Just Foreign Policy News
October 19, 2010
A Robin Hood Tax to Pay for the Wars
Instead of just saying that the Bush tax cuts for the richest Americans should be allowed to expire, let’s say that they should be allowed to expire and that the money saved shall be earmarked for the veterans’ trust fund. That will give the super-rich a powerful incentive to push back against the permanent war.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/robert-naiman/robin-hood-taxes-to-pay-f_b_768171.html
"Taking the Public Out of Public TV": FAIR Study Shows Pro-War Bias
On segments focusing on the Afghan War, though polls show consistent majorities of Americans have opposed the war for more than a year, not a single NewsHour guest represented an antiwar group or expressed antiwar views. Similarly, no representative of a human rights or humanitarian organization appeared on the NewsHour during the study period.
http://www.fair.org/index.php?page=4178
Pew: Cell Phones and Election Polls
Polling that doesn’t include cell-phone only people may introduce bias.
http://pewresearch.org/pubs/1761/cell-phones-and-election-polls-2010-midterm-elections
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Summary:
U.S./Top News
1) The Taliban’s influence in northern Afghanistan has expanded in recent months, the Wall Street Journal reports. The Taliban are winning support beyond the Pashtun community, their traditional base. In Baghlan, where Pashtuns account for less than one-quarter of the province’s residents, the insurgency is now drawing ethnic Uzbeks, Tajiks and other minorities previously seen as unsympathetic to the rebel cause. A US official familiar with Baghlan noted that the Taliban courts make a special effort not to show any preferential treatment to Pashtuns – a contrast to government officials, who often favor their own clan or ethnic group.
2) Some US troops in Afghanistan oppose US efforts to reach a political accommodation with the Afghan Taliban, the Washington Examiner reports. "If we walk away, cut a deal with the Taliban, desert the people who needed us most, then this war was pointless," said one US soldier.
3) Mexican President Calderon sent the Mexican Congress a proposal that would require troops to be tried in civilian courts for certain human rights abuses, the Los Angeles Times reports. The move represents a significant concession by the military establishment, the LAT says. Mexican and international rights groups have long argued for the need to subject Mexican troops to prosecution in civilian courts; the U.S. Congress made civilian investigations and prosecutions of police and military personnel one of four human rights conditions when it approved the Merida Initiative.
4) US officials are discouraging a substantive role for the Sadrists in the next Iraqi government, the Washington Post reports. Iraqi Prime Minister Maliki met with Sadr in Qom. The meeting was the first in years between the two leaders, and could mark an attempt by Maliki to solidify their new alliance, the Post says.
5) Turkey expressed reservations about NATO’s planned anti-missile system, saying it should not be presented as a defense against Iran, Reuters reports. NATO operates by consensus and needs approval of its 28 members. A NATO official in Brussels told Reuters the shield was not deployed against any specific country.
Egypt
6) Amnesty International called on Egyptian authorities to release or charge more than 70 members of the Muslim Brotherhood group arrested this week. More than 150 people have been arrested since the Muslim Brotherhood chairman said on October 9 that the group will put up candidates in Egypt’s parliamentary elections, scheduled for 29 November. "The arrests appear intended to disrupt Muslim Brotherhood campaigning and deter people from supporting the organization in the coming elections," said Amnesty’s director for the Middle East and North Africa. The Muslim Brotherhood has wide popular support and is generally seen as the main rival to Egypt’s ruling National Democratic Party, Amnesty says.
Colombia
7) A former official of Colombia’s DAS security service said in a sworn statement that an ex-director of DAS ordered her to spy on (ousted) former Sen. Piedad Cordoba at the express request of former President Uribe, the Latin American Herald Tribune reports. According to Caracol Radio, it marks the first time a top ex-official of DAS has testified that former directors of that agency had asked for information at Uribe’s request.
Honduras
8) US police have arrested in Miami the suspected killer of Honduran former government minister Roland Valenzuela, AFP reports. Valenzuela was sustainable development minister in the government of ousted president Manuel Zelaya.
Mexico
9) Reporters Without Borders said authorities in Chiapas need to explain why they shut down a community radio station this week, EFE reports. RSF said it joined the World Association of Community Radio Broadcasters in calling on Chiapas authorities "to publicly explain what took place during the raid and why it was carried out."
Guatemala
10) A report by the U.S. Public Health Service refers to an alleged agreement with Guatemalan health authorities approving illegal U.S. experiments carried out on Guatemalans in the 1940s, Inside Costa Rica reports.
Contents:
U.S./Top News
1) Taliban Influence Grows In North
Insurgents Attack, Recruit, Adjudicate, Countering NATO’s Advance in South
Yaroslav Trofimov, Wall Street Journal, October 18, 2010
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704300604575554144010132862.html
Pul-E-Khumri, Afghanistan – The Taliban’s influence in northern Afghanistan has expanded in recent months from a few hotspots to much of the region, as insurgents respond to the U.S.-led coalition’s surge in the south by seizing new ground in areas once considered secure.
Taliban militants stop traffic nightly at checkpoints on the road from Kabul to Uzbekistan, just outside Baghlan province’s capital city of Pul-e-Khumri, frequently blowing up fuel convoys and seizing travelers who work with the government or the international community.
In many areas here and the rest of the north, the Taliban have effectively supplanted the official authorities, running local administrations and courts, and conscripting recruits. "Day by day, the Taliban are advancing into new districts," said provincial council chief Mohammad Rasoul Mohseni of Baghlan.
Such advances challenge the coalition strategy that assumes Taliban losses in its southern heartland would undermine the entire insurgency, driving the militants to pursue peace on terms acceptable to the West.
The northern provinces where the Taliban presence has grown in recent months – such as Baghlan, on the crossroads of highways linking Kabul to Central Asia – are among Afghanistan’s most strategically important.
The number of insurgent attacks in Baghlan alone jumped to 163 in the third quarter, from 73 in the second quarter, according to the Afghanistan NGO Safety Office.
[…] The Taliban have consolidated their war gains by tapping into broad disillusionment with the incompetence and venality of Afghan government officials. "People don’t love the Taliban – but if they compare them to the government, they see the Taliban as the lesser evil," said Baghlan Gov. Munshi Abdul Majid, an appointee of President Hamid Karzai.
As a result, the Taliban are winning support beyond the Pashtun community, their traditional base. In Baghlan, where Pashtuns account for less than one-quarter of the province’s 804,000 residents, the insurgency is now drawing ethnic Uzbeks, Tajiks and other minorities previously seen as unsympathetic to the rebel cause.
[…] As they have solidified their grip, the Taliban have imposed governance that reflects the north’s more liberal social environment. In the south, Taliban forbid girls’ education and routinely blow up schools; insurgents here let schools stay open, officials and teachers say, and limit girls’ education to the sixth grade.
The Taliban, who collect the Islamic ushr and zakat taxes across the north’s countryside, also brought their mobile courts, much to the relief of the locals who usually have to bribe Afghan officials to lodge a complaint and often wait for years for a verdict from the formal justice system.
Mobile-phone numbers posted in mosques and available from the elders allow anyone to quickly contact Taliban court officials.
An American official familiar with Baghlan noted that the Taliban courts make a special effort not to show any preferential treatment to Pashtuns – a contrast to government officials, who often favor their own clan or ethnic group.
[…]
2) Troops Chafe At Restrictive Rules Of Engagement, Talks With Taliban
Sara A. Carter, Washington Examiner, October 19, 2010
http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/world/Troops-chafe-at-restrictive-rules-of-engagement_-talks-with-Taliban-1226055-105202284.html
Kandahar, Afghanistan – To the U.S. Army soldiers and Marines serving here, some things seem so obviously true that they are beyond debate. Among those perceived truths: The restrictive rules of engagement that they have to fight under have made serving in combat far more dangerous for them, while allowing the Taliban to return to a position of strength.
[…] To the soldiers and Marines risking their lives in Afghanistan, restrictions on their ability to aggressively attack the Taliban have led to another enormous frustration stalking morale: the fear that the Karzai government, with the prodding of the administration of President Obama, will negotiate a peace with the Taliban that wastes all the sacrifices by the U.S. here. Those fears intensified when news reached the enlisted ranks that the Karzai government, with the backing of senior Obama officials, was entering a new round of negotiations with the Taliban.
"If we walk away, cut a deal with the Taliban, desert the people who needed us most, then this war was pointless," said Pvt. Jeffrey Ward, with 1st Battalion, 4th Infantry Regiment, who is stationed at Forward Operating Base Bullard in southern Afghanistan. "Everyone dies for their own reasons but it’s sad to think that our friends, the troops, have given their lives for something we’re not going to see through."
[…] Karzai said that talks need to continue with the Taliban "at a fixed address and with a more open agenda to tell us how to bring peace to Afghanistan and Pakistan."
But U.S. troops and Marines interviewed during the past month in Afghanistan question what negotiations would really mean, to both them and the Afghan people. And they almost universally believe that negotiating would be a mistake before achieving decisive gains they believe are attainable once oppressive rules of engagement are relaxed.
"What does it mean if we give in to the Taliban? They are the enemy," Brooks said. "This place is going to be a safe haven for terrorists again. The government doesn’t care about the sacrifices already made. As far as the mission goes, I want to see these kids go to school and have a future but not at the expense of my friends – not anymore."
3) Mexico seeks to require civilian trials for troops.
President Felipe Calderon proposes civilian trials for troops accused of serious rights abuses. The move would mark an important concession by the military and meet a key requirement of a U.S. security aid package.
Ken Ellingwood, Los Angeles Times, October 19, 2010
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-mexico-military-20101019,0,3731105.story
Mexico City – Mexican President Felipe Calderon on Monday sent Congress a proposal that would require troops to be tried in civilian courts for certain human rights abuses, such as torture. The proposed change is the Calderon administration’s most sweeping response to persistent complaints about excesses by Mexico’s military, which has been deployed around the country as part of the government’s crackdown against violent drug cartels.
Though the measure was expected, the move represents a significant concession by the military establishment, which has long resisted efforts to allow troops to be tried in civilian courts. Soldiers have been tried in closed-door military tribunals.
Mexican news reports quoted officials as saying the change would apply to soldiers accused of torture, rape or forced disappearances. A presidential spokesman could not immediately confirm the contents, and Calderon made no public comments about the proposal.
More than 4,000 complaints have been filed with the country’s human rights ombudsman regarding abuses purportedly committed by soldiers since Calderon began his war against drug traffickers upon taking office in December 2006, according to rights groups.
[…] Rights advocates complain that the hermetic system of military justice makes it difficult to pursue and track prosecutions against soldiers. Military officials say they prosecute wrongdoers when there is evidence. But allegations against soldiers seldom result in prosecution, and details are generally not made public.
Mexican and international rights groups have long argued for the need to subject Mexican troops to prosecution in civilian courts, where proceedings are more transparent.
The U.S. Congress made civilian investigations and prosecutions of police and military personnel one of four human rights conditions when it approved the three-year, $1.4-billion security aid package for Mexico, known as the Merida Initiative, in 2008.
[…]
4) Maliki, Iran’s Leaders Talk About The Future Of Iraq’s Government
Thomas Erdbrink and Leila Fadel, Washington Post, October 18, 2010; 9:11 PM
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/10/18/AR2010101803080.html
Tehran – Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki on Monday met with senior Iranian leaders here, as Iran’s vision for the next Iraqi government seems to be gaining more traction.
Shiite Iran has played a crucial role in Iraqi politics since the 2003 U.S.-led invasion toppled its nemesis, the late dictator Saddam Hussein. Political leaders in Iran this month helped broker an alliance between Maliki and Shiite Iraqi cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, who resides in Iran, that made Maliki the front-runner for the premiership after more than seven months of inconclusive negotiations.
The U.S. had been quietly lobbying for Maliki to remain in power, but the backing by Sadr, who staunchly opposes the American presence in Iraq, set off alarms in Washington. While American officials are working behind the scenes to encourage a coalition that represents Iraq’s complex ethnic and religious mix, they are discouraging a substantive role for the Sadrists in the next government.
Although the U.S. and Iran appear to be backing the same candidate in Iraq, they have different visions of the government they would like to see.
Iran favors a religious Shiite-dominated government that is backed by Kurds, with token Sunni Arab representation. By contrast, U.S. officials are trying to forge a power-sharing deal between Maliki and his biggest rival, secular Shiite Ayad Allawi – a prospect that now seems unlikely.
[…] Maliki also traveled to Qom – a Shiite Islamic theological center – to meet with Sadr, who has been studying there since 2007, Maliki aides and Sadrists officials in Iraq said. The meeting was the first in years between the two leaders, and could mark an attempt by Maliki to solidify their new alliance. Sadr’s followers helped Maliki rise to power in 2006, but Maliki later ordered offensives against the movement’s militant wing, the Mahdi Army.
5) Turkey Says Anti-Missile System Should Not Single Out Iran
Tulay Karadeniz, Reuters, Mon Oct 18, 11:56 AM
http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/reuters/101018/us/politics_us_nato_defence_turkey_1
Ankara – Turkey expressed some reservations on Monday about NATO’s planned anti-missile system, saying it wanted more technical details and that it should not be presented as a defense against fellow Muslim state Iran.
NATO says the system is intended to defend the alliance, at odds with Iran over its suspicions Tehran is developing nuclear weapons, against possible missile attack by "rogue states."
Turkey, which has strengthened ties with neighbors Iran and Syria in recent years, has said it is not opposed to the idea of a defense shield in Europe. But it has expressed concerns that the system might be regarded as hostile by Iran if the alliance lists the Islamic Republic as a threat.
NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said last week there was broad agreement among NATO member states about the need for a missile defense system, which will be discussed at a summit in Lisbon on November 19-20.
NATO operates by consensus and needs approval of its 28 members.
[…] A NATO official in Brussels told Reuters the shield was not deployed against any specific country. "We are in a situation where more than 30 countries are building ballistic missiles and in 10 years or 12 years we will be in a different global or international situation," the official said.
Egypt
6) Dozens Detained In Egyptian Pre-Election Crackdown On Opposition
Amnesty International, 19 October 2010
http://www.amnesty.org/en/news-and-updates/dozens-detained-egyptian-pre-election-crackdown-opposition-2010-10-19
Amnesty International today called on the Egyptian authorities to immediately release, or charge with a recognizable criminal offence, more than 70 members of the Muslim Brotherhood group arrested this week.
More than 150 people have been arrested since the Muslim Brotherhood chairman, Mohamed Badie’, said on 9 October that the group will put up candidates in Egypt’s parliamentary elections, scheduled for 29 November.
About half of those arrested have been released. The 70 still held include supporters of Muslim Brotherhood election candidates and several regional leaders of the organization, including, Mohamed Sweidan of Baheira, whose detention was on Monday extended for 15 days, Mustafa al-Khouli and Essam al-Gharbawi.
"Those arrested appear to be detained solely on account of their association with the Muslim Brotherhood organization," said Malcolm Smart, Amnesty International’s director for the Middle East and North Africa. "The arrests appear intended to disrupt Muslim Brotherhood campaigning and deter people from supporting the organization in the coming elections."
[…] The Muslim Brotherhood has been officially banned in Egypt since 1954. However, it has continued to operate openly and leaders and supporters of the organization have stood as independent candidates in previous parliamentary elections, in many cases successfully. It has wide popular support and is generally seen as the main rival to Egypt’s ruling National Democratic Party.
Colombia
7) Ex-Official of Colombia’s DAS Implicates Uribe in Wiretap Scandal.
Latin American Herald Tribune. October 16, 2010
http://www.laht.com/article.asp?ArticleId=372459&CategoryId=12393
Bogota – An erstwhile high-ranking official of Colombia’s DAS security service said an ex-director of that entity ordered her to spy on opposition figures at the express request of former President Alvaro Uribe.
Caracol Radio reported on its Web site Saturday that DAS’s former deputy director of operations, Martha Ines Leal, said in a sworn statement to the Attorney General’s Office that ex-DAS director Andres Peñate ordered her to conduct covert surveillance on former Sen. Piedad Cordoba – known for brokering the release of hostages held by leftist rebels – concerning one of the leftist lawmaker’s trips to Mexico.
Peñate told Leal that that "information was requested by Alvaro Uribe" to try to demonstrate that "Cordoba had traveled to Mexico City for a meeting organized by that country’s Labor Party with funds provided by that same party" and not with "her own funds," as the senator had said.
According to Caracol, it marks the first time a top ex-official of DAS has testified that former directors of that agency had asked for information at Uribe’s request.
[…]
Honduras
8) US rounds up foreign fugitives, suspected Honduran killer.
AFP, October 18, 2010
http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5gqx4fG2snEm1VfJWpSV7xdLUal2Q?docId=CNG.f19d7e6bde86784c402b796cf62d955d.fe1
Washington – US police have arrested the suspected killer of a Honduran former government minister as part of a multinational roundup of fugitives, authorities said Monday.
The Honduran suspect, whose identity has not yet been disclosed, was arrested in Miami, Florida and charged in the June 16 slaying of Roland Valenzuela, a minister in the government of ousted president Manuel Zelaya. Valenzuela, who was sustainable development minister in Honduras, was slain in San Pedro Sula, the Central American country’s second city.
[…]
Mexico
9) Community Radio Station Shut Down in Mexico.
EFE. October 15, 2010
http://www.laht.com/article.asp?CategoryId=14091&ArticleId=372290
Paris – Authorities in the southeastern Mexican state of Chiapas need to explain why they shut down a community radio station this week, Reporters Without Borders said Friday.
Radio Proletaria, an outlet broadcasting from the state capital of Tuxtla Gutierrez, "was summarily dismantled" in Tuesday’s raid by police and agents from the Chiapas Attorney General’s Office, the Paris-based group, known as RSF, said in a statement.
Some 30 officers wearing hoods burst into the station at night, arresting six people – including a boy of 14 who was released a day later – and seizing all of the equipment, RSF said. The officers did not identify themselves as members of law enforcement or produce a warrant.
RSF said it joined the World Association of Community Radio Broadcasters, or AMARC, in calling on Chiapas authorities "to publicly explain what took place during the raid and why it was carried out."
[…]
Guatemala
10) Guatemalan Authorities OK’d Illegal U.S. Experiments.
Inside Costa Rica, Friday 15 October 2010
http://www.insidecostarica.com/dailynews/2010/october/15/centralamerica10101501.htm
Guatemala – Guatemalan health authorities approved the illegal U.S. experiments carried out on Guatemalans in the 1940s, according to reports disclosed Thursday.
A report by the U.S. Public Health Service refers to an alleged agreement between high-ranking Guatemalan physicians and the former Pan-American Health Office, a new disclosure in the case.
The supposed agreement gave the green light for studies involving infecting people with venereal diseases, designed by the team of U.S. doctor John Cutler, set as a condition for opening up a research lab in Guatemala, according to the newspaper Prensa Libre.
The alleged objective was to probe the effectiveness of medicines such as penicillin to treat those diseases, as part of a project scientifically and technically directed by the U.S. Venereal Disease Research Lab.
Though some professionals supported the study on humans, the majority of the local scientific community did not know about it, the daily noted.
According to the report, Cutler first infected prostitutes as a way of infecting his study subjects, but the results were poor, so he began directly infecting his subjects without informing them or asking for their consent.
[…]
–
Robert Naiman
Just Foreign Policy
www.justforeignpolicy.org
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