Peruse NT & Digest the World. Knowledge and Understanding for the Progressive Mind. “Comments” are turned off. NT is for the reader who craves more then what the “mainstream media” offers.
side note: Can’t we fast forward to January 20, 2009? Why do we even let 1600 Penn decide if we “have” to deal with Iran…especially if it involves our already strained military? I really think Nasr and Takeh are right on…..this is the most real world scenario if there’s to be any stability in the Middle East. It just seems that Iran would ultimately want some type of stability, especially since their neighbors to the east and west are currently the gates leading straight to hell!
By Vali Nasr and Ray Takeyh
International Herald Tribune
The recently released National Intelligence Estimate undermines the Bush administration’s assertion that Iran is seeking immediate acquisition of the bomb for aggressive purposes.
But even if the United States does not face the prospects of a war with Iran, it must still confront the challenge of taming a rising power. And it is here that the Bush grand strategy only exacerbates the problems in the Middle East, leading to further instability and disorder.
In a return to its past, Washington took a page out of its early Cold War struggle with the Soviet Union, when Western powers successfully frustrated Moscow’s expansionist designs. By directly projecting its own power and creating a broad-based Arab alliance, the Bush administration thought it could check – and if possible reduce – Iran’s influence.
Accordingly, the United States increased pressure on the Islamic Republic by building up its naval presence in the Gulf and engineering a series of United Nations sanctions against Iran for its nuclear violations. The administration also rallied Arab support against Iranian policies in Lebanon, the Palestinian territories and Iraq. (more…)
side note: Should we really be that shocked by this? This is the same paper that withheld the domestic wiretapping story for one year…..over the course of the close 2004 Presidential election!!! They also employed infamous journalist Judy Miller, who printed anything and everything this corrupt administration “leaked” to her. I still think the Times has some credible people working for them, but this isn’t the first time I’ve looked at something they did and thought: WTF???
Our preoccupation with Muslim terrorism in Pakistan and Afghanistan often blocks out the bigger picture: South Asia is a region drenched in blood.
Nineteen years ago at the end of December, Benazir Bhutto, fresh from her first, exhilarating election victory and newly sworn in as Prime Minister of Pakistan, met Rajiv Gandhi, the youthful prime minister of India, for talks in Islamabad. She was 35, he was 44. There was obvious good will, almost intimacy, between them. The air was full of promise and hope that these two modernizing scions of dominant political families would turn decades of war and hostility between their nations into a new era of peace.
Three and a half years later, Gandhi was assassinated. There had been no breakthrough with Pakistan to bolster his legacy. Now Bhutto is dead, at another moment of renewed anticipation. An age of hope is over. (more…)
A car bomb detonated in a busy Baghdad market on Friday, police and hospital officials said, killing at least 14 people and ending what had been a relatively quiet holiday period in the Iraqi capital.
At least one woman and a child were among the dead, a police officer said on condition of anonymity as he was not authorized to talk to the press. Both the officer and a hospital official who also would not give his name, said 14 people were killed and 64 wounded.
The popular market in Tayaran Square _ a predominantly Shiite area that has been targeted by insurgents in the past _ was full of shoppers heading home from Friday prayers. In late May, a car bomb killed 23 people in the square.
Violence across the country is down nearly 60 percent, according to the U.S. military, largely because of an influx of American troops in the capital and the growth of anti-al-Qaida in Iraq groups in Anbar province and elsewhere. (more…)
Gareth Porter
Huffingtonpost.com
The assassination of Benazir Bhutto may plunge Pakistan into much more serious chaos and violence. But the tragedy should at least be a clarifying moment for American policy toward Pakistan. It should make us more determined than ever to throw light on the shadowy policy of the Bush-Cheney administration of coddling the Pakistani military regime for so many years, despite the clear evidence that it was no friend of the United States.
Precisely who was responsibility for the assassination of Bhutto may never be known, but the circumstantial evidence points to Taliban extremists, assisted by a wink and a nod from elements in the Musharraf regime.
Bhutto had been the object of an assassination attempt in Karachi two months ago under circumstances that raised suspicions of official complicity. The street lights had suddenly failed to work, making the would-be assassin’s work easier, despite protests by her staff.
After that attempt, Bhutto believed elements in and close to the military aligned with the extremists wanted her dead. “I know exactly who wants to kill me,” “They are dignitaries of General Zia’s former regime who are behind extremism and fanaticism,” she told the French magazine Paris-Match. She pointed specifically to the army’s powerful Inter-Services Intelligence agency, which was instrumental in creating the Taliban regime and has been managing Pakistan’s alliance with the Taliban — and al Qaeda — ever since. (more…)
David Edwards and Jason Rhyne
http://rawstory.com
Despite a recent National Intelligence Estimate finding that Iran has halted its nuclear weapons program, libertarian-leaning GOP presidential contender Rep. Ron Paul (R-TX) says there is still “a great possibility” of US military action against the country.
Appearing on MSBNC’s Morning Joe, Paul described what he characterized as a deteriorating situation on the ground in Iraq and Afghanistan, and said the US was preparing to kickstart yet another conflict — this time in Iran.
“It is getting worse over there,” he said. “Afghanistan is getting worse. Turkey is bombing Iraq. And Pakistan is blowing up and we’re getting ready to bomb Iran. A bunch of those neocons want to bomb Iran.” (more…)
By Michael Isikoff
Newsweek A National Archives official reveals what the veep wanted to keep classified – and how he tried to challenge the rules.
J. William Leonard learned the hard way the perils of questioning Vice President Dick Cheney. The veteran National Archives official challenged claims by the Office of Vice President (OVP) to be exempt from federal rules governing classified information. His efforts touched off a firestorm – and a counter-strike by Cheney’s chief of staff, David Addington, who tried to wipe out Leonard’s job. (Addington did not respond to requests for comment on the subject.)
Now, Leonard is quitting as director of the Archives’ Information Security Oversight Office (ISOO) – the unit that monitors the handling of government secrets. He tells NEWSWEEK that his fight with Cheney’s office was a “contributing” factor in his decision to retire after 34 years of government service.
Leonard-described by National Archivist Allen Weinstein as “the gold standard of information specialists in the federal government”-spoke to NEWSWEEK’s Michael Isikoff. Excerpts: (more…)
By Sanho Tree, MinuteMan Media.
alternet.org
With every passing year the drug problem seems to get worse. The U.S. government responds by pumping billions more dollars into the war on drugs. Federal spending for this “war without end” is more than twenty times what it was in 1980 and still the drug traffickers appear to be winning. Despite more than six billion dollars spent on “Plan Colombia” alone, cocaine production has actually increased in that country. Now the Bush Administration is asking for $1.4 billion more to aid the Mexican government’s drug crackdown through the “Merida Initiative.”
Although it may seem counterintuitive, the “law and order” response by our politicians only intensifies the problem. Instead, they might turn to Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution to glean insight as to why these “common sense” reactionary solutions often are counterproductive. (more…)
RAWALPINDI, Islamabad — An attack on a political rally killed the Pakistani opposition leader Benazir Bhutto near the capital, Islamabad, Thursday. Witnesses said Ms. Bhutto was fired upon at close range before the blast, and an official from her party said Ms. Bhutto was further injured by the explosion, which was apparently caused by a suicide attacker.
Ms. Bhutto was declared dead by doctors at a hospital in Rawalpindi at 6:16 p.m. after the doctors had tried to resuscitate her for thirty-five minutes. She had shrapnel injuries, the doctors said. At least a dozen more people were killed in the attack.
“At 6:16 p.m. she expired,” said Wasif Ali Khan, a member of Ms. Bhutto’s party who was at Rawalpindi General Hospital where she was taken after the attack, according to The Associated Press.Hundreds of supporters had gathered at the political rally, which was being held at Liaqut Bagh, a park that is a common venue for political rallies and speeches, in Rawalpindi, the garrison city adjacent to the capital.
Amid the confusion after the explosion, the site was littered with pools of blood. Shoes and caps of party workers were lying on the asphalt, and shards of glass were strewn about the ground. Pakistani television cameras captured images of ambulances pushing through crowds of dazed and injured people at the scene of the assassination.
CNN reported that witnesses at the scene described the assassin as opening fire on Ms. Bhutto and her entourage, hitting her at least once in the neck and once in the chest, before blowing himself up. (more…)
Lakhdar Brahimi, the United Nations’ top troubleshooter and mediator for more than a decade in Afghanistan, Iraq, South Africa and Haiti and the chair of a panel that produced a landmark report on the limits of UN peacekeeping, has often been an incisive and unrelenting critic of American foreign policies. But for many around the world, he ranks as a touchstone wise man in international affairs. He was recently invited to join The Elders, a small private group of global statesmen and former government leaders.
Brahimi, now a director’s visitor at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, where he is framing some thoughts into a possible book, is an Algerian who began his diplomatic career in Southeast Asia, representing the country’s independence movement against the French from 1956 to 1961. He went on to become ambassador of independent Algeria in London, Cairo and Khartoum, and undersecretary general of the Arab League. From 1991 to1993 he was Algeria’s foreign minister, before turning to international service as a leading UN envoy and administrator in countries in crisis.
Educated in law and politics in Algeria and in France, where he now has a home, Brahimi was a major player through the late 1990s in negotiations with Saddam Hussein’s Iraq, and returned in 2004 as the UN representative in Baghdad responsible for helping form a transitional Iraqi government under US occupation. He is also remembered for his shepherding of Afghan factions through the Bonn agreement that restructured the country after the 2001 US invasion of Afghanistan.
In a conversation over several hours in Princeton, Brahimi spoke about what should come next in Iraq and how the regional powers must step up, in their own self-interests, to unite in helping the Iraqis establish stability. He assessed the evolution of the Taliban and Al Qaeda, suggested how the US miscalculated in Afghanistan and Washington’s failure to address effectively the core crisis of the Palestinians. (more…)
SUZAN FRASER | AP
huffingtonpost.com
Turkish warplanes hit eight suspected Kurdish rebel hideouts in northern Iraq on Wednesday, the third cross-border air assault in 10 days, Turkey’s military said.
The warplanes struck in an “effective pinpoint operation” targeting eight caves and other hideouts being used by the separatist rebels of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, the military said in a statement posted on its Web site.
No rebel deaths were immediately reported.
On Tuesday, Turkey’s military claimed that more than 200 Kurdish rebel targets in northern Iraq have been hit since Dec. 16, killing hundreds of rebels. Wednesday’s strikes were the third aerial operation confirmed by the military since Dec. 16. The military also has confirmed that it sent ground troops to hunt down the rebels on Dec. 18. (more…)
By Gregg Zoroya
USA TODAY
Close family members of U.S. troops are split on whether the Iraq invasion was a mistake, and 55% disapprove of President Bush’s job performance, according to USA TODAY/Gallup Polls focusing on immediate relatives of servicemembers.
“They’ve maxed out on the troops. You’ve got guys who are over there on their fourth or fifth tours. It’s ridiculous,” says Jeanette Knowles, 40, of Mountain Home, Idaho, whose brother, Jeff, served a tour in Iraq with the Oregon National Guard.
Knowles, who calls herself a Democratic-leaning moderate, says her disapproval of Bush stems from his handling of the war.
Military families are more supportive of the war than Americans without immediate family members in the military, the polls show. Among Americans without military relatives, 59% say the invasion was a mistake, compared with 49% of immediate family members. (more…)
By MICHAEL BARBARO
NY TIMES
American consumers, uneasy about the economy and unimpressed by the merchandise in stores, delivered the bleak holiday shopping season retailers had expected, if not feared, according to one early but influential projection.
Spending from Thanksgiving to Christmas rose just 3.6 percent over last year, the weakest performance in at least four years, according to MasterCard Advisors, a division of the credit card company. By comparison, sales grew 6.6 percent in 2006 and 8.7 percent in 2005.
“There was not a recipe for a pickup in sales growth,” said Michael McNamara, vice president for research and analysis at MasterCard Advisors, citing higher gas prices, a slowing housing market and a tight credit market.
Strong demand at the start of the season for a handful of must-have electronics, like digital frames and portable G.P.S. navigation systems, trailed off in December. And robust sales of luxury products could not make up for sluggish sales of jewelry and women’s clothing.
What did eventually sell was generally marked down — once, if not twice — which could hurt retailers’ profits in the final three months of year. “Stores are buying those sales at a cost,” said Sherif Mityas, a partner at the consulting firm A. T. Kearney, who specializes in retailing. (more…)
The recently released National Intelligence Estimate undermines the Bush administration’s assertion that Iran is seeking immediate acquisition of the bomb for aggressive purposes.
side note: Should we really be that shocked by this? This is the same paper that withheld the domestic wiretapping story for one year…..over the course of the close 2004 Presidential election!!! They also employed infamous journalist Judy Miller, who printed anything and everything this corrupt administration “leaked” to her. I still think the Times has some credible people working for them, but this isn’t the first time I’ve looked at something they did and thought: WTF???
A car bomb detonated in a busy Baghdad market on Friday, police and hospital officials said, killing at least 14 people and ending what had been a relatively quiet holiday period in the Iraqi capital.
RAWALPINDI, Islamabad — An attack on a political rally killed the Pakistani opposition leader Benazir Bhutto near the capital, Islamabad, Thursday. Witnesses said Ms. Bhutto was fired upon at close range before the blast, and an official from her party said Ms. Bhutto was further injured by the explosion, which was apparently caused by a suicide attacker.
