Docudharma Times Saturday June 21

For the consciousness of the nation

Wait! First You Have To Have One

That Leaves Out The Democratic Leadership

Big Gains for Iraq Security, but Questions Linger

By STEPHEN FARRELL and RICHARD A. OPPEL Jr.

Published: June 21, 2008

BAGHDAD – What’s going right? And can it last?

Violence in all of Iraq is the lowest since March 2004. The two largest cities, Baghdad and Basra, are calmer than they have been for years. The third largest, Mosul, is in the midst of a major security operation. On Thursday, Iraqi forces swept unopposed through the southern city of Amara, which has been controlled by Shiite militias. There is a sense that Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki’s government has more political traction than any of its predecessors.

Consider the latest caricatures of Mr. Maliki put up on posters by the followers of Moktada al-Sadr, the fiery cleric who commands deep loyalty among poor Shiites.

Frustrated Burmese Organize Aid Forays

Ad Hoc Groups Formed In Cyclone’s Aftermath, But Causes May Widen

Washington Post Foreign Service

Saturday, June 21, 2008; Page A01

RANGOON — Seven weeks after huge swaths of Burma were savaged by a cyclone and tidal wave, a new and remarkable citizen movement is delivering emergency supplies to survivors neglected by the military government’s haphazard relief effort.

The scores of ad hoc Burmese groups, many of them based here in the country’s largest city, are not overtly political. But they are reviving a kind of social activism that has been largely repressed by successive military rulers here.

USA

White House Dismissed Legal Advice On Detainees

By Michael Abramowitz

Washington Post Staff Writer

Saturday, June 21, 2008; Page A01  

Senior lawyers inside and outside the Bush administration repeatedly warned the White House that it was risking judicial scrutiny of its detention policies in Guantanamo Bay if it did not pursue a more pragmatic legal strategy that considered the likely reaction of the Supreme Court. But such advice, issued periodically over the past six years, was ignored or discounted, according to current and former administration officials familiar with the debates.

In August 2006, for example, the top lawyer at the State Department told senior officials at the White House that unless they won a congressional mandate that broadly supported their system of detaining terrorism suspects, their goal of keeping the detainees locked up was in jeopardy. “I can virtually guarantee you, without a legislative basis, federal courts are not going to be willing to uphold the indefinite detention of unlawful combatants,” John B. Bellinger III warned in an e-mail.

Travelers Shift to Rail as Cost of Fuel Rises

By MATTHEW L. WALD

Published: June 21, 2008

WASHINGTON – Record prices for gasoline and jet fuel should be good news for Amtrak, as travelers look for alternatives to cut the cost of driving and flying.  

And they are good news, up to a point.

Amtrak set records in May, both for the number of passengers it carried and for ticket revenues – all the more remarkable because May is not usually a strong travel month.

But the railroad, and its suppliers, have shrunk so much, largely because of financial constraints, that they would have difficulty growing quickly to meet the demand.

Many of the long-distance trains are already sold out for some days this summer. Want to take Amtrak’s daily Crescent train from New York to New Orleans? It is sold out on July 5, 6, 7 and 8. Seattle to Vancouver, British Columbia, on July 5? The train is sold out, but Amtrak will sell you a bus ticket.

Asia

China stages torch relay in Tibet

BBC

The Olympic torch has been carried through the Tibetan provincial capital of Lhasa amid heavy security.

The 11km (seven mile) parade passed off smoothly, with the flame carried past apparently hand-picked spectators.

The BBC’s James Reynolds says there is a staggering security presence in the city, three months after violent protests broke out.

Ethnic Tibetans clashed with security forces and Han Chinese in March in the biggest protests for two decades.

Foreign journalists have been barred from Lhasa since the unrest.

Protesters lay siege to government complex

Pledge to remain until prime minister quits

· Scuffles with police lead to fears of new coup

Ian MacKinnon in Bangkok

The Guardian,

Saturday June 21, 2008

Political tensions in Thailand grew yesterday when thousands of protesters, demanding that the five-month-old government quit, pushed through police lines to lay siege to Government House.

The demonstrators, who have rallied for 26 straight days in the capital, Bangkok, scuffled with riot police who eventually broke ranks, allowing the protesters through to the country’s seat of power.

Last night the leaders of the collection of anti-government groups vowed to remain until the prime minister, Samak Sundaravej – who they regard as a proxy for the deposed prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra – steps down.

Chanting “Get out, get out”, the protesters waved flags and swarmed around the wrought-iron railings as riot police looked on casually.

Africa

Mugabe’s men bring rape and torture to Harare suburbs

Chris McGreal in Epworth

The Guardian,

Saturday June 21, 2008

Yvonne Chipowera doesn’t know the names of those who raped her, whipped her with sjamboks and urinated on her face while making her call Zimbabwe’s opposition leader a dog. Her ordeal lasted 16 hours.

Her attackers were young men drawn from Robert Mugabe’s militia, armed with knives and slingshots, who rule the streets of Epworth, a sprawling poor township on the edge of Harare.

But Chipowera, a 24-year-old opposition activist, knows who she blames. There is the ruling Zanu-PF party’s district chairman, Teddy Garakara, in whose house she was held and tortured along with other opposition activists, some in a hole in the ground. Then there is Amos Midzi, a former cabinet minister and parliamentary candidate for the Epworth seat who lost to the opposition. He appeared at the house to encourage the militiamen as Chipowera was beaten. The victims say he is orchestrating the campaign of home burnings and demolitions engulfing Epworth. And there is Joana Mawira, a Zanu-PF local councillor, who other women say was giving the orders as they were assaulted.

Mann prosecutors show coup contract to court

By Rodrigo Angue Nguema in Malabo

Saturday, 21 June 2008

Government lawyers displayed a contract in court yesterday which they said was proof that the former British military officer Simon Mann played a key role in a plot to overthrow Equatorial Guinea’s President four years ago.

Mr Mann, 55, identified his signature on the contract – also signed by the exiled opposition leader, Severo Moto, who would allegedly be installed as president – and on financial statements and other documents as his trial entered a fourth day.

He is accused of planning to topple the longtime dictator of Africa’s third-biggest oil producer, President Teodoro Obiang.

Europe

Europe warms to GM crops as possible solution to food crisis

 By Andrew Grice and Vanessa Mock in Brussels

Saturday, 21 June 2008

The European Union has launched a study into whether a large-scale expansion of genetically modified crops would curb soaring global food prices.

Gordon Brown backed the move after the European Commission said GM crops could “play an important role in mitigating the effects of the food crisis”. Jose Manuel Barroso, the Commission president, warned that the EU’s current obstacles to GM products could result in higher food prices in Europe than the rest of the world. EU leaders endorsed the plans to review the complex system of approving GM licences, which is split between the EU and national governments. It could be streamlined to make the approval process easier.

European judges condemn tests set to outlaw mavericks

From The Times

June 21, 2008

Adam Sage in Paris

The annals of justice abound in the foibles of those supposed to deliver it, with sex, drink and insanity among the factors that have shaped rulings across continents and epochs. But for how much longer?

Aspiring judges in Europe are being told to undergo psychological tests in an attempt to weed out mavericks, alcoholics and other characters deemed inappropriate. The latest country to force psychometrics on a reluctant judiciary is France, and the result is uproar. Judges are furious at the questionnaire, designed to determine how neurotic, extrovert, agreeable and conscientious they are. They are also livid at a plan to ask psychologists to measure their intelligence.

Middle East

Gaza cease-fire: will it give Hamas greater clout?

The agreement may mark a break with a longstanding Israeli and American boycott of the Islamic militant organization, giving Hamas incentive to enforce the deal.

By Joshua Mitnick  | Correspondent of The Christian Science Monitor

posted June 21, 2008

Tel Aviv, Israel –  For all the official downplaying of the Gaza cease-fire declared Thursday between Hamas and Israel, as well as predictions of its imminent demise, the agreement may mark a break with a longstanding Israeli and American boycott of the Islamic militant organization.

Israel’s de facto recognition of Hamas’s rule in Gaza, analysts say, holds the prospect of widening international acceptance for the organization, giving it a compelling incentive to keep up its end of the bargain.

“This is the power that Israel has to deal with,” says Meir Javedanfar, a Tel Aviv-based Middle East analyst. “It’s not full diplomatic recognition, but Israel has recognized Hamas as an important party – on some issues it can’t be avoided.

“Israel is showing that its past policy of refusing to talk to militant organizations, something which it has been preaching to the US, is not always functional,” he adds. “Jerusalem has realized that talking to its enemies is the shortest and most cost effective path militarily, economically, and strategically.”

UN nuke chief urges Syria to cooperate

By OMAR SINAN, Associated Press Writer  

CAIRO, Egypt – The U.N. nuclear watchdog chief urged Syria on Friday to show “transparency” and cooperate with inspectors from the world agency visiting the Mideast country this weekend.

It marks the start of an international fact check of U.S. and Israeli assertions that Damascus had tried to build a plutonium-producing facility under the radar of the international community.

Mohamed ElBaradei, who heads the Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency, told the pan-Arab Al-Arabiya Television that he hoped Syria will let IAEA inspectors visit “all locations” they are interested in.

Latin America

Mexico’s central bank, citing inflation fears, boosts key interest rate

The country’s economy has proved resilient during the slowdown in the neighboring U.S. But with food and energy prices rising sharply, the bank raises its benchmark interest rate to 7.75% from 7.5%.

By Marla Dickerson, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer

June 21, 2008  

MEXICO CITY — Mexico’s central bank raised its benchmark interest rate by a quarter of a percentage point to 7.75% on Friday, citing fears of inflationary pressures that have sent food prices spiraling upward.

It was the first hike since October, when the Bank of Mexico raised the overnight lending rate by a similar amount in the face of rising consumer prices.

Friday’s increase surprised some analysts and came just two days after Mexican President Felipe Calderon announced a pact with food processors to freeze prices through the end of the year on more than 150 pantry staples.

Economists had interpreted that move as a bid to persuade the Bank of Mexico to stand pat and hold off on a rate hike that might put a drag on the nation’s gross domestic product growth.