Just Foreign Policy News
April 5, 2011
*Action: Urge Congress to Bar Ground Troops in Libya
Michigan Rep. John Conyers wants to explicitly prohibit U.S. ground forces from being introduced into Libya. Urge your Representative to support this prohibition. Supporters include: Walter Jones, Mike Honda, Dennis Kucinich, McClintock, Pete Stark, Tonko, Lynn Woolsey, George Miller, Raul Grijalva.
https://www.justforeignpolicy.org/act/nogroundtroops
Background – Conyers: Congress Should Bar U.S. Ground Troops From Libya
For Congress to reassert its war powers requires an initiative that can attract majority support. The passage of Conyers amendment would reaffirm Congressional war powers, block an escalation to the use of ground troops in the future, and open political space for a negotiated resolution of the conflict.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/robert-naiman/libya-ground-troops_b_844550.html
Kate Gould: International Crisis Group Condemns "Assault on Normal, Dignified" Life in Gaza
ICG calls the closure on Gaza an "assault on normal, dignified life" and says Palestinian reconciliation efforts should be supported, which will "require a different approach by international actors, Western countries in particular" to Hamas.
http://truth-out.org/international-crisis-group-condemns-assault-normal-dignified-life-gaza/1301554800
Your Feedback Requested: Would You Support a "Friends of the White Intifada" Page on Facebook?
Recently Facebook removed a "Third Intifada" page on Facebook, which had hundreds of thousands of people, because people were posting incitements to violence to the page. This got us to thinking: could you have a Facebook page that promoted *nonviolent* resistance to the Israeli occupation, and keep it free of incitements to violence?
If you think this might be a good idea, go see our provisional "Friends of the White Intifada" page on Facebook, like it, and comment on it.
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Friends-of-the-White-Intifada-no-violence/199836420048690
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Summary:
U.S./Top News
1) On the eve of a White House meeting between President Obama and Israeli President, Israeli officials took steps to advance controversial new housing in the West Bank and a disputed area of Jerusalem, the New York Times reports. A planning committee in Jerusalem gave preliminary approval for nearly 1,000 new housing units in Gilo, south of the city. The Israeli Ministry of Defense said it had completed zoning plans for several Jewish settlements in the West Bank, retroactively legalizing construction that was already under way.
2) A group of prominent Israelis, including former heads of Mossad, Shin Bet and the military, are this week putting forth an initiative for peace with the Arab world that they hope will generate popular support, the New York Times reports. Called the Israeli Peace Initiative, the document is billed as a direct response to the Arab Peace Initiative issued by the Arab League in 2002 and again in 2007. It calls for a Palestinian state on nearly all the West Bank and Gaza with a capital in much of East Jerusalem and an Israeli withdrawal from the Golan Heights. While polls show that the Israeli public has moved right in recent years, many political analysts argue that the public worries about the country’s diplomatic isolation and is open to a peace deal. The document calls for the 1967 lines to be a basis for borders, with agreed modifications based on swaps that would not exceed 7 percent of the West Bank.
3) USAID Administrator Rajiv Shah told Congress at least 70,000 children around the world could die if funding for global health programs is cut under the Republican budget proposal, ABC News reports. Shah said that 30,000 of those deaths would come if malaria control programs have to be scaled back, 24,000 would die from lack of support for immunizations, and another 16,000 would die at birth.
According to the U.S. Global Leadership Coalition, the Republican budget proposal would cut funding for global health programs by 11 percent, including a reduction in money for the Global fund for HIV/AIDS by 43 percent. The group says that would mean 5 million children would not receive malaria treatments and about 43,000 would not receive tuberculosis treatments.
4) Some lawmakers are rejecting an upbeat government assessment of U.S. policy in Pakistan and Afghanistan, AP reports. Democratic Rep. Gary Ackerman said: "After hearing the same sales pitch for 10 years, I doubt it." And Republican Rep. Steve Chabot said: "We spend all this money and they still hate us."
5) Afghan officials said that two American soldiers were shot to death by an Afghan police officer Monday in northern Afghanistan, the New York Times reports. It was at least the third time this year that Afghan security personnel had turned on coalition soldiers.
Libya
6) The Obama administration dropped financial sanctions Monday against the top Libyan official who fled to Britain last week, saying it hoped the move would encourage other senior aides to abandon Qaddafi, the New York Times reports. As the longtime Libyan intelligence chief and foreign minister, Moussa Koussa is widely believed to be implicated in acts of terrorism and murder over the last three decades, including the assassination of dissidents, the training of international terrorists and the bombing of Pan Am 103, the Times says.
7) To become an effective fighting force, the amateurish groups of volunteers that are the fighting force of the Libyan rebellion would require far more than just shipments of weapons, the New York Times reports. The rebels have plenty of small arms, such as automatic weapons, the Times says. What could blunt government assaults by armored vehicles would be modern, precise anti-tank weapons – but rebels would need weeks of training to put them to use. Any outside effort to turn rebel bands into a militia with formal command-and-control structures able to pursue specific, tactical advantages over a better-organized government force would take weeks, if not months. Among the rebels, according to US intelligence estimates, are about 1,000 men who trained with the Libyan army before changing sides. The government’s force is estimated at roughly 30,000.
Yemen
8) Yemeni security forces and pro-government loyalists opened fire on protesters marching in two cities Monday, killing at least 12, the Washington Post reports.
Afghanistan
9) Human Rights First says more than a dozen detainees who were picked up outside of Afghanistan have been cleared for release by review boards but are still at Bagram, AP reports. Their lawyers are not privy to what evidence the government has on their clients, why they were picked up in the first place or how they ended up at Bagram. Some of these detainees have been held for almost ten years.
AP notes that prisoners can be held indefinitely at Guantanamo even if they have been cleared for release.
Peru
10) Analysts say Ollanta Humala’s jump in popularity comes from those who have seen Peru’s economic growth pass them by, Dow Jones reports. "There are those who feel left out of the boom. He appeals to rural, low- income voters and a nationalist, patriotic sentiment," said Cynthia Sanborn, director of the Research Center at Lima’s Pacific University. His appeal to this segment of the population was "easily anticipated," so those surprised by his rise underestimated his potential voter base, Sanborn added. Other analysts also see Humala’s support springing from millions of Peruvians who lack clean water, adequate medical services or sufficient food supplies. Ipsos-Apoyo said 65% of the population is concentrated in lower-income sectors.
Contents:
U.S./Top News
1) On Eve of Meeting in Washington, Israel Announces More Housing Construction
Isabel Kershner, New York Times, April 4, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/05/world/middleeast/05mideast.html
Jerusalem – On the eve of a White House meeting between President Obama and President Shimon Peres of Israel, officials here took steps on Monday to advance controversial new housing in the West Bank and a disputed area of Jerusalem.
The steps, by two separate agencies, are the latest in a succession of awkwardly timed housing announcements. International players are seeking ways to resume Israeli-Palestinian peace talks, which stalled last September when a partial Israeli moratorium on new building in the settlements expired.
Washington has given up its efforts to persuade Israel to commit to an additional settlement freeze; the Palestinians refuse to negotiate with Israel as long as settlement building continues.
On Monday, a municipal planning committee in Jerusalem gave preliminary approval for nearly 1,000 new housing units in the residential district of Gilo, in the south of the city. And the Israeli Ministry of Defense said it had completed zoning plans for several Jewish settlements in the West Bank, retroactively legalizing construction that was already under way.
[…] Gilo is in a part of the city that Israel annexed after capturing it from Jordan in the 1967 war. Most Israelis consider it an integral neighborhood of Jerusalem, but to the Palestinians and much of the world, it is a settlement built in occupied territory in violation of international law. Israel’s claim to sovereignty in the area of Jerusalem beyond the 1967 lines is not recognized internationally, and the Palestinians claim it as part of their future state.
In February, 14 of the 15 members of the United Nations Security Council backed a resolution demanding a halt in what it termed illegal construction in Israeli settlements. Only a veto by the United States blocked the resolution.
Peace Now, an Israeli advocacy group that opposes any Israeli building beyond the 1967 lines, said the Defense Ministry had approved development plans for four West Bank settlements. But it is not clear whether the plans relate to areas that are already built up or for additional sites.
Tensions over building in Jerusalem peaked in March 2010, when Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. was on a visit here meant to underscore American support for Israel. The Israeli Interior Ministry announced 1,600 new housing units for Jews in Ramat Shlomo, in East Jerusalem, infuriating the Obama administration. Mr. Netanyahu said at the time that he had been surprised by the move; the interior minister, Eli Yishai, leader of the right-wing Shas Party, insisted that the timing was coincidental.
After that episode, the prime minister’s office said it would track the advancement of building plans more carefully to avoid new surprises.
But in November, Israel published plans for more than 1,000 housing units in other disputed areas of Jerusalem. That announcement came days before Mr. Netanyahu met with Mr. Biden and Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton in the United States, drawing criticism from Mr. Obama.
[…]
2) Prominent Israelis Will Propose a Peace Plan
Ethan Bronner, New York Times, April 4, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/05/world/middleeast/05israel.html
Jerusalem – A group of prominent Israelis, including former heads of Mossad, Shin Bet and the military, are this week putting forth an initiative for peace with the Arab world that they hope will generate popular support and influence their government as it faces international pressure to move peace talks forward.
Called the Israeli Peace Initiative, the two-page document is partly inspired by the changes under way regionally and is billed as a direct response to the Arab Peace Initiative issued by the Arab League in 2002 and again in 2007. It calls for a Palestinian state on nearly all the West Bank and Gaza with a capital in much of East Jerusalem, an Israeli withdrawal from the Golan Heights, and a set of regional security mechanisms and economic cooperation projects.
"We looked around at what was happening in neighboring countries and we said to ourselves, ‘It is about time that the Israeli public raised its voice as well,’ " said Danny Yatom, a signer of the document and former head of Mossad, Israel’s intelligence service. "We feel this initiative can bring along many members of the public."
Another member of the group, Yaakov Perry, a former head of Shin Bet, the internal security agency, said he sent a copy of the document on Sunday to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who replied that he looked forward to reading it. The official unveiling is set for Wednesday in Tel Aviv, but a copy was made available to The New York Times. "We are isolated internationally and seen to be against peace," Mr. Perry said in a telephone interview. "I hope this will make a small contribution to pushing our prime minister forward. It is about time that Israel initiates something on peace."
Mr. Yatom has been a member of Parliament from the Labor Party, and Mr. Perry, now a banker, has recently joined Kadima, the main opposition party. Like all 40 people who signed the initiative, they are politically to the left of Mr. Netanyahu and most of his rightist government.
But the group was selected to seem as mainstream as possible. It includes scholars, businesspeople, and the son and daughter of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, who was assassinated in 1995. While polls show that the Israeli public has moved right in recent years, many political analysts argue that the public worries about the country’s diplomatic isolation and is open to a peace deal.
The initiative’s goal is resolution of all claims and an end to the Israeli-Arab conflict. It acknowledges "the suffering of the Palestinian refugees since the 1948 war as well as of the Jewish refugees from the Arab countries." It says it shares the statement of the Arab Peace Initiative "that a military solution to the conflict will not achieve peace or provide security for the parties."
The two-state solution envisioned for Israel and Palestine resembles the Clinton parameters of 2000. Palestine would be a nation-state for the Palestinians, and Israel "a nation-state for the Jews (in which the Arab minority will have equal and full civil rights as articulated in Israel’s Declaration of Independence)."
The document calls for the 1967 lines to be a basis for borders, with agreed modifications based on swaps that would not exceed 7 percent of the West Bank.
Jerusalem’s Jewish neighborhoods would go to Israel, and Arab neighborhoods to Palestine; the Temple Mount, known as the Noble Sanctuary to Muslims, would be under no sovereignty, although the Western Wall and Jewish Quarter of the Old City would be under Israel. On Palestinian refugees, the plan suggests financial compensation and return to the state of Palestine, not Israel, with "mutually agreed-upon symbolic exceptions" allowed into Israel.
Regarding Syria, the proposal calls for Israeli withdrawal from the Golan Heights, with agreed minor modifications and land swaps in stages taking no longer than five years.
[…]
3) USAID Administrator: GOP Bill Could Kill 70,000 Kids
Agency Chief Warns Against Republican Plans to Cut Foreign Aid Programs
Kirit Radia, ABC News, April 1, 2011
http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/usaid-administrator-rajiv-shah-republican-cuts-lead-child/story?id=13275542
At least 70,000 children around the world could die if funding for global health programs is cut under the Republican budget proposal, USAID Administrator Rajiv Shah warned Congress Thursday.
"What I worry about is that with the H.R. 1 budget [the proposed spending bill], if that becomes a baseline reality for fiscal year ’12, that would be very problematic for some of our most important programs," Administrator Shah testified before the House Appropriations State and Foreign Operations subcommittee. "We estimate, and I believe these are very conservative estimates, that H.R. 1 would lead to 70,000 kids dying," he said.
Shah said that 30,000 of those deaths would come if malaria control programs have to be scaled back, 24,000 would die from lack of support for immunizations, and another 16,000 would die at birth.
[…] Republicans have proposed significant cuts to the international affairs budget, 19 percent below 2010 enacted base levels, as part of an effort to reduce deficit spending.
According to the U.S. Global Leadership Coalition, which lobbies to increase funding for international affairs, the Republican budget proposal would cut funding for global health programs by 11 percent, including a reduction in money for the Global fund for HIV/AIDS by 43 percent. The group says that would mean 5 million children would not receive malaria treatments and about 43,000 would not receive tuberculosis treatments.
4) US lawmakers reject upbeat government assessment of progress in Afghanistan, Pakistan
Associated Press, Tuesday, April , 6:19 PM
http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/us-lawmakers-reject-upbeat-government-assessment-of-progress-in-afghanistan-pakistan/2011/04/05/AFcHhJlC_story.html
Washington – Some lawmakers are rejecting an upbeat government assessment of U.S. policy in Pakistan and Afghanistan. They say that despite billions in aid to the countries, most people there still hate America.
Members of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs also voiced skepticism Tuesday about building democracy in the tribal society of Afghanistan.
Senior State Department official Daniel Feldman said al-Qaida was under pressure as never before at the Afghan-Pakistan border and the Taliban’s momentum has been reversed in south Afghanistan. He said Pakistan’s government is increasingly exerting control over its territory.
Democratic Rep. Gary Ackerman said: "After hearing the same sales pitch for 10 years, I doubt it." And Republican Rep. Steve Chabot said: "We spend all this money and they still hate us."
5) Afghan Officer Turns Against U.S. Soldiers, Killing 2
Rod Nordland, New York Times, April 4, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/05/world/asia/05afghanistan.html
Kabul, Afghanistan – Two American soldiers were shot to death by an Afghan police officer on Monday in northern Afghanistan, Afghan officials said. It was at least the third time this year that Afghan security personnel had turned on coalition soldiers.
The shooting came after three days of anti-American protests, which claimed at least 24 lives, set off by the burning of a Koran at a church in Florida. It is not known if that had any connection to Monday’s episode, but the attacker was identified as an Afghan border policeman, named only Samarudin, 23, a resident of Mazar-i-Sharif, where the violence began last Friday, and where seven United Nations staff members were killed in rioting.
Scattered protests over the Koran burning continued Monday, but they were largely peaceful.
The two American victims were involved in training the Afghan border police at a base in Maimana city, the capital of Faryab Province, according to Abdul Sattar Bariz, the deputy governor of the province.
"It was an individual act, which could have various reasons or motives, but it does not mean at all that the security situation is bad in the province," said the governor of Faryab Province, Abdul Haq Shafaq. He said the American trainers had good relations with the border police battalion. "It’s early to say if the shooting had links with the Holy Koran burning or not."
[…]
Libya
6) Sanctions Are Dropped Against Libyan Defector
Scott Shane, New York Times, April 5, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/06/world/africa/06koussa.html
Washington – The Obama administration dropped financial sanctions on Monday against the top Libyan official who fled to Britain last week, saying it hoped the move would encourage other senior aides to abandon Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi, the country’s embattled leader.
But the decision to unfreeze bank accounts and permit business dealings with the official, Moussa Koussa, underscored the predicament his defection poses for American and British authorities, who said on Tuesday that Scottish police and prosecutors planned to interview Mr. Koussa about the 1988 Lockerbie bombing and other issues "in the next few days."
Mr. Koussa’s close knowledge of the ruling circle, which he is believed to be sharing inside a British safe house, could be invaluable in trying to strip Colonel Qaddafi of support.
But as the longtime Libyan intelligence chief and foreign minister, Mr. Koussa is widely believed to be implicated in acts of terrorism and murder over the last three decades, including the assassination of dissidents, the training of international terrorists and the bombing of Pan Am 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland.
[…] "Any defection is a bet on which side is going to win," said Paul R. Pillar, a former official of the Central Intelligence Agency who has met Mr. Koussa. "I assume he’s banking on the leverage he has with his inside information, even without a formal grant of immunity. It’s a plea-bargaining situation."
Mr. Koussa’s calculation is undoubtedly based, too, on the sterling connections to British and American intelligence officials that he forged as Libya’s central negotiator when Colonel Qaddafi decided in 2004 to give up efforts to develop nuclear, chemical and biological weapons. He came across not as a thug but as an urbane and worldly figure "who would not have looked out of place as a Western ambassador," Mr. Pillar said.
Diplomatic cables obtained by WikiLeaks show that in recent years, Mr. Koussa remade himself as the reasonable face of a ruthless and erratic government, meeting with American diplomats to discuss terrorist threats in North Africa, the plight of Sudanese refugees in Darfur, the streamlining of visas for American tourists and even human rights inside Libya.
[…]
7) Libya’s Rebel Forces Need More Than Just Weapons
Thom Shanker, New York Times, April 5, 2011, 8:01 AM
http://atwar.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/04/05/libyas-rebel-forces-need-more-than-just-weapons/
Washington – To become an effective fighting force, the amateurish groups of volunteers that are the fighting force, such as it is, of the Libyan rebellion would require far more than just shipments of weapons.
From Army Special Forces sergeants, who specialize in building guerrilla militias from scratch, and all the way to the secretary of defense the assessment is the same: The rebels have plenty of small arms, such as automatic weapons. The introduction of heavy weaponry, such as long-range artillery, should not be the priority.
What could blunt government assaults by armored vehicles on rebel positions and anti-Qaddafi cities would be modern, precise anti-tank weapons – but rebels would need weeks of training to put them to use, as they are not as easy to operate as the movies and video games would suggest.
The true game-changer on the ground in Libya would be training the rebels to carry out what the Army calls "fire and maneuver" combat at the small-unit level; that could bring some logic, coherence and effectiveness to their efforts on the battlefield. Rebel offensives thus far have been disorganized, ad hoc, relying mostly on allied air cover and luck.
Better communication would be vital to that effort. But while radios and other communications equipment could easily be brought to the rebels through the porous eastern border with Egypt, any outside effort to turn rebel bands into a militia with formal command-and-control structures able to pursue specific, tactical advantages over a better-organized government force would take weeks, if not months.
Robert Haddick, the managing editor of Small Wars Journal and a columnist for Foreign Policy magazine, said the rebels’ most significant need is basic instruction in both offensive and defensive tactics at the small-unit level – and in identifying and training commanders.
"You could train hundreds of men in those skills, maybe even thousands, in two months, probably," Mr. Haddick said. "But I think the more difficult task, and something that would take far more time, would be to select leaders – squad leaders, platoon leaders and company commanders," he said.
There is no good estimate on how many Libyans have taken up arms on the side of the rebellion. Many are not even full-time, but show up for a fight and then return home. They are of questionable physical conditioning. They have little training in weapons and none in military discipline.
Among the rebels, according to American intelligence estimates, are about 1,000 men who have trained with the Libyan army, as both officers and foot soldiers, before changing sides. The government’s force is estimated at roughly 30,000.
"Additional small arms probably would not be enough to change the balance on the ground," said Andrew M. Exum, founder of the Abu Muqawama blog and a fellow at the Center for a New American Security who, as an officer in the Army Rangers, the military’s elite light infantry, commanded units in Afghanistan and Iraq.
More sophisticated weapons systems, especially anti-tank weapons, might make a difference, as would some armored vehicles," he said.
Mr. Exum, who wrote a doctoral dissertation on Hezbollah in Lebanon, noted that the first antitank weapons were given to the radical militia in the 1980s. But even with state-sponsorship from Iran and Syria for their terrorist activities and military actions, Hezbollah was unable to become a proficient fighting force against the Israelis for at least a decade.
"The issue with any type of advanced weapons system is the amount of training required," Mr. Exum added. "There is no short-cut to addressing the imbalance between Qaddafi’s forces and the rebels."
While the American-backed rout of the Taliban government in Afghanistan after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, is an example of where outside assistance turned the tide of a war, that initial victory has little in common with the situation on the ground in Libya.
The anti-Taliban militias, in particular the Northern Alliance, had a dedicated leadership structure atop a seasoned fighting force. In quality, they were the Taliban’s equal. They were just fewer in number and held less territory.
So, with the help of Army Special Forces units and small C.I.A. teams to pinpoint airstrikes and manage the infusion of weapons, the anti-Taliban forces swiftly altered the balance on the ground.
One concern that is in the back of some minds is the possibility that more sophisticated weapons might fall into the hands of Qaeda sympathizers. But with little likelihood of the United States providing arms to the rebels, few analysts have raised that concern publicly.
Yemen
8) Yemen security forces kill protesters
Sudarsan Raghavan and Ali Almujahed, Washington Post, Monday, April , 8:26 PM
http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/yemen-security-forces-kill-protesters/2011/04/04/AFUxmleC_story.html
Sanaa, Yemen – Yemeni security forces and pro-government loyalists opened fire on protesters marching in two cities Monday, killing at least 12 and wounding scores, according to witnesses.
The violence was the deadliest attack on demonstrators, inspired by the populist rebellions of Egypt and Tunisia, since March 18, when snipers loyal to Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh shot dead at least 52 protesters in the capital, Sanaa. That event triggered wide-scale defections of Saleh’s top allies from the military, tribes and government.
In the southern city of Taiz, according to witnesses and televised images, police clutching guns, tear-gas canisters and batons targeted unarmed protesters marching toward a provincial government building.
Many of the victims were seriously injured, and medical officials expected the death toll to rise. The injured were taken to a makeshift hospital, and images on local television showed men, who were apparently tear-gassed, on the floor being treated by nurses.
Twelve people died from wounds received Monday, while two other succumbed to injuries from violence on Sunday, said a member of the medical team at a makeshift hospital near a square that is a focal point of the uprising. More than a dozen were in critical condition, the medical worker said.
"The first four of the protesters who were killed were shot by snipers at the governor’s office," Yaser Alnusari, a medic in Taiz, said in a phone interview. "The protesters were in tens of thousands and were protesting on most of the main streets in Taiz. They were condemning the violent actions that took place against them yesterday."
Medical workers struggled to help the wounded. "The field hospital cannot give health care to all the injured and is coordinating with hospitals outside Taiz to help," said Sadiq Alshuka, head of the medical team.
According to a senior official in Taiz, security forces were forced to open fire after thousands of protesters surrounded the governor’s office and refused to disperse. "More than 20 governmental tanks and armored vehicles are now at the government building trying to control the situation," the official said.
"The regime has surprised us with this extent of killing," parliament member Mohammed Muqbil al-Hamiri told the al-Jazeera television network. "I don’t think the people will do anything other than come out with bare chests to drain the government of all its ammunition."
[…]
Afghanistan
9) Some detainees cleared for release still jailed at US military prison in Afghanistan
Associated Press, Tuesday, April 5, 2:58 PM
http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/some-detainees-cleared-for-release-still-jailed-at-us-military-prison-in-afghanistan/2011/04/05/AFgS6YjC_story.html
Kabul, Afghanistan – Amin al-Bakri holds a get-out-of-jail card from a detainee review board but so far it’s been useless to the former Yemeni gem salesman, who has been locked up at the U.S. military prison in Afghanistan for more than eight years.
Day upon day, 42-year-old al-Bakri wakes up behind bars at the massive U.S. detention center near Bagram Air Field. It’s the same place that CIA Director Leon Panetta says Osama bin Laden would be taken for initial questioning – if he’s ever captured.
Al-Bakri, who was never charged, is not alone.
More than a dozen detainees who were picked up outside of Afghanistan have been cleared for release by review boards but are still at Bagram, according to an estimate by Daphne Eviatar, a senior associate at Human Rights First, a nonprofit international human rights organization based in New York and Washington D.C.
The detainees’ lawyers suspect some are caught up in political problems between the U.S. and their home countries, including Yemen, Pakistan and Tunisia.
The Defense Department did not respond to allegations that political issues are delaying the release of detainees. Finding out exactly what’s holding up their release is difficult because their lawyers are not even privy to what evidence the government has on their clients, why they were picked up in the first place or how they ended up at Bagram.
"Amin has been there for almost a decade of his life," said Ramzi Kassem, a law professor at the City University of New York who filed the latest appeal for al-Bakri’s release late Monday in a U.S. federal court in Washington. "Amin should never have been there in the first place. He has never been a threat to the United States."
U.S. agents captured al-Bakri in late 2002 in Bangkok, Thailand, while he was on a business trip, according to his lawyers. He checked out of his hotel and was on his way to the airport to fly back to Yemen where he was planning to celebrate his 34th birthday with his wife and three children. He never made it home.
His family found out that he was alive when the International Committee of the Red Cross forwarded them a post card, in his own handwriting, from the detention facility north of Kabul. In December, Bagram detainees were moved to a new, modern prison several miles (kilometers) away from the old facility.
The Pentagon says it is working to free detainees approved for release, but it takes time. Lt. Col. Tanya Bradsher, a spokeswoman at the U.S. Defense Department in Washington, said that if a non-Afghan detainee is approved for transfer or release, diplomatic arrangements still must be made in order to repatriate the detainee to his home country or another location. The Pentagon would not say how many detainees at Bagram have been recommended for release, but still aren’t free.
[…] Redha al-Najar, a 45-year-old citizen of Tunisia, is another detainee whose life is in limbo.
In May 2002, Pakistani men and French-speaking men in plain clothes took him from his home in Karachi as his wife and child looked on.
During his nearly nine years in detention, the U.S. government has never charged al-Najar, according to Tina M. Foster, an attorney and executive director of International Justice Network, a New York-based nonprofit that has represented more than 30 Bagram detainees since 2006. "His son, now 10, has grown up without a father," she said.
[…] Foster said another client, Fadi al-Maqaleh from Yemen, also has been cleared for release but is still being held at Bagram.
Many Yemeni prisoners at the U.S. military prison in Cuba have been cleared for release too but still remain incarcerated at Guantanamo Bay. Yemen is a hotbed of terrorism and the U.S. does not trust the government to monitor their activities if they’re released. According to a court ruling, the United States can hold these Yemeni prisoners at Guantanamo indefinitely until the security situation in Yemen improves or the U.S. can find somewhere else to move them.
Also waiting to walk free is Jan Sher Khan, who has been detained for six years. He was 15 when he disappeared from his village near Kohat, Pakistan, in the spring of 2005. He never came home from classes at his high school and ended up at Bagram. According to court papers filed seeking his release, his family believes he was seized by someone seeking thousands of dollars in reward money advertised for the capture of suspected members of al-Qaida or the Taliban.
On Jan. 10, the U.S. government confirmed that Khan had been cleared for release.
[…] Al-Bakri’s second of three review board hearings took place in August 2010.
Two months later, al-Bakri was handed a paper saying he was going to be released to his home country. "Your transfer may take some time to process," the brief note said. "Please be patient while arrangements are being made."
Peru
10) Peru Leftist Wins Support From Those Economic Boom Passed By
Sophie Kevany, Dow Jones Newswires, 04-04-11
http://www.nasdaq.com/aspx/stock-market-news-story.aspx?storyid=201104041638dowjonesdjonline000298
Lima – Assumptions that Peru’s thriving economy and expanding middle class would safely usher in another pro-market president are looking shaky just a week before presidential elections on April 10.
Poll after poll show nationalist candidate Ollanta Humala in first place. His sudden jump in popularity over the last few weeks has surprised many and analysts are now saying his support lies with those who have seen Peru’s economic growth, up 8.8% last year, pass them by.
"There are those who feel left out of the boom. He appeals to rural, low- income voters and a nationalist, patriotic sentiment," said Cynthia Sanborn, director of the Research Center at Lima’s Pacific University.
His appeal to this segment of the population was "easily anticipated," so those surprised by his rise underestimated his potential voter base, Sanborn added.
[…] Other analysts also see Humala’s support springing from millions of Peruvians who lack clean water, adequate medical services or sufficient food supplies. "There is a large sector of the population that doesn’t feel the [country’s economic] growth has helped them," said Guillermo Loli, opinion-poll director of leading survey agency, Ipsos-Apoyo, on Monday. Ipsos-Apoyo said 65% of the population is concentrated in lower-income sectors.
Even Humala’s rivals agree. "I think, in large part, Humala is successfully collecting feelings of annoyance from lots of people who are not feeling the benefits of Peru’s economic growth," said Keiko Fujimori’s vice-presidential candidate, former Defense Minister Rafael Rey, on RPP radio.
[…] University of Lima political-science Professor Luis Benavente said a vote for Humala is a vote against current policies. "It is a rejection of the current model, the corruption and the lack of redistribution," said Benavente.
[…] Humala has also toned down his firebrand image and hired savvy advisers who, among other things, push his image as a good Catholic and family man. Last month, Humala was filmed carrying a rosary after a visit to the archbishop of Lima, while many applaud his wife for being the only possible Peruvian first lady.
The other four leading candidates are all either divorced or married to foreigners.
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