March 2006

For several decades now the world has been living with the illusion that the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) established a functioning treaty regime that has spared the world from nuclear danger. It is an illusion partly because three nuclear weapons aspirants (Israel, India, Pakistan) have kept clear of the treaty, and suffered no adverse consequences when they developed nuclear arsenals. On the contrary, President Bush’s proposed nuclear deal with India must be understood as a major diplomatic reward in spite of India’s crossing the nuclear weapons threshold. And Israel has been allowed to develop a formidable nuclear weapons arsenal while the West kept completely silent. But this is not the only concern. The NPT has generated a new set of pretexts for launching aggressive war. The invasion of Iraq in 2003 was mainly vindicated, in public at least, because of Baghdad’s stockpile of weapons of mass destruction and its covert nuclear...

The Non-Proliferation Treaty is failing: What now?   PressInfo # 239  March 29, 2006 By Richard Falk and David Krieger, TFF Associates* For several decades now the world has been living with the illusion that the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) established a functioning treaty regime that has spared the world from nuclear danger. It is an illusion partly because three nuclear weapons aspirants (Israel, India, Pakistan) have kept clear of the treaty, and suffered no adverse consequences when they developed nuclear arsenals. On the contrary, President Bush’s proposed nuclear deal with India must be understood as a major diplomatic reward in spite of India’s crossing the nuclear weapons threshold. And Israel has been allowed to develop a formidable nuclear weapons arsenal while the West kept completely silent. But this is not the only concern. The NPT has generated a new set of pretexts for launching aggressive war. The invasion of Iraq...

India, Iran and U.S. nuclear hypocrisy   PressInfo # 238  March 29, 2006 By David Krieger, TFF Associate*   The Bush administration has approached nuclear nonproliferation with Iran and India by two very different measures. Iran, a party to the Non-Proliferation Treaty, has been threatened with sanctions, if not actual violence, for its pursuit of uranium enrichment, although there is no clear evidence that Iran is pursuing a nuclear weapons program. India, on the other hand, has now been offered U.S. nuclear technology, although India is not a party to the Non-Proliferation Treaty, is known to have tested nuclear weapons and is thought to possess a nuclear weapons arsenal of 60 to 100 weapons. The Non-Proliferation Treaty, which entered into force in 1970, is at the heart of worldwide nuclear nonproliferation efforts. The United States was one of the original signers of the treaty and was one of the major...

Also posted by JUSTInternational Movement for a Just WorldVol. 6, # 2, 2006 See Associate David Krieger’s TFF PressInfo 236 – a different angle on the same issues  There is a dangerous game underway in the Middle East that could erupt at any point in the form of a devastating regional war if urgent diplomatic steps to head it off are not taken immediately. There are growing signs that Israel is pushing the United States to attack Iran’s nuclear facilities partly by threatening (or bluffing) to attack itself and partly by using its leverage in Washington to pressure the U.S. Government to harden their stance on Iran’s nuclear program. Among the warning signs are dramatic public statements by Israeli military and political leaders, including Sharon, the Defense Minister, Shaul Mofaz, the Chief of Staff, Daniel Halutz, all to the effect that Iran poses an intolerable threat to Israeli security that cannot...

See also Associate Richard Falk’s TFF PressInfo 237 – a different angle on the same issues. Iran has been accused of secretly pursuing a nuclear weapons program. Although Iranian leaders claim to be enriching uranium only for peaceful nuclear energy purposes, these claims have been treated with derision by the West. Despite the fact that most experts believe that Iran is still years away from developing a nuclear weapon, there are media reports suggesting that Israel and the US are making plans to attack Iran’s nuclear facilities, should Iran not give up its uranium enrichment program.  Given this possible military scenario, and the recent vote by the Board of the International Atomic Energy Agency to report Iran to the United Nations Security Council, what is Iran likely to do?   First, Iran will continue to assert its right under Article IV the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) to pursue a peaceful nuclear...

Israel, Iran, and the Future of the Middle East   PressInfo # 232  March 28, 2006 By Richard Falk, TFF Associate*   Also posted by JUST International Movement for a Just World Vol. 6, # 2, 2006 See Associate David Krieger’s TFF PressInfo 236 – a different angle on the same issues    There is a dangerous game underway in the Middle East that could erupt at any point in the form of a devastating regional war if urgent diplomatic steps to head it off are not taken immediately. There are growing signs that Israel is pushing the United States to attack Iran’s nuclear facilities partly by threatening (or bluffing) to attack itself and partly by using its leverage in Washington to pressure the U.S. Government to harden their stance on Iran’s nuclear program. Among the warning signs are dramatic public statements by Israeli military and political leaders, including Sharon,...

Iran, International Law and Nuclear Disarmament   PressInfo # 236  March 28, 2006 By David Krieger, TFF Associate*   See also Associate Richard Falk’s TFF PressInfo 237 – a different angle on the same issues.   Iran has been accused of secretly pursuing a nuclear weapons program. Although Iranian leaders claim to be enriching uranium only for peaceful nuclear energy purposes, these claims have been treated with derision by the West. Despite the fact that most experts believe that Iran is still years away from developing a nuclear weapon, there are media reports suggesting that Israel and the US are making plans to attack Iran’s nuclear facilities, should Iran not give up its uranium enrichment program.  Given this possible military scenario, and the recent vote by the Board of the International Atomic Energy Agency to report Iran to the United Nations Security Council, what is Iran likely to do?  ...

LONDON – “Charles Taylor came to Nigeria on his own free will,” President Olusegun Obasanjo of Nigeria explained to me on the phone yesterday. “He was not arrested and he has not been detained”. Thus what on Saturday – the imminent deportation of Taylor to the newly democratic Liberia and from there on to the UN-backed War Crimes Court in Sierra Leone – had seemed very clear has become rather cloudy. But whoever said arraigning war criminals – in this case one who in his time as a rebel leader in Liberia and then president was responsible for some of the worse and most savage mass killings ever witnessed by mankind – was easy? In Yugoslavia, it took years before Serbian politics shifted through enough gears that it was able to send Slobodan Milosevic to The Hague for trial, and even today Radovan Karadzic and Ratko Mladic, the two evil...

I 1999 bombede NATO Kosovo ud af Serbien. NATO, EU og OSCE overtog/besatte provinsen under ledelse af FN-Missionen UNMIK. Idag er danskeren Søren Jessen-Petersen Kosovos højeste chef. Han beskytter aktivt de formodede krigsforbrydere eller krigshelte fra 1990-erne, der siden er blevet provinsens ledere. Det gælder den tidligere statsminister Ramush Haradinaj, der er anklaget ved Krigsforbrydertribunalet i Haag, men af Tribunalet har fået lov til ikke bare at opholde sig i Kosovo men også at deltage aktivt i politik. Da han i sin tid rejste til Haag fik han ros af sin personlige ven Jessen-Petersen, der håbede at han snart kom tilbage. (Man kan jo forestille sig hvilket ramaskrig det ville vække hvis Slobodan Milosevic havde fået lov til at vende tilbage til Beograd). Det gælder Agim Ceku, Kosovos nye statsminister. Han er ikke anklaget ved Haag-Tribunalet, men var officer i den kroatiske hær da den i 1995 fordrev godt 200.000...

Claus Kold har netop udgivet en sammenfatning af sin banebrydende PhD-afhandling, Krigen er slut – konflikterne fortsætter på Frydenlunds forlag. Få udenforstående er kommet så tæt ind på livet af den danske soldat på international mission; hans undersøgelse bygger på feltstudier i Kosovo og på enorme mængder af litteratur, teoriudvikling, forskning og undervisning i de seneste 25 år. Herunder gengives en af hans kronikker for nyligt offentliggjort i Politiken. I den viser Kold hvor dårligt det danske forsvar er klædt på til de fredsskabende opgaver det fører sig frem som eksperter i. 22. marts, 2006 Hvis en slagteriarbejder besluttede sig for at blive hjertekirurg, vil vi nok forvente, at han gennemgik en uddannelse og i øvrigt anskaffede nye redskaber. Når forsvaret får den nye opgave at skulle skabe fred i stedet for at gå i krig, kunne samme forventning opstå. Men sådan er det ikke for forsvaret, når det overgår fra at...

LONDON – Say what you like about the U.S. State Department’s mastery of foreign affairs, its annual report on human rights practice remains a beacon of precise, honest and clear thinking. Published two weeks’ ago it rightly chided China for going backwards after years of progress. And here in Turkey its sharp critique has been well covered in the press, giving the country a chance to see itself in the round. Despite phenomenal progress in improving the parameters of free speech and beginning to confront the legitimate demands of the Kurds, Alevites and other minorities in recent years, Turkey still has not faced up to its two big outstanding historical questions – what has it done with all its Jews and Christians? – a very big question since Istanbul was the seat for centuries of the Byzantine Church and the Ottoman Empire was the principle place of refuge for the...

Hvis en begivenhed udvikler sig til den værste politiske krise siden 1945 i et ellers stabilt og demokratisk land som Danmark, turde det være på sin plads at stille nogle mere grundlæggende spørgsmål: Hvad handler det hér om? Kan de der leder og lever i Danmark lære noget af det både som danskere og som vesterlændinge? Kan andre i Vesten? Og kan vi gøre tingene bedre i fremtiden? Hvis vi selv stiller sådanne spørgsmål inviterer vi også andre, inklusive dem der brænder flag og ambassader, til at tænke over om der måske findes bedre metoder til at udtrykke deres nok så legitime uenighed. Som tingene står nu gør ekstremister på begge sider intet andet end at bekræfte de værste billeder af “den anden” og således kan der skabes en ukontrolleret spiral af had og monologer, der truer vores fælles civilisation. Der er nok af negativ energi på vores jord. Men...