Council for a Livable World

IRAN  
Iran’s nuclear steps deepen Western suspicions
Fredrik Dahl, Reuters- July 6, 2011
Expanding uranium enrichment, a new atomic energy chief said to have military expertise, missile tests — Western analysts see fresh signs that Iran may be seeking to develop the means to build nuclear warheads.

Iran’s nuclear program helped by China, Russia
Eli Lake, Washington Times- July 5, 2011
The foundation of Iran’s nuclear program can be traced to extensive Chinese and Russian cooperation in the 1990s, according to a former U.S. intelligence official who specialized on Tehran’s program.

Weapons prove Iranian role in Iraq, US says
Ed O’Keefe and Joby Warrick, Washington Post- July 5, 2011
Iranian-backed militias in Iraq are using more sophisticated weapons than in the past to target U.S. troops and military installations in Iraq, according to senior U.S. officials.

NORTH KOREA
Analysis blames North Korea for cyberattack on South Korea
Lolita C. Baldor, Associated Press- June 22, 2011
North Korea or its sympathizers were likely responsible for the cyberattack against South Korean government and banking websites earlier this year, according to a new analysis that said it also appears to have been linked to the 2009 massive computer-based attack that brought down U.S. government Internet sites.

PAKISTAN
Pakistan Taliban leader “isolated,” facing splits: report
Rebecca Conway, Reuters- July 5, 2011
The chief of the Pakistan Taliban has been isolated from his militant group for more than a year and is rapidly losing control, a newspaper reported on Tuesday, a day after the military said it had launched an offensive in the northwest.

Militants enter Pakistan, attack border villages
Riaz Kahn, Associated Press- July 6, 2011
Hundreds of militants crossed from Afghanistan and attacked several border villages in Pakistan on Wednesday, triggering shootouts with local militias that killed at least five people, police said.

UNITED STATES
U.S. willing to leave 10,000 troops in Iraq past year’s end, officials say
David S. Cloud and Ned Parker, Los Angeles Times -July 6, 2011
Reporting from Washington and Baghdad– The White House is prepared to keep as many as 10,000 U.S. troops in Iraq after the end of the year, amid growing concern that the planned pullout of virtually all remaining American forces would lead to intensified militant attacks, according to U.S. officials.

Senators question military spending on Afghanistan infrastructure
Walter Pincus, Washington Post- July 6, 2011
Military commanders in Afghanistan tapped a new $400 million Defense Department infrastructure fund to bring electricity to Kandahar and begin building provincial justice centers as part of the military’s program to secure Kandahar and Helmand provinces, according to senior administration officials.

MISSILE DEFENSE
Western bid to allay Russia’s missile concerns
Charles Clover, Financial Times- July 5, 2011
Nato’s plans to deploy ballistic missile defence from spring 2012 onwards threatens to derail a fragile thaw in relations with Russia, which is seeking guarantees that the system is not aimed at them.

Kudoos to three Senators for keeping the pressure on President Obama to draw down all troops from Afghanistan by the end of 2012, and not waiting until 2014.

New York Times OpEd, July 4, 2011 – By Senators Jeff Merkley (D-OR), Rand Paul (R-KY) and Tom Udall (D-NM)

LAST month President Obama announced plans for withdrawing by next summer the approximately 30,000 American troops sent to Afghanistan as part of the 2009 surge.

We commend the president for sticking to the July date he had outlined for beginning the withdrawal. However, his plan would not remove all regular combat troops until 2014. We believe the United States is capable of achieving this goal by the end of 2012. America would be more secure and stronger economically if we recognized that we have largely achieved our objectives in Afghanistan and moved aggressively to bring our troops and tax dollars home.

After Al Qaeda attacked the United States on Sept. 11, 2001, we rightly sought to bring to justice those who attacked us, to eliminate Al Qaeda’s safe havens and training camps in Afghanistan, and to remove the terrorist-allied Taliban government. With hard work and sacrifice, our troops, intelligence personnel and diplomatic corps have skillfully achieved these objectives, culminating in the death of Osama bin Laden.

But over the past 10 years, our mission expanded to include a fourth goal: nation-building. That is what we are bogged down in now: a prolonged effort to create a strong central government, a national police force and an army, and civic institutions in a nation that never had any to begin with. Let’s not forget that Afghanistan has been a tribal society for millenniums.

Nineteen months ago the president announced the surge strategy in hopes of stabilizing Afghanistan and strengthening its military and police forces. Today, despite vast investment in training and equipping Afghan forces, the country’s deep-seated instability, rampant corruption and, in some cases, compromised loyalties endure. Extending our commitment of combat troops will not remedy that situation.

Sometimes our national security warrants extreme sacrifices, and our troops are prepared to make them when asked. In this case, however, there is little reason to believe that the continuing commitment of tens of thousands of troops on a sprawling nation-building mission in Afghanistan will make America safer.

National security experts, including the former C.I.A. director Leon E. Panetta, have noted that Al Qaeda’s presence in Afghanistan has been greatly diminished. Today there are probably fewer than 100 low-level Qaeda operatives in Afghanistan. Al Qaeda has a much larger presence in a number of other nations.

Our focus shouldn’t be establishing new institutions in Afghanistan, but concentrating on terrorist organizations with global reach. And our military and intelligence organizations have proved repeatedly that they can take the fight to the terrorists without a huge military footprint.

We have urgent needs at home: high unemployment and a flood of foreclosures, a record deficit and a debt that is over $14 trillion and growing. We are spending $10 billion a month in Afghanistan. We need to change course.

A week before the president’s speech, 24 of our Senate colleagues joined us by signing onto a bipartisan letter urging the president to announce a sustained and sizable drawdown from Afghanistan with the goal of removing regular combat troops. This group includes progressives, moderates and conservatives united behind one conclusion: we’ve accomplished what we set out to accomplish in Afghanistan, and we can no longer afford the lives and money it is taking to pursue an ambitious open-ended nation-building mission.

It is not too late to change course in what has become the longest American war in history. In light of our considerable national needs, both security and domestic, we urge the president to bring our troops home at last.

Jeff Merkley, Democrat of Oregon, Rand Paul, Republican of Kentucky, and Tom Udall, Democrat of New Mexico, are United States senators.

IRAN
Iran showcases homegrown arms in war games
Ali Akbar Dareini and Brian Murphy, AP – July 5, 2011
TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — Iran’s latest war games have featured the predictable blaze of missile tests and an unexpected peek at underground launch silos. There’s one bit of military showmanship, though, that ties it all together: Promoting the Made in Iran label.
Boasting about homegrown defense technology is growing louder as Iran claims U.N. sanctions cannot blunt efforts to keep pace with America’s Gulf allies — led by Saudi Arabia — that are awash in Pentagon weaponry and taking an increasingly tough line against Tehran.

Sens. Graham, Lieberman say Iran engaged in far-reaching push against democratic forces
AP – July 3, 2011
WASHINGTON — Sens. Lindsey Graham and Joe Lieberman are expressing concern that Iran is aggressively extending its support for anti-democracy forces wherever they appear. In appearances on “Fox News Sunday,” Graham, a Republican, says it is important for the United States to push back against Iran’s assistance to the Taliban in Afghanistan, opponents of the government in Iraq and protesters battling the Syrian regime. Lieberman says Iran has the blood of hundreds of American soldiers on its hands and that legislation in Congress would impose additional economic sanctions on an Iranian government that has murdered its own people.

Sean Cleary: How to engage Iran without forsaking collective security in the Gulf
Sean Cleary, Al Arabiyana – July 5, 2011
Iran’s potential emergence, in its current guise, as a nuclear arms state, is viewed not only as an existential threat by Israel, and a serious geopolitical risk by Washington, Europe, Russia and China, but with far deeper concern than the political establishment in Tehran or the theocracy in Qom may appreciate, by leading Arab states. Henry Kissinger, the protagonist of realism in US statecraft, posed the pertinent question. He asked if he had understood Dr. Rice to say that, if Iran were to act like a “state,” and not simply pursue a “cause” she would treat Tehran differently.

Iran Funnels New Weapons to Iraq and Afghanistan
Jay Solomon, Wall Street Journal – July 2, 2011
TEHRAN—Iran’s elite military unit, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, has transferred lethal new munitions to its allies in Iraq and Afghanistan in recent months, according to senior U.S. officials, in a bid to accelerate the U.S. withdrawals from these countries. The Revolutionary Guard has smuggled rocket-assisted exploding projectiles to its militia allies in Iraq, weapons that have already resulted in the deaths of American troops, defense officials said.

Iran to prosecute 26 American officials, MP says
Shirzad Bozorgmehr, CNN – July 3, 2011
Tehran, Iran (CNN) — Iran plans to prosecute 26 current and former American officials, an Iranian lawmaker said Sunday, potentially escalating a tit-for-tat dispute between the two countries.Iran’s government-backed Press TV said in May that parliament planned sanctions on Americans including former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and the current and former commanders of the Guantanamo Bay detention center.

NORTH KOREA
European Union to Send Food Aid to North Korea
Stephen Castle and Mark McDonald, New York Times – July 4, 2011
BRUSSELS — Responding to the growing threat of a humanitarian crisis in North Korea, the European Union announced on Monday that it will provide about $14.5 million in emergency aid to feed more than some 650,000 North Koreans. The bloc’s executive body, the European Commission, said that after its experts witnessed evidence of a developing crisis last month during a mission to North Korea, it negotiated an agreement with the North Koreans about how to monitor the delivery of assistance.

AP bureau in Pyongyang
Korea Times – July 3, 2011
A series of agreements signed last week between the Associated Press (AP) and the North Korean state news agency are expected to allow the Western media easier access to the reclusive communist state. A key point of the accords is to allow AP to set up a comprehensive news bureau in Pyongyang. We hope that an AP bureau, if opened as planned, will serve as a conduit of providing the world with detailed information and vivid news about the North.

N.Korea closes universities, students pick up tools – diplomat
Jeremy Laurence, Reuters – July 1, 2011
North Korea has told university students to put their studies on hold for a year to join efforts to revitalise its broken economy ahead of its heralded emergence next year as a “great and prosperous nation”, a top diplomat and media reports said. The British ambassador to North Korea, Peter Hughes, said while there had been no official announcement from Pyongyang, students in the capital had been mobilised to work at nearby construction sites until April 2012.

Opposition leader to make China visit
Bae Hyun-jung, Korea Herald – July 3, 2011
Leader of the main opposition Democratic Party Sohn Hak?kyu is to set off for China on Monday to promote economic cooperation and ease political tensions in Northeast Asia, party officials said.After meeting with Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping in Beijing on Monday afternoon, Sohn will meet with vice foreign minister Zang Zhizun to stress China’s crucial role in chairing the six-nation talks to end North Korea’s nuclear programs.

Ex-NKorea envoy tapped for top US post
AFP – July 2, 2011
WASHINGTON — US President Barack Obama on Friday named Wendy Sherman, a Democratic Party stalwart who led a drive to repair relations with North Korea, to be the number three at the State Department. Sherman, who is close to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, would serve as under secretary of state for political affairs, who is in charge of the day-to-day operations of US diplomacy. She needs approval by the Senate.

AFGHANISTAN
Let’s Not Linger in Afghanistan
Jeff Merkley, Rand Paul and Tom Udall, New York Times – July 4, 2011
Last month President Obama announced plans for withdrawing by next summer the approximately 30,000 American troops sent to Afghanistan as part of the 2009 surge. We commend the president for sticking to the July date he had outlined for beginning the withdrawal. However, his plan would not remove all regular combat troops until 2014. We believe the United States is capable of achieving this goal by the end of 2012.

Departing U.S. Envoy Sees Progress in Afghanistan, and Pitfalls Ahead
Alissa J. Rubin and Rod Nordland, New York Times – July 4, 2011
KABUL, Afghanistan — When Karl W. Eikenberry’s father knew he had only a few months left to live, he told his son his greatest regret was that he would not be around to see what happened next. That is how Mr. Eikenberry says he feels now, as he prepares to step down as the American ambassador to Afghanistan, after nearly a decade of working here, as a general during two tours, as a NATO official and for the past two and a half years as ambassador.

RUSSIA
Russia Meets With NATO in New Push for Libyan Peace
Andrew E. Kramer, New York Times – July 4, 2011
MOSCOW — Russia stepped up its efforts on Monday to negotiate a resolution to the war in Libya, with officials here receiving the president of South Africa, who has offered his services as a mediator, and the secretary general of NATO. At the same time, the president of the World Chess Federation, who is acting as Moscow’s informal go-between with Libya’s embattled leader, Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi, made his second trip to Tripoli.

A CBS poll on the President’s troop withdrawal plan from Afghanistan provides good news for Obama — and for those on the left and right that want more troops withdrawn and quicker. In a poll conducted June 24-28, 79% of Americans approve of the Obama …

IRAN
Israeli minister: Don’t take eyes off Iran
George Jahn, Associated Press – July 1, 2011
Israel’s foreign minister warned Thursday that Iran is using Mideast unrest as a smoke screen to advance missile and nuclear programs in its alleged development of nuclear arms.

US Suspects Iran behind increase in troop deaths in Iraq
Ed O’Keefe and Tim Craig, Boston Globe – July 1, 2011
Iran is furnishing new, more deadly weapons to Shiite Muslim militias targeting U.S. troops in Iraq as part of a pattern of renewed attempts to exert influence in the region, Defense Secretary Robert Gates said.The U.S. has raised the attacks with Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki and others, said Gates, who leaves office today. Gates will be succeeded by Leon Panetta, director of the Central Intelligence Agency.

NORTH KOREA
S. Korea still waiting for N. Korea’s response on bilateral nuclear talks
Yonhap News Agency, July 1, 2011
South Korea is still waiting for North Korea’s response to its proposal to hold bilateral talks to gauge the North’s sincerity on denuclearization, despite a recent series of fiery threats from the communist neighbor, Seoul’s foreign minister said Thursday.

PAKISTAN
How to get Pakistan to break with Islamic militants
Zalmay Khalilzad, Washington Post- June 30, 2011
In his Afghanistan speech last week, President Obama said we must “address terrorist safe havens in Pakistan.” He vowed to “press Pakistan to expand its participation in securing a more peaceful future,” “work with the Pakistani government to root out the cancer of violent extremism” and “insist that it keep its commitments.”
Missing from the president’s remarks was a strategy on how to induce a Pakistani break with Islamic militants.

Will Pakistan play the spoiler to U.S.-Taliban talks?
Tony Karon, TIME- June 30, 2011
That the U.S. has been talking to the Taliban has been known for some time now — Defense Secretary Robert Gates acknowledged as much two weeks ago.  A political agreement with the Taliban remains the key to securing a U.S. departure from Afghanistan, because the idea that the Afghan security forces will be able to hold the line against a gathering insurgency once the U.S. completes its withdrawal in 2014 is clearly a pipe-dream.

DEFENSE SPENDING
The peril of deep defense cuts
Donald Rumsfeld, Wall Street Journal- June 30, 2011
It will be tempting to accede to the White House’s proposal to carve out $400 billion, if not more, from the national security budget by 2023. It would also be a grievous mistake.

MISSILE DEFENSE
Russia, NATO have 9 years to agree on missile plan
Associated Press- June 30, 2011
Russia’s NATO envoy says that Moscow and the alliance have until 2018 to find agreement on a prospective U.S.-led missile defense plan in Europe.
GATES

On final day as defense secretary, Obama surprises Gates with Presidential Medal of Freedom
Associated Press- June 30, 2011
A visibly moved Defense Secretary Robert Gates paused briefly at a Pentagon retirement ceremony rife with pomp and pageantry, collected himself and told his president: “You’re getting pretty good at this covert ops stuff.”