Watching the Warmakers is based in Brighton, England.
Our aim is to support activists in educating themselves in the issues
which confront those struggling for peace and justice.

News archives for the week ending 24th July 2009

US increases bases in Colombia

A plan to increase the American military presence on at least three military bases in Colombia, Washington’s top ally in Latin America, is accentuating Colombia’s already tense relations with some of its neighbors.

Venezuela, Ecuador and Nicaragua, which are members of a leftist political alliance that is led by President Hugo Chávez of Venezuela and backed by his nation’s oil revenues, have all criticized the plan, saying it would broaden the military reach of the United States in the Andes and the Caribbean at a time when they are still wary of American influence in the region.

The United States has been negotiating the increase of military operations in Colombia in recent weeks, faced with Ecuador’s decision to end a decade-long agreement allowing E-3 AWACs and P-3 Orion surveillance planes to operate from the Manta Air Base on Ecuador’s Pacific Coast.

New York Times, 22/7/09

Amnesty International Accuses Saudi Arabia of ‘gross’ abuses

The human rights group Amnesty International accused Saudi Arabia on Wednesday of using its campaign against terrorism as a facade for “a sustained assault on human rights” and said the rest of the world had failed to hold the authorities to account for “gross violations.”

Its report said thousands of people had been arrested and detained in virtual secrecy “while others have been killed in uncertain circumstances.” It accused the Saudi authorities of using torture to extract confessions and of using their “powerful international clout to get away with it.”

Rich in oil, Saudi Arabia is an important Western ally, both as a bulwark against Iran and as a wealthy and influential player in the Middle East crisis. But it has been under Western pressure to combat terrorism since 15 of the 19 hijackers in the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks were found to be Saudi citizens.

Osama bin Laden, the leader of Al Qaeda, is also a Saudi national although the authorities stripped him of his passport in the 1990s

In the 69-page report, Amnesty said that since Sept. 11, 2001, “and in the wake of a series of attacks by armed groups and individuals inside Saudi Arabia, the Saudi Arabian authorities have imposed a range of counterterrorism measures that have worsened what was already a dire human rights situation.”

In July 2007, it said, the Saudi Interior Ministry “reported that 9,000 security suspects had been detained between 2003 and 2007 and that 3,106 of them are still being held.” The detainees include “prisoners of conscience, targeted for their peaceful criticism of government policies” but “the majority are suspected supporters of Islamist groups or factions opposed to the Saudi Arabian government’s close links to the United States and other Western countries,” the report said.

New York Times 22/7/09

"This is not how we thought the withdrawal would go"

When American troops pulled out of Iraqi cities this month they did not realise quite how final their departure would be. The Iraqi military has since barred them from re-entering areas they previously controlled and all but locked them out of towns and cities. US convoys can no longer pass through checkpoints in Baghdad without prior approval and an Iraqi escort.

American night-time raids in pursuit of insurgents have also been curtailed by Iraqi officials who gained the right to veto all such missions on July 1. The American military has little choice but to comply with the new rules, leaving many units involuntarily confined to their bases.

Asked if American troops were in fact under “house arrest”, Robert Gates, the US Defence Secretary, failed to deny the assertion, saying wryly: “It is perhaps a measure of our success in Iraq that politics have come to the country.”

An American officer stationed in western Baghdad said that he had to negotiate with Iraqi counterparts every time he wanted to leave his joint security station, a neighbourhood base shared by Iraqis and Americans. “This is not how we thought the withdrawal would go,” he said

The Times, 22/7/09

Afghan war spilling into Central Asia

When five militants, all Russian citizens, were shot and killed in a gun battle at a remote military checkpoint near Tajikistan's border with Afghanistan, the Tajik government was quick to label the dead as "members of an organized terrorist group." The group has not been named, but the shootings highlight the grim irony of the struggle against terrorism in Afghanistan.

With the U.S. increasing military pressure in Afghanistan and Pakistan mounting security operations along its border with the country, fighters from Russia and the ex-Soviet republics of the Caucasus and Central Asia are returning home. And while that trend decreases the number of foreigners fighting American soldiers in Afghanistan, authorities fear it could export the violence into Central Asia, upsetting the fragile peace in the region's poorest republics.

Russia, which sees Central Asia as its backyard, is especially worried about the uptick in violence along its borders. But Central Asia faces a complex and potent mix of religious conflict, political corruption, ideological violence and increasing poverty — not to mention factionalism within the governments of the region and the countries' distrust of one another.

Add to all that fighters returning home to escape the war in Afghanistan, and it's unlikely that declarations of concern from Western diplomats or the presence of the Russian military will soon slow the rising tide of violence.

Time, 22/7/09

More than 150 casualties in a week in Helmand

Recent fighting in Afghanistan led to a record number of British casualties since the start of the war against the Taliban, with more than 150 badly wounded within a week, defence officials said yesterday. The figures are in addition to the 17 soldiers killed this month so far.

More than 157 soldiers were treated at the field hospital at Camp Bastion in Helmand province last week, according to army medics. Numbers were so high that medics have been forced to break their own rules by accepted more wounded than the hospital is designed to take.

"The last few weeks have been an extremely busy period. There have been injuries like you've probably never seen or experienced," one medic told BBC Radio 4's Today programme, referring to the horrific wounds explosions roadside bombs can inflict.

Guardian, 21/7/09

Australia out of Afghanistan in '3 to 4 years'

Australia's defence chief on Tuesday said he hoped troops could hand over to Afghan forces in "three to four years," but warned pulling out too early would cause civil war.

Air Chief Marshal Angus Houston said a premature withdrawal of international forces would almost certainly deliver the troubled central Asian nation to the Taliban and result in a surge in global terrorism.

Houston said troops were about "one third" of the way through a programme to mentor and train the Afghan National Army, and for the first time offered an estimate of a timetable for handing over responsibility for security in Uruzgan province, in the country's restive south.

AFP, 21/7/09

Brown: technology has changed foreign policy

Technology means that foreign policy will never be the same again, the prime minister said at a meeting of leading thinkers in Oxford.

The power of technology - such as blogs - meant that the world could no longer be run by "elites", Mr Brown said. Policies must instead be formed by listening to the opinions of people "who are blogging and communicating with people around the world", he said.

BBC News, 21/7/09

Plan Colombia and the 'murder of innnocent civilians for profit'

Colombia has been the hemisphere's largest recipient of U.S. military aid since 2000, under Plan Colombia — more than $5 billion to date. Purportedly designed to halve the cocaine trade and subsequently refashioned to include fighting terrorism, the results of counter-drug programs have been a complete waste. There's been no overall decline in land planted with coca, nor in the amount of cocaine available in the United States. "Street prices" have held steady or dipped lower than when Plan Colombia began during the Clinton administration.

On the counterterrorism side, while left-wing Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) guerrillas are weaker, right-wing terrorist paramilitaries acting in alliance with the military have been mainstreamed into the Colombian state and economy. Some 2.5 million Colombians have fled their homes since the plan began, most as a result of paramilitary forces violently taking control of valuable lands. Those lands would be focal areas of investment, if Washington ends up approving the Colombia-U.S. Free Trade Agreement, an accord held up largely because of human rights concerns.

The concerns include revelations that the armed forces, supported by U.S. aid, have killed 1,700 civilians since 2002, in acts that the U.N. Special Rapporteur on Extrajudicial Executions recently called "cold-blooded, premeditated murder of innocent civilians for profit."

Foreign Policy in Focus, 21/7/09

Pakistan objects to US expansion of war

Pakistan is objecting to expanded American combat operations in neighboring Afghanistan, creating new fissures in the alliance with Washington at a critical juncture when thousands of new American forces are arriving in the region.

Pakistani officials have told the Obama administration that the Marines fighting the Taliban in southern Afghanistan will force militants across the border into Pakistan, with the potential to further inflame the troubled province of Baluchistan, according to Pakistani intelligence officials.

Pakistan does not have enough troops to deploy to Baluchistan to take on the Taliban without denuding its border with its archenemy, India, the officials said. Dialogue with the Taliban, not more fighting, is in Pakistan’s national interest, they said.

New York Times, 21/7/09

US changing Southeast Asian policy to combat China

The United States maybe in the initial stages of a Southeast Asian foreign policy overhaul; the Obama Administration is not only reconsidering its sanctions against Myanmar, but also reevaluating America’s policy toward the entire Southeast Asian region.

Peter J. Brown has an informative article on the recent removal of Cambodia and Laos from the United States’ “blacklist”, which limits the government support U.S. based companies can receive when doing business with countries defined as “rogue nations”.

Cambodia and Laos have a combined populations of about 20 million people, and do not offer strong import markets for U.S. goods. So, this policy change is not about trade benefit for the U.S. as much as it is spreading American soft power in the region. Brown cites growing U.S. concern over the increasing power of China in Southeast Asia as the catalyst.

Foreign Policy Association, 19/7/09

Labour would maintain defence spending when cutting services

Defence would be exempt from Whitehall spending cuts if Labour won the next election, Lord Mandelson suggested yesterday in a surprise bid to outflank the Tories in the ongoing row about the funding of the military operation in Afghanistan.

The business secretary said that Labour would seek to protect defence spending if it won the general election and that this contrasted with the stance of the Tories, who have made it clear that the Ministry of Defence is not one of the two departments that would be exempt from spending cuts under a David Cameron regime.

The claim is surprising, because Whitehall is braced for deep cuts in most departments after the poll.

Guardian, 20/7/09

Netanyahu rejects US call over Jerusalem

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejected Sunday an American call to hold off on a planned Jewish housing development in East Jerusalem, saying Israel’s sovereignty over the disputed city could not be challenged.

American officials suggested that going ahead with the development now would cause problems in negotiations toward a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

“I would like to re-emphasize that united Jerusalem is the capital of the Jewish people and of the State of Israel,” Mr. Netanyahu said. “Our sovereignty over it cannot be challenged; this means — inter alia — that residents of Jerusalem may purchase apartments in all parts of the city.”

Israeli officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the delicacy of the matter, said the Netanyahu government had gone public with the issue to try to pre-empt further American efforts to stop Jewish building in East Jerusalem.

New York Times, 19/7/09

Tensions rise over US role in Iraq

There appear to be growing tensions between the US military and Iraqi security forces. They have arisen over cooperation and the restrictions imposed on the movement of American forces in urban areas inside Iraq. The Iraqi defence ministry has confirmed the limitations.

According to an agreement signed between the two sides, US forces are not allowed to enter Iraq's towns and cities unless specifically requested to do so by the Iraqi authorities, except in cases of self defence.

The spokesman said the ministry adhered to a strict interpretation of these new rules, but some in the American military appear to take a different view.

BBC News, 19/7/09

Pakistan brushes aside U.S. allegations

Pakistan termed as baseless the U.S. allegations regarding the presence of culprits in Pakistan who had been involved in terror incidents in the United States and India.

The state-run APP quoted Foreign Office Spokesman Abdul Basit as saying that these culprits were not in Pakistan but in Afghanistan, instead.

Basit was reacting to the statement given by U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who is visiting India, alleging that the perpetrators of U.S. 9/11 and Indian 26/11 are in Pakistan.

Xinhua 18/7/09

Helicopter crash in Afghanistan kills 16

A civilian helicopter has crashed at Nato's largest base in southern Afghanistan, killing 16 people, in the latest in a string of deadly aircraft crashes in the country.

In a second incident in the country's east, a US military helicopter made an emergency landing in Kunar province. A spokeswoman said no enemy fire was reported near the helicopter.

The two incidents came after a spate of recent aircraft crashes in Afghanistan. A U.S. Air Force F-15E Strike Eagle fighter jet crashed early yesterday in central Afghanistan, killing two crew members. US officials say insurgent fire did not bring down the plane.

Last week, an Mi-6 transport helicopter crashed in southern Afghanistan, killing six Ukrainian civilians on board and an Afghan child on the ground. The Taliban claimed to have shot down the aircraft.

Earlier in July, two Canadian soldiers and one British trooper were killed in a helicopter crash in Zabul province. Officials said that crash did not appear to be a result of hostile fire.

Guardian 19/7/09

Gates: US not prepared for 'long slog' in Afghanistan

After eight years, U.S.-led forces must show progress in Afghanistan by next summer to avoid the public perception that the conflict has become unwinnable, Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates said in a sharp critique of the war effort.

Gates said that victory was a "long-term prospect" under any scenario and that the U.S. would not win the war in a year's time. However, U.S. forces must begin to turn the situation around in a year, he said, or face the likely loss of public support.

"After the Iraq experience, nobody is prepared to have a long slog where it is not apparent we are making headway," Gates said in an interview. "The troops are tired; the American people are pretty tired."

Los Angeles Times, 19/7/09

Propping up a corrupt government in Afghanistan

One of the stated reasons for our troops fighting, and dying, in Afghanistan is to provide support for the Afghan government so that it can provide governance and services to its people. Troop numbers have been increased specifically to facilitate Presidential elections in August, so as to bolster the democratic credentials of the government. The assumption behind this policy is that there is a reasonably democratic, efficient and effective government in place and we must play our part in defending it against ‘insurgents’.

But what kind of government does in fact exist in Afghanistan? When I worked there for the UN and the World Bank in 2005 and 2007 on land reform, I met with many government officials and Ministers. They could talk the talk about reform, justice, fair and efficient systems of land management in a very convincing manner, but little action followed the talk. The same lack of effort to grapple with the corrupt system of justice was also apparent. This was for one overwhelming reason. There was then, and there is now, no commitment and no interest at the top of government to undertake any meaningful reform of any aspect of governance which might in any way interfere with its ability to siphon off government resources for their own ends.

Daily Telegraph, 18/7/09

US strike kills five militants in Pakistan

A US missile slammed into a suspected Taliban compound killing five militants on Friday in Pakistan's lawless tribal belt bordering Afghanistan.

It was the fourth suspected US drone strike in nine days targeting alleged strongholds of Taliban warlord Baitullah Mehsud and comes with Pakistan widely expected to launch a ground offensive against his South Waziristan assets.

The United States military does not, as a rule, confirm drone attacks, but its armed forces and the CIA operating in Afghanistan are the only forces that deploy unmanned aircraft in the region.

Suspected US attacks and Pakistani air strikes have increasingly targeted strongholds of Mehsud, described by the US State Department as a key Al-Qaeda facilitator in Pakistan's mountainous tribal region.

Pakistan has also carried out air strikes against Mehsud hideouts with commanders vowing to hunt down the warlord's militant network in the remote northwest region known as a base for Taliban and Al-Qaeda rebels.

But Islamabad has publicly opposed suspected US strikes, saying they violate its territorial sovereignty and deepen resentment among the populace. Since August 2008, around 50 such strikes have killed more than 500 people.

Mehsud has a five-million-dollar reward on his head offered by the United States, and a bounty of 615,000 dollars in Pakistan for allegedly masterminding multiple deadly bombings in the last two years.

About 2,000 people have died in Islamist bombings across the country since July 2007, when government forces besieged a radical mosque in Islamabad.

AFP 18/7/09