See The Letters on Cindy Sheehan Below

AFGHAN WAR: BLOODY BUT IGNORED
CHINA: THE EXECUTION CAPITAL
COMMENTS ON CINDY SHEEHAN

We begin today with that other war, the one which has been justified as ok because of the attack of 911. Its been a war of collective punishment against the Afghan people in the name of counter-terrorism. Are we getting the whole story?

CHOPPER down in Afghanistan; 7 dead

A U.S. CH-47 Chinook helicopter was shot down Wednesday in southern Afghanistan, U.S. and NATO officials said. Seven people — five military crew and two military passengers — were killed. NATO officials said the team that responded to the crash was ambushed. There was no immediate word on casualties during that attack.

Sarah Meyer has been tracking all the other deaths in Afganistan and writes:

American public awareness of murder/death in Afghanistan is cloudy. Nor do people realise that foreign troops are as unwelcome in Afghanistan as they are in Iraq. This article is about some of those deaths in Afghanistan. Civilian deaths have recently infuriated the Afghan people. The Americans ‘pay off’ these deaths -as if money is compatible with and resolves grief.

Click on her informative Index.
COMMENTS ON ZOELLICK VIA IPA:

SAMEER DOSSANI Director of 50 Years Is Enough: U.S. Network for Global Economic Justice, Dossani said today: “Though I am not surprised that George Bush has nominated another white male neoconservative to the post of World Bank president, I am appalled. After the departure in disgrace of Paul Wolfowitz, the White House had a chance to live up to its own rhetoric and democratize the process for appointing the World Bank head. Instead they’ve stuck to the status quo, business as usual, based on a 60-year-old ‘gentleman’s agreement.’ The situation is unacceptable and gives the lie to any claim that the World Bank could ever be an institution for advancing the interests of countries in the Global South.” Dossani is a contributor to the blog World Bank President.

ASIA RUSSELL Russell is director of international advocacy for the group Health GAP. She said today: “During his tenure at U.S. trade representative, Robert Zoellick was well known among AIDS and public health advocates for lobbying for trade agreements that were major giveaways to the pharmaceutical industry. Because of Bob Zoellick’s efforts, these agreements will increase the cost of lifesaving medicines in developing countries. He put drug companies’ interests ahead of the interests of people living with HIV and other life-threatening diseases. He was on the wrong side of that debate.

TOM BARRY ON THE NEW WORLD BANK PRESIDENT

At first glance, Zoellick could be mistaken for an ideologue, as an evangelist for free trade and a member of the neoconservative vanguard. But when his political trajectory is more closely observed, Zoellick is better understood as a can-do member of the Republican foreign policy elitea diplomat who always keeps his eye on the prize, namely the interests of Corporate America and U.S. global hegemony. Based on his record in the Bush Sr. administration and the current Bush presidency, Zoellick is highly regarded as an astute dealmaker.

Rices surprise selection of Zoellick was greeted with an almost palpable sense of relief inside Washingtons foreign policy circles. The great fear, outside the neoconservative and militarist camps, was that Cheney and company would insist that the shrill unilateralist John Bolton, current undersecretary for arms control, serve as Rices deputy.

CHINA: ADDICTED TO EXECUTIONS; A long death row

May 30th 2007
: From Economist.com

NO ONE disputes that China is a rising great power thanks to its tremendous economic growth. But an announcement Tuesday May 29th cast several clouds over China’s reputation. The government says it will execute Zheng Xiaoyu, the former head of its food and drug regulator, for corruption. The news represents a remarkable confluence of bad press for China: that high-level corruption is rampant, that its products have killed people and animals around the world, and that the country advertising its “peaceful rise” is a harsh, execution-happy dictatorship.

China may hope to dominate the world economically; it already does so in terms of the amount of people it executes. The total number is a carefully guarded state secret but Amnesty International, a human-rights watchdog, counted at least 1,770 executions in 2006 and the real amount could be as high as 8,000. The liberal use of the death penalty in China is not a subject of great public concern, partly because the extent of it is little appreciated. The media usually publicise only executions that are deemed by the government to have some wider cautionary value.