Wednesday, September 8, 2010

World news from Foreign Policy in Focus

Many thanks to Mha Atma for this.

From: earthactionnetwork@earthlink.net
Sent: Tuesday, September 07, 2010 8:08 PM
Subject: World news from Foreign Policy in Focus

The following several short excerpts of articles are all very interesting,
and all include links to the full article and at the bottom is the link to
Foreign Policy in Focus which sends me these digests daily...


Petraeus condemns Fla. church's plan to burn Korans
David Nakamura, Javed Hamdard, Washington Post, September 7, 2010

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/09/07/AR2010090701595.html

Kabul - Gen. David H. Petraeus on Tuesday denounced plans by a Florida
church to burn copies of the Koran this weekend, saying the demonstration
could "endanger troops" and damage the U.S. war effort in Afghanistan. "It
is precisely the kind of action the Taliban uses and could cause significant
problems," Petraeus, the top U.S. and NATO commander in Afghanistan, said in
a statement. "Not just here, but everywhere in the world we are engaged with
the Islamic community."
[...]
Habibullah, a religious leader who organized a protest Monday morning in
eastern Kabul to decry the Florida church's plan, said throngs of angry men
chanted, "Death to America!" and "Death to Obama!"

He said some of the protesters pelted a passing U.S. military convoy with
stones. "I stopped them," said Habibullah, who uses one name. "Otherwise
they would have burned the convoy."

The Dove World Outreach Center, a 50-member evangelical Christian church in
Gainesville, Fla., announced plans to burn the Islamic holy books on
Saturday, the ninth anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on
the United States. At the Kabul protest, residents burned an effigy of Dove
World pastor Terry Jones.

"I am very concerned by the potential repercussions of the possible Koran
burning," Petraeus said. "Even the rumor that it might take place has
sparked demonstrations such as the one that took place in Kabul yesterday.
Were the actual burning to take place, the safety of our soldiers and
civilians would be put in jeopardy and accomplishment of the mission would
be made more difficult."
[...]
In Florida, Jones rejected the warnings and said his church plans to go
through with its "International Burn a Koran Day."
[...]
"Images of the burning of a Koran would undoubtedly be used by extremists in
Afghanistan - and around the world - to inflame public opinion and incite
violence," Petraeus said. "Such images could, in fact, be used as were the
photos from [Abu Ghraib]. And this would, again, put our troopers and
civilians in jeopardy and undermine our efforts to accomplish the critical
mission here in Afghanistan." Petraeus referred to the prison in Iraq that
gained notoriety when the abuse of Iraqi prisoners by U.S. guards was
revealed in 2004.

----

U.S. Withholds Millions In Mexico Antidrug Aid
Elisabeth Malkin and Randal C. Archibold, New York Times, September 3, 2010
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/04/world/americas/04mexico.html


Mexico City - The United States will withhold about $26 million promised for
Mexico's drug war because of concerns that the country has not done enough
to protect its people from police and military abuse.

It is the first time that the United States, citing human rights concerns,
has held back a portion of the financing for Mexico under the Merida
Initiative, a three-year-old, $1.4 billion effort to help Mexico and Central
American nations fight drug trafficking organizations.

Under the program, 15 percent of the money for Mexico is allotted on the
condition that the country improve the accountability of the federal and
local police; ensure civilian investigations and, if warranted, prosecutions
of allegations of abuse by the police and the military; and ban testimony
obtained through torture or other mistreatment.

The State Department, in a report delivered to Congress on Friday, said it
would release $36 million from earlier budgets. But it said it would
withhold 15 percent of the $175 million allocated in the most recent budget.
"No society can enjoy domestic peace and security without a functioning
justice system supported by appropriately trained and equipped law
enforcement and justice personnel who are respectful of human rights and
rule of law," said a State Department spokesman, Harry Edwards.

The State Department called on the Mexican Congress to pass legislation
strengthening the authority of the country's national human rights
commission and subjecting military service members accused of human rights
abuses to civilian prosecution.
[...]
Nik Steinberg, Mexico researcher for Human Rights Watch, said, "Any
withholding of funds would be a step in the right direction, but given the
total impunity for military abuses and widespread cases of torture, none of
the funds tied to human rights should be released."

----------

Baghdad to Damascus, a road with no way back
Phil Sands, The National (UAE), September 01. 2010
http://www.thenational.ae/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20100902/FOREIGN/709019903/1042/rss

Following the 2003 invasion, a tidal wave of Iraqis left their country, the
numbers rising as the violence steadily worsened. The figures have long been
disputed, but the United Nations estimates that some two million escaped to
neighbouring Syria and Jordan alone, making it the largest Middle East
migration in 50 years.
]
According to the UN, 40 per cent of Iraq's professional families fled the
country, forced out by kidnappings and intercommunal warfare. Sunni Arabs
from Baghdad made up a significant proportion of those arriving in Syria,
but there were Shiites, too, along with Christians and a plethora of other
minorities.

Although tens of thousands of Iraqis have voluntarily returned home since
the worst of the violence in 2006 and 2007, about 1.5 million still live
abroad, the UN says.

In June, the number of resettlement applications for Iraqis filed by the UN
refugee agency surpassed 100,000. Antonio Guterres, the UN's high
commissioner for refugees, came to Damascus to mark the occasion and to
remind the world that, while the Americans might be winding down their war,
the refugee crisis is far from over. He appealed to the international
community for help and said it was too early and too unsafe for Iraqis to be
told to return.

In fact, the flow of Iraqis into Syria continues, a testament to the scope
of the continuing troubles. Up to 6,000 cross the border each day, some on
business, some on holiday and some - usually from Baghdad, Mosul or Diyala -
running away from violence, UN officials say.

The vast majority do not register as refugees, but many do. Between March
and June the UN in Syria added more than 8,000 new cases to its list of
almost 166,000. Many of the new arrivals had tried to cling on at home but
now said they had little option but to leave.

"I waited until after the elections because I thought things would get
better but they're getting worse again," said Umm Omar, 30, an English
literature student and mother of two who arrived in Syria in July.

She has registered as a UN refugee, hoping, in what is effectively a
lottery, to win resettlement in Europe. Determined not to abandon her home,
Umm Omar had weathered the storm of violence in Baghdad when it peaked in
2006 but said the time had come to give up on Iraq entirely.

"It was a combination of things that made me finally decide," she explained.
"The security is worse than they say it is. There are no public services, no
jobs. You can't drink the water. There's no electricity and the politicians
are only interested in themselves. There is only so much you can tolerate.

"In Iraq, we live like animals, not human beings. You eat and work and try
to stay alive. I want more than that for my son and my daughter. If I were
alone, I'd stay - I don't want to be weak or run away from things - but for
their sakes, we have left and we are not going back."

------

Anti-Israel economic boycotts are gaining speed
The sums involved are not large, but their international significance is
huge. Boycotts by governments gives a boost to boycotts by non-government
bodies around the world.
Nehemia Shtrasler, Ha'aretz, 05.09.10

http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/business/anti-israel-economic-boycotts-
are-gaining-speed-1.312210

The entire week was marked by boycotts. It began with a few dozen theater
people boycotting the new culture center in Ariel, and continued with a
group of authors and artists publishing a statement of support on behalf of
those theater people. Then a group of 150 lecturers from various
universities announced they would not teach at Ariel College or take part in
any cultural events in the territories. Naturally, all that spurred a flurry
of responses, including threats of counter-sanctions.

That was all at the local level. There's another boycott, an international
one, that's gaining momentum - an economic boycott. Last week the Chilean
parliament decided to adopt the boycott of Israeli products made in the
settlements, at the behest of the Palestinian Authority, which imposed a
boycott on such products several months ago.

In September 2009, Norway's finance minister announced that a major
government pension fund was selling its shares in Elbit Systems because of
that company's role in building the separation fence. In March, a major
Swedish investment fund said it would eschew Elbit Systems shares on the
same grounds. Last month the Norwegian pension fund announced that it was
selling its holdings in Africa Israel and in its subsidiary Danya Cebus
because of their involvement in constructing settlements in the occupied
territories.

The sums involved are not large, but their international significance is
huge. Boycotts by governments gives a boost to boycotts by non-government
bodies around the world.

Human-rights organizations in Europe are essentially running campaigns to
boycott Israeli products. They are demonstrating at supermarkets,
brandishing signs against Israeli goods. Worker organizations, with millions
of members, send circulars to their people calling on them to forgo Israeli
products.

I talked with farmers who say there are retail chains in Europe no longer
prepared to buy Israeli products. The same is true for a chain in
Washington.

The world is changing before our eyes. Five years ago the anti-Israel
movement may have been marginal. Now it is growing into an economic problem.

Until now boycott organizers had been on the far left. They have a new ally:
Islamic organizations that have strengthened greatly throughout Europe in
the past two decades. The upshot is a red and green alliance with a
significant power base. The red side has a name for championing human
rights, while the green side has money. Their union is what led to the
success of the Turkish flotilla.

--------

Mideast crisis looms over Israeli settlements
Karin Laub and Mohammed Daraghmeh, Associated Press, September 5, 2010
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-
dyn/content/article/2010/09/05/AR2010090500829.html

Ramallah, West Bank - Just days after Mideast peace talks began in
Washington, the first major crisis is already looming: Israel hinted Sunday
it will ease restrictions on building in West Bank settlements, while the
Palestinian president warned he'll quit the talks if Israel resumes
construction.

Israel's 10-month-old slowdown on new building in settlements expires Sept.
26, leaving Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu with a tough choice.

If he extends the freeze, he risks breaking up his hardline coalition. If he
lifts the restrictions, he risks getting blamed for derailing negotiations
and disrupting President Barack Obama's Mideast peace efforts soon after
they began.

Under intense U.S. pressure, Israel imposed restrictions on most West Bank
settlement construction last November in a bid to bring the Palestinians
back to the negotiating table. He has not yet said what he will do when the
slowdown expires.

The Palestinians view a continued curb on settlement construction - even if
it falls short of a complete freeze - as the true test of Netanyahu's
intentions.

Abbas told a group of PLO activists in Libya late Saturday that anything but
an extension of the current slowdown is unacceptable. "If the (Israeli)
government extends the Israeli decision to stop the settlements, we will
continue the negotiations, and if it doesn't extend, we will leave these
negotiations," Abbas said.
[...]
Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak signaled Sunday it's unlikely the freeze
will be extended in its current form. "I don't think it will remain, and
we're looking for a way to ensure that this will not harm the continuation
of the talks," Barak told Israel Army Radio.
[...]
One proposal being considered is to keep most restrictions in place, and
only allow construction on a limited scale, with personal approval by Barak
or Netanyahu, said Israeli officials who spoke on condition of anonymity
because the idea has not yet been presented.

Aides to Abbas and Netanyahu are to discuss the plan before the leaders meet
for a second time, the officials said.
[...]
Meanwhile, Israeli aircraft bombed three Gaza smuggling tunnels late
Saturday in retaliation for two Hamas shooting attacks that killed four
Israelis in the West Bank last week. The airstrikes killed two Palestinians
and wounded a third. Two more Palestinians were missing.


------


Afghanistan's dirty little secret
Joel Brinkley, San Francisco Chronicle, Sunday, August 29, 2010
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi- bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/08/28/INF21F2Q9H.DTL

Western forces fighting in southern Afghanistan had a problem. Too often,
soldiers on patrol passed an older man walking hand-in-hand with a pretty
young boy. Their behavior suggested he was not the boy's father. Then,
British soldiers found that young Afghan men were actually trying to "touch
and fondle them," military investigator AnnaMaria Cardinalli told me. "The
soldiers didn't understand."

All of this was so disconcerting that the Defense Department hired
Cardinalli, a social scientist, to examine this mystery. Her report,
"Pashtun Sexuality," startled not even one Afghan. But Western forces were
shocked - and repulsed.

For centuries, Afghan men have taken boys, roughly 9 to 15 years old, as
lovers. Some research suggests that half the Pashtun tribal members in
Kandahar and other southern towns are bacha baz, the term for an older man
with a boy lover. Literally it means "boy player." The men like to boast
about it. "Having a boy has become a custom for us," Enayatullah, a 42-
year-old in Baghlan province, told a Reuters reporter. "Whoever wants to
show off should have a boy."

Baghlan province is in the northeast, but Afghans say pedophilia is most
prevalent among Pashtun men in the south. The Pashtun are Afghanistan's most
important tribe. For centuries, the nation's leaders have been Pashtun.
[...]
In Kandahar, population about 500,000, and other towns, dance parties are a
popular, often weekly, pastime. Young boys dress up as girls, wearing makeup
and bells on their feet, and dance for a dozen or more leering middle-aged
men who throw money at them and then take them home. A recent State
Department report called "dancing boys" a "widespread, culturally sanctioned
form of male rape."

So, why are American and NATO forces fighting and dying to defend tens of
thousands of proud pedophiles, certainly more per capita than any other
place on Earth? And how did Afghanistan become the pedophilia capital of
Asia?

Sociologists and anthropologists say the problem results from perverse
interpretation of Islamic law. Women are simply unapproachable. Afghan men
cannot talk to an unrelated woman until after proposing marriage. Before
then, they can't even look at a woman, except perhaps her feet. Otherwise
she is covered, head to ankle. "How can you fall in love if you can't see
her face," 29-year-old Mohammed Daud told reporters. "We can see the boys,
so we can tell which are beautiful."

Even after marriage, many men keep their boys, suggesting a loveless life at
home. A favored Afghan expression goes: "Women are for children, boys are
for pleasure." Fundamentalist imams, exaggerating a biblical passage on
menstruation, teach that women are "unclean" and therefore distasteful. One
married man even asked Cardinalli's team "how his wife could become
pregnant," her report said. When that was explained, he "reacted with
disgust" and asked, "How could one feel desire to be with a woman, who God
has made unclean?"

That helps explain why women are hidden away - and stoned to death if they
are perceived to have misbehaved. Islamic law also forbids homosexuality.
But the pedophiles explain that away. It's not homosexuality, they aver,
because they aren't in love with their boys.
[...]

-------

Just Foreign Policy News
September 7, 2010


Just Foreign Policy News on the Web:
http://www.justforeignpolicy.org/node/701


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"To be hopeful in bad times is not just foolishly romantic. It is based on
the fact that human history is a history not only of cruelty, but also of
compassion, sacrifice, courage, kindness. What we choose to emphasize in
this complex history will determine our lives. If we see only the worst,
it destroys our capacity to do something. If we remember those times and
places (and there are so many) where people have behaved magnificently,
this gives us the energy to act, and at least the possibility of sending
this spinning top of a world in a different direction. And if we do act,
in however small a way, we don¹t have to wait for some grand utopian
future. The future is an infinite succession of presents, and to live now
as we think human beings should live, in defiance of all that is bad
around us, is itself a marvelous victory." ---Howard Zinn

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