Burma on The Huffington Post

Cambodia Deports 20 Uighurs To China, Gets $1.2 Billion

2009-12-22T00:23:07Z

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia — Visiting Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping thanked Cambodia on Monday for deporting 20 Muslim asylum-seekers while handing the country $1.2 billion in aid , the government spokesman said.

The 20 ethnic Uighurs deported Saturday were sought by China in connection with violent anti-government protests. Human rights activists are concerned that they will face persecution in China.

Layla Amjadi: Join Me for the National Canvass to Prevent Genocide this December

2009-11-30T18:59:58Z

From December 1-7, we have the chance to take part in something bigger than ourselves. During the first week of December, thousands of people are pledging to join the movement to prevent genocide. The key word here is prevention.

As citizens, we have the power to shift the U.S. government's mindset from solely reacting to ongoing crises like those in Sudan, Congo, and Eastern Burma, and focus on preventing situations that may escalate into genocide. Achieving this dual-focus goal will truly be a historic moment for U.S. foreign policy. There is so much that the United States can do to prevent genocide -- we only need to muster the political will to make it happen.

The National Canvass to Prevent Genocide, an initiative organized by the Genocide Intervention Network, gives us the opportunity to muster that political will. We will "canvass" our communities, campuses, and neighborhoods to talk to people about the importance of genocide prevention, as well as inform them of the role that they have in demanding action from our government.

We need to share the following message with our friends, family, classmates, and co-workers:

Individual actions matter. Improving how we prevent and respond to genocide begins when we join together and pledge to build a better future. Your pledge is your commitment to be a part of the grassroots movement for genocide prevention. More than 30,000 pledges have already been made as part of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum's new exhibit, From Memory to Action: Meeting the Challenge of Genocide. Will you help us reach 40,000 pledges?

Join in on the action today and invite everyone you know to be part of the movement:

•Sign the pledge.

•Ask your friends to sign the pledge by tweeting I just joined the movement to prevent genocide. Will you? http://bit.ly/2F8rmY #pledge.

•Hold a canvass event on your campus and get as many people as you can to sign the pledge! Online you'll find pledge cards that people can print out and sign.

Unbelievably, there are many people who still don't know that genocide is a problem today or that their actions can contribute to the effort to prevent and end genocide. We are lucky enough to know what's going on. Therefore, it is our responsibility to spread the word and give others around us the chance to join the movement.

I know we all believe that all people have the right to live in a world without genocide. December 1-7 is our chance to help make that world a reality. Take the pledge today.

This post was originally published on Causecast.org

Outsiders wonder why Myanmar built brand new capital

2009-11-30T16:30:04Z

A village on the road to Naypyidaw. Photos: Michael Lwin

Michael Lwin, a research fellow at Georgetown University, recently traveled to Myanmar to research Burmese law, culture and religion. He writes about his experiences in the new capital.

Roughly five years ago the Burmese military junta decided to move Myanmar's capital from Yangon to Naypyidaw, meaning “city of kings."

At the time of the move, Naypyidaw was a rural backwater, a small township comprised of thatched huts inhabited by subsistence farmers.

In contrast to Yangon's preexisting infrastructure, the lack of modernity in Naypyidaw five years ago meant that the junta had to commit substantial resources to transform the bucolic setting into a governmental metropolis.

According to economist Sean Turnell in a 2008 New York Times article, a "consensus estimate" by Myanmar experts totaled the construction expenditures at $4 billion to $5 billion.

Western observers have speculated that Senior-General Than Shwe, the Commander-in-Chief of the Burmese military (Tatmadaw), chairman of the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC), and the de facto ruler of Myanmar, may have moved the capital out of fear of a naval invasion by the United States and a fear of surveillance by satellites and Western spies.

The Burmese government line is not so paranoid. Myanmar has had a long history of issues with insurgents along its geographic periphery, and movement to the center of the country allows the military to strategically deploy armed forces to deal with conflicts anywhere. The central location is also economically advantageous in facilitating communication and trade with the troubled northern region.

Peasant workers on the side of the highway.

The drive to Naypyidaw from Yangon takes about 4 to 5 hours. The smooth highway, which is nearly complete, has few cars. Residents of nearby villages walk on the roadside, wearing khamauk and longyis while digging shallow ditches to fill with the alternating red-and-white lane blocks. Many of these workers are children.

Occasionally we passed donkey carts. Hunched women were sitting among toddy palm trees and rice paddies. We snaked up the well-paved, modern highway that cuts through agricultural fields still harvested by yoked buffalo and farmers wielding rusted scythes.

There are several checkpoints along the way, resembling the average E-Z Pass tollbooth on the way to New York City (except for the near-total lack of cars).

A military official or young lady sitting in front of a LCD screen collected 2,500 Burmese kyats (roughly $2.50). The other checkpoints are for monitoring suspicious activity and charging Naypyitaw-bound voyagers who originate from other villages along the way.

A house in the secret new capital. Photo: Flickr user ISNSecurityWatch/Anuj Chopra

Signs saying "Welcome to Nay Pyi Taw" in English and Burmese greet travelers. The fruits of the construction have resulted in broad, multiple-lane avenues, potted-plant roundabouts, color-coded apartments for government personnel relocated from other towns, and tourist attractions like the Water Park and Zoological Gardens.

However, the lack of conspicuous signage flustered our tour guide, who has a degree in nuclear physics and has lived in the city since its inception five years ago. He got lost several times and had to reorient himself via landmarks.

As with the highways on the trip up to Naypyidaw, there were precious few people in the city, which does not seem to square with official statistics that place the new capital's population at around one million. But this may be a matter more of density than quantity, as Naypyidaw is a sprawling, immense city.

- Michael Lwin

Worldfocus blogger Michael Lwin, a research fellow at Georgetown University, recently traveled to Myanmar to research Burmese law, culture and religion. He writes about his experiences in Naypyidaw. Five years ago the Burmese military junta decided to move Myanmar's capital from Yangon to Naypyidaw, meaning “city of kings.”
http://worldfocus.org/files/2009/11/th_myanmar_village.jpg

Dave Zirin: Tiger Woods Deserves Your Scrutiny

2009-11-30T13:08:59Z

First run at http://www.thenation.com/doc/20091214/zirin

During the Bill Clinton impeachment idiocy of 1998, many on the left said if Clinton were removed from office, let it be for gutting welfare or for imposing sanctions on Iraq, and not l'affair Lewinsky.

Today, Tiger Woods, the most famous, wealthy and most PR conscious athlete on earth, finally finds himself subject to scrutiny. But, similar to Clinton's scandal, it has more to do with his personal life than issues of substance. The media has staked-out his Isleworth home for round-the-clock coverage of a bizarre "car accident" involving his wife, a fire hydrant and a golf club that occurred this past week. The questions being posed are as breathless as they are weightless: "Were Tiger's facial lacerations the result of the car crash or an attack from his wife Elin?" "Is this about the rumored 'other woman' in New York City?" "Did Elin Woods smash the rear of his car with a golf club to rescue Tiger or was she smashing up the car as he pulled away?" One last question: who the hell cares? Granted, there is a "man bites dog" aspect to this story. In Woods's roughly fourteen years in the public eye, he has never even been caught littering. His image has been cemented as a man of ungodly intensity.

This squeaky-clean reputation has helped Woods become the richest athlete in history, the first billion-dollar man. His career course earnings are $92 million. Only when you factor in advertisements, corporate appearances and other off-course aspects of "Tiger Inc" does Woods reach billionaire status.

As the saying goes, behind every great fortune is a great crime. Following his car "accident" Woods's agent said that it is unclear whether he will attend his foundation's Chevron World Challenge Golf Tournament. In 2008, Chevron entered a five-year relationship with Tiger Woods' foundation under the guise of philanthropy. But if Woods had a shred of social conscience, this partnership would never have existed. Lawsuits have been issued against Chevron for dumping toxic waste all over the planet. Alaska, Canada, Brazil, Angola and California have all accused Chevron of dumping. Even worse, Chevron has a partnership with Burma's ruling military junta on the country's Yadana gas pipeline project, the single greatest source of revenue for the military, estimated at nearly $5 billion since the year 2000.

Ka Hsaw Wa, co-founder and executive director of EarthRights International, wrote in an open letter to Woods, "I myself have spoken to victims of forced labor, rape, and torture on Chevron's pipeline -- if you heard what they said to me, you too would understand how their tragic stories stand in stark contrast to Chevron's rhetoric about helping communities." Chevron is underwriting a dictatorship but Tiger Woods apparently sees them as upstanding corporate partners.

Then there is Dubai, the site of the first Tiger Woods-designed golf course. Located at the southern coast of the Persian Gulf, Dubai has been a symbol of both economic excess, and most recently, economic collapse. It has been called an "adult Disneyland" -- complete with indoor ski resorts and unspeakable human rights violations. As Johann Hari wrote in the Independent, it is a city that has been built over the last thirty years by slave labor. Paid foreign laborers work in more than 100-degree heat for less than three dollars a day. Dubai also has a reputation as ground zero of the global sex trade. The Tiger Woods Golf Course cost $100 million and Woods said nary a word about his benefactor's business practices. This is business as usual for Tiger who would sooner swallow a five-iron than take anything resembling a political stand.

Now that Woods appears to have been involved in a domestic dispute, the media is wondering if there is "another Tiger." They are desperate to pillory the man for his personal problems. It would be more appropriate if they took this opportunity to scrutinize him for the right reasons. Woods has every right to keep his personal problems personal. But when he makes deals that benefit dictatorships and unaccountable corporations, all in the name of his billion-dollar brand, he deserves no privacy.

[Dave Zirin is the author of "A People's History of Sports in the United States" (The New Press) Receive his column every week by emailing dave@edgeofsports.com. Contact him at edgeofsports@gmail.com.]

Leon T. Hadar: Obama, the Teabaggers and Foreign Policy

2009-11-23T13:57:48Z

If you have been following what America's right-wing bloggers and radio talk-show hosts have been saying about President Barack Obama's just-concluded trip to the Asia-Pacific, you would be under the impression that Obama was not treated by officials in that region as the leader of the world's only remaining superpower and the largest and most advanced economy.

The neo and ultra-conservative pundits recalled the good-old-days when former American presidents were supposedly treated with so much respect in Tokyo, Seoul and Beijing as they used American economic and military might to compel leaders there to bow to Washington's dictates. But as the right-wingers see it, Obama acted as though he was the leader of just another normal nation and not that of the great power that had won the Cold War not so long ago, projecting a certain level of timidity during his East Asian tour which might explain why he was cold shouldered by the East Asians. And that was such a humiliating experience for proud Americans like Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh.

Indeed, according to these and other nutty loud-mouths, Obama had disgraced his country by having taken a deep bow at the waist while meeting Japan's Emperor Akihito. Hey, remember how former US vice president Dick Cheney, greeted the emperor in 2007 with a firm handshake -- but no bow - just the way a real American Man would conduct himself.

American historians were quick to note that Obama was not the first U.S. President to take a bow, following the rules of diplomatic etiquette when meeting with foreign kings, queens, and other heads of state. In fact, former President Richard Nixon - you know, that lefty peacenik --- bowed to Akihito's father in Japan in 1971. And he was the same Japanese emperor who had led his country to war with the U.S. in 1941.

The notion that Obama didn't get any R-E-S-P-E-C-T in the Asia-Pacific during his visit and that his "wow bow" in Tokyo reflected a supposedly spineless diplomacy of kowtowing to China and capitulating to other rising powers in the region over security and trade issues is probably just another example of the kind of hysterical Obama bashing that has engulfed America's flagging political right since last November.

In the right-wing alternate universe Obama is seen as being responsible for the Great Recession, the mess in Iraq and Afghanistan, and now also for the economic and military rise of China, the changing Japanese attitudes towards America and the other challenges facing American power in East Asia. According to the members of the non-reality-based community the suggestion that the China may be less willing to play ball with Obama has nothing to do with America's real weakened economic and military position in the aftermath of the financial meltdown in Wall Street and the War in Iraq. Nope. It all has to do with the perception of American weakness that has been produced by Obama's more conciliatory approach towards China (dubbed by officials in Washington dubbed as "strategic reassurance"), his willingness continue negotiations with the Japanese over the status of U.S. military bases Okinawa and his engagement with the military regime in Myanmar.

But in reality, this kind of more conciliatory approach that have been embraced by Obama in his dealing with China, Japan and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) is part of an effort to adjust American position in the Asia-Pacific in response to the very real changing geo-strategic and geo-economic balance of power, and in particular to the shifting balance of power between America and China.

Indeed, the transformation of the post-Cold War unipolar U.S.-dominated international system into a looser multi-polar system was inevitable. From that perspective it is quite possible that historians in the future would contend that the most important event that had taken in place in 2001 was not the 9/11 terrorist attacks on New York and Washington but what happened exactly two months later - the accession of China into the World Trade Organization (WTO) which marked the start of its full integration into the global economy.

That this process of diminishing unipolarism and increasing multipolarism has accelerated under Obama's predecessor has to do with the costly policies at home (irresponsible fiscal and monetary policies) and abroad (military unilateralism and the war in Iraq) that have weakened U.S. status around the world, including in East Asia, and provided the Chinese with even more opportunity to exert their economic and diplomatic influence while America continued sinking into the many military quagmires in the Greater Middle East.

Taking into consideration that what Obama has been trying to begin reversing the trend towards American retreat from Asia that took place under President George W. Bush, one could argue his East Asia tour was certainly a good start. America and China are not about to form a permanent "Group of 2" forum. But during the talks in Beijing that covered currency, climate change, tariffs, Iran and Afghanistan - the American and Chinese leaders took the first steps in a long road in which each side will have to provide strategic reassurances to other. It would a process involving reciprocity under which the Americans will not be anymore in a position to deliver sermons and dictate outcomes to the Chinese.

That could be certainly a humbling experience for the right-wing critics and the neoconservatives who seem to operate under the illusion that America is still Number One and that it can still continue cutting taxes, expanding the deficit, fighting wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, while defeating terrorism, containing China and Russia, punishing "rogue regimes" and spreading democracy and human rights around the world.

But one of the main reasons why America has less leverage in its dealing with China is fact that the Chinese are playing now the role of America's banker as they continue financing the growing U.S. deficits. And in order to reduce these deficits, Americans will have to cut spending, which should include reductions the same U.S. military commitments abroad that right-wing critics would actually like to see increased.

Indeed, the same teabaggers who in the name of conservative values of limited government and fiscal restraint have been clobbering Obama and the Democrats for expanding the power of the federal government to promote a domestic liberal agenda, including $787 billion economic stimulus and his health-care reform proposals, seemed to have become born-again government interventionists, progressive internationalists and social engineers when it comes to Iraq and Afghanistan and to millions of foreigners and other distant societies whose values are alien to most Americans. Many of our irate anti-statist conservatives want to see the same U.S. government whose power they decry when tries to manage the school system in, say, Lebanon, Ohio, managing lots of stuff in, say, Lebanon. Help build the health care system in Afghanistan -- but not in America.

In fact, according to most public opinion polls the majority of American conservatives support increasing U.S. military presence in Afghanistan. The same teabaggers who are bashing Obama Administration as "socialistic" and "fascistic" seem to be quite enthusiastic about an Obama doing more national building in Afghanistan, which is bound to help raise the U.S. deficit into the stratosphere and expand the power of the federal government.

As Obama and the Democrats contemplate a new strategy for Afghanistan they should consider integrating the conservative values of fiscal discipline and limited government into their decision-making on this central foreign policy issue. After all, reducing and not expanding U.S. military in Afghanistan (and Iraq, and Korea, and Japan, and...) would help control the spending by the federal government and reduce the ballooning deficit. And that, after all, is exactly what our teabaggers are demanding.

Obama tells Myanmar junta to free Suu Kyi

2009-11-15T01:59:27Z

SINGAPORE — President Barack Obama on Sunday told Myanmar's junta to free pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi during an unusual face-to-face interaction with a top leader of the ruling military.

Obama delivered the strong message during his summit with leaders of 10 Southeast Asian nations, which included Myanmar Prime Minister Gen. Thein Sein.

Obama speech on Asia well-received in region

2009-11-14T07:15:28Z

US President Barack Obama's first big speech on Asia had a little something for just about everyone. He was tough on North Korea and Myanmar, but offered a way back to the fold. He was big on Japan and on China, whose rise, he said, should be welcomed, not feared.

Read more: Japan, North Korea, Myanmar, China, Home News

Allison Kilkenny: War On Drugs Doesn't Go Well, CIA Bugs DEA Agent's Coffee Table

2009-11-11T12:30:39Z

The settlement of a 15-year-old lawsuit has resulted in the U.S. agreeing to pay $3 million to a former government worker who accused officials with the CIA and State Department of spying on him with a "bugged coffee table."

Richard Horn, a former special agent with the Drug Enforcement Administration, alleged that Franklin Huddle, Jr, the former State Department's mission chief at the U.S. embassy in Burma, and Arthur Brown, who worked for the CIA at the time in Burma, planted listening devices in his home while he was stationed in Burma (now known as Myanmar).

Threat Level reporter, Kim Zetter, observes that a close reading of the case suggests that the Justice Department may have decided to pay off the plaintiff in order to "quash the series of damaging legal rulings issued by the influential judge, [U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth], overseeing the case that would have forced them to disclose the classified information."

Horn had been stationed in Burma in the early 1990s as the DEA country attaché to Burma, which ranks as one of the top opium poppy producing countries in the world. He was charged with overseeing the agency's mission in that country of eradicating the opium poppy, which is used to produce heroin.

Horn became the target of the CIA, his attorney alleges, when he refused to portray the oppressive military junta, the State Law and Order Restoration Council (SLORC,) ruling Burma in the "worst possible light."

...Horn, according to the letter to [U.S. Sen. Richard] Shelby, had made inroads in gaining the assistance of the SLORC in working toward opium poppy eradication in Burma. Horn's success set in motion a series of overt and clandestine efforts on the part of Huddle and Brown to undermine DEA efforts in the region, Leighton alleges.

The reason, Leighton claimed in a recent phone interview, was that if Horn's strategy proved successful, it would have undercut the State Department's goal of vilifying the SLORC in the eyes of Congress and the public at large.

Around that time, Horn noticed his old coffee table disappeared from his home, and a new, mysterious "oval table" appeared. Quite understandably, he was suspicious.

He later came to believe that the oval table was a listening device...He'd also learned from a former NSA official that similar oval tables were placed in the homes of all U.S. diplomats and officials assigned to the U.S. embassy in Burma.

Some in the agency, of course, claim the CIA's motives are less sinister and more bureaucratic, though DEA sources insist Horn's claims are all true. This might have been a stalemate had it not been for the bugged coffee table and sudden settlement now that an influence judge has come down on the side of Horn. Why bug a DEA agent, and why run from a 15-year-old case the moment a well-known judge rules on it?

This pattern of suppressing facts in the name of The Quest To Eradicate All Drugs is quite familiar. Most recently, Professor David Nutt, the British government's chief drug adviser, was fired after claiming that ecstasy and LSD are less dangerous than alcohol. Of course, Nutt supported this claim with empirical data. However, facts don't play a role in the War on Drugs, and so he was terminated for daring to point out the truth.

The fact that Horn was making progress with the SLORC didn't matter. What mattered was fitting the Burma piece in the War on Drugs jigsaw puzzle. The "bad heroin guys" had to fit in their "bad heroin guys spot," and any alteration of that story had to immediately be squelched by the CIA. It was unacceptable to imagine a world in which indigenous people could control their own opium production or a viable heroin market existed.

Without question, the SLORC engaged in human rights violations, including murder, the recruitment of child soldiers, forced labor, and political imprisonments. However, the Burmese level their own charges at the CIA, including accusations of an assassination.

Drug markets are always present, but they become especially dominant when the social fabric breaks down. We saw that in Burma, and we see it now in Afghanistan. Drug violence is a byproduct of deeper social unrest, and fighting violence with violence by assassinating dissidents and suppressing uprisings may temporarily silence the outcries and drive drugs underground, but such strategies are like putting a band-aid on a gaping wound.

You're only buying a tiny fraction of time. Like prostitution and fighting, drugs will always be with us. And that actually may be okay. The only time drugs seems to take on a negative connotation is when drugs are tied to violence, and that only tends to happen in poor neighborhoods or tumultous countries that experience vast poverty or warfare.

So perhaps it's time to start focusing on preventing poverty and war instead of spending resources on stopping drugs themselves. Imagine a War on War (since "Peace" is a word only used by dirty hippies,) or a War on Poverty. I'd gladly throw my tax dollars at those programs.

The drug market is everywhere. It's in Afghanistan right now, except it's all underground, and no one is saying out loud that the U.S. government is paying off Ahmed Wali Karzai, the brother of the Afghan president, and a suspected player in the country's booming illegal opium trade.

Accepting the fact that there is a thriving drug market, and there always will be -- and maybe it's time to legalize it in order to regulate and manage it domestically, and accept that autonomous countries have the right to manage their drug markets as they see fit-- just doesn't fit into the CIA's world paradigm, and so they bug coffee tables.

Makes sense, right?

Cross-posted from Allison Kilkenny's blog. Also available on Facebook and Twitter.

Christopher Herbert and Victoria Kataoka Rebuffet: Weekly Foreign Affairs Roundup

2009-11-06T16:11:48Z

This Week's Top Stories in Foreign Affairs:

Like Him or Not, Karzai's the Man in Afghanistan
SI Analysis: After opposition candidate Abdullah Abdullah withdrew from the election in protest that voting officials suspected of fraud during the first round would not be replaced, Hamid Karzai was officially attributed another term as President of Afghanistan. The decision to give the victory to Karzai without a runoff election was fraught with debate where some said that his tenure would be legally and effectively illegitimate to those that his victory was certain either way and it was better to get faster to the heart of the matter (e.g. running the country). The many challenges to improving conditions in Afghanistan remain the same and now unambiguously Karzai is the president and the world must now look to working with him to improve the governance, economy and security of Afghanistan. Sadly, Abdullah will not be part of the Karzai government, many analysts hoped he would serve as an effective opposition force. With election and its drama now over, all eyes are now on Obama to articulate what his strategy will be for Afghanistan. Some of the key questions, outside of the amount of troop increases and nature of the counter-insurgency strategy, are: How to reinforce the Afghan National Security Force by building up a central command or building on tribal and militia strengths? How to improve governance and reduce corruption? How to build up Afghanistan's economy and eliminate the opium trade? How to get Pakistan to crack down on militants taking refuge inside its borders? How to bolster the international political will -- especially of Muslim countries -- to continue supporting the Afghan effort?

Saudi Sorrows Over Yemen
SI Analysis: Worries -- that strife in Yemen will develop into a complex regional conflict -- grow as there are reports of cross-border skirmishes between government and two different hostile non-state actors. First, it is believed that Shia al-Houthis rebels launched an attack against Saudi and Yemeni border security forces in the Saada province and then claimed to have captured a mountaintop well within the Kingdom. Some believe this act was in retaliation of the Saudi governments support to Yemen against the Shia Zaydis, who make up the al-Houthis. Saudi Arabia and Yemen contend that Iran is supporting the rebels. Saudi Arabia reportedly retaliated with aerial bombing of rebel positions. Second, a government convoy was attacked by Sunni foreign militants -- likely Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula -- near the Saudi border in the Hadramawt region. This may be the unforseen consequences of Yemini President Ali Abdullah Saleh's laxist policy allowing foreign Sunni militants haven in Yemen (reportedly in exchange for their help in fighting the Shia Houthis). Tacit agreements have broken down as the Sunni-led independence movement in the south has grown and won support from some of the foreign militants, whose main target remains the government of Saudi Arabia. The massive influx of refugees and foreign militants from the Horn of Africa does nothing to help Yemen's fragile hold on security of its country. With a rebellion in the north, another in the south and a brewing terrorist threat growing throughout Yemen, it is likely that Saudi Arabia will take greater action within Yemen in an attempt to mitigate the security risk to the Kingdom.

War Reports:

AfPak
SI Analysis: Pakistan claims that its "Operation Rah-i-Nijat" (path to deliverance) in South Waziristan is going better than expected. Skeptics say that the Taliban will just return as soon as the government withdraws. Others say the government is not doing enough to thwart the positioning of foreign militants and certain Taliban. Meanwhile, the assymetrical terror response of the Taliban countinues: Two would-be suicide bombers accidentally detonated themselves outside of Kohat City in North-West Frontier Province; a massive car bomb explosion in Peshawar killed over 100 people; and a suicide bomber in Rawalpindi killed at least 30 people.

Iraq
SI Analysis: Some say that al-Malikis political manouvering is undermining security in Iraq. Efforts to remove potential rivals -- both Shia and Sunni -- from key areas have actually weakened the strength and comptencies of the overall force. Some point to the October 25 deadly blasts in Baghdad as proof that Maliki may have gone too far in his purges of over 12,000 officials in the Interior, Finance and Foreign Affairs Ministries as well as in the National Intelligence Service. Offical US and Iraqi officials contend that recent violence is due to the last vestiges of foreign militants and Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia; they cite a recent arrests in Kirkuk and Abu Ghraib of a key Al Qaeda operative as evidence that the risk is being addressed.

Under the Radar:

What Response to Iran?
SI Analysis: Western governments extend Iran a last bit of lenience -- to accept a recent deal to send its enriched uranium to Russia for its conversion to nuclear fuel. With the likelihood of an agreement being reached dwindling, severe energy sanctions are the next step provided that Russia will go along. The possibility of a unilateral Israeli action increases with diminishing hopes of an agreement. Meanwhile, Israel's Navy says it stopped a ship with significant amounts of Iranian weapons cargo bound for Syria and eventually Hezbollah militants.

Low-Level Tensions in Lebanon Persists
SI Analysis: Political, internal security and border tensions make Lebanon a tinder-box for conflict. Politically, Michel Aoun, leader of the opposition Free Patriotic Movement, dashed hopes that Saad Hariri, Lebanon's PM-elect, would be able to form a Cabinet by week's end. Aoun says Hariri's proposals of ministerial appointments were inadequate. Meanwhile, there are distrubing reports that Sunni extremists are infiltrating Lebanon in an effort to undermine peace with Israel and to counter the Shia and moderate Sunni presence in the country: an obscure group called the Battalions of Ziad Jarrah claim responsability for the 11 September rocket attack on Israel; meanwhile, Lebanese Security Services made a key arrest of Sunni foreign militant connected with Fatah al-Islam, the Sunni extremist group; and the security services also reportedly thwarted an assassination attempt on a key Sunni cleric. All of this adds to recent speculation of increased posturing and counter-espionage ongoings between Israel and Hezbollah (along with the Lebanese intelligence services) involving the destruction of telecommunications towers in Southern Lebanon and the break-up of an Isreali spy ring earlier this year.

Tempered Expectations for Myanmar
SI Analysis: US Assistant Secretary of State Scot Marciel visits Myanmar (Burma) and meets with the ruling military Junta as well as opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi. Marciel says that hopes for any major democratic reform or advancement on the protection of human rights should be relatively low. Any progress will take place in small steps and on the junta's terms. However, analysts suggest that Burma's desire to lift banking and travel sanctions and to counter growing Chinese influence in the country could be motivation to allow some reform and perhaps allow Aung San Suu Kyi to participate in 2010 elections.

Analysis in Brief:

The Absence of a Middle East Peace Process: Peace seemed ever-more elusive after US Secretary of State Clinton appeared to concede to Israeli pressure to restrain rather than freeze settlement building. The Palestinian and Muslim world's response in general was very hostile. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas says he will not run for re-election in January elections citing Israeli settlements, dwindling American support and domestic division.

North Korea's Wager: In what is seen as a misguided effort to secure bi-lateral talks with the US, North Korea says that it had resumed its plutonium extraction activities.

Merkel's Charm Offensive: German Chancellor Angela Merkel spoke before US Congress urging cooperation on Afghanistan, Iran's nuclear program and the international fight against Climate Change ahead of the December UN Conference Copenhagen.

This Roundup can be read on the Simple Intelligence Site and on the Huffington Post World Page.

Burma Takes On Wa Rebels In North, Both Sides Brace For Conflict

2009-11-05T18:11:44Z

MONG HPEN, Myanmar Conquering armies of centuries past avoided this remote, mountainous area along the present-day border with China, a place once described by a British colonial official as "an unpenetrated enclave of savage hills."

Kurt Campbell, Aung San Suu Kyi Meet In Burma: A First In 14 Years

2009-11-04T08:09:30Z

YANGON, Myanmar — The highest-ranking American diplomat to visit Myanmar in 14 years offered improved relations Wednesday if its military regime moves toward democracy, putting into action the Obama administration's new policy of engagement with the isolated country.

Assistant Secretary of State Kurt Campbell spoke after both talks with the ruling generals and a rare meeting with opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate who has been under house arrest for most of the last two decades.

Antonia Juhasz: Chevron Gets Fixed

2009-11-03T21:45:54Z

On Sunday, Chevron became the first oil company to come under a Yes Men Audience Attack.

(See Video, Photos, and Yes Man Andy Bichlbaum's Blog of event)

Chevron was chosen because Chevron is different from other oil companies.

It is bigger than all but three (only ExxonMobil, BP and Shell are larger). It is facing the largest potential corporate liability in history ($27 billion) for causing the world's largest oil spill in the Ecuadorian rainforest. It is the only major U.S. Corporation still operating in Burma and, with its partner Total Oil Corp., is the single largest financial contributor to the Burmese government. It is the dominant private oil producer in both Angola and Kazakhstan, with operations in both countries mired in human rights and environmental abuses. It is the only major oil company to be tried in a U.S. court on charges of mass human rights abuse, including summary execution and torture (for its operations in Nigeria).

It is the only oil company to hire one of the Bush Administration's "torture memo" lawyers (William J. Haynes). It is the largest and most powerful corporation in California, where it is currently being sued for conspiring to fix gasoline prices. It has led the fight to keep California as the only major oil producing state that does not tax oil when it is pumped from the ground, thereby denying the state an extra $1.5 billion annually. It is the largest industrial polluter in the Bay Area and is among the largest single corporate contributors to climate change on the planet.

Chevron is also the focus of one of the world's most unique and well-organized corporate resistance campaigns.

That campaign got a jolt of energy when Yes Man Andy Bichlbaum came to San Francisco on Halloween weekend for a special screening of The Yes Men Fix the World.

Global Exchange and I teamed up with Andy (the movie's co-writer, director, and producer) and a host of the Bay Areas most creative activists, to lead an entire movie audience out of the theater, into the streets, and in protest of Chevron.

We spread the word early, far, and wide: The Yes Men are coming! The Yes Men are coming! They will not only fix the world, they will fix Chevron too!

Larry Bogad, a Yes Man co-hort and professor of Guerilla Theater, helped concoct a masterful street theater scenario. A crack team of protest and street theater organizers was compiled, including David Solnit of the Mobilization for Climate Justice and Rae Abileah of Code Pink. Rock The Bike signed on and the word kept spreading.

On Sunday, the Roxie Theater in San Francisco's Mission District was filled beyond capacity with an audience that came ready to protest. They laughed, clapped, booed, and cheered along with the film. When the movie ended, Andy answered questions, I talked about Chevron, and Larry laid out the protest scenario.

Three Chevron executives, protected from the early ravages of climate change in SurvivaBalls, were dragged up the street by dozens of Chevron minions with nothing but haz-mat suits to protect them. Those unable to afford any protection (i.e. The Dead) followed close behind. Next came resistance: the Chevron street sweepers, actively cleaning up Chevron's messes who were followed by the protesters, ready to change the story.

We didn't have a permit, but we took a lane of traffic on 16th street anyway. The police first tried to intervene, then they "joined in," blocking traffic on our way to Market and Castro.

As we marched and the music blared, people literally came out of their houses and off of the streets to join in. Passersby eagerly took postcards detailing Chevron's corporate crimes.

Once we arrived at the gas station, I welcomed everyone and explained that we were at an independent Chevron (as opposed to corporate) station, whose owner (whom I'd been speaking with regularly) had his own list of grievances with his corporate boss. The particular station was not our target of protest, but rather, the Chevron Corporation itself.

Larry and Andy than led the entire crowd in a series of Tableaux Morts. The Chevron executives in their SurvivaBalls drained the lifeblood from the masses. The people began to rebel, forcing the SurvivaBalls into the "turtle" position to fend off the attacks. Ultimately, the separate groups saw their common purpose in resisting Chevron's abuses. The dead rose, the Chevron minions rebelled, and the sweepers and protesters joined together. They all chased the Chevron executives off into the distance, and then danced in the streets, rejoicing in their shared victory!

The Chevron Program I direct at Global Exchange seeks to unite Chevron affected communities across the United States and around the world. By uniting these communities, we build strength from each other, and become a movement. By expanding, strengthening, and highlighting this movement, we bring in more allies and create a powerful advocacy base for real policy change. Those changes will reign in Chevron, and by extension, the entire oil industry. And, by raising the voices of those hardest hit by the true cost of oil and exposing how we all ultimately pay the price, we help move the world more rapidly away from oil as an energy resource altogether.

U.S. Officials Visit Burma For Highest Level Talks In A Decade

2009-11-03T10:51:34Z

The U.S. sent its highest-ranking delegation of diplomats to Myanmar in more than a decade Tuesday as it intensified its efforts to encourage democratic change in the secretive military-run nation.

Jenny Darroch: McDonald's on Ice

2009-10-29T17:57:30Z

I read today that McDonald's has pulled out of Iceland.

The decision to withdraw is a combination of rising costs due to the weak Kronar against the German Mark (all products for McDonad's in Iceland come from Germany) and the inability to hike prices a further 20% to recoup losses. To raise prices would have made the Big Mac in Iceland the most expensive in the world.

For McDonald's, exiting Iceland is not the first time that the corporation has exited a country. Recent examples include Barbados in 1996 and Bolivia in 2002 (among others).

What is interesting to me is that we always expect big brands such as McDonald's to sustain anything that is put in its path both locally and internationally. In this case, the weak Icelandic economy was just too much. The same almost happened to Starbucks when it launched in Vienna, Austria (the coffee capital of the world). In this case, the problem was taking a standardized product and rolling it out internationally without knowing what local reaction would be.

Necessity is the mother of invention and the owner of the McDonald's Franchise in Iceland is going to reopen as Metro - this time, using local produce. What is likely is that by combining the McDonald's system with local tastes could result in some quite interesting innovations. I'm not sure how Starbucks influenced coffee consumption in Vienna or Vienna influenced coffee consumption in Starbucks but Starbucks is still in Vienna and, yet again, I am sure Starbucks had to make some adjustments in order to succeed.

Jenny Darroch is on the faculty at the Drucker School of Management. She is an expert on marketing strategies that generate growth. See www.MarketingThroughTurbulentTimes.com

Jack Healey: A Missed Opportunity: Human Rights in Asia

2009-10-28T02:09:39Z

In the early 1990s, at the Vienna Human Rights Conference, the Chinese government would not allow the Dalai Lama to enter the building and attend the on-going conference. Now in 2009, President Obama just did the exact same thing by refusing to meet with the Dalai Lama during his visit to Washington, DC. In Vienna, it was more understandable because China forbade it as they sat in the conference as a key player inside the United Nations. The President leads a free nation.

My reaction to the exclusion of the Dalai Lama from the Vienna Human Rights Conference was to carry out a blockade of the conference building entrance as an act of civil disobedience. The New York Times carried a picture of that demonstration. If I could find a venue to organize a similar demonstration of Obama's refusal to meet with the Dalai Lama this time, I would.

Let me say why.

The Dalai Lama represents the Tibetan people better than most governmental leaders represent theirs. Like Aung San Suu Kyi of Burma, another popular leader kept out of power by her government and again backed by the Chinese. Why is it that he (or she) should suffer these kinds of slights? Should not the Nobel Peace Prize winners have anything to say about this? Is it not correct and proper that the winners of such prestigious awards be able to convene and talk about the state of peace in the world?

China is the answer. China is big. Big in dollars. Big in customers. Big in our national debt. Big in supplying guns, to Burma which itself oppresses its people with a serious determination. Big in human rights abuses. China often sends fearsome messages, in the form of military exercises and threatening diplomacy, to Taiwan. China is big in land and environmental abuse. China is big in labor abuses. Many corporations for fear of China will not do a certain kind of charity(funding of human rights groups for example) . Hillary Clinton, our Secretary of State goes to China and goes easy on their human rights abuses. She was stronger when she spoke at a human rights event in China when she was the First Lady. We human groups are told that she is after a better economic relationship with China and that she needs to go easy. The President follows suit by avoiding the Dalai Lama. The administration is coordinated when it needs dissidence.

Our President, skilled in politics, terribly bright and a former community organizer, is afraid of being seen in public shaking the hand of the Dalai Lama. This is especially ironic in light of Obama receiving this year's Nobel Peace Prize. There are vague promises that Obama can meet with the Dalai Lama later. If later, then why not now? One Nobel winner should be able to meet another Nobel winner without fear. Did not one of the President Roosevelt speak of the freedom from fear as a necessary ingredient for life in a democracy?

Thus, given this kind of timidity, hard questions need to be asked. Can President Obama ask the President of China if the Dalai Lama would be allowed back into Tibet? Take up his old residence? Calm his people? Walk familiar Lhasa streets now that he is in his older years? Hang out with his followers? Pray in monasteries that he knows? Dalai is old and it would be an appropriate gesture by both heads of state.

Tibet is the Dalai Lama's "Vatican." He is non-violent, unlike the Chinese government. Publicly acknowledging the Dalai Lama's cause would be type of change I hoped to see when I gave money to Obama's campaign. Can we advocate that the Dalai Lama be able to return to his home and join his people? Is this too radical?

Better yet, maybe the Dalai Lama ought to do what Gandhi did ...march, not to the sea, but to the mountains. His mountains, Tibet. Maybe. Maybe not. But then, nothing comes from fear, not for the President, not for the Dalai Lama and not for the Chinese -- it is time for the light.

Timothy Garton Ash: Facts Are Subversive

2009-10-27T21:15:40Z

Timothy Garton Ash: Facts Are Subversive

One of Britain's most influential and admired commentators presents his latest volume of dispatches from a troubled world. Timothy Garton Ash witnessed the fall of Milosevic in Serbia, visited Aung San Suu Kyi in Burma, watched the Orange revolution in Ukraine and talked to militant mullahs in Iran.

He discusses these pivotal moments from the past decade, and shares his critical reflections on the future of Europe, multiculturalism and terrorism.

Against every post-modernist in the world, Timothy Garton Ash maintains that there are facts, and that establishing them is both a political and a moral imperative - and an aesthetic one, too.
Date: Thu, 02 Jul 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Location: London, RSA,

Program and discussion: http://fora.tv/2009/07/02/Timothy_Garton_Ash_Facts_Are_Subversive