RABAT (Reuters) – Secretary of State Colin Powell on Saturday said Middle Eastern economic and political reform would help defeat terrorism but many Arabs dismissed his call and demanded an end to the Arab-Israeli conflict.

With continued violence in U.S.-occupied Iraq and the Palestinian question unresolved, the one-day “Forum for the Future” conference in Morocco was viewed by many in the Middle East as U.S. meddling even though American officials insist change must come from within the region.

Powell insisted that Washington was committed to working actively with Palestinians and Israelis to solve the conflict but that reforms in the region could not wait.

“Now is not the time to argue about the pace of democratic reform or whether economic reform must precede political reform,” he told delegates from nearly 30 countries.

“All of us confront the daily threat of terrorism. To defeat the murderous extremists in our midst we must work together to address the causes of despair and frustration that extremists exploit for their own ends,” he said.

Despite criticism of the meeting about 20 Arab, African, Middle Eastern and Asian countries attended the gathering, along with members of the Group of Eight (G8) industrial states, who launched the idea of promoting reform across the region in June.

Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal, dismissing any ideas of “clashes of civilizations” between the Western and Arab worlds, said “the real bone of contention” was a perceived bias on the part of the United States toward Israel.

“It remains to be seen if for the first time we can be honest with each other and commit ourselves to ending the Arab-Israeli conflict,” he told delegates.

…While ministers talked behind closed doors, about 150 human rights activists and Islamists tried to stage a sit-in outside the Foreign Ministry building. The protesters were dispersed by police. There were no incidents.

“The U.S. administration can never bring us a democratic project,” said Abdlehamid Amine, head of Morocco’s main independent humans right group AMDH. “Look what happened at Abu Ghraib (prison in Iraq), at Guantanamo, Falluja,” referring to reported abuses by U.S. forces.

Independent Moroccan news magazine Le Journal Hebdomadaire called the meeting’s organizers “delusional” and branded the forum “a flop” even before it took place.
Full Article:nytimes.com

“I was just in the editing room, working on the last piece,” Bill Moyers says. “I thought: `I’ve done this so many times, and each one is as difficult as the last one.’ Maybe finally I’ve broken the habit.”

It hasn’t been so much a habit for Moyers as a truth-telling mission during his three decades as a TV journalist. But come next week, he will sign off from “Now,” the weekly PBS newsmagazine he began in 2002, as, at age 70, he retires from television.

“I’m going out telling the story that I think is the biggest story of our time: how the right-wing media has become a partisan propaganda arm of the Republican National Committee,” says Moyers. “We have an ideological press that’s interested in the election of Republicans, and a mainstream press that’s interested in the bottom line. Therefore, we don’t have a vigilant, independent press whose interest is the American people.”
Full Article:asia.news.yahoo.com

Sexual assaults, verbal abuse and intimidation by male teachers and pupils are deterring thousands of girls from attending schools across the world, according to research published by the international development agency ActionAid.
Violence or the fear of violence have become “serious barriers” to girls’ education in poorer countries around the world, a problem that has been largely ignored by the international community, but one that could prove an obstacle to meeting internationally agreed education targets, said the organisation.

ActionAid is calling on governments to do more to outlaw violence against girls, which in some countries is seen as an acceptable practice.
Full Article: guardian.co.uk

So violence against girls and women is only widely practiced and seen as ‘acceptable’ in ‘poorer countries’? And laws are the answer?

By MATT KELLEY

Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) – The Bush administration has spent more than $65 million in the past two years to aid political organizations in Ukraine, paying to bring opposition leader Viktor Yushchenko to meet U.S. leaders and helping to underwrite exit polls indicating he won last month’s disputed runoff election.

U.S. officials say the activities don’t amount to interference in Ukraine’s election, as Russian President Vladimir Putin alleges, but are part of the $1 billion the State Department spends each year trying to build democracy worldwide.

No U.S. money was sent directly to Ukrainian political parties, the officials say. In most cases, it was funneled through organizations like the Carnegie Foundation or through groups aligned with Republicans and Democrats that organized election training, with human rights forums or with independent news outlets.

But officials acknowledge some of the money helped train groups and individuals opposed to the Russian-backed government candidate – people who now call themselves part of the Orange revolution.

For example, one group that got grants through U.S.-funded foundations is the Center for Political and Legal Reforms, whose Web site has a link to Yushchenko’s home page under the heading “partners.” Another project funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development brought a Center for Political and Legal Reforms official to Washington last year for a three-week training session on political advocacy.

“There’s this myth that the Americans go into a country and, presto, you get a revolution,” said Lorne Craner, a former State Department official who heads the International Republican Institute, which received $25.9 million last year to encourage democracy in Ukraine and more than 50 other countries.

“It’s not the case that Americans can get 2 million people to turn out on the streets. The people themselves decide to do that,” Craner said.

White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan said, “There’s accountability in place. We make sure that money is being used for the purposes for which it’s assigned or designated.”
Full Article:guardian.co.uk

Sander Hicks and the 9/11 Truth Movement
By Mickey Z.

“…what I’m saying is that the $400 billion a year war machine and the $40 billion a year intelligence machine had its paw prints all over these guys. They didn’t underestimate them. They allowed these guys to get riled up for a cause, and then do something that would in the end, hurt that cause greatly. Because it would justify a US military expansion.

The real racist tragedy is when you have 9/11 people who know nothing about history or foreign policy or politics who advance theories that completely ignore smoking guns, like the CIA/ISI connection. Their theories tend to veer into the esoteric. Really imaginative territory, like the “In Plane Sight” video. I’m not sure who they blame, they seem to think that the attack originated deep inside the war machine itself. But Arab anger is real. The real trick is to not only see it, but to understand it, and then to understand how it could have been manipulated. In the end, double agent Atta swore allegiance to Bin Laden, and that’s who he died for. He cared very deeply about the Palestinian “homeland” as he called it. If he did have US intel connections, as the evidence shows, he was probably thinking he could play both sides and then have it blow up in our face. What he didn’t figure is his handlers were one step ahead of him.”
Full Interview: counterpunch.org

by Ralph Nader
It’s Time to Disclose the Real Casualty Figures
Dear President Bush:

On June 30, 2004, I wrote you an open letter urging that your Administration include, in the U.S. casualty toll, in Iraq:
(1) injuries in non-combat situations;

(2) personnel who have come down with disabling diseases; and

(3) cases of mental trauma requiring evacuation from Iraq.

You did not respond, nor did Senator John Kerry, who received a copy of the letter.

I should have added three additional categories which are also not part of the official casualty count – – (4) fatalities that occur after U.S. military personnel are brought stateside; (5) soldiers committing suicide in Iraq; and (6) injuries and fatalities incurred by corporate contractors operating in the Iraqi war theatre.

On November 21, 2004, CBS’ 60 Minutes led its program with a segment on the subject of uncounted “non-combat” casualties. They interviewed badly injured soldiers who were upset by their being excluded from the official count, even though they were, in one soldier’s words, “in hostile territory” The Pentagon declined to be interviewed, instead sending a letter that contained information not included in published casualty reports. “More than 15,000 troops with so-called ‘non-battle’ injuries and diseases have been evacuated from Iraq,” wrote the Department of Defense. John Pike, director of GlobalSecurity.org told 60 Minutes that this uncounted casualty figure “would have to be somewhere in the ballpark of over 20, maybe 30,000”.

What’s your problem here? The American people need to know the full casualty toll of U.S. personnel in Iraq and know it regularly and in a timely fashion. Not to do so is disrespectful, especially of the military families, but none more so than of the soldiers themselves. As a severely wounded Chris Schneider told CBS: “Every one of us went over there with the knowledge that we could die. And then they tell you – – you’re wounded – – or your sacrifice doesn’t deserve to be recognized or we don’t deserve to be on their list – – it’s not right. It’s almost disgraceful.”

Soldiers like Chris Schneider, Joel Gomez and Graham Alstrom want to know whether you are going to continue to stonewall their desire for official respect. What shall we tell them and others who seek that simple, decent official recognition? Please do not think that because you are a chronic non-responder to critical questions, you will be able to delay this growing demand indefinitely. Your hit and run photo opportunities with the troops just doesn’t cut the mustard. Stand up and face it. It is the right thing to do by them.
counterpunch.org

Minister wants to build ‘western Islam’ through education

Muslim prayer leaders in France are to be offered university training in French law, civics, history and culture from next autumn as part of a bid to build a moderate “French Islam” that respects human rights and the Republican code, the interior minister said yesterday.
The courses, available initially at two university campuses in Paris will be accompanied by intensive French language lessons if necessary. Both current and future imams will be encouraged to enrol, Dominique de Villepin said in a newspaper interview.

“Today, of the 1,200 imams who practise in our country, 75% are not French and one-third do not even speak our language,” Mr de Villepin told the daily Le Parisien. “This is not acceptable. In France we should have French imams, speaking French.”

A ministry spokeswoman said that the courses would not be compulsory, but most imams would be “strongly advised” to take them. Official student status and temporary residence permits available to those who take up the offer, as well as the possibility of a grant, should also prove an inducement, she added.

“This is all part of our ambition to make France something of a model in Europe in terms of the organisation of the Muslim faith and its assimilation into society,” she said.

Most of France’s estimated 5 million-strong Muslim community, Europe’s largest, is of north African origin, and many imams come directly from Arab countries to preach in France.

Some 40% of imams come from Morocco, 24% from Algeria, 6% from Tunisia, and 16% from Turkey. Their religious training is increasingly likely to have been in fundamentalist Islamic principles that clash with secular French laws.

The promotion of a moderate, European Islam through state education has become a preoccupation of many western governments,
Full Article: guardian.co.uk

It never occurs to reflexive imperialists to question by what right they presume to ‘organize’ someone’s religion for them

United States marine told a refugee hearing for an American war dodger Tuesday that trigger-happy U.S. soldiers in Iraq routinely killed unarmed woman and children, and murdered other Iraqis in violation of international law.

In chilling testimony intended to bolster the asylum claim of compatriot Jeremy Hinzman, former staff sergeant Jimmy Massey recounted how nervous soldiers trained to believe that all Iraqis were potential terrorists often opened fire indiscriminately.

“I was never clear on who the enemy was,” Massey, 33, told the hearing.

“If you have no enemy or you do not know who the enemy is, what are you doing there?”

On several occasions, his soldiers pumped hundreds of bullets into cars that failed to stop at U.S. military checkpoints, killing all occupants – who were later found to be unarmed, Massey said.

On another occasion, marines reacted to a stray bullet by killing a small group of unarmed protesters and bystanders, said Massey, who said he suffers from nightmares and post-traumatic stress disorder.

“I was deeply concerned about the civilian casualties,” he said.

“What they were doing was committing murder.”

Massey’s statements echoed earlier testimony from Hinzman, who says he fled the U.S. military because he believed the invasion of Iraq was illegal, and any violent acts he committed there would be unconscionable.

“This was a criminal war,” Hinzman said.

“Any act of violence in an unjustified conflict is an atrocity.”

Hinzman, 26, deserted his regiment in January just days before being deployed to Iraq, and fears he will be unfairly court-martialled if returned to the United States.

Hinzman told the Immigration and Refugee Board hearing that the U.S. military regarded all Arabs in the Middle East – Iraqis in particular – as potential terrorists to be eliminated.

“We were referring to these people as savages,” Hinzman testified.
Full Article: canada.com

Japan is continuing to put distance between its new defense policy and its post-World War II “peace constitution.”

Planners are seeking to develop long-range precision-guided missile technology capable of attacking enemy ballistic missile bases, according to a draft outline of the mid-term defense buildup plan for fiscal years 2005-2009.

The proposal signals a possible shift in Japan’s defense-oriented policy since long-range missiles could be used to attack overseas targets, including ballistic missile sites.

The draft outline, presented on Dec. 3 by the government at a meeting of the Liberal Democratic Party’s National Defense Division, calls for development of device to be installed on aircraft to jam enemy radar and fire a missile having a range of several hundred kilometers to attack enemy bases.

The device, coupled with the introduction of airborne refueling aircraft and precision-guided bombs, would make it theoretically possible for the Self-Defense Forces to attack “enemy bases” overseas.
Full Article: worldtribune.com

On Capitol Hill, the latest Republican fad is to get in front of a microphone or a TV camera and demand the resignation of Kofi Annan. According to certain members of Congress, the U.N. Secretary General must leave office immediately because of reported corruption in the oil-for-food program.

Leading this mob is Senator Norm Coleman, a Republican from Minnesota who is too impatient to await the results of pending investigations—including the probe that he himself has undertaken as chairman of the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, and the official U.N. inquest directed by former Federal Reserve chairman Paul Volcker.

In an essay that appeared in The Wall Street Journal on Dec. 1, Mr. Coleman held Mr. Annan solely responsible for Saddam Hussein’s alleged looting of more than $21 billion from the oil-for-food program. He accused Mr. Annan of impeding his investigation. He noted with shock that Mr. Annan’s son Kojo had been hired by a U.N. contractor involved in the program.
“Mr. Annan was at the helm of the U.N. for all but a few days of the Oil-for-Food program, and he must, therefore, be held accountable for the U.N.’s utter failure to detect or stop Saddam’s abuses,” the Senator claimed. Until the Secretary General departs, he wrote, “the world will never be able to learn the full extent of the bribes, kickbacks and under-the-table payments that took place under the U.N.’s collective nose.”

Speaking on the Fox News Channel, Mr. Coleman expressed confidence that “many” of his colleagues would soon join his call for the Secretary General’s resignation. But not every Senator yearns for the McCarthyite method of convicting and sentencing Mr. Annan before the evidence is in.

Senator John McCain, for instance, sounds utterly unimpressed by Mr. Coleman’s grandstanding.

Asked whether he believes that Mr. Annan should step down, the Arizona Republican and outspoken hawk replied, “No. I think that we should have a full and complete investigation and then make decisions like that. Am I disturbed when I hear that his son was on payroll? Of course I’m disturbed about it, and apparently Kofi Annan was [disturbed] also.” He added, “I think Coleman is kind of a symptom of some dissatisfaction within Congress about the U.N.—but no, I think we need a full and complete investigation, and there’s plenty of time to decide whether people should keep their jobs or not.”
Full Article: observor.com

UN diplomats give Annan standing ovation
sgnews.yahoo.com