[Peace] News notes 2006-03-26 (fwd)

[Carl Estabrook]

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	Notes from last week's "global war on terrorism,"
	for the March 26, 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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   The week saw the USG apparently promoting civil war abroad (in
   Iraq) and at home (in regard to immigration) in a desperate
   attempt to regain lost support before the fall elections.

[1] CIVIL WAR IN IRAQ SERVES U.S. INTERESTS, BECAUSE A UNITED IRAQ
GOVERNMENT WOULD PRESS FOR U.S. WITHDRAWAL. The battle between Sunni and
Shia Muslims for control of Baghdad has already started, say Iraqi
political leaders who predict fierce street fighting will break out as
each community takes over districts in which it is strongest ... Many
Iraqi leaders now believe that civil war is inevitable but it will be
confined, at least at first, to the capital and surrounding provinces
where the population is mixed. "The real battle will be the battle for
Baghdad where the Shia have increasing control," said one senior official
... "The army will disintegrate in the first moments of the war because
the soldiers are loyal to the Shia, Sunni or Kurdish communities and not
to the government." He expected the Americans to stay largely on the
sidelines ... The mood among Iraqi leaders, both Arabs and Kurds, is far
gloomier in private than the public declarations of the US and British
governments ... The Shia and Kurds will have the advantage in the coming
conflict because they have leaders and organisations. The Sunni are
divided and only about 30 per cent of the population of the capital ...
Though the Kurds have long sought autonomy close to quasi-independence,
their leaders are worried that civil war will increase Iranian and Turkish
involvement in Iraq ... Already Baghdad resembles Beirut at the start of
the Lebanese civil war in 1975, when Christians and Muslims fought each
other for control of the city. [Patrick Cockburn]

[2] IT WAS PREDICTED THAT THE U.S. WOULD BEGIN TO TILT TOWARD THE SUNNIS.
In a crescendo of violence in Iraq, a suicide bomber killed 40 army
recruits in Mosul as Shia leaders reacted furiously to a US-Iraqi raid on
a mosque which they claim killed 37 people. A further 21 bodies were found
in and around Baghdad, some with nooses around their necks ... The killing
of what the Americans say were 16 "insurgents", and what Shias claim were
37 unarmed worshippers in the Mustafa mosque, may turn out to be a turning
point in the three-year-old Iraq crisis. Iraq's Shias, 60 per cent of the
population, have hitherto largely co-operated with American occupation
while Sunni Arabs have resisted. But the Shias increasingly see the US as
trying to deny them power despite the electoral success of its Alliance.
Shia leaders demanded yesterday that the US return overall control of
security to the Iraqi government ... The US is now caught up in a growing
confrontation with Iraq's 15 million Shias. The governor of Baghdad,
Hussein Tah-an, said the city's provincial council had cut ties to the US
military and diplomatic mission, "because of the cowardly attack on the
al-Mustafa mosque". [Patrick Cockburn]

[3] BY STOKING THE FEAR OF IMMIGRANTS THE REPUBLICANS 'ENERGIZE THEIR
BASE.' Thousands of immigration advocates marched through downtown Los
Angeles in one of the largest demonstrations for any cause in recent U.S.
history.  More than 500,000 protesters demanding that Congress abandon
attempts to make illegal immigration a felony and to build more walls
along the border surprised police ... In Denver, more than 50,000 people
protested downtown Saturday ... Phoenix was similarly surprised Friday
when an estimated 20,000 people gathered for one of the biggest
demonstrations in city history, and more than 10,000 marched in Milwaukee
on Thursday ... The U.S. House of Representatives has passed legislation
that would make it a felony to be in the U.S. illegally, impose new
penalties on employers who hire illegal immigrants, require churches to
check the legal status of people they help, and erect fences along
one-third of the U.S.-Mexican border.  The Senate is to begin debating the
proposals on Tuesday ... The demonstrations are expected to culminate
April 10 in a "National Day of Action" organized by labor, immigration,
civil rights and religious groups. [LAT]

[4] MY LAI IN VIETNAM WAS NOT AN ISOLATED ATROCITY BUT AN EXAMPLE OF HOW
THE U.S. FOUGHT THE WAR.  The fourth year of the Iraq war has begun, and
the way it's being fought is summarized by John Pilger: "a rampant,
racist, woefully trained, and ill-disciplined army of occupation had
brought 'American values' of sectarianism, death squads, chemical attacks,
attacks with uranium-tipped shells and cluster bombs [to say nothing of
torture]." Massacres that recall My Lai in Veitnam were revealed by Time
and Knight-Ridder in the past week:
	The U.S. military is conducting a criminal investigation into
allegations that marines shot and killed 15 civilians, including seven
women and three children, four months ago in Iraq. The killings occurred
early on the morning of November 19th, after a roadside bomb struck a
Humvee carrying US troops in the western Iraqi town of Haditha. The bomb
killed one marine and injured two others. The next day, the Marines said
in a statement that 15 Iraqi civilians died in the initial blast. They
said that after the explosion, gunmen attacked the US convoy with small
arms fire, prompting the Marines to return fire, killing eight insurgents.
But relatives, survivors and doctors who saw the bodies say that is not
true. They say the 15 men, women and children were killed when marines
burst into their houses after the blast and shot them dead in their
nightclothes ... Time obtained a videotape shot in Haditha by an Iraqi
journalism student one day after the incident. The tape shows that many of
the victims, especially the women and children, were still in their
nightclothes when they died. The scenes from inside the houses show that
the walls and ceilings are pockmarked with shrapnel, bullet holes and
blood. In January, Time presented a copy of the video along with witness
testimony to US military command in Baghdad. A preliminary military
investigation was launched. It established that the men, women and
children were indeed killed by the marines, though it described the deaths
as "collateral damage." Now the case has been referred for criminal
investigation by the Navy to establish whether the 12 marines involved
were guilty of misconduct. [DN]
	The US military has launched an investigation into the killing of
Iraqi civilians by US forces in a raid last week. Iraqi police have
accused American troops of murdering 11 civilians in the assault.
According to an Iraqi police report first obtained by the Knight Ridder
news agency, the villagers were killed after US troops herded them into
one room of a house near the city of Balad. The dead included five
children and four women and ranged in age from 6 months to 75 years old.
The report said the troops burned three vehicles, killed the villagers'
animals and blew up the house. Local medics said the bodies of those
killed had bullet wounds to the head ...
	Several Iraq veterans recently told BBC's NewsNight program that
the Haditha attack was not an isolated incident. Specialist Michael Blake,
who served in Balad, said it was common practice to "shoot up the
landscape or anything that moved" after an explosion. Another veteran,
Specialist Jody Casey said he was always advised to carry a shovel, which
he could plant on any civilian victims to make it look as though they were
digging roadside bombs. [DN]

[5] THE CHAOS IN IRAQ REVEALS THE ADMINISTRATION'S REAL GOALS. By more
than two to one [Americans now] disapprove of Bush's war in Iraq. Similar
majorities believe this is also a President whose administrative
incompetence -- note the post-Katrina debacles -- nearly matches his
penchant for daily fabrications.
	The precipitous drop in Bush's polls (Cheney's are even lower) is
not coming from liberals who long ago registered negative in these
national surveys. The drop is coming from millions of erstwhile Bush
supporters, Bush voters, Bush-loving conservatives.
	Why? Just look at or read the news every day. There goes Bush and
Cheney insisting that conditions in Iraq are getting better and better,
when they are getting worse and worse. And Americans also know this
because hundreds of thousands of soldiers and other personnel are rotating
from Iraq back into every state and community and telling millions of
people the truth.
	Repeated reports from diverse official, media and eyewitness
accounts say that there is less electricity, more disease, less drinkable
water, less housing, far less street security, less health care, less
gasoline, fewer jobs and far more violence against civilians after the
Bush-Cheney-Rumsfeld invasion in March 2003 than before the sanctioned,
tottering, besieged dictator, Saddam Hussein, was toppled ... One area,
however, in Iraq is proceeding on schedule--the building of four massive,
permanent super-bases, complete with American suburban amenities such as
Pizza Hut, Burger King, miniature golf courses, theaters, swimming pools
and even a football field. There is almost a news blackout about Balad Air
Base, al-Asad Airbase and others, thought not quite the blockage that the
two White House draft-dodgers have placed on reporters trying to cover the
return of the fallen soldiers to Dover, Delaware ... Bush recently
traveled to West Virginia and did not speak to the poverty among some of
the hardest workers in America. He went to Ohio on Air Force One and
ignored the huge loss of manufacturing jobs there to Mexico, China and
other authoritarian nations. No, instead, he brings his gigantic sign,
"Plan for Victory", stands in front of it and, as befits the Mayor of
Baghdad, talks about his delusions in that oil-rich, devastated country.
[R. Nader]

[6] THE RIGHT IMPLIES IT'S AN ARGUMENT FOR TORTURE. [The three hostages
from the Christian Peacemaker Teams] owe their freedom to a rift among
their Iraqi kidnappers [according to the Guardian;] a western security
source close to the rescue operation said ... their guards got cold feet
when more senior and ruthless members of the group turned up at the house
in Baghdad and took away [American hostage] Tom Fox, and shot him dead ...
Although Tony Blair, the defence secretary, John Reid, and the foreign
secretary, Jack Straw, praised the bravery of the British forces and
months of intelligence work required to secure their release, the source
said it was nervousness on the part of the guards that led to a tip-off to
the British authorities and the peaceful end to the three men's ordeal.
The source said [the hostages] were well treated throughout. "They were
able to watch TV and movies, were given writing materials, were well fed,
and encouraged to exercise and keep in shape," the source said.  Six
Iraqis are in custody, accused of being in the gang, and are being
interrogated by British intelligence ... the guards holding [the CPT
hostages] were part of a cell motivated by money rather than politics ...
the source said ... "The death of Fox changed the whole thing. Someone
higher up the chain took him away. Because the ante had gone up and it had
become more serious, it's quite possible that the operation began to open
up and they got nervous about the repercussion." He said the "higher-ups"
who took Mr Fox did not initially intend to kill him. Examination of his
body found dumped by a road two weeks ago did not show signs of torture,
as first reported, the source insisted. Nor did he seem to have been
killed execution-style. It was more likely that there was a scuffle or an
attempt to run away which led to his death. [BBC]

[7] WHAT'S HAPPENED TO THE ANTIWAR MOVEMENT? ...two out of three Americans
now oppose the war in contrast to maybe one out of 100 elected
politicians. The problem is not in the heartland. The problem is at the
national level. As popular opposition to the war across the country has
mounted, the demonstrations have got smaller! There is no visible national
strategy to end the war and bring the troops home. I attribute this in
considerable part to the disastrous fealty of the leadership of some of
the big organizations to the Democrats. This explains why United for Peace
and Justice, for example, was missing in action for most of 2004. It
didn't want to rock the Kerry boat ... If it wasn't for Cindy Sheehan and
Jack Murtha the antiwar movement in this country would have all but
disappeared as a presence on the national political agenda, from the late
summer of 2005 on. [Alex Cockburn]

[8] A NEW STUDY (MEARSHEIMER AND WALT) ON THE ISRAELI LOBBY IS OUTRAGING
THE RIGHT, BUT THE LEFT SHOULDN'T APPLAUD. [Many people are] so awed by
the power of the US pro-Israel lobby that any study, book, or journalistic
article that exposes the inner workings, the substantial influence, and
the financial and political power of this lobby have been greeted with
ecstatic sighs of relief that Americans finally can see the "truth" ...
namely, that absent the pro-Israel lobby, America would at worst no longer
contribute to the oppression of Arabs and Palestinians and at best it
would be the Arabs' and the Palestinians' best ally and friend ... the
attraction of this argument is that it exonerates the United States'
government from all the responsibility and guilt that it deserves for its
policies in the Arab world ... According to this logic, it is not the
United States that should be held directly responsible for all its
imperial policies in the Arab world and the Middle East at large since
World War II, rather it is Israel and its lobby who have pushed it to
launch policies that are detrimental to its own national interest and are
only beneficial to Israel. Establishing and supporting Arab and other
Middle East dictatorships, arming and training their militaries, setting
up their secret police apparatuses and training them in effective torture
methods and counter-insurgency to be used against their own citizens
should be blamed, according to the logic of these studies, on Israel and
its US lobby ... [But]when and in what context has the United States
government ever supported national liberation in the Third World? The
record of the United States is one of being the implacable enemy of all
Third World national liberation groups, including European ones, from
Greece to Latin America to Africa and Asia ... Why then would the US
support national liberation in the Arab world absent the pro-Israel lobby
is something these studies never explain.  The United States has had a
consistent policy since World War II of fighting all regimes across the
Third World who insist on controlling their national resources, whether it
be land, oil, or other valuable minerals. This extends from Iran in 1953
to Guatemala in 1954 to the rest of Latin America all the way to
present-day Venezuela. Africa has fared much worse in the last four
decades, as have many countries in Asia. Why would the United States
support nationalist regimes in the Arab world who would nationalise
natural resources and stop their pillage by American capital absent the
pro-Israel lobby also remains a mystery unexplained by these studies ...
One could argue ... that it is in fact the very centrality of Israel to US
strategy in the Middle East that accounts, in part, for the strength of
the pro-Israel lobby and not the other way around ... it could be easily
argued that it is [the Neocons] who had pushed Likud and Labour into more
intransigence in the 1990s and are pushing them towards more conquest now
that they are at the helm of the US government ... the lobby is powerful
in the United States because its major claims are about advancing US
interests and its support for Israel is contextualised in its support for
the overall US strategy in the Middle East. The pro- Israel lobby plays
the same role that the China lobby played in the 1950s and the Cuba lobby
still plays to this day. The fact that it is more powerful than any other
foreign lobby on Capitol Hill testifies to the importance of Israel in US
strategy and not to some fantastical power that the lobby commands
independent of and extraneous to the US "national interest" ... While the
US had been able to overthrow Sukarno and Nkrumah in bloody coups, Nasser
remained entrenched until Israel effectively neutralised him in the 1967
War. It is thanks to this major service that the United States increased
its support to Israel exponentially. Moreover, Israel neutralised the PLO
in 1982, no small service to many Arab regimes and their US patron who
could not fully control the organisation until then. None of the American
military bases on which many more billions are spent can claim such a
stellar record ... The United States is opposed in the Arab world as
elsewhere because it has pursued and continues to pursue policies that are
inimical to the interests of most people in these countries and are only
beneficial to its own interests and to the minority regimes in the region
that serve those interests, including Israel. Absent these policies, and
not the pro-Israel lobby which supports them, the United States should
expect a change in its standing among Arabs. Short of that, the United
States will have to continue its policies in the region that have wreaked,
and continue to wreak, havoc on the majority of Arabs and not expect that
the Arab people will like it in return. [J. Massad]

[9] KILLING IS FOLLOWED BY THE COVER-UP. Puerto Rico's Justice Department
has sued U.S. federal authorities for obstructing an investigation into
the FBI's killing of Puerto Rican independence activist Filiberto Ojeda
Ros. The lawsuit names both FBI Director Robert Mueller, Attorney General
Alberto Gonzales as well as federal officials in Puerto Rico. [DN]

[10] ONLY THE LOW RANKS ARE RESPONSIBLE. An Army dog handler has been
sentenced to six months in prison for abusing Iraqi detainees at the Abu
Ghraib prison. The sergeant, Michael Smith, was photographed using
un-muzzled dogs to terrify detainees. He could have been sentenced to
eight and a half years in prison but he was given a far shorter sentence.
Smith is the 10th low-ranking soldier convicted of taking part in the
widespread abuse at Abu Ghraib. To date no high-ranking officer or anyone
in civilian command has been held accountable for what happened at the
prison. [DN]

[11] LYING ABROAD IS OK.  The New York Times is reporting a Pentagon
inquiry has cleared military contractor the Lincoln Group of wrongdoing
over its planting of pro-US military stories in Iraqi newspapers. The
inquiry was ordered after the Lincoln Groups activities were disclosed
last November. Pentagon officials said the company remains under contract,
and would continue its activities unless the military revises its
policies. [DN]

[12] BUSH DISAVOWS HIS PROPAGANDA TRIUMPH. As poll numbers continue to
show decreasing public support for his presidency and the war in Iraq,
President Bush appealed Monday for patience. Speaking in Ohio, Bush said
he could "understand people being disheartened" but implored Americans to
see signs of progress. During the question period, the President was asked
about the pre-war claim Saddam Hussein was linked to the 9/11 attacks.
Bush responded: "First -- just if I might correct a misperception, I don't
think we ever said, at least I know I didn't say that there was a direct
connection between September 11th and Saddam Hussein."
	Critics immediately lashed out at the Presidents remarks. In a
letter to Congress delivered three years ago today, President Bush wrote:
The use of armed forces against Iraq is consistent with the United States
and other countries continuing to take the necessary actions against
international terrorists and terrorist organizations, including those
nations, organizations or person who planned, authorized, committed, or
aided the terrorist attacks that occurred on September 11, 2001. [DN]

[13] WHO REMEMBERS THE YUGOSLAVIANS? Ramsey Clark: "Slobodan Milosevic was
dragged in chains from his homeland to the Hague to face criminal charges
while the U.S. and NATO continue their criminal wars with impunity. Can
all the violence of Yugoslavia, including its valiant resistance in World
War Two, compare with George Bush's war of aggression against Iraq day
after day, for more than four years, Slobodan Milosevic - fearless,
formidable with keen skill, inexhaustible commitment and unwavering faith,
successfully fought the overwhelming forces arraigned against him."  At
least two thousand people gathered for a counter-demonstration in Belgrade
on Saturday. Meanwhile, the dispute over the circumstances of Milosevics
death continues. Attorneys acting on behalf of his family are requesting
access to medical files on his condition in the months before he died.
[DN]

[14] WHO CAN DENY THAT TORTURE WAS GOVERNMENT POLICY? The New York Times
has revealed new details of systematic prison abuse carried out by a
special US military unit based out of Baghdads airport. According to the
Times, Task Force 6-26 regularly beat Iraqi detainees, spit in their faces
and used them as shooting targets during paintball games at the base,
known as Camp Nama. The prisoners were denied access to lawyers or
relatives and held for weeks without charge. The abuses continued despite
warnings from Army investigators beginning in August 2003 and even after
the Abu Ghraib scandal was made public less than a year later. The unit
reportedly kept a motto that said: "If you don't make them bleed, they
can't prosecute for it." [DN]

[15] RUMSFELD IS INCREASINGLY NUTS, PERHAPS WITH REASON. Defense Secretary
Donald Rumsfeld has compared the current situation to the aftermath of the
Second World War. In an op-ed in Sundays Washington Post, Rumsfeld wrote:
"Turning our backs on postwar Iraq today would be the modern equivalent of
handing postwar Germany back to the Nazis."
	Meanwhile, a former US military general has called on Rumsfeld to
resign. Writing in Sundays New York Times, former Major General Paul
Eaton, who was in charge of training Iraqi troops after the US invasion,
wrote: [Rumsfeld] has shown himself incompetent strategically,
operationally and tactically, and is far more than anyone else responsible
for what has happened to our important mission in Iraq. [DN]

[16] A PRESIDENT'S BELATED CONVERSION TO THE TRUTH. In other news, former
President Jimmy Carter has labeled what he calls Israels: colonization of
Palestine as the preeminent obstacle to peace. Writing in the Israeli
newspaper Haaretz, Carter said Israels occupation of the West Bank and
Gaza has prevented a comprehensive peace agreement with the Palestinians
regardless of whether they were under the leadership of Yasser Arafat,
Mahmoud Abbas or Hamas. Carter also questioned Israels offers to the
Palestinians during the years of Oslo peace process, saying at best they
amounted to withdrawing only a small number of the over 220,000 settlers
in the West Bank. Carter went on to write that Israels continuing control
of Gazas borders and airspace makes the area a nonviable economic and
political entity, while future prospects for the West Bank remain equally
dismal. [DN]

[17] BUSH'S COUP AGAINST THE CONSTITUTION. US News & World Report has
revealed the Bush administration attempted to add another component to its
warrantless spy program in the days after the 9/11 attacks: physical
searches. According to the magazine, the Bush administration argued for
the right to conduct warrantless physical searches on the same grounds its
claimed for its domestic spy program. The White House has argued it was
granted this authority under the Congressional measure authorizing the use
of force to respond to the 9/11 attacks. A government official said FBI
Director Robert Mueller objected to the warrantless physical searches, not
only because of the blowback issue but also because of the legal and
constitutional questions raised by warrantless physical searches. Thomas
Nelson, an Oregon attorney representing a terror suspect said he believes
he was subjected to the searches. He said his attempts to inquire under
the Freedom of Information act have been rebuffed by the National Security
Agency. [DN]

[18] BUSH'S COUP AGAINST THE CONSTITUTION CONTINUES, QUIETLY. When
President Bush signed the reauthorization of the USA Patriot Act this
month, he included an addendum saying that he did not feel obliged to obey
requirements that he inform Congress about how the FBI was using the act's
expanded police powers.  The bill contained several oversight provisions
intended to make sure the FBI did not abuse the special terrorism-related
powers to search homes and secretly seize papers. The provisions require
Justice Department officials to keep closer track of how often the FBI
uses the new powers and in what type of situations. Under the law, the
administration would have to provide the information to Congress by
certain dates.  Bush signed the bill with fanfare at a White House
ceremony March 9, calling it "a piece of legislation that's vital to win
the war on terror and to protect the American people." But after the
reporters and guests had left, the White House quietly issued a "signing
statement," an official document in which a president lays out his
interpretation of a new law. In the statement, Bush said that he did not
consider himself bound to tell Congress how the Patriot Act powers were
being used and that, despite the law's requirements, he could withhold the
information if he decided that disclosure would "impair foreign relations,
national security, the deliberative process of the executive, or the
performance of the executive's constitutional duties." [BG]

[19] ANOTHER WAY IRAQ IS NOT LIKE VIETNAM.  The risk of being injured in
Iraq is significantly higher than it was in Vietnam [for US soldiers] --
3.1% as opposed to 1.8%, according to Newsweek ... Dawning comprehension
of just how dangerous service [sic] in Iraq is has made it harder and
harder for the military to meet its personnel goals.  Despite raising cash
bonuses to $10,000 and college scholarships to $70,000, the army missed
its recruiting target last year by nearly 10%.  [FT]

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  C. G. Estabrook, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
  109 Observatory, 901 South Mathews Avenue, Urbana, IL 61801
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