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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

DON'T ASK, DON'T TELL?
White House spokesman Scott McClellan faced a firestorm of questions from reporters wanting to know what the President plans to do about reports that a senior administration official intentionally leaked the identity of CIA agent Valerie Plame to syndicated columnist Robert Novak last July. The Washington Post reported this weekend that two senior White House officials had called at least six reporters to try to plant the story on Plame in revenge for Plame's husband, Joseph C. Wilson's refusal to go along with the administration's insistence that Niger had been selling uranium to Iraq as part of a plot to create weapons of mass destruction. Wilson eventually wrote an Op Ed for the new York Times. Wilson suspects that the president's political adviser Karl Rove was behind the leaks, although he has recently softened earlier accusations, saying that he has no firm evidence. In an extraordinary performance Monday, McClellan made it clear that president Bush has no intention of personally trying to find out who among his advisers is responsible for the leak which is a felony punishable by ten years in prison. Bush pointedly ignored a reporter's question on the subject. As McClellan puts it, the president is busy with other matters, and will wait for the Justice Department to handle the investigation. McClellan added that the President was not even aware that Valerie Plame had actually been a CIA agent. McClellan also made it clear that the White House definitely does not want to see a special prosecutor appointed to carry out an impartial investigation. McClellan asserted that he knows that Rove could not possibly be responsible because the Bush White House doesn't work that way. Mclellan said that he had talked to Rove about the incident, but he stopped short of telling reporters what Rove had actually said.
Transcript of McClellan's Press Conference
McClellan in live video
The Washington Post reports that a senior administration source says that two senior administration officials called at least six Washington news reporters last July in order to plant the story about Valerie Plame's CIA identity. The motive for exposing the CIA agent's identity is revenge.
The New York Times follows up on White House denials.

WHY THE NEW YORK TIMES WAS SCOOPED
Robert Novak's column blowing the cover of CIA agent Valerie Plame appeared three months ago, yet Washington reporters failed to probe the leak until CIA Director George Tenet wrote a letter to the Justice Department reminding everyone that a serious crime had taken place. Even then, the New York Times, which should have been on top of the story, allowed itself to be scooped by the Washington Post. The slip-up was more egregious since the Times had originally published Joseph Wilson's Op-Ed which triggered the fiasco. Matthew Yglesias comments on the intricacies of Washington reporting in the American Prospect.(Matthew Yglesias, The American Prospect, September 29, 2003)

WESLEY CLARK ON WHAT WENT WRONG IN IRAQ
As a leading contender for the Democrats, Clark is hardly neutral on the administration's agenda, but having served as former commander of Nato forces, the retired general does know what he is talking about. Clark's assessment in the current issue of the New York Review of Books is that the swift victory in Iraq had more to do with a flawed plan that took unnecessary risks and skimped on manpower. The ultimate goal in warfare, Clark argues, is effectiveness, not efficiency. The bottom line is that the military cannot be run like a business, which in contrast to warfare has predictable requirements. It is a painful lesson which the White House is just beginning to realize.
(Wesley C. Clark, The New York Review of Books, October 23, 2003)

GOOD BYE BLAIR?
Martin Walker speculates in the Spectator that the political duet in which Tony Blair plays Sancho Panza to President Bush's Don Quixote in the War on Terrorism may be coming to an end. Blair is increasingly under attack at home for acting as a White House poodle, he has no more troops to offer the U.S. and worse, some pundits in Washington are beginning to see him as an infectious liability who was responsible for getting President Bush to expose himself at the United Nations.
(Martin Walker, World Policy Institute in The Spectator, 27 September, 2003)

MARK BOWDEN ON THE ETHICS OF TORTURE
Is torture really unacceptable in the War against Terrorism? The administration is clearly stretching the line, and Mark Bowden, writing in the September issue of the Atlantic Monthly notes that the question is not as clear cut as it looks. In an exclusive on-line interview at the Atlantic Monthly's web site, Bowden explores the pros and cons of American interrogation techniques. (Mark Bowden, Atlantic Unbound, September 2003)

THE PENTAGON CREATES A SECRET $20 MILLION SLUSH FUND FOR ITS OWN SPECIAL OPS OUTSIDE OF CONGRESSIONAL OVERSIGHT
Paul de la Garza reports in the St. Petersburg Times on the Pentagon's secret orders to various groups in Special Operations at MacDill Air Force Base to artificially inflate their budgets by $20 million. The idea, apparently, may have been to create a slush fund that Rumsfeld's office could use without having to worry about Congressional oversight. The Pentagon had originally wanted to conceal $40 million, but military commanders had refused to go along with that amount.(Paul de la Garza, St. Petersburg Times, September 29, 2003)

GAO CONCERNED OVER DEPLOYMENT OF NON-FUNCTIONAL MISSILE SYSTEM
With the $87 billion price tag for Iraq, and the multibillion dollar tax cuts for the wealthy, there has been a tendency to forget about the trillions of dollars which the administration wants to spend on developing an anti-ballistic missile system. Despite the fact that early prototypes have failed most major tests, the Pentagon seems determined to begin deploying what is essentially a non-functional system. The initial costs are expected to run to more than $20 billion. The General Accounting Office, which conducts investigations for Congress, has issued a comprehensive report on why it is a bad idea. (GAO, September 29, 2003)

PENTAGON FAILS TO TRACK HEALTH RECORDS OF SOLDIERS DEPLOYED TO IRAQ
Due to sloppy record keeping, anywhere from 14% to 46% of soldiers being deployed to Iraq may not have proper vaccinations, and up to 63% of soldiers lack proper health documentation to indicate whether they are in proper condition for combat. The reason: a lack of oversight. The Army Times reports on the situation in its current issue.(Army Times, September 29, 2003)
GAO Report on failure to track health status of troops

RUSSIA HOLDS OUT FOR MORE FINANCIAL AID ON KYOTO
Russia's support is essential for the survival of the Kyoto accords on international climate control, but at a 5-day U.N. follow-up that is now going on in Moscow, Russia's Vladimir Putin made it clear that he wants promises of aid from Europe before he agrees to be a willing partner. On Monday, Putin joked that Russia's northern climate might even benefit from a 2-3 degree increase in global warming. At the root of the matter is the fact that Russia's declining industry has made it less of a polluter, and therefore the most likely to make a financial gain from the Kyoto deal. The U.S. which pollutes more than anyone else would have the most to lose, and consequently has decided to ignore the Kyoto agreement altogether. New Zealand's national Business Review provides a brief rundown on the issues at stake. (NBR, September 29, 2003)
The Moscow Times provides a blow-by-blow background of the meeting...
Reuters Alert Net provides a fact box on the Kyoto Protocol...
The BBC analyzes the commercial considerations...

REMEMBER AFGHANISTAN?
Out of the $87 billion budget requested by President Bush for war operations, only $800 million is earmarked for reconstruction in Afghanistan. The administration might reallocate another $400 million from the 2003 budget, but the resulting $1.2 billion will be far below the $13-19 billion that the World Bank and the U.N. estimate will be needed to get the job done.
Center for Defense Information gives a rundown on recent Afghan developments (CDI September 26, 2003)

Child soldiers in Colombia

A TEEN AGE GIRL IN COMBAT IN COLOMBIA

Paula Calderon was a 14-year old guerrilla in Colombia when government bullets tore open her stomach and nearly killed her. Calderon had been traded to the guerrillas by her father in payment for an old debt. She was older than many of the fighters in a country where left and right wing paramilitaries sometimes force 11-year olds to train with assault rifles, and where one in four irregular soldiers is under 18. Child soldiers are outlawed by the U.N. Convention on Rights of the Child, which has been ratified by every country in the United Nations (except by Somalia and the United States, which still enlists 17-year olds). Joanne Mariner describes the plight of 14 year olds forced to fight in left and rightwing paramilitary units in Colombia. (FindLaw,com, September 29, 2003)

The Full Report in Human Rights Watch

U.S. INTERVENTION COMPLICATES AN ALREADY COMPLEX SITUATION
Virginia Bouvier, writing for Program Policy Briefs in the Inter-Hemispheric Resource Center's America's Program, argues that the U.S. anti-terrorism campaign in Colombia has intensified the nature of the conflict, and is blurring the lines between a war against drugs, the war against error and Colombia's own complex insurgency.(Virginia Bouvier, IRC, September 29, 2003)

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