The Flashlight, June 22-29, 2007

THE FLASHLIGHT, June 22-29, 2007

US Politics

6-24 NY Times. Frank Rich said that the new US strategy of arming Sunni tribes in Anbar Province is a sign that it considers the Maliki government as irrelevant.

6-24. NBC Face the Nation. Proponents of immigration said that economic growth is producing 400,000 new unskilled jobs a year. But opponents of the immigration bill say that illegal immigration lowers the wages of American workers, and increases the tax burden of educating their children and other services.
6-25 CNN, 70-80% of the Republican base opposed the immigration bill. They feared that the generous provisions of the bill would lead to a mass invasion of illegal immigrants into the US.
6-28 CNN. The immigration bill was roundly defeated.

Senator Richard Lugar, a conservative Republican and member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said that the surge policy in Iraq is a failure and that the US should redeploy its troops elsewhere in the Middle East. He said no one expected the Maliki government to meet US benchmarks. He said it would be a mistake to wait until September to change US policy because of rising public opposition to the war. Commentators said that the Republicans now fear that if the US does not evacuate Iraq, the voters will force them to evacuate the Senate.

CNN 6-26. A new Gallup poll indicates that 71% of Americans oppose continuing the Iraq War. Over 90% of Democrats oppose it.
Senator George Voinovich, R., Ohio, agreed with Senator Lugar.

Congress Challenges Cheney

The Washington Post published a four-day series on Vice President Cheney this week. Among other things they discovered that Cheney has a man-sized safe in his office. He has access to all the secrets of the executive branch. He has more power than any vice-president in American history ever had.

PBS 6-27. Henry Waxman, chair of the House committee for oversight of the executive branch, sent Cheney a subpoena to turn over information about which documents he had classified as secret. Cheney refused, saying the law does not apply to him because he is not entirely a member of the Executive Branch, being the presiding officer of the Senate. This outraged many in Congress.
Chicago Tribune 6-28. Rep. Rahm Emmanuel said that the House is considering a proposal to stop funding the Vice President’s official home [the Naval Observatory] and his White House office, while retaining funding of his office in the Capitol. That would amount to a reduction of $4.8 million in Cheney’s funding.

PBS 6-27. Waxman warned that there had been no Congressional oversight of the executive branch for twelve years, and that this was dangerous. It created a serious risk of executive mistakes and of leaked information.

PBS 6-28. The Senate Judiciary Committee, headed by Patrick Leahy D. also subpoenaed Cheney’s office in its investigation of the NSA policy of wiretapping without warrants. A federal judge has called this unconstitutional. Leahy accused Cheney of “stonewalling of the worst kind.”

Washington Post 6-29. The White House rejected the subpoenas from Congress on grounds of executive privilege.

Iraq

Az-Zaman. 6-23. Americans are building a big base in Kurdistan, which the Kurds welcome. They say they want the Americans to maintain a presence in Iraq.

NYTimes 6-26 and Az-Zaman 6-25. A suicide bomber in the Mansour Hotel in Baghdad killed 12 (Az-Zaman said 41), including four Sunni sheikhs from Anbar who were cooperating with the Americans, and two other sheikhs from Diwaniya. The sheikhs from Anbar blamed the Maliki government, which was responsible for security in the luxury hotel.

Az-Zaman 6-26. A group of Shiite militiamen are in control of Basra and pay no more homage to the politicians supposedly in charge. The Maliki government is rated as having little chance of regaining control of Basra. Iran is supplying the militias with money, arms and training. The militias control the income from oil production and from the use of the docks for foreign trade.

The Israel-Palestine Conflict

The Economist, 6-23. Lead editorial. “The Arab world has long been criss-crossed by feuds and rivalries. But if there is one point on which Arabs have agreed for more than half a century: it is the justice of the Palestinian cause…
“The Palestinians’ principal grievance is not economic. What they chiefly want is an end to Israel’s occupation of the West Bank as well as Gaza so that they can enjoy an independent national existence in both places. And in this respect the West Bank is a tougher problem than Gaza, because it remains speckled by Israeli settlements and throttled by checkpoints.
.
“What America must now prove is that its moderate Arab allies, far from being traitors, can actually deliver desirable results. In the case of Palestine, Mr. Abbas and his new prime minister have to show not only that they can govern cleanly but also that they can get Israel to start dismantling outposts and leaving the West Bank”


Science

Guardian 9-27. Zahi Hawass, leading Egyptian archaeologist, identified the mummy of Hatshepsut, Egypt’s great woman pharaoh who ruled 1473-1458 b.c.e. After she died her son, who became pharaoh, tried to remove all traces of her, including the identification of her sarcophagus. But the archaeologist found a tooth from the mummy in a little box with her hieroglyphic ID.

The Flashlight, June 14-22, 2007

THE FLASHLIGHT, June 14-22, 2007

Palestine/Israel

CNN 6-14, Hamas had taken over all of Gaza by force. There has been widespread killing and looting of Fatah property. Hamas has declared an Islamic government. Fatah, led by Mahmoud Abbas, has dissolved its coalition government with Hamas and replaced it with an all-Fatah emergency cabinet. Hamas leader Haniye has been dismissed as prime minister. 6-16. Fatah moved to strengthen its control of the West Bank, killing and looting.

NYTimes 6-18. Fatah outlawed Hamas in West Bank.
Guardian 6-18. US lifted its economic and political embargo on the Palestinian government, since Hamas was no longer part of it. The borders of Gaza with Egypt and Israel are closed. 6-19. US promised $40 million in direct aid to the new Palestinian government. Israel released millions in taxes belonging to the Palestinians which it had withheld in protest against the Hamas control over the government. Olmert and Bush push for a two-state solution.
Sen. George Mitchell pointed out that the Bush Administration had given the Palestinian government inadequate support and had insisted on elections when it had been warned that Hamas would probably win.

NYTimes 6-21. The Bush Administration, alarmed by the Hamas takeover in Gaza, but “limited” in its options [by the Israeli Lobby], has invited Tony Blair to strengthen the Fatah government and also work to resolve the “final issues” of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict: the status of Jerusalem, borders, and the return of Palestinian refugees. Blair would work with the UN, the EU (European Unon) and the US. He is undecided about accepting the position.

The Israeli Economic Boom
Naomi Klein, The Nation, 2-7-07. The Israeli economy is booming because it is producing highly successful “defense” products. The Israelis exported $1.2 billion worth of these products in 2006, making them the fourth largest arms dealer in the world. The products include high tech fences, biometric ID systems, air passenger profiling systems, prisoner interrogation systems, and drones. Many were tested on the restive Palestinian population in Israeli-occupied territory. Naomi Klein concluded, “Fear is the ultimate renewable resource.”

Iraq

6-14. People’s Weekly World. A strike of Iraqi oil workers has succeeded in getting them better wages and working conditions and also the right to participated in talks on the new oil law.

6-16. Washington Post. Private security companies [read mercenaries], funded by billions in Defense and State Department contracts, are increasing the scale of their operations in Iraq. It is estimated that there are 20,000 to 30,000 men there now. They operate outside Iraqi law. Their casualties are concealed. [In the summer of 2006 an Air Force employee stationed in Kuwait told me that “most” of the coffins coming out of Iraq contained the remains of private contractors. MM]

The New Yorker, 6-25. In an interview with Seymour Hersh, Maj. Gen. Antonio Taquba, who made the revealing official report on the Abu Ghraib scandal and then was forced to retire, said that illegal prisoner abuse was systemic and that Sec. Rumsfeld knew about it five months before the scandal broke. Once it broke Rumsfeld expressed shock and surprise.

6-18, Gen. Petraeus said that it may take ten years to end the conflict in Iraq.

Lebanon

Max Rodenbeck, “Lebanon’s Agony,” New York Review of Books June 28, 2007. The leader of Fatah-al-Islam, the al-Qaeda oriented terrorist group in northern Lebanon, arrived in that country last year after being released from a Syrian prison. He was well supplied with cash. His fighters in Lebanon originated in Saudia, Algeria, Syria et al. and have experience fighting as insurgents in Iraq.The author concludes, “Lebanon remains hostage to the regional ur-conflict over Palestine.” [the word “ur” means “original” and refers to the city of Ur in ancient Mesopotamia where the Sumerians started the first civilization. MM]

Guardian 6-22. The Lebanese defense minister has claimed victory of the extremist sect Fatah al-Islam which emerged in a Palestinian refugee camp.

US Politics

CNN 6-14. Fred Thompson, although not an announced Republican candidate for President, is running second in the polls of Republicans. Giuliani and McCain are declining.

NYTimes 6-19. Major Michael Bloomberg of New York City dropped his Republican registration, enabling him to run for President as an Independent. 6-20 His issues are global warming, immigration, and crackdown on illegal guns. He is pro-choice and pro-gay rights. Thus he is more likely to take votes from the Democrats than from the Republicans.

Missing email. NYTimes 6-20. There are 88 White House staffers who email accounts at the Republican National Committee, but only 51 have email archives. [The remaining 37 did not save their emails. But they may be retrieved nevertheless.] The email archive of Karl Rove, containing 140,000 items, has been retrieved.

Science

The RNA Revolution
The Economist 6-16, pp. 87-89. Geneticists have discovered that RNA does not simply translated DNA instructions into proteins.
There are many and various RNA molecules giving orders to the body. The RNA operating system may be able to modify genes. Thus, Lamarck’s theory of the inheritance of acquired characteristics, which Darwin never discarded entirely, may have unexpected validity.

The Etruscans: Their Origin Determined

The Etruscans, who dominated central Italy [Tuscany and Umbria] before the Romans, originated in what is now called Turkey (previously, Anatolia). The evidence is genetic, based on studies of living inhabitants of central Italy and people in the vicinity of Izmir (formerly Smyrna) et al. This confirms the theory of Herodotus (Greek historian, sixth century b.c.e.) who said the Etruscans came from “Lydia.” The first trace of the Etruscans in Italy is 1200 b.c.e. They introduced the first alphabetic writing there. They also invented the fasces as a symbol of authority; it contained an ax surrounded by whipping rods tied by a red cord into a bundle. Mussolini and his Fascists adopted it as their emblem.

Literature – and Politics

Guardian 6-19. The British have knighted Salman Rushdie, novelist, who satirized Islam. Various Muslims in Pakistan et al. expressed outrage and Rushdie began to get death threats again.

Correction to the preceding issue:

A friend has informed me that Robert Mueller, Director of the FBI, is scrupulously honest in all his dealings and only uses the FBI airplane for official business. This includes making speeches about the FBI around the country.

The Flashlight May 25 - June 7, 2007

THE FLASHLIGHT, May 25 – June 15, 2007

The World: Global Peace Index

The Economist 6-2. The Economist decided to give peace a rating using both internal and external measures. The internal measures included crime rates, prison population, and trust between citizens. The external measures included relations with neighbors, arms sales, and foreign troop deployments. The number of nations covered: 121. The top five most peaceful were: (1) Norway (2) New Zealand (3) Denmark (4) Ireland (5) Japan.
The worst five were: Nigeria (117) Russia (118) Israel (119) Sudan (120) and Iraq (121).
The United States ranked 96th, just above Iran, 97th.

The Middle East
Iraq

CNN 5-25. Moqtada as-Sadr has returned from Iran. Iran is now training “special operations” units in the Mahdi Army for kidnapping and killing.

Truthout.com 5-28. The first benchmark on the new US funding for Iraq is the passage of the Iraqi oil bill. It provides that only 17 of Iraq’s 80 known oil fields should be controlled by the Iraqi government, contrary to the policies of all the other oil possessing nations in the Middle East. The bill would open up bidding for the exploitation of Iraqi oil fields by foreign oil companies on 20-30 year contracts. These companies claim that Iraqi is in desperate need for foreign capital and expertise to update its oil industry. This is misleading. Iraqi oil is easy to extract and does not need heavy new investment on a long-term basis to “modernize.” Iraq could easily obtain foreign capital and technology on short-term contracts, like those of other Middle Eastern countries.
The Iraqi Parliament has not taken action so far on the oil bill or any other benchmark in the US military funding bill. Parliament has passed a bill opposing the continued presence of US forces in Iraq.

UPI 6-7. The female leader of the Iraqi electrical workers union has been on a 12-city 36-day tour of the US, representing Iraqi labor unions, and she met with John Sweeney, President of the AFL-CIO. The unions oppose the U.S. designed oil bill and want all US troops and private contractors to withdraw from Iraq.

Washington Post 6-10. US officials foresee a “post-occupation” US presence in Iraq “for years”. By late 2008 or early 2009 about two-thirds of the present US force will be withdrawn. The US will leave behind “special operations” units to fight Al-Qaeda in Iraq. A command and logistics center will remain, manned by 10,000 US troops plus “some civilian contractors.” [read mercenaries].
It seems that the effort to organize new Iraqi security forces has failed.
The American Embassy in the Green Zone is the largest foreign embassy on the planet, a home for thousands, supplying its own food, water, electricity, and entertainment. It has cost over $592 million to build and fortify. There are five or six other big US bases.

Az.Zaman, Baghdad 6-10. Maj. Gen. Rick Lynch, commander of American forces in the “Triangle of Death” south of Baghdad, said that the Iraqi police are corrupt and that the Maliki government continues to make sectarian biased (pro-Shia) decisions.
The Kurds complained that a Turkish army of 30,000 men backed by tanks and helicopters has been making incursions in the territory of northern Iraq. Moqtada as-Sadr condemned the incursions but Condalizza Rice said the US can’t do anything about them.

Algeria: Women

Today Algerian women have emerged as a power to be reckoned with. They constitute 70%of lawyers, 60% of judges, and are dominant in medicine. They are starting to take over the government bureaucracy. They constitute 60% of university students. Females marry on average at the age of 29.
The men try to earn money in trade, leave the country in search of employment, or loaf. There is little religious and political extremism now in Algeria.

Lebanon

EuroNews 6-13. In Beirut another member of the anti-Syrian pro-government faction of Siniora-Hariri has been assassinated, along with his son and two bodyguards.

Israel

FCNL, Jim Fine. 6-7, Senators Feinstein, Lugar, Dodd, and Hagel have introduced a resolution calling for a two-state solution and intensified diplomatic efforts in solving the Israeli-Palestine conflict.

Guardian 6-10. In Britain, unions, academics, and journalists are in furious debate over the use of sanctions against Israeli goods and disinvestment in Israel.

In the year 2006, the Palestinians killed 27 Israelis. The Israelis killed 650 Palestinians, of which 120 were children.

6-13, Veteran Labor Party leader Shimon Peres was elected President of Israel.

Washington Post 6-15. Hamas is in control of Gaza after a struggle with Fatah. The policies of the Bush Administration in this area have completely failed.

United States
Politics
5-25. NY Times poll. 69% of all Americans now oppose the Iraq War.

CNN 6-11, Hilary Clinton has increased her lead among Democratic presidential candidates to 48%, Women strongly support her. She is admired as strong and experienced, but not so likeable. Gov. Richardson of New Mexico has increased his support to double digits. He is of Latino descent.

CNN 6-11. A federal appeals court ruled 2-1 that the federal government cannot indefinitely hold a terrorist suspect present in the US legally. He must be charged and tried, or released. The court did not recognize the category “enemy combatant.”
CNN 6-12. After the Republican presidential candidates debate in New Hampshire, Gov. Mitt Romney came out ahead by a narrow margin. He did well with conservatives and was seen as likeable.

Robert Mueller, Director of the F.B.I. was criticized for using a plane belonging to the Bureau for personal use. Congress gave the plane to the Bureau to fight terrorism.

65% of Americans disapprove of the current Democratic- controlled Congress, 36% approve. This is as bad as the rating of the late Republican controlled congress.

CNN 6-13, The Senate Judiciary Committee subpoenaed two former White House aids, Sara Taylor and Harriet Miers, to testify on the politicization of the Department of Justice.

Science: Stem Cell Research Discovery

NYTimes 6-7. Japanese biologist Shinya Yamanaha of Kyoto University and his team were able to make skin cells of mice work like stem cells. In this way they can create heart, kidney, and liver cells when needed. All that is necessary is to insert four particular genes into the skin cell. This work was published in Nature and Cell-Stem-Cell. However, procedures that work in mice often do not transfer to human use.

Important New Books on American Politics and Society

Albert Gore. The Assault on Reason. New York, 2007.

This is a comprehensive well-organized critique of the Bush Administration. Gore says that a number of important moral issues are called [merely] “political.” They are global warming, the funding of FEMA, and ending of the Iraq War. He charges that Bush has outsourced the truth on public policy to special interest groups.


Robert Frank. Richistan. A Journey Through the Wealth Boom and the Lives of the New Rich. New York, 2007.

In 1985 there were 13 billionaires. Now there are more than one thousand. They have there own health care system, a travel network of private jets, and destination clubs. Most obtain their billionaire status not by inheritance, but by buying out a company. Anyone owning $10 million or less they regard as merely “affluent,” meaning not really rich. After interviewing the new rich the author thought they were dreadful and not very happy.

Chalmers Johnson. Nemesis. The Last Days of the American Republican Republic. NY 2007.

The author claims that the United States is now an empire, comparable to the British and Roman Empires of the past. Most Americans find this incredible, since they think the US has no colonies. “But it does!” says the author. There are officially 737 US military bases in foreign countries, including 132 of the 190 member states of the United Nations. Actually, there are probably over 1000 military bases. The US Embassy in Baghdad is a big base containing 104 acres, the largest embassy on the planet.