Just Foreign Policy News
August 27, 2010
"Palestinian Gandhi" Convicted for Protesting; U.S. Silent
Catherine Ashton, Europe’s Hillary Clinton, protested the conviction by military court of Abdallah Abu Rahmah for organizing protests against the separation barrier in Bilin. But not only is the U.S. government silent; not only have U.S. newspaper columnists failed to protest; the U.S. press hasn’t even reported the news.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/robert-naiman/palestinian-gandhi-convic_b_696884.htmlu
Why Should the Senate Fund "Enduring" U.S. Military Bases in Afghanistan?
Walter Pincus reports in the Washington Post that the Pentagon is planning military construction for years of U.S. combat in Afghanistan. But the Senate could still refuse to fund it; in 2008, Congress rejected a similar Pentagon request for "long term" military construction in Iraq. Urge your senators to oppose construction of long-term U.S. bases in Afghanistan.
https://www.justforeignpolicy.org/act/afghanistanbases
New York Times video: Dispute in the Negev
Bedouins fight Israeli government plans to remove them from their homes.
http://video.nytimes.com/video/2010/08/25/world/middleeast/1248068915888/dispute-in-the-negev.html
Bacevich: Washington Rules
Andrew Bacevich’s new book, "Washington Rules: America’s Path to Permanent War," is a call for Americans to reject the Washington consensus for permanent war, and to demand instead that America "come home."
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https://www.justforeignpolicy.org/buywashingtonrules
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September 24th: JFP "Virtual Brown Bag" with Andrew Bacevich
https://www.justforeignpolicy.org/bacevichtalk
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Summary:
U.S./Top News
1) The CIA is making secret payments to a substantial portion of Afghan President Karzai’s administration, the Washington Post reports. "Half the palace is on the payroll," said a U.S. official. The agency’s approach has drawn criticism from others in the U.S. government, who accuse the CIA of contributing to an atmosphere in which Afghans are conditioned to extend their hands for secret payments in almost every transaction.
2) The head of U.S. special forces says the effort to keep weapons of mass destruction out of the hands of terrorists has been slowed by the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, Bloomberg reports. Fewer elite commandos are available and their expertise has been degraded by decreased training, Admiral Eric Olson said. They now have only a "limited" capability for this mission, he said. In March, Olson said the threat of extremists acquiring and using chemical, biological or nuclear arms "is greater now than at any other time in history."
3) A Yemeni security official disputed statements from U.S. officials that they may step up attacks against Al Qaeda in Yemen and argued that Yemen is able to fight al Qaeda without outside intervention, Reuters reports. The US role was called into question this week when Amnesty International released a report which said that U.S. forces appeared to have collaborated with Yemen in attacks on militants that violated international law.
4) The U.S. military is demanding to know what happened to $1.9 million worth of computers purchased by U.S. taxpayers and intended for Iraqi schoolchildren that have instead been auctioned off by Iraqi officials for less than $50,000, AP reports.
5) The Defense Department has become a major obstacle to the expanded production of wind power in the U.S., the New York Times reports. In 2009, about 9,000 megawatts of proposed wind projects were abandoned or delayed because of radar concerns raised by the military and the FAA, according to a survey by the American Wind Energy Association. That is nearly as much as the amount of wind capacity that was actually built in the same year, the trade group says. One wind energy official said the objections could make wind energy less competitive. "It makes investors and banks jittery," he said. "They will increasingly view these as risky projects and push up the financial terms."
6) The Department of Defense has refused to pay for treatment for soldiers who became addicted to painkillers as a result of treatment for war injuries, the Boston Globe reports. In April, Representative McGovern and seven other members of Congress petitioning Defense Secretary Gates to amend Tricare benefits to cover methadone and buprenorphine. In June, Defense Undersecretary Stanley assured the congressmen that Tricare is "pursuing changes" in its policy of disallowing coverage for opioid dependency.
Iran
7) President Obama has resisted efforts by Defense Secretary Gates and journalists to box him in to establishing a "red line" for Iran’s nuclear capacity at anything less than a clear signal of intent to produce a nuclear weapon, Gareth Porter writes for Inter Press Service.
Bahrain
8) A crackdown on Shiite political and human rights leaders by the government of Bahrain may signal the end of promised reforms, the New York Times reports. The government said this week that it would no longer tolerate unrest among the Shiite majority, who make up about two-thirds of the population but are barred from many government jobs and face a chronic housing shortage. Allegations of torture and police brutality circulate daily. Bahrain is home to the US Navy’s Fifth Fleet; opposition leaders have accused the U.S. of turning a blind eye to the repression.
Colombia
9) Colombian officials said a U.S.-Colombia military basing agreement that was blocked by Colombia’s highest court is not likely to be renegotiated, the Washington Times reports. One official said he is "99 percent sure" the government would not seek legislative approval of the agreement during the current legislative session, which ends in December, and that it is "80 percent likely that there will be no new negotiations over the next year."
10) President Santos declared his support for Mexican President Calderon’s call for a discussion on drug legalization, saying that, like Calderon, he was personally opposed to it, but it should be discussed, according to Colombia Reports. Santos said that if California votes to legalize marijuana consumption in a November referendum, Colombia, Mexico and Peru should have a united response. If California were to legalize marijuana consumption, "how would we explain to an indigenous person on a Colombian mountain that producing marijuana is illegal and take him to jail, or destroy the marijuana, when in the U.S. it is legal to consume it?" Santos said. In 1998 Santos co-signed a letter to the U.N. secretary general, calling for "a frank and honest evaluation of global drug control efforts," as "we believe that the global war on drugs is now causing more harm than drug abuse itself."
Cuba
11) Cuba has issued a pair of free-market decrees, allowing foreign investors to lease government land for up to 99 years and loosening state controls on commerce to let islanders grow and sell their own fruit and vegetables, AP reports. The CEO of Leisure Canada said the former move was "huge."
Contents:
U.S./Top News
1) Secret Afghan payoffs alleged
Many in Karzai government said to be on CIA payroll
Greg Miller, Washington Post, 08/27/2010
http://www.montereyherald.com/rss/ci_15910984
Washington – The CIA is making secret payments to a substantial portion of Afghan President Hamid Karzai’s administration, in part out of concern that Karzai often seems to have a limited grasp of developments in his government, according to current and former U.S. officials.
The payments are long-standing in many cases and designed to help the agency maintain a deep roster of allies and sources within the presidential palace. They have continued despite concerns that the agency is backing corrupt officials and undermining efforts to wean Afghans’ dependence on secret sources of income and graft.
"Half the palace is on the payroll," said a U.S. official, who said some officials function as agency informants, but that others collect stipends under more informal arrangements meant to ensure their accessibility to the CIA.
A former agency official said the payments were necessary because "the head of state is not going to tell you everything" and because Karzai often seems unaware of moves by members of his government. "Karzai is blind to about 80 percent of what’s going on below him," he said.
The disclosure comes as a corruption investigation into one of Karzai’s senior national security advisers – and an alleged agency informant – puts new strain on the already fraying relationship between Washington and Kabul.
[…] The CIA has maintained relationships with Afghan government officials for years. But the disclosure that perhaps dozens of members of Karzai’s government are on the CIA’s payroll underscores the complex nature of the American role in Afghanistan. Even as agency dollars flow in, U.S.-backed investigative units are targeting prominent Afghans in the government and trying to stem an exodus of more than $1 billion in cash annually from the country.
A CIA spokesman declined to comment on the agency’s financial ties to Afghan officials. "This agency plays an essential role in promoting American goals in Afghanistan, including security and stability," said the spokesman, Paul Gimigliano. "Speculation about who may help us achieve that is both dangerous and counterproductive."
The agency’s approach has drawn criticism from others in the U.S. government, who accuse the CIA of contributing to an atmosphere in which Afghans are conditioned to extend their hands for secret payments in almost every transaction. "They’ll pay whoever they think can help them," the U.S. official said. "That has been the CIA attitude since 2001."
Another U.S. official defended the agency’s activities and alluded to a simmering conflict within the U.S. government over the scope of American objectives in Afghanistan, and the means required to achieve those goals. "No one is going to create Plato’s Republic over there in one year, two years, or 10," the official said. "If the United States decides to deal only with the saints in Afghanistan, it’s in for both loneliness and failure. That’s the risk, and not everyone in our government sees it."
U.S. and Afghan officials said the CIA is not the only foreign entity using secret payments to Afghan officials to influence events in the country.
A prominent Afghan with knowledge of the inner workings of the palace said it operates a slush fund that rewards political allies with money that flows in from the Iranian government and foreign intelligence services as well as prominent Afghan companies eager to curry favor with Karzai. The source said the fund distributes $10 million to $50 million a year.
A U.S. official said Turkey and Saudi Arabia are among the other countries funneling money into Afghanistan.
[…] Salehi, the target of the corruption probe, is accused of taking a bribe in return for his help in blocking an investigation of New Ansari, a money transfer business that has helped elite Afghans ship large sums of cash to overseas accounts. U.S. officials worry that the stream includes diverted foreign aid.
But authorities said the Salehi investigation is also focused on his involvement in administering the palace slush fund – doling out cash and vehicles to Karzai supporters – as well as his role in negotiations with the Taliban.
Salehi’s job put him at the center of some of the most sensitive assignments for the Afghan government. Another national security official, Ibrahim Spinzada, has orchestrated the government’s talks with the Taliban and traveled with Salehi to Dubai, Saudi Arabia and Russia.
The slush fund payments are "part of the politics here," said a second senior Afghan official. Some people receive "a special salary. It is part of intelligence activities."
[…] The CIA bankrolled Afghanistan’s intelligence service, and its financial ties to government officials has proliferated in recent years. "There are probably not too many officials we haven’t met and contacted and paid," a former CIA official said.
[…]
2) War Demands Compromise Hunt For Deadliest Weapons, Top U.S. Commander Says
Tony Capaccio, Bloomberg, Aug 27, 2010
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid=akSSY0NGaQpk
The effort to keep weapons of mass destruction out of the hands of terrorists has been slowed by the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, according to the head of U.S. special forces.
Fewer elite commandos are available for the hunt and their expertise has been degraded by "the decreased level of training," Admiral Eric Olson said. They now have only a "limited" capability for this mission, he said.
Meanwhile, the threat of extremists acquiring and using chemical, biological or nuclear arms "is greater now than at any other time in history," Olson told the Senate Armed Services Committee in a written response to a question posed by lawmakers after a hearing March 16 on his command’s budget.
[…]
3) Yemen rejects increased U.S. role in al Qaeda fight
Mohamed Sudam, Reuters, Thu, Aug 26 2010
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE67P1XK20100826
Sanaa – Yemeni forces do not need foreign parties to take the lead in the crackdown on al Qaeda, an official said on Thursday, responding to reports that the U.S. may increase strikes on the militant group’s Yemen wing.
The security official disputed statements from U.S. officials that they may step up attacks and argued that Yemen is able to fight al Qaeda without outside intervention, state news agency Saba reported.
"Yemeni forces, with support from friends and brothers, can bear complete responsibility for annihilating al Qaeda elements and whatever destructive elements assist them," he said.
[…] The United States’ role was called into question earlier this week when Amnesty International released a report which said that U.S. forces appeared to have collaborated with Yemen in attacks on militants that violated international law.
The human rights watchdog said that aerial bombings of al Qaeda suspects were extrajudicial killings, and urged the U.S. to clarify involvement of its forces or drones in such attacks.
In May, Yemeni opposition media reported that a drone had carried out an air strike aimed at al Qaeda that mistakenly killed a government mediator, sparking clashes between government forces and his kinsmen.
[…]
4) US: $1.9M in computers for kids missing in Iraq
Rebecca Santana, Associated Press, Friday, August 27, 2010; 4:05 PM
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/08/27/AR2010082703763.html
Baghdad – The U.S. military is demanding to know what happened to $1.9 million worth of computers purchased by American taxpayers and intended for Iraqi schoolchildren that have instead been auctioned off by Iraqi officials for less than $50,000, the military said Friday.
The U.S. press release was a rare public admission by the military of the loss of American taxpayer money in Iraq and an equally rare criticism of Iraqi officials with whom the Americans are trying to partner as the military hands over more and more responsibility and withdraws troops from the country.
A shipment of computers intended for schoolchildren in the central Babil province was found to have been auctioned on Aug. 16 for $45,700 – before the computers could be sent to the province, the U.S. military said.
The computers were auctioned off by a senior Iraqi official at the southern port of Umm Qasr, the statement said.
"United States Division-South Commander Maj. Gen. Vincent Brooks called for an immediate investigation into the actions of the Umm Qasr official to determine why computers destined for children to facilitate their education were approved for auction," it read.
The port director, Talib Bayesh, told The Associated Press that the equipment had been sitting in the port for more than 90 days and that, according to the law, any items sitting in the port for more than three months without being claimed could be confiscated by the port and sold at public auction. "Thus we sold the shipment by auction for only $45,000," he said.
The loss of the computers highlights what have been two flashpoints of controversy during the Iraq war: the accountability of American money and the widespread corruption that many say is one of the biggest challenges to Iraq’s future.
[…]
5) Wind Turbine Projects Run Into Resistance
Leora Broydo Vestel, New York Times, August 26, 2010
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/27/business/energy-environment/27radar.html
Barstow, Calif. – The United States military has found a new menace hiding here in the vast emptiness of the Mojave Desert in California: wind turbines.
Moving turbine blades can be indistinguishable from airplanes on many radar systems, and they can even cause blackout zones in which planes disappear from radar entirely. Clusters of wind turbines, which can reach as high as 400 feet, look very similar to storm activity on weather radar, making it harder for air traffic controllers to give accurate weather information to pilots.
Although the military says no serious incidents have yet occurred because of the interference, the wind turbines pose an unacceptable risk to training, testing and national security in certain regions, Dr. Dorothy Robyn, deputy under secretary of defense, recently told a House Armed Services subcommittee.
Because of its concerns, the Defense Department has emerged as a formidable opponent of wind projects in direct conflict with another branch of the federal government, the Energy Department, which is spending billions of dollars on wind projects as part of President Obama’s broader effort to promote renewable energy.
[…] In 2009, about 9,000 megawatts of proposed wind projects were abandoned or delayed because of radar concerns raised by the military and the Federal Aviation Administration, according to a member survey by the American Wind Energy Association. That is nearly as much as the amount of wind capacity that was actually built in the same year, the trade group says.
[…] Mark Tholke, regional director for the wind energy developer enXco, said that the objections could make wind energy less competitive. "It makes investors and banks jittery," he said. "They will increasingly view these as risky projects and push up the financial terms."
[…]
6) For Addicted Veteran, Regulation Is Enemy
Government balks at covering treatment for painkiller dependency
Joseph P. Kahn, Boston Globe, August 27, 2010
http://www.boston.com/lifestyle/articles/2010/08/27/for_addicted_veteran_regulation_is_enemy/
Braintree – In the space of a few hours, on bomb-clearing patrol near Balad, Iraq, US Army Corporal Eric Small and his unit were rocked by three separate roadside explosions. He sustained serious injuries to his head, back, neck, and hip. Small’s combat days were over. It was the summer of 2008, and Small spent 10 months convalescing in military hospitals. He came home to Massachusetts with two lasting wartime souvenirs: a Purple Heart medal and a painkiller addiction.
But in a bitter irony for Small and his family, the same government that sent him to war balked for months before agreeing to pay for the treatment his doctors feel best addresses his drug addiction. Small’s frustration is shared by some medical specialists who say it’s shameful to deny him, and others like him, coverage for a condition he acquired doing his patriotic duty. The issue has been federal regulations that restrict coverage for treatment of drug addiction for military personnel.
"I never dreamed when I joined the military that I’d be put in this situation," Small, 29, said at his Braintree apartment, with his wife, Shannon, and baby daughter, Isabella, nearby. "I wasn’t a drug addict. I didn’t do drugs. Suddenly I’m going through withdrawals, wanting my body to stop being the way it is."
Percocet, the painkiller Small had been taking, is potent and can become highly addictive. Small no longer takes the drug, having been put on buprenorphine, a cutting-edge medication used to treat opiate dependency. Addiction specialists consider it the gold standard for treating drug dependencies like his, safer and more effective in many cases than older-generation drugs like methadone. Buprenorphine is also approved by the Federal Drug Administration for treatment of chronic pain.
Paying for buprenorphine, which costs $250 a week, has left the Smalls more than $3,500 in debt and scrambling to make ends meet.
[…] The roadblock to coverage in cases like this is a Department of Defense regulation. It stipulates that while insurance benefits may be extended for drugs that treat illness or injury, they "cannot be authorized to support or maintain an existing or potential drug abuse situation." Drug-maintenance programs swapping one addictive drug for another are not covered.
In April, Representative James McGovern of Massachusetts joined seven other members of Congress in petitioning Defense Secretary Robert Gates to amend Tricare benefits to cover methadone and buprenorphine. "Military families struggling with addiction need help," their letter concluded. In June, Defense Undersecretary Clifford Stanley assured the congressmen that Tricare is "pursuing changes" in its policy of disallowing coverage for opioid dependency.
[…]
Iran
7) Obama Resists Pressure for Red Line on Iran’s Nuclear Capability
Gareth Porter, Inter Press Service, Aug 26
http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=52633
Washington – President Barack Obama’s refusal in a White House briefing earlier this month to announce a "red line" in regard to the Iran nuclear programme represented another in a series of rebuffs of pressure from Defence Secretary Robert Gates for statement that the United States will not accept its existing stocks of low enriched uranium.
The Obama rebuff climaxed a months-long internal debate between Obama and Gates over the "breakout capability" issue which surfaced in the news media last April.
Gates has been arguing that Iran could turn its existing stock of low enriched uranium (LEU) into a capability to build a nuclear weapon secretly by using covert enrichment sites and undeclared sources of uranium.
That Gates argument implies that the only way to prevent Iran having enough bomb-grade uranium for nuclear weapons is to insist that Iran must give up most of its existing stock of LEU, which could be converted into enough bomb-grade uranium for one bomb.
But Obama has publicly rejected the idea that Iran’s existing stock of LEU represents a breakout capability on more than one occasion. He has stated that Iran would have to make an overt move to have a "breakout capability" that would signal its intention to have a nuclear weapon.
Obama’s most recent rebuff of the Gates position came in the briefing he gave to a select group of journalists Aug. 4.
Peter David of The Economist, who attended the Aug. 4 briefing, was the only journalist to note that Obama indicated to the journalists that he was not ready to lay down any public red lines "at this point". Instead, Obama said it was important to set out for the Iranians a clear set of steps that the U.S. would accept as proof that the regime was not pursuing a bomb.
Obama appeared to suggest that there are ways for Iran to demonstrate its intent not to build a nuclear bomb other than ending all enrichment and reducing its stock of low enriched uranium to a desired level.
Iran denies any intention of making nuclear weapons, but has made no secret that it wants to have enough low enriched uranium to convince potential adversaries that it has that option.
At a 2005 dinner in Tehran, Hassan Rowhani, then secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, told George Perkovich of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace that Iran didn’t need a nuclear weapon, as long as it had the "mastery of the fuel cycle" as a deterrent to external aggression.
[…] Obama used an Apr. 1 interview with CBS News to distinguish between Iran’s "trying to develop the capacity to develop nuclear weapons" from a decision to actually possess nuclear weapons. "They might decide that, once they have that capacity that they’d hold off right at the edge – in order not to incur more sanctions," he observed. Obama talked about a new round of international sanctions as his response to that problem.
Hardliners in Washington wanted Obama to go further. David E. Sanger of the New York Times invited Obama in an Apr. 5 interview to draw the U.S. red line at an Iranian breakout capability, Obama refused to do so.
Sanger asked Obama whether the United States could "live with an Iran that runs right up to the edge" – precisely the scenario Obama had suggested as a distinct possibility four days earlier.
Obama’s answer made it clear that he understood that Sanger was pushing the Gates line that there is no obvious firebreak between Iran’s low enriched uranium stocks and a breakout capability. "North Korea was said to be simply a nuclear-capable state until it kicked out the IAEA and became a self-professed nuclear state," said Obama.
[…]
Bahrain
8) Crackdown in Bahrain Hints of End to Reforms
Thanassis Cambanis, New York Times, August 26, 2010
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/27/world/middleeast/27bahrain.html
Manama, Bahrain – The three women in head scarves and black abayas surged into the main atrium of the Seef Mall at 11 p.m. the other night, unfurling a banner outside the Next clothing boutique that read, "It is forbidden to arbitrarily arrest and detain people."
A picture was taken, and in less than a minute they had dispersed. As they tried to leave, more than a dozen plainclothes and uniformed police officers surrounded one of them, Fakhria al-Singace, pinning her spread-eagled on a cafe table. "You have no right to arrest me!" she shouted.
"Shut your mouth!" a female officer said as she tried to handcuff Ms. Singace, pulling off her cloaklike abaya in the process. Officers shooed shoppers away and questioned a journalist.
The arrest at one of Bahrain’s busiest late-night spots occurred in the second week of a sweeping crackdown in this island kingdom in the Persian Gulf, a strategic American ally that is home to the United States Navy’s Fifth Fleet and that appears to be reconsidering its decade-long flirtation with reform.
Contentious parliamentary elections, in which the Sunni governing family could lose some power to the restive Shiite majority, are scheduled for Oct. 23. Bahrain’s rulers worry that tensions between the West and Iran could provoke instability here, partly because of the close ties between the Shiites and Iran, and partly because of the American naval base, though Bahrain has said it will not allow any attack on neighboring countries from its soil.
Initially, the arrests seemed to single out high-profile Shiite political and human rights leaders, but by Thursday the number of detainees had swelled to 159, and appeared to include many young men not known as activists. The government said the detainees were suspected of security and terrorism violations, and were not being held for expressing dissident political views.
"The king said 10 years ago we would have freedom," said Sheik Mohammed Ali al-Mahfoodh, a Shiite cleric and opposition leader who backs an election boycott. "The experiment is now over."
[…] The government said this week that it would no longer tolerate unrest among the Shiite majority, who make up about two-thirds of the population but are barred from many government jobs and face a chronic housing shortage.
Detainees can be held in secret for 15 days under Bahrain’s anti-terrorism statutes, which are applied to people who criticize the government or take part in riots and tire burnings. Those convicted of compromising national security or slandering the nation can be deprived of health care and other state services, the government said.
[…] "The government wanted only decorative democracy," said Khalil Ibrahim al-Marzook, a member of Parliament from the opposition Shiite party Al Wefaq. "Now it is hijacking everything."
Allegations of torture and police brutality circulate daily. A 23-year-old man nicknamed Abu Maryam showed marks on his ankles and feet, which he said were struck with hoses when he was interrogated about tire burnings.
Still, Shiite youth are continuing to set the fires that so frustrate the government, burning electricity pylons, wiring and traffic lights as well as tires. On a recent night, one 24-year-old said the crackdown would only intensify Shiite anger. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he takes part in the nightly operations, posting photographs of burnings and clashes to opposition Web sites. "We aren’t provoking violence," he said. "All we do is burn tires. We don’t hurt anybody. The government won’t give us permits to protest peacefully."
Shiite clerics and Wefaq leaders have condemned such acts but have rallied the anger of constituents against the government, which they maintain treats Shiites as second-class citizens.
This year, opposition politicians united across sectarian lines to investigate official corruption. Sunni and Shiite legislators collaborated on a report that accused the royal family of illegally appropriating one-tenth of Bahrain’s scarce public land.
Opposition leaders have also accused the United States of turning a blind eye.
[…] "The government is using anti-terrorism laws, but only against opposition members and human rights activists," said Nabeel Rajab, director of the Bahrain Center for Human Rights. "Bahrain should be in the Guinness Book of World Records. This is a country that has discovered 20 supposed coup attempts in the last 20 years."
Colombia
9) Bogota Unlikely To Redo U.S. Base Pact
Benjamin Birnbaum, The Washington Times, Thursday, August 26, 2010,
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2010/aug/26/bogota-unlikely-to-redo-us-base-pact/
A U.S.-Colombia military basing agreement that was blocked last week by Colombia’s highest court is not likely to be renegotiated, Colombian officials told The Washington Times on Thursday.
Following a Constitutional Court ruling striking down the agreement, saying it required congressional approval, the Colombian government appears content to continue joint cooperation against narco-traffickers and leftist guerrillas under current arrangements without a new pact, said officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity.
"Even though the agreement would be able to go through Congress without a problem, it would cause a lot of problems," said one official, who noted the possibility of another blowup with neighboring Venezuela or an outcry from domestic opponents of the pact.
The basing agreement would have locked in the current arrangements for 10 years regarding the hundreds of U.S. military and civilian personnel stationed at seven Colombian bases. Negotiations began during the George W. Bush administration, and the deal was signed in October.
The official said his government is still evaluating different courses of action, but that he is "99 percent sure" the government would not seek legislative approval of the agreement during the current legislative session, which ends in December.
[…] Asked whether the Colombian government in Bogota might seek a renegotiation of the deal, he said, "The chances are not good in the near term. I would say it’s 80 percent likely that there will be no new negotiations over the next year."
[…] Inter-American Dialogue President Michael Shifter said the administrations of Mr. Bush and Colombian President Alvaro Uribe had been eager to push through the deal to cement U.S.-Colombia security ties, and that "the Obama administration did not carefully consider the political and strategic implications of the agreement."
[…]
10) Santos backs Calderon on drug legalization debate.
Kirsten Begg, Colombia Reports, Thursday, 26 August 2010
http://colombiareports.com/colombia-news/news/11522-santos-seeks-united-stance-on-drug-legalization.html
Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos on Wednesday declared his support for Mexican President Felipe Calderon’s call for a discussion on drug legalization. "We are entering an era of the narco-trafficking business where one must have these type of reflections," he said. "President Calderon is right to call for this to be discussed, without meaning that one is in agreement or not with the position of legalization."
The Colombian president announced that he will seek to form a united stance with Mexico and Peru on the legalization issue if the U.S. state of California votes to legalize marijuana consumption in a referendum scheduled for November.
Santos said that along with Mexico and Peru, "we are affected by this scourge of drug trafficking, we must sit down to work out how we are going to react and what is going to happen after this referendum."
[…] Santos however criticized the legalization proposal, saying that if California were to legalize marijuana consumption, "how would we explain to an indigenous person on a Colombian mountain that producing marijuana is illegal and take him to jail, or destroy the marijuana, when in the U.S. it is legal to consume it?" Santos said.
[…] In 1998 Santos, in his capacity as head of the Good Government Foundation, co-signed an open letter addressed to Kofi Annan, then-U.N. secretary general, calling for "a frank and honest evaluation of global drug control efforts," as "we believe that the global war on drugs is now causing more harm than drug abuse itself."
[…]
Cuba
11) Cuba embraces 2 surprising free-market reforms
Will Weissert, Associated Press, Friday, August 27, 2010
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/08/27/AR2010082703712.html
Havana – Cuba has issued a pair of surprising free-market decrees, allowing foreign investors to lease government land for up to 99 years – potentially touching off a golf-course building boom – and loosening state controls on commerce to let islanders grow and sell their own fruit and vegetables.
The moves, published into law in the Official Gazette on Thursday and Friday and effective immediately, are significant steps as President Raul Castro promises to scale back the communist state’s control of the economy while attempting to generate new revenue for a government short on cash.
[…] Cuba said it was modifying its property laws "with the aim of amplifying and facilitating" foreign investment in tourism, and that doing so would provide "better security and guarantees to the foreign investor."
A small army of investors in Canada, Europe and Asia have been waiting to crack the market for long-term tourism in Cuba, built on drawing well-heeled visitors who could live part-time on the island instead of just hitting the beach for a few days.
[…] "I think this is huge. This is probably one of the most significant moves in recent years relative to attracting foreign investment," said Robin Conors, CEO of Vancouver-based Leisure Canada, which plans to begin construction next year on a luxury hotel in Havana and also wants to build hotels, villas and two championship golf courses on a stretch of beach in Jibacoa, 40 miles (60 kilometers) to the east.
Cuba has allowed leases of state land for up to 50 years with the option to extend them for an additional 25, but foreign investors had long pressed tourism officials to endorse 99-year deals to provide additional peace of mind to investors. The longer leases also mean lower interest rates on international banking mortgages.
[…] The decree allowing expanded sale of farm products, meanwhile, could have far greater impact on ordinary Cubans. It authorizes them to produce their own agricultural goods – from melons to milk – and sell them from home or in kiosks. They must pay taxes on any earnings.
The decree is the first major expansion of self-employment rules since Castro said in an address before parliament Aug. 1 that the government would reduce state controls on small businesses – a big deal in a country where about 95 percent of people work for the state.
[…] Cubans already sell fruits, pork, cheese and other items on the sides of highways, fleeing into the bushes when the police happen past. Friday’s measure would legalize such practices, while ensuring the state takes a cut of the profits.
The new rules are consistent with other efforts by Castro’s government, which has allowed minor free-market openings while also seeking to eliminate black-market income. Authorities have approved more licenses for private taxis while getting tough on unauthorized gypsy cabs. They also made it easier to get permits for home improvements and increased access to building materials, while more strictly enforcing prohibitions against illegal building.
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Robert Naiman
Just Foreign Policy
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