Docudharma Times Friday January 2

Reflecting On The Bush Legacy?

Here’s Some Reflections: Incompetent: Abusive: Destroyers Of The Constitution And The Bill Of Rights

Reflect On That  

War and peace: Israel’s military and political options

Six days after launching Operation Cast Lead, Tel Aviv ponders whether to send the tanks in or seek a settlement with Hamas

Ian Black, Middle East editor

The Guardian, Friday 2 January 2009

Six days into Operation Cast Lead against Hamas in the Gaza Strip Israeli leaders are considering a range of military and political options that depend on what happens in a fast-moving situation with many variables they do not control. Developments on the ground, international diplomatic activity and Arab reactions will determine what happens next. Echoing the 2006 war against Hezbollah in Lebanon, there is Israeli confusion and disagreement over tactics, strategy and what will constitute a victory. But Ehud Olmert, the prime minister, said yesterday he did not want a long war. The main scenarios are these:

Continuing air attacks

After more than 500 bombing missions by aircraft and helicopters with a claimed 95% success rate, high-value Palestinian targets are running out. Israeli claims of “surgical strikes” will be measured against credible reports of civilian casualties.

Climate scientists: it’s time for ‘Plan B’

Poll of international experts by The Independent reveals consensus that CO2 cuts have failed – and their growing support for technological intervention

By Steve Connor, Science Editor and Chris Green

Friday, 2 January 2009

An emergency “Plan B” using the latest technology is needed to save the world from dangerous climate change, according to a poll of leading scientists carried out by The Independent. The collective international failure to curb the growing emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2) in the atmosphere has meant that an alternative to merely curbing emissions may become necessary.

The plan would involve highly controversial proposals to lower global temperatures artificially through daringly ambitious schemes that either reduce sunlight levels by man-made means or take CO2 out of the air. This “geoengineering” approach – including schemes such as fertilising the oceans with iron to stimulate algal blooms – would have been dismissed as a distraction a few years ago but is now being seen by the majority of scientists we surveyed as a viable emergency backup plan that could save the planet from the worst effects of climate change, at least until deep cuts are made in CO2 emissions.

USA

Steel Industry, in Slump, Looks to U.S. Stimulus



By LOUIS UCHITELLE

Published: January 1, 2009

The steel industry, having entered the recession in the best of health, is emerging as a leading indicator of what lies ahead. As steel production goes – and it is now in collapse – so will go the national economy.

That maxim once applied to Detroit’s Big Three car companies, when they dominated American manufacturing. Now they are losing ground in good times and bad, and steel has replaced autos as the industry to watch for an early sign that a severe recession is beginning to lift.

The industry itself is turning to government for orders that, until the September collapse, had come from manufacturers and builders.

Two Advisers Reflect on Eight Years With Bush

Bolten and Hadley Decry ‘Mythologies’

By Michael Abramowitz

Washington Post Staff Writer

Friday, January 2, 2009; Page A01

White House Chief of Staff Joshua B. Bolten and national security adviser Stephen J. Hadley remember conferring with President Bush during the darkest days of the Iraq war, in 2005 and 2006, when violence was out of control. In daily 7 a.m. meetings in the Oval Office, Bush reviewed “blue sheets” detailing incidents involving U.S. soldiers; he would circle the casualty figures and press his top aides for details about the deaths.

“It was pretty grim news,” Hadley recalled last week. For him, however, the sessions underscored the president’s focus. “This notion that somehow the president didn’t know what was going on, information was withheld from him in some way, he didn’t have a picture of what was going on: He got that picture” — Hadley smacked his palms together for emphasis — “at 7 o’clock every morning.”

Middle East

Iraq plans to close Iranian dissidents’ border camp

• Base was used in sabotage and assassination sorties

• US fostered sect as tool for regime change in Tehran

Jonathan Steele

The Guardian, Friday 2 January 2009

Iraq plans to close a camp for Iranian dissidents who used to cross into Iran to mount assassinations and sabotage – a decision that has sharpened political differences between Baghdad and Washington.

Camp Ashraf, about 80 miles north of Baghdad, came under Iraqi control yesterday in a broad security handover that forms part of the US withdrawal agreement concluded late last year.

Iraq’s national security adviser, Mowaffaq al-Rubaie, led a delegation of defence and interior ministry officials to the camp last weekend, warning its 2,500 male and 1,000 female inmates that “staying in Iraq is not an option”. The Iraqi government said it “is keen to execute its plans to close the camp and send its inhabitants to their country or other countries in a non-forcible manner”.

Gazans face ‘humanitarian crisis’ as Israeli raids intensify

Aid agencies warn of looming disaster with supply shortage inflicting more suffering on families

By Kim Sengupta in Jerusalem

Friday, 2 January 2009

After six days of Israeli bombardment, aid agencies say that Gazans are facing a humanitarian crisis with air strikes causing severe problems in getting food, medicine and fuel supplies to the besiegedcivilian population.

The assessment, by several international relief organisations, contradicts the statement by the Israeli Foreign Minister, Tzipi Livni, during a visit to Paris yesterday that “there is no humanitarian crisis in the Strip, and therefore there is no need for a humanitarian truce”. While relief shipments were allowed into Gaza by the Israeli authorities in the days before the start of the offensive, they came after weeks of virtually no supplies getting through, the agencies point out.

Europe

Russia cuts off the gas supply to Ukraine

From The Times

January 2, 2009



Helen Womack in Moscow

Ukrainians woke up with new year hangovers to the news that Russia had cut their gas supplies over unpaid bills and their refusal to sign a contract.

Moscow was quick to lay the blame on Kiev for the breakdown of talks on a new contract for 2009, accusing Ukraine of blackmail for suggesting that it might siphon off gas intended for Western Europe. Ukraine assured Europeans that they would continue to receive gas.

Gas was flowing to Western Europe as Gazprom, the Russian state-owned monopoly, had stipulated, said a spokesman for Naftogaz, of Ukraine. The Ukrainian gas company secures gas transit to Europe in compliance with Gazprom orders.

Vatican divorces from Italian law

The Vatican City State, the world’s smallest sovereign state, has decided to divorce itself from Italian law

By David Willey

BBC News, Rome

Vatican legal experts say there are too many laws in Italian civil and criminal codes, and that they frequently conflict with Church principles.

With effect from New Year’s Day, the Pope has decided that the Vatican will no longer automatically adopt laws passed by the Italian parliament.

All Italian laws will be examined one by one before they are adopted.

Under the Lateran treaties signed exactly 80 years ago between Italy and the Pope, and the Italian Parliamentary system, Italian laws were applied automatically.

Asia

Sri Lankan troops enter Tamil Tigers stronghold of Kilinochchi

From Times Online

January 2, 2009

Rhys Blakely in Mumbai

Sri Lankan Government forces fought their way into the Tamil Tigers’ main stronghold on Friday for the first time in a decade. The assault on the rebel base could bring the country’s brutal 25-year civil war to its endgame.

Government troops entered the northern town of Kilinochchi from three directions, the army said. The move follows an escalation in fighting in the area in recent weeks that has left hundreds of people dead and injured.

A defence ministry spokesman said: “The fall of Kilinochchi is imminent as the security forces have already entered into the Kilinochchi town perimeter from the northern, southern and western edges of Kilinochchi town”.

Town Asks Kung Fu Monks for Tourism Blessings>

GUANDU JOURNAL

By ANDREW JACOBS

Published: January 1, 2009

GUANDU, China – The cluster of temples at the heart of this dusty, traffic-clogged town are picturesque reminders of China’s faded Buddhist past. On a recent day, dogs warmed themselves in the winter sun as a few toothless devotees bowed before smiling Buddhas. The only sounds were the occasional clanging of wind chimes and the splash of coins tossed into a mucky pond.

While soothing to some, the tranquillity is galling to Guandu’s city fathers, who recently spent $3 million to rebuild the four temples. They had become schools and warehouses during an earlier era, when the Communist Party sought to suppress nearly all religious activity, including that by Buddhists.

Africa

Ghana presidential revote due in sole district



By AKWASI APPRATWUM-MENSAH, Associated Press Writer

TAIN, Ghana – Residents of a single district that could decide the outcome of Ghana’s presidential election cast their ballots on Friday, despite attempts by the ruling party to stop the vote.

Voters in the tiny western district of Tain were unable to vote in Sunday’s tight nationwide runoff because not enough ballots were distributed to polling stations there.

After a near-complete tally of more than 9 million ballots from all the other districts of the West African nation, opposition leader John Atta Mills is ahead of his ruling party rival Nana Akufo-Addo by only around 23,000 votes.

Some 53,000 people are registered to vote in Tain, so ballots there could now sway the election either way.

During the Dec. 7 first round, Atta Mills narrowly won Tain, by 16,211 votes to Akufo-Addo’s 14,935.

U.N. Tackles Rising Threat of Urban Hunger in Africa

High Food Prices Spur World Food Program, Usually Employed in Rural Crises, to Find Tactics That Work in Crowded Cities

By SARAH CHILDRESS

MONROVIA, Liberia — Escalating hunger in African cities is forcing aid agencies accustomed to tackling food shortages in rural areas to scramble for strategies to address the more complex hunger problems in sprawling slums.

The United Nations World Food Program, the world’s largest food-aid group, has plenty of experience trucking food into rural Africa, responding to shortages sparked by drought, famine and war. But in urban areas — where, despite widespread poverty, hunger wasn’t a significant issue until recently — the hurdles are different.

In the vast and crowded slums, with many unnamed streets and dwellings without running water or electricity, it is difficult to identify who’s most in need of help.

Latin America

No stamp of approval for Mexico bureaucrats

Mexico is in a league of its own when it comes to red tape. It’s gotten so bad that the government is even rewarding citizens for choosing the paperwork best fit for the dustbin.

By Ken Ellingwood

January 2, 2009

Reporting from Mexico City — Arturo Sandria visited government agencies not once, not twice, not three times. (Hint: Try an even dozen.) He stood in mind-numbing lines, filled out forms, took another number, filled out more forms and, he says, paid $250 in bribes.

But after six months, he was still in pursuit of his prize: a permit to paint his house.

“Tedious,” Sandria declared of his paper chase. “They ask for a lot of things that aren’t really necessary.”

On a recent day, Sandria, a 50-year-old electronics technician, waited in (yet another) line at (one more) overcrowded government agency. He clutched a dogeared manila folder stuffed with documents outside a hulking downtown branch of Mexico City’s government, his 13th such visit.