[Peace] News notes 2005-03-20

[C. G. Estabrook]

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	Notes from last week's "global war on terrorism,"
	for the AWARE meeting, Sunday, March 20, 2005.
	(Sources provided on request; a paragraph followed
	by a bracketed source is substantially verbatim.)
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	"You can only be on television if you have concision.
	That means you can say something between two commercials.
	That's a terrific technique of propaganda. On the rare
	occasions when I'm asked to be on television, I usually
	refuse for this reason. If you're gonna be asked a question,
	say, about terrorism, and you're given three sentences
	between commercials, you've got two choices.
	You can repeat conventional ideology -- you say, yeah, Iran
	supports terrorism. Or you can sound like you're from Neptune.
	You can say, yeah, the US is one of the leading terrorist states.
	The people have a right to ask what you mean.
	And so if it was a sane news channel -- al-Jazeera, say
	-- you could talk about it and explain what you mean.
	You're not allowed to do that in the United States."
	--Noam Chomsky, as quoted in the Sunday Herald (UK) 20 March 2005

[1. IRAQ TODAY] Insurgents attacked coalition forces Sunday on the
outskirts of Baghdad, and the resulting clashes left 24 militants dead and
six US soldiers wounded, the US. military said ... The clash was among the
largest involving insurgents since the Jan. 30 elections ... Insurgents
targeted Iraqi and US. security forces with gunfire, suicide attacks and
mortar rounds Sunday, killing six people -- including a US. soldier and an
Iraqi corruption official. [AP]

[2. GME TODAY] Qatar was shaken Saturday by a bombing near a theater where
British were playing Shakespeare. One British subject was killed, and
several people were wounded. The bombing was done by an Egyptian on the
2nd anniversary of the US invasion of Iraq, and investigators are looking
for al-Qaeda links. Al-Qaeda is a convenient shorthand, but the likelihood
is that the bombing was an expression of a kind of Muslim radical
nationalism, resentful of increasing Western dominance in the region.
	In Lebanon, guerrillas detonated a bomb in a Christian development
of Beirut. The incident raised fears of a renewal of sectarian tensions in
that country. The bombing was likely related to demands by minority
Christian politicians that the government of Lebanon resign, and the
culprits are likely pro-Syrian Sunnis.
	Terrorists blew up a Sufi-Shiite shrine in Fatahpur, Baluchistan,
about 200 miles from the city of Quetta, killing 30 persons and wounding
another 20. Although no one has claimed credit, it seems to me likely that
this act was carried out by Sunni radicals with links to al-Qaeda. They
have struck at Shiite sites repeatedly, including a Quetta mosque. Some
have suggested that Baluch separatists, who want more autonomy from the
Pakistan federal government, are behind it. But a separatist movement is
unlikely to target a local shrine during a local pilgrimage-- it would hit
a symbol of federal power. On the other hand, we know that the Deobandi-
and Wahhabi-influenced radical Sunni jihadis in Pakistan absolute hate
Sufism (mystical Islam centered on saint's shrines) and Shiism. So what
better target for them than a Sufi-Shiite shrine? Such an attack is also
an assault on Pakistan's traditional, ecumenical and tolerant mystical
traditions, which the radicals would like to replace with fundamentalist
intolerance.
	The rebellion of the Bugti tribe in Baluchistan against the
government of Pervez Musharraf, which involves a demand that more of the
revenues from natural gas remain in local hands, seems to me likely
unrelated to the Fatahpur bombing.
	These bombings were unconnected, and mean something distinctive in
each setting. But they add up to evidence of continued instability in the
Middle Eastern arc of crisis. I think two of them are al-Qaeda-related.
	The tragedy is that if the Bush administration had made good on
its pledges and actually put Afghanistan on a sound footing economically
and politically, instead of abandoning it to turn Iraq into a failed state
and center of bombings, we might have made real headway against the
radical Sunni jihadis. As it is, Bin Laden and Zawahiri are at large, and
al-Qaeda has become a franchise to which local groups affiliate. The
locals are the ones who tried to blow up Shakespeare and the Sufi Pir on
Saturday. Bush's cynical use of Lebanese developments to pressure Syria is
also implicated in the increasing sectarian tensions in Lebanon. Bush has
all along dropped the ball with regard to al-Qaeda, and has been
heavy-handed in the Arab world, a very dangerous combination. [Juan Cole]

[3. IRAQ INSURGENCY] The insurgency in Iraq could number around 20,000
people, the head of the US. Defense Intelligence Agency says ... Iraqi
ministry of defense officials said late last year the insurgency probably
numbers around 200,000, including those who provide active support to the
fighters ... Insurgent attacks against US. troops, Iraqi security forces
and civilians have declined slightly -- from about 60 per day to about 50
-- in the past two weeks. That is twice as many as there were this time
last year, however. [UPI]

[4. ARAB LEAGUE] The 22-member Arab League will meet in Algiers this week,
and Jordan will resubmit its three-year-old plan for a comprehensive Arab
peace with Israel, based on a land-for-peace settlement -- despite what
some diplomats called "vague, confusing and insufficient" proposals over
the future status of Jerusalem and of Palestinian refugees. Plans to set
up a pan-Arab "parliament" are also on the agenda.

[5. ANTI-WAR PROTESTS] In today's NYT, eight reporters contribute to a
story about the relatively small, peaceful, and -- we're told -- futile
protests against the Iraq war held across the country. "President Bush did
not comment on the protests," says the NYT, "which seemed unlikely to have
any significant effect on national policy or on the glacial movement of
public opinion in America." [Slate] But this is part of the successful
media/government propaganda campaign to convince Americans of what other
Americans think.  In fact, a new poll tells quite a different story and
reveals why the propaganda campaign is so important:
	In an ABC/WP poll this week, 53% said the war was not worth
fighting (45% thought it was); 57% disapprove of the president's handling
of Iraq; and 70% said the number of US casualties is an unacceptable price
to pay.  Remarkable, because 56% said they think Iraq had WMD before the
start of the war, and 60% said they believe Iraq provided direct support
to al-Qaida!  For the first time in a Post-ABC Poll, a majority (51%)
called the war in Iraq a mistake: on the day Baghdad fell in 2003, just
16% called the war a mistake, with 81 percent saying it was the right
thing to do.  Nearly 75% opposed a military confrontation with North Korea
to force it to give up nuclear weapons and also saw it as a threat to the
US; two-thirds opposed military action against Iran. More evidence that
both political parties are substantially to the right of where most
Americans are.
	Tens of thousands of people have marched through central London,
calling on Prime Minister Tony Blair to get British troops out of the
country ... A coffin was placed in front of the US embassy in London As
the coffin was laid down, the crowd chanted: "George Bush ... Uncle Sam.
Iraq will be your Vietnam." [AJ]

[6. PENTAGON PLANS] America's strength is being challenged by "a strategy
of the weak," a Pentagon document says, listing diplomatic and legal
challenges in international forums in the same sentence with terrorism the
document, released Friday, [is] titled "The National Defense Strategy of
the United States of America."  "Our strength as a nation state will
continue to be challenged by those who employ a strategy of the weak
focusing on international fora, judicial processes and terrorism," it says
... Douglas Feith, the No. 3 official at the Pentagon, said during a news
conference, "There are various actors around the world that are looking to
either attack or constrain the United States, and they are going to find
creative ways of doing that, that are not the obvious conventional
military attacks ... We need to think broadly about diplomatic lines of
attack, legal lines of attack, technological lines of attack, all kinds of
asymmetric warfare that various actors can use to try to constrain, shape
our behavior." Asked to clarify what a "legal line of attack" meant, he
acknowledged it could include the International Criminal Court ... He said
it was meant to note "the arguments that some people make to try to, in
effect, criminalize foreign policy and bring prosecutions where there is
no proper basis for jurisdiction under international law as a way of
trying to pressure American officials." ... The document also accents
needs for allies to provide bases for US. forces [AP]
	With about 18,000 US soldiers in Afghanistan since 2001 and others
in neighboring Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan, JCS Chairman Gen. Richard Myers
described this week plans for permanent US bases in Afghanistan;  earlier
this year, Senator John McCain called for the US to make its military
presence in Afghanistan a permanent one. And SOD Rumsfeld said last
December that US. would remain in Iraq for another four years, but the US
is building 14 "enduring" bases across the country -- long-term
encampments that could house as many as 100,000 troops indefinitely

[7. MILITARY MONEY] By 343-88, the House on Wednesday approved an $81.4
billion emergency spending package for Iraq and Afghanistan, which would
push the total cost of the wars beyond $300 billion; Rep. Tim Johnson
naturally voted for it, as did 166 Democrats

[8. SOWING SEEDS] With SOS Rice in Asia saying that US patience with NK is
wearing out, the WP quotes "two officials with detailed knowledge" who say
that the Bush administration lied to other governments and the press by
saying that North Korea had sold nuclear material to Libya -- when in fact
it was Pakistan, an American ally, who had made the sale. [Slate]
	Rice in India offers F-16s to stop India from building an oil
pipeline with Iran; WSJ reported the day before the administration's
decision to sell Pakistan some long-awaited F-16s.

[9. "PLEASE DON'T KILL ME"] [In his Wednesday news conference, Bush was]
Asked about the notion that terrorist [sic] groups such as Hezbollah might
become political players in some Arab countries as part of the movement
toward democracy ... "Maybe some will run for office and say, 'Vote for
me, I look forward to blowing up America.'" [LAT]

[10. AMERICAN BARBARISM] The NYT says it's gotten the military to admit
that at least 26 prisoners have died in American custody in Iraq and
Afghanistan in acts of criminal homicide (last week's military whitewash,
the Church report, cited only 6 deaths caused by prisoner abuse)
	But the AP reports that at least 108 people have died in US.
custody in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, with only a quarter of the cases
have been investigated as possible US. abuse
	Bush publicly defended the practice of "extraordinary rendition"
(sending prisoners abroad to be tortured) for the first time on Wednesday
... news reports have shown that over 100 individuals have been rendered
to foreign countries including Syria, Egypt and Afghanistan; the
Washington Post is reporting that three European nations -- Italy, Sweden
and Germany -- are all conducting investigations into renditions carried
out by CIA agents in their countries [DN]

[11. PROMOTING TORTURE] Bush nominated Pentagon general counsel William
Haynes to a US. Court of Appeals seat in Richmond; Haynes was directly
involved in setting US. interrogation policies and is one of seven
nominees whom Senate Dems have said they may filibuster

[12. PROMOTING TERRORISM] USAT reports that airports are asking the
federal government for $5 billion for a new bag-screening system; the Bush
administration agrees that the new system is cheaper, more reliable, and
more effective, but says airports should pay for it themselves.
	Department of Homeland Security describes a dozen "National
Planning Scenarios," including nuclear device, sarin and a truck bombing
of a sports arena; new secretary Chertoff then says release of the report
was a mistake.
	An FBI/DHS report: the American aviation system remains vulnerable
to attack

[13. PROMOTING DESTRUCTION] Government employees may have falsified
documents related to the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste project in Nevada,
the Energy Department said Wednesday; the disclosure could jeopardize the
project's ability to get a federal permit to operate the dump [AP]

[14. IRAQ WAR] The US invasion of Iraq has made America more secure and
inspired movement toward democratic reforms across the Middle East, said
Bush in observance of the 2nd anniversay of the Iraq invasion
	The deputy commander of the Iraqi army in western Al-Anbar
province was shot dead by US troops at a checkpoint Tuesday night [AFP]
	Iraqi insurgents will not be defeated for many months, Britain
Foreign Office officials said: attacks are widespread and becoming
increasingly sophisticated
	Italian PM Berlusconi announced that he will start withdrawing
Itay's 3,000 troops from Iraq: he is running for re-election next spring,
against antiwar, center-left candidate Romano Prodi (the WSJ notes that
Italy's regional elections, a test-run for the national vote, are a month
away) -- but after calls from Bush and Blair, Berlusconi seems to back
down, eearning derision from his opponents
	Two of the largest contingents in the "coalition" in Iraq, the
Netherlands and Ukraine, are in the process of pulling their forces out;h
Bulgarians are out; a majority of Australians want out
	The Hill: hundreds of disabled veterans booed and jeered
Republican House members last week to protest the proposed 2006 budget for
veterans' health care, which includes a 1.1 percent increase for the
Department of Veterans Affairs
	Four pacifists ("St. Patrick's Day Four") are facing six years in
jail for staging a non-violent demonstration on March 17, 2003, at a
military recruiting station near Ithaca, New York
	NYT: the Pentagon sees $108 million in overcharges by Halliburton;
Guardian: Pentagon 'hid' damning Halliburton audit (e.g., KBR subsidiary
charged the Pentagon $27.5 million to ship $82,100 worth of cooking and
heating fuel to Iraq); a former manager at Halliburton has been arrested
and charged with defrauding the government $3.5 million; the
reconstruction of post-war Iraq is in danger of becoming "the biggest
corruption scandal in history", Transparency International has warned.
	The forgotten U.S. offensive in Fallujah continues [AJ]
	The US Army has asked Congress to allow it to extend enlistment
contracts offered to future soldiers by two years in order to "stabilize
the force," as top defense officials warned that key recruitment targets
for the year could be missed.

[15. AMERICAN ABUSE] Three years after the US opened its prison for
terrorism suspects at Guantanamo Bay, 65 detainees have been handed over
to their home countries but none has been convicted of any crime: about
one-third of the 65 have been released and the rest are awaiting trial or
still in detention without charge [AJ]
	A former British Guantanamo Bay detainee said Tuesday that inmates
in the US detention camp in Cuba had been tortured by US military
personnel who tried to make them "go crazy"
	Navy officials considered removing Navy interrogators from Gitmo
because of the "abusive techniques" used there: the Navy's general
counsel, Alberto Mora, told colleagues that the techniques were "unlawful
and unworthy of the military services"; these classified parts of the
Church report were revealed at a hearing of the Senate Armed Forces
Committee Tuesday
	Four of the interrogators (one of whom is pregnant) alleged to
have sexually humiliated Gitmo prisoners are being called up from reserve
status and returned to active duty, because commanders are considering
courts-martial
	An ex-Army interrogator punished for sexually humiliating
detainees at the Guantanamo prison is now teaching soldiers interrogation
techniques
	An Army platoon leader was sentenced Tuesday to 45 days [sic] in a
military prison for his role in forcing three Iraqi civilians into the
Tigris River, drowning one
	An Army captain accused of terrorizing an Iraqi town under his
supervision is being court martialed and convicted

[16. SENATE MATTERS] The Senate approves a 2006 budget -- 51 to 49 --
without program cuts sought by the administration, but with additional
Republican tax cuts; approves ANWR drilling, 51-49; rejects additional
funding for Amtrak, 52-46; strikes down a budget amendment by 52-48 that
would have cut Medicaid by $14 billion (the House passed its budget with
the Medicaid cuts intact); and repeals a 1993 tax on wealthy seniors'
Social Security checksby 55-45 -- bringing tax cuts to $134 billion, a $34
billion more than Bush had asked for.

[17. LEGAL MATTERS] A federal judge has temporarily barred the U.S.
government from transferring 13 Yemeni detainees from Guantanamo to
another country because of concern for their safety
	Judicial Watch has sued the Pentagon for hiring the PR company the
Rendon Group to develop an internet site aimed at school children: the
website ("Empower Peace") was designed to look like it was part of a
grassroots peace movement and featured interactive web broadcasts between
New York and Jordan, as well as Boston and Bahrain, and interaction with
school age children of Islamic countries
	A federal judge dismissed a lawsuit Thursday charging that
American chemical companies committed war crimes against about 4 million
Vietnamese citizens by making Agent Orange. Meanwhile, the US cancels
Agent Orange study in Vietnam: The research "could have been definitive"
in a class action brought by Vietnamese plaintiffs against US
manufacturers of Agent Orange, including Monsanto and Dow Chemicals
[because] the ongoing legal action would have "increased the reluctance of
the US government to fund this project"

[18. MEDIA MATTERS] Journalists working for the Services Sound and Vision
Corporation (SSVC) have been providing news reports to the BBC, and the
BBC has been using these reports as if they were genuine news, but the
SSVC is entirely funded by the UK Ministry of Defence as a propaganda
operation
	Bush said on Wednesday that the U.S. government's practice of
sending packaged news stories to local television stations was legal and
he had no plans to cease it ... they were deemed a form of covert
propaganda by the Government Accountability Office ... counter to
appropriation laws and a misuse of federal funds [Reuters]

[19. FECKLESS DEMOCRATS] Jeffrey Goldberg has a disgusting piece in the
current New Yorker about Sen. Joe Biden, "the leader of a modest-sized
faction -- 'the national-security Democrats,' in the words of Richard
Holbrooke, an ambassador to the United Nations under President Clinton --
that includes the most hawkish members in the Democratic Party. Among them
are Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, the former Vice-Presidential candidate
John Edwards, Senator Evan Bayh, of Indiana, and Governor Bill Richardson,
of New Mexico, along with a number of Clinton Administration
foreign-policy officials, now in exile at think tanks scattered about
Washington."
	A top adviser to Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton thinks fellow
Democrat John Kerry "ran what was basically an inconsistent campaign'' for
president last year ... The Kerry campaign had "a different message every
two or three weeks,'' Ann Lewis, director of communications for Clinton's
political action committee, told the Forward, a weekly New York City-based
newspaper aimed at a Jewish audience.  Lewis is quoted as saying the Kerry
campaign ``kept trying to rationally convince, to put a presidency
together, line by line, plan by plan.'' She said people "don't vote for
plans, they vote for presidents.'' [AP]
	WP comments that Sen. Obama "has started his own political action
committee, something politicians more commonly wait a few years to do
after hitting the national stage."  USNews: Obama and new Republican Party
Chairman Ken Mehlman, pals at Harvard Law in the early 1990s, are planning
a symbolic dinner [whatever that means] at Washington's La Colline.
	The Republican National Committee has jumped out to an early --
and big -- lead in the 2005 race for cash, announcing that it has raised
more than $21 million since the beginning of the year. That's more than
twice as much as the Democrats reported. [WP]

[20. ECONOMIC MATTERS] The US Department of Labor reported in March that
373,000 discouraged college graduates dropped out of the labor force in
February, a far higher number than the number of new jobs created. [CP]
	The US current account deficit reached a record $665.9bn in 2004
-- driven by rising oil imports and consumers' appetite for foreign goods
... the deficit as a percentage of the total economy also set a record,
rising to 5.7% from 4.8% in 2003 ... the fourth quarter current account
deficit had widened by 13%
	The dollar slid against the euro Wednesday on data that showed the
U.S. current account deficit soaring more than expected in the fourth
quarter and far exceeding its previous record for the full year
	Greenspan says, "we were all wrong," about rosy surplus forecasts
he used to support Bush's 2001 tax cuts
	As the FT predicted two weeks ago, Bush names Paul Wolfowitz World
Bank president; "Wolfowitz told reporters he's determined to 'wage war on
poverty' [but not] unilaterally. Instead, he will seek out a broad
coalition of "Europe and others" before attacking the world's poor
people." He's supported by Biden and other NatSecDems -- and by Sen. Leahy

[21. AFGHAN OCCUPATION] Kandaharis are getting fed up with the lawlessness
in their warlord-controlled city, where children have been kidnapped for
ransom, then killed even after the fee was paid. This WP front notes that
citizens felt less vulnerable under the Taliban, which ousted warlords
before brutally imposing its law. After the U.S. defeated the Taliban,
many of the warlords regained power and have continued to terrorize the
populace despite President Hamid Karzai's promises to crack down. "Imagine
how things are," said one man, "that we are wishing for the Taliban
again." [Slate] Rice, in what was described as "a seven-hour, on-message
visit" there, during which she made "little if any acknowledgment" of the
country's problems, announced the third postponement of parliamentary
elections.

[22. IRANIAN THREAT] "Iran has been meddling in the affairs of Iraq," CIA
Director Porter Goss told the U.S. Senate Armed Services Committee
	NYT: The adminsitration acknowledges that Iran has the right to
enrich uranium to produce electricity under NPT; but the USG is pressuring
the EU-3 to make Iran give up that right
	FT: Iran is prepared to offer the US a half share in any future
nuclear program to show that it is not pursuing atomic weapons, a senior
Iranian official was quoted on Wednesday as saying
	Despite the Bush administration's bellicose demands that Iran give
up its uranium enrichment program, Washington has dismissed any cause for
alarm over a somewhat similar nuclear program in Brazil.

[23. IRAQI DEMOCRACY] The new Iraq assembly descended into farce. Despite
calls for the meeting to be held outside the heavily protected Green Zone,
to demonstrate parliament's independence from its American protectors, the
threat was such that the deputies had no choice but to meet there in a
vast convention centre. [Times/UK] An Iraqi newspaper editor tells USA
Today that he feels "sorry for those who risked their lives to vote for
this farcical assembly."

[24. ISRAELI MATTERS] In talks in Egypt, Palestinian resistance groups
have agreed to extend a halt to attacks on Israel
	PM Sharon has approved the final route of the illegal barrier
around Jerusalem that will include Jewish settlements in parts of the West
Bank [AJ]
	Dozens of Christian families have fled their homes in northern
Israel, accusing the Israeli police of failing to protect them from
attacks by their Druze neighbours [Guardian]
	The Knesset passed a resolution on Tuesday demanding that Israel
make the US release of Pollard a condition for Israel's freeing of
Palestinian prisoners
	Amnesty International urges SOS Rice to support an independent
investigation of the death of Rachel Corrie, killed a year ago this week
by an armored Caterpillar bulldozer driven by an Israeli soldier; the
family is suing Caterpillar, Inc.
	U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan's decision to lay a wreath at
the grave of Yasser Arafat while on his way to the dedication of a
Holocaust museum in Israel is infuriating New York politicians and Jewish
leaders.
	Jewish extremists are plotting to take over the Temple Mount in an
attempt to thwart Israel's withdrawal from Gaza, an Israeli TV station has
reported.

[25. LATIN AMERICA] For a long time there was only one country in Latin
America offering free health care to all its citizens; now there are two,
owing to a barter deal between Cuba and Venezuela [Zmag]
	FT: Senior US administration officials are working on a policy to
"contain" Venezuelan president Chavez and what they allege is his drive to
"subvert" LA; Chavez says that he's waiting for the US to announce that
Venezuela has WMD, and that the US is portraying Venezuela as a security
threat in order to capture its vast oil reserves
	In an interview on a Miami Spanish channel, former CIA agent Felix
Rodriguez, credited with capturing and killing Che Guevara, said that the
U.S. government has plans to "bring about a change in Venezuela"; AFP:
Venezuela's energy minister warned Wednesday that his country would not
sell the US a single barrel of oil if the government of Hugo Chavez again
came under "attack" from Washington; US Gen. Bantz Craddock says that
Venezuela's arms procurement program from Moscow represents a danger to
the entire region
	Salvador president rejects OAS probe of the massacre at El Mozote;
El Salvador's Roman Catholic Archbishopric had petitioned to reopen the
case, alleging government responsibility:  members of the U.S.-trained
Atlacatl Battalion "concentrated and killed hundred of civilian residents,
including children, women and the elderly" in December 1981
	Anyone harboring illusions about Washington's aims in Iraq,
Lebanon, Syria and Iran should turn their eyes to Haiti to see the real
face of America's "democratizing" mission

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	    C. G. Estabrook <www.newsfromneptune.com>
	   "News from Neptune" (Saturdays 10-11AM), and
	"From Bard to Verse: A Program of the Spoken Arts"
	 (Saturdays noon-1PM) on WEFT, Champaign, 90.1 FM,
	    Community Radio for East Central Illinois
	=================================================