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Do we still pretend that we abide by treaties?

Mon, 16 Feb 2009 00:00:00 -0800

Salon - By Glenn Greenwald - Feb. 16 (Opinion) - The U.S. really has bound itself to a treaty called the Convention Against Torture, signed by Ronald Reagan in 1988 and ratified by the U.S. Senate in 1994. When there are credible allegations that government officials have participated or been complicit in torture, that Convention really does compel all signatories -- in language as clear as can be devised -- to "submit the case to its competent authorities for the purpose of prosecution" (Art. 7(1)). And the treaty explicitly bars the standard excuses that America's political class is currently offering for refusing to investigate and prosecute:

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Think Again: Talking with Iran

Mon, 16 Feb 2009 00:00:00 -0800

Foreign Policy - By Hillary Mann Leverett - Feb. 16 (Opinion) - No president -- no matter how reformist or conservative in orientation -- will be able to force through significant changes in Iranian foreign policy without the acquiescence of other power centers, most notably the supreme leader.

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The Most Dangerous Place in the World

Wed, 18 Feb 2009 00:00:00 -0800

Foreign Policy - By Jeffrey Gettleman - Feb. 18 (Special Report) - Beyond the airport is one of the world’s most stunning monuments to conflict: block after block, mile after mile, of scorched, gutted-out buildings. Mogadishu’s Italianate architecture, once a gem along the Indian Ocean, has been reduced to a pile of machine-gun-chewed bricks. Somalia has been ripped apart by violence since the central government imploded in 1991. Eighteen years and 14 failed attempts at a government later, the killing goes on and on and on—suicide bombs, white phosphorus bombs, beheadings, medieval-style stonings, teenage troops high on the local drug called khat blasting away at each other and anything in between. Even U.S. cruise missiles occasionally slam down from the sky. It’s the same violent free-for-all on the seas. Somalia’s pirates are threatening to choke off one of the most strategic waterways in the world, the Gulf of Aden, which 20,000 ships pass through every year. These heavily armed buccaneers hijacked more than 40 vessels in 2008, netting as much as $100 million in ransom. It’s the greatest piracy epidemic of modern times.

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State of War

Sat, 21 Feb 2009 00:00:00 -0800

Foreign Policy - By Sam Quinones - Feb. 21 (Special Report) - I’ve traveled through most of Mexico’s 31 states. I’ve written two books about the country. And yet I now struggle to recognize the place. Mexico is wracked by a criminal-capitalist insurgency. It is fighting for its life. And most Americans seem to have no idea what’s happening right next door.

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Obama's Iran strategy

Sun, 22 Feb 2009 00:00:00 -0800

Los Angeles Times - By Doyle McManus - Feb. 22 (News Analysis) - President Obama is working against time to untangle 30 years of enmity and prevent Iran from building a nuclear bomb, but even his own advisors know the chance of success is slim. So they also have been working on Plan B: What do we do if Iran gets the bomb? Today, the Obama administration is debating its Iran policy behind closed doors. Last year, however, four of its key appointees wrote about the issue as private citizens, and their writings suggest they are already planning for how to handle a nuclear Iran.

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Future of Public Diplomacy Unsettled at State

Thu, 19 Feb 2009 00:00:00 -0800

Washington Independent - By Spencer Ackerman - Feb. 19 (News Report) - As President Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton near an announcement of a top State Department official to promote the United States’s image abroad, some veterans of the public diplomacy field wonder if the administration views job as a national security position or a public relations one.

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Turkey could furnish a safe way home as US departs Iraq

Wed, 18 Feb 2009 00:00:00 -0800

Christian Science Monitor - By Gordon Lubold - Feb. 18 (News Analysis) - Turkey is likely to play a prominent role as the US begins to remove thousands of tons of equipment and supplies from Iraq over the next year or so. The American military has been quietly shipping construction materials, food, fuel, and other nonlethal items into Iraq through Turkey using a two-lane commercial border crossing known as the Habur Gate in southeastern Turkey. But as the US considers its options for pulling out of Iraq – and the pace of that redeployment – the route through Turkey may play a conspicuous part, defense officials say.

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Pakistan Makes a Taliban Truce, Creating a Haven

Tue, 17 Feb 2009 00:00:00 -0800

New York Times - By Jane Perlez - Feb. 17 (News Report) - ... some Pakistani officials have recently argued that a truce was necessary in Swat because the army was unable to fight a guerrilla insurgency and civilians were suffering in the conflict.

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Moscow again eyes Afghanistan 20 years after retreat

Mon, 16 Feb 2009 00:00:00 -0800

Christian Science Monitor - By Fred Weir - Feb. 16 (Special Report) - When the USSR ended its disastrous near decade-long occupation of Afghanistan – the last Soviet troops were extracted 20 years ago Sunday – war hero Gen. Makhmut Gareyev was left behind to advise the Kremlin's client regime on means of survival. He too fled three years later as waves of Islamist rebels, formerly armed by the US, hammered at the gates of Kabul.

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CIA Helped India, Pakistan Share Secrets in Probe of Mumbai Siege

Mon, 16 Feb 2009 00:00:00 -0800

Washington Post - By Joby Warrick, Karen DeYoung - Feb. 16 (Special Report) - In the aftermath of the Mumbai terrorist attacks, the CIA orchestrated back-channel intelligence exchanges between India and Pakistan, allowing the two former enemies to quietly share highly sensitive evidence while the Americans served as neutral arbiters, according to U.S. and foreign government...

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Secretary Of State Hillary Clinton's Trip To Asia

Wed, 18 Feb 2009 00:00:00 -0800

Council on Foreign Relations - By Paul B. Stares - Feb. 18 (Interview) - he Japanese are clearly very happy that Secretary Clinton is beginning with her Asia trip with Japan. And they clearly are reassured that Japan still counts in Washington's calculus. Tell us what are the leading sort of issues that she's going to be bringing up with the Japanese and what she's looking to hear from them.

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In Canada, Obama gets warm welcome – and tips on managing an economy

Sat, 21 Feb 2009 00:00:00 -0800

Christian Science Monitor - By Susan Bourette - Feb. 21 (News Report) - For his first foreign visit as president, Barack Obama chose a country where no major banks have failed, home foreclosures pale by comparison with those in the United States, corporate and consumer debt is low, and citizens enjoy universal health care.

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As U.S. lawmakers visit, Mideast ponders what comes next

Fri, 20 Feb 2009 00:00:00 -0800

McClatchy - By Dion Nissenbaum - Feb. 20 (News Report) - For the first time in nearly a decade, U.S. lawmakers toured the isolated, battle-scarred Gaza Strip Thursday in a high-profile visit that came as the new Obama administration in Washington is developing its diplomatic priorities for the Middle East.

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U.S. Concerned About Pakistan's Swat Valley Deal

Thu, 19 Feb 2009 00:00:00 -0800

Morning Edition - By Philip Reeves, Ari Shapiro - Feb. 19 (News Report) - Pakistan's government says it is implementing Islamic law in the Swat Valley in exchange for a truce with Taliban militants. The deal has raised concern in the West. The cease-fire has been criticized as giving in to militants, and it's feared the deal could embolden other militant groups in Pakistan.

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Afghan Mission Murky As Troop Deployment Looms

Mon, 23 Feb 2009 00:00:00 -0800

All Things Considered - By Mary Louise Kelly - Feb. 23 (News Analysis) - President Obama has announced he's sending 17,000 more troops to Afghanistan, but he hasn't yet announced what his overall strategy for the country will be. Obama says he wants to hear first from all his advisers and military commanders, but there are also the views of U.S. allies to consider. And that's a long list, making coordinating all the international efforts in Afghanistan a massive problem in itself.

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West Bank Land Seized As Israel Looks to Build

Tue, 17 Feb 2009 00:00:00 -0800

Associated Press - By Karin Laub - Feb. 17 (News Report) - Plans to expand a West Bank settlement by up to 2,500 homes drew Palestinian condemnation Monday and presented an early test for President Obama, whose Middle East envoy is well known for opposing such construction.

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Clinton Lauds U.S.-Japanese Relationship During Asia Trip

Tue, 17 Feb 2009 00:00:00 -0800

Washington Post - By Glenn Kessler, Blaine Harden - Feb. 17 (News Analysis) - The visit also helps sooth a national neurosis called "Japan passing." The term came to haunt Japan after President Bill Clinton made a nine-day visit to China in 1998 and did not drop by Japan to say hello. That non-visit by the secretary of state's husband helped spark what has become a chronic Japanese worry: That the focus of U.S. policy in East Asia has permanently shifted to China, when it is not obsessed with the interminable question of persuading North Korea to get rid of nuclear weapons.

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Don't Let the Mullahs Run Out the Clock

Tue, 17 Feb 2009 00:00:00 -0800

Slate - By Christopher Hitchens - Feb. 17 (Opinion) - The idea of direct and transparent negotiations with the Iranians is not wrong in principle, but it depends on which Iranians are the actual or potential partners. The president can address the Iranian people directly if he chooses, from the podium of the United Nations (as I urged Bush to do). He can tell them that just as the United States can and will help them to build civilian nuclear reactors, so it will not stand still and watch all Iran's agreements with international bodies be flagrantly broken.

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Mrs. Clinton Goes to Asia

Mon, 16 Feb 2009 00:00:00 -0800

National Review - By Dan Blumenthal - Feb. 16 (Opinion) - In fashioning her Asia policy, Secretary Clinton has a chance to make a clean break with her predecessors, who tended to view every Asian challenge in isolation. The United States can begin to view Asia as a whole, with interconnected problems and multilateral solutions.

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Obama orders more troops to Afghanistan

Wed, 18 Feb 2009 00:00:00 -0800

Los Angeles Times - By Julian E. Barnes, Greg Miller - Feb. 18 (News Report) - The deployment, to total 17,000 soldiers and Marines, will double the number of U.S. combat brigades at a time of tension with Afghanistan's weak government over civilian casualties.

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More Than 2,100 Civilians Killed In Afghanistan In 2008, UN Finds

Tue, 17 Feb 2009 00:00:00 -0800

Radio Free Europe - Feb. 17 (News Report) - More than 2,100 civilians were killed in Afghanistan last year, 40 percent more than 2007, the United Nations says, a further sign of worsening security seven years after U.S.-led forces toppled the Taliban.

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Hillary Clinton tours Asia

Tue, 17 Feb 2009 00:00:00 -0800

Economist - Feb. 17 (News Analysis) - AMERICA’S new secretary of state is making a cautious start to an awkward job in unenviable circumstances. This week Hillary Clinton started her first official foreign tour in Asia, choosing to visit a region beset by severe economic and financial gloom

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Pakistan, Afghanistan and the U.S. to Begin Talks

Fri, 20 Feb 2009 00:00:00 -0800

Newsweek - By Michael Hirsch - Feb. 20 (News Analysis) - Holbrooke seems keen on applying a similar tactic to one of the most intractable feuds of the present day: between Afghanistan and Pakistan. Next week, acting on a suggestion from Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi, Holbrooke and the Defense Department are convening a four-day trilateral meeting between Pakistan, Afghanistan and the United States in which senior foreign ministry and intelligence officials will come to Washington for direct negotiations.

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Jerusalem's Power Broker

Wed, 18 Feb 2009 00:00:00 -0800

Atlantic Monthly - By Gershom Gorenberg - Feb. 18 (Opinion) - If they chose to, Livni and Netanyahu could form a government together and leave Lieberman as an izgoi in opposition. But that would require agreeing on who becomes prime minister, and so far, such agreement has been out of reach. On Wednesday, back in Israel, Lieberman is expected to tell Peres whom he supports — Netanyahu or Livni. The price paid for his support could make Israel itself an outcast.

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The Emerging Obama Foreign Policy

Wed, 18 Feb 2009 00:00:00 -0800

stratfor.com - By Rodger Baker - Feb. 18 (News Report) - Clinton’s Asia visit is significant largely because it highlights a piece of the evolving Obama foreign policy — a policy that remains centralized under the president via the NSC, and that uses dedicated special envoys and representatives to focus on key trouble spots (and perhaps to avoid some of the interagency bickering that can limit the agencies’ freedom to maneuver). Most importantly, this policy at its core looks to rebuild the sense and reality of American military strength through disengaging from apparently intractable situations, focusing on core competencies rather than reconstruction or nation-building, and calling on allies to take up the slack in security responsibilities. This is what is shaping the first priority for the Obama administration: withdrawal from Iraq not just to demonstrate a different approach than the last president, but also to ensure that the military is ready for use elsewhere.

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