The Flashlight, December 22-31, 2007

THE FLASHLIGHT, December 22-31, 2007
No Peace without Justice, no Justice without the Facts

The World

Pakistan
CNN 12-27. Benazir Bhutto was assassinated by one or more assailants as she rode through a crowd in the town of Rawalpindi. She had been speaking at a rally of her Pakistani People’s Party (PPP). Western reporters said that security for her was poor to absent. Rioting immediately broke out in many cities of the country. President Musharraf is now at high risk for assassination himself.
The practicality of a free election being held as scheduled on January 8 is doubtful. One senior commenter on PBS said that any election would be unfair as long as Musharraf is in office, and the crisis will continue until he leaves.

NYTimes 12-24. US officials say that over five billion dollars have been sent to Pakistan and instead of being used to fight Al-Qaida; much of the money has been spent on weapon systems to counteract India.

12-30, Forbes. Benazir Bhutto’s son, Bilwal, 19, currently a student at Oxford University, will succeed her. At present he is co-leader of the PPP with his father, Asif Zardan, 51.

Iraq

Washington Post 12-23. Teheran has reined in the Shia militias it supports in Iraq, thus reducing the number of roadside attacks.

Guardian 12-31. The year 2007 was the deadliest for US military service personnel: in Iraq: a total of 899 were lost.
Data is incomplete on the losses of Iraqi civilians. It is believe that they amounted to at least 2,165 persons last May alone, but that they declined to 710 in the month of December.

Israel

NY Times 12-31. The Israeli Army is in danger of becoming a right wing organization, with a majority of its officers recruited from the illegal Israeli settlements on the West Bank. An increasing number of Israeli men eligible for the draft are finding excuses not to serve: a total of 25% of eligible males. About 54% of eighteen year olds are inducted, which is not enough. Of volunteers for combat units, 30-40% are from the illegal settlements.

United Kingdom

Guardian 12-22. Tony Blair, former prime minister of the UK, has converted to Roman Catholicism. His wife and children were Roman Catholics already. Blair is now a Middle East peace envoy.

United States

The 2008 Election

Washington Post 12-22. The Clintons are stirring up memories of Bill’s Presidency in the 1990’s, claiming that it was a co-presidency, thus backing Hilary claim that she is more experienced than her rivals.
PBS 12-28. In the Iowa caucuses record sums of money are being spent on TV commercials and hired organizers.

Guardian 12-31. Mayor Michael Bloomberg of New York is still considering whether to run as an Independent for President. He is expected to announce his decision in February.

NY Times 12-31. Paul Krugman said that Democrats and Republicans are living in two separate moral and intellectual universes. They lack common ground, so bipartisan collaboration is prevented. Republican candidates support the unpopular policies of President Bush, at home and abroad. This is because conservatives still control the Republican organizations and money.

American Jews

The Nation, 1-14 2008. Eric Alterman, “Bad for the Jews.” The author, who is Jewish, says that right-wing Jews still control the largest Jewish organizations and treasuries. This is so even though the majority of American Jews are liberals and accept a two-state solution in Palestine. Leading right-wing Jews include: William Kristol, Norman Podhoretz, Richard Cohen, Martin Zuckerman, Alan Dershowitz, and David Brooks. The author of this article says that this situation is bad for America and bad for the Jews.

The Flashlight, Dec.8-14, 2007

THE FLASHLIGHT, December 8-14, 2007
No Peace without Justice, no Justice without the Facts

Russia

The Guardian 12-11. Russia presidential nominee Dimitry Medvedov, Gazprom chairman, said he backed his mentor, Vladimir Putin, for the position of Prime Minister.

Algeria

BBC and PBA 12-11. Over 72 people died in Al-Qaida car bomb attacks in Algiers. There was extensive destruction of the UN office building and the Supreme Court building.

United States
Destruction of CIA tapes of interrogations
Guardian 12-7. It was revealed that in 2005 the CIA ordered the destruction of hundreds of hours of video tapes showing the interrogation of Al-Qaida prisoners with harsh methods, including waterboarding, in 2002. The CIA lied to the 9-11 Commission about this. NY Times 12-11. Congress was not informed. The Senate Intelligence Committee, headed by John Rockefeller, has started an investigation, as has the Justice Department.
`NY Times 12-8. Porter Goss, Director of the CIA, authorized the destruction of the tapes. The White House refuses to comment.

The 2008 Presidential Campaign
NY Times, CNN 12-11. David Brooks commented in the New York Times that a shift in the American mood was changing the presidential campaign. There is less interest in foreign affairs. The next president will probably not face a showdown with Iran. There is an increase in stability in Iraq. Pakistan is quieting. So the atmosphere of fear and distrust has abated.
This presents an opportunity to domestically focused Obama and Huckabee. We hear of mortgages, Mormonism, and Oprah.
Romney has lost his led to Huckabee in Iowa. Edwards and Obama are pulling more votes from Hilary Clinton.
But all the top Democrats could beat any Republican candidate by 10 to 25 points.

The Flashlight, December 1-7, 2007

THE FLASHLIGHT, December 1-7, 2007

Iran and Nuclear Research

CNN and PBS 12-3. According to the 2007 National Intelligence Estimate, a consensus of the representatives of all 16 US intelligence agencies revealed that Iran stopped trying to produce nuclear weapons in 2003, and hasn’t resumed such research since. The NIE said that Iran could not produce a nuclear bomb, even if it tried, before 2010 – 2015. This new intelligence suggests that the Iranian leadership is not crazy, and responds rationally to political and economic pressure.
Guardian 12-4. The Israelis. Germans, and French challenged the new intelligence, while Iran heartily welcomed it. Most American commentators think there is no significant justification now for an attack on Iran.

Iraq
Corruption
NY Times 12-2. Non-stop theft and bribery are staggering Iraq, even as security improves. Nearly everything the government buys and sells can be found in the black market. An independent source rated Iraq as the third most corrupt country in the world, after Myanmar and Somalia.

Security
NY Times 12-5. It is relatively calm in Baghdad, but extra American troops can take only part of the credit. An increasing number of Sunnis have turned their guns on the jihadists, and away from the Americans. Also three months ago Moqtada as-Sadr ordered his militia to halt military action. These three conditions can be reversed suddenly at any time. The political roots of the conflict have not been addressed.

Venezuela

NY Times 12-3. The Venezuelans handed a narrow defeat, 51 to 49, to Pres. Hugo Chavez, who was trying to become President for Life. Term limits and checks and balance in the Constitution were retained. This was remarkable because Chavez held almost all the levers of power.

United States
Economy

PBS 12-6. Two million homeowners face foreclosure. The Bush Administration is taking some measures to help, such as freezing mortgage rates on some loans , but that is not expected to have much effect. The ripples from this meltdown are expected to flow out into the economy at large.

Presidential Politics
Guardian 12-2. In Iowa, Huckabee pulled ahead of Mitt Romney in the Republican race, and Obama pulled ahead of Hilary, according to one poll. Huckabee is short of money and organization, but people think him more likeable than the other Republican candidates.

CIA’s Destruction of Evidence Revealed

New York Times 12-7. In 2002 the CIA made two videos of its “harsh interrogations” with the use of waterboarding. In 2005, rather than handing the videos over to the 9/11 Commission, the CIA destroyed them, thereby obstructing the Commission’s work.

Book Review: Autobiography of a Palestinian Aristocrat

Sari Nusseibeh, Once Upon a Country; A Palestinian Life. Farrar Strauss, NY 2007. 543 pp.
The subject of this autobiography is almost unknown in the US, and to most American ears the label “Palestinian aristocrat” may sound like an oxymoron. Sari Nusseibeh, 58, is the President of Al-Quds University in Jerusalem, which has about 6000 students. He is an advocate of non-violence, and only non-violence, as a means of resisting the Israeli occupation. He has studied Hebrew, lived on a kibbutz, and is a friend of Israeli intellectuals such as Amoz Oz, the novelist, and Avishai Margalit, the philosopher. His wife, Lucy, is the daughter of an English philosopher. Sari studied at Oxford and earned a Ph.D at Harvard, planning an academic career. But his family background and circumstances pulled him into politics as well. Today he is one of the most important Palestinian political leaders.

The Nusseibeh family traces its ancestry back to the time of Muhammed in the early seventh century. A woman warrior called Nusseibeh was the head of a Medina tribe that joined Muhammed’s movement early. The family arrived with the conquering Muslim army into Palestine in 637 and soon thereafter was named keeper of the keys to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem.
The Palestinians hold this family in awe not just because of its pedigree, but because of the character of its leaders. Sari, like his father Anwar, is dignified, honest, loyal, gracious, generous, moderate, shrewd, and brave.
During the first Palestinian rebellion, or Intifadha, of 1988-90, Sari was an important undercover leader of non-violent activities. When the Israeli secret police, by torturing his associates, found out about him, they treated him with surprising lenience: a mere three month detention. More recently he has cooperated with the Arab-Israeli organization Peace Now and the anti-war group, Women in Black. Israeli right wingers have labeled Sari Nusseibeh, “the most dangerous Palestinian alive.”
This book provides an excellent history of the struggle between Israelis and Palestinians since 1947 as seen from a moderate point of view.