Haiti’s Fate To Be Discussed At UN Donor Conference, Kids Will Be Covered, At The Seder

March 30th, 2010 - by: danny

This Just In Tuesday Night: Its Drill Baby Drill, Obama Style

Obama to Open Offshore Areas to Oil Drilling

The Obama administration is proposing to open vast expanses of water along the Atlantic coastline, the eastern Gulf of Mexico and the north coast of Alaska to oil and natural gas drilling for the first time, officials said Tuesday.

The proposal — a compromise that will please oil companies and domestic drilling advocates but anger some residents of affected states and many environmental organizations — would end a longstanding moratorium on oil exploration along the East Coast from the northern tip of Delaware to the central coast of Florida, covering 167 million acres of ocean.

Remind me: Is this another turnaround on a campaign stand? Again?

THE SECOND NIGHT, “SEDER LITE”
HAITI DONOR CONFERENCE
GLENN BECK REBORN AS JOE MCCARTHY

And so I went to a seder last because I knew it was not religious and was intended as a celebration of human freedom. I walked through the usually posh streets of the Upper East Side and couldn’t help but notice that store after store had shut down and were empty on Third Avenue in the 60′s. Uh,oh, Hard Times Have Hit The Ritziest Zip Codes in New York.

Inside, a very warm home, the table was set beautifully and the people were friendly as we creatively improvised our way through the Hagadah ritual. Everyone wanted to see the escape from Pharohland to the Desert to the Holy Land move smoothly. I wanted to keep it light and friendly but when my friend the host jokingly introduced me as the Ambassador from Al Jazeera or some such–haha–at least one guest noticed. Did she ever! She and I were soon at loggerheads over what else? Israel! She was insisting that any criticisms of Netanyahu and the Israeli government was per se anti-semitic. Period! No discussion. No Debate. There was no convincing her otherwise as she explained to me why Obama must be pressured to lighten up on the Israeli government. She knew all the message points down cold.

I hate discussions like this because they always leave rationality behind and quickly go downhill.

The funny thing is that just today The US Government denounced countries denouncing Israel at the UN. and just last week, despite the supposed “flap” between our two govermments the US just did a major arms deal with Israel. That has not pacified the Israeli Lobby for whom it is always their way or the highway. Just yesterday, prominent professional Jewish “leaders” denounced Jimmy Carter because they decided his announcement that he was backing off his criticisms of Israel was not “sincere” enough, The Israeli lobby is now working overtime to mobilize the Congress to bully Obama into going softer on Netanyahu. They are pulling out all the stops with TV Ads, petitions, robo calls etc. The wagons are circling again.

Ironically, just last night, as I checked my email I was shocked to find a request from none other than the mouthpiece of ardent and inflexible Zionism in America to follow me on Twitter. I couldn’t believe it, but there it was, a request from none other than Harvard’s ALAN DERSHOWITZ himself. I knew Alan when I was in Boston, and respected some of his legal defense work in the days before he became the enforcer of every pro-Israeli initiative and the denouncer of every critic of Israel. We used to have cordial conversations.

I haven’t decided how to respond to this request yet but even this gesture putting me, I thought, in anointed company, did not in any way soften the had line of the woman who insisted she had once been a “liberal Jew” but was not a fundraiser for some Lobby front. implying she had inside information. Despite my attempts at persuasion, she was still implying I was anti semitic. Oy, so hurtful, and all too typical of the robotic amen corner that AIPAC has built over the decades.

Speaking of this issue. it was a pro-Israeli organization that first alerted me to the visit yesterday of French President Sarkozy, another strong supporter of Israel to the White House. But the lobby couldn’t be pleased by what happened as reported by the Israeli press:

Sarkozy joins Obama in condemning ‘settlements’
By Yitzhak Benhorin – Ynetnews

“During White House press conference, French leader said his own
commitment to Israel’s security is well known; France is standing with
the United States in condemning Israeli construction in east Jerusalem
[and] ‘settlement’ activity in an area claimed by the Palestinians
“contributes nothing.”

[SNIP]

“Speaking at a news conference with President Barack Obama after their
White House meeting Tuesday, Sarkozy praised Obama for trying to engage
the two sides in peace talks. Sarkozy said the ‘absence of peace’ in
the region ‘is a problem for all of us’ – and that it feeds terrorism
around the world.”

WASHINGTON SAYS: Don’t Criticize Israel, Only We Can Do That

Reuters: US objects to Israel being attacked at United Nations

“The United Nations Human Rights Council passed three resolutions on Wednesday condemning Israel over its policies in occupied Palestinian and Syrian territories, but the United States voted against them all.”

Reuters asks: Is Bombing Iran Good For Business?

WHO WON IN IRAQ?

And then there was this development in Iraq as reported only by Juan Cole:

Chalabi Moves to Disqualify 6 Elected MPs, Demote Allawi’s Party to
Runner-Up

“How unwise is the rush among American pundits, mainly on
the political Right, to declare the election a vindication of George W.
Bush’s invasion of Iraq. Hey, warmongers: get it through your heads.
You went to war on the grounds that Iraq was a grave danger to the US
and might even nuke us. That was untrue and ridiculous. You don’t get
any mulligans in the invasion game. Nothing would vindicate Bush save
proof that Saddam Hussein’s regime was really dangerous to the US. It
wasn’t. It had bupkes in the way of WMD. Iraqis will eventually live
normal lives and get rich. That won’t vindicate Bush either. He lied to
us repeatedly and illegally invaded another country, contravening the
UN charter and a whole slew of international and even domestic US laws.
There is no vindication. But the unseemly backstabbing and maneuvering
of fundamentalists, ex-Baathists, Iranian double agents and CIA assets
in Iraq now is certainly not it.”

[SNIP]

“I admit to a good deal of frustration with the corporate media in the
United States that keeps talking about Iyad Allawi having ‘won’ the
Iraqi parliamentary elections. It just is not true. Apparently even
some well informed and intelligent Americans can’t understand the
difference between achieving a slight plurality and winning a
parliamentary election. And, it is dangerous to say these things
because the US press is read in Iraq and expectations are being created
among Iraqis that are likely to be disappointed.

“Allawi did not win and has not won and probably won’t win.”

The Opium Wars in Afghanistan

Tom Hayden, LA Times. The ‘Long War’ Quagmire

The doctrine, which posits an 80-year or so war against insurgents in the Middle East to South Asia, needs more scrutiny.

THE HAITI DONOR CONFERENCE TAAKES PLACE AT THE UN TODAY

Today, the Haiti Donor’s conference gets underway at the UN. This meeting’s outcome will determine how much money Haiti will have to work with, and what the priorities will be. Recently the NY Times reported that the situation today is worse than it was as the rainy season moves in with so little new housing constructed. Every day seems to bring bad news. The NGO’s are uncoordinated. Security is a problem. Violence and rape is a problem. A lack of food and jobs are big problems. What will be done

And then there is news like this

Michel Chossudovsky, Global Reserch reports:
The Pentagon is using Haiti as a Training Ground for Afghanistan

A recent report in Stars and Stripes reveals the nature of the US military operation in Haiti. Combat units from Iraq and Afghanistan have been deployed in Haiti under the banner of a humanitarian operation. Conversely, Haiti is also being used as a military training ground for forces without in-theater combat experience.

According to the Stars and Stripes report (March 14, 2010): “Marines deployed to Haiti to render emergency aid following January’s devastating earthquake are already training for the fight in Afghanistan.”

Marines from the 22nd Marine Expeditionary Unit who were dispatched to Haiti in the immediate wake of the earthquake are now being deployed in Afghanistan. In fact, the decision to send them to Afghanistan was taken prior to their deployment in Haiti:

“A small group of Marines stormed several small concrete buildings inside the wire at their seashore camp while their comrades played the roles of Afghan insurgents, shouting “bang” as they engaged their opponents in a mock attack. The day before, when Lt Gen Dennis J. Hejlik, commanding general of the II Marine Expeditionary Force visited the Marines on shore, he praised their good work in Haiti and asked them, “What’s next for you when you get home?”

“Afghanistan,” came the reply. As Huey helicopters buzzed overhead, Hejlik talked about the recent Marjah offensive, adding that there would be 20,000 Marines in Afghanistan by summer. “You will join them next spring,” he told the Marines at Carrefour. One of them, Sgt. Timothy Kelly, 23, of Johnston City, Ill., said members of his unit learned about the Afghan mission just before they got orders to head for Haiti.”

The training in Haiti “is geared towards close-quarters battle tactics”:

“Only a couple [of Marines in Kelly's squad] have experience in Iraq or Afghanistan,” he said. …

We have a lot of guys that aren’t going to be here for that Afghan deployment. The ones who are, we might as well get them in the mind-set.

Another Marine at Carrefour, Lance Cpl. Keith Cobb, 23, of Soso, Miss., said the Afghan deployment will be his first time in a war zone. “I want to kill the terrorists and get rid of the bad people, but I would rather be here because I know I’m going home after this,” he said”

Close Quarters Battle (CQB) is fighting involving small combat units “which engage the enemy with personal weapons at very short range”. The training imparted in Haiti is to be used in both urban warfare and counterinsurgency operations.

On March 25th, the US military reported that some 2,200 Marines, involved in humanitarian relief in Haiti had been withdrawn from the country.

FOREIGN POLICY IN FOCUS: WHY HAITI QUAKE KILLED MORE THAN CHILE QUAKE

The real reasons for the disparity between the effects of the two quakes are considerably more prosaic. The first obvious factor was seismological. The earthquake that struck Chile occurred twice as deep beneath the surface than the one that hit Haiti, which meant that the earth absorbed more of the impact. In addition, the epicenter of the Haitian quake was only 10 miles outside of the capital city of Port-au-Prince, compared to the epicenter in Chile, which was 70 miles from the city of ConcepciÃƒÂ³n. And of course, Haiti hadn’t suffered an earthquake of this magnitude since the 18th century, while Chile endured nearly two dozen major jolts in the 20th century, including the greatest earthquake ever measured, the 9.5 behemoth of 1960. With limited resources, you prepare for what you expect, and earthquakes weren’t the foremost threats on the minds of Haitians.

The second obvious factor was wealth. Chilean citizens enjoy an average income 10 times that of Haitians. Fully 80 percent of Haitians live below the poverty line, compared to fewer than 20 percent of Chileans. Is Chile’s economic development a result of its unabashed embrace of capitalism? In 1970, Chile’s gross national income per capita was also 10 times that of Haitians. To say that Chile has prospered over the last several decades because of its economic choices is really to say that the country began the race three-quarters of the way toward the finish line, while Haiti had barely left the starting block.

The key here isn’t individual wealth. In Port-au-Prince the National Palace collapsed, so even the prime minister is staying with friends. In Chile, meanwhile, the urban and rural poor suffered the most from the earthquake. The difference between the two countries is the degree to which money has been invested in the common good, such as sound infrastructure, decent services, and proper regulations. Greater wealth in the private sector doesn’t necessarily lead to more government tax revenues or proper government investments, so nix the free-market argument. Chile, for instance, established its much-admired building code not during the capitalist go-go days of Pinochet but in 1972, under a socialist administration. And although Haiti has experienced some profound democratic movements, high voting percentages and enhanced accountability don’t magically produce the capital necessary to earthquake-proof a country, so nix the democracy argument.

INSURERS NOW SAY THEY WILL NOW COVER KIDS

AFL-CIO: In the face of mounting public outrage, the health insurance industry yesterday backed away from its claim that a loophole in the new health care reform law would allow insurers to deny coverage for children with pre-existing conditions.

Real News Crisis of Neo Liberalism

BBC: Serbia’s parliament is debating a resolution condemning the Srebrenica massacre in 1995 – the worst incident of the Bosnian war.

The text apologises that Serbia did not do more to prevent the tragedy.

The killing of nearly 8,000 Bosniaks (Bosnian Muslims) was carried out by Bosnian Serb forces – allies of then-Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic.

Meanwhile a Dutch court has rejected an attempt to hold the United Nations responsible for the massacre.

Facing the past

The parliamentary resolution comes after years of denial in Serbia that the Srebrenica massacre even took place,

Gareth Porter, IPS: Two-Thirds of Boys in Afghan Jails Are Brutalised, Study Finds

WASHINGTON, Mar 30, 2010 (IPS) – Nearly two of every three male
juveniles arrested in Afghanistan are physically abused, according to
a study based on interviews with 40 percent of all those now
incarcerated in the country’s juvenile justice system.

The study, carried out by U.S. defence attorney Kimberly Motley for
the international children’s rights organisation Terre des Hommes,
reveals a justice system that subjects juveniles, many of whom are
already innocent victims, to torture, forced confessions and blatant
violation of their rights in court.

Motley, who may be the only practicing Western defence attorney in
Afghanistan, told IPS that the study shows the need for alternatives
to introducing juveniles into what she calls the “injustice system”.

WSJ: LEVY ON BANKS?

A global levy on banks to pay for the cost of future bailouts is more likely now than it was six months ago, U.K. Chancellor of the Exchequer Alistair Darling said.

Alternet: Obama Packs Debt Commission with Social Security Looters

Obama has filled his new ‘debt commission’ with Wall Street insiders determined to gut Social Security.

The News Dissector