Peace and Justice Post

Bhutto’s Party Says It May Work With Pakistan President Musharraf After Election

SADAQAT JAN
AP News, Jan 14, 2008

Benazir Bhutto’s political party said Monday it may work with Pakistan’s president after elections next month despite the leader’s apparent unpopularity and allegations elements within his government may have played a role in her death.
The comments highlight the fluid nature of Pakistani politics ahead of the polls, which the United States and other Western nations hope will usher in a period of stability as the country battles rising attacks by al-Qaida and Taliban militants.

Bhutto’s party and the other main opposition grouping have intensified their calls for President Pervez Musharraf to resign since Bhutto was assassinated on Dec. 27.

But a spokesman for Bhutto’s Pakistan Peoples Party said “all options are open” when asked whether it would cooperate with Musharraf.

Continued . . .

By Hannah Allam | McClatchy Newspapers Sun Jan 13, 2008

ABU DHABI, United Arab Emirates — President Bush on Sunday described Iran as the world’s leading state sponsor of terrorism and called on Arab allies to help his administration curb the threat “before it’s too late.”

In a speech at an opulent, palace-style resort here Sunday, Bush accused Iran’s militant Shiite Muslim government of spending hundreds of millions of dollars to foment instability in Iraq , Lebanon , Afghanistan and the Palestinian territories, while ordinary Iranians face economic hardships and political repression.

” Iran’s actions threaten the security of nations everywhere,” Bush said. “So the United States is strengthening our longstanding security commitments with our friends in the Gulf, and rallying friends around the world to confront this danger before it’s too late.”

But Bush appears unlikely, based on the regional reaction to his address, to find many Arabs to heed his alarms against Iran , a powerful neighbor and trading partner. Nor did many endorse his speech’s other theme— a vision of “free and just society” featuring broad political participation and a voice for moderate Muslims in a region where money and family are common keys to leadership.

Continued . . .

The Independent, January 15, 2008By Leonard Doyle in Washington

The notorious prison at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba should be closed as soon as possible because negative publicity about the treatment of terror suspects has been “pretty damaging” to America’s image, the chief of the US military has said.

“I’d like to see it shut down,” Admiral Mike Mullen said, during his first tour of the detention centre since he became chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff in October. “More than anything else it has been the image – how ‘Gitmo’ has become around the world, in terms of representing the US.

“I believe that, from the standpoint of how it reflects on us, it has been pretty damaging.”

Keep reading . . .

RINF.com, January 13, 2008

S President George W. Bush claims Iran is a threat to global security, calling on Arab allies to join the US to confront the nation.

“Iran is today the world’s leading state sponsor of terror,” Bush alleged in his speech in the capital of the UAE, Abu Dhabi.

He said that Washington and Arab countries must join together to deal with the danger ‘before it’s too late’.

Bush alleged that Iran funded terrorist extremists, undermined peace in Lebanon, and provided arms for the Taliban.

Iran’s actions threaten the security of nations everywhere; it seeks ‘to intimidate its neighbors with missiles and bellicose rhetoric’, Bush continued.

US allies in the region have expressed concern that Bush’s war of words against Tehran may be aimed at drumming up support for military action against Iran.

The oil-rich Arab countries say any conflict could lead to insecurity in the whole region.

Senior Arab officials have repeatedly said that they will not allow the United States to use their countries as a launch pad for any strike against Iran.

“Mr. President, the region needs smart initiatives not smart bombs,” wrote Kuwaiti newspaper al-Rai in a front-page editorial, following Bush’s trip to the country.

CS/DT/RE

Opednews.com,

Bhutto’s assassination by gun men was a pre-emptive strike! She might have exposed the CIA as the World’s number one terrorist organization. Pakistan Dictator Pervez Musharraf, Bush’s man in Pakistan, blames the victim. In some perverted sense, he may be right. Bhutto may have signed her own death warrant with the famous statement (censored by the BBC) that Bin Laden was murdered by Saeed Sheikh. [Her remarks found here]

Bhutto pulled the rug from under Bush’s official 911 conspiracy theory. We must chalk up to official fraud and exploitation several “video tapes” that Bushies attributed to the world’s arch fiend, Osama bin Laden, the Lex Luthor of terror. Bush critics are now confirmed; there is no reason to suppose that bin Laden ever stopped being a CIA asset. While alive, that is.

Continued . . .

RINF.com, January 12, 2008

By John Catalinotto

In an attempt to limit political damage and protect the highest officials, the new U.S. Attorney General Michael Mukasey has ordered a special investigation of the decision in 2005 to destroy tapes of CIA interrogations made in 2002 of two alleged high-level Al-Qaeda officials. The investigation is limited to how the decision was made and who made it. It is not supposed to probe the content of the tapes, which are said to show brutal interrogations using torture.

Washington often claims to be the champion of “human rights” and uses an alleged lack of human rights to attack or impose sanctions on those it considers its enemies. Since the invasions and occupations of Afghanistan and Iraq, however, Washington and especially the CIA have become identified with torture of prisoners, from Baghram in Afghanistan, to Abu Ghraib in Iraq, to Guantánamo on the U.S.-occupied eastern tip of Cuba.

Keep reading . . .

The New York Times,

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Demonstrators wearing orange jumpsuits intended to simulate prison garb were arrested inside and outside the building in the early afternoon. ”Shut it down,” protesters chanted as others kneeled on the plaza in front of the court.

They were charged with violating an ordinance that prohibits demonstrations of any kind on court grounds. Those arrested inside the building also were charged under a provision that makes it a crime to give ”a harangue or oration” in the Supreme Court building.

The maximum penalty is 60 days in jail, a fine or both.

The court is considering whether prisoners still detained at Guantanamo Bay have a right to challenge their confinement in U.S. courts.

Officials briefly closed the court building during the protest. It reopened around 2 p.m. EST.

Protests were also held some other world capitals.

In Manila, Philippines, about 30 activists picketed the U.S. Embassy to demand the camp’s closure. ”We are appealing to President Bush and the U.S. government to close Guantanamo Bay now,” said Aurora Parong, director of Amnesty International in the Philippines.

Small demonstrations by Amnesty supporters, also in orange jumpsuits, were held in Rome; Prague, Czech Republic; Brussels, Belgium; and Budapest, Hungary.