[Peace] News notes 2005-10-23

[Carl Estabrook]

[Note: last week's News notes, appended, have been delayed a week; this
week's News notes will not exist at all.  Apologies.  --CGE]

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        Notes from last week's "global war on terrorism,"
        for the Sunday, 23 October 2005, meeting of AWARE,
        "Anti-War Anti-Racism Effort" of Champaign-Urbana.
        (Sources provided on request; some are indicated.)
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	Noam Chomsky, the American linguistics expert and US foreign
	policy critic, was named the world's top public intellectual,
	according to a new British magazine poll. Best known for his loud
	and consistent criticism of the Vietnam War and US foreign policy
	over the last 40 years, Chomsky, 76, decisively beat Italian
	novelist and academic Umberto Eco and third-placed Oxford
	University professor Richard Dawkins to top the poll ... in the
	Prospect/Foreign Policy poll published this week in Prospect
	magazine ...  Chomsky was unimpressed with the honour, telling The
	Guardian newspaper that polls were something "I don't pay a lot of
	attention to," adding that "it was probably padded by some friends
	of mine." [AFP]

This week's News notes seem to fall into an arrangement by country.

IRAQ.  Robert Fisk, the Dean of English language correspondents in the
Middle East, says that "Nothing..." gives him hope about Iraq.
	SOS Rice testifying to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on
Wednesday refused to rule out U.S. troops' still being in Iraq in 10 years
... She told lawmakers the United States will follow a model that was
successful -- Afghanistan [sic].
	Vice-President Dick Cheney and a handful of others had hijacked
the government's foreign policy apparatus, deciding in secret to carry out
policies that had left the US weaker and more isolated in the world, the
top aide to former Secretary of State Colin Powell claimed on Wednesday
... In a scathing attack on the record of President George W. Bush,
Colonel Lawrence Wilkerson, chief of staff to Mr Powell until last
January, said:  "What I saw was a cabal between the vice-president of the
United States, Richard Cheney, and the secretary of defense, Donald
Rumsfeld, on critical issues that made decisions that the bureaucracy did
not know were being made. . . [FT]
	A Spanish High Court judge issued international arrest warrants on
Wednesday for three U.S. soldiers in connection with the death of a
Spanish cameraman during the war in Iraq ... The United States has cleared
the men of any blame, although it acknowledges a shell was fired from
their tank into the Palestine Hotel where Telecinco cameraman Jose Couso
and Reuters cameraman Taras Protsyuk were killed. A U.S. investigation
concluded the men were justified in opening fire ... The judge said he
issued the warrants because U.S. authorities had refused to cooperate. The
court had twice asked American officials for help, requesting documents
and offering to send a legal team to the United States to take statements
from the three men ... U.S. officials have said it is very unlikely their
soldiers will be allowed to be questioned by a foreign court. "I just
cannot imagine how any U.S. soldier can be subject to some kind of foreign
proceeding for criminal liability when he is in a tank in a war zone as
part of an international coalition," a U.S. State Department official, who
asked not to be named, said in June. [Reuters]

SYRIA.  Syria continues to arm proxy guerrillas and run spies in Lebanon
despite withdrawing its troops from the country in April, an Israeli
newspaper quoted an upcoming U.N. report as saying on Sunday.  The report,
due out later this week, could compound international pressure building up
against Damascus since a U.N. probe last week named senior Syrian
officials as suspects in the assassination of former Lebanese Prime
Minister Rafik al-Hariri.  Haaretz daily said the report, by U.N. envoy
Terje Roed-Larsen, accuses Syria of continuing "to maintain its direct
military control of Lebanon through its agents in the Lebanese
presidential palace, the army and intelligence organisations". Syria also
continues to supply Shi'ite guerrilla group Hizbollah and Palestinian
militants based in Lebanon with weapons, Haaretz quoted the Roed-Larsen
report as saying. A former U.N. special envoy to Israel and the
Palestinian territories, Roed-Larsen's current assignment is to oversee
implementation of Resolution 1559, under which Syria withdrew its forces
from Lebanon after almost 29 years of occupation. The resolution also
calls for the disbanding of all armed factions in Lebanon, including
Hizbollah and Palestinian groups ... Earlier on Sunday, the United States
and Britain ratcheted up pressure on Syria, saying the U.N. probe
implicating it in the killing of Hariri was "very serious" and the world
must act.
	Rice before the Senate would not deny or the possibility that the
United States could use military force against Syria and Iran.  "Syria
and, indeed, Iran must decide whether they wish to side with the cause of
war or with the cause of peace" ... Republican Sens. Chuck Hagel of
Nebraska and Lincoln Chafee of Rhode Island were among several lawmakers
who asked Rice whether the Bush administration was considering military
action against Iran and Syria, and asked whether the president would
circumvent congressional authorization if the White House chose that
option.  "I will not say anything that constrains his authority as
commander in chief," Rice said.
	U.S. forces have entered Syria and engaged in combat with Syrian
forces ... no declaration of war preceded the invasion of Syria, in spite
of the requirements of the War Powers Act of 1973. There is no indication
that Congress was involved in the decision to go in. If members were
briefed, none of them has chosen to share that important information with
the American people... [toledoblade.com]

AFGHANISTAN.  The peculiar understanding of "liberation" that George W.
Bush imposes upon the countries he conquers was on vivid display in
Afghanistan this week. AP reports that the Taliban wild man in charge of
blowing up two giant, 1,500-year-old statues of Buddha in 2001 -- an
unconscionable crime against culture, against history, indeed, against
humanity -- has been duly elected to parliament, where he will add his
wise voice to the guidance of policy in the regime of warlords, druglords
and virulent extremists installed by Bush. [Floyd, Moscow Times]
	An Australian TV program has aired footage of U.S. soldiers
burning the bodies of two dead Taliban fighters. The program also aired
footage of a U.S. Army psy-ops unit caught on tape broadcasting news of
the burning to local residents. The message read : "You allowed your
fighters to be laid down facing west and burnt. You are too scared to
retrieve their bodies. This just proves you are the lady boys we always
believed you to be... You attack and run away like women. You call
yourself Taliban but you are a disgrace to the Muslim religion, and you
bring shame upon your family. Come and fight like men instead of the
cowardly dogs you are."
	[The Pentagon admits that] More than 100 detainees have died in
U.S. detention in Afghanistan and Iraq. The U.S. military consistently
pins the blame on individuals and has denied there is any institutional
tolerance of such behavior. [Reuters]
	Meanwhile at Guantanamo Bay, detainees are accusing guards and
medical officials of mistreating prisoners taking part in a camp-wide
hunger strike. Detainees said large feeding tubes were forcibly shoved up
their noses and down into their stomachs, with guards using the same tubes
from one patient to another. The force-feedings reportedly resulted in
prisoners vomiting up "substantial amounts of blood." The detainees say no
sedatives were provided during these procedures, which they allege took
place in front of U.S. physicians, including the head of the prison
hospital. The accusations were made to New York-based attorney Julia
Tarver of the Center for Constitutional Rights. [DN]

ISRAEL. Israeli occupation forces have sealed off Palestinian towns in the
West Bank and banned private vehicles from intercity roads with a decision
to officially resume military incursions.  Israel says the harsh measures
were re-imposed on Monday in response to the killing of three Israelis and
has halted all communications with the Palestinian Authority, Aljazeera
learned.  The Israeli army killed a Palestinian in the West Bank and
injured a bystander on Sunday.
	This week, speaking with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud
Abbas, George Bush said this:
	Reporter: "President [Bush], you say you wanted to see the
Palestinian state made before the end of your presidency. Are you still
hoping to see something like that?"
	Bush: "You said I would like to see two states before I get out of
office. Not true. I'd like to see two states. And if it happens before I
get out of office, I'll be there to witness the ceremony."
	But last November, here's what Bush had to say: "I think it is
fair to say that I believe we've got a great chance to establish a
Palestinian state, and I intend to use the next four years to spend the
capital of the United States on such a state...I hate to put artificial
time frames on things; unfortunately I've got one on my existence as
President. It's not artificial, it's actually real. And I'd like to see it
done in four years. I think it is possible. I think it is possible."

WASHINGTON. John Hannah, a senior national security aide on loan to Vice
President Dick Cheney from the offices of then-Under Secretary of State
for Arms Control and International Security Affairs, John Bolton, is said
to be cooperating with special counsel Patrick Fitzgerald's probe into the
outing of covert CIA agent Valerie Plame Wilson.  A second Cheney aide,
David Wurmser, has agreed to provide the prosecution with evidence that
the leak was a coordinated effort by Cheney s office to discredit the
agent's husband. [The Raw Story]
	Wurmser, whose Israeli-born wife Meyrav is director of the Center
for Middle East Policy at the neoconservative Hudson Institute, is the
principal author of a by-now-famous 1996 policy paper, "A Clean Break: A
New Strategy for Securing the Realm," prepared for then-Prime Minister
Benjamin Netanyahu by the Jerusalem-based Institute for Advanced Strategic
Political Studies. The "Clean Break" strategy proposed an attempt by
Israel to break out of its military and political isolation in the midst
of a hostile Arab sea by pursuing regime-change in Iraq, and eventually
Syria. Wurmser sought to mobilize the far-right wing of Israel's Likud
party, represented by Netanyahu, around a vision of a Greater Israel
surrounded by much lesser enemies. Syria, in Wurmser's view, was the main
target, but the road to Damascus, he contended, had to run though Baghdad.
"Whoever inherits Iraq dominates the entire Levant strategically," he
wrote. The key to Israel's regional hegemony was in rejecting "land for
peace" and creating a "natural axis" consisting of Israel, Jordan, and a
Hashemite Iraq that could "squeeze and detach Syria from the Saudi
peninsula." This would be "the prelude to redrawing the map of the Middle
East" -- to Israel's advantage, of course.
	Among the other co-authors whose names adorn "A Clean Break":
Douglas J. Feith, director of policy at the Department of Defense, and the
ubiquitous Richard Perle, who is having his own problems with prosecutor
Fitzgerald (over financial manipulations in Conrad Black's newspaper
concern).
	The connection of Israel to all this is plain enough: for the
neoconservatives, Israel plays the same role as the old Soviet Union did
to the American Communist Party. Acting sometimes in tandem with Tel Aviv,
and always in Israel's interests, the cabal Wilkerson and others have
identified is pursuing an ideological vision, which Seymour Hersh
[describes]. Yet it could not be pursued in a vacuum, without the
assistance of allies, and certainly the Israelis have played a key role in
influencing the U.S. government to tread the path to war -
 covertly in the case of Iraq, and now quite openly when it comes to Syria
and Iran. [Raimondo]
	Conservative defenders of Karl Rove and Scooter Libby have settled
on their No. 1 talking point: the grand jury investigation into the CIA
leak scandal represents the "criminalization of politics
 ... To spread this talking point across the nation, the right has
received a major assist from Fox News. According to a database search,
every single television reference to the CIA leak scandal as the
"criminalization of politics" in the last 30 days has been on Fox ... on
every occasion, the phrase was introduced into the segment by a Fox News
anchor or correspondent, never by a guest. .
	Sen. Ted Stevens (R-AK) ... threatened to resign if the Senate
took away his title of "chief porker" and $453 million for two
controversial state bridges -- the "Bridge to Nowhere" and "Don Young's
Way," the bridge named after Rep. Don Young (R), which could eventually
cost taxpayers $1.5 million. Luckily for Stevens, the Senate defeated by a
vote of 15-82 Sen. Tom Coburn's (R-OK) amendment to shift all the Alaska
bridge money to funding for rebuilding the $500 million-$600 million Twin
Spans Bridge in New Orleans. [Neither Illinois senator voted to shift the
money.]
	In Congressional "budget reconciliation," right-wing leadership is
proposing $35 billion in cuts for programs that benefit the least
fortunate. Programs likely to face the chopping block include Medicaid,
food stamps and student loans. The program cuts are being sold as a
painful but necessary step to reduce the federal deficit. But don't
believe the hype. The $35 billion in program cuts are being paired with at
least $70 billion in new tax cuts for the wealthy, resulting in a net
increase in the deficit ... The $70 billion in tax cuts "are likely to go
overwhelmingly to high-income taxpayers." According to an analysis by
Urban Institute-Brookings Institution Tax Policy Center, "53 percent of
the benefits from these...provisions...are going to the 0.2 percent of
households with incomes over $1 million a year." Three-quarters of these
tax cuts "are going to the 3.3 percent of households with incomes
exceeding $200,000 a year."
	Facing South discovers that "unsigned editorials" in four
newspapers "say exactly the same thing" in defending President Bush's
suspension of the Davis-Bacon Act. Three are owned by Freedom
Communications, which has also been trumpeting a bogus claim about the
estate tax.

BLOGISTAN [= online commentary].  Much fluttering in the liberal and
Democratic dovecotes over the impending conclusion of special prosecutor
Patrick Fitzgerald's grand jury investigation of the administration's
leaking of a CIA agent's name.  John Dean, Nixon's White House lawyer and
has accuser in the Watergate scandal, goes against the current consensus
and suggests that "I cannot imagine any of them being indicted, unless
they were acting for reasons other than national security. Because
national security is such a gray area of the law, come next week, I can
see this entire investigation coming to a remarkable anti-climax, as
Fitzgerald closes down his Washington Office and returns to Chicago.
	Jacob Weisberg warns, "Claiming a few conservative scalps might be
satisfying, but they'll come at a cost to principles liberals hold dear:
the press's right to find out, the government's ability to disclose, and
the public's right to know."
	But I think Alex Cockburn has it right when he says, "I never
cared much for the whole Plame scandal, mostly on the aesthetic grounds
that outing Plame as a CIA agent seemed such a moronic way for the White
House to try to discredit Joe Wilson, also because outing CIA agents is an
act for which -- for radicals at least -- applause should be the default
setting. But in that odd way that scandals acquire critical mass by dint
of larger social and political discontent, the Plame scandal is severely
wounding the Bush regime and the New York Times and we certainly applaud
that.  And with the Times now publicly dismembering itself the scandal has
at last become fun. Not as much fun as the Lewinsky scandal of course, but
what scandal will ever match those magic years?"
	But as Chris Floyd puts it in the Moscow Times, "If anyone in the
White House is actually indicted and convicted for the high crime of
exposing the identity of an undercover agent -- in wartime, no less --
they will certainly be pardoned when George W. Bush finally limps away
from the steaming, stinking, blood-soaked ruin of his presidency. Nobody
will do any hard time; in the end, the whole sick crew will simply pass
through the golden revolving door into the lifetime gravy train of
corporate grease and right-wing lecture-circuit glory."

VIETNAM.  Standard & Poor's said on Tuesday it had upgraded the outlook on
Vietnam's BB-minus rating to positive from stable due to the country's
commitment to its transformation to a market economy and to increase
international integration.  The outlook upgrade comes as Vietnam prepares
marketing a $500 million bond to international investors this week,
marking its first sovereign bond issue after considering such a sale for
more than decade.  In a separate statement, S&P also assigned a BB-minus
rating to the proposed bond issue. [Reuters] Who won that war?

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  C. G. Estabrook, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
  109 Observatory, 901 South Mathews Avenue, Urbana, IL 61801
  ### <www.carlforcongress.org> <www.newsfromneptune.com> ###
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