Just Foreign Policy News
September 1, 2006
Summary:
U.S. Politics
President Bush said Thursday that withdrawing now from Iraq would leave Americans at risk of terrorist attacks "in the streets of our own cities." As Bush spoke, a series of explosions ripped through Baghdad, providing more images of a sort that he acknowledged have been "sometimes unsettling" to the public. A year and a half after going AWOL before his second deployment to Iraq, a Army Spc. Mark Wilkerson surrendered at Fort Hood Thursday with a dozen war protesters by his side. ''I just could not in good conscience go back to a war I felt was wrong,'' he said. Under assault from Republicans on issues of national security, congressional Democrats are planning to push for a vote of no confidence in Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld this month as part of a broad effort to stay on the offensive ahead of the November midterm elections. Democrats and some Republicans have maintained that Bush has never held anyone in his administration accountable for decisions in the Iraq war that many military analysts say went disastrously wrong.
Iran
The International Atomic Energy Agency reported that inspectors had discovered traces of highly enriched uranium at an Iranian facility. The particles were taken from the container for testing a year ago. As expected, the report confirmed that Iran had continued producing enriched uranium, but only on a small scale and at relatively low levels. Iran remained defiant Thursday, ignoring a deadline set by the UN Security Council to suspend enrichment of uranium or face the threat of economic and political sanctions.
Iraq
A series of explosions ripped through predominantly Shiite neighborhoods in eastern Baghdad on Thursday evening, killing at least 43 people and pushing the death toll for the day to 53, Iraqi police officials reported. Nearly 200 people were wounded, adding to a week of bloody attacks throughout the country. Since Sunday, more than 300 Iraqis have been killed in bombings, murders and a deadly pipeline explosion. The recent surge in bombings calls into question the long-term effectiveness of a joint American-Iraqi security offensive in Baghdad.
Lebanon
Secretary General Annan cited numbers from the UN forces on Tuesday indicating that Israel had violated the cease-fire nearly 70 times, while Hezbollah had done so only 4 times. But the Israelis do not believe there is a cease-fire to violate. UN secretary general Annan plans to confront Syrian president Assad with reports that Syria is permitting arms to cross its border illegally into Lebanon and to demand an end to the traffic on Friday. Officials said Annan would challenge Assad to establish diplomatic relations with Lebanon and settle a long-festering dispute over the two countries' borders. The Lebanese army has deployed across the rocky hillsides and stone villages between the Litani River and the Israeli border. But the deployment has not displaced Hezbollah, the Washington Post reports.
Mexico
Riot police, steel barriers, and water cannons surrounded Mexico's Congress as protesters vowed to stop President Vicente Fox from delivering his final state-of-the-nation address Friday, fueling fears the country's electoral crisis could turn violent.
In this issue:
U.S. Politics
1)In Latest Push, Bush Cites Risk in Quitting Iraq
2)AWOL Soldier Surrenders After 19 Months
3)Democrats Target Rumsfeld: Lawmakers to Seek a Vote of No Confidence in Defense Secretary
Iran
4)Highly Enriched Uranium Found at Iranian Plant
5)Iran Remains Steadfast in Pursuing Nuclear Plans as U.N. Deadline Arrives
Iraq
6)Car Bomb and Rockets Kill 43 in Baghdad's Shiite Strongholds
Lebanon
7)Villagers See Violations of a Cease-Fire That Israel Says Doesn't Exist
8)Annan to Ask Syria to Keep Arms From Crossing Its Border
9)As Lebanon's Troops Deploy, Hezbollah Stays Put in South
10)Israeli Army Quits Occupied Border Area
Mexico
11)Mexico Protesters Vow to Stop Fox Address
Contents:
U.S. Politics
1)In Latest Push, Bush Cites Risk in Quitting Iraq
Anne E. Kornblut And Sheryl Gay Stolberg, New York Times, September 1, 2006
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/01/washington/01bush.html
President Bush said Thursday that withdrawing now from Iraq would leave Americans at risk of terrorist attacks "in the streets of our own cities," and he cast the struggle against Islamic extremists as the costly but necessary successor to the battles of the last century against Nazism and Communism. The speech, the first of five addresses on national security Bush plans to deliver between now and Sept. 19, was part of an orchestrated White House offensive to buttress public support for the Iraq war and portray Democrats as less capable of protecting the country, a theme that has proved effective for Republicans in the past two elections. Even as Bush spoke, a series of explosions ripped through Baghdad, providing more images of a sort that he acknowledged have been "sometimes unsettling" to the public.
2)AWOL Soldier Surrenders After 19 Months
Associated Press, September 1, 2006, Filed at 12:35 a.m. ET
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/us/AP-AWOL-Soldier.html
A year and a half after going AWOL before his second deployment to Iraq, a soldier surrendered at Fort Hood on Thursday with a dozen war protesters by his side. Army Spc. Mark Wilkerson said he was tired of running and sought help from Cindy Sheehan's protest camp in nearby Crawford, which helps educate soldiers about their rights as war resisters. ''I just could not in good conscience go back to a war I felt was wrong,'' Wilkerson, 22, of Colorado Springs, Colo., said at Sheehan's camp before the 40-mile trip to the post near Killeen where he had been stationed.
3)Democrats Target Rumsfeld: Lawmakers to Seek a Vote of No Confidence in Defense Secretary
Jonathan Weisman, Washington Post, Friday, September 1, 2006; A09
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/08/31/AR2006083101531.html
Under assault from Republicans on issues of national security, congressional Democrats are planning to push for a vote of no confidence in Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld this month as part of a broad effort to stay on the offensive ahead of the November midterm elections. In Rumsfeld, Democrats believe they have found both a useful antagonist and a stand-in for President Bush and what they see as his blunders in Iraq. This week, Democrats interpreted a speech of his as equating critics of the war in Iraq to appeasers of Adolf Hitler, an interpretation that Pentagon spokesman Eric Ruff disputed. But Democrats said the hyperbolic attack would backfire. But even before that, Democrats and some Republicans had maintained that Bush has never held anyone in his administration accountable for decisions in the Iraq war that many military analysts say went disastrously wrong.
Iran
4)Highly Enriched Uranium Found at Iranian Plant
Elaine Sciolino, New York Times, September 1, 2006
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/01/world/middleeast/01vienna.html
The global nuclear monitoring agency deepened suspicions on Thursday about Iran's nuclear program, reporting that inspectors had discovered new traces of highly enriched uranium at an Iranian facility. Inspectors have found such uranium, which at extreme enrichment levels can fuel bombs, twice in the past. The International Atomic Energy Agency concluded that at least some of those samples came from contaminated equipment that Iran had obtained from Pakistan. But in this case, the nuclear fingerprint of the particles did not match the other samples raising questions about their origin. The particles were taken from the container for testing a year ago, but the agency obtained the result only a few weeks ago because of the limited capacity of its verification laboratory. In a six-page report to the UN Security Council, the agency withheld judgment about where the material came from and whether it could be linked to a secret nuclear program. As expected, the report confirmed that Iran had continued producing enriched uranium, but only on a small scale and at relatively low levels, at its vast Natanz facility. Indeed, Iran has built and operated only one 164-machine cascade or set of centrifuges, and other isolated machines. Over the summer, the centrifuges did not produce enriched uranium continuously, but only for a few days and then often operated empty, the report said. In addition, only a few kilograms of nuclear material was fed into the machines; only a small amount of uranium - tens of grams - was enriched.
5)Iran Remains Steadfast in Pursuing Nuclear Plans as U.N. Deadline Arrives
Michael Slackman, New York Times, September 1, 2006
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/01/world/middleeast/01iran.html
Iran remained defiant Thursday, ignoring a deadline set by the UN Security Council to suspend enrichment of uranium or face the threat of economic and political sanctions, which could choke its access to international banks and block the ability of its officials to travel abroad. Iran's officials did not flatly reject the deadline. But for months they have remained adamant about pursuing enrichment, having turned the issue into a matter of national pride. In domestic political terms, they could hardly have reversed course at this point without risking a loss of face and credibility. Since election in June 2005, Iran's president Ahmadinejad, has been the public face of Iranian defiance to the West, and he was again on Thursday. As other Iranian officials worked foreign capitals to press their case and block sanctions, the president traveled to the northwest of Iran where he again denounced what he called "arrogant powers." "They claim to be supporting freedom, but they support the most tyrannical governments in the world to pursue their own interests," he said at a crowded stadium. "They talk about human rights while maintaining the most notorious prisons." In images broadcast on state television across Iran, the audience cheered the president while chanting: "Nuclear energy is our inalienable right."
Iraq
6)Car Bomb and Rockets Kill 43 in Baghdad's Shiite Strongholds
Edward Wong, New York Times, September 1, 2006
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/01/world/middleeast/01iraq.html
A series of explosions ripped through predominantly Shiite neighborhoods in eastern Baghdad on Thursday evening, killing at least 43 people and pushing the death toll for the day to 53, Iraqi police officials reported. Nearly 200 people were wounded, adding to a week of bloody attacks throughout the country. Since Sunday, more than 300 Iraqis have been killed in bombings, murders and a deadly pipeline explosion that occurred when security forces were diverted from their normal duties to fight Shiite militiamen. The violence is generally believed to be the work of insurgents, militias and criminal gangs embroiled in Sunni-Shiite sectarian strife. The recent surge in bombings calls into question the long-term effectiveness of a joint American-Iraqi security offensive in Baghdad. The security measures are expected to contribute to a relatively low civilian death toll in August, but there are increasing questions about whether that can be sustained. The attack in eastern Baghdad appeared to be a well-organized strike on areas controlled by the Mahdi Army, a powerful Shiite militia led by Moktada al-Sadr. Iraqi officials expressed fears that Thursday's onslaught could ignite a wave of revenge killings by Shiite militiamen in the coming days, continuing a pattern of reprisals in the Sunni-Shiite conflict.
Lebanon
7)Villagers See Violations of a Cease-Fire That Israel Says Doesn't Exist
Robert F. Worth, New York Times, September 1, 2006
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/01/world/middleeast/01lebanon.html
As it became clear the firing was just the Israeli tanks again up on the hillside above town, they went back to their routines. The shooting - and occasional mortar fire - goes on regularly around the village of Aita al Shaab. To local people, it is sheer provocation, and a flagrant breach of the cease-fire that ended the fighting on Aug. 14. To the Israelis, it is legitimate self-defense. Aita al Shaab "still has many Hezbollah fighters in it," said an Israeli government spokeswoman. "They don't wear uniforms and are wary about showing their weapons, and we use all means to differentiate between those with weapons and those without." The shooting underscores two fundamentally different views of the uneasy truce that has held in southern Lebanon for the past two weeks. Secretary General Annan cited numbers from the UN forces on Tuesday indicating that Israel had violated the cease-fire nearly 70 times, while Hezbollah had done so only 4 times. But the Israelis do not believe there is a cease-fire to violate. "We are at a cessation of hostilities in Lebanon, not a cease-fire," the spokeswoman said. She added that Israel had the explicit right to self-defense under UN Resolution 1701, which does not use the term cease-fire. That difference is apparent every day across southern Lebanon. Israeli tanks crisscross the dry brown hills, shooting into the fields and smashing up houses and stone walls. Teams of Israeli soldiers have planted their nation's flag atop bluffs here and sometimes detained Lebanese men, releasing them days later. No one seems to know where the mobile Israeli units are based, or how to avoid them. Amid all that, the blue-helmeted UN soldiers sit in their vehicles like helpless tourists, many unable to speak Arabic or English.
8)Annan to Ask Syria to Keep Arms From Crossing Its Border
Warren Hoge, New York Times, September 1, 2006
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/01/world/middleeast/01nations.html
UN secretary general Annan plans to confront Syrian president Assad with reports that Syria is permitting arms to cross its border illegally into Lebanon and to demand an end to the traffic when the two meet on Friday. Officials at the UN said Annan would challenge Assad to establish diplomatic relations with Lebanon and settle a long-festering dispute over the two countries' borders. The officials noted that all the steps were obligations of Syria's in the unanimously adopted Security Council resolution that called for a halt to the fighting between Hezbollah and Israel on Aug. 14.
9)As Lebanon's Troops Deploy, Hezbollah Stays Put in South
Across the Region, Militia and Army Operate in Parallel
Edward Cody, Washington Post, Friday, September 1, 2006; A11
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/08/31/AR2006083101574.html
The Lebanese army has deployed across the rocky hillsides and stone villages between the Litani River and the Israeli border. But the deployment has not displaced Hezbollah. In Al Ghandouriyeh and a number of other villages, Hezbollah flags flew, often alongside Lebanese flags. Hezbollah members staffed reconstruction offices, held town council meetings and stood at their own checkpoints in what seemed to be cordial coexistence with the recently arrived army troops. No weapons were visible except those carried by soldiers. But many of the young Hezbollah supporters were of fighting age and seemed ready for another call-up if the need arose. In the agreement that led to the army's deployment, Hezbollah pledged that its fighters would put away their weapons. But the Lebanese government promised Hezbollah in return that its soldiers would not try to find out where the arms were stored. The deal seemed to be working Thursday in Al Ghandouriyeh, six miles northwest of the Israeli border. Heavy fighting raged here in the final days of the war as Israeli troops who had been helicoptered in encountered unexpectedly stiff resistance from Hezbollah defenders. The men of Al Ghandouriyeh openly displayed pride in what they had accomplished on the battlefield and seemed to have nothing to fear from the army troops lounging nearby.
10)Israeli Army Quits Occupied Border Area
Associated Press, Friday, September 1, 2006; A11
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/08/31/AR2006083101212.html
The Israeli army turned over a small border area in southern Lebanon to Lebanese and foreign troops Thursday, a symbolic move paving the way for U.N. peacekeepers to go into the volatile region. On Wednesday, Israeli troops withdrew from 12 square miles on the border near the Israeli town of Metulla, putting Lebanese and U.N. troops in control of a section of the border for the first time since the early 1980s, the Israeli military said. Lebanon said its army sent reconnaissance teams to the area and had begun deploying troops there. The peacekeeping force, known as UNIFIL, confirmed that Lebanese troops were moving into the area and said small numbers of soldiers from other countries were also deploying. The pullback came as about 60 governments and aid groups promised more than $940 million for reconstruction and called on Israel to lift its blockade.
Mexico
11)Mexico Protesters Vow to Stop Fox Address
Julie Watson, Associated Press, Friday, September 1, 2006; 1:24 AM
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/08/31/AR2006083101268.html
Riot police, steel barriers, and water cannons surrounded Mexico's Congress as protesters vowed to stop President Vicente Fox from delivering his final state-of-the-nation address Friday, fueling fears the country's electoral crisis could turn violent. Fox's aides have said the president will arrive at Congress no matter what for the annual political ritual. But he may not reach the podium. On Thursday, Interior Secretary Carlos Abascal said the president of the legislature, Jorge Zermeno, will decide if conditions are appropriate for Fox to deliver his address. Zermeno is a member of Fox's National Action Party. Presidential candidate Lopez Obrador, who claims fraud robbed him of victory in the July 2 vote, has not ruled out sitting with allied lawmakers who have promised to disrupt the speech. Lopez Obrador also has called on his supporters to gather hours earlier in the nearby main Zocalo plaza for a rally that some fear could turn a mostly peaceful civil resistance movement into a full-blown rebellion. Thousands of protesters are already blocking the capital's center with weeks-old tent camps draped with banners calling Fox a "traitor to democracy." The standoff comes days as the top electoral court appears likely to resolve the presidential election in favor of Felipe Calderon, the candidate of Fox's National Action Party. Some lawmakers, worried about a confrontation, have urged Fox to stay at the presidential residence and give his speech over a video link. Others have said he should submit his annual written report in person - as specified in the constitution - and leave.
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Robert Naiman
Just Foreign Policy
www.justforeignpolicy.org
