[Peace] News notes for the AWARE meeting 2007-09-02

[C. G. Estabrook]

Sorry.  "Untied States" is undoubtedly an artefact of my Unconscious...


C. G. Estabrook wrote:
> SUNDAY 2 SEPTEMBER 2007
> (ON THIS DAY IN 1945 World War II ended with the formal surrender of 
> Japan aboard the battleship Missouri in Tokyo Bay; Ho Chi Minh 
> proclaimed the independence of Vietnam with a Declaration modeled on 
> that of the Untied States.)
> 
> [1] THE ASSOCIATED PRESS REPORTS Iran's president claimed Sunday that 
> his country is now running 3,000 centrifuges to enrich uranium for its 
> nuclear program ... The claim appeared at odds with a report by the U.N. 
> nuclear watchdog on Thursday that put the number much lower -- at close 
> to 2,000. The International Atomic Energy Agency said enrichment had 
> slowed and Iran was cooperating with its nuclear probe, which could fend 
> off calls for a third round of sanctions.
> 
> [2] THE PENTAGON has drawn up plans for massive airstrikes against 1,200 
> targets in Iran, designed to annihilate the Iranians’ military 
> capability in three days, according to ... Alexis Debat, director of 
> terrorism and national security at the Nixon Center ... “They’re about 
> taking out the entire Iranian military,” he said ... at a meeting 
> organised by The National Interest, a conservative foreign policy 
> journal. [Times UK]
> 
> [3] LIBERTARIAN JUSTIN RAIMONDO AND LIBERAL GLENN GREENWALD are both 
> asserting ... that the neoconservatives have initiated a coordinated 
> campaign to justify an attack upon Iran in the near future. [This week] 
> the President delivered a speech before the American Legion in which he 
> described the Iranian regime as such an implacable enemy that its 
> removal through war is necessary. Raimondo and Greenwald, along with 
> many others, emphasize that there is no political opposition within the 
> Congress sufficient to prevent the President from ordering an attack 
> [amleft.blogspot.com].
> 
> [4] A RUSSIAN NEWS SERVICE REPORTS Russia's Strategic Missile Forces 
> commander said Saturday that Russia will conduct more tests of new 
> warheads for its intercontinental ballistic missiles later this year 
> [RIA Novosti].
> 
> [5] NYT REPORTS from southern Afghanistan, where Taliban fighters have 
> driven government troops out of a key strategic area within striking 
> distance of Kandahar, , highlighting a bloody stalemate that is emerging 
> across the country: Insurgents are no match for NATO troops in a pitched 
> battle but can easily overpower or intimidate local police forces once 
> Western soldiers leave. Officials in southern provinces said the 
> Taliban's successes came as the group gained broader support, evolving 
> from a close-knit ideological movement into a looser alliance of tribes 
> disenchanted with the central government.
> 
> [6] [THE PENTAGON'S MOUTHPIECE IN THE NYT REPORTS ON] unlikely new 
> alliances between American troops and Sunni tribes in Anbar and Diyala 
> provinces [Slate].
> 
> [7] THE WASHINGTON POST LEADS SUNDAY with a bleak look at Iraq's energy 
> infrastructure, which still fails to provide Iraqis with more than a few 
> hours of electricity a day despite massive US investments. Since the 
> invasion of Iraq, the United States has poured more than $6 billion into 
> repairing the country's creaking oil and electricity infrastructure, but 
> according to GAO estimates, more than $50 billion more will be required 
> in coming years—and even if the money can be found, it's unlikely that 
> the Iraqi energy sector will be able to meet demand before 2015 [Slate].
> 
> [8] BBC: The most senior UK officer involved in post-war planning, [said 
> this week that] US policy was "fatally flawed"... His comments came 
> after Gen Sir Mike Jackson, head of the Army during the invasion, [said 
> that] US policy was "intellectually bankrupt" ... Sir Malcolm Rifkind, 
> Conservative former foreign secretary and defence secretary, told the 
> BBC that Mr Rumsfeld was "incompetent" ... His comments follow a series 
> of critical remarks from US officials about the British attitude towards 
> Iraq ... Sir Mike's comments may put further strain on the British-US 
> operation in Iraq.
> 
> [9] PAUL KRUGMAN:   Today, much of the Gulf Coast remains in ruins. Less 
> than half the federal money set aside for rebuilding, as opposed to 
> emergency relief, has actually been spent, in part because the Bush 
> administration refused to waive the requirement that local governments 
> put up matching funds for recovery projects -- an impossible burden for 
> communities whose tax bases have literally been washed away.
>     On the other hand, generous investment tax breaks, supposedly 
> designed to spur recovery in the disaster area, have been used to build 
> luxury condominiums near the University of Alabama's football stadium in 
> Tuscaloosa, 200 miles inland.
>     But why should we be surprised by any of this? The Bush 
> administration's response to Hurricane Katrina -- the mixture of neglect 
> of those in need, obliviousness to their plight, and self-congratulation 
> in the face of abject failure -- has become standard operating procedure...
>     Consider the White House reaction to new Census data on income, 
> poverty and health insurance. By any normal standard, this week's report 
> was a devastating indictment of the administration's policies. After 
> all, last year the administration insisted that the economy was booming 
> -- and whined that it wasn't getting enough credit. What the data show, 
> however, is that 2006, while a good year for the wealthy, brought only a 
> slight decline in the poverty rate and a modest rise in median income, 
> with most Americans still considerably worse off than they were before 
> President Bush took office.
>     Most disturbing of all, the number of Americans without health 
> insurance jumped. At this point, there are 47 million uninsured people 
> in this country, 8.5 million more than there were in 2000.
> 
> [10] THE NYT TODAY fronts a chilling look at the Consumer Product Safety 
> Commission, where the Bush administration has slashed budgets and 
> installed industry-friendly officials. "Buyer beware -- that's all I 
> have to say," says the agency's former chief poison expert, who resigned 
> recently in protest [Slate].
> 
> [11] THE NYT TODAY reports from the West Bank, where hundreds of 
> Palestinian children scratch a living by scavenging for food and scrap 
> metal in dumped garbage from nearby Jewish settlements.  [See the front 
> page picture] [Slate].
> 
> [12] WIRED MAGAZINE is reporting the FBI has quietly built a 
> sophisticated ... system that performs instant wiretaps on almost any 
> private communications device ... The surveillance system is called the 
> Digital Collection System Network [abcnews].
> 
> 
> --Carl Estabrook <www.newsfromneptune.com>
> 
>     ###
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