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Summary: U.S. In a tendentious article with a misleading headline, the New York Times reported Saturday on Bush Administration claims to have won an agreement from other permanent members of the UN Security Council to "seek sanctions against Iran over its refusal to shut down a nuclear enrichment program that could be used to build bombs." The headline was "U.S. Cites Deal With U.N. Members to Punish Iran." In standard American English, one typically "cites" things that are generally acknowledged to be true, factual, or legitimate, like the Second Law of Thermodynamics or one's First Amendment rights. One "claims" things that are in dispute. As one reads further into the article, it becomes clear that what the U.S. can "cite" is an agreement to discuss sanctions, not an agreement to impose them.
James Baker, co-chair of the Iraq Study Group, said he expected the panel would depart from Bush's calls to "stay the course," and suggested the White House enter direct talks with Iran and Syria. "I believe in talking to your enemies," he said. His comments offered a glimmer of what members of his study group have described as an effort to find a face-saving way for Bush to extract the US from the war.
Luis Posada Carriles, a Cuban exile accused in a plot to blow up a civilian Cuban airplane that resulted in 73 deaths, presents a quandary for the Bush administration, the New York Times reports. Posada may soon go free because the US has been reluctant to press the terrorism charges that could keep him in jail.
Momentum is growing for state governments to divest public funds from companies, mostly foreign-based, doing business with Sudan, the Washington Post reports.
A debate on the role of the Israeli lobby in U.S. foreign policy involving prominent academics and former high-level U.S. and Israeli officials is now viewable on the web. Juan Cole characterizes press coverage of the event as a "virtual news blackout."
Iran A senior cleric who opposes religious rule in Iran and a number of his followers were arrested Sunday after clashes with police, Iranian news agencies reported. Ayatollah Boroujerdi said he had written to world leaders seeking protection and asking them "to make efforts to spread traditional religion," separate from politics. "I believe people are fed up with political religion and want traditional religion to return," he said.
Iraq Three and a half years after the American invasion, the violence that has disfigured much of Iraqi society is hitting young Iraqis in new ways, the New York Times reports. Young people say their lives have shrunk to the size of their bedrooms and their dreams have been packed away and largely forgotten.
American and Iraqi troops fought a fierce battle Sunday with militants in Diwaniya, a stronghold of militia members loyal to Shiite cleric Moktada al-Sadr, the US military said. The skirmish was the third serious clash between American or Iraqi soldiers against members of the Mahdi Army in Diwaniya in less than two months.
The number of U.S troops wounded in Iraq surged to its highest monthly level in nearly two years last month, the Washington Post reports, as 776 U.S. troops were wounded in action in Iraq. Experts say the number of wounded is a better gauge of the fierceness of fighting than combat deaths because advances in armor and medical care now allow many to survive who would have perished in past wars. The ratio of wounded to killed among U.S. forces in Iraq is about 8 to 1, compared with 3 to 1 in Vietnam.
In southern Baghdad, American troops increasingly ask themselves if this is their fight anymore, and who is the enemy, NBC News reports.
Israel There are two reasons Israel won't make peace with Syria now, writes veteran Israeli journalist and peace activist Uri Avnery. One is domestic: the 20,000 Israeli settlers living in the occupied Golan Heights, which Israel would have to give back as part of a peace deal. The second is that President Bush wouldn't like it. A true Israeli patriot, Avnery suggests, would try to make peace with Syria if it is in Israel's interest, whether the US likes it or not.
Yemen The election in Yemen was a victory for Abdelrahman al-Marwani, who leads an anti-violence campaign in Yemen, the New York Times reports, not because of how people voted but because only eight people were killed. In part due to the efforts of his organization, that number was down from 67 in the 2001 election.
Afghanistan NATO's top commander in Afghanistan said Sunday the country was at a tipping point and warned Afghans would likely switch their allegiance to resurgent Taliban militants if there are no visible improvements in people's lives in the next six months.
Russia Hundreds of Russians attended a rally in Moscow Sunday to commemorate a veteran journalist who was murdered Saturday, apparently in retaliation for her exposure of human rights abuses by the Russian government in Chechnya.
North Korea North Korea's apparent nuclear test may be regarded as a failure of the Bush administration's nuclear nonproliferation policy, the Washington Post reports. But senior U.S. officials have said they would welcome a North Korean test as a clarifying event that would end the debate within the Bush administration about whether to solve the problem through diplomacy or through tough actions designed to destabilize the North Korean government.
Illegitimate Debt Anti-debt campaigners are hailing Monday's decision by Norway to cancel $80 million in debt after it determined the loans were not intended to promote development, Inter Press Service reports. The IPS reporter notes that Norway's action "broke ranks" with other creditors, who have refused to acknowledge that much of the international debt owed by poor countries is illegitimate. Remarkably, the IPS article referred to the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank, and the "Paris Club" group of creditor nations as being part of a "creditors' cartel." What is remarkable about this characterization is that it is so accurate. It's a safe bet this reporter will never get a job at the New York Times.
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-------- Robert Naiman Just Foreign Policy www.justforeignpolicy.org
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