Just Foreign Policy News
September 9, 2011
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I) Actions and Featured Articles
Just Foreign Policy RT Interview: Ending the Wars Would Save 400,000 Jobs
Just Foreign Policy explains to RT that unlike the President’s jobs proposal, ending the wars would save jobs without a dime of deficit spending; and furthermore, that under the Budget Control Act, the President’s jobs proposal will have to be paid for over the next ten years, and ending the wars is one way to pay for it.
https://www.justforeignpolicy.org/node/1016
Jobs Plan? End the Wars, Save 400,000 Jobs
Here’s how the President can save more than 400,000 jobs without spending a dime: bring home the troops from Iraq and Afghanistan as scheduled, instead of cutting Social Security and Medicare benefits.
http://www.truth-out.org/jobs-plan-end-wars-save-400000-jobs/1315495268
*Action: Tell Congress: $200 Billion In "Real Savings" If We End the Wars "On Time"
Many Americans don’t realize that the Super Committee can reach 1/6 of its debt reduction goal just by withdrawing U.S. troops from Iraq and Afghanistan when we said we were going to. Urge your representatives in Congress to make this part of any debt reduction deal.
https://www.justforeignpolicy.org/act/endwarsontime
*Action: Urge Your Rep. to Co-sponsor the Iraq Accountability Act
The Administration is trying to keep thousands of U.S. troops in Iraq indefinitely. Bipartisan legislation would prohibit this. Urge your Rep to co-sponsor.
https://www.justforeignpolicy.org/act/obamaextendsbushwar
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II) Summary:
U.S./Top News
1) Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said Palestinians are resolved to go ahead with their bid for recognition of statehood at the UN this month despite US warnings the move could lead to a confrontation with Washington, the Washington Post reports. Abbas said even if last-ditch efforts produced a formula for the resumption of negotiations that met Palestinian demands for a freeze on Israeli settlement building and talks on a peace deal based on Israel’s 1967 boundaries, the Palestinians would still go to the UN. If the General Assembly upgrades Palestinian representation to the status of a non-member state, that would clear the way for the Palestinians to join U.N. bodies and conventions, and it could enable them to pursue claims against Israel in the International Criminal Court and the International Court of Justice, the Post notes.
2) Somali Prime Minister Abdiweli Mohamed Ali said the government is open to talks with al Shabaab’s top commanders to bring peace to Somali, Reuters reports. "You don’t talk to foot-soldiers, you negotiate with leaders," said Ali, previously a professor of economics in the U.S. Talk of deal cutting with the rebels may unsettle some Western powers who oppose negotiations, Reuters says.
3) Senator Jon Kyl threatened to quit the supercommittee if it considers cutting the military budget, The Hill reports. Kyl added that he will push that it "waive" the defense-specific triggers that were in the August debt law. Sen. Lindsey Graham also said he would seek to waive the military cuts in the trigger. "Pro-defense" Republicans – who also staunchly oppose any tax hikes to swell federal coffers – want the entire $1.2 trillion of agreed debt reduction to come from domestic entitlement programs, The Hill says.
4) The Obama administration says it will veto any bid by the Palestinians to seek statehood recognition at the U.N. Security Council, AP reports. Until now, Washington had not explicitly said it would use its veto to prevent passage. On Thursday, State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said that if the issue comes to a vote in the Security Council, the U.S. will veto it.
5) The Democratic-led Senate Appropriations Committee moved to freeze the Pentagon’s budget on Wednesday, AP reports. No GOP senators complained, AP notes.
6) Todd Harrison of the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments says the military budget over the next decade could decline by 31 percent, assuming enactment of all cuts proposed by President Obama as well as decreases that could be automatically triggered under the recently enacted Budget Control Act, GovExec.com reports. Harrison said that drawdown compares with cuts of 53 percent after the Korean War, 26 percent after the Vietnam War and 34 percent after the end of the Cold War.
Iraq
7) US Army chief General Ray Odierno warned against creating the impression of an American "occupation" of Iraq by leaving too many troops in the country after a year-end deadline to withdraw, AFP reports. Odierno commanded US forces in Iraq until last year and was one of the senior officers who spearheaded the troop "surge" in 2007. Odierno’s intervention carries weight given his battlefield experience in Iraq and his reputation previously for cautioning against dramatic reductions in the American troop presence, AFP notes. Odierno also said it was possible that a 5,000-strong US force in the north, which he played a pivotal role in bringing into force, would no longer be necessary to address Arab-Kurd tensions.
Israel/Palestine
8) Turkish Prime Minister Erdogan told Al-Jazeera that Turkish warships will escort future aid boats leaving its territory for Gaza to prevent a repeat of last year’s deadly Israeli raid on an aid flotilla, AP reports.
9) Rising tensions with some of its closest and most important allies have left Israel increasingly isolated ahead of a momentous vote on Palestinian independence at the UN, AP reports. On Wednesday, China announced it would support the Palestinian bid. France has not publicly said how it will vote, but a claim by a former French Mideast envoy that she had been fired after publicly arguing against the Palestinian initiative suggested that France favors the Palestinians.
The vote is seen by many not only as a message of sympathy with the Palestinians, but also a barometer of discontent with Israel’s settlement policies, AP says. "There’s no question that had Israel been seen as a country doing its utmost to promote peace, no such vote would be taking place," said Yossi Beilin, Israel’s former deputy foreign minister. Beilin cited Netanyahu’s refusal to extend a freeze on new settlement construction a year ago as the "mother of all sins" that put him at odds with the international community.
Cuba
10) William Reilly, co-chair of a commission that examined the Deepwater Horizon spill [and head of EPA under the first President Bush – JFP] says the US should urgently make plans for helping Cuba in the event of an offshore oil spill as it prepares to begin exploring fields opposite Florida this year, the New York Times reports.
Reilly was part of a delegation to Cuba organized by the Environmental Defense Fund and the International Association of Drilling Contractors, who have found common cause in pressing their message on the risks of shunning Cuba as it makes its first full-scale push into offshore drilling. Members of the delegation said it was not clear how drilling companies working in Cuban waters would be able to obtain safety equipment from the U.S., like capping stacks or blowout preventers, to prevent spills or mitigate their effect.
The Treasury Department has said it will issue licenses to allow American companies to operate in Cuba under the economic embargo on a case-by-case basis, but experts contend that the licenses need to be broad in their scope.
Contents:
U.S./Top News
1) Abbas vows to proceed with statehood bid despite U.S. warnings
Joel Greenberg, Washington Post, September 8
http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/middle-east/abbas-vows-to-proceed-with-statehood-bid-despite-us-warnings/2011/09/08/gIQAoK2mCK_story.html
Ramallah, West Bank – Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas said Thursday that the Palestinians are resolved to go ahead with their bid for recognition of statehood at the United Nations this month despite warnings from U.S. officials that the move could lead to a confrontation with Washington.
Even if a last-minute formula for resuming peace talks were found before then, the Palestinians would go to the United Nations and then negotiate with Israel as a state under occupation, Abbas said. "Now . . . I don’t think it’s workable," he said of efforts by international mediators to come up with a diplomatic package to head off the U.N. bid. "They came too late."
Abbas, who met Wednesday with David Hale, the Obama administration’s acting special envoy to the Middle East, said U.S. officials had "talked about some sort of confrontation" with the Palestinians over the statehood bid.
"We told them that we don’t want a confrontation, neither with the Americans nor with anybody else," Abbas said in a meeting with foreign reporters in his office. "They are our friends. We don’t want a confrontation, but let us express our ideas, our hope. We are a people without hope now."
Abbas said that even if last-ditch efforts produced a formula for the resumption of negotiations that met Palestinian demands for a freeze on Israeli settlement building and talks on a peace deal based on Israel’s 1967 boundaries, the Palestinians would still go to the United Nations.
"We will read it. If it satisfies us, of course, we will say yes, and we will go to the United Nations, and return back and resume our talks with the Israelis," he said. "Whatever the results are at the United Nations, we are ready to return back to the negotiating table."
If the Palestinians win U.N. recognition, Abbas said, "we will be a state under occupation, and we will talk accordingly and negotiate accordingly with the Israelis – of course, with the support of the United Nations."
Abbas sought to allay concerns that a U.N. vote in favor of Palestinian statehood would lead to unrest in the West Bank and possible confrontations with Israeli troops and settlers.
"From our side, no confrontations, no chaos," he said. "There will be demonstrations inside the cities to support us in the U.N., but nothing will happen. Our instructions were very strict: Don’t go to the roadblocks, don’t make any friction with the Israelis, don’t run to the Israelis. If they come to the cities, don’t react."
"We will keep security, law and order, and that’s it," he said.
Abbas said the Palestinians would ask the U.N. Security Council for admission to the United Nations as a member state, a move the Obama administration has said it will veto. "This is the beginning," he said, adding that further steps would be decided at the United Nations.
Palestinian officials say their next option would be to take the matter to the U.N. General Assembly, where there is no veto and a majority is expected to support upgrading the Palestinian representation to the status of a non-member state. That would clear the way for the Palestinians to join U.N. bodies and conventions, and it could enable them to pursue claims against Israel in the International Criminal Court and the International Court of Justice.
[…]
2) Negotiations with Somali rebels an option: PM
Sahra Abdi and Richard Lough, Reuters, 7:49am EDT
http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/09/09/us-somalia-conflict-idUSTRE7882UB20110909
Nairobi – Somalia is open to talks with al Shabaab’s top commanders and informal discussions already held suggest a willingness among some militants to lay down arms and negotiate, the country’s prime minister said on Friday.
Somalia’s beleaguered government is desperate to consolidate security gains after the al Qaeda-linked rebels retreated from the capital Mogadishu last month, as it faces the task of holding elections by August, 2012.
"We are open to dialogue with … any organization that’s going to reach (out) to us, work with us to bring peace and stability to Somalia," Prime Minister Abdiweli Mohamed Ali told Reuters. "We don’t have formal talks with (al Shabaab) but here and there we talk to them and maybe there is some willingness from some of them to lay down their arms and negotiate," Ali said in an interview.
It was too early, he said, to talk about conditions on negotiations or what incentives the government might offer the militants, whose bloody four-year insurgency has led to the deaths of tens of thousands of Somalis. Some outside experts say al Shabaab is at its weakest since their rebellion was born from the ruins of another hardline Islamist group in 2007, plagued by deepening internal rifts and short on finances.
"You don’t talk to foot-soldiers, you negotiate with leaders. The incentive is deal with us first and we will talk later," said Ali, previously a professor of economics in the United States before he joined the U.N.-backed government.
Talk of deal cutting with the rebels may unsettle some Western powers who oppose negotiating with an Islamist rebel force whose ranks have been bolstered by foreign fighters linked directly to al Qaeda.
[…]
3) Kyl threatens to quit supercommittee over further defense cuts
John T. Bennett, The Hill, 09/08/11 01:10 PM ET
http://thehill.com/news-by-subject/defense-homeland-security/180271-sen-kyl-ill-quit-supercommittee-if-it-mulls-more-defense-cuts
A senior Republican senator said Thursday he would have declined a seat on the congressional supercommittee if further Pentagon budget cuts were on the table.
The disclosure by Senate Minority Whip Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.) came as several Republicans said they would seek to block legislative triggers that could force massive defense cuts over the next decade.
Kyl revealed Thursday that he told congressional leaders to find someone else to fill the supercommittee seat he had been offered if the panel intended to further trim the Pentagon budget beyond the $350 billion over 10 years that was included in the August debt deal.
He told a standing-room-only lunch audience that he immediately told GOP leaders, "I’m off the committee" if further military cuts would be on the table.
"We’re not going there," Kyl said sternly, recalling his message to his fellow GOP leaders. "Defense has given enough already."
The comments cleared up whether the Pentagon and defense industry have a strong ally on the high-level panel.
If the supercommittee fails to cut $1.2 trillion by Thanksgiving, automatic triggers would be enacted to reach that figure, including around $600 billion in additional defense cuts over 10 years.
Asked by The Hill whether he would support any defense cuts in a possible final supercommittee package smaller than the $600 billion threatened under that trigger, Kyl replied, "No."
Kyl announced he will not only quit the panel if further defense cuts become part of its deliberations, but added that he will push that it "waive" the defense-specific triggers that were in the August debt law.
[…] At the same lunch, which was sponsored by three conservative think tanks, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) said he plans to seek a legislative way to waive the $600 billion in national security cuts that would be required if the superpanel fails.
At the lunch event and during an earlier House Armed Services Committee hearing, it became apparent that pro-defense Republicans – who also staunchly oppose any tax hikes to swell federal coffers – want the entire $1.2 trillion amount to come from domestic entitlement programs.
[…]
4) US says it will veto any Palestinian statehood bid at the UN Security Council
Associated Press, September 8
http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/us-says-it-will-veto-any-palestinian-statehood-bid-at-the-un-security-council/2011/09/08/gIQAfiicCK_story.html
Washington – The Obama administration says it will veto any bid by the Palestinians to seek statehood recognition at the U.N. Security Council.
The administration had long said it opposed such a unilateral move by the Palestinians. The U.S. has been working to prevent a Palestinian resolution from coming before the council.
Until now, Washington had not explicitly said it would use its veto to prevent passage. On Thursday, State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said that if the issue comes to a vote in the Security Council, the U.S. will veto it.
[…]
5) Senate panel moves to freeze Defense Dept budget as House GOP eases cuts to domestic agencies
Associated Press, September 7
http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/congress/congress-returns-with-unemployment-level-budget-cuts-topping-a-combative-autumn-agenda/2011/09/07/gIQADLmb8J_story.html
Washington – A powerful Senate panel moved to freeze the Pentagon’s budget on Wednesday, while House Republicans signaled that they will scale back cuts to domestic programs like housing subsidies as Congress sets to work on implementing last month’s budget deal.
[…] All of the steps involve writing the details of the day-to-day budgets for Cabinet agencies for the budget year beginning Oct. 1. The work by the House and Senate appropriations committees is separate from a congressional supercommittee charged with finding $1.2 trillion of more in deficit cuts over the coming decade. The supercommittee officially begins work Thursday.
The move on defense spending by the Democratic-led Senate Appropriations Committee would freeze the amount of money available for an upcoming measure at $513 billion, the same amount provided in an April budget law. The actual details won’t be released until the Pentagon funding measure is voted on later, but the move is sure to rile defense hawks in the House.
"We’ve already cut our capacity, our desire, our ability to do things. We’ve downsized and cut back and cut back," said House Armed Services Committee Chairman Howard "Buck" McKeon, R-Calif. No GOP senators complained, however.
[…]
6) Defense budget could fall by 31 percent in 10 years, think tank says
Charles S. Clark, GovExec.com, September 8, 2011
http://www.govexec.com/story_page.cfm?articleid=48749
Planners of the defense budget face an unprecedented challenge in responding to new threats in a post-9/11 era at the same time resources are diminishing, experts said Thursday.
The analysts from the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments were speaking at the National Press Club on lessons learned 10 years after the 2001 terrorist attacks.
The defense budget over the next decade could decline by 31 percent, said senior fellow Todd Harrison, assuming enactment of all cuts proposed by President Obama as well as decreases that could be automatically triggered under the recently enacted Budget Control Act. That drawdown, he said compares with cuts of 53 percent after the Korean War, 26 percent after the Vietnam War and 34 percent after the end of the Cold War.
[…]
Iraq
7) Avoid US ‘occupation’ of Iraq, warns army chief
Dan De Luce, AFP, September 8, 2011
http://news.yahoo.com/avoid-us-occupation-iraq-warns-army-chief-032904007.html
US Army chief, General Ray Odierno, warned against creating the impression of an American "occupation" of Iraq by leaving too many troops in the country after a year-end deadline to withdraw.
Odierno told reporters the United States had to carefully balance how many troops were needed to assist Iraqi forces while scaling back the American profile in a country where anti-US sentiment still runs high.
"I will say when I was leaving Iraq a year ago, I always felt we had to be careful about leaving too many people in Iraq," said Odierno, who took over as Army chief of staff on Wednesday. "The larger the force that we leave behind …(the more) comments of ‘occupation force’ remain. And we get away from why we are really there — to help them to continue to develop," he added.
Odierno commanded US forces in Iraq until last year and was one of the senior officers who spearheaded the troop "surge" in 2007, which the military believes turned the tide in the war and reduced sectarian violence.
He spoke amid a debate in Washington over the scale of a possible future US military mission in Iraq and after Defense Secretary Leon Panetta endorsed a tentative plan for a force of 3,000-4,000 troops.
Some US lawmakers have criticized that number of soldiers and say senior officers favor a larger force of at least 10,000, which would include a unit deployed in northern Iraq to defuse Arab-Kurdish tensions.
Odierno’s intervention carries weight given his battlefield experience in Iraq — he spent a total of 56 months there — and his reputation previously for cautioning against dramatic reductions in the American troop presence.
He said that the final decision about the size of a post-2011 US force would be up to Iraq’s government, American leaders and military commanders. "I’m not saying 3-5,000 is the right number," said Odierno, but "there comes a time…when it (US presence) becomes counter-productive."
[…] Odierno has warned that territorial disputes between Kurdish and Iraqi government forces in the north pose the greatest threat to Iraq’s stability and credited the US presence with helping to calm tensions.
But he said Thursday that it was possible that a 5,000-strong US force in the north, in which he played a pivotal role in bringing into force, would no longer be necessary amid recent progress. "I’ve heard some discussion, ‘well we need 5,000 people to work the Arab-Kurd issue,’" he said. "I’ve read some things lately that we think they’re starting to handle that. There’s been some progress made and the forces that we’ve developed, they feel can handle that for example.
"If that’s the case, then we don’t need those 5,000 (troops in the north)."
[…]
Israel/Palestine
8) Turkish prime minister warns Israel that from now on navy will protect Gaza-bound aid ships
Associated Press, Friday, September 9, 1:55 PM
http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/middle-east/turkish-prime-minister-warns-israel-that-from-now-on-navy-will-protect-gaza-bound-aid-ships/2011/09/09/gIQAI7K0DK_story.html
Ankara, Turkey – Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has stepped up his belligerent rhetoric against Israel, saying Turkish warships will escort future aid boats leaving its territory for Gaza to prevent a repeat of last year’s deadly Israeli raid on an aid flotilla.
Erdogan’s comments to Al-Jazeera television Thursday were the first time Turkey has said its navy will use force to protect ships attempting to break Israel’s blockade of the coastal Palestinian territory. Turkey had already announced it would increase navy patrols in the eastern Mediterranean in response to Israel’s refusal to apologize for the raid.
Dan Meridor, the Israeli Cabinet minister in charge of intelligence, called Erdogan’s threat "grave and serious."
[…] Turkey, which is enjoying growing popularity in the broader Muslim world, also insists it cannot turn a blind eye to Israel’s actions.
"At the moment, there is no doubt that the Turkish military ships’ primary duty is to protect (Turkish) ships," Turkey’s state-run Anatolia quoted Erdogan as telling Al-Jazeera. "We will be making humanitarian aid. This aid will no longer be subjected to any kind of attack as the Mavi Marmara was."
[…]
9) Israel faces growing isolation with key UN vote on Palestinian statehood looming
Associated Press, September 7
http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/middle-east/israel-faces-growing-isolation-with-key-un-vote-on-palestinian-statehood-looming/2011/09/07/gIQAnM1v9J_story.html
Jerusalem – Rising tensions with some of its closest and most important allies have left Israel increasingly isolated ahead of a momentous vote on Palestinian independence at the United Nations.
Troubles with Turkey, Egypt and even the U.S. are adding to Israel’s headaches ahead of the vote, which is shaping up to be a global expression of discontent against the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
The Palestinians plan to ask the United Nations this month to recognize their independence in the West Bank, Gaza Strip and east Jerusalem – areas captured by Israel in the 1967 Mideast war – probably by embracing them as a "nonmember observer state." The measure is expected to pass overwhelmingly in the U.N. General Assembly.
The assembly’s decisions are not legally binding, so the vote will be largely symbolic. But the Palestinians hope the measure will increase the already considerable pressure on Israel to withdraw from occupied territories, and add leverage should peace talks resume. The Palestinians refuse to negotiate while Israel continues to expand Jewish settlements in the West Bank and east Jerusalem.
Ghassan Khatib, a spokesman for the Palestinian government in the West Bank, said Israeli isolation is playing right into Palestinian hands. "We are seeing that result in increased support for us in the United Nations," he said.
On Wednesday, China announced it would support the Palestinian bid. And a French Mideast envoy, Valerie Hoffenberg, said she had been fired after publicly arguing against the Palestinian initiative. France has not publicly said how it will vote, but her comments signaled that the government favors the Palestinians.
The vote is seen by many not only as a message of sympathy with the Palestinians, but also a barometer of discontent with Israel’s settlement policies. Some 500,000 Israelis now live in territories claimed by the Palestinians.
"There’s no question that had Israel been seen as a country doing its utmost to promote peace, no such vote would be taking place," said Yossi Beilin, Israel’s former deputy foreign minister.
Beilin cited Netanyahu’s refusal to extend a freeze on new settlement construction a year ago as the "mother of all sins" that put him at odds with the international community. The decision, made over the very public objections of President Barack Obama, caused a brief round of peace talks to collapse.
[…]
Cuba
10) U.S. Is Urged to Plan to Aid Cuba in Case of an Oil Spill
Victoria Burnett, New York Times, September 8, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/09/world/americas/09cuba.html
Havana – The United States should urgently make plans for helping Cuba in the event of an offshore oil spill as it prepares to begin exploring fields opposite Florida this year, William Reilly, the co-chairman of a commission that examined the Deepwater Horizon spill, said during a visit here.
Mr. Reilly, who met with Cuban officials, said they were hungry for expertise about offshore oil development and happy to get it from the United States. "It seems to me to be profoundly in the interest of the United States to ensure that, if there should be a spill in Cuban waters, all efforts are undertaken by both government and private entities in the United States to assist in responding," he said Wednesday.
Mr. Reilly was part of a delegation organized by the Environmental Defense Fund and the International Association of Drilling Contractors, who have found common cause in pressing their message on the risks of shunning Cuba as it makes its first full-scale push into offshore drilling.
Repsol, the Spanish oil company, plans to dig at least one well using a Chinese-built rig, which is set to reach Cuba in November. A significant discovery would greatly change Cuba’s economic prospects, but the possibility has also raised concerns about potential ecological disasters.
Cuba produced about 50,000 barrels of oil a day in 2009, according to Cuban government figures, and imported 120,000 barrels more a day from Venezuela.
Members of the delegation said it was not clear how drilling companies working in Cuban waters would be able to obtain safety equipment from the United States, like capping stacks or blowout preventers, to prevent spills or mitigate their effect.
The Treasury Department has said it will issue licenses to allow American companies to operate in Cuba under the economic embargo on a case-by-case basis, but experts contend that the licenses need to be broad in their scope.
–
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