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Summary: U.S./Top News The termination of the Office of the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction, slipped into a military authorization bill, has generated outrage among lawmakers who say they didn't know it was in the legislation, the New York Times reports. Investigations by the office have sent American occupation officials to jail on bribery charges, exposed poor construction work by companies like Halliburton and Parsons, and discovered the military didn't track hundreds of thousands of weapons it shipped to Iraq.
Despite heavy-handed interference from the US, Daniel Ortega appears poised for victory in Nicaragua's presidential elections, the Independent reports.
Lawyers will soon ask the German federal prosecutor open a criminal investigation of Donald Rumsfeld and Alberto Gonzales for war crimes, Jeremy Brecher and Brendan Smith report in The Nation. The passage of the Military Commissions Act provides a central argument for the legal action: it demonstrates the intent of the Bush Administration to immunize itself legally from prosecution in the US.
A new protest movement inside the U.S. military echoes similar protests during Vietnam, Mark Benjamin writes in Salon. Last week a group of current troops announced plans to petition Congress with a collection of "appeals for redress," which call for an immediate withdrawal from Iraq. Since then, the effort has swelled to nearly 500 troops, and continues to grow.
The government shut down a Web site containing an archive of captured Iraqi documents, after The New York Times asked about complaints from IAEA officials about the posting of detailed accounts of Iraq's secret nuclear research before the 1991 Persian Gulf war. The documents, experts say, constitute a guide to building an atom bomb. One diplomat said the agency's experts "were shocked" at the public disclosures.
The Pentagon has stepped up planning for attacks against North Korea's nuclear program and is bolstering nuclear forces in Asia, the Washington Times reports. Officials said the accelerated military planning includes detailed programs for striking a North Korean plutonium-reprocessing facility at Yongbyon. The planning was already underway before North Korea's recent nuclear test.
Nuclear experts see a world on the threshold of a dangerous arms race, the Washington Post reports. Some fault the Bush administration for policies that rewarded nuclear-armed friends while denouncing foes accused of building the same weapons. Others say the current situation is a byproduct of a world in which countries no longer have to choose between the US and the Soviet Union, but can build independent alliances.
America is now seen as a threat to world peace by its closest allies, according to an international survey of public opinion that reveals how far the country's reputation has fallen since the invasion of Iraq, the Guardian reports.
Iran Russia is ready to back a U.N. resolution to curb Iran's nuclear program but sanctions drawn up by European leaders greatly exceed what Moscow agreed with Western powers, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Friday. Lavrov has said the resolution should focus only on areas the International Atomic Energy Agency has defined as serious, such as uranium enrichment, chemical processing and heavy-water reactors.
Iraq An Army dog handler convicted of abusing detainees at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq has returned to the country with his military police unit, AP reports.
While it might be unpalatable to U.S. politicians, an amnesty might help reduce violence in Iraq, writes US Army historian Dale Andrade in the Washington Post.
Israel Israeli troops fired at a large crowd of unarmed Palestinian women in the Gaza Strip today as the women approached a mosque to help Palestinian militants holed up inside, the New York Times reports. Two women were killed and about 10 were injured. The shooting provoked widespread outrage among Palestinians.
Afghanistan The next opium harvest in Afghanistan will likely rival this year's record high, AP reports.
Mexico Protesters forced federal police to retreat from the gates of the state university in Oaxaca after six hours of pitched fighting and the rector's call for an end to the government "attack," AP reports.
North Korea The Bush administration claim that North Korea cheated or reneged on a 1994 agreement with the U.S. to freeze its nuclear program is "completely false and ridiculous," former President Carter said.
Contents: http://www.justforeignpolicy.org/newsroom/blog/ - Robert Naiman Just Foreign Policy www.justforeignpolicy.org