Middle East Report Online: The Hazy Path Forward in Sudan by Sarah Washburne

March 24, 2009

24 March, 2009

[Sarah Washburne is a doctoral student at the University of Exeter. She contributed this article from Khartoum.]

For another view on the ICC decision, see Khalid Mustafa Medani, ‘Wanted: Omar al-Bashir — and Peace in Sudan,’ Middle East Report Online, March 5, 2009.

On the day after the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued an arrest warrant for Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir, the wanted man addressed a pre-planned rally of thousands in front of the presidential palace in Khartoum. Bashir was defiant, denouncing the warrant as ‘neo-colonialism,’ and praising his supporters in Martyrs’ Square as ‘grandsons of the mujahideen,’ a reference to the participants in the Mahdiyya uprising against Anglo-Egyptian rule in 1885. The atmosphere was almost one of jubilation; one might have mistaken the crowds for soccer fans celebrating a win. As Bashir condemned the ICC and the West from the microphone, the protesters waved the Sudanese flag and held aloft pictures of Bashir, as well as posters depicting the face of Luis Moreno Ocampo, the ICC prosecutor, superimposed upon the body of a pig. There were sporadic outbreaks of drumming, dancing and singing.

Continue reading →

Video: The Real News Network – Iran responds to Obama

March 24, 2009Leave a comment

Obama’s unprecedented greeting to Iran is met with an unprecedented response by Grand Ayatollah Khamenei?

Investigative historian and journalist, Gareth Porter, speaks to Sharmini Peries about President Obama’s Nowruz greeting to Iran. Noting the significance of this unprecedented move by the US government, and the saying that this is the first time the Iranian leader himself has responded directly to the US, Porter said, “Obama was displaying atmospherics here far more than substance,” adding that, “there really is nothing in the address that gives you a clue as to what change is going to be made in the US posture when they actually sit down with Iran.”

http://widgets.vodpod.com/w/video_embed/Groupvideo.2266754

Bio
Gareth Porter is a historian and investigative journalist on US foreign and military policy analyst. He writes regularly for Inter Press Service on US policy towards Iraq and Iran. Author of four books, the latest of which is Perils of Dominance: Imbalance of Power and the Road to War in Vietnam.

Posted with vodpod

Naval Gazing

March 24, 2009Leave a comment

Let’s say that China sends a ship 75 miles off San Diego to do a little surveillance. Those are international waters, after all, and Beijing is interested in the latest developments in our submarine warfare capabilities at Naval Base Point Loma. And it wants to do some reconnaissance for its own expanding fleet of subs. Want to bet that the United States dispatches a ship to tell the Chinese to back off?

Earlier this month when the situation was reversed, however, America got all huffy when China confronted the USNS Impeccable, a surveillance vessel, 75 miles from China’s naval base at Hainan Island. The Pentagon argued that the United States can do whatever it wants in international waters. China responded that the Impeccable was in China’s 200-mile Exclusive Economic Zone, which it says should be restricted to peaceful activities.

Continue reading →

These Colors Won’t Run… Afghanistan By Norman Solomon

March 24, 2009Leave a comment

Is your representative speaking out against escalation of the Afghanistan war?

Last week, some members of Congress sent President Obama a letter that urged him to “reconsider” his order deploying 17,000 additional U.S. troops to Afghanistan.

Everyone in the House of Representatives had ample opportunity to sign onto the letter. Beginning in late February, it circulated on Capitol Hill for more than two weeks. The letter was the most organized congressional move so far to challenge escalation of the war in Afghanistan.

Continue reading →

Phil Wilayto, "Did Iran Reject Obama's Overture?"

March 24, 2009Leave a comment

Iran’s response to a supposedly conciliatory address March 20 by U.S. President Barack Obama has been met with a torrent of ‘we-told-you-sos’ by the U.S. media.

The Los Angeles Times reported that Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, had simply ‘dismissed President Obama’s extraordinary Persian New Year greeting. . . .’

The Christian Science Monitor said the president’s gesture had been ‘greeted coolly’ by Khamenei.

And an Associated Press report carried by, among others, the New York Times, called Khamenei’s response a ‘rebuff’ that ‘was swift and sweeping.’

Was it?

Continue reading →

Phil Wilayto, “Did Iran Reject Obama’s Overture?”

March 24, 2009Leave a comment

Iran’s response to a supposedly conciliatory address March 20 by U.S. President Barack Obama has been met with a torrent of ‘we-told-you-sos’ by the U.S. media.

The Los Angeles Times reported that Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, had simply ‘dismissed President Obama’s extraordinary Persian New Year greeting. . . .’

The Christian Science Monitor said the president’s gesture had been ‘greeted coolly’ by Khamenei.

And an Associated Press report carried by, among others, the New York Times, called Khamenei’s response a ‘rebuff’ that ‘was swift and sweeping.’

Was it?

Continue reading →

COHA: A Step Towards Autonomy and Reintegration: The Rio Group and Cuba – Council on Hemispheric Affairs

March 24, 2009Leave a comment

Cuba was admitted into the Rio Group last November, an ad hoc Western Hemispheric organization that doesn’t include the United States

The island nation’s entry will expand Cuba’s role in the region and represents another bypassing of the spirit and letter of the U.S. embargo against Cuba

The Castro regime may be less likely to revoke newly announced reforms in the future, since the island increasingly is projecting itself internationally

It comes as no surprise that after decades of playing the role of hemispheric hegemon, the United States at the same time has created a critical mass that has inadvertently resulted in a backlash throughout Latin America. Founded in 1986, the Rio Group was created in response to the prevailing U.S. dominance in the region that helped spawn during this period a number of organizations with an autonomy-minded agenda. After its inception, the Rio Group came to consist of 23 Latin American and Caribbean states, and had two primary concerns. The first, exemplified by U.S. exclusion from the organization, was to ensure that Latin Americans nations had control over their own international affairs. Hemispheric groups, most notably the Organization of American States (OAS), were heavily dominated by the United States’ interests throughout the 20th century.

Continue reading →