Just Foreign Policy News
March 17, 2010
Al Jazeera Video: Palestinian anger spills onto East Jerusalem streets
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=go7V8FX4_Uw
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Summary:
U.S./Top News
1) The ACLU sued the US government for information on when, where and against whom military and CIA drone strikes can be authorized and the number of civilian casualties, which information it said was essential for assessing the legality of using armed drones to conduct targeted killings, the Politico reports.
2) Ukraine’s new governing coalition said it will pass a law against joining military alliances such as NATO, AP reports. The statement appears to apply to all military alliances, including one led by Russia, AP says.
3) Gen. Petraeus told Congress Iran likely would not develop a nuclear weapon this year, saying the date it could do so had "slid to the right a bit," the New York Times reports.
4) U.S. Marines have still not figured out what to do about Marjah’s poppy crop, McClatchy reports. Some officials have suggested that they simply buy this year’s harvest and take it off the streets. But buying millions of dollars in opium could be "politically unpalatable," McClatchy says.
5) About 120 million people lack access systems for potable water and basic health services in Latin America and the Caribbean, EFE reports. The World Bank says some countries in the region have moved forward in providing access to sanitation, like Paraguay, with 100 percent sanitation coverage, or Mexico, which has extended sanitation services to 80 percent of its population.
Israel/Palestine
6) Clashes between Palestinians and Israeli police in Jerusalem sparked by Israeli building plans injured more than 100 people, the Los Angeles Times reports. The Obama administration’s decision to strongly challenge the Netanyahu government over the building plans has been driven in part by concerns that it cannot afford the perception that it has been pushed around; Israeli political analysts and government officials are expressing concern the prime minister may have overplayed his hand in his confrontation with the U.S., the LAT says.
7) Cindy Corrie hopes the family’s lawsuit against the Israeli military will bring attention to Israeli assaults on nonviolent human rights activists, writes Neve Gordon in The Nation. The State’s attorneys have decided to use any and all ammunition to undermine Corrie’s suit, Gordon says: they argue that Rachel "helped attack Israeli soldiers," and accompanied armed men who attacked Israeli soldiers.
Honduras
8) Dozens of journalists protested in northern Honduras against attacks on their colleagues after gunmen killed a television journalist – the third such slaying in two weeks, AP reports. Police investigations have not solved the three killings.
Haiti
9) International NGOs have largely bypassed the Haitian government in their relief efforts, the Center for Economic and Policy Research reports. Haiti has more NGOs per capita than any country in the world, while as a percent of GDP, government revenue in Haiti (excluding grants) is lower than most African countries.
Iran
10) Iran has said it is ready for a one-shot nuclear fuel exchange on its own soil, edging closer to the conditions of a UN plan, AFP reports. Iran’s atomic chief Ali Akbar Salehi said what was important for Iran was that the fuel exchange happen on its own soil and that it be given guarantees it would receive the 20 percent enriched uranium.
Iraq
11) Followers followers of Moktada al-Sadr have emerged stronger after the Iraqi elections, Anthony Shadid reports in the New York Times. Opponents and allies believe the Sadrists may win more than 40 seats, a bloc roughly the same size as the Kurds. But US loss of influence will not necessarily be Iran’s gain: many politicians believe the Sadrists, seen as more nationalist than other religious Shiite parties, will prove less pliable for Iran.
Colombia
12) A new party accused of ties to far-right criminal bands has emerged as a strong force in after Sunday’s election, adding to worries that President Uribe has failed to weaken drug-funded paramilitaries, AP reports. Vote-buying apparently remained rampant outside Bogota. OAS observers said votes were paid for in Magangue "at the very voting table." Veteran columnist Maria Jimena Duzan says the going rate in the region is about $50-$70 per voter.
Contents:
U.S./Top News
1) ACLU Sues Government Over Drones
Jen DiMascio, Politico, March 16, 2010 07:14 PM EDT http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0310/34529.html
The American Civil Liberties Union sued the federal government Tuesday to learn the use of unmanned drones for targeted killings by the military and CIA. "In particular, the lawsuit asks for information on when, where and against whom drone strikes can be authorized, the number and rate of civilian casualties and other basic information essential for assessing the wisdom and legality of using armed drones to conduct targeted killings," the ACLU said in a statement, announcing its action.
The nonprofit civil liberties group filed initial Freedom of Information Act requests with the Defense, Justice and State departments and with the Central Intelligence Agency on Jan. 13. Only the CIA responded, and the ACLU is pursuing that request with an appeal to the agency.
[…] A New American Foundation study, cited in Jane Mayer’s October 2009 New Yorker piece that drew attention to the CIA’s use of killer drones, found the number of attacks has continued to grow under the Obama administration – from 34 in 2008 to 43 by October of 2009.
"The government’s use of drones to conduct targeted killings raises complicated questions – not only legal questions, but policy and moral questions as well," said Jameel Jaffer, director of the ACLU National Security Project. "These kinds of questions ought to be discussed and debated publicly, not resolved secretly behind closed doors. While the Obama administration may legitimately withhold intelligence information as well as sensitive information about military strategy, it should disclose basic information about the scope of the drone program, the legal basis for the program and the civilian casualties that have resulted from the program."
[…]
2) Ukraine to pass law scrapping NATO ambitions
Simon Shuster and Anna Melnichuk, Associated Press, Tue Mar 16, 3:29 pm ET http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100316/ap_on_re_eu/eu_ukraine_politics
Kiev, Ukraine – Ukraine’s new governing coalition in parliament said Tuesday it will pass a law against joining military alliances such as NATO, a move that is sure to please Russia while tilting Ukraine away from its previous pro-Western course. In a statement of purpose published Tuesday in the parliament’s official newspaper, the coalition supporting President Viktor Yanukovych said new legislation will "enshrine Ukraine’s nonaligned status in law."
Such a move would kill one of the key initiatives of Yanukovych’s predecessor, the staunchly pro-Western Viktor Yushchenko, who had struggled to gain admission to NATO since he was vaulted to power by the Orange Revolution protests of 2004.
Although Yushchenko’s NATO ambitions never gained broad public support, they managed to infuriate Russia – which recently published a military doctrine naming the alliance’s possible eastward expansion as the country’s top external threat.
[…] As part of its effort to assert influence over the post-Soviet sphere, Russia has been promoting the Cooperation and Security Treaty Organization, or CSTO, which is seen as its answer to NATO. Analysts have said Yanukovych could be pressured to join the Russia-dominated bloc, but the statement published Tuesday appears to apply to all military alliances, including the CSTO.
3) Iran Unlikely to Develop a Nuclear Weapon This Year, Petraeus Says
Elisabeth Bumiller, New York Times, March 16, 2010
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/17/world/middleeast/17military.html
Washington – Gen. David H. Petraeus said Tuesday that Iran would not develop a nuclear weapon this year, but that the country still remained the greatest threat to stability in the Middle East and Central Asia.
Asked by Senator Lindsey Graham, Republican of South Carolina, how much time was available before Iran was able to build a nuclear weapon, General Petraeus replied, "It has, thankfully, slid to the right a bit, and it is not this calendar year, I don’t think." General Petraeus made his comments before the Senate Armed Services Committee.
[…]
4) Afghan Poppy Harvest Is Next Challenge For U.S. Marines
Dion Nissenbaum, McClatchy Newspapers, March 16, 2010 05:10:19 PM http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2010/03/16/90477/afghan-poppy-harvest-is-next-challenge.html
Marjah, Afghanistan – U.S. Marine Sgt. Brad Vandehei stood on the edge of the small opium poppy field that serves as a central helicopter landing zone for the new military compound that’s rising nearby. "Those are poppies, sir?" Vandehei, 25, of Green Bay, Wis., asked Maj. David Fennell as they gazed at the spiked young plants that should be ready for harvest next month. "Let’s burn it down, sir."
Fennell was scoping things out for another reason, however: That morning, the poppy farmer turned up with a dozen neighbors to complain about the Marines transforming his lucrative field into a rural helipad.
The swift American-led military offensive that drove the Taliban from power in this southern Afghan farm belt came at an inopportune time for the area’s poppy farmers. That’s created a quandary for Marjah’s new, U.S.-backed leaders and for the American military as they try to transform this sweltering river valley, whose biggest cash crop is opium poppy, into a tranquil breadbasket. "The helicopters are landing in my field," the weathered farmer told Fennell as they sat in the dirt outside the Marines’ newest forward operating base in Marjah. "You have to stop landing there. Next time, the Taliban will put an IED in the field," an improvised explosive device, the military’s term for a homemade bomb.
Using his skills as one-time trial lawyer, a few essential Pashto words and an evolving understanding of local tribal culture, Fennell sought to reassure the farmer. "I apologize for your inconvenience," the 36-year-old Denver reservist told the farmer. "We’re here to provide security, and one person must be inconvenienced to provide security for 1,000. But we’re not like the Taliban. We’re not just going to take; we’re going to compensate you."
Unswayed, the Marjah men again pressed Fennell to stop using the field as a landing zone. When it became clear that the Marine wasn’t going to budge, they asked for money to pay for the damaged poppy field. "We’re not here to eradicate your poppies, but we won’t pay for damage to your poppies," Fennell said. "What we will do is pay for the inconvenience and for any damage to your wheat."
Marjah leaders and the U.S. Marines so far have no clear answers for farmers such as these. The Marines and the new Marjah government are still trying to figure out how to persuade poppy growers not to harvest their crops this spring. "We are entering the poppy harvest season, which will also put us at great risk for having instability," Marine Col. Randy Newman warned Marjah leaders this past weekend. "So we must talk to the people with one voice about how we will deal with the poppy."
[…] "If I was a farmer here I’d be growing poppies," said Mike Courtney, the senior field director in Marjah for Adam Smith International, a global consulting firm that’s working in Afghanistan. "It’s a Catch-22. How do you win over the population and, at the same time, stop the drug trade?"
U.S. officials largely have given up on destroying Afghanistan’s poppy fields as the best way to combat the drug trade. Razing the fields was seen as counterproductive. Instead, the American-led coalition in Afghanistan launched programs meant to encourage farmers to plant wheat, cotton and other alternative crops. They’ve had modest success.
The wheat-for-poppy projects have been undermined by corrupt Afghan officials who’ve given mediocre fertilizer and inferior seeds to farmers and have siphoned off money for themselves.
At the end of the day, poppy brings in more money most years than wheat or cotton does.
[…] The Marines have developed a new plan to hand out modest grants to farmers who show that they’re planting legal crops. The grants – some $500 per hectare, about two and a half acres – don’t compare with the money made from poppy harvests in good years, however.
[…] Some officials have suggested that they simply buy this year’s harvest and take it off the streets. Buying millions of dollars in opium could be politically unpalatable, however. "There’s a problem with buying it. There’s a problem with burning it," said Marine Capt. Matthew Andrew, of Boise, Idaho, the 30-year-old judge advocate for the 1st Battalion, 6th Marine Regiment. "The larger problem is security. If they don’t have poppies, there’s no point in sticking around. The real test is going to be next year."
As the farmers pressed Fennell last weekend to pay for the damaged poppies, he pulled out another weapon in his verbal arsenal: guilt. "We’re not here to eradicate any poppies," Fennell told the men. "But we’re worried, because we’ve seen the addiction to opium among Afghans and we know that good Muslims don’t want that." The men shifted uncomfortably and assured Fennell that they agreed. Then they asked him again to stop helicopter landings in the poppy field.
[…]
5) 120 Million in Latin America Lack Access to Safe Water
EFE, March 15, 2010
http://www.laht.com/article.asp?ArticleId=353756&CategoryId=12394
Foz Do Iguacu, Brazil – About 120 million people lack access systems for potable water and basic health services in Latin America and the Caribbean, according to figures released on Monday at the 2nd Latin American Sanitation Conference.
The head of the Water and Sanitation Division at the Inter-American Development Bank, Federico Basañes, said that, given those numbers, the U.N. Millennium Development Goals are not sufficient to confront the current conditions in the region. "In Latin America, the cities are growing rapidly. Therefore, the objective should go much farther than the Millennium Development Goals," Basañes said.
He added that just 20 percent of the region’s waste water is treated before being expelled, a situation that causes "a big impact" on human health and the environment.
[…] The World Bank’s vice president for Latin America and the Caribbean, Pamela Cox, said that she felt the region has moved forward in comparison with other areas of the world with results that she called "promising."
In that regard, Cox emphasized the cases of countries like Paraguay, with 100 percent sanitation coverage, or Mexico, which improved its coverage by almost 30 percent since the 1990s and has extended sanitation services to 80 percent of its population.
She cited World Bank data showing that in the last three years more than 20 million people obtained access to improved sanitation services in Latin America and the Caribbean, and she said it is predicted that coverage will reach 84 percent of the public in the region within the next five years.
[…]
Israel/Palestine
6) Anger builds over Israel housing
Palestinians clash with police in Jerusalem, and the U.S. puts off a visit.
Edmund Sanders, Maher Abukhater and Paul Richter, Los Angeles Times, March 17 http://www.latimes.com/news/nation-and-world/la-fg-us-israel17-2010mar17,0,1727022.story
Washington/Jerusalem – With anger over Israeli building plans stoking tensions about the future of Jerusalem’s holy sites, violence spilled into the streets Tuesday in a string of clashes between Palestinians and Israeli police that injured more than 100 people.
Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton delayed a trip to the Middle East by the U.S. special envoy as Washington pressed the government of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to roll back construction of housing units in disputed East Jerusalem.
U.S. officials have been pressing Israelis and Palestinians to renew indirect peace talks, and have been urging Israel to restrain construction in East Jerusalem and the West Bank. They have described the announcement of plans to build 1,600 units in the Ramat Shlomo subdivision during a visit by Vice President Joe Biden last week as an insult.
In scenes reminiscent of past uprisings, dozens of Palestinian youths, some with scarves masking their faces, pelted police officers with rocks, blocked roads and burned tires in half a dozen neighborhoods around East Jerusalem.
Israeli police, who have been on high alert for days, responded with tear gas, rubber bullets [i.e. "plastic-coated steel bullets," see the Al Jazeera account – JFP] and stun grenades, witnesses said. Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said that nine police officers were among the injured.
Dozens of Palestinians were treated for tear-gas inhalation, and two men were hit in the face with rubber bullets, Palestinians said. Rosenfeld said 60 Palestinians were arrested.
Such clashes have been increasingly common in recent weeks as Palestinians have grown frustrated by the absence of peace talks and by Israeli expansion into Palestinian-dominated neighborhoods in East Jerusalem as well as other land that Israel has occupied since the 1967 Middle East War.
[…] From the U.S. side, the administration’s decision to strongly challenge the Netanyahu government this time has been driven in part by concerns that it cannot afford the perception that it has been pushed around in the Middle East and elsewhere, say U.S. officials and analysts.
[…] If Netanyahu weathers the current storm without giving in to U.S. demands, his political fortunes probably will rise in the short term. Last year, his government was emboldened after it refused to abide by U.S. calls for a total settlement freeze.
But a growing number of Israeli political analysts and government officials are expressing concern that the prime minister may have overplayed his hand. Several leading newspaper columnists on Monday stressed the importance of American military technology, loan guarantees and trade in supporting Israel’s economy and standard of living.
Israeli President Shimon Peres called on the Netanyahu government Monday to repair ties with the U.S. "We cannot afford to unravel the delicate fabric of friendship with the United States," he said.
[…] One senior U.S. official acknowledged that the tough U.S. position is not just about Israel and the settlements issue, but about "sending a message more broadly about what we’re willing to put up with. . . . This couldn’t continue."
Aaron David Miller, a former U.S. Middle East peace negotiator, said the policy has "clearly been informed by concerns about an image of vacillation and weakness."
"If you can say no to a great power without cost, that ends up affecting the image and street credibility of the great power," he said. "And in this region, street credibility is everything."
7) Rachel Corrie’s Memory, Israel’s Image
Neve Gordon, The Nation, March 16, 2010
http://www.thenation.com/doc/20100329/gordon
Seven years ago today, Rachel Corrie was crushed to death by a Caterpillar D9R Israeli bulldozer while nonviolently protesting the demolition of Palestinian homes in Rafah, Gaza Strip, along with other members of the International Solidarity Movement (ISM). Now her parents, sister and brother are suing the State of Israel and the defense minister, claiming wrongful death.
The suit’s objective, according to Rachel’s mother, Cindy, "is to illustrate the need for accountability for thousands of lives lost, or indelibly injured, by [Israel’s] occupation…. We hope the trial will bring attention to the assault on nonviolent human rights activists (Palestinian, Israeli and international) and we hope it will underscore the fact that so many Palestinian families, harmed as deeply as ours or more, cannot access Israeli courts."
The State’s attorneys have decided to use any and all ammunition to undermine Corrie’s suit. They claim that there is no evidence that Rachel’s parents and siblings are indeed her rightful inheritors; they argue that she "helped attack Israeli soldiers," "took part in belligerent activities" and accompanied armed men who attacked Israeli soldiers. In defense of the soldiers, the lawyers even write that the state "denies the deceased’s pain and suffering, the loss of pleasures and the loss of longevity."
The Israeli state attorneys demonstrate yet again that when winning is everything, shame becomes superfluous.
As Corrie’s civil suit is being heard in a Haifa court, Simone Bitton’s movie Rachel is being shown at the Tel Aviv Cinematheque. Rendering, as it were, the trial public, Bitton’s subtle and nuanced movie also presents two narratives, one offered by the state of Israel and the other by the ISM activists and the Palestinian eyewitnesses who were with Rachel on that tragic day.
In a self-reflective moment, the film reveals that about an hour after Rachel was crushed to death, Salim Najar, a Palestinian street cleaner, was killed by an Israeli sniper in Rafah. The incident is important because it emphasizes that Palestinian blood is cheap-no media outlet bothered to cover the killing, and, as Bitton herself notes, no one will likely be making a movie about Najar. This incident also helps underscore that Rachel has become an iconic "Palestinian" of sorts as well as a symbol of the struggle for social justice. She dedicated the last part of her short life to the Palestinian cause, and, after she was killed, the memory of her human rights work in Rafah has helped internationalize the struggle. Rachel’s memory has thus itself become a site where several struggles continue to be played out.
[…]
Honduras
8) Honduras: Killing of TV Journalist Spawns Protest
Associated Press, March 15, 2010
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2010/03/15/world/AP-LT-Honduras-Journalist-Killed.html
Tegucigalpa, Honduras – Dozens of journalists took to the streets Monday in northern Honduras to protest attacks on their colleagues after gunmen killed a television journalist in a hail of bullets – the third such slaying in two weeks.
Nahum Palacios, director of a TV station in Tocoa near the Caribbean coast, was shot to death Sunday night as he drove home and was intercepted by two other vehicles, said Leonel Sauceda, a spokesman for the federal police.
[…] The protest took place in San Pedro Sula, a northern industrial city plagued by organized crime and youth-gang violence. Journalists demanded justice for dead colleagues and a halt to violence.
On Thursday, a 51-year-old radio journalist was ambushed and killed in the nearby northern city of La Ceiba. David Meza, whose career spanned three decades, was shot as he arrived home in his car. Joseph Ochoa, of the Canal 51 television station in the capital of Tegucigalpa, was killed earlier this month in an attack on another journalist, Karol Cabrera, who was wounded. A previous attack on Cabrera in December killed her pregnant 16-year-old daughter.
Police investigations have not solved the three killings.
Haiti
9) Haitian Government Must Not be Bypassed in Relief and Reconstruction Efforts
Center for Economic and Policy Research, Wednesday, 17 March 2010 13:46
http://www.cepr.net/index.php/blogs/relief-and-reconstruction-watch/haitian-government-must-not-be-bypassed-in-relief-and-reconstruction-efforts/
The Global Health blog at Change.org yesterday reported on how international NGOs have largely bypassed the Haitian health ministry in their relief efforts:
In advance of a March 31 donors’ conference on Haiti, health officials are scrambling to assemble a better picture of the country’s needs – but the bulk of relief groups aren’t exactly cooperating. To assist with medium- and long-term planning, Haiti’s Ministry of Health has required all new organizations arriving in Haiti to provide information about how many people would be on the ground, what their skill sets were and for how long they’ll stay. Yet even that rudimentary information has been hard to come by.
This situation is not unique to the health sector. Prime Minister Jean-Max Bellerive and Haitian President Rene Preval have both made similar statements. Reuters reported that Bellerive said:
"We don’t know who has given money to NGO’s (nongovernmental organizations) and how much money have they given. … At the moment, we can’t do any coordination or have any coherent policies for giving to the population."
Preval, in an interview with the Miami Herald noted that while millions have been pledged, very little has gone to the Haitian Government. An AP analysis of aid in the aftermath of the quake found that only one cent of every aid dollar went to the Haitian Government.
Paul Collier, who drafted a development plan for Haiti for the UN last year, made the same point in an Op-Ed in The Independent as well:
As the NGOs further scale-up, the already limited capacity of the state has been decimated. Essential as the NGOs have been, this imbalance threatens to leave the state marginalised in the core task of basic service provision.
It is vital the Haitian Government have an active role in the relief efforts, as well as the long-term rebuilding of the country. Haiti has more NGOs per capita than any country in the world, even before the quake. Past structural adjustment programs that were supported by the IMF and World Bank have also had a detrimental effect on the role of the state in Haiti. As a percent of GDP, government revenue in Haiti (excluding grants) is lower than most African countries. In order to build a legitimate and functioning government, which is necessary for development, it is important that relief and reconstruction efforts are not seen solely as something being done by the international community, but by the Haitian government as well.
[…]
Iran
10) Iran ready for nuclear fuel exchange inside country
Jay Deshmukh, AFP, March 17, 2010
http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5jMz9EJHqT3YxqBfFxd9ibM0vTK-A
Tehran – Iran has said it is ready for a one-shot nuclear fuel exchange on its own soil, edging closer to the conditions of a plan drawn up by the UN atomic watchdog last year as major powers mulled a new round of sanctions. Iran’s atomic chief Ali Akbar Salehi revealed the new offer in an interview published by hardline daily Jawan on Wednesday, signalling a major change in Tehran’s longstanding position on the nuclear fuel plan first drafted last October.
Salehi said Iran is ready to deliver 1,200 kilogrammes (2,640 pounds) of low-enriched uranium (LEU) in one go in return for fuel for a Tehran medical research reactor, but the exchange must be inside the country. Salehi, who is also a vice president, said Iran had earlier proposed to deliver its LEU only gradually in batches of 400 kilogrammes (880 pounds).
[…] Salehi said what was important for Iran was that the fuel exchange happen on its own soil and that it be given guarantees it would receive the 20 percent enriched uranium. "When we say that the exchange has to happen inside Iran, it means the (International Atomic Energy) Agency will take control of 1,200 kilos of our LEU and then seal it," Salehi said.
He said the UN watchdog’s representatives could then "monitor it 24 hours a day and ensure that nobody broke the seal".
"When they (the major powers) deliver the 20 percent fuel to us, they can then take the LEU out of the country."
[…] Western governments have opposed the idea of exchanging the fuel inside Iran and in recent weeks have stepped up pressure for a new round of UN sanctions against Tehran with Moscow’s support.
But one of the five veto-wielding permanent members of the Security Council, China, is still holding out against new sanctions with the support of some non-permanent members. "This issue has to be appropriately resolved through peaceful negotiations," Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi said in Beijing on Tuesday after talks with his British counterpart David Miliband.
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, whose government currently holds a non-permanent seat, said after talks in London on Tuesday: "We believe in the importance of a diplomatic solution."
Iraq
11) Followers of Sadr Emerge Stronger After Iraq Elections
Anthony Shadid, New York Times, March 16, 2010
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/17/world/middleeast/17sadr.html
Baghdad – The followers of Moktada al-Sadr, a radical cleric who led the Shiite insurgency against the American occupation, have emerged as Iraq’s equivalent of Lazarus in elections last week, defying ritual predictions of their demise and now threatening to realign the nation’s balance of power.
Their apparent success in the March 7 vote for Parliament – perhaps second only to the followers of Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki as the largest Shiite bloc – underscores a striking trend in Iraqi politics: a collapse in support for many former exiles who collaborated with the United States after the 2003 invasion.
Although rivals disparaged the Sadrists’ election campaign, documents and interviews show an unprecedented discipline that has thrust the group to the brink of perhaps its greatest political influence in Iraq. The outcome completes a striking arc of a populist movement that inherited the mantle of a slain ayatollah, then forged a martial culture in its fight with the American military in 2004.
[…] The results of the election are not yet conclusive, and under a complicated formula to allot seats, the percentage of the vote will not necessarily reflect actual numbers in the 325-member Parliament.
But opponents and allies alike believe the Sadrists may win more than 40 seats. In all likelihood, that would make them the clear majority in the Iraqi National Alliance, a predominantly Shiite coalition and the leading rival of Mr. Maliki. If the numbers are borne out, the Sadrists could wield a bloc roughly the same size as the Kurds, who have served as kingmakers in governing coalitions since 2005.
In Baghdad alone, whose vote is decisive in the election, Sadrist candidates, many of them political unknowns, were 6 of the top 12 vote-getters. "They cannot be dismissed," a Western official said on the condition of anonymity, under the usual diplomatic protocol.
Disregarding the Sadrists has proved a motif of post-invasion Iraq. In the chaotic months of 2003, American officials habitually ridiculed Mr. Sadr as an upstart and outlaw, oblivious as they were to the mandate he had assumed from his father, Ayatollah Muhammad Sadiq al-Sadr, whose portrait still hangs in the offices, homes and workshops of followers. The ayatollah was assassinated in 1999.
That enmity erupted in fighting twice in Baghdad and Najaf in 2004. Four years later, the movement, blamed for some of the war’s worst sectarian carnage, was vanquished by the Iraqi military, with decisive American help, only to rise again in provincial elections last year. Many politicians now see it as part of the political mainstream, albeit one with a canny sense of the street and a knack for fashioning itself in the opposition.
[…] Since 2003, the Sadrists have refused any contact with the American military or diplomats. "It would be helpful if they would change their policy," one American official lamented Tuesday.
But America’s loss will not necessarily be Iran’s gain. In a vivid illustration of Iranian power here, Iran cajoled the Sadrists to join the Supreme Council in their election coalition, even though the two fought in the streets a few years before. The two still air their feuds in public. But many politicians believe the Sadrists, long seen as more nationalist than other religious Shiite parties, will prove less pliable for Iran. Mr. Sadr "is not the easiest of customers for Iran to deal with," the diplomat said.
[…]
Colombia
12) New Colombian party linked to right-wing gangs
Frank Bajak, Associated Press, Tuesday, March 16, 2010; 2:49 AM http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/03/16/AR2010031600063.html
Bogota – A new party accused of ties to far-right criminal bands has emerged as a surprising force in Colombian politics, adding to worries that President Alvaro Uribe has failed to weaken drug-funded paramilitaries in the provinces. Voters made the Party of National Integration, or PIN, Colombia’s fourth-strongest party in Sunday’s election to replace a Congress already badly tarnished by lawmaker links to far-right militias.
The party, comprised in a large part by relatives and friends of lawmakers jailed or under investigation for alleged paramilitary links, won nearly a million votes in elections dominated by Uribe allies. "It is no secret that drug mafias and some remnants of paramilitary groups have penetrated Colombia’s political system," said Michael Shifter of the Inter-American Dialogue think tank in Washington. "But their capacity to organize politically in the current context is notable, and deeply troubling."
[…] Ariel Avila, a researcher with the independent Arco Iris Foundation, said the governing party has obtained loyalty through political patronage – doling out ambassadorships and other posts in exchange for loyalty – as few other Colombian governments have. He accused the outgoing Uribe administration of being "one of the most corrupt governments ever" in Colombia.
Colombia’s next president – a February court decision disqualified Uribe from running for a third straight four-year term – will have to decide whether to include PIN in the governing coalition. The current front-runner, former Defense Minister Manuel Santos, ducked the question Monday. "We’re not at the moment planning to make mechanical alliances," he told reporters.
His National Unity party – Uribe’s former standard-bearer – won the most votes Sunday, followed by the allied Conservative party. Together they fall just short of a majority in Congress and will need allies. The opposition Liberal party was the third-largest vote-getter, PIN was fourth and the Uribe-allied Radical Change party finished fifth.
Some of the Uribe-allied parties won seats with candidates who are relatives or friends of politicians jailed for ties to the paramilitaries. But PIN, which was created in November, had the most. Its candidates won eight of the Senate’s 102 seats.
[…] Vote-buying, nothing new in Colombian politics, apparently remained rampant outside the cosmopolitan capital of Bogota, where a nascent anti-corruption Green Party emerged Sunday. One of the spots cited by Organization of American States election observers was Lopez’s stronghold of Magangue near the Caribbean coast. They said votes were paid for there Sunday "at the very voting table." Veteran columnist Maria Jimena Duzan says the going rate in the region is about $50-$70 per voter.
[…] More than 40 members of the outgoing Congress have been arrested since 2006 on criminal conspiracy charges for allegedly benefiting from ties with paramilitaries, and a similar number are under investigation. That’s roughly a third of Congress.
–
Robert Naiman
Just Foreign Policy
www.justforeignpolicy.org
Just Foreign Policy is a membership organization devoted to reforming US foreign policy so it reflects the values and interests of the majority of Americans.