[PEN-L] U.S. Strike in Somalia

[Yoshie Furuhashi]

U.S. Strike in Somalia Targets Al-Qaeda Figure

By Karen DeYoung
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, January 9, 2007; A11

A U.S. Navy AC-130 gunship attacked suspected al-Qaeda members inside
Somalia on Sunday, and U.S. sources said the operation may have hit a
senior terrorist figure.

The strike in southern Somalia was launched at night from the U.S.
Central Command base in neighboring Djibouti. It was based on joint
military-CIA intelligence and on information provided by Ethiopian and
Kenyan military forces operating in the area.

It was the first U.S. military action inside Somalia since 1994, when
President Bill Clinton withdrew U.S. troops after a failed operation
in Mogadishu that led to the deaths of 18 Army Rangers and Delta Force
special operations soldiers.

"You had some figures on the move in a relatively unpopulated part of
the country," said one source confirming the attack who, like others,
would discuss the operation only on the condition of anonymity. "It
was a confluence of information and circumstances," he said.

Sources said last night that initial reports from the area indicated
the attack had been successful, although information was still scanty.
The attack was first reported by CBS News.

One target of the strike, sources said, was Abu Talha al-Sudani, a
Sudanese who is married to a Somali woman and has lived in Somalia
since 1993 -- the year of the attack against U.S. troops that was
chronicled in the book and movie "Black Hawk Down." In a 2001 U.S.
court case against Osama bin Laden, Sudani was described by a leading
witness as an explosives expert who was close to the al-Qaeda leader.

Sudani is among several senior al-Qaeda operatives who, the Bush
administration said, were being sheltered by Islamic fundamentalists
who last year seized control of Mogadishu, Somalia's capital. Late
last month, the fundamentalists, who controlled much of southern
Somalia, were driven out of the capital and were pushed toward the
Kenyan border by Ethiopian troops, who installed an internationally
backed transitional government.

Other al-Qaeda figures who allegedly had taken refuge in Somalia, U.S.
officials said, included three participants in the 1998 bombings of
the U.S. embassies in Tanzania and Kenya.

The United States has been leading an international diplomatic effort
to stabilize Somalia, including organizing an African peacekeeping
force to replace the thousands of Ethiopian troops occupying the
southern part of the country. It has called on leaders of the
transitional government to negotiate a power-sharing arrangement with
moderate members of the Islamic leadership who are not seen as
terrorist facilitators and who are supported by a significant segment
of Somali clans.

Neither effort has met with much success. African countries have been
reluctant to offer troops, and the new Somalian leaders have resisted
negotiations.

Sources would not confirm that U.S. forces are operating on the ground
in the Somalia-Kenyan border area, although one emphasized that "we
are working very, very closely" with Kenyan forces.

In remarks to reporters late last week, a senior U.S. general with
expertise in East Africa said there were no plans to deploy U.S.
troops to Somalia. The Djibouti-based Combined Joint Task Force-Horn
of Africa, with approximately 1,500 U.S. personnel, including special
operations troops, has the job of conducting anti-terrorist operations
and training.

The U.S. Navy presence in the Indian Ocean was stepped up for the
strike, with the USS Eisenhower, an aircraft carrier, being deployed
to provide air cover and, if needed, evacuate downed airmen and other
casualties. The Eisenhower joined several Navy ships from the Fifth
Fleet, based in Bahrain, that have been patrolling the area to prevent
al-Qaeda elements from fleeing war-torn Somalia by sea, a Navy
spokesman said.

The AC-130 gunship is a heavily armed aircraft, with four cannons and
a six-barrel Gatling gun capable of firing 1,800 rounds a minute. But
its most striking weapon is a computer-operated 105mm howitzer that
juts sideways from the middle of the aircraft. An offensive behemoth
that is relatively defenseless against counterattack, it flies only at
night.

It is a blunt weapon that can scorch a wide swath of territory but is
not well suited to precision attacks. Sources last night emphasized
that intelligence reports indicated that the targeted area was
"unpopulated."

The Bush administration has long claimed the right to launch military
attacks in other countries when suspected terrorist targets have been
identified. In 2002, a missile fired by a U.S. Predator drone over
Yemen killed six suspected al-Qaeda terrorists riding in a car across
the desert about 100 miles east of that nation's capital. Officials
later said the attack had been carried out with the approval of the
Yemeni government

A Predator strike was ordered b

[PEN-L] Europe, US Squeeze Iran on Nuclear Plans

[Yoshie Furuhashi]

Europe, US squeeze Iran on nuclear plans

By Daniel Dombey in London and Gareth Smyth in Tehran

Published: January 8 2007 21:28 | Last updated: January 8 2007 21:28

Western Europe and the US are seeking to ratchet up pressure on Iran
over its controversial nuclear programme in the wake of a United
Nations Security Council resolution last month that declared almost
all of Tehran's nuclear activities illegal.

Some European Union diplomats have indicated a growing readiness to
impose additional bilateral sanctions on Iran above and beyond those
mandated by the UN – a course of action long championed by the US.

One source of such measures is an "à la carte" list of possible EU
sanctions on Iran drawn up by Javier Solana, EU foreign policy chief,
almost a year ago. This includes a possible crackdown on export
credits for companies doing business with Iran and the declaration of
a formal arms embargo on Iran.

At the same time, the new UN regime – which took months to negotiate
in New York – appears to have surprised parts of Iran's leadership,
with differences emerging on how best to respond. After a period in
which Iran saw its regional influence increase at relatively little
cost, Tehran now faces greater isolation.

"We know that they won't meet their obligations to the UN during the
60-day deadline set by the resolution," said an EU envoy, referring to
the resolution backed by the Security Council on December 23. "After
that, a big issue is going to be what the EU and others can do beyond
what the UN called for."

Many of the specific steps called for by the UN resolution are focused
on preventing Tehran from acquiring "dual-use" goods that could be
used in its nuclear and missile programmes. The resolution does not
impose broad-based economic sanctions, but prohibits UN member states
from financing Iran's nuclear activities.

However, it goes much further than the UN's earlier actions in
outlawing a wide range of Iran's nuclear activities, including
research and development and a heavy water reactor for which Tehran
had requested UN funding only a few months earlier. The previous
resolution – which carried a deadline of August 31 last year – had
merely demanded that Iran suspend uranium enrichment, a process that
can generate both nuclear fuel and weapons grade material.

A regime insider told the FT last week there was no chance Iran would
accept the resolution within the 60-day deadline, and would go ahead
with plans to extend the number of centrifuges – devices for enriching
uranium – in the research plant at Natanz.

But pragmatists in Tehran have become bolder in pronouncements,
because of their concern at the scope of the UN resolution and because
of the reverse suffered by President Mahmoud Ahmadi-Nejad in elections
last month. The mood has shifted but not yet policy," the insider
said. "There may well be changes in the leadership's approach, but not
immediately."

In December, Kazem Vaziri-Hamaneh, oil minister, admitted Tehran was
having trouble financing oil projects in a rare acknowledgment of the
economic cost of its nuclear dispute.

However, Germany, which currently holds the EU presidency, has
reservations about further sanctions. "Responsible policy would be to
look at how to bring this back to a political process rather than
studying what else you can do in the way of sanctions," said a
European diplomat.

Iran's Fars news agency on Monday ran a long interview with Hossein
Mousavian, a former nuclear negotiator close to former president Akbar
Hashemi Rafsanjani, in which he described the UN Security Council as
the "highest international legislative authority" and criticised the
government of Mr Ahmadi-Nejad for attacking the council's resolution
as "illegal".

But on Monday, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran's supreme leader,
reiterated that nuclear energy was "a source of pride for the Iranian
nation and Islamic world" and that Iran would not give up its "right".

Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2007


09 Jan 2007 
GMT - 23:39 /   تهران - 03:09
News numbre: 8510160452 
17:41 | 2007-01-06

Official Calls on Iran, West to Keep N. Issue under Control

TEHRAN (Fars News Agency)- A former senior Iranian nuclear negotiator
stressed the need for the two parties in Iran's nuclear standoff to
harness the present crisis.

Seyed Hossein Mousavian, a high-ranking negotiator and spokesman of
Iran's former team of nuclear negotiators, told FNA here on Saturday
that both Iran and the 5+1 group should take proper care not to drive
the situation too critical as it may result in an uncontrollable
condition.

"Dispute, difference of views, debate and compromise are all typical
of negotiations, but both parties should make sure that the situation
is still under control and that it is not growing uncontrollable. This
serves to be the Achilles' heel for both Iran and the

[PEN-L] Jesse Lemisch reminiscences about Yale

[Louis Proyect]

http://hnn.us/articles/33300.html

--

www.marxmail.org

[PEN-L] Chavez plans to nationalize telecom and power

[Louis Proyect]

January 8, 2007
Chavez: Will Nationalize Telecoms, Power
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Filed at 3:21 p.m. ET

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) -- Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez announced plans
Monday to nationalize the country's electrical and telecommunications
companies, calling them ''strategic sectors'' that should be in the hands
of the nation.

''All of those sectors that in an area so important and strategic for all
of us as is electricity -- all of that which was privatized, let it be
nationalized, Chavez said in a televised speech after swearing in a new
Cabinet.

''C.A. Nacional Telefonos de Venezuela (CANTV), let it be nationalized,''
Chavez said. ''The nation should recover its property of strategic sectors.''

--

www.marxmail.org

Re: [PEN-L] Raimondo on Defunding the Iraq war

[Leigh Meyers]

ken hanly wrote:

Defund the War
The Democrats say they can’t – and won’t
by Justin Raimondo
  


"The Administration does not have to pay any attention
to Congress’ attempt to guide the administrative
conduct of the war. Once Congress gave its consent for
military action, it literally did not have the
authority to guide the conduct of the war. At this
point, the only option Congress has to guide the
conduct of the war is to withdraw approval for the war
through a cut off of funds.
<...>

They also signed off on the power to vote the war to a stop as well... 
Legislative malfeasance at it's finest...

Dennis Kucinich just said he would bring a bill to the floor this week seeking 
to turn responsiblitiy over to an (as yet undefined) peacekeeping force:

*/[January 08 2007] Travus T. Hipp Morning News & Commentary
"All The News You Never Knew You Needed To Know ...Until Now."/*

*In The News:*

Iraq: al-Maliki government is going to go after the militias around 
Baghdad... The only place where the government can claim a minute's 
worth of control in a 24 hour day, by going after the Sunnis... natch.


The 'Transitional' Somali government tries to act like they're in 
charge. Details.


More on the Somali/Ethiopian situation *[**Here* 
*]*


Cut & Run? Lets start with *'Cut' *NOW!*: *Dennis Kucinich is going 
to introduce a bill to withdraw troops from Iraq. The plan is to replace 
US troops with an international security group... Whomever that might be




To reiterate, and as Senator Byrd mentioned in his brief  book a few 
years back, "Losing America":


Bush Will "Be Able To Keep The Troops There Forever, Constitutionally, 
If He Wants To"... 



The only option is to cut off funding.

See Stan Goff's comment:


This February... When your Senator or congressman comes home for the 
winter recess, visit their office... If they voted even a penny towards 
the contining incursion in Iraq, *don't Leave!*.


Stan Goff, the ex-Special forces officer gone left/feral */quotes/* 
:
“After nearly four years of war, I’d wager that a few million Americans 
have held a candle at a vigil, carried a sign at a rally, passed out a 
flyer, forwarded an email to friends, or gone to a demonstration in a 
distant city. If you, Dear Reader, are one of these stout souls, this 
letter is to you.


But first, may I ask a favor? For the rest of this letter, please forget 
that at least once during these years of protest you no doubt mourned 
that “only the choir” participated. The choir — people who actually do 
something for peace — is precisely who I’m writing to…. This February, 
the peace movement’s choir, of which you are one, will up the ante of 
protest. Voices for Creative Nonviolence, joined by *Veterans For Peace* 
, have initiated the “*Occupation 
Project*“ 
 
to occupy the hometown offices of Representatives and Senators who have 
voted money for the war.”*]

*

*Leigh
www.leighm.net

"We believe that your way of life itself is unnecessary, ugly, and 
un-American. We cannot condone your present operations; they should be 
wiped off the slate."
-- Paul Goodman, October 1967 Speaking to the National Security 
Industrial Association (The Military Industrial Educational Complex)

*

[PEN-L] Saddam genocide charges dropped

[Leigh Meyers]

Ya mean they aren't gonna lynch him twice?

[JURIST] The chief judge presiding over the genocide trial
<http://jurist.law.pitt.edu/jurist_search.php?q=saddam+genocide+trial>
[JURIST news archive; BBC trial timeline
<http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/5272224.stm>] against Saddam
Hussein for the deaths of 180,000 Kurds during the so-called "Anfal"
campaigns <http://www.hrw.org/reports/1993/iraqanfal/> [HRW
backgrounder] dropped all charges against the former dictator as the
trial reconvened Monday, saying Hussein's death was "confirmed."

The court's decision came nine days after Hussein's execution
<http://jurist.law.pitt.edu/paperchase/2006/12/saddam-executed-iraqi-tv.php>
[JURIST report], which prompted international objections
<http://jurist.law.pitt.edu/paperchase/2006/12/world-leaders-divided-on-saddam.php>
[JURIST report] to the manner in which his hanging was carried out,
including recording of the process by an unofficial video
<http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-799653553047668963> [WARNING:
graphic images; JURIST report
<http://jurist.law.pitt.edu/paperchase/2006/12/saddam-hanging-shown-on-web-video.php>]
with a camera phone and the taunting
<http://jurist.law.pitt.edu/paperchase/2007/01/iraqi-prosecutor-says-he-threatened-to.php>
[JURIST report] of Hussein before his death.

Hussein's six co-defendants, leaders in his former regime, still face
crimes against humanity charges in connection with the Anfal attacks
during the Iraq-Iran war in the 1980s. Not guilty pleas
<http://jurist.law.pitt.edu/paperchase/2006/08/saddam-refuses-to-enter-plea-as-iraqi.php>
[JURIST report] have been entered for all defendants.

AP has more <http://apnews.myway.com/article/20070108/D8MH0V480.html>.

[PEN-L] Our Daily Bread

[Louis Proyect]

Last night Turner Classic Movies (TCM), a cable station that features
vintage films, aired "Our Daily Bread," a film that I had heard about but
never saw before. Directed by silent film veteran King Vidor who worked
into the late 1950s, it is the story of unemployed men taking over a
Midwest farm and running it like a commune. Considering his penchant for
pulp material like "Stella Dallas" and "Ruby Gentry," it is a testament to
the depth of the 1930s radicalization that he decided to write and direct
"Our Daily Bread." It is no accident that United Artists produced the film.
This company was founded by Charlie Chaplin and run as a cooperative by
leading directors and actors who sought an outlet for non-commercial works
like "Our Daily Bread."

full: http://louisproyect.wordpress.com/2007/01/08/our-daily-bread-2/

--

www.marxmail.org

Re: [PEN-L] Raimondo on Defunding the Iraq war

[Yoshie Furuhashi]

On 1/8/07, ken hanly <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:

Defund the War
The Democrats say they can't – and won't
by Justin Raimondo
The twisting and turning, the double- and
–triple-talk, the obfuscation and evasion – is there
any limit to the Democrats' duplicity when it comes to
ending the Iraq war?

Apparently not. Listen to newly-installed Speaker of
the House Nancy Pelosi, appearing on this Sunday's
Face the Nation, as she tries to make some dubious
"distinction" between funding the war and paying for
Bush's "surge." Asked by interviewer Bob Schieffer
what the Democratic response would be if the president
goes ahead with his "surge" in spite of widespread
opposition, Madame Speaker replied:

"If the president chooses to escalate the war, in his
budget request we want to see a distinction between
what is there to support the troops who are there now.
The American people and the Congress support those
troops. We will not abandon them.

"But if the president wants to add to this mission, he
is going to have to justify it. And this is new for
him because up until now the Republican Congress has
given him a blank check with no oversight, no
standards, no conditions. And we've gone into this
situation, which is a war without end, which the
American people have rejected."


This, as well as the absence of an American intifada against this, is
the biggest problem for the Iraqis.
--
Yoshie

[PEN-L] Raimondo on Defunding the Iraq war

[ken hanly]

Defund the War
The Democrats say they can’t – and won’t
by Justin Raimondo
The twisting and turning, the double- and
–triple-talk, the obfuscation and evasion – is there
any limit to the Democrats’ duplicity when it comes to
ending the Iraq war?

Apparently not. Listen to newly-installed Speaker of
the House Nancy Pelosi, appearing on this Sunday’s
Face the Nation, as she tries to make some dubious
"distinction" between funding the war and paying for
Bush’s "surge." Asked by interviewer Bob Schieffer
what the Democratic response would be if the president
goes ahead with his "surge" in spite of widespread
opposition, Madame Speaker replied:

"If the president chooses to escalate the war, in his
budget request we want to see a distinction between
what is there to support the troops who are there now.
The American people and the Congress support those
troops. We will not abandon them.

"But if the president wants to add to this mission, he
is going to have to justify it. And this is new for
him because up until now the Republican Congress has
given him a blank check with no oversight, no
standards, no conditions. And we’ve gone into this
situation, which is a war without end, which the
American people have rejected."

Appropriations for military operations in these
theaters have, up until now, been put off-budget, on
the grounds that spending requirements in wartime are
unpredictable. However, an obscure provision of the
defense bill, passed by the Republican-controlled
Congress in October, requires the president to include
a detailed justification for his Iraq and Afghanistan
spending requests, and directs that this be included
in the official budget, to be submitted no later than
the first Monday of February. Yet the money for the
"surge," as well as maintaining our present level of
spending, will come in the form of another "emergency"
supplemental, due to come up around the same time in
the House Defense Appropriations Committee, chaired by
antiwar congressman Jack Murtha.

Murtha tells Arianna Huffington that he has some
cockamamie plan to "fence the funding" and deny the
president funds for the "surge" on the grounds that
our tax dollars are better spent on taking care of
traumatic brain injuries sustained by our fighting men
and women, the "signature injury" of those wounded in
Iraq. Whether this can work, politically, is one
question, but it’s clearly contingent on a number of
entirely unpredictable factors, one of which is the
strength of the Democrats’ spine when it comes to
opposing this war – not, in short, a hopeful picture,
considering their skittishness when it comes to this
issue, especially considering the very real divisions
on this issue within the party. What is likely to
happen is that extra funding for medical care will be
voted in, in addition to the "surge" funds.

In any event, there is no way Congress can
micro-manage military strategy in Iraq. As congressman
Dennis Kucinich has pointed out:

"The Administration does not have to pay any attention
to Congress’ attempt to guide the administrative
conduct of the war. Once Congress gave its consent for
military action, it literally did not have the
authority to guide the conduct of the war. At this
point, the only option Congress has to guide the
conduct of the war is to withdraw approval for the war
through a cut off of funds. Even a substantial
reduction of funds could leave open the door for a
legal claim that Congress still intends to keep troops
in Iraq. The Administration can rummage through the
DOD budget and find money to keep its desired troop
levels. Unless the Congress totally cuts off funds, it
leaves itself open to an imposition of Presidential
will through the Food and Forage Act of 1861 which
gives the president the authority to directly spend
money for troops in the field absent a congressional
appropriation."

Nancy Pelosi is talking out her … hat when she avers:

"If the president wants to expand the mission, that’s
a conversation he has to have with the Congress of the
United States. But that’s not a carte blanche, a blank
check to him to do whatever he wishes there."

Bollocks. If Nancy and her friends hand the president
the dough, he can spend it as he pleases. There is
only one way to squash the "surge," and stop the war,
and that is to vote down the money to pay for it in
toto.

Like a frat-boy who’s overspent on his credit card,
the president needs to be reined in by responsible
adults – that is, if we can find any. Congress must
exercise parental control, and put its collective foot
down, by saying "Enough is enough!" When an errant
adolescent habitually spends his entire allowance on
candy – or, in this case, the equivalent of crack
cocaine – there is only one course to take: cut him
off. That the American people can understand, and
surely sympathize with, far more than Pelosi’s
ludicrous and constitutionally dubious efforts to
transform Congress into the joint chiefs of staff.

We are told that cutting off the 

Re: [PEN-L] Polish archbishop quits over communist links

[Paul Zarembka]

I am just back from Poland.  Obviously this was major news in the Polish
press.

The politics of the resignation is rather interesting.  The witch hunt for
informers had died down for a number of years but the current
highly-reactionary regime has revived it.  As the exposure of the
background of this bishop - to become archbishop - developed over time,
initially the Vatican supported the appointment.  But as the evidence
became more convincing the government would have been in an embarrassing
position to keep him as archbishop while continuing witch-hunts for others.
So, my supposition is that the government pressured the Pope to get him to
resign so that they can continue finding witches.

By the way, the people at the mass did NOT know that a resignation was
going to take place and were startled, to say the least.  Seems they
opposed what was happened, judging by the character of the audience
response.

It is quite likely that U.S. bishops are also informers within the U.S.
But it's different because Americans don't feel that our regime has been
imposed from above, unlike the Poles who do feel so about the Soviet era.
Thus, the context is distinct.

For what it is worth, after traveling three weeks in Poland, I found only
ridicule of the current Polish government, whether by intellectuals or by
workers (I have personal connections to both).

Paul


**
THE HIDDEN HISTORY OF 9-11-2001   --"a benchmark in 9/11 research", review
Volume 23 (2006), RESEARCH IN POLITICAL ECONOMY, P.Zarembka, ed., Elsevier
*** http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/PZarembka



Date:Sun, 7 Jan 2007 22:32:55 -0800
From:Eugene Coyle <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: Re: Polish archbishop quits over communist links

--Apple-Mail-10-952215007
Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable
Content-Type: text/plain;
charset=WINDOWS-1252;
delsp=yes;
format=flowed

He quit over supplying information to the secret police.  US bishops =20
cooperate routinely with police agencies and no one objects.


On Jan 7, 2007, at 10:26 PM, soula avramidis wrote:


Do they quit over child abuse or is it just communism which is worst?

Polish archbishop quits over communist links

By Jan Cienski in Warsaw

Published: January 7 2007 17:37 | Last updated: January 7 2007 18:04

Less than two days after becoming archbishop of Warsaw, Stanislaw =20
Wielgus on Sunday resigned at the request of the Vatican following =20
revelations that he had agreed in the 1970s to co-operate with =20
Poland=92s communist-era secret police.

The resignation came during a ceremonial mass that had been planned =20=



to welcome the archbishop.


http://www.ft.com/cms/s/cea4535a-9e72-11db-ac03-779e2340.html

[PEN-L] A New Venezuela Blog

[Yoshie Furuhashi]

A new Venezuela blog:


--
Yoshie

Re: [PEN-L] Polish archbishop quits over communist links

[soula avramidis]

the priest in my friend's village, he now tells me, used to divulge the 
confessions of the women in his parish after a couple of drinks. when he found 
that the audience liked what he said, he was asking the women for more details 
so as to liven the sunday lunch. It got to a point he said when as a pre teen 
child he would shy away from looking at the beautiful grocer's wife of whom he 
knew some pretty exciting tales. I presume now she is very old.


- Original Message 
From: Eugene Coyle <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: PEN-L@SUS.CSUCHICO.EDU
Sent: Monday, January 8, 2007 8:32:55 AM
Subject: Re: Polish archbishop quits over communist links

He quit over supplying information to the secret police.  US bishops cooperate 
routinely with police agencies and no one objects.




On Jan 7, 2007, at 10:26 PM, soula avramidis wrote:


Do they quit over child abuse or is it just communism which is worst?
Polish archbishop quits over communist links
By Jan Cienski in Warsaw
Published: January 7 2007 17:37 | Last updated: January 7 2007 18:04
Less than two days after becoming archbishop of Warsaw, Stanislaw Wielgus on 
Sunday resigned at the request of the Vatican following revelations that he had 
agreed in the 1970s to co-operate with Poland’s communist-era secret police.
The resignation came during a ceremonial mass that had been planned to welcome 
the archbishop.

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/cea4535a-9e72-11db-ac03-779e2340.html

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