Just Foreign Policy News
February 17, 2010
We’ve Caught the Taliban Chief! Can We Go Home Now?
President Obama should use the arrest of Mullah Baradar to pivot from military escalation to a negotiated political settlement that ends the war in Afghanistan and brings the troops home.
https://www.justforeignpolicy.org/node/485
Porter: Goal of Marjah Operation is to prepare US public opinion for a deal with the Taliban
The Real News inteviews journalist Gareth Porter.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2zh4brrjQIo
Banana Land and the Corporate Death Squad Scandals
Charlie Cray reviews the evidence that Chiquita and Dole paid terrorists to kill labor leaders in Colombia.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/charlie-cray/banana-land-and-the-corpo_b_463295.html
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Summary:
U.S./Top News
1) A U.S. intelligence official criticized the Pakistani arrest with U.S. assistance of Afghan Taliban commander Mullah Baradar, saying it would set back peace efforts, the New York Times reports. "I know that our people had been in touch with people around him and were negotiating with him," the official said. "So it doesn’t make sense why we bite the hand that is feeding us," the official added. "And now the Taliban will have no reason to negotiate with us; they will not believe anything we will offer or say."
2) Today Democracy Now aired an interview with Matteo dell’Aira of the Italian medical relief NGO Emergency, which has said seriously injured civilians were prevented from reaching its hospital in Lashkar Gah due to NATO military blockades.
3) UN officials said the US was imposing "impossible" conditions on aid deliveries for Somalia and holding up tens of millions of dollars of desperately needed food based on unfounded accusations that it would be diverted to terrorists, the New York Times reports. Last year, the US provided less than half of what it did in 2008 for Somalia aid operations partly because UN agencies and private aid groups refused to sign an agreement to more closely police the distribution of aid, contending that it would make deliveries nearly impossible. The US is demanding aid agencies receiving US money cannot pay "fees at roadblocks, ports, warehouses, airfields or other transit points" controlled by the Shabab. The problem is, more than half of south-central Somalia is controlled by the Shabab or their allies, who often set up roadblocks and charge money for goods to pass. In many places in Somalia, the Shabab are the only local administration. [The US restrictions are ironic, given reports that US security contractors in Afghanistan pay Taliban for protection with US government dollars – JFP.]
4) The idea of a financial transactions tax on sales of stocks, derivatives and other financial instruments is gaining traction among liberals, the Wall Street Journal reports. Labor unions and liberal groups argue that such a fee could raise more than $100 billion a year while dampening financial speculation [aid groups want such a tax to be used to support aid to the poor, at home and abroad – JFP.]
5) Senior UN officials in Afghanistan criticized NATO forces for "the militarization of humanitarian aid," and said UN agencies would not participate in the military’s reconstruction strategy in Marja as part of its current offensive there, the New York Times reports. A UN official said the military should not be involved in providing health care or schools. Last month, eight leading humanitarian organizations working in Afghanistan, including Oxfam and ActionAid, issued a report charging that US/NATO use of aid as "a ‘nonlethal’ weapon of war" violated an agreement between international forces and the UN.
6) UN Secretary-General Ban announced that the international convention banning cluster bombs has received the 30 ratifications required and will enter into force on Aug. 1, AP reports. Ban urged all countries to sign and ratify the convention. But the U.S., Russia, China, Israel, India and Pakistan have refused to support the convention. The 30 ratification countries are: Norway, Austria, Holy See, Ireland, Mexico, New Zealand, Albania, Croatia, Laos, Sierra Leone, Zambia, Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Japan, Montenegro, Slovenia, Spain, Burundi, Luxembourg, Macedonia, Malawi, Malta, Nicaragua, Niger, San Marino, Uruguay, Burkina Faso and Moldova.
Syria
7) President Obama nominated Robert Ford as ambassador to Syria, Reuters reports. The US has not had an ambassador in Syria for five years. The nomination was seen as a major step in improving ties.
Iran/Iraq
8) Gen. Odierno said two influential Iraqi politicians now involved in blocking candidates in the Iraqi parliamentary election next month had close links to Iran, which the general said was trying to undermine the vote, the New York Times reports.
9) Ahead of the Iraqi elections, threats of sectarian violence are reappearing, the Washington Post reports. A senior U.S. official said US forces are leaving behind many of the same conditions that preceded the sectarian war. "All we’re doing is setting the clock back to 2005," said the official. "The militias are fully armed, and al-Qaeda in Iraq is trying to move back from the west. These are the conditions now, and we’re sitting back looking at PowerPoint slides and whitewashing."
Iran
10) National security advisor James Jones told Fox News that US-led sanctions on Iran could bring "regime change," AFP reports. But he said that the US is not actively seeking to destabilize Iran.
Mexico
11) Mexico’s Roman Catholic bishops have joined in the growing criticism of the "drug war," AP reports. The Mexican Council of Bishops said in a report released Monday that the presence of thousands of troops on the streets and a corrupt judicial system raise human rights concerns. [As part of the US Merida initiative the State Department is supposed to certify that Mexico is making progress on the concerns that the bishops raised as a condition of the aid – JFP.]
Contents:
U.S./Top News
1) Arrest Of Taliban Chief May Be Crucial For Pakistanis
Carlotta Gall and Souad Mekhennet, New York Times, February 17, 2010
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/17/world/asia/17intel.html
Islamabad, Pakistan – Pakistan’s arrest of the top Taliban military commander may be a tactical victory for the United States, but it is also potentially a strategic coup for Pakistan, officials and analysts here and in Afghanistan said. Pakistan has removed a key Taliban commander, enhanced cooperation with the United States and ensured a place for itself when parties explore a negotiated end to the Afghan war.
The arrest followed weeks of signals by Pakistan’s military chief, Gen. Ashfaq Parvez Kayani – to NATO officials, Western journalists and military analysts – that Pakistan wanted to be included in any attempts to mediate with the Taliban.
Even before the arrest of the Taliban commander, Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, a senior Pakistani intelligence official expressed irritation that Pakistan had been excluded from what he described as American and Afghan approaches to the Taliban. "On the one hand, the Americans don’t want us to negotiate directly with the Taliban, but then we hear that they are doing it themselves without telling us," the official said in an interview. "You don’t treat your partners like this."
Mullah Baradar had been a important contact for the Afghans for years, Afghan officials said. But Obama administration officials denied that they had made any contact with him. Whatever the case, with the arrest of Mullah Baradar, Pakistan has effectively isolated a key link to the Taliban leadership, making itself the main channel instead.
[…] Though the Obama administration has been divided on whether and how to deal with the Taliban, the Pakistani move could come at the expense of the Afghan government of Hamid Karzai and complicate reconciliation efforts his government has begun.
An American intelligence official in Europe conceded as much, while also acknowledging Mullah Baradar’s key role in the reconciliation process. "I know that our people had been in touch with people around him and were negotiating with him," the official said, speaking on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the issue.
"So it doesn’t make sense why we bite the hand that is feeding us," the official added. "And now the Taliban will have no reason to negotiate with us; they will not believe anything we will offer or say."
The arrest comes at a delicate time, when the Taliban are in a fierce internal debate about whether to negotiate for peace or fight on as the United States prepares to send 30,000 more troops to Afghanistan this year.
He is one of the most senior military figures in the Taliban leadership who is close to the overall Taliban leader, Mullah Muhammad Omar, and has been one of the main Taliban conciliators, Afghan officials said.
It has been clear from interviews recently with commanders and other members of the Taliban in southern Afghanistan and in Pakistan that the notion of talks has divided the Taliban, but more and more want negotiations.
Some hard-liners are arguing to continue the fight. But in recent weeks the balance has been increasingly toward making peace, according to Hajji Muhammad Ehsan, a member of the Kandahar provincial council.
Officials in Kandahar, the former base of the Taliban government, have some of the closest links to the Taliban leadership, who are mostly from southern Afghanistan and are now living across the border in Pakistan.
"He was the only person intent on or willing for peace negotiations," said Hajji Agha Lalai, former head of the government-led reconciliation process in the city of Kandahar, who has dealt with members of the Taliban leadership council for several years.
He and other officials in Afghanistan who are familiar with the Taliban leadership said Mullah Baradar’s arrest by Pakistani intelligence, and his interrogation by Pakistani intelligence officers and American agents, could play out in two ways. Mullah Baradar might be able to persuade other Taliban to give up the fight. Or if he is perceived to be mistreated, that could end any hopes of wooing other Taliban.
"Mullah Brother can create change in the Taliban leadership, if he is used in mediation or peace-talking efforts to convince other Taliban to come over, but if he is put in jail as a prisoner, we don’t think the peace process will be productive," said Hajji Baridad, a tribal elder from Kandahar.
[…] But the former Taliban ambassador to Pakistan, Mullah Abdul Salam Zaeef, who has led efforts on behalf of President Karzai to persuade the Taliban to negotiate an end to the war, attacked Pakistan’s action as destroying all chances of reconciliation with the rest of the Taliban leadership.
"If it’s really true, it could seriously affect negotiations and can gravely affect the peace process," he said, speaking in Kabul, where he has resided since his release from the prison at Guantánamo Bay in Cuba several years ago. "It would destroy the fragile trust built between both sides and will not help with the peace process."
2) Group: NATO Forces Blocking Movement of Wounded Afghan Civilians
Democracy Now, February 17, 2010
http://www.democracynow.org/2010/2/17/group_nato_forces_blocking_wounded_afghan
The US is coming under increasing criticism over the rise in civilian casualties during the assault on the Afghan city of Marjah, one of the largest military offensives of the eight-year war. At least nineteen civilians have been killed so far, including six children who died when a missile struck their house on the outskirts of the city. We speak with Matteo dell’Aira, medical coordinator of the Emergency Lashkar Gah hospital. [includes rush transcript]
AMY GOODMAN: The US and NATO assault on the Afghan city of Marjah has entered its fifth day. US Marines have called in helicopter gunships for support, as they face heavy gunfire and sustained resistance as they try to gain control of the city.
The assault is one of the largest military offensives of the eight-year war, with some 15,000 Afghan, NATO and US troops taking part.
The US is coming under increasing criticism over the rise in civilian casualties during the operation. At least nineteen civilians have been killed so far, including six children who died when a missile struck their house on the outskirts of the city. The military initially claimed the rocket went off course, but on Tuesday the commander of British forces in southern Afghanistan, Major General Nick Carter, said the missile had hit its intended target.
Meanwhile, a spokesman for the governor of Helmand province said that more 1,200 families had been displaced and evacuated from Marjah and claimed all had received aid in the provincial capital, Lashkar Gah. But the Italian NGO Emergency released a statement saying dozens of seriously injured civilians are being prevented from reaching its hospital in Lashkar Gah due to NATO military blockades.
Yesterday we spoke with the medical coordinator of the Emergency Lashkar Gah hospital. Matteo dell’Aira is a nurse who has been working in Afghanistan for the past ten years. I began by asking him to describe the scene there in Lashkar Gah.
MATTEO DELL’AIRA: We are seeing a lot of injured people, but very few people comes from the area where the big operation started three, four days ago, because it’s impossible for them-for most of the civilian people, it’s impossible to reach our hospital in Lashkar Gah, that is far from the-from Marjah, more or less forty kilometers.
AMY GOODMAN: And what is preventing them from getting to you?
MATTEO DELL’AIRA: There are a lot of checkpoints, and the coalition forces, it seems that they block the civilians and every kind of movement on the roads. Plus the area has been heavy mined by the opposition, probably. So the civilians-actually, they are in Marjah, inside Marjah, and they cannot reach any medical facilities, which is our hospital, basically.
[…] AMY GOODMAN: Your press release is very strong. It says, "EMERGENCY denounces these severe war crimes perpetrated by the international coalition of forces led by the United States, and calls for a humanitarian route be opened in order to guarantee immediate assistance to the wounded." And it says that your staff has been notified that dozens of seriously injured civilian victims are unable to be transferred to hospitals due to military blockades, which are impeding vehicles transporting injured victims. Is this true?
MATTEO DELL’AIRA: Yeah, this is true. We had voiced that there were at least, more or less, twenty-two patients that were not able to reach our hospital because it’s blocked.
[…] AMY GOODMAN: Matteo dell’Aira is the medical coordinator of Emergency Lashkar Gah hospital. He has been in Afghanistan for ten years. He was speaking to us from Lashkar Gah.
3) U.N. Criticizes U.S. Restrictions on Aid for Somalia
Jeffrey Gettleman, New York Times, February 18, 2010
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/18/world/africa/18somalia.html
Nairobi, Kenya – United Nations officials intensified their criticism of the American government on Wednesday, saying that Washington was imposing "impossible" conditions on aid deliveries for Somalia and holding up tens of millions of dollars of desperately needed food based on unfounded accusations that it would be diverted to terrorists.
The American government has said that aid agencies receiving American money must ensure that their contractors do not divert money or aid to the Shabab, a Somali insurgent group that the American government has designated a foreign terrorist organization.
But Mark Bowden, the United Nations official in charge of humanitarian operations in Somalia, said the accusations of aid diversions to the Shabab were "ungrounded."
"What we are seeing is a politicization of humanitarian issues," he said, adding that when he recently went to Washington to discuss the matter with American aid officials, "the comment we met was, ‘This is beyond our pay grade.’ "
When the issue first came up last year, Americans officials said they were simply following American law and trying to prevent terrorists from profiting from American aid. Whether this is actually happening in Somalia is not yet clear. One internal United Nations audit found no wrongdoing, while preliminary results from another, more independent investigation have indicated that some United Nations contractors may be diverting American-donated food to the Shabab and their allies, who then sell the sacks of grain and tins of oil to buy guns.
On Wednesday, one American official shot back: "We wouldn’t have reacted this way if the allegations were ungrounded. There is a body of evidence here." The American official, who was not authorized to speak publicly on the matter but was clearly irritated by Mr. Bowden’s comments, added, "We’re going to have to talk to him."
The fight over American aid is just one of many serious problems in Somalia right now. United Nations officials described a nation racked by drought, suicide bombings and clan tensions. Three million Somalis – nearly half the population – need emergency help, and even the African Union peacekeepers deployed to protect the population have been accused of carelessly killing civilians. Mr. Bowden said United Nations officials had recently complained to the African Union about barrages of "indiscriminate shelling" that have killed dozens of people.
[…] Instead, the recent focus of United Nations officials has been stepping up efforts to deliver aid in anticipation of a major offensive by Somali and African Union troops, which could begin in the coming weeks or months and is intended to drive the Shabab out of Mogadishu, the capital.
But the American restrictions on aid remain one of the biggest challenges to helping Somalia’s beleaguered population, in the eyes of many United Nations officials and aid workers.
Last year, the American government provided less than half of what it did in 2008 for Somalia aid operations partly because United Nations agencies and private aid groups refused to sign an agreement to more closely police the distribution of aid, contending that it would make deliveries nearly impossible. That dispute is still "dragging on," Mr. Bowden said, though the American government has resumed some donations to Somalia, including $15 million of food earlier this month.
According to a draft of the new aid conditions, which was provided to The New York Times on Wednesday, the American government is demanding that aid agencies receiving American money cannot pay "fees at roadblocks, ports, warehouses, airfields or other transit points" controlled by the Shabab.
The problem is, more than half of south-central Somalia is controlled by the Shabab or their allies, who often set up roadblocks and charge money for goods to pass. In many places in Somalia, the Shabab are the only local administration.
The new rules call for aid workers, including local Somalis, to report to American administrators when any aid unintentionally slips into the hands of the Shabab. "That could make us and our people look like spies," one aid worker said on condition of anonymity. "It’s totally unacceptable."
4) Liberals continue to push for financial transaction tax
Backers say it will dampen speculation, opponents say it will hike investor costs
Ronald D. Orol, MarketWatch (Wall Street Journal), Feb. 16, 2010, 11:40 a.m. EST
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/liberals-continue-to-push-for-financial-trades-tax-2010-02-16
Washington – As policymakers in the U.S. and Europe contemplate mechanisms to ward off another economic near-collapse, one idea is gaining traction among liberals at the same time as it is infuriating conservatives: a financial transactions tax.
Democratic lawmakers and other advocates are pressing for the creation of a sales tax applied to stocks, derivatives and other financial instruments. The idea has been around for decades. In fact, there was just such a tax in the United States from 1914 to 1966. The U.K. raises more than $30 billion a year on a tax that applies only to stocks.
Backers of financial transaction tax – including labor unions and liberal groups – argue that even with the major decline in stock and derivatives transactions stemming from the tax – some estimate as much as a 50% decline in volume of trades – such a fee could raise more than $100 billion a year to fight the deficit, create jobs or other purposes.
Proponents of the tax also argue it would dampen financial speculation and hyper-trading would diminish, which they say contributed to the bubble that led, in part, to the crisis in 2008.
[…] Rep. Peter DeFazio, D-Ore., introduced a financial transaction tax in December, which would impose a 0.25% fee on stock transactions. Derivatives swaps would be taxed at a rate of 0.02%, based on the bill, which has 27 supporters in the House. Sen. Tom Harkin, D- Iowa, is working on legislation in the Senate that would tax stock transactions to generate revenues to help reduce the deficit.
"We need something to damp down speculation and raise revenues," DeFazio said.
Nevertheless, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner says the Obama administration isn’t on board with the efforts. Rather than back a transaction tax, the White House proposes taxing financial institutions with $50 billion or more in assets to cover the remaining cost of a financial rescue package.
In addition to Geithner, former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker, who is an advisor to Obama, has expressed reservations about it.
Nevertheless advocates are organizing events on Capitol Hill, seeking to generate support for the measure. Dean Baker, co-director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research in Washington, argues that a transaction tax would result in a major decline in the volume of trading, which he says would be a good thing because it could reduce volatility, increase efficiency and dampen the kind of speculation bubble and busts that led to the recent financial crisis. "It may lead to situations that are less prone to the sort of speculative run-ups that we have seen in markets in recent years," Baker told participants at an event organized by Public Citizen.
Baker argues that the financial industry is akin to the trucking business in that it is an intermediary that brings goods – in this case investments – from point A to point B. However, he points out that, unlike the trucking industry, the financial industry has exploded over the past three decades relative to the size of the economy and is now five times as large as in the 1970s.
"Are we more secure in our savings? Do we think capital has been allocated better? It’s hard to argue that that is the case," Baker said. "Why would we want more people employed in trucking if they are not better able to bring goods from point A to point B? If we reduce the volume of trading, without impeding the financial sector in securing our savings, allocating capital, that’s a benefit for the economy."
[…]
5) UN Rejects ‘Militarization’ of Afghan Aid
Rod Nordland, New York Times, February 18, 2010
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/18/world/asia/18aid.html
Kabul, Afghanistan – Senior United Nations officials in Afghanistan on Wednesday criticized NATO forces for what one referred to as "the militarization of humanitarian aid," and said United Nations agencies would not participate in the military’s reconstruction strategy in Marja as part of its current offensive there.
"We are not part of that process, we do not want to be part of it," said Robert Watkins, the deputy special representative of the secretary general, at a news conference attended by other officials to announce the United Nations’ Humanitarian Action Plan for 2010. "We will not be part of that military strategy."
[…] Wael Haj-Ibrahim, head of the United Nations’ Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs here, said the military should not be involved in providing health care or schools. "If that aid is being delivered as part of a military strategy, the counterstrategy is to destroy that aid," Mr. Haj-Ibrahim said. "Allowing the military to do it is not the best use of resources." Instead, he said, the military should confine itself to clearing an area of security threats and providing security for humanitarian organizations to deliver services.
"The distribution of aid by the military gives a very difficult impression to the communities and puts the lives of humanitarian workers at risk," Mr. Watkins said.
Last month, eight leading humanitarian organizations working in Afghanistan, including Oxfam and ActionAid, issued a joint report that was highly critical of the International Security Assistance Force, as the American-led NATO force is known, because of "the international militaries’ use of aid as a ‘nonlethal’ weapon of war."
They maintained that this violated an agreement between international forces and the United Nations that the military’s primary role should be to provide security and, only when there is no other alternative, to provide limited developmental and humanitarian assistance. The agencies maintain they are able to work in conflict areas of Afghanistan when local residents see them as independent and not connected with the military, and this approach puts that at risk.
"Military-led humanitarian and development activities are driven by donors’ political interests and short-term security objectives and are often ineffective, wasteful and potentially harmful to Afghans," a statement by Oxfam said.
The United Nations officials expressed the same concern, though more diplomatically, and one official, who did not want to be quoted by name because of the political sensitivity of the issue, said the United Nations had repeatedly raised those concerns with the international forces without success.
[…] "Clear, hold and build, it’s short-sighted for two reasons," the United Nations official said. "Territory changes hands in a conflict, and if the services are associated with a particular group, it will be destroyed." That has happened often with projects like schools and clinics around the country.
The officials were particularly critical of NATO’s planned "civilian surge," bringing in more government-financed aid workers involved in projects like the country’s provincial reconstruction teams, which are located in each province and designed to provide fast-track development and aid services in their areas.
[…]
6) Cluster bomb ban to enter into force on Aug. 1
Edith M. Lederer, Associated Press, Tuesday, February 16, 2010; 10:18 PM http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/02/16/AR2010021605770.html
United Nations – Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon announced Tuesday that the international convention banning cluster bombs has received the 30 ratifications required and will enter into force on Aug. 1.
Cluster bomblets are packed by the hundreds into artillery shells, bombs or missiles, which scatter them over vast areas. Some fail to explode immediately and can lie dormant for years until they are disturbed, often by children attracted by their small size and bright colors. A bomblet can kill or maim someone within 10 to 50 yards (meters).
The convention prohibits all use, stockpiling, production and transfer of cluster munitions, sets strict deadlines for the destruction of stockpiles and clearance of contaminated land, and obliges states to support survivors and affected communities. Only those countries that have ratified the convention will be bound by its provisions.
Ban said the United Nations received the 30th instrument of ratification for the Convention on Cluster Munitions on Tuesday, triggering its entry into force on Aug. 1, according to a statement from the U.N. spokesman.
The U.N. chief said the convention’s impending entry into force just two years after its adoption demonstrates "the world’s collective revulsion at the impact of these terrible weapons" which are "unreliable and inaccurate" and kill and maim civilians long after conflicts end, the statement said.
The group Handicap International says 98 percent of cluster-bomb victims are civilians, and nearly a third are children.
Ban urged all countries to sign and ratify the convention.
But some of the world’s top military powers – including the U.S., Russia and China – and big users like Israel, India and Pakistan, have refused to support the convention, arguing that cluster bombs have legitimate military uses.
Faced with growing international pressure, U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates announced in July 2008 that the United States would reduce its inventory of cluster bombs that don’t meet new safety requirements and would require that after 2018, more than 99 percent of the bomblets must detonate.
The London-based Cluster Munition Coalition said Burkina Faso and Moldova ratified the convention on Tuesday, bringing the total number of ratifications to the required 30.
The 28 other countries that have ratified the convention are Norway, Austria, Holy See, Ireland, Mexico, New Zealand, Albania, Croatia, Laos, Sierra Leone, Zambia, Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Japan, Montenegro, Slovenia, Spain, Burundi, Luxembourg, Macedonia, Malawi, Malta, Nicaragua, Niger, San Marino and Uruguay.
[…]
Syria
7) Syria’s Assad holds security talks with U.S. official
Khaled Yacoub Oweis, Reuters, Wednesday, February 17, 2010; 2:32 PM http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/02/17/AR2010021701162.html
Damascus – President Bashar al-Assad held security talks on Wednesday with America’s highest-ranking career diplomat, a day after President Barack Obama pledged to reappoint an ambassador to Syria after a five-year absence.
Under Secretary of State William Burns, the architect of a deal that helped rehabilitate Libya’s leader Muammar Gaddafi, met with Assad along with Daniel Benjamin, a senior U.S. counter-terrorism official.
[…] Relations between Washington and Damascus have improved since Obama took office 13 months ago. Diplomats say Washington is hoping to pull Syria away from Iran and get its help in stabilizing neighboring Iraq.
Nevertheless Obama renewed sanctions against Syria last May, accusing it of supporting terrorism, pursuing weapons of mass destruction and destabilizing Iraq, with which it shares a long, porous border that has been a conduit for al Qaeda fighters.
[…] Washington has muted its criticism of Syria’s authoritarian system and the nomination of Robert Ford as ambassador to Damascus was seen as a major step in improving ties.
Burns said the nomination of Ford, who still has to be confirmed by the U.S. Senate, signaled "America’s readiness to improve relations and to cooperate in the pursuit of just, lasting and comprehensive peace between Arabs and Israelis."
[…]
Iran/Iraq
8) General Says 2 Iraq Politicians Have Ties To Iran
Thom Shanker, New York Times, February 17, 2010
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/17/world/middleeast/17military.html
Washington – Gen. Ray Odierno, the senior American commander in Iraq, said Tuesday that two influential Iraqi politicians now involved in blocking candidates in the parliamentary election next month had close links to Iran, which the general said was trying to undermine the vote.
General Odierno was unusually blunt in publicly expressing concerns about the actions of the two Iraqis: Ahmed Chalabi, who was a confidant of Bush administration officials in the prelude to the 2003 invasion but now is perceived as having supplied false intelligence to the United States; and Ali Faisal al-Lami, suspected of involvement in murderous activities of Shiite militants, including a bombing in Baghdad, accusations that he denies.
The two Iraqi politicians "clearly are influenced by Iran," General Odierno said. "We have direct intelligence that tells us that." He said the two men had several meetings in Iran, including sessions with an Iranian who is on the United States terrorist watch list. General Odierno spoke during a forum in Washington sponsored by the Institute for the Study of War, a policy research center.
Hard-line Shiite leaders in Iran are seeking to influence the outcome of Iraq’s national election, he said, through public and covert action – investments and other financial assistance to influence voters, as well as its continued support to violent groups within Iraq.
Mr. Lami, a close aide to Mr. Chalabi, is in charge of a panel that has disqualified several hundred candidates who had planned to run in the March 7 election on the grounds that they had promoted the Baath Party. Hardest hit have been Sunni candidates, and the action has raised fears that Sunnis are being marginalized by Iraq’s Shiites.
9) Just weeks before elections, specter of sectarian violence resurfaces in Iraq
Leila Fadel, Washington Post, Wednesday, February 17, 2010; A01
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/02/16/AR2010021606003.html
Baghdad – It was only one killing, but it unleashed the demons of a bitter and perhaps unfinished past.
The victim was a Sunni man in the mostly Shiite neighborhood of Hurriyah, in northwest Baghdad. The death and the aftermath were reminiscent of the prelude to the sectarian war, which began in late 2005 with a smattering of killings and threats and culminated with 100 bodies a day being dumped in the streets of the capital. With the imminent departure of American forces and fierce competition for power ahead of general elections on March 7, many here say sectarian strife is reigniting.
But this time, there will be no outsider acting as a buffer between the warring sects. U.S. military officials acknowledge that as Iraq regains sovereignty, their influence is waning. A senior U.S. military official who has spent years in Iraq said he fears that as the drawdown begins, American forces are leaving behind many of the same conditions that preceded the sectarian war.
"All we’re doing is setting the clock back to 2005," said the official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to offer a stark assessment. "The militias are fully armed, and al-Qaeda in Iraq is trying to move back from the west. These are the conditions now, and we’re sitting back looking at PowerPoint slides and whitewashing."
[…]
Iran
10) Tough sanctions could see Iran ‘regime change’: top US aide
AFP, February 14, 2010
http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5iY9AkHneldZAZqaeKebnBm5teJ0Q
Washington – The United States is pressing for very tough new sanctions against Iran this month, a top US aide said Sunday, suggesting that the move could help bring about "regime change."
"We’re… going through the UN this month to present sanctions," President Barack Obama’s national security advisor, retired general James Jones, told Fox News Sunday.
While the US is not actively seeking to destabilize Iran, which has been rocked by months of anti-government protests since disputed elections last year, Jones said additional sanctions could nevertheless have that effect. "We know that internally there is a very serious problem. We’re about to add to that regime’s difficulties by engineering, participating in very tough sanctions, which we support," he said. "Not mild sanctions. These are very tough sanctions. A combination of those things could well trigger a regime change – it’s possible."
[…]
Mexico
11) Mexican bishops criticize gov’t drug war strategy
Catherine E. Shoichet, Associated Press, Tuesday, February 16, 2010; 2:09 AM
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/02/15/AR2010021504082.html
Mexico City – Mexico’s Roman Catholic bishops have joined in the growing criticism of a drug war that has captured top kingpins but done little to stem gang violence. The Mexican Council of Bishops said in a report released Monday that the presence of thousands of troops on the streets and a corrupt judicial system raise human rights concerns.
They said too many suspects are paraded in front of the media before being charged and urged the government to speed up police reforms so that thousands of troops now leading the drug war can return to their barracks.
Since taking office in 2006, President Felipe Calderon has deployed tens of thousands of troops to drug trafficking hotspots across the country, vowing to wrest back territory from brutal cartels. Gang violence has since increased and become more vicious, with beheadings and shootouts occurring daily. More than 15,000 people have died in violence tied to the drug trade in the past three years.
The report comes in the wake of the massacre of 15 people in the border city of Ciudad Juarez that provoked widespread criticism of Calderon’s drug war strategy. Most of those killed were students with no known ties to drug gangs, and investigators say the gunmen may have been acting on mistaken information.
[…] International human rights groups have accused soldiers of arbitrary killings and other abuses in the drug war.
Mexico’s Defense Department insists the incidents have been isolated and are being investigated. Calderon says his goal is to turn the drug war back to reformed police forces, and hundreds of officers have been fired or arrested for suspected criminal ties under his administration.
But corruption scandals still abound. On Monday, authorities said two Tijuana police officers were arrested for threatening waitresses at a restaurant in the city of Tijuana, where the local government has launched an aggressive effort to clean up its force. The officers allegedly shot at fellow police who arrived at the scene Sunday in response to complaints. They tested positive for cocaine after their arrest, said Baja California Assistant State Attorney Martha Imelda Almanza.
[…]
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Robert Naiman
Just Foreign Policy
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