[Peace-discuss] Just Foreign Policy News, January 17, 2007

[Robert Naiman]

Just Foreign Policy News
January 17, 2007
http://www.justforeignpolicy.org/newsroom/blog/

Ask your Representative to Co-Sponsor the DeFazio "Iran War Powers" Resolution
Representative DeFazio has introduced a resolution re-affirming that
President Bush cannot attack Iran without Congressional authorization.
Ask your Representative to support it.
http://www.justforeignpolicy.org/involved/warpowers.html

January 27-29: March on Washington and Lobby Day
UFPJ, MoveOn, Win Without War, many other groups and coalitions.
http://www.unitedforpeace.org/article.php?id=3468

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Summary:
US/Top News
If someone were keeping a "doomsday clock" of the impending threat of
a U.S. military attack on Iran, that clock surely would have ticked
forward in the last week, writes Robert Naiman on Huffington Post.
Representative DeFazio has introduced a resolution that reaffirms the
bedrock Constitutional principle that Congress has the exclusive power
to declare war.
http://www.justforeignpolicy.org/involved/warpowers.html

The Bush administration has periodically claimed Iran is supplying
anti-coalition forces in Iraq with arms, writes Gareth Porter for
Inter Press Service. In the past, administration officials admitted
they had no real evidence. Now Secretary of State Rice has told
reporters, "there is plenty of evidence that there is Iranian
involvement with these networks that are making high-explosive IEDs."
But Rice failed to provide any evidence of official Iranian
involvement. The origins of the theme of Iranian complicity suggest
that it was aimed at reducing the Bush administration's embarrassment
at its inability to stop the growing death toll of US troops from
shaped charges fired at armoured vehicles by Sunni insurgents. The US
admitted at first that Sunnis were making the shaped charges
themselves. In June 2005, Gen. John Vines, senior US commander in
Iraq, said insurgents had probably drawn on bomb-making expertise from
the former Iraqi army. Shortly thereafter, the Bush administration
decided to start blaming Iran. But the administration had a major
credibility problem. It could not explain why Iran would want to
assist the enemies of the militant Shiite parties in Iraq that were
aligned with Iran.

Republican Senator Chuck Hagel, will join two leading Democrats in
introducing a resolution opposing President Bush's buildup of troops
in Iraq, the New York Times reports.

Senator Dodd announced legislation capping the number of troops in
Iraq at 130,000, saying that lawmakers should vote on President Bush's
plan to send additional troops to the country and not settle for the
non-binding resolution several Senate leaders prefer, the Washington
Post reports.

Tom Andrews, former House Democrat who heads Win Without War, said a
non-binding resolution would allow Republicans to voice their
opposition to the president's policy, giving them political cover when
they later oppose binding legislative efforts to stifle that policy,
the Washington Post reports. "The whole thing could let Republicans
off the hook with a meaningless, toothless vote," said Andrews. "It's
a pressure valve that could work against us."

Senate lawmakers sharply criticized the Bush administration Tuesday
for failing to provide refuge in the US for the most vulnerable of the
Iraqis fleeing violence, the New York Times reports. Several senators
called on the US to increase assistance for Iraqi refugees and to
support an international conference to address the crisis. The
conference would most likely include Syria and Iran, which have
received hundreds of thousands of Iraqi refugees.

Iran
US wrestlers were welcomed to Iran Tuesday with bouquets of flowers,
the New York Times reports. The 14 wrestlers will compete in the
Persian Gulf Cup. In the 1998 tournament, some 12,000 fans in Tehran
cheered as a US wrestler waved the Iranian flag after winning a silver
medal.

The IAEA has suspended some technical aid projects in Iran to comply
with new U.N. sanctions, Reuters reports. Exactly how broadly to apply
the definition of banned projects is the subject of a brewing battle
between Western and the Non-Aligned Movement of developing nations on
the IAEA board.

Iraq
Iraq is emerging as one of the fastest-growing refugee crises in the
world, with an estimated 1.7 million Iraqis displaced from their
homes, the Washington Post reports.  The Bush administration has $20
million in its fiscal 2007 budget for Iraqi refugee assistance; the US
is spending $8 billion a month on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
[Yesterday the Christian Science Monitor reported that the US was
spending $10 billion a month, indicating how shrouded in mystery U.S.
spending on these wars is.] The most practical, immediate way to
alleviate the crisis is to step up aid for refugees in neighboring
countries so these countries do not close their borders, experts said.

The carefully worded encouragement that Arab allies are offering for
President Bush's new Iraq strategy belies deep suspicion among the US'
few real friends in the region that Iraq may already be a lost cause,
writes Anne Gearan for AP.

Israel/Palestine
The Israeli military Tuesday froze implementation of an order
prohibiting Israeli citizens from giving rides in their cars to
Palestinian residents of the West Bank without special permission,
Haaretz reports. Human rights organizations call the order racist,
saying it would disrupt even minimal social contacts between Israelis
and Palestinians. They also expressed concern the order would hamper
international organizations and further restrict Palestinian movement
throughout the West Bank.

The Israeli military's chief of staff, Dan Halutz, resigned after
months of criticism over last summer's war in Lebanon, the New York
Times reports. Halutz was seen as overly reliant on air power.
Lebanese civilian casualties from Israeli bombing turned international
opinion against the Israeli campaign.

Prominent citizens from Israel and Syria drafted a document that calls
for returning the Golan Heights to Syria and offers an outline for
peace negotiations, the New York Times reports. The document calls for
Syria to regain the Golan Heights based on the border that existed
before the 1967 war. The heights would be demilitarized except for a
limited police presence. The two countries would establish normal
diplomatic relations.

Afghanistan
Defense Secretary Robert Gates  said Tuesday there had been a
"significant increase" in cross-border attacks from Pakistan, the
Washington Post reports. Gates said he would be "strongly inclined" to
recommend a troop increase if commanders believe it is needed. US
military officials said Pakistani forces had been turning a blind eye
to insurgent border crossings.

Somalia
The transitional government in Somalia lifted a ban on three radio
stations, the New York Times reports.

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Robert Naiman
Just Foreign Policy
www.justforeignpolicy.org