Just Foreign Policy News
September 22, 2006
http://www.justforeignpolicy.org/newsroom/index.html
Just Foreign Policy wishes its Jewish readers a happy new year and its Muslim readers an easy fast. May you be inscribed in the Book of Life, and may every new year find you in peace.
Summary:
U.S.
On the strength of President Chavez' endorsement in his UN speech, Noam Chomsky's book Hegemony or Survival is now #1 on the top sellers on Amazon.
The New York Times and the Washington Post editorialize today against the deal that Senators Warner, McCain & Graham negotiated with the White House on the treatment of detainees. The ink was barely dry when the White House started trying to wiggle out of its one real concession, the Times notes, suggesting the administration might renege on its agreement to drop its insistence on allowing prosecutors to introduce classified evidence kept secret from defendants. Meanwhile, the compromise does not bar coerced evidence, allows detention without trial, and chokes off judicial review. Bush intends to continue using the CIA to secretly detain and abuse terrorist suspects by issuing his own interpretation of the Geneva Conventions and relying on questionable Justice Department opinions that authorize such practices as exposing prisoners to hypothermia and prolonged sleep deprivation, the Post notes.
Strains on the Army from the wars in Iraq & Afghanistan have become so severe that Army officials may be forced to make greater use of the National Guard to provide troops for overseas deployments, the Times reports. The prospect presents the Bush administration with a problem: how to balance the pressing need for troops in the field against promises to limit overseas deployments for the Guard.
Former President Clinton said Thursday the U.S. should try talking to Iran about its nuclear weapons ambitions without imposing a lot of conditions.
President Bush's announcement this month that the CIA has emptied out its secret prisons has raised new questions about what has happened to dozens of Al Qaeda suspects who were believed to have been in US custody. Human rights groups say the fate of dozens of detainees who were in CIA custody is still unknown.
Iran
The US has agreed, once again, to extend the "weeks, not months" deadline it set in June for Iran to stop uranium enrichment or face Security Council sanctions, the Times reports. The new deadline: early October.
President Ahmadinejad said Thursday his government is prepared to consider suspending its uranium-enrichment program if Western governments meet unspecified conditions, the Post reports.
Lebanon
The latest maneuver in the battle for Lebanon's political future is Hezbollah's call for a national unity government that would threaten the slim majority held by pro-Western parties, the Times reports. The surge in popularity Hezbollah has enjoyed since this summer's war has alarmed those trying to pull Lebanon more securely into the American orbit, since they fear political gains for Hezbollah translate into political gains for Iran. Pro-Western Lebanese politicians have watched with dismay as Iranian influence has spread across the region, largely with the help, they say, of American foreign policy.
Pakistan
President Musharraf of Pakistan said yesterday that after the Sept. 11 attacks the US threatened to bomb his country if it did not cooperate with the American campaign against the Taliban in Afghanistan. Musharraf said the threat came from Richard Armitage, then deputy secretary of state. According to Musharraf, Armitage said: " 'Be prepared to be bombed. Be prepared to go back to the Stone Age.' " Musharraf added, "I think it was a very rude remark." Ironically, "very rude" was the characterization by Secretary General Annan of the pieing of the IMF Managing Director in Bangkok the previous year.
Afghanistan
The U.S. military plans no troop cuts in Afghanistan before March, as fighting intensifies against Taliban forces. There are approximately 20,000 U.S. troops in Afghanistan, the highest number since the U.S. invasion in 2001.
Thailand
On Thursday, General Sonthi banned political gatherings and warned Thai media executives against publishing "expressions of public opinion."
Bolivia
In an interview with Democracy Now, Bolivian President Evo Morales called for the U.S. to extradite former Bolivian president Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada to face trial for killing over 100 people. Of oil companies operating in Bolivia, he said, "The investor has the right to recuperate their investment and to a reasonable profit. But we can't allow for the sacking of the country and only the companies benefiting, not the people." During his address to the General Assembly Tuesday, Morales vowed to never yield to U.S. pressure to criminalize coca production.
In this issue:
U.S.
1) Chavez plug for Chomsky's book boosts sales
2) A Bad Bargain
3) The Abuse Can Continue
4) Top Republicans Reach an Accord on Detainee Bill
5) Strained, Army Looks to Guard for More Relief
6) Bill Clinton: U.S. Should Talk to Iran
7) Fate of Some CIA Detainees Still Unknown
Iran
8) Iran Is Given More Time to End Uranium Enrichment
9) Iran Open To a Break In Nuclear Program
Lebanon
10) Lebanon's Future: Bending Toward Hezbollah or Leaning to the West?
Pakistan
11) Pakistani Leader Claims U.S. Threat After 9/11
Afghanistan
12) Taliban's Gains Forestall U.S. Troop Reductions in Afghanistan
Thailand
13) Thai Junta Imposes Curbs on News Media
Bolivia
14) Bolivian President Evo Morales on Latin America and U.S. Foreign Policy
Contents:
U.S.
1) Chavez plug for Chomsky's book boosts sales
Andrew Buncombe, The Independent (UK), 22 September 2006
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/americas/article1696141.ece
Who needs publicists and expensive advertising campaigns when you have Hugo Chavez plugging your books? When Venezuela's leader spoke at the UN this week and described George Bush as the devil, he also gave a resounding boost to a book by another outspoken critic of the US President, Noam Chomsky. After Chavez recommended that anyone wishing to understand "what has been happening in the world through the 20th century" read Professor Chomsky's 2003 work, Hegemony or Survival: America's Quest for Global Dominance, sales of the book soared. On Amazon.com's best-seller list , it leapt from 160,722nd position overnight to seventh. [Now it is #1 - JFP.]
2) A Bad Bargain
Editorial, New York Times, September 22, 2006
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/22/opinion/22fri1.html
Less than an hour agreement was announced, the White House was trying to wiggle out of its one real concession. About the only thing that Senators Warner, McCain & Graham had to show for their defiance was Bush's agreement to drop his insistence on allowing prosecutors to introduce classified evidence kept secret from defendants. Bush agreed to abide by the rules of courts-martial, which bar secret evidence. (Although the administration's supporters claim this means giving classified information to terrorists, the rules actually provide for reviewing, editing & summarizing classified material.)
As Graham notes, the US wouldn't stand for another country convicting a US citizen with secret evidence. It seemed like a significant concession - until Stephen Hadley, the national security adviser, said while the White House wants to honor the deal, the chair of the House Armed Services Committee, Rep. Hunter, wants to permit secret evidence and should have his say. To accept this requires believing that Hunter, who railroaded Bush's bill through his committee, is going to take any action not blessed by the White House.
On other issues, the three senators achieved only modest improvements on the White House's original positions. They wanted to bar evidence obtained through coercion. Now, they have agreed to allow it if a judge finds it reliable (which coerced evidence hardly can be) and relevant to guilt. The way coercion is measured in the bill, even those protections would not apply to prisoners at Guantánamo.
The deal does next to nothing to stop the president from reinterpreting the Geneva Conventions. While the White House agreed to a list of "grave breaches" of the conventions that could be prosecuted as war crimes, it said the president could decide on his own what actions might be a lesser breach of the Geneva Conventions and what interrogation techniques he considered permissible. It's not clear how much the public will learn about those decisions. They will be in an executive order that is supposed to be made public, but Hadley said specific interrogation techniques will remain secret.
Even before the compromises, the overall bill prepared by the three senators had fatal flaws. It allows the president to declare any foreigner, anywhere, an "illegal enemy combatant" using a dangerously broad definition, and detain him without any trial. It not only fails to deal with the fact that many of the Guantánamo detainees are not terrorists and will never be charged, but it also chokes off any judicial review.
The Democrats have largely stood silent and allowed the trio of Republicans to do the lifting. It's time for them to either try to fix this bill or delay it until after the election. The American people expect their leaders to clean up this mess without endangering U.S. troops, eviscerating American standards of justice, or further harming the nation's severely damaged reputation.
3) The Abuse Can Continue
Senators won't authorize torture, but they won't prevent it, either.
Editorial, Washington Post, Friday, September 22, 2006; A16
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/09/21/AR2006092101647.html
The good news about the agreement is that Congress will not - as Bush had demanded - pass legislation that formally reinterprets U.S. compliance with the Geneva Conventions. Nor will the Senate endorse the administration's use of interrogation techniques that most of the world regards as cruel & inhumane, if not outright torture. Trials of accused terrorists will be fairer than the system outlawed in June by the Supreme Court.
The bad news is that Bush intends to continue using the CIA to secretly detain and abuse terrorist suspects. He will do so by issuing his own interpretation of the Geneva Conventions and relying on questionable Justice Department opinions that authorize such practices as exposing prisoners to hypothermia and prolonged sleep deprivation. Under the compromise, Congress would recognize his authority to take these steps and prevent prisoners from appealing them to U.S. courts. The bill would immunize CIA personnel from prosecution for all but the most serious abuses and protect those who in the past violated U.S. law against war crimes.
It's hard to credit the statement by McCain that "there's no doubt that the integrity and letter and spirit of the Geneva Conventions have been preserved." The agreement means that U.S. violations of international law can continue as long as Bush is president, with Congress's assent. The senators who fought to rein in the administration's excesses failed to break Bush's commitment to "alternative" methods that virtually every senior officer of the U.S. military regards as unreliable, counterproductive and dangerous for Americans who may be captured by hostile governments.
Bush wanted Congress to formally approve these practices and to declare them consistent with the Geneva Conventions. It will not. But it will not stop him either, if the legislation is passed in the form agreed on yesterday. Bush will go down in history for his embrace of torture and bear responsibility for the enormous damage that has caused.
4) Top Republicans Reach an Accord on Detainee Bill
Kate Zernike, New York Times, September 22, 2006
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/22/washington/22detain.html
The Bush administration and Congressional Republicans reached agreement Thursday on legislation governing the treatment and interrogation of terrorism suspects after weeks of debate that divided Republicans. Under the deal, Bush dropped his demand that Congress redefine the nation's obligations under the Geneva Conventions, handing a victory to a group of Republicans. The administration's original stance had run into fierce resistance from former and current military lawyers and Bush's former secretary of state, Colin Powell. They argued, as did McCain and the other two senators leading the resistance, that any redefinition would invite other nations to alter their obligations and endanger American troops captured abroad.
5) Strained, Army Looks to Guard for More Relief
Thom Shanker & Michael R. Gordon, New York Times, September 22, 2006
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/22/world/22army.html
Strains on the Army from the wars in Iraq & Afghanistan have become so severe that Army officials say they may be forced to make greater use of the National Guard to provide enough troops for overseas deployments. The prospect presents the Bush administration with a politically vexing problem: how, without expanding the Army, to balance the pressing need for troops in the field against promises to limit overseas deployments for the Guard. The Guard has a goal of allowing 5 years at home between foreign deployments to not disrupt family life and careers of citizen soldiers. But it has been sending units every 3-4 years. The question of how to sustain the high level of forces abroad became more acute this week as Gen. Abizaid, senior American commander in the Middle East, said the number of troops in Iraq, currently more than 140,000, could not be expected to drop until next spring at the earliest.
6) Bill Clinton: U.S. Should Talk to Iran
Associated Press, September 21, 2006, Filed at 8:44 a.m. ET http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/us/AP-Clinton-Iran.html
Former President Clinton said Thursday the U.S. should try talking to Iran about its nuclear weapons ambitions without imposing a lot of conditions. The Bush administration has refused to hold direct talks with Iran until it agrees to suspend enrichment of uranium. ''The United States should not be afraid to talk to anyone. They should not be reluctant and shouldn't have too many conditions,'' said Clinton, who said his own offer to meet with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's predecessor had been rebuffed.
7) Fate of Some CIA Detainees Still Unknown
Missing Boston woman among them, kin say
Farah Stockman, Boston Globe, Friday, September 22, 2006
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines06/0922-07.htm
President Bush's announcement this month that the CIA has emptied out its secret prisons has raised new questions about what has happened to dozens of Al Qaeda suspects who were believed to have been in US custody. A senior administration official said fewer than 100 detainees had been held in the CIA program and all of them have been turned over to the Department of Defense to be held at Guantánamo, returned to their country of origin, or entered into a legal process. But human rights groups say the fate of dozens of detainees who were in CIA custody is still unknown.
"The Red Cross has said 36 high-level suspects have been in CIA custody," said Zachary Katznelson, counsel to Reprieve, a British legal aid society. "Fourteen have been transferred to Guantánamo Bay, and President Bush says that there are now no terrorists in the CIA program. Where are those 22 other men?" Joanne Mariner of Human Rights Watch said, "There are certainly detainees unaccounted for, and we are very concerned about their present circumstances and the possibility of continued arbitrary detention and abusive treatment." Human Rights Watch released a list last year of 27 suspects who were thought to be in CIA detention. Thirteen of the 27 were among the 14 transferred recently to Guantánamo Bay.
Iran
8) Iran Is Given More Time to End Uranium Enrichment
Helene Cooper, New York Times, September 22, 2006
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/22/world/middleeast/22iran.html
The US has agreed, once again, to extend the "weeks, not months" deadline it set in June for Iran to stop uranium enrichment or face Security Council sanctions. The new deadline: early October. A senior Bush administration official said Thursday that foreign ministers from six world powers seeking to rein in Iran's nuclear ambitions decided Tuesday to give Iran a little more time to comply with their demand. Iran missed an Aug. 31 deadline for suspending enrichment, and the US is pushing for a new measure imposing travel bans and asset freezes on Iranian officials. European officials urged Secretary of State Rice to allow more time for EU diplomat Javier Solana to continue talks with Iran's nuclear negotiator, Ali Larijani, and she agreed. The new deadline was first reported Thursday in The Washington Post.
At a news conference at the UN Thursday, President Ahmadinejad said talks were "moving on the right path," but Iran was seeking "guarantees" and a "framework" because it had "bitter experiences" with unfulfilled promises by the West. He held out the possibility that Iran might agree to end nuclear activities. "We have said that under fair conditions and just conditions, we will negotiate about it, under fair and just conditions," he said. He added: "The bottom line is we do not need the bomb. Some think that bombs can be effective in international relations, but we know that these nuclear arsenals will not benefit anyone."
9) Iran Open To a Break In Nuclear Program
But Ahmadinejad Demands 'Fair, Just' Conditions for Talks
Colum Lynch, Washington Post, Friday, September 22, 2006; A13
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/09/20/AR2006092002122.html
President Ahmadinejad said Thursday his government is prepared to consider suspending its uranium-enrichment program if Western governments meet unspecified conditions.
His remarks indicated that he is prepared to move ahead with preliminary discussions with European powers aimed at heading off a confrontation with the West. The statement comes two days after the US and other key powers authorized the EU's Solana to continue sessions with Iran's nuclear negotiator Larijani. The two negotiators have been seeking to set the terms of formal talks on Iran's nuclear program that would place the US and Iran at the same negotiating table. Ahmadinejad accused the West of reneging on previous agreements to support Iran's efforts to develop a nuclear power program. He said Tehran is seeking assurances that the US and its European partners will provide enforceable guarantees that they will abide by any agreements they ultimately make in formal negotiations.
Lebanon
10) Lebanon's Future: Bending Toward Hezbollah or Leaning to the West?
Craig S. Smith, New York Times, September 22, 2006
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/22/world/middleeast/22lebanon.html
The battle for Lebanon's political future continues apace. The latest maneuver in that fight is Hezbollah's vociferous call for a national unity government that would threaten the slim majority held by pro-Western parties, known as the March 14 movement after a huge demonstration on that date in 2005. "The political map now is different," said Ahmad Malli, a member of Hezbollah's politburo. "March 14 doesn't represent the real majority in Lebanon anymore." The struggle is about the shifting alliances of Lebanese domestic politics. But the surge in popularity and power that Hezbollah has enjoyed since this summer's war has alarmed those who are trying to pull Lebanon more securely into the American orbit, since they fear that political gains for Hezbollah translate into political gains for Iran. Pro-Western Lebanese politicians have watched with dismay as Iranian influence has spread across the region, largely with the help, they say, of American foreign policy.
Pakistan
11) Pakistani Leader Claims U.S. Threat After 9/11
Reuters, September 22, 2006
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/22/world/asia/22pakistan.html
President Musharraf of Pakistan said yesterday that after the Sept. 11 attacks the US threatened to bomb his country if it did not cooperate with the American campaign against the Taliban in Afghanistan. General Musharraf, in an interview with "60 Minutes" that will be broadcast Sunday, said the threat came from Richard Armitage, then the deputy secretary of state, and was made to General Musharraf's intelligence director. Musharraf said the intelligence director had told him that Armitage had said: " 'Be prepared to be bombed. Be prepared to go back to the Stone Age.' " Musharraf added, "I think it was a very rude remark."
Afghanistan
12) Taliban's Gains Forestall U.S. Troop Reductions in Afghanistan
Ann Scott Tyson, Washington Post, Friday, September 22, 2006; A13
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/09/21/AR2006092101249.html
The U.S. military plans no troop cuts in Afghanistan before March, as fighting intensifies against Taliban forces that have gained influence in a political and security "vacuum" in the southern part of the country, according to a senior U.S. commander. "Our troop levels in Afghanistan will remain about steady through … February," said Lt. Gen. Karl Eikenberry. There are approximately 20,000 U.S. troops in Afghanistan, the highest number since the U.S.-led invasion in October 2001 to overthrow the Taliban government. Eikenberry said Taliban fighters and extremists have grown more numerous, organized and determined in some parts of the south and southeast, where foreign troops were limited and the Afghan government was weak.
Thailand
13) Thai Junta Imposes Curbs on News Media
Thomas Fuller, International Herald Tribune, September 22, 2006
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/22/world/asia/22thailand.html
On Thursday, General Sonthi sought to strengthen the grip of his junta, banning political gatherings and "activities" and summoning Thai media executives to army headquarters to warn them against publishing "expressions of public opinion" - possibly a reference to opinion polls but perhaps also including commentaries.
Bolivia
14) Bolivian President Evo Morales on Latin America and U.S. Foreign Policy
Democracy Now, Friday, September 22nd, 2006
http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=06/09/22/1323211
Democracy Now devoted its program today to an interview with Bolivian President Evo Morales. Morales called for the U.S. to extradite former Bolivian president Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada to face trial for killing over 100 people. "A government that says it fights against terrorism, for human rights, against corruption, it's not conceivable that this person would still be here," Morales said. Of oil companies operating in Bolivia, he said, "The investor has the right to recuperate their investment and to a reasonable profit. But we can't allow for the sacking of the country and only the companies benefiting, not the people." During his address to the General Assembly Tuesday, Morales vowed to never yield to U.S. pressure to criminalize coca production. During his speech he held up a coca leaf, though it is banned in the US. [The speech can be viewed here:
http://www.un.org/webcast/ga/61/gastatement19.shtml ]
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Robert Naiman
Just Foreign Policy
www.justforeignpolicy.org
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