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Tuesday, April 01, 2003
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THIS WAR IS NOT WORKING by Peter Arnett. "I am still in shock and awe at being fired. There is enormous sensitivity within the US government to reports coming out from Baghdad. They don't want credible news organisations reporting from here because it presents them with enormous problems."
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Sunday, March 30, 2003
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Ritter says US will lose in Iraq: "We do not have the military means to take over Baghdad and for this reason I believe the defeat of the United States in this war is inevitable," he said. "Every time we confront Iraqi troops we may win some tactical battles, as we did for ten years in Vietnam but we will not be able to win this war, which in my opinion is already lost," Ritter added. "We find ourselves... facing a nation of 23 million, with armed elements numbering around 7 million --who are concentrated at urban areas. We will not win this fight. America will lose this war," said Mr. Ritter.
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Saturday, March 29, 2003
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Friday, March 28, 2003
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Ladies' Tea Boils Over as Saudis Rail at U.S.: RIYADH, Saudi Arabia -- The invitation one afternoon this week was for a ladies' tea -- a social event at the home of the U.S. ambassador's wife, Ann Jordan...
... the Americans needed to hear what they had to say. The other Saudi women nodded in agreement. Jordan looked vaguely alarmed.
"This war is making people pro-Saddam, because it's not fair that you come from outside and remove a president, even if he is a dictator," she declared. "You thought the Iraqis would join you and fight for their freedom, but people instead of fighting for their freedom are standing behind him. And this isn't what anyone wanted to see!"
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Uniting for Peace - Why The U.N. General Assembly Has Authority To Speak on the War on Iraq In the Event of Security Council Stalemate By MARJORIE COHN
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Haunting Thoughts After a Fierce Battle: "I have my wife and kids to go back home to... I don't want them to think I'm a killer."
... Many of the Iraqis, he said, attacked headlong into the cutting fire of tanks and Bradley fighting vehicles.
"I wouldn't call it bravery," he said. "I'd call it stupidity. We value a soldier's life so much more than they do. I mean, an AK-47 isn't going to do nothing against a Bradley. I'd love to know what Saddam is telling his people.
"When I go home, people will want to treat me like a hero, but I'm not," he went on. "I'm a Christian man. If I have to kill the other guy, I will, but it doesn't make me a hero. I just want to go home to my wife and kids."
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Thursday, March 27, 2003
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Crude Vision: How Oil Interests Obscured US Government Focus On Chemical Weapons Use by Saddam Hussein: Key figures associated with the Bush Administration, in particular Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, pressed Saddam Hussein during the mid '80's to approve the Aqaba pipeline project from Iraq to Jordan.
...the break in US-Iraq relations occurred not after Iraq used chemical weapons on the Iranians, nor after Iraq gassed its own Kurdish people, nor even after Iraq invaded Kuwait, but rather, followed Saddam's rejection of the Aqaba pipeline deal.
"In their own words, we now see that for Administration officials, a dictator is a friend of the United States when he is willing to make an oily deal, and a mortal enemy when he is not" said Vallette
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Wednesday, March 26, 2003
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Baghdad Empties, but Fills With Foreboding: "they feared what might befall Iraqis like themselves if, faced with continued stiff resistance by Mr. Hussein's troops, Mr. Bush did what his father did at the end of the Persian Gulf war in 1991, and decided that a settlement was preferable to a long and grisly campaign to topple Mr. Hussein."
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Monday, March 24, 2003
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sunspot.net - maryland's online community: "Michelle Waters, the oldest of the dead Marine's four sisters, criticized the U.S. government for starting the hostilities. "It's all for nothing, that war could have been prevented," she said last night in the living room of the family home, tears running down her cheeks. "Now, we're out of a brother. [President] Bush is not out of a brother. We are.""
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Saturday, March 22, 2003
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American Politics Journal -- Big Babies: "God Damn You by Alan Bisbort Mar. 20, 2003 -- HARTFORD (apj.us) -- ...and I mean that sincerely, George W. Bush. Far be it for me, a sinful man who has backslid more times than Robert Downey Jr., to personally single you and your murderous cohorts out. I gladly defer to Bishop Tutu and the Dalai Lama and Jimmy Carter and the Pope, more conversant in things scriptural or theological than I, or any of your unenlightened inner circle, will ever be. I will let them speak the truth, as far as any of us can know it here on this earth. To a person, they condemn your most unholy and unjust of wars in Iraq."
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Innocents in Uniform: "Should not the proper minimum in any war be loss of human life, period -- which in this case includes Iraqi soldiers, too?"
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Iraq marshes vanishing: "The United Nations has warned of a growing ecological catastrophe in southern Iraq. Satellite images show that less than 7% of the Mesopotamian marshes remain intact, the UN revealed at the World Water Forum in Kyoto, Japan. The area where the rivers Tigris and Euphrates join in southern Iraq is thought by some to be the original site of the Garden of Eden. By 2000, it was estimated that 90% of the natural wetland had disappeared, through drainage works and dams upstream which restrict the flow of the rivers.
...Iraq says its engineering programmes were for reclaiming agricultural land and that it was running a relocation programme for the benefit of the marsh dwellers. But human rights groups and western governments accuse Baghdad of draining the marshes as a tactic of political repression. Tens of thousands of army deserters, political opponents and others sought shelter there in the 1990s, Human Rights Watch says.
The Iraqi regime began large-scale hydro-engineering projects in the marshes, building dams, canals and embankments. Water levels began to drop. In 1992 and 1993 reports emerged of a military campaign to flush out the wetlands. Refugees fleeing to Iran described artillery and aerial attacks on civilian areas, arrests and executions, mine-laying and the destruction of homes and properties.
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Thursday, March 20, 2003
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Arrogance of Power: Today, I Weep for my Country. by US Senator Robert Byrd Speech delivered on the floor of the US Senate:
... We flaunt our superpower status with arrogance. We treat UN Security Council members like ingrates who offend our princely dignity by lifting their heads from the carpet. Valuable alliances are split.
After war has ended, the United States will have to rebuild much more than the country of Iraq. We will have to rebuild America's image around the globe.
The case this Administration tries to make to justify its fixation with war is tainted by charges of falsified documents and circumstantial evidence. We cannot convince the world of the necessity of this war for one simple reason. This is a war of choice.
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Wednesday, March 19, 2003
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Doomsday Predictions, By Frederick Vreeland, former US Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for the Near East and Ambassador to Morocco. Prior to that he served for 35 years in foreign service posts including anti-terrorist assignments for both the State Department and CIA.
"Yes, there is a clear link between Saddam's Iraq and Muslim terrorism" said several friends during a recent month spent in the Arab world. "The link is that an American attack against Iraq will immediately create a massive increase in terrorist volunteers throughout the Arab-Islamic region.".
These words came from highly sophisticated Moroccans who have devoted their energies and assets to forging links with the United States, where they have their children educated and their economic interests invested. Morocco is the Arab country closest to America, obviously geographically but arguably also psychologically. Its conservative, secular-oriented, democracy-aspiring elite, have increasingly looked to New York and Washington for ties that would be at least as important as those with Paris and the European Union. And part of their over-all aspiration is to undercut any growth in the Islamic fundamentalism that they fear for their own country and for the entire Muslim arc from Casablanca to Jakarta.
Many progressive, moderate, Westernized Arabs consider themselves more antiterrorist than their friends in the US because they are closer to it and have more to fear from it. They have been barring the door against fundamentalism in their own countries, and trumpeting the advantages of modern democracy, as well as desperately seeking entry into the Western global economy. But they are fearful of American insensitivity to the realities of the Islamic world.
They define Washington's current foreign policy as the most effective possible formula for fortifying and galvanizing the fundamentalism that they have so far been successfully curbing. "America attacking Saddam -- which we condoned when he invaded sovereign Kuwait -- will put Washington in exactly the same category of public-enemy into which Iraq placed itself by that invasion in 1990,"they maintain. "The big difference is that while we Arabs were divided in our attitude toward the Gulf War, we will be totally united against America, if it at aggresses Iraq."
"Do your leaders understand that a US-British attack on one Arab country will devastate the delicate balance that has kept our countries tranquil, and will sew pandemonium and murderous anti-Western actions. That would be totally contrary to the US stated aim of bringing Democracy to the Arab world; it would deprive us of Democracy for decades."
They also say that Iran's failure as a fully Islamized state is just now starting to turn young Muslims against the allure of fundamentalism. This tendency would be reversed by an attack on Iraq, according to their belief that "Bombing Baghdad today will spawn a million Bin Ladens tomorrow." They cheered our hunt for Bin Laden last year but see war against Iraq as playing into his hands this year. Similarly, they firmly oppose Saddam Hussein, but warn that our attack will increase his popularity among the Muslim masses.
In Rome these Arab fears were immediately brushed aside when I discussed them with a senior foreign policy advisor to Italy's Prime Minister, one of those who guides Silvio Berlusconi on his pro-US stance. My Italian friend, who also maintains good contacts on the other side of the Mediterranean, acknowledged that these are widely held Arab positions, but dismissed them. "The war will be short" he replied, "and once Saddam is gone, all these attitudes will change, as the Muslims hurry to join the victorious side."
This man's experience in international affairs runs deep and he speaks with authority. But I remember him assuring me 15 years ago that the Europeans alone would rapidly solve the problems of ex-Yugoslavia, and he promised that the action would be lightening-quick. As one of the actors on the scene at the time he had believed that the comportment of others was predictable. He had been proven wrong in all three predictions.
For America's leaders to assure us they will have the situation in the Middle East under control after a short, containable war is equally unconvincing and unrealistic. When taking decisions regarding the fate of this volatile region, Washington must listen to, and take properly into consideration, the doomsday predictions coming from the Arab world.
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BBC NEWS - Robin Cook's resignation speech: "Ironically, it is only because Iraq's military forces are so weak that we can even contemplate its invasion. Some advocates of conflict claim that Saddam's forces are so weak, so demoralised and so badly equipped that the war will be over in a few days. We cannot base our military strategy on the assumption that Saddam is weak and at the same time justify pre-emptive action on the claim that he is a threat. "
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Tuesday, March 18, 2003
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The New York Review of Books: The Wrong War: Avishai Margalit : "If you were to ask American officials after September 11 what the enemy is, you would hear three different answers: world terrorism, weapons of mass destruction in the hands of evildoers like Saddam Hussein, and radical Islam of the sort promoted by Osama bin Laden. I believe that the muddleheadedness in the American thinking about the war against Iraq comes from conflating these three answers as if somehow they were one and the same. In fact they are very different, with very different and incompatible practical implications. In my view radical Islam of the sort promoted by bin Laden is and should be regarded as the enemy. And fighting Saddam Hussein will greatly help this enemy rather than set him back. This will be true even if the war is successful, let alone if it turns out to be unsuccessful."
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The New York Review of Books: The Right Way: Michael Walzer "The right way to oppose the war is to argue that the present system of containment and control is working and can be made to work better. This means that we should acknowledge the awfulness of the Iraqi regime and the dangers it poses, and then aim to deal with those dangers through coercive measures short of war. But this isn't a policy easy to defend, for we know exactly what coercive measures are necessary, and we also know how costly they are."
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Monday, March 17, 2003
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The Man Who Would Be President: "When the regime finally changes in Baghdad, and Saddam Hussein is dead, in custody or in exile, 70 years of Iraqi independence will end, political authority will pass into the hands of George W. Bush and Western rule will be planted on Arab soil for the first time since the French and British left the region in the middle of the last century. What then happens to Iraq's 23 million people, its oil and its relations with its neighbors will remain the personal responsibility of Mr. Bush and his successors in the White House until one of them chooses to surrender it."
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Why The U.S. Inspires Scorn: " for a growing number of observers outside the United States, the central issue in the crisis is no longer Iraq or Hussein. It is America and how to deal with its disproportionate strength as a world power."
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Sunday, March 16, 2003
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t r u t h o u t - Massive Human Slaughter: "Civilian Iraq is utterly defenseless and totally unprepared for the carnage that is about to be visited upon them. It is murder plain and simple, murder on an unimaginable scale. There is no "war" looming, no "conflict" with Iraq, and no "standoff." What exists is a vast military force poised to inflict death and destruction on a major population center...
... We hear day after day that "Time is running out." Running out on what, on who? On Saddam Hussein? On a five thousand year old city? On 24 million men, women and children? Or is time running out on the spirit of America? On the soul of our people? Why is it that the world no longer cherishes American values? Could it be because we no longer cherish them ourselves? "
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Audacious Mission, Awesome Risks Bold War Plan Emphasizes Lightning Attacks and Complex Logistics "The plan is probably one of the most risky in our history as it launches us off into terra incognita for the U.S.: our first preemptive or preventive war; our first attempt to democratize an Islamic state; and establishment of a very narrow beachhead in the midst of a billion undefeated Muslims"
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Saturday, March 15, 2003
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A Chorus Against War | Howard Zinn: "The anti-war movement will not likely surrender to the martial atmosphere. The hundreds of thousands who marched in Washington and San Francisco and New York and Boston--and in villages, towns, and cities all over the country from Georgia to Montana--will not meekly withdraw. Unlike the shallow support for the war, the opposition to the war is deep and cannot be easily dislodged or frightened into silence. Indeed, the anti-war feelings are bound to become more intense"
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Anger on Iraq Seen as New Qaeda Recruiting Tool: " On three continents, Al Qaeda and other terror organizations have intensified their efforts to recruit young Muslim men, tapping into rising anger about the American campaign for war in Iraq, according to intelligence and law enforcement officials. "
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Friday, March 14, 2003
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George W. Queeg: Krugma - What really has the insiders panicked, however, is the irresponsibility of Mr. Bush and his team, their almost childish unwillingness to face up to problems that they don't feel like dealing with right now. I've talked in this column about the administration's eerie passivity in the face of a stalling economy and an exploding budget deficit: reality isn't allowed to intrude on the obsession with long-run tax cuts. That same "don't bother me, I'm busy" attitude is driving foreign policy experts, inside and outside the government, to despair.
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Torture, Beyond Saddam: - Nicholas Kristof - The world has turned its back on the Kurds more times than I can count, and there are signs that we're planning to betray them again. The U.S. was so desperate to bribe Turkey into our coalition that it was willing to allow tens of thousands of Turkish troops into Iraq's Kurdish areas...
... "The Turkish government has been far worse to the Kurds than Saddam has," one well-educated Kurd said bitterly. His comment stunned me, for Turkey never used poison gas or conducted mass executions as Saddam did, but one Kurd after another said the same thing. They described past Turkish military techniques like raping wives in front of husbands, or assembling villagers to watch men being tied and dragged to their death behind tanks, and they noted that Turkey had been less tolerant of Kurdish language and culture than Saddam.
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Bombs and Blood: Bob Herbert - "We should outlaw the term collateral damage. Above all else, the damage done by the weapons of war is to the flesh, muscle, bone and psyches of real people, some of them children. If we're willing to inflict such terrible damage, we should acknowledge it and not hide behind euphemisms."
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"Many Thousands" of US Troops Could Die in Iraq: "A consensus appears to be emerging that U.S. deaths during an operation in Iraq will likely run into the thousands. The two concerns most often cited to account for significant U.S. fatality rates are the likelihood of urban combat and of Saddam Hussein's use of chemical and biological weapons."
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Ex-U.N. Inspector Warns of War Consequences: The United States could face decades of worldwide political and economic turmoil should it take military action against Iraq without United Nations consent, a former chief U.N. arms inspector warned a Las Vegas audience Wednesday. "If the United States acts without such approval, then I frankly fear the consequences of such action," said Richard Butler, who from 1997 to 1999 worked to disarm Iraq as executive chairman of the United Nations Special Commission. "It will be a terrible business and its consequences incalculable in terms of the number of lives lost and the cost....
..."(Iraq) has come to be seen as much more about ... the question of what will the U.S. do with its great power than about the disarmament of Saddam Hussein," Butler said. "If you listen to the French, the Germans and the Russians, you could be given to thinking that they've decided the bigger problem in the world right now is the uses to which (President Bush) will put American power.
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Thursday, March 13, 2003
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The New Yorker: Seymour Hersh: "Khashoggi is still brokering. In January of this year, he arranged a private lunch, in France, to bring together Harb Saleh al-Zuhair, a Saudi industrialist whose family fortune includes extensive holdings in construction, electronics, and engineering companies throughout the Middle East, and Richard N. Perle, the chairman of the Defense Policy Board, who is one of the most outspoken and influential American advocates of war with Iraq....
Perle, in crisscrossing between the public and the private sectors, has put himself in a difficult position—one not uncommon to public men. He is credited with being the intellectual force behind a war that not everyone wants and that many suspect, however unfairly, of being driven by American business interests. There is no question that Perle believes that removing Saddam from power is the right thing to do. At the same time, he has set up a company that may gain from a war. "
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The United States of America has gone mad - John le Carré "America has entered one of its periods of historical madness, but this is the worst I can remember: worse than McCarthyism, worse than the Bay of Pigs and in the long term potentially more disastrous than the Vietnam War. The reaction to 9/11 is beyond anything Osama bin Laden could have hoped for in his nastiest dreams. As in McCarthy times, the freedoms that have made America the envy of the world are being systematically eroded...
How Bush and his junta succeeded in deflecting America’s anger from bin Laden to Saddam Hussein is one of the great public relations conjuring tricks of history. But they swung it. A recent poll tells us that one in two Americans now believe Saddam was responsible for the attack on the World Trade Centre. But the American public is not merely being misled. It is being browbeaten and kept in a state of ignorance and fear. The carefully orchestrated neurosis should carry Bush and his fellow conspirators nicely into the next election."
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Tuesday, March 11, 2003
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VIETNAM 2 PREFLIGHT CHECK
1. Cabal of oldsters who won't listen to outside advice? Check.
2. No understanding of ethnicities of the many locals? Check.
3. Imposing country boundaries drawn in Europe, not by the locals? Check.
4. Unshakeable faith in our superior technology? Check
5. France secretly hoping we fall on our asses? Check.
6. Russia secretly hoping we fall on our asses? Check.
7. China secretly hoping we fall on our asses? Check.
8. SecDef pushing a conflict the JCS never wanted? Check.
9. Fear we'll look bad if we back down now? Check.
10. Corrupt Texan in the WH? Check.
11. Land war in Asia? Check.
12. Right unhappy with outcome of previous war? Check.
13. Enemy easily moves in/out of neighboring countries? Check.
14. Soldiers about to be dosed with *our own* chemicals? Check.
15. Friendly fire problem ignored instead of solved? Check.
16. Anti-Americanism up sharply in Europe? Check.
17. B-52 bombers? Check.
18. Helicopters that clog up on the local dust? Check.
19. In-fighting among the branches of the military? Check.
20. Locals that cheer us by day, hate us by night? Check.
21. Local experts ignored? Check.
22. Local politicians ignored? Check.
23. Locals used to conflicts lasting longer than the USA has been a country? Check.
24. Against advice, Prez won't raise taxes to pay for war? Check.
25. Blue water navy ships operating in brown water? Check.
26. Use of nukes hinted at if things don't go our way? Check.
27. Unpopular war? Check.
VIETNAM 2 YOU ARE CLEARED TO TAXI
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Monday, February 24, 2003
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Allies hushed up weapons' destruction: "THE highest-ranking defector ever to turn informant on Saddam Hussein's government told United Nations weapons inspectors in 1995 that Iraq had destroyed all its chemical and biological weapons stocks after the Gulf war. But UN inspectors hushed up that part of Hussein Kamel's story - which he also told to debriefers from British and United States intelligence - because they wanted to keep the pressure on Iraq to tell more. The revelation, reported in the US magazine Newsweek, raises new questions over claims by the US and Britain that Iraq has failed to account for vast stores of chemical and biological weapons. "
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Saturday, February 22, 2003
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Iran sues U.S. in world court for helping Saddam kill Iranians - SPIEGEL ONLINE A strange spectacle in court: As the USA prepares for a war against Iraq, it is being sued by Iran for its previous close relationship to Saddam Hussein. At the International Court of Justice, Teheran is accusing the United States of delivering dangerous chemicals and deadly viruses to Baghdad during the eighties.
The Hague - The oral deposition in Iran's suit against the United States in the matter of the destruction of Iranian oil platforms in 1987/88 began on Monday. The suit was presented to the highest court of the United Nations in 1992 and has been handled in writing ever since.
Teheran accuses Washington of the destruction of three oil platforms in the Persial Gulf. The US argues that the attack was in retaliation of Iranian attacks of ships sailing under the American flag. The court has scheduled three weeks to hear arguments from both sides.
The Iranian representatives accuse the USA of having provided Iraq with raw materials for chemical and biological weapons at the end of the 80's. The US government had delivered dangerous chemicals and deadly viruses to the Iraqi government for its war.
Washington had provided aid to Iraq in this, and other ways, in its war against Iran, said Iran's representative at the start of the oral depositions.
Mohamat Zahedin-Labbaf, as the spokesman of the Iranian delegation, emphasized that the US could not dispute the destruction of the platforms. The US version, that it had been a matter of defense against Iranian missile attacks of ships under the US flag doesn't hold water, he said.
In any case, the USA had violated the Friendship Treaty which both countries had signed in 1955. It is this Treaty which constitutes the legal basis for these proceedings, according to a 1996 decision by the highest court of the United Nations. Both delegations will be able to argue their positions in detail during the next three weeks.
Professor Bruno Summa, a German expert on international law, was sworn in as the new judge at the beginning of the proceedings on Monday. The longtime University Professor at the University of Munich was elected as one of the 15 regular judges of the Supreme Court in the Hague Peace Palace.
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Wednesday, February 19, 2003
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NewsWeek: Turkey Wants Northern Iraq. Period.: "Turkey is demanding that it send 60,000 to 80,000 of its own troops into northern Iraq to establish "strategic positions'' across a "security arc'' as much as 140 to 170 miles deep in Iraq. That would take Turkish troops almost halfway to Baghdad. "
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Tuesday, February 18, 2003
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The Weapon We Gave Iraq - Depleted Uranium: "Iraqi researchers say that the epicentre ("Ground Zero") for DU effects is around the city of Basra, in southern Iraq. It was here, in 1991, that U.S. and coalition jets ravaged the retreating Iraqi army, leaving behind the smoldering hulks of thousands of vehicles. The U.S. and British air forces expended an estimated 300 tonnes of depleted-uranium ammunition in and around this area; it has since been dubbed the "Highway of Death."
The preponderance of birth defects among children born in the Basra region over the past decade defies explanation....
Should U.S.-led forces again invade Iraq, and should Canadians join them (something that has not been ruled out by Defence Minister John McCallum), they would probably move from Kuwait straight up the Highway of Death to Basra. The aerosol from the depleted-uranium-coated shells has long since dissipated from the hulks of Iraqi vehicles along the road. But Iraqi scientists believe the particles remain in the desert sands. Uranium possesses a radioactive half-life of 200 million years; it would still pose a serious risk.
Despite increasing evidence linking DU to degenerative health disorders, the British and U.S. militaries steadfastly refuse to suspend their use of such weapons."
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Friday, February 14, 2003
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Reckless Administration May Reap Disastrous Consequences
By US Senator Robert Byrd, February 12, 2003
To contemplate war is to think about the most horrible of human experiences. On this February day, as this nation stands at the brink of battle, every American on some level must be contemplating the horrors of war.
Yet, this Chamber is, for the most part, silent -- ominously, dreadfully silent. There is no debate, no discussion, no attempt to lay out for the nation the pros and cons of this particular war. There is nothing.
We stand passively mute in the United States Senate, paralyzed by our own uncertainty, seemingly stunned by the sheer turmoil of events. Only on the editorial pages of our newspapers is there much substantive discussion of the prudence or imprudence of engaging in this particular war.
And this is no small conflagration we contemplate. This is no simple attempt to defang a villain. No. This coming battle, if it materializes, represents a turning point in U.S. foreign policy and possibly a turning point in the recent history of the world.
This nation is about to embark upon the first test of a revolutionary doctrine applied in an extraordinary way at an unfortunate time. The doctrine of preemption -- the idea that the United States or any other nation can legitimately attack a nation that is not imminently threatening but may be threatening in the future -- is a radical new twist on the traditional idea of self defense. It appears to be in contravention of international law and the UN Charter.
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Tuesday, February 11, 2003
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Daniel Ellsberg's comments.. on Bush's reasons for first-use nuclear threats against Iraq:
... Bush administration has prepared us to the idea of responding to chemical or biological weapons with nuclear weapons. That turns out to have been the function of this new category, which at first puzzled me, of "weapons of mass destruction." I've been in the arms control field for nearly forty years now, and I'd never heard of this "weapons of mass destruction" category, which lumps together biological, chemical, and nuclear. Between chemical and nuclear there's an enormous difference of destructiveness, by a factor of at least a thousand. So what's the purpose of lumping them together in this new category, "WMD"?
... A whole lot of strategists of the ilk of Wolfowitz and Perle and so forth, since the Cold War ended, think, "Well, now, the gloves are off. The big stick is going to be nuclear. They've been looking for a chance to show that when we threaten nuclear weapons, believe the threat."
But this is what they cannot conceive. They don't understand Vietnam at all, even just from a military point of view. We couldn't get people to risk their lives to inform us about the Vietcong, but they would risk their lives to inform the Vietcong about us, so they knew every move we were making, and we didn't know any moves they were making. That didn't mean they could beat us from one year to the next, but it meant that we couldn't possibly beat them. We couldn't find them unless they wanted us to find them.
Well, that's going to be the same with al Qaeda. After Iraq, we are not going to be able to get any degree of cooperation from governments with large Muslim populations. Al Qaeda can grow and do what they want—they're safe, essentially. That doesn't mean they're going to beat the U.S., and it doesn't mean they're going to drive us out of the Middle East. But it does mean they're going to be able to kill a huge number of American civilians, much more than if we had the police and intelligence cooperation of Arab and Muslim states, which the Iraq war will destroy.
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Sunday, February 09, 2003
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Ralph Nader on Oil and the War Against Iraq: "The connections between the Bush administration and the oil industry are clear and pervasive. A remarkable 41 members of the administration have ties to the industry, and both the President and the Vice President are both former oil executives. National Security Adviser Condaleeza Rice is a former director of Chevron. President Bush took more than $1.8 million in campaign contributions from the oil and gas industries in the 2000 election. The Bush people and the oil moguls do agree with one another in part because they are one another...
The American people have a right to know what is being discussed in these meetings about the oil industry's designs on this gigantic pool of petroleum and what, if any, assurances they are being given by what is supposed to be our government.
Clearly, there is a better means of achieving U.S. energy security. Instead of relying on costly military ventures in unstable countries to ensure a steady source of oil, we need a national energy security strategy that is expeditious, self-sufficient and environmentally sustainable. "
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France-Germany Hatching a Plan: "Germany and France are working on a new plan to try to avert war in Iraq that would compel Baghdad to admit thousands of U.N. troops to enforce disarmament and tighter sanctions, a magazine said on Saturday. A German government spokesman confirmed Berlin and Paris were working together to find a peaceful alternative to war with Iraq, but would not provide any details of the efforts. "
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Wednesday, February 05, 2003
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Monty Python's Terry Jones on pre-emptive strikes: "For some time now I've been really pissed off with Mr Johnson, who lives a couple of doors down the street. Well, him and Mr Patel, who runs the health food shop. They both give me queer looks, and I'm sure Mr Johnson is planning something nasty for me, but so far I haven't been able to discover what. I've been round to his place a few times to see what he's up to, but he's got everything well hidden. That's how devious he is.
As for Mr Patel, don't ask me how I know, I just know - from very good sources - that he is, in reality, a Mass Murderer. I have leafleted the street telling them that if we don't act first, he'll pick us off one by one. Some of my neighbours say, if I've got proof, why don't I go to the police? But that's simply ridiculous. The police will say that they need evidence of a crime with which to charge my neighbours. They'll come up with endless red tape and quibbling about the rights and wrongs of a pre-emptive strike and all the while Mr Johnson will be finalising his plans to do terrible things to me, while Mr Patel will be secretly murdering people.
Since I'm the only one in the street with a decent range of automatic firearms, I reckon it's up to me to keep the peace...."
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Friday, January 31, 2003
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Shock & Awe: Is Baghdad the Next Hiroshima?: "Have your heard of Harlan Ullman? Everyone in the White House and the Pentagon has. They may very well follow his plan for war in Iraq. He wants to do to Baghdad what we did to Hiroshima. "
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The Guardian : Speak for this nation War at this time is wrong because, given Iraq's currently unresolved, ambiguous circumstances, it is not a remotely justifiable or sensible way to conduct our affairs. Does anybody honestly believe that if Baghdad falls to US armour and Saddam is dethroned, that will be the end of the story? Those who enthusiastically support an attack may yet have their "victory day". But even as they turn away in tricked-out triumph, and turn away they surely will, as after the one-day wonder of Kabul's capitulation, the real problems will begin in earnest.
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Wednesday, January 29, 2003
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Tuesday, January 28, 2003
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Israeli officer obstructs attack on Palestinians: " a lieutenant in an elite intelligence unit, delayed passing on information for an air raid planned against a Palestinian city after 22 people were killed on January 6 in a double suicide bombing in Tel Aviv. The officer... told a military tribunal he acted out of conscience, saying innocent people would have been killed and calling his orders illegal under international law, the newspaper reported... The court tribunal rejected his argument and transferred him to a less prestigious intelligence unit, Maariv said."
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Saturday, January 25, 2003
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Capitol Hill Blue - Role reversal: Bush wants war,Pentagon urges caution Intelligence sources say some Arab nations have told US diplomats they may side with Iraq if the U.S. attacks without the backing of the United Nations. Secretary of State Colin Powell agrees with his former colleagues at the Pentagon and has told the President he may be pursuing a "dangerous course."
An angry Rumsfeld, who backs Bush without question, is said to have told the Joint Chiefs to get in line or find other jobs. Bush is also said to be “extremely angry” at what he perceives as growing Pentagon opposition to his role as Commander in Chief.
“The President considers this nation to be at war,” a White House source says,” and, as such, considers any opposition to his policies to be no less than an act of treason.”
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Friday, January 24, 2003
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The Unseen Gulf War by Peter Turnley - The Digital Journalist: "War is at best a necessary evil, and I am certain that anyone that feels differently has never experienced or been in it. I have always hoped that true images of conflict give one the opportunity to witness and reflect more fully on the full realities of war. After covering many conflicts around the world in past 20 years and witnessing much human suffering, I feel a responsibility to try to contribute to making sure with my images that no one that sees the brutal realities of conflict, ever feels that war is comfortable and/or convenient."
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Sunday, January 19, 2003
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Tuesday, January 14, 2003
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The National Youth & Student Peace Coalition "BOOKS NOT BOMBS!
National One-Day Student Strike - March 5th. The Bush administration is intent on plunging America into an illegitimate and pre-emptive war in Iraq that will only increase danger for Americans and the world. At the same time education, healthcare, and the economy are being neglected. Its time for youth and students to take a stand for America’s future! "
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Thursday, January 09, 2003
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Saturday, December 21, 2002
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Thursday, December 19, 2002
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A 'silver bullet's' toxic legacy : "As American forces prepare to take on Iraq in a possible Gulf War II, analysts agree that the bad publicity and popular fears about depleted uranium (DU) use in the first Gulf War, and later in Kosovo and Afghanistan, have not dented Pentagon enthusiasm for its "silver bullet." US forces in Iraq will again deploy DU as their most effective - and most controversial - tank-busting bullet...
Another report by the British Atomic Energy Agency used an estimate of 40 tons of DU to create a hypothetical danger level, and predicted that that amount of DU - one-eighth of what actually was fired - could cause "500,000 potential deaths."
"I don't think we know if DU can be used safely, and until we know that, we shouldn't use it," says Chris Hellman, a senior analyst with Washington's Center for Defense Information."
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Democracy Now!: "Hewlett Packard, Dupont, Honeywell and other major U.S. corporations, as well as governmental agencies including the Department of Defense and the nation's nuclear labs, all illegally helped Iraq to build its biological, chemical and nuclear weapons programs."
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I Stand with Israel: I Stand with the Jews: By Oriana Fallaci
"I have often had disagreements with the Israelis, ugly ones, and in the past I have defended the Palestinians a great deal. Maybe more than they deserved. But I stand with Israel, I stand with the Jews. I stand just as I stood as a young girl during the time when I fought with them" [Eloquent diatribe that claims but does not demonstrate any sympathy with the Palestinians.]
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Wednesday, December 18, 2002
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Egyptian justice: in whose court? | csmonitor.com: "The special court found him guilty. The supreme court set him free. And somewhere in between the country's two systems, Egyptian-American democracy advocate Saadeddin Ibrahim learned earlier this month, the story of Egyptian justice is being written, one case at a time. Mr. Ibrahim's High Security Court trial last May showed the country's justice system at its worst: The main charge against him - "defaming Egypt abroad" - was an embarrassment to many of his countrymen. His lawyers were denied access to prosecution documents until months into the trial, and several "witnesses" who supposedly accepted bribes from him testified that they had never met him. Still, after just 90 minutes of deliberation, judges delivered a guilty verdict"
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Tuesday, December 17, 2002
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Where Israeli soldiers go to heal: "Where Israeli soldiers go to heal Kfar Izun, a retreat on the Mediterranean, helps veterans traumatized by the Palestinian-Israeli conflict"
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Few but proud: US antiwar activists in Iraq | csmonitor.com: "The 30 or so members of the self-declared "Iraq Peace Team," most of them Americans who have arrived in the past week, have heard it all before. Some critics charge them with treason. Some call them pawns of the Iraqi regime. But activists say their mission is neither pro- Hussein nor anti-American, but aims to avert war by showing the human face of Iraq - and what suffering a new war will bring."
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Monday, December 16, 2002
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Iraqi Report Named US Business Partners: " Iraq's 12,000-page declaration of its weapons programs lists American companies that provided materials used by Baghdad to develop chemical and biological weapons in the 1980s, according to a senior Iraqi official. The public release of such a list could prove embarrassing for the United States and highlight the extent to which the Reagan and first Bush administrations supported Iraq in its eight-year war with neighboring Iran in the 1980s. U.S. military and financial assistance to Iraq continued until Iraqi President Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait in August 1990. "
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From schoolgirl Emma to Asma, the Syrian icon: "Asma Akhras was raised in London. Today she returns as wife of Syria's leader.... the woman who has become a symbol of President Bashar Assad's ambition to reform his country... what happened in the months after the wedding, when she seemed to disappear from view? In her first-ever interview, Mrs Assad told The Observer that she did not disappear. Instead, she spent the first weeks of her marriage in jeans and T-shirt, travelling incognito around the rural areas of Syria. After a wedding in which only the closest family members had been invited to a private service, she wanted to get a handle on the country. "
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Friday, December 13, 2002
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New Kind of Dam Rises in Switzerland: To Hold Back the Land: Global warming: "Swiss scientists are studying landslides to determine which ones may have been caused by melting permafrost. One terrifying instance was in September in the Caucasus, in Russia. There, scientists say, 140 million cubic feet of rock layers, including a mass of ice, rock and ferns, snapped off and began a free fall down the the northern slope of Kazbek Mountain, gathering fresh mud, trees and rock until it hit the Kolka Glacier. A portion of the glacier sheared off and an estimated 2.1 billion cubic feet of snow, trees, ice, debris, rock, mud and water continued to rumble toward the bottom of the mountain. It landed in the Genaldon Gorge, near Karmadon, and killed about 140 people. The compressed avalanche dammed several lakes, including one whose water rose to flood level, threatening a second village."
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Iraq Opposition Is Pursuing Ties With Iranians: "Leaders of all the major opposition groups, including an Iranian-backed group that represents Shiite Muslims and two Kurdish groups that have tens of thousands of troops on the ground, warned that while they welcomed American help in overthrowing President Saddam Hussein, Iraqis would not tolerate an American military occupation afterward or an American "viceroy" to govern Iraq, as some administration officials have contemplated."
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Tuesday, December 10, 2002
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World War 3 Report #63: "In an analysis for the LA Times, Sandy Tolan, an IF Stone Fellow at UC Berkeley, joins those who see an imperialist plot to redraw the boundaries of the Middle East behind the Iraq war drive: "
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Economist tallies swelling cost of Israel to US | csmonitor.com: "Since 1973, Israel has cost the United States about $1.6 trillion. If divided by today's population, that is more than $5,700 per person. This is an estimate by Thomas Stauffer, a consulting economist in Washington. For decades, his analyses of the Middle East scene have made him a frequent thorn in the side of the Israel lobby."
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Monday, December 09, 2002
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Abrams Back in Capital Fray at Center of Mideast Battle: "Mr. Abrams's selection this week as President Bush's director of Middle Eastern affairs at the White House plunged him into one of the sharpest disputes in the nation's capital -- the one in the administration over how to deal with the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Mr. Abrams's appointment thrilled those who had criticized the administration for being too tough on Israel and too deferential to the Palestinians. But it dismayed those, especially at the State Department, who want Israel to ease its crackdown in the West Bank and Gaza. An administration official said Mr. Abrams's ascension had created "serious consternation" at the State Department. It was seen there, he said, as likely to impede the efforts of Secretary of State Colin L. Powell to work with European nations to press Israel and the Palestinians to adopt a staged timetable leading to creation of a Palestinian state in three years."
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Chechen in Extradition Dispute: Criminal or Peacemaker?: "Akhmed Zakayev has been an actor and a rebel commander, a negotiator, a politician and then a commander again. Bearded, articulate and mild-mannered, he has over the last decade become perhaps the most prominent public face of Chechnya's struggle for independence from Russia. To the Russian government, he is a terrorist and a murderer... To others, even some in Russia, he is none of those things, but rather the best hope for a peaceful resolution of Russia's long, bloody Chechen conflict."
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Guardian - Poisoning the air "Atropine is used for treating various heart and respiratory disorders. It is also the drug of choice in cases of organophospate (pesticide) poisoning, where massive amounts - up to 100 times the normal dose - may be needed to effect recovery. The UN sanctions committee, which of course includes Americans, took the view that the Iraqi orders were probably about adequate to meet the country's routine medical needs. But suddenly, as the US prepares to invade, along comes another order - seemingly very similar - which, according to American officials, far outstrips the amount Iraq could conceivably need for normal hospital use. Someone, somewhere, has clearly got it wrong.
There is also a lot that the US has not disclosed about the latest Iraqi order for atropine. For a start, there has been no public confirmation of the order from independent sources."
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Thursday, December 05, 2002
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The Pentagon Muzzles the CIA. Robert Dreyfuss. "as it prepares for war against Iraq, the Pentagon is already engaged on a second front: its war against the Central Intelligence Agency. The Pentagon is bringing relentless pressure to bear on the agency to produce intelligence reports more supportive of war with Iraq, according to former CIA officials. Key officials of the Department of Defense are also producing their own unverified intelligence reports to justify war. Much of the questionable information comes from Iraqi exiles long regarded with suspicion by CIA professionals. A parallel, ad hoc intelligence operation, in the office of Undersecretary of Defense for Policy Douglas J. Feith, collects the information from the exiles and scours other raw intelligence for useful tidbits to make the case for preemptive war."
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New Scientist: "A war against Iraq could kill half a million people, warns a new report by medical experts - and most would be civilians. The report claims as many as 260,000 could die in the conflict and its three-month aftermath, with a further 200,000 at risk in the longer term from famine and disease. A civil war in Iraq could add another 20,000 deaths."
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Monday, December 02, 2002
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Amnesty: Iraq 'torture' dossier was manipulated: "Amnesty International said a dossier released today by the foreign secretary, Jack Straw, listing torture, rapes and other abuses perpetrated by the Baghdad regime, is a "cold and calculated manipulation" of the work of human rights activists. "Let us not forget that these same governments turned a blind eye to Amnesty International's reports of widespread human rights violations in Iraq before the Gulf war," the group's secretary general, Irene Khan, said. "They remained silent when thousands of unarmed Kurdish civilians were killed in Halabja in 1988."
The report contains graphic first-hand accounts by victims of the regime's human rights abuses, as well as intelligence material and evidence from aid charities working in Iraq. It makes clear that the abuses are carried out as a policy of the Iraqi dictator.
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Sunday, December 01, 2002
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Rights Group Blames Arafat for Not Halting Suicide Attacks: "A report by Human Rights Watch on Palestinian suicide bombings calls the attacks crimes against humanity and criticizes the Palestinian Authority for failing to act effectively to stop them. The 170-page report, to be issued Friday, says Yasir Arafat and the Palestinian Authority bear a "high degree of responsibility" for the attacks and have "contributed to an atmosphere of impunity" that has allowed the bombings to continue."
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Saturday, November 30, 2002
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If we cannot find Osama, bomb Iraq.
If the markets hurt your Mama, bomb Iraq.
If the terrorists are Saudi
And the bank takes back your Audi
And the TV shows are bawdy,
Bomb Iraq. ....
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Monday, November 25, 2002
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Amnesty Accuses Israeli Forces of War Crimes: "A new report by Amnesty International contends that Israeli forces committed war crimes in Jenin and Nablus this spring during a large-scale offensive in the West Bank, killing Palestinians unlawfully, blocking medical care, using people as human shields and bulldozing houses with residents inside."
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Sunday, November 24, 2002
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U.S. Is Wooing a Shiite Exile to Rattle Iraq: "An Iranian-backed ayatollah may seem an unlikely ally for the Bush administration. But consider Ayatollah Muhammad Bakir al-Hakim. The ayatollah is an Iraqi Shiite who has been living in Tehran for more than two decades. He is backed by the Iranian government, the one that President Bush has derided as part of an "axis of evil." His father once gave sanctuary to Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the fiery anti-American cleric who later rose to power in Iran's 1979 revolution. Still, the United States and the Shiite cleric are in the process of forging a political alliance of convenience"
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Saturday, November 23, 2002
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Egyptian Islamist group faces key leadership question | csmonitor.com: "With the leadership void left by Mr. Mashhour's death, the Brotherhood, which is known for its social activism as well as a radical brand of Islam, is at a crossroads. Despite a government crackdown over the past few years, the Brotherhood's appeal has grown, in large part due to younger members who are more committed to democracy and human rights in Egypt. If a younger leader gets the nod, it could signal a significant shift in focus, as well as more openness for this organization and possibly for other opposition groups as well."
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Turks, Fearing Flow of Refugees, Plan Move Into Iraq: "Turkish officials are preparing to send troops up to 60 miles into northern Iraq on what they say is a mission to prevent an influx of refugees in the event that a war there sets off a mass movement toward Turkey's borders. The plan, which is being circulated among top government officials, is giving rise to fears that it could be used as a cover for the Turkish military to snuff out any attempt by Iraqi Kurds to set up their own state if President Saddam Hussein falls from power."
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Shooting Magda, by Joshua Sobol: "Shooting Magda tells the story of Samira (Robin Kacyn), a young Palestinian woman who has fallen in love with an Israeli law student and whose life is now being captured by an Israeli film crew. Benesh (Brad Schwartz), the film's director, has helped Samira draft a semi-autobiographical script but, as budget issues force a marathon, 24-hour shoot, differences of vision -- both personal and national -- begin to arise. "
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Thursday, November 21, 2002
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How War Left the Law Behind: "How can the council's decision bind Iraq but not the United States?... Absent Security Council approval, the United Nations Charter prohibits the use of force except for self-defense. NATO, which led the Kosovo war, never seriously claimed a defensive rationale, and the United States has yet to advance such a justification concerning Iraq. Given the contradiction between the mandate of the Charter and the prevailing American view on Iraq and Kosovo, what has happened to the law? It is hard to avoid the conclusion that the Charter provisions governing use of force are simply no longer regarded as binding international law.... since 1945, dozens of member states have engaged in well over 100 interstate conflicts that have killed millions of people. This record of violation is legally significant. The international legal system is voluntary and states are bound only by rules to which they consent. A treaty can lose its binding effect if a sufficient number of parties engage in conduct that is at odds with the constraints of the treaty. The consent of United Nations member states to the general prohibition against the use of force, as expressed in the Charter, has in this way been supplanted by a changed intent as expressed in deeds. The United States is therefore correct: it would not be unlawful to attack Iraq, even without Security Council approval. It seems the Charter has, tragically, gone the way of the 1928 Kellogg-Briand Pact which purported to outlaw war and was signed by every major belligerent in World War II. "
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Wednesday, November 20, 2002
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US forms Iraqi opposition army | csmonitor.com: "Critics say the new army is designed to provide a power base for the INC leader, Ahmed Chalabi, who has the ear of Congress, the Pentagon and Vice President Dick Cheney's office, but has little support in Iraq and is dismissed by some State Department and CIA officials as a self-promoting solo act."
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Monday, November 18, 2002
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Iraqi army is tougher than US believes "Baghdad will be key. It is within this sprawling city of five million that US troops will have to hunt down the Iraqi dictator and his close associates. With this in mind, all troops and security services loyal to the government will in the last instance be massed in and around the capital.
Caught between a potentially hostile Iraqi population bent on revenge and an invading army committed to regime change, those fighting alongside President Saddam will have little choice but to remain loyal to the end. The result could be the worst-case scenario for US military planners: an organised, committed and disciplined force with nowhere to go, defending a highly populated urban area. In front of the world's media, US troops would have the unenviable task of distinguishing these forces from the wider, innocent, civilian population. "
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Thursday, November 14, 2002
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Saddam Hussein's Delusion: "As early as 1969, Saddam Hussein spoke of his determination to strengthen Iraq's uruba (Arabness). This was no easy task. Although all the people of Iraq do feel that they are Iraqis, not all regard themselves as Arabs. Historically, only part of the 7,000-year biography of the land that is Iraq could be described as Arab. The rest is covered by Sumerian, Assyrian, Akkadian, Babylonian, Elamite, Urartan, Persian, Byzantine, Mongol, Mamluk and Ottoman periods, among others. Iraqi architecture, music, cuisine and daily rituals reflect this rich diversity. The word Iraq is Persian, meaning lowlands, as is Baghdad, which means God-given. The names of Iraq's two great rivers, the Euphrates and the Tigris, are Greek. Iraq is also the home of 11 living languages,"
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Wednesday, November 13, 2002
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Hit by a terrorist, kibbutz still shares a well with Arabs | csmonitor.com: ""As it stands, a grave injustice is being done to our neighbors," said Doron Lieber, the economic coordinator of the kibbutz, the only Israeli community to argue for rerouting the fence. According to current plans, Kafin would lose two square miles - 60 percent of its farmland. Mr. Lieber says this will not only be bad for the Palestinians, but bad for the kibbutz, fueling enormous resentment throughout the area.
"The moment those beautiful trees are cruelly uprooted, our island of tranquility is turned into any other place in Israel," he says. This kibbutz prides itself on a half century of good relations with neighboring Arab Israeli villages. So the irony that it was targeted by a militia linked to Yasser Arafat's Fatah movement was not lost on anyone, including Palestinian leaders.
But on Monday and Tuesday, it seemed to be precisely that history, as well as the kibbutz's humanistic ideology that were coloring the initial responses to the attack. "I feel like someone who has been slapped in the face," said Lieber. "My hand was stretched out in peace. But a slap in the face is only temporary. It rings in your ears a bit, but when the ringing stops you go on."
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Iraq war could recast US-Iran ties: "The leader of Iraq's most powerful armed Islamic opposition group is moving closer to backing American plans for toppling Saddam Hussein. The support of Ayatollah Mohammad Bakr al-Hakkim, whose Supreme Council of the Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI) adheres to the same Shiite branch of Islam as most Iraqis, would be a welcome ingredient in US plans."
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Tuesday, November 12, 2002
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USATODAY.com - Maintain CIA's independence: by James Bamford "As the White House searches for every possible excuse to go to war with Iraq, pressure has been building on the intelligence agencies to deliberately slant estimates to fit a political agenda. In this case, the agencies are being pressed to find a casus belli for war, whether or not one exists. "Basically, cooked information is working its way into high-level pronouncements, and there's a lot of unhappiness about it in intelligence, especially among analysts at the CIA," Vince Cannistraro, the agency's former head of counterterrorism, told The Guardian, a London newspaper."
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Monday, November 11, 2002
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The Fifty-first State? | Fallows: "Going to war with Iraq would mean shouldering all the responsibilities of an occupying power the moment victory was achieved. These would include running the economy, keeping domestic peace, and protecting Iraq's borders--and doing it all for years, or perhaps decades. Are we ready for this long-term relationship? " - [very long but fascinating.]
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A Post-Saddam Scenario | Kaplan: "Our goal in Iraq should be a transitional secular dictatorship that unites the merchant classes across sectarian lines and may in time, after the rebuilding of institutions and the economy, lead to a democratic alternative. In particular, a deliberately ambiguous relationship between the new Iraqi regime and the Kurds must be negotiated in advance of our invasion, so that the Kurds can claim real autonomy while the central government in Baghdad can also claim that the Kurdish areas are under its control. A transitional regime, not incidentally, would grant us the right to use local bases other than those in the northern, Kurdish-dominated free zone."
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Saturday, November 09, 2002
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Bush and Iraq: By Anthony Lewis "What is President Bush's ultimate objective in Iraq? Is it to make sure that Saddam Hussein does not have weapons of mass destruction? Or is it to remove Saddam by force and remake the politics of Iraq? And if the latter, would it be the first step toward a new American imperium?"
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Friday, November 08, 2002
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The Saudis' Brand of Islam and Its Place in History: "THE TWO FACES OF ISLAM The House of Saud From Tradition to Terror By Stephen Schwartz" The 4,000 members of the Saudi ruling family are, as he puts it, "a vast mafia of princely parasites." He holds the Western oil companies, especially the Aramco partners and "the American political and media elites that have served them," responsible for "the continuation of dishonesty and injustice in Arabia." Contrary to the standard view of him, Mr. Schwartz writes, the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini of Iran is at the opposite end of the spectrum from Wahhabi extremism and actually represents "the pluralist face of Islam."
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Russia and the Wages of Terror: "A young generation of radical Chechen fighters, reared on these Russian methods, is now fighting far more cruelly for the liberation of their land from federal forces than the Aslan Maskhadov, the aging Chechen president. And only a small fraction of those radicals was destroyed by Russian special forces in the Moscow theater on Oct. 26; the far larger part is preparing new acts of revenge against Russia that we cannot anticipate. At the same time, the intellectual inadequacy of our special services, especially the Federal Security Service, has become obvious."
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Wednesday, October 30, 2002
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Iranian Leader Says U.S. Helps bin Laden's Image: "I hear a discourse from two poles," Mr. Khatami said in his native Persian. "One is the voice raised from Afghanistan by bin Laden that says, `Whoever is not with us must be destroyed.' The other is the voice from the United States that says, `Whoever is not with us is against us."' ... At Complutense University in Madrid, he delivered a speech on Cervantes and his relevance in today's world. In the course of the speech, he cited Proust, Dostoyevsky, Tolstoy, Orwell, Kafka and Mann, and criticized modern-day Don Quixotes who lack his "kindhearted, merciful and humanitarian" nature and "ruthlessly assassinate and annihilate people with their huge war machines."... "If chemical weapons are bad, why when they were used against us or Iraqi citizens wasn't Iraq condemned and pressured?" he asked. But Iran, which shares a long border with Iraq, is vehemently opposed to a unilateral American war against its neighbor and the installation of a government of Washington's choosing in Baghdad. Iranians of all political persuasions are deeply suspicious of American designs on the Persian Gulf, recalling that a C.I.A.-led coup overthrew the government of Prime Minister Mohammad Mossadegh in 1953 and returned the shah to the throne.
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Sunday, October 13, 2002
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Kibbutzniks Offer Land to Palestinians in a Rare Protest Over Israel's 'Berlin Wall': " The planned course of the wall will cut off 80 per cent of the farming land from the village of Kafin. Most of the village's 10,000 people will lose all their income. There are supposedly plans to issue permits for Palestinian farmers to cross. But according to the Mayor of Kafin, the nearest gate in the wall will involve a six-mile detour. And there are no guarantees they will all get permits. Kafin is not an isolated case. Throughout the West Bank, the wall will be a disaster for Palestinians. Long sections of it will not follow the Green Line, but will cut swathes out of Palestinian territory, permanently cutting off thousands of farmers from their land. Some Palestinian villages will be stranded on the Israeli side of the wall, but the villagers will not be allowed into Israel proper."
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Floor Statement by Rep. Wm. Lacy Clay Congress debates the Administration's resolution to authorize military action against Iraq September 2002
As Congress debates the Administration's resolution to authorize military action against Iraq, I urge my colleagues to consider the very dangerous consequences of unilateral military action.
If the United States rushes into war without concrete evidence of Iraq's possession of weapons of mass destruction - and without the backing of the UN and key international allies - we face the loss of much-needed support in our war against terrorism. Without a valid reason to remove Saddam Hussein from office our integrity is at risk and it may be assumed that the U.S. mission is aimed at allowing oil companies access to Iraqi oil reserves.
Up until now, the Bush Administration has completely failed to address the need for peace in the Middle East. This Administration has only watched the turmoil escalate and ignored the Arab-world's blossoming hatred of the United States. At this point in time, a war with Iraq only ensures Iraqi retaliation against Israel and more upheaval and instability throughout the Middle East.
I urge my colleagues to be more cognizant of the real immediate threats to our nation. An invasion of Iraq poses a costly economic burden and we simply cannot afford to commit American lives and resources to overthrow a regime which does not pose an imminent danger to our nation. At present, American families are facing many far more immediate threats. Americans are experiencing growing unemployment, an unstable stock market, a rising poverty level and an escalating need for homeland security protections.
Finally, it is unconscionable to expose thousands of young Americans to the perils of war before it is established that Iraq has weapons of mass destruction and we have exhausted all diplomatic and peaceful means of eliminating such a threat. The American people will not tolerate sending their sons and daughters off to fight another war that serves no certain purpose.
A war with Iraq is bound to inflame Arab-world hostility toward the United States, invite more terrorism and jeopardize our children's future. I am cosponsoring H.J. Resolution 110, which authorizes the use of United States Armed Forces against Iraq to defend our national security interests and sets forth Congressional mandates which must be met before the President engages the U.S. military. This resolution would ensure that all conceivable diplomatic options have been explored and exhausted and that a preemptive strike is our nation's only option. I am also supporting H. Con. Res. 473 which asserts that there are alternatives to a war with Iraq and the United States should work through the United Nations to resolve the matter of ensuring that Iraq is not developing weapons of mass destruction and employ mechanisms such as weapons inspections, negotiations, enquiry, mediation regional arrangement and other peaceful means to address the Iraqi threat.
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Wednesday, October 09, 2002
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Truth on Iraq seeps through- Robert Scheer : " Plainly put, Bush's big bad Boogeyman is a bunch of bull. In truth, the invasion is required not to meet a pressing threat to our security but rather to meet the threat to GOP control of Congress posed by a sagging U.S. economy and a stock market that has wiped out the savings of many Americans. That and the pent-up desire of frustrated wannabe imperialists among top Bush advisors to find a way to use our high-tech weaponry to micromanage the world. The CIA report makes it clear there is no plausible national security reason for pushing for war with Iraq at this time, other than the ill-advised imperial goal of directly controlling the world's oil supplies."
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A squad of American soldiers was patrolling the Iraqi border, when they came across a badly mangled dead body. As they got closer, they found it was an Iraqi soldier.
A short distance up the road, they found a badly mangled American soldier in a ditch on the other side of the road, struggling to breathe. They ran to him, cradled his bruised head and asked him what had happened.
"Well," he whispered, "I was walking down this road, armed to the teeth when I came across this heavily armed Iraqi border guard. I looked him right in the eye and shouted, 'Saddam Hussein is a moronic, deceitful, lying piece of trash!'"
"He looked me right in the eye and shouted back, 'George W. Bush is a moronic, deceitful, lying piece of trash too!'"
"We were standing there shaking hands when the truck hit us."
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Group 4 security firm pulls guards out of West Bank "The security conglomerate Group 4 Falck, which pioneered the private contracting of detention facilities and prisons in Britain, has decided to withdraw the private guards employed by one of its offshoots at Israeli settlements in the West Bank after the Guardian raised questions about their behaviour and the legality of their role. The company, the world's second biggest security firm, took a controlling stake earlier this year in an Israeli security company, Hashmira, which employs at least 100 armed guards at settlements. A Guardian investigation in the settlement of Kedumim showed that Hashmira's guards work closely with Israel's military and security apparatus. In the name of "security" the guards, many of whom are settlers, routinely prevent Palestinian villagers from cultivating their own fields, travelling to schools, hospitals and shops in nearby towns, and receiving emergency medical assistance. "
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Saturday, September 14, 2002
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In war, some facts less factual: "When George H. W. Bush ordered American forces to the Persian Gulf -- to reverse Iraq's August 1990 invasion of Kuwait -- part of the administration case was that an Iraqi juggernaut was also threatening to roll into Saudi Arabia. Citing top-secret satellite images, Pentagon officials estimated in mid--September that up to 250,000 Iraqi troops and 1,500 tanks stood on the border, threatening the key US oil supplier. But when the St. Petersburg Times in Florida acquired two commercial Soviet satellite images of the same area, taken at the same time, no Iraqi troops were visible near the Saudi border -- just empty desert.... "This administration is capable of any lie ... in order to advance its war goal in Iraq," says a US government source in Washington with some two decades of experience in intelligence, who would not be further identified. "It is one of the reasons it doesn't want to have UN weapons inspectors go back in, because they might actually show that the probability of Iraq having [threatening illicit weapons] is much lower than they want us to believe.""
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Independent News: Robert Fisk "are we now trying to turn Huntington's third-rate book into a success story? Are we actually now in the process of starting a clash of civilisations? Never before have Muslims and Westerners been so polarised, their conflicts so sharpened â013 and Arab hopes so fraudulently raised. We are no more planning to give those Arabs "democracy" than we planned to honour our promise of independence at the end of the 1914-18 war. What we want to do is to bring them back under our firm control, to ensure their loyalty. " [ Long but well worth the read]
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The Guns of September - Kristof quoting Prof Alison "Bush displayed Kennedy's toughness, resolve and even eloquence. But he did not display the other qualities of statesmanship: humility about the risks of miscalculation, a passion to avoid war. ... Kennedy turned first to diplomacy and a blockade. He offered the Russians a graceful exit and thus saved lives and avoided a dangerous spin into the unknown. Today as well, why shouldn't war be a last resort instead of the first tool that President Bush grabs off the shelf? The fundamental question is left unanswered: Why initiating war against Saddam is better than the next option, which is deterring and containing him... You could agree that this is an evil guy — he is evil — who defied the U.N. resolutions — he did — and still ask why he is not susceptible to the same treatment that was used against Stalin, who was also evil and dangerous and cheated. A succession of presidents chose to deter and contain Stalin — rather than invade and occupy Russia — just as every president until now has chosen to deter and contain Saddam. Before launching a war, Mr. Bush still needs to show two things: first, that the threat is so urgent that letting Iraq fester is even riskier than invading it and occupying it for many years to come; second, that deterrence will no longer be successful in containing Saddam."
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Jesse Jackson, Jr. | Bush Needs Moral Authority To Use Military Force: "The U.S. and the UN must exhaust all other possibilities before launching military action against Iraq. The President must convince the world that the danger presented by Saddam Hussein is imminent. And the U.S. must respect the views of others in the world before we use, hopefully, any joint military might to attack and remove Saddam Hussein from power in Iraq"
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Thursday, September 12, 2002
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Study: Iraq could arm nukes quickly: "Contrary to Bush's claim, however, the 1998 IAEA report did not say that Iraq was six months away from developing nuclear capability, NBC News' Robert Windrem reported Saturday. Instead, Windrem reported, the Vienna, Austria-based agency said in 1998 that Iraq had been six to 24 months away from such capability before the 1991 Persian Gulf War and the U.N.-monitored weapons inspections that followed. The war and the inspections destroyed much of Iraq's nuclear infrastructure and required Iraq to turn over its highly enriched uranium and plutonium, "
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Monday, September 09, 2002
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How Did Iraq Get Its Weapons? We Sold Them: "the US, under the successive administrations of Ronald Reagan and George Bush Sr, sold materials including anthrax, VX nerve gas, West Nile fever germs and botulism to Iraq right up until March 1992, as well as germs similar to tuberculosis and pneumonia. Other bacteria sold included brucella melitensis, which damages major organs, and clostridium perfringens, which causes gas gangrene. "
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Friday, September 06, 2002
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Senator Dianne Feinstein: More Questions Than Answers on Iraq: " I believe any action in Iraq at this time, without allied support, without United Nations support, and without a compelling case for just cause, would be both morally wrong and politically mistaken. I just returned from a trip to Europe.... I was shocked at how dramatically perceptions in Europe have shifted since September 11 toward our country. All of the sympathy and concern we received in the wake of the terrorist attacks has apparently vanished, replaced by the sense that the United States is becoming an arrogant and aggressive power, a nation that simply gives orders, a nation that neither listens nor hears. "
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Wednesday, September 04, 2002
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How Israel's Peace Movement Fell Apart: "The hard truth is that the peace movements and organizations were tired long before the Camp David fiasco. Their leaders were the same well-meaning but worn-out activists who had founded the original Peace Now movement more than 20 years ago.... they failed to attract the younger, middle-class, high-tech generation to their ranks. This failure contrasted strongly with the dynamic activism of the right-wing and West Bank settler movements that have successfully won the hearts and minds of a second, and even third, generation of activists. Israeli right-wing ideology has constantly been renewed through the messages of religious nationalism and irredentism, while the messages of peace and reconciliation -- however difficult they are to sell during periods of violence and terrorism -- have been relegated to irrelevance."
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Wednesday, August 28, 2002
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Cheney Stumps for War, Ignores His Own Ties to Hussein: "According to the Financial Times of London, between September 1998 and [early 2000], Cheney, as CEO of Halliburton, oversaw $23.8 million of business contracts for the sale of oil-industry equipment and services to Iraq through two of its subsidiaries, Dresser Rand and Ingersoll-Dresser Pump, which helped rebuild Iraq's war-damaged petroleum-production infrastructure. The combined value of these contracts exceeded those of any other U.S. company doing business with Baghdad. "
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Friday, July 26, 2002
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A Professor's Activism Leads Investigators to Look Into Possible Terrorism Links: "to law enforcement officials who have investigated him for seven years, Mr. Al-Arian was a major fund-raiser for a terrorist group that funneled money to the Palestinian Islamic Jihad. Based in Damascus, Syria, and supported by Iran, the group has conducted suicide attacks in which scores of Israelis, and at least one American, have been killed or wounded. According to previously undisclosed Justice Department documents, federal investigators have been trying since 1995 to trace at least $650,000 that Mr. Al-Arian and several associates helped send overseas in the late 1980's and 1990's. They suspect, but have not been able to prove, that some of the money went to the Islamic Jihad, and they have asked Israel to help track the funds. "
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In Palestinian Children, Signs of Increasing Malnutrition: "A study under way for the United States Agency for International Development is finding that malnutrition among Palestinian children in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip has increased substantially during the conflict with Israel, according to diplomats and government officials knowledgeable about the survey."
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Thursday, July 25, 2002
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Is Fighting Iraq Worth the Risks?: "Iraqi forces would probably take a lesson from their defeat in 1991 and fight from the cities, where civilian casualties would greatly raise the cost of air strikes and buildings would provide disguise for weaponry and military personnel. "
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Wednesday, July 24, 2002
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Palestinian ceasefire plan lies buried in the rubble of Gaza : "WESTERN diplomats believe they were within hours of clinching an unprecedented Palestinian commitment to end suicide bombings when Israel launched its missile strike on Gaza on Monday night. The Times has learnt that a Palestinian declaration containing an unconditional commitment to end suicide attacks on civilians was finalised hours before the attack. It was to have been made public yesterday but has now been postponed indefinitely. Yesterday diplomats said they suspected the attack -- which killed 14 Palestinians as well as the Hamas commander Sheikh Salah Shehada -- was timed to wreck what might have been a breakthrough."
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Thursday, July 11, 2002
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Seeking to Link Iraq to Poison Gas and bin Laden: "In this hourlong film, its reporter and producer, Gwynne Roberts, travels to Iraqi Kurdistan searching for links between Mr. Hussein and Osama bin Laden. He is accompanied by a doctor studying the long-term effects of poison gas on the towns and villages (more than 200 of them) attacked by Mr. Hussein in the late 1980's. The Hussein-Bin Laden connection is the more explosive subject. The claims are chilling if true, but while the evidence is convincing it remains unproved here. The effects of the poison gas, however, are viscerally, undeniably horrifying. "
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Monday, July 08, 2002
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U.S. Plan for Iraq Is Said to Include Attack on 3 Sides: "The document envisions tens of thousands of marines and soldiers probably invading from Kuwait. Hundreds of warplanes based in as many as eight countries, possibly including Turkey and Qatar, would unleash a huge air assault against thousands of targets, including airfields, roadways and fiber-optics communications sites. Special operations forces or covert C.I.A. operatives would strike at depots or laboratories storing or manufacturing Iraq's suspected weapons of mass destruction and the missiles to launch them. "
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Kurds, Secure in North Iraq, Are Cool to a U.S. Offensive: "These leaders, interviewed in their strongholds in northern Iraq in the last week, say flatly that they would be reluctant to join American military operations that put Kurds at risk of an onslaught by Iraqi troops of the kind they suffered after the Persian Gulf war in 1991.... The Kurdish leaders spoke with a sharp edge of distrust for the United States, which they said had "betrayed" Iraqi Kurds at crucial moments in the past, most recently during the Iraqi onslaught against the Kurdish uprising in 1991. Mr. Barzani and other leaders also referred bitterly to events in 1975, when the United States encouraged Iraqi Kurds to ally themselves with Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi of Iran in a territorial dispute with Iraq, only to back a reconciliation between Iran and Iraq that left the Kurds exposed to a military crackdown by Baghdad. Mr. Barzani coupled this bitterness with a reminder that Washington's hawkishness on Iraq is led by a president whose father, many Iraqi Kurds contend, let them down in 1991."
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Friday, June 14, 2002
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Wednesday, June 05, 2002
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Sexual Tension Between Arafat, Sharon Reaches Breaking Point "The long-simmering sexual tension between Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat finally reached a breaking point Monday, culminating in a passionate kiss before a shocked delegation of Mideast negotiators. "You always got the feeling that there was something more behind all the anger and tension," said European Union Foreign Policy Chief Javier Solana. "They wouldn't agree on anything, even though their people were dying, locked in this unending conflict. It never made sense—until now."Continued Solana: "All that repressed passion. And neither of them would admit it to the other... or to themselves.""
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Sunday, June 02, 2002
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St. Louis Post-Dispatch: Inside Iraq: First of a series by Jon Sawyer - "A 10-day tour through central and southern Iraq finds a country that is surprisingly relaxed -- hopeful that recent economic gains will continue, optimistic that a new U.S. invasion can somehow be averted. In Baghdad, the nation's biggest city, bustling shops and restaurants are full of customers on weekend nights. An American visitor is greeted warmly by all, even by those who denounce American policies. Which is not to suggest that Iraq is a normal place."
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Stories of privation, signs of improvement: "Western diplomats and many Iraqis predict that Saddam Hussein will agree this summer to permit the return of United Nations weapons inspectors, ending nearly four years of defiance and removing one of the factors President George W. Bush has cited as grounds for war."
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Gulf War left water supply compromised: "an American group is trying to repair damaged treatment centers. The health of 7,000 people who live in the farming region of Hibhib, 50 miles north of Baghdad, depends on the one good eye of Abdul Rahman Hussein."
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Iraqi bureaucrats can be roadblocks -- even to those bringing aid: "It's not always easy helping Iraq, even for those willing to bend over backward to see the Iraqi point of view. Consider a meeting earlier this month between the Veterans for Peace delegation and Abdullah Hassan Ali, Iraq's general manager of water services."
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Iraq's road to rage: "Distortion, courtesy of the state-run media, is an ever-present reality: Iraqis get a daily dose of talk about the "American administration of evil." And the wounds from the Persian Gulf War of a decade ago are still raw."
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Saturday, June 01, 2002
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Lost in Translation at the F.B.I.: "The F.B.I.'s Arabic translation test simply does not measure all the language skills needed for intelligence gathering focused on Arabic speakers. The Arabic-language test — copyrighted in 1994 by the Defense Language Institute, according to the back of my exam booklet — was solely in Modern Standard Arabic, the Arabic most frequently studied at American universities. This is the form used for official speeches and in the news media in Arab countries — but almost never in conversation. It differs substantially from the spoken varieties of Arabic in vocabulary, syntax and idioms — enough so that a non-native speaker who learned only Modern Standard Arabic would not be able to understand Arabic speakers talking to one another. ...Yet no colloquial Arabic, in any dialect, appeared anywhere on the F.B.I.'s Arabic translation test, which included a listening-comprehension section. During my post-exam interview, I tried to offer some feedback about the test's failure to measure skills in everyday spoken Arabic, but the interviewer brusquely moved on to his next question. Nor was there a chance for me to name the two Arabic dialects in which I am proficient. The interview is scripted; there is no room for unscripted interaction. All the other Middle East studies applicants with whom I spoke said they, too, noticed the test's shortcoming but couldn't find an opening to comment on it."
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Wednesday, May 29, 2002
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Haggai Matar, Refusenik, Speaks in Madison, Wisconsin.. 18-year-old Israeli citizen... Matar is part of a growing movement of "refuseniks", Israelis who refuse to serve in the military to enforce the occupation of Palestine. He faces prison time this summer for his refusal. " - audio and video. Decent and intelligent young man, if simplistic.
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Monday, May 27, 2002
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Bethlehem Invaded Again, as Israelis Extend Control: " Israel's campaign to seize full responsibility for its own security along its eastern boundary with the West Bank, blurring if not erasing lines that once defined areas under Palestinian security control.... a parliamentary leader on security issues said, "I'm confident that there is a military solution, and by brute force we can completely, or almost completely, eradicate terrorism."... In several incidents recently, soldiers have wounded or killed innocent people who they said appeared to be acting suspiciously. "
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Saturday, May 25, 2002
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Debate on Arafat Stalls U.S. Policy, Aides to Bush Say: "The debate in the Bush administration has divided along familiar lines, officials said, with Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld and Vice President Dick Cheney pressing for a policy that would undermine Mr. Arafat's control over the Palestinian Authority and pave the way for a change in leadership. Secretary Powell and Mr. Tenet are said to argue that there is no alternative to Mr. Arafat. They advocate keeping him under pressure to deliver on his pledges of change. According to this view, political and economic reconstruction of the Palestinian Authority would set the stage for statehood and the gradual transition to broader leadership.... One Saudi political adviser said that the prince felt he had brought Mr. Arafat around, but that Mr. Bush had yet to bring Mr. Sharon around. "The crown prince feels that he has delivered his guy, and now the president needs to deliver his guy," the adviser said. "Arafat has made his commitment on political and security reforms, and we want to hold his feet to the fire, but unless the process moves forward, we could lose the momentum and that could spell disaster.""
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Why Israel's 'seruvniks' say enough is enough: "The laywer representing Israeli conscripts who refuse to serve beyond the 1967 ceasefire lines explains why a growing number of soldiers are disobeying orders, in order to protect the basic values on which Israel was founded."
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'Jihad': Predicting an Islamic Reformation: "''Jihad: The Trail of Political Islam'' will be a welcome respite for anyone who fears the fury associated with militant Islam. Despite the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11 and the Palestinian suicide bombings in Israel, Gilles Kepel argues that the trend is, in fact, now on its last legs. The violence is merely a reflection of the movement's failure, not its success."
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Friday, May 24, 2002
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Israelis Consider New Limits on West Bank Palestinians: "The Israeli Army is stringing barbed wire around this city as part of what aid workers fear are sweeping new restrictions that will further squeeze the Palestinians' already crippled economy and perhaps stoke more violence. The barbed wire, evidently intended to prevent Palestinian attacks, blocks what used to be a way to sneak in and out of Ramallah without passing checkpoints. It is likely only to increase the frustration at the nearby Kalandia checkpoint, the only approved way to and from Jerusalem. The checkpoint is already the source of deep Palestinian frustration and recently seems to have become more permanent with the addition of various concrete blocks to channel traffic."
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Thursday, May 23, 2002
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Some U.S. Backers of Israel Boycott Dailies Over Mideast Coverage: "Intense public reaction to coverage of the violence of the Middle East conflict has prompted unusually harsh attacks on several news media outlets and has led to boycotts of The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times and The Washington Post. Broadcast news operations, including CNN and National Public Radio, have also been criticized. "
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Wednesday, May 22, 2002
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Tuesday, May 21, 2002
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Monday, May 20, 2002
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An Anti-American Boycott Is Growing in the Arab World: "American support for Israel, especially during its recent military offensive in the occupied territories, is driving a grass-roots effort to boycott American products throughout the Arab world. With word spread via the Internet, mosque sermons, fliers and even mobile phone messages, the boycott seems to be slowly gathering force, especially against consumer products."
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'The Reckoning': Iraq and the Thief of Baghdad: "Sandra Mackey, the author of popular books on Saudi Arabia, Iran and the Arabs, has written an accessible history of Iraq. She is not a scholar of Iraq, and in all fairness to her, does not pretend to be. The Arabic memoirs and primary sources that sustain scholarly works are not to be found in ''The Reckoning.'' Nor is this a book of political journalism and travel; the closed political world of Iraq precludes that kind of inquiry. The result is a derivative work that provides a readable narrative of Iraq's history. "
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Saturday, May 11, 2002
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Why I Refuse to Fight for Sharon's Settlements: "It became increasingly clear to me that the little orders that I was issued, and then the orders I gave my soldiers to carry out, had precious little to do with protecting the state. They had everything to do with protecting a group of zealots and their settlements, and maintaining a Kafkaesque system that spelled misery for ordinary Palestinians. After two years of deliberation and many sleepless nights, I came to the inescapable conclusion that Zionism is not what the zealots have made it. Zionism is not about occupation and territories; it is about obtaining a secure and internationally recognized home for the Jewish people. While some in Israel view refusal as betrayal, I refuse to betray the basic values and goals of Zionism. The continuing occupation imperils the future of the Jewish state. We must choose between land and legitimacy and between occupation and democracy. "
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Thursday, May 09, 2002
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Suicide Planner Expresses Joy Over His Missions: "The prisoner, Abdel Karim Aweis, 31, a leader of Al Aksa Martyrs Brigades, a militant group linked to Yasir Arafat's Fatah movement, said he had wanted to even the score after growing numbers of Palestinians were killed by Israeli troops in months of intensifying violence. The goal of his group, he asserted, was to increase losses in Israel to a point at which the Israeli public would demand a withdrawal from the West Bank and Gaza Strip -- an aim he acknowledged has not been achieved."
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U.N. Plans Soon to Streamline Application of Iraq Sanctions: "The five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council have agreed on new procedures for the sanctions against Iraq that should make it far easier for Iraq to import nonmilitary goods. Approval of the changes was a victory for the United States and Britain, which have been seeking to streamline the procedures and deny President Saddam Hussein the claim that the sanctions were causing civilian suffering. "
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Wednesday, May 08, 2002
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Bethlehem - Under Siege, Fiercely Longing for Peace: "Sick of the siege, he is also careful about blame. "The feeling of revenge on both sides will last a very long time," Mr. Hazboun said. "And we Christians, like our church, are caught in the middle, as usual." When the Israeli soldiers came a few nights ago and asked for weapons, Mr. Hazboun said, "I told them, `My weapon is God,' and they kept silent. Then I added some words, that `Every man who carries arms is a coward,' and the soldier kept his head down.""
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The Answer is in the Force, by Chris Toensing: "The Israeli-Palestinian standoff requires a drastic solution: a UN peacekeeping force armed with a mandate to end Israel's occupation of Palestinian lands, now nearly 35 years old. Until recently, this idea was unimaginable. Now the impasse between Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's bellicosity and Palestinian desperation conjures up scenarios so frightening that international peacekeepers must be sent into action sooner rather than later.... The failed Hebron experiment underlines the fact that not just any international intervention will do in Israel-Palestine."
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JewishPeaceNews on the latest suicide bombing "The loathsome targeting of civilians by Palestinian radicals is not only morally abhorrent, but beggars comprehension at even the most inhuman tactical level. What can the goals of such an attack be, even for militant Palestinian groups vying for prestige and power? Is it merely blind revenge?
Certainly, such assaults on civilians do nothing to advance the liberation cause of the Palestinians -- quite the contrary, they curtail international sympathy for Palestinians living under the suffocating regime of Israeli occupation....
What Tuesday's bombing has demonstrated... is the futility of the Sharon government's military approach to the conflict....
That the Sharon government blames Arafat for a bombing that occurred just days after his release from weeks of imprisonment by Israel in his compound suggests that this attack provides a fine excuse for Sharon to carry out the objective of politically eliminating Arafat.
Once again, the militants -- those who care nothing for the lives of anyone who interferes with their exclusivist objectives -- dictate policy. Once again, negotiations are ruled out by those who could most easily reinitiate them, and who most stand to benefit from them. And once again, the innocent suffer."
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Ha'aretz - More money for the settlements: "The Knesset Finance Committee yesterday approved the transfer of NIS 19.7 million to settlements to improve their water infrastructure following the construction of bypass roads. This amount is beyond the NIS 30 million approved for settlements two days ago - NIS 17.5 million for agriculture in the Jordan Valley, NIS 8.5 million in grants to young people settling in the Jordan Valley and the Golan Heights and NIS 3.76 million for beefing up security. "The poorer the state becomes, the richer the settlements become," said MK Mussi Raz (Meretz), who opposed the funding. "The settlements are drying up Israel's economy." "
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Tuesday, May 07, 2002
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Monday, May 06, 2002
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A bridge too far, By Gideon Levy: "Once more the occupation reaches into every corner - the home, the school, the workplace, the road, the field, the store, and the deathbed. But in contrast to the pre-Oslo period, when there was a full occupation and responsibility for the life and welfare of the residents was in Israeli hands, through the agency of the military governors, Israel now takes no responsibility for the lives of the occupied population. This is a grave and intolerable change. In accordance with both international law and the rules of natural justice, Israel, which ravaged the civilian infrastructures and is keeping an entire nation in conditions of imprisonment, is responsible - as the occupying power - for the fate of the occupied."
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Tel Aviv police violence against peaceful Jewish protesters: "they cornered two boys and beat them up so badly that their backs look like a checkers board. they smashed a loudspeaker into a third person's face. they grabbed arbitrarily two young people and arrested them, pulled them behind the police cars and continued pulling them up by their arms and beating them. they kicked another women from kvisa in the jaw."
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Jenin War Crimes Investigation Needed (Human Rights Watch Press release): "In its forty-eight page report, "Israel, the Occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip, and the Palestinian Authority Territories: Jenin: IDF Military Operations," Human Rights Watch identified fifty-two Palestinians who were killed during the operation, of whom twenty-two were civilians. Many of the civilians were killed willfully or unlawfully. Human Rights Watch also found that the IDF used Palestinian civilians as "human shields" and used indiscriminate and excessive force during the operation. "The abuses we documented in Jenin are extremely serious, and in some cases appear to be war crimes," said Peter Bouckaert, senior researcher at Human Rights Watch and a member of the investigative team. "Criminal investigations are needed to ascertain individual responsibility for the most serious violations. Such investigations are first and foremost the duty of the Israeli government, but the international community needs to ensure that meaningful accountability occurs." "
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Palestinian Authority: End Torture and Unfair Trials (Human Rights Watch Press release, New York, November 30, 2001): "The report says at least ten separate Palestinian security and police forces are operating in PA territory, all of them operating above the law. They have systematically ignored orders from the High Court to release detainees who are being held arbitrarily. Detainees are commonly arrested without a warrant and are not told the reason for their arrest nor allowed access to a lawyer during interrogation. Once arrested, they can spend months in detention without charge or trial. The practice of incommunicado detention exacerbates the routine use of torture. Detainees are frequently subjected to "shabah" (prolonged sitting or standing in painful positions); "falaqa" (beating on the soles of the feet); punching; kicking; and suspension from the wrists. Five Palestinians are known to have died in police or security force custody since the current intifada began. " -- [So is Human Rights Watch biased toward the Palestinians as charged by Israel?]
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Ha'aretz "Ibrahim Haleifa went out to work in the morning, riding on his donkey. The soldiers opened fire from the armored vehicle at the edge of the village. They were strictly enforcing the curfew, even in this remote village, even against this stray youth. The neighbors say that it took half an hour before they could get the bleeding young man off the street and into the house, because the soldiers fired at anyone who tried to approach him. It took another hour to reach the hospital. "
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IDF admits 'ugly vandalism' against Palestinian property - By Amos Harel - Ha'aretz (Israel) - 30 April 2002 (no URL available).
Israel Defense Forces sources have admitted that Palestinian claims of the systematic destruction of property, particularly computers, during the recent military operations in Ramallah are, for the most part, true. "There were indeed wide-scale, ugly phenomena of vandalism," a senior military sources told Ha'aretz yesterday.
And while another military source said that the army had yet to undertake a full investigation into the matter, there are already many individual cases that are being prosecuted through the military justice system.
Within the context of Operation Defensive Shield, an intelligence unit specialized in systematically going through public institutions of the Palestinian Authority and collecting hard disks from computers in offices, for the purposes of examining them based on the assumption that some would contain information on terrorist activity.
The IDF sources explained that because various PA institutions, including civil authorities, were involved in terror, some of the computers had indeed included valuable intelligence.
However, the sources admitted that in many cases the searches had turned into systematic vandalism, without any justification.
"It was not an order from above," said a senior source, "but that's how it was understood in the field. The infantry, both the conscripts and the reservists who accompanied the intelligence teams, understood that they were allowed -- or indeed expected -- to destroy the property in the offices."
"The result," the source continued, "was damage running into hundreds of thousands of dollars. Soldiers smashed computer monitors and destroyed keyboards. There were places in which bank branches were destroyed and automatic tellers were raided. In some cases, theft accompanied the vandalism. It was significant damage, widespread and totally illogical."
The source said that while the extent of the damage was clear, the IDF had yet to undertake a serious investigation into what had taken place.
A reserve officer who played a senior role in the Ramallah area said that he believed most of the damage had been done during hunts for wanted men and munitions. "We found weapons and sabotage equipment in what were seemingly civil institutions," the officer said. "There were instances in which soldiers broke open doors because nobody was inside. Clearly there was looting, but most of the damage was done during the hunt for people and weapons. This was war, not a lab operation."
A veteran intelligence officer said the explanation for the IDF's behavior was to be found in the difference between the fighting in the territories and previous wars in Lebanon and the Sinai. "Those were clear-cut enemy territories; and it was clear to the intelligence units that they would take everything because everything was military equipment. In the Palestinian Authority, everything was mixed up -- civilian, security, terrorist. It is very difficult to make the distinction. Some of the damage was done by the unit, and some by other soldiers, at their own initiative."
Reservists who served in the Ramallah and Bethlehem areas said they had witnessed many instances of deliberate damage caused by soldiers to Palestinian property. Some also spoke of cases of looting.
"The extent of the looting is much greater than could have been expected in advance," a senior legal source told Ha'aretz. "This is an ugly and serious phenomenon."
Some cases involved two or three soldiers who had worked together, the source said, noting that reservists as well as conscripts had been involved. Some of the suspects were combat troops, the source added; and in certain cases, military defenders had reservations about representing suspects due to the nature of the crimes.
Most of the incidents are expected to end in plea bargains, with the convicted serving prison sentences. The majority of the looting took place in Ramallah, though there were reports of instances in Bethlehem as well. Most of the cases are in Central Command's JAG unit.
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Dick Armey Calls for Ethnic Cleansing of Palestinians: "House Republican Majority Leader Dick Armey ( R-TX) called for the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians from the occupied territories and endorsed Israel's conquests of those lands. Armey said that he "is content to have a Palestinian state" but is "not content to give up any part of Israel for the purpose of a Palestinian state." He defined the Palestinian territories occupied by Israel-East Jerusalem, the West Bank and Gaza Strip-as Israel. He also said he has "thought this through for a lot of years" and believes that Palestinians living in the West Bank should be removed. Armey stated that "there are many Arab nations that have many hundreds of thousands of acres of land, soil, and property and opportunity to create a Palestinian state." "
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Sunday, May 05, 2002
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Saturday, May 04, 2002
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Tikkun - Edward Said: "The profound question facing Israel and its people is this: is it willing juridically to assume the rights and obligations of being a country like any other, and forswear the kind of impossible land ownership assertions for which Sharon and his parents and his soldiers have been fighting since day one? In 1948 Palestinians lost 78 per cent of Palestine. In 1967 they lost the last 22 per cent, both times to Israel. Now the international community must lay upon Israel the obligation to accept the principle of real, as opposed to fictional, partition, and to accept the principle of limiting Israel's untenable extra-territorial claims, those absurd Biblically-based pretensions, and laws that have so far allowed it to override another people completely. Why is that kind of fundamentalism tolerated unquestioningly? "
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Tikkun- Strategy for Ending the Occupation: "the U.S. political system, particularly the Congress, which is responsive to the political and economic clout of groups like the American Israel Political Action Committee (AIPAC), as well as to the new found pro-Sharonism of some fundamentalist Christians, and the right wing of the Republican party, is not capable of playing the role of honest broker, but is increasingly pulled to give a blank check to the most hawkish programs of the Israeli government. "
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Israel's Jewish Critics Aren't 'Self-Hating': Rabbi Michael Lerner - "Many American Jews understand the need in today's world to abandon chauvinism and insistence on Jewish "specialness." We need instead to affirm those parts of Jewish tradition that lead us to be able to recognize the spirit of God in every human being on the planet, and to recognize that our security will come not from more armaments for Israel, but from more love and connection between the Jewish people and all other peoples. There is no special path to Jewish safety and security that does not also lead us to global safety and security for all peoples."
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CBS 60 Minutes - Refusniks Speak Out : "Members of the group are considered heroes by some and traitors by others. "I felt like what I was doing was wrong," says Iczkovics. "Our presence there simply causes an impossible situation for their normal life." The two discussed their reservations among other soldiers and eventually more joined their movement to refuse to fight in the Occupied Territories. Amit Mashiah tells Simon of a confrontation with an old Palestinian woman an incident that he said helped convince him to become a Refusenik. "There was an old lady who ran to me and spat in my face. It's a dangerous situation. You've got your soldiers behind you seeing you've been spat in the face and what do you do?" Mashiah asks. He tells Simon that he "shoved her real hard," and says it was worse for him to shove her than it was to have been spat upon. "It was a terrible thing to do," he says. "
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Yigal Bronner: A Journey to Beit Jalla: "what I saw, heard and experienced-- the child confined to his home for a month, the old lady running after the food-truck, the men lying on the floor of the army vehicle, the soldiers humiliating my Palestinian friends at the roadblock-- all that was quite educational. It allowed me to understand that what Israel has been destroying in Palestine is all but the infrastructure of terrorism. It has been destroying the agricultural, educational, medical and road infrastructure; it has been eroding goodwill and undermining whatever is left of the Palestinian desire for peace. It has been sowing hunger, poverty, humiliation and hatred, all of which only serve to fortify the infrastructure of terrorism. I go to sleep thinking of Amos and Laith, hoping that they can somehow grow up as friends."
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Foreign Policy In Focus - Talking Points: Israeli-Palestinian Conflict : [Good clear summary of the issues]. "On virtually all of the outstanding issues in the peace process (the extent of the Israeli withdrawal, the fate of the Israeli settlements, the status of Jerusalem, and the resettlement of Palestinian refugees), the Palestinian negotiating position is far more consistent with international law, UN Security Council resolutions, and U.S. policy prior to the Clinton administration than is the Israeli negotiating position. "
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Foreign Policy In Focus - Ariel Sharon, Take A Bow: "Prime Minister Sharon has achieved in a few short weeks what the United Nations has failed to do for twelve years. At the Arab summit in Beirut, Kuwait and Iraq have all but kissed and made up: Iraq agrees that Kuwait exists and recognizes its borders and Kuwait spoke against a U.S. invasion of Iraq. And Crown Prince Abdullah of Saudi Arabia literally kissed the Iraqi representative. Not only has Sharon's war on Arafat unified the Arab world in ways not seen in decades, it has also had the effect of undermining the legal basis for the continuing sanctions and U.S. bombing of Iraqi targets. "
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Friday, May 03, 2002
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Rights Group Doubts Mass Deaths in Jenin, but Sees Signs of War Crimes: "Human Rights Watch, a group that is generally considered fair-minded, concluded that those actions, among others, constituted "strong prima facie evidence" that Israeli soldiers "committed grave breaches of the Geneva Conventions, or war crimes" and called for further investigation by Israeli or international bodies...He maintained that his group was not singling out the Israelis for criticism, and that it had also investigated the Palestinian Authority's failure to punish suspected terrorists and was now investigating suicide bombings. That practice, the group says, is a crime against humanity because it involves intentionally attacking civilians."
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Thursday, May 02, 2002
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Guardian: "Across West Bank, daily tragedies go unseen Suzanne Goldenberg reveals the extent of abuses against civilians in Israel's four-week military offensive"
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Guardian: "Both the International Committee of the Red Cross and Amnesty International say there is enough evidence to justify a full-scale investigation for war crimes."
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Guardian : "Israeli perspective 'We fight like girls and we are accused of a massacre' "
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Guardian - Brutal Yes, Massacre No: "But other Israeli soldiers, speaking anonymously, have a different view. Their version of events is this: the commanders of the operation were complacent. An arrest raid against the camp a month before had gone without a hitch so they assumed Jenin would be relatively easy. Instead it turned into vicious fighting on both sides. After the 13 Israeli soldiers were killed in a booby-trapped bomb and crossfire ambush, say these reservists, the soldiers simply lost control. It is a version, curiously, given credit by the Palestinian residents of the camp. For their accounts, taken together, describe a breakdown of command at the height of the fighting. Some describe one group of soldiers calling to them to evacuate their homes before destruction then being threatened with being shot by other soldiers who insisted that a curfew was still in force. What they describe is a panic that seems to have taken hold of the Israeli army in Jenin camp, and in its panic it laid the camp to waste. But panic is not an excuse for gross violations of human rights."
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World War 3 Report: "THE PALESTINE FRONT" - extensive compilation of reports from Palestine, post-Jenin
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Claims of massacre go unsupported by Palestinian fighters - Boston Globe: " In interviews yesterday with teenage fighters, a leader of Islamic Jihad, an elderly man whose home was at the center of the fighting, and other Palestinian residents, all of whom were in the camp during the battle, none reported seeing large numbers of civilians killed. All said they were allowed to surrender or evacuate when they were ready to do so, though some reported being mistreated while in Israeli detention. "
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Ex-Soldier Fabricated Chechnya Story, Russian Officials Say: "Andrei Samorodov, a former Russian Army officer who said last month that he had fled the battlefield in Chechnya in 1999 to escape pressure from fascist cadets to execute civilians during Russia's assault, was not serving in the army at that time, according to Russian officials and acquaintances of his. Mr. Samorodov apparently fabricated his case for political asylum in the United States, which was granted in May 2000"
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Israeli May Day convoys bring food to West Bank: "We knew it was just another drop and the need is much greater, but it was symbolic and a very very moving scene. 200-300 people, young and old, Israeli Jews and Palestinians, all climbing the little hill at the checkpoint and carrying bags of rice, sugar, flower... a farmer brought big boxes of avocados from his plantation. All were equal, working for the same cause. People who refuse to give up humanity. An island of sanity in the madness."
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Wednesday, May 01, 2002
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JENIN - THE PROPAGANDA WAR Tanya Reinhart : "In Israel, Jenin is perceived mainly as a public relations problem (called in Hebrew 'hasbara' -explaining). It appears even that the army and the government believe that Israel is winning the propaganda battle."
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Opposing rallies find common ground for peace: "Stanford University was the location for a demonstration ... in solidarity with the Palestinian struggle. ... counter-demonstrators in solidarity with Israel. ... as the event came to a close, someone spoke on the microphone asking the demonstrators on both sides not to replicate the conflict, but to join and sing together for peace. The two demonstrations then merged. And Israeli and Palestinian flags flew side by side."
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Hamas would accept Saudi peace plan: "Hamas spokesman Ismail Abu Shanab told a San Francisco Chronicle reporter on Friday that Hamas is prepared to accept the Saudi peace plan which calls for an end to violence against Israel and political normalization in exchange for its withdrawal to the pre-1967 borders. "
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The Road to Nowhere - Tony Judt: "since 1967 Israel has changed in ways that render its traditional self-description absurd. It is now a regional colonial power, by some accounts the world's fourth-largest military establishment. Israel is a state, with all the trappings and capacities of a state. By comparison the Palestinians are weak indeed. While the failings of the Palestinian leadership have been abysmal and the crimes of Palestinian terrorists extremely bloody, the fact is that Israel has the military and political initiative. Responsibility for moving beyond the present impasse thus falls primarily (though as we shall see not exclusively) on Israel. But Israelis themselves are blind to this. In their own eyes they are still a small victim-community, defending themselves with restraint and reluctance against overwhelming odds. Their astonishingly incompetent political leadership has squandered thirty years since the hubris-inducing victory of June 1967. In that time Israelis have built illegal compounds in the occupied territories and grown a carapace of cynicism: toward the Palestinians, whom they regard with contempt, and toward a United States whose erstwhile benevolent disengagement they have manipulated shamelessly."
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When Letter of the Law Does Not Spell 'Clarity': law of war is at once an oxymoron and highly developed. Various conventions and protocols lay out numerous rules for acceptable conduct in military operations. But applying them in densely populated towns like those on the West Bank can be difficult. Even if a neutral inquiry found that one side or the other had violated the law, the enforcement tools are few. Neither the Israelis nor the Palestinians are likely to subject themselves to an international court.
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Tuesday, April 30, 2002
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A Venerable Voice in Israel Is Muted After Questioning Army's Actions: "Government ministers denounced Yarkoni. The town of Kfar Yona canceled her performance at a Memorial Day event to honor Israeli soldiers who have fallen in battle. Youth movements declared a boycott of her music. The septuagenarian received so many hate calls, her daughter said, that she is now too frightened to appear in public. At a time when many Israelis believe that they are locked in a battle for their existence with the Palestinians, Yarkoni's remarks, and the backlash against her, have stirred a debate here about freedom of speech and the nature of patriotism."
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Across West Bank, daily tragedies go unseen: "the Israeli army has been engaged in systematic abusethe length of the West Bank. "Jenin is not so different from any of the other attacks," said Peter Bouckaert, a senior researcher at Human Rights Watch. "The focus of the international community has been on events in Jenin, but equally serious violations took place in Ramallah, particularly, and in Nablus." The most grievous abuses break down into four categories: the killing of Palestinian civilians, the denial of medical care, the wanton destruction of civilian property, and the use of Palestinian civilians as human shields for house-to-house searches. "
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Passions Inflamed, Gaza Teenagers Die in Suicidal Attacks. On Tuesday night Yusef Zaqout, 14, set out with two friends, each 15, on a futile mission to attack a heavily fortified Israeli settlement near Gaza City. Armed with knives and homemade bombs that can easily be purchased on the street here, the three were shot dead by Israeli soldiers 15 yards from the settlement's exterior wall. (4/24)
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Israel Refuses to Recognize Greek Orthodox Patriarch: "The reason most often stated by Israeli officials is a suspicion that Patriarch Irineos is sympathetic to the Palestinian Authority, though no concrete evidence has been offered.... Various Israeli officials and experts said the real issue was the vast real estate holdings of the patriarchate, including land on which the Parliament stands and many other important properties in Jerusalem, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. Under the last patriarch, Diodoros I, who died in 2000, many questions were raised about the leases of land to Israeli property developers and the multimillion-dollar income from them. Many of the leases are due for renewal over the next decade. Patriarch Irineos, 63, has pledged to examine all transactions involving property."
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As Egypt Curbs Dissent, Critic Fears His Fate at Trial: "Since his first arrest in June 2000, Mr. Ibrahim has been a symbol of that shift. Along with 27 others connected to the Cairo research center he founded, Mr. Ibrahim was put on trial in February 2001 on charges that included sullying Egypt's reputation, accepting foreign donations without permission and embezzlement. He was convicted and sentenced to seven years in prison."
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U.S. Envisions Blueprint on Iraq Including Big Invasion Next Year: "The Bush administration, in developing a potential approach for toppling President Saddam Hussein of Iraq, is concentrating its attention on a major air campaign and ground invasion, with initial estimates contemplating the use of 70,000 to 250,000 troops. The administration is turning to that approach after concluding that a coup in Iraq would be unlikely to succeed and that a proxy battle using local forces there would be insufficient to bring a change in power. But senior officials now acknowledge that any offensive would probably be delayed until early next year, allowing time to create the right military, economic and diplomatic conditions. These include avoiding summer combat in bulky chemical suits, preparing for a global oil price shock, and waiting until there is progress toward ending the Israeli-Palestinian conflict."
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Monday, April 29, 2002
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Only Label for American in Ramallah Is 'Human Being': "Mr. Shapiro and Ms. Arraf have been busy challenging the Israeli curfew, defying Israeli snipers by walking the streets and delivering food and medicine. The couple say they want to provide humanitarian aid while nonviolently resisting the Israelis. Those are the goals of a group of Palestinians and foreigners that Ms. Arraf helped found, the International Solidarity Movement. "
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America Can Persuade Israel to Make a Just Peace: Jimmy Carter - "There are two existing factors that offer success to United States persuasion. One is the legal requirement that American weapons are to be used by Israel only for defensive purposes, a premise certainly being violated in the recent destruction of Jenin and other villages.... The other persuasive factor is approximately $10 million daily in American aid to Israel. "
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Please, Dad, Tell Me: How Do I Stop Being Complicit?: " I believe that Jews are being used by an American administration to accomplish its own ends, ends that have nothing to do with the ideals of Jews. We need to shout aloud that 80% of the billions that the US gives Israel in aid must be spent on weapons, and that more than half of those weapons are built in Texas. And Jews are being used by an Israeli government that has no interest except territorial expansion."
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Independent Argument: "Robert Fisk: Fear and learning in America As an outspoken critic of US policy in the Middle East, Fisk expected a hostile reception when he paid his first visit to the American Midwest since 11 September. He couldn't have been more mistaken"
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Sharon Wears Oppressor's Cloak: Robert Sheer - "What is the fundamental difference between Slobodan Milosevic and Ariel Sharon? The former is on trial for war crimes, while the latter still leads an occupying army."
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Wednesday, April 24, 2002
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In All Corners of Ramallah, Big Footprints of Israel Army: "At the Palestinian Authority's Ministry of Higher Education, computers, stripped of their hard drives, were piled up in the center of a room, where they had been destroyed in an explosion. Dozens of other computers in the building were disabled in similar fashion, a blackened crater on the floor marking the spot where some had been blown up. Printers and photocopy machines were also destroyed. A bullet was fired into the safe, but it remained unopened. The Palestine Insurance Company, a private firm a few blocks away, had its doors blown away; its furniture was broken, computers were dumped on the floor and file cabinets were ransacked."
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From Oslo Talks to Jenin: U.N. Aide Comes Under Fire: " Since he visited the Jenin refugee camp last week and expressed his horror at what he saw, Terje Roed-Larsen, the chief United Nations representative here and the man who began the secret contacts that led to the Oslo agreements, has come under an unusually harsh personal attack by the Israeli government. He has been accused of "record-high audacity" and "anti-Semitic ideas," and officials in the prime minister's office have talked of having him expelled. The attacks may be the most furious the 54-year-old Norwegian has faced, but they are hardly the first. As an active supporter of the land-for-peace process that he helped begin in Oslo a decade ago, he has been assailed by both Israeli and Arab foes of the agreements. His denunciations of suicide bombings have also prompted some accusations of bias from the Palestinians." A dedicated peacemaker
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Tuesday, April 23, 2002
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Peace activists cling to hope: "Just a few years ago, Gershon Baskin and Zakaria al Qaq were key players in back-channel peace negotiations between Israelis and Palestinians that brought the region to the brink of a historic agreement. Now, the two men are working feverishly just to keep average citizens on both sides talking to each other. Baskin and al Qaq are co-directors of an Israeli-Palestinian organization founded in 1988 to search for solutions to this seemingly intractable conflict. It's the last such joint group still operating." - powerful story
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Palestinian Militant Group Says It Will Limit Bombings: "Al Aksa Martyrs Brigades... said through a commander today that it would not send more bombers into Israel to kill civilians. But ... suicide bombings were being planned against Jewish settlements and Israeli military targets... "I am sorry for all the civilians that died in this intifada, both Israelis and Palestinians," he said. "I want to fight whoever is in charge of the government of Israel, not civilians." " A step back from the abyss, or a tactical shift?
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Thursday, April 18, 2002
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Ha'aretz "The High Court of Justice ordered the state Thursday to explain its position on the question of the legality of the sweeping arrest warrant recently issued by the commander of the IDF forces on the West Bank. The court also issued an interim order giving the state 80 days to check whether the government's policy of `targeted killings` contravenes international law."
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Where Are the Peaceniks [in Israel]?: "On the national level, politicians have been exploiting the pervasive fear, using it to foment a form of fervent nationalism tinged with racism. Effi Eitam, the new leader of the National Religious Party, recently approved to become a minister in Sharon's government, has characterized all Palestinian citizens of Israel as "a cancer." "Arabs," he claims, "will never have political rule in the land of Israel," which in Eitam's opinion includes the West Bank and Gaza. Support for Sharon has also risen from 45 to 62 percent following the latest Israeli offensive. "
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Courage to Refuse - Combatant Letter 2002: "* We shall not continue to fight beyond the 1967 borders in order to dominate, expel, starve and humiliate an entire people. * We hereby declare that we shall continue serving in the Israel Defense Forces in any mission that serves Israel's defense. * The missions of occupation and oppression do not serve this purpose -- and we shall take no part in them."
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Some Israelis Refuse to Serve as the Only Honorable Option: by Shamai Leibowitz - a criminal law attorney who lives in Tel Aviv. He is also a tank gunner in the reserves of the Israel Defense Force and a signer of "Courage to Refuse" "Abraham courageously questions God and appeals his decision to mete out collective punishment. Finally, after a lengthy dispute with Abraham, God acknowledges that he will not punish the innocent with the guilty.... we have done the opposite. We have killed hundreds of unarmed men, women and children, destroyed buildings and property, and enclosed millions of Palestinians in their cities, towns and villages. Having enforced strict and cruel curfews, we have expropriated their land and other property. Yes, we are undergoing difficult times in Israel. Working in Netanya, I have been twice within 100 yards of the terrible suicide bombings committed by fanatic Palestinian terrorists. I have mourned the loss of innocent lives. But these acts of terror are no excuse for our continuing acts of aggression, for the tanks and helicopters firing at innocent civilians, razing residential areas, and wreaking havoc and destruction everywhere in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Since the Palestinian uprising began, I, as a lawyer, must sadly admit that Israel has behaved as a dictatorship that has strayed so far from the morality of order that it ceases to be a democratic legal system."
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Israel-Palestine Center for Research and Information - What’s Happening to Palestinian Society? "The effects of the past 19 months of intifada and the last three weeks of war on Palestinian society have been dramatic and have made an indelible mark whose impact will be felt for many years to come. Palestinian society has lost its hope and its faith that peace is a possibility. Palestinian society is writhing with anger, hatred, and yearning for revenge. Each and every Palestinian feels that s/he has a personal account to be settled with Israel, not only a collective account. Palestinians believe that death – martyrdom, is a desirable option that is being considered or supported more widely than ever before. Palestinians live with a sense that time is on their side."
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LAW-The Palestinian Society for the Protection of Human Rights and the Environment - periodic updates.
Today: "eyewitness accounts revealed more evidence of summary executions of a group of ten residents, and a group of approximately six to ten residents. The smell of dead bodies was even present at places where no bodies could be seen, presumably these bodies were located under the rubble."
Yesterday: "The director of Jenin hospital came out and requested assistance with performing autopsies. Israeli soldiers refused to allow the human rights monitors and forensic expert, Derrick Pounder, Professor of Forensic Medicine (Dundee University), inside the hospital. The hospital is located in a secure area. "
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Wednesday, April 17, 2002
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Evil Unleashed:- Tanya Reinhart, Tel Aviv University "Israel's moves to destroy the PA, thus, cannot be viewed as a spontaneous 'act of retaliation'. It is a calculated plan, long in the making. The execution requires, first, weakening the resistance of the Palestinians, which Israel has been doing systematically since October 2000, through killing, bombarding of infrastructure, imprisoning people in their hometowns, and bringing them close to starvation. All this, while waiting for the international conditions to 'ripen' for the more 'advanced' steps of the plan."
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B'Tselem - Daily Update - 16 April 2002: "1... 12-year-old Qossay Abu 'Aisha, was playing in his yard in 'Askar neighborhood in Nablus. The yard is surrounded by a two meter high tin fence. Soldiers who were passing by, opened fire into the yard. Abu 'Aisha was hit by two bullets that penetrated the tin fence. He died instantly. "
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B'Tselem - Daily Update - 16 April 2002: " 5. Dr. H.H., a general practitioner from Bethlehem and her husband, Dr. H, a gynecologist share a clinic. Last night Dr. H.H. received a telephone call informing her that IDF soldiers had broken into the clinic. The Al Madabsa area, where the clinic is located, had been under constant curfew, which began when the IDF entered the city. Yesterday, when the curfew was lifted for a few hours for the first time, Dr. H.H. rushed to the clinic and discovered extensive damage. The clinic door and windows were broken and the waiting room was completely destroyed. Expensive equipment, including a $20,000 ultrasound machine was also destroyed. The computer monitor was shattered and the computer itself had been taken apart. The soldiers broke the telephones and the sterilization machine. They tore up medical files and books. In addition to the damage, many bullet holes and shells were found in the clinic, as well as feces on the floor."
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B'Tselem - Daily Update - 17 April 2002: "2. Ten days ago, two-year-old Tabaraq Udeh ... ran out of medication. The infant suffered from cerebral pulsey and epilepsy. The IDF has had the village under siege, and Udeh's medication supply could not be renewed. Three days ago, her health began to deteriorate. She ceased to communicate, became unable to stand on her feet, slipped into unconsciousness, and began to have convulsions. Following many attempts to get her to hospital in Nablus, a Red Crescent ambulance finally made it to the village yesterday and Udeh was taken to hospital accompanied by her mother. Today, at around 8:00 AM, she died."
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B'Tselem - Daily Update - 17 April 2002: "5...a group of European and North American nationals delivered food and medical supplies to .... The group was detained at the exit from the camp for about two hours. The soldiers would not allow the Palestinians through, and threatened to forcibly remove them. The foreign nationals attempted to form a human chain to protect the Palestinians, but the soldiers and some border police officers who had arrived at the scene began to beat and verbally abuse those present. Three soldiers dragged a UK national to the middle of the road and kicked him in the ribs and lower back. Another member of the group was dragged face down on the pavement and another suffered a concussion after being kneed in the head. The soldiers handcuffed four of the Palestinians and beat them severely. They shattered cameras, video recorders and cell phones and confiscated film and videotapes. During the confrontation, one of the European nationals handed his cell phone to a soldier so that he may speak to his lawyer. The soldier responded that there was no need, because "We are above the law" and smashed the cell phone."
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Jewish Voice For Peace: "As Jews and Americans, taxpayers and voters, we are outraged by Israel's recent invasion of Palestinian territory." Report and photos of sit-in and demo at Israeli consulate in San Francisco.
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Israeli Offensive May Transform US Judaism : Palestine Indymedia: " After this week's horrors in Jenin and other West Bank towns, Israel can no longer count on automatic support from U.S. Jews. Many who had once supported Israeli policies, or at least remained silent, are saying for the first time: "Not in my name." That could mark a major turning point, not only in the Middle East conflict, but in American Judaism. "
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Ha'aretz "Some 3,000 Israelis, both Jews and Arabs, set out on a march towards Jenin, in the West Bank, protesting the IDF operations in the territories. A short while after the march began, border policemen claimed that it was illegal, and tried to block their way."
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Friday, April 12, 2002
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We bought and paid for carnage of Palestinians - by Robert Jensen, U Texas - "It is easy for Americans to decry the "cycle of violence" in Palestine, but until we acknowledge our own part in that violence, there is little hope for a just peace in Palestine or the Middle East."
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Powell Must Seek Real Compromise : By Rashid I. Khalidi "he should advocate Israel's long-term interests, not the blind policy of its present government. It is not in the Israeli people's interest to maintain occupation and settlements. It is not in the interest of the United States to allow it to do so, after 35 years of occupation, because one day people will hold the United States to account for what Israel does and for the American weapons it does it with. It is, moreover, not possible to repress violence with infinitely more violence or to provide security for Israelis by creating insecurity for Palestinians. "
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Thursday, April 11, 2002
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Monday, April 08, 2002
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US vs. Iraq: Saddam may have fired the first shot: "An assassination attempt against a leading pro-Western Kurdish leader in northern Iraq underscores the risk that the US and its allies are taking as they weigh options to topple Iraqi strongman Saddam Hussein. The wily Iraqi leader ... may not wait for the US and its allies to make the first move. Kurdish sources say that Ansar al-Islam, a radical Kurdish Islamist group, last week targeted Barham Salih -- the erudite, pro-Western prime minister of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK). The group is reportedly supported by Mr. Hussein and has links with Osama bin Laden's Al Qaeda network."
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UN warns of West Bank 'horror': "UN officials yesterday described a situation of "pure horror" in northern West Bank camps, with strafing from Israeli helicopters, corpses piling up and ambulances and food trucks being barred by the army. "There is a humanitarian disaster in the making," says Richard Cook, West Bank field director for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency."
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The Method of This Madness. Two distinct struggles have become entangled: the struggle of the suicide bombers against the existence of the Israelis and the struggle of the Palestinians for a state of their own. By Serge Schmemann.
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Saddam's Offensive: Safire - "Sixty Islamic terrorists, trained in Afghanistan by Osama bin Laden, are holed up in the town of Biyara in northern Iraq, guests of Saddam Hussein. Their assignment is to infiltrate the no-flight zone and to kill the Kurdish leaders, who Saddam assumes will be allied with the U.S. in his overthrow."
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Sunday, April 07, 2002
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Sonnet: Against Making Blood Speak Out
If I die one day from the bullet of a young killer-
a Palestinian who crosses the northern border-
or from the blast of a hand grenade he throws,
or in a bomb explosion while I'm checking the price
of cucumbers, in the market, don't dare say
that my blood permits you to justify your wrongs-
that my torn eyes support your blindness-
that my spilled guts prove it's impossible
to talk about an arrangement with them
- that it's only possible
to talk with guns, interrogation cells, curfew, prison,
expulsion, confiscation of land, wisecracks, iron fists, a steel heart
that thinks it's driving out the Amorites and destroying the Amalekites.
Let the blood seep into the dust: blood is blood, not words.
Terrible-the illusion of the Kingdom in obtuse hearts.
Meir Wieseltier, translated. from the Hebrew by Shirley Kaufman.
In The Nation, April 15, 2002
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I'm Not OK, You're Not OK, We're All Kamikazes: Elijah Wald - "both the suicide bombers and those who wipe out entire neighborhoods with rockets and bulldozers are pursuing their aims by killing and demoralizing civilian populations. The imbalance is not one of virtue, but of power and technology. And, if there is ever going to be peace, both sides will have to face the fact that their enemies are human beings, many with blood on their hands, but not very different from themselves. "
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Appeal V - Whose Right to Prayer?
by Prof. Sami Adwan, Faculty of Education, Bethlehem University-Palestine,
Palestinian co-director of The Peace Research institute in the Middle East (PRIME), a joint Israeli-Palestinian research center.
On March 28, the same day the 14th Annual Arab Summit in Beirut concluded with a peace initiative, Israeli forces surrounded the Bethlehem district. Dozens of tanks and armored vehicles stood at the ready. I was impressed to see Israeli soldiers at morning prayers.
During the early morning of April 2 they invaded Bethlehem and surrounded the Nativity Church and the refugee camps. During the course of the invasion, a Lutheran minister was seriously injured and six nuns were wounded.
Omar Bin Al-Khatab Mosque, opposite to the Nativity Church, was hit by tank shells and was in flames. Israeli forces neither allowed the local fire department to reach the mosque nor attempted to do anything themselves.
Calls for prayers have not been heard from mosques and the bells of churches have mostly been quiet. In Beit Jalla, one Israeli solder was quoted as saying: "Palestinians are not allowed to pray" to people on their way to church for Easter services.
One of the holiest places in the world, The Church of Nativity, is under siege. Its doors are closed, tanks are just outside. Clergy and civilians are inside seeking safety. The statue of Virgin Mary on the top of Saint Mary's church was destroyed, and six other churches were hit by heavy shelling.
I am no longer impressed by the scene of the Israeli solders praying that morning.
Please join me in this special appeal to stop Israeli Forces from attacking clergymen, destroying and attacking holy places and from prohibiting believers from praying and worshiping God.
Attacking clergy, destroying Islamic and Christian holy places, and prohibiting Palestinians from worshipping is a clear violation of religious rights and international conventions. These policy and practices sure do not bring peace and security to Israelis.
Beit Jalla, April 3, 2002 (by email)
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Thursday, April 04, 2002
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Americans are caught in Ramallah siege: "About 16,000 Americans live in and around Ramallah, the largest and most important of the Palestinian towns seized by Israel as part of a military offensive that Prime Minister Ariel Sharon says is meant to crack down on terrorists."
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The Path From Oslo to War: "Israel blames the Palestinian Authority for its failure to provide security for Israel's pursuit of territorial objectives that are clearly illegal under international law."
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The Boomerang Syndrome: "Palestinian terrorism may be succeeding in some twisted, shortsighted way, while Mr. Sharon's incursions into the occupied territories are probably doomed to failure. One of the lessons of recent history seems to be that brutality rarely works for a government, especially a democratic one like Israel's, while terrorism often works just fine for insurgents."
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Death Threats in Brooklyn: "forced an innocent couple, Doreen and Stuart Shapiro, to flee their home. They became a target after their son Adam delivered humanitarian medical aid to Yasir Arafat's besieged compound in Ramallah, on the West Bank. "
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A Little Town in Judea, Besieged by Israelis and by Grief: "As the crimson stain crept over his pale blue shirt, they called for an ambulance. They called again and again. There was a hospital just a few blocks away, but no ambulance could pass through the gunfire or get by the Israeli armored vehicles that were choking the narrow lanes of Bethlehem's old city."
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Bombers Gloating in Gaza as They See Goal Within Reach: No More Israel: "Hamas believes that the Palestinian Authority has given up on negotiating with Israel, negotiations that Hamas virulently opposed. That has led to a budding alliance between Hamas and Fatah, the organization headed by Yasir Arafat, the Palestinian leader, despite years of bitter and sometimes violent feuding."
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Israeli Armor Units Continue Sweeping Through West Bank: " a demonstration by several hundred Israeli Arabs and leftist peace protesters on the road to Ramallah turned nasty when Israeli security forces fired tear gas and beat the participants. Among those beaten were three members of the Israeli Parliament. Though relatively small, the demonstration marked the first protest by Israelis against the operation. The Associated Press reported late tonight that 12 Palestinians and 1 Israeli were killed today in the fighting. The State Department said today that it had received a report that an American woman was shot and killed Friday in Ramallah, apparently by Israeli military forces. "
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The Electronic Intifada- Israel's "smoking gun" a damp firecracker: "the allegedly damning document, dated 16 September 2001, with requests for explosives and ammunition was issued in a period when the Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades did not carry out suicide bomb attacks against Israeli civilians. The Israeli Defence Forces own briefing document issued for the invasion of Ramallah... notes the milestone at which the Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades began targeting Israeli civilians within Israel: "Following the [Israeli assassination] of local Tanzim leader Ra'ad Karmi on the [14th] of January 2002, the Fatah changed ... from shooting attacks on roads to suicide bombings in Israeli cities, and terrorist attacks against IDF checkpoints." ... Attacking military forces occupying your land is considered to be a legitimate form of resistance under international law. Israel has failed to prove a credible direct link between Arafat and acts of terrorism. " I don't know... what price war, whether "legal" or not?
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Monday, April 01, 2002
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A Breach Prompts Israel to Bar Foreign Media From Ramallah: "The Israeli government, irritated today by protesters and foreign journalists who breached the siege around Yasir Arafat's compound, said reporters who remained in Ramallah could be stripped of their credentials or even have their offices closed down. The government is frustrated at foreign news coverage of the military operation in Ramallah, in the West Bank, and has declared the city a "closed military zone," saying it is illegal for foreign reporters to be there. There was no indication that any news organization had any intention of withdrawing reporters from Ramallah as a result of the order. "
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Saturday, March 30, 2002
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Israel turns its fire on Arafat: "Israel launched a war to the finish against Yasser Arafat yesterday, smashing into his compound with tanks and bulldozers and strafing his offices with machine-gun fire, in a campaign of systematic destruction. "
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Friday, March 29, 2002
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Baghdad-Kuwait Accord -- Support Is Rebuff to Bush's Efforts: " message from the Saudis seemed clear. They coordinated an unprecedented Arab peace initiative toward Israel on the very day they also pushed through a surprise Kuwaiti-Iraqi reconciliation, suggesting that if the former problem could be solved, the Iraqi issue could, too"
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Wednesday, March 27, 2002
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Tuesday, March 26, 2002
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Anger and Isolation Roil Israeli Arabs: "The standard of living among Israeli Arabs is about half that of Israeli Jews. Several recent reports have shown that the schools are grossly subpar. Most Israeli Arab homes still rely on septic tanks. Year after year, the government promises to equalize spending between Arab and Jewish communities, but the promise still has not been fulfilled. The turning point, when restiveness became anger and revolt, occurred on Oct. 1, 2000, two days after a visit to Al Aksa Mosque in Jerusalem by Ariel Sharon, who was then Israel's opposition leader. Thousands of Israeli Arabs demonstrated and then rioted in protest of the visit. In a response that touched off the current uprising, Israeli police officers shot and killed 13 of the Israeli Arab demonstrators, "
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BBC - Saudi police 'stopped' fire rescue: "Saudi Arabia's religious police stopped schoolgirls from leaving a blazing building because they were not wearing correct Islamic dress, according to Saudi newspapers. In a rare criticism of the kingdom's powerful "mutaween" police, the Saudi media has accused them of hindering attempts to save 15 girls who died in the fire on Monday. "
But see also: Cleric sacked over Saudi school fire: "accusations that the religious police had prevented girls fleeing the school because they were not wearing head scarves were dismissed as "untrue". "
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Saturday, March 23, 2002
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Tuesday, March 19, 2002
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Visiting N.R.A. Heaven: Kristof oped "if you're so bothered by gun registration, and so convinced that guns don't kill people, then consider moving to a nice mud-brick home here in Suq al-Talh [Yemen]. With you and everybody else carrying around an assault rifle, with armor-piercing rounds in your bandolier, with a couple of grenades in your pockets, you'll really feel safe. You'll love the freedom! "
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34 New West Bank Settlements Spotted: "A survey published today by Peace Now said that 34 new Israeli settlement sites had been built in the West Bank since Sharon was elected more than a year ago. The survey, based on aerial photographs, said the new sites were spotted at distances ranging from a few hundred yards to nearly two miles from existing settlements."
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Monday, March 18, 2002
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Muslims Demand Apology from National Review: "National Review editor Rich Lowry wrote on March 7: "Lots of sentiment for nuking Mecca. Moderates opt for something more along these lines: "Baghdad and Tehran would be the likeliest sites for a first strike. If we have clean enough bombs to assure a pinpoint damage area, Gaza City and Ramallah would also be on list. Damascus, Cairo, Algiers, Tripoli and Riyadh should be put on alert that any signs of support for the attacks in their cities will bring immediate annihilation...""
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Sunday, March 17, 2002
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Friday, March 15, 2002
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On Both Sides in the Mideast, Fear and Stress Are Building: "Ruti Rahav learned that by shutting the doors and windows and staying with her German shepherd, Mikey, she could shelter him from the frights of war. He, in turn, helped comfort her during a recent Israeli bombing raid on Bethlehem. "He got under the bed and I lay down on the floor and held him," she said."
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Thursday, March 14, 2002
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After the Raid, a Slum's Assessment: "The tanks came in the middle of the night last Thursday, entering the refugee camp from three directions, rumbling through the streets and silencing gunfire with heavy machine guns. Helicopter gunships overhead slammed rockets into police positions or possible sniper perches. Electricity was cut, apparently by shooting out transformers and severing wires, and the water stopped soon after."
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Wednesday, March 13, 2002
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U.N. Chief Tells Israel It Must End 'Illegal Occupation': "as Israeli ground forces and helicopter gunships killed 31 Palestinians in their fiercest assault on the areas since Israel conquered them in 1967. Israel continued to press its two- week-old offensive, which Israeli television said involved 20,000 troops, rounding up scores of Palestinian teenagers and young men in what it described as a hunt for terrorists."
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Tuesday, March 12, 2002
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Two Stubborn Men, and Many Dead: Amos Oz "History will never forget their offenses, because the solution is here, visible, manifestly clear before us all. Every Israeli and every Palestinian knows that this land will be divided into two sovereign nations and become like a semi-detached two- family house. Even those who loathe this future already know, deep in their hearts, that all this is inevitable."
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Sunday, March 10, 2002
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Saturday, March 09, 2002
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Saying No to Israel's Occupation: by Yesh Gevul chair - "So while I continue to serve in the defense force, I selectively refuse military orders if they require my presence in the territories outside the pre-1967 Israeli borders. I will not obey illegal orders to execute potential terrorists or fire into civilian demonstrations. "
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Thursday, March 07, 2002
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For Fatah, Only a War Can Bring Peace to Mideast: "Mr. Barghouti sees the attacks, which he argues were provoked by Israeli violence, as the surest path to peace. He says they show that Fatah has recovered its political strength and is in a position to reach and enforce an agreement with Israel -- provided the violence rages until the deal is done. ... credentials as a peacemaker as well as a fighter, Mr. Barghouti has become one of the most popular Palestinian leaders, partly by advocating violence. On Tuesday, declaring that the conflict had reached a "point of no return," he exhorted Palestinians to strike every Israeli checkpoint in the West Bank. At 42 he is the star member of a rising generation of Fatah leaders seen as the common man's alternative to elite, corrupt ministers around Mr. Arafat"
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Saturday, March 02, 2002
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Radical New Views of Islam and the Origins of the Koran: "a handful of experts have been quietly investigating the origins of the Koran, offering radically new theories about the text's meaning and the rise of Islam. Christoph Luxenberg, a scholar of ancient Semitic languages in Germany, argues that the Koran has been misread and mistranslated for centuries. His work, based on the earliest copies of the Koran, maintains that parts of Islam's holy book are derived from pre-existing Christian Aramaic texts that were misinterpreted by later Islamic scholars who prepared the editions of the Koran commonly read today. So, for example, the virgins who are supposedly awaiting good Islamic martyrs as their reward in paradise are in reality "white raisins" of crystal clarity rather than fair maidens. "
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Thursday, February 28, 2002
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In Caucasus Gorge, a Haven for Muslim Militants: "Dozens of Afghan and Arab fighters are hiding in this 40-mile-long slash of rock and forest in the Caucasus Mountains, according to Georgian officials. They say at least some of the new arrivals are plotting terrorist strikes in Russia or seeking to reach Europe and the United States, possibly to mount attacks. Officials from both Russia and the United States have indicated they would like to bring the fight against global terrorism here to the snow- encrusted escarpments northeast of Georgia's capital, Tbilisi. But the government of President Eduard Shevardnadze is reluctant to act while an estimated 8,000 Chechen refugees and about 1,500 Chechen rebels are also taking shelter in the area, which has long served as a no man's land of crime, drug trafficking and hostage taking on the border between Georgia and Russia."
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Wednesday, February 27, 2002
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Axis of Evil... As the Financial Times Reported November 3, 2000: "Halliburton, the largest US oil services company, is among a significant number of US companies that have sold oil industry equipment to Iraq since the UN relaxed sanctions two years ago. From 1995 until August this year Halliburton's chief executive officer was Richard Cheney, US secretary of defense during the Gulf war and now Republican vice-presidential running mate of George W. Bush. From September 1998 until it sold its stake last February, Halliburton owned 51 per cent of Dresser-Rand. It also owned 49 per cent of Ingersoll-Dresser Pump, until its sale in December 1999. During the time of the joint ventures, Dresser-Rand and Ingersoll-Dresser Pump submitted more than $23.8m worth of contracts for the sale of oil industry parts and equipment to Iraq. Their combined total amounted to more than any other US." And on May 21, 2001 the Financial Times ran a similar story on Cheney's sales to Iran despite U.S. sanctions against that member of the Axis of Evil. Source: GWBush.com (satire site)
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U.S. May Send G.I.'s to Ex-Soviet Area in Training Mission: "The United States is considering sending as many as 200 Special Operations forces to the former Soviet republic of Georgia to help train that nation's military in counterterrorism tactics, a senior military official said today. The aim of the training mission, which is close to being approved by the Joint Chiefs of Staff, is to prepare Georgian troops for combatting foreign fighters who have been operating in a mountainous region of the country and could have links to Al Qaeda."
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Monday, February 25, 2002
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Sunday, February 24, 2002
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Anti-Iraq Rhetoric Outpaces Reality: "the military reality is that it could take up to a year before the United States is ready to launch a coordinated assault likely to achieve the administration's goals of destroying Iraq's weapons of mass destruction capability and replacing Hussein's regime. ... depleted arms stocks, demands on ships and aircraft in the Afghan campaign, severe strains on active duty and reserve forces over the last five months, and the need to obtain regional basing and command center agreements have imposed an unavoidably lengthy timeline on U.S. action." [and justifying the explosion of the military budget.)
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Wednesday, February 20, 2002
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Bored Saudi Youth Take Wild Side to the Street: "The rambunctiousness also reflects larger economic, social and demographic problems: a shrinking job market, the high cost of marriage, an educational system grounded in rote memorization and an erosion of family values in a country in which 65 percent of the population is under the age of 25. Because of lower oil prices, per capita income has slid from $28,600 a year in current dollars in 1981 to below $8,000 today."
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A Blueprint for a New Beginning in the Mideast: "The Security Council retains the authority under international law to determine who has sovereignty over the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem. ... It is an authority that has never been relinquished. With United States support, the Security Council could move to settle the territorial dimension of this conflict in line with Security Council Resolution 242, which spells out the "land for peace" principle. "
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Monday, February 18, 2002
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Springtime, Taxes, and the Attack on Iraq: By Richard A. Muller "Saddam had constructed facilities...to build a bomb that didn't require testing." UC Berkeley physicist's musings on why a U.S. attack on Iraq is inevitable
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