[casi-analysis] casi-news digest, Vol 1 #118 - 5 msgs

[casi-news-request@DELETETHISlists.casi.org.uk]

[ This message has been sent to you via the CASI-analysis mailing list ]



This is an automated compilation of submissions to newsclippings@casi.org.uk

Articles for inclusion in this daily news mailing should be sent to newsclippings@casi.org.uk. 
Please include a full reference to the source of the article.

Today's Topics:

   1. =?Windows-1252?Q?UN_:__CPA_Mismanaging_Iraq=92s_Oil_Revenues_?= (ppg)
   2. there are an estimated 3,000 damaged tanks and other military vehicles in Iraq as a result of 
a series of wars (=?iso-8859-1?q?The=20Iraq=20Solidarity=20Campaign?=)
   3. U.S. Drops Plan to Exempt G.I.'s From U.N. Court 
(=?iso-8859-1?q?The=20Iraq=20Solidarity=20Campaign?=)
   4. The number of deformed newborns in Iraq has increased dramatically because of people's 
exposure to radiation (=?iso-8859-1?q?The=20Iraq=20Solidarity=20Campaign?=)
   5. 'Its best use is as a doorstop' (=?iso-8859-1?q?The=20Iraq=20Solidarity=20Campaign?=)

--__--__--

Message: 1
From: "ppg" <ppg@DELETETHISnyc.rr.com>
To: <newsclippings@casi.org.uk>
Subject: =?Windows-1252?Q?UN_:__CPA_Mismanaging_Iraq=92s_Oil_Revenues_?=
Date: Thu, 24 Jun 2004 07:27:06 -0400

UN Panel Says CPA is Mismanaging Iraq=92s Oil Revenues
by Chris Shumway


http://tinyurl.com/yvgv8

Jun 24 - A UN-mandated oversight panel says the US-led Coalition Provisiona=
l
Authority (CPA) is mismanaging billions of dollars in Iraqi oil revenues.

The International Advisory and Monitoring Board (IAMB), which was set up by
the UN to monitor the Development Fund for Iraq, issued the criticism on
Tuesday, according to Reuters. The Fund holds proceeds from the sale of
Iraqi oil, as well as assets seized from Saddam Hussein's regime and money
transferred from the sanctions-era Oil for Food Program.

According to Reuters, the Monitoring Board said the Coalition Provisional
Authority falsely stated that it had awarded contracts for equipment to
meter Iraq's oil production. The absence of such equipment makes it possibl=
e
for smugglers to gain access to oil supplies, said the IAMB.

The IAMB also accused the CPA of delaying action for three months on a
request by the Board that it turn over US audits of sole-source contracts
awarded to Halliburton last year without competitive bidding, according to
Reuters.

The IAMB includes representatives from the Secretary-General of the United
Nations, the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank and the Arab Fund
for Social and Economic Development.

The Financial Times reports that the US-based accounting firm KPMG, which i=
s
currently auditing the development fund on behalf of the Monitoring Board,
says the Coalition's poor management has left the Fund "open to fraudulent
acts."

KPMG is not expected to complete its audit until July 14, two weeks after
the Coalition Provisional Authority is formally dissolved, according to
Reuters. But in a preliminary report, a copy of which the Financial Times
has obtained, KPMG criticized the coalition's handling of the DFI and said
the audit has been delayed in part by "resistance" from CPA staff.

The Direct Fund for Iraq was created by the UN last May and is managed by
the CPA's Program Review Board (PRB), a panel appointed by and subordinate
to Coalition's civilian administrator, Paul Bremer. Spread sheets on the
CPA's own web site indicate that the PRB has already spent $11.2 billion
from the Fund, an amount that far exceeds the $3.2 billion in US taxpayer
funds awarded thus far by the CPA for Iraqi reconstruction projects.

The PRB has also committed $4 billion to additional projects, leaving only
$4.4 billion in the fund, which is to be formally turned over to Iraq's
interim government on June 30. The UN Security Council resolution setting
the terms for Iraqi sovereignty states that the interim government is
obligated to honor all contracts awarded by the CPA.

The KPMG report obtained by Financial Times reads, "The CPA does not have
effective controls over the ministries' spending of their individually
allocated budgets, whether the funds are direct from the CPA or via the
ministry of finance."

Some of KMPG's harshest criticism was directed at the State Organization fo=
r
Marketing Oil (SOMO), an agency charged with selling Iraq's oil, the
Financial Times reports. KMPG's report says SOMO's only record of
transactions was "an independent database, derived from verbal confirmation=
s
gained by Somo staff."

An Iraqi minister, speaking to the Financial Times, said he and many of his
colleagues who will take office on June 30 feel "let down by how the CPA ha=
s
controlled resources."

An adviser to a former member of the Iraqi Governing Council told the
Financial Times that he feared auditors would never be able to complete a
thorough review of the CPA's handling of Iraq's money. "If the auditors
don't finish by June 30, they never will, because the CPA staff are going
home," the adviser said. "I lament the lack of transparency and lack of
involvement by Iraqis."

Ironically, the US has frequently complained about the UN's management of
funds in the Oil for Food program while Saddam Hussein was in power.

The CPA would not discuss the KPMG report with the Financial Times, stating
only that it "has been and will continue to discharge its responsibilities
under the Iraqi Development Fund."




--__--__--

Message: 2
Date: Thu, 24 Jun 2004 13:14:27 +0100 (BST)
From: =?iso-8859-1?q?The=20Iraq=20Solidarity=20Campaign?= <mcr_coalition@DELETETHISyahoo.co.uk>
Reply-To: MCR_Coalition@yahoo.co.uk
Subject: there are an estimated 3,000 damaged tanks and other military vehicles in Iraq as a result 
of a series of wars
To: "CASI \(News\)" <newsclippings@casi.org.uk>


[ Presenting plain-text part of multi-format email ]

Sam Whitfield, a spokesman for the Coalition Provisional Authority said... =
there are an estimated 3,000 damaged tanks and other military vehicles in I=
raq as a result of a series of wars. Those vehicles are being legitimately =
scrapped, he said.
Not all scrap metal leaving Iraq is junkhttp://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistor=
y.mpl/world/2596301Looters take tons of new materialBy JAMES GLANZ
New York Times


SAHAB, Jordan -- As the United States spends billions of dollars to rebuild=
 Iraq's civil and military infrastructure, there is increasing evidence tha=
t parts of sensitive military equipment, seemingly brand-new components for=
 oil rigs and water plants and whole complexes of older buildings are leavi=
ng the country on the backs of flatbed trucks.
In what some experts call a massive looting operation, at least 100 semi-tr=
ailers loaded with what is billed as Iraqi scrap metal are streaming each d=
ay into Jordan, just one of six countries that share a border with Iraq.
In the past several months, the International Atomic Energy Agency, based i=
n Vienna, Austria, has been closely monitoring satellite photographs of hun=
dreds of military-industrial sites in Iraq. Initial results from that analy=
sis are jarring, said Jacques Baute, director of the agency's Iraq nuclear =
verification office: Entire buildings and complexes of as many as a dozen b=
uildings have been vanishing from the photographs.
"We see sites that have totally been cleaned out," Baute said.
The United States contends that the prodigious Middle Eastern trade in Iraq=
i scrap metal is closely monitored by Iraqi government ministries to ensure=
 that nothing crossing the border poses a security risk or siphons material=
 from new projects. In April, L. Paul Bremer, the occupation's senior offic=
ial in Iraq, and the Iraqi Ministry of Trade established rules for licensin=
g the export of scrap metal from the country.
Sam Whitfield, a spokesman for the Coalition Provisional Authority, said pe=
nalties for not obtaining a license or abiding by its terms were severe for=
 a trucker. "If he does not have it or is found to be exporting scrap illeg=
ally, not only can his load be seized but his truck can be seized," he said=
.
Whitfield said the overall quantity of scrap may not be surprising, conside=
ring that there were, for example, an estimated 3,000 damaged tanks and oth=
er military vehicles in Iraq as a result of a series of wars. Those vehicle=
s are being legitimately scrapped, he said.
"There's huge volumes of scrap out there, just all over Iraq," he said.
A senior American intelligence official said the idea that the material to =
build missiles or nuclear devices may be being exported from the military-i=
ndustrial sites was "far-fetched."
"It's conceivable that some of this material might be dual-use in nature," =
the official said, adding that "what appears to be happening is simply loot=
ing."

The Iraq Solidarity Campaign (UK)

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Iraqisolidarity/





The Iraq Solidarity Campaign

---------------------------------
 ALL-NEW Yahoo! Messenger - sooooo many all-new ways to express yourself


--__--__--

Message: 3
Date: Thu, 24 Jun 2004 13:16:52 +0100 (BST)
From: =?iso-8859-1?q?The=20Iraq=20Solidarity=20Campaign?= <mcr_coalition@DELETETHISyahoo.co.uk>
Reply-To: MCR_Coalition@yahoo.co.uk
Subject: U.S. Drops Plan to Exempt G.I.'s From U.N. Court
To: "CASI \(News\)" <newsclippings@casi.org.uk>


[ Presenting plain-text part of multi-format email ]


http://www.nytimes.com/2004/06/24/international/24NATI.html?th

NYTimes.com > International
United States Armament and Defense

U.S. Drops Plan to Exempt G.I.'s From U.N. Court
By WARREN HOGE

Published: June 24, 2004

UNITED NATIONS, June 23 =97 The United States bowed Wednesday to broadoppos=
ition on the Security Council and announced it was dropping its effortto ga=
in immunity for its troops from prosecution by the InternationalCriminal Co=
urt.

"The United States has decided not to proceed further with
consideration and action on the draft at this time in order to avoid a prol=
onged and divisive debate," James B. Cunningham, the deputy American ambass=
ador, said on emerging from the Council chamber.

The envoys from the 15-member Council had spent the morning in closed sessi=
on, discussing a rewritten version of the American resolution that circulat=
ed on Tuesday night to try to meet the objections.

Resolutions granting a year's exemption had passed the Council in each of t=
he past two years, but this year the renewal ran into difficulties
because of the prison scandal in Iraq and strong opposition from Secretary =
General Kofi Annan.

The outcome, while a political defeat for Washington, will have no
effect on the vulnerability to prosecution of American soldiers in Iraq. Ne=
ither the United States nor Iraq is a member of the tribunal, and its
jurisdiction is limited to countries that do not themselves prosecute crime=
s by their military.

The setback for American diplomacy at the United Nations came just two week=
s after the Bush administration was praised there for demonstrating flexibi=
lity and a willingness to compromise in securing a unanimous  vote on a res=
olution affirming the arrangements for the transfer of power in Iraq.

This time American diplomats, who had been confident of obtaining a
routine "technical rollover" of the measure, appeared to have miscalculated=
 the impact of the publicity given the American mistreatment of Iraqi detai=
nees.

They were also caught off guard by the intervention of Mr. Annan, who
told the ambassadors on Friday that a vote in favor of the United States
would undermine the new solidarity of the Council.

Shortly after Mr. Cunningham's announcement, Mr. Annan issued a
statement saying, "The decision by the United States not to pursue a resolu=
tion on this matter will help maintain the unity of the Security Council at=
 a time when it faces difficult challenges." Ambassador Wang Guangya of Chi=
na, which had supported the measure the past
two years, said, "Clearly from the very beginning, this year China has
been under pressure because of the scandals and the news coverage of the pr=
isoner abuse, and it made it very difficult for my government to support it=
."

Spain's ambassador, Juan Antonio Y=E1=F1ez-Bernuevo, explained his
country's opposition, saying, "For us the essential thing is to remain fait=
hful to the International Criminal Court, which we strongly support, and al=
so to the United Nations Charter, and to respect the statement made by the =
secretary general last week, which had a powerful effect."

In calling for the Council to turn back the American request, Mr. Annan
said it was "of dubious judicial value," and especially objectionable in th=
e
aftermath of the prisoner abuse. Passing the measure, he said, would
discredit the Council, the United Nations and the "primacy of the rule
of law," and he appealed to the members to maintain the common purpose they=
 had shown on June 8 in their unanimous vote on Iraq.

Mr. Y=E1=F1ez-Bernuevo said he regretted that the Americans had not mounted=
 thesame kind of diplomatic effort that secured that unanimous vote. "We wo=
uld have liked to see a process as we saw in the Iraq resolution, a more co=
llective effort," he said. Instead, he said, "according to what we heard fr=
om the U.S., that was the last word, they could not go any further, there w=
as no point in pursuing the matter."

Ambassador Heraldo Mu=F1oz of Chile said Mr. Annan's statement had had "a v=
ery important impact on many delegations." The Bush administration has said=
 it needs the troop-protection measure
to prevent people from using the court to bring politically motivated
war-crime prosecutions against Americans abroad.

Elaborating on that Wednesday, Ambassador Cunningham noted that the United =
States was the "largest contributor to global security."

(Page 2 of 2)

"When the United States voluntarily commits its armed forces to
participate in peacekeeping missions around the world, we believe it is who=
lly inappropriate to subject them to a tribunal which cannot provide
adequate guarantees of due process," he said.

Asked if the United States would limit its peacekeeping actitivies in
the future =97 a threat it has made in past years =97 Mr. Cunningham said, =
"I'm not going to comment on that."

An accompanying statement said that in the absence of a resolution, the
United States would "take into account the risk of International
Criminal Court review when determining contributions to U.N. authorized or =
established operations."

Addressing concerns about American military conduct abroad, Mr.
Cunningham said, "The United States has a well-functioning system of milita=
ry justice that will assure accountablity."

Since the international court was established, the Bush administration
has made bilateral agreements with 90 countries barring any prosecution of =
American officials by the court.

The current exemption expires on June 30, the day Iraq regains its
sovereignty and American troops become part of the kind of United
Nations-approved force that the renewal was meant to cover.

But the court has no jurisdiction in Iraq, which did not sign the 1998
treaty establishing it, or in the United States, which is also not a
signer. In addition, backers of the court argue that since it accepts cases=
 only when a nation is unwilling to prosecute, there is little likelihood i=
t would ever be called upon to deal with the United States.

The court, formed in July 2002, is to hear cases of war crimes,
genocide and systematic human rights abuses.

The resolution that was withdrawn on Wednesday included a revision
intended to meet a major objection: language in the original proposal that =
expressed the intention to renew the one-year exemption each July 1 "for as=
 long as may be necessary."

That paragraph was eliminated and new language inserted that pledged
that this request for a one-year exemption would be the final one. But the
attempt to bridge the differences did not work, and Ambassador Mu=F1oz,
of Chile, said that while he thought the United States' decision had been
"too rushed," it was probably the best one under the circumstances.

"Better not to be divided after the consensus and the unity that we
showed on Iraq," he said.


 Copyright 2004 The New York Times Company

The Iraq Solidarity Campaign (UK)
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Iraqisolidarity/




The Iraq Solidarity Campaign

---------------------------------
 ALL-NEW Yahoo! Messenger - sooooo many all-new ways to express yourself


--__--__--

Message: 4
Date: Thu, 24 Jun 2004 13:19:51 +0100 (BST)
From: =?iso-8859-1?q?The=20Iraq=20Solidarity=20Campaign?= <mcr_coalition@DELETETHISyahoo.co.uk>
Reply-To: MCR_Coalition@yahoo.co.uk
Subject: The number of deformed newborns in Iraq has increased dramatically because of people's 
exposure to radiation
To: "CASI \(News\)" <newsclippings@casi.org.uk>


[ Presenting plain-text part of multi-format email ]

BAGHDAD, June 23 (Xinhuanet) -- The number of deformed newborns in Iraq has=
 increased dramatically because of people's exposure to radiation, Al Nahdh=
ah newspaper reported Wednesday.Dr. Fatin Abdul Majeed, director of the pro=
gram of mother and child in the Iraqi Ministry of Health, said there were s=
everal reasons behind such occurrence.
    "One of the most important reasons is direct exposure to radiation, whi=
ch caused the increase in the rate of deaths among Iraqi children," said Ab=
dul Majeed.
    "New cases were found in Baghdad and other Iraqi cities," shesaid.
Meanwhile, Abdul Majeed pointed out that radiation would have along impact.
    "Even if an area is now clear of radiation, that does not mean it would=
 not affect people for generations," she said. "For the exposure of mother =
or father would increase the chances of their babies' being infected with m=
alicious maladies."

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2004-06/23/content_1543474.htm



http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Iraqisolidarity/




The Iraq Solidarity Campaign

---------------------------------
 ALL-NEW Yahoo! Messenger - sooooo many all-new ways to express yourself


--__--__--

Message: 5
Date: Thu, 24 Jun 2004 14:05:29 +0100 (BST)
From: =?iso-8859-1?q?The=20Iraq=20Solidarity=20Campaign?= <mcr_coalition@DELETETHISyahoo.co.uk>
Reply-To: MCR_Coalition@yahoo.co.uk
Subject: 'Its best use is as a doorstop'
To: mcr_coalition@yahoo.co.uk, ISC <iraqisolidarity@yahoogroups.com>


[ Presenting plain-text part of multi-format email ]


Brian Whitaker explains why a book packed with sweeping generalisations abo=
ut Arabs carries so much weight with both neocons and military in the US

Monday May 24, 2004

http://www.guardian.co.uk/elsewhere/journalist/story/0,7792,1223525,00.html


Consider these statements:

"Why are most Africans, unless forced by dire necessity to earn their
livelihood with 'the sweat of their brow', so loath to undertake any
work that dirties the hands?"

"The all-encompassing preoccupation with sex in the African mind
emerges clearly in two manifestations ..."

"In the African view of human nature, no person is supposed to be able
to maintain incessant, uninterrupted control over himself. Any event
that is outside routine everyday occurrence can trigger such a loss of
control ... Once aroused, African hostility will vent itself
indiscriminately on all outsiders."

These statements, I think you'll agree, are thoroughly offensive. You
would probably imagine them to be the musings of some 19th century
colonialist. In fact, they come from a book promoted by its US publisher as=
 "one of the great classics of cultural studies", and described by
Publisher's Weekly as "admirable", "full of insight" and with "an impressiv=
e spread of scholarship".

The book is not actually about Africans. Instead, it takes some of the
hoariest old prejudices about black people and applies them to Arabs.

Replace the word "African" in the quotations above with the word
"Arab", and you have them as they appear in the book. It is, the book says,=
 the Arabs who are lazy, sex-obsessed, and apt to turn violent over the sli=
ghtest little thing.

Writing about Arabs, rather than black people, in these terms
apparently makes all the difference between a racist smear and an admirable=
 work
of scholarship.

The book in question is called The Arab Mind, and is by Raphael Patai,
a cultural anthropologist who taught at several US universities,
including Columbia and Princeton.

I must admit that, despite having spent some years studying Arabic
language and culture, I had not heard of this alleged masterpiece until
last week, when the investigative journalist Seymour Hersh mentioned it in =
an article for New Yorker magazine.

Hersh was discussing the chain of command that led US troops to torture Ira=
qi prisoners. Referring specifically to the sexual nature of some of this a=
buse, he wrote: "The notion that Arabs are particularly
vulnerable to sexual humiliation became a talking point among pro-war Washi=
ngton conservatives in the months before the March 2003 invasion of Iraq.

"One book that was frequently cited was The Arab Mind ... the book
includes a 25-page chapter on Arabs and sex, depicting sex as a taboo
vested with shame and repression."

Hersh continued: "The Patai book, an academic told me, was 'the bible
of the neocons on Arab behaviour'. In their discussions, he said, two
themes emerged - 'one, that Arabs only understand force, and two, that
the biggest weakness of Arabs is shame and humiliation'."

Last week, my own further enquiries about the book revealed something
even more alarming. Not only is it the bible of neocon headbangers, but
it is also the bible on Arab behaviour for the US military.

According to one professor at a US military college, The Arab Mind is
"probably the single most popular and widely read book on the Arabs in
the US military". It is even used as a textbook for officers at the JFK
special warfare school in Fort Bragg.

In some ways, the book's appeal to the military is easy to understand,
because it gives a superficially coherent view of the Arab enemy and
their supposed personality defects. It is also readily digestible,
uncomplicated by nuances and caveats, and has lots of juicy quotes, a
generous helping of sex, and no academic jargon.

The State Department, too, used to take an interest in the book,
although it seemingly no longer does. At one stage, the training department=
 gave free copies to officials when they were posted to US embassies in the=
 Middle East.

In contrast, opinions of Patai's book among Middle East experts at US
universities are almost universally scathing. "The best use for this
volume, if any, is as a doorstop," one commented. "The book is old, and a t=
horoughly discredited form of scholarship," said another.

None of the academics I contacted thought the book suitable for serious
study, although Georgetown University once invited students to analyse
it as "an example of bad, biased social science".

There is a lot wrong with The Arab Mind apart from its racism: the
title, for a start. Although the Arab countries certainly have their
distinctive characteristics, the idea that 200 million people, from Morocco=
 to the Gulf, living in rural villages, urban metropolises and (very
rarely these days) desert tents, think with some sort of single, collective
mind is utterly ridiculous.

The result is a collection of outrageously broad - and often suspect -
generalisations. Patai asserts, for example, that Arabs "hate" the
west.

He backs up this claim with two quotations: one from a book published
in the mid-50s ("Most westerners have simply no inkling of how deep and
fierce is the hate, especially of the west, that has gripped the
modernising Arab"), and another from Bernard Lewis - currently the neocons'=
 favourite historian - referring to the mood of "many, if not most Arabs" i=
n 1955 (just before the Suez crisis).

We are also informed (page 144) of "the Arab view that masturbation is
far more shameful than visiting prostitutes".

Whether this is why Iraqi prisoners were forced to masturbate in front
of cameras is unclear, but the only supporting evidence for Patai's
claim is a survey of Arab and US students published in 1954: the US
students admitted to masturbating twice as often as the Arabs, while 59% of=
 the Arabs, but only 28% of the Americans, said they had visited a prostitu=
te during the previous 12 months.

In "outlying areas", such as Siwa oasis in Egypt, Patai says,
"homosexuality is the rule, and practised completely in the open". This
unequivocal statement is based on accounts dating from 1935, 1936 and 1950,=
 and, in a footnote, Patai concedes that they "need to be checked out by an=
 anthropologically trained observer".

There is also a good deal of confusion in the book between the present
and the past. An Arab man, Patai writes, even if he has four wives,
"can have sexual relations with concubines (slave girls whom he owns)".

All this adds up to an overwhelmingly negative picture of the Arabs.
Positive characteristics are mentioned, but are given relatively short
shrift.

Hospitality and generosity - two highly regarded virtues in Arab
societies - get three and one and a half pages respectively, compared with =
a whole chapter devoted to alleged sexual hang-ups.

The book is a classic case of orientalism which, by focusing on what
Edward Said called the "otherness" of Arab culture, sets up barriers that
can then be exploited for political purposes.

The Arab Mind was originally published in 1976, but - according to one
US academic - actually belongs to the "national character" genre of
writing that was popular in comparative politics around the middle of the
last century.

Its methodology, therefore - not to mention much of its content - was
considerably behind the times even when it first appeared.

Patai died in 1996, but his book was revived by Hatherleigh Press in
2002 (nicely timed for the war in Iraq), and reprinted with an
enthusiastic introduction by Norvell "Tex" De Atkine, a former US army colo=
nel and the head of Middle East studies at Fort Bragg.

"It is essential reading," De Atkine wrote. "At the institution where I
teach military officers, The Arab Mind forms the basis of my cultural
instruction."

In a speech last week, the US president, George Bush, congratulated
himself on having removed "hateful propaganda" from the schools in Iraq.

Perhaps it is now time he turned his attention to military schools in
the US.


The Iraq Solidarity Campaign (UK)
   http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Iraqisolidarity/





The Iraq Solidarity Campaign

---------------------------------
 How much mail storage do you get for free? Yahoo! Mail gives you 6MB! Get =
Yahoo! Mail




End of casi-news Digest

_______________________________________
Sent via the CASI-analysis mailing list
To unsubscribe, visit http://lists.casi.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/casi-analysis
All postings are archived on CASI's website at http://www.casi.org.uk