[Peace-discuss] Just Foreign Policy News, September 14, 2006

[Robert Naiman]

Just Foreign Policy News
September 14, 2006

Summary:
Iran
U.N. inspectors investigating Iran's nuclear program angrily
complained to the Bush administration and to a Republican congressman
yesterday about a recent report by a Congressional staffer on Iran's
capabilities, calling parts of the document "outrageous and dishonest"
and offering evidence to refute its central claims. Officials of the
UNs' International Atomic Energy Agency said in a letter that the
report contained "erroneous, misleading and unsubstantiated
statements."

A senior Iranian envoy Thursday called contacts between Tehran and the
EU a ''step in the right direction'' in resolving the standoff over
his country's refusal to freeze uranium enrichment.
Iraq
Nearly 90 Iraqis were killed or found dead Tuesday and Wednesday, an
Interior Ministry official said.

Many Middle East leaders say the American-led invasion of Iraq and its
consequences have been catastrophic for the region, UN Secretary
General Annan said Wednesday. He said many felt the Americans should
"stay until the situation improves, " but others, particularly in
Iran, believe that "the presence of the U.S. is a problem and that the
U.S. should leave." He said the Iranians had offered to help the
Americans leave.

The deteriorating conditions of Palestinians in Iraq were highlighted
in a report by Human Rights Watch. The report said Palestinian
refugees in Iraq are being targeted by mostly Shi'ite militant groups
and are being harassed by the government.

Lebanon
Amnesty International Thursday accused Hezbollah forces of war crimes
and "serious violations of international humanitarian law" during the
Lebanon war, including indiscriminate rocket attacks. "Katyusha
rockets cannot be aimed with accuracy, especially at long distances,
and are therefore indiscriminate," the report said. Amnesty is
pressing for a UN inquiry into the war.

Israel
Maj. Gen. Udi Adam, who commanded Israel's forces in Lebanon, resigned
Wednesday after widespread criticism over how political and military
leaders had handled the war. General Adam was the first Israeli
official to quit over the war.

Palestine
It is difficult to exaggerate the economic collapse of Gaza, the New
York Times reports. The cutoff of funds has resulted in a severe
economic depression and growing signs of malnutrition, especially
among the poorest children.

Human Rights Watch called on the Israeli military to ensure that its
troops respect the protected status of medical emergency personnel and
facilities in the Gaza Strip.

Pakistan
The Pakistani government has run into difficulties in its efforts to
pass a law to end the worst abuses suffered by women who report rape
or are accused of adultery, the Times reports.

Afghanistan
A meeting of NATO countries Wednesday failed to win new troops to
patrol southern Afghanistan, despite a warning from Secretary of State
Rice that Afghanistan risked becoming "a failed state" if more troops
were not sent.

Education
More than 43 million children living in conflict-affected countries
are not able to attend school, according to a report by the
International Save the Children Alliance. The group stressed that,
without schools, children were far more susceptible to recruitment by
armies and militias or other forms of exploitation.

Colombia
Wives and girlfriends of gang members in one of Colombia's most
violent cities have called a sex strike in a bid to get their men to
give up the gun. Dozens of women are said to be taking part in what is
being called the "strike of crossed legs", a move backed by the mayor
of Pereira.

In this issue:
Iran
1) U.N. Inspectors Dispute Iran Report By House Panel
2) Top Iranian Envoy Praises Early EU Talks
Iraq
3) On Another Grim Day, Bodies Lie Everywhere in Baghdad
4) Most Mideast Leaders Are Angry About U.S. in Iraq, Annan Says
5) Palestinian refugees targeted by militants receive no help
Lebanon
6) Amnesty International Says Hezbollah Committed War Crimes
Israel
7) Israeli Who Directed War Resigns
Palestine
8) Cut Off, Gazan Economy Nears Collapse
9) Human Rights Watch: Don't Fire on Gaza Medics
Pakistan
10) Pakistan Bid to End Abuse of Women Reporting Rape Hits Snag
Afghanistan
11) After NATO Meeting, No New Troops for Afghanistan
Education
12)  10 Billion Dollars Could Buy Universal Schooling
Colombia
13) Colombian gangsters face sex ban

Contents:
Iran
1) U.N. Inspectors Dispute Iran Report By House Panel
Paper on Nuclear Aims Called Dishonest
Dafna Linzer, Washington Post, Thursday, September 14, 2006; A17
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/09/13/AR2006091302052.html
[Note: on August 24 the Post ran Linzer's article on the Fleitz report
on the front page. Linzer's article on the IAEA's response ran on page
17. The IAEA deserves more attention than a single Republican staffer
committed to U.S. military confrontation with Iran, since the IAEA
inspectors actually have expertise and are part of the reality-based
community. -JFP]
[Link to the August 24 article:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/08/23/AR2006082301309.html]

U.N. inspectors investigating Iran's nuclear program angrily
complained to the Bush administration and to a Republican congressman
yesterday about a recent House committee report on Iran's
capabilities, calling parts of the document "outrageous and dishonest"
and offering evidence to refute its central claims. Officials of the
UNs' International Atomic Energy Agency said in a letter that the
report contained "erroneous, misleading and unsubstantiated
statements."

The IAEA openly clashed with the Bush administration on pre-war
assessments of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. Relations all but
collapsed when the agency revealed that the White House had based some
allegations about an Iraqi nuclear program on forged documents. After
no such weapons were found in Iraq, the IAEA came under additional
criticism for taking a cautious approach on Iran. The administration
orchestrated a failed campaign to remove the IAEA's director general,
Mohamed ElBaradei. Last year he won the Nobel Peace Prize.

The agency noted five major errors in the committee's report, which
said Iran's nuclear capabilities are more advanced than either the
IAEA or U.S. intelligence has shown. Among the committee's assertions
is that Iran is producing weapons-grade uranium at its facility in the
town of Natanz. The IAEA called that "incorrect," noting that
weapons-grade uranium is enriched to a level of 90 percent or more.
Iran has enriched uranium to 3.5 percent under IAEA monitoring.

Rep. Rush Holt, a committee member, said the report was "clearly not
prepared in a manner that we can rely on." The report was never voted
on or discussed by the full committee. Rep. Jane Harman told
Democratic colleagues that the report "took a number of analytical
shortcuts that present the Iran threat as more dire - and the
Intelligence Community's assessments as more certain - than they are."
Several intelligence officials said the committee report included at
least a dozen claims that were either demonstrably wrong or impossible
to substantiate.

The committee report, written by a single Republican staffer with a
hard-line position on Iran, chastised the CIA and other agencies for
not providing evidence to back assertions that Iran is building
nuclear weapons. It concluded that the lack of intelligence made it
impossible to support talks with Tehran. Democrats on the committee
saw it as an attempt from within conservative Republican circles to
undermine Secretary of State Rice, who has agreed to talk with the
Iranians under certain conditions. The report's author, Fredrick
Fleitz, was a special assistant to John Bolton.

Among the allegations in Fleitz's Iran report is that ElBaradei
removed a senior inspector from the Iran investigation because he
raised "concerns about Iranian deception regarding its nuclear
program." The agency said the inspector has not been removed. A
suggestion that ElBaradei had an "unstated" policy that prevented
inspectors from telling the truth about Iran's program was
particularly "outrageous and dishonest," according to the IAEA letter.

2) Top Iranian Envoy Praises Early EU Talks
Associated Press, September 14, 2006, Filed at 9:23 a.m. ET
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/world/AP-Iran-Nuclear.html
A senior Iranian envoy Thursday called contacts between Tehran and the
EU a ''step in the right direction'' in resolving the standoff over
his country's refusal to freeze uranium enrichment and accused the
U.S. of trying to sabotage the talks. Ali Ashgar Soltanieh spoke as
senior EU and Iranian representatives prepared for a new round of
talks later in the day on the nuclear impasse. Both sides described as
positive talks that ended Sunday between EU foreign policy chief
Javier Solana and Ali Larijani, Iran's chief nuclear negotiator.
Officials said Larijani had suggested his country was ready to
consider an enrichment freeze for up to two months.

But they later said the Iranian suggestion fell short of demands by
the five permanent U.N. Security Council members and Germany that Iran
impose the freeze before negotiations begin on resolving the nuclear
standoff. In a possible indication of snags in their talks, Solana and
Larijani on Wednesday abruptly postponed plans to attend the meeting
in Paris, downgrading it to the level of their aids. But a European
official told the AP that there was ''nothing sinister'' about the
move. ''There are details to be worked on and that's best done at the
senior expert level,'' the official said. Reflecting different
interpretations on the progress of talks, key European nations urged
Iran to negotiate, while Washington said the time had come to punish
Tehran with U.N. sanctions.

Iraq
3) On Another Grim Day, Bodies Lie Everywhere in Baghdad
Richard A. Oppel Jr., New York Times, September 14, 2006
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/14/world/middleeast/14iraq.html
Nearly 90 Iraqis were killed or found dead Tuesday and Wednesday, an
Interior Ministry official said. At least 60 bodies were found
throughout Baghdad between 6 a.m. Tuesday and 6 a.m. Wednesday, he
said. Nearly all were shot in the head, had clear signs of torture, or
were blindfolded, bound or gagged, and most were discovered in
neighborhoods of western Baghdad with heavy Sunni Arab populations, he
said. The other deaths reported by the ministry were in bombings and
other attacks on Wednesday. American military officials, who have been
more aggressive in challenging body counts if they consider them
inaccurate, disputed the number found, saying the actual number was
roughly half what the ministry had reported.

4) Most Mideast Leaders Are Angry About U.S. in Iraq, Annan Says
Warren Hoge, New York Times, September 14, 2006
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/14/world/middleeast/14nations.html
Many Middle East leaders say the American-led invasion of Iraq and its
consequences have been catastrophic for the region, Secretary General
Annan said Wednesday. "Most of the leaders I spoke to felt that the
invasion of Iraq and its aftermath has been a real disaster for them,"
he said. "They believe it has destabilized the region." He said the
officials were of two minds whether the Americans should leave Iraq.
Many felt the Americans should "stay until the situation improves and
that, having created the problem, they cannot walk away," he said.
"Then you have another school of thought, particularly in Iran, that
believes that the presence of the U.S. is a problem and that the U.S.
should leave." He added that the Iranians had offered to help the
Americans leave, but, asked to elaborate, he said, "I didn't get into
details as to how they intend to help."

5) Palestinian refugees targeted by militants receive no help
IRIN news (UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs), 13 Sep 2006
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/IRIN/222f959956dd77e78603c338bb6c3f14.htm
The deteriorating conditions of Palestinians in Iraq have been
highlighted in a September 10 report by Human Rights Watch. The report
said Palestinian refugees in Iraq are being targeted by mostly Shi'ite
militant groups and are being harassed by the government. "Since the
fall of [former president] Saddam Hussein's government, Palestinian
refugees in Iraq have increasingly become targets of violence and
persecution," said Sarah Leah Whitson, HRW's Middle East director.
"Shi'ite militant groups have murdered dozens of Palestinian refugees,
and the Iraqi government has made it difficult for these refugees to
stay legally in Iraq by imposing onerous registration requirements,"
she added.

Lebanon
6) Amnesty International Says Hezbollah Committed War Crimes
Alan Cowell, New York Times, September 14, 2006
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/14/world/middleeast/14amnesty.html
Amnesty International Thursday accused Hezbollah forces of war crimes
and "serious violations of international humanitarian law" during the
Lebanon war, including indiscriminate rocket attacks. On Aug. 23 the
group criticized Israel's behavior, saying its bombing campaign
amounted to indiscriminate attacks on Lebanese civilians. "Katyusha
rockets cannot be aimed with accuracy, especially at long distances,
and are therefore indiscriminate," the report said.

The rockets killed 43 civilians, 7 of them children, the report said,
and 4,262 civilians were treated in hospitals. Amnesty said both
Hezbollah and Israel "committed serious violations of international
humanitarian law" during the conflict. Irene Khan, secretary general
of Amnesty, said the two reports "don't cancel out each other." "They
show both sides of the violence that took place because the story
needs to be the story about the victims on both sides," she said.
Amnesty is pressing for a UN inquiry into the war.

Israel
7) Israeli Who Directed War Resigns
New York Times, September 14, 2006
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/14/world/middleeast/14israel.html
Maj. Gen. Udi Adam, who commanded Israel's forces in Lebanon, resigned
Wednesday after widespread criticism over how political and military
leaders had handled the war. General Adam, who headed the Northern
Command, was the first Israeli official to quit over the war. With
politicians, the news media and the public calling for an inquiry into
how the war was carried out, the government is expected to approve
one.

Palestine
8) Cut Off, Gazan Economy Nears Collapse
Steven Erlanger, New York Times, September 14, 2006
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/14/world/middleeast/14gaza.html
It is difficult to exaggerate the economic collapse of Gaza, with the
Palestinian Authority cut off from funds by Israel, the US and the EU
after Hamas won the legislative elections on Jan. 25. Since then, the
Authority has paid most of its 73,000 employees here, nearly 40
percent of Gaza's work force, only 1.5 months' salary, resulting in a
severe economic depression and growing signs of malnutrition,
especially among the poorest children.

Gaza's situation has worsened since Palestinian gunmen killed two
Israeli soldiers and captured a third on June 25. Israel reinvaded
Gaza, and has since killed more than 240 Palestinians. An Israeli
airstrike on Gaza's only electrical power plant means that most Gazans
now get only 7 to 12 hours a day of electricity, at unpredictable
hours, with running water largely dependent on electric pumps. Jan
Egeland, the UN under secretary for humanitarian affairs, said Gaza
was "a ticking time bomb." The UN Conference on Trade and Development
warned Tuesday the economy could shrink next year to the level of 15
years ago, and unemployment could rise to over 50 percent. The World
Bank expects gross domestic product to decline by 27 percent this
year.

9) Human Rights Watch: Don't Fire on Gaza Medics
Human Rights Watch, September 13, 2006
http://www.commondreams.org/news2006/0913-05.htm
Israeli security forces launched attacks that harmed Palestinian
medical emergency personnel and damaged ambulances on at least six
different occasions in the Gaza Strip between May 30 and July 20,
Human Rights Watch said. HRW called on the Israeli military to ensure
that its troops respect the protected status of medical emergency
personnel and facilities in the Gaza Strip.

Pakistan
10) Pakistan Bid to End Abuse of Women Reporting Rape Hits Snag
Carlotta Gall & Salman Masood, New York Times, September 14, 2006
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/14/world/asia/14pakistan.html
The Pakistani government has run into difficulties in its efforts to
pass a law to end the worst abuses suffered by women who report rape
or are accused of adultery under an Islamic ordinance. The opposition
comes from members of the governing coalition, as well as from Islamic
parties. President Musharraf has sought to use the measure, the
Women's Protection Bill, to burnish his credentials as a modern and
moderate Islamic leader before his visit to the United States this
month. But the opposition has, temporarily at least, disrupted his
well-orchestrated campaign.

Afghanistan
11) After NATO Meeting, No New Troops for Afghanistan
Judy Dempsey, International Herald Tribune, September 14, 2006
http://www.nytimes.com/iht/2006/09/14/world/14nato.html
A meeting of NATO countries Wednesday failed to win new troops to
patrol southern Afghanistan, where a resurgent Taliban rebellion has
challenged the international force. Gen. Jones, NATO's military chief,
had called the meeting to persuade countries to deliver on past
commitments and to meet a request by the NATO command for up to 2,500
extra troops for Afghanistan. But NATO spokesman James Appathurai said
the meeting had ended without concrete offers, despite a grim warning
from Secretary of State Rice that Afghanistan risked becoming "a
failed state" if more troops were not sent.

Education
12)  10 Billion Dollars Could Buy Universal Schooling
Jim Lobe, Inter Press Service, Wednesday, September 13, 2006
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines06/0913-03.htm
More than 43 million children living in conflict-affected countries
are not able to attend school, according to a report by the
International Save the Children Alliance, which called on donor
countries and multilateral agencies to commit 5.8 billion dollars a
year to address the problem. The report said only 30% of total foreign
aid earmarked for education in the world's 63 poorest countries went
to the 30 countries affected by conflicts. Among countries with the
highest non-enrollment are Afghanistan, Angola, the Democratic
Republic of Congo, Cote d'Ivoire, Ethiopia, Pakistan, Sudan, and
Uganda. The group stressed that, without schools, children were far
more susceptible to recruitment by armies and militias or other forms
of exploitation.

Colombia
13) Colombian gangsters face sex ban
BBC News, Wednesday, 13 September 2006
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/5341574.stm
Wives and girlfriends of gang members in one of Colombia's most
violent cities have called a sex ban in a bid to get their men to give
up the gun. Dozens of women are said to be taking part in what is
being called the "strike of crossed legs", a move backed by the mayor
of Pereira. The city in Colombia's coffee-growing region reported 480
killings last year. A city official said the idea came from a meeting
of wives and girlfriends over the progress of a disarmament scheme.

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

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