Ask your Representative to Co-Sponsor the DeFazio "Iran War Powers" Resolution Representative DeFazio has introduced a resolution re-affirming that President Bush cannot attack Iran without Congressional authorization. Ask your Representative to support it. http://www.justforeignpolicy.org/involved/warpowers.html
Summary: US/Top News If someone were keeping a "doomsday clock" of the impending threat of a U.S. military attack on Iran, that clock surely would have ticked forward in the last week, writes Robert Naiman on Huffington Post. Representative DeFazio has introduced a resolution that reaffirms the bedrock Constitutional principle that Congress has the exclusive power to declare war. http://www.justforeignpolicy.org/involved/warpowers.html
The Bush administration has periodically claimed Iran is supplying anti-coalition forces in Iraq with arms, writes Gareth Porter for Inter Press Service. In the past, administration officials admitted they had no real evidence. Now Secretary of State Rice has told reporters, "there is plenty of evidence that there is Iranian involvement with these networks that are making high-explosive IEDs." But Rice failed to provide any evidence of official Iranian involvement. The origins of the theme of Iranian complicity suggest that it was aimed at reducing the Bush administration's embarrassment at its inability to stop the growing death toll of US troops from shaped charges fired at armoured vehicles by Sunni insurgents. The US admitted at first that Sunnis were making the shaped charges themselves. In June 2005, Gen. John Vines, senior US commander in Iraq, said insurgents had probably drawn on bomb-making expertise from the former Iraqi army. Shortly thereafter, the Bush administration decided to start blaming Iran. But the administration had a major credibility problem. It could not explain why Iran would want to assist the enemies of the militant Shiite parties in Iraq that were aligned with Iran.
Republican Senator Chuck Hagel, will join two leading Democrats in introducing a resolution opposing President Bush's buildup of troops in Iraq, the New York Times reports.
Senator Dodd announced legislation capping the number of troops in Iraq at 130,000, saying that lawmakers should vote on President Bush's plan to send additional troops to the country and not settle for the non-binding resolution several Senate leaders prefer, the Washington Post reports.
Tom Andrews, former House Democrat who heads Win Without War, said a non-binding resolution would allow Republicans to voice their opposition to the president's policy, giving them political cover when they later oppose binding legislative efforts to stifle that policy, the Washington Post reports. "The whole thing could let Republicans off the hook with a meaningless, toothless vote," said Andrews. "It's a pressure valve that could work against us."
Senate lawmakers sharply criticized the Bush administration Tuesday for failing to provide refuge in the US for the most vulnerable of the Iraqis fleeing violence, the New York Times reports. Several senators called on the US to increase assistance for Iraqi refugees and to support an international conference to address the crisis. The conference would most likely include Syria and Iran, which have received hundreds of thousands of Iraqi refugees.
Iran US wrestlers were welcomed to Iran Tuesday with bouquets of flowers, the New York Times reports. The 14 wrestlers will compete in the Persian Gulf Cup. In the 1998 tournament, some 12,000 fans in Tehran cheered as a US wrestler waved the Iranian flag after winning a silver medal.
The IAEA has suspended some technical aid projects in Iran to comply with new U.N. sanctions, Reuters reports. Exactly how broadly to apply the definition of banned projects is the subject of a brewing battle between Western and the Non-Aligned Movement of developing nations on the IAEA board.
Iraq Iraq is emerging as one of the fastest-growing refugee crises in the world, with an estimated 1.7 million Iraqis displaced from their homes, the Washington Post reports. The Bush administration has $20 million in its fiscal 2007 budget for Iraqi refugee assistance; the US is spending $8 billion a month on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. [Yesterday the Christian Science Monitor reported that the US was spending $10 billion a month, indicating how shrouded in mystery U.S. spending on these wars is.] The most practical, immediate way to alleviate the crisis is to step up aid for refugees in neighboring countries so these countries do not close their borders, experts said.
The carefully worded encouragement that Arab allies are offering for President Bush's new Iraq strategy belies deep suspicion among the US' few real friends in the region that Iraq may already be a lost cause, writes Anne Gearan for AP.
Israel/Palestine The Israeli military Tuesday froze implementation of an order prohibiting Israeli citizens from giving rides in their cars to Palestinian residents of the West Bank without special permission, Haaretz reports. Human rights organizations call the order racist, saying it would disrupt even minimal social contacts between Israelis and Palestinians. They also expressed concern the order would hamper international organizations and further restrict Palestinian movement throughout the West Bank.
The Israeli military's chief of staff, Dan Halutz, resigned after months of criticism over last summer's war in Lebanon, the New York Times reports. Halutz was seen as overly reliant on air power. Lebanese civilian casualties from Israeli bombing turned international opinion against the Israeli campaign.
Prominent citizens from Israel and Syria drafted a document that calls for returning the Golan Heights to Syria and offers an outline for peace negotiations, the New York Times reports. The document calls for Syria to regain the Golan Heights based on the border that existed before the 1967 war. The heights would be demilitarized except for a limited police presence. The two countries would establish normal diplomatic relations.
Afghanistan Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Tuesday there had been a "significant increase" in cross-border attacks from Pakistan, the Washington Post reports. Gates said he would be "strongly inclined" to recommend a troop increase if commanders believe it is needed. US military officials said Pakistani forces had been turning a blind eye to insurgent border crossings.
Somalia The transitional government in Somalia lifted a ban on three radio stations, the New York Times reports.
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- Robert Naiman Just Foreign Policy www.justforeignpolicy.org