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UN Prepares for Bush Visit Amid bin Laden Threats
During the week, security in the UN neighborhood grew steadily tighter as visits by US President George W. Bush and other high-level foreign officials neared. Security forces and local police set up roadblocks, closed off sidewalks, and deployed an array of special equipment including video cameras and high-tech communications gear. Since Osama bin Laden called the UN an "instrument of crime" and a partner of Middle East "crusader interests," security people in Turtle Bay have been unusually edgy. Senior UN official Shashi Tharoor told reporters on Thursday "we are on high alert."
Immediately outside the GPF office, steel barricades block off the street and black vans with tinted windows park on the sidewalk opposite. Security personnel are everywhere, staring through dark glasses, gesturing ominously, pacing around the neighborhood, on the lookout. Concrete barriers, orange sand-filled dump trucks, and dozens of police vehicles have transformed our block into an eerie security zone. Nearby, stand clusters of motorcade vehicles, limousines and motorcycle police.
WTO Meetings and Protests Begin
On Friday, November 9, the Fourth Ministerial Meeting of the World Trade Organization will begin in Doha, Qatar, continuing through Tuesday, November 13. US President George Bush has stated that the war against terrorism depends on a "successful" outcome of the talks and more open trade, but the negotiating session gets under way amid intense worldwide opposition. Opponents denounce key proposals which could lead to privatization of health care, education and other "services" so as to create new markets for multinational corporations. Governments in virtually all the world's poor countries oppose the draft text under consideration.
A recent statement from Nigeria said the draft, was "empty of content on the issues of interest to developing countries" while a coalition of 14 Southern and Northern NGOs has argued that "the tone and content of the new text presumes a consensus on a future WTO agenda which does not exist."
Nevertheless, the US, the European Union and the WTO Secretariat are pushing the draft ahead. The text, which excludes alternative drafting by poor countries, is largely the product of private negotiations by the US, the EU, Japan and Canada. Trade unions and grassroots organizations are planning demonstrations in many cities around the world on the 9th and 10th.
Afghan War
This week, information leaked that US forces on their first major ground raid in Afghanistan ran into severe resistance and suffered surprisingly heavy casualties. According to a Reuters story dated November 4, US Delta Force commandos that raided two Afghan sites on October 20 did not have the easy time that Pentagon spokesmen had originally described. According to author Seymour Hersh, writing in the New Yorker magazine, the Delta Force was ambushed by Taliban soldiers and 12 of the commandoes were wounded, 3 seriously.
Military officers involved were reported to be furious about Pentagon handling of information about the raids, including videos of the soldiers parachuting in. Only hours after the raids were over, Gen. Richard Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, announced that the raid was a "success" and that it had encountered only "light resistance." But several days later, high officials began to talk about how "tough" the Taliban fighters were proving to be, suggesting that US forces had been less than successful on the ground.
Meanwhile, as war continues, the humanitarian situation is worsening. On November 1, Oxfam International issued a statement calling for a pause in military action and stating that "time is running out for some communities." Hundreds of thousands, according to Oxfam, are "suffering from acute food shortages." The statement noted that food is already running out in parts of Faryab, Ghor, Balkh and Badghis provinces.
People in the humanitarian community have told GPF that substantial amounts of food have been trucked into the country in recent days, but that the overall need is so great, the winter so long and the supplies so unevenly distributed that a major humanitarian disaster is very likely unless something changes very fast. We have also learned that conditions in the refugee camps are abominable and likely to lead to further humanitarian and human rights crises. If Washington's war on the Taliban lasts for months or even years, the Afghan crisis will get much, much worse.
Torture in the United States?
The media in the United States have been considering the unthinkable - the possibility that US authorities might use torture to extract information from suspects in the recent terror attacks. On October 21, the Washington Post first considered the issue in a long article by journalist Walter Pincus based on interviews with senior FBI and law enforcement officials. "Among the alternative strategies under discussion," wrote Pincus, "are using drugs or pressure tactics, such as those employed occasionally by Israeli interrogators, to extract information." There is also talk, according to Pincus, of extraditing prisoners to other countries where authorities more readily use torture or pressure on family members. Pincus quotes David Cole, a professor at Georgetown University Law School saying "The use of force could happen."
One of the first articles on the issue ran October 19 in Slate, an online magazine, while another article appeared October 23 in the Wall Street Journal. The issue came up in CNN's television talk show "Crossfire" on October 25 and again on Fox News Channel on November 5, where anchor Shepard Smith introduced a segment asking "Should law enforcement be allowed to do anything, even terrible things, to make suspects spill the beans?" The November 5 issue of Newsweek ran a column by Jonathan Alter titled "Time to Think About Torture." Also on November 5, the New York Times ran a long story titled "Torture Seeps into discussion by News Media." The Times story ended on an upbeat comment, implying that the idea was coming from a few heavy-handed commentators, not from the government. Clearly, though, the idea originated with the interrogators. Perhaps they have already put it into practice.
The "USA PATRIOT Act," passed by overwhelming majorities in the Congress in late October, will legalize many official abuses, including detention on the basis of suspicion, increased surveillance, government access to medical and other records, and much more. With more than a thousand prisoners being held under very questionable circumstances and torture perhaps just around the corner, the United States appears to be on a road to very serious erosion of civil liberties.
What Kind of Rights
The New York legal and foreign policy elite prides itself in its intelligence, cosmopolitan outlook and enlightened humanitarianism, but we were reminded of a different, more narrow reality a few days ago while attending a dinner at a leading institute on foreign affairs. Having mentioned social and economic rights to a gentleman from one of the city's most prestigious law firms, he abruptly replied: "What rights are those? When I went to law school forty years ago they never talked about that!" We replied that while the law school in question may not have taught this subject, the rights existed in those times as well as today, and they were written into a UN Convention in 1966. "What about property rights, though?" sputtered our legal expert, his thoughts turning immediately to money. "When is the UN going to pass a convention about that?!"
Fed Drops Rates to Boost Stalled US Economy
On Tuesday, November 6, the Federal Reserve Bank lowered its benchmark federal funds rate (the overnight interbank lending rate) to 2 percent, the lowest rate since 1961. Clearly, the Fed is hoping to boost the flagging US economy by this vigorous monetary action. But interest rate changes alone will not be enough, according to most economists. Nor will the current stimulus bill in Washington, which fails to meet the standards of a Keynesian fiscal boost because it channels most benefits to investors and high income earners who are less likely to spend their windfall.
Government program spending offers the third classic stimulus tool, but the Bush administration has shown little enthusiasm for public works other than military projects and corporate bailouts. Even the emergency aid to New York City will largely end up in the pockets of real estate firms and construction companies, not ordinary citizens. Some economists have suggested that this would be a good time to build a high-speed national passenger rail system, but neither Congress nor the Administration is interested in such New Deal strategies.
Will these anemic stimuli be enough? The respected Economist magazine thinks probably not. The Economist has raised the spectre of Japan, where authorities have used every kind of stimulus, including zero interest and massive public works, without succeeding in launching another era of growth. What if consumers in rich countries simply tire of buying ever more commodities? What if they became content with what they have? This is a nightmare, looming on the economic horizon, more frightening to the economic czars than Osama himself.
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