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News :: International Relations |
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AWARE News Notes 030907 |
Current rating: 0 |
by Carl Estabrook
Email: cge (nospam) shout.net (unverified!) |
09 Sep 2003
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Notes from last week's "war on terrorism" -- prepared
for the AWARE meeting, Sunday, September 07, 2003.
[AWARE -- Anti-War Anti-Racism Effort -- is a group of people from C-U and environs who are opposed to the policies of the US government -- neo-imperialism and favoritism of the rich. We hold open meetings every Sunday 5-7pm at the IMC (218 W. Main St., Urbana) to discuss the situation and plan a variety of responses. The selection and the comments below, however, represent my views and not necessarily those of AWARE as a whole or of particular members. --CGE] |
THE REAL ECONOMY. "Friday morning's US employment report ... showed a loss of another 93,000 jobs. We've now had seven consecutive months of job loss [since the 'end of the recession'], something we've never seen outside a recession. The workweek was short and almost every industrial sector shed jobs. The survey of households showed a shrinkage in the labor force - the entire reason for the decline in unemployment from 6.2% to 6.1%. The share of the adult population working was flat, and remains at a low for this cycle. People are buying stuff, but it's not with their paychecks - it's all tax refunds and mortgage refinancing. If the job market doesn't recover soon, we're in trouble." [D. HENWOOD 0905]
AND THEY LOVE HAVING US AS MUCH AS WE LOVE TO BE THERE. "Congressional Budget Office said that if Pentagon sticks to its plan of rotating troops out of Iraq after a year, it will have only enough manpower to sustain a force of 38,000 to 64,000 troops." [BG 0902]
WAIT, DON'T SEND THOSE IMMIGRANTS HOME... "The Arabic satellite television channel Al Jazeera has officially launched its English language website at the address English.aljazeera.net. During the invasion of Iraq, the network attempted to launch a scaled down English language site but the webpage was often inaccessible due to attacks by hackers. Among the first stories on the website, Al Jazeera is reporting that nearly 40,000 of the US military's active troops are not US citizens." [DN 0902]
WE SHOULDN'T MENTION THAT. "Since the invasion of Iraq began, the US military has been forced to evacuate over 1,100 US soldiers from Iraq after they were seriously wounded in action. Twice as many soldiers have now been injured during the occupation and invasion as during the Persian Gulf War. The Washington Post reports that most injuries go unreported because US Central Command has stopped issuing press releases for incidents where no troops died." [DN 0902]
SHOW ME THE OIL MONEY. "The Financial Times is reporting that sabotage has nearly crippled the chance Iraq will be able to pump oil this year from the country's northern pipeline. The pipeline was bombed this weekend for the fourth time in the past month. The US had originally hoped to pay for the reconstruction of Iraq using oil revenue. Now the Bush administration is expected to go back to Congress to seek more money. Congress's original allocation of $79 billion has nearly run out." [DN 0902]
DON'T WE HAVE ENDURING FREEDOM THERE? "In some of the most fierce fighting in months in Afghanistan, two US soldiers were killed Sunday during a battle with reformed units of the Taliban. The New York Times reports that the Taliban has been able to reform in southern and eastern Afghanistan in part due to new volunteers from Pakistan." [DN 0902
AFFIRMATIVE ACTION IN IRAQ. "The New York Times leads with the Iraqi Governing Council naming 25 people to head the country's ministries. As the Los Angeles Times notes in its off-lead, it "remains vague" what actual power these folks will have. The ministers were appointed along exact ethnic lines." [SLATE 0902]
AND THE BUSH PROGRAM. In his Labor Day speech, Bush might have been expected to address the hemorrhage of jobs. The one specific proposal he mentioned was the creation of an assistant secretary of commerce for manufacturing. He also obliquely referred for plans for the US to pressure China to increase the value of its currency -- making Chinese goods in the US more expensive. [WP 0902]
BUSH PLAN HELPS ALL? "Emergency room patients may soon find it harder to get emergency care because the Bush administration has relaxed rules that regulate hospital service. Among other things hospitals will no longer need to have specialists on call all the time. It may become more difficult for injured patients to receive legal compensation for poor care. And it will also become harder for patients to sue hospitals if they are turned away from emergency rooms." [DN 0903]
AND THE EFFECTS ARE PLAIN TO SEE. "New figures from the Census Bureau show the number of Americans living below the poverty line increased by more than 1.3 million last year. Around 12 and a half percent (12.5%) of the country's population is now living below the poverty line. That amounts to nearly 35 million people. And nearly one in five children live below the poverty line." [DN 0903]
ANOTHER MESS WE CREATED. "The WP reports that the situation in Liberia is getting worse, not improving. Peacekeepers still haven't moved beyond the capital. And Liberians in the countryside, fleeing fighting or perhaps just fearing the potential for it, having been crowding into Monrovia. 'It's not even human misery. It's worse than that,' said one UN. official. 'The only thing comparable was Goma when 1 million people packed a town for 50,000 after the genocide.'" [SLATE 0903]
BUT WE'RE STOPPING TERRORISTS (REGARDLESS OF THE FIRST AMENDMENT). "Twenty-year-old Sherman Austin went to jail Wednesday for a one-year term. He was charged with 'distribution of information relating to explosives, destructive devices and weapons of mass destruction' after someone posted bomb-making information on his political website . Once he is is released he is banned from associating with anyone who wants to change US government 'in any way.'" [DN 0903]
OUR CLIENT'S TERRORISM. "Israeli [I.E., AMERICAN-SUPPLIED] helicopters fired missiles at a car in Gaza City Monday, killing a senior Islamic militant and wounding some 25 other Palestinians in the latest violence threatening a US-backed peace plan." [REUTERS 0902] "In a long-awaited report that could put more strain on relations between Israeli Arabs and Jews, an Israeli state inquiry reprimanded police for killing 13 Israeli Arabs in pro-Palestinian protests three years ago ... Israeli Arab groups denounced the report as a whitewash that failed to punish politicians overseeing police who shot live ammunition at citizens of the Jewish state during stone-throwing demonstrations ... Arabs, who make up 18 percent of the population of Israel, have long complained of institutionalized discrimination." [REUTERS 0902] "Israel warplanes bombed portions of southern Lebanon Wednesday in an attack on Hezbollah positions." [DN 0904] Israeli helicopters [SEE ABOVE] fired two missiles at the home of a Hamas militant in the Gaza Strip on Sunday, wounding at least 11 people. On Saturday, they dropped a 550-lb bomb on an apartment building in Gaza, trying to kill leaders of Hamas. Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon declared after the botched strike against Hamas' founder Sheik Ahmed Yassin, who's 68 and paralyzed, that all members of the Islamic militant group were "marked for death."
POLICY INSULATED FROM POLITICS. "A secret report for the Joint Chiefs of Staff lays the blame for setbacks in Iraq on a flawed and rushed war-planning process that 'limited the focus' for preparing for post-Saddam Hussein operations ... The report is titled 'Operation Iraqi Freedom Strategic Lessons Learned' and is stamped 'secret.' A copy was obtained by The Washington Times. The report also shows that President Bush approved the overall war strategy for Iraq in August last year. That was eight months before the first bomb was dropped and six months before he asked the UN. Security Council for a war mandate that he never received ... The timeline also showed that the Bush administration stayed in close contact with Israel about its plans. In mid-February, 'key Israeli leaders' received a briefing on the war plan. Shortly thereafter, CentCom began sharing information in Tel Aviv via US European Command, whose area of responsibility includes the Jewish state." [WT 0903]
WE'VE FOUND THE WMDS. "In other news on weapons of mass destruction, Agence France Press is reporting that the United States will miss by three years an international deadline to destroy a portion of its arsenal of chemical weapons. Under the 1997 Chemical Weapons Convention, the US is required to liquidate 45 percent of chemical stockpile by April 2004. But now the Defense Department has acknowledged the task will not be completed until December 2007." [DN 0904]
BEHIND THE BUSHES. "A retried chief White House aide has revealed that top White House officials approved the evacuation of about 140 influential Saudis including relatives of Osama Bin Laden shortly after the Sept. 11 attacks at a time when all commercial flights were grounded. Richard Clarke, who ran the White House crisis team after the attacks, writes in the new issue of Vanity Fair that the FBI claimed none of the Saudis could be linked to the attacks which were carried out by 19 hijackers, 15 of whom were Saudis. According to The New York Times this marks the first public acknowledgment that the White House approved the controversial evacuation plan." [DN 0904]
WHO'S HE WORKING FOR? "Under pressure from corporations, Ashcroft threatens to overturn a 200-year-old law used to fight human rights abusers and war criminals, the Alien Tort Claims Act." [DN 0904]
CHRISTIAN RIGHT? "The World Council of Churches is calling on US forces to withdraw from Iraq and transfer matters to the United Nations. The coalition of 342 Protestant and Orthodox denominations also called on the US and Britain to pay for reparations to the Iraqi people for damage caused during the invasion." [DN 0904]
IT'S ALL IN THE GAME. Democrat presidential candidates debated Thursday in Albuquerque. Reporters are quoted as saying that they'd rather be watching the debut of the NFL season with the rest of the country. "Redskins by three, Dean by six" is the remark about the early line for the two contests. (Skins did win by three.) [SLATE 0904] Unfortunately, an interesting football game was preceded by someone called Britney Spears and a celebration of 'American bad taste' on the DC mall, with the Capitol and Fascist-style Pepsi signs as a backdrop. [WP 0905]
REGIME CHANGE CANDIDATE. "Venezuela declared war on Friday against what it called an unfair world trade system and urged developing nations not to subscribe to any new agreements at upcoming global trade talks next week. The world's No. 5 oil exporter made clear it would take an aggressive stance at September 10-14 World Trade Organization negotiations in Cancun, Mexico, which aim to lower barriers to world trade. Venezuela's chief trade negotiator Victor Alvarez said the world's poorest countries had only a tiny share of world exports, which were hogged by rich nations ... Venezuela's apparent spoiling strategy flew in the face of urgent calls from the United States and Europe for concrete agreements during the Cancun meeting. It also reflected repeated verbal attacks by populist former paratrooper Chavez against world bodies like the WTO, the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank. The Venezuelan leader, who is accused by his foes [GUESS WHO?] of trying to introduce Cuba-style communism at home, has pilloried these organizations as 'institutions created by empires to continue dominating the world.'" [REUTERS 0905]
CRAZY REGIME. "The WP notes inside that top Chinese officials are criticizing the US for its seeming unwillingness to negotiate with North Korea. Earlier this week, a Chinese official called the US the 'main obstacle' to a negotiated settlement." [DN 0904]
THEY'RE OUR THUGS AGAIN. "US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld toured Iraq Thursday where he said Washington will speed up training for Iraqi security forces, including former members of Saddam Hussein's military and intelligence services. He said the US military is 'looking at ways of accelerating' the process of bringing former members of Saddam's military - and possibly his security services - into the Iraqi security forces." [DN 0905]
AND OUR FRIENDS. "According to a report in the Arab-language Al-Hayat newspaper, a delegation from the Israeli intelligence service, the Mossad, visited Baghdad last month in order to coordinate its anti-terrorism efforts with US forces in Iraq ... While there have been reports that Israeli companies have been invited by the US to do business in Iraq, this is the first report of Israeli security officials visiting the country." [DN 0905]
WHO PROFITS? "A civilian affiliated with oilfield services giant Halliburton was shot and killed in Iraq, the second person connected to the firm to die in an attack in a month. The employee, who was not identified, worked for Halliburton subsidiary Kellogg Brown & Root and was assigned to a team supporting Army mail delivery." [DN 0905]
MORE FRIENDS. "Iraq's new foreign minister said on Thursday Turkish troops should not be let into Iraq as peacekeepers as their presence could undermine the security of the country rather than improve it. Turkey's Prime Minister brushed off the foreign minister's objections to a Turkish presence in Iraq, saying that his country -- which is in talks with US military officials on a possible deployment -- would decide for itself." [DN 0905]
APPROACH TO THE GREENS. "The Pentagon is paying Minnesota-based Alliant, the world's largest ammunition maker, $5 million to develop lead-free combat bullets." [DN 0905]
REPUBLICAN ELECTION STRATEGY: MORE WAR. "United States officials will demand that the United Nations takes urgent action to prevent Iran acquiring atomic weapons at a special meeting of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in Vienna." [TELEGRAPH UK 0907]
PROPAGANDA WORKS. A Washington Post poll reports that 69 percent of Americans believe that it is at least likely that Saddam Hussein had a role in the 9/11 attacks. [WP 0906]
IRAQ WAS NOT CONNECTED WITH AL-QAIDA BUT WE MANAGED IT. "Al-Qaida began planning to move into Iraq in February. Since then, anywhere from 1,000 to several thousand foreign fighters have entered the country through Iraq's borders with Iran, Saudi Arabia, and Syria." [WP 0907]
AND THERE ARE OTHERS. "Al Jazeera television aired on Monday an audio tape purportedly from ousted Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein in which he denied any role in last week's bomb attack in Najaf that killed a top Shi'ite Muslim cleric." [REUTERS 0902] "The WP continues to point out that the men who've been arrested in connection with the Najaf bombing probably had nothing to do with it, and despite allegations to the contrary probably aren't connected to al-Qaida." [SLATE 0902]
CELEBRATING 9/11. The Department of Homeland Security is "hobbled by money woes, disorganization, turf battles and unsteady support from the White House." [WP 0907]
STILL IN SAIGON. "In the face of daily attacks, US soldiers in Iraq are making swifter strikes instead of using conventional war tactics, says the LAT on Page One. One platoon leader tells the paper: 'We're using Vietnam-type tactics.'" [In a speech to Marine and Navy officers this week, retired Marine Gen. Anthony C. Zinni said: "My contemporaries, our feelings and sensitivities were forged on the battlefields of Vietnam, where we heard the garbage and the lies, and we saw the sacrifice. I ask you, is it happening again?" WP] [LAT 0907]
WAIT TILL YOU HEAR MY PLAN. President Bush gives a television speech Sunday night, to try to convince the US populace that Iraq is not like Vietnam and that we are getting out, just as soon as we can convince the Europeans to do the police work and pay for it, under US direction. (The same thing in short we want from Yasser Arafat.) Germany, France and Russia have already rejected the US draft of a UN resolution on the subject.
CAN'T THOSE EUROPEANS LEARN TO TAKE ORDERS? "In a joint meeting Thursday, the French president and the German chancellor said the proposed resolution failed to meet two primary concerns: that political authority in Iraq should be turned over to Iraqis as soon as possible; and that the UN., not the US, should take the lead in rebuilding the country." [SLATE 0905] Russia's president agreed with them.
CAN'T THOSE EUROPEANS LEARN TO TAKE ORDERS? [II] "Belgium insisted Tuesday it is going ahead with plans to open a new autonomous European military command headquarters near Brussels next year, despite opposition from key EU states including Britain. Belgium, France, Germany and Luxembourg -- the EU states most fiercely opposed to the Iraq war -- proposed the idea shortly after the conflict, following a mini-summit in Brussels at the end of April." [AFP 0902]
CAN'T THOSE EUROPEANS [?] LEARN TO TAKE ORDERS? [III] "A submarine of Russia's Pacific fleet on Tuesday successfully test-fired an Intercontinental Ballistic Missile (ICBM), a navy spokesman said in Moscow." [IRIB 0902]
CAN'T THOSE AMERICANS LEARN TO TAKE ORDERS? "The WP suggests that the White House only decided to go to the UN. after the military's top brass went against their civilian Pentagon bosses and endorsed Secretary of State Powell's efforts to internationalize the effort. The WP says Powell, having talked with the generals, walked into the White House and presented the president with 'something close to a fait accompli.'" [SLATE 0904]
TRUTH STRANGER THAN STRANGE FICTION. At the same time as the president's address, Showtime will show a movie -- "DC/911: Time of Crisis" -- picturing Bush as a decisive leader during the 911 attacks and Cheney as his admiring foil. (Sample dialogue: Bush, played by Timothy Bottoms: "If some tinhorn terrorist wants me, tell 'em to come and get me! I'll be home, waiting for the bastard! ... We always knew it might come to this." Cheney: "You always said that if it did, this is how we'd earn our pay." Bush: "And we will. It's a war.")
***
THE FOLLOWING ARE REAL QUOTES, COLLECTED BY MOLLY IVINS:
"We know that Saddam Hussein is determined to keep his weapons of mass destruction, is determined to make more." -- Colin Powell, Feb. 5, 2003
"We have sources that tell us that Saddam Hussein recently authorized Iraqi field commanders to use chemical weapons -- the very weapons the dictator tells us he does not have." -- Bush, Feb. 8, 2003
"Intelligence gathered by this and other governments leaves no doubt that the Iraq regime continues to possess and conceal some of the most lethal weapons ever devised." -- Bush, March 17, 2003
"Well, there is no question that we have evidence and information that Iraq has weapons of mass destruction, biological and chemical particularly." -- Fleischer, March 21, 2003.
"I have no doubt we're going to find big stores of weapons of mass destruction." -- Kenneth Adelman, Defense Policy Board, March 23, 2003
...Bill O'Reilly of Fox News, "And I said on my program, if, if the Americans go in and overthrow Saddam Hussein and it's clean, he had nothing, I will apologize to the nation, and I will not trust the Bush administration again." -- March 18, 2003
***
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