United States News Digest
George Shultz Preached Preemption in 1984
George Shultz, who later created the Vulcans team which forged the neo-con administration of George W. Bush, went on the record, in a 1984 speech on terrorism to the Park Avenue Synagogue, calling for an end to national sovereignty in pursuit of terrorists. In a New York Times article April 13, David Brooks quotes Shultz, "Our responses should go beyond passive defense to consider means of active prevention and retaliation. We cannot allow ourselves to become the Hamlet of nations, worrying endlessly over whether and how to respond.... The public must understand before the fact that some will seek to cast any pre-emptive or retaliatory action by us in the worst possible light, and will attempt to make our military and our policy makersrather than the terroristsappear to be the culprits."
On May 29, 2002, Shultz wrote for the Hoover Digest on "Hot Preemption" (beyond "hot pursuit"), quoting his 1984 speech, to show how he had been ahead of his time. "At that time, I was disowned and dismissed by official Washington and on leading editorial pages," he wrote, but today, "by contrast, we all cheeredI at the top of my voice"when Secretary Rumsfeld announced the U.S. policy of preempt ion. In this later piece, Shultz goes further in renouncing sovereignty, by demanding not only that rogue nations be attacked (there are more than a dozen, he said), but that Western democracies as well have become havens for terrorists, using the "freedoms offered by the democratic West." This must go, he said: "We must get ourselves in order.... We must change our mind-set."
As to "Arab and Muslim countries," they are guilty of making deals with the terrorists in order to prevent them from attacking their regimes (which sounds strangely like the policy of the British in harboring terrorists, which seems to have slipped by Shultz's notice), and "must be held accountable."
Cheney Still Raking In Big Bucks from Halliburton
Dick and Lynne Cheney reported taxable income of $813,226 in 2003, of which $178,437 was deferred compensation from Halliburton. Cheney earns $198,000 a year as Vice President, and Lynne Cheney earns a salary from the American Enterprise Institute, and compensation as a board member at Reader's Digest. The Veep has repeatedly insisted he has no financial interest in Halliburton, as the money is actually compensation for work he did in 1999, before his election; Cheney purchased an insurance policy which guarantees the payments should Halliburton be unable to pay.
Cheney: U.S. Will Remain Involved in Iraq
In his press conference in Japan, on April 13, Vice President Dick Cheney revealed: "The United States will continue to play a major role [in Iraq] from the standpoint of our security forces, but the actions and activity of what we've described in the past as the Coalition Provisional Authority will be transferred, in part, to the new interim government on that date." Being a little bit sovereign is a contradiction in most men's minds.
Iraq Needs a 'New Deal'
The U.S. has "two months to get it right," if they expect Iraqis to permit any role for the U.S. after the June 30 date, says columnist David Ignatius, in an op-ed in the April 13 Washington Post. The only solution, he says, is "a New Deal" for Iraqa post-June 30 plan that evokes the crash efforts of Franklin D. Roosevelt to turn the momentum of the Great Depression. No more administration pieties about democracy and terrorism, please."
Among other things, Ignatius says the U.S. must provide electricity for all, 24 hours a day: "If it takes an airlift of C-17s carrying generators, do it;" speed up the $18 billion, and create 50,000 new jobs by June 30.
Scalia Makes Show of Apologizing for Erased Tapes
Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia made a show of apologizing to two reporters in Mississippi, whose audiotapes of his April 7 remarks to a high school assembly in Hattiesburg had been forcibly erased by U.S. Marshals. The Marshals Service defended their action, on the basis that Scalia has a "long-standing policy prohibiting such recordings of his remarks." At another event earlier that day, his hosts announced before Scalia's speech to a large college assembly that it could not be recorded, and when Scalia saw television cameras at the reception which followed his speech, he ordered them removed, too.
With reporters highlighting the irony of such "gestapo" tactics being taken on a Supreme Court Justice's behalf, Scalia decided it was politic to send a letter to the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press on April 9, advising them that he is "undertaking to revise my policy so as to permit recording for use of the print media," and he sent a letter of apology to the most prominent of the two reporters involved in the incident.
Unimpressed, Democratic Senators Patrick Leahy and Charles Schumer sent a letter to the chief administrator of the Federal court system on April 12, requesting a clear policy on media coverage of Federal judges' public remarks. Quoting Scalia's own remarks to the high school where the incident occurred"the Constitution of the United States is extraordinary and amazing. People just don't revere it like they used to"the Senators suggested that "actions speak louder than words. If the seizure of the reporters' tapes did not violate the letter of the Constitutionand it may well haveit certainly violates the spirit."
The April 13 editorial in Delaware's Daily Times suggests that if Scalia is so quick to recognize a mistake and rectify it, why hasn't he recused himself from Dick Cheney's lawsuit to keep the Bush Administration's energy task force notes secret? "Why are his ideological and personal ties to the powerful and reclusive Vice President so strong? And if the two are so close, can the public expect Scalia to judge the case honestly and impartially?"
Hispanics Watch U.S.-Iberoamerican Policy Closely
A recent nationwide "Herald/Zogby International" poll reveals that a whopping 91% of Hispanics who are registered voters say U.S. policy toward Ibero-America is an issue they consider important. Of the total, 52% said they consider the issue "very important," and 39% "somewhat important."
The Miami Herald's Andres Oppenheimer argued, on April 12, that American political figures had therefore better start paying closer attention to Ibero-America. The 91%, says Oppenheimer, is "an amazing figure," since the poll was conducted largely among assimilated Hispanic-Americans. Had Hispanic voters, with more recent and perhaps closer ties to their countries of origin, been included in the poll, that figure would have been even higher.
20,000 Troops To Stay an Extra 90 Days in Iraq
On April 15, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld had some bad news for almost 20,000 soldiers in Iraq, who were told they would have to remain there for 90 days beyond their original release dates, which, for many would have been the following day. Rumsfeld announced during a press briefing, that Central Command Chief Gen. John Abizaid had requested additional combat troops for Iraq and that he had approved the request. Those troops will be made up of two brigades of the 1st Armored Division, based in Germany, the 2nd Light Cavalry Regiment, from Fort Polk, Louisiana, plus 30 other combat support and combat support service units, including about 4,400 National Guard and Army Reserve troops from 20 different states.
Rumsfeld's announcement breaks the promise that no one would have to stay in Iraq for more than 12 months, and also sabotages the number one stress-control measure that the military mental health professionals say is important in maintaining morale: that of having a definite end date to the deployment. Rumsfeld and Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Peter Pace played down this aspect of the extensions, claiming that every soldier knows that the mission comes first. Also left unsaid is that some number of those 20,000 troops will be coming home in boxes, because of the extension.
U.S. Will Not Cooperate with Kuwait's Halliburton Probe
According to Kuwaiti press reports, the parliamentary commission investigating the role of the Kuwait Petroleum Company and Altanmia in Halliburton's overcharging the U.S. government for shipping gasoline into Iraq, wants to delay releasing its findings, because the U.S. Army declined to testify. "We are disappointed, as the Americans are a key ally.... We had hoped for cooperation, especially since this case is of interest to both countries," Ali al-Rashed, who heads the parliamentary fact-finding panel, was quoted by the daily al-Seyassah as saying. As a result, the panel will not be able to submit its findings within the 60-day limit set by the parliament, necessitating an extension.
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