[Peace] News notes 2006-04-23 (fwd)

[Carl Estabrook]

(Birthday of the man from Stratford?)
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	Notes from last week's "global war on terrorism,"
	for the April 23, 2006, meeting of AWARE, the
	"Anti-War Anti-Racism Effort" of Champaign-Urbana.
	(Sources provided on request; paragraphs followed
	by a bracketed source are substantially verbatim.)
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[1] US OCCUPATION. One may debate details, but there are some simple
principles that should be observed.  One is that an invader has no rights,
only responsibilities.  One of those responsibilities is to heed the will
of the victims.  A second is to pay reparations for the crime of
aggression.  As for the will of the victims, we have a pretty good idea
... for some time, US-UK polls have shown overwhelming popular support for
a timetable for withdrawal.  The latest figures made public (NYT) are 87%,
which is phenomenally high -- and if that figure is, as reported, from all
of Iraq, it means that it's near unanimous in the Arab areas where the
troops are actually deployed.  Bush-Blair-Rice etc. have repeatedly
stressed that there can be no timetable for withdrawal, consistent with
their bitter hatred of democracy ...
	Every occupier/aggressor, even the most horrifying, could have
argued that withdrawal would lead to all sorts of awful consequences (and
often did) and raise questions about its own role in stimulating internal
crimes and suffering.  But it's not their decision to make.
	My own opinion, for what it's worth (not much, and almost all
others should have the honesty to concede the same, I believe), is that
the tactics of the invaders have stimulated ethnic conflicts of a very new
kind in Iraq.  When Kurdish militias and poor Shiites are used to carry
out war crimes in Fallujah, it's next to certain that it will convert
simmering resentments into bitter hatred, leading to an escalating cycle
of violence.  And there's much more.  In general, the chaos and
destruction caused by the invasion, which has few historical precedents
except in cases of wars of purposeful devastation, has also been a
breeding ground for violence, crime, fury, and all that follows.  We might
recall the Nuremberg judgment.  Aggression -- defined in a way that surely
applies to the Iraq invasion -- is the "supreme international crime ...
that contains within itself the accumulated evil of the whole" --
everything that follows from the invasion.  We might also recall the
eloquent words of Chief of Counsel Robert Jackson: that history would
judge us by the standards of NuremBerg, and "To pass these defendants a
poisoned chalice is to put it to our lips as well." [Noam Chomsky]

[2] OSAMA'S MESSAGE. Aljazeera has aired an audiotape attributed to Osama
bin Laden in which he attacks the West for boycotting Hamas and accuses
Western governments of waging a "crusader war" against Islam ... the
al-Qaeda leader said the isolation and cutting off of aid to the Hamas-led
Palestinian government reaffirmed that the West was at war with the
Islamic nation ... bin Laden also said the Western public shared
responsibility for the actions of their governments, particularly for what
he called their attacks on Islam ... Bin Laden also spoke about the
conflict in Iraq and, for the first time, the crisis in Darfur, Sudan.
He urged Muslim supporters to go to Sudan to foil what he called Western,
especially American, efforts to divide the country. "Our goal is not
defending the Khartoum government but to defend Islam, its land and its
people," he added ... The last recorded message from bin Laden, was aired
by Aljazeera on January 19. In that message he threatened new attacks
against the United States, but also offered the American people a
conditional "truce". [Aljazeera]

[3] IRAQ'S WAR. In Iraq, President Talabani gives Jawad al-Maliki 30 days
to form a government [Maliki is a Shi'ite who was in exile in Syriua
during Saddam's rule; he opposed the US invasion] ... The guerrilla
movement replied to the political developments in Iraq on Sunday morning
raining 11 mortar strikes down on various parts of the capital. Three
mortar shells fell in the Green Zone where parliament meets. A mortar
shell landed near the Ministry of Defense in Baghdad, killing 5 there
alone. Early reports gave 6 killed altogether in the barrages. Guerrillas
killed 5 US troops in Iraq on Saturday. Al-Hayat says that guerrilla
violence killed 26 Iraqis on Saturday, with two big explosions in a
popular market at Miqdadiyah and a multitude of other attacks around the
country. [Cole]
	About 50 insurgents mounted a brazen attack on Iraqi forces in
Baghdad on Monday, prompting U.S. troops to provide support in a battle
that lasted seven hours ... The guerrillas attacked Iraqi forces in the
mostly Sunni Arab district of Adhamiya in northern Baghdad overnight. Five
rebels were killed and one member of the Iraqi forces was wounded. There
were no U.S. casualties, said the spokesman ... While insurgents mount
such attacks in their strongholds in western Anbar province, they are rare
in the Iraqi capital. The U.S. military also said insurgent attacks at a
government center and mosque were repulsed on Monday in Ramadi, west of
Baghdad. The attacks involved "multiple homicide car bombs, mortars,
rocket-propelled grenades, and heavy machine gun and small arms fire ...
and appeared to be closely coordinated," a military statement said. The
bold attack in Baghdad raises fresh questions about security in the
capital... [Reuters]

[4] MURTHA'S PLAN. U.S. Rep. John Murtha (D-PA) ... said today it would
take more than Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld's resignation to restore
Bush's credibility in the Middle East and with the American public. The
only way Bush can show he is ready to seriously change direction and
pursue a diplomatic solution to the war is if he makes "substantial"
changes in his administration ... "Nobody can believe these guys anymore,"
Murtha [said] ... The Bush administration has "mishandled,
mischaracterized and misrepresented" the planning and management of the
war ... Unless "we replace the people responsible for the failed plan" the
U.S. will not be able to get the international help and cooperation it
needs ... Rumsfeld ... and Bush "were wrong when it came to Iraq" but
"won't admit it." Though the president touts the elections in Iraq as
evidence of success in the war, Murtha said in reality "we have lost the
hearts and minds of both the Iraqi people, and as the polls indicate, of
the American public and, obviously, of the world." Murtha said the
administration should admit it has made mistakes in Iraq and announce it
wants to pursue a diplomatic solution. "It's the only way it can be done,"
he said. "All the military commanders will tell you it can't be done
militarily." Only the Iraqis can solve their problems now, Murtha said.
"We can't do it from the outside." The U.S., which he says is caught in
the middle of a civil war, should "redeploy from a pervasive occupying
presence inside Iraq to a powerful quick-reaction force" that is stationed
nearby but outside the country.  [Pittsburgh Tribune-Review]

[5] RUMSFELD'S COUP. [The WP this morning reports on] Defense Secretary
Rumsfeld's ... long-awaited campaign plan for the global war on terrorism,
as well as two subordinate plans also approved within the past month by
Rumsfeld ... they envision a significantly expanded role for the military
-- and, in particular, a growing force of elite Special Operations troops
[around the world.] Developed over about three years by the Special
Operations Command (SOCOM) in Tampa, the plans reflect a beefing up of the
Pentagon's involvement in domains traditionally handled by the Central
Intelligence Agency and the State Department ... SOCOM has dispatched
small teams of Army Green Berets and other Special Operations troops to
U.S. embassies in about 20 countries in the Middle East, Asia, Africa and
Latin America ... in a subtle but important shift contained in a
classified order last year, the Pentagon gained the leeway to inform --
rather than gain the approval of -- the U.S. ambassador before conducting
military operations in a foreign country [WP]

[6] HILLARY'S CRACKDOWN. [In the leading political distraction, Latin
American immigration, Hillary Clinton stated her position:] A fence or a
wall?  She's for it. A two-step process, where our borders are secured
before the 11 million illegal immigrants already here begin to get
legalized? She's for that, too. The sudden crackdown by Washington on
employers who hire illegal immigrants? She welcomes it. The work and
school boycott advocacy groups are planning for May 1? She's against it.
And she said she favors a "carrot-and-stick" approach with Mexico to
provide that government and its "oligarchs" the incentives to give
Mexicans more and better jobs in their own country... She supports a time
lag between the two steps, with border security coming first by as much as
two years [before legalization.] [NYDN]

[7] BRITAIN'S LAW. [British] Foreign Office lawyers have formally advised
Jack Straw that it would be illegal under international law for Britain to
support any US-led military action against Iran. The advice given to the
Foreign Secretary in the last few weeks is thought to have prompted his
open criticism last week of Tony Blairs backing for President George Bush
... In the run-up to the Iraq invasion in 2003, Straw received similar
private advice from senior Foreign Office lawyers who had also advised the
attorney general, Lord Goldsmith, on the illegality of an invasion without
the express authority of the United Nations Security Council.  The Foreign
Offices deputy legal adviser, Elizabeth Wilmshurst, later resigned when
the attorney general reversed his initial view on the wars legality.
Sources within the Foreign Office say there is an express desire that this
time their legal advice is heard and acted upon ... The Foreign Offices
lawyers have gone further than merely advising on the legality of military
assistance. It is thought their advice stretched to the use of British
military advisers, UK airspace and even the dangers of Tony Blair
expressing support which could be taken as legitimising a US-led attack
without the express authority of the United Nations ... But the White
House is concerned that a rogue state is being given too much time by the
UN, as it believes it did with Iraq. A State Department official said last
week that time was running out for Iran and if the UN did not take action
over a state which it claimed "was violating every nuclear agreement it
has ever made" [sic] then it was time for "other countries to use their
leverage." [Sunday Herald Scotland]

[8] CIA'S WARNING. The Central Intelligence Agency warned US President
George W. Bush before the Iraq war that it had reliable information the
government of Saddam Hussein had no weapons of mass destruction, a retired
CIA operative disclosed. But the operative, Tyler Drumheller, said top
White House officials simply brushed off the warning, saying they were "no
longer interested" in intelligence and that the policy toward Iraq had
been already set.  The disclosure, [was] made in an interview with CBS's
"60 Minutes" program due to be broadcast late Sunday, ... An extensive
CIA-led probe undertaken after the US military took control of Iraq failed
to turn up any such weapons. But Bush and other members of his
administration have blamed the fiasco on a massive intelligence failure
... However, Drumheller, who was a top CIA liaison officer in Europe
before the war, insisted Bush had been explicitly warned well before an
invasion order was given that the United States may not find the suspected
weapons of mass destruction in Iraq ..."The war in Iraq was coming and
they were looking for intelligence to fit into the policy," he argued ...
Drumheller, who retired from the agency last year, is the second
high-ranking ex-CIA official to criticize the administration's use of
intelligence in months leading up to the war. Paul Pillar, who was the
national intelligence officer for the Near East and South Asia from 2000
to 2005, wrote in the March-April issue of Foreign Affairs magazine that
the White House was "cherry-picking" information and that "intelligence
was misused publicly to justify decisions already made." [AFP]

[9] STATE'S WARNING. Eleven days before President Bush's January 28, 2003,
State of the Union address in which he said that the US learned from
British intelligence that Iraq had attempted to acquire uranium from
Africa -- an explosive claim that helped pave the way to war -- the State
Department told the CIA that the intelligence the uranium claims were
based upon were forgeries, according to a newly declassified State
Department memo.  The revelation of the warning from the closely guarded
State Department memo is the first piece of hard evidence and the
strongest to date that the Bush administration manipulated and ignored
intelligence information in their zeal to win public support for invading
Iraq. [truthout]

[10] BUSH'S ILLEGALITY. During the 2004 election, George W. Bush famously
proclaimed that he didn't have to ask anyone's permission to defend
America. Does that mean he can attack Iran without having to ask Congress?
A new Congressional resolution being drafted by Representative Peter
DeFazio, a Democrat from Oregon, can be a vehicle to remind Bush that he
can't ... Bush's top officials openly assert that he can do anything he
wants -- including attacking another country -- on his authority as
Commander in Chief ... But the Bush doctrine of pre-emptive war, as laid
out in the 2002 National Security Strategy of the United States and
reiterated in 2006, claims for the President the power to attack other
countries -- like Iran -- simply because he asserts they pose a threat. It
thereby removes the decision of war and peace from Congress and gives it
the President. It is, as Senator Robert Byrd put it, "unconstitutional on
its face." DeFazio is now preparing a resolution underscoring the fact
that the President cannot initiate military action against Iran without
Congressional authorization. He is seeking support from other House
members ... There is considerable evidence that military action against
Iran has already started. Air Force Col. Sam Gardiner (ret.) told CNN that
"the decision has been made and military operations are under way" ... One
of the stunning revelations of recent news stories is that top military
brass are strongly opposed to the move toward military strikes.  The
Washington Post quotes a former CIA Middle East specialist that "the
Pentagon is arguing forcefully against it." According to Hersh's reporting
in The New Yorker, the Joint Chiefs of Staff "had agreed to give President
Bush a formal recommendation stating that they are strongly opposed to
considering the nuclear option for Iran." [The Nation]

[11] REHANA'S HIJAB. The trial of Rehana Khan, a Muslim girl of
Pakistani-descent from Illinois who had her headscarf or hijab ripped off
after she and several others were arrested for civil disobedience while
protesting at a rally for immigrant rights last year, has finally been
scheduled for April 25. A group of five young people -- white, Latino,
Muslim -- are facing up to four years in jail for a protest against the
racist vigilante group the Minutemen. Two Illinois state attorneys have
reportedly refused to discuss a plea without jail time. Their case goes to
trial on April 25 ... Rehana, while being led to a police squad car [in
Arlignton Heights], reportedly informed an officer that the way in which
she was being handled was causing extreme pain -- actions from which she
obtained bruises and scars -- and requested that the officer ease her
grip. The officer responded by stating, "No, that's what you get," and
then remarked, "Take that off" and violently pulled off her hijab. At the
police station, Rehana was made to take off her hijab again and was
searched by a female and male officer without her hijab on. After the
search, the female officer tried to give the hijab back to her but the
male officer stopped her, saying that there was nobody at the station to
look at her, while adding that the practice of wearing the hijab was a
"fashion statement".  The detainee was then kept in lock up without being
permitted to wear her hijab. [cairchicago]

[12] CAMBODIA'S REFUSAL. Cambodia has turned down a U.S. approach on
sending troops to Iraq and Afghanistan, Prime Minister Hun Sen said on
Friday ... Cambodia, heavily mined itself and still emerging from three
decades of bloody civil war and the Khmer Rouge "Killing Fields" in which
an estimated 1.7 million people died, is sending soldiers to Sudan to help
clear mines. [Reuters]

[13] HAITI'S VOTE. Confusion reigned at many polling stations on Friday as
Haitians voted in a parliamentary election that will decide if
President-elect Rene Preval has enough support to govern the troubled
Caribbean nation ... Preval on February 7 won Haiti's first presidential
election since former President Jean-Bertrand Aristide was ousted in an
armed revolt two years ago [sc.: a US coup], but he will need supporters
in parliament, and an ally in the prime minister that parliament will
pick, in order to chart a course for the country ... Preval, a champion of
Haiti's poor masses who is to be sworn in on May 14, has urged candidates
from rival parties to form a coalition around his political platform
"Lespwa," Creole for hope. [Reuters]

[14] GUANTANAMO'S DETAINEES. Nearly 30 percent of the Guantanamo detainees
have been cleared to leave the prison but remain jailed because the U.S.
government has been unable to arrange for their return to their home
countries, the Pentagon said on Friday ... "It's just an outrageous
situation where people have gone through this system that has been
established, such as it is, and the (U.S.) government itself has found
there's no reason for them to be held any longer, and yet they continue to
be held," said Curt Goering, a senior Amnesty International USA official.
"It makes a mockery of any kind of system of justice" ... Rights activists
decry the indefinite detention of Guantanamo detainees since the jail
opened in January 2002, and accuse the United States of torture ... The
Supreme Court declined on Monday to consider whether a judge can free two
of them, Abu Bakker Qassim and A'del Abdu Al-Hakim, refusing to review the
judge's decision that a federal court cannot provide them relief while the
United States seeks a country to take them ... Also still jailed are three
detainees cleared for release and 107 cleared to be transferred to the
control of their home governments by military panels that review each
detainee's case at least annually, officials said. These hearings ran from
December 2004 to December 2005.  The Pentagon said the detainees hail from
40 countries and the West Bank, with the largest number from Saudi Arabia,
followed by Afghanistan and Yemen. [Reuters]

[15] HISTORY'S ABSENCE.  Ice cream makers Ben & Jerry's have apologized
for causing offence by calling a new flavor "Black & Tan" -- the nickname
of a notoriously violent British militia that operated during Ireland's
war of independence. The ice cream, available only in the United States,
is based on an ale and stout drink of the same name. [Reuters]

[16] WAR'S PROFITEERS.  Halliburton Co., the world's No. 2 oilfield
services company, posted sharply higher quarterly earnings on Thursday ...
"The street is going to be very pleased with this," said Kurt Hallead,
analyst with RBC Capital Markets ... Crude oil futures prices on the New
York Mercantile Exchange softened slightly on Thursday, but remained near
historical highs at about $72 per barrel ... Engineering and construction
unit KBR's revenue fell by 13 percent to $2.3 billion during the quarter,
primarily due to decreased military support activities in Iraq, where it
is the Pentagon's largest private contractor ... KBR has also been in the
spotlight recently for claims from former employees that it provided
contaminated water to U.S. troops in Iraq, although the company has denied
the allegations.  Total revenue from Iraq-related work was $1.1 billion in
the quarter, yielding $28 million in operating income for a 2.5 percent
margin, the company said. [Reuters]

[17] DEMOCRATS' FECKLESSNESS. Senior aides to leading Democratic members
of Congress in both houses have indicated an uncertain approach to
resolving the standoff over Irans nuclear ambitions [sic]. As the Bush
Administration ups rhetoric and news reports signal the Pentagon has
developed detailed plans for a possible military strike, the opposition
partys leading lights have remained silent ... the issue has received
scant attention from Democrats in Congress. Most Democratic offices
declined to comment for this story ... Sen. Joseph Lieberman (D-CT)  has
endorsed the possibility of using airstrikes to delay Irans nuclear
program [so has his protege, Sen. Barack Obama], though most are more
vague, saying they wont take any options off the table. And they appear to
be serious: Not even the Democrats liberal heavyweight in the House, Nancy
Pelosi, has ruled out the possibility of using nuclear weapons, keeping
"all options" on the table, an aide said. [Raw Story]

[18] CHAVEZ' APPREHENSIONS. President Hugo Chavez of Venezuela said on
Tuesday recent deployment of U.S. warships in the Caribbean Sea threatened
his country and its ally Cuba. Four U.S. warships, including an aircraft
carrier, and 6,500 sailors, are in a two-month deployment in the Caribbean
Sea dubbed "Partnership of the Americas" by the U.S. Navy ... The
Florida-based U.S. Southern Command has said the operations, which include
visits to countries including Venezuela's neighboring U.S. ally Colombia,
focus on threats such as "narco-terrorism and human-trafficking."
[Reuters]

[19] BENNETT'S TRAITORS. On his national radio program today (4/18),
William Bennett, the former Reagan and George H.W. Bush administration
official and now a CNN commentator, said that three reporters who won
Pulitzer Prizes yesterday were not "worthy of an award" but rather "worthy
of jail." He identified them as Dana Priest of The Washington Post, who
wrote about the CIA's "secret prisons" in Europe, and James Risen and Eric
Lichtblau of The New York Times, who exposed the National Security
Agency's domestic spy program [after supppressing the story through the
election] ...

[20] US' TORTURE. The United Nations committee against torture has
demanded that the United States provide more information about its
treatment of prisoners at home and foreign terrorism suspects held in
Iraq, Afghanistan and Guantanamo Bay. In questions submitted to
Washington, the panel also sought information about secret detention
facilities and specifically whether the United States assumed
responsibility for alleged acts of torture in them, U.N. officials said on
Tuesday. "It is the longest list of issues I have ever seen," Mercedes
Morales, a U.N. human rights officer who serves as secretary to the U.N.
Committee against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment
or Punishment, told reporters.  [Reuters]

[21] GOVERNMENT'S POLLS. "Public approval of the job Congress is doing has
dipped to its lowest level of 2006," accordIng to a new Gallup Poll, and
"is now the worst Gallup has recorded since the closing days of the
Democratic majority in the U.S. House of Representatives in 1994."
President Bush's job approval us at 36%, a return to last month's all-time
low. [Gallup]

[22] CONGRESS' CORRUPTION.  Senator Tom Coburn isn't naming names, but he
expects six congressmen and a fellow senator will go to jail. That's
because he thinks they'll be facing corruption charges following
investigations involving lobbyist Jack Abramoff and others. [AP]

[23] RUMSFELD'S TORTURE. Human Rights Watch is calling for a special
prosecutor to be appointed to investigate whether Defense Secretary Donald
Rumsfeld is criminally liable for the torture of a detainee at Guantanamo
Bay. According to an Army Inspector Generals report obtained by the online
magazine Salon.com, Rumsfeld was personally involved in the abusive
interrogation of a Saudi man named Mohammad al-Qahtani. The report reveals
Rumsfeld communicated weekly about the interrogation of Kahtani with Maj.
Gen. Geoffrey Miller at Guantanamo. Joanne Mariner of Human Rights Watch
said, The question at this point is not whether Secretary Rumsfeld should
resign, its whether he should be indicted. Human Rights Watch maintains
Rumsfeld could be liable under the legal principle that holds a superior
responsible for crimes committed by his subordinates when he knew or
should have known that crimes were being committed, but fails to stop
them.

[24] IRAN'S WAR?  My assumption all along has been that they would not
attack Iran, and I strongly suspect that the Pentagon and US intelligence
(and their British counterparts) are trying to leak dire warnings in the
hope of cutting it off at the pass.
	I suspect that's the basis for what Seymour Hersh recently
reported, and other reports like it at about the same time. You might be
interested in an article in the Atlantic Monthly, Dec. 2004 (online), a
wargame about attacking Iran, which has quite an authentic feel to it.
Participants were high level, and genuine. The final conclusion after
running through many options (including several variants of what you
mention) was expressed by General Gardiner, who runs Pentagon war games of
this kind:
	"After all this effort, I am left with two simple sentences for
policymakers," Sam Gardiner said of his exercise. "You have no military
solution for the issues of Iran. And you have to make diplomacy work."
	But that doesn't mean that Cheney-Rumsfeld-Bush will follow that
advice. They have created a major catastrophe in Iraq, not only for Iraqis
but even for themselves, and they may be desperate to prevent what could
turn into a real nightmare for them. A man-eating tiger in your backyard
is not very pleasant. A wounded one is a lot worse. [Noam Chomsky]

  ===========================================================
  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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