Iraq veterans: “the entire war is an atrocity”
As part of an effort to investigate the impact of the United States-led invasion of Iraq on the local population, The Nation interviewed fifty combat veterans of the Iraq War from around the US. In these candid interviews, veterans describe the brutal side of war. Amid a campaign in which the common civilian is often viewed as a potential terrorist, the notion that transgressions by US personnel comprise of actions by just a few bad apples, seems set to take yet another knock with these interviews, which paint a grave picture of widespread human rights violations.
The intensification of violence in Iraq is creating political fracture in Washington and narrowing the White House's options, writes Paul Rogers on openDemocracy.
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So-so progress in Iraq
The Bush administration is to announce in the next few days that some progress has been made vis-à-vis nearly half of the 18 benchmarks set by Congress to measure ‘success’ in Iraq. In the military realm, for example, there has been a significant decline in the number of those killed from car and truck bombs, as well as the number of Iraqi civilians killed in sectarian violence. Yet, the draft report also concedes that the neutrality and ability of the Iraqi security forces and government remains wanting.
National security advisor Stephen Hadley has sought to downplay the significance of the report, urging Republicans to hold out on their judgment until the more comprehensive September report from Ambassador Ryan Crocker and General David Petraeus is released.
Senate Republicans yesterday blocked consideration of increasing the time US troops have inbetween combat tours.
United Nations (UN) Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has told the BBC that he is troubled by the worsening level of violence in Iraq, and concerned about where US policy in the state might be headed. He has taken the step of drawning up contingency plans in case there is a sudden alteration in American policy direction. Meanwhile, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees today announced that it is to double to $123m (£60.5m) its 2007 budget for Iraq.
Nahr al-Bared: “first step in the final battle”
Lebanese forces have renewed their bombardment of the Nahr al-Bared refugee camp near Tripoli, in what has been described as the “first step in the final battle” against the Fatah al-Islam militant group. Three soldiers were killed amid the engagement on Thursday. Some 150 people, mostly thought to be Palestinian militants, left the camp on Wednesday, as the military readied for the assault.
Perpetrators of war crimes and other human rights abuses during last summer’s 34-day war between Hizbullah and Israel have yet to be prosecuted for their offences, Amnesty International has said. Without a UN-led independent inquiry, calls for which have thus fallen on deaf years, “there is a real danger of history repeating itself”, cautioned the director of Amnesty’s Middle East and North Africa programme, Malcolm Smart.
Visiting the northern border on Thursday to mark the first anniversary of the outbreak of the Second Lebanon War, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert defended his decision to go to war to tackle Hizbullah last summer.
Peace a four-letter word at Jewish conference?
Several delegates at the Jerusalem Conference on the Future of the Jewish People, which closes today, were perplexed by the absence of any Jewish-Muslim peace agenda in the debate. “Has peace become a rude word among us Jews?”, exclaims Rene Shmuel Sirat, the former chief rabbi of France. “How can you plan a future for the Jewish nation”, he lamented, “without addressing the peace issue?”
Contributors to the Jerusalem Post blog on their views concerning the conference, and specifically whether, as conversely criticised, the event overly focused on threats to Israeli security and anti-Semitism, rather than the ‘softer’ issues of education, identity, assimilation and conversion.
Palestinians back broader Blair role
Palestinian negotiators have backed former British Prime Minister Tony Blair’s call for a broader role as the Middle East envoy for the Quartet of world powers – comprising the UN, US, European Union and Russia. In a letter delivered to Quartet representatives, the Palestinians called for Blair to oversee not only the rebuilding of the Palestinian Authority, but also Israeli commitments, such as removing checkpoints and freezing construction of new settlements in the West Bank.
Hamas have rejected the proposal for returning Palestinian refugees stranded in the Sinai peninsula in Egypt to enter Gaza through the Harm Abu Salim (Kerem Shalom) crossing, saying they believe that if they do so they will be arrested by Israeli forces. Instead, they favour the Rafah crossing. Israel agreed to the choice of the Harm Abu Salim crossing on Tuesday.
Hamas members boycotted an emergency session of the Palestinian parliament on Wednesday, which had to be abandoned due to an insufficient number of MPs present to hold a quorum. With parliament unable to meet, however, this gives Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas full reign to maintain his emergency cabinet.
ETA suspect plots Plymouth ferry attack
A suspected ETA member detained in Santander was allegedly plotting an attack on one of three possible targets, among them a twice-weekly ferry service from the northern port town to Plymouth, carrying British holidaymakers. It is unclear how far advanced the plans were, although Spanish police are searching for a car bomb that the accused was thought to have been due to receive.
Former militant leader in govt pocket
Hasan Hattab, the former leader of the Salafite Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC), Algeria’s main Islamist militant group, is reportedly living a life of luxury at the expense of the state. On trial for terror activities linked to the GSPC, his former deputy disclosed that, during the amnesty for Islamic militants, upon turning himself in last August, Hattab received a Mercedes and a home in Boukhalifa.
“Mosques have never been so full, nor hearts so empty”. In the painful aftermath of civil war, amid domestic economic and social pressures, Algerians are struggling towards new forms of accommodation between religion and politics, reports James McDougall on openDemocracy.
UN-AU Darfur force a slow burner
Britain, France and Ghana circulated a draft resolution for a joint UN-African Union (AU) force on Wednesday, which calls for the deployment of 26,000 troops and police to the troubled Sudanese region of Darfur. The proposal, which seems set to be adopted this month, also threatens the use of force against those who attack civilians and peace workers, or those who otherwise obstruct peace. Implementation of the scheme will take months, however.
Heavy shelling of the presidential palace and the venue for a forthcoming reconciliation conference scheduled for Sunday, occurred overnight in the Somali capital of Mogadishu.
A three-year-old Nigerian boy has been kidnapped in the Niger Delta, fours days after a British girl of the same age was released.
Tamil Tigers to target Sri Lankan economy
A top Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) leader has told Reuters that the Tamil Tigers will target military and economic targets in Sri Lanka, such as oil installations, in a bid to cripple the island’s economy. He also said that recent government successes in Thoppigala will not last long, and rejected holding peace talks with the current president, who he says has spoken of peace initiatives whilst simultaneously waging war against the LTTE.
The LTTE defeat at Thoppigala is not only a defeat for the Tigers, but a defeat for the peace merchants and “green-eyed opposition politicians”, writes A Voice in Colombo. It reflected, they write, “a true vision to destroy terrorism till the end” by the government.
Anti-terror law to infringe on free speech?
There is concern in the Philippines that the introduction of the Human Security Act of 2007, due to take effect on 15 July, will lead to impunity and greater levels of human rights abuses in the country. Under this new law, with its extremely vague and sweeping terminology, public freedom of expression may be the first casualty. An Anti-Terrorism Council, set up to implement this law and comprising of government officials, has, after all, been given sway in determining when the government is being “coerced” by apparent “unlawful demands”.
Read the entire text of the law on the Philippine Commentary.
Peace monitors have arrived on the southern Philippine island of Basilan, after a nine-hour gunbattle between troops and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) on Tuesday left at least 14 marines dead.
ASEAN discuss bioterrorism threat
Police representatives from Association of the Southeast Asian (ASEAN) countries met in Jakarta on Thursday, as part of a two-day discussion on how best to deal with the threat posed by bioterrorism. A number of bioterrorism experts from ASEAN, as well as the International Criminal Police Organisation (Interpol), are also due to take part in this exchange of ideas and information.
Investigation into the alleged involvement of Indian doctor Mohamed Haneef in the failed London bomb plots is being hampered by bureaucratic red-tape. The Indian Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has said that it will not disclose information to Australian officers concerning the background of Haneef until they receive a court-issued document relating to the case.
24 missing Indian policemen killed
Twenty-four Indian policemen have been found dead. The men went missing on Monday after a fierce gunbattle with Maoist insurgents in the jungles of Dantewada district, in the state of Chhattisgarh.
Lal Masjid saga ‘ends’, but retaliation possible
As more than 70 people killed in the military siege of Islamabad’s Red Mosque (or Lal Masjid) are buried, al-Qaida’s second-in-command Ayman al-Zawahri urged Pakistanis to revolt against the rule of President Pervez Musharraf. Musharraf was due to explain on Thursday why the raid at the mosque took place, and is expected to unveil an effort to curb extremism and bolster security near the border with Afghanistan.
Pakistani Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz declared victory in the operation to secure control of the mosque, after a 36-hour battle. The Pakistani army announced last night that 73 bodies had been recovered from the compound, bringing the total death toll to 106, including nine soldiers. Aziz said that civilian casualties were lower than expected, and that there had been no women or children killed.
At least seven people, including three policemen, have been killed in two suicide attacks in northwest Pakistan. Nearly 30 people have been killed in attacks targeting security force and government targets since the Lal Masjid saga began, raising fears of a wider backlash.
Craig Cohen, the deputy chief of staff at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, was interviewed by The Washington Post concerning his opinions on the deadly military raid at Pakistan’s Lal Masjid mosque.
Metroblogging Islamabad attempts to collate opinions on the Lal Masjid shootout. Cast your vote here.
