[Peace] News notes 2006-05-21

[Carl Estabrook]

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        Notes from last week's "global war on terrorism,"
        for the May 21, 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.)
        ==================================================

	"And what is it that honest American people can do?
	The honest Americans can put the U.S. administration on
	notice that 'staying the course' is not a strategy, that
	this course has been bloody, dirty, reckless, and wrong.
	The honest Americans can feel wretched remorse over every
	dime handed over to the warmongers who lead the U.S., and
	do their best to stop the hemorrhaging flow of dollars that
	fuels ongoing war. As countless Iraqis flee from their homes,
	we must beg one another, in the U.S., to slow down and think
	about where our country is going. As the majority of Iraqis
	live without basic securities, we must insist that the
	U.S. government pay for reparations rather than continue
	to bankroll the military expense accounts."
	     --Kathy Kelly, Voices for Creative Nonviolence

[1] COMMENCEMENT: A BEGINNING OR ENDING?  This week saw the anniversary of
the occupation of Columbia University buildings by anti-war students in
1968.  On May 22, police raided the buildings and arrested almost a
thousand people; more than 200 were injured.  Their protest had demanded a
black studies program, no military recruitment on campus, and an end to
military instruction in the university's Reserve Officers' Training Corps.
(Those still sound like good ideas.)
	This week, 38 years later, the commencement speaker at another New
York University, the New School, was Senator John McCain of Arizona, who
killed men, women and children from the air during the American assault on
Vietnam.  He is now the leading candidate for the Republican nomination
for president in 2008.
	[Welcoming remarks from] the university president, former Nebraska
Sen. Bob Kerrey (like McCain a Vietnam veteran) were immediately
overshadowed by those of [senior] Jean Sara Rohe ... "The senator does not
reflect the ideals upon which this university was founded," Rohe
proclaimed to loud cheers, with McCain sitting just a few feet away. She
added that she knew what McCain would be saying to the graduates since he
had promised to deliver the same speech he gave at Rev. Jerry Falwell's
Liberty University last weekend and Columbia University on Tuesday. "He
will tell us we are young and too naive to have valid opinions," Rohe said
... McCain later thanked Rohe for her "Cliff's notes" version of his
speech ... reaffirmed his support for the Iraq war [and said] "When I was
a young man, I was quite infatuated with self-expression, and rightly so
because, if memory conveniently serves, I was so much more eloquent,
well-informed and wiser than anyone else I knew," McCain said. [AP]
	Meanwhile, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice spoke at the
commencement at Boston College. "There is nothing wrong with holding an
opinion and holding it passionately," Rice said, "but at those times when
you are absolutely sure you're right, go find someone who disagrees." [A
very odd thing for her to say of course, given how hard the administration
of which she's part tries to avoid any contrary opinions.] About 50
students stood with their backs toward the stage as Rice was introduced
... A half-dozen signs that said "Not in my name" were held in the air by
students ... One banner that said "BC honors lies and torture" was held on
the side of the stadium ... "People have the right to protest, [Rice said]
but I hope when they protest they realize also that people now have a
right to protest in Baghdad and Kabul..." [an amazing statement, given
that torture Abu Ghraib and Bagram is the likely outcome for those who
protest the American occupation of those two cities.  Even more
fantastically, Rice said] "I think it's just fine for people to protest as
long as they do so in a way that doesn't try to have a monopoly on the
conversation." [Is she referring to the fact that a large majority of
Americans now think that the invasion of Iraq was a mistake?  Are they the
ones who "have a monopoly on the conversation?"]
	Brayton Shanley, a BC alumnus and co-founder of Agape, a lay
Catholic organization that has been working with students to organize the
protests said, "We are very concerned as Catholics that Boston College has
invited Condoleezza Rice, who is an architect of this foreign policy and
war. ... That is hardly something to honor." A letter written by two
theology professors, and signed by more than 10 percent of the faculty,
kicked off the opposition to Rice. "On the levels of both moral principle
and practical moral judgment, Secretary Rice's approach to international
affairs is in fundamental conflict with Boston College's commitment to the
values of the Catholic and Jesuit traditions and is inconsistent with the
humanistic values that inspire the university's work," the letter said.
The Rev. David Hollenbach [was] one of the letter writers.  Steve Almond,
an adjunct writing professor, resigned from his post over the matter ...
Rice said the use of force in Iraq was "the right thing."

[2] THE OCCUPATION.  While the US-guided government in Baghdad announced
that it had ministers for all jobs except the police and the army, two
dozen people were killed and 74 were wounded in Sadr City when a homemade
bomb exploded. And fifteen bodies, all with bound wrists and signs of
torture, were uncovered in Baghdad.
	British journalist Patrick Cockburn says Iraq is disintegrating as
ethnic cleansing takes hold on a massive scale.  [DN] The London
Independent is reporting violence in the town of Basra has worsened to the
point where one person is being assassinated every hour. A survey carried
out by the Iraqi government and UNICEF has concluded a quarter of all
Iraqi children suffer from malnutrition.
	The New York Times reports the Bush administration played a major
role in the formation of the new government. The U.S. Ambassador to Iraq,
Zalmay Khalilzad personally reviewed and vetted candidates for crucial
ministries and urged rival Iraqi party leaders to sign on to the new
government. U.S. officials are also being placed inside key ministries to
act as advisers. [DN]
	Bush said on Sunday the formation of a government marked a "new
day" for Iraq but Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said it was too
early to make commitments on withdrawing U.S. troops ...
	[In fact,] the Pentagon is sending extra troops to Iraq amid fears
of an offensive by insurgents who want to destabilise the new Iraqi
government.  A battalion of 650 soldiers from the United States Army's 1st
Armoured Division will be moved from Kuwait as a "temporary measure" ...
Another Kuwait-based battalion from the same division, deployed in March,
will remain, despite earlier assurances that it would leave, bringing
total troop strength to 133,000 ... Support for the invasion in America
dropped to a new low of 39 per cent last week, according to a poll by CBS
News and the New York Times. Mr Bush's approval ratings have sunk below 30
per cent, making him the most unpopular US president since Richard Nixon,
while a ... poll for The Daily Telegraph this month found that the Prime
Minister had the backing of just 26 per cent of Britons. [Bush and Blair
are due to meet in Washington this week.] ... In the past 50 days 126
American and seven British troops have died in Iraq, making it the
deadliest period since late last year. [Telegraph]
	As to what those troops are doing, the Pentagon has concluded its
investigation into the shooting deaths of civilians in the Iraqi city of
Haditha at the hands of US Marines. On Wednesday, Democratic
Congressmember John Murtha of Pennsylvania said the probe will show that
Marines: "killed innocent civilians in cold blood. Iraqis say 15 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 Pentagon initially claimed the
civilians had died in a roadside bombing. But Murtha said: "There was no
firefight. There was no improvised explosive device that killed those
innocent people. Our troops overreacted because of the pressure on them.
And they killed innocent civilians in cold blood. That is what the report
is going to tell."
	Middle East analyst Juan Cole said four distinct wars are now
being fought in Iraq simultaneously. There is a Sunni Arab guerrilla war
to expel US troops from the Sunni heartland; a militant Shiite guerrilla
war to expel the British from the south; a civil war between the Sunni and
Shiites; and a Kurdish war against Arabs and Turkmen in Kirkuk province.
[DN]
	And in Afghanistan, two French special forces troops and a US
soldier were among 34 combatants killed in a fresh upsurge of the
deadliest fighting since the removal of the Taliban in 2001. [Independent]
        A U.S.-led air strike has killed at least 76 people. The BBC
reports the dead included as many as 30 civilians including children. The
bombing raid in Southern Afghanistan occurred shortly after midnight
today. The U.S.  military has denied reports of civilian casualties and
claimed that all of the dead were members of the Taliban. The air strike
occurred in a region which has recently seen some of the countrys fiercest
fighting since the fall of the Taliban.

[3] THE COMING WAR?  Rice once again rejected security guarantees to Iran
as part of the settlement of the US's trumped up Iran crisis. The EU has
tried for a while to get Washington to offer Iran assurances such as a
pledge against trying to overthrow the government or attack the country as
part of a package to persuade Tehran to abandon suspected nuclear-weapons
development.
	Interviewed on NBC's "Meet the Press," Rice said there was no
point to offering security guarantees.  "...it makes no sense in a context
in which Iran is a central banker of terrorism and a force for instability
in a region of great interest," She said reports of a split with Europe
over Iran diplomacy were "simply wrong." [She was of course simply lying.]
"We are united with our allies in what needs to be done," Rice said. "We
can't allow Iran to move steadily toward nuclear weapons."
	Israel Prime Minister Ehud Olmert [continued to beat the war drum.
He] said on CNN's "Late Edition" he believed Tehran was already seriously
engaged in uranium enrichment, placing it "months rather than years" away
from achieving the technology to build a nuclear bomb.  "We are close
enough to the possible possession of a nuclear weapon by the most extreme
fundamentalist government, which talks openly and publicly about the
wiping out of the state of Israel. That's where we are," Olmert said.
[Reuters]
	In the US, however, there is growing anxiety in the American
Jewish community about Bush's attempts to tie his aggressive comments on
Iran to the protection of Israel.

[4] THE WANTED WAR.  The Nobel Prize winning economist Joseph Stiglitz has
publicly backed Bolivias decision to nationalize its vast gas and oil
reserves and to renegotiate all contracts with foreign oil companies.
Stiglitz met with Bolivian President Evo Morales on Friday. The former
World Bank official said Bolivia was right to receive just compensation
for its natural resources and that nationalization is part of a process of
returning what already belonged to the Bolivian government. Stiglitz added
that it is clear that the neo-liberal economic policies of Washington have
failed the people of Bolivia. [DN]
	The NYT launched a frenzied attack on Venezuelan president Chavez
this week, claiming that Chavez -- who has a much greater democratic
mandate that George Bush is "increasingly irritating his neighbors with
his sweeping vision of a united, socialist South America."  it's the US
establishment that's increasingly irritated, apparently.  Newsweek gets
into the act of denigrating Chavez this week as well.  I particularly
liked the publication of the claims of a former mistress of Chavez' that
he is a fascist.  [Had she been reading Sylvia Plath's famous poem that
contains the notorious line, "Every woman adores a Fascist"?]
	On Monday, the US announced it is banning arms sales to Venezuela
because it has not cooperated with the Bush administrations so-called
anti-terrorism efforts. Venezuelan officials said the ban is laying the
political groundwork for a possible attack. In response to the arms
embargo, Venezuela says it would consider sending its fleet of US-made
F-16 fighter jets to Iran.
	In Bolivia Tuesday, the government released details of plans to
distribute unused land to the countrys poor peasants. Officials said over
12 million acres of land would initially be given out.
	The government of Ecuador has expelled the oil company Occidental
Petroleum and plans to hand over the companys local operations to a
state-owned oil company. Ecuador is Latin Americas fifth largest oil
producer. The move comes just two weeks after the Bolivian government
announced plans to nationalize its oil and gas industry.
	Meanwhile Haiti's new president Rene Preval has signed an oil deal
with Venezuela that will allow Haiti to receive Venezuelan oil under
preferential conditions.

[5] THE US MILITARY. Two out of three U.S. soldiers eligible to re-enlist
do so. The LAT argues today that the reason is "gloomy civilian job
prospects and no health care."  Even if they find a civilian job, many
companies no longer offer health coverage, and if they do, it doesn't
compare with the coverage offered by the military.  Also, the Army paid
out half a billion dollars last year in re-enlistment bonuses, which
almost 75 percent of re-enlisting soldiers receive.  And many who don't
re-enlist join the second-largest military contingent in Iraq, which is
much better paid: the mercenary companies.

[6] THE US CONGRESS. Because of the way Congressional districts are
gerrymandered by Republicans and Democrats working together to give each
other safe districts, there will be no contest for 400 of the 435 seats in
the House of Representatives this fall (including our own).  There will be
contested elections in less than 10% of all CDs, and Democrats need to
take half of them (15 seats) to take control.  (They need six in the
Senate, where only perhaps seven are in doubt).  The NYT reports today on
Republican efforts to keep that from happening.
	Democratic senator and war supported Joe Lieberman of Connecticut
is in trouble.  At the state Democratic convention this weekend, his
challenger Ned Lamont was placed on the primary ballot to run against
Lieberman.  It's the first time in Connecticut's history that there's been
a primary challenge to a sitting US senator.
	FBI officers raided a House of Representatives office building on
Saturday night ... [apparently] the offices of Louisiana Democratic Rep.
William Jefferson ... two representatives under investigation in separate
bribery scandals have offices in the Rayburn building -- Jefferson and
Ohio Republican Rep. Bob Ney.

[7] OFFICIAL SECRETS.  U.S. Attorney Alberto General Gonzales said today
that the federal government has the authority to prosecute journalists or
newspapers for publishing classified information. The Justice Department
is investigating who disclosed the government's secret surveillance
program to The New York Times [and the secret prison program to the
Washington Post.] "I will say that I understand very much the role that
the press plays in our society, the protection under the First Amendment
we want to promote and respect, the right of the press. But it can't be
the case that that right trumps over the right that Americans would like
to see, the ability of the federal government to go after criminal
activity," he said.

[8] TORTURE. The UN Committee Against Torture calls on the Bush
administration to close Guantanamo Bay military prison. It also urges an
end to secret CIA prisons and an end to abusive treatment and
interrogation techniques against detainees. In addition, the panel sharply
criticized practices in regular prisons in the United States including
widespread sexual abuse of inmates.
	The NYT suggests that the latest report may be more important than
others because the Bush administration actually sent representatives to
Geneva to present its case. The LAT's article inside the A section
includes the somewhat bizarre claim that the U.N. report could strengthen
the president's position in trying to shut the prison. The Post's account
of the U.N. Guantanamo report is the most complete and gives ample play to
the administration's less-than-compelling defense.  The report, released
Friday, coincided with American officials' disclosure of a violent
prisoner uprisings that took place there Thursday.
	The United States' prison population has reached almost 2.2
million. One in every 136 U.S. residents is now behind bars. The nations
prison population increased by more than 1,000 inmates a week last year.
New data also shows that 12 percent of African-American men between the
ages of 25 and 29 are now incarcerated. That is more than ten times the
incarceration rate of white men.  And the Womens Prison Association has
found the number of women imprisoned in the country has increased by over
750 percent since 1977.
	Questions are being raised over whether the CIA will continue to
use an interrogation method known as waterboarding despite last years
Congressional ban on the cruel, degrading and inhumane treatment of
detainees. The technique involves immersing a prisoner's head in water to
make them think they're that drowning. Human rights groups consider it a
form of torture. In 2004, a CIA inspector general concluded that
waterboarding and other methods approved by the agency after 9/11 probably
violated the international Convention Against Torture. But at his
confirmation hearing to become the new director of the CIA, General
Michael Hayden refused to publicly say whether he considers it to be an
acceptable practice.

[9] CHIEF CLIENT. Israeli PM Ehud Olmert, on his first White House visit
since his election in March, intends to offer Bush an overview of his
sweeping plan for the occupied West Bank, including prospects for
unilaterally imposing borders with the Palestinians ... He is proposing in
the absence of a Palestinian peace partner [an astonishing thing for
Reuters to say!] to remove some remote settlements, bolster major enclaves
Israel vows to keep forever and set a border by 2010 largely aligned with
a West Bank barrier it is building [on Palestinian land.] [And he wants us
to pay for it.] Media speculation has put the pricetag for his West Bank
plan at over $10 billion, more than triple the Jewish state's annual U.S.
assistance. [The US apparently continues to think that having Israel as a
guard dog over our oil is worth it, especially since our oil is so
inconveniently located under someone else's sand.]

[10] IT'S WORTH REMEMBERING that the U.S. assault on Iraq is about oil --
but not just about oil.  I like the remark that if Iraq's principal export
were asparagus, we wouldn't have the better part of the U.S. military
there.
	American foreign policy since the Second World War has been
fundamentally about oil.  U.S. insistence that it control Mideast energy
resources is the cornerstone of U.S. foreign policy, in Republican and
Democratic administrations alike.  But it's control, not access, that
concerns any USG.
	In fact, the U.S. economy receives very little of its oil from the
Mideast -- only about 10%.  U.S. domestic oil production supplies about
50% of total U.S. consumption. Foreign sources provide the rest, primarily
Canada, Venezuela, Mexico, and several African countries.  The U.S.
imports more oil from west Africa than it does from Saudi Arabia.
	But the Mideast has about two-thirds of world oil reserves. If the
U.S. controls that, it controls its real economic rivals in the world --
Europe and Northeast Asia (Japan, Korea, China) -- because they import so
much from the Middle East.  The U.S. then has what President Carter's
National Security Adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski (it's a bipartisan policy)
called "critical leverage" over its competitors.
	It's been understood since the Second World War that if we have
our hands on that spigot -- the main source of the world's energy -- we
have what early planners called "veto power" over others. And of course
U.S. planners want the profits from that to go primarily to U.S.-based
multinationals, and back to the U.S. Treasury -- not to rivals.
	But there were other reasons for invading Iraq, beyond the goal of
establishing permanent bases in the midst of the world's largest
oil-producing region.  First, Iraq was defenseless (unlike, say, North
Korea or Iran): contrary to U.S. propaganda, Iraq was no danger to even
its nearest neighbors (as they recognized), much less to the U.S.
Second, it was a good place for U.S. planners to demonstrate the lengths
to which they would go to keep lesser states in line (as they did much
more murderously in Vietnam -- where no oil was at stake -- and even in
Serbia, on the edge of U.S. concerns).  And third, of course, 9/11 could
be used as an excuse, however irrational that was.  (Did you note that,
while 72% of American troops in Iraq think that the U.S. should get out
within the year, 85% said the U.S. mission is mainly to retaliate for
Saddam's role in the 9-11 attacks [sic] and 77% said they also believe the
main or a major reason for the war was to stop Saddam from protecting al
Qaeda in Iraq?  Amazing.)

[11] ANOTHER CLIENT. This news from Colombia -- the Miami Herald is
reporting new evidence has emerged backing allegations that vote fraud
favored President Alvaro Uribe in 2002 elections. Electoral judges from
the town of El Dificil told the Herald right-wing paramilitary fighters
forced them to fill in uncast votes for Uribe and discard votes for his
main rival. The judges comments support recent accusations made by Rafael
Garcia, a former senior official at Colombias executive intelligence
agency, the DAS. Last month, Garcia said the paramilitaries helped Uribe
win an extra 300,000 fraudulent votes.
	Meanwhile, Garcia has reportedly given new testimony that links a
US coal company to the assassination of two Colombian labor leaders. In a
sworn statement as part of a civil suit against Alabama-based Drummond,
Garcia said he saw Colombian representatives of the company hand over a
suitcase full of money to pay for the assassinations of two labor leaders
in 2001.
	In other news from Colombia, indigenous groups continue to stage a
massive blockade against a pending trade agreement with the US government.
The blockade has drawn at least 7,000 people since Tuesday. Demonstrators
have accused police of using excessive force to break up the protest. At
least one demonstrator has been killed, and scores of people arrested,
including four journalists.

[12] A REAL PROBLEM.  The United States on Thursday presented a draft
global treaty aimed at banning production of nuclear bomb-making fissile
material, although *it would leave existing stockpiles untouched*
[emphasis added]. Stephen Rademaker, acting assistant U.S. secretary in
the bureau of international security and non-proliferation, called for
immediate negotiations on the U.S. text and for a pact to be agreed by
year-end. He outlined the proposal to the Conference on Disarmament, which
is backed by the United Nations. The Geneva forum has been deadlocked for
years over the issue, but the search for a breakthrough has intensified
because of mounting international concern [sic] over Iran and North
Korea's nuclear programs. "The treaty text that we are putting forward
contains the essential provisions that would comprise a successful,
legally binding Fissile Material Cut-Off Treaty (FMCT)," Rademaker said in
a speech presenting the four-page U.S. text. "Our draft treaty has a
straight-forward scope. It bans ... the production of fissile material for
use in nuclear weapons or other nuclear explosive devices," he added. The
65-member state forum is holding a special session to try to kick-start
negotiations to prevent production of highly-enriched uranium and
plutonium. Negotiations -- seen as the next step in global nuclear
disarmament -- began briefly in August 1998. They quickly broke down due
to arguments including the scope of a future treaty and whether it should
cover existing stocks and have a verification regime to check against
cheating.  It is unclear whether the U.S. proposal will be enough to start
substantive negotiations and end years of wrangling. Developing countries
want the talks widened to include total nuclear disarmament. China and
others have also been pressing for parallel negotiations to prevent an
arms race in outer space, *something which the United States has been
resisting* [emphasis added]. Rademaker accused Iran "even today" of
failing to cooperate with an investigation by the International Atomic
Energy Agency (IAEA) into its nuclear program. "The question is, is there
any undeclared nuclear activity or nuclear material in Iran? And that's
the whole issue," he told the news conference. [For the US, it probably
is.] He also bluntly warned North Korea -- which declared it has a nuclear
weapons program after withdrawing from the nuclear non-proliferation
treaty (NPT) in 2003 -- against transferring nuclear weapons or testing
nuclear weapons or missiles. "Our fear is Iran is going in the same
direction as North Korea. That's what it is all about [I thought it was
Iran]," Rademaker told Reuters. The five official nuclear powers --
Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States -- have formally
opposed including existing stocks in the negotiations. The Bush
administration has also opposed including a verification or inspection
regime [sic!]. The U.S. official reaffirmed that existing stocks would be
"unaffected" by the treaty. The U.S. draft does not include provisions for
verification, but states who ratify the future treaty would have primary
responsibility for compliance, according to Rademaker.  "This does not
mean that the FMCT would be unverified... Should concerns emerge, our text
does include a mechanism for asking the Security Council to consider
whether there has been compliance or non-compliance with the treaty," he
said ["as we did with Iraq," he neglected to add.] [Reuters]
	But in November 2004, when the UN voted 147-1 (guess who) for a
treaty placing production of fissile materials under international
supervision, not only did the U.S. vote against it, the matter was
unreported in the American press.
	Want to best that the US change of stance is not what it seems?

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	"The selection of issues that should rank high on the agenda
	of concern for human welfare and rights is, naturally,
	a subjective matter. But there are a few choices that seem
	unavoidable, because they bear so directly on the prospects
	for decent survival.  Among them are at least these three:
	nuclear war, environmental disaster and the fact that the
	government of the world's leading power is acting in ways
	that increase the likelihood of these catastrophes."
	--Noam Chomsky

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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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