Submitted by ye old scribe for consideration as both a safe and a feisty choice for Veep in the Obama campaign: Mike Gravel.
Ain’t a-goin’ to happen in all probability, but wouldn’t it be hoot-and-a-half to see the G.O.P./McCain slime factory trot out the tack of “he’s too damn old?”
Absolutely and indubitably a must-read (emphasis added):
Thomas Romig, a major general who was the Army’s judge advocate general from 2001 to 2005, agreed that the JAGs were pushed to the side: “It was a disaster,” he said.
[snip]
“As they viewed it, due process is legal mumbo jumbo,” said Romig, who’s now the dean of Washburn University’s law school. “They wanted to get them, get the facts and convict them. … If you’re caught as a terrorist, you’re presumed guilty and you have to prove you’re innocent. It was crazy.”
When Romig objected to pushing the boundaries of interrogation procedures during meetings in late 2002 or early 2003, he recalled that civilian defense officials replied that the time for law had passed.
“Guys, it’s time to wake up and smell the coffee. It’s time to take the gloves off,” Romig said he was told by Marshall Billingslea, a deputy to Douglas Feith — who was then the undersecretary of defense for policy, the Pentagon’s third-ranking official.
Romig said that he and other military officers asked, “Do you realize the implications of what you’re saying?” Source
’nuff said.
The universality of the essential toolbox of liberty today has been reiterated.
Justice Anthony M. Kennedy’s opinion for the majority in Boumediene v. Bush (06-1195) and Al Odah v. U.S. (06-1196) was an almost rhapsodic review of the history of the Great Writ. The Suspension Clause, he wrote, “protects the rights of the detained by a means consistent with the essential design of the Constitution. It ensures that, except during periods of formal suspension, the Judiciary will have a time-tested device, the writ, to maintain the ‘delicate balance of governance’ that is itself the surest safeguard of liberty.” Those who wrote the Constitution, he added, “deemed the writ to be an essential mechanism in the separation-of-powers scheme.”
Even though the two political branches — the President and Congress — had agreed to take away the detainees’ habeas rights, Kennedy said those branches do not have “the power to switch the Constitution on or off at will.” Source
A bit more:
Justice Anthony Kennedy, writing for the court, said, “The laws and Constitution are designed to survive, and remain in force, in extraordinary times.” Article
That 5-4 margin for the supremacy of the Constitution — of it being a living documentation of inalienable creed — is, once again, a key reason why the occupant of the White House should not be an adherent nor espouser nor enabler of dogmatically retrogressive ideological blather (i.e., John Sidney McCain III). Who were that dissenting 4 who raised the flag of fear above the flag of law? Justices Scalia, Thomas, Alito and Roberts (attribution).
Lady Liberty cannot — must not — be waterboarded; her torch once quenched allows — nay, encourages — the reign of darkness.
Do we seek to make the future or break the future?
Ye old scribe votes for the former.
Let’s do it. Together.
Distillation of Defense Secretary Gates’ shoulder-shrugging testimony :
Like, whaddaya expect? I’m only 6th in line to the President and head a department getting one-third of the budget. It’s not like I have any authority or anything.
Sheesh. Don’t get friction burns on the fingertips from passing those bucks at warp speed, Mr. Secretary.
… and 1 Giant Step For We The People
If ye old scribe could be granted one boon, it would be that the very first thing on the morning following inauguration day come January, the next president would append an official signature to this executive order:
All executive orders signed by President George W. Bush are herewith rescinded.
12 words. Is that too much to ask?
Is it too much to ask to reassert freedom — to stop cold the yet ongoing mauling, evisceration and outright rape of the Constitution a president swears to “preserve, protect and defend” (citation) in the inaugural oath?
UPDATE May 29, 12:25 p.m.: Rumblings of reason?
Yes, yes yes. More than ever this election year, it is vital to think beyond just the next tomorrow and to recognize and choose which blueprint for the future will be validated.
Commonwealth or peonage? Equality or elitism? Law or fiat? Progression or regression? Mine, mine, mine or ours?
Bolstering or jettisoning the currently somnolent self-correcting mechanisms of the American system?
Democracy or corporatocracy?
Yes, the choice come November is that stark. And that perilous.
Afghanistan summary here.
Pakistan summaries here and here and here.
73½ months on…
The conflict in Afghanistan has reached “crisis proportions”, with the resurgent Taliban present in more than half the country and closing in on Kabul, a report said on Wednesday.
[snip]…The insurgency now controls vast swaths of unchallenged territory including rural areas, some district centres, and important road arteries.” Article
Noted FYI:
Switzerland announced on Wednesday that it would end its four years’ cooperation with the NATO-led international forces in Afghanistan by recalling its military personnel.
Two Swiss army officers, currently working with a German team in the northeastern Kunduz province, will return home by March next year, Swiss Defense Minister Samuel Schmid told a press conference in Bern, the Swissinfo website reported.
Schmid said he took the decision for security reasons. The NATO-led mission in Afghanistan has become a peace enforcement operation rather than a peacekeeping duty, he said.
According to Schmid, a continued Swiss military presence in Afghanistan - although “rather symbolic” - is impossible because it goes against the spirit of the constitution and is not in line with the law.
[snip]
According to the Swiss Defense Ministry, the nature of NATO’s engagement in Afghanistan has changed since 2005. But its mission has progressively turned into a campaign against insurgents.
Even in the regions where warlords and fighters only carry out sporadic activity, the mission has faced difficulties because of the need for troops to resort to self-protection measures.
In areas of the country where the Taliban have regained strength, reconstruction work has become practically impossible, the Swiss authorities said. Article
Turning the aphorism on its head, the chaotic whole is less than the sum of its parts.
National unity has always been a difficult concept in Afghanistan, a country with a bewildering array of ethnic and tribal groups, and language often serves as the lightening rod for controversy. The issue recently resurfaced with a government plan to dramatically increase the number of Pashto-language schools in Kabul, the predominantly Dari-speaking capital.
While some politicians applauded the education ministry’s initiative, it has prompted a strong backlash from others.
During a roundtable discussion on Tolo TV, Kabul member of parliament Najibullah Kabuli went as far as calling the initiative a “crime”, and accused Education Minister Hanif Atmar of seeking to sow disunity among schoolchildren.
[snip]
Dari and Pashto are by far the most widespread languages in Afghanistan, and very roughly speaking prevail in the north and south, respectively. Kabul parliamentary Fawzia Nasiryar pointed out that many other languages are spoken throughout Afghanistan, for instance Uzbek and Turkmen. If Kabul’s Pashtuns have access to education in their language, other linguistic minorities should be granted the same right, she argued.
“This action by the education minister is a tribal action,” she claimed. “If it isn’t tribal, why hasn’t he built schools for other languages? The minister is taking such action only for the sake of his tribe.”
Ministry spokesman Afghan defended the cabinet’s decision to create separate schools for Pashtuns, who are by far the largest group in Kabul using a language other than Dari in daily life.
There are about 200,000 Pashtun students in the city, according to ministry statistics. Of those, only 20,000 actually study in Pashto. Just five out of Kabul’s 175 schools are Pashto-only, while nine more provide classes in both Pashto and Dari. Article
Pakistan aboil.
#1:
Pakistan’s ousted chief justice remains under arrest, a day after officials said judges detained under emergency rule could move around freely.
Iftikhar Chaudhry tried to leave his Islamabad residence but was stopped from doing so by security forces.
Meanwhile, President Musharraf has amended the constitution to prevent future legal challenges to his actions.
[snip]
Mr Chaudhry tried to leave his residence on Wednesday but was stopped from going to the Supreme Court by large numbers of security forces ringing his residence.
Another judge, former presidential candidate Wajihuddin Ahmed, tried to visit Mr Chaudhry and was briefly detained along with a lawyer. Article
A bit more:
The capital police Wednesday arrested lawyers and members of civil society including the former presidential candidate, Justice (Retd.) Wajihuddin Ahmed and Advocate Athar Min-Allah here from Judges Colony and took them to an unknown location.
The administration intercepted the above persons by erecting barricades and deploying heavy security forces on the way leading to the Chief Justice House and later arrested them in front of an area hotel. Article
#2 — and it is damned past time for a voice in authority to squarely and robustly lay this on the table.
The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights [said] on Tuesday the restoration of the independence of Pakistan’s judiciary is as important as the holding of elections.
[snip]
The UN rights chief said Pakistan had turned down her request for a visit but she would be in transit in Islamabad Wednesday.
She said it was worrying that “nobody seems to be calling for a reversal on this attack on the judiciary,” adding it remained to be seen if the democratic process could “regain its momentum” after the recent events.
“I think a lot of judges have refused to pledge to take an oath of allegiance to the new regime, but because of the state of emergency we haven’t seen the level of protest that otherwise could have manifested itself,” she said. Article
Analysis du jour:
In 1999, after mounting a coup, General Pervez Musharraf spoke to the nation late at night. One of the reasons he attributed for the necessity of the coup was Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif disturbing the integrity of the Pakistan army by summarily replacing Musharraf with another general. That telling observation indicated the army’s perception of its role in Pakistan.
The integrity of the army was more important than the integrity of the country, and for that an elected government had to be removed. This perception has guided the Pakistan army through the country’s independent history. The past and future of Musharraf is better understood through the conviction of the Pakistan army’s image of itself.
The question being asked now is if, when and in what manner Musharraf would leave office. But the real question is: How would the Pakistan army respond to the possibility of Musharraf either continuing in or leaving the political scene?… Article
Afghanistan summary here and here.
Pakistan summary here and here.
Pakistan aboil.
#1:
Three defiant judges of the Supreme Court, who are presently under house arrest after imposition of emergency, have now declared in their detailed judgment submitted before the SC last Friday that General Musharraf could not be allowed to contest the presidential elections.
[snip]
These judges who had refused to take oath under the PCO, have also observed in their joint judgment, which has not been released to the media, that continuation of Musharraf as the army chief beyond December 31, 2004 was “illegal and unlawful”.
The judges, Justice Rana Bhagwandas, Justice Sardar Mohammad Raza Khan and Mian Shakirullah Jan, were part of the nine-member bench which had dismissed the petitions of Qazi Hussain Ahmed and Imran Khan on September 28, 2007 with regard to the question whether Musharraf could contest election from the present assemblies with or without uniform. Article
#2:
Thousands of people fled from a valley in northwest Pakistan as security forces stepped up an offensive against pro-Taliban militants, while fighting killed 19 people. Advancing ground troops killed 15 militants in the Shangla district in the scenic Swat valley, the site of fierce clashes with insurgents led by hardline Islamist cleric Maulana Fazlullah in recent weeks in which more than 300 people have died. Article
#3:
Police in Pakistan’s southern port city of Karachi on Tuesday baton-charged journalists protesting curbs on the media imposed by President Pervez Musharraf and arrested more 150 people, news reports said.
Several demonstrators were injured in the clashes, which occurred outside the city’s press club, Geo News reported on its website, the television channel’s only service still operating after it was shut down by the government at midnight Friday. Article
It’s not called critical mass for nothing.
Pakistan’s nuclear weapons are already under American control even as analysts are working themselves into a lather on the subject, a well-regarded intelligence journal has said.
In a stunning disclosure certain to stir up things in Washington’s (and in Islamabad and New Delhi’s) strategic community, the journal Stratfor reported on Monday that the “United States delivered a very clear ultimatum to Musharraf in the wake of 9/11: Unless Pakistan allowed US forces to take control of Pakistani nuclear facilities, the United States would be left with no choice but to destroy those facilities, possibly with India’s help.”
“This was a fait accompli that Musharraf, for credibility reasons, had every reason to cover up and pretend never happened, and Washington was fully willing to keep things quiet,” the journal, which is widely read among the intelligence community, said.
The Stratfor commentary came in response to an earlier New York Times story that reported that the Bush administration had spent around $100 million to help Pakistan safeguard its nuclear weapons, but left it unclear if Washington has a handle on the arsenal. Article
Contours of ceremonial chaos.
Hamid Karzai flew to Kandahar last month for a ceremony that later emerged as a key moment in the war against the Taliban, although many people here are still arguing about whether the Afghan president averted disaster or opened a new tribal conflict with his visit to the south.
Mr. Karzai arrived shortly after the legendary warrior Mullah Naqib died of a heart attack on Oct. 11. As hundreds of mourners gathered in the front garden of Mr. Naqib’s home on the north side of Kandahar city, the president stood and placed a silver turban on the boyish head of Kalimullah Naqibi, the tribal elder’s 26-year-old son.
[snip]
Some politicians in the city approved of the President’s action, viewing it as a swift intervention to give the tribe a leader with firm loyalty to the central government. Mr. Naqibi and his supporters say the move was purely decorous, a symbol of the President’s approval for a decision already taken by top elders in the tribe.
But senior members of the Alokozai’s leadership are publicly expressing their discontent, blaming Mr. Karzai for interfering in their affairs and violating their traditions. Installing an untested young man as their tribal leader has hurt security, they say, pointing to the fact that, within weeks of the decision, Canadian and Afghan troops were required to push back the first major Taliban attack on Alokozai lands north of the city.
General Khan Mohammed, an Alokozai tribesman who serves as an adviser to the Interior Minister, said he recently visited Mr. Karzai at his palace with another senior elder to complain about the selection of the young leader.
“I said, ‘Why did you put the turban on Kalimullah’s head?’” Gen. Mohammed said in an interview at his home in the capital. “The tribe didn’t choose this leader. I told him, you’re increasing the violence in our lands.”
[snip]
Variations of the same question are asked in private by senior politicians in Kandahar, who say the disgruntled contenders for the Alokozai leadership are trying to revoke the blessings they have already bestowed on Mr. Naqibi.
But the rules of Pashtun tribal etiquette forbade anybody from raising a fuss in the wake of Mr. Naqib’s death, Gen. Mohammed said, so the elders in attendance that night didn’t feel comfortable raising their voices against the President. Article
Afghanistan summary here.
Pakistan summaries here and here and .
Internal chaos abides.
The Pakistani military said Wednesday it had killed at least 33 militants, while two soldiers died in rocket attacks, as heavily-armed supporters of a pro-Taliban cleric gained control over a third town in the north-western valley of Swat. Article
Internal political chaos abides.
Pakistani authorities have charged former cricket star and opposition politician Imran Khan under the country’s anti-terror act, which includes penalties such as life imprisonment.
Khan was arrested Wednesday, shortly after arriving for a rally at Punjab University in the eastern city of Lahore. It was his first public appearance since the imposition of emergency rule.
In a separate development, Pakistani opposition politicians are considering plans to form a united front against the state of emergency and Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf. Article
More. (And also a comment from ye old scribe noting the abject silence from the U.S., the EU, etc., etc. regarding restoration of the judiciary.)/p>
The counsel of General Pervez Musharraf on Wednesday submitted in the Supreme Court a written reply to the petition of Tikka Iqbal against November 3 Proclamation of Emergency, praying that the petition be dismissed and the Proclamation be validated. Raja Ibrahim Satti advocate filed the reply through advocate-on- record Ejaz Muhammad Khan a day before the 10-member full court is due to resume hearing of the two constitutional petitions on Thursday.
The other petition has been moved by Watan Party through its counsel Barrister Zafarullah Khan.
In the reply, the counsel stated that the petition was not maintainable as the Article 3 of the Provisional Constitution Order (PCO) clearly lays down that “No court including the Supreme Court, the Federal Shariat Court, the High Courts and any Tribunal or other authority shall call in question the PCO, the Oath of Office (Judges) Order 2007 or any order made in pursuance thereof.”
The PCO also lays down that “No judgment, decree, writ, order or process whatsoever shall be made or issued by any Court or tribunal against the President or the Prime Minister or any other authority designated by the President.” Article
Short of an armada of airlifts, the alternate options for permissible overland transport are highly limited, particularly with winter setting in.
The U.S. military is looking at alternate routes to send supplies to troops in Afghanistan in case the political crisis in Pakistan makes current supply lines unavailable, the Pentagon said on Wednesday.
The U.S. military sends 75 percent of its supplies for the Afghanistan war through or over Pakistan, including 40 percent of the fuel sent to troops, the Defense Department said.
[snip]
…Pentagon press secretary Geoff Morrell said the military had to make contingency plans due to importance of those supply lines.
“There are efforts underway right now to figure out contingency supply lines to our troops in Afghanistan if it becomes necessary to alter the way we now support our troops in Afghanistan,” Morrell said.
“In light of the fact that there is civil unrest in Pakistan, in light of the fact that there is a state of emergency in Pakistan, we feel it is responsible, given the importance of the Pakistani supply lines to our operations in Afghanistan, to have a contingency plan.”
Morrell said the United States does not send ammunition through Pakistan.
“No matter what is happening on the ground in Pakistan, it will not impact us being able to provide ammunition to troops in Afghanistan,” he said. Article
Rules and procedures exist not only to provide instruction and guidance, but also accountability.
Canadian diplomats and corrections officers in Kandahar have come across what they consider to be a clear and “credible” case of torture involving a Canadian-captured Taliban fighter.
The revelation came as the federal government was forced to release over 1,000 pages of court documents that outline in graphic detail some of the abuse claims made by Afghan prisoners.
Foreign Affairs Minister Maxime Bernier told the House of Commons about the latest case, which brings to seven the number of complaints Canadian authorities have received since Ottawa signed a revised prisoner transfer agreement with the government of Afghan president Hamid Karzai.
Senior government officials, speaking on background late in the evening, said the incident was discovered during the latest inspection by Canadian authorities of a jail – likely belonging to Afghanistan’s notorious intelligence service.
“Our trained observers came across particularly credible evidence of mistreatment,” said a senior official, who indicated the injuries were physical.
“We have since heard from the Afghans that their investigation has already been launched and they come to an initial indication of wrongdoing and that they’re considering measures that include both firing personnel and prosecution.”
Published reports last spring said as many as 30 prisoners – captured by Canadian troops, but handed over to local authorities – complained of being beaten and abused prior to the signing of a new transfer arrangement last May. Six more cases surfaced in the wake of the new deal.
[snip]
Both the Canadian and Afghan governments promised investigations into the allegations last spring.
Senior officials said, with the exception of the latest case, the investigations are either incomplete – or inconclusive because record-keeping in Afghan jails is spotty.
Human rights officials have raised concern that Canadians maybe held liable under international law if they’ve been deemed to have handed someone over to be tortured.
A senior federal official, with responsibility for United Nations matters, said the issue falls into a legal gray area and that Canadians might not be accountable as long as it’s demonstrated they took every precaution to ensure torture didn’t take place.
But a University of Ottawa law professor, who first raised concern about prisoner treatment, dismissed the defence.
“We have not met our obligation under international law to avoid aiding and abetting torture,” said Amir Attaran. “If you deliver the body to them in good faith and they go away and torture, you’re safe? There’s no disputing we now know torture is taking place.”
[snip]
The court records show that Canadian officials are not sure what happened to a number of the prisoners it transfered to the Afghans prior to the signing of the new arrangement. They were also put in the embarassing position of writing to the United States, which took custody of Canadian-captured insurgents between 2002-2005, to determine what happened to some of them. Article
Shorter version: an executive all but holding its own government hostage.
Like any stereotypical generalissimo, once the apparatchiks have been installed, ‘approved’ findings will follow as night does day.
The Justice Department has reopened a long-dormant inquiry into the government’s warrantless wiretapping program, a major policy shift only days into the tenure of Attorney General Michael Mukasey.
The investigation by the department’s Office of Professional Responsibility was shut down last year, after the investigators were denied security clearances. Gonzales told Congress that President Bush, not he, denied the clearances.
[snip]
A separate Justice Department internal investigation was opened last year by the agency’s inspector general. Those investigators received their security clearances around the same time the OPR investigators’ were denied, and their probe is ongoing.
Democrats have complained in the past that neither probe reviews whether the surveillance program violates the Constitution, the kind of decision usually reserved for the courts.
News of the reborn investigation comes a day before the first formal ceremony marking Mukasey’s new post as head of the Justice Department. Article
Afghanistan summary here and here.
Pakistan summary here and here.
Intrnal chaos abides.
Pakistani helicopter gunships killed four militants and destroyed bunkers and ammunition dumps at a village in a northwestern region where a pro-Taleban rebel has led an insurrection, the military said yesterday.
More than 200 people have been killed in clashes between fighters commanded by Maulana Fazlullah and security forces over the past few weeks in Swat, a picturesque, mountainous district of North West Frontier Province (NWFP) that was formerly a tourist haven. Article
Internal electoral chaos abides.
Pakistani opposition leader Benazir Bhutto demanded the resignation of U.S.-backed President Gen. Pervez Musharraf on Tuesday, dashing Western hopes that the two moderate leaders would form an alliance to confront strengthening Islamic extremists.
Bhutto, just placed under house arrest for the second time since her return from exile, said she was working to forge a partnership with Nawaz Sharif, the man overthrown as prime minister in a 1999 coup by Musharraf.
[snip]
Authorities imposed the detention to block her from staging a protest procession to the capital, Islamabad. The march went ahead but was quickly stopped by police, and security forces also clashed with anti-government protesters in other cities.
Tuesday’s events were in many ways a replay of Friday, when police sealed Bhutto inside her Islamabad villa for a single day and rounded up hundreds, possibly thousands, of her supporters to stop a mass rally she had called outside the capital.
Bhutto said thousands of her supporters were again rounded up Tuesday, although officials denied detentions on such a large scale. This time, Bhutto’s reaction was much sharper – calling the crackdown the “breaking point” in her relations with Musharraf.
“I’m calling for Gen. Musharraf to step down, to quit, to leave, to end martial law,” she said in a phone call with a group of journalists. “Pakistan is a nuclear-armed country. We cannot afford this kind of chaos and instability,” Bhutto said.
“I could not serve as prime minister with Gen. Musharraf as president. I wish I could,” she added.
[snip]
In the southern city of Karachi, Bhutto supporters angered by her detention fired on two police stations, and police used tear gas to disperse them. A 9-year-old boy and a woman were wounded in the crossfire of a gunbattle between demonstrators and police, witnesses said.
In unusually strong criticism of a key ally, U.S. Ambassador Anne Patterson on Tuesday described emergency rule as an “ominous development.” Article
External confusion/chaos/wishful thinking abides.
“Washington’s approach to Pakistan has always been that the devil we know is better than the devil we don’t know. But there is every reason to believe that with Musharraf and Pakistan, that is not the case,” says Selig Harrison, director of the Asia Program at the Center for International Policy in Washington. “Musharraf has blinded Washington over and over again with a mastery of blackmail, but in the two areas we worry most about – nuclear proliferation and Islamist extremism – there are alternatives that are just as good, if not better.”
Captivated by Pakistan’s status as a nuclear power, linchpin in the US-led war on terror, and the presumed home of Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, the US has treated the military leader as if he were the last stand before nuclear Armageddon or a new triumph for Islamist extremism, many experts say. Musharraf came to power in a coup in 1999.
A Pakistan with Gen. Ashfak Kayani as military chief, for example, and a civilian government elected by the Pakistani people, would be at least as effective in opposing the extremists’ rise and perhaps better at safeguarding Pakistan’s nuclear arsenal. Many observers believe General Kayani is Musharraf’s likely successor as head of the armed forces.
[snip]
Another factor standing in the way of US backing for a real political transition in Pakistan could be private deals the US may have made with Musharraf over US actions vis-à-vis Afghanistan and Iran.
“This is just speculation,” Harrison says, “but it’s not hard to imagine some kind of agreements that might have been made with Musharraf about intelligence or special operations” in Iran or concerning the Islamist communities in Pakistan’s northern frontier areas “that are influencing our actions in this crisis.” Article
Constant punctuations of civilian slaughter.
The Polish Defense Ministry says seven soldiers serving with the NATO-led mission in Afghanistan have been detained for the killing of civilians in the eastern part of the country.
In a statement released Tuesday, Polish military prosecutors say the soldiers were detained for violating international law, specifically the Hague and Geneva Conventions. Article
#1 — no other term than rubber stamp will suffice.
The National Assembly (lower house)of Pakistan Wednesday passed a resolution endorsing proclamation of emergency in the country and issuance of the Provisional Constitutional Order (PCO).
The Pakistan People’s Party members boycotted the assembly session. The other opposition members have already resigned the assembly and only the ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Q and its allied groups attended the session.
[snip]
The house passed another resolution congratulating President Pervez Musharraf on his re-election. Article
#2:
Supporters of Benazir Bhutto clashed with police in front of parliament Wednesday after she urged party activists into the streets to protest emergency rule, deepening the uncertainty engulfing a Pakistan already shaken by rising Islamic militancy.
Seeking to position herself as the only leader able to unite the country to confront Islamic extremism, the former prime minister toughened her rhetoric against President Gen. Pervez Musharraf, but she left open the possibility of resuming talks if he ends the crackdown.
[snip]
Saying more than 400 members of her party were arrested Wednesday, Bhutto said she had not negotiated with Musharraf since he resorted to strong-arm tactics over the weekend. But she said talks could resume if he yielded to growing domestic and international pressure to end emergency rule.
“If Gen. Musharraf wants to kick start the negotiations for a peaceful transition, then he must revive the constitution, retire as chief of the army staff by Nov. 15 and hold the election as scheduled,” Bhutto said.
She said her party would stage a “long march” over the 200 miles from Lahore to Islamabad on Tuesday unless Musharraf agreed to her conditions. Article
More:
Bhutto said her talks with Musharraf reached a “deadlock” when the general imposed emergency rule and she has no meetings scheduled with him.
“We were engaged in political dialogue for peaceful transition to democracy,” Bhutto said. “Now we find ourselves back in a dictatorship.”
Bhutto said Musharraf must quit as army chief by Nov. 15 as promised, an election schedule must be announced by Nov. 16 and elections must be held before Jan. 15.
“Musharraf can open the doors for negotiation after meeting our demands,” she said.
Bhutto also demanded that the ban on thrice-elected prime ministers should be ended. She was prime minister of Pakistan twice between 1988 and 1996.
“Her comment about deadlock seems to be an emotional statement,” Information Minister Mohammed Ali Durrani said in a phone interview from Islamabad. “Every politician knows there is no dead end in political discussions. The long march plan is just a statement and there are many ifs and buts in her statements.” Article
Additional info:
Benazir Bhutto, the one Pakistani politician believed capable of inspiring mass protests, [Wednesday] vowed to lead a “long march” to bring down the regime of the president, General Pervez Musharraf, unless the military dictator lifts the state of emergency and holds elections.
It could lead to a bloody confrontation between the country’s powerful military and Ms Bhutto’s supporters.
After months of prevarication over confronting Gen Musharraf, and amid behind-the-scenes negotiations, Ms Bhutto, a former prime minister who recently returned from exile, finally broke with him.…
[snip]
Under the state of emergency, all public meetings are banned, but Ms Bhutto’s Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) has pledged to go ahead with a planned rally tomorrow in Rawalpindi, a city that borders Islamabad and houses the headquarters of the army.
However, the mayor of Rawalpindi, Javed Akhlas, said: “We will ensure that they don’t violate the ban on rallies, and if they do it, the government will take action according to the law.”
He added that there was a “strong threat” of another suicide attack against Ms Bhutto - her jubilant homecoming last month was shattered by suicide bombers, who killed more than 140 people.
[snip]
If this was indeed the first shot in a rebellion led by Ms Bhutto, Pakistan’s military ruler is under grave threat.
Her demand he stick by a previous pledge to give up his army job and serve as a civilian head of state, will be very difficult to meet.
Hasan Askari Rizvi, a political analyst, said: “The moment he quits as army chief, the army is not in his control. Musharraf would then become an isolated person as he does not have a political base.”
Some pointed out that Ms Bhutto did not demand that the judges Gen Musharraf sacked be reinstated. Those same judges had threatened to revive corruption allegations against her. Article
#3 — shorter version: Nothing to see here; move along. Or else.
Pakistani President Gen. Pervez Musharraf will likely end emergency rule in two or three weeks, the president of the ruling party said in an interview with Pakistan’s Dawn newspaper.
“I’m sure it will end in two to three weeks as President Pervez Musharraf is aware of the consequences of long emergency rule,” Pakistan Muslim League president Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain is quoted as saying in the English-language paper’s Wednesday edition.
[snip]
Hussain rejected rumours Musharraf could be overthrown, saying the president has the full support of the army.
“This could be a wishful thinking of some people but I can assure you that Musharraf is not going anywhere.” Article
#4 — actions belie the propagandistic claptrap just above and bespeak ongoing dictatorial crackdown.
The government Wednesday banned the sale of satellite dishes in major cities of Karachi, Rawalpindi and Lahore to block the access to local and foreign news channels, leaving state-run channels the only medium of information on the prevailing crucial political situation of the country.
Dozens of private news channels were taken off the air on Saturday afternoon ahead of the proclamation of state of emergency in the country by General Pervez Musharraf. In fact disappearance of news channels intrigued the nation about the impending extra-constitutional step.
The people were left at the mercy of state-run news channel that has been running and re-running Musharraf address to the nation, in which he has justified his decision and explained to the international community to understand the criticality of the situation.
Since then people have been fishing for news about what is happening across the country and implications of the emergency.
The quest has brought back the glory satellite dishes of the early 1990s in the two major cities and adjoining areas. “Prior to emergency, satellite dish prices were between USD 100 to USD 120 but now their prices have shoot up to USD 200 to USD 300 within last few days”, said Ijaz Khokhar, a vendor, who has sold more than 100 dishes in last four days to the general public as well different organizations including two banks.
[snip]
“We had become addicted to round-the-clock news, particularly during the political turmoil the country had been going through most part of the year”, said another buyer, adding that the ban on sale of dishes will further complicate the situation.
To control the information frenzy, the government Wednesday banned the sale of satellite dishes in the major cities. Police sources told KUNA that in Lahore police arrested 14 sellers who resisted closing of their shops. Police raided our shops without showing us any orders and told us to close our shops, said Ayaz Ali Khan, who has a shop in the Imperial Market of adjacent Rawalpindi city. Article
#5 — shorter John Negroponte: All the eggs are in one basket.
Analysis of basically that same shorthand here.
Any other considerations aside, got to give him bonus points for chutzpah.
Former Lebanese minister Wiam Wahhab said his money could improve Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice’s looks and help put President George W. Bush in an asylum.
“I offer them my money in the United States - half of it to Rice so she can embellish her looks and the other half to President Bush because he will soon enter a mental institution,” Wahhab said.
“Bush is obsessed with power, destroying the world, killing and aggressing against people,” the pro-Syrian Druze opposition politician said.
On Monday, Washington slapped sanctions on four people, among them Wahhab and a cousin of Syrian President Bashar Assad. Article
The global fallout of the policies of the woebegone G. Walker administration — a veritable nuclear political winter.
Japan’s opposition parties will persist with their plan to block the Fukuda Government’s anti-terrorism law despite a damaging row at the weekend that almost toppled opposition leader Ichiro Ozawa.
Mr Ozawa was reconfirmed by his colleagues as Democratic Party of Japan leader last night, after withdrawing the resignation he submitted on Sunday under criticism of his dealings with Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda.
[snip]
Japan’s Washington ambassador, Ryozo Kato, said at the weekend the US-Japan alliance relationship was in its most “difficult and delicate” condition in his six years at the post.
There is concern in Washington that the Fukuda Government wants to cut financial support for US military bases in Japan.
Faced with rising costs in Japan and its own budgetary problems the Pentagon had asked Japan to increase support in its so-called “sympathy budget”, which last year amounted to Y218 billion ($2.04 billion).
However, an unconfirmed report in the Japanese press last month had the Government wanting to reduce base support payments by Y10 billion. Article
A veritble tsunami of competing “don’ts.”
A century ago, the fatwa department at Cairo’s Al-Azhar University issued fewer than 200 edicts a day. Now it turns out about 1,000.
The university, a center of Islamic learning for more than a millennium, isn’t alone. Around the world, an explosion in the number of fatwas — pronouncements by religious leaders intended to shape the actions of the faithful on everything from sex to politics — is sparking efforts by prominent Muslims to rein in the practice. That’s proving a nearly impossible task, given Islam’s decentralized nature and the growing number of outlets for the edicts.
Muslims in Egypt seeking religious guidance may now turn to satellite television and the Internet for opinions from as far afield as Indonesia and Morocco — unless they follow the fatwa issued in 2004 by the Dar ul-Ulum, India’s largest Islamic seminary, that ruled Muslims shouldn’t watch TV.
With no pope or patriarch to arbitrate orthodoxy, “it’s the nature of Islamic thought to have many options,” says Abdel Moti Bayoumi, who heads the Islamic Research Compilation Center in Cairo. “But there are too many unqualified opinions being spread, and this is wrong.”
The result is what MENA, Egypt’s official news agency, calls “fatwa chaos.”
[snip]
“The real problem is that religion is being put out front at all times and injected into everything,” says Aly Elsamman, head of Al-Azhar University’s Dialogue and Islamic Relations Committee. “This makes the need for knowledge more pressing, but the need isn’t met.” Article
Remote mind-reading as a tool of state policy? Bedlam, sheer bedlam.
When Alexander Sibert told President Vladimir Putin that former U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright had said Siberia held too many resources for Russia alone, Putin dismissed the statement as “political erotica.” Albright might have found “political fantasy” more appropriate.
Putin said he was not aware of the comment, Albright denies ever making it, and no one else seems able to provide any evidence that she did.
But this hasn’t stopped Putin and others from attributing these thoughts to foreign figures who they say wish Russia harm.
Sibert, 70, a mechanic who works at the Institute of Nuclear Physics in Novosibirsk, brought up the purported statement in a question during Putin’s annual call-in show last month.
“I know some politicians entertain such ideas in their heads,” Putin replied, adding that Russia was able to and would protect its natural resources.
The only problem is that Albright, who is now a principal at the Albright Group strategic management and lobbying firm, denied through a spokeswoman that she ever entertained the idea.
“I did not make that statement, nor did I ever think it,” she said.
On Tuesday, Sibert was unable to provide a source for the alleged quote, or even a guarantee that he had heard it.
[snip]
In perhaps the strangest part of the story, there are those who argue that it doesn’t matter what Albright said — they know what she was thinking.
Boris Ratnikov, a retired major general who worked for the Federal Guard Service, said in a December 2006 interview with government newspaper Rossiiskaya Gazeta that his colleagues, who worked for the service’s secret mind-reading division, read Albright’s subconscious a few weeks before the beginning of the NATO bombardment of Yugoslavia in 1999.
Albright, who as secretary of state played a major role in the lead up to the attacks, was one of the main targets of Russian criticism of the bombing campaign.
Apart from her “pathological hatred of Slavs,” Ratnikov said “she was indignant that Russia held the world’s largest reserves of natural resources.”
On Tuesday, Ratnikov, 62, said he hadn’t been part of the mind-reading experiment but had worked as an analyst on the data produced by his colleagues in the study. He said the mind-reading process involved using a picture or some other image of the person under study.
“By tuning in on her image, our specialists were able to glean these things,” he said. Article
Following up on the Spanish king’s tour of African coastal enclaves mentioned here last week:
Moroccan Prime Minister Abbas El Fassi condemned on Wednesday Spain’s “occupation” of two disputed enclaves, in the wake of a visit by Spain’s King Juan Carlos which prompted Rabat to recall its ambassador to Madrid.
[snip]
El Fassi insisted that only negotiations could save relations with Madrid following Juan Carlos’ two day visit this week to Ceuta and Melilla — where he also reasserted Spain’s sovereignty.
The two towns on Morocco’s Mediterranean cost have been held for centuries by Spain.
[snip]
Despite the war of words, both sides seemed keen to avoid any long-term fallout from the dispute.
In Cueta, Juan Carlos spoke of Spain’s “sincere friendship with its neighbors,” while Morocco’s King Mohammed VI on Tuesday urged a “responsible dialogue which guarantees our rights of sovereignty and takes into account the interests of Spain.” Article
The Oregon Supreme Court becomes embroiled in a Solomonic situation.
Pakistan summary here and here. Also this.
Dozens of paramilitary troops and police surrendered their weapons to militants and retreated from the mountain town of Kalam in the Swat Valley — dubbed Pakistan’s Switzerland — early Wednesday, a police official said.
Announcements about the advance were made on a pirate FM radio station run by cleric Mullah Fazlullah, as militants hoisted their party flag on police stations and government buildings, and distributed sweets.
[snip]
Before taking Kalam, which lies at the end of the valley, they captured the town of Bahrain, a strategic town poised over the raging Swat river, having seized the town of Madyan later Tuesday, officials and residents said.
“There was no fighting, police had already vacated their post in Bahrain, and later retreated to Kalam when they came to know the militants were heading towards their police station,” the police official said.
But Fazlullah’s aide, Maulana Shah Dauran, said in a radio address that militants also took control of a paramilitary base in Kalam manned by a platoon.
[snip]
There was no comment from the administration in Mingora, the main town in Swat valley, and top officials in Peshawar, the capital of North West Frontier Province.
An official privately admitted the militants were in control of around 70 percent of the valley’s 94-kilometre (60-mile) stretch from Sangota to Kalam.
The government hold was confined to Mingora and the nearby town of Saidu Sharif, which has the valley’s lone airport, the official said. Article
#1: quick takes, all from the same web page.
Pakistani authorities cut mobile phones in the capital Islamabad on Tuesday as the country’s sacked chief justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry addressed a meeting of lawyers by telephone, witnesses and officials said. Justice Chaudhry, who was ousted by President Pervez Musharraf on Saturday after the declaration of a state of emergency, urged lawyers to hold protests in a speech also broadcast on private television. After a few minutes the line that the judge was speaking over was cut and mobile phones in the capital went dead, AFP correspondents and witnesses said. “I want lawyers to spread my message: the time for sacrifice has come and to stand up for the constitution,” he said in his speech. The sound of cheering could be heard in the background. “Tell people about this illegal and unconstitutional emergency.” “The ruling junta was afraid that the court would rule against them but people are aware that the Supreme Court has always held the constitution above all else and provided justice to the people,” justice Chaudhry added. A telecommunications official said the shutdown was temporary. “The government has closed the mobile service in some sectors (of Islamabad) and they have said it was just a temporary measure,” the official said on condition of anonymity.
[snip]
Pakistan’s Cabinet on Tuesday discussed possibly delaying crucial parliamentary elections by up to three months after President Pervez Musharraf declared a state of emergency, a minister said. “The issue of holding elections was discussed at length, and after attending the Cabinet meeting chaired by Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz, I feel that the elections may be delayed by two months,” the minister told The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue. “There will not be a delay of elections for longer than three months.” “There is no final decision,” he said. A government spokesman did not immediately respond to calls seeking comment about Tuesday’s meeting. Former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto said the government had already decided to delay the elections by at least a year. “They have postponed the election for one or two years. But they have not announced it as such. I know this from the inside,” she told AP. She did not provide details of the source of her information and challenged President Musharraf to prove her wrong by going on television to tell the country that the elections would go ahead as planned.
[snip]
Militants seized the town of Madyan in the scenic Swat valley in northwest Pakistan Tuesday and hoisted their flags over buildings after security forces surrendered, police and residents said. Madyan was the third to come under the effective control of followers of cleric Maulana Fazlullah. “They seized Madyan town today, they have already overrun Matta and Khawazakhela towns” in their earlier push, a police official told AFP on condition of anonymity. “The militants are continuing their advance,” the police official said. Residents said the militants were in complete control of Madyan and were patrolling the town. At least 37 police and paramilitary soldiers left the main police station after militants surrounded the town and assured them that they would not be harmed, residents said. Police also retreated from two more police posts in nearby villages.
[snip]
Four more supreme court judges belonging to Sindh, N.W.F.P and Balochistan were administered oath of office Tuesday morning , Ptv reported. They are: Mr Justice Mossa K. Laghari (Sindh), Mr justice Ejazul Hasan and Mr Justice Qaim Jan (NWFP), and Mr Justice Ejaz Yusuf (Balochistan). Chief Justice Abdul Hameed Dogar administerd the oath. The induction of these four new judges brings the total strength of supreme court judges to eight. Source
#2 — op-ed du jour:
Desperate to hold onto power, Pervez Musharraf has discarded Pakistan’s constitutional framework and declared a state of emergency.
To stifle the independent judiciary and free media. Artfully, though shamelessly, he has tried to sell this action as an effort to bring about stability and help fight the war on terror more effectively. Nothing could be further from the truth. If Pakistan’s history is any indicator, his decision to impose martial law may prove to be the proverbial straw that breaks the camel’s back.
[snip]
There is widespread public resentment in response to these moves. Rather than taking responsibility for the deteriorating security situation (as evidenced by regular suicide bomb attacks) and the increasing Talibanization of the tribal areas, Musharraf has tried to blame the judiciary and media. To be sure, in some cases, judicial activism was obvious (though within the realm of constitutional law) and the media also made mistakes; but by no stretch of the imagination can these be linked to religious extremism or support for militancy.
It is unlikely that Musharraf’s latest gambit will succeed, as his popular support is at its lowest ebb. Pakistan’s armed forces — repeated targets of suicide bombers — have become demoralized. It is difficult to imagine them standing with Musharraf should civil conflict erupt. Nor can a weak, embattled and disoriented Musharraf be expected to fight Islamic militancy effectively or bring political stability to Pakistan.
Opposition political parties are drawing closer together and former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, despite progress in her power-sharing negotiations with Musharraf, has strongly condemned his actions. Human rights bodies, media associations and lawyers’ organizations are expected to defy the emergency, which will pit them against the security forces.
Terrorists may also benefit by attacking a preoccupied army and political forces aligned with Musharraf. In the event of sustained protests and potential violence, top military commanders may decide to send Musharraf home — a decision that would not be unprecedented in Pakistan’s chronically turbulent history. Article
#3:
1) It is from a government mouthpiece outlet.
2) In light of events on the ground, it is couching obvious evidence in pure fiction. It is 100% crapola.
3) It is amazing that anyone could hear him, what with all those pigs and donkeys that must have been flying by.
Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz said Monday that the government is not disposed to put curbs on media in the country.
[snip]
…The imposition of any censorship on media is not under consideration…. Article
#4:
Condemning the proclamation of emergency in Pakistan, Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative has sought the suspension of the Islamic Republic from the Councils of Commonwealth for violating democratic principles.
“CHRI calls on the Commonwealth to immediately condemn these actions and suspend Pakistan from the Councils of the Commonwealth, while the Commonwealth continues to engage with and support civil society working towards an early return to democracy,” the NGO said in a statement.
It said: “The Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative strongly condemns the proclamation of the state of emergency in Pakistan by chief of army staff General Pervez Musharraf.
[snip]
“These actions run entirely contrary to the fundamental democratic principles of the Commonwealth. As a member, Pakistan is bound to comply with such principles,” it said. Article
#5:
Considering the signals and rumors that have swirled for months, including a particularly intense day in August, it would seem that both the Pakistani government and the political opposition have had time to anticipate and prepare for the emergency-rule decree issued on Saturday by Gen. Pervez Musharraf, the president of the country.
On the government’s side, that has meant tightening its grip over many aspects of Pakistani society, including one emerging tool for opposition groups the world over: the Internet.
[snip]
This past weekend, Pakistanis found that they had been blocked from accessing many non-official news and opposition sites, but one major Pakistani news site has found a way around the ban, even after authorities reportedly ransacked its offices in Islamabad.
Geo TV, which broadcasts from Dubai, has created a live audio stream of their Urdu-language channel that many Pakistani blogs and Western news sources are using to keep track of the situation throughout Pakistan. It can be heard on satellite radio and through broadband Internet connections.
Another leading blogger in Pakistani had a backup plan as well.… Article
Related: a mediacentric overview.
…in a largely rural country with one of the lowest literacy rates in the world, print media has never been mass media. Newspapers sell mostly in urban centers, while in rural areas radio, and to a lesser extent state-run television (broadcast over a terrestrial network), are the main sources of news and information. With the Internet still available only to 3 percent of Pakistanis, the influence of online journalism is negligible. Until Musharraf came to power, there was no private satellite television in Pakistan. But now cable lines, carrying satellite television signals, are slowly creeping into even the most remote villages. A young documentary producer at Dawn News, the country’s first twenty-four-hour, English-language news channel, explained the significance of this: “They don’t really have schools in interior Sindh,” he said, referring to the most impoverished state in the country. “But now they have cable lines. So guess what? Now we’re the ones educating all of them.” Article
#6:
Despite billions of dollars in U.S. military payments to Pakistan over the last six years, the paramilitary force leading the pursuit of Al Qaeda militants remains underfunded, poorly trained and overwhelmingly outgunned, U.S. military and intelligence officials said.
Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf cited the rising militant threat in declaring a state of emergency on Saturday and suspending the constitution.
But rather than use the more than $7 billion in U.S. military aid to bolster its counter-terrorism capabilities, Pakistan has spent the bulk of it on heavy arms, aircraft and equipment that U.S. officials say are far more suited for conventional warfare with India, its regional rival.
That has left fighters with the paramilitary force, known as the Frontier Corps, equipped often with little more than “sandals and bolt-action rifles,” said a senior Western military official in Islamabad, even as they face Al Qaeda and Taliban fighters equipped with assault rifles and grenade launchers.
The arms imbalance has contributed to Al Qaeda’s ability to regroup in the border region, and reflects the competing priorities that were evident even before this weekend between two countries that are self-described allies in the “war on terrorism” but have sharply divergent national security interests.
[snip]
Plans to build up the Frontier Corps are not universally supported by U.S. military officials. Loyalties within the corps are thought by many observers to be divided. Members are recruited mainly from Pashtun tribes with long-standing mistrust of outsiders. Most reject militant ideology, and have suffered hundreds of casualties in the fighting. But many also are devoutly religious and feel some degree of sympathy for the Islamists’ cause.
“There is a push-back among some that the Frontier Corps is not a reliable ally of the United States,” said Seth Jones, a military expert at Rand Corp. “The concern is that you give them additional training and equipment, and they could end up helping militants rather than taking action against them.”
Perhaps as a hedge against those concerns, the U.S. Special Operations Command has recently begun exploring efforts to pay off tribal militias in the region that are not affiliated with the Pakistani government, and arm them to root out Al Qaeda and Taliban militants, a source familiar with the discussions said.
“You can’t buy them, but you can rent them,” said the source, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitive nature of the discussions. “There is a very serious effort to look at this.”
The CIA also operates in the area, and has doubled the number of case officers based in Pakistan in recent years, former agency officials say.
[snip]
Reluctant to offend a crucial ally, the United States has placed few conditions on the military aid, part of a larger package of U.S. aid and payments totaling more than $10 billion. As a result, Pakistan used much of it to acquire big-ticket weapons systems and other items to shore up its conventional defense capabilities, U.S. officials said.
The Defense Security Cooperation Agency, which oversees U.S. weapons transfers, said that shipments to Pakistan since the Sept. 11 attacks had included some equipment that could be useful in pursuing militants in the tribal areas, including 4,000 radios and 12 refurbished attack helicopters. But even those items went to the regular army, the agency said, and are unlikely to be shared with the Frontier Corps, which falls under a separate branch of the Pakistani government.
The majority of Pakistan’s purchases have been of items that would be difficult to deploy in counterinsurgency fights, including harpoon missiles designed to sink warships, F-16 fighter jets, maritime surveillance aircraft and refurbished howitzers that have to be towed into position.
“It’s hard to make arguments that the bulk of what is being provided by the U.S. is very effective for counter-terrorism operations,” said Alan Kronstadt, a specialist in South Asian affairs at the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service. “A lot of the military assistance has been much more useful for a potential war with India.” Article
Quasi-related:
Other commentators said that after investing so much in the general, who was coerced into partnership in the war on terror in 2001, Washington had effectively tied its own hands.
‘As far as America is concerned, he is playing his cards very well - America is more or less hostage to Musharraf because he has made them believe that the war on terrorism cannot be fought without him,’ retired general and political analyst Talat Masood said. Article
#7:
Pakistan has pulled tens of thousands of troops from its border with India in a bid to quell rising violence by pro-Taliban militants in the northwest, officials said here on Wednesday.
A top Indian defence ministry official said Pakistan’s military strength along the frontier had hit an “all-time low” during the summer as soldiers were poured into North West Frontier Province bordering Afghanistan.
“Our estimates are based on tested intelligence inputs from within Pakistan and feedbacks from our watch on their frontier assets,” added an official from India’s director-general of military intelligence. Article
#8 — demonstrating the width of the spectrum of antagonism generated by and directed towards the woebegone G. Walker administration.
First, from a column by Pat Buchanan:
The crisis in Pakistan brings home the reality the Bushites have ignored in their ideological crusades. For in the Pakistan crucible we see starkly who our real enemies are, whence the true dangers come and where our vital interests lie.
Musharraf is – as were Franco, Pinochet and the Shah in the Cold War – a flawed friend and an enemy of our enemy. If he falls, any democratic successor, like Benazir Bhutto, would not likely long survive al-Qaida and the suicide bombers who already tried to kill her.
What is happening in Pakistan exposes, too, the limits of U.S. power and the failure of President Bush – because of the democratist ideology to which he converted after 9-11 – to see clearly the real dangers to his country. Our enemy was always al-Qaida. It was never Iraq. And it is not Iran, at whom the GOP candidates are all braying their bellicosity.
After 9-11, those who viewed the horror and asked, “Why do they hate us?” were hooted down as unpatriotic. We were told Muslim militants hate us because we are free, democratic and good, and they are evil.
American can no longer afford to indulge this ideological claptrap. We are hated not because of who we are, but because of what we do. Nowhere is that more true than in Pakistan. Article
Second, from a different conservative voice:
…. Musharraf just showed his benefactor from across the sea that on this matter of democracy, he is indeed two-faced. After years of assuring President Bush that they share a zeal for promoting democracy, Musharraf has discovered that the problem with democracy is that you cannot always dictate its outcome. Especially if you do not have a Supreme Court in your pocket.
[snip]
This week, Bush called on Pakistan’s general to act presidential and prove his love of democracy by restoring it so the fight against terrorism can continue. Musharraf’s counter was this is how he is fighting terrorism. In a sense it is true — Musharraf’s terror is that he’ll be tossed out by the people. That’s why he has made one bow to democracy: He let word seep that upcoming January elections will be held after all. Will there be news media then? Or a Supreme Court? And, if so, whose court will it be — Musharraf’s or the people’s?
Musharraf has now joined an ironfisted panoply of America’s Dictator-Allies: In our region there were Somoza, Trujillo, Batista; in Musharraf’s the list famously includes the shah of Iran and Saddam Hussein. Really. Recall that cozy 1983 Baghdad photo op of Saddam shaking hands with President Ronald Reagan’s grinning envoy, Donald Rumsfeld (a fellow we’ve hardly heard from since)? To understand just how desperate the situation is now for America and the world, here’s a one-question quiz: Name the only country that is a sanctuary for bin Laden and al Qaeda, Taliban leaders, thousands of Islamic radicals bent on jihad, and 30 to 50 nuclear warheads.
Yes, Pakistan. And only the last of the list is considered under secure control — and even that is a matter of great conjecture. After all, Pakistan’s military has officers who are secular hard-liners and officers who are militant Islamist hard-liners.
Bush and Vice President Cheney don’t know what, if anything, they can do about what is happening in Pakistan. But they do know that as bad as things are in Pakistan today, things may well get worse before they get better (if they ever do). Article
Tens of thousands of Turkish troops were poised Tuesday on the border with Iraq awaiting the order to attack Kurdish fighters, and President Abdullah Gul said the country will do “what it believes to be right” to tame the rebels.
But with winter rapidly approaching in the mountainous region, and pressure from the U.S. to avoid an all-out cross-border incursion, officials and experts said Turkey will likely be looking toward a limited offensive involving raids and aerial assaults.
Several possibilities are currently being discussed, including F-16 strikes on rebel positions, helicopter raids and special forces missions, according to a government official familiar with the planning.
“The area is heavily mined and a big incursion with tens of thousands of troops is out of the question,” he said, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the press.
With the Turkish government talking openly for weeks about the likelihood of an attack, the official said intelligence information shows the guerrillas have been evacuating their camps and melting away into cities and other regions.
[snip]
In northern Iraq, Osman Ocalan, brother of imprisoned PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan, told AP some fighters had moved toward Iran, and that there were now more PKK fighters there than in northern Iraq. [This smacks of being a red herring. The border with Iran: probably. Cross-border? Likely not in any significant numbers. — voxd]
[snip]
“PKK forces are split into three parts situated in Turkey, Iraq and Iran,” Ocalan said. “If there is Turkish pressure on our forces in Iraq, the fighters will head toward Iran.” Article
#1 — analysis du jour:
Washington backed the Turkish government by agreeing that the PKK was a terrorist organization, which means using force against it is justified, unless such actions undermine regional stability. In other words, Turkey will refrain from sending troops to Iraq without Baghdad and the Iraqi Kurdistan government’s permission. In exchange, Bush pledged full support to Turkey including intelligence sharing to help combat the terrorists. The Turkish prime minister said that the talks were “a very positive meeting.”
Even though Bush did not elaborate on the specific commitments to help Ankara, Erdogan seemed to be expecting much. “I do not think I have to explain what I mean by ‘enemy’,” he said after the talks.
He certainly did not have to explain what he meant. Even before Erdogan’s visit to Washington, State Secretary Condoleezza Rice said that, although the PKK had been there long before the U.S. invasion of Iraq, now Washington bears responsibility for everything that happens in that country. The U.S. confirmed that Iraq would never be used as shelter for terrorist organizations, including the PKK.
On the other hand, this does not mean that Americans will immediately redeploy their forces to the regions where PKK fighters are hiding, which is in fact the calmest part of Iraq.
What they would rather offer is intelligence sharing with Ankara and economic sanctions against those cooperating with the PKK. They might also pressure the Iraqi government to join Turkey in its fight against the organization.
Washington has made it very clear that Ankara will be its partner of choice if the choice is between the Iraqi Kurds and the Turks, unless the Kurds stabilize their own territory.
Bush provided Erdogan with powerful motivation to withstand the growing pressure on him within his country. He does not have to hit back right away and unleash a war that no one needs, least of all Turkey. Now much will depend on how good Washington, Baghdad and Iraqi Kurds are on their pledges to stem the PKK’s terrorist activity. Article
#2:
Northern Iraq’s Kurdish regional government (KRG) said Monday it has tightened its measures to isolate the separatist Kurdish Workers’ Party (PKK), a Kurdish source said.
“The cabinet of the regional Kurdish government approved instructions to the security forces to cut off all kinds of aid that may reach the PKK fighters,” the source close to the Kurdish government told Xinhua on condition of anonymity.
The cabinet’s instructions also recommended additional checkpoints on a road leading to the Iraqi-Turkish borders, the source said. Article
#3:
Turkey must avoid “any disproportionate action” in dealing with attacks by Kurdish rebels in Iraq, the European Commission urged Tuesday.
While the international community supports Turkish efforts to fight terrorism it must do so “while respecting the rule of law, observing regional peace and refraining from taking any disproportionate action,” said European Union Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn. Article
#4:
The manner in which the eight Turkish soldiers captured by the Kurdish PKK rebels were released on Sunday says much about the complex politics surrounding the current border crisis between Turkey and northern Iraq.
In an obviously pre-arranged scenario, the eight men were marched down from the remote border mountains where they had been held by the PKK, to a meeting point where a reception delegation was waiting for them.
[snip]
The KRG team was carefully balanced between the two main parties that dominate Iraqi Kurdish politics, the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) of Massoud Barzani, who is president of Iraqi Kurdistan, and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), led by Jalal Talabani, who is president of Iraq.
That was a signal that both parties agreed to share either the blame or the credit for acting as midwives to the release.
Also present at the initial handover in the mountains were three Kurdish members of the Turkish parliament who had crossed the border to try to help bring about the release of the soldiers.
The three, who are among the 20 MPs of the Democratic Society Party, are now being accused by some senior government figures in Ankara of complicity with the PKK.
From the mountains, the freed soldiers were taken in a convoy of KRG vehicles to the regional capital, Erbil.
There, they were handed into the custody of an Iraqi government delegation headed by Defence Minister Abdul Qader al-Obeidi.
Also present was the Commander of the Multinational Forces in Iraq, Gen David Petraeus.
Both men then joined the liberated Turks on a US military aircraft that flew them, not home to Turkey, but to a Turkish-controlled airstrip at Bamarni, inside northern Iraq - one of several little-publicised bases the Turks have maintained there since the 1990s.
At Bamarni, the soldiers were finally signed over to the Turkish military and put on a Turkish military flight home, as Ankara had insisted.
[snip]
The timing of the release was probably no coincidence. It gave US President George W Bush something new and positive to point to when he met an angry Turkish Prime Minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, in Washington the following day. Article
Related:
Comments by Deputy Prime Minister Cemil Çiçek and Justice Minister Mehmet Ali Sahin on eight soldiers abducted and later released by the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) have drawn reactions from human rights groups and activists.
The eight Turkish soldiers kidnapped during a PKK ambush on Oct. 21 were released and flown back to Turkey on Sunday — but not everyone was happy about their safe arrival. Some in the media and a statement made by S,ahin on Monday implied that the soldiers would have done a deed more honorable had they killed themselves or died fighting instead of falling hostage to the PKK.
“I can’t be happy about the eight soldiers being released,” were the words of welcome of the justice minister on Monday. “None of the members of the Turkish Armed Forces [TSK] should have ever been in this situation. For that reason, I can’t be happy about them being released,” Sahin explained.
Human rights organizations were justifiably agitated by the attitude toward the soldiers and Democratic Society Party (DTP) officials.
“The militarist discourse is influential both at a government level and in the media,” head of the Human Rights Association (I.HD) Hüsnü Öndal shared as his observation.
“This is an approach that holds being taken as hostage as equivalent to being guilty,” he stated. “If that is the case, then we could say ‘the best soldier is a dead one’.”
[snip]
On Monday, a military prosecutor started investigating the abduction, questioning the eight men. If the prosecutor rules that the eight men surrendered before surrender was the last resort, they will face legal action. The investigation was ongoing in Diyarbak?r on Tuesday. Meanwhile, on Monday, a prosecutor in Ankara started a probe into the three DTP deputies who played a role in saving the soldiers from the terrorists. Article
#5:
Russia could mediate in the ongoing conflict between Kurdish separatists and Turkish troops on the Iraqi border, a Kurdish envoy said on Tuesday.
[snip]
“Russia has a historically good relationship with the Kurds, and I believe it is quite possible for Russia to play a mediating role,” Babakr Khoshavi, the representative of Iraqi Kurdistan to the Commonwealth of Independent States told a RIA Novosti news conference.
He said Masoud Barzani, the head of the Kurdish administration in north Iraq, recently wrote a letter to the Russian leadership asking it to broker a peace settlement. Article
#6: Doubling — or “redoubling” — zero equals zero.
In Ankara on Friday, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice pledged to “redouble” US efforts to combat the Kurdish fighters, but stressed it would take time and effort to flush them out of their mountainous redoubts. Article
Memo to Democrats in Congress: The Republicans are going to throw tantrums and call you ‘weak’ and other pejorative names no matter what you pass or what you do.
You hold the majority. Refuse to play on their field. Please.
Sticks and stones…
Democrats in the U.S. Congress on Tuesday set in motion another showdown with President George W. Bush over the Iraq war when they advanced a military spending bill without extra funds for the conflict.
Angry Republicans accused Democrats of a “slow bleed” strategy to end the Iraq war by starving it of funds.
Negotiators in the U.S. House of Representatives and Senate approved a $460 billion Pentagon funding bill for fiscal 2008 that both chambers are expected to approve soon.
They also added a stopgap provision that would keep the rest of the government going until Dec. 14, a Senate aide said. With most of the legislation to fund the government still unfinished, the government currently is operating on a stopgap funding measure that lasts until Nov. 16.
Last year’s Pentagon funding bill contained $70 billion for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, which was intended to keep combat operations running until a larger “emergency” spending bill was approved. Republicans had hoped this year would be no different.
Instead, majority Democrats said they would bring up a separate proposal with more cash for the war — as much as $50 billion — as soon as later this week. But they said they will tie restrictions to the war money, such as troop withdrawal timelines that have drawn a veto from Bush in the past.
[snip]
The bill approved by members of the House and Senate appropriations committees provides about $460 billion for the core Pentagon budget for fiscal 2008, which began on Oct. 1. The funds would pay for everything from weapons systems to soldiers’ salaries.
So far, Congress has given the Bush administration $604 billion for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, with about $412 billion spent in Iraq, according to the Congressional Budget Office, Congress’ in-house budget analyst.
President George W. Bush is seeking another $196 billion for combat in Iraq and Afghanistan through next Sept. 30. Democrats say they will consider that request next year.
Murtha said negotiators did include one item from Bush’s war request, in the core Pentagon funding bill — $11.6 billion for armored vehicles to protect troops from roadside bombs. He also noted the Pentagon bill was $39.7 billion higher than the previous year. Article
Should they not follow through, we are faced with a Congress acting in contempt of themselves — and both towards We The People and to the Constitution they have sworn to uphold.
Minute by minute summation of the football which the resolution introduced in the House to impeach the Vice-president immediately became once it was read on the floor.
With the presidential election to take place one year from today, a peek in on the so-called Top 3-D’s in Iowa.
Progessivity is a relative concept.
In its own way, parsing Ronald Reagan’s brain.
Recognizing the nobility of having the conscience and the fortitude to do the right thing: Jerome Eisenberg.
Summaries here and here. Also here and here.
#1 — overview du jour:
The declaration of emergency rule in Pakistan has not resolved the country’s deep political and constitutional crisis. It may not even long delay the inevitable climax.
There are now two choices to be made. In the first, Pakistanis must decide whether to accept military rule or instead take to the streets to demand a return to the constitution. In the second, Gen. Pervez Musharraf’s key outside supporter, the United States, must decide whether his usefulness as an ally in President Bush’s global war on terror still outweighs the deepening embarrassment of his rule.
[snip]
In the words of Sunday’s editorial in Dawn, Pakistan’s leading newspaper: “All the gains over the years have gone down the drain. All this talk about the forward thrust towards democracy, about the impending ‘third phase’ of the political process and the lip service to the sanctity of judiciary turned out to be one great deception. The people have been cheated. In a nutshell, one-man rule has been reinforced, and there is no light at the end of the tunnel — a tunnel that is dark and winding with an end that is perhaps blocked.” Article
#2:
The U.S. Defense Department announced it has postponed bilateral defense consultative meetings with Pakistan after emergency rule was declared in the country.
Defense Secretary Robert Gates, while on a trip in Asia, announced that a planned delegation to Islamabad led by U.S. Undersecretary of Defense for Policy Eric Edelman scheduled for Nov. 6-7 has been postponed.…
[snip]
Pentagon officials say the meetings were postponed but that they have not been canceled. Article
#3 — chaos directed against the educated and the middle class.
Pakistani police used tear gas and batons to crush protests by lawyers against President Pervez Musharraf on Monday, despite a torrent of worldwide outrage at the imposition of a state of emergency.
[snip]
Dozens of lawyers were wounded and hundreds more arrested as protests erupted outside courtrooms in a number of cities on Monday, the first major show of public dissent since a clampdown across Pakistan on Saturday.
Officials said 1,500 people had been arrested across Pakistan since the weekend. “Police have detained potential troublemakers, law-breakers and those who defied a ban on rallies,” interior ministry spokesman Javed Cheema said.
The biggest protest was in Lahore, where lawyers with bleeding head wounds were bundled into vans after police fired tear gas at around 1,000 protesters outside the high court, an AFP correspondent witnessed.
In Karachi, police and paramilitary soldiers sealed off the high court and charged at lawyers who were outside the building, detaining another 100, witnesses said.
Clashes were also reported in Rawalpindi, Multan and Peshawar.
[snip]
British Foreign Secretary David Miliband, whose country was the former colonial master on the Indian subcontinent, urged Musharraf to clarify his plans after what Miliband called the “setbacks” of the last two days. Article
#3:
Deposed Chief Justice of Pakistan Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, who was the prime victim of Saturday’s provisional constitutional order (PCO), is confident that he would stage a comeback and has reiterated that the present set-up is illegal and all the superior judiciary’s latest appointments have no validity.
Talking to The News on telephone here on Sunday night, Justice Iftikhar said that the seven-member bench of the apex court headed by him, which had stayed the PCO and had also restrained the judges of the superior judiciary from taking oath under the PCO, had left the present set-up completely illegal.
He said that the judges appointed in all the provincial high courts and the Supreme Court on Saturday and Sunday had no legal backing. “Everything that is happening today is illegal, unconstitutional and against the orders of the Supreme Court,” Justice Iftikhar said, adding that he was sure that the pre-November 3 situation would revive. Article
A bit more:
Chief Justce Iftikhar Mohammed Chaudhry, who the government says stands deposed since the proclamation of emergency, has said that he has been virtually arrested. In a statement, Justice Chaudhry said that an army major came to his house on Monday morning and locked the doors of his residence and took away the keys. Along with Justice Iftikhar several senior judges of the apex court who have not been invi