SAVE THIS DATE: THE IDES OF MARCH

It is Friday night. I was on Democracy Now this morning talking up our plans for a media protest day. Later in the afternoon, after consulting with United For Peace and Justice, the big anti-war coalition, we changed the date to March 15–”The Ides of March” -because they felt it would be a great way to open a week of local anti-war events nationwide. So thats the new date. I will have more on that on Monday.

This evening, I finally caught up with Riverbend’s account of the aftermath of the Mosque bombing in Iraq, an event that feels to me like the Reichstag Fire, a major provocation by parties that want civil war. Here’s part of her blog from Baghdad:

“I remember visiting the mosque several years ago- before the war. We visited Samarra to have a look at the famous “Malwiya” tower and someone suggested we also visit the Askari mosque. I was reluctant as I wasn’t dressed properly at the time- jeans and a t-shirt are not considered mosque garb. We stopped by a small shop in the city and purchased a few inexpensive black abbayas for us women and drove to the mosque.

We got there just as the sun was setting and I remember pausing outside the mosque to admire the golden dome and the intricate minarets. It was shimmering in the sunset and there seemed to be a million colors- orange, gold, white- it was almost glowing. The view was incredible and the environment was so peaceful and calm. There was none of the bustle and noise usually surrounding religious sites- we had come at a perfect time. The inside of the mosque didn’t disappoint either- elaborate Arabic script and more gold and this feeling of utter peace… I’m grateful we decided to visit it.

We woke up this morning to news that men wearing Iraqi security uniforms walked in and detonated explosives, damaging the mosque almost beyond repair. It’s heart-breaking and terrifying. There has been gunfire all over Baghdad since morning. The streets near our neighborhood were eerily empty and calm but there was a tension that had us all sitting on edge. We heard about problems in areas like Baladiyat where there was some rioting and vandalism, etc. and several mosques in Baghdad were attacked. I think what has everyone most disturbed is the fact that the reaction was so swift, like it was just waiting to happen.

All morning we’ve been hearing/watching both Shia and Sunni religious figures speak out against the explosions and emphasise that this is what is wanted by the enemies of Iraq- this is what they would like to achieve- divide and conquer. Extreme Shia are blaming extreme Sunnis and Iraq seems to be falling apart at the seams under foreign occupiers and local fanatics.

No one went to work today as the streets were mostly closed. The situation isn’t good at all. I don’t think I remember things being this tense- everyone is just watching and waiting quietly. There’s so much talk of civil war and yet, with the people I know- Sunnis and Shia alike- I can hardly believe it is a possibility. Educated, sophisticated Iraqis are horrified with the idea of turning against each other, and even not-so-educated Iraqis seem very aware that this is a small part of a bigger, more ominous plan…

Several mosques have been taken over by the Mahdi militia and the Badir people seem to be everywhere. Tomorrow no one is going to work or college or anywhere.

People are scared and watchful. We can only pray.

Back this morning’s dissections.

DUBAI DEAL DELAYED
THE TRADE DEAL BEHIND THE PORT DEAL
READERS RESPOND TO MEDIA PROTEST DAY

Bob Dole to the rescue. The former Senator, GOP Presidential Candidate and pitchman for Viagra was no sooner summoned to help secure the Dubai Port company deal that it seemed a new maneuver was in play. Slow the ball down. Give all sides a breather. And then try to score the touchdown.

A deal to delay the controversial Dubai port deal was reached while the NY Times reports that:

” The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey will break the lease of a big container terminal at Port Newark to stop a company based in Dubai from taking over part of the operation there, the agency’s chairman said yesterday.

“Anthony R. Coscia, the chairman, said the company that holds a lease on the terminal through 2030 violated the contract by selling a half-interest in it to Dubai Ports World without seeking the landlord’s approval. He said the Port Authority would ask a judge in New Jersey Superior Court in Newark today to affirm its right to end the lease.

Bloomberg News, the business specialists, reported last night:

“Feb. 23 (Bloomberg) — Senators from both parties said a state-owned Dubai company’s takeover of facilities in six major U.S. seaports should be delayed, and President George W. Bush’s top political adviser suggested the administration would welcome having more time to persuade lawmakers.

“Congress needs more time to review the deal, said John Warner of Virginia, chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee. Democrat Hillary Clinton of New York said legislation would be offered next week to order a further review of at least 45 days. “That may be the first step to try and understand this matter,'’ she said.

“Their comments capped a 90-minute briefing of the panel by Bush administration officials who approved the $6.8 billion sale of London-based port operator Peninsular & Oriental Steam Navigation Co. to DP World, based in the United Arab Emirates.

Note Hillary’s comment—she wants to “understand” the matter. Here we have one of a number of Senators who has been painting worst cases scenarios all week, and now she says she needs time to “try and understand the matter.” Clearly Karl Rove stepped in to find a face saving formula for all sides in this tempest in a Dubai teapot.

THE DOLE ROLE

Dole’s involvement in this matter was apparently not new although newspapers in North Carolina, Senator Elizabeth (Bob’s wife ) Dole home turf, say the Doles have slightly different positions and that Bob’s lobbying firm has been working for the Dubai company for years. The Raleigh News and Observer reports:

“Bob Dole, a registered lobbyist, former senator from Kansas and GOP presidential candidate, is among a team of lawyers at the Washington law firm Alston & Bird that has been working with Dubai Ports World. Dubai Ports World is owned by the United Arab Emirates. CNN reported Wednesday that the company hired the law firm in 2005. A call to the firm, which also has an office in Raleigh, was not immediately returned. In her letter, Senator Dole did not outright oppose the Dubai deal, but she said Congress should take a hard look at it.”

THE TRADE DEAL BEHIND THE PORT DEAL

Now here’s what we are not hearing about, reports David Sirota of Working for Change:

”Politicians and the media are loudly decrying the Bush administration’s proposal to turn over port security to a firm owned by the United Arab Emirates (UAE) - a country with ties to terrorists. They are talking tough about national security - but almost no one is talking about what may have fueled the administration’s decision to push forward with this deal: the desire to move forward Big Money’s “free” trade agenda.

‘How much does “free” trade have to do with this? How about a lot. The Bush administration is in the middle of a two-year push to ink a corporate-backed “free” trade accord with the UAE. At the end of 2004, in fact, it was Bush Trade Representative Robert Zoellick who proudly boasted of his trip to the UAE to begin negotiating the trade accord. Rejecting this port security deal might have set back that trade pact. Accepting the port security deal - regardless of the security consequences - likely greases the wheels for the pact. That’s probably why instead of backing off the deal, President Bush - supposedly Mr. Tough on National Security - took the extraordinary step of threatening to use the first veto of his entire presidency to protect the UAE’s interests. Because he knows protecting those interests - regardless of the security implications for America - is integral to the “free” trade agenda all of his corporate supporters are demanding.

‘The Inter Press Service highlights exactly what’s at stake, quoting a conservative activists who admits that this is all about trade:

‘”The United States’ trade relationship with the UAE is the third largest in the Middle East, after Israel and Saudi Arabia. The two nations are engaged in bilateral free talks that would liberalise trade between the two countries and would, in theory at least, allow companies to own and operate businesses in both nations. ‘There are legitimate security questions to be asked but it would be a mistake and really an insult to one of our leading trading partners in that region to reject this commercial transaction out of hand,’ said Daniel T. Griswold, who directs the Center for Trade Policy Studies at the Cato Institute, a Washington-based libertarian think tank.”

How come we are just hearing about this dimension of the story now? By the way, the UAE gave $100 million dollars for Katrina aid. No one rejected the “A-rab” money.

HOW SAFE WERE THE PORTS BEFORE?

http://mpetrelis.blogspot.com/2006/02/dhs-two-audits-of-ports-measuring.html

OXFAM AMERICA REPORT; GULF COAST STILL A MESS

”BOSTON, MA – Feb. 23, 2006 – Six months after Hurricane Katrina slammed into the Gulf Coast and displacing more than 800,000 people from their homes, state and federal agencies are continuing to neglect poor communities, according to, ‘Recovering States: The Gulf Coast Six Months After the Storm,’ a report which will be released next week by international aid agency Oxfam America.

“Despite critical reports and investigative hearings of government failures, despite the flurry of commitments to confront poverty in the U.S. – six months after Katrina, little has changed,” said Minor Sinclair, director of Oxfam America’s Regional Office. “It’s unconscionable that the same vulnerable people abandoned in the height of the storm could again be neglected in the recovery. There are still thousands of people who don’t have a place to live and don’t have answers to the most basic questions about their futures in the Gulf Coast.”

SURVEILLANCE IMPLANTS—TRUE

George Monbiot writes about “The Perpetual Surveillance Society” in the Guardian, a piece just picked up by Alternet.

“It received just a few column inches in a couple of papers, but the story I read last week looks to me like a glimpse of the future. A company in Ohio called CityWatcher has implanted radio transmitters into the arms of two of its workers. The implants ensure that only they can enter the strongroom. Apparently it is “the first known case in which U.S. workers have been tagged electronically as a way of identifying them.”

“The transmitters are tiny (about the size of a grain of rice), cheap ($150 and falling fast), safe and stable. Without being maintained or replaced, they can identify someone for many years. They are injected, with a local anesthetic, into the upper arm. They require no power source, as they become active only when scanned. There are no technical barriers to their wider deployment.

“The company that makes these “radio frequency identification tags,” the VeriChip Corp., says they “combine access control with the location and protection of individuals.” The chips can also be implanted in hospital patients, especially children and people who are mentally incapacitated. When doctors want to know who they are and what their medical history is, they simply scan them in. This, apparently, is “an empowering option to affected individuals.” For a while a school in California toyed with the idea of implanting the chips in all its pupils.”

Alternet.org

WHAT IS HAPPENED IN IRAQ? TWO VIEWS

Paul Rogers writes on OpenDemocracy.Net “United States strategy in Iraq is increasingly powerless in the face of intensifying insurgency and sectarian violence.”

”Iraq’s slow burn of the last six weeks has been occurring behind the backs of most of the western media. The bombing on 22 February of one of Shi’a Islam’s holiest shrines, the al-Askari mosque (the “golden mosque”) in Samarra, has reignited the world’s attention. But how does this latest incident, and the retaliatory attacks it has provoked, fit into the unfolding story of Iraq’s conflict and United States strategy for the country?

“The Samarra assault, conducted by a dozen men dressed in paramilitary uniform who subdued the mosque’s guards before detonating a bomb underneath the shrine’s gold-plated dome, occurred on the third day of intense violence targeted both at the Iraqi security forces and at Iraq’s majority Shi’a population.”

http://www.opendemocracy.net/conflict/burning_3295.jsp

TomDispatch.com carries an assessment by Mark Engler

“The fact of the matter is that the majority of the country has already decided that the war in Iraq has become too costly. Americans have rejected the prospect of funding a massive and prolonged occupation. In that sense, we have already tipped… What remains, then, is for the public to hold accountable those who would carry forward the neoconservative crusade — to make their stance a costly one in public life. What remains is for us bring the political price of war into line with the human and financial costs that we will continue to bear.”

POLLS SHOW GORE ON THE MOVE

Sam Smith reports:

“In the latest Marist poll, Al Gore shows up in second place among Democrats, virtually tied with John Edwards. Hillary Clinton is still ahead of both, but for the first time her lead is less than 20 points. Though Gore does well with the Dems, he does worst against McCain or Giuliani with John Edwards doing best.

On the Republican side, Giuliani, McCain and Rice are tied. McCain would beat all three while Giuliani would have a tough race against Edwards or Clinton. Edwards and Clinton would beat Rice

http://prorev.com/amline5.htm