Stories from 2002-07-28

"The NPR's recommendations will affect more than just US planning. Allies and adversaries alike have reacted to the new US nuclear posture with trepidation, wariness, and even anger. Many countries took issue with the new "hit list" of possible US nuclear force targets that included states without nuclear weapons. Countries targeted by the new policy also voiced their disagreement, and may even choose to respond to the policy shift with their own strategy or deployment changes." [more]

"The Bush administration has been surprisingly up front about its intentions of propagating falsehoods. In February, for example, the Pentagon announced a plan to create an Office of Strategic Influence to provide false news and information abroad to help manipulate public opinion and further its military objectives. Following a public outcry, the Pentagon said it would close the office — news that would have sounded more convincing had it not come from a place that just announced it was planning to spread misinformation." [more]

"Amid renewed evidence that pro-nuclear hawks are increasingly holding sway, the Department of Energy's National Nuclear Security Administration is increasing funding for nuclear weapons research and testing programmes. The funding would allow the US to be ready to return to underground tests within 12 months - a requirement of the US Nuclear Posture Review, which was unveiled by the Bush administration this year." [more]

"Khatami's angry response revealed the possibility that, with its bellicose and intolerant words, the Bush administration may well achieve what 20 years of diplomacy has failed to bring about: an alliance between the beleaguered Tehran and Baghdad. Such an alliance would portend further instability in a region that contains two-thirds of the world's proven oil reserves ó and frustrate the United States' aim to be the unchallenged foreign power in the region." [more]

"Mr. Powell has been bested on a number of important issues in recent months by more conservative and ideological figures in the Bush administration. Like the good soldier and loyal adviser that he is, Mr. Powell has swallowed the defeats, defended the party line and turned to the next crisis. The administration, and the nation, would be better served if Mr. Powell's views prevailed more often. The time has come when he should not be so accommodating. He might even throw a tantrum or two." [more]

"Saudi Arabia is teetering on the brink of collapse, fuelling Foreign Office fears of an extremist takeover of one of the West's key allies in the war on terror. Anti-government demonstrations have swept the desert kingdom in the past months in protest at the pro-American stance of the de facto ruler, Prince Abdullah." [more]

"Despite President Bush's repeated bellicose statements about Iraq, many senior U.S. military officers contend that President Saddam Hussein poses no immediate threat and that the United States should continue its policy of containment rather than invade Iraq to force a change of leadership in Baghdad." [more]

"Even if he was guilty of the crime for which he was convicted, Kazmi was nothing to do with al-Qaeda. He was a Shia acitivist and thus, to bin Laden and his people, a heretic. The strong antipathy between al-Qaeda (which has ideological roots in hardline Sunni muslim thought and financial and political roots in hardlien Sunni muslim countries and circles) and the Shias persists notwithstanding clumsy attempts by the Israelis or the Americans to manufacture links to Hizbolllah or the Iranians." [more]

"A UN source said that the report was produced by a team of 'experienced and reputable UN people, who have been in the region a while and know it well'. It states that there was clear evidence that human rights violations had taken place and that coalition forces had arrived on the scene very quickly after the airstrikes and 'cleaned the area', removing evidence of 'shrapnel, bullets and traces of blood'. Women on the scene had their hands tied behind their backs." [more]