Just Foreign Policy News
January 5, 2011
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A "Pledge of Resistance" to Defend Social Security (and Defund the Empire)
If we had a "Pledge of Resistance" to defend Social Security, like the "Pledge of Resistance" that pledged to resist a U.S. invasion of Nicaragua, much of the support for cutting Social Security benefits would likely evaporate. Such a Pledge could force a national debate in which proposed cuts to domestic spending and proposed military spending are examined on the same chalkboard.
The deficit commission co-chairs’ proposal to cut Social Security by lowering the cost of living adjustment would save $70 billion by 2020. By comparison, drawing down U.S. troops in Afghanistan to where they were when Obama took office would save $150 billion by 2014.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/robert-naiman/a-pledge-of-resistance-to_b_804692.html
The Nation: A Real December Review for Afghanistan
The Nation’s Greg Kaufmann talks to Michael Shank, senior policy adviser for Congressman Michael Honda, who says that U.S. "development" efforts in Afghanistan are not serious, just for show, fueling conflict; policing, negotiations, and development more effective than military for reducing conflict, but US is doing the opposite.
http://www.thenation.com/article/157439/real-december-review-afghanistan
Summary:
U.S./Top News
1) The Norwegian newspaper Aftenpost has released a March, 2008, US embassy cable reporting that Israeli officials confirmed to the US that they intended to "keep the Gazan economy on the brink of collapse," Juan Cole reports in Informed Comment. Cole notes that the policy is still substantially in place, and violates international law.
2) Lindsey Graham is wrong about Afghanistan as he was wrong so many times about Iraq, writes Juan Cole in Truthdig. There is no prospect that those Pashtuns opposed to foreign troops will change their minds about this issue by 2014; the trend lines are altogether the other way.
3) The tear gas canister that recently killed Jawaher Abu Rahmah in Bil’in was "Made in the USA," writes Ira Chernus on Common Dreams. Combined Tactical Systems/Combined Systems is a US company that produces such tear gas canisters. Chernus suggests checking whether your local police department is patronizing Combined Systems with your tax dollars.
4) Members of an Afghan peace council went for an ice-breaking visit to Pakistan, the Washington Post reports. Afghan officials and council members say Pakistan’s support for the reconciliation process in Afghanistan is critical because insurgent groups enjoy safe havens in the tribal regions across the border. Former militia leaders, pro-Taliban figures and liberal technocrats are on the council. Pakistan has said it wants to play a role in Afghanistan’s negotiations with the Taliban but has been vague about what that would entail. "Pakistan’s prime minister has said peace in Afghanistan cannot happen without Pakistan’s help," said a council member. "Now the council members are going there to ask for their help in opening the way to peace talks."
Iraq
5) An Iraqi official said Iraq has been unable, due to U.S. sanctions, to pay Iran millions of dollars owed for electricity, potentially damaging its efforts to supply enough power, Reuters reports. Seven years after the U.S.-led invasion, Iraq’s national grid still only supplies a few hours of power each day and intermittent electricity is one of the public’s top complaints.
6) Populist cleric Moktada al-Sadr returned to Iraq after more than three years of voluntary exile in Iran, the New York Times reports. Sadr will "almost certainly" oppose efforts to extend the presence of U.S. troops in Iraq past the end-2011 deadline, the Times notes.
Haiti
7) A senior electoral official said Haiti will not be able to hold a second round of its disputed presidential election before February as it awaits a report from the OAS on contested preliminary results from the November 28 first round, Reuters reports. Michel Martelly, whom the electoral council placed narrowly third, less than a percentage point behind Celestin, has rejected the preliminary results and called for a second round vote to include all 18 original presidential candidates. Of these, a dozen demand complete cancellation of the vote, alleging massive fraud. They want Preval to resign and hand over to a provisional government when his five-year mandate formally ends on February 7.
Contents:
U.S./Top News
1) Wikileaks: Israelis ‘Intend to Keep the Gazan Economy on the Brink of Collapse’
Juan Cole, Informed Comment, 01/05/2011
http://www.juancole.com/2011/01/wikileaks-israelis-intend-to-keep-the-gazan-economy-on-the-brink-of-collapse.html
[full cable in English at link – JFP.]
The Norwegian newspaper Aftenpost has released a March, 2008, US embassy cable describing the Israeli blockade and siege of Occupied Gaza as an attempt to reduce the society to the lowest possible level of functioning without provoking a "humanitarian crisis" (presumably mass starvation).
"Israeli officials have confirmed to Embassy officials on multiple occasions that they intend to keep the Gazan economy functioning at the lowest level possible consistent with avoiding a humanitarian crisis."
And, with regard to taking money out of circulation in Gaza, a deflationary policy used as a tool of oppression:
"As part of their overall embargo plan against Gaza, Israeli officials have confirmed to econoffs on multiple occasions that they intend to keep the Gazan economy on the brink of collapse without quite pushing it over the edge"
It seems to me the Israeli right-wingers missed their mark, since 55% of Palestinians in Gaza are food-insecure and 10% of children show signs of stunting from malnutrition. I’d call that a humanitarian crisis. What the despicable Israeli officials meant by their phrase, of course, is that a mass die-off should be avoided that would bring to bear world pressure to abandon this criminal policy. The Israeli blockade of Gaza is illegal in international law and violates explicit United Nations Security Council resolutions. (Wasn’t defying UNSC resolutions given as a reason by the American Right for invading and overthrowing the Iraqi government?)
Although the MSM is putting the blockade in the past tense ("Israel intended"), it is still very much being pursued. Virtually no Palestinian made goods are allowed to be exported. A very slight easing of imports has been permitted, and Egypt is letting in some volunteer aid, as with the recent Asian flotilla. You wouldn’t want your own child to live as Palestinian children are mostly living in today’s Gaza.
This Israeli policy also violates the Fourth Geneva Convention of 1949 on the treatment of populations in Occupied Territories (yes, Israel still occupies Gaza even though it is not actively colonizing it any more.)
[…] Another document shows that even before the blockade, in 2006, corrupt Israeli officials were making money off the misery of the Palestinians in Gaza by insisting on large bribes to let in American goods past the checkpoint.
[…]
2) Wrong Again, Sen. Graham
Juan Cole, TruthDig, Jan 4, 2011
http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/wrong_again_sen_graham_20110104/
Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., repeated on NBC’s "Meet the Press" on Sunday his hope that the United States can maintain at least two permanent air bases in Afghanistan. He was pushing back against Vice President Joe Biden’s pledge that the U.S. would be out of Afghanistan by 2014 "come hell or high water." Graham has been wrong about almost everything in the Middle East for a decade and a half, so this harebrained proposal is hardly surprising. But it signals the harder line likely to be pursued by Republicans now that they have taken back the House of Representatives and have much strengthened their position in the Senate.
While pundit Bill Kristol has been tagged as perpetually wrong about everything for his various incorrect pronouncements about Iraq, Graham has largely gotten a pass for saying all the same things, from a greater position of power. Graham was among the earliest to be fooled by the ideologues around George W. Bush into thinking that the ramshackle Saddam Hussein regime posed a threat to the United States. Just after the "Axis of Evil" State of the Union address in 2002, Graham told Chris Matthews of Bush, "I think he was very direct about what the nation faces, about Iraq being a possible target sooner, rather than later." He virtually salivated at the prospect of a war: "I think the danger to this country from Saddam Hussein is great. The president was amazingly direct about people who procure weapons of mass destruction."
A little over a year later on Tim Russert’s "Meet the Press," Graham gloated at the imminent outbreak of war, accusing Saddam Hussein of lying when he said he no longer had chemical weapons stockpiles. He accused the dictator of supporting the Shiite Hezbollah in Lebanon and of hosting al-Qaida. He denounced then German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder as a "chancellor of appeasement" for not jumping on the war bandwagon. He pooh-poohed the notion that Iraq’s factious ethnic and sectarian groups would war with one another once the Baath government was overthrown: "This arrogance that we possess in the West, that there is multifactions, there’s ethnic and religious differences in Iraq and they can’t handle it, is the height of arrogance."
[…] American bases in Afghanistan are constant objects of attack by Pashtun fundamentalists opposed to what they see as the foreign military occupation of their country. Just last month, six U.S. troops died in a single assault near Kandahar. There is no prospect that those Pashtuns opposed to foreign troops will change their minds about this issue by 2014. In fact, the trend lines are altogether the other way. A recent poll sponsored by ABC, the BBC and other news organizations found that Afghan esteem for the United States and its military has plummeted since 2005.
Graham makes glib comparisons of Iraq and Afghanistan to South Korea, where the U.S. still has military bases decades after the Korean War ended. But as usual with hawks’ misuse of history, the situation is simply not the same. During the Cold War, acceptance of U.S. bases was eased in many countries by the perceived threat of the Soviet Union and international communism. In contrast, the Shiite government of Iraq is not afraid of any of its neighbors, with the possible exception of close U.S. ally Saudi Arabia, from which U.S. bases would be unlikely to offer protection. Likewise, the government of Hamid Karzai does not fear invasion by Iran or Uzbekistan or China, the countries with which the U.S. has problems. Karzai most fears Pakistan’s backing for Pashtun insurgents, and since the U.S. is closely allied with Islamabad, it can hardly offer itself as a savior in this regard.
Moreover, the Korean War was largely a conventional military conflict, not a set of local tribal and fundamentalist struggles such as have become common in the 21st century and which produce decades-long staccato violence (consider Lebanon, Somalia, Afghanistan, and now likely Iraq). Keeping U.S. air bases in Afghanistan, in the absence of a large American troop presence, would be like building Las Vegas-style casinos in downtown Mogadishu, Somalia. Graham is wrong yet again.
3) Israel’s Deadly Tear Gas Made in USA
Ira Chernus, Common Dreams, January 5, 2011
http://www.commondreams.org/view/2011/01/05-0
The Israeli peace movement is coming back to life, and it’s a very courteous movement indeed. When activists find things marked "Made in USA" lying on the ground they deliver them directly to the U.S. ambassador to Israel. The other night they returned a bunch of empty tear gas canisters, all marked "made in USA," fired by Israeli soldiers in the West Bank. They’re used to break up nonviolent protests against the Israeli-built wall that is tearing Palestinian life apart.
One canister made in the USA killed Jawaher Abu Rahmah, in the village of Bil’in, on the last day of 2010. Another one killed Jawaher’s brother, Bassem, in April, 2009.
Apparently the ambassador did not appreciate the courteous gesture. The police quickly arrived, broke up the action, arrested eleven people, and found a way to keep them jailed on trumped up charges.
But these canisters, and the Israeli soldiers who shoot them, don’t discriminate against Palestinians. American-made tear gas canisters are used against American citizens too.
Just a few days before Bassem Abu Rahmah was killed by a tear gas canister blow to the chest, an American volunteer with the International Solidarity Movement, Tristan Anderson, was hit in the head by the same kind of canister in the village of Nil’in. Anderson survived, though surgeons had to remove part of his brain. Another American, Emily Henochowicz, lost her eye in June, 2010 when she was hit by a tear gas canister during a protest at a West Bank checkpoint.
The Israelis used two kinds of tear gas canisters on New Year’s Eve when Jawaher Abu Rahmah died. One photographed by Joseph Dana, media spokesman for the Popular Struggle Coordination Committee., had the letters "CTS" stamped on it.
CTS, Combined Tactical Systems, is a brand name used by (or subsidiary of) Combined Systems Inc. based in Jamestown, Pennsylvania (though the American company is owned by an Israeli, according to Dana). There’s plenty of evidence that the Israelis get tear gas from CSI. It was a CTS canister that killed Bassem Abu Rahmah.
The Israeli military also used lethal high-velocity projectiles at Bil’in, the kind that struck Bassem Abu Rahmen and Tristan Anderson, although they are supposedly banned by the Israeli Defense Forces. These are also made by CSI. An aluminum canister like the ones made by CTS took out Emily Henochowitz’ eye.
[…] The victims of all these tragedies were strictly nonviolent and posed no threat to the Israeli soldiers. The centrist Israeli newspaper Yedioth Aharonoth reported that the protesters "did not provoke the soldiers" who fired the tear gas that killed Jawaher Abu Rahmen. You can see her brother Bassem’s death, in chilling detail, in a video that shows Israelis clearly shooting without any provocation.
Israeli authorities inevitably blame rock-throwing Palestinian youths for inciting violence, and U.S. mass media journalists like the New York Times’ Isabel Kershner often spin the story the same way. But eyewitnesses in every one of these cases confirm what you can see for yourself in the award-winning film Budrus: the rock-throwing doesn’t start until long after the Israelis have started firing, it does no real harm to the well-armed Israelis, and local leaders beg the youth to desist.
Palestinian Prime Minister Salem Fayyad has recently reaffirmed what all fair-minded observers see: Palestinians in the West Bank are now overwhelmingly committed to keeping their struggle against the occupation nonviolent. And, as even the conservative editors of the Wall Street Journal have recognized, Hamas is moving in the same direction in Gaza.
"We don’t seek vengeance against Israel," a surviving brother of Jawaher and Bassem Abu Rahmah told Ha’aretz. "They are people just like myself. We want the return of our lands, and the struggle won’t end until our property is restored."
[…] So what’s a citizen to do? There is a growing boycott/divestment/sanctions (BDS) movement aimed at Israel. But can we boycott the tear gas makers? Though they make an amazing variety of other products too, all are used by military forces, or by police departments. Nothing you’d be likely to buy.
However you might check whether your local police department is patronizing Combined Systems, Inc. with your tax dollars. CSI says that it markets "its innovative line of less-lethal munitions" – less lethal than what? – "and crowd control products to domestic law enforcement agencies under its law enforcement brand name, CTS." Even the moderate Jewish peace group J Street, which has serious reservations about BDS, says it takes a positive view of targeted boycotts aimed only at the occupation.
[…]
4) Afghan peace council visiting Pakistan
Pamela Constable and Joshua Partlow, Washington Post, January 4, 2011; 7:51 PM
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/01/04/AR2011010402968.html
Kabul – Members of an Afghan peace council left Tuesday for an ice-breaking visit to Pakistan.
The 17-member delegation was set to meet with Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gillani, whose jobs are in jeopardy because a key political party pulled out of the ruling coalition in parliament this week.
Afghan officials and council members say Pakistan’s support for the reconciliation process in Afghanistan is critical because insurgent groups enjoy safe havens in the tribal regions across the border. Pakistan, in turn, accuses Afghanistan of harboring its enemies.
"The agenda of our visit is to create trust and remove misgivings between the two countries so we can cooperate in the peace process. This is not an easy task," said Abdul Hakeem Mujahid, a deputy leader of the peace council and former Taliban representative to the United Nations.
[…] Led by former Afghan president Burhanuddin Rabbani, whose political party and its armed wing were once the Taliban’s fiercest adversaries, members of the peace council have traveled to several provinces to encourage their governors to reach out to insurgents, according to U.S. officials. "So far, it’s all a lot of glittery generalizations, but it’s happening; there is some energy behind it," said one American official who works on the issue.
The 70-member council includes former militia leaders who waged a bloody civil war in the early 1990s that helped spawn the Taliban. Referring to the militia commanders, the U.S. official said, "These are the guys who got us into this pickle. They should have some responsibility in getting us out."
Pro-Taliban figures and liberal technocrats also are on the council.
Afghan officials, who have long complained that Pakistan harbors the Taliban leadership, say Islamabad is in a strong position to broker a deal if it wishes to bring peace to the region. Pakistan has said it wants to play a role in Afghanistan’s negotiations with the Taliban but has been vague about what that would entail.
"Pakistan’s prime minister has said peace in Afghanistan cannot happen without Pakistan’s help," said Abdul Hamid Mobarez, a council member and former Afghan deputy culture minister. "Now the council members are going there to ask for their help in opening the way to peace talks."
Iraq
5) U.S. sanctions hamper Iraq power imports from Iran
Rania El Gamal and Aseel Kami, Reuters, January 5, 2011
http://af.reuters.com/article/egyptNews/idAFLDE7040KL20110105
Baghdad – Iraq has been unable, due to U.S. sanctions, to pay Iran millions of dollars owed for electricity, an Iraqi official said, potentially damaging its efforts to supply enough power to a population suffering chronic shortages.
Iraq imports 650 megawatts of electricity from Iran and plans to boost imports to around 1,000 MW this year, Adel Mahdi, an adviser in the electricity ministry, said on Wednesday.
But due to U.S. sanctions against Tehran over its nuclear programme, foreign banks have refused to transfer at least $200 million of overdue payments to Iran, raising fears among Iraqi officials that a cheap and vital power supply could be cut ahead of the sizzling Iraqi summer.
"I fear an indirect effect, that by summer maybe the debt on us will be half a billion (dollars) and at that time they (Iran) have peak demand… they could say ‘we will have to eliminate the contract and stop’," Mahdi said in an interview. "That would cause a very big problem to Iraq."
[…] Seven years after the U.S.-led invasion, Iraq’s national grid still only supplies a few hours of power each day and intermittent electricity is one of the public’s top complaints.
[…]
6) Radical Cleric Returns to Iraq After Years in Iran
Anthony Shadid and John Leland, New York Times, January 5, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/06/world/middleeast/06iraq.html
Baghdad – Moktada al-Sadr, the populist cleric who emerged as the United States’ most enduring foe in Iraq, returned Wednesday after more than three years of voluntary exile in Iran in a homecoming that embodied his and his movement’s transition from battling in the streets to occupying the halls of power.
"Long live the leader!" supporters shouted as a grayer Mr. Sadr made his way from the airport in the holy city of Najaf to his home and then to prayers at the gold-domed Shrine of Imam Ali, one of the most sacred places in Shiite Islam. Supporters there hailed his return as another show of strength for a movement that is now more powerful than at any time since the United States invaded in 2003.
"We’re proving to everyone that we’re an important part of Iraq and its politics," said Jawad Kadhum, a lawmaker with Mr. Sadr’s movement.
Simply by setting foot in Iraq, the mercurial and enigmatic Mr. Sadr complicated the nation’s byzantine politics. He is the rare Iraqi figure who can compete in stature with Prime Minister Nouri Kamal al-Maliki, and the dealings between Mr. Maliki, the arch politician, and Mr. Sadr, the rabble-rousing cleric, may prove a compelling political drama in the year ahead. Mr. Sadr’s return certainly adds another challenge for the United States, given its fear of his movement’s influence and his steadfast opposition to American policies.
[…] If he stays in Iraq, his impact on politics, at least in the short-term, may be more symbolic than real. The movement has performed well in his absence, with its delegates impressing even the movement’s critics with their skills in the negotiations that led to the formation of the government last month. One analyst suggested that the success of an emerging Sadrist leadership inside Iraq might have motivated Mr. Sadr to come back.
"The return has major political significance," said Hazem al-Amin, a writer with the Arabic newspaper al-Hayat in Beirut. "His party is becoming stronger and bigger, and the need for him to preside over it has grown, especially since there is fear that new leaders within the party could surpass him."
At the very least, Mr. Sadr becomes one of the few national leaders with the grass-roots support to compete with Mr. Maliki, whom Mr. Sadr’s supporters had derided on recently as an heir to Saddam Hussein and an American lackey. Mr. Sadr’s support for the prime minister came with a high price: hundreds of his followers were released from prison, and the movement was given leadership of a province, positions in the security forces and control of some ministries.
The Sadr-Maliki rivalry may become more intense as the 2012 deadline nears for all United States troops to withdraw from Iraq. Some American officials have suggested that Mr. Maliki would be open to an extension for at least some troops – a position that Mr. Sadr would almost certainly refuse.
[…]
Haiti
7) Haiti second round vote impossible before February
Joseph Guyler Delva, Reuters, Tue Jan 4, 2011 3:04pm EST
http://ca.reuters.com/article/topNews/idCATRE7034TP20110104
Port-au-Prince – Haiti will not be able to hold a second round of its disputed presidential election before February as it awaits a report from regional experts on contested preliminary results from the November 28 first round, a senior electoral official said on Tuesday.
The outcome of Haiti’s chaotic November elections has remained in limbo since violent protests greeted the December 7 preliminary results of the first round vote in the Caribbean nation. The presidential and legislative polls were held amid confusion, fraud allegations and a raging cholera epidemic.
The Western Hemisphere’s poorest state is preparing to mark the first anniversary of the devastating earthquake that struck a year ago on January 12. There are fears the political instability will delay the handover of billions of dollars of urgently needed reconstruction funds from foreign donors.
[…] Responding to international concern over reported irregularities in the November 28 vote results, Preval requested help from the Organization of American States and a team of OAS experts is working on verifying the preliminary tally.
But this has delayed the original electoral timetable which had foreseen final first round results being announced on December 20 and a second round run-off being held on January 16.
"It will be materially impossible to hold the run-off on January 16," Pierre-Louis Opont, director general of Haiti’s Provisional Electoral Council, told Reuters. "From the date of the publication of the final results of the first round, we will need at least one month to hold the run-off," the electoral official added.
But he could not say when the final results of the November 28 first round might be announced, saying only that this would follow the report by the OAS experts and completion of the process that deals with challenges to the results.
The December 7 preliminary results put Jude Celestin, a little-known government technocrat and Preval protege, in a second round run-off with former first lady Mirlande Manigat.
But popular musician Michel Martelly, whom the electoral council placed narrowly third, less than a percentage point behind Celestin, has rejected this and called for a second round vote to include all 18 original presidential candidates.
Of these, a dozen demand complete cancellation of the vote, alleging massive fraud. They want Preval to resign and hand over to a provisional government when his five-year mandate formally ends on February 7.
Preval, who has served the constitutional limit of two terms in office, has rejected this option, saying he will only hand over to a legitimately elected president.
To allow for the possibility of election delays following the crippling January 12 earthquake, Haiti’s parliament last year passed legislation allowing Preval to stay on in office until May 14 this year if necessary, to be able to hand over to the new president once his successor was legally elected.
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