sent by Simon McGuinness [What's sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander. If it is OK for Israel to invade southern Lebanon to root out terrorists attaching its homeland, then clearly the same is true for Turkey in relation to northern Iraq. That's the trouble with the longstanding US policy of making up rules that favour yourself at the expense of international law.
Iran, the biggest winner so far from the Bush regime's diplomatic and military incompetence in the region, is also considerably strengthened by being surrounded by nations in conflict with the USA and its proxies. The Ahmadinejad government gives every indication of being prepared to bide its time and simply wait for the fruit to fall. Meanwhile, the value and strategic importance of its oil exports climbs inexorably. -SMcG.] The Independent - 19 July 2006 http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/article1185357.ece Turkey risks US anger over plan to attack Kurds By Louis Meixler in Ankara The Turkish army may move into northern Iraq if violence by Turkish-Kurdish guerrillas continues, officials said yesterday. Such a move could put Turkey on a collision course with the United States, which has repeatedly warned against unilateral action in Iraq. But the Turkish government is facing increasing domestic pressure to act after 15 soldiers, police and guards were killed in fighting with the guerrillas in the past week. "The government is really in a bind," said Seyfi Tashan, the director of the Foreign Policy Institute at Bilkent University in Ankara. "On the one hand they don't want things to break down with the United States. On the other hand, the public is crying for action." Diplomats cautioned that the increasingly aggressive Turkish statements were probably aimed at calming public anger. But they also increase pressure on the US and Iraq to act against the rebels, who are based in northern Iraq's rugged Qandil mountains. US officials in Turkey and Washington are said to be pressing their Turkish counterparts to work with them to fight the guerrillas rather than act alone. Any operation is unlikely to take place before the end of August, when the current military chief of staff will be replaced by an officer widely regarded as a hardliner. The plans range from limited artillery and air strikes on guerrilla bases to attacks by commando forces or a broader ground offensive. American officials, including the US Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice, have repeatedly warned Turkey against entering northern Iraq, which is one of the few stable areas of the troubled country. --- US at Odds With Allies on Mideast Conflict By Robin Wright and Colum Lynch The Washington Post Thursday 20 July 2006 Citing civilian casualties, European nations and UN eager for cease-fire. The United States faces growing tensions with allies over its support of Israel's military campaign to cripple Hezbollah, amid calls for a cease-fire to help with the mounting humanitarian crisis. European allies are particularly alarmed about the disproportionately high civilian death toll in Lebanon. They are also concerned that the U.S. position will increase tensions between the Islamic world and the West by fueling militants, playing into the rhetoric of Osama bin Laden and adding to the problems of the U.S.-led coalition force in Iraq. "What there needs to be now is a cessation of hostilities," U.N. Deputy Secretary General Mark Malloch Brown told reporters yesterday. "The Middle East is littered with the results of people believing there are military solutions to political problems in the region." He said civilians are "very unfairly bearing the greatest brunt of the conflict." The fragile Lebanese government has pleaded for a cease-fire, and France has urged the U.N. Security Council to adopt a resolution calling for an end to hostilities, proposing political and security measures. France also has called for "humanitarian corridors" to guarantee safety for civilians fleeing areas under fire. More than 500,000 people - about one in eight in a country smaller than Connecticut - have been displaced, according to the Lebanese government. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice will head to the United Nations tonight to begin talks on the crisis and a possible stabilization force along the border. Few specifics have been developed about the goals, size, location and timing of such a force, U.N. and European officials said. The United Nations has floated the idea of expanding a 2,000-strong U.N. force that has been in Lebanon since Israel's first incursion, in 1978. But Israel and the United States say that option is not viable. Rice is now expected to travel to the Middle East as soon as this weekend, but with a limited listening mission in Israel and Egypt. The United States is still struggling to define the timing and purpose of her mission. She is tentatively expected to leave a team behind in Israel, head on to Malaysia for a conference of Southeast Asian nations, and possibly return to the Middle East for further negotiations if her team can put the right "building blocks" in place, a U.S. official said. The United States is increasingly out of sync with key allies, however, because it remains content to allow Israel to pound Hezbollah, both to remove it as a threat and to undermine the region's extremist movements and hard-line regimes. European nations and U.N. officials are eager for a cease-fire or "pause" to allow Lebanese civilians to move to safer areas and investigate diplomatic avenues, as well as prevent other Middle East hot spots from becoming inflamed, European envoys said. The one thing that is guaranteed to send the Arab world and the Persian world over the edge is for the U.S. to be seen ultimately to be doing what they always believed - to be fully in cahoots with Israel," said a European official who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of diplomatic relations. "The danger of allowing it to continue is that the United States is more and more despised. It's not like the U.S. had a good reputation within the region to start with." The White House vehemently denied it is coordinating with Israel or "sitting around at the war map saying 'Do this, this and this,' " press secretary Tony Snow said. "We're not colluding, we're not cooperating, we're not conspiring, we're not doing any of that," he told reporters. "The Israelis are doing what they think is necessary to protect their borders." The State Department also tried to stress the basic international agreement on Hezbollah as the cause of the conflict. "I don't think anybody disagrees on the desire to end the violence in the region, but let's remember what the root causes of the violence are," spokesman Sean McCormack said. But underscoring the differences with Europeans and other allies, a senior administration official said yesterday that the time is not yet ripe for a diplomatic solution. "The conditions that the G-8 [Group of Eight industrialized nations] talked about are not in place to get a real and permanent cease-fire that addresses the fundamental problems of the region," he said. U.S. support for Israel is also taking a toll on close coordination between the United States and France, which has been critical in fostering stability in the former French mandate country. That cooperation included a joint resolution that called for and achieved an end to Syria's 29-year occupation of Lebanon. The two countries now appear seriously divided over the next step in resolving the crisis. *** CSPG featured in World Premiere PEACE PRESS film YOU are invited to this stelar event, as one of only three documentary features in the week-long 9th Annual "Dances With Films" Festival, when it screens this Saturday, July 22nd, 10:30am, at Laemmle's Fairfax 3 7907 Beverly Blvd., just west of Fairfax 95-min. feature-length digital-video documentary: "PatriotS Act... PEACE PRESS: the People's Printing Collective" Dissent is not disloyalty but rather an expression of 1st Amendment rights. Art can be both commercial and a weapon. What 'Woodstock' was to a film generation, the Peace Press was to graphic arts. The times have changed but not the causes for which "PatriotS Act...!" Beginning with a July 2002 Reunion of Peace Press families that was motivated by the 'stolen' Presidential Election of 2000 and 'eroding' civil liberties in "post-9/11" society, an independent DV production-workshop crew (from Los Angeles Valley College's Media Arts Dept.) went in search of the PEACE PRESS "alumni" and its artworks...and 'lessons' from the past that might apply today. >From 28 hours of interviews, including Carol Wells and a tour of CSPG, 22 hours of newsreels, home movies, still photos, posters, bumper stickers, and memorabilia, featuring 300+ artwork shots and 400+ historical visuals, comes the 95-min. feature-length digital-video documentary: "PatriotS Act... PEACE PRESS: the People's Printing Collective" and... Saturday, July 22nd 10:30am, at Laemmle's Fairfax 3 7907 Beverly Blvd., just west of Fairfax For more info & advanced tickets, go to www.danceswithfilms.com ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~--> Something is new at Yahoo! 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