined
Israeli Prime Minister Olmert's governing coalition Monday. All but
one cabinet member voted in favor of Yisrael Beitenu's entry, Reuters
reports. The lone dissenter, Labor's Ofir Pines-Paz, announced his
resignation from the cabinet and said he would stand for the
leadership of Labor next year. "I cannot give up my conscience," he
said.

Prime Minister Olmert said Monday that the Israeli military might
expand operations in the Gaza Strip, the New York Times reports.

Egypt
The nephew of former President Sadat was sentenced to a year in prison
Tuesday for defaming Egypt's armed forces, AP reports. Sadat is the
second prominent political opponent of the government to be sentenced
to prison within 12 months.

Pakistan
More than 15,000 armed tribesmen protested a Pakistan Army helicopter
attack on an Islamic school carried out in cooperation with the U.S.,
Reuters reports.

Mexico
As federal riot police hunkered down in Oaxaca Monday, protestors
continued to communicate with their supporters by radio, the New York
Times reports. Meanwhile, Oaxaca's governor refused to resign, even as
both houses of Congress passed resolutions urging him to step down for
the good of the nation.

In Washington, the State Department's Sean McCormack said Washington
would not press Mexico to investigate the shooting death in Oaxaca
Friday of U.S. citizen Brad Will, Democracy Now reports. Mexican
reports have suggested the killers were linked to the local
government.

Contents:
U.S./Top News
1) North Korea Agrees to Return to Nuclear Talks
Choe Sang-Hun, New York Times, October 31, 2006
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/31/world/asia/01koreacnd.html
North Korea agreed today to return to the stalled six-nation talks on
dismantling its nuclear weapons programs, ending an 11-month boycott,
American, South Korean and Chinese officials said. The development
raised hopes for an easing of the tensions created by North Korea's
Oct. 9 nuclear test. The agreement to resume the talks "soon" was
reached during a three-way meeting in Beijing among chief nuclear
negotiators from the US, North Korea and China, the Chinese Foreign
Ministry said in a brief statement posted on its Web site.

The chief American envoy to North Korea, Christopher Hill, told a news
conference in Beijing that the talks could resume "in November or
possibly December," news services reported. Hill also said that the
Pyongyang regime had reaffirmed its commitment to a preliminary
agreement reached in the six-nation talks last year, shortly before
the talks collapsed. He said that he expected "substantial progress"
once the talks resume.

But Hill emphasized that the sanctions imposed by the UN Security
Council after the nuclear test would remain in place, and he cautioned
North Korea against conducting a second test.

2) Resistance To Deadlines For Iraq Is Weakening
More U.S. officers doubt insurgents would gain, and believe that
Baghdad must be pushed.
Julian E. Barnes & Doyle McManus, Los Angeles Times, October 31, 2006
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-deadlines31oct31,0,6295222.story
Growing numbers of American military officers have begun to privately
question a key tenet of U.S. strategy in Iraq - that setting a hard
deadline for troop reductions would strengthen the insurgency and
undermine efforts to create a stable state. The Iraqi government's
refusal to take certain measures to reduce sectarian tensions between
Sunni Arabs and the nation's Shiite Muslim majority has led these
officers to conclude that Iraqis will not make difficult decisions
unless they are pushed. Therefore, they say, the advantages of
deadlines may outweigh the drawbacks.

"Deadlines could help ensure that the Iraqi leaders recognize the
imperative of coming to grips with the tough decisions they've got to
make for there to be progress in the political arena," said a senior
Army officer who has served in Iraq. Former Pentagon official Kurt
Campbell said more officers are calling for deadlines after concluding
that the indefinite presence of U.S. forces enables the Shiite-run
Iraqi government to avoid making compromises.

"There is a new belief that the biggest problem that we face is that
our forces are the sand in the gears creating problems," said
Campbell. "We are making things worse by giving the Iraqis a false
sense of security at the governing level."

For months, the Bush administration has been politely prodding the
Iraqis on political and security reforms including the sharing of oil
revenue, a crackdown on Shiite militias and constitutional changes.
The discussions so far have yielded little, prompting experts to
question whether the Iraqi government will ever compromise if there is
no penalty for failing to make hard choices.

3) U.S. Obeys Order to Abandon Checkpoints
Associated Press, October 31, 2006, Filed at 12:47 p.m. ET
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/world/AP-Iraq.html
Prime Minister al-Maliki Tuesday ordered the lifting of joint
U.S.-Iraqi military checkpoints around the Shiite militant stronghold
of Sadr City and other parts of Baghdad - another apparent move to
assert his authority with the Americans and appeal to his Shiite
support base. U.S. forces disappeared from the checkpoints within
hours of the order, setting off celebrations among civilians and armed
men on the edge of the sprawling slum controlled by the Mahdi Army
militia run by radical cleric Muqtada al-Sadr.

Iraqi troops loaded coils of barbed wire and red traffic cones onto
pickup trucks, while small groups of men and children danced in
circles chanting slogans praising al-Sadr, who earlier Tuesday had
ordered the area closed to the Iraqi government until U.S. troops
lifted what he called their "siege" of the neighborhood. Al-Maliki's
order threatened to further upset relations between the U.S. and the
Iraqi government, which became strained last week after he issued a
string of bitter complaints, at one point saying he was not "America's
man in Iraq."

The tightened security had been credited by some for producing a
temporary decline in violence, possibly because it curbed the
activities of Shiite death squads blamed for waves of sectarian
killings of Sunnis. But a car bomb exploded in the neighborhood
Tuesday, killing three people and wounding five, police said. On
Monday, a bombing there killed at least 33 people.

4) The Untracked Guns of Iraq
Editorial, New York Times, October 31, 2006
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/31/opinion/31tue1.html

About the last thing the US ought to be doing in Iraq is funneling
weapons into black-market weapons bazaars, as sectarian militias arm
themselves for civil war. Yet that is just what Washington may have
been doing for the past several years, thanks to an inexplicable
decision that standard Pentagon regulations for registering weapons
transfers did not apply to the Iraq war.

Of more than 500,000 weapons turned over to the Iraqi Ministries of
Defense and Interior since the American invasion - including
rocket-propelled grenade launchers, assault rifles, machine guns and
sniper rifles - the serial numbers of only 12,128 were properly
recorded. Some 370,000 of these weapons, some of which are undoubtedly
being used to kill American troops, were paid for by US taxpayers,
under the Orwellian-titled Iraq Relief and Reconstruction Fund.

5) How to cut and run
We could lead the Mideast to peace, but only if we stop refusing to do
the right thing
William E. Odom, Los Angeles Times, October 31, 2006
Lt. Gen. William E. Odom (Ret.) is a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute.
http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/asection/la-oe-odom31oct31,1,7826686.story
The US upset the regional balance in the Middle East when it invaded
Iraq. Restoring it requires bold initiatives, but "cutting and
running" must precede them all. Only a complete withdrawal of all U.S.
troops - within six months and with no preconditions - can break the
paralysis that now enfeebles our diplomacy. And the greatest obstacles
to cutting and running are the psychological inhibitions of our
leaders and the public.

Our leaders do not act because their reputations are at stake. The
public does not force them to act because it is blinded by the
president's conjured set of illusions: that we are reducing terrorism
by fighting in Iraq; creating democracy there; preventing the spread
of nuclear weapons; making Israel more secure; not allowing our fallen
soldiers to have died in vain; and others.

But reality can no longer be avoided. It is beyond U.S. power to
prevent bloody sectarian violence in Iraq, the growing influence of
Iran throughout the region, the probable spread of Sunni-Shiite strife
to neighboring Arab states, the eventual rise to power of the
anti-American cleric Muqtada Sadr or some other anti-American leader
in Baghdad, and the spread of instability beyond Iraq. All of these
things and more became unavoidable the day that U.S. forces invaded.
These realities get worse every day that our forces remain in Iraq.
They can't be wished away by clever diplomacy or by leaving our forces
in Iraq for several more years.

The administration could recognize that a rapid withdrawal is the only
way to overcome our strategic paralysis, though that appears unlikely,
notwithstanding election-eve changes in White House rhetoric. Congress
could force a stock-taking. Failing this, the public will sooner or
later see through all of the White House's double talk and compel a
radical policy change. The price for delay, however, will be more
lives lost in vain - the only thing worse than the lives already lost
in vain.

Some lawmakers are ready to change course but are puzzled as to how to
leave Iraq. The answer is four major initiatives to provide regional
stability and calm in Iraq. They will leave the U.S. less influential
in the region. But it will be the best deal we can get.

First, the U.S. must concede that it has botched things, cannot
stabilize the region alone and must let others have a say in what's
next.

The second initiative is to create a diplomatic forum for Iraq's
neighbors. Iran, of course, must be included. Washington should offer
to convene the forum but be prepared to step aside if other members
insist.

Third, the U.S. must informally cooperate with Iran in areas of shared
interests. Nothing else could so improve our position in the Middle
East. The price for success will include dropping U.S. resistance to
Iran's nuclear weapons program. This will be as distasteful for U.S.
leaders as cutting and running, but it is no less essential. That's
because we do share vital common interests with Iran. We both want to
defeat Al Qaeda and the Taliban (Iran hates both). We both want
stability in Iraq (Iran will have influence over the Shiite Iraqi
south regardless of what we do, but neither Washington nor Tehran want
chaos). And we can help each other when it comes to oil: Iran needs
our technology to produce more oil, and we simply need more oil.

Accepting Iran's nuclear weapons is a small price to pay for the
likely benefits. Moreover, its nuclear program will proceed whether we
like it or not. Accepting it might well soften Iran's support for
Hezbollah, and it will definitely undercut Russia's pernicious
influence with Tehran.

Fourth, real progress must be made on the Palestinian issue as a
foundation for Middle East peace. The invasion of Iraq and the U.S.
tilt toward Israel have dangerously reduced Washington's power to
broker peace or to guarantee Israel's security. We now need Europe's
help. And good relations with Iran would help dramatically.

No strategy can succeed without these components. We must cut and run
tactically in order to succeed strategically. The US needs to restore
its reputation so that its capacity to lead constructively will cost
us less.

Iran
6) U.N. Watchdog Still Hopes for Nuclear Talks with Iran
Reuters, October 30, 2006, Filed at 2:31 p.m. ET
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/world/international-nuclear-elbaradei.html
Iran has yet to satisfy U.N. watchdogs that its nuclear program seeks
only to produce electric power and not bombs, the head of the U.N.
nuclear agency told the General Assembly on Monday. Iran has neither
suspended its nuclear enrichment-related activities nor been
transparent enough to resolve all the outstanding questions of the
International Atomic Energy Agency since August 31, when the IAEA
issued its last report on Iran, said Director General Mohamed
ElBaradei.

"The IAEA continues therefore to be unable to confirm the peaceful
nature of Iran's nuclear program, which is a matter of serious
concern," said ElBaradei in his annual report to the 192-nation U.N.
body. But he said he remained hopeful that Iran ultimately would enter
negotiations aimed at addressing both international fears about Iran's
aims and Tehran's own worries about its security.

Tehran was ready for unconditional talks, Iran's deputy U.N.
ambassador, Mehdi Danesh-Yazdi, told the assembly. Iran "has
demonstrated its readiness to resume negotiations without any
preconditions with its counterparts, to ensure them of the peaceful
nature of its nuclear program," he said.

7) China slams U.S. Congress panel, arms sales to Taiwan
Reuters, Tuesday, October 31, 2006; 5:46 AM
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/30/AR2006103001335.html

China on Tuesday rebuffed a U.S. Congressional panel that criticised
its foreign policies, and warned Washington against selling arms to
Taiwan, exposing tensions recently tempered by cooperation between the
two powers. Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao said he had read
only media reports of the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review
Commission's annual overview that appeared on Monday.

The Commission, which tends to reflect concerns from U.S. conservative
political circles about China's rise, accused Beijing of failing "to
meet the threshold test of international responsibility" by aiding
Iran's nuclear and weapons programmes and refusing to use its leverage
to push North Korea back into nuclear weapons negotiations.

Iraq
8) Auditors Say Shift of Rebuilding to Iraqis Appears 'Broken Down'
Griff Witte, Washington Post, Tuesday, October 31, 2006; A17
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/30/AR2006103000202.html

Ten months into a year-long effort to transfer control of Iraq's
reconstruction to the Iraqis, federal auditors say, the government
there is spending very little of its own money on projects, while the
process for handing off U.S.-funded work "appears to have broken
down," according to findings released yesterday.

The fledgling Iraqi government, in power since May, has about $6
billion this year to devote to major rebuilding projects, representing
about 20 percent of its overall budget. But auditors with the Special
Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction found that beyond paying
employee salaries and administrative expenses, only a small amount of
money is being spent on actual work. Auditors blamed "bureaucratic
resistance within the Ministry of Finance, which traditionally has
been slow to provide funds."

Auditors also found fault with the way the Finance Ministry is keeping
track of U.S.-built projects as they are handed over to the Iraqis and
said some of the U.S. data on the subject are "incomplete or
inaccurate." The findings speak to the difficult path that lies ahead
as the US attempts to turn over a decidedly incomplete reconstruction
effort to an Iraqi government that remains beset by corruption and has
had huge problems exercising authority amid rising violence.

At the beginning of the year, Inspector General Stuart Bowen labeled
2006 "the year of transition" as the U.S. winds up its dominant role
in the reconstruction. But in yesterday's report, his office said the
year is already into its fourth quarter and the transition remains
"fraught with challenge." Among the obstacles: a "deteriorating
security situation across Iraq," pervasive corruption in Iraqi
ministries, and possible problems raising funds from international
donors unless the Iraqi government can prove it is willing to spend
the money it already has on roads, health clinics, power plants and
other much-needed infrastructure.

"I don't think the Iraqi government is prepared to take over the
reconstruction," said Sen. Susan Collins, who has been overseeing the
U.S.-led effort as chairman of the Homeland Security and Governmental
Affairs Committee. "But I don't know that continuing to pour our money
and manpower into these projects is the answer, either."

Israel
9) Olmert Gets Parliament Nod for Far - Right Partner
Reuters, October 30, 2006, Filed at 3:27 p.m. ET
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/world/international-mideast.html
A far-right faction opposed to relinquishing occupied land joined
Israeli Prime Minister Olmert's governing coalition on Monday, a
partnership likely to complicate any peace efforts with the
Palestinians. Israel's parliament ratified Yisrael Beitenu's
membership in the government. The party is led by Avigdor Lieberman, a
firebrand settler who has become a figure of hate for Israel's Arab
minority. Lieberman and his party advocate annexation of parts of the
occupied West Bank and jurisdictional transfer of several Arab towns
in Israel to the Palestinian Authority.

All but one cabinet member voted in favor of Yisrael Beitenu's entry,
Israel Radio said, after Olmert's main coalition partner, the
left-leaning Labour party led by Defense Minister Amir Peretz, decided
on Sunday to remain in the government despite its differences with
Lieberman. The 120-member parliament approved the expanded government
on Monday night with 61 lawmakers voting in favor and 38 opposing it.

The minister who voted in cabinet against Lieberman and his party's
inclusion, Ofir Pines-Paz of the Labour party, announced his
resignation from the cabinet in a televised news conference. He also
said he would stand for the leadership of his party when Labour holds
a ballot sometime next year. "I cannot give up my conscience," said
Pines-Paz, who holds the science and technology, culture and sport
portfolios.

He said Lieberman and other Yisrael Beitenu party members were
"tainted through their racist and anti-democratic pronouncements." His
departure will take effect 48 hours after he delivers his resignation
letter to the cabinet.

10) Olmert Says Israel May Widen Military Role in Gaza
Greg Myre, New York Times, October 31, 2006
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/31/world/middleeast/31mideast.html
Prime Minister Ehud Olmert of Israel said Monday that the Israeli
military might expand operations in the Gaza Strip in an attempt to
halt Palestinian rocket fire, but that there was no intention to
reoccupy the territory. Olmert also said the military killed about 300
armed Palestinians in the past four months, according to Ms. Eisin.
Monitoring groups have said that more than 250 Palestinians were
killed during this time, about half militants and half civilians. Two
Israeli soldiers have been killed in the fighting.

Egypt
11) Sadat Nephew Gets 1 - Year Sentence
Associated Press, October 31, 2006, Filed at 11:37 a.m. ET
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/world/AP-Egypt-Sadat.html
The nephew of the late President Anwar Sadat was sentenced to a year
in prison Tuesday for defaming Egypt's armed forces, less than a month
after he gave an interview accusing Egyptian generals of masterminding
his uncle's assassination. The unusually rapid prosecution effectively
terminates Talaat Sadat's role in parliament as an outspoken
government critic.

Sadat, who had accused the government of prosecuting him for political
reasons, was taken into custody immediately after the verdict, said
his aide, Mohsen Eid, and court officials. Media were not allowed into
the courtroom and Egyptian newspapers have been instructed not to
report his trial, which has come under criticism from the State
Department as harmful to freedom of expression.

There is no appeal against military court verdicts. Sadat's only
option is to appeal to President Hosni Mubarak. Sadat is the second
prominent political opponent of the government to be sentenced to
prison within 12 months. Last December, Ayman Nour, the leading
challenger in last year's presidential elections, was sentenced to
five years' imprisonment for forgery after a trial that was
internationally regarded as failing to meet standards of due process.

Within minutes of the sentencing, Sadat's supporters shouted outside
the court: "This is injustice!" "This is unlawful!" Sadat had pleaded
innocent to charges of "spreading false rumors and insulting the armed
forces."

Pakistan
12) Pakistani tribals seethe over airstrike on madrasa
Al-Zawahri past visitor to Pakistani madrasa
Anwarullah Khan, Reuters, Tuesday, October 31, 2006; 12:38 PM
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/31/AR2006103100125.html
Al Qaeda Number Two Ayman al-Zawahri was a past visitor to a madrasa
destroyed by a Pakistan Army helicopter attack, but he was not there
when the missiles struck on Monday, senior Pakistani security
officials said. Several other al Qaeda luminaries had passed through
the religious school run by pro-Taliban cleric Maulana Liaqatullah,
who was killed in the airstrike along with around 80 of his followers,
the officials told reporters a day after the attack.

Among the other known militants to have frequented the madrasa at
Chenagai village, near the Afghan border in the Bajaur tribal region
of northwest Pakistan, was Abu Obaida al-Misri. An Egyptian, like
Zawahri, al-Misri was identified as the mastermind of a plot to blow
up U.S.-bound airliners flying from London's Heathrow airport that was
foiled earlier this year. The officials say he was a mentor to Rashid
Rauf, a British Muslim arrested in Pakistan in August, who was said to
be a key figure in the conspiracy.

No major militant figure was believed to have been present when the
army attacked, and orders for the assault were given in anticipation
that the militants were about to be sent to fight - possibly to launch
suicide attacks on NATO and Afghan forces. Last January, a
CIA-operated Predator missile attack targeted Zawahri in Bajaur's
Damadola village near the Afghan border. Intelligence officials said a
handful of al Qaeda operatives at a parley hosted by Liaqatullah were
killed. But Zawahri was a no-show and reports that al-Misri was killed
proved incorrect.

The Pakistan government had been trying to persuade militant tribesmen
to agree peace terms along the lines of accords brokered earlier in
the two most restive tribal regions - North and South Waziristan. But
officials said Liaqatullah and his comrade Maulana Faqir Mohammad, who
rallied fighters at the site of the destroyed madrasa immediately
after the attack, ignored all warnings. The officials showed reporters
aerial footage shot through a night vision lens of rows of men
exercising before daybreak, just an hour before the missiles struck
the compound.

Tribesmen said the dead, mostly young men aged between 15 and 25, were
merely students. But, President Pervez Musharraf, speaking at a
seminar in Islamabad, said they were all militants. More than 15,000
armed tribesmen protested against the attack in Khar, Bajaur's main
town, and Islamist politicians stoked anti-Western and anti-Musharraf
sentiment among ethnic Pashtuns in several towns around North West
Frontier Province.

Nowhere is Musharraf's alliance with the US more unpopular than in the
Pashtun tribal belt straddling the Pakistan-Afghan border. The
tribesmen in Khar showed their loyalty with shouts of "Long Live
Osama" and "Long Live Mullah Omar." Islamist politicians said the
attack on the school was really carried out by a U.S. Predator drone
aircraft, but Pakistan's military spokesman and a U.S. spokesman in
Kabul denied it.

Mexico
13) Mexican Protesters Keep Their Message Alive, and on the Air
Marc Lacey, New York Times, October 31, 2006
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/31/world/americas/31mexico.html
As federal riot police hunkered down in Oaxaca's main square on
Monday, protesters sought to protect their not-so-secret weapon in
their five-month siege of the city: the pilfered radio transmitter
they use to mobilize the population. "We are in a red alert, a red
alert!" a nervous-sounding announcer said over and over from inside
the bullet-scarred university station, which was ringed by sandbags
and protected by masked supporters on the roof equipped with handmade
mortars. "The police are moving in!"

The cry was premature, but it drew hundreds of supporters from across
this city in southern Mexico. They prepared Molotov cocktails and
reinforced the barriers around the gates of Oaxaca University in
anticipation of a raid. "We will transmit until the last minute," an
announcer who described himself as a law professor said in an
interview. "We will not run. We are like the captains of the ship, and
we'll go down with the ship."

Oaxaca State's beleaguered governor, Ulises Ruiz, was also hunkered
down, on his own turf. The federal police remained in control of the
central square on Monday, but protesters marched through the rest of
downtown, denouncing Ruiz and occasionally setting fire to vehicles.
Although the governor insisted in a television interview on Monday
that he would not resign, his support appeared thin as both houses of
the Congress passed nonbinding resolutions urging him to cede power
for the good of the state and the nation.

In the Chamber of Deputies, only Ruiz's Institutional Revolutionary
Party, known as the PRI, and another small allied party stuck by the
governor, and even that backing seemed lukewarm. In the Senate, even
the PRI joined in a statement urging Ruiz to "reconsider separating
himself from charge, in order to contribute to the re-establishment of
governability, normality and peace."

But the governor said he was not budging. "I am governing Oaxaca," he
declared in a late-night news conference, dismissing the protesters as
a relatively small group that did not represent the masses. "The
questions of Oaxaca will be decided by Oaxacans."

14) State Dept: U.S. Won't Press Mexico Over Death of Brad Will
Democracy Now, Tuesday, October 31st, 2006
http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=06/10/31/150205
In Washington the State Department has indicated it is not going to
press the Mexican government over the murder of American journalist
Brad Will. He was shot dead on Friday by Mexican gunmen tied to the
government. He died with his video camera in his hand.

    - State Department spokesperson Sean McCormack: "Well anytime you
resort to violence which results in the death of a citizen whether
it's American or any other nationality, it's a source of concern. But
that is really going to be up to the Mexican government – to deal with
- how they deal with this I understand originally started out as a
series of protests - they turned violent and the Mexican authorities
are dealing with them."

McCormack was later asked whether the Bush administration would demand
the Mexican government investigate who is responsibility for the
murder of Will. McCormack claimed the State Department is not aware
that anyone linked to Will's death has been identified. However the
Mexican press has published a photograph taken at the scene showing
the armed men. They have been identified as Juan Carlos Soriano,
Manuel Aguilar, Abel Santiago Zárate and Pedro Caramona. All four men
are connected to the local government. They are reportedly now in
custody.

-
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.