…Last week, George W Bush was giving some thought to the fondness of young Indians for pizzas. As he prepares for a landmark visit to India – a trip analysts promise will bring ‘India firmly and irrevocably on to the world stage as a major player’ – it is these consumers he wants. In a speech ahead of his visit, he told US listeners: ‘India’s middle class is now estimated at 300 million people. Think about that. That’s greater than the entire population of the United States. India’s middle class is buying air-conditioners, kitchen appliances and washing machines, and a lot of them from American companies such as GE and Whirlpool.’

The Bush administration is acutely aware of India changing. With a growth rate now at 8 per cent, its economy has transformed itself in 15 years from that of a Third World nation to a powerful emerging force aspiring to rival China.

On Wednesday, the President will fly into New Delhi along with a large contingent of business leaders to secure a new relationship with India. The US wants to tap into its vast market: last year US exports grew by more than 30 per cent.

With foreign policy initiatives failing elsewhere, Bush’s advisers are reaching out in new directions. As Japan and Europe grow weaker and China stronger, the administration has seen India as a strategic priority. The world’s largest democracy is, as Bush’s aides chant endlessly, ‘a country sharing our democratic values and commitment to a multi-ethnic, multi-religious society’.
observor.guardian.co.uk

Insults to the Mahatma, ignored by India
George W Bush’s protocol handlers have notified South Block that the American President’s deep belief in his born again faith precludes his visiting Mahatma Gandhi’s Samadhi at New Delhi’s Raj Ghat — during his forthcoming visit to India.

When asked — by reporters on a recent trip aboard Air Force One — if he will be breaking a decades long tradition of foreign dignitaries visiting India paying respect to the Father of India, Mr Bush, as is his wont, was caught off guard and mumbled something about how the Gospel of Jesus Christ views cremation as a pagan practice.

A climate of fear exists in Chechnya caused in large part by “very serious shortcomings” in law enforcement, the UN Human Rights Commissioner has found.

Louise Arbour said she was particularly concerned by the use of torture to extract confessions, and intimidation of those who complained about abuses.

She was speaking after a week-long trip to Russia and the Northern Caucasus.

The region has been plagued by fighting between Russian troops and Chechen separatists for more than a decade.

Ms Arbour said she was pleased to see the attempts at physical reconstruction under way in Chechnya, as well as moves to establish a stable political system.

But Chechnya “has still not been able to move away from a society ruled by force to one governed by the rule of law”, she said.

There was much evidence that “highlight the very serious shortcomings of the law enforcement system… shortcomings that have led to a climate of fear,” she went on.

Ms Arbour also expressed serious concern about the level of abductions of civilians, which many rights groups blame on a security force headed by Chechen Deputy Prime Minister Ramzan Kadyrov.

Earlier in the week, Ms Arbour visited a Chechen refugee camp in neighbouring Ingushetia, where tens of thousands fled to escape the conflict.

She said she was “stunned” at the squalid conditions of the camp, and described the refugees as living in “exceptional poverty” for a long time, RIA Novosti reported.
bbc.co.uk

Several hundred IRA supporters attacked police on Dublin’s central boulevard and near the parliament building today to prevent an unprecedented Protestant parade.

In riotous scenes rarely seen in the Republic of Ireland, protesters hurled bottles, bricks and fireworks at police as they tried to clear the hostile crowd from O’Connell Street.
guardian.co.uk

Venezuela is cutting flights by US airlines as relations between the two countries continue to deteriorate.

From 1 March, flights by Delta and Continental Airlines will be cut by up to 70%, and American Airlines flights will also be affected, officials say.

They accuse the US – which imposed a similar ban on Venezuela 10 years ago – of failing to give Venezuelan carriers equal access to American soil.

Relations between the two countries have long been strained.

They have hit new lows in recent weeks after a tit-for-tat expulsion row over allegations of spying, and a fierce exchange of words between US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez.
bbc.co.uk

A Nigerian court has ordered oil giant Shell and its partners to pay $1.5bn to the Ijaw people of the Delta region.

The Ijaw have been fighting since 2000 for compensation for environmental degradation in the oil-rich region.

They took the case to court after Shell refused to make the payment ordered by Nigeria’s parliament.

Ijaw militants have staged a spate of attacks against Shell facilities recently and are holding seven foreign oil workers hostage.

Following the violence, Shell – the biggest oil producer in Nigeria – has halved its output from the country.

Shell says it believes there is no evidence to support the claim, and will appeal against the ruling.

A statement said: “We remain committed to dialogue with the Ijaw people.”

Lawyers for the Shell Petroleum Development Company argued in the federal court in Port Harcourt that the joint committee of the National Assembly that made the order in 2000 did not have the power to compel the oil company to make the payment.

But Judge Okechukwu Okeke ruled that since both sides had agreed to go before the National Assembly, the order was binding on both sides.

Ijaw community leader Ngo Nac-Eteli said that if Shell wanted to buy time by taking the case to the appeal court, the company would not be allowed to operate on Ijaw land until the case was settled.
bbc.co.uk

Nigerians Make Demands, With Hostage’s Support
OKERENKOKO, Nigeria Feb. 24 — Nigerian militants who last week abducted nine foreign oil workers, including three Americans, demanded Friday that their government commit to jump-starting development in their chronically poor, southern region, which derives little apparent benefit from its vast oil fields.

“We are not troublemaking people,” one of the militants told a group of reporters, “but if they want trouble, we will give them trouble.”

The militants allowed one of the American hostages to speak to the journalists. Despite the weaponry arrayed around him, Macon Hawkins, 68, of Kosciusko, Tex., appeared to be in good spirits and said he and the other hostages were safe. But he urged President Bush and the United Nations to help resolve the increasingly violent standoff between the Nigerian government and the people of this restive area.

“They get nothing out of the oil, and they produce all of the oil,” Hawkins said of the Niger Delta residents. “They’re tired of it, so they’re going to fight, and they’re going to fight until death.”

He added, “Tell President Bush we want to get this thing settled.”

Hawkins joked with the journalists about the group’s conditions in captivity, which include air-conditioned rooms to sleep in and noodles for meals. He said he had been provided with medicine to control his diabetes and that the other eight hostages were being treated so well they were getting “fat and sassy.”

BAGHDAD, Iraq – A car bomb exploded in a Shiite holy city and 13 members of one Shiite family were gunned down northeast of the capital Saturday in a surge of attacks that killed at least 30 people despite heightened security aimed at curbing sectarian violence following the bombing of a revered Shiite shrine.

At least one more Sunni mosque was attacked in Baghdad on Saturday after two rockets were fired at a Shiite mosque in Tuz Khormato, north of the capital, the previous night. Shooting also broke out near the home of a prominent Sunni cleric as the funeral procession for an Al-Arabiya TV correspondent slain in sectarian violence was passing by. Police believed the procession was the target.

The violence occurred despite an extraordinary daytime curfew in Baghdad and three surrounding provinces. Stretched security forces could not be everywhere to contain attacks that have killed more than 150 people since Wednesday’s shrine bombing and pushed Iraq to the brink of civil war.
news.yahoo.com

Death-squad “democracy” in Iraq
…Sunni leaders estimate that death squads have murdered some 1,600 Sunnis so far. This scale of killing by paramilitary groups couldn’t take place without tacit, if not outright official, support.

That means from the U.S., too. In early 2005, Pentagon war planners around Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld talked of pursuing the “Salvador option”–outsourcing the work of cracking down on Sunni resistance fighters to Shiite and Kurdish paramilitary forces, as the U.S. did during its secret wars on left-wing movements in Central America. Now we have evidence that the “Salvador option” is in full swing.

Pentagon-Controlled Iraqi National Guard Implicated in Samarra Mosque Bombing
As the “non-partisan” Council on Foreign Relations assures us, Iraqi National Guard troops are trained and fully “vetted” by the Pentagon. “National guard troops receive three weeks of formal training and then on-the-job training by working with U.S. forces,” a CFR backgrounder explains. “The National Guard has replaced the Iraqi Civil Defense Corps as the largest security force in Iraq,” reports the World Tribune. “The 45,000-member force has been trained and equipped by the United States, with help from Britain and Jordan.” In short, the Iraqi National Guard is a subsidiary of the Pentagon, organized and trained to do the bidding of the Anglo-American occupation forces and their installed minions. Thus it should come as no surprise the Iraqi National Guard may play an important role in the recent bombing of the Golden Dome mosque in Samarra, according to locals.

Since it is unreasonable to expect Baghdad hotel-bound corporate media hacks to report anything beyond what is read from a Pentagon script inside the Green Zone, most Americans remain unaware of details implicating the Iraqi National Guard in the bombing. According to reports appearing on the humanitarian Iraqi League organization’s Iraqi Rabita website and translated into English by the Iraqi blogger Baghdad Dweller (see original Arabic here and here), at least two witnesses saw “unusual activities by the ING [Iraqi National Guard] in the area around the mosque.” Two mosque guards reported four men in ING uniforms had blindfolded them and planted explosives. A second witness, Muhammad al-Samarrai, the owner of an internet cafe in the area, was told to stay in his store and not leave the area. From 11 pm until 6:30 am, ten minutes before two bombs were detonated, the area surrounding the mosque was patrolled by “joint forces of Iraqi ING and Americans,” according to al-Samarrai.

Regarding the cuts to operational capacity of the Coast Guard and the inadequacy of Customs, James Ridgeway writes:

This is a dream setup for any arms or dope dealer, and that’s exactly what the United Arab Emirates is all about.The ties between its top officials and royal family with the Taliban and Al Qaeda go back at least a decade.

The UAE is not only the center of financial dealings in the Persian Gulf, it is switching central for dope and arms dealing. The dope comes out of Afghanistan into the UAE where tax monies are collected and used to buy arms, which were sent back in for the Taliban. Some of this money is thought to have helped finance the 9-11 attacks. A money trail is set forth in the government’s filings in the Moussaoui case.

Long at the center of this operation is the mysterious Russian arms dealer, Victor Bout…. His planes are registered to various companies all operating out of the United Arab Emirates.

In fact, the United Arab Emirates have been viewed as hub for trade going and coming to Afghanistan, with drugs coming from Afghanistan on their way to the West, and weapons from Bout, going back. While transportation was via Bout’s different air cargo interests, it also involved the Afghan state airlines, called Ariana Airlines. The airline was controlled by Al Qaeda. Al Qaeda agents masquerading as Ariana employees flew out of Afghanistan, through Sharjah, one of the emirates, and on to points west.

Bout, naturally enough for someone beyond the reach of any arm of justice, has been a wildly successful contractor to United States forces in Iraq. Last month, Douglas Farah wrote of Bout’s Pentagon connections:

Wisconsin Democratic Senator Russell Feingold first raised the issue of Bout’s coalition military contracts on May 18, 2004, in a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing. Feingold asked then-Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz and then-Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage about reports of U.S. military links to Bout’s companies. It took Wolfowitz eight months to respond.

In a January 31, 2005, letter to Feingold, Wolfowitz acknowledged that “both the U.S. Army and the Coalition Provisional Authority (in Iraq) did conduct business with companies that, in turn, subcontracted work to second tier suppliers who leased aircraft owned by companies associated with Mr. Bout…. Although we are aware of a few companies that are connected to Mr. Bout, most notably Air Bas and Jetline, we suspect Mr. Bout has other companies or enterprises unknown to the Government.”

In fact, as the Los Angeles Times first reported in 2004, Bout aircraft were in constant motion into Iraq after the invasion. A single Bout company, Irbis, flew more than 140 flights into Iraq for the U.S. military and its contractors by the end of 2004.

Over a period of eight years, the United States government has repeatedly asked the UAE to shut down Bout’s businesse “as required by UN charter,” but Dubai only ventures that it will “study” the issue. Of course: not only are the UAE’s rulers Bout’s business partners, but they can see the US winking at them even as it makes the “demand.”

So there we have it, and a familiar narrative it is, too. Many observers have already concluded that the UAE deal wasn’t about security – after all, the enemy is already within – but about money. It should be clear now what kind of money (the kind that’s unaccounted for – the best kind), and why Bush made this, of all causes, the first for which he vowed to use a veto in its defense.

This seems a through the looking glass moment for many who stuck by the rhetoric of the administration until now. If this were a legitimate government and these were normal times, its officials would be back on their heels if they were still on their feet. But instead, they’re even emboldened to piss away their base with a move that makes no political sense. But then, we’re way past politics here.
rigorousintuition.blogspot.com

Village Voice: Dubai’s Port of No Return

TONY BLAIR was accused last night by the Archbishop of York of helping the US to run “Idi Amin-style” tactics in the war on terror.

Mr Blair was challenged by Dr John Sentamu after refusing to condemn Guantanamo Bay beyond calling the prison camp run by the US in Cuba an “anomaly”.

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan – Taleban guerrillas killed four Afghan soldiers in an ambush in the restive southern province of Helmand where British troops have begun setting up bases as part of an expanded NATO deployment.
khaleejtimes.com

WASHINGTON – Iran has replaced Iraq as the country Americans consider to be their greatest enemy, according to a Gallup Poll. Canada and Great Britain were ranked as America’s best friends.

The percentage of Americans with a positive view of France and Germany has moved up sharply since 2003, the poll said, when the two allies challenged President Bush’s Iraq policy.

Thirty-one percent of Americans gave the nod to Iran as the worst enemy in polling of 1,002 adults between Feb. 6-9.

This represented an increase from 14 percent last year, and appeared to reflect growing American concern over the potential for the Islamic republic to acquire nuclear weapons.

Twenty-two percent listed Iraq as the worst enemy, the same total as a year ago.
sanluisobispo.com

George Bush Accuses Iran of Financing Terror Groups
Washington. US President George Bush accused Iran of financing terror groups, AFP reported. According to Bush, Iran is “the main sponsor of terrorism”. He warned that the USA would not allow Tehran to produce nuclear weapons.

“The Iranian authorities, which finance terrorist activities, can’t have the most dangerous weapons”, the US President stated.

HAARETZ–Iranian advisor: We’ll strike Dimona in response to U.S. attack
If the United States launches an attack on Iran, the Islamic republic will retaliate with a military strike on Israel’s main nuclear facility.

Dr. Abasi, an advisor to Iran’s Revolutionary Guard, said Tehran would respond to an American attack with strikes on the Dimona nuclear reactor and other strategic Israeli sites such as the port city of Haifa and the Zakhariya area.

Haifa is also home to a large concentration of chemical factories and oil refineries.