[Peace] News notes 041226

Mon Jan 3 13:45:24 CST 2005

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        Notes from last week's "global war on terrorism" [GWOT],
        for the AWARE meeting, Sunday, December 26, 2004.
        (Sources provided on request; a paragraph followed by a
        bracketed source is substantially verbatim.)
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[1. STIRRED-UP MUSLIMS] It's 25 years since the Soviets invaded
Afghanistan, which NPR explained to its listeners turned President Carter
from a dove to a hawk because of the "Soviet threat."
	But in 1998, Carter's NSA, Zbigniew Brzezinski, said: "According
to the official version of history, CIA aid to the Mujahadeen began during
1980, that is to say, after the Soviet army invaded Afghanistan, 24 Dec
1979. But the reality, secretly guarded until now, is completely
otherwise: Indeed, it was July 3, 1979 that President Carter signed the
first directive for secret aid to the opponents of the pro-Soviet regime
in Kabul. And that very day, I wrote a note to the president in which I
explained to him that in my opinion this aid was going to induce a Soviet
military intervention."
	When the Soviets justified their intervention by asserting that
they intended to fight against a secret involvement of the United States
in Afghanistan, people didn't believe them. Brzezinski however admits they
were right: "That [US] secret operation was an excellent idea," he said.  
"Indeed, for almost 10 years, Moscow had to carry on a war ... that
brought about the demoralization and finally the breakup of the Soviet
empire" -- a questionable conclusion.
	Brzezinski was asked if he regretted US support for Islamic
fundamentalism.  He replied, "What is most important to the history of the
world? The Taliban or the collapse of the Soviet empire? Some stirred-up
Muslims or the liberation of Central Europe and the end of the cold war?"  
Brzezinski may of course have been lying about his control of events, but
he indicates the nature of US policy. [Le Nouvel Observateur, Jan 15-21,
1998, p. 76]

[2. TORTURE POLICY] Aggressive interrogation techniques in Iraq and
GuantÃ¡namo Bay, many tantamount to torture, were significantly more
widespread than the White House or the Pentagon has admitted. That's the
startling hook based on a trove of confidential documents from the FBI and
Department of Defense (DoD) released by the American Civil Liberties Union
(ACLU) and reported this week by major newspapers.
	These new allegations include "strangulation, beatings, placement
of lit cigarettes into the detainees ear openings, and unauthorized
interrogations" in Iraq (and similar methods for GuantÃ¡namo), according
to an "Urgent Report" from the FBI's Sacramento Office to FBI Director
Robert Mueller.
	But many of the papers, including The New York Times, regrettably
omitted the story's biggest bombshell: President Bush may have issued an
Executive Order condoning these techniques.
	A redacted email sent to FBI officials and signed by an "On Scene
Commander--Baghdad" on May 22, 2004, states that "an Executive Order
signed by President Bush authorized the following interrogation
techniques, among others: sleep 'management,' use of MWDs (military
working dogs), 'stress positions' such as half squats, 'environmental
manipulation' such as the use of loud music, sensory deprivation through
the use of hoods, etc." The letter alleges that after the abuses at Abu
Ghraib--which incorporated many aspects of the Executive Order--Bush
revised the command so that "certain techniques can only be used if very
high-level authority is granted."
	All of these treatments violate the Geneva Conventions, and, if
done in the extreme, cross the line into torture, says Dinah PoKempner,
general counsel for Human Rights Watch. They also contradict the US Army's
own prior policy on intelligence and interrogations.
	The FBI refused to follow Bush's orders. "We have instructed our
personnel not to participate in interrogations by military personnel which
might include techniques by the Executive Order but beyond the bounds of
standard FBI practice," the email said.
	The one-and-a-half page email mentions the Executive Order ten
times but does not specify when it was written or who drafted it. Yet
other internal FBI memos released by the ACLU point to further evidence of
high-level officials, specifically Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul
Wolfowitz, ordering inhumane interrogation methods. "Once again, this
technique, and all those used in these scenarios, was approved by the
DepSecDef," a redacted FBI email said on January 21, 2004, referring to
Wolfowitz ...  If the Executive Order did exist, there's a strong
possibility it was drafted by then-White House counsel Alberto Gonzales,
Bush's new nominee for Attorney General. How many torture memos will it
take to doom the nomination of the country's next highest-ranking
law-enforcement official? And, perhaps more importantly, will Bush finally
be held accountable for this brewing scandal? [A. Berman, Nation]
	In one memo, FBI agents allege that military interrogators
impersonated FBI officials, apparently to avoid possible blame in
subsequent inquiries. One FBI agent wrote that the impersonation technique
was approved by "DepSecDef", a reference to Paul Wolfowitz, the deputy to
Donald Rumsfeld, the Defence Secretary. [Times/UK]
	While the memo doesn't directly say who authorized the practices,
two government officials who spoke on condition of anonymity said the
methods were approved by Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld ...
	The harsh techniques outlined in the FBI memo, including use of
dogs and sensory deprivation, were authorized by Rumsfeld for Guantanamo
in late 2002 in an effort to get more information from detainees ...
	After U.S. forces invaded Iraq in March 2003, U.S officials said
all prisoners would be treated as prisoners of war with full protections
under the Geneva Conventions. In recent months, suspected insurgents have
been described as "security detainees" and in most cases turned over to
Iraqi forces ...
	The administration has maintained that detainees held in
Afghanistan and Guantanamo are enemy combatants affiliated with the
Taliban and al-Qaida and don't deserve Geneva protections. [KR]
	Other allegations contained in the e-mails include:
	--the rape of a juvenile male detainee at Abu Ghraib prison,
currently under investigation; and
	--that one Guantanamo detainee was wrapped in an Israeli flag and
bombarded with loud music in an apparent attempt to soften his resistance
to interrogation. [BBC]
	And now the WP leads today with new allegations of serious abuse
from at least 10 former Guantanamo Bay detainees. More and more Guantanamo
detainees are filing abuse claims (according to the WP, 60 of 550 and
counting), and the details are horrific: "They say military personnel beat
and kicked them while they had hoods on their heads and tight shackles on
their legs, left them in freezing temperatures and stifling heat,
subjected them to repeated, prolonged rectal exams and paraded them naked
around the prison as military police snapped pictures." Other prisoners
claimed overt instances of sexual abuse. According to the statements, the
object of the mistreatment was to obtain confessions from prisoners that
they belonged to the Taliban or al-Qaida. The Army has called the abuse
allegations "simply not true," an assertion weakened somewhat by Pentagon
lawyers' recent statements that the military followed "treaties on the
handling of enemy prisoners 'to the extent possible' in the middle of a
war." [SLATE]

A historian in the future, or a moralist, is likely to deem the Bush
administration's enthusiasm for torture the most striking aspect of its
war against terrorism.
	This started early. Proposals to authorize torture were
circulating even before there was anyone to torture. Days after the Sept.
11 attacks, the administration made it known that the United States was no
longer bound by international treaties, or by American law and established
U.S. military standards, concerning torture and the treatment of
prisoners. By the end of 2001, the Justice Department had drafted memos on
how to protect military and intelligence officers from eventual
prosecution under existing U.S. law for their treatment of Afghan and
other prisoners. In January 2002, the White House counsel, Alberto
Gonzales (who is soon to become attorney general), advised George W. Bush
that it could be done by fiat. If the president simply declared
"detainees" in Afghanistan outside the protection of the Geneva
conventions, the 1996 U.S. War Crimes Act - which carries a possible death
penalty for Geneva violations - would not apply ...
	In March 2003, a Defense Department legal task force concluded
that the president was not bound by any international or federal law on
torture. It said that as commander in chief, he had the authority "to
approve any technique needed to protect the nation's security." Subsequent
legal memos to civilian officials in the White House and Pentagon dwelt in
morbid detail on permitted torture techniques, for practical purposes
concluding that anything was permitted that did not (deliberately) kill
the victim ...
	The United States has never before officially practiced torture.
It was not deemed necessary in order to defeat Nazi Germany or Imperial
Japan. Its indirect costs are enormous: in their effect on the national
reputation, their alienation of international opinion, and their
corruption of the morale and morality of the American military and
intelligence services.
	Torture doesn't even work that well. An indignant FBI witness of
what has gone on at the GuantÃ¡namo prison camp says that "simple
investigative techniques" could produce much information the army is
trying to obtain through torture.
	It is hard to avoid the conclusion that the Bush administration is
not torturing prisoners because it is useful but because of its symbolism.
It originally was intended to be a form of what later, in the attack on
Iraq, came to be called "shock and awe." It was meant as intimidation. We
will do these terrible things to demonstrate that nothing will stop us
from conquering our enemies. We are indifferent to world opinion. We will
stop at nothing.
	In that respect, it is like the attack on Falluja last month,
which - destructive as it was - was fundamentally a symbolic operation.
Any insurgent who wanted to escape could do so long before the
much-advertised attack actually began. Its real purpose was exemplary
destruction: to deliver a message to all of Iraq that this is what the
United States can do to you if you continue the resistance. It was
collective punishment of the city's occupants for having tolerated
terrorist operations based there. [W. Pfaff, IHT]

[3. IRAQ FIGHTING] The State Department, the CIA, and even the Defense
Intelligence Agency have told President Bush that the U.S. "isn't winning"
the battle against the Iraqi insurgency, according to Knight-Ridder's
Washington bureau. One such warning was apparently delivered last week by
Bush's new CIA chief, Porter Goss. [SLATE]
	The US military position in northern Iraq has been deteriorating
rapidly in the past two months. During the first nine months of the
occupation, Mosul was portrayed as a model for the rest of Iraq with the
101st Airborne Division firmly in charge. Guerrilla warfare was slower to
develop and was not as well organised as further south in Fallujah and in
the Sunni Arab provinces around Baghdad. [P. Cockburn]
	U.S. forces sealed off entire districts of the Iraqi city of Mosul
on Wednesday, blocking bridges and raiding homes in a hunt for suspects
after an attack that killed 18 Americans and four Iraqis. Mosul's governor
issued an overnight order on television banning use of the five bridges
over the River Tigris and said anyone breaking the order would be shot.
Residents said Iraq's third city was a virtual ghost town, with no one in
the streets ... U.S. officials initially said rocket and mortar rounds
were fired but Ansar al-Sunna credited one of its "martyrs" and the U.S.
commander in Mosul said there was only one explosion. [WP]
	Using appropriate prison imagery, the WP headlined this report,
"Iraqi City in Lockdown After U.S. Base Is Blasted."

[4. RATS OUT] USA Today founder Al Neuharth wrote a Thursday column for
that newspaper. Neuharth, noting how many soldiers were far from home and
in harm's way at Christmas, called for a U.S. pullout from Iraq "sooner
rather than later."  A World War II vet, he said he would not serve if he
had been called today for this war. And he noted that in WW II, troops
were "properly equipped." [E&P]
	For the first time, a major U.S. contractor has dropped out of the
multibillion-dollar effort to rebuild Iraq, raising new worries about the
country's growing violence and its effect on reconstruction. Contrack
International Inc., the leader of a partnership that won one of 12 major
reconstruction contracts awarded this year, cited skyrocketing security
costs in reaching a decision with the U.S. government last month to
terminate work in Iraq ...  Although a few companies and nonprofit groups
have pulled out of contracts in Iraq because of security concerns,
Contrack's is the largest to be canceled to date, U.S. officials said. The
move has led to fears that Iraq's mounting violence could prompt other
firms to consider pulling out, or discourage them from seeking work in
Iraq, further crippling reconstruction.  U.S. reconstruction officials
said the termination of Contrack's contract, which was not previously
disclosed, would not hamper rebuilding. They said they were planning to
put the contract up for rebidding, a process that could take months, and
were hopeful that Iraqi firms would participate. So far, most major
contracts have been won by U.S.-based multinational firms. Contrack's
partnership was supposed to construct new roads, bridges and
transportation terminals in Iraq. It wound up only refurbishing a handful
of train depots, company officials said. Nonetheless, the firm was paid
about $30 million during the eight months it was under contract, mostly
for site assessments and design work, company and U.S. officials said ...
Contrack's joint venture, which included Egyptian and Swiss firms, also
involved such well-known U.S. companies as Pasadena-based Parsons Corp.,
Fluor Corp. in Aliso Viejo and Houston-based Halliburton Co., once run by
Vice President Dick Cheney. [LAT]

[5. POLL RESULTS] The WP reports, "56 Percent in Survey Say Iraq War Was a
Mistake." While a slight majority believe the Iraq war contributed to the
long-term security of the United States, 70 percent of Americans think
these gains have come at an "unacceptable" cost in military casualties.
This led 56 percent to conclude that, given the cost, the conflict there
was "not worth fighting" -- an eight-point increase from when the same
question was asked this summer, and the first time a decisive majority of
people have reached this conclusion ... A strong majority [sic] of
Americans, 58 percent, support keeping military forces in Iraq until
"civil order is restored," even in the face of continued U.S. causalities
... A full [sic] 57 percent disapprove of [Bush's] handling of Iraq, a
number that is seven percentage points higher than a poll taken in
September ... The public splits down the middle on Bush's overall job
performance, with 48 percent approving while 49 percent disapprove,
percentages that closely approximate results taken just before the
election. By contrast, President Bill Clinton had an approval of 60
percent in a poll taken just before he began his second term. A total of
1,004 randomly selected Americans were interviewed Dec. 16 to 19. The
margin of sampling error for the results is plus or minus three percentage
points. [WP]
	A USA TODAY/CNN/Gallup Poll found that a majority of Americans
disapprove of the way the war is being run ... 47% say the situation in
Iraq is worse than it was a year ago; 20% called it better. [USAT]

[6. POODLE INSULTS] UK PM Blair was on Wednesday forced to tone down his
plans for an international Middle East peace summit in London, after
Israel and the United States warned him not to "interfere" ... Israeli
officials have said they will not take part, and privately made clear Mr
Blair had invited himself to Jerusalem. They earlier suggested the talks
might be motivated by the coming UK general election on 5 May ... Standing
next to Mr Sharon, Mr Blair stressed he had no intention of suggesting
that the first phase of the road map -- where Palestinians renounce
terrorism -- should be skipped ... among independent Palestinian
politicians and analysts the dismay was palpable at Mr Blair's decision to
restrict the conference's agenda to Palestinian reform, and for urging the
Palestinians to take security steps without making parallel demands on the
Israelis. [scotsman.com] Blair retaliated by paying a perfunctory visit to
Arafat's grave and not placing a wreath.

[7. PEACE PRIZE] Visiting Nobel Peace Prize laureate Mairead Corrigan
Maguire on Sunday compared Israel's reported nuclear arsenal to Hitler's
gas chambers while calling on Israel to lift travel restrictions on
nuclear whistle blower Mordechai Vanunu.
	Maguire, awarded the 1976 prize for her Northern Ireland peace
campaign, was at the prison gates to welcome Vanunu when he was released
in April after serving an 18-year sentence for disclosing Israel's nuclear
secrets ... Israel follows a policy of nuclear ambiguity, neither
confirming nor denying it has nuclear arms. Since being freed from prison,
Vanunu has been under rigid Israeli restrictions barring him from
traveling abroad or speaking to foreigners, a prohibition he regularly
flouts. [IsraelInsider]

[8. ENEMIES/FRIENDS] The Lebanese TV station al-Manar has been forced off
the air in the United States. On Saturday the State Department took the
unusual step of declaring the TV station a terrorist organization. The
station is run by Hezbollah. [DN]
	White House Chief of Staff Andy Card told ABC's This Week that the
administration was, in fact, aware of many of Bernard Kerik's "issues"
when Bush nominated him. [SLATE]

[9. IMPERIAL PRESIDENCY] Newsweek has obtained a secret Justice Department
memo from 2001 that claims there are effectively "no limits" on
presidential power to wage war -- with or without Congressional approval.
The memo written two weeks after the Sept. 11 attacks reads in part "The
President may deploy military force preemptively against terrorist
organizations or the states that harbor or support them, whether or not
they can be linked to the specific terrorist incidents of Sept. 11."
Newsweek's Michael Isikoff reports the memo seems to lay out a legal
groundwork for the president to invade Iraq-without approval of
Congress-long before the White House had publicly expressed any intent to
do so. In regards to war, the memo claims "the president's decisions are
for him alone and are unreviewable." [DN]

[10. ANTI-AMERICAN ACADEMICS] The AP runs a long article on campaigns by
conservative university students against "liberal" and "anti-American"
faculty.  The News-Gazette is so excited that it runs the whole article
twice, once in the commentary section and once in the news section.  Do
you think they'll be disappointed if such things develop at the local
university in the spring term?

[11. AMERICAN FEAR] Muslims planned to turn an old sod farm near Memphis
into a cemetery, but angry neighbors protested, complaining the burial
ground could become a staging ground for terrorists or spread disease from
unembalmed bodies ... "We know for a fact that Muslim mosques have been
used as terrorist hideouts and centers for terrorist activities," farmer
John Wilson told members of a planning commission last month. Similar
disputes have arisen elsewhere when Muslim groups sought to develop
mosques or cemeteries, which are often the first Islamic institutions in
some communities. Opponents of a proposal to open a mosque in Voorhees,
N.J., distributed an anonymous flier warning that Islamic worshippers
might include "extremists and radicals" ... Opponents told the Fayette
County planning commission in November that power lines would be prime
targets for terrorists in the region about 20 miles east of Memphis ...
Belinda Ghosheh, owner of the five-acre plot being considered for the
cemetery, said a meeting of planning officials drew such a hostile crowd
she feared for her safety. One woman yelled, "We don't need bin Laden's
cousins in our neighborhood." [AP]

[12. PHARMAEUTICAL RACISM] South African's ruling political party, the
African National Congress, has charged the US government of treating
Africans as "guinea pigs" by sending unsafe AIDS drugs to Africa. The
party's accusations came days after the Associated Press revealed the Bush
administration had hid evidence that the AIDS drug nevirapine was a
dangerous drug in order to allow it to be used to treat unsuspecting
patients in Africa. Meanwhile in this country, the Rev. Jesse Jackson has
called for a congressional investigation into the matter and for the Bush
administration to immediately halt the distribution of the drug in Africa.
He likened the drug's distribution in Africa to the U.S. government's
40-year syphilis experiment using poor African-Americans in Tuskegee,
Ala., after World War II. The Associated Press report came out just two
weeks after the BBC broadcast a groundbreaking documentary exposing how
New York City health officials are using African-American and Latino
children to text experimental AIDS drugs. [DN]

[13. PATRIOT II] The new Intelligence reform bill is a more stunning
attack on the Bill of Rights than the Patriot Act. Most people have no
idea how dramatically their "inalienable" rights have been savaged, or to
what extent the Congress has sold them out ... As usual, the role of the
media has been pivotal in obfuscating the details of the bill. They've fed
the hysteria over the establishment of a NID; (National Intelligence
Director) a glamour position that has been represented as vital to
stopping another 9-11. What rubbish ... The media has done little to
expose the real nature of the conflict between the Pentagon and the 9-11
panel. That battle was a straightforward "turf war" that threatened to
take a chunk of money away from Rumsfeld, who presently gets 80% of the
Intelligence budget. Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-CA) defended Rumsfeld by
claiming that "battlefield operations" would be endangered if the bill
passed. It was nonsensical argument reflective of Hunter's indebtedness to
the Defense industry (Dig around the internet and you'll find that Hunter
is even more of a corporate streetwalker than most of his peers) As for
Rumsfeld, he just wants his $32 billion, so that he can persist in
bankrolling his clandestine detention centers, death squads and propaganda
facilities (now called strategic intelligence). In reality, Rumsfeld is
conducting his own secret government, and has been for some time. That
takes money, and lots of it ... The Intel bill also creates a "Civil
Liberties Board" charged with investigating whether the new legislation
adversely affects civil rights. Regrettably, the board is a complete sham.
It has no subpoena power and is subordinate to the NID, the President and
the Attorney General. In other words, it's merely a public relations ploy
intended to conceal the bill's harsher measures ... The powers of the FISA
court have also been seriously expanded. The Foreign Intelligence
Surveillance Act basically allows the secret court to overturn the
"probable cause" provision of the 4th Amendment in the investigation of
terror suspects. John Ashcroft gravely abused the statute by extending it
to the surveillance of identity-theft suspects and drug traffickers
(Ashcroft actually boasted to Congress about the success of using the
Patriot Act to apprehend criminals who were entirely unrelated to
terrorism. He obviously considered the 4th Amendment nothing more than an
unnecessary nuisance) Now the law has been expanded to include a "lone
wolf" provision; supposedly aimed at an individual terrorist acting
without the support of a foreign government. In fact, the purpose of the
new provision is to allow unlimited surveillance of any American without
the hassle of having to prove even the "remotest" connection to organized
terror or a foreign government. It is a "blank check" for law enforcement
to eschew all privacy laws without fear of reprimand. It is the end of the
4th amendment. More importantly, if someone is arrested (as was the case
with 1200 Muslims after 9-11) as a terrorist suspect, he can be refused
bail and IMPRISONED INDEFINITELY WITHOUT CHARGES. The moniker of
"terrorist" trumps the underlying principle of American jurisprudence,
that is, the "presumption of innocence" Now, prisoners will have to prove
that they aren't guilty; a difficult prospect when there is no process in
place to challenge the terms of their detention. Consider the comments of
Judge Antonin Scalia in this regard: "The very core of liberty secured by
our Anglo-Saxon system of separated powers has been freedom from
indefinite imprisonment at the will of the Executive."

[14. OTHER STUFF] Time Magazine named President George W. Bush "Person of
the Year" and praised him for "reframing reality to match his design."
[CBS News] Tommy Franks, George Tenet, and Paul Bremer III were awarded
the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest civilian honor,
[New York Times] and Donald Rumsfeld announced that from now on he would
personally sign condolence letters sent to the families of soldiers killed
in action, instead of using a machine. [CNN] Fox News hired Zell Miller.
[New York Times] Pfizer admitted that Celebrex doubled the risk of heart
attack in certain patients, but declined to take it off the market,
[Reuters] and a survey found that one fifth of all FDA scientists had been
pressured to recommend approval of a new drug. [New York Times] The Trust
For America's Health reported that two thirds of U.S. states were not
adequately prepared for a bioterrorist attack, [Pjstar.com] and the
National Guard was offering a $15,000 enlistment bonus. [New York Times]
Workmen discovered that U.N. headquarters in Geneva were bugged. [New York
Times] The prime minister of Spain accused his predecessor of erasing all
computer files related to last year's Madrid terrorist bombing. "Not a
single trace of any files was left behind," said one official, "zero,
nothing." [New York Times] The United States forgave $4.1 billion in Iraqi
debt. [Boston Globe] Congressman John Conyers Jr. said he would ask the
FBI to investigate "inappropriate and likely illegal election tampering"
in Ohio during the presidential election, [New York Times] Scientists
estimated that ten percent of all bird species will become extinct by the
end of the century [Stanford University]. [HARPERS]

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