Free Internet Press Newsletter - Sunday July 15 2007 - (813)

Sunday July 15 2007 edition
Free Internet Press is operated on your donations. Donate Today
British Military Chiefs: Failure In Afghanistan Could Lead To Islamist Government In Pakistan 2007-07-15 02:43:06 Britain's most senior generals issued a blunt warning to Downing Street that the military campaign in Afghanistan is facing a catastrophic failure, a development that could lead to an Islamist government seizing power in neighboring Pakistan. Amid fears that London and Washington are taking their eye off Afghanistan as they grapple with Iraq, the generals have told Number 10 (the prime minister's offices) that the collapse of the government in Afghanistan, headed by Hamid Karzai, would present a grave threat to the security of Britain. Lord Inge, the former chief of Britain's defense staff, highlighted their fears in public last week when he warned of a "strategic failure" in Afghanistan. The Observer understands that Inge was speaking with the direct authority of the general staff when he made an intervention in a House of Lords debate. "The situation in Afghanistan is much worse than many people recognize," Inge told peers. "We need to face up to that issue, the consequence of strategic failure in Afghanistan and what that would mean for NATO ... We need to recognize that the situation - in my view, and I have recently been in Afghanistan - is much, much more serious than people want to recognize." Read The Full Story Editorial: Terrorism And The Law - In Washington, A Need To Right Wrongs 2007-07-15 02:42:31 Intellpuke: The following editorial appears in the New York Times edition for Sunday, July 15, 2007. Congress and President Bush are engaged in a profound debate over what the founding fathers intended when they divided the powers to declare and conduct war between two co-equal branches of government. But on one thing, the Constitution is clear: Congress makes the rules on prisoners. At least that is what it says in Article 1, Section 8, Paragraph 11 of the Constitution, which gives Congress the power to “make rules concerning captures on land and water.” And it is good that Congress seems finally ready to get back on the job. This week, the Senate will consider a bill that would restore to the prisoners of Guantanamo Bay the right to challenge their detention in court. The Senate and then the House must pass the bill with veto-proof majorities. But that is only a start. The White House and its Republican allies have managed to delay consideration of bills that would finally shut the prison at Guantanamo Bay and begin undoing the damage wrought by the Military Commissions Act of 2006. That national disgrace gave legal cover to secret prisons, kangaroo courts and the indefinite detention of prisoners without charges in a camp outside the United States. Read The Full Story Iraq Prime Minister Al-Maliki: Country Can Manage Without The U.S. 2007-07-14 15:58:41 Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki shrugged off U.S. doubts of his government's military and political progress on Saturday, saying Iraqi forces are capable and American troops can leave "any time they want". One of his top aides, meanwhile, accused the United States of embarrassing the Iraqi government by violating human rights and treating his country like an "experiment in a U.S. lab". Al-Maliki sought to display confidence at a time when pressure is mounting in Congress for a speedy withdrawal of U.S. forces. On Thursday, the House passed a measure calling for the U.S. to withdraw its troops by spring, hours after the White House reported mixed progress by the Iraqi government toward meeting 18 benchmarks. During a press conference, al-Maliki shrugged off the progress report, saying that difficulty in enacting the reforms was "natural" given Iraq's turmoil. "We are not talking about a government in a stable political environment but one in the shadow of huge challenges," said al-Maliki. "So, when we talk about the presence of some negative points in the political process, that's fairly natural." Al-Maliki said his government needs "time and effort" to enact the political reforms that Washington seeks - "particularly since the political process is facing security, economic and services pressures, as well as regional and international interference." Read The Full Story At Least 24 Pakistani Soldiers Killed By Suicide Bomber 2007-07-14 15:57:56 A suicide bomber attacked a military convoy near Pakistan's border with Afghanistan on Saturday, killing at least 24 Pakistani soldiers as thousands of troops deployed to thwart a call for an anti-government holy war. Twenty-nine troops were also wounded in the attack, one of the deadliest suicide bombings in Pakistan in recent months, said Maj. Gen. Waheed Arshad. Elsewhere in the border region, Islamic militants detonated a roadside bomb and fired rockets on a military base. The escalating violence along the frontier, a haven for Pakistani and foreign extremists, follows the government's bloody attack on Islamabad's Red Mosque which sparked calls for revenge from radical groups. Pakistani commandos overran the mosque Wednesday, ending an eight-day siege with a hard-line cleric and his militant supporters. More than 100 died during the standoff. Read The Full Story Commentary: An Iraq Uppercut For Bush 2007-07-14 02:28:53 Intellpuke: The following commentary appears in Berlin, Germany-based Der Spiegel International's column "The World From Berlin" written by Charles Hawley. The column takes a look at how the German press is reacting to the latest events concerning George W. Bush's war in Iraq. A resurgent al-Qaeda. A continuing lack of success in Iraq. Not much is going right for George W. Bush. The American president, German commentators argue on Friday, has no options left when it comes to the failure of Iraq. Europeans have never been terribly impressed with United States President George W. Bush's grasp on reality. Indeed, it has long been accepted by many on the continent that Bush's War on Terror is a farce and his invasion of Iraq a failure. Two announcements that hit the headlines on Thursday merely served to reinforce that anti-Bush image. The first was an assessment by U.S. counter-terrorism analysts saying that the terror group al-Qaeda is "considerably operationally stronger than a year ago" and has "regrouped to an extent not seen since 2001." In other words, despite the years of hunting down the group in the mountains of Afghanistan and elsewhere, al-Qaeda is back. President Bush, not surprisingly, used the report as evidence in support of his anti-terror strategy. Read The Full Story White House Denies Congress' Request For Documents On Tillman Death 2007-07-14 02:28:20 The White House has refused to give Congress documents about the death of former NFL player Pat Tillman, with White House counsel Fred F. Fieldingsaying that certain papers relating to discussion of the friendly-fire shooting "implicate Executive Branch confidentiality interests." Reps. Henry A. Waxman (D-California) and Thomas M. Davis III (R-Virginia), the leading members of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, objected to the refusal yesterday in letters to the White House and the Defense Department.  White House and Pentagon officials have turned over about 10,000 pages of material, but Waxman and Davis said those papers do not include critical documents that would show communications between senior administration officials and top military officers shortly after Tillman was killed in Afghanistan in 2004. Tillman's celebrity, as one who gave up a professional football contract to join the Army after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, made his death major news. The military at first concocted a heroic story about how Tillman, a specialist posthumously promoted to corporal, had been killed in a fierce firefight with the enemy, despite obvious evidence that he had been shot by his own men at close range. More than a month later, a military investigation reported publicly that the death was not linked to enemy fire. Read The Full Story Key U.S. Governors Join To Oppose Bush On Environment 2007-07-14 02:27:39 California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger brought his star power and the state's vanguard environmental policies to a climate conference in Miami, Florida, Friday, at which Florida joined the ranks of U.S. states and cities committed to fighting global warming. The two-day meeting, hosted by Florida Gov. Charlie Crist, reinforced a growing public and corporate determination to confront the climate change that threatens Florida's 1,200-mile coastline and $7 billion-a-year outdoor recreation industry. Crist signed executive orders requiring Florida to adopt the same tough pollution controls California has. The aim is to cut greenhouse gas emissions to 1990 levels by 2025, require that 20 percent of state power needs come from renewable sources and compel civil servants to use fuel-efficient vehicles and "green" offices. But it was Schwarzenegger who stole the limelight Friday, taking swipes at what he called the Bush administration's neglect of environmental issues and at Detroit automakers for fighting tougher fuel-efficiency standards. Read The Full Story Reseachers Explore Siberia's Role In Climate Change 2007-07-14 02:26:46 German researchers have constructed a massive tower deep in the Siberian wilderness where, under the watchful eyes of the Russian intelligence service, the scientists are measuring levels of environmental toxins and greenhouse gases. Their goal is to determine if the forests are helping to slow global warming or if they are heating up the planet even further. From the top of the 300-meter steel tower, the surrounding countryside is a sea of green, stretching to the horizon in every direction. The uniform carpet of treetops is uninterrupted by roads or cities, with not even a single house in sight. The tower itself juts out of this vast carpet of green emptiness like a beacon. The red-and-white painted structure - 120 tons of steel welded together, piece by piece - is held in place by long wire cables. Ernst-Detlef Schulze, 65, is panting by the time he sets foot on the triangular platform at the top. He takes a quick, vertigo-inducing look down at the ground, snaps his safety belt to a metal ring and complains about a pain he has been having in his right knee for the past few days. Read The Full Story	Bombings Of Convoys In Pakistan Kill 34 2007-07-15 02:42:46 A suicide bomber attacked a military convoy near the Afghan border on Saturday, killing at least 24 Pakistani soldiers as thousands of troops deployed to thwart a call for an anti-government holy war. Another bomb struck a convoy elsewhere in the border region early Sunday, killing more than 10 security personnel, said police. The escalating violence along the frontier, a haven for Pakistani and foreign extremists, follows the government's bloody attack on Islamabad's Red Mosque that sparked calls for revenge from radical groups. Pakistani commandos overran the mosque Wednesday, ending an eight-day siege with a hard-line cleric and his militant supporters. More than 100 died during the standoff. With Sunday's attack, at least 63 people have been killed in bombings and shootings in the north since the Red Mosque crisis began July 3. Read The Full Story Obama: Shift U.S. Troops From Iraq To Fight Al-Qaeda 2007-07-14 15:58:55 The U.S. should shift troops from Iraq to pursue al-Qaeda along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border, Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama said Saturday. He said President Bush's war-fighting policies have left the United States at greater risk from terrorists. The first-term Illinois senator said decisions by the Republican president had allowed Osama bin Laden and his deputies to elude capture. "We cannot win a war against the terrorists if we're on the wrong battlefield," said Obama. "America must urgently begin deploying from Iraq and take the fight more effectively to the enemy's home by destroying al-Qaeda's leadership along the Afghan-Pakistan border, eliminating their command and control networks and disrupting their funding." Obama spoke during his 15th trip to Iowa, where precinct caucuses set for January begin the presidential nominating process. He opened his day with a rally on the shores of a lake in Oelwein before his later stops. Read The Full Story U.S. Upset As Russia Withdraws From Arms Control Treaty 2007-07-14 15:58:27 Russia's plan to quit an arms control treaty tightens already tense ties with the U.S. and adds new friction to the dispute over the Bush administration's intentions for a missile defense system in Eastern Europe. Moscow's announcement did not surprise the White House because it had been threatened for months. Advisers insisted that attempts by President Bush and Russian President Vladimir Putin to soothe relations during their relaxed meeting in Kennebunkport, Maine, this month would not be upended by Russia's decision to pull out of the treaty in 150 days. "We're disappointed Russia has suspended its participation for now, but we'll continue to have discussions with them in the coming months on the best way to proceed in this area - that is in the interest of all parties involved and provides for security in Europe," Gordon Johndroe, a spokesman for the National Security Council, said in a brief statement. Read The Full Story U.S. Midwest Towns Sour On Iraq War As Their Tolls Mount 2007-07-14 02:29:08 The farming town of Tipton in Cedar County, Iowa, buried Army Spec. Aaron Sissel during the Iraq war's ninth month. It buried Army Spec. David W. Behrle during the 51st. Along the way, as a peaceable community's heart sank, its attitude toward President Bush and his Iraq strategy turned more personal and more negative. Sissel and Behrle were popular young sons of Tipton, a community of 3,100 where anonymity is an impossibility. Sissel bagged groceries at the supermarket and often bowled at Cedar Lanes. Behrle served, just two years ago, as Tipton High's senior class president and commencement speaker. The town, by all accounts, once gave Bush the benefit of the doubt for a war he said would make America safer and a mission he said was accomplished four years before Behrle died. But funeral by funeral, faith in the president and his project to remake Iraq is ebbing away. Deep into a battle with no visible end, many Republican and Democratic voters here say the cause is no longer clear, the war no longer seems winnable and the costs are too high. After mourning Behrle, 20, and Sissel, 22, Tipton lost its heart for the fight and the president who is vowing to press on. Read The Full Story Editorial: No Logic 2007-07-14 02:28:38 Intellpuke: The following editorial appears in the Riyadh, Saudia Arabia-based Arab News' edition for Saturday, July 14, 2007. President Bush believes that, given time, the war in Iraq can be won. He believes it because he needs to. He will be judged on Iraq and with just 18 months left to his presidency he does not want to go down in history as a failure, a president who led the country into a war it lost. There is no logical basis for his bullishness. No amount of military muscle and billions of dollars thrown at Iraq are going to make for peace and stability there. Thanks to four years of grossly mishandled occupation, it is too late to even think about victories. The U.S.-led military presence is now part of the problem, not the answer. The battle is no longer a military one, it is one for hearts and minds - and it is a battle long lost. The longer U.S. troops stay, the greater the resentment. It is all very well saying that this is a war that has to be won. That is a wish, not a cold assessment of fact. Wishful thinking does not win wars. There comes a point when facts have to be faced and decisions taken, no matter how uncomfortable. That is the politician’s job. The argument that Iraq will be in a far worse situation if the U.S. forces pull out may be true but it cannot be the determining factor in deciding whether they stay or go; to stand by it is to deliver the White House into the hands of Iraqi politicians who use the American presence as both a safety net and an excuse for not making their own uncomfortable decisions. The only others who gain from a continued American presence are those who have been helping themselves to the treasure troves of U.S. dollars that have poured so ineffectively into the country and who will be the first to head off to wealthy exile when U.S. troops finally leave. Read The Full Story Editorial: Red And 'Green' Makes Sense 2007-07-14 02:27:52 Intellpuke: The following editorial appears in the Indian Country Today's edition for Friday, July 13, 2007. As inheritors of indigenous knowledge and original instructions regarding the proper care for our Mother the Earth and all our relations in the natural world, Indian people seem the most likely of messengers for conservationism and ''green'' practices. On this we can agree. But Indian people tend not to use the popular terminology associated with the current movement to fight global warming. As a result, the critical messages delivered by our elders continue to go unheard amid the voices of hipper, younger darlings of pop culture. So it appeared for those not actually present at the Mother Earth concert, sponsored by the National Museum of the American Indian in Washington, D.C., July 7. The event kicked off the United States' leg of the 24-hour Live Earth concerts to rally global action on climate change. The surprise appearance by former vice president Al Gore, chair of the Alliance for Climate Protection and a partner of Live Earth, brought international attention to the museum's excellent program of Native elders, scholars and musicians that otherwise would not have garnered such substantial media play. Kudos to NMAI for landing Gore. We offer gratitude to the speakers, including Dr. Henrietta Mann, Katsi Cook, Dr. Daniel Wildcat and Tim Johnson, who delivered to the world messages of love and Thanksgiving on behalf of Native America. We hope those critical words did not fall on deaf ears. If the movement toward a sustainable future does not emphasize the traditional lifeways of the world's indigenous peoples, it will become about little more than fashionably ''green,'' eco-friendly consumerism. There is still much work to be done by Indian peoples to ensure our message is at the forefront, informing the entire movement on indigenous concepts of consciousness. Take one blogger's description of the Mother Earth show as an illustration: ''... judging by its sub-spiritual name and the American Indian museum location, we expect we'll be in for an hour or two of interminable chanting of some kind.'' To paraphrase Wildcat's ''Red Alert'' speech, the stereotypes of Indian people must be discarded before our ancient prophecies and teachings can be appreciated. Read The Full Story Pakistan Beefs Up Security Amid Protests Over Mosque Assault 2007-07-14 02:27:06 Protests were staged in all major cities of Pakistan Friday over the government’s assault on the Red Mosque in Islamabad that left more than 100 dead as security was tightened to foil possible revenge attacks. More than 1,200 demonstrators shouted slogans denouncing President Gen. Pervez Musharraf after emerging from mosques following Friday prayers in Karachi, the country’s largest city. “Musharraf is going an extra mile to implement the agenda of America in this part of the world,” a religious leader, Syed Munawwar Hasan, told the crowd. Smaller rallies were held in Rawalpindi, Lahore, Peshawar, Islamabad and elsewhere a day after a six-member coalition of religious parties endorsed a call by 13,000 madrasas for a nationwide protest against the attack on the mosque. Al-Qaeda and the Taliban have urged attacks, including suicide bombings, against government targets. The brother of a cleric killed in the eight-day mosque siege called for an “Islamic revolution.” Two suicide attacks were reported Thursday, a day after the siege ended in a hail of bullets and explosions that wiped out well-armed militants inside the sprawling mosque compound. Read The Full Story
Original materials on this site © Free Internet Press. Any mirrored or quoted materials © their respective authors, publications, or outlets, as shown on their publication, indicated by the link in the news story. Original Free Internet Press materials may be copied and/or republished without modification, provided a link to http://FreeInternetPress.com is given in the story, or proper credit is given. Newsletter options may be changed in your preferences on http://freeinternetpress.com Please email editor@freeinternetpress.com there are any questions. XML/RSS/RDF Newsfeed Syndication: http://freeinternetpress.com/rss.php