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Majority of Iraqi MPs Against US Deal
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More than half the members of IraqÕs parliament are against the security deal with the US.
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The majority of Iraqi parliamentarians have written to the US Congress rejecting a long-term security deal, if US forces don’t leave Iraq.
“New York Times“ reported that Rep. William Delahunt released excerpts from a letter he was handed by Iraqi parliamentarians laying down conditions for the security pact that the US administration seeks with Iraq.
The proposed pact has become increasingly controversial in Iraq, where there have been continued protests against it. It has also drawn criticism from inside the US suggesting that President George W. Bush is trying to dictate war policy after he leaves office.
“The majority of Iraqi representatives strongly reject any military-security, economic, commercial, and agricultural, investment or political agreement with the United States that is not linked to clear mechanisms that obligate the occupying American military forces to fully withdraw from Iraq,“ the letter of Iraqi MPs said.
The signatures represented more than half the members of Iraq’s parliament.
Two Sunni and Shiite Iraqi lawmakers whose parties were listed as signatories testified to Delahunt’s panel that US troops should leave Iraq, and that talks on the long-term security pact should be postponed until after they are gone.
“What are the threats that require US forces to be there?“ asked Nadeem Al-Jaberi, an MP.
“I would like to inform you, there are no threats on Iraq. We are capable of solving our own problems,“ he declared. He favored a quick pullout of US forces, which invaded the country in 2003 and currently number around 155,000.
Another Iraqi lawmaker, Khalaf Al-Ulayyan, also said that bilateral talks on a long-term security deal should be shelved until American troops leave and until there is a new government in Washington.
“We prefer to delay until there is a new administration in the United States,“ he said.
War Bill
Bush on Saturday urged the Democratic-dominated Congress to pass a huge Iraq war-funding bill.
“This is an opportunity for Congress to give our men and women in uniform the tools they need to protect us and Congress should approve these vital funds immediately,“ Bush said in his weekly radio address, according to Xinhua.
The US Senate last month passed the Bush administration’s war-funding request, but it also approved billions of dollars in domestic spending that includes a generous expansion of veterans’ education benefits, a 13-week extension of unemployment insurance, home heating assistance and other domestic spending add-ons.
The two bills would be sent to the House for final approval in one package. However, the White House had made it clear it would veto any war-funding involving unrelated spending.
Renewed Violence
Meanwhile, two car bombings in the Iraqi capital killed at least five people and wounded more than 20, while a group murdered five villagers south of Baghdad, police and hospital officials said.
One bomb blew up in a car parked beside a petrol station on a major city thoroughfare, killing three civilians and wounding 15 people, two of them police officers, police told AFP.
Just minutes earlier in the western district of Al-Yarmuk a suicide bomber ploughed his vehicle into a police car, police and hospital officials said.
“That explosion killed two people, including a policeman and wounded six civilians,“ they said.
In Delfia village, about 80 kilometers south of Baghdad, an unidentified armed group shot dead five villagers in homes, police said. No details were immediately available.
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More Food Protests in Egypt
Thousands of Egyptian demonstrators clashed with police to protest a decision by local authorities to end distribution of flour rations in the northern coastal town of Burullus, security sources said.
The state-owned “Al-Ahram“ newspaper said around 8,000 protestors sealed off a road for seven hours, using burning tyres to stop traffic.
Police used teargas and batons to disperse the crowds and three protesters were hospitalized after inhaling teargas, security sources said. Police made 30 arrests, according to Al-Ahram.
One security source said rubber bullets had been fired at the crowd.
Security sources said earlier the protests were caused by bread shortages, but subsequent reports said the protesters, primarily local fisherman, were angered by the local authority’s decision to end direct distribution of flour rations in favour of supplying bakeries with the flour. High wheat prices have put great strain on Egypt’s bread subsidy system, where the urban poor depend on cheap bread to survive and have held several protests in recent months.
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Turkish Jets Strike Kurdish Rebel Target
Turkey’s military says warplanes have struck a Kurdish rebel target in northern Iraq.
A brief statement posted on the military’s Website says the jets have “effectively“ hit a rebel target in the Zap region just across the shared border on Saturday, AP reported.
The military has launched several aerial cross-border attacks on suspected rebel positions in northern Iraq this year. It also staged a major ground operation against rebel bases there in February.
The Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, has been fighting for self-rule in southeastern Turkey since 1984, mostly from bases in northern Iraq. The violence has killed tens of thousands of people.
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Fresh Hope for Palestinians
Hamas, Fatah Meet
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File photo shows Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal (c) smiling as Palestinian President Mahmud Abbas (l) shakes hands with Prime Minister Ismail Haniya during a meeting in Mecca on February 8, 2007.
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The Palestinian factions Fatah and Hamas have sent emissaries to Dakar to engage in a “process of fraternal dialogue“ mediated by Senegalese President Abdoulaye Wade, a statement said Saturday.
“É Fatah and Hamas É started a process of fraternal dialogue aimed at ironing out divergences and reconciling the Palestinian family,“ said a statement sent to AFP by the Senegalese Foreign Ministry.
The text dated Saturday was co-signed by Senegalese Foreign Minister Cheikh Tidiane Gadio “for the facilitator,“ by Hikmat Zeid for Fatah and by Emad Khalid Alamy for Hamas.
The meeting, whose length was not stated, was an initiative by Wade who is current chairman of the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC).
On Friday, Wade’s spokesman El Hadj Amadou Sall had announced the start of mediation between the Israelis and Palestinians with a “first inter-Palestinian phase“ aimed at finding a joint Fatah-Hamas position on peace with Israel.
The rival factions were set to start reconciliation talks after the Islamists in the Gaza Strip on Thursday welcomed a call from Palestinian President Mahmud Abbas for national dialogue.
The US-backed Abbas on Wednesday unexpectedly called for talks with Hamas, which ousted his Fatah party from the Gaza Strip in June 2007 after deadly factional fighting.
“Al-Quds Al-Arabi“ quoted Palestinian sources as saying that Abbas called for renewed talks with Hamas in an effort to thwart Israeli plan to launch broad military operation in Gaza, gradually transfer control over to Palestinian Authority. The newspaper quoted Palestinian sources as saying that Israel plans to gradually transfer control over the strip to the Palestinian Authority, adding that Abbas expressed his objection to the move during last week’s meeting with embattled Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert.
Jordanians Protest
Hundreds of Jordanians staged a rally Saturday to press for lifting of the blockade imposed by Israel on Gaza and urged Arab countries, particularly Egypt, to break the siege.
The protest was held in front of the Islamic Action Front (IAF), Jordan’s largest political party and the political arm of the influential Muslim Brotherhood movement, DPA reported.
Addressing the audience, the IAF Deputy Secretary General Rhayyel Gharaibeh accused Arab countries of “playing into the hands of the United States and Israel“ by failure to take steps to break the Gaza siege.
Heading for Destruction
Meanwhile, the US intellectual Noam Chomsky said he believes Israel’s appetite for war on Iran and the Gazans will eventually lead to self-destruction.
“I wrote decades ago that those who call themselves “supporters of Israel“ are in reality supporters of its moral degeneration and probable ultimate destruction,“ the prominent linguist told CounterPunch.com in an interview.
“I have also believed for many years that Israel’s very clear choice of expansion over security, ever since it turned down [Egypt’s President Muhammad Anwar] Sadat’s offer of a full peace treaty in 1971, may well lead to that consequence,“ said the respected academician.
Chomsky made the remarks when asked by CounterPunch, “During the last few months, Israel has accentuated its attacks on Gaza and is talking of an imminent ground invasion. There is also a strong possibility that it is involved in the killing of the Hezbollah leader Mughniyeh and it is pushing for stronger sanctions (including military) on Iran. Do you believe that Israel’s appetite for war could eventually lead to its self-destruction?“
Gazan Killed
A Palestinian medical official said Israeli troops have killed a Hamas member on the Gaza-Israel border. Hamas confirmed the man was a member of the group and said two of his comrades were wounded, AP reported.
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Ruling Pak Party to Curtail Presidential Powers
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Pakistan Muslim League-N Leader Nawaz Sharif (l) in talks with PPP Co-chair Asif Ali Zardari
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Pakistan’s ruling party has said it is determined to curtail the powers of the presidency in favor of parliament, whether President Pervez Musharraf likes it or not.
Staunch US ally Musharraf, facing a chorus of calls to resign, told journalists on Saturday, in his first meeting with the media for weeks, that he had no plan to quit, Reuters reported.
Musharraf’s fate has consumed the attention of the new coalition since the polls, despite an economy that is deteriorating rapidly and a potent threat from Al-Qaeda and the Taliban.
In the meeting with journalists on Saturday, Musharraf said he would accept proposed constitutional amendments the ruling Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) of assassinated former prime minister Benazir Bhutto aimed to push through parliament. But in what media interpreted as a warning he would not tolerate a cut in his powers, a confident-sounding Musharraf indicated he would not like to be reduced to a ceremonial head of state, saying he could not become a “useless vegetable.“
The People’s Party brushed aside any objections, saying parliament was sovereign and could make or amend laws and the constitution regardless of whether Musharraf liked it or not.
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Lebanon’s Opposition Hopes to Win Majority
Hezbollah deputy leader Sheikh Naim Qassem says the opposition bloc is poised to win a majority in Lebanon’s 2009 parliamentary elections.
In view of the recent agreement reached in Doha, the opposition bloc is expected to gain the majority vote in the upcoming 2009 elections, Press TV’s Beirut bureau quoted Sheikh Naim Qassem as saying in an interview with a Kuwaiti newspaper.
Hailing Lebanon’s newly elected President Michel Suleiman, Qassem said, “the opposition had expressed its approval of Suleiman as president before he was officially nominated for the post, while the ruling parliamentary bloc was opposed to the idea, even though a consensus was eventually reached later in Doha.“
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French Support
French President Nicolas Sarkozy stressed his country’s support for newly-elected Lebanese President Michel Suleiman and for reconciliation through dialogue, during a brief visit to Beirut on Saturday.
Warming Ties
Bahrain said on Sunday it was setting up a new embassy in Baghdad and selecting an ambassador to Iraq, the latest sign of warming ties between Iraq and its Persian Gulf Arab neighbors.
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Nuclear Bomb Blueprints Not Secret
On May 23, Pascal Couchepin, a member of the Swiss Federal Council, informed the public about the shredding of sensitive materials regarding the involvement of three Swiss citizens in the nuclear proliferation network of Abdul Qadeer Khan, the father of Pakistan’s nuclear bomb.
Nuclear bomb blueprints and manuals on how to manufacture weapons-grade uranium for warheads are feared to be circulating on the international black market, according to investigators tracking the world’s most infamous nuclear smuggling racket.
Alarm about the sale of nuclear know-how follows the disclosure that the Swiss government, allegedly acting under US pressure, secretly destroyed tens of thousands of documents from a massive nuclear smuggling investigation.
Key Suspect
The information was seized from the home and computers of Urs Tinner, a 43-year-old Swiss engineer who has been in custody for almost four years as a key suspect in the nuclear smuggling ring run by Khan, according to the Guardian.
Couchepin stunned his Swiss compatriots recently by announcing that the Tinner files, believed to number around 30,000 documents, had been shredded. The extraordinary move, prompting demands for a parliamentary inquiry, was warranted to prevent the documents “getting into the hands of a terrorist organization or an unauthorized state“, according to Couchepin.
However, there are widespread fears this has already happened or still could. “We know that copies were made,“ said Mark Fitzpatrick, an expert on the illicit networks at the British-based International Institute of Strategic Studies. “Both US intelligence and the IAEA had been pursuing this with great urgency and diligence. But what happened to the other copies that [Tinner] made? It is worrisome that there are other plans floating around somewhere out there.“
Blueprints
Testimony at the 2006 trial of another Khan network suspect in Germany alleged that Tinner told investigators he had nuclear bomb designs at his office in Switzerland. The blueprints were in digital form and are believed to have been copied on to the network’s computers in Dubai, the hub for the Khan operation.
“It’s amazing these people had so much information, incredibly sensitive stuff on nuclear weaponization and gas centrifuges,“ said David Albright, a Washington-based former UN weapons inspector. “I’m sure the US got a copy. But who else got the documents? Can you believe these two, the brothers [Marco Tinner is also in custody] were the only ones who got the stuff?“
In his first interview since 2004 with the western media this week, Khan told the Guardian that the Swiss case proved that anyone seeking a nuclear bomb could easily obtain the wherewithal in the west.
He pledged he would never assist western or UN authorities and asserted that his “confession“ of February 2004 was coerced by the Pakistani regime.
CIA Involvement
While the Swiss government maintains the treasure trove of nuclear intelligence was destroyed for reasons of national security, the Americans may have been involved because Tinner is believed to have also been working for the CIA. Albright said Tinner was recruited by the American agency from 1999-2000.
Ever since the Khan network was first uncovered, rumors have circulated in the media that Tinner was providing the CIA with inside information which enabled the US to force Libyan President Omar Ghaddafi to abandon his nuclear ambitions.
According to US journalists Douglas Frantz and Catherine Collins, writing in their book “The Nuclear Jihadist,“ the CIA managed to recruit Tinner in a bar in Dubai in early 2000 by capitalizing on legal problems he was facing in France at the time. His information is believed to have been crucial to the CIA’s understanding of the inner workings of the Khan network.
There is evidence to suggest that Tinner was an informant for the CIA. During the May 23 press conference, Couchepin noted that the Federal Council had blocked an investigation against Tinner for “illegal actions for a foreign country“ and “illegal intelligence work against a foreign country“ six months earlier.
Unusual
Local media are speculating that the US has put significant pressure on Swiss authorities to avoid such a scenario. The failure to secure a prosecution after three years suggests that Tinner either knows more than he’s letting on-- and that his intelligence value remains high-- or that he’s secured a deal of sorts.
Olli Heinonen, deputy director general at the IAEA, has led the investigation into the Khan network for years. Last year his office sought and gained access to the Tinner files and some of his officials were also summoned to witness their destruction.
The Americans were also present, according to the international official. “The Americans were involved in the destruction. They were calling the shots,“ he said. The IAEA refused to comment publicly on the case. A former senior IAEA official said “I am quite astonished. It’s very unusual to see people destroying documents like this. They should be put somewhere very safe. The real question is how many copies of these documents existed. If copies were made, where did they go? That’s the main issue.“
US, Europe Frustrated With Karzai
US officials are growing increasingly frustrated with Afghan President Hamid Karzai, arguing that he is not up to addressing Afghanistan’s many troubles, The New York Times reported on Saturday.
The newspaper said that even a senior State Department official questioned in an interview whether Karzai had the “trust and the backbone“ for the job, AFP reported.
“Of course, he’s a good guy, and therefore as long as he’s president we’ll support him,“ the paper quoted the unnamed official as saying. “But there’s a lot of talk inside the administration saying maybe there’s a need for some tough love to push him to do the right thing.“
One European diplomat, speaking on condition of anonymity, said “we’ve got the standard administration problem of fascination with a flawed figure.“
According to the paper, the diplomat likened the US support for Karzai to Washington’s backing for President Pervez Musharraf of Pakistan.
Rival Khalilzad
With Hamid Karzai seen as ineffective, many people are looking to someone with serious influence in Washington. Now Zalmay Khalilzad is preparing to run for the presidency of his native Afghanistan.
In his time, he has been President George Bush’s point man in Baghdad, Kabul and the UN, as well as a lobbyist for both the Taliban and international oil companies, the “Independent“ reported.
Representatives of Khalilzad, currently US ambassador to the UN, have discreetly sounded out various factions to ascertain his chances in the election scheduled for 2009.
Three meetings have been held with opposition groups in recent months to promote Khalilzad, pictured, as a “unifying“ candidate in a country where deep divisions have begun to emerge between the Pashtun communities of the south and the Tajiks, Uzbeks and Hazaras of the north.
Khalilzad, a Pashtun, was born in Laghman province in the south-east of the country, but raised in Mazar-eSharif in the north. He is on good terms with some former leaders of the Northern Alliance who have split from the Karzai government.
Speculation about the 56-year-old Khalilzad’s political ambitions sparked into life when he gave a TV interview, saying he was placing himself “at the service of the Afghan people“. He was also said to be considering resigning from his post at the UN.
Support for Saudi Ruler’s Call
The Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz of Saudi Arabia has won backing from Muslim clerics from around the world for an interfaith dialogue with Christians and Jews.
Some 500 religious scholars and academics gathered for a three-day conference in Mecca that ended on Friday as the first step of a plan announced by the Saudi king this year to create a dialogue with other faiths, Reuters reported.
The king’s call, which followed a meeting with Pope Benedict XVI at the Vatican last year, sparked much interest from Jewish and Christian groups around the world.
The Mecca meeting recommended “conferences, forums and discussion groups between the followers of the prophetic messages, and relevant civilizations, cultures and philosophies to which academics, media and religious leaders will be invited“, according to the official Saudi Press Agency (SPA).
The final statement of the conference said the conference called for “communication between Islamic sects in an effort to unite the Islamic nation and lighten the effects of fanaticism“.
Sudan Denies Charges Against Minister
Sudan rejected demands Saturday to hand over a cabinet minister and a militia commander indicted on charges of crimes against humanity in Darfur.
State Minister of Information Kamal Obeid was responding to a new call by the International Criminal Court prosecutor for Sudan to hand over Ahmed Harun, a cabinet minister and Ali Kushayb, a militia commander. According to AP, both are accused of organizing a system to recruit, fund, arm and command a militia that terrorized villages in the western Sudanese region.
Speaking to the UN Security Council on Thursday, the prosecutor, Luis Moreno-Ocampo, charged for the first time that “the whole state apparatus“ of Sudan is implicated in crimes against humanity in the Darfur region.
On Saturday, Sudan’s official news agency, SUNA, quoted Obeid as saying the ICC was playing a “political role that has nothing to do with the law“ and accused it of complicating peace efforts in Sudan.
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