[Peace] News notes for the AWARE meeting 2007-07-01

[C. G. Estabrook]

SUNDAY 1 JULY 2007  (Anniversary of the death of Mikhail Bakunin, 
1814-1876, the hero of Tom Stoppard's trilogy, The Coast of Utopia, 
despite the playwright's wishes)

[1] London Mayor Ken Livingstone called on Britons Saturday not to 
demonize Muslims after a double car bomb failed in the capital, and a 
burning SUV crashed into a Glasgow airport terminal. At the same time he 
criticized Britain over its ties with Saudi Arabia, which he said had 
fueled intolerance in the past through its Wahhabist form of Islam.  "In 
this city, Muslims are more likely to be law-abiding than non-Muslims 
and less likely to support the use of violence to achieve political ends 
than non-Muslims are," he said.  It wasn't clear if the latter reference 
was to the Labour government.

[2] British police arrested two other men in Cheshire, England, in 
connection with the incidents in London and Glasgow. None of the men are 
believed to be affiliated with al-Qaida. There were canisters of propane 
in the Glasgow vehicle, much like the cars discovered Friday in London, 
car bombs which the NYT describes as being "amateurish."

[3] In the US occupation of Iraq, at least 99 US troops died in June, 
329 in the last three months, the deadliest quarter of the war for 
Americans.  Outgoing Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Peter Pace 
said that “the recent rise in U.S. troop deaths in Iraq is the ‘wrong 
metric‘ to use in assessing the effectiveness” of the U.S. military in 
Iraq. “What’s most important is do the Iraqi people feel better about 
today than they did about yesterday, and do they think tomorrow’s going 
to be better than today?” When asked if he actually knew how the Iraqi 
people currently feel about the U.S. occupation of Iraq he conceded, “I 
do not have that in my head.”
	The administration and the media have stopped referring to insurgents 
and in Iraq and have substituted "al-Qaeda."  Major news outlets devoted 
just 1 percent of their coverage last week to the Iraq policy debate, 
according to the Project for Excellence in Journalism. “Those findings 
are indicative of a trend in recent weeks in which coverage of the 
political debate over the war has diminished substantially.”

[4] In seeming response to Congressional Republicans who have expressed 
dissatisfaction, President Bush went to the Naval War College to promote 
his military strategy while the national security adviser met with 
dissident Republican Senators Lugar, Hagel, and Warner. Both chambers of 
Congress are likely to turn to military spending bills following the 
July 4th recess.
	ABC News polling found that over the course of six weeks from late 
April to early June, a 24-point Democratic leadership advantage over 
Bush virtually disappeared [owing to anger] that the change from a 
Republican to a Democratic Congress in January has not resulted in an 
end to the Iraq war.

[5] In a Newsweek poll 41% of Americans answered "Yes" to the question 
"Do you think Saddam Hussein’s regime in Iraq was directly involved in 
planning, financing, or carrying out the terrorist attacks of September 
11th, 2001?" That total is actually up five points since September 2004.
	A recent poll shows that nevertheless one in three Republican voters 
favors withdrawing U.S. troops from Iraq. The US Conference of Mayors 
endorsed a resolution by a vote of 51-47 Monday calling for the Bush 
administration to begin planning for the swift withdrawal of troops from 
Iraq.

[6] Under Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, U.S. special operations 
became a “giant killing machine,” according to former Army colonel 
Douglas Macgregor, who anticipates a change when Navy Vice Adm. Eric 
Olson takes the helm of the operations. “The emphasis will be on, ‘If 
you have to kill someone, then for God’s sakes, kill the right people,’” 
Macgregor said. “That’s been lost over the last several years.”

[7] The Supreme Court surprisingly agreed Friday to take up a case it 
refused to hear in April, on whether Guantanamo detainees can challenge 
their detentions in U.S. courts. The Bush administration's argues that 
the constitutional right of habeas corpus does not apply to foreigners 
being held as enemy combatants outside the United States.

[8] The administration's immigration bill failed in the Senate.

[9] An adviser to Palestinian President Abbas said that he and the 
Israeli government had agreed in principle to form a joint committee to 
discuss “wanted people” and disarming certain groups [= Hamas]. Yet the 
Israeli army invaded the West Bank city of Nablus and clashed with Fatah 
forces there. Elected Hamas officials in the West Bank are afraid to go 
to work, the Chicago Tribune reports. All Hamas parliament members and 
most former Cabinet ministers from the West Bank are in Israeli jails.
	Israeli forces killed at least 13 Palestinians in Gaza Wednesday; among 
the dead was a 12-year-old.

[10] Ethiopia’s prime minister said his government “made a wrong 
political calculation” when it invaded Somalia, backed by the United 
States, the Washington Post reports. Meanwhile, the Ethiopian government 
has cracked down on domestic opposition.
	The Pentagon’s plan to create a US military command based in Africa 
have hit a wall of hostility from governments in the region, the 
Guardian reports.

[11] Colombia’s President Uribe blamed rebels for killing 11 kidnapped 
lawmakers that the rebels said died in cross-fire during a military 
attack this month, the New York Times reports. Families of the dead, 
however, blamed President Uribe for refusing to agree to a demilitarized 
zone for a prisoner exchange. The president called for a hardening of 
policy toward the rebels.
	A former paramilitary member told a Congressional panel that several 
U.S. companies provided financial support to illegal militias accused of 
killing Colombian civilians, including trade unionists, the Los Angeles 
Times reports. The former paramilitary said units were housed on 
Drummond Co. premises.

[12] Iraqi President Talabani, on a visit to Iran, said Iraq will not 
halt its efforts to expand relations with Iran under foreign pressure, 
Iranian news agencies reported. [Whom could he mean?]
	Congress has increased funding “to promote democracy in Iran” in spite 
of criticism from Iranian democracy advocates that such funding actually 
undermines their cause.
	The House of Representatives overwhelmingly voted to urge the United 
Nations to charge Iranian President Ahmadinejad with genocide because of 
his statement that Israel will be "eliminated from the pages of 
history," naturally claimed by Congress to have been a call "for the 
destruction of the State of Israel." This despite Ahmadinejad's very 
clear statement that the "wiping out" he was referring to is precisely 
the kind of "wiping out" that happened to the Soviet Union, and has 
nothing to do with "a fight between Judaism and other religions."  Only 
two members of the House voted against the resolution, Republican Ron 
Paul and Democrat Dennis Kucinich. A handful of others voted "present" 
or didn't vote. All the rest voted for this absurd resolution.

[13] The decision of some big oil companies to stay in Venezuela under 
less favorable terms reflects the fact that they are facing increased 
demands from governments all over the world, the Financial Times 
reports. Even the UK has raised taxes on its oil and gas industry, and 
similar measures have been debated in the US, although a package of tax 
increases failed to pass in the Senate last week.
	The price of oil passed $70 a barrel this week.

[14] The Supreme court decided 5-4 this week that there could be no 
"direct allocation of students by race," altho' the swing vote, Justice 
Anthony Kennedy, specifically says government can be "race-conscious" 
through "strategic site selection of new schools; drawing attendance 
zones with general recognition of neighborhood demographics; allocating 
resources for special programs; recruiting students and faculty in a 
targeted fashion; and tracking enrollments, performance, and other 
statistics by race."
	Justice Samuel Alito “has emerged as the justice friendliest to the 
interests of corporations. He sided with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, 
the nation’s largest business lobby, in 13 of 14 cases this term, more 
often than any of his colleagues. He cast votes to limit punitive 
damages, ease regulation and restrict suits by investors, consumers and 
alleged victims of job bias.”

[15] A four-part series on VP Cheney in the WP -- apparently delayed 
while the debate over war-funding went on -- shows that Cheney's aide 
David Addington was the source of the description of the Geneva 
Convention on the treatment of prisoners as "quaint" and gives support 
to Gen. Taguba's suggestion in the New Yorker that the torture policy 
came from the top of the administration.

[16] Rep. Jim McDermott (D-Wash.) told VP Cheney to “resign or face 
impeachment” Thursday night as three more House Democrats lent their 
support to a plan to impeach the vice president.  “The vice president 
holds himself above the law, and it is time for the Congress to enforce 
the law,” McDermott said in a floor speech. “For the good of the nation, 
the vice president could leave office immediately.”
	Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama said he opposes 
impeachment for either President Bush or Vice President Cheney. 
According to the Associated Press, Obama said he would not back such a 
move. "I think you reserve impeachment for grave, grave breeches," he 
said. [You can be impeached for bad pants?  (I think the AP meant 
"breaches.")  But apparently Obama doesn't think lying to the people, 
launching an aggressive war, torture, and the invasion of civil 
liberties are enough to cause impeachment.]

[17] To counter the movie Sicko, "free market" think tanks and the drug 
companies are already mobilizing. Several organizations staging 
responses to 'Sicko' receive funding from pharmaceutical companies, 
including the Manhattan Institute, the Heritage Foundation, and the 
Pacific Research Institute.

[18] In planning last weekend for a new EU constitution that would not 
have to be submitted to voters, the pretend socialist, outgoing UK PM 
Blair, secured assurance that the EU's Charter of Fundamental Rights, 
which includes protection for workers as well as human-rights 
provisions, wouldn't be enforceable in the UK -- while the supposed 
Rightist, President Sarkozy of France, succeeded in striking a passage 
committing to "free and undistorted competition," over opposition from 
the UK and others.  So much for political labels.

--Carl Estabrook <www.newsfromneptune.com>
<http://counterpunch.org/estabrook07042007.html>