Just Foreign Policy News September 26, 2006 http://www.justforeignpolicy.org/newsroom/index.html
Summary: U.S. An EU panel has serious doubts about the legality of a Bush administration program that monitors international financial transactions, the group's leader said Monday, and plans to recommend tighter controls to prevent privacy abuses. The Bush administration successfully pressed for a less restrictive description of how it could designate civilians as "unlawful enemy combatants." Kate Martin of the Center for National Security Studies said by including those who "supported hostilities" - rather than those who "engage in acts" against the US - the government intends the legislation to sanction seizure and indefinite detention of people far from the battlefield. The conduct of the Iraq war fueled Islamic fundamentalism and created more enemies for the US, a retired U.S. Army general who served in the conflict said Monday. The Army's top officer withheld a required 2008 budget plan from Pentagon leaders last month after protesting to Defense Secretary Rumsfeld that the service could not maintain its current level of activity in Iraq plus other global commitments without billions in additional funding, the Los Angeles Times reported yesterday. 55 per cent of US respondents believe the situation in Iraq was not worth going to war over, according to a poll by Bloomberg and the Los Angeles Times. 63 per cent of respondents believe neither side is winning the war. Iran U.S. Secretary of State Rice said she did not support a gasoline embargo on Iran as a way of punishing Tehran for refusing to give up its uranium enrichment program. "I'm not sure that it would have the desired effect,'' she said. "You want to stay away from things that have a bad effect on the Iranian people to the degree that you can,'' she said. The comments appear to represent a more enlightened position on the question of the impact of sanctions on civilians than the views expressed by US officials during the Clinton Administration regarding sanctions on Iraq. Iran is close to a deal that would include a temporary suspension of uranium enrichment and clear the way for nuclear talks but Tehran wants to keep the agreement secret, the Washington Times reported Tuesday. The leaking of the information by a Bush Administration official raises questions about the motivations of the official and whether European officials should be more circumspect in sharing information with their US counterparts. Russia will ship fuel to a controversial atomic power plant it is building in Iran by March under a deal signed Tuesday, news agencies reported. Lebanon Up to a million unexploded cluster bomblets are now the biggest threat to civilians in south Lebanon, U.N. agencies said Tuesday. Fourteen people have been killed and 90 wounded by unexploded ordnance since the end of the war, with all the fatalities and most of the injuries caused by cluster munitions. The U.N. Mine Action Coordination Center said Israel had yet to provide detailed information on the amounts of cluster bombs fired or the coordinates of the strikes. Israel and an international peacekeeping force have yet to agree on rules of engagement in south Lebanon that would enable Israeli troops to complete a planned pullout, Israeli Defense Minister Peretz said Tuesday. Peretz's comments seemed to suggest a full withdrawal would take place by the start of the Jewish day of atonement, Yom Kippur, at sundown Sunday. Pakistan The CIA paid Pakistan millions of dollars for handing over more than 350 suspected al-Qaeda terrorists to the US, Pakistani President Musharraf has reportedly said. The assertions come in the military ruler's upcoming memoir "In the Line of Fire." Such payments are banned by the US government. A Department of Justice official said: "We didn't know about this. It should not happen. These bounty payments are for private individuals who help to trace terrorists on the FBI's most wanted list, not foreign governments." Thailand Last week was not the first time Thailand's monarch had given his blessing to a military takeover. A new history of the modern Thai monarchy argues that in his 60-year reign King Bhumibol Adulyadej has put the preservation of the monarchy ahead of a democratic Thailand. The book, "The King Never Smiles," challenges years of royal image-making that projects a king beyond politics, a man of peace, good works and Buddhist humility. Bolivia Many Bolivians had hoped the election of Morales as president would end the instability marked by seven presidents in six years, the New York Times reports. But nine months into his term, Morales seems beset on all sides. The president is now being portrayed by some former supporters as a lackey of foreign interests and the country's light-skinned elite. Meanwhile, the president faces unrest in eastern provinces, where the elite of mostly European descent are pushing for more autonomy. Contents: U.S. 1) Europe Panel Faults Sifting of Bank Data Eric Lichtblau, New York Times, September 26, 2006 http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/26/us/26swift.html An EU panel has serious doubts about the legality of a Bush administration program that monitors international financial transactions, the group's leader said Monday, and plans to recommend tighter controls to prevent privacy abuses. "We don't see the legal basis under the European law, and we see the need for some changes," said Peter Schaar, a German official who leads the panel. The group is to deliver a report this week, and Schaar said he expected it to conclude that the program might violate European law restricting government access to confidential banking records. The program allows analysts from the CIA and other American intelligence agencies to search for possible terrorist financing activity among millions of largely international financial transactions that are processed by a banking cooperative known as Swift. The EU panel will not call for the program to be stopped, officials said. But it is expected to recommend that additional safeguards be put in place to check how financial records are shared with American intelligence officials. 2) Detainee Measure to Have Fewer Restrictions White House Reaches Accord With Lawmakers R. Jeffrey Smith, Washington Post, Tuesday, September 26, 2006; A01 http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/09/25/AR2006092501514.html Republican lawmakers and the White House agreed over the weekend to alter new legislation on military commissions to allow the US to detain and try a wider range of foreign nationals than an earlier version of the bill permitted. Lawmakers and administration officials announced last week that they had reached accord on the plan for the detention and military trials of suspected terrorists; it is scheduled for a vote this week. But in recent days the Bush administration and its House allies successfully pressed for a less restrictive description of how the government could designate civilians as "unlawful enemy combatants," sources said. The government has maintained that anyone it labels an unlawful enemy combatant can be held indefinitely at military or CIA prisons. But Congress has not yet expressed its view on who is an unlawful combatant, and the Supreme Court has not ruled directly on the matter. Human rights experts expressed concern yesterday that the language in the new provision would be a precedent-setting congressional endorsement for the indefinite detention of anyone who, as the bill states, "has engaged in hostilities or who has purposefully and materially supported hostilities against the US" or its military allies. The definition applies to foreigners living inside or outside the US and does not rule out the possibility of designating a U.S. citizen as an unlawful combatant. It is broader than that in last week's version of the bill, which resulted from lengthy negotiations between senior administration officials and dissident Republican senators. That version incorporated a definition backed by Senate dissidents: those "engaged in hostilities against the US." The new provision, which would cover captives held by the CIA, is more expansive than the one incorporated by the Defense Department on Sept. 5 in new rules that govern the treatment of detainees in military custody. The military's definition of unlawful combatants covers only "those who engage in acts against the US or its coalition partners in violation of the laws of war and customs of war during an armed conflict." Kate Martin, director of the Center for National Security Studies, said that by including those who "supported hostilities" - rather than those who "engage in acts" against the US - the government intends the legislation to sanction its seizure and indefinite detention of people far from the battlefield. 3) Iraq war fuels Islamic radicals: retired U.S. general Susan Cornwell, Reuters, Monday, September 25, 2006; 11:29 PM http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/09/25/AR2006092500584.html The conduct of the Iraq war fueled Islamic fundamentalism across the globe and created more enemies for the US, a retired U.S. Army general who served in the conflict said on Monday. The views of retired Army Maj. Gen. John Batiste buttressed an assessment by U.S. intelligence agencies, which intelligence officials said concluded the war had inspired Islamist extremists and made the militant movement more dangerous. The Iraq conflict made "America arguably less safe now than it was on September 11, 2001," Batiste, who commanded the 1st Infantry Division in Iraq in 2004-2005, told a hearing on the war called by Senate Democrats. "If we had seriously laid out and considered the full range of requirements for the war in Iraq, we would likely have taken a different course of action that would have maintained a clear focus on our main effort in Afghanistan, not fueled Islamic fundamentalism across the globe, and not created more enemies than there were insurgents," Batiste said. 4) Army Warns Rumsfeld It's Billions Short Peter Spiegel, Los Angeles Times, September 25, 2006 An extraordinary action by the chief of staff sends a message: The Pentagon must increase the budget or reduce commitments in Iraq and elsewhere. http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/washingtondc/la-na-military25sep25,1,7451974.story The Army's top officer withheld a required 2008 budget plan from Pentagon leaders last month after protesting to Defense Secretary Rumsfeld that the service could not maintain its current level of activity in Iraq plus other global commitments without billions in additional funding. The decision by Gen. Peter Schoomaker, Army chief of staff, is believed to be unprecedented and signals a widespread belief within the Army that in the absence of significant troop withdrawals from Iraq, funding assumptions must be completely reworked. "This is unusual, but hell, we're in unusual times," said a senior Pentagon official. Schoomaker failed to submit the budget plan by an Aug. 15 deadline. The protest followed a series of cuts in the service's funding requests by both the White House and Congress over the last four months. According to a senior Army official involved in budget talks, Schoomaker is now seeking $138.8 billion in 2008, nearly $25 billion above budget limits originally set by Rumsfeld. The Army's budget this year is $98.2 billion, making Schoomaker's request a 41% increase over current levels. "It's incredibly huge," said the Army official. Most funding for fighting in Iraq has come from annual emergency spending bills, with the regular defense budget going to normal personnel, procurement and operational expenses, such as salaries and new weapons systems. About $400 billion has been appropriated for the Iraq and Afghanistan wars through emergency funding measures. But in recent budget negotiations, Army officials argued that the service's expanding global role in the U.S.-declared war on terrorism as well as fast-growing personnel and equipment costs tied to the Iraq war, have put intense pressure on its normal budget. The Army, with an active-duty force of 504,000, has been stretched by the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. About 400,000 have done at least one tour of combat duty, and more than a third of those have been deployed twice. Commanders have increasingly complained of the strain, saying last week that sustaining current levels will require more help from the National Guard and Reserve or an increase in the active-duty force. 5) Americans Remain Upset with Iraq War Angus Reid Global Monitor : Polls & Research September 25, 2006 http://www.angus-reid.com/polls/index.cfm/fuseaction/viewItem/itemID/13276 Many adults in the US believe their government was wrong in launching the coalition effort, according to a poll by Bloomberg and the Los Angeles Times. 55 per cent of respondents believe the situation in Iraq was not worth going to war over. At least 2,695 American soldiers have died during the military operation, and more than 20,300 troops have been wounded in action. 63 per cent of respondents believe neither side is winning the war in Iraq. Iran 6) Rice Says She Would Not Back Gas Embargo on Iran Reuters, Filed at 1:44 a.m. ET, September 26, 2006 http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/washington/politics-nuclear-iran-rice.html U.S. Secretary of State Rice said she did not support a gasoline embargo on Iran as a way of punishing Tehran for refusing to give up its uranium enrichment program. In an interview for publication in the Wall Street Journal Tuesday, Rice said there were "limitations on the oil card'' against Iran. "I don't think that it was anything that you have to look at it in the near term and I'm not sure that it would have the desired effect,'' she said. Such a move would serve merely to reinforce the Iranian leadership's desire to make the local population feel that America was against the Iranian people, she said. "You want to stay away from things that have a bad effect on the Iranian people to the degree that you can,'' she said. ''That's something we really do have to fight against and some believe a gasoline embargo might play into that.'' [If Rice's comments are sincere, rather than, say, merely a cover for the fact that US allies are extremely unlikely to agree to a gas embargo anyway, they represent a far more enlightened view on this question than that expressed by Secretary Albright during the Clinton Administration concerning the crippling sanctions on Iraq, widely credited with the deaths of many thousands of Iraqi children from malnutrition and disease. Credit where credit is due -JFP.] 7) EU, Iran Close to Deal for Nuclear Talks: Report Reuters, September 26, 2006, Filed at 8:56 a.m. ET http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/news/news-nuclear-iran-talks.html Iran is close to a deal that would include a temporary suspension of uranium enrichment and clear the way for nuclear talks but Tehran wants to keep the agreement secret, the Washington Times reported Tuesday. The deal could be completed Tuesday or Wednesday when EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana and Iranian negotiator Ali Larijani meet in Europe, the report said, citing Bush administration officials. The report said Iran had agreed to suspend uranium enrichment for 90 days so additional talks could be held with European states. But an Iranian nuclear official was quoted by an Iranian news agency denying such suspension plans. A spokeswoman for Solana said he had no plans to meet Larijani on Tuesday. [If the report is true, one wonders at the motivation of the Bush Administration official who leaked the report, since the leak might scuttle the deal. This raises a question of whether it is wise for European officials to share too much information with their US counterparts, since there is clearly a faction in the Bush Administration that wants to sabotage a negotiated settlement - JFP.] 8) Report: Russian Fuel Going to Iran Plant Mike Eckel, Associated Press, Tuesday, September 26, 2006; 9:46 AM http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/09/26/AR2006092600501.html Russia will ship fuel to a controversial atomic power plant it is building in Iran by March under a deal signed Tuesday, news agencies reported. The agreement should allay Iran's complaints that Moscow is dragging its feet on supplying fuel for the Bushehr plant. It will also renew concerns by the West, which accuses Tehran of seeking to enrich uranium in order to build nuclear weapons. Lebanon 9) Unexploded Bomblets Hinder S. Lebanon Recovery: U.N. Reuters, September 26, 2006, Filed at 8:04 a.m. ET http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/world/international-mideast-lebanon-bombs.html Up to a million unexploded cluster bomblets are now the biggest threat to civilians in south Lebanon, where they litter streets, homes and orchards, U.N. agencies said Tuesday. Fourteen people have been killed and 90 wounded by unexploded ordnance since the end of the war, with all the fatalities and most of the injuries caused by cluster munitions, the U.N. Mine Action Coordination Center said. The Lebanese Army, UN peacekeepers, and the U.N. Mine Action Coordination Center have cleared almost 40,000 unexploded cluster bomblets, but up to a million more remain. With an estimated 12-15 months needed to clear the south of cluster bomblets, they pose mortal danger to displaced civilians returning to their villages after the 34-day war, the U.N. said. Chris Clark of the U.N. Mine Action Coordination Center said Israel had also yet to provide detailed information on the amounts of cluster bombs fired or the coordinates of the strikes, which would help munitions clearance teams identify the main areas on which to focus their efforts. UNHCR said some 200,000 Lebanese remained displaced, their return home slowed by the destruction of their houses and by unexploded bomblets. With winter coming up and most people in the south relying on agriculture for their main source of income, UNHCR is concerned that farmers will be unable to return to their fields, robbing them of their livelihood, or will face a deadly threat if they do as rain sinks the bomblets into the soil. 10) Israel Seeks Rules of Engagement Before Lebanon Exit Reuters, September 26, 2006, Filed at 6:37 a.m. ET http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/world/international-mideast-peretz.html Israel and an international peacekeeping force have yet to agree on rules of engagement in south Lebanon that would enable Israeli troops to complete a planned pullout, Defense Minister Amir Peretz said Tuesday. "There are arrangements, negotiations (and) deliberations which we intend to complete in order to set the rules - what is permitted and what is forbidden - from the moment we're sitting on the blue line (the international border),'' he said. Israeli military affairs commentators interpreted his comments as referring to rules governing when force could be used against Lebanese Hizbollah guerrillas after Israeli soldiers return to Israeli soil. Peretz's comments seemed to suggest a full withdrawal would take place by the start of the Jewish day of atonement, Yom Kippur, at sundown on Sunday. Pakistan 11) CIA Paid Pakistan for al-Qaeda Suspects: Musharraf David Espo, Agence France Presse, Monday, September 25, 2006 http://www.commondreams.org/headlines06/0925-03.htm The CIA paid Pakistan millions of dollars for handing over more than 350 suspected al-Qaeda terrorists to the US, Pakistani President Musharraf has reportedly said. The assertions come in the military ruler's upcoming memoir "In the Line of Fire," serialized in The Times newspaper. Musharraf does not reveal how much Pakistan was paid for the 369 Al-Qaeda suspects he ordered should be handed over to the US, the newspaper said, noting, however, that such payments are banned by the US government. In response a US Department of Justice official was quoted as saying: "We didn't know about this. It should not happen. These bounty payments are for private individuals who help to trace terrorists on the FBI's most wanted list, not foreign governments." Thailand 12) A Banned Book Challenges Saintly Image of Thai King Jane Perlez, New York Times, September 25, 2006 http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/25/world/asia/25thailand.html When soldiers and tanks rolled onto the streets of Bangkok last week and the king appeared on television with the generals, it was not the first time Thailand's monarch had given his blessing to a military takeover. A new history of the modern Thai monarchy, banned in Thailand, by journalist Paul Handley, argues that in his 60-year reign King Bhumibol Adulyadej has generally exercised a preference for order over democracy. Handley said the king has put the preservation of the institution of the monarchy ahead of a democratic Thailand. The book, "The King Never Smiles," presents a direct counterpoint to years of royal image-making that projects a king beyond politics, a man of peace, good works and Buddhist humility. The book's publisher, Yale University Press, said it came under heavy pressure from the Thai government not to publish it. Bolivia 13) Bolivian Leaders Find Their Promises Are Hard to Keep Simon Romero, New York Times, September 26, 2006 http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/26/world/americas/26bolivia.html Vice President Álvaro García Linera could not have been more explicit in a fiery speech last week calling on Bolivia's indigenous groups to defend the government "with your chest, with your hand, with your Mauser." García Linera, an urbane sociologist normally known for his moderating influence, promptly apologized and said his comments had been misinterpreted. But his remarks underlined the tension that is once again threatening to tip this nation into turmoil. Many Bolivians had hoped that the election of Morales as president would put an end to the instability marked by seven presidents in six years and angry protests by the country's indigenous majority, who had been sidelined from power since Spanish rule. The country's first indigenous president, Morales promised to end what he had called the looting of the country's natural resources by foreign companies. But nine months into his term, Morales seems beset on all sides as the realities of governing have pulled him closer to the center. The president is now being portrayed by some former supporters as a lackey of foreign interests and the country's light-skinned elite. His popularity rating, though still high, has taken a hit, dropping to 61 percent from 81 percent in recent months. A line scribbled on a building near the headquarters of the national energy company captured the disillusionment. "Evo, traitor," it reads, "don't give away Bolivia's gas." Meanwhile, the president faces fresh unrest in the eastern provinces, where the elite of mostly European descent have been unnerved by his election and are pushing for more autonomy. Groups in Santa Cruz and neighboring provinces have been chafing at efforts to rewrite Bolivia's Constitution in an assembly that would give Morales's supporters more decision-making power. They have also been wary of plans to build two new military bases, with financing from Venezuela, a move seen as a way to increase the government's authority in the region. Morales's supporters want the president to stick to the promises that got him elected, among them liberalizing laws on coca cultivation and spreading wealth toward the poor. Yet, despite militant talk, officials in the government seem to have arrived at a recognition that Bolivia must cooperate with the very investors and lending organizations that are despised symbols of foreign influence among many of Morales's supporters. Nowhere is this contradiction more vivid than in Morales's most ambitious project, the nationalization of Bolivia's energy resources. The government has recently backtracked on several key measures, ceding ground to Brazilian and European energy companies. Morales's negotiators have temporarily reversed a move to take control of Bolivia's two main oil refineries from Brazil's state-run energy company, Petrobras, and have failed to provide regulations so the nationalization can move forward. The government has about a month left to act on the nationalization decree issued in May before it expires. The government also overrode a move this month by its energy minister to exert almost total control over extraction of oil and natural gas reserves. Adding to the disarray, the minister, Andrés Soliz, angrily resigned and was replaced by the more moderate Carlos Villegas. Morales, an Aymara Indian and former coca farmer, has largely left carrying out the nationalization and other economic projects to subordinates as he seeks to maintain a revolutionary image. García Linera, the vice president, has emerged as a key intermediary between the government and investors. García Linera reached out to the US in a trip to Washington in July, attempting to win support for renewing trade preferences from the Bush administration. To soothe tension between the government and business interests in Santa Cruz, capital of the eastern province, García Linera brokered an agreement last week with regional political leaders to avert a full blockade of roads into the city. One graphic symbol of the dislike many Cruceños, as the people of Santa Cruz are called, harbor for Morales is in the form of a photomontage some people there have downloaded to their cellphones. It shows the words "Viva Santa Cruz" written above an image of the president with a gunshot wound. Such examples of polarization have arisen in response to radical proposals discussed in the constituent assembly, like changing the country's name to Qollasuyo, an indigenous word invoking the Inca empire. These ideas contrast with quiet efforts by Morales' government to lure foreign investment and improve ties to lending institutions like the World Bank and the IMF. Meanwhile, recognition that Bolivia is dependent on Brazil, the largest buyer of its natural gas, is encouraging a much softer nationalization stance. Villegas, the new energy minister, said in an interview, "We want a rational redistribution of petroleum income in the country, while also telling foreign companies that we want them to profit." -------- Robert Naiman Just Foreign Policy www.justforeignpolicy.org Just Foreign Policy is a membership organization devoted to reforming U.S. foreign policy so that it reflects the values and interests of the majority of Americans.
