Rightwing fury at first Arab in Israeli cabinet

Conal Urquhart in Tel Aviv
Friday January 12, 2007
The Guardian

Israel's newly-appointed science and technology minister, Raleb Majadele – the country’s first Arab member of cabinet. Photograph: Sebastian Scheiner/AP

Amir Peretz, the Israeli defence minister and leader of the Labour party, yesterday appointed Israel's first Arab cabinet minister - and was accused of dealing a "lethal blow to Zionism" by rightwingers.

Raleb Majadele, a Labour member of the knesset, was appointed minister for science and technology, but critics in the Labour party believe that Mr Peretz made the appointment to ensure that Arab members of the party support him in a forthcoming leadership election.

Mr Majadele replaces Ofir Pines Paz, a Labour MP who resigned over the appointment of Avigdor Lieberman, the head of the Israel Our Home party, as deputy prime minister. Mr Lieberman advocates removing Arabs from Israel.

Mr Majadele said it would be difficult sitting at the same cabinet table as Mr Lieberman but hoped to overcome any problems. "I believe this is a precedent that will be written in the history of Israeli society," he said.

Arabs make up around 20% of the Israeli population but are under-represented in most professions. Esterina Tartman, the chairwoman of Israel Our Home, told Israel radio that Mr Majadele's appointment was a lethal blow to Zionism.

"Peretz is making a sacrifice of Zionism," she said. "I call on the prime minister not to approve this appointment ... in order to protect the state of Israel's interest as a Jewish and Zionist state." Her comment were criticised as racist by members of the knesset from all parties.

President's back-up plan: blame Iran

Simon Tisdall
Friday January 12, 2007
The Guardian

If George Bush's remodelled strategy for halting the Iraq disaster fails to work, it is becoming clear where the US administration will point the finger of blame: Tehran. For some months Washington has been moving aggressively on a range of fronts to "pin back" Iran, in Tony Blair's words. But Mr Bush's Iraq policy speech on Wednesday night marked the opening of a new, far more aggressive phase which could extend the conflict into Iranian territory for the first time since the 2003 invasion.

Mr Bush's choice of words constituted an unmistakable warning that US forces may in future conduct hot pursuit operations into Iran against terrorist suspects or their backers. "These two regimes [Iran and Syria] are allowing terrorists and insurgents to use their territory to move in and out of Iraq," Mr Bush said."We will disrupt the attacks on our forces. We'll interrupt the flow of support from Iran and Syria. And we will seek out and destroy the networks providing advanced weaponry and training to our enemies in Iraq."

Asked on CBS television yesterday whether that meant US troops could be sent across the Iranian border, secretary of state Condoleezza Rice said that option was on the table. "We have to recognise that Iran is engaging in activities that endanger our troops."

Iranian diplomats yesterday reiterated previous denials that the country was involved in attacks on coalition forces. But Iran has undisputed links to key figures in Iraq's Shia-dominated government and to some of the Shia militias that Mr Bush's 22,000 troop reinforcements are about to target.

In an indication of the way control of Iraq is seen by both sides as the key test in a wider struggle for regional sway, a Tehran foreign ministry spokesman said the Bush plan "is part of the US policy to create a support umbrella for the Zionist regime [Israel] through an Islamic country".

Mr Bush's more confrontational stance also involves the deployment of a second aircraft carrier strike group to the Persian Gulf and the supply of Patriot anti-missile batteries to Sunni Muslim Arab allies fearful of the rise of Shia Muslim Iran. In a sign of things to come, US forces yesterday raided an Iranian consulate in Irbil, in northern Iraq, detaining five diplomats.

According to a policy document amplifying Mr Bush's statement, the White House's approach to Iran in the context of Iraq has undergone a "key operational shift". The aim now is to roll back Iranian influence wherever possible - despite the probably negative reaction that might produce among Iraq's majority Shia population.

But the US is also proceeding more aggressively on other fronts. This week saw the expansion of US financial sanctions on Iranian banks that Washington links to weapons proliferation. European and Asian banks and companies are coming under increasing pressure not to do business with Iran, on pain of punitive unilateral action against them by US regulators. And all this comes on top of UN sanctions designed to halt uranium enrichment by Iran.

"By putting additional pressure on Iran, Bush is in tune with his domestic constituency," said Alastair Newton, senior political analyst at Lehman Brothers in London. "But he is also responding to the concerns of America's allies in the region, including both the Arab states and Israel."

Simon Tisdall is an assistant editor of the Guardian and a foreign affairs columnist. He was previously a foreign leader writer for the paper and has also served as its foreign editor and its US editor, based in Washington DC. He was the Observer’s foreign editor from 1996-98.

Argentine Judge Orders Arrest of Peron

Friday January 12, 2007 1:16 PM

By BILL CORMIER

Associated Press Writer

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (AP) - The order to arrest former President Isabel Peron marked the widening scope of the investigation into Argentina's past human rights abuses, as scrutiny expands beyond dictatorship-era crimes to the death squads that terrorized the nation prior to the 1976 coup.

An Argentine judge on Thursday ordered the arrest of the third wife of former political strongman Juan Domingo Peron, saying he has questions about her chaotic 20-month rule, a time when shadowy right-wing violence destabilized Argentina ahead of her political downfall.

There was no immediate comment from Isabel Peron, who has lived in exile in Spain since 1981. Spanish police said Friday they were awaiting an Interpol order to carry out the arrest warrant.

The call for her detention followed the recent arrests in Argentina and Spain of two suspected leaders of the ``Triple A'' death squad that human rights groups call a precursor to state-sponsored terror waged by a 1976-83 junta.

Maria Estela Martinez de Peron - known as Isabel - was ordered detained in connection with the disappearance of leftist Hector Aldo Fagetti Gallego one month before she was ousted in the March 1976 coup that ushered in the bloody, seven-year dictatorship, authorities said.

Peron also was wanted for questioning about three decrees she signed calling on the armed forces to combat ``subversive elements,'' the judge's spokesman said on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to address the media.

Political analyst Felipe Noguera noted that dozens of former police and military officers have been summoned for questioning since Argentina's Supreme Court in 2005 annulled a pair of 1980s amnesty laws blocking prosecution of human rights cases.

``What might be different is that her surname is Peron,'' Noguera said. ``So this seems to drive home the point that a lot of violence against the left wing started during the Peronist time before and not during the junta.''

Previously, efforts to bring alleged human rights abusers to justice focused on crime committed during the dictatorship, when thousands of suspected leftists were killed or disappeared.

Peron testified in 1997 in Madrid as a witness in a Spanish case probing crimes during the military dictatorship. She said then she recalled signing a law authorizing the ``annihilation'' of leftist guerrillas, but did not remember details. She also said that she was unaware of human rights abuses that began during her tenure and expanded after the military overthrew her.

Adolfo Perez Esquivel, the 1980 Nobel Peace laureate for his human rights work, told The Associated Press he believed the Triple A, short for the Argentina Anticommunist Alliance, was effectively part of a state structure and thus the beginnings of state-backed terror.

``Once and for all, we have to get to the bottom of this problem and find out how this terrorism was generated by the state,'' Perez Esquivel said. ``The search for the truth must go in every direction.''

Hebe de Bonafini, an activist of the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo, said the courts must cast light on a ``part of our history that was dark, obscure and papered over.''

Isabel Peron was sworn in as president in 1974 after the death of her husband, the father of Argentina's ruling political party and three-time president. She struggled to hold on to power as Argentina was convulsed by violence from leftist guerrillas and reprisals by death squads.

Human rights groups blame Triple A for at least 1,500 killings of government opponents from 1973 to 1976. The dead included leftists, trade activists, opposition lawmakers and intellectuals.

Some victims were abducted off streets and never seen again while others were found dead of bullet wounds, some with their hands hacked off or burned.

The violence set the stage for the dictatorship's crackdown on dissent, a campaign known as the ``dirty war.'' Nearly 13,000 people are officially listed as dead or missing from the 1976-83 junta, but human rights groups say the total is closer to 30,000. Civilian rule was restored in 1983.

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Associated Press writers Mayra Pertossi in Buenos Aires and Mar Roman in Madrid, Spain, contributed to this report.

Test

Anti-war activists rush to hold protests

By JASON DEAREN, Associated Press Writer1 hour, 17 minutes ago

Activists angered by President Bush's decision to send more troops to Iraq staged anti-war demonstrations in several major cities Thursday, protesting that the buildup will cause more bloodshed and give insurgents new American targets.

Jan Rogers, 58, was among several hundred people who gathered in a bustling San Francisco shopping area, then held a march during rush hour. She watched Bush's televised speech Wednesday night and said he "doesn't seem to get it."

"The rest of the country is shouting, 'Stop this insanity,' and I think he's just trying to save his presidency and his legacy. But he's just on the wrong path," Rogers said.

Law student Zahra Billoo, 23, advocated an immediate troop withdrawal.

"I think our only presence at this point needs to be humanitarian aid. No more armed soldiers — they're not wanted there," she said.

In New York, Tony Palladino protested in Lower Manhattan's Foley Square with a pair of anti-war signs. The former Air National Guardsman said the new troops would just give insurgents "20,000 extra targets."

Rallies were also planned in Boston and some other cities.

In Times Square, hundreds of anti-war protesters crammed onto a traffic island, chanting "Stop the funding, stop the war" as drivers in one of the world's most famous intersections honked in support.

Some demonstrators held signs depicting the president as a monkey. Others sold buttons that said "Peace."

Pat De Angelis said Bush's plan to add more troops would be counterproductive to peace in the Mideast.

"In times of trouble, like the time we are in now, it helps to feel like you are doing something to right the wrongs," she said.

A band of pro-war protesters on the other end of the island yelled for passers-by to ignore the anti-war rally. The group held a large sign that said "Warning — Leftist protesters trying to demoralize our troops."

"They say they are supporting our troops, but they are lying," said Pamela Hall, a member of the United American Committee. "You can't support someone if you don't support what they are doing. It's disrespectful."

In San Francisco, turnout was decidedly lower than the crowd of 15,000 that organizers had predicted, but they said protesters were merely spread out among other events throughout the Bay Area.

Anti-war activists have marshaled more than 100,000 protesters at U.S. rallies on a few occasions since the run-up to the Iraq invasion. But the vast majority of demonstrations have been far smaller than those of the Vietnam era.

Anti-war groups and scholars say that's because the draft has been eliminated and because protesters appear more willing to work within the political system — a sharp contrast from the 1960s, when many protesters regarded the system as corrupt.

Thursday's protests were cast as a prelude to a bigger gathering starting Jan. 27 in Washington, where demonstrators plan to urge Congress to stand up to Bush, said Hany Khalil, a spokesman of United for Peace and Justice.

___

Associated Press writers Colleen Long and Samantha Gross in New York and Jeff Donn in Boston contributed to this report.

Pentagon abandons active-duty time limit

By ROBERT BURNS, AP Military Writer 1 hour, 7 minutes ago

The Pentagon has abandoned its limit on the time a citizen-soldier can be required to serve on active duty, officials said Thursday, a major change that reflects an Army stretched thin by longer-than-expected combat in Iraq.

The day after President Bush announced his plan for a deeper U.S. military commitment in Iraq, Gen. Peter Pace, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told reporters the change in reserve policy would have been made anyway because active-duty troops already were getting too little time between their combat tours.

The Pentagon also announced it is proposing to Congress that the size of the Army be increased by 65,000, to 547,000 and that the Marine Corps, the smallest of the services, grow by 27,000, to 202,000, over the next five years. No cost estimate was provided, but officials said it would be at least several billion dollars.

Until now, the Pentagon's policy on the Guard or Reserve was that members' cumulative time on active duty for the Iraq or Afghan wars could not exceed 24 months. That cumulative limit is now lifted; the remaining limit is on the length of any single mobilization, which may not exceed 24 consecutive months, Pace said.

In other words, a citizen-soldier could be mobilized for a 24-month stretch in Iraq or Afghanistan, then demobilized and allowed to return to civilian life, only to be mobilized a second time for as much as an additional 24 months. In practice, Pace said, the Pentagon intends to limit all future mobilizations to 12 months.

Members of the Guard combat brigades that have served in Iraq in recent years spent 18 months on active duty — about six months in pre-deployment training in the United States, followed by about 12 months in Iraq. Under the old policy, they could not be sent back to Iraq because their cumulative time on active duty would exceed 24 months. Now that cumulative limit has been lifted, giving the Pentagon more flexibility.

The new approach, Pace said, is to squeeze the training, deployment and demobilization into a maximum of 12 months. He called that a "significant planning factor" for Guard and Reserve members and their families.

David Chu, the Pentagon's chief of personnel, said in an interview that he thinks Guard and Reserve members will be cheered by the decision to limit future mobilizations to 12 months. The fact that some with previous Iraq experience will end up spending more than 24 months on active duty is "no big deal," Chu said, because it has been "implicitly understood" by most that they eventually would go beyond 24 months.

A senior U.S. military official who briefed reporters Thursday on Iraq-related developments said that by next January, the Pentagon "probably will be calling again" on National Guard combat brigades that previously served yearlong tours in Iraq. Under Pentagon ground rules, the official could not be further identified.

Defense Secretary Robert Gates, appearing with Pace, announced several other changes in Guard and Reserve policy:

_Although the Pentagon's goal is to mobilize Guard and Reserve units no more frequently than one year out of six, the demands of wartime will require calling up some units more often than that. They provided no details on how many units would be remobilized at the faster pace or when that would begin to happen.

Army officials had been saying for some time that more frequent mobilizations were necessary because the active-duty force is being stretched too thin. Gates' announcement is the first confirmation of the change.

_To allow for more cohesion among Guard and Reserve units sent into combat, they will be deployed as whole units, rather than as partial units or as individuals plugged into a unit they do not normally train with.

_Extra pay will be provided for Guard and Reserve troops who are required to mobilize more than once in six years; active-duty troops who get less than two years between overseas deployments also will get extra pay. Details were not provided.

_Military commanders will review their administration of a hardship waiver program "to ensure that they have properly taken into account exceptional circumstances facing military families of deployed service members."

As part of Bush's plan for boosting U.S. troop strength in Iraq, a brigade of National Guard soldiers from Minnesota will have its yearlong tour in Iraq extended by 125 days, to the end of July, and a Patriot missile battalion will be sent to the Persian Gulf next month, the Army said Thursday.

Maj. Randy Taylor, a spokesman for the 3rd Battalion, 43rd Air Defense Artillery Regiment, at Fort Bliss, Texas, said the Patriot unit was aware of the announced deployment. He said no formal order had been received Thursday.

The dispatching of a Patriot missile battery, capable of defending against shorter-range ballistic missile attacks, appeared linked to Bush's announcement Wednesday that he ordered an aircraft carrier strike group to the Middle East, which would be in easy reach of Iran, whose nuclear program is a U.S. concern.

Navy officials said the carrier heading to the Gulf region is the USS John C. Stennis, which previously had been in line to deploy to the Pacific. It was not clear Thursday how the Pentagon intended to compensate in the Pacific for the absence of the Stennis in that region, where a chief worry is North Korea.

The Marines announced that two infantry units — the 3rd Battalion, 4th Marine Regiment, and the 1st Battalion, 6th Marine Regiment — will stay in Iraq 60 to 90 days longer than scheduled. That will enable the Marines to have a total of eight infantry battalions in western Anbar province, instead of the current six, by February. Once the 60- to 90-day extension is over, an additional two battalions will be sent in early from their U.S. bases.

Also, the 15th Marine Expeditionary Unit, which combines infantry with a helicopter squadron and a logistics battalion, totaling about 2,200 Marines, will stay in Anbar for 45 more days.

Those extensions conform with Bush's announcement that he was ordering 4,000 more Marines to Anbar.

The military tries to avoid extending combat tours and sending forces earlier than planned because it disrupts the lives of troops and their families and makes it harder for the services to get all troops through the education and training programs they need for promotions. But in this case it was deemed unavoidable.

Blast at U.S. embassy called 'terrorism'

By NICHOLAS PAPHITIS, Associated Press Writer 1 hour, 53 minutes ago

The U.S. Embassy in Athens came under fire early Friday from a rocket that exploded inside the modern glass-front building but caused no casualties in an attack police suspect was the work of Greek leftists.

Narrowly missing the embassy emblem, the anti-tank shell pierced the building near the front entrance shortly before 6 a.m., damaging a bathroom on the third room, which houses the ambassador's office, and shattering windows in nearby buildings.

"We're treating it as a very serious attack," U.S. Ambassador Charles Ries said.

Greece's Public Order Minister said police were examining the authenticity of anonymous phone calls to a private security company claiming responsibility on behalf of Revolutionary Struggle, a militant left-wing group.

"It is very likely that this is the work of a domestic group," Minister Vyron Polydoras said. "We believe this effort to revive terrorism is deplorable and will not succeed."

Revolutionary Struggle claimed responsibility for a May 2006 bomb attack on Culture Minister Giorgos Voulgarakis, in which nobody was injured.

U.S.-owned banks and companies have often been targeted in small bomb attacks by groups in Greece. But Friday's incident was the most serious since the 2002 break-up of the far-left November 17 group, which was blamed for several attacks against foreign diplomats and military personnel, including the assassination of a CIA station chief in Athens.

Polydoras said Greece "strongly condemns" the attack.

"We believe it is a symbolic act," he said. "It is an attempt to disrupt our country's international relations."

Police cordoned off streets around the heavily guarded building after the explosion, stopping traffic in much of central Athens for more than three hours. Emergency services scrambled to the embassy building, which is a frequent destination for protest groups.

Investigators were examining what they believed was the device used to fire the rocket shell from a construction site near the embassy.

"This is an act of terrorism," Police Chief Asimakis Golfis said. "There was a shell that exploded in the toilets of the building ... It was fired from street level."

Ambassador Ries said the building was not occupied at the time and the damage was minimal. The embassy is now a crime scene and will remain closed until further notice, he said.

"There can be no justification for such a senseless act of violence," said Ries, who added that there had been no warning.

Authorities were searching nearby apartment buildings and a nearby hospital for evidence.

Greek Foreign Minister Dora Bakoyannis visited the embassy after the blast.

"I came here to express the solidarity of the Greek people following this deplorable action," she said.

"Such actions in the past have had a very heavy cost for the country. ... The Greek government is determined to undertake every effort to not allow such phenomena to be repeated in the future."

Giorgos Yiannoulis runs a kiosk near the embassy. "I heard a loud bang; I didn't realize what was going on," he said.

It was the most serious attack on the mission since 1996, when November 17 carried out a rocket attack against the embassy that caused minor damage and no injuries.

Polydoras said police would set up a special task force, headed by a former counterterrorism chief who eradicated the November 17 group in 2002. The group was blamed for killing 23 people — including U.S., British and Turkish officials — and dozens of bomb attacks.

Several obscure militant groups have appeared since the November 17 members were arrested. Radical groups Revolutionary Struggle and Popular Revolutionary Action have been blamed for the bombings of three government ministries in 2005.

In 2003, a special court gave multiple life sentences to November 17's leader, chief assassin and three other members. Lesser sentences were given to 10 others.