[Peace] News notes, 2nd week in June 2008

[C. G. Estabrook]

SUNDAY 15 JUNE 2008.
[The anniversary of the Magna Carta, with its establishment of the right of 
habeas corpus, in England in the year 1215. See Peter Linebaugh, “Wat Tyler Day” 
<http://www.counterpunch.org/linebaugh06132008.html>; Linebaugh is the author of 
"The Magna Carta Manifesto: Liberties and Commons for All" (University of 
California Press, 2008).]

[1] US TORTURE POLICY.  The Pentagon urged interrogators at Guantanamo Bay to 
destroy handwritten notes in case they were called to testify about potentially 
harsh treatment of detainees, a military defense lawyer said last Sunday. And 
it's a “myth” that Canadian Maher Arar was sent to Syria illegally, John 
Bellinger, legal adviser to Rice, said Tuesday.

[2] US WAR POLICY. The CIA's paper (the Washington Post) led Sunday with a scare 
story about smugglers obtaining blueprints for a nuclear weapon and sharing them 
with a number of “rogue states” (Iran, North Korea).  The Pentagon's paper (the 
New York Times) led on the same day with a 1974 essay written for the National 
War College by Sen. John McCain, on the reasons some American prisoners 
succumbed to enemy pressure during the Vietnam War.  Neither paper discusses 
recent reports of  McCain's collaborating with his captors after being shot down 
while committing war crimes in North Vietnam.  (McCain wrote -- perhaps 
revealingly -- that "Americans captured after 1968 had proven to be more 
susceptible to North Vietnamese pressure, because they had been exposed to the 
divisive forces which had come into focus as a result of the antiwar movement in 
the United States.")
	Global military spending has increased by nearly 50 percent over the last 
decade, with the United States accounting for half the total rise.

[3] THE US MIDEAST WAR.  It's important to realize that the US has been 
conducting a generation-long war from the Mediterranean to the Indus valley, 
from the Horn of Africa to Central Asia – a circle around the Persian Gulf with 
a 1500-mile radius.  That war will continue in the coming administration, unless 
there is serious opposition at home and abroad.  It has several theaters:

	[A] AFPAK. Pakistan's military has condemned an air strike by Afghanistan-based 
US forces that killed 11 of its troops as a "cowardly attack".
	“Democracy Now! provided a platform to right-wing Pakistani journalist Ahmad 
Rashid, long an apologist for Bush's war-on-terror, to recycle propaganda from 
British tabloid press and other discredited sources. His tale about al-Qa'ida 
recruiting white converts for terrorist acts in Europe originated with the 
British security services as part of their fearmongering campaign to build 
support for the 42-day detention without charge plan. No shred of evidence was 
ever offered.”
	In Afghanistan guerrillas deployed a roadside bomb to kill 4 US Marines on 
Saturday.
	Pushtun guerrillas mounting an insurgency against the Karzai government and 
against NATO troops in the Pushtun areas of Afghanistan staged a daring prison 
break on Friday. Although the US refers to the guerrillas as 'Taliban' it is not 
clear that they are seminary students or are actually linked to the Taliban 
movement of the 1990s. Many appear to be disgruntled Pushtun villagers.  The 
jailbreak spoke eloquently of the weakness and incompetence of the Karzai 
government, which many observers believe is in the process of collapsing under 
the weight of its own corruption. The collapse seems to be accelerating even 
though the number of foreign troops in the country has grown enormously, to some 
30,000 US and 30,000 NATO soldiers.
	Today Afghan Karzai has threatened to send troops over the border into Pakistan 
to confront militants based there.  (I wonder who put him up to that?)
	In May, more US and allied troops were killed by guerrillas in Afghanistan than 
in Iraq.
	Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi reiterated here on Thursday that China 
would always stand with Afghanistan in its course of national reconstruction and 
development.

	[B] IRAN. Bush on Wednesday backed Europe-led diplomacy to convince Iran to 
abandon its suspect nuclear drive but warned he has not ruled out using force. 
“Remember that everything the Bush administration has done, almost without 
exception, has turned into a catastrophe for the interest that they represent. 
And it's possible that they might decide to go out in some blaze of glory just 
to see what happens. Bur probably not: the US military is opposed and US 
intelligence seems to be opposed and surely the world is opposed.” But of course 
Cheney is nuts.

	[C] IRAQ. Iran alleges that the US is bribing Iraq MPs on the “Status of Forces 
Agreement” (SOFA). Iraq's foreign minister said he would ask the Security 
Council to explore ways to protect his government from an avalanche of financial 
claims from people harmed by Saddam Hussein's government. The Bush 
Administration has been using its control over Iraq's finances to pressure the 
Iraqi government to sign SOFA.
	Iraq's Prime Minister says negotiations with the US on a security agreement are 
at an impasse: "Iraq has another option that it may use," Maliki said. "The 
Iraqi government, if it wants, has the right to demand that the U.N. terminate 
the presence of international forces on Iraqi sovereign soil."
	Meanwhile, Sayyid Muqtada al-Sadr announced in his Friday prayers sermon that 
he would fight the Occupation until it ended or the struggle lead to his own 
martyrdom. He added that “The fight against US troops will now be waged only by 
[a] new group,” while other members of the Mahdi organization will "take on a 
social and religious role."
	The British recognise that they have to get their forces out of the country 
soon after next January 1 because they've been told that the UN Security Council 
Resolution allowing the international force powers of occupation in Iraq will 
not be renewed when it runs out on December 31. Being deemed illegal by any 
international authority, let alone the UN, has never bothered the Bush-Cheney 
regime. But for the British it is an entirely different matter.  Britain is 
signed up to the International Criminal Court and the International Court of 
Human Rights and both international and EU law now feature strongly in British 
military justice. Any British soldier deemed to be in breach of international or 
EU human rights law in Iraq after the expiry of the UN resolution could be 
brought before the International Criminal Court in the Hague for war crimes. 
This is why the Brown government has started 'spinning' through political 
journalists the message that we have achieved 'stability' - even 'success' - in 
Basra and we must go by Christmas. [FP]
	Bush is in the UK telling Gordon Brown to behave.

	[D] SYRIA. Syria's president has been honored by the French government, who 
have invited him to Bastille Day celebrations.  French reporters asked Bush for 
his advice to the Syrians.  Bush replied, “Stop screwing with the Iranians”...

	[E] AFRICA. Human Rights Watch said said that Ethiopia has been committing 
"crimes against humanity," in the Ogaden, the New York Times reports. The 
Guardian's account yesterday of the same HRW report noted that HRW says the US 
has "minimised and possibly actively ignored internal concerns and reporting on 
the situation" in the Ogaden, but this information is missing from the shorter 
NYT article [JFP]. The reason is obvious: Ethiopia is the US thug in Somalia.

[4] LATIN AMERICA. Chavez (attacked again by a NYT editorial on Sunday) urged 
Colombian rebels last Sunday to lay down their weapons, unilaterally free dozens 
of hostages and put an end to a decades-long armed struggle against Colombia's 
government – as he has before.

[5] EUROPE. Ireland rejects the EU Lisbon Treaty.

[6] ECONOMY.  In the US, home foreclosures are up nearly 50 percent over the 
same period last year. 	In the rest of the world, typically, thousands clash 
with police in Egyptian bread riot.
	
[7] COURTS. Having killed a million people, the US administration is supposed to 
have suffered a signal defeat because the  SC by the narrowest of margins 
affirmed the plain words of the Constitution in regard to habeas corpus: BBC 
NEWS headline:  "Major Guantanamo setback for Bush" [!]. But it's not clear that 
it will make any difference.

[8] CONGRESS. Democratic Congressional leaders (i.e., Steny Hoyer, Nancy Pelosi 
and Silvestre Reyes) have now reached agreement with the White House and the GOP 
to pass a FISA bill that would give the President, in essence, everything he 
wants: guaranteed dismissal of the telecom lawsuits and vast new warrantless 
eavesdropping powers ... i.e., the Democrats are about to reverse the only 
worthwhile act they've undertaken since being handed control of the Congress 18 
months ago, and will endorse and authorize yet another aspect of the Bush 
lawbreaking regime.
	Also, the House Democratic leadership waved off the impeachment measure against 
Bush. 	In the Senate, Republicans blocked a proposal to tax the windfall profits 
of major oil corporations.  Democrats failed by a vote of 51-to-43 to get the 
sixty votes needed to overcome a Republican filibuster.

[9] PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN. Analysts advising Senator Obama publicly clashed over 
plans to withdraw from Iraq, the Nation reports. Colin Kahl of the center-right 
Center for a New American Security, who chairs Obama's Iraq advisory task force, 
dismissed proposals to withdraw "all troops on a fixed, unilateral timetable." 
Brian Katulis of the Center for American Progress, also a member of Obama's task 
force, said that what CNAS is proposing "sounds very close to what the Bush 
Administration is doing," adding that there was "not a real strong difference" 
between Kahl's plan and the White House's plan.
	The head of Senator Barack Obama’s vice-presidential search committee has 
resigned following intense criticism of his business ties. James Johnson had 
drawn scrutiny for receiving apparently favorable mortgage terms from the 
Countrywide Financial Corporation, which has been linked to the subprime 
mortgage crisis. Johnson was also criticized for his role in awarding large 
compensation packages to corporate executives while sitting on company boards.
	Obama is coming under criticism in some circles for appointing an outspoken 
defender of the retail giant Wal-Mart as his chief adviser on economic policy. 
The adviser, Jason Furman, is a New York University scholar and former official 
in the Clinton administration. In 2005, he published a paper entitled “Wal-Mart: 
A Progressive Success Story” that argued Wal-Mart’s low-prices outweigh the 
negative effects of its low wages for its workers. Obama has criticized Wal-Mart 
on the campaign trail and made several references to former rival Senator 
Hillary Clinton’s time on the Wal-Mart board of directors during their battle 
for the Democratic nomination.

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