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The diplomatic row between the United States and Israel is being fanned yet again as Israeli officials reject demands by Washington to withdraw plans for further settlements in the disputed East Jerusalem territory. “We must tell the American government that there are things we can do and things we cannot do,” says Dore Gold, a former Israeli ambassador to the United Nations. “Freezing building in East Jerusalem is one of those things we cannot do.” Vice President Joe Biden’s visit to Israel last week was meant to emphasize American commitment to Israel’s security in the face of a possible Iranian nuclear threat, while creating a supportive atmosphere for pending talks between the Israeli government and the Palestinian Authority. However, relations between the United States and Israel were strained when, during Biden’s visit, Israeli officials made what they admitted was a poorly timed announcement to build 1,600 new Jewish housing units in East Jerusalem—an area contested by both Israel and the Palestinian Authority. While Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu expressed surprise over the building announcement and claimed not to have been aware of the plans, the Obama administration contended that Mr. Netanyahu should have been in control of the construction process by working side by side with Israel’s housing commission.  Top White House official David Axelrod, said in a television appearance that Netanyahu’s announcement during Vice President Biden’s visit to the region “seemed calculated to undermine” the kickoff to negotiations. Israeli officials vehemently disagreed with this accusation. The New York Times reported additional “anger over the public upbraiding of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu by the Obama administration.” Netanyahu, while rejecting Washington’s demands for a halt on continued building in East Jerusalem, added that the Israeli government never promised to modify its development of Jerusalem as part of the indirect peace talks. And he declined to withdraw last week’s announcement of these plans. In the Knesset this week, Mr. Netanyahu said, “No government of Israel for the last 40 years has agreed to place restrictions on building in Jerusalem.”

Riots broke out in the Uganda capital, Kampala, on Wednesday after a fire the previous night destroyed the mausolea that houses the sacred tombs of one of the country’s pre-colonial kingdoms. The kingdom in question, Buganda, encompasses Uganda’s largest modern-day ethnic group, and is a residue of a large political state that existed in the region prior to the incursion of colonial powers in the late-nineteenth century. At least two people were reported dead after members of the Ugandan military open-fired on a crowd that was attempting to block the country’s president, Yoweri Museveni, from entering the charred burial ground. While the origins of this fire are not known, many Baganda (the term used to denote the subjects of the ancient Buganda Kingdom) have assumed that the Ugandan government was somehow involved. According to local news reports, “Although there is no word yet on who set the sacred Baganda royal cemetery to fire, a vast majority of Baganda lay the blame squarely on Uganda’s president Yoweri Museveni.  Many point out that Mr. Museveni has laid siege on Buganda since 2009, putting traveling restrictions on Kabaka [King] Mutebi … closing Radio Buganda, and persecuting many of the Kabaka’s officials.” Wednesday’s riots marked the second outbreak of sectarian violence to sweep Uganda’s capital over the past six months. Three days of rioting last September pitted the country’s military against scores of angry Buganda subjects. The number of fatalities in this previous set of riots has been a source of dispute between the Ugandan government and the Kingdom of Buganda–the government claiming 27 deaths and the kingdom claiming 42. Just last week, subjects of Buganda Kingdom threatened to refer their case against Museveni to the International Criminal Court, claiming the government used excessive force during last September’s riots. This referral could piggyback off the momentum generated by the court’s investigations of neighboring Kenya’s post-election violence in early 2008. The ICC’s review conference is scheduled to take place in Kampala in June.

Cardinal Sean Brady has indicated his intent to stay on as head of the Irish Roman Catholic church, despite recent calls for him to resign amid revelations that he actively abetted church authorities who concealed evidence about a sexually abusive priest from Irish police. According to Brady, “Yes, I knew that these were crimes. But I did not feel that it was my responsibility to denounce the actions of [abusive priest] Brendan Smyth to the police. Now I know with hindsight that I should have done more, but I thought at the time I was doing what I was required to do.” In 1975, when Brady was a bishop’s secretary, he was present at a meeting where church authorities had two of Father Smyth’s victims, ages 10 and 14, sign oaths of silence about their molestation. At the time, according to Brady, the church was conducting an internal investigation of Smyth, which eventually resulted in his expulsion from the priesthood. However, because church authorities failed to reveal their findings to Irish law enforcement, Smyth went on to abuse other children before finally being arrested in 1994. In 1997, Smyth pleaded guilty to sexually abusing 20 children in Ireland between 1958 and 1993, and is thought to have abused at least 70 more in Britain and the United States. In the wake of disclosure of the alleged cover-up, Cardinal Brady told parishioners in Armagh, Ireland this Sunday, “This week a painful episode from my own past has come before me. I have listened to reaction from people to my role in events 35 years ago. I want to say to anyone who has been hurt by any failure on my part that I apologize to you with all my heart. I also apologize to all those who feel I have let them down. Looking back, I am ashamed that I have not always upheld the values that I profess and believe in.” Pope Benedict XVI is expected to release a pastoral letter addressing the history of pedophilia by priests in Ireland.

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Folks in many parts of the world must be wondering what on earth is going on in Nigeria. From an ailing president to the fragile peace in the Niger Delta, there appears to be a relentless stream of bad news coming out of Africa’s most populous country. Last week, at least 100 people were killed in sectarian violence in Jos, a north-central city about 800 kilometres from Lagos. Among the dead were children and women who were ambushed and beaten to death in their homes while they slept. Many of them were were later buried in mass graves.

The perpetrators, according to the police, were herdsmen on a purported revenge mission after a similar attack left 100 of their own dead in January.

When will the cycle of violence end? In February, journalist Sunday Dare wrote an article, “From peace home to killing fields,” published in a number of Nigerian newspapers. The article was about this same Jos—the place of his childhood and former home. At one time, Jos was among of Nigeria’s four fabled cities—the others being Lagos and Port Harcourt in the south, and Kano in the north. The city’s coal and mineral wealth, temperate climate, and lush vegetation has lured many of the country’s nouveau rich to its environs over the years, people who subsequently acquired large tracts of land in the Mambilla plateau region for farming and leisure.

But Jos, like the other fabled cities, appears to have lost its innocence. The family home of the journalist, Dare, was set ablaze in January’s sectarian violence. His elder brother was hacked to death as he tried to flee. And now we have new violence this month, leaving scores more dead, maimed, and homeless in its wake.

After the outbreak of violence in January, Human Rights Watch issued a report that, among other things, urged the Nigerian government to “investigate and prosecute those responsible for the killing of at least 200 people during the violence, the latest in the deadly outbreaks in Nigeria, and address the underlying causes.” To be sure, Nigeria has never been short on investigations to discern the causes of social violence. There have been eight such commissions of inquiry between 2001 and 2009. And after the last outbreak of violence in November, two different panels were set up—one an investigative panel by the Federal Government; the other a judicial panel by the State government. Continue reading »

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Shock waves ripped through the U.S. State Department in the aftermath of a shootout in Mexico that left a U.S. consulate official and her husband dead. The shootings, which happened in Cuidad Juarez, just across Mexico’s border with Texas, were attributed to a surge in drug-related violence along the trafficking routes between Mexico and the United States. According to the U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs Roberta S. Jacobson:  “We take very seriously when our employees are harmed, whether the intention was to harm U.S. employees or not. The question of whether this represents some ratcheting up of the drug war will depend on the reason behind the killings.” On Sunday, FBI agents were sent to Cuidad Juarez to assist State Department officials and the Mexican government in the investigation. This latest spate of drug-related violence comes in the midst of ongoing efforts on the part of Mexican federal authorities to break the country’s drug syndicates. In December 2006, the newly elected Mexican president, Felipe Calderón, made the decision to employ the country’s military in the fight against these gangs, amid growing evidence that local police forces, state bureaucrats, and even federal anti-drug officials had been co-opted by narcotics traffickers. Yet, while Calderón has insisted that the uptick in drug-related violence is a sign of the government’s success in putting pressure on the country’s criminal gangs, others disagree. Former Mexican foreign minister, Jorge Castañeda, said recently, “The Mexican drug war is costly, unwinnable, and predicated on dangerous myths.” Castañeda went onto argue that if President Calderón is serious about pursuing his current strategy of military deployment as a weapon in the drug wars, Mexico would need substantially more military assistance from the United States—much more than the Mexican government finds politically tenable.

For an in-depth look at Mexico’s drug wars, be sure to check out the forthcoming  Spring issue of World Policy Journal, which includes an article by Tomas Kellner and Francesco Pipitone, “Inside Mexico’s Drug War.”

In the wake of a damning report by United Nations Human Rights Council on the causes of violence in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, the United Nations, together with the United States, formally accused Congo’s military of responsibility for much of the rampant sexual violence in the region. According to the report, which was written by a UN group of experts on Congo: “In North Kivu, an assistance provider for victims of sexual violence recorded 3,106 cases between January and July 2009; half of these cases were perpetrated by FARDC [Congolese military] members.” This report on Congo—the second published by the UN in four months—comes in the wake of a December 2009 UN resolution to cease cooperating with Congolese troops amid allegations that the UN, by supporting Congo’s beleaguered army, was indirectly assisting in the perpetration of violence in the region. Until recently, the UN’s humanitarian mission in Congo coordinated many of its activities with Congo’s army.  Over the course of the past year, the UN mission has come under increased scrutiny for its perceived failure to secure Congo’s population centers from a series of massacres that were deemed by external observers to be within the UN’s ability to stave off. The current revelations surrounding the actions of certain brigades within Congo’s military only adds to the criticism of UN activity in the country. In late December 2009, the UN resolved to extend its mission in Congo through May 31, 2010.

For a detailed look at the security crisis in eastern Congo, see World Policy Journal’s online exclusive, “Buying War: Why a Kimberley Process for Congolese “conflict minerals” won’t achieve what its supporters hope.”

The recently signed ceasefire agreement between the government of Sudan and one of Darfur’s main rebel factions may be jeopardized, as other rebel groups enter the fray, sparring with the government over negotiations. On February 23, 2009, the Sudanese government established a framework for peace with one of Darfur’s prominent rebel groups, the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM). Among the issues addressed were questions surrounding the return of internally displaced persons to their homes and the integration of Darfur rebel fighters into the ranks of the Sudanese military. During Khartoum’s negotiations with JEM, however, other Darfur rebels held separate talks with the government, much to the chagrin of the leaders within JEM, who had originally hoped to unite Darfur’s myriad rebel factions under a single front. As many international observers have noted, much of the political statelmate that continues to plague Darfur has been a result of the factionalism that exists within the region’s military and political leadership.

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It is not yet clear whether Nigeria’s acting president, Goodluck Jonathan, just wants to warm the chair of the presidency until his country’s next elections. But if he decides to sit back and shuffle files, he’ll certainly have adequate cover. He could insist, for example, that as a non-elected head of state, he lacks the clear authority to act. Or, he could point to the fact that his presidency was not garnered through the process of appointment—at least not in the strictest sense. (After all, the constitutional maneuvering that brought him to power was unprecedented.) Or, Jonathan may simply revert to that old saw about Nigerian power politics, that because he didn’t seize power through a coup, he therefore lacks the iron fist needed to usher in substantial changes. This last argument carries real weight, given the short amount of time till the country’s next election. (General elections in Nigeria were scheduled for April 2011, but in light of the unusual events of the past several months, the national electoral body may push them up to 2010.)

Indeed, Jonathan may look at the enormous thicket of problems to be cleared—ranging from the rolling blackouts that plague Nigerian cities, to the fragile peace in the Niger Delta, to the worsening state of corruption—and simply decide to tinker at the edges until his time is up. Because really, how much can an acting president do with a hobbled presidency, a divided cabinet, an uncertain future, and a ruling party that treats him like a usurper?

To make matters worse, a powerful cluster around the first lady, Turai Yar’Adua, succeeded in evacuated the country’s ailing president, Umaru Yar’Adua, from Saudi Arabia last week, wheeling him into the country like a thief in the night. Later reports indicated that Jonathan was kept in the dark throughout the whole operation, setting off public outrage as to how it was possible for Yar’Adua to be bundled into Abuja—protected by a contingent of soldiers deployed for the occasion—without the prior approval of the acting president, as is required by law.

Jonathan’s narrow political base appears to be a disadvantage, but it’s a welcome disadvantage. If anything, the fact that he owes his latest political ascension to pressures from civil society rather than the maneuvering of politicians should strengthen his hand. Sadly, Jonathan’s first real act as president—a decision to sideline instead of fire the attorney general and minister of justice, Michael Aondoakaa—was more a token of appeasement to high-level politicians than a signal to the general public that the acting president is determined to be his own man. Jonathan is setting himself up for trouble. Continue reading »

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Afghan President Ahmed Karzai amended a law governing the country’s Electoral Complaints Commission (ECC), much to the chagrin of the Obama administration, which has been turning up the pressure on the Karzai administration to clean up corruption within the Afghan government. Karzai’s amendment will put the ECC, a formerly independent watchdog, under control of the office of the president, which will now have the power to appoint all five of the commission’s members. A Karzai spokesman defended the move, saying: “With foreigners in the commission it was not a national body, nor it was an Afghan body. So to Afghanise the process, the president changed some articles of the law.” Previously, ECC members were appointed by the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission, the Supreme Court of Afghanistan, and the Special Representative of the Secretary-General of the United Nations. Before this latest move, many observers considered the ECC to be one of Afghanistan’s most independent bodies. During the country’s presidential election last August, it threw out more than half a million votes cast for Karzai, charging that hey’d been tainted by fraud. Now, however, such an act by the ECC seems somewhat less likely. “This is bad news for democracy,” said a former U.N. political adviser in Afghanistan. “Basically, if President Karzai wishes it, this could prevent free elections ever being held in Afghanistan.” The first test of the new ECC may come this September, when the country goes to the polls for parliamentary elections.

Nigeria’s ailing president, Umaru Musa Yar’Adua, returned home from Saudi Arabia yesterday after a three-month medical leave, receiving treatment at a hospital in Jeddah for a heart condition. During Yar’Adua absence, the Nigerian government fell into a constitutional crisis, largely because Yar’Adua failed to hand over the reins of government temporarily to his vice president, Goodluck Jonathan. In January, after a series of street protests erupted throughout the country calling for Yar’Adua’s resignation, Nigeria’s Federal High Court in Abuja intervened, declaring Vice President Jonathan constitutionally empowered to serve as acting president. Despite Yar’Adua’s return to Nigeria yesterday, Jonathan has continued to serve as the country’s premier. Yet, even if Yar’Adua does eventually return to his post as president, his extended absence may spell political discord for the country in the lead-up to its 2011 presidential elections. Already, a coalition of northern politicians is insisting that because of Yar’Adua’s incapacitation, Nigeria’s next president should hail from the north. In a power-sharing agreement between northern and southern Nigeria, the office of the presidency rotates between the two regions. Yar’Adua comes from the Muslim north, while Johnson comes from the Christian south.

Public and private sector unions in Greece held strikes on Wednesday to protest the pending austerity measures that the government is planning to undertake in an effort to close the country’s budget deficit. The measures, which would raise the country’s retirement age, freeze public wages, and increase taxes, are most unpopular with a large swath of Greece’s middle class and working poor, many of whom would bear the brunt of the hardships. In a rally today, the head of one private sector union told a crowd, “Today, Europe’s eyes are turned on us, today we are demonstrating for hope and our future … to cancel the measures.” Yet while the changes remain unpopular with many Greeks, some polls indicate that about half of the population supports the government’s austerity interventions. The measures under consideration by the Greek government will hopefully salvage Greece’s membership in the Eurozone.  The European Monetary Union mandates that all countries using the euro ensure their budget deficits remain below three percent of GDP. Greece’s budget shortfall reached 12.7 percent this year.

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Why a Kimberley Process for Congolese “conflict minerals” won’t achieve what its supporters hope

Diamonds have a unique cachet that most commodities simply don’t have: they’re recognized as items of intrinsic beauty, and sold as symbols of romance. No doubt, this is partly why the existence of conflict diamonds unnerves so many people. The idea that diamonds can be used to fund bad actions—rebel warfare, human rights abuses, political chaos—undermines the appeal of the stones themselves. Which is why the diamond industry has spent the last decade trying to regulate the trade, hoping to eliminate (or at least decrease) the use of diamonds as a tool of wartime finance.

As most of us know by now, though, diamonds are by no means the only “conflict commodity” out there in the world today. Standing in the trenches of a mining pit in eastern Congo, a group of teens works in the shadow of the midday sun, hacking away at the earth for minerals that, while less well-known than diamonds, nevertheless fetch high prices in the West: coltan for cell phones and computers. Cassiterite, or tin oxide, for machinery. A young man in his early 20s who identifies himself as a former “coltan negotiator” tells a reporter in French, “The places where coltan was found were occupied by the Mai Mai forces [a rogue militia in eastern Congo]. They imposed themselves in the mines and watched over the miners and even managed their work.” The Mai Mai have perpetrated some of the region’s worst atrocities, using money from the coltan trade to fund their lawless activities.

Over the past few years, the relationship between militia violence and conflict minerals, like coltan, has caught the eye of advocacy groups in the United States. Given the ongoing violence in Congo—with rape reaching epidemic levels, and the proliferation of militias causing all manner of carnage—some have wondered if an economic solution might not be the best way to choke off the region’s warfare. By regulating the market for conflict minerals, the argument goes, we can help ensure that western consumers don’t inadvertently fund those rogue militias that derive their revenue from the trade in minerals. Last year, members of the U.S. House of Representatives and the Senate introduced two nearly identical bills based on this logic. If either bill becomes law, it would attempt to create mechanisms to trace the origins of high-value minerals coming out of Congo. As the bills put it, by “exercising due diligence,” we can clamp down on the market for minerals that “directly finance armed conflict,” and by doing so, help decrease the area’s violence.

But can we, and will it? The notion that we can halt the proliferation of war through economic means is admittedly attractive. Unfortunately, though, it’s probably not true. The idea has its intellectual roots in the creation of the Kimberley Process over a decade ago, which regulates the diamond trade. However, as many observers have noted, part of the mystique surrounding Kimberley, at least in the public imagination, is due to the fact that the birth of the process happened to coincide with the closure of several violent civil wars (like the one in Sierra Leone)–conflicts whose perpetrators trafficked in diamonds and other high-value materials. Kimberley itself did not bring about a resolution to these conflicts. This is a crucial reality to understand when considering the case of Congo, where advocates hope that a Kimberley-type solution will not only clean up the mineral trade, but also create a more secure environment. Yet, the unfortunate fact is, while exercising due diligence may begin to bring some much-needed transparency to the activities of those companies that import Congolese minerals, such efforts by themselves won’t end Congo’s violence. In fact, if undertaken without a multi-pronged approach that includes security sector reform, such due diligence measures could, in the short term at least, end up doing more harm than good.

Continue reading »

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In NATO’s ongoing offensive against the Taliban, a coalition of Afghan and NATO forces captured the town of Marjah, in southern Afghanistan, on Tuesday. Marjah, which is thought to be the seat of the Taliban’s shadow government in Helmand province, is also located in a region of the country known as Afghanistan’s heroin capital. The takeover of Marjah is part of Operation Moshtarak, the single largest NATO operation in Afghanistan since the war began in 2001. Moshtarak, which means “together” in the Afghan language of Dari, is designed to target Taliban strongholds in southern Afghanistan, with the goal of disrupting the group’s governing headquarters and poppy economy. Previous operations against Taliban fighters had dubious rates of success, especially after NATO forces left the area, because of the inability of the coalition to protect the territory captured in battle. However, current U.S. efforts have focused on training Afghan troops to maintain a coalition presence after NATO forces leave an area. In addition to the NATO-Afghan offensive in Helmand province, a secret joint operation between American and Pakistani intelligence operatives succeeded in apprehending the Afghan Taliban’s top military commander, Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, in Karachi, Pakistan last week. While the New York Times reportedly received news of Baradar’s capture shortly after it happened, White House officials requested that the paper refrain from immediately reporting the capture, for fear of disrupting early intelligence gathering efforts. While some American officials believed that Pakistani intelligence officers were aware of Baradar’s whereabouts for some time, reports suggest that Pakistan was motivated to act after feeling sidelined in American and Afghan efforts. “You cannot say that we are important allies and then you are negotiating with people whom we are hunting and you don’t include us,” said an unnamed Pakistani intelligence officer.

A court in Ukraine temporarily suspended the results of the country’s February 7 presidential election after agreeing to consider a complaint lodged by Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, a main contender in the race who was narrowly defeated by the purported winner, Viktor Yanukovich. While the country’s election commission certified the results of last week’s vote, Tymoshenko refused to concede defeat, charging her opponent with electoral fraud, despite the contention of international election observers that the vote was free and fair. According to Tymoshenko, the polls were marred by “systemic, fundamental, and general falsifications,” which necessitated a full recount. Viktor Yanukovich’s win in this year’s race was a buoyant comeback after his participation in the country’s 2004 elections. He initially won that vote, too, but a court overturned those election results after charges of fraud were substantiated. The country’s current sitting president, Viktor Yushchenko—who, along with Tymoshenko, led Ukraine’s Orange Revolution—went on to assume the highest office in the land. While President Yushchenko was a contender for reelection in this year’s race, he was defeated in an early round of voting. The court reviewing the current allegations of fraud against Yanukovich will reportedly hand down its decision by the end of this week.

In the aftermath of an assassination of a senior Hamas figure in the United Arab Emirates last month, Hamas is accusing the Israeli intelligence agency Mossad of the murder. The assassination, which took place on January 20 in the UAE capital of Dubai, killed Mahmoud al-Mabhouh, a Hamas commander who was suspected of traveling to Dubai to purchase weapons for his fighters. In response to accusations of Mossad activity on foreign soil, Israel’s foreign minister, Avigdor Lieberman, said on Wednesday, “There is no reason to think that it was the Israeli Mossad, and not some other intelligence service or country up to some mischief.” However, Lieberman also acknowledged that Israel has a “policy of ambiguity” when it comes to disclosing state intelligence matters. The case took on an additional level of intrigue this week, after officials in Dubai released the names, photos, and passport numbers of 11 of the purported assassins, all of whom seemed to have traveled to the UAE on falsified European passports from Britain, Ireland, France, and Germany. Even more odd is the fact that the falsified passports seem to coincide with the European passport information of at least five Israeli citizens who hold dual passports. However, while the names and passport numbers matched those of the unsuspecting Israeli citizens, the photos did not. According to once such individual, a British-born repairman living in Israel, “I don’t know who a person calls when his identity is stolen,” he said. “I’m waiting for someone from the British or Israeli government to contact me and give me answers. I don’t understand how something like this could happen.”

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The ominous consequences of the Greek debt crisis continued to reverberate throughout the Eurozone Monday, as a meeting of EU finance ministers focused entirely on Greece’s mounting fiscal debt. While Greece continues to insist on its ability to stabilize its own economy and slash its budget deficit—which bloated this year to three times the permitted level under EU rules—others worry about Greece’s effect on the euro, which fell to a nine-month low against the dollar on Friday. In an effort to shore up confidence Monday, Greece’s finance minister, George Papaconstantinou, assured his EU counterparts that “We are trying to change the course of the Titanic, [but] it cannot be done in a day. … We are beginning to show that step by step, we are following words with action. If additional fiscal measures are needed, we will take them.” The chief economist at the European Central Bank, Jurgen Stark, concurred with this sentiment, announcing this past Friday that “the country must and will make it.” In related news, much ink has been spilled over the past week about the role of Wall Street banks as facilitators of the crisis in Greece, at least insofar as they devised creative accounting mechanisms and currency swaps that allowed Greece to conceal its liabilities from the European Union’s statistics agency. Once Greece shrinks its budget deficit, the country has a second high hurdle to clear: a debt-to-GDP ratio of 113 percent—a number made all the more ominous in light of the deals the government cut with Goldman Sacks that pledged large amounts of the country’s future revenue to the bank, in exchange for loans that financed previous budget shortfalls.

Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki

The coalition government that brought stability to Kenya in the aftermath of the 2007 post-election riots revealed additional fissures this past week, as a series of ministerial level suspensions caused the country’s president and prime minister to lock horns in a heated political war of pronouncements. On Sunday, Kenya’s prime minister, Raila Odinga, suspended the country’s ministers of agriculture and education for three months after a report suggested the possible involvement of both ministers in two corruption scandals whose investigations are ongoing.  (The minister of agriculture belongs to Odinga’s political party, while the minister of education belongs to President Mwai Kibaki’s.) Less than two hours after the prime minister announced the suspensions, however, President Kabaki reversed Odinga decision, claiming that the prime minister had no authority to suspend cabinet-level positions. “The legal provisions on which the prime minister acted do not confer him the authority to cause a minister to vacate his or her office,” Kibaki said on Monday. In response to Kabaki’s reversal, the political party to which Odinga belongs, the Orange Democratic Movement (ODM), called on the African Union and the former secretary general of the United Nations, Kofi Annan, to help mediate the political stalemate. On Monday, the ODM released a statement saying, “the Prime Minister as the leader of ODM has declared a dispute between the coalition partners and seeks the immediate intervention of the African union, in particular the Office of the Eminent African Personalities chaired by His Excellency Dr Kofi Annan, to convene a meeting to discuss the current crisis….” After Kenya’s disputed 2007 elections, in which both Kabaki and Odinga declared victory, Kofi Annan was part of a mediation team that devised the government’s current power sharing agreement. Odinga’s attempts to suspend the country’s agriculture and education ministers came after Kibaki announced a string of lower level suspensions this past Saturday evening, which included the permanent secretary in Odinga’s office, and the Odinga’s chief of staff.

The U.S. Department of Transportation signaled its willingness to grant American Airlines and British Airways immunity from U.S. antitrust legislation this Saturday, clearing the way for the two carriers to share revenue and coordinate flight marketing and route scheduling. While previous attempts to tighten the alliance between the two airlines were thwarted by U.S. regulators, this current proposal passed DOT muster by convincing the U.S. government that such an agreement would be a boon to passengers in the form of lower airfare costs. Not everyone agrees, however. Virgin Atlantic founder, Sir Richard Branson, had this to say: “The U.S. Department of Justice, who are the experts in competition issues, called for strict remedies to protect the public interest, because the alliance will blatantly harm competition and the consumer. The Department of Transportation has chosen to stick two fingers up at them. Millions of transatlantic travellers will be adversely affected if the alliance receives final approval. In my personal opinion, this draft decision is a real kick in the teeth for consumers and they will be paying the price for it for years to come.”

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If inconsistencies are the hallmark of truth—an odd truism suggested by U.S. prosecutor David M. Rody during the recently-concluded trial of Aafia Siddiqui—then there was plenty of “truth” to go around on both sides of the proceeding, which concluded February 3 with guilty verdicts on all seven counts of attempted murder and assault.

At first glance, Siddiqui’s story is a perplexing one, albeit one that shows some familiar patterns, at least on the surface. Siddiqui—a 37-year-old Pakistani woman accused by the United States of associating with al Qaeda—began life with all the trappings of upper-middle class achievement. Born to a well-off family in Karachi, she went on to earn a BA from the prestigious Massachusetts Institute of Technology, a PhD in cognitive neuroscience from Brandeis University, and eventually married a Pakistani physician, with whom she had three children.

While Siddiqui’s life looked like a relatively conventional narrative of success prior to 9/11, after the World Trade Center attacks, Siddiqui became increasingly concerned about American hostility toward Muslims, a concern that eventually pushed her and her husband to move their young family back to Karachi.

At some point after her post-9/11 return to Pakistan, Siddiqui’s story begins to get murky. FBI officials, having suspected her of working as an al Qaeda operative, placed her on a list of suspected al Qaeda affiliates, which prompted her to disappear into thin air in March 2003. (Within Pakistan, it is commonly believed that she was picked up by the Pakistani intelligence service ISI and later handed over to the CIA. In one of her outbursts throughout the trial, Siddiqui claimed she was kept in a secret prison and that her children were tortured.) Continue reading »

Posted in Justice, Pakistan, Terrorism, Torture, War | 4485Commentshttp://worldpolicy.org/wordpress/2010/02/12/ibrahim-sajid-malick-title-tk-v2/Ibrahim+Sajid+Malick%3A+Navigating+the+Siddiqui+Trial2010-02-12+18%3A40%3A58Ben+Pauker

Political tensions in Sri Lanka escalated this Wednesday as protesters took to the streets in the capital city of Colombo in response to President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s decision on Tuesday to dissolve parliament and the arrest of his defeated presidential opponent, Gen. Sarath Fonseka. A correspondent for al Jazeera who was stationed in Colombo observed: “When they [the opposition] were assembling, basically, there was a counter-demonstration that was put together by pro-government supporters. There was a lot of tension between both groups and clashes broke out. Subsequently, the pro-government supporters have dispersed, but the opposition protesters remain.” In the aftermath of Sri Lanka’s January 26 election, which saw the incumbent, Rajapaksa, defeat his main challenger, Fonseka, by over 18 percentage points, a war of words erupted. Fonseka accused Rajapaksa of election tampering, while Rajapaksa accused Fonseka of plotting to overthrow his government in a coup. The dissolution of parliament and the arrest of Fonseka, however, threaten to push the small island nation into a full-scale political crisis. “We will keep agitating, because there is no basis for his [Fonseka’s] arrest,” said opposition leader Ranil Wickremesinghe. “We demand his release immediately.” Rajapaksa and Fonseka were political allies in the government’s recent closure of its violent, decades-long civil war with Tamil separatists in the north. However, the alliance between the two men ruptured during a particularly intense presidential campaign, with some observers questioning whether the military’s strong show of support for Fonseka posed a threat to Rajapaksa’s rule.

The presidential crisis that threatened to stall the bureaucracy of Africa’s most populous nation may finally be coming to a close, as Nigeria’s vice-president, Jonathan Goodluck, assumed the responsibilities of the government’s highest office yesterday. “The circumstances in which I find myself assuming office today as acting president of our country are uncommon, sober, and reflective,” Goodluck said during a speech that aired on Nigerian television Tuesday evening. For the past 79 days, Nigeria’s president, Umaru Musa Yar’Adua, has been out of the country receiving medical treatment in Saudi Arabia. Yar’Adua left Nigeria’s capital, Lagos, without temporarily handing over power to his VP, which had the effect of stalling all manner of business—from approving the government’s FY 2010 budget, to attending to the security crisis that befell Nigeria in the aftermath of the attempted Christmas day bombing of a U.S.-bound flight, which was undertaken by a Nigerian national. In mid-January, Yar’Adua released a brief recording that aired on BBC and Nigerian radio, in which he assured the public that he was alive and well, and would return to Nigeria as soon as his doctors permitted. But with the growing need for government business to once again resume at full capacity (and an increasingly worried citizenry), judges and lawmakers in Lagos this past week paved the way for Goodluck to take over the reins of power. In his speech to the nation, which lasted approximately five minutes, Goodluck acknowledged the difficulties of the past several months, but urged all Nigerians to join together in attending to the business of the country. “The events of the recent past have put to the test, our collective resolve as a democratic nation,” Goodluck said. “I am delighted to note that our nation has demonstrated resilience and unity of purpose. Today affords us time to reconnect with ourselves and overcome any suspicions, hurts and doubts, which had occurred.”

Officials in Iran are preparing for possible protests on Wednesday as the country celebrates 31 years of the Islamic Republic, marking the anniversary of the overthrow the U.S.-backed shah on February 11, 1979. Earlier this week, Iranian authorities arrested several individuals whom they claim were preparing to disrupt the official festivities in Tehran. “We are closely watching the activities of the sedition movement, and several people who were preparing to disrupt the February 11 rallies were arrested,” said Tehran’s police chief, Esmail Ahmadi-Moghaddam. No details of the backgrounds or identities of those in custody were offered. Opposition leaders have reportedly encouraged their supporters to attend all government rallies “silently, but as strongly as before,” while warning supporters to avoid provoking government authorities in ways that could lead to violent clashes. Meanwhile, Iranian authorities released public statements about their intent to continue enriching stockpiles of uranium. While the government assured domestic and international audiences that such enrichment was for medical research only, the announcement prompted President Obama to formally seek strong sanctions against the republic. “What we are going to be working on over the next several weeks is developing a significant regime of sanctions that will indicate to them [the Iranian government] how isolated they are from the international community as a whole,” Obama said Tuesday. “Despite the posturing that the nuclear power is only for civilian use…they in fact continue to pursue a course that would lead to weaponization, and that is not acceptable to the international community.” He also noted that the United States would be joined by Russia, China, France, Britain, and Germany in sanctions negotiations. Obama’s mention of China was particularly significant, given Beijing’s previous reluctance to restrict trade with the Islamic Republic. Currently, China is Iran’s largest trading partner.

Posted in THE INDEX | 4488Commentshttp://worldpolicy.org/wordpress/2010/02/10/the-index-%e2%80%94-february-10-2010/THE+INDEX+%E2%80%94+February+10%2C+20102010-02-10+20%3A22%3A05alleneli