[Peace-discuss] Fw: JFP News Briefs are available to you and yrs...

[Jenifer Cartwright]

Yo,
Do y'all get these?? E-z to sign up and scope the range of current stuff in a minute or so... lotsa time to follow yr usual news' sources, etc...
 --Jenifer 

--- On Tue, 10/13/09, Just Foreign Policy <naiman at justforeignpolicy.org> wrote:

Just Foreign Policy News
October 13, 2009

Just Foreign Policy News on the Web: 
http://www.justforeignpolicy.org/node/370

McChrystal's 40,000 Troop Hoax 
Even if Obama were to approve General McChrystal's request, the 40,000 troops wouldn't arrive in time to significantly affect the 12-month window McChrystal says will be decisive. So McChrystal's request isn't about what's happening in Afghanistan right now. It's about how many troops the U.S. will have in Afghanistan a year from now and beyond. There is no emergency requiring a quick decision by President Obama.
http://www.justforeignpolicy.org/node/369

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Summary:
U.S./Top News 
1) Some national security officials, concerned President Obama might be abandoning full-fledged counterinsurgency war in Afghanistan, are claiming new intelligence assessments suggesting that al Qaeda would be allowed to return to Afghanistan in the event of a Taliban victory, writes Gareth Porter for Inter Press Service. But two former senior intelligence analysts question the alleged new intelligence assessments. They say that the Taliban leadership still blames Osama bin Laden and al Qaeda for their loss of power after 9/11 and that the Taliban-al Qaeda cooperation is much narrower today than it was during the period of Taliban rule.

2) The Treasury Department says Al-Qaeda is in its worst financial state for many years while the Taliban's funding is flourishing, the BBC reports. The influence of the network - damaged by US efforts to choke funding - is waning, Assistant Secretary for Terrorist Financing David Cohen said. [This report would seem to undermine the claim that the Afghan Taliban and Al Qaeda are close - JFP.]

3) Sending more troops to Afghanistan will not help eliminate al-Qaeda's haven in Pakistan, and could actually hurt efforts to go after al-Qaeda globally, writes Senator Russ Feingold in USA Today. It doesn't make sense to devote billions more dollars and tens of thousands more troops to a strategy that is so heavily concentrated on Afghanistan when the terrorist threat we face is global. We should announce a flexible timetable to draw down our forces from Afghanistan. A timetable would defuse the perception that we are occupying that country, and help ensure that our presence does not fuel militancy and instability in the region.

4) The White House has authorized at least 13,000 support troops to be sent to Afghanistan beyond the 21,000 additional combat troops Obama announced in March, the Washington Post reports. The deployment of the support troops brings the total increase approved by Obama to 34,000. The buildup has raised the number of U.S. troops deployed to the war zones of Iraq and Afghanistan above the peak during the Iraq "surge" that Bush ordered. The deployment does not change the maximum number of service members expected to soon be in Afghanistan: 68,000, more than double the number there when Bush left office. A significant troop increase in Afghanistan early next year would be difficult to sustain given the current size of the Army and Marine Corps and ongoing troop demands in Iraq, officials said.

5) Iran's newly disclosed site near Qom may be an impossible target for U.S.. or Israeli military attack, the Los Angeles Times reports. "Unless you have good human intelligence, you probably don't have a good idea where inside the mountain the key target is," said a former senior U.S. military intelligence official. Partly for that reason, the official said, "it is possible to construct a facility that is simply beyond reach."

6) Russia's foreign minister Lavrov said threatening Iran now with harsh new sanctions would be "counterproductive," the New York Times reports. Lavrov said diplomacy should be given a chance to work, particularly after the Iranian government said it would allow UN inspectors to visit its nuclear enrichment facility near Qum. But a US official said Lavrov told Secretary of State Clinton that Russia was determined to hold Iran to a deal to ship the majority of Iran's enriched uranium to Russia for processing and would consider sanctions if the Iranians reneged on it.

Honduras 
7) Supporters of President Zelaya denounced new restrictions on opposition media announced by the coup regime, AFP reports. Zelaya and the de facto government agreed to create a joint cabinet and ditch an amnesty for coup leaders, one of Zelaya's negotiators announced. Both measures remain dependent on Zelaya's return to the presidency. Union leader Juan Barahona, one of Zelaya's negotiators, said the Zelaya camp opposed amnesty because such a move would mean "amnesia, forgetfulness and forgiveness, and we cannot condone the coup." Zelaya said he had never asked for an amnesty because he did not need it. "A proposal to include it in the deal came from the other side," he told AFP.

Israel/Palestine 
8) Palestinian political leaders have expressed acute disappointment in the Obama administration, saying their hopes that it could bring peace to the Middle East have "evaporated" and accusing the White House of giving in to Israeli pressure, the Guardian reports. The comments in leaked Fatah memo reflect a broader frustration among Palestinian politicians that Washington's push for peace has yet to produce even a restarting of peace talks.

Iran 
9) Reuters publishes a "factbox" summarizing current UN and US sanctions against Iran. Existing UN sanctions are all nominally targeted at Iran's nuclear and military programs. 

Colombia 
10) Human Rights First has accused the U.S. government of delays in issuing a visa to Colombian activist Gabriel Gonzalez, winner of that group's rights prize for 2009, EFE reports. HRF said those delays could prevent Gonzalez from being present to receive the award at a ceremony in New York Oct. 22.. Ironically, HRF said, the cause of the delay was apparently false charges against Gonzalez lodged by the Colombian government. That's ironic because the US has denounced the false charges as retribution for Gonzalez' human rights activism.

-
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.



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