May 2003

LONDON – “It is a maddening circle of suspicion and fear,” editorializes the New York Times. But this is how it has always been since the days of the Balfour Declaration in 1917 when the British government gave the official nod to the Zionists who wanted to re-create a biblical homeland on what for 700 years, until the break-up of the Ottoman empire in the wake of Turkey’s defeat in World War 1, had been Muslim territory. In all the intervening years not once have the two parties been at a common point of compromise at the same time. The Balfour Declaration was a misguided attempt to meet the vision of what were then a relatively few Jewish idealists who wished to turn back the historical clock. If every ethnic group in the world asserted so vigorously ancient yearnings the world would become totally chaotic in a very short time, and...

Each year the future of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT) Regime becomes more uncertain. In the past year alone: The NPT regime obligations are having less and less success in restraining the irresponsible behavior of nations, especially the treaty’s NWS, and the United States in particular. As NWS move further away from their obligations under the treaty, they are simultaneously weakening incentives for non-nuclear weapon state parties to the treaty to remain within the NPT regime. If such regressions continue, they will inevitably lead to an abandonment of disarmament goals and the gradual lack of interest by non-nuclear weapons states parties to remain within the regime’s boundaries. It is time for members of the NPT regime to issue a clear statement outlining how the treaty is being undermined and by whom.   The NPT 13 Practical Steps Towards Disarmament Ignored When the United States ambassador stated at the 2002 NPT Review...

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all Men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness That to secure these Rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just Powers from the Consent of the Governed, that whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these Ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its Foundation on such Principles, and organizing its Powers in such Form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.” These revolutionary words from the Declaration of Independence are worth reflecting upon in light of the current struggle for economic justice in America. The government of the United States, the richest and most powerful country in the world, is perpetuating...

LONDON – Why does the United Nations so often shoot itself in the foot? Just as the World Health Organization is basking in accolades at its annual assembly this week and next for its part in the battle to overcome the spread of SARS another story has begun to emerge – of  political ineptitude and moral cowardice that should bring shame not honour on its departing director-general, Gro Harlem Brundtland. It is the way the UN agency has dealt with Taiwan, now the country outside China with the fastest growing number of cases, despite it having a national health service, according to a year 2000 report of the Economist Intelligence Unit, only second in the world to Sweden’s. This suggests that if Taiwan doesn’t get on top of the disease no one will, for all the self-serving reports put out by the WHO this past weekend that it appeared that the...

Är irakier som bakterier som måste utrotas??Fredsforskaren Jan Öberg skäms för västmediernas hållning och utgår särskilt från rapporteringen från gripandet av Hoda Ammash, som presenterades som “Fru Mjältbrand”. Hoda Ammash arresterades i Bagdad på krigets 48:e dag, den 5 maj. Låt mig använda hennes mänskliga drama till att diskutera rasismen i medierna och politiken. CNN presenterade henne som “Dr Bakterie” och senare som “Fru Mjältbrand. Den enda bilden av henne, som använts om och om igen, visar henne i grön uniform. Hon kliver på en amerikansk och en israelisk flagga, medan hon med knuten näve hälsar på en stor skara av Baathungdomar. Hoda Ammash har inte befunnits skyldig till något brott. Ändå demoniserades hon också av våra medier, som sällan vågar motstå det amerikanska psykologiska kriget. Vidare nämndes att hon tagit sin doktorsexamen i USA och att hon kunde vara användbar då det gällde att finna de massförstörelsevapen man hävdat...

Vad slags utbildning kommer Iraks barn att få under ockupationen? Vi har hört det gång på gång och vi känner det som en gammal sanning: våra barn är vår framtid. Under dessa veckor inriktar sig medierna nästan helt på kriget, på militären som “återuppbygger” Irak (efter att ha förstört Irak) och inriktningen är på politik. Men förutom säkerheten är det ingen sida av återuppbyggnaden, försoningen och utvecklingen efter kriget som är viktigare än utbildningsystemet i bred mening. Det förtjänar verkligen mer uppmärksamhet från mediernas sida än vad det får. Det USA:s administration gör just dessa veckor är avsett att få långvarig inverkan på det irakiska samhället – det vill säga om de lyckas. Jag blir därför givetvis mycket nyfiken när en vän för ett par dagar skickar mig en epost och frågar om jag har sett att ett företag som heter Creative International Associates Inc, CAII, och som är baserat...

21 maj 2003 Den delade ön Cypern är inte sig lik. Sedan en tid strömmar grek- och turkcyprioter över gränsen mellan den turkcypriotiska norra och grekcypriotiska södra delen av ön, en gräns som sedan 1974 varit i det närmaste hermetiskt sluten. Det är nu möjligt för var och en att besöka platser som varit utom räckhåll i nära tre decennier. Den 21 april meddelade den turkcypriotiska regeringen överraskande att man beslutat tillåta fri passage i båda riktningarna. Turkcyprioter skulle inte längre behöva tillstånd från sina egna myndigheter för att besöka den södra delen av ön. Grekcyprioter, som endast kunnat passera gränsen undantagsvis och under hårt kontrollerade former, skulle nu till och med kunna ta bilen över för ett besök i norr. Besöken tidsbegränsades dock i båda riktningarna: grekcyprioterna tillåts stanna i tre dagar medan turkcyprioterna måste vända åter innan midnatt. Redan två dagar senare trädde de nya reglerna i kraft...

LONDON – The latest polls tell us that a majority of American public opinion doesn’t care that much if no proof comes to light of Iraq possessing significant numbers of weapons of mass destruction. Not just for President George Bush but for America as a whole it has been “a good war”. Nevertheless, deep down the Administration is a little nervous about the course of events in Iraq. How else to explain the rapid change in American senior personnel supposedly running Iraq? But it can’t be that concerned about its long-time bete noire, nation-building, as otherwise it would have asked for a sizeable appropriation in the 2004 budget for reconstruction in Iraq. But not only did it not ask Congress for any money for Iraq, neither did it for Afghanistan. The old jibe that America only does wars not peace has a sad ring of truth. If one wanted to be...

There are always lessons to be learned after a war. Often governments and pundits focus only on lessons having to do with military strategies and tactics, such as troop deployments, engagement in battles, bombing targets and the effectiveness of different weapons systems. There are, of course, far bigger lessons to be learned, and here are some of the principal ones from the Iraq War. 1. In the eyes of the Bush administration, the relevance of international organizations such as the United Nations depends primarily upon their willingness to rubberstamp US policy, legal or illegal, moral or immoral. 2. The Bush Doctrine of Preemptive War may be employed against threats that have no basis in fact.  3. The American people appear to take little notice of the ìbait and switchî tactic of initiating a war to prevent use of weapons of mass destruction and then celebrating regime change when no such...

Continued from Part 2.  ORHA, the Office of Reconstruction and Humanitarian Assistance L. Paul Bremer and General Jay Garner and a team of some 300 retired military men, diplomats and functionaries from numerous government agencies have been “recruited” or “appointed” by the Bush administration and, especially, by the Pentagon to administer postwar Iraq through the Office of Reconstruction and Humanitarian Assistance that comes under Pentagon. Here are the backgrounds and profiles about some of them. Interestingly, there are very few questions asked in the free press about this completely undemocratic, ambiguous method to take over a country and shape its future. JAY GARNER Governor – Co-ordinatorRetired US general, pro-Israel from the defence industry, with a past job in Northern Iraq, supposed to be the highest authority Sometimes called the new “viceroy” of Iraq, Retired Lieutenant General Jay Garner is the man in charge of the Office of Reconstruction and Humanitarian Assistance. Here is how the New York Times presents...

Continued from Part 1. DONALD RUMSFELD, PAUL WOLFOWITZ & RICHARD PERLE Secretaries.Ideologists with their own Special Plans. Masters of a war meaning peace and other “Newspeak” With the illegal war on and occupation of Iraq, the first two personalities need no further introduction. They are Secretary of Defense, Donald Rumsfeld and Deputy Secreary of Defence, Paul Wolfowitz. Then there one of the leading architects of the whole Iraq imbroglio, “The Prince of Darkness”, Richard Perle of the American Enteprise Institute and of the Defense Policy Board. It’s objective is to “serve the public interest by providing the Secretary of Defense, Deputy Secretary and Under Secretary for Policy with independent, informed advice and opinion concerning major matters of defense policy. Nine members of the Board have ties to defense contractors. Further, Perle is well-connected to the international media world through Hollinger Digital Inc., the media management and investment arm of Hollinger International Inc. whose online newspapers and holdings include The Daily Telegraph in London and Jerusalem...

They are people with a background in the far-right of the Republican Party, the Israel lobby, Perle and Wolfowitz henchmen, central to the war on terror, to the Homeland Defence authorities, to anti-ABM and pro-Ballistic Missile Defence (Star Wars), close to conservative think tanks, affiliated with mercenary companies, the military-industrial complex (MIC) and CIA. They are former “stabilisers” in Bosnia and Kosovo, and Marine Corps-people (many in Vietnam); they are private consulting firm executives affiliated with the inner circles of power in Washington. And, of course, several are associated with the oil industry, the computer industry as well as the media and public relations industry. With a few exceptions they are Pentagon and not State Department people, they are generals and technocrats. Less than a handful have any prior experience in Iraq or in nation-building, conflict-resolution, reconciliation, post-war trauma healing, civil society empowerment and other quite relevant matters. In short,...