Jim Lobe

'Pentagon Moved to Fix Iraqi Media Before Invasion'

Jim Lobe — 2007-05-10T17:48:00Z

WASHINGTON, May 9 (IPS) - In the run-up to the March 2003 invasion of Iraq, the Pentagon planned to create a 'Rapid Reaction Media Team' (RRMT) designed to ensure control over major Iraqi media while providing an Iraqi 'face' for its efforts, according to a ‘White Paper' obtained by the independent National Security Archive (NSA) which released it Tuesday.

The partially redacted, three-page document was accompanied by a longer power point presentation that included a proposed six-month, 51 million-dollar budget for the RRMT operation, apparently the first phase in a one-to-two-year ‘'strategic information campaign''.

Among other items, the budget called for the hiring of two U.S. ‘'media consultants'' who were to be paid 140,000 dollars each for six months' work. A further 800,000 dollars were to be paid for six Iraqi ‘'media consultants over the same period. (...)

- / Inter Press Service

A "New Diplomatic Offensive"?

Jim Lobe — 2007-03-06T05:55:00Z

Two weeks after making major concessions for a nuclear accord with North Korea, the administration of President George W. Bush said last week it was prepared to sit down with Iran and Syria as part of a regional conference to stabilize Iraq. In testimony before the Senate Appropriations Committee, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice—widely considered the leader of the "realist" faction within the administration—announced that Washington will join a "neighbors' meeting" convened by Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and scheduled for the first half of March, to be followed by ministerial talks in April. - / Right Web

Korea Deal Marks Big Victory for Realists

Jim Lobe — 2007-02-14T23:40:00Z

WASHINGTON, Feb 13 (IPS) - Tuesday's deal between North Korea and five other nations, including the United States, to take the first concrete steps toward nuclear disarmament in exchange for aid and normalised relations marks a long-awaited diplomatic breakthrough for U.S. President George W. Bush and a clear victory for "realists" in his administration.

The deal, which was announced after several days of talks in Beijing, was immediately denounced as a defeat by one of the administration's former leading hawks, ret. U.N. Amb. John Bolton, who is considered close to Vice President Dick Cheney. (...)

- / Inter Press Service

Arabs Less Worried About Iran, Poll Finds

Jim Lobe — 2007-02-09T05:22:00Z

WASHINGTON, Feb 8 (IPS) - U.S. and Israeli hopes of forging of a Sunni Arab alliance to contain Iran and its regional allies may be misplaced, at least at the popular level, according to a major survey of six Arab countries released here Thursday.

The face-to-face survey of a total of 3,850 respondents in Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates found that close to 80 percent of Arabs consider Israel and the United States the two biggest external threats to their security. Only six percent cited Iran. (...)

- / Inter Press Service

Now it's official: Iraq's a mess

Jim Lobe — 2007-02-06T00:48:00Z

WASHINGTON, Feb 2 (IPS) - A long-awaited study by the U.S. intelligence community released here Friday concludes there is little, if any, light at the end of tunnel in Iraq.

The report, which comes on the eve of an unprecedented Senate debate on President George W. Bush's plan to add at least 21,500 more troops to the 140,000 U.S. forces already in Iraq, described the current conflict there as a "civil war" that could very easily lead to the country's de facto partition. (...)

- / Inter Press Service, Asia Times

Groups Denounce Deal on Detainee Rights

Jim Lobe — 2006-09-23T04:19:00Z

WASHINGTON, Sep 22 (IPS) - Human and civil rights groups have broadly denounced a compromise deal on the application of the Geneva Conventions to detainees in the "global war on terror" worked out between the White House and a group of rebellious Republican senators whose efforts have been backed until now by their Democratic colleagues. (...) - / Inter Press Service

US-Iran: War, Diplomacy on Parallel Tracks

Jim Lobe — 2006-09-20T21:04:00Z

WASHINGTON, Sep 20 (IPS) - If you're feeling increasingly confused about whether the administration of President George W. Bush is determined to go to war with Iran or whether it is instead truly committed to a diplomatic process with its European allies to reach some kind of modus vivendi, you're not alone.

On the one hand, a growing number of informed voices are arguing that the administration is simply going through the diplomatic motions in order to persuade domestic and international opinion that it had acted in good faith before it pulls the plug and launches attacks on Iran's suspected nuclear facilities and related targets some time before the end of Bush's term. (...)

- / Inter Press Service

10 Billion Dollars Could Buy Universal Schooling

Jim Lobe — 2006-09-13T06:01:00Z

WASHINGTON, Sep 12 (IPS) - More than 43 million children living in conflict-affected countries are not able to attend school, according to a new report released Tuesday by the International Save the Children Alliance, which called on donor countries and multilateral agencies to commit 5.8 billion dollars a year to address the problem.

The 48-page report, which was released here and in 39 other countries worldwide, said only 30 percent of total foreign aid earmarked for education in the world's 63 poorest countries — the vast majority in sub-Saharan Africa and South and West Asia — went to the 30 countries affected by or emerging from regional or internal conflicts.

Among the countries with the highest percentages of non-enrollment are Afghanistan, Angola, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Cote d'Ivoire, Ethiopia, Pakistan, Sudan, and Uganda, according to the report, entitled "Rewrite the Future". (...)

- / Inter Press Service

Bush Finally Gets Good News on Iraq

Jim Lobe — 2006-06-09T16:06:00Z

WASHINGTON, Jun 8 (IPS) - While the achievement of both long-sought objectives may bolster, at least temporarily, his rock-bottom approval ratings, the Bush administration and its allies in Baghdad still face an uphill fight in retaining public confidence in his Iraq policy and ending the sectarian conflict that threatens to plunge Iraq into civil war.

"Zarqawi's death will help in lessening sectarian tensions, because he, more than anyone else, propagated an anti-Shiite ideology and carried out attacks against Shiites," said Joost Hiltermann, an Amman-based Iraq expert with the International Crisis Group (ICG). (...)

- / Inter Press Service

Report Traces U.S./EU Covert Rendition Network

Jim Lobe — 2006-06-07T08:40:00Z

WASHINGTON, Jun 7 (IPS) - A long-awaited report by the Council of Europe on European complicity in "extraordinary renditions" secretly carried out by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) against suspected terrorists was hailed here Wednesday by human rights groups, even as the U.S. State Department tried to cast doubt on its findings.

"Amnesty International applauds today's Council of Europe report that makes clear that the United States has woven a renditions 'spider web' outside the rule of law that includes, 'disappearances', arbitrary detentions, illegal transfers and torture or other ill-treatment," said Larry Cox, director of Amnesty's U.S. chapter.

At the same time, however, State Department spokesman Sean McCormick denounced the report by Swiss Senator Dick Marty, which is based largely on the flight records of suspected CIA planes in and out of Europe and the testimony of some of the individuals who have been subject to rendition. (...)

- / Inter Press Service

Afghanistan: Bush May Have to Rethink Withdrawal Plans

Jim Lobe — 2006-05-31T18:22:00Z

WASHINGTON, May 30 (IPS) - By just about any measure, May has been a bad month for U.S. policy in Afghanistan.

It began with a warning by a shopkeeper in a small-town bazaar in the Pashtun southern part of the country to the visiting commander of U.S. forces in Afghanistan, Lt. Gen. Karl Eikenberry, duly recorded by the New York Times: "The Taliban and Al Qaeda are everywhere."

Indeed, in the last several weeks, nearly 400 people have been killed in an unprecedented Taliban offensive designed, according to Afghanistan expert Ahmed Rashid, to pre-empt the deployment of 6,000 NATO troops who are supposed to replace some 3,000 U.S. soldiers in southern Afghanistan over the summer. (...)

- / Inter Press Service

Darfur: Grim and Getting Grimmer

Jim Lobe — 2006-05-26T22:30:00Z

WASHINGTON, May 26 (IPS) - Despite a recent peace accord, a new U.N. Security Council resolution, and agreement by Sudan to permit a U.N. assessment team to travel to Darfur to determine how to strengthen peacekeeping forces there, the situation in the region, as well as in eastern Chad, has continued to deteriorate, according to sources here.

Attacks on villages and refugee camps by Khartoum-backed Arab militias, or Janjaweed, have been reported throughout Darfur in the past week, while fighting between various rebel factions has reportedly intensified. More than 700,000 people scattered around the region are currently without access to humanitarian relief, according to U.N. agencies. (...)

- / Inter Press Service

Right-Wing Israel Lobby Seizes on Olmert Visit

Jim Lobe — 2006-05-25T00:23:00Z

WASHINGTON, May 24 (IPS) - On his maiden visit to the United States as Israel's prime minister, Ehud Olmert received a first-hand look at the political muscle of the right-wing "Israel Lobby", part of which used the occasion to launch a campaign to deter him from following through on plans to unilaterally evacuate tens of thousands of settlers living in the occupied West Bank.

Even as Olmert met with President George W. Bush at the White House Tuesday, the House of Representatives voted by an overwhelming 361-37 margin to impose strict conditions on aid to Palestinians, as demanded by the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), Washington's most powerful pro-Israel lobby. (...)

- / Inter Press Service

Bush Democracy Doctrine, 2003(?)-2006, R.I.P.

Jim Lobe — 2006-05-23T20:43:00Z

WASHINGTON, May 23 (IPS) - Less than 18 months after U.S. President George W. Bush declared in his 2005 Inaugural Address his unequivocal commitment to the "ultimate goal of ending tyranny in our world", tyrants, particularly in the Islamic world, are taking heart.

From North Africa to Central Asia, top U.S. officials are busy embracing dictators — and their sons, where appropriate — even as they continue to mouth the pro-democracy rhetoric that became the hallmark of the administration's foreign policy pronouncements, particularly after the 2003 invasion of Iraq failed to turn up evidence of weapons of mass destruction or ties to al Qaeda.

Particularly notable in just the past month have been White House receptions for Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak's heir-apparent, his son Gamal; the praise lavished by Vice President Dick Cheney on Kazakhstan President Nursultan Nazarbayev during a recent visit to Almaty; and last week's normalisation of Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi. (...)

- / Inter Press Service

Iran Target of Apparent Disinformation Ploy

Jim Lobe — 2006-05-22T23:51:00Z

WASHINGTON, May 22 (IPS) - A story authored by a prominent U.S. neo-conservative regarding new legislation in Iran allegedly requiring Jews and other religious minorities to wear distinctive colour badges circulated around the world this weekend before it was exposed as false.

The article by a frequent contributor to the Wall Street Journal, Iranian-American Amir Taheri, was initially published in Friday's edition of Canada's National Post, which ran alongside the story a 1935 photograph of a Jewish businessman in Berlin with a yellow, six-pointed star sewn on his overcoat, as required by Nazi legislation at the time. The Post subsequently issued a retraction.

Taheri's story, however, was reprinted by the New York Post, which is owned by media baron Rupert Murdoch, and picked up by the Jerusalem Post, which also featured a photo of a yellow star from the Nazi era over a photo of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. (...)

- / Inter Press Service