[Peace-discuss] News notes 2008-04-27 draft (comments welcome)
C. G. Estabrook
galliher at uiuc.edu
Sun Apr 27 12:40:16 CDT 2008
SUNDAY 27 APRIL 2008
[1] TORTURE. The NYT reports this morning that the Geneva Conventions' ban on
"outrages against personal dignity" does not apply to terrorism suspects
according to the Justice Department. The Bush administration continues to
consolidate America's reputation as the world's leading torture state.
The CIA on Thursday revealed possession of 7,000 secret torture documents --
and they didn't want to show us any of them.
Detainees at Guantanamo Bay say they were injected with unknown drugs against
their will before interrogations. They say they believe the drugs were intended
to coerce confessions. A 2003 Justice Department memo explicitly condoned the
use of drugs on detainees.
FBI Director Robert Mueller on Wednesday recalled warning the Justice
Department and the Pentagon that some U.S. interrogation methods used against
terrorists might be inappropriate, if not illegal.
[2] WAR. Congressional Democrats plan to take some window-dressing votes on
troop withdrawal timelines, then negotiate a deal with the Senate and the White
House that would combine money for the war with some modest domestic spending.
Meanwhile, the Army Expands Involuntary Extensions of Duty, and SecDef Gates
says curiously that the Air Force is not doing enough in Iraq war effort.
The US military claimed that nearly three-quarters of the attacks that kill or
wound US soldiers in Baghdad are carried out by Iranian-backed Shiite groups
connected to the Mahdi Army
Many Lebanese, worried about civil war, are purchasing weapons. The price of
small arms has skyrocketed.
Dana Milbank reports on Douglas Feith in WP: as no. 3 in the Pentagon, Feith
decided that a US attack on Iraq would help Israel secure the West Bank, Feith
had been a leading Likud activist in the United States. He is no more a
Republican than Ariel Sharon was. Feith was all about "securing the realm" (his
term for defending the Israeli occupation).
[3] IRAQ. Moqtada al-Sadr on Friday called upon his followers and security
forces to stop the bloodshed a week after he warned of "open war" against the
government. He confined his threats to the occupation forces.
In the Iraqi government's fight against Sadr's militia in Basra, the U.S. and
Iran are on the same side. Iran favors the crackdown because it favors a plan
for an autonomous Shiite region in the south, supported by the US-allied and
Iran-allied Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq, the Times says. Sadr's organization
is opposed to the plan.
Britain said Thursday it will keep its troop withdrawals from Iraq on hold
until security improves
Ordinary Iraqis are angry about the construction of the 104-acre US embassy.
Many see it as a symbol of occupation, perhaps long-term occupation; will cost
$1 billion annually to run.
[4] IRAN. General Petraeus was promoted to head of CENTCOM, with his deputy as
Iraq commander. The appointment probably locks them in for the next US president.
The chairman of the JCS, generally seen as hesitant on attacking Iran says that
the government of Iran continues to supply weapons and other support to
extremists in Iraq, despite repeated promises to the contrary, and is
increasingly complicit in the death of U.S. soldiers. Admiral Michael Mullen
said, "I have reserve capability, particularly in our Navy and our Air Force, so
it would be a mistake to think that we are out of combat capability."
Meanwhile Senator Hillary Clinton said she would "obliterate" Iran if it
attacks Israel.
[5]AFPAK. The Pakistani government says it is close to an agreement to end
hostilities with the most militant tribes in the border region, the New York
Times report. The draft accord calls for an end to militant activity and an
exchange of prisoners in return for the gradual withdrawal of the Pakistani
military from the area. An important militant leader, Baitullah Mehsud, has
already ordered his fighters to cease their activities. The US is of course
outraged.
The US is threatening a widening of the war with American attacks from
Afghanistan on indigenous Pakistani militants in the tribal areas inside
Pakistan. This is of course the war Obama an Clinton are urging.
[6] ISRAEL The Bush administration released photographs it said support its
assertion that the building in Syria that Israel bombed last year was a nuclear
reactor constructed with North Korean help. The head of the UN atomic watchdog
agency angrily criticized Israel for bombing the alleged Syrian nuclear facility
and the US for withholding information on the site,. The IAEA was not given
information about the site until Thursday, the same day a briefing was given to
some Members of Congress and reporters. ElBaradei said he views “the unilateral
use of force by Israel as undermining the due process of verification that is at
the heart of the non-proliferation regime.”
The Israeli prime minister has reportedly sent a message to the Syrian
president saying Israel would be willing to withdraw from the Golan Heights in
return for peace with Syria. the US is perhaps no happier with Israeli
peace-making that Pakistani peace making, so perhaps they released the Syrian
photographs and indicted an Israeli spy. How did the Federal government
suddenly put together enough evidence to arrest Ben-Ami Kadish for spying, when
he allegedly committed these crimes 20 years ago?
Meanwhile, the Israelis say that George Bush gave them written permission to
expand settlements in the West Bank . . . Colin Powell says he never made such
an agreement ... The final settlement came in an agreement with Iran-Contra alum
Elliott Abrams. . . Would it surprise anyone that Elliott Abrams concluded some
super-secret, cross-my-fingers, Neocons-only deal with the Israelis? Or that
Condi Rice, agreed to that settlement, but now pretends she didn't?
Israel dismissed a Hamas proposal for a six-month ceasefire, and the UN, having
no fuel, halts aid to Gaza.
Bush's remarks on Thursday that he is seeking a viable Palestine that does not
look like Swiss cheese revealed some of what the administration must have been
pressing the Israelis on in recent months in preparation for Bush's trip in May.
[7] ECONOMY. Driven by rising demand and stagnant supply, world grain prices are
skyrocketing to levels not seen since the 1970s. Since 2005, food prices have
climbed 80 percent, an ascent produced by an unhappy coincidence of events: a
weak harvest in the United States and Europe, soaring oil prices in Argentina
and Ukraine, and a fiscal crisis that has led investors to move funds out of
mortgages and into grain futures. The dietary deficit has sparked "food-related
violence" in at least 14 nations, including riots in Haiti that led to the
resignation of the country's Prime Minister.
[8] LATAM. Bolivian President Evo Morales said to Paraguayan President-Elect
Fernando Lugo, “Welcome to the Axis of Evil.” The Pentagon announces that it is
reestablishing a “Fourth Fleet” to patrol the Caribbean, Central and South
America where the Bush administration has in recent months been systematically
undermining democracy and inciting class warfare. ###
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