Blair, Bush in 'war crimes trial'

BBC
A tribunal to try UK Prime Minister Tony Blair and US President George Bush for war crimes will be convened on Wednesday.


It is no surprise that neither man will be attending the proceedings - they may not even be aware that it is taking place.

But start it will, at a conference in Kuala Lumpur called as part of the former Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad's campaign to criminalise war.

Dr Mahathir is not expected to sit on the tribunal. He couldn't quite be characterised as impartial.

Dr Mahathir said: "What is Blair if not the co-murderer of 500,000 Iraqi children and the liar who told the British that Saddam had WMD (Weapons of Mass Destruction) which could be launched against Britain within 45 minutes?

"History should remember Blair and Bush as the 'killers of children'."

Although the aim of the conference - entitled Expose War Crimes, Criminalise War - is to outlaw war itself, for many Malaysians who've turned up that means one thing.

"They're giving an open mind to people who know what kind of war crime that the US do to our communities in the world," was one man's assessment. It seemed to be that of most people.

"It is the converted preaching to the converted," said Gwynne Dyer, a journalist and Oscar-nominated documentary maker who addressed the conference.

"But I think this [conference] has potential," he said. "It actually has a goal beyond cheering people up and allowing them to vent."

And there's a lot of venting going on here. Specifically it seems to be to vilify Tony Blair and George Bush.

'Vast conspiracy'

The meeting has attracted a curious range of speakers.

The former UN humanitarian co-ordinator in Iraq Hans Von Sponeck shares a platform with author Alfred Lambremont Webre.

Mr Webre claims to have uncovered a vast conspiracy to profit from wars. He's also keenly interested in intelligent extra-terrestrial life.

The message is made quite clear by an exhibition staged in parallel with the conference. Its style is Madame Tussauds on a shoestring, and it features tableaux illustrating the carnage of the world wars, the Palestinian problem, Vietnam and of course Iraq.

There's a section comprising a cage and a couple of dummies wired up to electrodes with the song Rivers of Babylon pumping away in the background.

A helpful notice tells us that the "cheerful" music of Boney M was used as an instrument of torture in the Iraq prison at Abu Ghraib.

Dr Mahathir is busy signing autographs. A woman passes him a copy of her programme to sign.

"Oh Dr Mahathir", she coos, "you're more handsome in person than you are in photographs."

The 81-year-old statesman takes it in his stride.

His admirer persists. "I'm honoured, I'm standing in front of you, I'm shaking I feel like I'm in love for the first time," she says.

"Shameless flattery," I suggested to Dr Mahathir.

"Yes, it's flattery," he said with a grave smile.

Resignation calls

But there's no flattery when I ask him if he has anything to add about Mr Blair.

"What do I have to say about him? I think it's about time he resigns. Don't wait too long, people are impatient. It's time he resigns. He's been telling lies."

Not everyone is convinced that Dr Mahathir is a suitable figurehead for a new human rights movement.

After all, his record during 22 years in power was far from unblemished.

He detained political opponents without trial and had scant regard for the freedom of the press. His administration was accused of turning a blind eye to torture.

I put this to Dr Dyer.

"If you know someone who has a claim to the moral high ground I'd like to meet him," he said.

"Nelson Mandela," I ventured.

"Alright, there's one, name a second," he challenged me.

"Desmond Tutu," I suggested knowing, I still had the Dalai Lama up my sleeve.

"Oh damn," said Dr Dyer. "But you know nobody comes to this with clean hands and if you wait until you have perfect people to do it you're not going to get it done are you?"

Meanwhile a Downing Street spokesman responded simply: "We believe the invasion of Iraq was lawful, and we believe that the UN confirmed with resolution 1723 that the presence of the multi-national force remains legal."

And never the twain shall meet.

U.S. military: Iraqi lawmaker is U.S. Embassy bomber

CNN
A man sentenced to death in Kuwait for the 1983 bombings of the U.S. and French embassies now sits in Iraq's parliament as a member of Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's ruling coalition, according to U.S. military intelligence.

Jamal Jafaar Mohammed's seat in parliament gives him immunity from prosecution. Washington says he supports Shiite insurgents and acts as an Iranian agent in Iraq.

U.S. military intelligence in Iraq has approached al-Maliki's government with the allegations against Jamal Jafaar Mohammed, whom it says assists Iranian special forces in Iraq as "a conduit for weapons and political influence."

Repeated efforts by CNN to reach Jamal Jafaar Mohammed for comment through the parliament, through the ruling Shiite Muslim coalition and the Badr Organization -- the Iranian-backed paramilitary organization he once led -- have been unsuccessful. (Watch how a convicted terrorist became an Iraqi lawmaker )

A Kuwaiti court sentenced Jamal Jafaar Mohammed to death in 1984 in the car bombings of the U.S. and French embassies the previous December. Five people died in the attacks and 86 were wounded.

He had fled the country before the trial.

Western intelligence agencies also accuse Jamal Jafaar Mohammed of involvement in the hijacking of a Kuwaiti airliner in 1984 and the attempted assassination of a Kuwaiti prince.

Jamal Jafaar Mohammed won a seat in Iraq's Council of Representatives in the U.S.-backed elections of December 2005. He represents Babil province, south of Baghdad, in parliament.

A U.S. Embassy spokesman said officials are actively pursuing Jamal Jafaar Mohammed's case with Iraqi officials. Al-Maliki has urged American intelligence officials to share their information with Iraqi lawmakers, who could strip Jamal Jafaar Mohammed of his parliamentary immunity.

"We don't want parliament to be a shelter for outlaws and wanted people," al-Maliki told CNN. "This is the government's view, but the parliament is responsible. I don't think parliament will accept having people like [him] or others currently in the parliament."

Al-Maliki's political party, Dawa, claimed responsibility for the Kuwait bombings at the time but now disavows them. The Iranian-backed Shiite Muslim party was forced into exile under former dictator Saddam Hussein, who was executed in December.

The prime minister says the situation is embarrassing -- not only to his government but to a U.S. administration that holds up Iraq's government as a democratic model for the region.

Top U.S. officials, including President Bush, have accused Iran of meddling in Iraq by fomenting sectarian violence and providing arms to illegal militias. Bush has authorized U.S. troops to use deadly force against Iranian agents in Iraq to defend American or allied forces, and the administration's increasingly tough warnings to Tehran have raised concerns that the four-year-old Iraq war could spread.

Al-Maliki told CNN last week that the United States and Iran should stop using his country as a proxy battleground, accusing Iran of targeting U.S. troops in Iraq but saying he doesn't want U.S. forces to use Iraq as a base to attack Iraq's neighbors.

"War on terrorism tax" sought as Congress debates Bush budget

reuters
An outspoken supporter of the Iraq war on Tuesday called for a new tax to pay for its astronomical cost as Congress opened a debate on President George W. Bush's $2.9 trillion budget plan for next year.

Sen. Joseph Lieberman of Connecticut proposed a "war on terrorism tax" at a Senate hearing during which he said the Pentagon's $622 billion defense budget proposal for fiscal 2008 threatened to crowd out funds for domestic programs.

The lawmaker, a former Democrat turned independent, favors a U.S. troop buildup in Iraq.

Bush traveled to Manassas, Virginia, to deliver the opposite message about the budget he submitted to the Democrat-controlled Congress on Monday.

"This budget can work if Congress resists the temptation to raise your taxes," the Republican president told employees of Micron Technology Inc., a semiconductor manufacturer.

As the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan grind on and their costs could hit $662 billion by the end of next year, Congress is becoming increasingly worried about cutting domestic programs to keep wartime budget deficits down.

Even moderate Republicans have rebelled against tight budgets for social programs, saying last year they had been "cut to the bone and into the marrow."

House of Representatives and Senate budget panels want to produce their own spending plans within the next few months.

"I think we have to start thinking about a war on terrorism tax," Lieberman said during a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing on Bush's defense budget. "I mean, people keep saying we're not asking a sacrifice of anybody but our military in this war and some civilians who are working on it."

Lieberman did not provide details of his tax idea.

'UNCONVINCING'

Bush's budget proposal also faced skepticism among Democrats on the House Budget Committee.

"We find the results that you claim unconvincing," Chairman John Spratt, a South Carolina Democrat, told Bush budget director Rob Portman.

Spratt said Bush's plan projects a $61 billion budget surplus in 2012 while assuming only $50 billion in war costs in 2009 and none after that. This year, fighting wars in Iraq and Afghanistan could total around $170 billion.

Bush's budget also does not factor in permanently fixing a quirk in the U.S. tax code so that middle-class taxpayers do not get hit with tax bills designed for the wealthy. The fix could cost around $1 trillion.

"We have good news for the American people," Portman told the committee. "The president's 2008 budget reduces the deficit every year and balances the budget by 2012, while meeting our nation's priorities."

Rep. Marion Berry, an Arkansas Democrat, responded, "My first thought is, if we're doing so good, how come we're so broke?"

U.S. debt has risen $3 trillion since Bush took office in 2001. That debt skyrocketed following an economic slowdown that began in late 2000 and Bush tax cuts amid huge increases in spending for government-run health programs, the military and domestic security after September 11.

House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Charles Rangel said Bush needs to reach out to Democrats if he wants to accomplish a budget that deals with politically explosive issues like Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid.

"I don't think that I can tell the president what to put on the table and what not to put on the table but I can tell him don't pick a damn fight," Rangel told reporters.

Washington politicians were not the only ones attacking Bush's budget, which would allow domestic discretionary spending to grow by only 1 percent, below the rate of inflation.

California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, a Republican, said his state would be hurt by plans to transfer some health care costs to the poor from the federal government to state governments. He also said it was unacceptable to eliminate federal reimbursements for costs of jailing illegal immigrants.

Jerusalem construction dig sparks major row

monstersandcritics
Jerusalem - A new Israeli construction project in Jerusalem has sparked a storm of controversy, with Muslim leaders warning of harm to Islamic holy places and calling for a revival of the uprising against Israel.

The row centres around Israel's building of a new walkway leading up to the Old City's disputed Temple Mount/ Harem al-Sharif compound, holy to both Jews and Muslims and a perennial Jerusalem flashpoint.

The compound is perhaps the most volatile site in an already volatile region. It houses the al-Aqsa mosque, the third most holy site in Islam, and Muslims believe it marks the spot from where the prophet Mohammed ascended to heaven.

For Jews, it is the holiest site in Judaism, as it contains the archaeological remnants of their biblical temple, destroyed by the Romans in 70 AD, and abuts the Western (Wailing) Wall, the only surviving structure pertaining to the temple.

Although Israel claims sovereignty over the site, administration of the holy places in the compound is in the hands of the Muslim Waqf religious trust, which zealously guards against any encroachment.

Claims that Israel is attempting to undermine the foundations of the compound's al-Aqsa and Dome of the Rock mosques are not new and have been sounded, in various forms, virtually since Israel captured the Old City of Jerusalem area in the 1967 Middle East War.

Islamic leaders are unappeased by Israel's assertion that the Muslim holy sites would not be harmed by the current work being undertaken to prepare for the construction of a new walkway from the Western Wall plaza to the compound.

The walkway is to replace an old wooden structure built after the previous ramp collapsed in 2004 due to rain, snow and a minor earthquake.

Israel says it is not building the new walkway in the compound but outside it, and argues it is necessary to provide safe access to it. It had declared the previous structure a 'safety hazard.'

'There is no connection to the Temple Mount,' Dr Gideon Avni, an archaeologist working on the project, said of the excavations.

'The danger in Jerusalem has increased. It is high time for the Intifada (uprising) of the Islamic people,' said Raed Salah, head of Israel's Islamic Movement northern faction, who on Wednesday was arrested as he tried to force his way through a security gate leading to the Western Wall Plaza.

Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniya, and President Mahmoud Abbas, currently in Saudi Arabia for talks on forming a unity government, also lent their voices to the protests.

Abbas called for the Islamic world to intervene to stop the work, and Haniya, whose Hamas movement has been engaged in bloody clashes with Abbas' Fatah organization for months, told Palestinians to remember that their battle was with the 'Israeli occupation.'

The Jerusalem Post daily, in an editorial Wednesday, accused Palestinian leaders of 'exploiting the issue for political purposes to redirect hostility against Israel in the midst of a bloody conflict.'

'Each time the Palestinians engage in internal wars, our leaders have a special talent for uniting them against us,' Roni Shaked of the Yediot Achronot daily countered.

Jordan's King Abdullah II lodged an official complaint with the Israeli government and demanded the work be stopped.

Even the US State Department joined in the fray, with spokesman Sean McCormack telling reporters that 'we urge all parties to exercise great care when deciding whether and how to engage in any activity near sensitive religious sites.'

Israeli criticism of the excavations focuses less on any alleged harm to Muslim holy sites, but more on whether the work was coordinated with the Waqf.

'All this commotion could have been avoided,' Yediot's Shaked wrote in an article entitled 'Playng with fire.'

'The bulldozers started without Israel having taken the position of the Waqf into consideration,' he said.

An Israeli official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, insisted towards Deutsche Presse-Agentur

Four held over Iranian diplomat kidnapping

zeenews
Baghdad, Feb 07: Four Iraqi military officers have been detained over the kidnapping of an Iranian diplomat in Baghdad, Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari said on Wednesday.

"Those detained are (Iraqi) military officers. But there is some questioning about their affiliations and who is ordering them to do these things," Zebari told reporters.

"There are doubts that the four are affiliated with government entities," he added, without elaborating.

Jalal Sharafi, 40, the second secretary at the Iranian embassy in Baghdad, was abducted in Karrada, a predominantly Shiite Southeastern district of the capital, on Sunday by gunmen dressed in Iraqi Army uniforms.

Iraq and Iran are working closely to resolve the kidnapping, an official at Tehran's embassy said today.

"There is a very close cooperation with the Iraqi Government in this regard," a top official told a news agency, noting that Iranian Ambassador Hasan Kazemi Qmi had met both Zebari and Defence Minister Abdel Qader Jassim Mohammed to discuss the situation.

Bureau Report