Just Foreign Policy News November 29, 2006 Oppose the "Supplemental Appropriation" for Continued U.S. Occupation of Iraq: Write your Member of Congress: http://www.justforeignpolicy.org/involved/iraq.html
No War with Iran: Petition More than 25,700 people have signed the Peace Action/Just Foreign Policy petition. Please sign/circulate if you have yet to do so: http://www.justforeignpolicy.org/involved/iranpetition.html Write a Letter to the Editor: Max Boot writes in the Los Angeles Times that there's no point in talking to Iran and Syria about Iraq because we might have to make concessions to get their assistance. For example, we might have to give up promoting "regime change" in Iran. Do you agree? To send a letter: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Boot's piece: http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/asection/la-oe-boot29nov29,1,7625509.column Release of the Iraq Study Group report: A press release from the US Institute of Peace says the Iraq Study Group report will be released on December 6. More info: http://www.usip.org/isg/ Just Foreign Policy News daily podcast: http://www.justforeignpolicy.org/podcasts/podcast_howto.html Summary: U.S./Top News As pressure mounts for the US to seek direct talks on Iraq with Iran and Syria, President Bush appeared to rule out any change in his administration's policy, the Los Angeles Times reports. But Robert Gates, Bush's nominee for secretary of defense, in written testimony submitted to Congress, called for diplomatic engagement with both countries, the Washington Post reports, noting that "even in the worst days of the cold war the U.S. maintained a dialogue with the Soviet Union and China." World powers seeking to rein in Iran's nuclear ambitions are circulating a significantly weakened draft for a UN Security Council resolution, the Washington Post reports. The new text has dropped all mention of sanctions against Iran's power plant at Bushehr. There is still no agreement on a final draft, five months after US officials said Iran had "weeks, not months" to comply with U.S. demands to halt uranium enrichment. Iraq's president said Wednesday he had reached a security agreement with Iran, the Washington Post reports. President Ahmadinejad repeated his calls for the US to withdraw its forces from Iraq. "Based on a timetable, transfer the responsibilities to Iraqi government," he said. "This will agree to your interests, too." Juan Cole expressed skepticism on the truth and significance of a US intelligence official's leak to the New York Times claiming that Hizbullah had been training the Mahdi Army, suggesting the leak may well be disinformation intended to forestall the Baker recommendation of talks with Iran and Syria. The Pentagon's emergency spending proposal may push the Defense Department into conflict with Democrats, the Los Angeles Times reports. The article notes that the upcoming request, added to the $70 billion already allocated for next year, would easily exceed the annual cost of the Vietnam War at its height, although the total cost of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan so far is still less than Vietnam (but not by much, if the new figures are included.) A classified memorandum by President Bush's national security adviser expressed serious doubts about whether Prime Minister al-Maliki had the capacity to control the sectarian violence in Iraq. A New York Times news analysis says many of the proposals in national security advisor Steven Hadley's leaked memo appear to be based on an assumption the memo itself calls into question: that Prime Minister Maliki can set a new course, or abandon the ruling Shiite religious alliance to lead a radically different kind of government. Iran US troops must leave Iraq if security is to be restored, Iranian leader Ayatollah Khamenei said during talks with the Iraqi president. He said the US was powerless to stop the unrest in Iraq, which was also bad for other countries in the region. Iraqi President Talabani in turn called on Iran to stop backing Shia militias and support Iraq's government, Iraq's foreign minister said. In a letter to the American people, Iranian President Ahmadinejad called for the pullout of U.S. forces from Iraq and charged that Bush administration policy is based on "coercion, force and injustice." The letter said there is an urgent need for dialogue between Iranians and Americans because of the "tragic consequences" of U.S. intervention abroad. Iraq A U.S. military spokesman said he expects violence in Iraq to escalate over the next few weeks in response to Thursday's bombings in Sadr City, the Washington Post reports. American troops killed five girls when the troops attacked a house Tuesday in Anbar Province, the New York Times reports. Prime Minister Nouri Maliki will push for the U.S. military to relinquish control over his nation's security forces, the Los Angeles Times reported. The prime minister also will insist government should drive negotiations with Iran and Syria, they said. A bloc of Iraqi lawmakers and cabinet ministers allied with militia leader Moqtada al-Sadr launched a boycott of their governmental duties to protest Prime Minister Maliki's decision to attend the summit with Bush, the Washington Post reports. The leader of the parliamentary bloc said their action did not mean the officials were pulling out of the government, which would all but guarantee its collapse. The U.N. Security Council extended the mandate of the U.S.-led coalition in Iraq for another year, as Secretary General Annan proposed an international conference to forge reconciliation among Iraq's political parties. Annan said that Iran and Syria should be included in efforts to stabilize Iraq. Israel/Palestine Palestinian Prime Minister Haniyeh used his first foreign tour since taking office to promote a Palestinian initiative based on an independent state on land outside Israel's 1967 borders, Reuters reports. Haniyeh, who is from the Islamist movement Hamas, said it was time governments in the Middle East and around the world put pressure on Israel to recognize such an independent Palestinian state. Afghanistan Leaders of the 26 NATO nations failed to agree today on President Bush's demand that member countries with troops in Afghanistan lift their restrictions on how the troops are used, the New York Times reports. Bolivia The Bolivian Senate passed a sweeping land reform bill proposed by President Morales, AP reports, overcoming opposition efforts to prevent the proposal from coming to a vote. Ecuador The electoral victory of left economist Rafael Correa marks the eighth time in the last 8 years that a presidential candidate running against the "Washington Consensus" in Latin America has won, noted JFP board president Mark Weisbrot on Huffington Post. The people going over the heads of their political establishment and leaders in an attempt to force desperately needed changes in economic policy. Even in the U.S., although the biggest issue for voters was the war, there was plenty of evidence that our own country's long-term economic failure played a role. Somalia The Bush Administration is pushing a U.N. Security Council resolution that experts believe could well spark a wider war in the Horn of Africa, writes Jim Lobe for Inter Press Service. The resolution which would exempt a proposed African "peace support" force from a longstanding arms embargo on Somalia. "The draft resolution the U.S. intends to present... could trigger all-out war in Somalia and destabilise the entire Horn of Africa," warned the International Crisis Group. Contents: U.S./Top News 1) Bush Firm On Iran, Syria Talks The president appears unlikely to agree to direct talks with Iraq's neighbors, which the Iraq Study Group is expected to recommend. Paul Richter, Los Angeles Times, November 29, 2006 http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/iraq/complete/la-na-iraqstudy29nov29,1,1578951.story As pressure mounts for the US to seek direct talks on Iraq with Iran and Syria, President Bush appeared Tuesday to rule out any change in his administration's policy toward those Iraqi neighbors. By reaffirming a long-standing administration policy setting strict conditions on talks with either country, Bush indicated that he may be unwilling to accept an expected recommendation by a bipartisan commission assessing policy options on Iraq. The commission members have said they want the administration to negotiate with Iraq's neighbors. But Bush said Iran must first agree to international demands that it halt development of its nuclear program. "Iran knows how to get to the table with us, and that is to do that which they said they would do, which is verifiably suspend their enrichment programs," Bush said Tuesday in Estonia during a trip that will take him to Jordan later this week to meet with Iraq's U.S.-backed leader. "And then we'll be happy to have a dialogue with them." Bush was less specific about Syria, but gave no hint that he had grown more willing to hold talks with leaders in Damascus. The Iraq Study Group is meeting this week in Washington to try to reach a bipartisan consensus for a final report expected by the end of the year. Although members agree on the need to negotiate with countries like Iran and Syria, they have been divided on other key issues, including U.S. troop levels. … One U.S. official said there was growing apprehension within the government that the Iraq Study Group's recommendations for talks would become "a club that's going to be used to bash the administration." 2) Gates Warns Against Leaving Iraq 'in Chaos' Thomas E. Ricks, Washington Post, Wednesday, November 29, 2006; A05 http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/11/28/AR2006112801604.html Robert Gates, President Bush's nominee to become the next secretary of defense, said he opposes a swift pullout from Iraq, arguing in written testimony submitted yesterday to Congress that "leaving Iraq in chaos would have dangerous consequences both in the region and globally for many years to come." Gates, whose confirmation hearings are scheduled to begin next week, also staked out positions on Iran and Syria that are consistent with his past views but appear to be at odds with the Bush administration's current policies. He called for diplomatic engagement with both countries, noting that "even in the worst days of the cold war the U.S. maintained a dialogue with the Soviet Union and China and I believe those channels of communication helped us manage many potentially difficult situations." Until he was nominated earlier this month by President Bush, Gates was a member of the bipartisan Iraq Study Group, led by former secretary of state James A. Baker III and former representative Lee H. Hamilton (D-Ind.). That group is said to be leaning toward recommending that the Bush administration seek stability in Iraq partly by holding an international conference that includes Iraq's neighbors. In 65 pages of written answers to the Senate Armed Services Committee, Gates repeatedly mentions such a conference. "Our engagement with Syria need not be unilateral," Gates stated. "It could, for instance, take the form of Syrian participation in a regional conference." 3) Iran Resolution, Still Not Final, Drops Mention Of Sanctions Helene Cooper, New York Times, November 29, 2006 http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/29/world/middleeast/29iran.html The six world powers seeking to rein in Iran's nuclear ambitions are circulating a significantly weakened draft for a UN Security Council resolution against Tehran's nuclear program, in a bid to keep their fragile coalition from falling apart. The new text under consideration has dropped all mention of sanctions against Iran's first nuclear power plant at Bushehr, according to European diplomats. The US had initially proposed including Bushehr on the list of programs to single out, but Russia, which has been helping to build the power plant with the Iranians, balked. Diplomats from the six countries, which also include Britain, France, Germany and China, have been squabbling about the draft resolution for almost three months. There is still no agreement on a final draft. Complicating the matter is the steady drumbeat in Washington, from inside and outside the Bush administration, calling on President Bush to initiate talks with Iran over the worsening violence in Iraq. "This has to be carefully managed," said one European diplomat. "It's important for the U.S. to separate the two issues, because the Iranians would like everything to be combined." It has been six months since the six powers offered Iran a list of incentives to stop enriching uranium and threatened sanctions if Iran did not. In June, at the time of the initial offer, American officials said Iran had "weeks, not months" to comply. The growing call for Washington to initiate talks with Tehran over Iraq is only one of the complicating factors. Also holding things up is that Russia and China - but Russia in particular - dislike like the idea of punitive sanctions, and have been dragged along kicking and screaming, according to diplomats. American officials have sought a strongly worded resolution that would prohibit any technical or financial assistance that could benefit Iran's nuclear program, and would impose a ban on visas for any Iranians involved in nuclear activities, according to American and European diplomats involved in the talks. 4) Iraq, Iran Reach Agreement on Security Nasser Karimi, Associated Press, Wednesday, November 29, 2006; 1:25 PM http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/11/29/AR2006112901086.html Iraq's president said Wednesday he had reached a security agreement with Iran, which the US accuses of fueling the chaos in the war-torn country. Iran's president called on countries to stop backing "terrorists" in Iraq and for the Americans to withdraw. Tehran is believed to back some of the Shiite militias blamed in the vicious sectarian killings that have thrown the country into chaos. The US has said the Iraqi government should press Iran to stop interfering in its affairs in a bid to calm the violence. Presidents Jalal Talabani of Iraq and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran held talks Wednesday hours before President Bush was due to meet with the Iraqi prime minister in Jordan in talks aimed at finding a solution to Iraq's spiraling bloodshed. "We discussed in the fields of security, economy, oil and industry. Our agreement was complete," Talabani told reporters. "This visit was 100 percent successful. Its result will appear soon." It was not clear if Talabani's comments reflected an agreement by Tehran to try to rein in Shiite militias. Most of the militias are run by political parties that are a powerful part of the coalition government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki. He has resisted U.S. pressure to crack down on the militias. Ahmadinejad repeated his calls for the US to withdraw its forces from Iraq. "I advise you to leave Iraq," he said, addressing the Americans. "Based on a timetable, transfer the responsibilities to Iraqi government. This will agree to your interests, too." He urged countries to stop backing militants in Iraq, saying, "supporting terrorists is the ugliest act that they can do." He did not specify which countries he was referring to. Ahmadinejad said "extremists should be dismissed (from the Iraqi government) no matter to which group and ethnicity they belong to. This is the only way to salvation." The US accuses Iran and its ally Syria of stirring up violence in Iraq. Tehran denies this, saying it seeks calm in its neighbor and that an end to the bloodshed can only come when U.S. forces withdraw. 5) Hizb and Mahdi: Do they or Don't they? Juan Cole, Informed Comment, Wednesday, November 29, 2006 http://www.juancole.com/2006/11/hizb-and-mahdi-do-they-or-dont-they.html The NYT was told by somebody in Washington that Hizbullah has trained between 1,000 and 2,000 Mahdi Army militiamen. I don't know if I believe it, and I am not sure it is significant if true. There are thousands of Mahdi Army militiamen, and some have much more direct war experience, fighting the Marines in 2004, than does Hizbullah. Their popularity has anyway more to do with their charitable work, as WaPo pointed out Monday, than with their military prowess, such as it is. The logistics are suspicious here. To get from southern Iraq to Lebanon you have to go through Iraqi Sunni Arab territory, which would get most Shiites killed. And, why take the militiamen for training all the way to Lebanon when Iran is right next door and easy to get to via Kermanshah or Basra? Nor can the effect of the training be seen on the ground. Hizbullah's signature tactic is setting shaped charges, which is rare for the Mahdi Army but is often engaged in by the Sunni Arab guerrillas, who are not to say the least being helped by Iran or Hizbullah. And, it is being alleged that Mahdi Army is being trained to kidnap and torture. That needs training? There is a real possibility that this report is disinformation "leaked" by the Cheney/Wurmser axis in order to forestall a move to negotiation with Iran and Syria over Iraq, which the Baker-Hamilton Commission will likely recommend. 6) Controversy Over Pentagon's War-Spending Plan The emergency request of at least $127 billion is criticized as a wish list. The military cites a big need to buy equipment. Julian Barnes & Peter Spiegel, Los Angeles Times, November 29, 2006 http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/la-na-warcosts29nov29,1,405091.story The Pentagon is preparing an emergency spending proposal that could be larger and broader than any since the Sept. 11 attacks, covering not only the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan but extending to other military operations connected to the Bush administration's war on terrorism. The spending plans may push the Defense Department into conflict with Democrats as they take control of Capitol Hill. Democrats had been planning to limit the emergency "supplemental" spending measures that have funded the wars in favor of the regular federal budget process, which affords greater oversight and congressional control. Congressional and military officials have said the Pentagon is considering a request of $127 billion to $150 billion in new emergency war spending, the largest such request since the special spending measures were begun in 2001. So far, Congress has allocated $495 billion for Afghanistan, Iraq and terrorism-related efforts. Even within the Pentagon, the spending request is generating controversy. The Pentagon was due to forward its request to the White House by about Nov. 15. But a senior Defense Department official said that the decision has been delayed and that Pentagon officials have asked Army and Air Force officials to provide more justification for their spending demands. The services have been pushing to increase the size of the supplemental appropriation in order to replace equipment, and they have argued that the overall military budget is too small given the demands on the armed forces. Pentagon officials would not comment on the budget figures, which are due to be made public in February. The upcoming request, added to the $70 billion already allocated for next year, would easily exceed the annual cost of the Vietnam War at its height. Adjusted for inflation, the U.S. spent $121 billion on the Vietnam War in 1968, according to the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service. Still, the overall cost of the Vietnam War - about $663 billion adjusted for inflation - is still larger than the combined costs of the fighting thus far in Afghanistan and Iraq, according to the research service. 7) Deeper Crisis, Less U.S. Sway In Iraq John F. Burns & Kirk Semple, New York Times, November 29, 2006 http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/29/world/middleeast/29politics.html When President Bush meets in Jordan on Wednesday with Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki of Iraq, it will be a moment of bitter paradox: at a time of heightened urgency in the Bush administration's quest for solutions, American military and political leverage in Iraq has fallen sharply. Dismal trends in the war - measured in a rising number of civilian deaths, insurgent attacks, sectarian onslaughts and American troop casualties - have merged with growing American opposition at home to lend a sense of crisis to the talks in Amman. But American fortunes here are ever more dependent on feuding Iraqis who seem, at times, almost heedless to American appeals, American and Iraqi officials in Baghdad say. They say they see few policy options that can turn the situation around, other than for Iraqi leaders to come to a realization that time is running out. It is not clear that the US can gain new traction in Iraq with some of the proposals outlined in a classified White House memorandum, which was compiled after the national security adviser, Stephen J. Hadley, visited Baghdad last month. Many of the proposals appear to be based on an assumption that the White House memo itself calls into question: that Prime Minister Maliki can be persuaded to break with 30 years of commitment to Shiite religious identity and set a new course, or abandon the ruling Shiite religious alliance to lead a radically different kind of government, a moderate coalition of Shiite, Sunni and Kurdish politicians. The memo's assessment of Maliki tracks closely with what his American and Iraqi critics in Baghdad say: that six months after taking office, he has still not shown that he is willing or capable of rising above Shiite sectarianism. 8) Bush Adviser's Memo Cites Doubts About Iraqi Leader Michael R. Gordon, New York Times, November 29, 2006 http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/29/world/middleeast/29cnd-military.html A classified memorandum by President Bush's national security adviser expressed serious doubts about whether Prime Minister al-Maliki had the capacity to control the sectarian violence in Iraq and recommended that the US take new steps to strengthen the Iraqi leader's position. The Nov. 8 memo was prepared for Bush and his top deputies by Stephen Hadley, the national security adviser, and senior aides on the staff of the National Security Council. The memo suggests that if Maliki fails to carry out a series of specified steps, it may ultimately be necessary to press him to reconfigure his parliamentary bloc, a step the US could support by providing "monetary support to moderate groups," and by sending thousands of additional American troops to Baghdad to make up for what the document suggests is a current shortage of Iraqi forces. Text of U.S. Security Adviser's Iraq Memo: http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/29/world/middleeast/29mtext.html Iran 9) Iran: US exit key to Iraq peace BBC News, November 29, 2006 http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/6190662.stm?ls US troops must leave Iraq if security is to be restored, Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has said during talks with the Iraqi president. He said the US was powerless to stop the unrest in Iraq, which was also bad for other countries in the region. Iraqi President Jalal Talabani in turn called on Iran to stop backing Shia militias and support Iraq's government instead, Iraq's foreign minister said. 10) Iranian President Calls for U.S. to Pull Out of Iraq Robin Wright, Washington Post, Wednesday, November 29, 2006; 1:26 PM http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/11/29/AR2006112901085.html In an unusual letter to the American people, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad today called for the pullout of U.S. forces from Iraq and charged that Bush administration policy is based on "coercion, force and injustice." The five-page letter, which was both conciliatory in references to "noble Americans" and scathing in lambasting Jewish influence in the US, said there is an urgent need for dialogue between Iranians and Americans because of the "tragic consequences" of U.S. intervention abroad. In Iraq, he wrote, hundreds of thousands have been killed, maimed or displaced, while terrorism has grown exponentially and even daily life has become a challenge. "With the presence of the U.S. military in Iraq, nothing has been done to rebuild the ruins, to restore the infrastructure or to alleviate poverty," he wrote. "I consider it extremely unlikely that you, the American people, consent to the billions of dollars . . . from your treasury for this military misadventure." Ahmadinejad also challenged whether terrorism can be defeated by traditional warfare. "If that were possible, then why has the problem not been resolved?" he wrote. "The sad experience of invading Iraq is before us all." Iraq 11) U.S. Military Predicts Rising Violence In Iraq Nancy Trejos, Washington Post, Wednesday, November 29, 2006; A17 http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/11/28/AR2006112800319.html Parliament voted unanimously Tuesday to keep Iraq under a state of emergency for 30 more days, as a U.S. military spokesman said he expects violence to escalate over the next few weeks in response to Thursday's bombings in Sadr City. Renewed every month since first authorized in November 2004, the state of emergency allows the Iraqi government to impose a nighttime curfew and make arrests without warrants. The U.S. military spokesman, Maj. Gen. William B. Caldwell, told reporters Tuesday that he expects to see "elevated levels of violence" as a result of the car bombings that killed more than 200 people in Sadr City, a Shiite district in northeast Baghdad. The coordinated attacks set off a wave of retaliatory killings in Sunni neighborhoods. 12) U.S. Troops Kill 5 Girls In Assault On Insurgents Edward Wong, New York Times, November 29, 2006 http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/29/world/middleeast/29iraq.html American troops killed five girls, including at least one baby, and what the military described as either a boy or a man, when the troops attacked a house Tuesday in volatile Anbar Province after they suspected insurgents of firing at them from the roof. The military said the killings occurred after the Americans spotted two suspected insurgents before dawn near a roadside bomb in the town of Hamaniyah, west of Baghdad. The men fled to the roof of a nearby house. When the Americans began defusing the bomb, the suspected insurgents began shooting, the military said. The military said the Americans returned fire with machine guns and small arms and rounds from the main gun of one or more tanks. After the firefight, the Americans discovered the six dead Iraqis in the house. It was unclear what happened to the suspected insurgents, but the military said "it was reported" that one was wounded in the fight and carried away by other insurgents. 13) Iraqi Premier Wants More Control Over His Military Maliki will press Bush for the U.S. to relinquish some authority. His government holds direct talks with Syria and Iran. Alexandra Zavis & Peter Wallsten, Los Angeles Times, November 29, 2006 http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/la-fg-maliki29nov29,1,3539229.story Prime Minister Nouri Maliki will push for the U.S. military to relinquish control over his nation's security forces when he meets President Bush today to discuss a strategy to quell raging violence in Iraq, aides and political insiders said Tuesday. Frustrated by U.S. accusations that he isn't doing enough, Maliki says his hands are tied as long as he does not have the authority to deploy forces as he sees fit. He wants Bush to accelerate the training of the army and police, fund more recruits and provide them with bigger and better weapons, lawmakers briefed by Maliki said. The prime minister also will insist at the two-day summit in Jordan that his government should drive negotiations with Iraq's neighbors, Iran and Syria, they said. Maliki's emboldened stand comes at a time of uncertainty for U.S. strategy in Iraq. Bush is under pressure to make changes after Democrats swept the midterm congressional election on a wave of unhappiness about the war's results. Democrats want Bush to set a timeline to start reducing the number of U.S. forces in Iraq. But Bush maintained Tuesday that there was no possibility of an immediate pullout. Bush is also under pressure to enlist the help of Iran and Syria in curbing the bloodshed. But he ruled out direct negotiation with Iran unless it halts a uranium enrichment program that potentially could be used to produce nuclear weapons. While the US considers its options, Maliki's government has opened direct talks with both countries. 14) Bush-Maliki Summit Delayed Iraqi Leader's Ability to Control Sectarian Violence Questioned Sudarsan Raghavan, Michael Abramowitz & Debbi Wilgoren, Washington Post, November 29, 2006; 2:52 PM http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/11/29/AR2006112900324.html President Bush's planned meeting Wednesday in Jordan with Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki was put off following the public disclosure of U.S. concerns about the Iraqi leader's ability to control the raging sectarian violence in his country. Shortly after Bush arrived in Amman, the White House said the two leaders would still meet on Thursday, however. Bush was in Amman for talks with Jordan's King Abdullah and Maliki. White House counselor Dan Bartlett told reporters the change was not connected to the leak of a White House memo that questioned Maliki's ability to quell the escalating violence in Iraq. … The plan change also came as a bloc of Iraqi lawmakers and cabinet ministers allied with militia leader Moqtada al-Sadr launched a boycott of their governmental duties to protest Maliki's decision to attend the summit in Jordan with Bush. It was not immediately clear if the change of plans in Jordan would affect the Iraqi lawmakers' boycott. "We announce the suspension of our participation in government and parliament," said Nasar al-Rubaie, the leader of Sadr's parliamentary bloc. "We gave a promise last Friday that we will suspend our participation if the Prime Minister met with Bush and today [Wednesday] we are doing it as a Sadrist bloc." In an earlier statement, the 30 lawmakers and five cabinet ministers loyal to Sadr said their action was necessary because the Amman summit constituted a "provocation to the feelings of the Iraqi people and a violation of their constitutional rights." But Rubaie cautioned that their action did not mean the officials were pulling out of the government, which would all but guarantee the collapse of Iraq's unity government. "The suspension does not mean our withdrawal from the political process," said Rubaie. He added the Sadr bloc would meet in coming days to discuss how long members would remain out of the government. 15) Annan Seeks Summit Outside Iraq To Reconcile Factions Robin Wright & Colum Lynch, Washington Post, Wednesday, November 29, 2006; A17 http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/11/28/AR2006112801437.html The U.N. Security Council unanimously extended the mandate for the 160,000-strong U.S.-led coalition in Iraq for an additional 12 months yesterday, as Secretary General Kofi Annan proposed an international conference at a venue outside the war-torn country to forge reconciliation among Iraq's political parties. Addressing what may be the most controversial issue to face the Bush administration, Annan said that Iran and Syria should be included in efforts to stabilize Iraq. "The two countries have a role to play, and they should become part of the solution," he told reporters, reflecting strong international momentum behind a broader approach to Iraq's strife. "And we should bring them in and get them to work with us in resolving the issue and let them assume some of the responsibility." Israel/Palestine 16) Palestinian PM Pushes 1967 Borders Proposal Reuters, November 29, 2006, Filed at 9:29 a.m. ET http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/world/international-palestinians-israel-haniyeh.html Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh on Wednesday set the tone for his first foreign tour since taking office by promoting a Palestinian initiative based on an independent state on land outside Israel's 1967 borders. After talks with Arab League Secretary General Amr Moussa, Haniyeh told a news conference it was time governments in the Middle East and around the world put pressure on Israel to recognize such an independent Palestinian state. Haniyeh is from the Islamist movement Hamas, which has traditionally advocated a single Palestinian state in all of Palestine as it existed before the creation of Israel in 1948. Some analysts see a gradual and cautious evolution in the position of Hamas, which took office this year after winning a majority in parliamentary elections in January. But Haniyeh sidestepped a question on whether a Palestinian state in the 1967 borders - Gaza, the West Bank and East Jerusalem - would mark a temporary or a permanent solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. "Before we talk about permanent or temporary we are talking about a Palestinian political vision based at this stage on setting up a state in the 1967 borders," he said. Afghanistan 17) NATO Talks Fail to Agree on a Bush Demand Sheryl Gay Stolberg & Judy Dempsey, New York Times, November 29, 2006 http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/29/world/europe/30natocnd.html Leaders of the 26 NATO nations failed to agree today on President Bush's demand that member countries with troops in Afghanistan lift their restrictions on how the troops are used. Those rules keep some soldiers from operating in the most dangerous part of the country. Instead of lifting the restrictions entirely, France, Germany and Italy agreed to allow their troops to be sent in emergencies to bolster the NATO forces in the south, where Taliban forces have fought with renewed vigor. Bolivia 18) Bolivian Senate OKs Sweeping Land Reform Associated Press, November 29, 2006, Filed at 6:28 a.m. ET http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/world/AP-Bolivia-Land-Reform.html Bolivia's leftist president won passage of an ambitious land redistribution bill and signed it into law to the cheers of impoverished Indian supporters, who stand to benefit from what eventually could be the confiscation of private holdings the size of Nebraska. Evo Morales, Bolivia's first Indian president, is intent on reversing centuries of dominance by a European-descended minority and granting greater power to its poor indigenous majority. He's already given poor farming communities some 8,500 square miles of government land this year, and hopes the new land reform bill will eventually allow his government to redistribute some 77,000 square miles of unproductive land. Morales has said the government will not seize productive land, but rather large tracts of Bolivia's sparsely populated east held by a handful of wealthy families. The government's first step will likely be deciding how to determine whether a parcel of land is productive or not - a process sure to spark heated debate with Bolivian agribusiness leaders who have long fought against Morales' agrarian reform. Conservative leaders walked out of the Senate last week to block the bill, which was pushed through the Senate on Tuesday in a vote that saw a majority of lawmakers absent. More than 3,000 Indian demonstrators had descended on the capital, La Paz - some walking for weeks - as opposition lawmakers tried to stall passage of the reforms. Morales had threatened to circumvent Congress and impose the law by presidential decree if the Senate did not reconvene by Tuesday afternoon. The bill passed 15-0 with the remainder of the 27 senators absent from vote. The conservative opposition party Podemos holds 13 of the Senate's 27 seats. With help from two senators from minor opposition parties, Podemos previously prevented the body from reaching a 14-seat quorum. Morales' Movement Toward Socialism party, or MAS, has 12 Senate seats. But Tuesday night, one Podemos senator returned to the chamber to vote for the land reform, joined by assistants filling in for two other opposition senators. It was not immediately clear whether the assistants' votes would hold up to legal scrutiny. Ecuador 19) Ecuador and US: Ballot Box Revolt in the Americas Mark Weisbrot, Huffington Post, 11.28.2006 http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mark-weisbrot-and-robert-naiman/ecuador-and-us-ballot-bo_b_35093.html The electoral victory of left economist Rafael Correa marks the eighth time in the last 8 years that a presidential candidate running against the "Washington Consensus" or "neoliberal" reforms in Latin America has won. (This does not count the re-elections of Lula Da Silva of Brazil and Hugo Chavez of Venezuela). This is out of 11 elections where such a candidate existed, and in the three remaining elections - Mexico, Costa Rica, and Peru - the left candidate came very close. What we are witnessing in this continuing leftward sweep is the people going over the heads of their political establishment and leaders (including economists), in an attempt to force desperately needed changes in economic policy. The long term growth failure in Latin America over the last 25 years has been unprecedented, but the established institutions and political parties have been unwilling to change policy and in many cases to even recognize the failure. We might even view our own election on November 7 as the U.S. joining most of the rest of the Americas in this sense. Although the biggest issue for voters was the war, there was plenty of evidence that our own country's long-term economic failure played a role. Somalia 20) Somalia: US-Backed UN Resolution Risks Wider War Jim Lobe, Inter Press Service, Wednesday, November 29, 2006 http://www.commondreams.org/headlines06/1129-02.htm Fearful that Islamist forces are transforming Somalia into a safe haven for al Qaeda, the administration of President Bush is pushing a new U.N. Security Council resolution that experts believe could well spark a wider war in the Horn of Africa. The resolution, which would exempt a proposed African "peace support" force from a longstanding arms embargo on Somalia, is due to be taken up by the Council this week despite warnings by the powerful Islamic Courts Union (ICU) that it will oppose any deployment of foreign forces on behalf of the Ethiopia-backed Transitional Federal Government (TFG). "The draft resolution the U.S. intends to present to the U.N. Security Council... could trigger all-out war in Somalia and destabilise the entire Horn of Africa region by escalating the proxy conflict between Ethiopia and Eritrea to dangerous new levels," warned the Brussels-based International Crisis Group earlier this week. Other analysts said passage of a resolution at this time was certain to be taken as a serious provocation by the ICU, which gained control of most of Somalia after routing the forces of U.S.-backed warlords from the country last summer and which the U.S. accuses of harbouring several perpetrators of suicide attacks on its embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998. "If you try to deploy a lightly armed African force into Mogadishu, you're going to have a battle," warned Ted Dagne, a Horn of Africa specialist at the Congressional Research Service, who added that any deployment should be part of a larger peace initiative that would also require the withdrawal of what some observers believe are several thousand Ethiopian troops from Somalia. "A negotiated settlement between the TFG and the ICU is key," he added. "The ICU is there; they cannot be ignored. They seem to have popular support from the Somalis in the areas they control, and the one entity that the U.S. supports [the TFG] really doesn't have control of anything beyond Baidowa," its interim capital. - Robert Naiman Just Foreign Policy www.justforeignpolicy.org Just Foreign Policy is a membership organization devoted to reforming U.S. foreign policy so it reflects the values and interests of the majority of Americans.
