Just Foreign Policy News
June 15, 2010
Iran Sends Aid Boat to Gaza, Risking Exposure of Hyped Israel-Iran Conflict
For all the rhetoric from Iran, by focusing on what matters, the government of Turkey proved to be a much bigger thorn in the side of the Israeli government.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/robert-naiman/iran-sends-aid-boat-to-ga_b_612736.html
Oliver Stone: Real Time with Bill Maher
Oliver Stone talks about "South of the Border": the U.S. media missed the revolution in South America.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KgqirDkMPs8
Is "South of the Border" coming to your town?
Oliver Stone’s powerful new documentary about progressive change in Latin America opens in the US this month. JFP President Mark Weisbrot co-wrote the script. http://southoftheborderdoc.com/in-theatres/
Democracy Now: Stephen Kinzer: "Reset: Iran, Turkey, and America’s Future"
Stephen Kinzer charts a new vision for US foreign policy in the region.
http://www.democracynow.org/2010/6/14/steven_kinzer_reset_iran_turkey_and
Get the book from Powell’s (Union shop)
https://www.justforeignpolicy.org/buyreset
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Summary:
U.S./Top News
1) A series of political and military setbacks in Afghanistan has fed Congressional anxiety over the war effort, shaking supporters of Obama’s counterinsurgency strategy, the Washington Post reports. Strong Taliban resistance and lagging Afghan government participation have slowed progress in Marja, creating the image that things have not been going as well as anticipated. That image was compounded when Gen. McChrystal said military operations in Kandahar would not begin in force until September. Defense Secretary Gates sought to tamp down expectations that results would be definitive by December. "some folks are very worried that the picture in December is going to look like it’s not worth the price," said Stephen Biddle of the Council on Foreign Relations, who was part of a planning group recruited by McChrystal last year.
2) Halting progress has crystallized longstanding tensions within the government over the viability of Obama’s plan to "turn around" Afghanistan and begin pulling out by July 2011, the New York Times reports. Officials are emphasizing that the July 2011 withdrawal start will be based on conditions in the country, and that the president has yet to decide how quickly troops will be pulled out. Obama could end his term with more forces in Afghanistan than when he began it. "Things are not looking good," said Bruce Riedel of Brookings who helped formulate the administration’s first Afghan strategy in early 2009. "There’s not much sign of the turnaround that people were hoping for." "If anybody thinks Kandahar will be solved this year," a senior military officer said, "they are kidding themselves."
3) President Karzai told a gathering of Kandahar leaders to prepare themselves for sustained operations to rid the area of Taliban insurgents, the New York Times reports. Weary of fighting, many Kandahar leaders oppose military operations. US commanders say they are determined to press ahead. In April, Karzai told local leaders that he would start no operation if they opposed one. This time, like it or not, he suggested, the operation is coming.
4) A member of the Saudi royal family said Saudi Arabia would not allow Israeli bombers to pass through its airspace to a strike of Iran’s nuclear facilities, denying a Times of London report, Haaretz reports. The Times reported Saturday that Saudi Arabia has practiced standing down its anti-aircraft systems to allow Israeli warplanes passage on their way to attack Iran’s nuclear installations.
5) Writing for Foreign Policy, Blake Hounshell expressed suspicion of the timing and significance of a New York Times report that the US "has discovered nearly $1 trillion in untapped mineral deposits in Afghanistan." The findings on which the story was based are online and have been since 2007, courtesy of the U.S. Geological Survey. It will take years to get any of this stuff out of the ground. Meanwhile, Afghanistan could use help with a much simpler resource: cement. Afghanistan has the lowest cement production in the world. Berkeley researchers found that "replacing dirt floors with cement appears to be at least as effective for health as nutritional supplements and as helpful for brain development as early childhood development programs." Meanwhile, the Wall Street Journal reports that Afghanistan’s Mines Ministry "has long been considered among Afghanistan’s most corrupt government departments."
6) Sen. Chuck Schumer says it "makes sense" to "strangle [Palestinians in Gaza] economically" because "Palestinians in Gaza elected Hamas," Zaid Jilani reports for Think Progress.
Israel/Palestine
7) The hardship faced by Gaza’s 1.5 million people cannot be addressed by providing humanitarian aid, says the International Committee of the Red Cross. The only sustainable solution is to lift the closure. The closure constitutes a collective punishment imposed in clear violation of Israel’s obligations under international humanitarian law, the Red Cross says.
8) Writing in the New York Times, Catherine Ashton, high representative of the EU for foreign affairs, calls for re-opening the crossings into Gaza, permanently, for humanitarian aid, commercial goods and civilians to and from Gaza. Instead of a list of a very restricted number of products that are allowed in, there should be a short, agreed list of prohibited goods where Israel has legitimate security concerns. The EU has trained staff members on the ground who could help implement this at Gaza’s border, letting permitted goods through and keeping banned goods out, Ashton writes.
Iran
9) Iran state radio said Iran is sending aid ships to Gaza, Reuters reports. One ship left port on Sunday and another will depart by Friday, loaded with food, construction material and toys, the report said.
Egypt
10) Egyptian security forces beat Egyptians protesting police brutality, AP reports. Human rights groups say police torture – including sexual abuse – is routine in Egypt. The protesters carried pictures of an Egyptian beaten to death by police last week. Amnesty International demanded an independent investigation of the killing.
Colombia
11) President Uribe has called Rev. Javier Giraldo "a useful idiot" for his role in securing 30 years in prison for a retired army colonel found responsible for the disappearance of 11 people in 1985, the Washington Post reports. On Thursday, Uribe, flanked by the country’s top military commanders, criticized the ruling.
Peru
12) Peru may surpass Colombia as the world’s largest exporter of cocaine, the New York Times reports. Scholars of the Andean drug war call this the balloon effect, bringing to mind a balloon that swells in one spot when another is squeezed.
Contents:
U.S./Top News
1) Concern on Capitol Hill about Afghanistan war grows
Karen DeYoung and Greg Jaffe, Washington Post, Tuesday, June 15, 2010; A01
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/06/14/AR2010061405553.html
A series of political and military setbacks in Afghanistan has fed anxiety over the war effort in the past few weeks, shaking supporters of President Obama’s counterinsurgency strategy and confirming the pessimism of those who had doubts about it from the start.
The concerns, fed largely by unease over military operations in southern Afghanistan that are progressing slower than anticipated, spurred lawmakers to schedule last-minute hearings this week to assess progress on the battlefield and within the Afghan government.
[…] Much of the pressure for results stems from the timeline that Obama set, and that the military agreed to, when he announced his Afghanistan strategy and the deployment of about 30,000 additional troops in December. U.S. troop strength will be about 100,000 by the end of August; a report on overall progress in the war is due in December. Troops are scheduled to begin withdrawing in July 2011.
The military has clearly announced each major operation, including a Marine offensive in Helmand province launched in February and a combined civil-military campaign in Kandahar that officials said last spring would be fully underway by this month. Strong Taliban resistance and lagging Afghan government participation have slowed progress in Marja, a district at the center of the Helmand campaign, creating the image that things have not been going as well as anticipated.
That image was compounded last week when Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal, the head of U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan, said the military operations in Kandahar would not begin in force until September.
Senior military and defense officials, none of whom was authorized to discuss relations with the White House, said congressional questions and a series of negative stories in the media have increased requests for explanations. Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Mike Mullen "is certainly aware that there is angst" in the White House, one military official said. "There has been a continuous drumbeat of requests asking what does this mean, what does that mean regarding timelines and time horizons," a defense official said. "I don’t see this as unusual or abnormal, but there’s a lot of interest and concern."
In public statements last week, Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates sought to tamp down expectations that results would be definitive by December. "We are going to have to show by the end of the year that our strategy is on the right track and making some headway," Gates said. "I don’t think anyone has any illusions that we’ll be done or that there will be big victories or something like that.
"But I think General McChrystal is pretty confident that by the end of the year, he will able to point to sufficient progress" to justify continuing the effort, he said.
[…] Rep. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.), a member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee who has traveled to Afghanistan, said he was "decidedly dubious" of the Obama administration’s war strategy from the start. "I’m trying to see how a year from now we’ll be in any better position than we are today. It’s difficult for me to see a way out here."
Obama’s war funding requests for this year and next are still awaiting approval, Flake said, and "it’s going to be a more difficult sell than it was several months ago."
Even within the military, there are concerns, and "I sense the same division of opinion," said Stephen Biddle of the Council on Foreign Relations. Although still in the minority, "some folks are very worried that the picture in December is going to look like it’s not worth the price," said Biddle, a defense expert who was part of a planning group recruited by McChrystal last year to help formulate a new war strategy.
[…]
2) Setbacks Cloud U.S. Plans to Get Out of Afghanistan
Peter Baker and Mark Landler, New York Times, June 14, 2010
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/15/world/asia/15military.html
Washington – Six months after President Obama decided to send more forces to Afghanistan, the halting progress in the war has crystallized longstanding tensions within the government over the viability of his plan to turn around the country and begin pulling out by July 2011.
Within the administration, the troubles in clearing out the Taliban from a second-tier region and the elusive loyalties of the Afghan president have prompted anxious discussions about whether the policy can work on the timetable the president has set. Even before the recent setbacks, the military was highly skeptical of setting a date to start withdrawing, but Mr. Obama insisted on it as a way to bring to conclusion a war now in its ninth year.
For now, the White House has decided to wait until a review, already scheduled for December, to assess whether the target date can still work. But officials are emphasizing that the July 2011 withdrawal start will be based on conditions in the country, and that the president has yet to decide how quickly troops will be pulled out.
Even if some troops do begin coming home then, the officials said that it may be a small number at first. Given that he has tripled the overall force since taking office, Mr. Obama could still end his term with more forces in Afghanistan than when he began it. "Things are not looking good," said Bruce O. Riedel, a regional specialist at the Brookings Institution who helped formulate the administration’s first Afghan strategy in early 2009. "There’s not much sign of the turnaround that people were hoping for."
[…] As he manages that situation, Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal, the commander in Afghanistan, said last week that operations in the Taliban heartland of Kandahar "will happen more slowly than we originally anticipated."
Other military officers, were more pessimistic. "If anybody thinks Kandahar will be solved this year," a senior military officer said, "they are kidding themselves."
As a result, some inside the administration are already looking ahead to next year. "There are people who always want to rethink the strategy," said a senior administration official.
[…] The official said that skeptics like Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr., who opposed a new commitment of troops during last fall’s strategy review, favor rethinking the approach, while others who supported more troops, like Gen. David H. Petraeus, want to stay the course.
[…] "As far as I can tell, they have no plan what to do about this," said a senior Democratic Congressional aide, who asked not to be identified while sounding critical of the White House. "They tried tough love; that didn’t work. They tried love bombing, and that didn’t work. The thinking now is, we’ll just muddle through. But that’s not a strategy."
[…]
3) In Visit to Kandahar, Karzai Outlines Anti-Taliban Plan
Dexter Filkins, New York Times, June 13, 2010
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/14/world/asia/14afghan.html
Kandahar, Afghanistan – President Hamid Karzai flew to this restive city on Sunday and told a gathering of local leaders to prepare themselves for sustained operations to rid the area of Taliban insurgents – and for the pain those operations would exact.
"This operation requires sacrifice, and without sacrifice you cannot restore peace to Kandahar," Mr. Karzai told the gathering of about 400 leaders from around the province. "Will you help me?" Mr. Karzai asked. And many, if not most, stood up and declared they would.
The speech by Mr. Karzai was his most demonstrative effort to date to sell the people of Kandahar on the police and military operations planned for the area over the coming months. Securing Kandahar, the most important city in southern Afghanistan, and the surrounding area is considered vital in reversing Taliban dominance and forcing the group to consider making peace.
But starting the Kandahar operation has proved to be the most difficult task NATO and the Afghan leaders have faced in many months. Weary of fighting, many Kandahar leaders oppose military operations. American and NATO commanders say they are determined to press ahead.
Until Sunday, Mr. Karzai himself appeared ambivalent. At a similar gathering in April, he told local leaders that he would start no operation if they opposed one. The president’s lack of enthusiasm drew criticism from at least one member of his own government, who accused Mr. Karzai of giving up.
American commanders themselves stopped using the word "operation" to describe the activities they had planned for the area. And they agreed to slow it down. Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal, commander of American and NATO forces, said this past week that the operation would take longer than he had originally planned, perhaps many months.
The Sunday trip to Kandahar by Mr. Karzai appeared to be a show of resolve on the part of NATO and the Afghan government – and on the part of Mr. Karzai himself. In his previous trip to the city, Mr. Karzai drew many negative responses from local leaders. This time, he kept the feedback to a minimum. Like it or not, he suggested, the operation is coming. "We will launch a kind of purification operation," Mr. Karzai told the crowd. "First in the city, and then the surrounding areas."
[…] The question hanging over American and NATO forces is how much time they have. President Obama has promised to assess Afghanistan progress at the end of the year, and to begin withdrawing at least some troops by July 2011. "We have to show clear, demonstrable progress by the end of the year, and I think we can do that," General McChrystal said.
Conversations with local leaders after Mr. Karzai’s speech suggested how difficult making progress would be. One Afghan after another said more or less the same thing: that Afghans harbored no love for Taliban insurgents, but that the local Afghan administration was ineffective and spectacularly corrupt.
Haji Mahmood, a tribal leader from west of Kandahar, told a typical story: Three months ago, he bought a plot of land near his home and invested several thousand dollars to build shops on it. He bought the land from the local government, he said. A few weeks ago, he said, government agents bulldozed his shops and reclaimed the land.
Finishing his story, Mr. Mahmood shook his head. "Not many people support the Taliban, because they don’t really have a program," Mr. Mahmood said. "But believe me, if they did, many people would."
4) Saudi Arabia: We will not give Israel air corridor for Iran strike
Prince Mohammed bin Nawaf refutes Times of London report saying Saudi Arabia practiced standing down its anti-aircraft systems to allow an Israeli bomb run.
Haaretz, 06:24 12.06.10
http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/saudi-arabia-we-will-not-give-israel-air-corridor-for-iran-strike-1.295672
Saudi Arabia would not allow Israeli bombers to pass through its airspace en route to a possible strike of Iran’s nuclear facilities, a member of the Saudi royal family said Saturday, denying an earlier Times of London report.
Earlier Saturday, the Times reported that Saudi Arabia has practiced standing down its anti-aircraft systems to allow Israeli warplanes passage on their way to attack Iran’s nuclear installations, adding that the Saudis have allocated a narrow corridor of airspace in the north of the country.
Prince Mohammed bin Nawaf, the Saudi envoy to the U.K. speaking to the London-based Arab daily Asharq al-Awsat, denied that report, saying such a move "would be against the policy adopted and followed by the Kingdom."
According to Asharq al-Awsat report, bin Nawaf reiterated the Saudi Arabia’s rejection of any violation of its territories or airspace, adding that it would be "illogical to allow the Israeli occupying force, with whom Saudi Arabia has no relations whatsoever, to use its land and airspace."
Earlier, the Times quoted an unnamed U.S. defense source as saying that "the Saudis have given their permission for the Israelis to pass over and they will look the other way. "They have already done tests to make sure their own jets aren’t scrambled and no one gets shot down. This has all been done with the agreement of the [U.S.] State Department."
Once the Israelis had passed, the kingdom’s air defenses would return to full alert, the Times said.
[…] "We all know this. We will let them [the Israelis] through and see nothing," the Times quoted a Saudi government source as saying.
According to the report, the four main targets for an Israeli raid on Iran would be uranium enrichment facilities at Natanz and Qom, a gas storage development at Isfahan and a heavy-water reactor at Arak. Secondary targets may include a Russian-built light water reactor at Bushehr, which could produce weapons-grade plutonium when complete.
Even with midair refueling, the targets would be as the far edge of Israeli bombers’ range at a distance of some 2,250km. An attack would likely involve several waves of aircraft, possibly crossing Jordan, northern Saudi Arabia and Iraq. Aircraft attacking Bushehr, on the Gulf coast, could swing beneath Kuwait to strike from the southwest, the Times said.
Passing over Iraq would require at least tacit consent to the raid from the United States, whose troops are occupying the country. So far, the Obama Administration has refused this.
[…]
5) Say what? Afghanistan has $1 trillion in untapped mineral resources?
Blake Hounshell, Foreign Policy, Monday, June 14, 2010
http://blog.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2010/06/14/say_what_afghanistan_has_1_trillion_in_untapped_mineral_resources
[…] In short, things don’t look good for the United States … which makes me suspicious of the timing of this attention-grabbing James Risen story in the Times, which opens with this mind-boggling lede:
The United States has discovered nearly $1 trillion in untapped mineral deposits in Afghanistan, far beyond any previously known reserves and enough to fundamentally alter the Afghan economy and perhaps the Afghan war itself, according to senior American government officials."
Wow! Talk about a game changer. The story goes on to outline Afghanistan’s apparently vast underground resources, which include large copper and iron reserves as well as hitherto undiscovered reserves lithium and other rare minerals.
Read a little more carefully, though, and you realize that there’s less to this scoop than meets the eye. For one thing, the findings on which the story was based are online and have been since 2007, courtesy of the U.S. Geological Survey. More information is available on the Afghan mining ministry’s website, including a report by the British Geological Survey (and there’s more here). You can also take a look at the USGS’s documentation of the airborne part of the survey here, including the full set of aerial photographs.
Nowhere have I found that $1 trillion figure mentioned, which Risen suggests was generated by a Pentagon task force seeking to help the Afghan government develop its resources (looking at the chart accompanying the article, though, it appears to be a straightforward tabulation of the total reserve figures for each mineral times current the current market price). According to Risen, that task force has begun prepping the mining ministry to start soliciting bids for mineral rights in the fall.
Don’t get me wrong. This could be a great thing for Afghanistan, which certainly deserves a lucky break after the hell it’s been through over the last three decades.
But I’m (a) skeptical of that $1 trillion figure; (b) skeptical of the timing of this story, given the bad news cycle, and (c) skeptical that Afghanistan can really figure out a way to develop these resources in a useful way. It’s also worth noting, as Risen does, that it will take years to get any of this stuff out of the ground, not to mention enormous capital investment.
Moreover, before we get too excited about lithium and rare-earth metals and all that, Afghanistan could probably use some help with a much simpler resource: cement.
According to an article in the journal Industrial Minerals, "Afghanistan has the lowest cement production in the world at 2kg per capita; in neighbouring Pakistan it is 92kg per capita and in the UK it is 200kg per capita." Afghanistan’s cement plants were built by a Czech company in the 1950s, and nobody’s invested in them since the 1970s. Most of Afghanistan’s cement is imported today, mainly from Pakistan and Iran. Apparently the mining ministry has been working to set up four new plants, but they are only expected to meet about half the country’s cement needs.
Why do I mention this? One of the smartest uses of development resources is also one of the simplest: building concrete floors. Last year, a team of Berkeley researchers found that "replacing dirt floors with cement appears to be at least as effective for health as nutritional supplements and as helpful for brain development as early childhood development programs." And guess what concrete’s made of? Hint: it’s not lithium.
UPDATE: Missed this Wall Street Journal story earlier. Money quote:
[T]he Mines Ministry has long been considered among Afghanistan’s most corrupt government departments, and Western officials have repeatedly expressed reservations about the Afghan government awarding concessions for the country’s major mineral deposits, fearful that corrupt officials would hand contracts to bidders who pay the biggest bribes – not who are best suited to actually do the work.
[…]
6) Schumer Says It ‘Makes Sense’ To ‘Strangle [Gaza] Economically’ Until It Votes The Way Israel Wants
Zaid Jilani, Think Progress, Jun 11th, 2010
http://thinkprogress.org/2010/06/11/schumer-strangle-gaza-economically/
This past Wednesday, Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) delivered a wide-ranging speech at an Orthodox Union event in Washington, D.C. The senator’s lecture touched on areas such as Iran’s nuclear program, the Israel-Palestinian conflict, and several domestic policy issues.
During one point of his speech, Schumer turned his attention to the situation in Gaza. He told the audience that the "Palestinian people still don’t believe in the Jewish state, in a two-state solution," and also that "they don’t believe in the Torah, in David." He went on to say "you have to force them to say Israel is here to stay."
New York’s senior senator explained that the current Israeli blockade of the Gaza Strip – which is causing a humanitarian crisis there – is not only justified because it keeps weapons out of the Palestinian territory, but also because it shows the Palestinians living there that "when there’s some moderation and cooperation, they can have an economic advancement." Summing up his feelings, Schumer emphasized the need to "to strangle them economically until they see that’s not the way to go":
SCHUMER: The Palestinian people still don’t believe in the Jewish state, in a two-state solution. More do than before, but a majority still do not. Their fundamental view is, the Europeans treated the Jews badly and gave them our land – this is Palestinian thinking […] They don’t believe in the Torah, in David […] You have to force them to say Israel is here to stay. The boycott of Gaza to me has another purpose – obviously the first purpose is to prevent Hamas from getting weapons by which they will use to hurt Israel – but the second is actually to show the Palestinians that when there’s some moderation and cooperation, they can have an economic advancement. When there’s total war against Israel, which Hamas wages, they’re going to get nowhere. And to me, since the Palestinians in Gaza elected Hamas, while certainly there should be humanitarian aid and people not starving to death, to strangle them economically until they see that’s not the way to go, makes sense.
[…]
Schumer is simply factually incorrect that the "majority" of Palestinians refuse to accept a two-state solution. Recent polling has found that 74 percent of the Palestinian population wants to see a two-state solution with an Israeli and Palestinian state side by side. It is also the position of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, and there is evidence that Gaza’s Hamas rulers may be compelled to support such a solution as well.
As for the senator’s comments on economic strangulation making "sense" to produce better leadership in Gaza, they are as offensive as they are wrong. Schumer believes it is logical to economically harm the civilian population of Gaza – where 44 percent of the people under the age of 14 – for freely voting in an election the U.S. supported, then undermined, in order to change the territory’s government.
[…]
Israel/Palestine
7) Gaza closure: not another year!
News release, International Committee of the Red Cross, 14-06-2010
http://www.icrc.org/web/eng/siteeng0.nsf/htmlall/palestine-update-140610
Geneva/Jerusalem (ICRC) – The hardship faced by Gaza’s 1.5 million people cannot be addressed by providing humanitarian aid. The only sustainable solution is to lift the closure.
The serious incidents that took place on 31 May between Israeli forces and activists on a flotilla heading for Gaza once again put the spotlight on the acute hardship faced by the population in the Gaza Strip.
As the ICRC has stressed repeatedly, the dire situation in Gaza cannot be resolved by providing humanitarian aid. The closure imposed on the Gaza Strip is about to enter its fourth year, choking off any real possibility of economic development. Gazans continue to suffer from unemployment, poverty and warfare, while the quality of Gaza’s health care system has reached an all-time low.
The whole of Gaza’s civilian population is being punished for acts for which they bear no responsibility. The closure therefore constitutes a collective punishment imposed in clear violation of Israel’s obligations under international humanitarian law.
[…]
8) Ending Gaza’s Dangerous Isolation
Catherine Ashton, New York Times, June 13, 2010
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/14/opinion/14iht-edashton.html
[Ashton is high representative of the EU for foreign affairs and security policy and vice president of the European Commission.] […] Three months ago I witnessed the plight of Gaza and the fears of Israel first hand, as the first politician allowed to cross the border between them for more than a year. I found conditions in Gaza as bizarre as they were grim. Living next to one of the most modern countries in the world, people carry goods by horse and cart. And the list of goods they are allowed to import defies logic: fresh fruit but not fruit preserves or dried fruit; flour but not, until recently, pasta.
Israel rightly boasts a fine education system and world-class universities; next door, many children are denied basic schooling. Why? Because the conflict has led to the destruction of many school buildings, and the blockade denies Gaza the bricks and cement it needs to build new schools or to replace the ruins that litter the countryside. The blockade hurts ordinary people, prevents reconstruction and fuels radicalism.
Israel has the right to ensure the security of its people – nobody denies that. It also continues to demand – quite rightly – the release of the Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit. But the blockade is not completely effective. Many goods are smuggled in through illegal tunnels, including rockets that are used to target Israel. Goods are destined not for those in need but for those with money and clout. Far from improving civil society, these tunnels degrade it further. Meanwhile, as I saw for myself, normal, decent people, denied the chance to lead normal lives, become progressively more resentful.
Two questions arise. How can we help to improve the daily lives of the people of Gaza? How can we help to enhance the security of the people of Israel? Those two questions must be answered together, for any attempt to answer them separately is doomed to fail.
That is why I am seeking to re-open the crossings into Gaza, permanently, for humanitarian aid, commercial goods and civilians to and from Gaza. This is what the United Nations Security Council and the European Union have demanded; it is also what Israel agreed with the Palestinian Authority in 2005. On my trip to Gaza I bought some fabulous handicrafts made by remarkable women who have overcome daunting conditions; I want an end to the ban that prevents their world-class rugs and scarves and ornaments from being sold and enjoyed around the world.
This Monday I shall chair a meeting of the 27 foreign ministers of the European Union. We shall examine a practical plan to allow the people of Gaza to bring in what they need. Instead of a list of a very restricted number of products that are allowed in, there should be a short, agreed list of prohibited goods where Israel has legitimate security concerns. The European Union has trained staff members on the ground who could help implement this at Gaza’s border, letting permitted goods through and keeping banned goods out.
[…]
Iran
9) Iranian aid ships head for Gaza
Robin Pomeroy, Reuters, Mon Jun 14, 8:35 am ET
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20100614/wl_nm/us_iran_gaza_ship_2
Tehran – Iran is sending aid ships to blockaded Gaza, state radio said on Monday – a move likely to be considered provocative by Israel which accuses Tehran of arming the Palestinian enclave’s Islamist rulers, Hamas.
One ship left port on Sunday and another will depart by Friday, loaded with food, construction material and toys, the report said. "Until the end of (Israel’s) Gaza blockade, Iran will continue to ship aid," said an official at Iran’s Society for the Defense of the Palestinian Nation.
Iran has sent aid to the coastal territory in the past via Egypt. It was not immediately clear if the latest shipments would do the same, or try to dock in Gaza itself.
In January 2009, an Israeli warship approached an Iranian aid boat heading for the Mediterranean territory and told it to leave the area, 70 km (45 miles) from Gaza. The ship went on to Egypt, which borders Gaza, but was refused permission to unload.
Iran lodged a protest over the issue with Egypt, which has a peace agreement with the Jewish state.
[…] The deputy head of Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guards played down reports that the Guards would provide a military escort to aid ships heading to Gaza – something which would be sure to escalate tensions in the region. "Such a thing is not on our agenda," Hossein Salami was quoted as saying by the official IRNA news agency.
[…] In another sign of reluctance to risk high-level confrontation with Israel, a delegation of parliamentarians who plan to travel to Gaza will do so via Egypt, rather than on any aid ships headed directly to the enclave.
Alaeddin Boroujerdi, head of parliament’s Foreign Policy and National Security committee, said Egyptian authorities were "positive" about the lawmaker’s proposed visit, but had yet to issue formal consent.
[…]
Egypt
10) Egyptians beaten while protesting police brutality
Paul Schemm, AP, June 14, 2010
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5im-Kw1VwkViBjtBkORFz0olsP-uAD9GAHO900?index=4
Cairo – Egyptian security forces hit protesters and knocked some to the ground before rounding dozens up at a demonstration Sunday against a police beating that killed a young man a week ago.
The protesters were venting Egyptian anger over the death of 28-year-old Khaled Said in the port city of Alexandria on June 6. Relatives, at least one witness and human rights groups say police beat him to death and pictures of his bloody, disfigured face have been circulating on the Internet. The Egyptian government claims he choked to death on a joint as police were trying to arrest him.
Human rights groups say police torture – including sexual abuse – is routine in Egypt though the government denies it is systematic. Reformers say a three-decade-old emergency law they describe as a central tool of repression by President Hosni Mubarak’s regime is to blame. Cases of police brutality rarely result in punishment.
A couple hundred protesters gathered near the Ministry of Justice in the capital Cairo Sunday afternoon, some chanting "Down with Hosni Mubarak" and others holding up signs calling for an end to military rule and the prosecution of the interior minister for Said’s death.
Security forces, some of them in plainclothes, beat protesters and knocked some to the ground. They put them in headlocks and handcuffed them before dragging them off to waiting trucks for arrest. "Security officials used extreme forms of brutality on the protesters as they were arresting them," said Ahmed Maher, one of the protest organizers, who estimated 80 people had been detained.
Egyptian authorities repeatedly ordered journalists to leave the area and prevented television cameras from filming.
[…] Demonstrators held up side-by-side photos of Said, one showing him alive and the other a grisly image after his beating.
Earlier Sunday, an interview was posted on the web with the owner of an Internet cafe who told a journalist from Nour’s Ghad newspaper that he saw two policemen beat Said to death after dragging him out of his cafe in the seaside city of Alexandria. "We thought they would just interrogate him or ask him questions. But they took him as he struggled with his hands behind his back and banged his head against the marble table inside here," the cafe owner Hassan Mosbah said.
[…] A fact-finding mission by the Egyptian Organization for Human Rights, confirmed the cafe owner’s account. "They dragged him to the adjacent building and banged his head against an iron door, the steps of the staircase and walls of the building," the Cairo-based organization said in a statement Sunday. "Two doctors happened to be there and tried in vain to revive him but (the police) continued beating him," the statement said.
[…] Amnesty International and other rights groups on Friday demanded an independent investigation. The "shocking pictures … are a rare, firsthand glimpse of the routine use of brutal force by the Egyptian security forces, who expect to operate in a climate of impunity, with no questions asked," Amnesty said.
The victim’s brother, Ahmed Said, claimed the beating was in revenge for his possession of a video showing the policemen dividing the spoils of a drug bust among themselves and so they confronted him at the cafe. He said he saw his brother’s body a day after his death. His jaw was twisted, his rib cage mangled and his skull cracked, he said. Similar images were posted on bloggers’ websites and he confirmed their authenticity.
Colombia
11) Priest faces criticism for shining light on human rights abuses in Colombia
Juan Forero, Washington Post, Saturday, June 12, 2010; A06
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/06/11/AR2010061106188.html
Bogota – The ruling issued this week was one of the most severe ever handed down in Colombia against a member of the security forces: 30 years in prison for a retired army colonel found responsible for the disappearance of 11 people in 1985.
And it happened in part because of the tireless work of a mild-mannered Catholic priest, the Rev. Javier Giraldo, who sought out evidence from witnesses and made sure that the relatives of the victims were heard by prosecutors and journalists.
For 30 years, Giraldo has been investigating some of the most heinous human rights abuses committed during Colombia’s shadowy war and blaming those he says are responsible – often U.S.-backed security forces. In recent weeks, that work has garnered attention like never before, with his adversaries issuing public threats against the man they call "the Marxist priest," and even President Álvaro Uribe leveling criticism against him.
[…] Giraldo’s role in the Meneses case prompted President Uribe to call him "a useful idiot" of criminal bands out to discredit the administration. A more customary accusation came from Plinio Apuleyo Mendoza, a pro-government essayist who labeled Giraldo a "nefarious priest" who does the bidding of the country’s largest guerrilla army.
But others see Giraldo as an almost mythical figure who tirelessly collects evidence about crimes that have gone unpunished. That means urging witnesses to come forward, even soldiers and police overcome by their conscience after participating in atrocities. "He’s incredibly important – a moral figure who is not linked to any armed groups," said Gimena Sanchez, a Colombia specialist at the Washington Office on Latin America, a policy group. "I think he completely and utterly pushes the envelope."
Sitting in his small office, Giraldo said he expects to be attacked for his work as an investigator for the Bogota-based Center for Research and Popular Education (CINEP). On the walls around his table are photographs of priests and other activists killed in Colombia. "The establishment tries to delegitimize those who denounce and whoever helps the victims," said Giraldo, who has declined the government’s offer of bodyguards. "The intent is to damage one’s image, to portray me as a guerrilla supporter."
Those who know Giraldo say he is no stooge of the irregular armies battling for control of land and drugs. He does, however, turn convention on its head by reminding Colombians that their country is still a land of unspeakable crimes.
Colombians have been astonished by his revelations, many of which center on massacres committed by right-wing death squads linked to the military. For a quarter century, Giraldo also worked to shed light on the storming of the Palace of Justice in 1985, when troops wrested control from a guerrilla commando team in a firefight that left more than 100 dead, including 11 Supreme Court justices.
Years later, witnesses and videotaped evidence showed that guerrillas as well as innocent cafeteria workers were taken alive from the palace by soldiers, tortured and killed. A civilian judge found the retired colonel who led the operation, Luis Alfonso Plazas, responsible.
On Thursday, Uribe, flanked by the country’s top military commanders, criticized the ruling.
[…]
Peru
12) Coca Production Makes a Comeback in Peru
Simon Romero, New York Times, June 13, 2010
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/14/world/americas/14peru.html
Tingo María, Peru – Coca cultivation is surging once again in this country’s remote tropical valleys, part of a major repositioning of the Andean drug trade that is making Peru a contender to surpass Colombia as the world’s largest exporter of cocaine.
Mexican and Colombian drug trafficking rings are expanding their reach in Peru, where two factions of Shining Path guerrillas are already competing for control of the cocaine trade.
The traffickers – fortified by the resilient demand for cocaine in the United States, Brazil and parts of Europe – are stymieing efforts to combat the drug’s resurgence here and raising the specter of greater violence in a nation still haunted by years of war. "The struggle against coca can resemble detaining the wind," said Gen. Juan Zárate, who leads the country’s coca eradication campaigns.
The increase in Peru offers a window into one of the most vexing aspects of the American-financed war against drugs in Latin America, which began in earnest four decades ago. When antinarcotics forces succeed in one place – as they recently have in Colombia, which has received more than $5 billion in American aid this decade – cultivation shifts to other corners of the Andes.
This happened in the 1990s, when coca cultivation shifted to Colombia after successful eradication projects in Peru and Bolivia. More recently, coca growers moved to dozens of new areas within Colombia after aerial spraying in other areas. Scholars of the Andean drug war call this the balloon effect, bringing to mind a balloon that swells in one spot when another is squeezed.
"Washington’s policy of supply-oriented intervention inevitably improves the efficiencies and entrepreneurial skills of traffickers," said Paul Gootenberg, who wrote the book "Andean Cocaine."
[…]
–
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.