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November 23, 2001
Saddam in the Crosshairs
by Jason Vest
WASHINGTON, D.C.—The simmering conflict within the Bush administration over how to prosecute the next phase of the "war on terrorism" suddenly flared up last week as the Taliban fled Kabul. "Where to go next and how big it should be is what's being argued right now—and Baghdad is what's being debated at the moment," said a senior Pentagon official. "This is both an internal discussion at the Pentagon, and one between departments. Our policy guys are thinking Iraq. Our question is, do we make a move earlier than anyone expects?"
To some, this goes well beyond madness: With Osama bin Laden and Al Qaeda still at large and no obvious ties between Bin Laden and Saddam Hussein or Palestinian groups like Hamas or Hezbollah, taking the fight to Baghdad, Syria, or Lebanon makes little military or diplomatic sense. In the wake of the policy and intelligence failures that contributed to September 11, many here take it for granted that the U.S. government needs all the help it can get from its allies, in addition to taking a long, nuanced view as it navigates the shoals of diplomacy in the Arab and Islamic worlds, lest perceived American arrogance-in-action exacerbate already tense ties. At this pole of grand strategy sits Colin Powell's State Department, considered by its detractors to be obsessed with maintaining a tenuous international coalition against Al Qaeda and the Taliban at the expense of swift, decisive, and much more expansive military action. Full Article
Washington reconsiders
By Ibrahim Nafie
No one expected the US to propose -- or impose -- a final settlement to the chronic problems between the Palestinians and Israelis. What we expected was for Washington to take a fresh approach towards resolving the conflict within a framework that would make it possible to halt the deteriorating situation and bring both sides back to the negotiating table, reviving hopes for a just and permanent solution. What US Secretary of State Colin Powell has put forward meets, at least in part, such expectations.
The Powell proposal, as a whole, marks an important turning point in Washington's attitudes towards the peace process, in that it offers something that can be built upon, but only if it can be put into effect. Full Article
America's 'disappeared'
By Mohamed Hakki
Shortly after the terrorist attack against the New York Twin Towers on 11 September, many people said nothing would be the same again. But nobody ever thought that Americans' civil liberties and human rights would be subject to interpretation by their own government. On 13 November, US President George W Bush signed an order allowing people accused of terrorism to be tried by a special military commission instead of civilian courts.
White House counsel Albert Gonzales said a military commission could have several advantages over a civilian court. The main argument that the government has used to frighten people into accepting this shrinking of civil rights is that "this is a global war" -- presumably meaning that extreme methods are in order. It is easier to protect the sources and methods of investigators in military proceedings. Full Article
The truths they never tell us
By John Pilger
Polite society's bombers may not have to wait long for round two. The US vice-president, Dick Cheney, warned last week that America could take action against '40 to 50 countries'. Somalia, allegedly a 'haven' for al-Qaeda, joins Iraq at the top of a list of potential targets. Cheered by having replaced Afghanistan's bad terrorists with America's good terrorists, the US defence secretary, Donald Rumsfeld, has asked the Pentagon to 'think the unthinkable', having rejected its 'post-Afghanistan options' as 'not radical enough'.
An American attack on Somalia, wrote the Guardian's man at the Foreign Office, 'would offer an opportunity to settle an old score: 18 US soldiers were brutally killed there in 1993 . . .' He neglected to mention that the US Marines left between 7,000 and 10,000 Somali dead, according to the CIA. Eighteen American lives are worthy of score-settling; thousands of Somali lives are not.
Somalia will provide an ideal practice run for the final destruction of Iraq. However, as the Wall Street Journal reports, Iraq presents a 'dilemma', because 'few targets remain'. 'We're down to the last outhouse,' said a US official, referring to the almost daily bombing of Iraq that is not news. Having survived the 1991 Gulf war, Saddam Hussein's grip on Iraq has since been reinforced by one of the most ruthless blockades in modern times, policed by his former amours and arms suppliers in Washington and London. Safe in his British-built bunkers, Saddam will survive a renewed blitz - unlike the Iraqi people, held hostage to the compliance of their dictator to America's ever-shifting demands. Full Article
Vanished victims of Israelis return to accuse Sharon
By Julie Flint
Early on 18 September 1982, in the closing moments of the Sabra and Chatila massacre in which Israel's Lebanese Christian militia allies slaughtered up to 1,500 Palestinian refugees, Sana Mahmoud Sersawi thought she was finally about to die.
The militiamen withdrawing from the Palestinian camps in Beirut had marched her, together with several hundred other unarmed civilians, to the edge of the Shatila camp. There they levelled their guns.
On that desolate corner, in the fourth month of Israel's invasion of Lebanon, Sana believes that Israeli soldiers saved her life. It was 36 hours since the Israeli commanders who sent the Lebanese Forces militia into the camps had received the first reports of atrocities. Full Article
