THE FLASHLIGHT, Jully 19-25, 2008

THE FLASHLIGHT
July 19-25, 2008
No Peace without Justice, no Justice without the Facts
Mary K. Matossian

World Population

The Economist 7-12. The job of population control is unfinished, especially in Africa and other areas of poverty. According to the UN, means of contraception may be available in theory, but the bureaucracies which are supposed to supply them to the population may be inefficient, understaffed, and/or incapable of working in rural areas. The presence of the political will to control births, and female empowerment are keys to success.

World Resources

CNN 7-24. Several nations are exploring the Arctic anew since the spread of thawing there. It is believed that oil and gas resources there can be extracted with existing technology

Iraq

NYTimes 7-19. President Bush, in a shift, has accepted a timeline [of some kind] for the withdrawal of US troops from Iraq. This is attributed to progress in stabilization and opposition to an open-ended military presence by both Americans and Iraqis.
NYTimes 7-20. The Sunnis have ended their boycott of the central government.

Iran

NYTimes 7-20. American talks with Iran ended in deadlock. Iran’s chief nuclear negotiator, Said Jalili, and the European Union foreign folicy chief Javier Solana agreed to resume negotiations in two weeks.
Inter Press Service 7-22. US representatives will attend the talks between Jalili and Solana.
Teheran Times 7-24. The Interior Ministry of Iran reports that 12.5% of the Afghan population are living in Iran as refugees.

Lebanon

An-Nahar (Beirut) 7-10. According to Debka, an Israeli intelligence website, Hizballah has recently set up on Mt. Sannine radar guided missile positions to shoot down Israeli jet plans that penetrate Lebanese territory. It has also placed anti-missile sites along the Lebanese coast.

Serbia

BBC 7-21, NYTimes 7-22. Radovan Karadjic has been arrested for war crimes, notably the systematic murder 7,500 Muslim men and boys at Serebrenitza. For 13 years Karadjic, wearing a white beard, and serving as a psychologist, has been living in plain sight in Belgrade. The government of Serbia is currently a candidate for membership in the European Union. The American diplomat, Richard Holbrooke, said that the Serbian president, Boris Tardic, acted bravely in ordering this arrest because his predecessor, who ordered the arrest of the Serbian criminal Milosevic, had been murdered.

Zimbabwe

BBC 7-21. Pres. Mugabe and Opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai began talks for the formation of a unity government. Pres. Mbeki of South Africa was said to be mediator. Violence in Zimbabwe has slowed, but not ceased.

Australia

BBC 7-15. The Pope, speaking to a gathering of Australian bishops in Sydney, referred to the “the shame we have all felt” about sexual abuse by priests. He called for these priests to be brought to justice.

Ireland

7-15. Guardian. The Pope urged Catholic bishops and clergy to apologize publicly to victims of clerical sexual abuse.

US Politics
The Presidential Campaign

The Economist 7-19. Latino voters are turning toward Obama. This is especially important in the states with the largest Latino populations: New Mexico 37.1%; Texas 24.6%, California 22.8%, Arizona 17.0%, and Florida 13.6%. CNN 7-24. Latinos now favor Obama 3 to 1.
BBC and PBS 7-24. In Berlin Obama addressed a crowd of 200,000 who were respectful, impressed, receptive.

The Guantanamo Prisoners

NYTimes 7-20. Bob Herbert. In a Seton Hall Law School study of the prisoners at Guantanamo, It was found that only 8% were associated with Al-Qaeda, 54% were not alleged to have committed any acts hostile to the US and the remainder were charged with dubious wrongdoing such as “fleeing a US bomb.”
Of the total, 95% had been captured by non-US players, including bounty hunters.

Education in District of Columbia

The Economist 1-12. School Superintendent Michele Rhee has offered the Teachers Union the following deal: a salary raise from $40,000 to $78,000 with a possible $130,000 for the top performers. This is in exchange for the abolition of tenure and introduction of the merit principle in pay, measured in part by student results.
All new hires would have to be in this new system. Old hires could choose between old and new. The new system would be paid for by eliminating waste: by firing half of the educational bureaucrats, and by saving the cost of heating and air-conditioning schools that are only one-fourth utilized or less.

Health
BBC 7-22. A new drug, abiraterone, for lethal prostate cancer,is currently in clinical trials. The drug prevents the testicles from producing testosterone, the chemical that drives the growth of the cancer. The pill will be generally available in two-three years.

The Economist 7-19. “Food for Thought.” This article discusses foods that have been shown to help the brain to work better. It discusses foods providing:
1. folic acid, found in orange juice and spinach,
2. anti-oxidants, found in nuts, berries, green leaves, vegetables oils, red wine, and the turmeric in curry powder.
3. omega-3 fatty acid in oil fish, such as salmon, walnuts, and kiwi fruit.

The Israel-Palestinian Conflict

Israel: Peace Now and B-Tselem

The Economist, 7-12. Anti-settlement activists have started to score some victories.
Peace Now, led by Dror Etkes, It is trying to stir up the silent majority of politically inactive Israeli Jews by leading them on one-day tours of the West Bank. They are shown illegal Israeli settlements on Palestinian land, check points, separation barriers, and segregated roads.
Peace Now is using satellite photos to track the growth of illegal settlements. It is planning to pepper Israeli courts with cases of illegal building in the hope of creating a constant shaming of the perpetrators.
B T’selem, the Israel human rights group, has given cameras to several West Bank Palestinians, who suffer from frequent attacks by Israeli settlers. Israeli soldiers frequently take the settlers’ side.

J-Street Group Poll of American Jews

Inter Press Service 7-22. The J Street Group, a Jewish advocacy group founded to give voice to the more dovish American Jews and directed by Jeremy Ben Ami, polled 800 American Jews and found that these Jews are more dovish than generally acknowledged regarding Middle East issues.. A majority favored using diplomacy in dealing with Iran (69%), a two-state solution in Israel-Palestine (75%), and US withdrawal from Iraq (64%). A large majority (83%) disapprove of Bush Middle East policies. A total of 50% wanted to secure Israel by peace agreements as well as military superiority, but 34% believed that military superiority was the only useful means. 62% favored Obama for President, 32%, McCain.

Illegal Settlement Building
Haaretz and Guardian 7-24. Once again Israel has reneged on its pledge to the US to stop building an illegal settlement on the West Bank: Mastiot in the Jordan Valley .

THE FLASHLIGHT, July 5 - 18, 2008

THE FLASHLIGHT
July 5 – 18, 2008
No Peace without Justice, No Justice without the Facts
Mary K. Matossian, Editor

The Searchlight is a non-commercial world news summary published on Fridays since March, 2006 by an independent editor. Mary Matossian has a B.A. in History from Stanford (magna cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa), an M.A. in Near Eastern History from the American University of Beirut, and a Ph.D in History (with Distinction) from Stanford. She is the author of four scholarly books and a member of Palo Alto Friends Meeting (Quakers).
This news summary is not complete because it does not cover the Israel-Palestine conflict. For a complete news summary, see the companion Flashlight. It is available by email from the editor by writing to her email address, mary@matossian.net. It is also available as a non-commercial blog with the URL address http://theflashlightnet.blogspot.com. For those who have no computer, please contact the editor at Ext. 336.

The sources used are The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Guardian Unlimited (London), Haaretz (Tel Aviv), An-Nahar (Beirut), Az-Zaman (Baghdad), The Teheran Times, The Economist, The New York Review of Books, Time, Newsweek, The New Yorker, PBS, CNN, BBC, Google News et al. The summary contains some book reviews and humor.






















THE SEARCHLIGHT
July 5 – 18, 2008
No Peace without Justice, no Justice without the Facts
Mary K. Matossian, Editor

US Economy

PBS 7-4. Midyear business report. In the first half of the year the economy was volatile and there was a liquidity crisis. June was the worst month for stocks since the Great Depression, with prices down 20% from their high in 2007. The prices of most commodities, including oil, rose. It was predicted that in the second half of the year the earnings recession would end, but if oil prices kept rising inflation would increase. House prices may bottom out. It was also predicted that Obama and the Congressional Democrats would raise taxes.

CNN financial report, 7-15 Inflation has increased faster than at any time in the last 25 years. 90 US banks are on the government’s watch list. Confidence in the economy and house prices has declined.

NYTimes 7-17. Al Gore said that Americans must abandon electric power generated by fossil fuels with ten years and rely on the sun, wind, and other environment-friendly sources of power.

US Politics

CNN 7-7. McCain promises to balance the budget by eliminating “wasteful spending.” This includes reducing Medicare spending. He claims that “victory” in Iraq will save money.
PBS 7-7. The Democrats are planning a drive in the Rocky Mountains states, especially Colorado, New Mexico, Nevada, and Montana. They will hold their convention in Denver in a stadium that seats 75,000.
NY Times 7-9 Paul Krugman. The Senate Democrats have won a huge victory by restoring the Medicare payments to doctors which the Republicans tried to cut. Ted Kennedy, who is suffering from a brain tumor, came to cast the decisive vote. NYTimes 7-16. Both Houses overrode the President’s veto of the bill.
NYTimes 7-16. Obama faces a racial divide: more than 80% of black voters have a favorable opinion of him, while only 30% of white voters do.

CNN 7-17. Obama is expected to get a warm reception during his coming trip to Europe and the Middle East. NYTimes 7-18. To advise him on foreign policy, Obama has 300 advisers, organized like the State Department, to provide him with a daily summary of events and expected questions with suggested answers to them.

CNN 7-17. Last month Obama raised $52 million and the Democratic National Committee, $20 million: total $72 million.
In the same period McCain raised only $27 million, but the Republican National Committee raised $68 million: total, $95 million. For the Democrats, this was an improvement over previous presidential campaigns.

Iran

PBS 7-7. Iranian leaders send conciliatory messages with regard to their nuclear energy research.
Guardian 7-17. The US is planning to station diplomats in Teheran for the first time since 1979, when Iranians stormed the US Embassy and took its diplomats prisoner. The US announcement will be made next month.
Meanwhile the US will send a representative, William Burns, to Switzerland on Saturday to hear Iran’s response to the European offer aimed at resolving the nuclear standoff.
7-17. Teheran Times. Gazprom (Russian energy organization) signed a major deal with the National Iranian Oil Company for the development of Iran’s oil and gas fields.

Iraq

Az-Zaman (Baghdad) 7-1. According to tallies of the Ministry of Human Rights of the Iraqi government, during 2005-2007 lawless gunmen killed 340 academics and 2,334 women. They are currently on a campaign to kill secular judges. [The gunmen are reported to be Islamic extremists.]

PBS 7-4. Obama promised again to remove US combat troops
from Iraq within 16 months after his election. He will give them a new mission: to end the war [not “victory”].

CNN 7-6. US Oil companies are pressuring Prime Minister Maliki to sign production sharing agreements
BBC, PBS 7-7. Maliki for the first time demands a timetable for the withdrawal of US troops from Iraq. He cannot get through his Parliament many US demands on the status of forces, notably a grant of immunity from Iraqi law for US contractors [such as Blackwater].

Az-Zaman (Baghdad) 7-15. After months of relative quiet, violence has returned to Anbar Province. The tribes who cooperated with the US and the Maliki government are disappointed in seeing little of the promised improvement in their living conditions and security. Anti-US sentiment is also increasing among the Shiites. The Sadrist Shiites are organizing demonstrations demanding the withdrawal of US troops.

Pakistan and Afghanistan: Rural Education

NY Times 7-13 Nicholas Kristoff reviews the achievement of Greg Mortenson who has built 20 schools in remote areas of Pakistan and Afghanistan entirely with private funds which he raised. He has worked closely with Muslim clerics and has emphasized the education of girls. Mortensen’s account of his adventures, Three Cups of Tea, has been a paperback best seller.

Sudan

The International Criminal Court has accused Omar Hassan al-
Bashir, President of Sudan, of genocide and crimes against humanity. It is doubtful he will be brought to trial.

Syria

NYT 7-15. Syria is emerging from diplomatic isolation, as its President, Bashar al-Assad, was guest of honor in the Bastile Day parade in Paris, 7-14. He has made an agreement with the new President of Lebanon, Michel Suleiman, to open embassies in their respective capitals.

Australia
BBC 7-17. Pope Benedict arrived in Australia and is expected to deal with the clerical sexual abuse scandal in the Australian Roman Catholic Church.

Health

The Economist, 7-5. Joseph Kanner at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem has found how red wine prevents heart disease and cancer. It contains polyphenols which are anti-oxidants. Red wine works best when it is drunk along with red meat. While in the stomach the polyphenols mix with toxic materials released from the fats in red meat. This prevents the toxic materials from entering the blood stream.
Eating fruit containing anti-oxidants at the end of the meal has the same effect on toxins in the stomach.

Cell Metabolism, 7-3. Evidence from the study of laboratory mice has shown that reservatrol in red wine, nuts, and blueberries prevents many age-related problems: heart disease, reduced bone density, cataracts, and impaired motor coordination.

BBC 7-7. Male fertility begins to decline after 35, and declines markedly after 40.

PBS 7-7. The American Academy of Pediatrics has been testing for bad cholesterol in children in families with a history of heart disease, hypertension, and diabetes. When a child’s cholesterol level is abnormally high, physicians recommend life style changes for at least six weeks. If these changes are ineffective, doctors may prescribe statin drugs to lower the cholesterol level. The Academy hopes that earlier treatment will be more effective in preventing serious problems later.

Newsday.com 7-18. A new Center for Disease Control report said that the US obesity rate continues to grow. Nationwide it is now 25.6%, which is 1.7% more than two years earlier. In 22 states it runs from 25-29%. Colorado has the lowest rate: 18.7%

Humor

The Economist 7-5. In a review of a book on anti-Soviet humor, Hammer and Tickle (2008), three classic jokes were identified:
1. Question: How do you deal with mice in the Kremlin?”
Answer: Put up a sign saying, “collective farm.” Then half the mice will starve and the rest will run away.
2. Who built the White Sea Canal [Stalin’s most murderous slave labor project]?
The left bank was built by those who told the jokes.
The right bank was built by those who listened. [left and right are references to political leanings]
3. A flock of sheep approached the Finnish border in a panic, pleading to be allowed to enter. They said, “Beria [the Soviet secret police chief] has ordered the arrest of all elephants.”
“But you are not elephants,” said the Finnish guards.
“Yes,” said the sheep. “But try explaining that to Beria.”
A similar joke was told in twelfth century Persia (Iran).

THE FLASHLIGHT, June 28 - July 4, 2008

THE FLASHLIGHT
June 28 – July 4, 2008
No Peace without Justice, No Justice without the Facts
Mary K. Matossian, Editor

Iraq

CNN 6-27. In the first half of 2008, 700 Iraq civilians were killed, which was higher than in the first half of 2007.
It was announced that four international oil companies: British Petroleum, Shell, Exxon Mobil and Total, had signed no-bid oil contracts with the central government of Iraq.
PBS 6-30. These are technical support contracts. 6 oil and 2 natural gas fields were opened in the hope of raising production by 60% by the use of better technology. The foreign oil companies will not have any equity ownership in the oil fields, making this a typical contract for the Middle East. The contracts have not yet been approved by the Iraqi Parliament.
However the Kurds, contrary to wishes of the Central Government, offered foreign companies some equity ownership.

CNN. 7-2. 64% of Americans want US troops to leave Iraq. Obama will visit Iraq before the November election.

NYTimes 7-3. Rep. Henry Waxman, Chairman of the House Committee of Oversight and Government Reform, revealed that in September, 2007 Bush Administration officials knew that Hunt Oil, a Texas company with close ties to President Bush, signed an oil deal with the regional Kurdish government that would give stockholders of Hunt equity ownership in Kurdish oil. The US State Department did nothing to discourage the deal. The deal was counter to US policy, and undercut the central government of Iraq. Iraq’s Oil Minister, Hussein al-Shahristani, condemned the deal as illegal. Iraqi officials were infuriated

Iran

Inter Press Service, ips.net. 7-2. On 6-30 Gareth Porter, an investigative journalist, contrasted the claims of the government of Israel that Iran is strong and dangerous, with the claims pro-Israel analysts in the US that Iran is weak and his little power to retaliate if attacked. Both the Israeli government and the pro-Israeli hawks are arguing in favor of a pre-emptive strike against Iran.
BBC and Chicago Tribune 7-2. According to Admiral Mike Mullen, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, an Israeli attack on Iran was high risk and might destabilize the region. He also said that if the US participated in such an attack it would be “extremely stressful” for the American armed forces, who have their hands full in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Thomas Powers, “Iran: Threat,” New York Review of Books, 7-17, pp. 9-11.`The Pentagon is resisting the efforts of Bush and Cheney to organize an attack on Iran before the end of their term in office. The Pentagon leaders believe such an attack would be practically difficult and strategically unnecessary.
Robert Gates, Sec. of Defense, and Admiral Mullen, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, argue that the US does not have the military resources, the political support at home, or the agreement of allies abroad to carry out an attack on Iran’s nuclear infrastructure, much less to invade and occupy Iran. But Bush has a history of ignoring such realities when obsessed by a dream.

Seymour Hersh, “Preparing the Battlefield.” The New Yorker, July 7 and 14, 2008, pp. 61-67.
Through Special Operations of the military, which do not have to be reported to Congress, the Bush Administration is intensifying operations within Iran to collect intelligence, kidnap an Iranian nuclear scientist, murder key figures in Iran’s elite commandos, and contact armed groups among Iran’s minorities, notably the Baluchi in the south and east. The Baluchi are Sunni fundamentalists with ties to Al-Qaeda. But no matter, they are hostile to the Shia government in Teheran. A former senior intelligence official says that there is fierce resistance within the intelligence community to waging a covert war inside Iran.
In addition, Prime Minister Maliki of Iraq has said that Iraq is not willing to be a staging area for covert operations inside Iran.

US Politics

CNN 6-30. In the House of Representative this fall, the Democrats have 12 seats open, while the Republicans have 36.
CNN 7-1. Obama tells evangelical Christians that he favors faith-based initiatives to help the poor and protect the environment.
BBC 7-2. The Senate is investigating the finances of televangelists. One owns a $20 million dollar private jet. When challenged by reporters he said, “It’s mine and you can’t have it!”
CNN 7-2. The McCain campaign is going through a shakeup on account of its lack of message discipline, faulty personnel vetting,
et al. McCain has just hired some Bush campaign veterans as his campaign advisers. He is handicapped by the fact that the sitting Republican President has a 71% disapproval rate among women, and a 75% disapproval rate among Independents.

US Economy

CBS 6-27. The Dow-Jones Index went down 20% in the month of June.
PBS 7-2. The Dow-Jones is firmly in bear territory. This is a recession.
PBS 7-3. The four-day work week is spreading. It saves energy for both employers and workers. However, air-conditioning systems have to run 7 days to prevent mold formation, and police and fire services also work 7 days.

Guns

NYTimes 7-2. The Supreme Court voted that it is constitutional for an individual to keep a loaded gun in his home to defend against intruders. However, that right is conditional: criminals and psychotics do not have it. Moreover, on account of the growing efficiency and safety of stun guns and other non-lethal weapons, states are passing laws prohibiting the use of lethal weapons when non-lethal ones are available.