Elliott Colla: Occupying Iraq has its own hazards. Don Kraus: It may be time to turn to the U.N. to provide Iraq with an international police force. John Feffer: The Bush doctrine of unilateral U.S. power has cut America loose from its moorings in the international system Adam Hanieh and Catherine Cook: Sharon's roadmap for peace entails keeping the land of the Occupied Territories, while dispensing with the people. Laurie Freeman & Coletta Youngers: The Pentagon is taking over foreign policy in Latin America

New York University

U.S. State Department's
Report on Patterns of Global Terrorism for 2002

The US State Department's Report on Patterns of Global Terrorism for 2001

AS ATTACKS INCREASE, U.S. BECOMES MORE DISCRIMINATING ABOUT IRAQ'S FREEDOM OF SPEECH
Paul Bremer is convinced that irresponsible incitement in Iraq's newly freed press is responsible for the rising incidence of attacks on U.S. troops, so he wants journalists to watch their step. Not surprisingly, Iraqi journalists aren't happy about it. "Now they put plastic bags on our heads, throw us to the ground, and accuse us of being agents of Saddam Hussein," says a front page editorial in As-Saah, Baghdad's most popular post-Saddam newspaper. "In other words, if you're not with America, you're with Saddam." Ilene R. Prusher reports in the Christian Science Monitor ( June 19, 2003)

Paul Bremer discusses Iraq at the World Economic Forum (Meeting in Jordan, USIS, June 23, 2003)

Colin Powell outlines the "new Middle East" in his speech to the World Economic Forum, June 22, 2003

The website for the World Economic Forum's Meeting in Amman,Jordan

BBC ANALYSIS: THE U.S. ADMINISTRATION SHOWING SIGNS OF DESPERATION
The use of a predator drone to fire rockets on a convoy suspected of carrying Saddam Hussein was a risky move that finished by wounding several Syrian border guards. As the BBC's Paul Reynolds sees it, the fact that the U.S. is taking this kind of chance means that it is increasingly desperate to end the saga of Saddam once and for all.

THE BBC's PANORAMA GOES ON A GUIDED TOUR OF THE U.S. DETENTION CAMP AT GUANTANAMO
Everything seemed OK, if slightly Kafkaesque, until a prisoner tried to talk with a BBC reporter and the U.S. military escort freaked out. The escort officer tried to seize the BBC's tape, but the reporter smuggled out a copy. [This is a lengthy radio piece on the daily life in the prison, along with a text transcript. Click on an audio button in the upper right hand corner of the screen on the BBC website]. (BBC, June 23, 2003)

THE BUSH ADMINISTRATION DIDN'T INTEND IT THAT WAY, BUT IT NOW FINDS ITSELF MICROMANAGING THE MIDEAST PEACE PROCESS
Aluff Benn, writing in Ha'aretz says that Washington's attempt to control the whole process down to the most minute details extends to the administration giving its advice on the stationing of certain military police roadblocks. The explanation being given is that President Bush now wants to be personally involved.
(Aluff Benn, Ha'aretz, June 22, 2003)

WHAT IS SHARON REALLY AFTER?
Conn Hallinan, writing in Foreign Policy in Focus, notes that Ariel Sharon has always been consistent, and he has always sought security at any cost. Despite recent pronouncements, Sharon sees the settlements as offering a "strategic depth" that is vital to Israel's security. Nothing has changed. When Sharon talks about ending the "occupation" he has been quietly telling his supporters that the reference is to the Palestinians who live on the West Bank, not the land itself.(Conn Hallinan, Foreign Policy in Focus, June 20, 2003)

MORE ON THE WALL
Yedioth Ahronoth's Meron Rappaport, explains the idea behind the wall intended to separate the Palestinians from Israelis living in the occupied territories. It is a notion that Sharon has had since 1973. (Meron Rappaport, Yedioth Ahronoth, on the Electronic Intifada, May 31, 2003)

THE FULL IAEA REPORT ON IRAN
Iran says it will build two 6,000 megawatt reactors over the next 20 years. That will require advance planning and experimentation in a broad range of nuclear technology. Two plants will be constructed for uranium enrichment. (The International Atomic Energy Agency via the Federation of American Scientists, June 6, 2003)

RUMSFELD'S MAN IN THE ARMY
New Yorker writer, Peter Boyer, describes in an on-line interview how he sees the dynamics between Donald Rumsfeld and Tommy Franks, the man Rumsfeld chose to achieve total domination over the U.S. Army and who to a certain extent proved Rumsfeld right--at least in the short term.(Peter Boyer in the New Yorker, June 23, 2003)

THE PURPOSE OF IRAQ'S OIL
Hardly anyone questions that oil was on the mind of the Bush administration when it engineered the War with Iraq. After all, Dick Cheney pointed out in an essay four years ago that oil dependency is the major U.S. security concern. Yet when the administration swears that it has no designs on Baghdad's oil per se, it may be telling the truth. Simon Nixon argues in the London Spectator that what Washington really wants is an alternative to dependency on Saudi Arabia. What it needs is a blunt instrument to knock OPEC and the Arab producers into line. Not surprisingly a growing group of Middle Eastern leaders are beginning to suspect that Iraq may be it. (Simon Nixon, London's Spectator, June 23, 2003)

LOSING PERSPECTIVE: DOES POWERLESSNESS CORRUPT?
David Brooks writing in the Weekly Standard argues that from a conservative point of view, democrats and liberals sound increasingly shrill these days. As a result, the Democrats risk losing the vast mass of ordinary people at the center of the political landscape
(David Brooks, the Weekly Standard, June 30, 2003)

IN SELLING THE WAR, SOMETHING WAS LOST
An editorial in this week's New Republic notes: "...The Iraq war presented the United States with a new defense paradigm: preemptive war, waged in response to a prediction of a forthcoming attack against the United States or its allies. This kind of security policy requires the public to base its support or opposition on expert intelligence to which it has no direct access. It is up to the president and his administration--with a deep interest in a given policy outcome--nonetheless to portray the intelligence community's findings honestly. If an administration represents the intelligence unfairly, it effectively forecloses an informed choice about the most important question a nation faces: whether or not to go to war. That is exactly what the Bush administration did when it sought to convince the public and Congress that the United States should go to war with Iraq. .." (The New Republic, JUNE 30, 2003)

THE BROOKINGS' KENNETH POLLACK STILL BELIEVES WMD DO EXIST AND WILL BE FOUND
"...As for allegations that some in the administration may have used slanted intelligence claims in making their case against Saddam Hussein, they seem to have merit and demand further investigation. But if the truth was stretched, it seems to have been done primarily to justify the timing of an invasion, not the merits of one..."(Kenneth pollack, BROOKINGS, June 20, 2003)

BLIX 'S LAST WORD
With so much beltway revisionism going on, it is easy to forget that the U.N.'s Hans Blix underwent enormous personal calumny for refusing to be pressured into backing the administration's claims about Iraq's weapons of mass destruction. In a penetrating interview with Arms Control Today, Blix gives a last, sober assessment of the evidence that was available, and the temptation to jump to false conclusions. "We warned, and I warned specifically and explicitly, against equating "not accounted for" with "existing." says Blix. (Interview in Arms Control Today, June 16, 2003)

A REALITY DISTORTION FIELD--THE PIPA STUDY
An astonishing number of Americans actually believe that the U.S. has already found Saddam's weapons-of-mass destruction. Steven Kull, director of PIPA (Program on International Policy Attitudes), comments: "For some Americans, their desire to support the war may be leading them to screen out information that weapons of mass destruction have not been found. Given the intensive news coverage and high levels of public attention to the topic, this level of misinformation suggests that some Americans may be avoiding having an experience of cognitive dissonance."(PIPA, june 4, 2003)

SOFT BALLING IT
Writing in the New York Times Week in Review, David Rosenbaum challenges readers to find any truth in the allegations that president Bush lied about weapons of mass destruction. Rosenbaum argues that there might be a little exaggeration there, but no outright prevarication, and he deftly knocks down a few carefully selected strawmen to prove his point. Bob Somerby, writing in the Daily Howler, begs to differ.
Read David Rosenbaum, click here.(New York Times, June 22, 2003)
Read Bob Somerby's deconstruction, click here (Daily Howler, Monday, June 23, 2003).

SHADES OF HALLIBURTON
David Baum, writing in the New York Times Magazine, provides a somewhat tepid account of Kellogg, Brown and Root's $7 billion contract to put out Iraq's oil fires, and then refurbish and reshape the country's Petroleum industry. Although Baum mentions the obvious conflicts of interest, such as the fact that Dick Cheney became Halliburton's CEO after awarding the company a multi- million dollar government contract, and that the vice-president is still accumulating a nest egg of deferred payments from his former employer, Baum's version lacks the over-the-top punch of U.K.-based CorporateWatch.org's less than totally objective description of the mega-military industrial company's highly connected wheelings and dealings.
David Baum in the New York Times
Corporate Watch.org's more detailed version of the Cheney-Halliburton connection
California Congressman Henry Waxman's growing archive of letters exploring the Cheney-Halliburton connection (House Committee on Government Reform)

REPUBLICANS OPEN DOUBLE FRONT TO STEM CRITICISM FROM NGOS
Naomi Klein writing for CommonDreams.org notes that these days promoting the administration's policies abroad is the fastest way to get that USAID grant. For those who don't play ball, the American heritage Institute is keeping an eye on you with its new website: NGOwatch.org. (Naomi klein, Common Dreams.org, June 20, 2003).

THE JUSTICE DEPARTMENT INFLATES THE STATS ON TERRORISTS
It seemed alarming when the New Jersey District Attorney's office nabbed 62 Middle Eastern students for acts of international terrorism shortly after 9/11. Then it turned out that the terrorist act cited was nothing more than cheating on an English proficiency exam needed to get into graduate school. The new Jersey case is typical of a trend across the country to inflate anti-terrorism law enforcement statistics. The judicial white lies have been aided greatly by U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft's misleading guidelines on classifying crimes involving foreigners. Alexander Gourevitch analyzes the trend in the Washington Monthly, (June 3, 2003).

CENSORING CLIMATE CHANGE
Notice something odd about the weather lately? Not if you publish reports for the E.P.A. The New York Times details the history behind the scandal over the administration's decision not to even try to broach the dangers from climate change that lie on the horizon. (New YorkTimes, June 19, 2003)
The New York Times report
THE E.P.A.'S DRAFT REPORT (minus the offending section)
The National Research Council's full report in 2001 (42 pages, available free online as pdf, html or searchable open book)
The American Petroleum Institute's assessment, which helped inspire the EPA's revised findings

BALKAN FLASHPOINTS
Unless Europe steps up aid to the western Balkans and holds out some hope for eventual inclusion in the rest of Europe, the region can expect an endless cycle of instability. The ICG offers a three part report.
(The International Crisis Group, June 23, 2003)

THE TEXAS EXECUTION BRIEFING PAPERS
While governor of Texas, George Bush authorized the execution of 150 people. In doing so, Bush set a new record of sorts. No other governor had ever been responsible for the death of so many people. Lawyer, Alberto R. Gonzalez, provided Bush with some 57 briefing memoranda as guidance, and they were eventually obtained by the Atlantic Monthly. In going through the memoranda, Alan Berlow concludes that Gonzales emphasized the grotesqueness of the crimes while often skipping over important points of law that needed to be taken into consideration. The content of the briefing papers is especially relevant now because the White House has been looking at Gonzales as a potential front runner for appointment to the Supreme Court. Alan Berlow's article in the Atlantic Monthly (July/August 2003)
John Dean's commentary on the legal considerations (Findlaw, June 20, 2003)

Frisking the locals in Baghdad

LEARNING FROM WAR GAMES
Last year's Vigilant Warrior exercises run by the U.S. Army provided useful insights into the strengths and weaknesses of American strategy. The most noticeable weak point was a tendency of commanders to concentrate more on the start of a campaign than on its conclusion. In fact, as Brigadier General Huba Wass de Czege (U.S. Army retired) points out in an essay in Army Magazine, most games were halted once it became clear that the opposing side would eventually lose. The problem with an untidy conclusion to a conflict is that the delay provides an opportunity for an asymmetric response from the enemy (guerrilla attacks and terrorism, etc.). The current U.S. Department of Defense leadership, the general points out, also shows a tendency to focus on kinetic killing power while neglecting the "relevant knowledge", i.e. intelligence, needed to use lethal force effectively. That analysis is supported by Anthony Cordesman's study for the CSIS on first lessons learned from the campaigns in Afghanistan and Iraq. Huba Wass de Czege was a consultant for the U.S. Army Training and Doctrine Command's advanced warfighting experiments, and was one of the principal developers of the Army’s AirLand Battle concept. He was the founder and first director of the School of Advanced Military Studies, Fort Leavenworth, Kansas
[Huba Wass de Czege's analysis in Army Magazine]
[A summary of Anthony Cordesman's analysis- CSIS].
[The full report-332 pages-CSIS]

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