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CORRUPTION UPDATES 120

Posted: October 12, 2007

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1) The Articles linked below were Abstracted from the sources cited. After the abstract there's analysis and commentary, links to related articles, and a link to the database with suggested search terms.

 

Fear and fearlessness in Pakistan

 

General Musharraf has overcome legal challenges to his candidacy to become Pakistan's president for a second time. But with every victory the opposition grows stronger, reports Graham Usher from Islamabad

Al-Ahram Weekly, 4 - 10 October 2007

 

http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2007/865/in1.htm

 

For a moment last Friday the austere chambers of Pakistan's Supreme Court became a scrum. "No!" shouted one woman. "Shame! Shame!" cried a crush of furious, black-coated lawyers. Peons in white tunics moved to link arms before nine nervous judges in billowing gowns, fearful of their lordships' safety. They had cause to be.

By six to three, the judges had ruled that Pakistan's military ruler, General Pervez Musharraf, could run for another five-year presidential term on 6 October while remaining army chief. To the outraged lawyers this was an affront to both law and democracy.

"This is not a verdict! It's a dictate by a junta," cried advocate Ahmad Ali Kurd, a diminutive man with floppy silver hair. He vowed that the next day lawyers would march on Pakistan's Election Commission (EC) and tear up Musharraf's nomination papers "with our bare hands".

On Saturday perhaps 300 lawyers tried to do so. But -- between the Supreme Court and EC -- 3,000 police, paramilitary and plainclothes goon squads prevented them, not only by blocking the road but also with clubs, stones and tear gas, fired from the gun turrets of armored-personnel-carriers (APC).

Sixty people were injured, including 20 journalists. One image lodged in the mind: an APC pitching round after round of gas shells at the Supreme Court's white façade while lawyers scurried like black rabbits below. On Sunday several hundred journalists again took to the streets in defense of their right to report. This time the police left them alone.

For much of Pakistan's history, the judiciary had joined them together, granting legal cover to coups, interventions and other military interference. But the hope had been that such "doctrines of necessity" were now buried.

But not yet an independent one, answered lawyer and Chairperson of Pakistan's Human Rights Commission, Asma Jahangir. The Supreme Court ruling in favor of Musharraf showed "we have a semi-independent judiciary," she says. "It is not yet ready to face up to its obligations under the constitution or come up to the expectations of the people. It is not yet ready to issue fearless judgments".

She says lawyers will appeal the Supreme Court's verdict and submit new petitions against Musharraf's candidacy. He will face resistance on other fronts too. On Tuesday an alliance of opposition parties resigned from Pakistan's federal and provincial assemblies, the electorate for the presidential poll. Their aim is to render the suffrage, if not unconstitutional, then at least illegitimate.

But this may be so much sound and fury. Unlike the campaign to have the Chief Justice restored, lawyers and judges are divided over whether Musharraf's candidacy is a legal or a partisan cause. And one of the presidential challengers -- Amin Fahim from Benazir Bhutto's Pakistan People's Party -- has been in quiet negotiations with Musharraf on a power-sharing deal once the presidential elections are settled.

Does this mean Musharraf is set for another term? Popular apathy clearly helps him, as does the stalwart support of Washington and London, both of which prefer a civilianized military ruler in Pakistan to a genuinely democratic one.

But his stubborn ambition to be elected president while head of the army has polarized the judiciary and radicalized large parts of Pakistan political society. It has also done nothing to resolve the crises of legitimacy facing the Pakistani state, whether in the form of petitions at the Supreme Court, violent clashes on the streets of Islamabad or an armed insurgency on the frontier with Afghanistan. On the contrary, it has deepened all three of them, says Asma Jahangir.

"The government has shown its true colors. It targeted the lawyers and thrashed journalists. So far from moving to democracy it is readying to take us out one by one. But I believe ours is a principled struggle, that the people are fed up and that we will win at some point. At the very least, we are not going to let the government sit in Islamabad and pretend to the world that it is in any way the legitimate ruler of this country"

 

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THE COMMITTEE SAYS:

Dictator Musharaaf Fired Chief Justice, Shot Protesters in the Streets, Arresting Political Opponents, Closed Media:

US Says, Does, Nothing but Supply Arms and Cash to Musharraf

Alex Wierbinski, Berkeley, Ca., June 7, 2007

It is hard to ascertain what side we are on in this so called "War on Terror." Apparently it is not "terror" when our dictators seize total power, and kill the people who resist.

Apparently it is not "terror" when we bombed cities during the "blitzkrieg," I mean during "shock and awe." We continue to bomb residences and civilian buildings anywhere we suspect there are "terrorists," to this day.

Apparently it is not "Terror" when we secretly kidnap, imprison, and torture anyone we believe may be a "Terrorist."

"Terrorism" is a label reserved for the people who will not accept or acknowledge that we, or our friends have defeated them. Apparently, our claims to victory, and moral superiority, are premature.

The Palestinians have been militarily defeated, have had their country partitioned, and have lived under the iron fist of a vastly superior military. And still they will not accept the fact that we won.

Osama is in the same boat. He and his followers will not accept the American-Backed Saudi Ruling Family, the King of Jordan, nor the Pakistani or Egyptian dictators.

For us to get any type of grip on this situation, we need to excape the narrowness of our vision and rhetoric.

First, we are lying to ourselves and the world when we say our middle eastern goal is "democracy," and that our middle eastern allies are "friends of freedom."

All of our allies in the middle east are tyrants and dictators and we have put no real pressure on them to democratize during the last 50 years.

(to be continued...)

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Also See:

Corruption Updates 38, 10th article on the page, "American Dictator Removes Chief Justice in Pakistan"

Corruption Updates 44 , 3rd article on page, “American backed Dictator Attempting to Crush Pakistan's Judiciary"

 

paki links

 

Search the Corruption Database under

Pakistan

Musharraf

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2) The Article linked below was Abstracted from the source cited.

Pakistani justices throw Musharraf a curve

The high court says the presidential election can go forward but the results will be put on hold until it rules on his eligibility.

By Laura King

Los Angeles Times Staff Writer

LAT, October 5, 200

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-pakistan6oct06,0,2479305.story?coll=la-home-world

ISLAMABAD, PAKISTAN — The Pakistani Supreme Court today threw a last-minute wrench into President Gen. Pervez Musharraf's reelection plans, ruling that the vote could take place Saturday as scheduled but results would be frozen until the justices decided on his eligibility to run while serving as army chief.

Meanwhile, a political alliance between Musharraf and former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto moved closer to fruition today when the president signed into law an amnesty for Bhutto on corruption charges. That paves the way for her return this month to lead her party in parliamentary elections expected by early next year.

Last week, the high court dismissed challenges to Musharraf's reelection bid on largely technical grounds. Today's ruling, though, opens the door to a fuller examination of whether the constitution prohibits Musharraf, as chief of the army, from claiming another five-year term as president.

The high court will not reconvene until Oct. 17, so the election outcome likely will be in legal limbo at least until then.

Because the president is not elected by popular vote, there has been no formal campaign, though opposition parties hold almost daily rallies outside the Supreme Court building objecting to Musharraf's candidacy.

Today's decision means that the high court may still be weighing Musharraf's status when Bhutto makes what her backers hope will be a triumphal homecoming. She has said she will come back to Pakistan on Oct. 18.

Although the relationship between Bhutto and Musharraf has long been marked by distaste and mistrust, both take a pragmatic view of the political expediency at play. The two have been in power-sharing talks for months, recognizing that an alliance would carry substantial benefits for both.

Musharraf, his popularity plummeting, needs the support of a popular politician such as Bhutto to maintain a credible public role. She, in turn, has sought a shield from corruption charges dating to the 1990s, and also needs the backing of Musharraf's party for a constitutional change that would allow her to serve a third term as prime minister.

In August, as the emboldened high court weighed legal challenges against him, Musharraf considered dissolving parliament and imposing emergency rule -- steps some feared he might weigh again.

Also See:

"Police arrest more than 1,000 in protests against suspension of chief justice," Corruption Updates 44, 9rd article on page

 

paki links

 

Search the Corruption Database under

Pakistan

 

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3) The Article linked below was Abstracted from the source cited.

Pakistan detains opposition leaders

The opposition had been holding anti-Musharraf protests [AFP]

SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 23, 2007

19:12 MECCA TIME, 16:12 GMT

http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/31B1E967-F39F-41D6-9F7A-775F67873545.htm

Pakistani police have arrested more than a dozen opposition leaders saying they want to prevent further protests against the re-election of Pervez Musharraf, the president.

Officers started arresting political figures on Saturday night and continued into Sunday, taking 14 people in total. Further arrests are expected during the day.

Most of those taken belong to the party led by Nawaz Sharif, the exiled former prime minister, whose return to Pakistan was blocked earlier this month.

Security officials said that police in the capital, Islamabad, had been ordered to put about 35 opposition leaders into preventive custody.

Chaudhry Mohammad Ali, Islamabad's commissioner, said: "We have detained 14 people as a preventive measure. They have given calls for protests and we have fears that they may create disturbances in the coming days."

Opposition outcry

The chairman of Sharif's faction of the PML-N, Raja Zafar-ul-Haq, and acting chief, Javed Hashmi, were among those arrested.

Hussain Ahmed, a central leader of the religious alliance, Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal, was also taken.

"They want to crush every voice of dissent," Hashmi said.

"They have confined me for 30 days, but we will continue to raise our voice for the rights of the people of ?>Pakistan, for democracy and against military dictatorship.

"They want power by the use of force, not by the power of the  ballot."

Hashmi, who was freed by the supreme court in August after serving three years in jail on sedition charges, said that his lawyer would challenge the "illegal detention" in court.

"Hashmi… has reportedly been taken to a jail in Rawalpindi. That shows the determination of the government to move against the opposition in a very strong way," Hyder said.

Ahsan Iqbal, spokesman for the Pakistan Muslim League (PML-N), who is wanted by Pakistani police and currently in hiding, told Al Jazeera that many of the wanted opposition members were planning on going to court on Monday to "cancel government orders for their arrests".

'Cowardly' arrests

Ehsan Iqbal, a PML-N spokesman, described the arrests as "cowardly", and said the government was in a panic over the opposition plan to resign en masse from parliament once Musharraf's nomination papers are accepted on September 29.

Musharraf regards the court as hostile since his attempt to sack Iftikhar Chaudhry, the country's chief justice.

On Friday, an opposition alliance said its politicians would resign from assemblies on September 29 to deny the presidential vote legitimacy.

 

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THE COMMITTEE SAYS:

American Dictator Arrests Opposition

Alex Wierbinski, Berkeley, Ca., September , 2007

Originally written on June 8, 2007, for Corruption Update 70_7

Musharraf Desperation Deepens: Shallow Accusations and Falling Support Spelling End of Musharraf

Musharraf is failing. His party's murder of 45 protesters in Karachi did not dissuade further public protest, nor did it satisfy Musharraf, judging by his complaints about lack of party support. Sometimes murder is not sufficient to maintain dictatorial power.

At this point, Musharraf barely has time and maneuvering room to exit gracefully. His options for keeping power are limited.

He can back off, reappoint Chaudry, and focus on guiding his fatally wounded dictatorship towards stealing the next presidential election, set for this year.

This is unlikely, as resistance to his Dictatorship is growing in all quarters.

Musharraf's most likely path, if he can keep the Army behind him, will be to put the Army in the Streets, adding the tool of direct State Violence to his use of mass political arrests, and closing the media.

In any case, neither side has backed off, and a showdown is coming.

If Musharraf stands his ground, blood will soon be running through the streets of Pakistani cities. If Musharraf flees, the Army may not be able to impose another general, and may be forced to step back, and cut a deal with the opposition groups to hold a real election.

America is responsible for heavily arming and funding Musharraf, and directly supporting his military dictatorship. We have raised no objections to his dictatorship, despite our oft repeated goal of "democratization," nor have we spoken against his latest arbitrary uses of violence and political power.

If blood runs in the streets of Karachi and Islamabad, we must bear a great deal of responsibility.

For commentary on how this will affect the Afghan War, see:

Corruption Update 38_10

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Also See:

Corruption Updates 31, 10th article on page, “Pakistan's old new year"

Corruption Updates 38, 10th article on the page, "American Dictator Removes Chief Justice in Pakistan"

Corruption Updates 44 , 3rd article on page, “American backed Dictator Attempting to Crush Pakistan's Judiciary"

 

paki links

Search the Corruption Database under

Pakistan

 

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4) The Article linked below was Abstracted from the source cited.

 

VIEW: Running from Musharraf

—Pramit Pal Chaudhuri

 

Daily Times, Pakistan

 

http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2007/09/29/story_29-9-2007_pg3_4

 

Musharraf, according to his lawyer’s depositions before the Supreme Court, plans to give up his uniform after the indirect presidential elections he scheduled for October 6. In preparation, he has replaced senior generals in the Pakistani army with officers considered more beholden to him

Pakistan’s embattled president, Pervez Musharraf, once declared, “I am not at all a politician. I don’t think I’m cut out for politics.” Eight years after seizing power and exiling his main civilian opponents, the general is moving heaven and earth to hold on to political office.

Though he took power in a bloodless coup, there was little doubt about his popularity at the time. The public had tired of a civilian regime marked by corruption and economic chaos. Musharraf’s personal frankness and integrity appealed to the street and earned him de facto legitimacy.

Over the years, he rigged referendums, browbeat the judiciary, and asked Islamic parties for support to shore up his government. A president’s modernising vision degenerated into a dictator’s power-driven myopia.

. Unable to vote the general out of office, the public took to the streets. Polls show Musharraf’s support has fallen to a third of the population, and that two-thirds oppose his seeking another presidential term.

Simultaneously, there has been considerable erosion of support from Musharraf’s strongest external backer, the United States. After he seized power, America welcomed Musharraf’s willingness to fight Al Qaeda and the Taliban on his territory in exchange for large infusions of military aid. But, given the long-standing relationship between Pakistan’s Islamic militants and the military, the limits to how far Musharraf was prepared to go in the “war on terrorism” became clear.

Musharraf is now desperate to beg, steal, or borrow any political legitimacy he can get — including from the two civilian political leaders he exiled.

...Nawaz Sharif, responded by defying his exile, returning to Pakistan, and promptly being re-expelled. But Sharif succeeded in undermining the Bhutto-Musharraf plan, positioning himself as Pakistan’s genuine champion of democracy. In one move, he reversed the Pakistani political dynamic: being farthest from the dictator became more valuable than being closest to him. Unsurprisingly, Bhutto is now having second thoughts about an alliance with Musharraf, who has been reduced to chasing after her in an effort to salvage the deal.

...his options are shrinking rapidly. The US, concerned with ensuring stability in case of a transition to a new government, is keeping silent about its preference for Musharraf to remain head of both the government and the army. The Bush administration is slowly recognising that for a Pakistani leader to be an effective counter terrorism ally, he or she must have a modicum of legitimacy. Even Osama bin Laden, sensing an opportunity to stir up trouble and win popular support, has issued a video calling for a jihad against Musharraf.

Nor can Musharraf count on the military, despite his recent appointments. The generals have always placed the institution of the military above all else, including rulers from their own ranks. If they come to believe that Musharraf is sinking, they can be counted on to cut him loose, especially if he becomes a civilian.

 

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THE COMMITTEE SAYS:

Alex Wierbinski, Berkeley, Ca., September , 2007

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Also See:

Supreme Court rules that ex-PM Sharif can return to Pakistan from exile: Musharraf Dictatorship Unraveling, Associated Press, August 23, 2007

Will US broker a Musharraf-Bhutto alignment between Army and Secular Corruption?

Musharraf strikes deal with Bhutto: Bhutto sells out to American Dictatorship, Financial Times, August 29, 2007

Saudis 'ask Sharif not to return, BBC NEWS: September 5, 2007

Order for Sharif brother arrest, BBC NEWS, September 7, 2007

Sharif arrives in Pakistan, CNN, 9-10-07

Lawyers Appeal Sharif Exile, Associated Press, September 11, 2007

paki links

Search the Corruption Database under

Pakistan

 

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5) The Article linked below was Abstracted from the source cited.

The Administration’s plan for Iran.

by Seymour M. Hersh

October 8, 2007

 

http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2007/10/08/071008fa_fact_hersh?printable=true

 

 

In a series of public statements in recent months, President Bush and members of his Administration have redefined the war in Iraq, to an increasing degree, as a strategic battle between the United States and Iran.

This summer, the White House, pushed by the office of Vice-President Dick Cheney, requested that the Joint Chiefs of Staff redraw long-standing plans for a possible attack on Iran, according to former officials and government consultants. The focus of the plans had been a broad bombing attack, with targets including Iran’s known and suspected nuclear facilities and other military and infrastructure sites. Now the emphasis is on “surgical” strikes on Revolutionary Guard Corps facilities in Tehran and elsewhere, which, the Administration claims, have been the source of attacks on Americans in Iraq. What had been presented primarily as a counter-proliferation mission has been reconceived as counterterrorism.

The shift in targeting reflects three developments. First, the President and his senior advisers have concluded that their campaign to convince the American public that Iran poses an imminent nuclear threat has failed (unlike a similar campaign before the Iraq war), and that as a result there is not enough popular support for a major bombing campaign. The second development is that the White House has come to terms, in private, with the general consensus of the American intelligence community that Iran is at least five years away from obtaining a bomb. And, finally, there has been a growing recognition in Washington and throughout the Middle East that Iran is emerging as the geopolitical winner of the war in Iraq.

During a secure videoconference that took place early this summer, the President told Ryan Crocker, the U.S. Ambassador to Iraq, that he was thinking of hitting Iranian targets across the border and that the British “were on board.” At that point, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice interjected that there was a need to proceed carefully, because of the ongoing diplomatic track. Bush ended by instructing Crocker to tell Iran to stop interfering in Iraq or it would face American retribution.

At a White House meeting with Cheney this summer, according to a former senior intelligence official, it was agreed that, if limited strikes on Iran were carried out, the Administration could fend off criticism by arguing that they were a defensive action to save soldiers in Iraq. If Democrats objected, the Administration could say, “Bill Clinton did the same thing; he conducted limited strikes in Afghanistan, the Sudan, and in Baghdad to protect American lives.” The former intelligence official added, “There is a desperate effort by Cheney et al. to bring military action to Iran as soon as possible. Meanwhile, the politicians are saying, ‘You can’t do it, because every Republican is going to be defeated, and we’re only one fact from going over the cliff in Iraq.’ But Cheney doesn’t give a rat’s ass about the Republican worries, and neither does the President.”



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THE COMMITTEE SAYS:

Alex Wierbinski, Berkeley, Ca., October , 2007

These new Iran sancations are just the latest manifistation of Bush's unilateral International behavior. Iran has the right under international treaty to enrich uranium. Until Bush decided that international treaties mean nothing to the United States.

Shortly after taking office, Bush pulled out of the ABM treaty with Russia, ended negociation with N. Korea, and attacked Iraq against international law. Intentional violations of the Geneva Conventions against torture shortly followed Bush's illegal invasion.

Bush has continued to arm and aid three nations who illegally developed and possess nuclear weapons, India, Pakistan, and Israel, while denying Iran their sovereign right to develop nuclear power.

Bush's unreasonable stance towards Iran has historical roots that go back to the Iranian deposition of our Dictator, the Shah of Iran, in 1979. The Shah, alongside Israel, were the twin pillars of American Might in the Middle-East, and all nations in the region lived in the shadow of their might. 1979 changed all that.

Since then, we have treated Iran in much the same pattern as we have treated Cuba: We do not recognize the power of nations controlled by American Dictators or American-backed Corporate Elites to determine the terms of their own legitimacy or soveregnity. This tends to piss people off.

Since then Iran has survived 22 years of American economic isolation, the brutal 7 year American sponsored war with our then-buddy, Saddam, and every kind of economic and political pressue we could conjure up. Despite, or possibly because of these obstructions, Iran has prospered.

The spirit of self-determination that fueled Iran's Revolution of Independence from America has now intensified, radicalized, and spread across the whole Middle-East. All of America's dictators in the Middle-East are now facing the same dangers the Shah faced prior to his deposition.

America has responded by distancing ourself even further from our own values. We have hardened our support for our dictators, and turn a blind eye as they too kidnap, detain and torture their domestic political opponents. We sit by quietly as they threaten, imprison, and kill independent reporters.

Most disturbingly, we have created a legal black hole called "terrororism." This term trumps every law, Constitution, or international agreement that once held governments in check.

"Terror" declaring all who resist the American backed state violence used by the Saudi, Jordanian, Egyptian, and Israeli states to maintain their claims to legitimacy, to be "terrorists."

Bush's ill-concieved invasion of Iraq damaged the domestic political legitimacy of all of our Middle-Eastern allies from the very beginning of the war. Marching foreign troops into Iraq rekindled repugnant memories of British Colonial brutality, as well as the Crusades across the whole Middle-East.

Even more dangerously, Bush's failed invasions, and our impending defeats in Iraq and Afghanastan, have moved the body of middle-eastern opinion, not just to the point of sympathizing with the anti-American insurgencies in Iraq and Afghanastan, but has fueled independence movements in Egypt and Saudia Arabia as well.

The real victim is not just the honor and credit of the US, but the corporate fascism of the United States has discredited the notion and practice of democracy itelf.

The perpetual uglyness of our Iraqi and Afghan occupations is fuel to the fire of every Middle-Eastern independence movement, and has greatly contributed to the rise of Iran, again, as the dominant power in the Middle-East, under its own government, rather than one of our dictators.

This is the great complication, and the driving force behind the increasing US pressure on Iran: as Bush's idiocy continues to drive our wars to failure and damage our Middle-Eastern allies and influence, our failures simultanously feed the growth of Iran's power and influence.

Bush has stuck our arm into a bear trap. If he tries to pull it out, it will strip the flesh from our arm. If he pushes it in further, he will rip up fresh arm. Since Bush is incapable of thinking his way out of this crisis, we are fucked.

Bush's "solution" to the consequences of our Iraqi and Afghan disasters will be to spread the crisis to Iran. Bush is thinking that by bombing Iran into the Stone Age he will reduce Iran's ability to act on the regional oppertunities our Iraq and Afghan disasters have thrown on their doorstep.

This too, like the Iraq and Afghan invasions, will fail. A regional war will follow any attack on Iran, and this regional war will end the era of American-backed dictators in the Middle-East.

Iran will still, ultimatly, be the greatest benificiary of the rapid Middle-Eastern decolonization that is occuring before our eyes.

Our bombs may kill people, but they feed the ideas that are driving our opponents to victory.

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Also See:

Corruption Updates 96, 3rd article on the page, 11 Revolutionary Guards Die in Iran Clashes: Is America Backing Suicide Bombers

BBC NEWS, 1-17-06; US special forces 'inside Iran'

 

Corruption Updates 32, 10th article on the page, "Iran:Bush's Parade of International Crimes Continue"

Corruption Updates 45, 3rd article on the page, Is a U.S.-Iran War Inevitable?

Corruption Updates 57, 10th article on the page, "Cheney talks tough on Iran from U.S. carrier:Cheney is Dr.Strangelove"

Corruption Updates 58, 4th article on the page, "Cheney's choices"

Corruption Updates 72, 2nd article on the page, "Lieberman: U.S. Should Weigh Iran Attack"

Iran links

Search the Corruption Database under

Iran

Iraq war


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6) The Article linked below was Abstracted from the source cited.

Iran's parliament votes to label CIA, U.S. Army 'terrorist' groups

Story Highlights

Iran's parliament says CIA, U.S. Army "train terrorists," IRNA reports

Parliament bases label on "known and accepted" standards of terrorism

U.S. Senate passed resolution to label Iran's Quds Force a terrorist group

CIA: "There are some things that don't even deserve comment. This is one."

 

http://www.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/meast/09/29/iran.parliament/index.html

 

(CNN) -- The Iranian parliament on Saturday voted to designate the United States' Central Intelligence Agency and the U.S. Army as terrorist organizations, IRNA, the country's state-run news agency, reported.

The CIA and the U.S. Army "trained terrorists and supported terrorism, and they themselves are terrorists," the parliament said, according to IRNA.

The Iranian parliament said the condemnation was based on "known and accepted" standards of terrorism from international regulations, including the U.N. charter.

The parliament said it condemns the "aggressions by the U.S. Army, particularly in Iraq and Afghanistan" and calls on the United Nations to "intervene in the global problem of U.S. prisons in Guantanamo Bay, Abu Ghraib and secret jails in other countries," IRNA reported, quoting a statement from Iranian lawmakers.

The Iranian lawmakers' condemnation was in apparent retaliation for the U.S. Senate's resolution Wednesday requesting that the United States designate Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, or Quds Force, as a foreign terrorist organization.


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THE COMMITTEE SAYS:

American "Diplomacy" Leaves a lot to be Desired

Alex Wierbinski, Berkeley, Ca., August , 2007

Bush is using the same approach to American international authority in "diplomacy" as he takes to his domestic police powers. Bush's grab of domestic Police State Powers have given him the power to be Judge, Jury, and Executioner in conducting American Law. Bush is claiming these same powers for himself in international diplomay.

Internationally, Bush claims the power to define the outcome of the negociations or elections before they take place. And watch out if the other party refuses to comply, or elects the wrong candidates, or god forbid, throws out our dictator.

If you have the termidity to disobey, Bush will try to use sanction to starve you into submission. Or fund death squads against your supporters. Or arm and fund the election loser to stage a coup. Or repeatedly kidnap, torture, and detain your diplomats, as Bush is doing to Iran now. The final options are to bomb Iran into the stone age, as Israel just did to Lebanon, or to invade, and break your country, as the US just did to Iraq.

But the preferred outcome is for the offending parties to obey, and maintain the pretense of democracy and freedom while supplicating to the domination of a foreign power.

Iran is not going to swallow the predigested demands of "diplomacy" we are trying to spit into their mouths. Iran is not going to elect another American Shah. They are not going to starve under our sanctions. Our death squads and terror cannot get far past their borders, and none of their generals will stage a coup as a tool of American Power.

After Bush gets done whinning and pouting, he is going to go to war with Iran, either by taking the Jewish Option, and bombing Iran into the stone age, or the American Option, and staging another disasterious invasion.

I believe Bush will take the first option, and try to bomb Iran after creating some kind of hokey pretext. This will draw us into the second option, and we will be dragged into committing ground troops to Iran.

This will lead to a regional war between Shite and Sunni across the Middle-East, and will become a critical point of realingment of the world balance of power for the rising global power of China, Russia, and India against the United States.

Enjoy the ride. We enjoyed the benefits of getting here, to our status as a thieving global empire. Lets see how we enjoy getting back to a democratic republic.

The only was to fight these corrupted politicians is at the most fundamental level. We must dienfranchise their illicit hold on political power by ending their power to purchase politicians, parties, and elections.

Our initiative will short-circut the direct hold that wealth and power have taken on our government, making the voters the basis of political power, rather than the special interests.

Check it out, and begin spreading the word that legitimate governments are elected from and by the voters, not the corporations.

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Also See:

Corruption Updates 126, 1st article on the page, NY Times Says US Sanctions Revolutionary Guard

Corruption Updates 126, 2nd article on the page, US Actually declared Iranian Defense Department a Terrorist Organization: The whole Iranian Military, and Industrial Complex of Iran is declared a "Terror" Organization!

Corruption Updates 126, article 2b on the page, China not Down with US Sanctions

Corruption Updates 126, 3rd article on the page, Putin not Down with US Sanctions

Iran links

Search the Corruption Database under

Iran

Iraq war

 

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7) The Article linked below was Abstracted from the source cited.

 

Mr Ahmadinejad attacked "arrogant" UN Security Council powers

Ahmadinejad speech

BBC,  9-25-07

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7011938.stm

 

Iran's president has criticised "illegal" UN Security Council sanctions against his country, in a speech to the General Assembly in New York.

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said debate over Tehran's nuclear programme was "closed" and the issue was now in the hands of the UN's nuclear watchdog.

Earlier, France's president said a nuclear Iran could threaten the world.

 

'Transparent' programme

During a wide-ranging speech, Mr Ahmadinejad reiterated his assertions that all of his country's nuclear activities had been "peaceful and transparent".

Iran's nuclear work would be monitored by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), its "appropriate legal path", he added.

He denounced the "arrogant" and "bullying" permanent members of the UN's Security Council, which has imposed sanctions on Iran over its uranium enrichment programme.

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Also See:

Bush Tempering Iran rhetoric anticipating exposure of his nuke threat lies, lat, 12-1-07

Report contradicts Bush on Iran nuclear program, reuters, Mon Dec 3, 2007

Bush accuses Iran of thought crime, global security, 12-4-07

US faking iran gunboat incident? Democracy Now, 1-11-08

 

Iran links

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Iran

 

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8) The Article linked below was Abstracted from the source cited.

 

Saudis to overhaul legal system

Saudi Arabia has announced an overhaul of its judicial system, including the allocation of $2bn (£981m) for training judges and building new courts.

BBC, 10-5-07

 

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7029308.stm

 

The reforms, by royal decree, will lead to the creation of a supreme court, an appeals court and new general courts to replace the Supreme Judicial Council.

Reformers have welcomed the measures, which they say will improve human rights and help modernise the country.

They complain that the current judicial system is often opaque and arbitrary.

Until now, Saudi judges have had wide discretion to issue rulings according to their own interpretation of Islamic Sharia law.

The judiciary has also long resisted the codification of laws or the reliance on precedent when making a ruling.

Defendants also do not have recourse to appeal and often have no right to proper legal representation.

Saudi reformers say the changes will chip away at the unchecked powers of the conservative clerics, who lead the judiciary.

Although Islamic law will remain at the heart of the system, they argue that both human rights and the business environment will benefit from the overhaul.

The king will appoint the head of the Supreme Court. The reformers say he is interested in modernisation so he is likely to choose someone who will further his plans, our correspondent says.

 

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THE COMMITTEE SAYS:

Bush Wars Push Saudi Arabia out of American Axis

Alex Wierbinski, Berkeley, Ca., July , 2007
When Bush attacked Iraq, he also attacked the stability and credibility of the Saudi Royal Family. The Saudi royal family's position is delicately balanced on a double-edged sword. One edge of the sword faces America. The other edge of the sword faces the Arab people.The Arabs hate our support of Israel, and resent our support for the resource-rich tyrannies that ring the Gulf, and dominate middle eastern politics and economics.

When Bush attacked Iraq, the Saudi royal family's position became unbalanced between their people and our empire. The "King" has three choices: turn the sword towards America, the people, or himself.

Bush has destabilized this delicate balance, requiring the "king" to re calibrate his position between his people and American foreign policy. As the "king" depends on American power to maintain his tyrannical dictatorship, lessening his dependence on America requires broadening his appeal to his own people.

The King's people are sunnis who are seriously pissed off about Iraq. Bush's Iraq adventure has so enraged the Sunni Arabs that the "King" has been forced to take drastic action to preserve his dictatorship.

The "King" will no longer turn up oil production at our command. The "King" has declared that our occupation of Iraq is illegal. It appears that the "King" is tolerating the movement of Saudi fighters and dollars into Western Iraq to directly confront the Illegal American Occupation. The "King" has independently tried to restart negotiations with Israel. Saudi Arabia is now acting independently of American influence in the middle east.

Bush' response to this shocking change reveals the outlines of a vague plan forming in his addled brain. As the invasion of Iraq has empowered Iran, Bush is now being forced by the Saudi shift to accommodate the ex-Bathist Sunni in Western Iraq.

Bush is now arming and supporting the same Sunni insurgents we brutalized in Falluja, while simultaneously backing a Shite-dominated government. Bush has been forced down the contradictory path of arming both sides in the ongoing Iraqi civil war as a result of his inability to foresee, or understand, the complexities of Iraqi society that lay under the rule of Saddam before invading Iraq. If we write down every move Bush has made in Iraq, we see the outlines of a recipe for disaster.

This indicates that Bush has finally realized that his invasion and occupation has failed. Since American power has proven itself incapable of holding Iraq together, Bush has instead decided to pull it apart. This dramatically increases the risk that the Sunni-Shite civil war in Iraq could turn into a regional war.

Bush's anticipation of an Iraqi breakup and the associated risks is behind the 30 billion dollar arms package to the Saudis, the Sunni the gulf state emirates, and Israel.

This arms sale is a strong indication that Bush is anticipating a partition of Iraq that may ultimately spark a regional war between the Sunni and Shite. Even with billions in American arms the Saudis and Sunnis are no match for Iran, and will suffer terribly without significant direct American military support. Thus the billions in arms to the Saudis, and support for the American-killing Sunni insurgents in Iraq.

The arming of the Saudis and Sunni insurgents may well come back to shoot us in the ass. The Sunni insurgents in Iraq will most certainly turn against the occupation, and the Saudis are already charting an independent course as we arm them to the teeth.

The bottom line is that the Saudi ruling family will do what is necessary to maintain their hold on power. It is probable this will require they become completely independent of American power.

The balance of power in the middle east has already shifted out from under American control. American dominance has been diminished on two fronts. First, the location of power has shifted geographically, moving to the east towards Iran, and away from Saudi Arabia and Egypt.

Even more importantly, the notion of legitimate political authority has been dramatically transformed, shifting away from foreign supported dictators and "kings" towards a notion of legitimacy based on independent local political authority.

Bush has dramatically accelerated these pre-existing trends, but decades of colonial domination of the middle east lays behind these rapid dramatic shifts.

Also See:

Corruption Updates 45, 2nd article on the page, "U.S. Iraq Role Is Called Illegal by Saudi King"

Corruption Updates 56, 1st article on the page, "White House Rejects Saudi View on Iraq"

96_2, NYT, July 27, 2007, Saudis’ Role in Iraq Frustrates U.S. Officials

NYT, July 31, 2007, U.S. Arms Plan for Mideast Aims to Counter Iranian Power

 

Saudi gang-rape victim is jailed, bbc, 11-15-07

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Saudi arabia

Supporting dictators

 

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9) The Article linked below was Abstracted from the source cited.

 

Leader Says He Intervened in an Inquiry in Colombia

By SIMON ROMERO

NYT, October 10, 2007

 

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/10/world/americas/10colombia.

html?ref=todayspaper&pagewanted=print

 

CARTAGENA, Colombia, Oct. 9 — President Álvaro Uribe acknowledged Tuesday that he had intervened in an independent investigation of a jailed paramilitary leader, saying that investigators were trying to enmesh him in an unsuccessful plot to assassinate another militia chief.

The imprisoned leader, José Moncada, wrote a letter to Mr. Uribe recently in which he vaguely mentioned an attempt to link the president to a 2003 effort to kill another warlord. The letter also pleads with Mr. Uribe to avoid being entangled by investigators.

But Mr. Uribe, who released the letter on Tuesday, did acknowledge calling the Supreme Court justice investigating Mr. Moncada, saying it was “my duty” to ask directly about the inquiry. He accused the justice, Iván Velásquez, of trying to persuade Mr. Moncada to implicate him in the plot.

In turn, the Supreme Court called for an investigation into whether Mr. Uribe had obstructed justice by pressing Mr. Velásquez, who questioned Mr. Moncada as part of investigations of dozens of pro-Uribe legislators and officials tied to the militias.

Mr. Moncada was a midlevel leader of a paramilitary group that carried out kidnappings, extortion and killings during Colombia’s long internal war. He is now being investigated, accused of ties to current political leaders.

This is the latest controversy involving Mr. Uribe.

Last week, Mr. Uribe vehemently denied claims in a new book by the mistress of the late cocaine kingpin Pablo Escobar that he had close ties to the drug lord, and accused a journalist, Gonzalo Guillén, of helping to write the book. Mr. Guillén, a correspondent for El Nuevo Herald, said over the weekend that he had to flee Colombia because of death threats after he was publicly condemned by Mr. Uribe.

In addition, Mario Uribe, the president’s cousin and one of his leading allies, resigned from the Senate to avoid an investigation into claims that he collaborated with death squads. Mr. Uribe’s former intelligence chief, high-ranking military officials and lawmakers are also under investigation on suspicion of similar ties.

This latest dispute comes before a visit to Colombia by Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez. The Bush administration is trying to persuade American lawmakers to approve a trade agreement with Colombia, but the deal has stalled as the scandal over politicians’ ties to death squads slowly unfolds.

 

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THE COMMITTEE SAYS:

US Funding Paramilitary Death Squads Again

Alex Wierbinski, Berkeley, Ca., September , 2007

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Also See:

Chiquita: UNITED FRUIT NEVER STOPPED SUPPORTING DICTATORS WHO KEEP PEASANTS WORKING, NYT, March 19, 2007

NY Times, September 13, 2007; No Charges for Chiquita Executives: Fund Fascist Drug Gangs and Death Squads allied with Global Corporate Interests and Walk

 

Search the Corruption Database under

Colombia

south america

 

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10) The Article linked below was Abstracted from the source cited.

Argentine Priest Receives Life Sentence in ‘Dirty War’ Killings

By ALEXEI BARRIONUEVO

NYT, October 10, 2007

 

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/10/world/americas/10argentina.html?ref

=todayspaper&pagewanted=print

 

RIO DE JANEIRO, Oct. 9 — An Argentine tribunal sentenced a Roman Catholic priest to life in prison on Tuesday for conspiring with the military in murders and kidnapping during the country’s “dirty war” against leftist opponents, in a case that has become for many a powerful symbol of the church’s complicity with the former regime.

The Rev. Christian von Wernich, who worked as a police chaplain during the military dictatorship, was found guilty of involvement in seven murders, 31 cases of torture and 42 kidnappings. He is the first Catholic priest prosecuted in connection with human rights violations in Argentina, where at least 12,000 people were killed during the military regime from 1976 to 1983.

Seconds after the sentence was read, hundreds of protesters cheered and fireworks were shot off outside the courthouse in La Plata, about 50 miles from Buenos Aires. Father von Wernich, who wore a bulletproof vest in court, clasped his hands and frowned.

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THE COMMITTEE SAYS:

 

Central America has been ruled with an iron fist by Spanish Colonial Elites since the conquest.

March 5, 2007 (edited 11-28-07)

These elites have maintained power for the last 100 years by trading their country's resources, both human and natural, for American military, political, and economic support for their regimes.

The American program to dominate Central and South America has been an ugly affair from the start. After Cuba gained independence, our continential dominance began to seriously fail during the '70s, leading Nixon and Kissenger to commit crimes against humanity in Chile, and spreading waves of death squads across Central and South America.

This was a losing battle, and by the early '80s Regan was facilitating the movement of large amounts of drugs into the United States from both Afghanastan and Colombia to fund death squads across Central and South America to prop up our tottering dictatorships. Regan's coke money also funded Osama's earlier Afgan war against the Russians. Our actions then are still driving events in Central and South America today.

The perfect example today is our President of Colombia. Uribe is directly linked to the Right wing private armies and death squads that are attempting to maintain their control of both the nation and cocaine trade of Colombia.

We must adopt this handy rule: We can take political power with force, but we cannot maintain political power with force alone. To maintain power, we must match our military force with an equally powerful political or moral force that operates within the value system and for the benefit of the people we have invaded, occupied, or installed a dictator over.

Despite our powerful propaganda and loud claims to be the bearer of the political and moral principals of freedom, justice, and democracy, our support of dictators and death squads in Central and South America has made our claims to hold a moral high ground hollow, and has been the main fuel for both radical indiginious, marxist, and in the case of the Middle-East, radical islamic alternatives to our violent imposition of false democracy and hollow freedoms on conquored people.

As we have no moral force equal to our military force, we are doomed to walk down a long, bloody trail to failure in every region of the world we rule through proxies or direct occupation.

We are coming to the end of our long, bloody trail of domination in South America.

South America has effectivly taken the control of their political and economic affairs out of our hands, and are, for the first time in 500 years, almost in complete charge of their own affairs. Central America is not far behind South America.

The Agent of our Empire in Guatemala and Hondorus during the formation of the death squads was John Negroponte. Today's death squads are the children of American foreign policy, the children of Negroponte, Poindexter, North, and the crew of criminals that was the Regan administration.

The death squads used by the authoritarian and military governments they supported are still using extra-judicial violence to maintain political and economic control over their people in Mexico, Guatemala, and Colombia.

The recent "election" in Mexico, and the subsequent violent suppression of democracy in Oxacha highlight the fraud and violence employed by the spanish elite mafia that rules over mexico.

Until we stop the corporate criminals in the United States from suppressing Our Constitution, perverting our democracy, and stealing our government, people around the world will continue to have their political and economic rights violently stolen from them with the help of the us.

Before we can bring the benefits of democracy and freedom to the world, we must first establish them here.

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Also See:

Kissinger approved Argentinian 'dirty war', Guardian, 12-6-03

National Security Archive, State dept. reports on Kissenger’s knowledge of  “Dirty War.”

National Security Archive, State dept. reports on weakness of insurgency.

Argentine Priest Receives Life Sentence in ‘Dirty War’ Killings, NYT, October 10, 2007

Negraponte the criminal: Answers.com

Poindexter the criminal: Hereinreality.com

Past criminals in present administration: Fair.org

 

Wiki: Dirty War

 

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Today's Headlines

Focus: Pakistan, Middle-East, South America

1) American Dictator in Pakistan Will Fall

2) Pakistan Dictator's Presidential "Victory"  Put on Hold

3) American Dictator in Pakistan Arrests Opposition

4) Paki View: Musharraf a Sinking Ship

5) Cheney/Bush "don’t give a rat’s ass about the Republican(s)" and Will Attack Iran

6) Iran Designates CIA, US Army as Terror Organizations

7) Iran tells US to Suck Balls at the UN

8) Saudis define Judicial Tyranny

9) American Stooge Uribe in Colombia linked to Right wing Death Squads

10) Torture Priest of Political Death Sentenced in Argentina