Just Foreign Policy News October 31, 2006 No War with Iran: Petition More than 3300 people have signed the Just Foreign Policy/Peace Action petition through Just Foreign Policy's website. Please sign/circulate if you have yet to do so: http://www.justforeignpolicy.org/involved/iranpetition.html
Just Foreign Policy News daily podcast: http://www.justforeignpolicy.org/podcasts/podcast_howto.html Summary: U.S./Top News North Korea agreed today to return to the stalled six-nation talks on its nuclear weapons programs, the New York Times reports. The development raised hopes for easing of tensions created by North Korea's recent nuclear test. More American military officers are warming to the idea of setting a deadline for US troop reductions in Iraq, the Los Angeles Times reports. U.S. forces quickly complied with Prime Minister al-Maliki order lifting checkpoints around Sadr City, AP reports, calling the order another move to assert his authority with the Americans. Of more than 500,000 weapons turned over to the Iraqi Ministries of Defense and Interior since the American invasion the serial numbers of only 12,128 were properly recorded, notes the New York Times in an editorial. Some 370,000 of these weapons, some of which are undoubtedly being used to kill American troops, were paid for by US taxpayers. The US upset the regional balance in the Middle East when it invaded Iraq, writes retired general William Odom in the Los Angeles Times. Restoring it requires bold initiatives, but "cutting and running" must precede them all. Odom places particular emphasis on the need to cooperate with Iran, suggesting the U.S. should end its confrontation with Iran over Iran's nuclear program. Iran Iran has yet to satisfy the IAEA its nuclear program seeks only to produce electric power and not bombs, the head of the U.N. nuclear agency told the General Assembly on Monday. But Mohamed ElBaradei said he remained hopeful Iran would enter negotiations aimed at addressing concerns about Iran's aims and Iran's concerns about its security. Iran's representative told the assembly that Iran was ready for negotiations without conditions, Reuters reports. China on Tuesday criticized a U.S. Congressional commissioin that had attacked its relationship with Iran. The Commission, which tends to reflect concerns from U.S. conservative political circles about China's rise, accused Beijing of failing "to meet the threshold test of international responsibility" by aiding Iran's nuclear program, Reuters reports. Iraq Federal auditors say the Iraqi government is spending little of its own money on reconstruction projects, while the process for handing off U.S.-funded work "appears to have broken down," the Washington Post reports. Israel A far-right party opposed to relinquishing occupied land joined Israeli Prime Minister Olmert's governing coalition Monday. All but one cabinet member voted in favor of Yisrael Beitenu's entry, Reuters reports. The lone dissenter, Labor's Ofir Pines-Paz, announced his resignation from the cabinet and said he would stand for the leadership of Labor next year. "I cannot give up my conscience," he said. Prime Minister Olmert said Monday that the Israeli military might expand operations in the Gaza Strip, the New York Times reports. Egypt The nephew of former President Sadat was sentenced to a year in prison Tuesday for defaming Egypt's armed forces, AP reports. Sadat is the second prominent political opponent of the government to be sentenced to prison within 12 months. Pakistan More than 15,000 armed tribesmen protested a Pakistan Army helicopter attack on an Islamic school carried out in cooperation with the U.S., Reuters reports. Mexico As federal riot police hunkered down in Oaxaca Monday, protestors continued to communicate with their supporters by radio, the New York Times reports. Meanwhile, Oaxaca's governor refused to resign, even as both houses of Congress passed resolutions urging him to step down for the good of the nation. In Washington, the State Department's Sean McCormack said Washington would not press Mexico to investigate the shooting death in Oaxaca Friday of U.S. citizen Brad Will, Democracy Now reports. Mexican reports have suggested the killers were linked to the local government. Contents: U.S./Top News 1) North Korea Agrees to Return to Nuclear Talks Choe Sang-Hun, New York Times, October 31, 2006 http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/31/world/asia/01koreacnd.html North Korea agreed today to return to the stalled six-nation talks on dismantling its nuclear weapons programs, ending an 11-month boycott, American, South Korean and Chinese officials said. The development raised hopes for an easing of the tensions created by North Korea's Oct. 9 nuclear test. The agreement to resume the talks "soon" was reached during a three-way meeting in Beijing among chief nuclear negotiators from the US, North Korea and China, the Chinese Foreign Ministry said in a brief statement posted on its Web site. The chief American envoy to North Korea, Christopher Hill, told a news conference in Beijing that the talks could resume "in November or possibly December," news services reported. Hill also said that the Pyongyang regime had reaffirmed its commitment to a preliminary agreement reached in the six-nation talks last year, shortly before the talks collapsed. He said that he expected "substantial progress" once the talks resume. But Hill emphasized that the sanctions imposed by the UN Security Council after the nuclear test would remain in place, and he cautioned North Korea against conducting a second test. 2) Resistance To Deadlines For Iraq Is Weakening More U.S. officers doubt insurgents would gain, and believe that Baghdad must be pushed. Julian E. Barnes & Doyle McManus, Los Angeles Times, October 31, 2006 http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-deadlines31oct31,0,6295222.story Growing numbers of American military officers have begun to privately question a key tenet of U.S. strategy in Iraq - that setting a hard deadline for troop reductions would strengthen the insurgency and undermine efforts to create a stable state. The Iraqi government's refusal to take certain measures to reduce sectarian tensions between Sunni Arabs and the nation's Shiite Muslim majority has led these officers to conclude that Iraqis will not make difficult decisions unless they are pushed. Therefore, they say, the advantages of deadlines may outweigh the drawbacks. "Deadlines could help ensure that the Iraqi leaders recognize the imperative of coming to grips with the tough decisions they've got to make for there to be progress in the political arena," said a senior Army officer who has served in Iraq. Former Pentagon official Kurt Campbell said more officers are calling for deadlines after concluding that the indefinite presence of U.S. forces enables the Shiite-run Iraqi government to avoid making compromises. "There is a new belief that the biggest problem that we face is that our forces are the sand in the gears creating problems," said Campbell. "We are making things worse by giving the Iraqis a false sense of security at the governing level." For months, the Bush administration has been politely prodding the Iraqis on political and security reforms including the sharing of oil revenue, a crackdown on Shiite militias and constitutional changes. The discussions so far have yielded little, prompting experts to question whether the Iraqi government will ever compromise if there is no penalty for failing to make hard choices. 3) U.S. Obeys Order to Abandon Checkpoints Associated Press, October 31, 2006, Filed at 12:47 p.m. ET http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/world/AP-Iraq.html Prime Minister al-Maliki Tuesday ordered the lifting of joint U.S.-Iraqi military checkpoints around the Shiite militant stronghold of Sadr City and other parts of Baghdad - another apparent move to assert his authority with the Americans and appeal to his Shiite support base. U.S. forces disappeared from the checkpoints within hours of the order, setting off celebrations among civilians and armed men on the edge of the sprawling slum controlled by the Mahdi Army militia run by radical cleric Muqtada al-Sadr. Iraqi troops loaded coils of barbed wire and red traffic cones onto pickup trucks, while small groups of men and children danced in circles chanting slogans praising al-Sadr, who earlier Tuesday had ordered the area closed to the Iraqi government until U.S. troops lifted what he called their "siege" of the neighborhood. Al-Maliki's order threatened to further upset relations between the U.S. and the Iraqi government, which became strained last week after he issued a string of bitter complaints, at one point saying he was not "America's man in Iraq." The tightened security had been credited by some for producing a temporary decline in violence, possibly because it curbed the activities of Shiite death squads blamed for waves of sectarian killings of Sunnis. But a car bomb exploded in the neighborhood Tuesday, killing three people and wounding five, police said. On Monday, a bombing there killed at least 33 people. 4) The Untracked Guns of Iraq Editorial, New York Times, October 31, 2006 http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/31/opinion/31tue1.html About the last thing the US ought to be doing in Iraq is funneling weapons into black-market weapons bazaars, as sectarian militias arm themselves for civil war. Yet that is just what Washington may have been doing for the past several years, thanks to an inexplicable decision that standard Pentagon regulations for registering weapons transfers did not apply to the Iraq war. Of more than 500,000 weapons turned over to the Iraqi Ministries of Defense and Interior since the American invasion - including rocket-propelled grenade launchers, assault rifles, machine guns and sniper rifles - the serial numbers of only 12,128 were properly recorded. Some 370,000 of these weapons, some of which are undoubtedly being used to kill American troops, were paid for by US taxpayers, under the Orwellian-titled Iraq Relief and Reconstruction Fund. 5) How to cut and run We could lead the Mideast to peace, but only if we stop refusing to do the right thing William E. Odom, Los Angeles Times, October 31, 2006 Lt. Gen. William E. Odom (Ret.) is a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute. http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/asection/la-oe-odom31oct31,1,7826686.story The US upset the regional balance in the Middle East when it invaded Iraq. Restoring it requires bold initiatives, but "cutting and running" must precede them all. Only a complete withdrawal of all U.S. troops - within six months and with no preconditions - can break the paralysis that now enfeebles our diplomacy. And the greatest obstacles to cutting and running are the psychological inhibitions of our leaders and the public. Our leaders do not act because their reputations are at stake. The public does not force them to act because it is blinded by the president's conjured set of illusions: that we are reducing terrorism by fighting in Iraq; creating democracy there; preventing the spread of nuclear weapons; making Israel more secure; not allowing our fallen soldiers to have died in vain; and others. But reality can no longer be avoided. It is beyond U.S. power to prevent bloody sectarian violence in Iraq, the growing influence of Iran throughout the region, the probable spread of Sunni-Shiite strife to neighboring Arab states, the eventual rise to power of the anti-American cleric Muqtada Sadr or some other anti-American leader in Baghdad, and the spread of instability beyond Iraq. All of these things and more became unavoidable the day that U.S. forces invaded. These realities get worse every day that our forces remain in Iraq. They can't be wished away by clever diplomacy or by leaving our forces in Iraq for several more years. The administration could recognize that a rapid withdrawal is the only way to overcome our strategic paralysis, though that appears unlikely, notwithstanding election-eve changes in White House rhetoric. Congress could force a stock-taking. Failing this, the public will sooner or later see through all of the White House's double talk and compel a radical policy change. The price for delay, however, will be more lives lost in vain - the only thing worse than the lives already lost in vain. Some lawmakers are ready to change course but are puzzled as to how to leave Iraq. The answer is four major initiatives to provide regional stability and calm in Iraq. They will leave the U.S. less influential in the region. But it will be the best deal we can get. First, the U.S. must concede that it has botched things, cannot stabilize the region alone and must let others have a say in what's next. The second initiative is to create a diplomatic forum for Iraq's neighbors. Iran, of course, must be included. Washington should offer to convene the forum but be prepared to step aside if other members insist. Third, the U.S. must informally cooperate with Iran in areas of shared interests. Nothing else could so improve our position in the Middle East. The price for success will include dropping U.S. resistance to Iran's nuclear weapons program. This will be as distasteful for U.S. leaders as cutting and running, but it is no less essential. That's because we do share vital common interests with Iran. We both want to defeat Al Qaeda and the Taliban (Iran hates both). We both want stability in Iraq (Iran will have influence over the Shiite Iraqi south regardless of what we do, but neither Washington nor Tehran want chaos). And we can help each other when it comes to oil: Iran needs our technology to produce more oil, and we simply need more oil. Accepting Iran's nuclear weapons is a small price to pay for the likely benefits. Moreover, its nuclear program will proceed whether we like it or not. Accepting it might well soften Iran's support for Hezbollah, and it will definitely undercut Russia's pernicious influence with Tehran. Fourth, real progress must be made on the Palestinian issue as a foundation for Middle East peace. The invasion of Iraq and the U.S. tilt toward Israel have dangerously reduced Washington's power to broker peace or to guarantee Israel's security. We now need Europe's help. And good relations with Iran would help dramatically. No strategy can succeed without these components. We must cut and run tactically in order to succeed strategically. The US needs to restore its reputation so that its capacity to lead constructively will cost us less. Iran 6) U.N. Watchdog Still Hopes for Nuclear Talks with Iran Reuters, October 30, 2006, Filed at 2:31 p.m. ET http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/world/international-nuclear-elbaradei.html Iran has yet to satisfy U.N. watchdogs that its nuclear program seeks only to produce electric power and not bombs, the head of the U.N. nuclear agency told the General Assembly on Monday. Iran has neither suspended its nuclear enrichment-related activities nor been transparent enough to resolve all the outstanding questions of the International Atomic Energy Agency since August 31, when the IAEA issued its last report on Iran, said Director General Mohamed ElBaradei. "The IAEA continues therefore to be unable to confirm the peaceful nature of Iran's nuclear program, which is a matter of serious concern," said ElBaradei in his annual report to the 192-nation U.N. body. But he said he remained hopeful that Iran ultimately would enter negotiations aimed at addressing both international fears about Iran's aims and Tehran's own worries about its security. Tehran was ready for unconditional talks, Iran's deputy U.N. ambassador, Mehdi Danesh-Yazdi, told the assembly. Iran "has demonstrated its readiness to resume negotiations without any preconditions with its counterparts, to ensure them of the peaceful nature of its nuclear program," he said. 7) China slams U.S. Congress panel, arms sales to Taiwan Reuters, Tuesday, October 31, 2006; 5:46 AM http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/30/AR2006103001335.html China on Tuesday rebuffed a U.S. Congressional panel that criticised its foreign policies, and warned Washington against selling arms to Taiwan, exposing tensions recently tempered by cooperation between the two powers. Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao said he had read only media reports of the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission's annual overview that appeared on Monday. The Commission, which tends to reflect concerns from U.S. conservative political circles about China's rise, accused Beijing of failing "to meet the threshold test of international responsibility" by aiding Iran's nuclear and weapons programmes and refusing to use its leverage to push North Korea back into nuclear weapons negotiations. Iraq 8) Auditors Say Shift of Rebuilding to Iraqis Appears 'Broken Down' Griff Witte, Washington Post, Tuesday, October 31, 2006; A17 http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/30/AR2006103000202.html Ten months into a year-long effort to transfer control of Iraq's reconstruction to the Iraqis, federal auditors say, the government there is spending very little of its own money on projects, while the process for handing off U.S.-funded work "appears to have broken down," according to findings released yesterday. The fledgling Iraqi government, in power since May, has about $6 billion this year to devote to major rebuilding projects, representing about 20 percent of its overall budget. But auditors with the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction found that beyond paying employee salaries and administrative expenses, only a small amount of money is being spent on actual work. Auditors blamed "bureaucratic resistance within the Ministry of Finance, which traditionally has been slow to provide funds." Auditors also found fault with the way the Finance Ministry is keeping track of U.S.-built projects as they are handed over to the Iraqis and said some of the U.S. data on the subject are "incomplete or inaccurate." The findings speak to the difficult path that lies ahead as the US attempts to turn over a decidedly incomplete reconstruction effort to an Iraqi government that remains beset by corruption and has had huge problems exercising authority amid rising violence. At the beginning of the year, Inspector General Stuart Bowen labeled 2006 "the year of transition" as the U.S. winds up its dominant role in the reconstruction. But in yesterday's report, his office said the year is already into its fourth quarter and the transition remains "fraught with challenge." Among the obstacles: a "deteriorating security situation across Iraq," pervasive corruption in Iraqi ministries, and possible problems raising funds from international donors unless the Iraqi government can prove it is willing to spend the money it already has on roads, health clinics, power plants and other much-needed infrastructure. "I don't think the Iraqi government is prepared to take over the reconstruction," said Sen. Susan Collins, who has been overseeing the U.S.-led effort as chairman of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee. "But I don't know that continuing to pour our money and manpower into these projects is the answer, either." Israel 9) Olmert Gets Parliament Nod for Far - Right Partner Reuters, October 30, 2006, Filed at 3:27 p.m. ET http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/world/international-mideast.html A far-right faction opposed to relinquishing occupied land joined Israeli Prime Minister Olmert's governing coalition on Monday, a partnership likely to complicate any peace efforts with the Palestinians. Israel's parliament ratified Yisrael Beitenu's membership in the government. The party is led by Avigdor Lieberman, a firebrand settler who has become a figure of hate for Israel's Arab minority. Lieberman and his party advocate annexation of parts of the occupied West Bank and jurisdictional transfer of several Arab towns in Israel to the Palestinian Authority. All but one cabinet member voted in favor of Yisrael Beitenu's entry, Israel Radio said, after Olmert's main coalition partner, the left-leaning Labour party led by Defense Minister Amir Peretz, decided on Sunday to remain in the government despite its differences with Lieberman. The 120-member parliament approved the expanded government on Monday night with 61 lawmakers voting in favor and 38 opposing it. The minister who voted in cabinet against Lieberman and his party's inclusion, Ofir Pines-Paz of the Labour party, announced his resignation from the cabinet in a televised news conference. He also said he would stand for the leadership of his party when Labour holds a ballot sometime next year. "I cannot give up my conscience," said Pines-Paz, who holds the science and technology, culture and sport portfolios. He said Lieberman and other Yisrael Beitenu party members were "tainted through their racist and anti-democratic pronouncements." His departure will take effect 48 hours after he delivers his resignation letter to the cabinet. 10) Olmert Says Israel May Widen Military Role in Gaza Greg Myre, New York Times, October 31, 2006 http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/31/world/middleeast/31mideast.html Prime Minister Ehud Olmert of Israel said Monday that the Israeli military might expand operations in the Gaza Strip in an attempt to halt Palestinian rocket fire, but that there was no intention to reoccupy the territory. Olmert also said the military killed about 300 armed Palestinians in the past four months, according to Ms. Eisin. Monitoring groups have said that more than 250 Palestinians were killed during this time, about half militants and half civilians. Two Israeli soldiers have been killed in the fighting. Egypt 11) Sadat Nephew Gets 1 - Year Sentence Associated Press, October 31, 2006, Filed at 11:37 a.m. ET http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/world/AP-Egypt-Sadat.html The nephew of the late President Anwar Sadat was sentenced to a year in prison Tuesday for defaming Egypt's armed forces, less than a month after he gave an interview accusing Egyptian generals of masterminding his uncle's assassination. The unusually rapid prosecution effectively terminates Talaat Sadat's role in parliament as an outspoken government critic. Sadat, who had accused the government of prosecuting him for political reasons, was taken into custody immediately after the verdict, said his aide, Mohsen Eid, and court officials. Media were not allowed into the courtroom and Egyptian newspapers have been instructed not to report his trial, which has come under criticism from the State Department as harmful to freedom of expression. There is no appeal against military court verdicts. Sadat's only option is to appeal to President Hosni Mubarak. Sadat is the second prominent political opponent of the government to be sentenced to prison within 12 months. Last December, Ayman Nour, the leading challenger in last year's presidential elections, was sentenced to five years' imprisonment for forgery after a trial that was internationally regarded as failing to meet standards of due process. Within minutes of the sentencing, Sadat's supporters shouted outside the court: "This is injustice!" "This is unlawful!" Sadat had pleaded innocent to charges of "spreading false rumors and insulting the armed forces." Pakistan 12) Pakistani tribals seethe over airstrike on madrasa Al-Zawahri past visitor to Pakistani madrasa Anwarullah Khan, Reuters, Tuesday, October 31, 2006; 12:38 PM http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/31/AR2006103100125.html Al Qaeda Number Two Ayman al-Zawahri was a past visitor to a madrasa destroyed by a Pakistan Army helicopter attack, but he was not there when the missiles struck on Monday, senior Pakistani security officials said. Several other al Qaeda luminaries had passed through the religious school run by pro-Taliban cleric Maulana Liaqatullah, who was killed in the airstrike along with around 80 of his followers, the officials told reporters a day after the attack. Among the other known militants to have frequented the madrasa at Chenagai village, near the Afghan border in the Bajaur tribal region of northwest Pakistan, was Abu Obaida al-Misri. An Egyptian, like Zawahri, al-Misri was identified as the mastermind of a plot to blow up U.S.-bound airliners flying from London's Heathrow airport that was foiled earlier this year. The officials say he was a mentor to Rashid Rauf, a British Muslim arrested in Pakistan in August, who was said to be a key figure in the conspiracy. No major militant figure was believed to have been present when the army attacked, and orders for the assault were given in anticipation that the militants were about to be sent to fight - possibly to launch suicide attacks on NATO and Afghan forces. Last January, a CIA-operated Predator missile attack targeted Zawahri in Bajaur's Damadola village near the Afghan border. Intelligence officials said a handful of al Qaeda operatives at a parley hosted by Liaqatullah were killed. But Zawahri was a no-show and reports that al-Misri was killed proved incorrect. The Pakistan government had been trying to persuade militant tribesmen to agree peace terms along the lines of accords brokered earlier in the two most restive tribal regions - North and South Waziristan. But officials said Liaqatullah and his comrade Maulana Faqir Mohammad, who rallied fighters at the site of the destroyed madrasa immediately after the attack, ignored all warnings. The officials showed reporters aerial footage shot through a night vision lens of rows of men exercising before daybreak, just an hour before the missiles struck the compound. Tribesmen said the dead, mostly young men aged between 15 and 25, were merely students. But, President Pervez Musharraf, speaking at a seminar in Islamabad, said they were all militants. More than 15,000 armed tribesmen protested against the attack in Khar, Bajaur's main town, and Islamist politicians stoked anti-Western and anti-Musharraf sentiment among ethnic Pashtuns in several towns around North West Frontier Province. Nowhere is Musharraf's alliance with the US more unpopular than in the Pashtun tribal belt straddling the Pakistan-Afghan border. The tribesmen in Khar showed their loyalty with shouts of "Long Live Osama" and "Long Live Mullah Omar." Islamist politicians said the attack on the school was really carried out by a U.S. Predator drone aircraft, but Pakistan's military spokesman and a U.S. spokesman in Kabul denied it. Mexico 13) Mexican Protesters Keep Their Message Alive, and on the Air Marc Lacey, New York Times, October 31, 2006 http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/31/world/americas/31mexico.html As federal riot police hunkered down in Oaxaca's main square on Monday, protesters sought to protect their not-so-secret weapon in their five-month siege of the city: the pilfered radio transmitter they use to mobilize the population. "We are in a red alert, a red alert!" a nervous-sounding announcer said over and over from inside the bullet-scarred university station, which was ringed by sandbags and protected by masked supporters on the roof equipped with handmade mortars. "The police are moving in!" The cry was premature, but it drew hundreds of supporters from across this city in southern Mexico. They prepared Molotov cocktails and reinforced the barriers around the gates of Oaxaca University in anticipation of a raid. "We will transmit until the last minute," an announcer who described himself as a law professor said in an interview. "We will not run. We are like the captains of the ship, and we'll go down with the ship." Oaxaca State's beleaguered governor, Ulises Ruiz, was also hunkered down, on his own turf. The federal police remained in control of the central square on Monday, but protesters marched through the rest of downtown, denouncing Ruiz and occasionally setting fire to vehicles. Although the governor insisted in a television interview on Monday that he would not resign, his support appeared thin as both houses of the Congress passed nonbinding resolutions urging him to cede power for the good of the state and the nation. In the Chamber of Deputies, only Ruiz's Institutional Revolutionary Party, known as the PRI, and another small allied party stuck by the governor, and even that backing seemed lukewarm. In the Senate, even the PRI joined in a statement urging Ruiz to "reconsider separating himself from charge, in order to contribute to the re-establishment of governability, normality and peace." But the governor said he was not budging. "I am governing Oaxaca," he declared in a late-night news conference, dismissing the protesters as a relatively small group that did not represent the masses. "The questions of Oaxaca will be decided by Oaxacans." 14) State Dept: U.S. Won't Press Mexico Over Death of Brad Will Democracy Now, Tuesday, October 31st, 2006 http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=06/10/31/150205 In Washington the State Department has indicated it is not going to press the Mexican government over the murder of American journalist Brad Will. He was shot dead on Friday by Mexican gunmen tied to the government. He died with his video camera in his hand. - State Department spokesperson Sean McCormack: "Well anytime you resort to violence which results in the death of a citizen whether it's American or any other nationality, it's a source of concern. But that is really going to be up to the Mexican government – to deal with - how they deal with this I understand originally started out as a series of protests - they turned violent and the Mexican authorities are dealing with them." McCormack was later asked whether the Bush administration would demand the Mexican government investigate who is responsibility for the murder of Will. McCormack claimed the State Department is not aware that anyone linked to Will's death has been identified. However the Mexican press has published a photograph taken at the scene showing the armed men. They have been identified as Juan Carlos Soriano, Manuel Aguilar, Abel Santiago Zárate and Pedro Caramona. All four men are connected to the local government. They are reportedly now in custody. - Robert Naiman Just Foreign Policy www.justforeignpolicy.org Just Foreign Policy is a membership organization devoted to reforming U.S. foreign policy so it reflects the values and interests of the majority of Americans.
