Paper: US plans Pakistan offensive

The US military is making plans for an offensive that would reach inside Pakistan in coming months to try to destroy operations of Osama bin Laden’s al Qaeda network, the Chicago Tribune reported on Jan. 25.

The newspaper, in a report from Washington citing military sources, said the plans involved thousands of US troops. The Pakistani government denied to Reuters that it would allow such an operation and the Pentagon declined to confirm that such a plan was being worked on. The Chicago Tribune said the plans were advanced but their execution would depend on events on the ground.

This was “not like a contingency plan for North Korea, something that sits on a shelf. This planning is like planning for Iraq. They want this plan to be executable — now,” one source was quoted as saying.

Such an intervention would be political dynamite for Pakistani President Gen. Pervez Musharraf, who has only allowed a very limited US military presence in his country. He has cooperated with Washington against al Qaeda but is under pressure from Islamic parties at home. (Reuters)

Strike blocks genocide tribunal

Defense lawyers at the international court to try people over the 1994 genocide in Rwanda have gone on strike, leading to the postponement of three trials at the court, based in the Tanzanian town of Arusha. The lawyers say the tribunal is skewed in favor of the prosecution and one told the BBC “a fair trial is impossible.” Officials deny the claims.

Some 46 people face charges in Arusha for the killing of some 800,000 ethnic Tutsis and moderate Hutus. Striking lawyer Christopher Black told the BBC’s Network Africa program that the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda was being used as a political tool for the US.

He said that defense investigators were not given as much money as the prosecution teams.

The lawyers also want better access to their clients and to be given the names of prosecution witnesses, many of whom testify anonymously. (BBC)

Philippine military officers held

Five junior army officers are under arrest in the Philippines for inciting rebellion against the government. The five were part of a group who appeared on television accusing the government of using the military to spy on opposition politicians in the presidential election due to be held in May. President Gloria Arroyo’s spokesman said the group had been taking part in efforts to destabilize the government. But the chief of staff said there was no unrest in the Armed Forces in general.

The spokesman for the group demanded the resignation of Defense Minister Eduardo Ermita. Ermita denied the accusation of spying and said the Armed Forces remained politically neutral.

In July last year about 300 officers and men mutinied in what the government said was an attempted coup d’etat. (BBC)

Castro accuses Bush of plot to assassinate him

Fidel Castro accused President Bush of planning to have him assassinated to overthrow Cuba’s communist government. Castro also warned Jan. 30 that he was ready to “go down fighting” if the US should try to invade Cuba at any time.

“We knew that Mr. Bush had made a commitment with the mafia of the Cuban-American Foundation to kill me. I accuse him of this,” Castro told an audience at the third Hemispheric Meeting for the Fight Against the FTAA. Most of the five-hour speech was targeted at the “belligerent behavior” of the US and accusing Bush of conspiring with the virulent anti-Castro Cuban-American community in Miami to make him a dead man.

“And those idiots better not believe we’re wasting our time, because we really work at our job. This country will never give up. It will never lay down its weapons,” Castro said. (AFP)

Afghan leader: US killed civilians

Afghan president Hamid Karzai on Jan. 30 said a US air strike this month killed 10 civilians, including women and children, contradicting American military reports that claimed the casualties were Taliban militants. The bloody events highlighted the pitfalls of the US mission to defeat an escalating insurgency by supporters of the former ruling Taliban and al-Qaida that threatens summer elections.

“There are casualties unfortunately, according to the report that I have received, of civilians, of children and men and women,” Karzai told reporters at his palace in the capital Kabul. US military spokesman Lt. Col. Bryan Hilferty said the Americans took the concerns of the Afghan government “very seriously,” and that a review of its report was underway.

Many Afghans are disenchanted by the risks taken by the US-led coalition in using devastating military force in pursuit of terror suspects. The Jan. 17 raid followed two botched air strikes on villages in December that killed 15 children. (AP)

Four dead in Dominican Republic strike

At least four protesters died Jan. 29 from gunshot wounds suffered in clashes with security forces, officials said on the second day of a national strike that shut down business across the Dominican Republic. The strike, to protest the worst economic crisis in decades, comes as US authorities struggle to stem an exodus of Dominicans fleeing poverty in rickety boats.

The US Border Patrol said it detained 36 Dominicans early Jan. 29 off Puerto Rico. This month alone, the U.S. Coast Guard said it has intercepted more than 1,000 Dominicans at sea, compared with 190 a year ago.

President Hipolito Mejia refused to meet strike leaders Jan. 29 and condemned the 48-hour shutdown, saying it would cost the beleaguered economy $60 million.

“Our reports show that 97 percent [of businesses] observed the strike,” said Coordinator Ramon Perez Figuereo.

Police and soldiers armed with M-16 assault rifles patrolled poor neighborhoods of Santo Domingo, the capital, and other major cities. Many soldiers had just returned from Iraq and still wore international peacekeeping patches on their uniforms.

Over the past year, inflation has topped 42 percent, the peso has lost more than half its value and unemployment has topped 16 percent. (AP)

Microsoft helping China censor web

Technology sold by Microsoft to the Chinese government has been used to censor the internet, and resulted in the jailing of China’s political opponents. An Amnesty International report has cited Microsoft among a clutch of leading computer firms heavily criticized for helping to fuel a dramatic rise in the number of people detained or sentenced for internet-related offenses. The human rights group has slated the company for an “inadequate response” to escalating abuses in China.

Amnesty believes Microsoft is in violation of a new United Nations Human Rights code for multinationals which says businesses should seek to ensure that the goods and services they provide will not be used to abuse human rights.

China is the world’s most aggressive censor of the internet. Web sites are banned for using words such as “Taiwan,” “Tibet,” “democracy,” “dissident,” and “human rights.” Amnesty has recorded dozens of cases of political opponents jailed for circulating material offensive to the Chinese government.

Since China was admitted to the World Trade Organization two years ago a succession of big US technology firms have been supplying the government. Internet use in China is close to 80 million, though this is less than 10 percent of the adult population. (Observer UK)

US knew in May Iraqi had no WMD

Senior American officials concluded at the beginning of last May that there were no weapons of mass destruction (WMD) in Iraq, the Observer has learned. Intelligence sources, policy makers, and weapons inspectors familiar with the details of the hunt for WMD told the Observer it was widely known that Iraq had no WMD within three weeks of Baghdad falling, despite the assertions of senior Bush administration figures and British Prime Minister, Tony Blair.

The disclosure that US military survey teams sent to visit suspected sites of WMD, and intelligence interviews with Iraqi scientists and officials, had concluded so quickly that no major weapons or facilities would be found is certain to produce serious new embarrassment on both sides of the Atlantic.

David Albright, a former UN nuclear inspector with close contacts in both the world of weapons inspection and intelligence said, “It was known in May that no one was going to find large stockpiles of chemical and biological weapons. The only people who did not know that fact was the public.”

The US House and Senate intelligence committees have been hearing evidence on why no weapons have been found and have been preparing to publish their reports this month.

Although it is expected that they will conclude that there was no political interference in the intelligence process, as some critics have alleged, the reports are expected to be damning about the quality of the intelligence that led to war. The revelation is likely to lead to increased pressure both in Britain and the US for an inquiry into the intelligence marshaled in favor of war.

White House sources said that President Bush is considering the formation of an independent panel to investigate prewar intelligence on Iraq that he used to justify going to war. (Observer UK)

Students riot against education cutbacks

Four days of rioting by secondary school students in Libreville, Gabon, highlighted a growing frustration with education cutbacks in a country that grew rich on oil, but which is now struggling to cope with a steady decline in production. The country’s main technical school closed after four days of rioting over cutbacks to a free student bus service. One student was killed in the unrest.

Only 65 of the 100 school buses in Libreville are operating because the government says it does not have the money to carry out repairs.

Angry students destroyed three of the school buses that were still working and wrecked classrooms and college equipment. Some, brandishing machetes, set up roadblocks on the streets of the capital.

Education experts said this violent outburst of anger was a symptom of deep-seated malaise in the education sector. Over the last five years there has been a problem of falling quality in Gabon’s schools, explained Michelle Elvis Kenmoe, the field manager of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. (IRIN)

Dialogue, not Iraq war, ends Libya’s nuclear quest

Contrary to recent US claims that its war on Iraq forced Libya to give up its nuclear weapons program, former UN chief weapons inspector Hans Blix said that diplomacy should be given most of the credit.

“I think the dialogue in Libya started before [the war],” Blix said, speaking in Stockholm at the first meeting of a new international commission on weapons of mass destruction, of which he is chairman. “If the Iraqi affair injected a concern in Libya and Iran and North Korea ... I really don’t know,” he added. “One could say that the Libyan case shows that you can through diplomacy and through sanctions and through other means obtain a voluntary renunciation of weapons.”

Blix’s comments were sparked by US President George W. Bush’s claims last week that the war on Iraq forced Libya to suddenly announce late last year that it was giving up its nuclear weapons program.

The independent commission, funded by Sweden and made up of 15 members from 15 different countries, will work through 2005 on finding ways of limiting the spread of nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons, as well as on ways of disarming countries that already have such weapons. (AFP)