[Peace] News notes, 3rd week in May 2008

[C. G. Estabrook]

SUNDAY 25 MAY 2008 [On this day in 1932 the Bonus March arrived in Washington, 
DC. About 17,000 World War I veterans, accompanied by their families and other 
affiliated groups, were seeking support in the midst of the Depression. The 
veterans were led by Walter W. Waters, a former Army sergeant, and were 
encouraged in their demand for immediate monetary payment by retired Marine 
Corps Major General Smedley Butler, one of the most popular military figures of 
the time. Less than a month later the marchers were driven out and their camps 
were destroyed by US troops under the command of General Douglas MacArthur; his 
aides were Majors George S. Patton and Dwight D. Eisenhower. Hundreds of 
veterans were injured, several were killed, and other casualties were inflicted. 
Agitation from the Bonus Army led to the G. I. Bill of Rights, but not for a 
dozen years.]

[1] US TORTURE POLICY.  The French newswire AFP reported, "A handful of US 
lawmakers gave only half an ear to the testimony on Tuesday of a former detainee 
at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba who spent nearly five years in prison before being 
released without charge.  Murat Kurnaz, a Turk who was born in Germany, was 
arrested during a trip to Pakistan in autumn 2001 and delivered to US 
authorities in exchange for a payment of 3,000 dollars ... US authorities 
determined in 2002 that Kurnaz had no terror links, but claimed that he remained 
a danger because one of his friends had committed a suicide attack -- even 
though the friend in question is alive, and has never been found to have terror 
ties.  Kurnaz was not released until mid-2006, and only after pressure on 
Washington from German Chancellor Angela Merkel ... the majority of seats for 
[House Foreign Affairs] committee members sat empty. Barely half a dozen 
lawmakers came to listen to the former detainee, and most were unable to 
remember his name, with one even calling him 'Mr. Karzai.'"
	Bush administration officials routinely ignored FBI complaints of abusive 
interrogations of prisoners at Guantanamo Bay and other US military sites. 
According to the Justice Department, senior White House officials began 
receiving reports of [TORTURE] tactics ... as early as 2003. But the White House 
made no effort to curb the practices. Then-Attorney General John Ashcroft is 
said to have personally complained to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice over 
the treatment of a prisoner in November 2003.

[2] US WAR POLICY. The Senate voted 70-26 to approve $165 billion to pay for 
military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan into next spring.
	The House amended the 2009 defense policy bill to forbid the Defense Department 
from engaging in "a concerted effort to propagandize" the U.S. public about the 
Iraq war. The amendment would also force an investigation by the GAO of efforts 
to plant positive news stories about the war. The Senate will take up the 
defense policy bill after next week's recess.
	Russia and China have condemned a US plan for a global missile defence shield, 
saying it will set back international disarmament efforts. Russian President 
Dmitry Medvedev signed a joint statement with Chinese President Hu Jintao in 
Beijing. [BBC]
	Bush spoke Thursday before US troops at Fort Bragg in North Carolina: “Success 
in Iraq would deal a devastating blow to Iran’s ambitions to dominate the 
region. Success in Iraq would show the people of the Middle East that democracy 
and freedom can flourish in their midst. And success in Iraq will send a signal 
to the world that America does not withdraw, does not retreat, does not back 
down in the face of terror, and that will make us safer here in the United 
States of America.” [Not the change in justification.]
	Cheney told newly minted Coast Guard officers Wednesday that the war on 
terrorism would be won on their watch and dismissed fears that fighting in Iraq 
and Afghanistan would drag on indefinitely. [He] ... said the troop surge in 
Iraq "has succeeded brilliantly." [Note the change in prognosis.]

[3] THEATRES OF THE US ME WAR.  Today the NYT (the Pentagon/neocon newspaper) 
editorialized strenuously against Pres. Chavez of  Venezuela, where they'd 
rather be fighting; meanwhile the WP (the newspaper of the “intelligence 
community”) points out that talks between Israel and Syria brokered by Turkey -- 
and a deal to prevent a new Lebanese war brokered by Qatar -- were launched 
without a US role, and both counter U.S. strategy in the region. Sen. Kerry 
discussed the Israel-Syria negotiations on the floor of the Senate: “What did 
the leaders of Israel, already engaged in negotiations with Syria, think when 
President Bush stood before the Israeli Knesset and invoked Hitler in labeling 
engagement with rogue nations ‘appeasement’?” he asked. [JFP]

	[A] AFPAK. Pakistan signed a deal with Taliban militants that calls for the 
Pakistani Army to withdraw gradually from an area in North-West Frontier 
Province that has become a battleground. The peace accord calls for the 
enforcement of Shariah in the area but allows for the operation of schools for 
girls that had been closed down ... The Taliban pledged to allow polio 
vaccinations to resume.
	Afghan officials expressed outrage Saturday at a decision by the U.S. military 
not to charge U.S. Marines involved in a shooting spree that left 19 Afghan 
civilians dead in 2007.

	[B] IRAN. Speaker Pelosi said last Sunday: “Iran must be stopped. They are a 
threat to the neighborhood [!] and a source of funding for Hamas and Hizbullah 
...I do think we must not take anything off the table.”
	Iran on the contrary called for new talks on political, economic and security 
issues, including its nuclear program and Arab-Israeli peace. The proposal 
includes cooperation spanning nuclear disarmament, peaceful nuclear technology, 
improved supervision by the U.N. nuclear watchdog, and establishing “fuel 
production consortiums.”
	The Bush administration has pledged to support Saudi Arabia’s nuclear power 
program, including supplying enriched uranium for nuclear reactors. The 
agreement came out of President Bush’s visit to the Saudi kingdom last week, 
during which Bush also pledged new US assistance in guarding Saudi oil reserves.
	Sen. Obama stated the obvious when he said Iran does not pose the threat the 
Soviet Union did, writes Steve Chapman in the Chicago Tribune. As military 
powers go, Iran is a pipsqueak. It has no nuclear weapons and a pitiful air 
force. Its navy is a coast guard. It spends less on defense than Singapore or 
Sweden. Our military budget is 145 times bigger than Iran's. But there is no 
reasoning with McCain and his allies. If we don't have an enemy on the scale of 
the Soviet Union, they will take a pint-sized one, inflate it beyond recognition 
and pretend military confrontation is the only way to deal with it.
	The UN nuclear watchdog has said it believes Iran is still withholding 
information on its nuclear programme. In a report, the International Atomic 
Energy Agency (IAEA) says Tehran's alleged weapons development studies remain a 
matter of serious concern. It adds that Iran is operating 3,500 centrifuges, the 
machines used to enrich uranium, at its plant at Natanz. Enriched uranium can be 
used in nuclear weapons, but Tehran insists its nuclear programme is entirely 
peaceful.

	[C] IRAQ. U.S. pilots in Iraq have dramatically increased their use of 
helicopter-fired missiles against enemy fighters, often in densely populated 
areas, the Washington Post reports. Since March, the military has fired more 
than 200 Hellfire missiles in the capital, compared with six in the previous 
three months. The strikes have killed and wounded civilians.
	AP reports “Sistani Issuing Fatwas Against US Troops in Iraq,” altho' that's 
not yet true but may soon be.  CNN reports “US Military 'Regrets' Killing 
Children in Iraq Operation.”
	Iraqi soldiers moved unhindered through Sadr City as a result of an 
Iran-brokered agreement between the government and the Mahdi Army, the 
Washington Post reports. A key provision of the agreement was that U.S. forces 
would stay out.
	In official statements, the US has claimed it is not fighting the Mahdi Army, 
only “rogue elements” directed by Iran. But US soldiers on the ground say they 
are fighting the Mahdi Army ... The Mahdi Army denied that any of them received 
funding or assistance from Iran, saying the U.S. military was trying to 
undermine the Mahdi Army’s reputation as a nationalist movement.

	[D] ISRAEL. Ex-US President Jimmy Carter has said Israel has at least 150 
atomic weapons in its arsenal ... He also described Israeli treatment of 
Palestinians as "one of the greatest human rights crimes on earth".

	[E] LEBANON. Hezbollah is not seeking to control Lebanon or impose its views on 
other political forces, the group's leader has told a large crowd in Beirut. 
Hassan Nasrallah addressed thousands of supporters via video link to mark the 
Israeli pullout from Lebanon in 2000. "Lebanon is a pluralistic country. The 
existence of this country only comes about through co-existence," he said.

[4] LATIN AMERICA. McGovern-Sestak-Bishop amendment in the House would require 
SOA/WHINSEC to release information on who they are training there.
	A Chilean judge has ordered the arrest of nearly 100 former secret police and 
soldiers over rights abuses committed under General Augusto Pinochet ... More 
than 3,000 people were killed or "disappeared" during military rule in Chile 
between 1973 and 1990.

[5] ECONOMY.  A home-price index considered to be the most comprehensive reading 
of the U.S. market posted the sharpest quarterly decline in its 17-year history, 
and analysts say housing has yet to bottom out.
	The Bush Administration stands alone in blocking the World Health Organization 
from assisting poor countries in exercising their rights to break patents for 
essential medicines, Inter Press Service reports.
	The IMF says it is responding to the global food crisis by doling out new 
emergency loans to 15 of the world’s poorest nations ... But the loans carry the 
same conditions, such as tariff and subsidies cuts, that many analysts agree are 
partly to blame for the crisis: poor countries were made more dependent on food 
imports.
	Public opinion across Europe, Asia and the US is strikingly consistent in 
considering that the gap between rich and poor is too wide and that the wealthy 
should pay more taxes.  Income inequality has emerged as a highly contentious 
political issue in many countries as the latest wave of globalisation has 
created a "superclass" of rich people.  A United National Development Programme 
report in 2005 estimated that the world's richest 50 people were earning more 
than the 416m poorest.  According to the latest FT/Harris poll, strong 
majorities in five European countries ... consider that income inequality is too 
great.  But 78 per cent of respondents in the US, traditionally seen as more 
tolerant of income inequality, also think the gap is too wide.

[6] PRES. CAMP. What do prediction markets tell us now? The Democrats will 
nominate Barack Obama and have a 61.1 per cent chance of winning the presidency. 
They also say the chance of an air strike by the US and Israel against Iran is 
22 per cent. There is a 10 per cent chance of Chinese military action against 
Taiwan.
	
[7] MEDIA. Google has refused a request from U.S. Sen. Joseph Lieberman, 
Ind.-Conn., to remove videos produced by terrorist groups from its video-sharing 
site YouTube.

[8] COURTS. The Supreme Court ruled Monday that leading someone to believe you 
have child pornography to show or exchange is a federal crime, brushing aside 
concerns that the law could apply to mainstream movies that depict adolescent 
sex, classic literature or even innocent e-mails that describe pictures of 
grandchildren.
	A new indictment of a former top CIA official alleges that he received bribes 
in the form of "sexual companionship" in exchange for helping a friend get an 
edge in landing multimillion-dollar contracts from the agency.  Federal 
prosecutors in Alexandria, Va., on Tuesday obtained a superseding indictment 
against Kyle "Dusty" Foggo, who as executive director held the CIA's No. 3 rank 
before leaving in 2006.  The indictment accuses Foggo of accepting tens of 
thousands of dollars in meals, vacations and other perks in exchange for helping 
friend Brent Wilkes obtain various contracts with the CIA.
	Ali Saleh Kahlah al-Marri is a U.S. resident [and former student at Bradley 
Univ.] being held in a South Carolina military brig for six years. To justify 
holding him, government lawyers told federal judges that the president can send 
the military into any U.S. neighborhood, capture a citizen and hold him in 
prison without charge, indefinitely.  His case is before a federal appeals court 
in VA.

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