Just Foreign Policy News August 26, 2010 Just Foreign Policy News on the Web: http://www.justforeignpolicy.org/node/691
[To receive just the Summary and a link to the web version, you can use this webform: http://www.justforeignpolicy.org/switchdailynews] Why Should the Senate Fund "Enduring" U.S. Military Bases in Afghanistan? Walter Pincus reports in the Washington Post that the Pentagon is planning military construction for years of U.S. combat in Afghanistan. But the Senate could still refuse to fund it; in 2008, Congress rejected a similar Pentagon request for "long term" military construction in Iraq. Urge your senators to oppose construction of long-term U.S. bases in Afghanistan http://www.justforeignpolicy.org/act/afghanistanbases FCNL: Pentagon Cuts Should Be on the Table Ask your Rep. to sign the Barney Frank/Ron Paul letter to the deficit commission. http://capwiz.com/fconl/issues/alert/?alertid=15852531 Bacevich: Washington Rules Andrew Bacevich's new book, "Washington Rules: America's Path to Permanent War," is a call for Americans to reject the Washington consensus for permanent war, and to demand instead that America "come home." Get the book http://www.justforeignpolicy.org/buywashingtonrules (The book may also be available in your local bookstore or public library.) September 24th: JFP "Virtual Brown Bag" with Andrew Bacevich http://www.justforeignpolicy.org/bacevichtalk Help Support Our Work Your donation helps us educate Americans and create opportunities to advocate for a just foreign policy. http://www.justforeignpolicy.org/donate Summary: U.S./Top News 1) Afghan and U.S. officials say the aide to President Karzai at the center of a politically sensitive corruption investigation is being paid by the CIA, the New York Times reports. Mohammed Zia Salehi, chief of administration for the National Security Council, appears to have been on the CIA payroll for many years. The ties underscore doubts about how seriously the Obama administration intends to fight corruption in Afghanistan. The anticorruption drive is vigorously debated inside the administration. Some argue it should be a centerpiece of U.S. strategy; others say that attacking corrupt officials who are crucial to the war effort could destabilize the Karzai government. Some administration officials argue any comprehensive campaign to fight corruption inside Afghanistan is overly ambitious, with less than a year to go before the US military is set to begin withdrawing troops. "Fighting corruption is the very definition of mission creep," one Obama administration official said. 2) Five U.S. soldiers accused of killing Afghan civilians are facing charges of conspiracy to commit premeditated murder - a plot that allegedly began when one soldier discussed how easy it would be to "toss a grenade" at Afghan civilians, AP reports, citing the Seattle Times. The five were charged with murder in June for the deaths of three civilians in Kandahar this year; seven others have been charged in connection with the conspiracy or with attempting to cover it up. 3) The US has long been an exporter of terrorism, according to a secret CIA analysis released by WikiLeaks, the Washington Post reports. If that phenomenon were to become a widely held perception, the analysis said, it could damage relations with foreign allies and dampen their willingness to cooperate in "extrajudicial" activities, such as the rendition and interrogation of terrorism suspects. The CIA paper noted the 1994 massacre of 29 Muslims at the Ibrihimi Mosque in Hebron by New Yorker and Kach member Baruch Goldstein as an example of US-exported terrorism. 4) Writing in the San Jose Mercury News, Rep. Jane Harman and Michael O'Hanlon argue that the President must give the American people a clearer sense of how long it will take to draw down U.S. troops in Afghanistan. [O'Hanlon is a prominent supporter of the war - JFP.] O'Hanlon estimates U.S. forces could be drawn down to 80,000 by the end of 2011, 50,000 by the end of 2012, and 25,000 by the end of 2013, a pace Harman says could be accelerated. No-one in the executive branch has offered such a timetable, despite the fact that 162 Members of the House voted for the McGovern Amendment requiring the President to establish a timetable for military withdrawal, which Harman supported. Iraq 5) Insurgents unleashed a wave of coordinated attacks across Iraq in a demonstration of their ability to strike at will, offering their counterpoint to U.S. aspirations of bringing the war in Iraq "to a responsible end," Anthony Shadid reports in the New York Times. Many Iraqis believe the U.S. military will never really leave, despite a deadline of 2011 for its departure, Shadid writes. Pakistan 6) Rajiv Shah, head of USAID, says the US is diverting some of its five-year, multibillion-dollar aid package for Pakistan to flood recovery and will reevaluate plans for the remainder, the Washington Post reports. For now, he said, $50 million of the package will be redirected to flood recovery. Afghanistan 7) Two NATO soldiers were shot dead by their Afghan driver, David Nakamura reports in the Washington Post, raising fears that the Taliban is employing a new strategy of infiltrating Afghan forces to kill Western troops. But evidence of significant infiltration plans has been largely unconfirmed, Nakamura notes. Yemen 8) U.S. military aid to Yemen has more than doubled in the last year to $155 million, Bloomberg reports. 9) Amnesty International said Wednesday the US appeared to have carried out or collaborated with Yemen in extrajudicial executions of suspected al Qaeda militants that violated international law, Reuters reports. Amnesty urged the U.S. to clarify the involvement of U.S. forces and drones in such attacks, including the rules of engagement and chain of command. Argentina 10) The government of Argentina moved Tuesday to take over Argentina's only newsprint maker, alleging that two media companies illegally conspired with the military junta to control the newsprint company and used the control to drive competing media out of business, AP reports. The companies, Grupo Clarin and La Nacion, accused President Fernandez of trying to restrict freedom of expression. President Fernandez countered that freedom of expression required the government to guarantee that all newspapers could access newsprint at the same fair price. Human rights groups accuse La Nacion and Clarin of being conspicuously silent about "dirty war" crimes committed against leftists and other opponents of the dictatorship. The brother of the widow of the company's former owner, who was killed during the dictatorship in a suspicious plane crash, said she supported the government's allegations that the newspaper groups conspired with the junta to seize the company. Honduras 11) A Honduran reporter was found shot to death Tuesday, making him at least the eighth journalist killed in the country this year, CNN reports. The International Press Institute put that figure at nine. The Committee to Protect Journalists says the killings of journalists in Honduras have not been seriously investigated by authorities, creating an atmosphere of lawlessness and impunity. Contents: U.S./Top News 1) Key Karzai Aide in Corruption Inquiry Is Linked to C.I.A. Dexter Filkins and Mark Mazzetti, New York Times, August 25, 2010 http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/26/world/asia/26kabul.html Kabul, Afghanistan - The aide to President Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan at the center of a politically sensitive corruption investigation is being paid by the Central Intelligence Agency, according to Afghan and American officials. Mohammed Zia Salehi, the chief of administration for the National Security Council, appears to have been on the payroll for many years, according to officials in Kabul and Washington. It is unclear exactly what Mr. Salehi does in exchange for his money, whether providing information to the spy agency, advancing American views inside the presidential palace, or both. Mr. Salehi's relationship with the C.I.A. underscores deep contradictions at the heart of the Obama administration's policy in Afghanistan, with American officials simultaneously demanding that Mr. Karzai root out the corruption that pervades his government while sometimes subsidizing the very people suspected of perpetrating it. Mr. Salehi was arrested in July and released after Mr. Karzai intervened. There has been no suggestion that Mr. Salehi's ties to the C.I.A. played a role in his release; rather, officials say, it is the fear that Mr. Salehi knows about corrupt dealings inside the Karzai administration. The ties underscore doubts about how seriously the Obama administration intends to fight corruption here. The anticorruption drive, though strongly backed by the United States, is still vigorously debated inside the administration. Some argue it should be a centerpiece of American strategy, and others say that attacking corrupt officials who are crucial to the war effort could destabilize the Karzai government. The Obama administration is also racing to show progress in Afghanistan by December, when the White House will evaluate its mission there. Some administration officials argue that any comprehensive campaign to fight corruption inside Afghanistan is overly ambitious, with less than a year to go before the American military is set to begin withdrawing troops. "Fighting corruption is the very definition of mission creep," one Obama administration official said. Others in the administration view public corruption as the single greatest threat to the Afghan government and the American mission; it is the corrupt nature of the Karzai government, these officials say, that drives ordinary Afghans into the arms of the Taliban. Other prominent Afghans who American officials have said were on the C.I.A.'s payroll include the president's half brother, Ahmed Wali Karzai, suspected by investigators of playing a role in Afghanistan's booming opium trade. Earlier this year, American officials did not press Mr. Karzai to remove his brother from his post as the chairman of the Kandahar provincial council. Mr. Karzai denies any monetary relationship with the C.I.A. and any links to the drug trade. Mr. Salehi was arrested by the Afghan police after, investigators say, they wiretapped him soliciting a bribe - in the form of a car for his son - in exchange for impeding an American-backed investigation into a company suspected of shipping billions of dollars out of the country for Afghan officials, drug smugglers and insurgents. [...] An American official said the practice of paying government officials was sensible, even if they turn out to be corrupt or unsavory. "If we decide as a country that we'll never deal with anyone in Afghanistan who might down the road - and certainly not at our behest - put his hand in the till, we can all come home right now," the American official said. "If you want intelligence in a war zone, you're not going to get it from Mother Teresa or Mary Poppins." Last week, Senator John Kerry, the Massachusetts Democrat, flew to Kabul in part to discuss the Salehi case with Mr. Karzai. In an interview afterward, Mr. Kerry expressed concern about Mr. Salehi's ties to the American government. Mr. Kerry appeared to allude to the C.I.A., though he did not mention it. "We are going to have to examine that relationship," Mr. Kerry said. "We are going to have to look at that very carefully." [...] 2) Army: Soldiers plotted to kill Afghan civilians Associated Press, Wednesday, August 25, 2010; 6:31 PM http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/08/25/AR2010082503448.html Seattle - Five soldiers accused of killing civilians in Afghanistan are now facing additional charges of conspiracy to commit premeditated murder - a plot that allegedly began when one soldier discussed how easy it would be to "toss a grenade" at Afghan civilians, The Seattle Times reported Wednesday. The five soldiers were charged with murder in June for the deaths of three Afghan civilians in Kandahar Province this year. According to charging summaries newly released by the Army, additional allegations of conspiracy have since been filed against those soldiers, and seven others have been charged in connection with the conspiracy or with attempting to cover it up. The new charges arose from the investigations into the killings and into a brutal assault on an enlisted man who had informed on soldiers smoking hashish, The Times reported. The informant reported hearing soldiers talk about killing civilians. The Army told The Associated Press Wednesday that it is redacting charging documents that detail the new allegations and expects to release them next week. As part of the widening probe, investigators have interviewed platoon mates and defendants, The Times reported, citing documents that defense attorneys filed with an Army magistrate judge, as well as interviews with defense attorneys. Two of the defense lawyers did not immediately respond to e-mails from the AP on Wednesday. Some platoon members told investigators that Army Staff Sgt. Calvin Gibbs began joking with other soldiers last December about how easy it would be to "toss a grenade" at Afghan civilians and kill them, the newspaper said. One soldier responded that it was a stupid idea, and another believed Gibbs was "feeling out the platoon." But eventually, Gibbs formed what one called a "kill team" to randomly execute Afghan civilians while on patrol, the documents said. No motive was discussed. [...] 3) WikiLeaks releases CIA paper on U.S. as 'exporter of terrorism' Ellen Nakashima, Washington Post, Thursday, August 26, 2010; 12:43 PM http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/08/25/AR2010082506591.html The United States has long been an exporter of terrorism, according to a secret CIA analysis released Wednesday by the Web site WikiLeaks. And if that phenomenon were to become a widely held perception, the analysis said, it could damage relations with foreign allies and dampen their willingness to cooperate in "extrajudicial" activities, such as the rendition and interrogation of terrorism suspects. That is the conclusion of the three-page classified paper produced in February by the CIA's Red Cell, a think tank set up after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks by then-CIA Director George J. Tenet to provide "out-of-the-box" analyses on "a full range of analytic issues." Titled "What If Foreigners See the United States as an 'Exporter of Terrorism'?," the paper cites Pakistani American David Headley, among others, to make its case that the nation is a terrorism exporter. Headley pleaded guilty this year to conducting surveillance in support of the 2008 Lashkar-i-Taiba attacks in Mumbai, which killed more than 160 people. The militant group facilitated his movement between the United States, Pakistan and India, the agency paper said. Such exports are not new, the paper said. In 1994, an American Jewish doctor who had emigrated from New York to Israel years earlier opened fire at a mosque at the Tomb of the Patriarchs in Hebron, killing 29 Palestinian worshippers. The rampage by Baruch Goldstein, a member of the militant group Kach founded by the late Meir Kahane, helped trigger a wave of bus bombings by the extremist Palestinian group Hamas in 1995, the paper noted. [...] 4) President Must Present Afghanistan Timetabl Rep. Jane Harman and Michael O'Hanlon, San Jose Mercury News, 08/25/2010 http://www.mercurynews.com/opinion/ci_15882164 [Harman represents California's 36th District. O'Hanlon is at Brookings. O'Hanlon is a prominent supporter of the war in the media; that makes his advocacy that the President tell the country what the plan is more newsworthy - JFP.] We believe it is essential that President Barack Obama give this country and the world a clearer sense of how long it will take to draw down American troops in Afghanistan. The goal here is not to rush for the exits irresponsibly. But nine years into the longest conflict in our nation's history, and a year and a half into the president's troop surge, voters see no end in sight. That is certainly the message many members of Congress hear when visiting with constituents. [...] It is not hard to estimate what the implicit plan for U.S. troop reductions might be. NATO troops will have to make up the difference between the need for security forces (about 400,000 countrywide) and available Afghan troops and police, while also mentoring the latter. By that logic, we would infer that American troops may number around 80,000 at the end of 2011, perhaps 50,000 or a bit more at the end of 2012, and then perhaps still 25,000 a year later, a goal which one of us (Harman) thinks could be accelerated. Regardless of the speed of the draw down, no one in the executive branch has offered any comparable specificity. This despite repeated calls for such detail from hundreds of members of Congress - most recently by 162 House members (including one of us) who supported the McGovern amendment to the 2010 war supplemental, which would have required a timetable for withdrawal. [...] Iraq 5) Coordinated Attacks Strike 13 Iraqi Cities Anthony Shadid, New York Times, August 25, 2010 http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/26/world/middleeast/26iraq.html Baghdad - Insurgents unleashed a wave of coordinated attacks across Iraq on Wednesday in a demonstration of their ability to strike at will, offering their counterpoint to American aspirations of bringing the war in Iraq "to a responsible end." In attacks in 13 towns and cities, from southernmost Basra to restive Mosul in the north, insurgents deployed their full arsenal: hit-and-run shootings, roadside mines and more than a dozen car bombs. The toll was in the dozens, but the symbolism underscored a theme of America's experience here: its deadlines, including the Aug. 31 date to end combat operations, have rarely reflected the tumultuous reality on the ground and have often been accompanied by a wave of insurgent attacks. [...] In coming days, the Obama administration will seek to portray the reduction in troops here to fewer than 50,000, reached Tuesday, as a turning point in seven years of invasion, occupation and war. President Obama will deliver a speech on Tuesday marking the deadline. The next day, the mission will be renamed "New Dawn" at a ceremony expected to draw much of the military brass to a sprawling base near the Baghdad airport. Throughout the partial withdrawal, American officials have insisted that, while work remains, Iraq's army and police force are ready to inherit sole control over security here. Military officials have said they believe that insurgents number only in the hundreds, and the military has issued a daily drumbeat of announcements that leaders and cadres in the insurgency have been arrested or killed in American-Iraqi operations. Wednesday's attacks, which killed at least 51 people, many of them police officers, were seemingly the insurgents' reply. Despite suggestions otherwise, the mostly Sunni insurgents proved their ability to undertake sophisticated attacks virtually anywhere in Iraq, capitalizing on the Shiite-led government's dysfunction and perceptions of American vulnerability. [...] For weeks, there had been a sense of inevitability to the assaults, and American military officials had warned that the insurgents would seek to show their prowess during the holy month of Ramadan. But the anticipation seemed to do little to prepare security forces for the breadth of the strikes, which followed what has become a daily campaign of bombings, hit-and-run attacks and assassinations against security forces and officials in Baghdad and elsewhere. [...] It is remarkable the degree to which the Aug. 31 date has gone unnoticed among Iraqis; many believe the American military will never really leave, despite a deadline of 2011 for its departure. Indeed, a sense of repetition seems to color everything in a summer of discontent, where American assurances of positive "long-term trend lines" meet the disbelief of a population that seems as angry as at any time since the invasion. [...] Pakistan 6) U.S. To Send Part Of Pakistan Aid To Flood Recovery Karin Brulliard, Washington Post, Thursday, August 26, 2010; A6 http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/08/25/AR2010082506989.html Sukkur, Pakistan - The United States is diverting some of its five-year, multibillion-dollar aid package for Pakistan to flood recovery and will reevaluate plans for the remainder because the disaster has dramatically altered the country's needs, the top U.S. aid official said Wednesday. The floods, triggered by the start of monsoon rains a month ago, have submerged one-fifth of Pakistan, washed away entire settlements and sparked fears of unrest. More than a million homes have been destroyed. In places where schools or hospitals previously needed improvements, they will now have to be built from scratch. "I fully envision some of the priorities will have to shift, and shift so that there's more of a recovery and reconstruction focus," Rajiv Shah, chief of the U.S. Agency for International Development, told reporters here. [...]. Congress passed a five-year, $7.5 billion aid package for Pakistan last year, - long before the flooding -and most of it was slated for development. Little has been doled out, but USAID officials have spent months planning where it would go, including to several "signature" projects related to water and energy. On Wednesday, Shah said that "every part of the portfolio" would have to be reexamined, although that can not begin until the floodwaters recede and needs can be assessed. For now, he said, $50 million of the package will be redirected to flood recovery. [...] Afghanistan 7) Two NATO Troops Killed By Driver David Nakamura, Washington Post, Wednesday, August 25, 2010; 3:01 PM http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/08/25/AR2010082504658.html Kabul - Two Spanish soldiers were shot dead by their Afghan driver while conducting training of local police forces Wednesday, a Spanish official said, raising fears that the Taliban is employing a new strategy of infiltration to kill Western troops. Spain's interior minister, Alfredo Perez Rubalcaba, said at a news conference in Madrid that the driver had worked for the Spanish military for five months. But he also suggested that the attack was premeditated and that the driver, who was killed when Spanish troops returned fire at the scene, might be a member of the Taliban who had disguised his affiliation. [...] Intentional shootings of foreign troops by Afghans have caused growing concern, as well as fear that Taliban members are secretly taking jobs that put them in proximity to foreigners. But evidence of such ploys has been largely unconfirmed, and it remains unclear whether the incidents are isolated or part of a coordinated strategy by insurgents. Yemen 8) Military Aid to Yemen Doubles as U.S. Aims to Boost Fight Against Al-Qaeda Tony Capaccio, Bloomberg, Aug 25, 2010 http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-08-25/military-aid-to-yemen-doubles-as-u-s-aims-to-boost-fight-against-al-qaeda.html The U.S. Defense Department said it will finish spending $155 million by the end of September on equipment to help Yemen's army commandos fight al-Qaeda, more than double last year's military aid to that country. The Pentagon notified Congress it plans to pay for four Huey helicopters made by Textron Inc.'s Bell Helicopter unit, upgrades to 10 Russian-made MI-17 helicopters already owned by Yemen, 50 AM General LLC Hummer vehicles, night-vision goggles and transport aircraft, a Pentagon spokesman said today. The $155 million in military aid for this fiscal year is up from $67 million provided to Yemen in fiscal 2009. The biggest cost is $82.8 million for the Hueys and MI-17 improvements to let the Yemeni Air Force "transport small counter-terror units for day or nighttime operations at high altitude," said the Pentagon spokesman, Navy Commander Robert Mehal. [...] 9) Amnesty wants U.S. to clarify role in Yemen killings Raissa Kasolowsky, Reuters, Tue Aug 24, 8:47 pm ET http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20100825/wl_nm/us_yemen_amnesty_1 Dubai - Amnesty International said on Wednesday the United States appeared to have carried out or collaborated with Yemen in attacks that killed suspected al Qaeda militants, violating international law. Yemen's killings of al Qaeda suspects, often in aerial bombings, are extrajudicial executions and are unlawful, the human rights watchdog said, and urged Washington to clarify the involvement of U.S. forces and drones in such attacks. U.S. officials say only that Washington plays a supporting role by helping Yemen track and pinpoint targets. But the United States has long been involved in fighting militants in Yemen. "The USA appears to have carried out or collaborated in unlawful killings in Yemen and has closely cooperated with Yemeni security forces in situations that have failed to give due regard for human rights," Amnesty said in a report. It urged Washington to "investigate the serious allegations of the use of drones by U.S. forces for targeted killings of individuals in Yemen and clarify the chain of command and rules governing the use of such drones." [...] Amnesty said it had also obtained photographs apparently showing the remnants of missiles known to be held only by U.S. forces at the site of a December air strike against al Qaeda suspects that killed 41 people, half of them children. Amnesty said that air strike, in southern Abyan province, was an example of security forces "killing unlawfully by using excessive force." Amnesty said Yemen was increasingly sacrificing human rights in the name of security. It is under pressure from Washington and Riyadh to deal with a range of threats - al Qaeda, southern secessionism and a now dormant Shi'ite rebellion in the north. Amnesty said the latest fighting with the northern rebels, before a February truce brought relative calm, saw both Yemen and Saudi Arabia appear to violate international law when they apparently bombed homes and apartment blocks. "Aerial and other bombardments of markets, mosques and other places where civilians gather, as well as of large residential properties, apparently killed hundreds of men, women and children not engaged in the fighting," the report said. In the south, Yemen has used "excessive and lethal force" against demonstrators and carried out arbitrary detentions, torture and unfair trials of southern activists, Amnesty said. Argentina 10) Argentine president moves to control newsprint Michael Warren, Associated Press, Tuesday, August 24, 2010; 9:07 PM http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/08/24/AR2010082406018.html Buenos Aires, Argentina - The government moved Tuesday to take over Argentina's only newsprint maker, alleging two leading newspapers illegally conspired with dictators to control the company three decades ago and then used it to drive competing media out of business. President Cristina Fernandez said the courts should decide whether the Grupo Clarin and La Nacion media companies should be charged with crimes against humanity - specifically whether the newsprint company was illegally expropriated by the newspapers and the military junta. The companies, with which Fernandez has been feuding for two years, deny any illegality in the acquisition of the newsprint maker, or other crimes. They accuse Fernandez of baldly trying to control the essential material needed to guarantee freedom of expression, a position supported by the Inter-American Press Association and other media groups. Speaking in a national broadcast, Fernandez said she was defending those rights. She accused Grupo Clarin and La Nacion of using the newsprint company, Papel Prensa SA, to impose media monopolies on Argentina, stifling other viewpoints by refusing to sell paper at fair prices to competitors. She showed a headline from the opposition Clarin newspaper saying "Who controls Papel Prensa controls the written word," and said she couldn't agree more. "Papel Prensa is the only company that produces newsprint in this country," Fernandez said, "and it's a vertically integrated monopoly. It determines who it sells to, how much it sells and at what price. And so yes, whoever controls it controls the written word in the Republic of Argentina." Fernandez presented the conclusions of a government investigation of Papel Prensa's history and economic activities - some 23,000 pages in all, stacked in large piles on a table beside her podium - and said her human rights secretary would send it to the justice system for consideration of rights charges against owners of the two media companies. She further said she would propose legislation declaring newsprint supply to be a matter of national interest, subject to government regulation that guarantees equal and fair distribution to all of Argentina's newspapers. Papel Prensa sells newsprint to more than 130 clients across the country. And she said the executive branch would invest to develop enough newsprint domestically to supply all the country's needs. "This product should not be imported," she said. Since the 1976-83 dictatorship, Papel Prensa has been jointly owned in roughly three equal shares between Clarin, La Nacion and Argentina's government - now Fernandez's leftist administration that is pushing prosecutions of crimes against humanity committed by the military junta. Human rights groups, which have a prominent role in the government, accuse La Nacion and Clarin of being conspicuously silent about "dirty war" crimes committed against leftists and other opponents of the dictatorship. Fernandez said the newspapers obtained Papel Prensa through a forced sale in 1976 at a time when the military junta was doing all it could to destroy the company's owner, David Graiver, a prominent banker who was secretly supporting the leftist Montonero guerrillas at the time. Graiver died in a suspicious plane crash, sending his company into bankruptcy and leaving his widow, Lidia Papaleo, and parents to face the dictators. "And five days after she signed (the papers selling the company), she was detained. And during her detention, she was raped, tortured, beaten in the head. The same luck was suffered by her in-laws and other members of their company," the president said. "They had been forced to sell - and their detention was delayed so that the buyers could claim they obtained the company in good faith." The owners of La Nacion and Clarin denied participating in any crime against humanity, saying that Papaleo freely sold the company to emerge from bankruptcy before beginning her long jail term and that she never formally alleged any forced sale or fraud after Argentina recovered its democracy. [...] The brother of Graiver's widow said that she did not plan to comment Tuesday, but that she supports the allegation the newspaper groups conspired with the junta to seize the company. Osvaldo Papaleo said in a radio interviews that his sister hadn't come forward previously out of fear and feels this is the first government to promise her protection. [...] Honduras 11) Honduran journalist killing makes 8 for the year Israel Zelaya Diaz was found shot to death in San Pedro Sula At least eight journalists have been killed in Honduras this year Zelaya worked for broadcaster Radio International International press advocacy groups call on authorities to investigate CNN, August 25, 2010 http://www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/americas/08/25/honduras.journalist.killed/index.html A Honduran reporter was found shot to death Tuesday in the city of San Pedro Sula, making him at least the eighth journalist killed in the country this year. Unidentified gunmen shot Israel Zelaya Diaz twice in the head and once in the chest, according to local press reports. Zelaya worked for broadcaster Radio International. He had last been seen earlier Tuesday. [...] Zelaya worked as a journalist for more than 20 years and reported on national issues during his radio show. International press freedom organizations expressed alarm at the killing of another journalist in Honduras. "While the motive behind the attack on Mr. Zelaya is not yet known, we would like to again underscore the fact that Honduras has become one of the most dangerous countries in the world for journalists," said Anthony Mills, press freedom manager at the International Press Institute. "It is vital that the authorities fully investigate the killings, so that a culture of impunity is not allowed to thrive." The Committee to Protect Journalists said Zelaya's killing makes eight journalists killed this year. The International Press Institute put that figure at nine. According to a Committee to Protect Journalists report released last month, the killings of journalists in Honduras have not been seriously investigated by authorities, creating an atmosphere of lawlessness and impunity. All eight journalists were shot, and there is evidence that at least three were killed because of their work as journalists, the New York-based organization said. "Honduran authorities must swiftly investigate Zelaya's murder, and bring all those responsible to justice," said Carlos Lauria, Committee to Protect Journalists' senior program coordinator for the Americas. "With eight journalists now dead this year, the government must commit to thoroughly investigating all the cases, which up to now it has failed to do." [...] - Robert Naiman Just Foreign Policy www.justforeignpolicy.org Just Foreign Policy is a membership organization devoted to reforming US foreign policy so it reflects the values and interests of the majority of Americans. _______________________________________________ Marxism-Thaxis mailing list Marxism-Thaxis@lists.econ.utah.edu To change your options or unsubscribe go to: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/marxism-thaxis
