[Peace-discuss] Fwd: Just Foreign Policy News, February 21, 2007

[Barbara kessel]

Below are a few opportunities to sign on to opposing the War in Iran,
and if you go to Just Foreign Policy news, the links will be live.
Barbara Kessel

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Just Foreign Policy <naiman at justforeignpolicy.org>
Date: Feb 21, 2007 5:36 PM
Subject: Just Foreign Policy News, February 21, 2007
To: barkes at gmail.com




Just Foreign Policy News
 February 21, 2007

 Sanders introduces Senate counterpart to DeFazio resolution
 http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d110:SC00013:

 Ask Your Representative to Support 'Iran War Powers' Resolutions
 http://www.justforeignpolicy.org/involved/warpowers.html

 Has Your Representative Spoken Out Against War with Iran?
 http://www.justforeignpolicy.org/involved/iran_resolutions_ooi.htm

 Support the Work of Just Foreign Policy
 http://www.justforeignpolicy.org/donate.html

 Just Foreign Policy News daily podcast:
 http://www.justforeignpolicy.org/podcasts/podcast_howto.html

 Summary:
 U.S./Top News
 1) A proposed new Iraqi oil and gas law began circulating last week
among that country's top government leaders and was quickly leaked to
various Internet sites, writes Juan Gonazlez in the New York Daily
News. Under the proposed law, Iraq's immense oil reserves would not
simply be opened to foreign oil exploration. Executives from those
companies would actually be given seats on a new Federal Oil and Gas
Council that would control all of Iraq's reserves.

 2) A national survey released last week by the nonpartisan Pew
Research Center found that support for the war continues to decline,
with 53% of Americans believing the U.S. should bring its troops home
as soon as possible. Opposition is even fiercer among Democrats, the
Los Angeles Times reports. That is the audience Democrats are playing
to in Iowa, New Hampshire and on Jay Leno's "Tonight Show," where
former Iowa Gov. Tom Vilsack drew a burst of applause last week with
his call to cut off funding for the war.

 3) A divided federal appeals court on Tuesday upheld a new law
stripping federal judges of authority to review foreign prisoners'
challenges to their detention at Guantánamo, the New York Times
reports. The decision set the stage for a third trip to the Supreme
Court for the detainees. Democrats said they would move quickly on
legislation they recently introduced that would unambiguously give
federal courts the right to consider detainees' habeas petitions.

 4) Prime Minister Blair announced that up to 1,600 of the roughly
7,100 British troops in southern Iraq will begin withdrawing in coming
months, the New York Times reports. The prime minister acknowledged
that conditions in southern Iraq were not what he had hoped.

 5) The rate of fatal terrorist attacks around the world by jihadist
groups, and the number of people killed in those attacks, increased
dramatically after the invasion of Iraq, according to a recent study
reported in Mother Jones.

 Iran
 6) The US will take military action against Iran if ships are
attacked or if countries in the region are targeted or US troops come
under direct attack, according to the commander of the Fifth Fleet,
Gulf News reports. Writing on Huffington Post, Robert Naiman wonders
whether this statement of the obvious doesn't qualify as deliberately
provocative thumb-biting.

 7) In Tehran sentiments are openly expressed against President
Ahmedinijad in many quarters, writes Hooman Majd in Salon. It may be
tempting to imagine that the Iranian people are becoming as
dissatisfied with their political system as they are with their
president. However, it would be dangerous to make such a presumption.
In the minds of Iranians, foreign policy is linked to the price of
tomatoes. But it is by no means certain that Iranians, who seem to
prefer that their president project a more benign image abroad, are
willing to forgo what they believe to be nuclear independence in order
to buy cheaper tomatoes.

 Iraq
 8) When a Sunni woman appeared on Al Jazeera Monday night with a
horrific account sexual assault at the hands of the Shiite-dominated
Iraqi National Police, people across the country were stunned, Marc
Santora reported for the New York Times, not because of the
allegation, but because of the breaking of a taboo. Almost
immediately, Shiite leaders lined up to condemn the woman, calling her
charges propaganda aimed at undermining the new security campaign.
Sunni politicians offered the woman their support. Prime Minister
Maliki issued a statement soon after the woman appeared on television,
promising a full investigation and the most severe punishment for
anyone involved. Hours later Maliki reversed himself. His office
released a second statement, calling the woman a liar and a wanted
criminal and going on to praise the officers involved. A nurse who
said she treated the woman after the attack said that she saw signs of
sexual and physical assault.

 9) Prime Minister Maliki fired a top Sunni official today after he
criticized the government's handling of a Sunni woman's account of
being raped by members of the Shiite-dominated security forces, Marc
Santora reports for the New York Times. Maliki, responding to
criticism his government was rushing to discredit the woman's account
because she is Sunni, released what he said was evidence that she was
lying, including a medical report that he said came from an
American-run hospital where the woman was treated. General Caldwell,
the American military spokesman, acknowledged that the woman had been
admitted to an American-run medical facility, but refused to divulge
details of her treatment or examination.

 10) As the U.S./Iraqi "security crackdown" enters a second week, it
faces its most sensitive challenge: whether, when and how to move into
Sadr City, the Los Angeles Times reports. U.S. and Iraqi military
commanders are concerned about stirring up a hornet's nest in a
neighborhood of more than 2 million Shiites.

 Israel/Palestine
 11) Congress is holding up $86 million that the Bush administration
is seeking to strengthen the security forces of Palestinian Authority
President Mahmoud Abbas, the Los Angeles Times reports. Nita Lowey,
chair of the House Appropriations subcommittee on foreign operations,
has put a hold on the funding, saying she is not convinced the money
will go to train and equip Abbas' security forces.

 Venezuela
 12) London's mayor signed an agreement Tuesday with Venezuela's
state-owned oil company to provide discounted oil for the city's
buses, AP reports. The savings are to be directed toward cheaper bus
travel for up to 250,000 Londoners living on income support. Those who
qualify will get a half-price discount on bus fares.

 Italy
 13) Italy's Prime Minister Prodi resigned Wednesday when his
centre-left coalition suffered a Senate defeat on foreign policy,
Reuters reports. Prodi had clashed with coalition allies over Italy's
role in Afghanistan and Prodi's approval for the Pentagon to expand a
military base in northern Italy.

 Contents:
 U.S./Top News
 1) Oily Truth Emerges In Iraq
 Juan Gonzalez, New York Daily News, Wednesday, February 21st, 2007
 http://www.nydailynews.com/news/col/jgonzalez/story/499442p-421044c.html

 Throughout nearly four years of the daily mayhem and carnage in Iraq,
President Bush and his aides in the White House have scoffed at even
the slightest suggestion that the U.S. military occupation has
anything to do with oil. The President presumably would have us all
believe that if Iraq had the world's second-largest supply of bananas
instead of petroleum, American troops would still be there.

 Now comes new evidence of the big prize in Iraq that rarely gets
mentioned at White House briefings. A proposed new Iraqi oil and gas
law began circulating last week among that country's top government
leaders and was quickly leaked to various Internet sites - before it
has even been presented to the Iraqi parliament.

 Under the proposed law, Iraq's immense oil reserves would not simply
be opened to foreign oil exploration, as many had expected. Amazingly,
executives from those companies would actually be given seats on a new
Federal Oil and Gas Council that would control all of Iraq's reserves.

 In other words, Chevron, ExxonMobil, British Petroleum and the other
Western oil giants could end up on the board of directors of the Iraqi
Federal Oil and Gas Council, while Iraq's own national oil company
would become just another competitor. The new law would grant the
council virtually all power to develop policies and plans for
undeveloped oil fields and to review and change all exploration and
production contracts.

 Since most of Iraq's 73 proven petroleum fields have yet to be
developed, the new council would instantly become a world energy
powerhouse. "We're talking about trillions of dollars of oil that are
at stake," said Raed Jarrar, an independent Iraqi journalist and
blogger who obtained an Arabic copy of the draft law and posted an
English-language translation on his Web site over the weekend.

 2) For Democrats, War Is Front And Center
 All the presidential contenders say they oppose the Iraq conflict,
but that doesn't stop them from fighting about it.
 Mark Z. Barabak, Los Angeles Times, February 21, 2007
 http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/la-na-forum21feb21,1,2231763.story

 The Democrats seeking the White House may be united in opposing the
war in Iraq. But that hasn't stopped them from fighting over the
conflict.
 …
 Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois stresses his opposition to the invasion
from the start and says those who voted to authorize the war, only to
come around later, are at least partly to blame for today's problems.
It shows, Obama says, the decision-making capacity each candidate
would bring to the White House.

 Former Sen. John Edwards of North Carolina, who has apologized for
his initial war vote, suggests Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York
has been too measured in her opposition. Implicit is the notion that a
calculating front-runner has shaped her views more out of political
consideration than principle.

 Clinton has sharpened her tone and stepped up her antiwar rhetoric,
but has not apologized for her initial stance on the war. Take it or
leave it, she says, telling voters she would not make the same
decision today but acted on the best information at the time.

 That the war is front and center in the Democratic primary, as it was
in 2004, is hardly surprising. Congress has spent weeks focused on the
issue, and grim news from Iraq dominates the headlines. "Nothing is
more central or important to the American public than what's going on
in Iraq, period," said Peter Hart, a veteran Democratic pollster who
is neutral in the party's primary.

 A national survey released last week by the nonpartisan Pew Research
Center found that support for the war continues to decline, with 53%
of Americans believing the U.S. should bring its troops home as soon
as possible. Opposition is even fiercer among Democrats - 83% in the
Pew poll said things in Iraq were not going well and more than six in
10 said the U.S. mission there would definitely or probably fail. That
is the audience Democrats are playing to in Iowa, New Hampshire and on
Jay Leno's "Tonight Show," where former Iowa Gov. Tom Vilsack drew a
burst of applause last week with his call to cut off funding for the
war.

 3) Court Endorses Law's Curbs On Detainees
 Stephen Labaton, New York Times, February 21, 2007
 http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/21/washington/21gitmo.html

 A divided federal appeals court on Tuesday upheld a new law stripping
federal judges of authority to review foreign prisoners' challenges to
their detention at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba. The decision set the stage
for a third trip to the Supreme Court for the detainees, who will once
again ask the justices to consider a complex issue that tests the
balance of power among the White House, Congress and the courts in the
murky context of the fight against international terrorism.

 It also prompted some senior Democratic lawmakers, who have fought
the Bush administration on the matter before and who now hold sway in
Congress, to vow enactment of a law more favorable to the prisoners.

 The Supreme Court previously ruled twice that federal statutes
empowered the courts to consider Guantánamo prisoners' habeas corpus
petitions challenging the grounds for their detention. In response to
those rulings, Congress twice rewrote law to limit the detainees'
avenues of appeal. The most recent rewriting was at issue in Tuesday's
2-to-1 decision.
 …
 Democrats now in control of Congress said they would move quickly on
legislation they recently introduced that would unambiguously give
federal courts the right to consider detainees' habeas petitions. "The
Military Commissions Act is a dangerous and misguided law that
undercuts our freedoms and assaults our Constitution by removing vital
checks and balances designed to prevent government overreaching and
lawlessness," said Senator Patrick J. Leahy, the Vermont Democrat who
heads the Senate Judiciary Committee.

 Last week Mr. Leahy joined a group of other Senate Democrats,
including Christopher J. Dodd of Connecticut, Russell D. Feingold of
Wisconsin and Robert Menendez of New Jersey, in introducing the
legislation restoring habeas rights for the Guantánamo prisoners.
Senator Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania, the Judiciary Committee's
ranking Republican, also endorsed that measure last week, and said
Tuesday that he believed the dissent from the new appeals court
decision would ultimately prevail in the Supreme Court.

 4) Britain to Cut 1,600 Troops in Iraq, Blair Says
 Alan Cowell, New York Times, February 21, 2007
 http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/21/world/middleeast/21cnd-blair.html

 In sharp contrast to the American troop buildup in Baghdad, Prime
Minister Tony Blair of Britain announced today that up to 1,600 of the
roughly 7,100 British troops in southern Iraq will begin withdrawing
in coming months. About 460 Danish soldiers under British command in
southern Iraq will also be withdrawn by August, Denmark said, and
Lithuania said it was considering pulling out a small contingent of 53
soldiers in the south.

 The British withdrawal was more modest than government ministers had
suggested in recent weeks and Mr. Blair offered no clear timetable for
the troop drawdown, during which Iraqi forces will take over some of
the responsibility for patrolling Basra in southern Iraq.

 Sir Menzies Campbell, the leader of the opposition Liberal Democrats,
said the pullout would leave Iraq far from being the "beacon of
democracy" that Mr. Blair had once promised, and the prime minister
acknowledged that conditions in southern Iraq were not what he had
hoped.

 5) The Iraq effect: war has increased terrorism sevenfold worldwide
 Peter Bergen and Paul Cruickshank, Mother Jones, March 1, 2007
 http://www.motherjones.com/news/featurex/2007/03/aftermath.html

 Has the war in Iraq increased jihadist terrorism? The Bush
administration has offered two responses: First, the moths-to-aflame
argument, which says that Iraq draws terrorists who would otherwise
"be plotting and killing Americans across the world and within our own
borders," as President Bush put it in 2005. Second, the hard-to-say
position: "Are more terrorists being created in the world?"
then-Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld asked at a press conference
in September 2006. "We don't know. The world doesn't know. There are
not good metrics to determine how many people are being trained in a
radical madrasa school in some country."

 In fact, as Rumsfeld knew well, there are plenty of publicly
available figures on the incidence and gravity of jihadist attacks.
But until now, no one has done a serious statistical analysis of
whether an "Iraq effect" does exist. We have undertaken such a study,
drawing on data in the mipt-rand Terrorism database
(terrorismknowledgebase .org), widely considered the best unclassified
database on terrorism incidents.

 Our study yields one resounding finding: The rate of fatal terrorist
attacks around the world by jihadist groups, and the number of people
killed in those attacks, increased dramatically after the invasion of
Iraq. Globally there was a 607 percent rise in the average yearly
incidence of attacks (28.3 attacks per year before and 199.8 after)
and a 237 percent rise in the fatality rate (from 501 to 1,689 deaths
per year). A large part of this rise occurred in Iraq, the scene of
almost half the global total of jihadist terrorist attacks. But even
excluding Iraq and Afghanistan-the other current jihadist hot
spot-there has been a 35 percent rise in the number of attacks, with a
12 percent rise in fatalities.

 Iran
 6)  US 'will retaliate if ships are targeted'
 Habib Toumi, Gulf News, 20/02/2007
 http://archive.gulfnews.com/region/Bahrain/10105623.html

 The United States stands to retaliate against Iran in case Tehran
targets the "innocent passage of ships," the commander of the Fifth
Fleet has said. "Although our presence in the Arabian Gulf is for
defensive and not offensive purposes, the US will take military action
if ships are attacked or if countries in the region are targeted or US
troops come under direct attack," Patrick Walsh yesterday told
journalists in Bahrain.

 The three-star vice admiral said that there was increasing concern
about the intention of Iran in the region. "The question is not what
the US is planning, but rather what Iran is planning for the region,"
he said.

 7) The view from Tehran
 Iranians are fed up with the high price of tomatoes and their
provocative president. But it would be dangerous for Bush and the West
to overlook their national pride.
 Hooman Majd, Salon, February 21, 2007
 http://www.salon.com/opinion/feature/2007/02/21/letter_from_iran/print.html

 Much has been made in the media of growing discontent inside Iran
with President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, and in Tehran sentiments are
indeed openly expressed against him and his administration in many
quarters, including some of his own. It may be tempting, therefore, to
imagine that the "Iranian people," those to whom President Bush often
refers as aspiring to the very same thing we do, i.e., "freedom," are
becoming as dissatisfied with their political system as they are with
their president. However, it would be dangerous - and all the more so
if the imagining is done by the White House - to make such a
presumption.

 Iran's rather unique notion of democracy may not jibe with Western
notions, but there are remarkable similarities that are often
overlooked by analysts sitting at their desks a few thousand miles
away. Iranians, like Americans, vote for their president and fully
expect him, perhaps as naively as we do, to deliver on his campaign
promises. As Bill Clinton's campaign slogan once went - "It's the
economy, stupid" - so it goes in Iran. Foreign policy - what we are
most concerned with when it comes to Iran and its unusual leader - is
relevant to the Iranian masses only inasmuch as it affects their
pocketbooks and, of course, their broader sense of security.

 And in Iran the economy is reeling. Bread and dairy prices are fixed
by the government, but fruit prices are not, and as inflation has been
particularly bad recently, Iranians have focused on tomatoes, found in
practically every Iranian dish. Food price increases and astronomical
home prices are making it difficult for the already squeezed working
classes - who were promised a share of Iranian oil wealth by
Ahmadinejad - to make a living. The unemployment rate, officially put
at around 12 percent, is in reality 20 percent, or even higher,
according to experts.
 …
 And in terms of public opinion, a sense of President Ahmadinejad's
stature in Iran is not unlike the sense of President Bush's stature
one might now find in New York, or even in the Midwest. Since
Ahmadinejad's popularity started falling precipitously at the end of
2006, the newspapers have been filled with extremely harsh criticisms
of him and his government. If Ahmadinejad's honeymoon with both
Iranian voters and the Iranian media has been even shorter-lived than
Bush's (which was extended by the events of 9/11, as it was), it does
not mean that he is politically doomed, nor does it even mean that he
cannot regain his popularity. In the minds of Iranians, foreign policy
is in some sense inextricably linked to the price of tomatoes. But it
is by no means certain that Iranians, who seem to prefer that their
president project a more benign image abroad, are willing to forgo
what they believe to be nuclear independence in order to buy cheaper
tomatoes.

 Iraq
 8) Rape Accusation Reinforces Fears In A Divided Iraq
 Marc Santora, New York Times, February 21, 2007
 http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/21/world/middleeast/21iraq.html

 The most wicked acts are spoken of openly and without reserve in
Iraq. Torture, stabbings and bodies ripped to pieces in bombings are
all part of the daily conversation. Rape is different. Rape is not
mentioned by the victims, and rarely by the authorities. And when it
is discussed publicly, as in several high-profile cases involving
American soldiers and Iraqi women, it is usually left to the relatives
of the victim to give the explicit details.

 So when a 20-year-old Sunni woman from Baghdad appeared on the
satellite television station Al Jazeera on Monday night with a
horrific account of kidnapping and sexual assault at the hands of
three officers in the Shiite-dominated Iraqi National Police, people
across the country were stunned, some disbelieving, others horrified,
but all riveted.

 Almost immediately, Shiite leaders lined up to condemn the woman,
calling her charges propaganda aimed at undermining the new security
campaign. Sunni politicians offered the woman their support. Whatever
the truth of the accusation, though, it played to sectarian fears on
both sides.

 For many Shiites, the charges appeared to be an attempt to smear them
and attack the Shiite-led government; for Sunnis, the woman's account
only highlighted what they already believed to be true - that the
Iraqi government cares little for justice and promotes a Shiite
agenda.
 …
 The American military said only that it was investigating the charges.

 That was also the first response of Prime Minister Nuri Kamal
al-Maliki, who issued a statement soon after the woman appeared on
television on Monday, promising a full investigation and the most
severe punishment for anyone involved.

 Only hours later, however, Mr. Maliki reversed himself. His office
released a second statement after midnight, that one calling the woman
a liar and a wanted criminal and going on to praise the officers
involved.

 "It has been shown after medical examinations that the woman had not
been subjected to any sexual attack whatsoever, and that there are
three outstanding arrest warrants against her issued by security
agencies," said the second statement. "After the allegations have been
proven to be false, the prime minister has ordered that the officers
accused be rewarded."
 …
 Sunni politicians rushed to her defense, accusing the government of
revealing its true sectarian bias. The case "should not be dealt with
on a sectarian basis," said Saleem Abdullah, a spokesman for the
Tawafiq bloc of Sunni parties, which helped the woman come forward.
"She is a sister for all Iraqis."
 …
 A nurse who said she treated the woman after the attack said that she
saw signs of sexual and physical assault. The woman, according to the
nurse, could identify one of her attackers because he was not wearing
a mask, as were the others, and could identify a second attacker by a
mark on his genitals.

 The nurse would speak only on the condition of anonymity because she
feared that Shiite militiamen would kill her for speaking out. The
nurse said she was also wanted by the authorities, who believed the
clinic she works at was used by insurgents.

 She said the clinic was simply for Sunnis in the Amil neighborhood
who were too afraid to the visit the Shiite-run hospital.
 …
 A spokeswoman for the American military here in Baghdad, Lt. Col.
Josslyn Aberle, confirmed that the woman had been detained by the
Iraqi National Police on Sunday morning, but said that everything that
happened after that was under investigation.

 But a senior Iraqi official, speaking only on the condition of
anonymity because he did not want to be seen as critical of the
Americans, said that he had alerted the American ambassador to Iraq,
Zalmay Khalilzad, on the day the woman made her allegations,
cautioning him that if the case was not handled delicately, it could
further inflame sectarian passions.

 9) Iraqi Official Fired for Criticizing Maliki in Rape Case
 Marc Santora, New York Times, February 21, 2007
 http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/21/world/middleeast/21cnd-accuse.html

 Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki fired a top Sunni official today
after he criticized the government's handling of a young Sunni woman's
account of being raped by members of the Shiite-dominated security
forces.

 Mr. Maliki, responding to criticism that his Shiite-led government
was rushing to discredit the woman's account because she is Sunni,
also released what he said was evidence that she was lying, including
a medical report that he said came from an American-run hospital where
the woman was treated.

 Maj. Gen. William B. Caldwell, the chief American military spokesman,
said that the hospital had given only the woman a copy of the medical
report and that it was unclear whether Mr. Maliki's document was
genuine.

 A copy of Mr. Maliki's document, obtained by The New York Times,
shows it to be inconclusive. It says the subject had no vaginal
tearing, but noted bruises on her thighs. In an extremely unusual
broadcast on Al Jazeera satellite television on Monday night, the
woman said she had been beaten with a water hose during the attack.

 It was also unclear if Mr. Maliki had the authority to fire the Sunni
official, Sheikh Ahmad Abdul Ghafur al-Samaraei, who runs the Sunni
Endowment, an organization that cares for Sunni mosques and shrines in
Iraq.
 …
 Mr. Maliki's office released a defiant, at times confusing, statement.

 "We expected this fabricated propaganda," the statement said. "The
purpose of this is to obstruct and distort the law enforcing plan."

 The Maliki administration contended that the clothes of a person who
was kidnapped by Sunni militants were found in the woman's home. The
body of the person, the statement said, "was found buried in another
house."

 The woman first came under suspicion of aiding militants, according
to the statement, when a police officer "saw her cooking for a large
number of people while she was alone in the house." This happened
again, the statement said, and the woman was making enough food to
feed "more than 10 people."

 The statement twice cited American involvement to bolster his claims,
including that military advisers were "present in all stages of
arrest, transportation of the complainant and interrogation."

 General Caldwell, the American military spokesman, did not confirm
that. While acknowledging that she had been admitted to an
American-run medical facility on Sunday, he refused to divulge details
of her treatment or examination.

 10) Joint force weighs move on Sadr City
 The vast Baghdad slum harbors a key militia but a sweep could backfire.
 Borzou Daragahi, Los Angeles Times, February 21, 2007
 http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-sadrcity21feb21,0,5889341.story

 U.S. and Iraqi forces have moved aggressively in the last week to
combat Sunni Arab insurgents in neighborhoods across the capital and
to establish a stronger presence in religiously mixed districts long
plagued by sectarian violence.

 But as the new security crackdown enters a second week, they face
their most sensitive challenge: whether, when and how to move into the
Shiite-dominated slum of Sadr City, stronghold of the Al Mahdi
militia.

 Political pressure has mounted to crack down on the Baghdad
neighborhood that harbors the militia loyal to radical anti-American
cleric Muqtada Sadr. Sunni Arabs, who make up the backbone of the
insurgency, have long accused Shiite Prime Minister Nouri Maliki of
allowing Sadr City to remain a haven for the militia to keep the
support of Sadr's followers.

 "We think that much of the … violence that comes as a result of
operations emanating from Sadr City will be remarkably diminished if
they crack down," said Ammar Wajuih, a leader of the Iraqi Islamic
Party, the country's main Sunni political organization.


 U.S. and Iraqi military commanders setting out the next steps of the
Baghdad security plan are concerned about stirring up a hornet's nest
in a neighborhood of more than 2 million Shiites.

 They worry that by moving too aggressively they could sabotage one of
the few success stories in Iraq since the 2003 U.S.-led invasion.

 The teeming streets of Sadr City are thriving while the rest of the
violence-racked capital wilts. The district pulses with commerce and
youth, even as huge stretches of Baghdad fade into ghost towns.

 Sadr City may shelter troublemakers, but they're lying low for the
most part now. Moreover, Sadr's deputies have endorsed the security
crackdown.

 Even amid the bloodshed across Baghdad, customers fill Sadr City's
shops. Workers repair its streets and sewage lines. Children play
soccer on its dusty fields and walk to school along newly prettified
squares, verdant emblems of progress in a quarter long one of Iraq's
most deprived.

 "Sadr City has always been safe, with the exception of the suicide
and roadside bomb attacks," said Talib Saad, a barber along the
district's main thoroughfare.

 U.S. troops took heavy casualties when they tried to storm Sadr City
in the spring and summer of 2004. For the Americans, the grueling
street fights with black-clad teens holding AK-47s while running down
the streets represented a nadir few want to relive.

 Rather than crush the Al Mahdi, the U.S. wound up bolstering Sadr's
street credibility and undermining the popularity of then-Prime
Minister Iyad Allawi, who was pro-American.

 Israel/Palestine
 11) Congress puts Palestinian funds in limbo
 White House wants the money to help Abbas, but lawmakers worry it may
fall into Hamas' hands.
 Paul Richter, Los Angeles Times, February 21, 2007
 http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-usmideast21feb21,1,1983649.story

 Congress is holding up $86 million that the Bush administration is
seeking to strengthen the security forces of Palestinian Authority
President Mahmoud Abbas, in a new setback for the administration's
efforts in the region.

 Administration officials say they want the money to ensure that the
moderate Palestinian leader's security forces will not be overwhelmed
by rivals from the militant movement Hamas, which has received pledges
of $250 million in aid from Iran.

 But Rep. Nita M. Lowey (D-N.Y.), chairwoman of the House
Appropriations subcommittee on foreign operations, has put a hold on
the funding, saying she is not convinced the money will go to train
and equip Abbas' security forces, as promised. Other lawmakers,
including Democrats and Republicans, have voiced concern that the
money could end up in the hands of Hamas.

 Venezuela
 12) London Mayor, Chávez Make Oil Deal
 Jennifer Quinn, Associated Press, Tuesday, February 20, 2007; 4:27 PM
 http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/02/20/AR2007022000948.html

 London's socialist mayor signed an agreement Tuesday with Venezuela's
state-owned oil company to provide discounted oil for the city's
iconic red buses, praising the idea as the brainstorm of the country's
leftist leader, Hugo Chavez.

 Ken Livingstone - a committed socialist known locally as "Red Ken" -
met with Chavez last year at City Hall to discuss the deal to provide
cheap oil to London in exchange for advice on urban planning in
Caracas, the Venezuelan capital.

 Venezuela has signed similar agreements with cities in several other
countries, including the United States. Critics call it "oil
diplomacy" - and say it is designed to embarrass President Bush, whom
Chavez has repeatedly mocked. [It's not obvious why helping poor
people in London would embarrass President Bush, but perhaps this was
an editing error - JFP.]

 "This arose out of the suggestion of President Hugo Chavez, and
builds on the work he is doing around the world to tackle the problem
of poverty," Livingstone said.

 The savings - which would cut fuel costs by 20 percent for the city
and could amount to about $32 million - are to be directed toward
cheaper bus travel for up to 250,000 Londoners living on income
support. Those who qualify will get a half-price discount on bus
fares.

 Italy
 13) Italy's Prodi quits after foreign policy defeat
 Paolo Biondi & Phil Stewart, Reuters, Wednesday, February 21, 2007; 3:29 PM
 http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/02/21/AR2007022101057.html

 Prime Minister Romano Prodi resigned on Wednesday, just nine months
after winning the closest election in Italy's modern history, when his
centre-left coalition suffered a Senate defeat on foreign policy.

 Prodi's last spell in power almost a decade ago was also cut short by
far-left coalition allies. This time they rebelled over keeping
Italian troops in Afghanistan and allowing the expansion of a U.S.
military base in Italy.

 President Giorgio Napolitano accepted Prodi's resignation but Prodi
may stay in power.

 Napolitano, who will consult politicians on Thursday, could stop
short of calling an election and ask for a parliamentary confidence
vote in Prodi. He could also ask another leader to form a governing
coalition.

 The Olive Branch alliance of the core parties in government said they
were "ready to renew our full confidence in Prodi."
 …
 A former president of the European Commission, Prodi took the
decision to resign after the Senate, where he had a single seat
majority, rejected a motion supporting foreign policy.

 Although not obliged to step down, he had little choice after Foreign
Minister Massimo D'Alema turned the vote into a litmus test of
government strength by saying that if the coalition could not pass the
motion, it should resign.

 Prodi had repeatedly resorted to confidence votes to bring fractious
allies in line over issues ranging from the budget and gay rights to
Italy's role in NATO peacekeeping in Afghanistan.

 Pacifists also opposed Prodi's approval for the Pentagon to expand a
military base in northern Italy and thousands of them, including
coalition leaders, marched in protest last weekend.

 -
 Robert Naiman
 Just Foreign Policy
 www.justforeignpolicy.org

 Just Foreign Policy is a membership organization devoted to reforming
US foreign policy so it reflects the values and interests of the
majority of Americans. If you do not wish to receive Just Foreign
Policy news send an email with subject "unsubscribe Just Foreign
Policy News" to naiman at justforeignpolicy.org.