Just Foreign Policy News October 6, 2006 Sign the petition - No War with Iran! As U.S. officials prepare for military attacks, Just Foreign Policy, in collaboration with Peace Action, is sponsoring a petition against war with Iran. To sign the petition, use this link: http://www.justforeignpolicy.org/involved/iranpetition.html
The Just Foreign Policy News Summary is now podcast daily. The podcast is generally less than 5 minutes. To subscribe, see http://www.justforeignpolicy.org/podcasts/podcast_howto.html. Summary: U.S. In an Editors' Note, the New York Times conceded today that its report that President Chavez of Venezuela said he regretted not having met Noam Chomsky before his death was in error. (The Times had given great emphasis to the report and the claim was repeated by other media outlets.) The Times acknowledged that readers (Just Foreign Policy, Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting, and the Venezuela Information Office, among others) quickly pointed out the error to The Times. The Times acknowledged that editors and reporters should have been more thorough earlier in checking the accuracy of its report. (In refusing earlier to run a correction, a Times editor told Just Foreign Policy that its reporter had thoroughly checked a recording of the press conference.) Senator Warner said Thursday the US should consider a "change of course" in Iraq if violence did not diminish soon. His comments underscored the growing misgivings of even senior Republicans about Iraq, the New York Times reports. Warner said the Iraqi government is incapable of providing even basic human necessities to people in some areas of the country, the Washington Post reports. Warner acknowledged that before the invasion of Iraq he failed to aggressively ask questions about what would happen afterwards. One hopes this heightened sense of responsibility will have an impact on Congressional deliberations over U.S. threats to attack Iran. US troops in Iraq and Afghanistan lack proper equipment, are overstretched and face serious health problems upon their return home, according to a poll released by VoteVets.org. New York University historian Tony Judt claimed new ammunition for his charge that pro-Israel groups use their influence to stifle debate, Jewish Week reports. Hours before he was to give a talk about the Israel lobby at the Polish Consulate, Poland's consul general canceled the event after being contacted by the Anti-Defamation League and other organizations. President Bush and Secretary of State Rice may believe they have broken with 60 years of U.S. policy to "transform" the Middle East, but their latest initiatives look painfully familiar, Jim Lobe writes for Inter Press Service. Its effort to forge an alliance between Sunni-led authoritarian states and Israel against Iran - recalls Cold-War efforts to get these countries to focus on a supposed threat from the Soviet Union rather than their demands for a resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. U.S. and European negotiators reached an interim deal Friday on sharing trans-Atlantic air passenger data for anti-terrorism investigations. EU officials said the agreement would address European privacy concerns. Iran A travel delay forced the US and its partners to postpone until early next week a decision about what punitive actions to take against Iran over its nuclear program. U.S. officials said the decision will likely be made in a conference call among foreign ministers Monday or Tuesday. The US wants to impose sanctions on Iran in a U.N. resolution, but Russia said Thursday it still does not back sanctions. China has been reluctant to impose sanctions, while France has also not been enthusiastic. President Ahmadinejad has said Iran would not give up its enrichment program because it is operating within the Non-Proliferation Treaty. Iraq A purported spokesman for a Sunni insurgent group, the Islamic Army in Iraq, offered to open negotiations with the US in a tape aired by Al-Jazeera Thursday. "We are prepared for any negotiations, whether secret or public, on the condition only that they are sincere," the tape said. Open Doors, an international charity serving Christians in 60 countries, has warned of a sharp upturn in violence against Christians in Iraq. A letter from Al Qaeda leaders found in Iraq shows that the group sees the war as a boon for its cause, the Christian Science Monitor reports. Lebanon Nearly three people have been wounded or killed each day by cluster bombs Israel dropped in the waning days of the war in Lebanon and officials say it will take more than a year to clear them, the New York Times reports. As of Sept. 28, officials said cluster bombs had severely wounded 109 people and killed 18 others. Palestine Palestinian Prime Minister Haniyeh on Friday urged President Abbas to resume talks on forming a national unity coalition after Abbas threatened to dissolve the Hamas-led government. Haniyeh vowed no government in which the Hamas movement served would recognize Israel. Syria Pride in Hezbollah's perceived triumph in Lebanon has fostered respect and a small but escalating number of politically sensitive conversions for the Shiite faith in Syria, the Washington Post reports. Turkey Some writers charged with "insulting Turkishness" under Turkey's article 301 say the turmoil is forcing a national debate about what it means to be a democracy that is pushing democracy forward, the New York Times reports. Thailand Thailand's military has agreed to hold talks with Muslim rebels involved in an insurgency in the country's south, the army chief said Thursday. Bolivia President Morales of Bolivia is on the US government's "no fly" anti-terror list, CBS News reports. Contents: U.S. 1) NYT concedes error: Chavez did not say Chomsky was dead, and NYT was slow to correct Editors' Note, Corrections, New York Times, October 6, 2006 http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/06/pageoneplus/corrections.html An article on Sept. 21 about criticism of President Bush at the United Nations by President Hugo Chavez of Venezuela and President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran reported that Mr. Chavez praised a book by Noam Chomsky, the linguist and social critic. It reported that later, at a news conference, Mr. Chavez said that he regretted not having met Mr. Chomsky before he died. The article noted that in fact, Mr. Chomsky is alive. The assertion that Mr. Chavez had made this misstatement was repeated in a Times interview with Mr. Chomsky the next day. In fact, what Mr. Chavez said was, "I am an avid reader of Noam Chomsky, as I am of an American professor who died some time ago." Two sentences later Mr. Chavez named John Kenneth Galbraith, the Harvard economist who died last April, calling both him and Mr. Chomsky great intellectual figures. Mr. Chavez was speaking in Spanish at the news conference, but the simultaneous English translation by the United Nations left out the reference to Mr. Galbraith and made it sound as if the man who died was Mr. Chomsky. Readers pointed out the error in e-mails to The Times soon after the first article was published. Reporters reviewed the recordings of the news conference in English and Spanish, but not carefully enough to detect the discrepancy, until after the Venezuelan government complained publicly on Wednesday. Editors and reporters should have been more thorough earlier in checking the accuracy of the simultaneous translation. 2) Senator Says U.S. Should Rethink Iraq Strategy David S. Cloud, New York Times October 6, 2006 http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/06/world/middleeast/06capital.html The Republican chair of the Senate Armed Services Committee warned Thursday that the situation in Iraq was "drifting sideways" and said the US should consider a "change of course" if violence did not diminish soon. The chair, Senator Warner of Virginia, expressed concern that Prime Minister al-Maliki had not moved decisively against sectarian militias. "In two or three months if this thing hasn't come to fruition and this level of violence is not under control, I think it's a responsibility of our government to determine: Is there a change of course we should take?" Senator Warner said. He said that the American military had done what it could to stabilize Iraq and that no policy options should be taken "off the table." His comments underscored the growing misgivings of even senior Republicans about the situation in Iraq. They also appeared to be a warning to the Bush administration that it might have to consider different approaches after the November midterm elections. Warner said he hoped his committee would hold hearings in November on policy options recommended by an independent panel led by former Representative Hamilton and former Secretary of State Baker. Senator Carl Levin of Michigan, the top Democrat on the committee, said he told Iraqi officials he favored setting a date for a drawdown of troops. Levin described a plan Maliki announced Monday to increase security in Baghdad as "very tenuous." The plan has no provisions for disarming sectarian militias, he said. Levin said that American ambassador Khalilzad told him such warnings were a "useful message" to send to Maliki. "I think the time is coming when the administration is going to deliver that message," he said, "because it's the only way, I believe, to change the dynamic in Iraq." 3) Warner Downbeat After Iraq Trip U.S. at Risk of Losing Bid to Control Baghdad, Senator Says Josh White, Washington Post, Friday, October 6, 2006; A03 http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/05/AR2006100501645.html The Republican chair of the Senate Armed Services Committee yesterday offered a stark assessment of the situation in Iraq, saying parts of the country have taken "steps backwards" and the US is at risk of losing the campaign to control Baghdad. Sen. said the Iraqi government is incapable of providing even basic human necessities to people in certain areas of the country. He was far less optimistic about the situation there than he had been over the past three years. Echoing several leading Democrats on his committee, Warner said the US may have to reevaluate its approach in Iraq if the situation does not improve dramatically over the next several months. Warner acknowledged that, before the invasion of Iraq, there was a lack of understanding among members of Congress about how much it would take to give Iraq full sovereignty. He blamed himself for not aggressively asking such questions before the war. [One wonders if this heightened sense of responsibility will have an impact on Congressional deliberations over U.S. threats to attack Iran. - JFP] 4) Inadequate Equipment, Health Problems Face Iraq, Afghanistan Veterans: Poll Jocelyne Zablit, Agence France Presse, Thursday, October 5, 2006 http://www.commondreams.org/headlines06/1005-01.htm US troops in Iraq and Afghanistan lack proper equipment, are overstretched and face serious health problems upon their return home, according to a poll released by an advocacy group. The poll by VoteVets.org, a political action committee made up of veterans from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, showed nearly half (42%) of all veterans who served in either country felt their equipment did not meet military standards. It said 35% of veterans reported that their trucks had no armor protection, while 10% said the trucks were "up-armored" with scrap metal. "The results of this poll should be a wake-up call to every American," said Jon Soltz, an Iraq war veteran and chairman of VoteVets. "We are shortchanging our troops, in combat and at home." The poll by VoteVets showed soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan also often had their service extended past the original time frame and some encountered emotional and physical health problems, as well as economic hardships, as a result of their service. "Overall, 63% of all Iraq and Afghanistan veterans believe the Army and Marine Corps are overextended," the poll report said. It said 79% of veterans agree National Guard and Reserve veterans deserve the same type of health coverage as active-duty personnel. Soltz and Clark said one reason the poll was being released now was so Americans could demand answers from their leaders at the polls. "The American people need to look beyond the American flag lapel pins and start asking who is really putting the priorities on keeping the country safe," Clark said. 5) Off Limits? Talk By Israel Critic Canceled Latest in string of cases involves NYU's controversial Tony Judt Larry Cohler-Esses, Jewish Week, 10/06/2006 http://www.thejewishweek.com/news/newscontent.php3?artid=13081. New York University historian Tony Judt claimed new ammunition for his charge that pro-Israel groups use their influence to stifle debate. Hours before he was to give a talk about the Israel lobby at the Polish Consulate Tuesday night, Poland's consul general canceled the event after being contacted by Jewish and non-Jewish organizations. But whether Jewish groups - in particular, the Anti-Defamation League - pressured Consul General Krzysztof Kasprzyk remained in dispute. ADL National Director Abraham Foxman acknowledged ADL spoke with Kasprzyk, but strongly denied exerting any such pressure. And Kasprzyk denied receiving threats or pressure from the ADL or any other group in deciding to cancel the talk. Judt, director of NYU's Remarque Institute in European Studies, charged otherwise, citing the account he received from the lecture's outside sponsor soon after Kasprzyk canceled it. "Whatever your views on the Middle East, I hope you find this as serious and frightening as I do," Judt wrote in an e-mail to a long list of academic and media figures. "This is, or used to be, the United States of America." The episode joins a list of disputed allegations that pro-Israel advocates use their influence to stifle debate, or harm the careers of individuals who step out of bounds. The last two years have seen such charges by Joseph Massad, a Columbia University professor of Middle East studies accused by some students of bigoted outbursts toward Jewish and Israeli students. A university investigation largely, though not entirely, exonerated him of the charges. Pro-Israel advocates claimed their lobbying of Yale University donors succeeded in preventing Juan Cole, a University of Michigan Middle Eastern studies professor, from receiving a tenured appointment at Yale. University officials denied they played a role. Acclaimed British architect Richard Rogers was threatened with the loss of billions of dollars in design work from New York City until he renounced ties to an architects' group strongly critical of Israel. The group was threatening to call for an economic boycott of Israel to protest its occupation of the West Bank. Another flap involved the cancellation of an award-winning play in New York about Rachel Corrie, a college graduate who went to Gaza with a solidarity group to protest the occupation. Corrie was killed by an Israeli bulldozer demolishing a Palestinian home. The play, scheduled to open at the New York Theatre Workshop, was canceled, with the Workshop's artistic director citing pressure from unnamed Jewish leaders. The play is set to reopen at the Minetta Lane Theatre this month. 6) "Strategic Consensus" Redux? Jim Lobe, Inter Press Service, Thursday, October 5, 2006 http://www.commondreams.org/headlines06/1005-04.htm President Bush and Secretary of State Rice may believe they have broken with 60 years of U.S. policy to "transform" the Middle East, but to regional observers, their latest initiatives look painfully familiar. Washington's current courtship of Sunni-led authoritarian states - notably, Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Egypt - raise troubling questions about its self-proclaimed commitment to democratizing the region. Its effort to forge a de facto alliance between those states and Israel against a supposedly common external threat - Iran - recalls the Cold-War period, and the first years, in particular, of the administration of President Reagan. Back then - as during the "Baghdad Pact" era of the 1950's - the aim was to achieve a "strategic consensus" between Israel and its "moderate" Arab neighbors, including Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and the other Gulf states, in opposition to Soviet "trouble-making". A secondary aim of such a consensus was to contain a revolutionary Iran and an Iran-Iraq war that, in the words of Secretary of State Haig, had exposed "deeply rooted rivalries and historic animosities". He was referring to what the New York Times called "the dangers of the Iran-Iraq war's broadening into a clash between Shiite Moslems in Iran, Syria and parts of Iraq and Sunni Moslems who rule Iraq, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and the Persian Gulf states." The assumption behind "strategic consensus" was that Arab states, including Iraq, would be more concerned about the threats posed by Moscow or Tehran than by Israel's refusal to recognize Palestinian rights and return to its 1967 borders. William Safire observed in 1982, when Iran appeared to have turned the tide in the war, that "(t)he very Arab states who snickered loudest at our urging to set aside Arab-Israeli hatred in the face of a Soviet threat are now panic-stricken at the Iranian threat, especially since they know that the ayatollahs are dangerously close to alliance with the Soviets." Safire argued that Arab fears of Iran should be used as leverage to get them to either put aside or compromise their demands for the U.S. to put serious pressure on Israel to withdraw from the occupied territories. That argument proved ill-founded, especially after Israel launched a full-scale invasion of Lebanon the following month and, backed by the Reagan administration, subsequently rejected the Fahd Plan. A Saudi initiative endorsed by the Arab League in 1982, the plan offered Israel peace with its Arab neighbors in exchange for dismantling of Jewish settlements, return to 1967 borders, and recognition of Palestinian national rights. "The holy grail of U.S. policy in the region has always been to get the Arabs to forget about the Arab-Israeli conflict and to focus instead on some other threat," noted Gary Sick, an expert on Iran and the Gulf states at Columbia. "If you don't think you can or are not prepared to deal with the Arab-Israel dispute, then trying to convince the Arabs that they should subordinate it to other strategic concerns is really a very attractive thought." That appears to be the administration's thought today, as Rice tours capitals of "moderate" Arab states to rally support for demands that Iran unconditionally freeze its nuclear program which, according to Washington, poses a threat not only to Israel, but to the Arab states. While speaking vaguely of a renewed U.S. effort to restart peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians, Rice and the administration apparently believe Arabs are sufficiently frightened of Iran and the emergence of a so-called "Shia Crescent" that they will not press their demands - recently packaged in another Saudi initiative adopted by the Arab League in 2002 - for Washington to exert serious pressure on Israel on the Palestinian front. U.S. officials point to the denunciation by Saudi Arabia, Jordan, and Egypt of Lebanon's Hezbollah in the early days of this summer's war between Israel and the Iran-backed Shia group, as well as reports of unprecedented meetings between Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and at least one top Saudi official, as indications that an anti-Iranian "strategic consensus" embracing Israel and Arab "moderates" is at hand. While it appears that Arabs are concerned about Iran's increased influence in the region, most experts believe Washington is exaggerating their willingness to confront Iran, particularly in conjunction with the U.S. and Israel. "They know they have to live with Iran; it's not going to go away," said Robert Hunter, Middle East expert at RAND. "It's not like the early 1980s when the mullahs tried and failed to spread their revolution; the concern is more geopolitical than ideological. Aside from (their backing of) Hezbollah and a few minor scrapes here and there, Iran has not been particularly assertive toward these countries." 7) EU, U.S. Agree on Air Passenger Data Associated Press, October 6, 2006, Filed at 11:21 a.m. ET http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/world/AP-EU-Air-Passenger-Data.html U.S. and European negotiators reached an interim deal Friday on sharing trans-Atlantic air passenger data for anti-terrorism investigations. The agreement, valid until July 2007, was reached nearly a week after negotiators missed an Oct. 1 deadline. It replaces a 2004 air passenger privacy deal the EU's high court voided last year for technical reasons. The EU's national governments are expected to give final approval to the interim agreement next week. EU Justice Commissioner Frattini said the agreement defused fears in the European Parliament that Europeans flying to the US would lose privacy rights. Under the deal, the U.S. Homeland Security will no longer have an automatic right to pull data from European airlines' computer systems, and must instead ask for such information. The department also may disclose passenger data to U.S. law enforcement agencies only if ''they have comparable standards of data protection,'' Frattini said. It cannot give those agencies direct electronic access to the passenger data, he added. Iran 8) Decision Delayed on Sanctions Against Iran Over Nuclear Issue Robin Wright, Washington Post, Friday, October 6, 2006; 9:10 AM http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/06/AR2006100600353.html A travel delay has forced the US and its partners to postpone until early next week a decision about what punitive actions to take against Iran over its nuclear program. Secretary of State Rice and counterparts from Britain, France, Russia and China and Germany are to hold talks in London Friday. But Rice was delayed because of problems with her plane. Although she is still expected to attend, the delay will mean the entire group will not be together to discuss the issue in full because the Russian foreign minister must leave London early for a cabinet meeting in Moscow. U.S. officials said the decision will likely be made in a conference call among foreign ministers Monday or Tuesday. The US wants to impose sanctions on Iran in a U.N. resolution, but divisions are deep over whether to go that far and, if so, in what form. Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov said Thursday his country does not back sanctions. EU foreign affairs chief Javier Solana said talks should not be closed off. China has been reluctant to impose tough sanctions, while France has not been as adamant as the US and Britain. The first stage of sanctions could include a travel ban on Iranian officials involved in the nuclear program and a ban on selling Iran dual-use equipment that could be adopted for weapons. Tougher actions could follow. U.S. officials remain optimistic they can win agreement -- in large part because of Iran itself. President Ahmadinejad repeated in recent weeks that Iran would not give up its enrichment program because it is operating within the Non-Proliferation Treaty. Iraq 9) Purported spokesman for an Iraqi insurgent group offers negotiations with the US Associated Press, October 5, 2006 http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2006/10/05/africa/ME_GEN_Iraq_Islamic_Army.php A purported spokesman for a Sunni insurgent group, the Islamic Army in Iraq, offered to open negotiations with the US in a tape aired by Al-Jazeera Thursday. The tape was said to be from Ibrahim al-Shimmari, whose name has appeared in past statements by the group, which has claimed responsibility for a number of suicide bombings against civilians and attacks on U.S. troops. "We are prepared for any negotiations, whether secret or public, on the condition only that they are sincere," the tape said. The Islamic Army rejected a call from Iraqi Prime Minister al-Maliki earlier this year for insurgents to join the political process, saying it would not participate until there was a timetable for withdrawal of U.S.-led forces. 10) Open Doors Warns of Increasing Attacks Against Iraq's Christian Community Daniel Blake, Christian Post, Thu, Oct. 05, 2006 http://world.christianpost.com/article/20061005/25029.htm Open Doors, an international charity serving persecuted Christians in 60 countries, has warned of a sharp upturn in violence against Christians in Iraq. The surge in attacks has coincided with the Muslim observance of Ramadan, with many saying the Pope's controversial remarks on Islam have ignited an explosive atmosphere. Iraq is already struggling to contain violence between Sunni and Shiite Muslims, and now more and more aggression is being seen against the minority Christian community. Recently several Christians have been kidnapped, abused, and even murdered. A hand grenade was thrown at a priest's car. In Baghdad and Mosul, several churches have been attacked, and last week a group of men reportedly fired rockets on the Chaldean Church of the Holy Spirit in Mosul. An Open Doors contact reported that a man wrote on the doors of the Church of the Holy Spirit, which was attacked a week ago: "If the Pope does not apologize, we will bomb all churches, kill more Christians and steal their property and money." Open Doors sources in Baghdad report that at least two people have been killed and many more have been injured by bombs in front and behind the cathedral and Patriarchate of the Ancient Church of the East. 11) How Al Qaeda views a long Iraq war A letter from Al Qaeda leaders found in Iraq shows that the group sees the war as a boon for its cause. Dan Murphy, Christian Science Monitor, October 06, 2006 http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/1006/p01s04-woiq.html President Bush has been campaigning against withdrawing troops from Iraq, arguing that to leave now would hand a victory to Al Qaeda and inspire new generations of jihadists to attack the US. But a letter that has been translated and released by the US military indicates that Al Qaeda itself sees the continued American presence in Iraq as a boon for the terror network. "The most important thing is that the jihad continues with steadfastness ... indeed, prolonging the war is in our interest," says the writer. The letter was recovered from the house where Abu Musab al-Zarqawi was killed by a US bomb in June. If the letter is accurate, it provides a window into the group's thinking on Iraq that differs starkly from the one the Bush administration has been expressing - a view the president reiterated Wednesday when he said that Al Qaeda believes that "America is weak, and if they can kill enough innocent people we'll retreat. That's precisely what they want." Lebanon 12) Israeli Bomblets Plague Lebanon Michael Slackman, New York Times, October 6, 2006 http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/06/world/middleeast/06cluster.html Since the war between Israel and Hezbollah ended in August, nearly three people have been wounded or killed each day by cluster bombs Israel dropped in the waning days of the war, and officials now say it will take more than a year to clear the region of them. UN officials estimate southern Lebanon is littered with one million unexploded bomblets, far outnumbering the 650,000 people in the region. They are stuck in the branches of olive trees and the broad leaves of banana trees. They are on rooftops, mixed in with rubble and littered across fields, farms, driveways, roads and outside schools. As of Sept. 28, officials said cluster bombs had severely wounded 109 people and killed 18 others. Palestine 13) Palestinian PM urges Abbas to resume unity talks Nidal al-Mughrabi, Reuters, Friday, October 6, 2006; 12:51 PM http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/06/AR2006100600484.html Palestinian Prime Minister Haniyeh on Friday urged President Abbas to resume talks on forming a national unity coalition after Abbas threatened to dissolve the Hamas-led government. Haniyeh is embroiled in a bitter power struggle with Abbas, fueled by their failure to agree a unity coalition Palestinians hope will lift Western sanctions. Clashes earlier this week between Hamas gunmen and forces loyal to Abbas's Fatah movement triggered fears of civil war. Haniyeh vowed no government in which the Hamas movement served would recognize Israel, a stance that is a non-starter for Abbas and Western nations. Syria 14) In Syria, Converting For Sake of Politics Hezbollah's Gains During Lebanon War Inspire Some Sunnis to Become Shiites Ellen Knickmeyer, Washington Post, Friday, October 6, 2006; A19 http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/05/AR2006100502073.html Munir al-Sayed, a Sunni Arab from Aleppo, slipped into a Shiite shrine and bowed his head in prayer - not as a Sunni, but as a Shiite. His step across the dividing line between the two main sects of Islam had nothing to do with religion and everything to do with political affairs, he said: he was seized with a heartfelt desire to pay homage to Hezbollah leader Hasan Nasrallah, whose Shiite militia has been seen by many Muslims as having humiliated the Israeli military and the U.S. in Lebanon. "I'm Sunni, but I belong to Hasan Nasrallah," he said. "I've converted politically." Sayed is far from alone, Shiite clerics say. Pride in what is perceived as Hezbollah's triumph has fostered respect and a small but escalating number of politically sensitive conversions for the Shiite faith in Syria. Some Shiites and Sunnis say the Israel-Hezbollah war brought Shiites and Sunnis closer. Many Shiites and Sunnis outside Lebanon share a common pride in Nasrallah even as they share a common worry over the sectarian bloodshed in Iraq, clerics and political analysts said. "George Bush has done us a favor. He has united the Arabs," joked Mustafa al-Sada, a Shiite cleric who works with many of the Sunnis who come to Shiite religious institutions with questions about conversion. Sada said he knows of about 75 Sunnis in Damascus who have converted since fighting in Lebanon started in mid-July. A secular analyst close to Syria's authoritarian government marveled at the sect-crossing allegiances brought on by this summer's war. Al-Qaeda, Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood vied with statements of varying degrees of support for the fight by Hezbollah, whose Shiite faith normally would make it a target, not an ally, of Sunni groups. "The Wahhabis and the Shiites getting together!" exclaimed the analyst. "Such a phenomenon. Who would have thought we would see it?" Turkey 15) Turkish Writers Say Efforts to Stifle Speech May Backfire Ian Fisher, New York Times, October 6, 2006 http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/06/world/europe/06turkey.html Not a week after a court dropped the case against a best-selling Turkish novelist, another well-known writer was charged with the same crime, one of the most ambiguous and contentious here, that of "insulting Turkishness." Hrant Dink, the accused editor of an Armenian-language newspaper, takes the charges - against him and scores of other writers and publishers - as positive news. "It is something good for Turkey," said Dink, though he faces the prospect of three years in jail. "There is a strong movement from inside, and I can say for the first time we are seeing a real democratic movement." This has not been the usual interpretation since the law was passed last year, at a time when riot policemen guarded trials and the EU issued dire warnings that the law, Article 301, stood as a major obstacle to Turkey's ambitions for membership. But some of the accused say the turmoil is forcing a national debate about what it means to be a democracy that is pushing democracy forward, even if painfully. "A lot of people were saying, 'Wait a minute, this needs to be changed, and we are so embarrassed about what is going on,' " said Elif Shafak, a novelist who went on trial in September for portraying a character who referred to a "genocide" against Armenians in her novel, "The Bastard of Istanbul." In her case the charges were quickly dropped. A fuller court ruling issued Thursday defended her broadly and called for changes in the law, Reuters reported. A judge wrote, "It is unthinkable to talk about crimes committed by fictional characters" and added, "it is necessary to define the boundaries of the 'Turkishness' concept and place it on firm ground." Thailand 16) Thai Military Agrees to Talk With Muslim Rebels Rungrawee C. Pinyorat, Associated Press, Friday, October 6, 2006; A19 http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/05/AR2006100501802.html Thailand's military has agreed to hold talks with Muslim rebels involved in an insurgency in the country's south, the army chief said Thursday. The announcement marked a reversal of a policy held by the elected government that was deposed in a coup last month. Gen. Sonthi Boonyaratkalin, who led the coup on Sept. 19, said officials from rebel factions had contacted a top army officer and requested talks. "I have agreed to the talks," Sonthi said. "I stress that these will be talks, not negotiations." Wan Kadir Che Man, a leader of the Bersatu rebel group, confirmed that members of his organization had been in contact with "certain Thai authorities" about holding peace talks. "If the coming government handles it correctly, there is no reason why an internal conflict among ourselves could not be resolved," he wrote. Sonthi's coup was welcomed by many Thais who saw the ouster of Thaksin as a good chance to end the bloody Muslim insurgency, which has killed more than 1,700 people. Bolivia 17) Unlikely Terrorists On No-Fly List List Includes President Of Bolivia, Dead 9/11 Hijackers Steve Kroft, CBS News, Oct. 5, 2006 http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/10/05/60minutes/main2066624.shtml 60 Minutes, in collaboration with the National Security News Service, has obtained the secret list used to screen airline passengers for terrorists and discovered it includes names of people not likely to cause terror, including the president of Bolivia, people who are dead and names so common, they are shared by thousands of innocent fliers. Steve Kroft's investigation, in which an ex-FBI agent who worked on its al Qaeda task force says the list of 44,000 names is ineffective, will be broadcast this Sunday, Oct. 8, at 7 p.m. ET/PT. The former FBI agent, Jack Cloonan, knew the list that was hastily assembled after 9/11, would be bungled. "When we heard the name list or no-fly list … the eyes rolled back in my head, because we knew what was going to happen," he says. "They basically did a massive data dump and said, 'Okay, anybody that's got a nexus to terrorism, let's make sure they get on the list,'" he tells Kroft. The "data dump" of names from the files of several government agencies, including the CIA, fed into the computer compiling the list contained many unlikely terrorists. These include Saddam Hussein, who is under arrest, Nabih Berri, Lebanon's parliamentary speaker, and Evo Morales, the president of Bolivia. It also includes the names of 14 of the 19 dead 9/11 hijackers. But the names of some of the most dangerous living terrorists or suspects are kept off the list. -------- 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.
