Foreign Policy Briefing 3/17/10

Israeli officials rejected demands by the Obama Administration to cancel a building project in East Jerusalem, the New York Times reports. Secretary of State Clinton said Washington expected action from Israel, and a key US demand is that Israel neither promote nor permit “provocative” acts, meaning anything that would disturb the atmosphere as Palestinians and Israelis prepare for indirect peace talks. That would include new building projects.

Foreign Policy Briefing 3/13/10

Secretary of State Clinton warned Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu Friday that Israel had sent a “deeply negative signal” about the U.S.-Israeli relationship and urged him to take immediate steps to demonstrate it was interested in renewing efforts at a Middle East peace agreement, the Washington Post reports. Her call, made in the wake of the embarrassment suffered by Vice President Biden when Israel announced it would build 1,600 housing units in a disputed area of Jerusalem, was an unusually tough message for the longtime U.S. ally, the Post says.

Foreign Policy Briefing 3/12/10

An open diplomatic row with Israel during the visit of Vice President Biden has shined a spotlight on the U.S. failure to rein in Israeli settlement ambitions and deepened Palestinian suspicions the US is too weak to broker a deal, AP reports. The Palestinians largely lost faith in the U.S. as a broker after Obama tried – and failed – to get the Netanyahu government to stop building on lands Palestinians claim for a future state, AP says.

Foreign Policy Briefing

Some American doctors are pleading U.S. officials to keep the Navy hospital ship Comfort in Haiti, the Baltimore Sun reports. University of Southern California surgeon Randy Sherman, medical director for the aid organization Operation Smile, said “there is no doubt” there are enough earthquake victims to keep the Comfort busy. He thinks it could operate at high volume for at least three more months. US doctors say Haiti is replete with patients whose orthopedic injuries have healed improperly and require complex surgeries that only the Comfort can provide.

Foreign Policy Briefing 3/2/10

ShareThis summary briefing comes to us through the courtesy of Just Foreign Policy.
Summary:
U.S./Top News
1) Japan’s Social Democratic Party, a junior partner in the governing coalition, will prioritize a plan to move U.S. Marine Corps Air Station Futenma in Okinawa Prefecture entirely out of the country, Kyodo News reports.
2) The UN General Assembly [...]

Foreign Policy Briefing 2/26/10

The Afghan human rights commission reported that 28 civilians had been killed so far in NATO’s offensive on Marja, AP reports. The commission based its numbers on witness reports. NATO has confirmed at least 16 civilian deaths.

Foreign Policy Briefing 2/24/10

Rep. Kucinich wrote to Defense Secretary Gates, demanding that the U.S. comply with its obligation to protect Afghan civilians under international law, following a US attack on a civilian convoy reported to have killed 27 civilians. Kucinich demanded information on the decisions that led to the strike within two weeks, threatening to force a House vote demanding release of documents on the strike.

Foreign Policy Briefing 2/23/10

Dutch Prime Minister Balkenende said he expected Dutch troops to come home from Afghanistan before the end of the year, after efforts to keep them there longer caused the government to collapse, the New York Times reports. The war in Afghanistan has been increasingly unpopular among voters in in many parts of Europe, creating strains between governments trying to please the US and their own people.

Foreign Policy Briefing 2/18/10

The New York Times today published a monstrous Op-Ed complaining that the U.S. is being too careful to avoid civilian deaths in Afghanistan, notes Glenn Greenwald for Salon. The US military has “begun basing doctrine on the premise that dead civilians are harmful to the conduct of war,” the op-ed complains. “The trouble is, no past war has ever supplied compelling proof of that claim.” Greenwald notes that in addition to publishing the monstrous op-ed, the New York Times essentially hides the identity of the author from the reader, by not explaining who she is, who she works for, what economic interests she might represent, and what is the basis of her alleged expertise. [Ask the New York Times Public Editor to investigate: public@nytimes.com - JFP.]

Foreign Policy Briefing 2/16/10

At least nineteen civilians have been killed so far in the US/NATO offensive in Marjah, Democracy Now reports. DN interviewed Wall Street Journal reporter Anand Gopal, who says the assault in Marjah is perceived as a “show of force” by coalition forces that will change little. Gopal says it’s very difficult for reporters to get to Marjah; almost all the reporters who are there are embedded reporters, so they’re only seeing one side of the story; and we won’t know for some time if there are many more cases of civilian deaths.

Foreign Policy Briefing 2/11/10

Pakistan has told the US it wants a central role in resolving the Afghan war and has offered to mediate with Taliban factions, the New York Times reports. So far, the US has been more eager to push Pakistan to fight Taliban than to negotiate with them, and has not endorsed Pakistan’s new approach. One strand of thinking within the Obama administration calls for allowing the Pakistanis to keep the Haqqanis as part of Pakistan’s sphere of influence in southern Afghanistan, but only if Pakistan forces the Haqqanis to break with Al Qaeda and to push militants out of its areas, a US official said.

Foreign Policy Briefing 2/6/10

A group of ex-Taliban officials have prepared a “road map” to promote a political settlement between the Taliban and the Karzai government, Gareth Porter reports for Inter Press Service. The first step would be an agreement between Karzai and the Taliban about no killing of doctors and no damage to roads by the Taliban, in return for no night raids and detention by the United States.

Iraq and Depleted Uranium: Time for Transparency for Iraq and our US Veterans

ShareThe Environment of Iraq
Responsibility of USA in Contaminating Iraq with Depleted Uranium
Abstract:
For two decades, the administrations of the United States of America and the United Kingdom have been waging continuous wars on Iraq to occupy this oil rich country.
The armed forces of those two countries attacked civilians with different kinds of conventional, non-conventional, and banned [...]

Iraq to Sue Over DU

ShareThis should now get interesting with Gulf War Veterans 90-91 and to present and their health effects that our own government has ignored for 19 years
Iraq to sue US, Britain over depleted uranium bombs

Iraq’s Ministry for Human Rights will file a lawsuit against Britain and the US over their use of depleted uranium bombs in [...]