Just Foreign Policy News September 15, 2006 Summary: U.S. Following yesterday's Washington Post article on the IAEA letter denouncing the Fleitz (House Intelligence Committee staff) report's erroneous charges concerning Iran's nuclear program, Representative Dennis Kucinich has requested Congressional hearings on the apparent approval of this report by the office of the Director of National Intelligence, John Negroponte.
The Senate Armed Services Committee defied President Bush Thursday, approving a plan for the trial and interrogation of terrorism suspects the White House has rejected as unacceptable. The White House provides far fewer protections for detainees. Colin Powell sided with the senators, saying the president's plan to redefine the Geneva Conventions would encourage the world to "doubt the moral basis of our fight against terrorism," and "put our own troops at risk." The CIA learned in September 2002 that Iraq had no contact with Osama bin Laden and that the Iraqi leader considered bin Laden an enemy of the Baghdad regime, according to a recent Senate Intelligence Committee report. Iran Iran will not be deterred from its nuclear program and will ultimately reach a nuclear capability, the former head of Israel's National Security Council, told the Jerusalem Post. Traces of Eiland's comments about the inevitability of a nuclear Iran were evident in a statement Vice Premier Shimon Peres made earlier in the week. This was the first time a senior Israeli official had publicly acknowledged that Israel might have to adapt to a reality where Iran has nuclear capabilities. In an interview, President Bush made clear that the administration wants a diplomatic solution to the confrontation over Iran's nuclear program - one premised on an American recognition of Iran's role as an important nation in the Middle East, Davd Ignatius reports in the Washington Post. Iraq Iraqi security forces will dig trenches around Baghdad and set up checkpoints along all roads leading into the city to reduce some of the violence plaguing the capital, the Interior Ministry said Friday. Israel The airstrike that killed four UN observers in July was the result of the Israeli military's reliance on inaccurate maps, Israel said Thursday. The UN has said that before the airstrike, its observers in Lebanon had telephoned the Israeli military 10 times in six hours to ask it to stop shelling near their position. Palestine Prime Minister Haniya accused the US of undermining efforts to form the new government and called on Europe to take the lead in lifting international sanctions against the Palestinians. Haniya and Abbas have been pushing on European anxieties about the severe economic depression the funding and aid cutoff has produced. The Europeans want to end the stalemate and use the conclusion of the war in Lebanon as a springboard toward renewed Israeli-Palestinian talks. Turkey Elif Shafak is due in court on Sept. 21 to defend herself against charges that she insulted "Turkishness" because a character in her novel, "The Bastard of Istanbul," refers to the deaths of Armenians in 1915 as genocide. Shafak is being sued under Article 301 of the Turkish Penal Code. A conviction carries a possible penalty of up to three years in jail. Pope's Comments on Islam Muslims around the world expressed outrage Friday over Pope Benedict XVI's comments on Islam, with Turkey's ruling party accusing him of trying to revive the spirit of the Crusades and scores taking to the streets in protest. What is most troubling of all is that the Pope gets several things about Islam wrong, writes Juan Cole in his blog. He should apologize to the Muslims and get better advisers on Christian-Muslim relations. Mexico President Fox backed away from a confrontation with López Obrador on Thursday, announcing that he wouldn't hold his annual Independence Day celebration at the capital's main Zocalo plaza to avoid protesters. Nicaragua The US ambassador to Nicaragua has issued a vigorous warning to the Central American country's electors against supporting Daniel Ortega, the veteran leftwing Sandinista leader and the frontrunner in November's presidential election. In this issue: U.S. 1) Kucinich asks for oversight on DNI review of Fleitz Report 2) Rebuff for Bush on Terror Trials in a Senate Test 3) CIA Learned in '02 That Bin Laden Had No Iraq Ties, Report Says Iran 4) Giora Eiland: Iran will get nuclear bomb 5) Nuclear Agency for U.N. Faults Report on Iran by U.S. House 6) Bush's Message to Iran Iraq 7) Iraq to Dig Trenches Around Baghdad Israel 8) Inaccurate Map Led to Fatal Strike on U.N. Post, Israel Says Palestine 9) Palestinians Squabble Over Government Turkey 10) Turkey, a Touchy Critic, Plans to Put a Novel on Trial Pope's Comments on Islam 11) Muslims Express Fury Over Pope's Remarks 12) Pope Gets it Wrong on Islam Mexico 13) Mexico's Fox Moves Event to Avoid Protesters Nicaragua 14) US warns Nicaraguans not to back Sandinista Contents: U.S. 1) Kucinich asks for oversight on DNI review of Fleitz Report September 15, 2006 http://www.justforeignpolicy.org/issues/kucinich_to_shays.html Following yesterday's Washington Post article on the IAEA letter denouncing the Fleitz (House Intelligence Committee staff) report's erroneous charges concerning Iran's nuclear program, Representative Dennis Kucinich has requested Congressional hearings on the apparent approval of this report by the office of the Director of National Intelligence, John Negroponte. 2) Rebuff for Bush on Terror Trials in a Senate Test Kate Zernike, New York Times, September 15, 2006 http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/15/washington/15detain.html The Senate Armed Services Committee defied President Bush Thursday, with four Republicans joining Democrats in approving a plan for the trial and interrogation of terrorism suspects the White House has rejected as unacceptable. The Republican rebellion was led by Senator Warner, the committee chairman, with backing from Senators McCain, Graham and Collins. The White House had said their legislation would leave the US no option but to shut down a C.I.A. program to interrogate high-level terrorism suspects. The vote came despite an all-out effort by the White House to win support for its own approach, which provides far fewer protections for detainees. Former secretary of state Colin Powell sided with the senators, saying in a letter that the president's plan to redefine the Geneva Conventions would encourage the world to "doubt the moral basis of our fight against terrorism," and "put our own troops at risk." 3) CIA Learned in '02 That Bin Laden Had No Iraq Ties, Report Says Walter Pincus, Washington Post, Friday, September 15, 2006; A14 http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/09/14/AR2006091401545.html The CIA learned in late September 2002 from a high-level member of Saddam Hussein's inner circle that Iraq had no contact with Osama bin Laden and that the Iraqi leader considered bin Laden an enemy of the Baghdad regime, according to a recent Senate Intelligence Committee report. Sen. Pat Roberts and two GOP colleagues on the committee disclosed this information for the first time in the panel's report on Iraq released last week. They wrote in the "additional views" section of the report that the Cabinet-level Iraqi official "said that Iraq has no past, current, or anticipated future contact with Osama bin Laden and al Qaeda" and that the official "added that bin Laden was in fact a longtime enemy of Iraq." On Sept. 25, 2002, just days after the CIA received the source's information, President Bush told reporters: "Al-Qaeda hides. Saddam doesn't, but the danger is, is that they work in concert. The danger is, is that al-Qaeda becomes an extension of Saddam's madness and his hatred and his capacity to extend weapons of mass destruction around the world. . . . [Y]ou can't distinguish between al-Qaeda and Saddam when you talk about the war on terror." Iran 4) Giora Eiland: Iran will get nuclear bomb David Horovitz, Jerusalem Post, Sep. 14, 2006 http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1157913632142&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull Iran will not be deterred from its nuclear program and will ultimately reach a nuclear capability, Giora Eiland, the recently retired head of Israel's National Security Council, told the Jerusalem Post, in an assessment immediately refuted by the Prime Minister's Office. In recent months there have been different assessments at the highest levels of Israel's policy making pyramid regarding whether US President Bush would take military action against Iran to stop its nuclear march, with some saying he is too weak politically and over-extended in Iraq and Afghanistan to take such a dramatic step, and others arguing that he would not want to leave office with a nuclear Iran as one of his legacies to the world. Traces of Eiland's comments about the inevitability of a nuclear Iran were evident in a statement Vice Premier Shimon Peres made earlier in the week. "Even if Iran gets the nuclear bomb, and I hope that it doesn't, we shall develop and can develop better technology to face them," Peres said. This was the first time a senior Israeli official had publicly acknowledged that Israel might have to adapt to a reality where Iran has nuclear capabilities. 5) Nuclear Agency for U.N. Faults Report on Iran by U.S. House David E. Sanger, New York Times, September 15, 2006 http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/15/world/middleeast/15iran.html The International Atomic Energy Agency has complained about a staff report from the House Intelligence Committee, saying that it "contains erroneous, misleading and unsubstantiated information" about Iran's nuclear program. Agency officials said Thursday that their concerns had echoes of their arguments with the Bush administration over Iraq three years ago. The staff report was widely seen as an effort to prod American intelligence agencies to be more aggressive in their examination of Iran's nuclear program, amid charges from some conservatives that the mistakes made in assessing Iraq's programs four years ago had bred an overly cautious atmosphere. But the staff report immediately came under criticism, especially from Democrats on the committee, who said it overstated aspects of the threat posed by Iran's nuclear program. The committee's vice chairman, Representative Harman, accused the staff of taking shortcuts that inflated the Iranian threat. The report was overseen by Fredrick Fleitz, who worked for John Bolton when he was the State Department's leading hawk on Iran. A senior European diplomat said, "The view at the I.A.E.A. was that this House report exaggerated the evidence, and people had to put a marker down fast." 6) Bush's Message to Iran David Ignatius, Washington Post, Friday, September 15, 2006; A19 http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/09/14/AR2006091401415.html What would President Bush say to the Iranian people? I was able to put that question to Bush in an interview. His answer made clear that the administration wants a diplomatic solution to the confrontation over Iran's nuclear program -- one that is premised on an American recognition of Iran's role as an important nation in the Middle East. " I would say to the Iranian people that I recognize the importance of your sovereignty -- that you're a proud nation, and you want to have a positive future for your citizens," Bush said. "In terms of the nuclear issue," he continued, "I understand that you believe it is in your interest -- your sovereign interest, and your sovereign right -- to have nuclear power. I understand that. But I would also say to the Iranian people, there are deep concerns about the intentions of some in your government who would use knowledge gained from a civilian nuclear power industry to develop a weapon that can then fulfill the stated objectives of some of the leadership. And I would say to the Iranian people that I would want to work for a solution to meeting your rightful desires to have civilian nuclear power." "I would tell the Iranian people that we have no desire for conflict," Bush added. Iraq 7) Iraq to Dig Trenches Around Baghdad Associated Press, September 15, 2006, Filed at 12:35 p.m. ET http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/world/AP-Iraq.html Iraqi security forces will dig trenches around Baghdad and set up checkpoints along all roads leading into the city to reduce some of the violence plaguing the capital, the Interior Ministry said Friday. To help halt that bloodshed, more U.S. troops have been shifted to Baghdad from the insurgent stronghold of Anbar province, a senior U.S. commander said. Israel 8) Inaccurate Map Led to Fatal Strike on U.N. Post, Israel Says Associated Press, September 15, 2006 http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/15/world/middleeast/15israel.html The airstrike that killed four UN observers in July was the result of the Israeli military's reliance on inaccurate maps, Israel said in a report released Thursday. A Foreign Ministry spokesman said the report was given to diplomats from Canada, China, Finland and Austria, which each had an unarmed observer killed in the July 25 airstrike. The UN has said that before the airstrike, its observers in Lebanon had telephoned the Israeli military 10 times in six hours to ask it to stop shelling near their position. UN officials said the observation position was well marked. A picture it released a day after the attack showed the three-story building was painted white and had the letters "U.N." emblazoned in large black letters on all sides. The UN is expected to issue its own report. Palestine 9) Palestinians Squabble Over Government New York Times, September 15, 2006 http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/15/world/middleeast/16mideastcnd.html Palestinian President Abbas announced Monday that Fatah and Hamas had agreed on a political platform for a unified national government. He said he expected that it would meet international requirements sufficiently to restore funding and aid, which were cut off after Hamas took power in March. But the program has not been published and Abbas has delayed dissolving the current government, apparently because the US and some EU members expressed doubts about whether the new program satisfies the West's three requirements: to recognize the right of Israel to exist, to forswear violence and to accept all previous Israeli-Palestinian agreements. On Thursday, Prime Minister Haniya accused the US of undermining efforts to form the new government and called on Europe to take the lead in lifting international sanctions against the Palestinians. "The U.S. administration does not want the Palestinians to be unified," Haniya said. "It puts obstacles in the way of this political coming together. It wants to extort the Palestinian people and the Palestinian government." Haniya and Abbas have been pushing on European anxieties about the severe economic depression the funding and aid cutoff has produced in the Palestinian territories, and in particular in Gaza, which the UN has called "a ticking time bomb." UN agencies have sharply increased their aid, including basic foodstuffs, to prevent malnutrition in Gaza, where 40 percent of the work force is employed by the Palestinian Authority and has had less than two months' salary in the last seven months. The Europeans want to end the stalemate and use the conclusion of the war in Lebanon as a springboard toward renewed Israeli-Palestinian talks. Turkey 10) Turkey, a Touchy Critic, Plans to Put a Novel on Trial Susanne Fowler, International Herald Tribune, September 15, 2006 http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/15/world/europe/15turkey.html [Turkey is a NATO member and close US ally, so its actions on human rights bear scutiny as a measure of the Bush Administration's stated policy of promoting democracy in the Middle East. - JFP.] "If there is a thief in a novel," said Elif Shafak recently, "it doesn't make the novelist a thief." Shafak is due in court on Sept. 21 to defend herself against charges that she insulted "Turkishness" because a character in her novel, "The Bastard of Istanbul," refers to the deaths of Armenians in 1915 as genocide. Shafak, is being sued under Article 301 of the Turkish Penal Code, the same law that ensnared Turkey's best-known contemporary author, Orhan Pamuk, in 2005. She is scheduled to give birth to her first child the week of the trial. A conviction carries a possible penalty of up to three years in jail. Pope's Comments on Islam 11) Muslims Express Fury Over Pope's Remarks Associated Press, September 15, 2006, Filed at 12:48 p.m. ET http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/world/AP-Pope-Muslims.html Muslims around the world expressed outrage Friday over Pope Benedict XVI's comments on Islam, with Turkey's ruling party accusing him of trying to revive the spirit of the Crusades and scores taking to the streets in protest. Pakistan's parliament unanimously condemned the pope and the Foreign Ministry summoned the Vatican's ambassador to express regret over the remarks. 12) Pope Gets it Wrong on Islam Juan Cole, Informed Comment, Friday, September 15, 2006 http://www.juancole.com/2006/09/pope-gets-it-wrong-on-islam-pope.html Pope Benedict's speech at Regensburg University, which mentioned Islam and jihad, has provoked a firestorm of controversy. The address is more complex and subtle than the press on it represents. But let me just signal that what is most troubling of all is that the Pope gets several things about Islam wrong, just as a matter of fact. He should apologize to the Muslims and get better advisers on Christian-Muslim relations. Mexico 13) Mexico's Fox Moves Event to Avoid Protesters Lisa J. Adams, Associated Press, Friday, September 15, 2006; A13 http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/09/14/AR2006091401582.html President Fox backed away from a confrontation with López Obrador on Thursday, announcing that he wouldn't hold his annual Independence Day celebration at the capital's main Zocalo plaza to avoid protesters. López Obrador and his supporters had vowed to upstage Fox by refusing to take part in Friday's salute of "Viva Mexico!," delivered each year by the president. They plan to take over the Zocalo for their own celebration, and some feared clashes if pro-government revelers showed up. Fox will move his ceremony to the town of Dolores Hidalgo, 170 miles northwest of Mexico City. Interior Minister Carlos Abascal made the announcement shortly after the Senate voted unanimously to recommend that Fox not travel to the Zocalo. Nicaragua 14) US warns Nicaraguans not to back Sandinista Adam Thomson, Financial Times, September 15 2006 http://www.ft.com/cms/s/b6eafab4-4456-11db-8965-0000779e2340.html The US ambassador to Nicaragua has issued a vigorous warning to this Central American country's electors against supporting Daniel Ortega, the veteran leftwing Sandinista leader and the frontrunner in November's presidential election. Paul Trivelli said Ortega was "undemocratic" and would roll back much of the advances made in recent years. Underlining the concern felt in Washington about the regional influence of President Chávez of Venezuela, the ambassador said he had no doubt that Venezuela was playing an important role in the election. -------- Robert Naiman Just Foreign Policy www.justforeignpolicy.org Just Foreign Policy is a membership organization devoted to reforming U.S. foreign policy so that it reflects the values and interests of the majority of Americans.
