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Marshall or martial?
First, to the Middle East.
As Palestinian prime minister Mahmoud Abbas and Israeli prime minister Ariel Sharon got the red carpet treatment in the White House, Tom DeLay, the Republican majority leader of the House of Representatives, took a different message to Israel, Jordan and Iraq.
In an interview with the New York Times the influential DeLay (and one time pest exterminator in Sugar Land, Texas) had the following to say: Im sure there are some in the administration who are smarter than me, but I cant imagine in the very near future that a Palestinian state could ever happen.
DeLays job is, in the words of the NYT, to remind the Bush administration to pay heed to its Republican right flank.
There are other things he cannot imagine.
I cant imagine this president supporting a state of terrorists, a sovereign state of terrorists, he said. Youd have to change almost an entire generations culture.
The NYT calls DeLay a significant participant in Middle East policy.
The high-ranking Republican is also an evangelical Christian, and the most prominent member in Washington of the Christian Zionist movement, described by the NYT as a formidable bloc of conservative Republicans whose support for Israel is based on biblical interpretations, which sometimes puts them to the right of the Israeli government.
DeLay has a clearly defined foreign policy. In the Arab world before 9/11, they thought the United States was a paper tiger, he said. We had a president at the time whose retaliation at terrorism was throwing a few bombs in the desert. They laughed at that. And now they see this is real stuff, and real power. And they respect power.
Macho stuff from the ex-exterminator.
As Paul Krugman points out in his NYT column, DeLay has a passion for the tough guy image. In a speech a few days before the Times interview, the hawkish congressman said, To gauge just how out of touch the Democrat leadership is on the war on terror, just close your eyes and try to imagine Ted Kennedy landing that navy jet on the deck of that aircraft carrier.
Not a bad joke, perhaps, but one with a point worth taking seriously.
This, in a nutshell, is what so riles Europe.
Bush struck a different note. With Mahmoud Abbas at his side, he announced the creation of a Joint Palestine Economic Development Group. Americans and Palestinians will work together on boosting the Palestinian economy.
The Diary doesnt want to sound like a party pooper Bush did, after all, talk again of his goal of peace in the Holy Land between two free and secure states, Palestine and Israel but does the Joint Palestine Economic Development Group sound a little like the Marshall Plan for Palestinian areas that DeLay calls for instead of Palestinian statehood?
Tell the Diary what you think contact dominic.hilton@openDemocracy.net
Coddling and cover-up
Meanwhile, diplomatic relations between the US and Saudi Arabia plummeted this week.
It all started with the issue of the damning congressional report on the 11 September attacks. Most of the section of the report that dealt with Saudi links to the 9/11 hijackers was classified. Several Democrats immediately called for declassification.
Its a bizarre world where a Saudi businessman by the name of bin Laden is meeting in Washington with former US Secretary of State James Baker just as the hijacked planes fly into the twin towers and Pentagon.
Still, thats how it is. Only now, many are calling for this strangest of strange relationships to be publicly addressed. Chuck Schumer, Senator for New York, accused the White House of coddling and cover-up when it comes to the Saudis.
For the record, fifteen of the nineteen 9/11 hijackers were Saudis.
And then theres Osama, of course.
The Saudis were furious at the suggestions in the congressional report that Saudi Arabia might have indirectly funded the terrorist attacks as if!
The idea that the Saudi government funded, organised or even knew about September 11 is malicious and blatantly false, said Prince Bandar bin Sultan, Saudi ambassador to the United States. There is something wrong with the basic logic of those who spread these spurious charges. Al Qaeda is a cult that is seeking to destroy Saudi Arabia as well as the United States. By what logic would we support a cult that is trying to kill us?
Bin Sultan should talk to his wife occasionally.
According to those whove read it (the Diary, for whatever reason, never got a look in), the classified part of the report tells how Princess Haifa al-Faisal, wife of the Saudi ambassador, increased payments to a Saudi man living in San Diego at the very time a close associate of this man was funding a couple of the 9/11 terrorists.
Sounds fishy, but the Princess insists she was merely funding surgery and medical care for the wife of this plotter.
An editorial in the New York Times calls the Saudi protests sanctimonious bluster. Is the US finally willing to pursue the Saudi connection?
Relatives of the victims of 9/11 this week publicly called for the US to address the issue.
Despite a request from the Saudi government, Bush is not keen on declassifying the sections of the document dealing with his ally. If people are being investigated, it doesnt make sense for us to let them know who they are, he said, somewhat oddly.
(Sources: New York Times, Channel 4 News UK, BBC News)
Neo-cons meet neo-libs
As America is at the centre of just about everyones universe right now, the Diary skips to one of those front-page stories worthy of repetition.
This week, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (Darpa), an office of the Pentagon, abandoned plans to set up an online futures market that would allow anonymous speculators to place bets on forecasting terrorist attacks.
No, really.
The website (www.policyanalysismarket.org) was part of a Pentagon drive to determine the broadest possible set of new ways to prevent terrorist attacks.
Senator Ron Wyden of Oregon, a critic of the FutureMAP programme, explained how the betting worked. For instance, you may think early on that Prime Minister X is going to be assassinated. So you buy the futures contracts for five cents each. As more people begin to think the persons going to be assassinated, the cost of the contract could go up, to fifty cents. The payoff if hes assassinated is $1 per future. So if it comes to pass, those who bought at five cents make ninety-five cents. Those who bought at fifty cents make fifty cents.
Capitalism in action.
The NYT says the Pentagon defended the programme by pointing to the effectiveness of futures trading in predicting other events like oil prices, elections and movie ticket sales.
Said Senator Byron Dorgan of North Dakota, Can you imagine if another country set up a betting parlour so that people could go in and is sponsored by the government itself people could go in and bet on the assassination of an American political figure?
So committed to this programme was the Bush administration it had sought $8 million of funding through 2005.
Research indicates that markets are extremely efficient, effective and timely aggregators of dispersed and even hidden information, the Defense Department said, in its ... er ... defence. Futures markets have proven themselves to be good at predicting such things as election results; they are often better than expert opinions.
Well thats not exactly saying much!
Senator Tom Daschle, Democratic leader, told it like it was: I must say this is perhaps the most irresponsible, outrageous and poorly thought-out of anything that I have heard the administration propose to date.
The idea was developed by the Terrorism Information Awareness Office, headed by Admiral John Poindexter, the national security adviser under the Reagan administration, who, before immunity saved him, was convicted of lying to Congress about weapons sales to Iran and illegal aid to Nicaraguan Contra rebels.
Those were the days.
(Sources: New York Times, BBC News Online)
Almighty nerve
Finally, readers may have been confused this week to hear the voice of Saddam Hussein mourning the death of his two sons with these words: We thank God for honouring us with their martyrdom for His sake.
Which God is that?, you might wonder.
Well, as luck would have it, God revealed himself to the world this week. His chosen channel of communication was Equatorial Guinea State Radio.
According to the programme Bidze-Nduan (Bury the fire), the identity of God is no longer in doubt. He is none other than Teodoro Obiang Nguema, President of Equatorial Guinea.
Thats right, President Nguema is like God in heaven and has all power over men and things.
The announcement was made by one of the Presidents aides.
He can decide to kill without anyone calling him to account and without going to hell because it is God himself, said the loyal public servant.
The Bidze-Hduan show aims to inform and mobilise the masses on issues of national interest.
God seized power in a coup in 1970.
In the 2002 presidential elections, God won 100% of the vote.
(Source: BBC News)
Campaign of the week
Blair 2004
Tony Blair for President!
Quotes of the week
The reason you start with Iraq, is twelve years of UN sanctions. As I keep saying to people, Iraq didnt pop out of nowhere.
British prime minister Tony Blair
I think the lesson of 9/11 is that if youre not prepared to act on the basis of murky intelligence, then youre going to have to act after the fact, and after the fact now means after horrendous things have happened to this country.
US deputy defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz, redefining the case for war.
We are thankful for every hour of increased quiet and less terrorism, and for every drop of blood that you spare us.
Israeli prime minister Ariel Sharon speaking at the White House.
We need to be positive and constructive and not just snicker in our little corner, saying, They are in trouble.
Former French foreign minister Hubert Védrine on the US military occupation of Iraq.
The military rule is not here anymore.
Pakistan prime minister Zafarullah Khan Jamali, declaring an end to military rule in Pakistan. Read more.
I take personal responsibility for everything I say.
US President George W. Bush
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Contact the Diary Editor: Dominic.Hilton@openDemocracy.net
