Starting Points

Apr 8, 2010

Russia and U.S. Sign Nuclear Arms Reduction Pact - NYTimes.com

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By PETER BAKER

PRAGUE — With flourish and fanfare, President Obama and President Dmitri A. Medvedev of Russia signed a nuclear arms control treaty on Thursday and opened what they hoped would be a new era in the tumultuous relationship between two former cold war adversaries.

Meeting here in the heart of a once-divided Europe, the two leaders put aside the acrimony that has characterized Russian-American ties in recent years as they agreed to bring down their arsenals and restore an inspection regime that expired in December. Along the way, they sidestepped unresolved disputes over missile defense and other issues.

“When the United States and Russia are not able to work together on big issues, it is not good for either of our nations, nor is it good for the world,” Mr. Obama said as his words echoed through a majestic, gilded hall in Prague Castle. “Together we have stopped the drift, and proven the benefits of cooperation. Today is an important milestone for nuclear security and nonproliferation, and for U.S.-Russia relations.”

Mr. Medvedev called the treaty signing “a truly historic event” that will “open a new page” in Russian-American relations. “What matters most is this is a win-win situation,” he said. “No one stands to lose from this agreement. I believe this is a typical feature of our cooperation. Both parties have won.”

The Russian president signaled general support for the American-led drive to impose new sanctions on Iran, saying that Tehran’s nuclear program has flouted the international community. “We cannot turn a blind eye to this,” Mr. Medvedev said, while adding that sanctions “should be smart” and avoid hardship for the Iranian people.

Mr. Obama said he expected “to be able to secure strong, tough sanctions” on Iran during the spring.

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The apparently warm relationship between the presidents was on display as they entered the hall to trumpet music. They whispered and smiled with each other in English as they sat side by side signing copies of the so-called New Start treaty, then traded compliments during a follow-up exchange with reporters.

Mr. Obama called the Russian a “friend and partner” and said, “Without his personal efforts and strong leadership, we would not be here today.” For his part, Mr. Medvedev said the two had developed a “very good personal relationship and a very good personal chemistry, as they say.”

While the treaty will mandate only modest reductions in the actual arsenals maintained by the two countries, it caps a turnaround in relations with Moscow that sank to rock bottom in August 2008 during the war between Russia and its tiny southern neighbor, Georgia. When he arrived in office, Mr. Obama made restoring the relationship a priority, a goal that coincided with his vision expressed here a year ago of eventually ridding the world of nuclear weapons.

Even as the two presidents hailed the treaty, however, they found no common ground on American plans to build an antimissile shield in Europe to counter any Iranian threat. Mr. Obama refused Russian demands to include limits on missile defense in the treaty, nearly scuttling the agreement. In the days leading up to the ceremony here, Russian officials alternately claimed the agreement would bind the program or complained that it did not and threatened to withdraw if it went forward.

The treaty, if ratified by lawmakers in both countries, would require each country to deploy no more than 1,550 strategic warheads, down from 2,200 allowed in the Treaty of Moscow signed by President George W. Bush in 2002. Each would be limited to 800 total land-, air- and sea-based launchers — 700 of which can be deployed at any given time — down from 1,600 permitted under the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty of 1991, or Start.

Because of counting rules and unilateral reductions over the years, neither country would have to actually eliminate large numbers of weapons to meet the new limits. Moreover, the treaty does not apply to whole categories of weapons, including thousands of strategic warheads held in reserve and tactical warheads, some of which are still stationed in Europe.

But the treaty would re-establish an inspection regime that lapsed along with Start last December and bring the two countries back into a legal framework after years of tension. Moreover, both sides hope to use it as a foundation for a new round of negotiations that could lead to much deeper reductions that will cover weapons like stored or tactical warheads.

The first task for Mr. Obama after returning to Washington will be persuading the Senate to ratify the new treaty, and advisers planned to head to Capitol Hill on Thursday, even before his return, to brief Senate staff members.

Ratification requires a two-thirds vote, or 67 senators, meaning the president needs at least eight Republicans. The White House is counting on the support of Senator Richard G. Lugar of Indiana, the senior Republican on the Foreign Relations Committee and one of his party’s most respected voices on international affairs, to clear the way.

But it could still have to contend with skeptics like Senator Jon Kyl of Arizona, the Republican whip, who have expressed concern about limiting American defenses. And the polarized politics of Washington heading into a midterm election are volatile, meaning a vote could be delayed until after the election, which would further put off other elements of Mr. Obama’s antinuclear agenda, such as consideration of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty.

The White House wants a vote by the end of the year, and Robert Gibbs, the president’s press secretary, reminded reporters on Air Force One during the flight here that past arms control treaties have received near-unanimous votes. “We are hopeful that reducing the threat of nuclear weapons remains a priority for both parties,” he said.

But what he did not note is that the Senate has also rejected an arms control agreement in recent times, refusing to ratify the test ban treaty when it was originally brought up in 1999. Moreover, it took three years in the 1990s to ratify the first Start follow-up treaty, known as Start 2, which never went into force because of a dispute over Russian conditions attached during its own ratification process.

Mr. Obama hopes to use the trust built during the treaty negotiations to leverage more cooperation from Moscow on other issues, most notably pressuring Iran to give up its nuclear program.

Speaking after signing the treaty with Mr. Medvedev, Mr. Obama said the United States and Russia were “part of a coalition of nations insisting that the Islamic Republic of Iran face consequences, because they have continually failed to meet their obligations” under international rules governing the use of nuclear materials.

“Those nations that refuse to meet their obligations will be isolated, and denied the opportunity that comes with international integration,” he said. Iran maintains its nuclear program is for civilian purposes, but the United States and its western allies suspect Tehran wants to build a nuclear weapon.

Warmer relations with the Kremlin worry American allies in Central and Eastern Europe, which were already concerned that Mr. Obama’s decision last year to scrap Mr. Bush’s missile defense plan in favor of a reformulated architecture was seen as a concession to Moscow.

Hoping to soothe those concerns, Mr. Obama plans to have dinner Thursday night in Prague with 11 leaders from the region, including the presidents or prime ministers of Bulgaria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia.

Similarly, Mr. Obama made sure before leaving Washington to speak by phone with President Mikheil Saakashvili of Georgia to reassure him of American support. He will meet separately with Czech leaders on Friday morning before returning to Washington.

Alan Cowell contributed reporting from Paris, and Dan Bilefsky from Prague.

Kyrgyz Opposition Group Says It Will Rule for 6 Months - NYTimes.com

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By CLIFFORD J. LEVY

MOSCOW — A transitional government in Kyrgyzstan declared that it was in charge on Thursday, a day after deadly protests forced the president to flee the capital. But the president himself insisted that he would not step down, issuing veiled threats from an unknown location that suggested that the country, the site of a vital American military base, could face renewed instability.

The day’s events were dominated by two compelling and contrary figures in Kyrgyz politics: the interim leader, Roza Otunbayeva, a bespectacled former diplomat who once taught Marxist-Leninist theory before becoming embracing Western mores; and Kurmanbek Bakiyev, the gruff, street-wise president, who boasted in an interview last year that he feared “absolutely nothing.”

Ms. Otunbayeva took the stage first, calling a news conference with her opposition colleagues to issue a series of directives that she said would calm the country after Wednesday’s violence, which left 68 people dead and more than 400 wounded.

“You can call this revolution. You can call this a people’s revolt,” she said. “Either way, it is our way of saying that we want justice and democracy.”

Like her colleagues at the new conference, Ms. Otunbayeva — who once backed Mr. Bakiyev before breaking with him early in his tenure — called for the president to acknowledge that he was through and resign.

But a few hours later, Mr. Bakiyev, 60, emerged from obscurity to make clear that he had no intention of stepping down.

Mr. Bakiyev had quit the capital, Bishkek, on Wednesday after thousands of opposition protesters, infuriated by rising utility costs and a government they saw as repressive and corrupt, seized control of important government buildings, including the television stations.

On Thursday, he issued a statement saying that the opposition was solely responsible for the violence the day before. Then he gave an interview to a radio station in Moscow in which he maintained that he had widespread support among the Kyrgyz people, though he acknowledged that he no longer commanded the government.

“In a few days it will become evident that those who imagined themselves the leaders — they are unable to lead,” he said. “They have pushed the country into such an abyss, into such a mess, that they will have to answer for it.”

All the while, Mr. Bakiyev offered no hint as to his whereabouts. Opposition leaders speculated that he had retreated to the south of Kyrgyzstan, where he has longstanding family ties. They said they were worried that he would try to gather supporters and try to retake the capital,– though that seemed unlikely for now — the armed forces, the security services and the police appear to have pledged loyalty to the interim government.

Mr. Bakiyev’s proclamations seemed to fall on deaf ears in Bishkek, where Ms. Otunbayeva announced that the interim government would administer the affairs of state for six months before presidential elections.

Ms. Otunbayeva said the status of the American military base in Bishkek, which plays an important role in supplying the war effort in Afghanistan, would not immediately change, though she warned that the issue was still being debated in the interim government.

In interviews Thursday, opposition politicians said that Ms. Otunbayeva, a former foreign minister and ambassador to the United States and Britain, was chosen as interim leader because she is considered to be a compromiser who is not politically ambitious and does not have a strong base of domestic support, having spent so many years abroad. The politicians, who would speak only anonymously because the situation was in such flux, said they believed she would be unable to amass power, leaving the field open for the presidential election.

Aleksandr Knyazev, a prominent political expert in Bishkek and a former student of Ms. Otunbayeva, said he thought of her as highly conscientious and honest. He said she seemed more European than Central Asian, and that she speaks better Russian and English than Kyrgyz.

“She does not understand the Kyrgyz mentality, and lacks clan support,” Mr. Knyazev said. “I doubt that she will run for president. Judging by her skills, she would make a good parliament speaker.”

While Kyrgyz politicians struggled for control, the United States and Russia on Thursday also seemed to be maneuvering for advantage in Kyrgyzstan, which is the only country in the world that has both American and Russian military bases. The Kremlin has long been bothered by the presence of the Americans in a region it calls part of its zone of influence.

Mr. Bakiyev had repeatedly sought to pit the United States and Russia against each other in order to extract more financial aid from both. Last year he upset the Kremlin when he agreed to evict the American base, then changed his mind after the Obama administration agreed to a steep increase in the rent and other favors.

In recent months, Mr. Bakiyev’s relations with Russia had collapsed, and the Russian government had increased the cost of energy that it provided to Kyrgyzstan. Russia’s state-controlled news media, which is widely followed in Kyrgyzstan, had also been conducting an intense campaign against Mr. Bakiyev, portraying him as a corrupt dictator.

On Thursday, Russia reached out to the opposition, effectively recognizing it as the government. Prime Minister Vladimir V. Putin spoke with Ms. Otunbayeva, and a senior Russian lawmaker, Sergei M. Mironov, called another prominent Kyrgyz interim leader, Omurbek Tekebayev.

It did not appear that the United States took similar steps, though the State Department said diplomats from the United States Embassy in Bishkek were meeting with opposition leaders.

At her news conference, Ms. Otunbayeva said the interim government was examining the agreements governing the American base.

“We still have some questions about it,” she said. “Give us time and we will listen to all the sides and solve everything.”

Mr. Tekebayev said in a telephone interview that any decisions on the base would be made collectively by the opposition. He said he had a positive attitude toward the United States, but acknowledged that the opposition had lingering resentments over what he said was the willingness of American diplomats to overlook Mr. Bakiyev’s human rights record in order to protect the base.

“The U.S. government does not and did not criticize Bakiyev, or express any negative opinions about him,” Mr. Tekebayev said. “The embassy here was warned several days ago that this would happen. They knew it, and they didn’t do anything about it.”

Reporting was contributed by Peter Baker from Prague, Nikolai Khalip from Moscow, Alan Cowell from Paris, and Elisabeth Bumiller from Washington.

Language proficiency is Foreign Service's 'greatest challenge,' Negroponte says

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By Joe Davidson
Thursday, April 8, 2010; B03

The site at 21st and E streets NW once was a favorite watering hole for State Department employees seeking something harder than the soft drinks offered in the agency's cafeteria.

Workers from State still meet at that location, presumably for more lofty deliberations than those found in most saloons. The American Foreign Service Association owned the Foreign Service Club, but decided to get out of the restaurant and bar business years ago. In that recently renovated space it sponsored a sober discussion Wednesday on challenges facing Foreign Service officers. AFSA did offer chocolates wrapped in the association's shield, but without booze to loosen up the dialogue, it might have been a far cry from the joint's livelier days.

The forum's main attraction was John Negroponte, who has served, sometimes in a storm of controversy, in a wide variety of foreign policy positions, including as the nation's first director of national intelligence. But neither foreign policy nor his controversies were on the minds of those who gathered to hear his take on some of the challenges they face as Foreign Service officers.

Although the quantity of State Department and Agency for International Development officers has increased steadily in recent years, serious gaps in their number and foreign language proficiency remain.

The "greatest challenge," according to Negroponte, is the need for officers who can speak the languages of the world.

"There is no substitute," said the multilingual Negroponte, "for recruiting, training, deploying, retaining and retraining," officers in languages and geography so they "develop the contacts, the knowledge, the insight, the local and area expertise" needed to help develop America's foreign policy.

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But State isn't meeting that challenge well enough, according to the Government Accountability Office. In September, it said the department needs a comprehensive plan to address "persistent foreign language shortfalls."

According to the GAO, whose study was current as of October 2008, there are "notable gaps" in State's foreign language capabilities that "could hinder U.S. overseas operations."

Worse yet, some of those gaps are in super-critical countries such as Afghanistan and Iraq.

Nearly one-third "of officers in all worldwide language-designated positions did not meet both the foreign language speaking and reading proficiency requirements for their positions, up slightly from 29 percent in 2005," the GAO reported. About 40 percent of officers in the Near East, South and Central Asia, China and places where Arabic is spoken are language-deficient.

As bad as the numbers are in those countries, the language skill set there is better than in America's war zones. In Iraq, 57 percent of Foreign Service officers lack sufficient language skills. Afghanistan trails far behind, with 73 percent unable to directly communicate with the country's people.

State Department officials told the GAO that the language gap could begin to close next year if it gets requested funding, but they did not say when they expect the language staffing requirements to be fully met.

But the GAO also reported that Foreign Service officers have a different take on the problem.

"Another challenge is the widely held perception among Foreign Service officers that State's promotion system does not consider time spent in language training when evaluating officers for promotion, which may discourage officers from investing the time required to achieve proficiency in certain languages," the report said. "Although HR officials dispute this perception, the department has not conducted a statistically significant assessment of the impact of language training on promotions."

The second challenge cited by Negroponte is the need for State to provide a mix of policies and incentives "in order to optimize the deployment of officers and their families for a substantial majority of their careers."

Last year, President Obama took an important step in making international postings more attractive when he signed legislation that begins to close a pay gap for Foreign Service officers, who do not get locality pay as do other federal employees.

Without that law, Negroponte said, there was a "perverse incentive" for Foreign Service officers to serve in the United States. He advocated greater employment opportunities for spouses of officers abroad -- "that effort has faltered at various times" -- and a reduction in postings to which officers can't take their families. At least, he said, State should "find ways of compensating for that problem."

In another report, the GAO said, "State uses a range of incentives to staff hardship posts, but their effectiveness remains unclear." Despite some progress, the GAO said persistent staffing gaps continue to be a problem.

The GAO made clear to Congress the stark result of these deficiencies: "State's diplomatic readiness remains at risk."

Mining interests are heavily invested in Capitol Hill

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By Dan Eggen
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, April 8, 2010; A19

The mining industry, which finds itself under renewed scrutiny this week after dozens of fatalities at a West Virginia coal mine, wields major political clout in Washington thanks to hefty campaign contributions to GOP lawmakers and expensive lobbying efforts aimed at blunting the impact of environment- and safety-related legislation.

Mining companies and related trade groups have sharply increased their lobbying efforts in recent years, tripling their spending from $10.2 million in 2004 to nearly $31 million in 2008, according to a review of lobbying disclosures by the Center for Responsive Politics (CRP), a watchdog group.

The investment in Washington dropped only slightly last year, to $26 million, as mining and energy companies worked to defeat cap-and-trade legislation. The legislation passed the House but stalled in the Senate, in large part because of strong opposition by senators in top coal-producing states. Leading spenders included Peabody Energy ($5.8 million), Consol Energy ($3.4 million), Arch Coal ($2 million) and the National Mining Association, the industry's main trade group, which spent $2.8 million on lobbying, records show.

Mining firms and their employees have also donated more than $13 million to federal lawmakers since 2005; 74 percent of that money went to GOP candidates and about half came from industry political action committees.

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The United Mine Workers of America, by contrast, donated less than $1 million to federal candidates during the same time period, according to CRP data. All but 1 percent of that went to Democrats.

At least 25 workers died Monday in an explosion at the Upper Big Branch Mine, owned by Richmond-based Massey Energy Co. The company's chief executive, Don Blankenship, is a highly active GOP fundraiser and bankroller who is known for his outspoken opposition to labor unions; the Upper Big Branch Mine is not unionized.

CRP calculates that individuals and PACs connected to Massey Energy have contributed more than $300,000 to federal candidates in the past two decades, 91 percent of which went to Republicans. Top recipients include current Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), who has collected $13,550 from Massey-connected contributors, records show.

Blankenship contributed the federal maximum of $30,400 last year to the National Republican Senatorial Committee, and he has supported Sen. James Inhofe (R-Okla.) and GOP Senate candidates Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania and Rob Portman of Ohio.

The Massey Energy chairman garnered national attention in 2004 when he contributed $3 million to the campaign of a West Virginia judicial candidate, who later played a pivotal role in overturning a $50 million judgment against Massey Energy. The U.S. Supreme Court later ruled that the judge should have recused himself from the case.

New conservative force

A well-connected new conservative political group hopes to shake up the 2010 midterm elections by providing a potential alternative to the Republican National Committee, which has come under siege for spending nearly $2,000 on "meals" at a sex-themed nightclub in West Hollywood, Calif.

American Crossroads, based in Warrenton, Va., is the brainchild of a team of veteran GOP consultants, including former RNC chairman Mike Duncan, Republican operative Jim Dyke and Steven J. Law, who is leaving his perch as chief legal officer and general counsel at the powerful U.S. Chamber of Commerce. Karl Rove, George W. Bush's former political adviser, and former RNC chairman Ed Gillespie have also signed on as advisers.

American Crossroads is "an independent, national grassroots political organization whose mission is to speak out in support of conservative issues and candidates across America," according to documents filed with the Internal Revenue Service. The group has already received commitments for more than $30 million in donations from wealthy contributors, and plans to spend more than $50 million on advocacy ads and other efforts aimed at influencing the November elections, according to Dyke and others.

Because it is organized as a so-called 527 group, American Crossroads is not governed by limits imposed by the Federal Election Commission and -- under an appeals court ruling last month -- is free to collect as much money as it wants from wealthy donors. Rick Hasen, an election law expert at Loyola Law School in Los Angeles, said the evidence suggests that American Crossroads will appeal primarily to large-scale donors rather than grass-roots contributors. The group's IRS form lists "no@email" as its e-mail address.

"Supposedly they've collected $30 million in promised money with no Web site and before they even really exist," Hasen said. "This is not based on mass appeal; it's a different model."

Turkey hopes to grow economic ties and influence within Middle East

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By Janine Zacharia
Washington Post Foreign Service
Thursday, April 8, 2010; A11

GAZIANTEP, TURKEY -- Since Turkey and Syria eliminated border restrictions several months ago, the crowds of Syrians at the glittering Sanko Park Mall in this southeastern Turkish city have grown tenfold. Exports from Gaziantep to Syria are booming, and rich Turkish businessmen are stepping up their investments across the border.

"There's no difference between Turks and Syrians," said Olfat Ibrahim, a 35-year-old Syrian construction engineer with bags of goods in hand. She said she has stepped up her visits across the border since the lifting of visa requirements. "Syria is Turkey.''

The thriving trade is a sign of Turkey's rising influence with Syria, part of its effort to reach out to neighboring countries to build economic ties it hopes will also stabilize political relationships and expand its influence in the region. Those efforts, which include business ventures with Iran, illustrate to some extent how futile U.S. efforts to isolate those countries with sanctions have become. They've also raised concerns in Washington and in Israel about whether this key Muslim member of NATO is undergoing a fundamental realignment.

Turkey's efforts, however, seem as much about economic expansion as they do about foreign policy, with an aggressive strategy of seeking new markets for Turkish businessmen, many of them backers of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's Justice and Development Party.

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"We want to have an economic interdependency between Turkey and neighbors and between different countries in these regions. If you have an economic interdependency, this is the best way to prevent any crisis," said Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu.

The push has included an effort to broker a resumption of Syrian-Israeli peace talks, easing tensions between Syria and Saudi Arabia -- the main power brokers in Lebanon -- to help avert a political crisis there, and trying to mediate an end to the West's dispute with Iran over its nuclear program.

With wealth garnered in emerging markets and growing self-confidence as a new member of the G-20, Turkey is reaching out as much to former European enemies, such as Greece, as to its Muslim neighbors. In the past year and a half, Davutoglu and his predecessor made roughly twice as many trips to Europe as they did to the Middle East. A Turk serves as president of the Council of Europe's parliamentary assembly as well as the Organization of the Islamic Conference.

To some analysts, Erdogan doesn't seem as much of an ideologue as a pragmatic capitalist trying to make money and create markets. When he visited Tehran in October, he described the Iranian nuclear program as "peaceful,'' causing U.S. officials to bristle. Less noticed was Erdogan's push for a free-trade agreement.

Accompanying the Turkish leader on the trip was Rizanur Meral, chief executive of Sanko Holding's Automotive Group and president of TUSKON, a Turkish business association representing 50,000 small and medium-size Turkish companies.

Business leaders are playing an important role in Turkey's foreign policy, serving as unofficial ambassadors and advisers. Syrian businessmen in Gaziantep pushed for the relaxation of the visa requirements. When President Abdullah Gul visited Cameroon last month to sign a free-trade accord and open a new embassy, he was accompanied by three cabinet ministers, four members of parliament -- and 147 businessmen. Erdogan took similar-size delegations to India, Iran and Libya.

"The business consideration is very important for this government," said Ismail Hakki Kisacik, general coordinator of Turkey's Taha Group, which controls the country's largest clothing chain and joined government officials on the recent Africa trip. "If you're developing your business with countries, it means your relations improve.''

The United States may be an exception.

Washington's relations with Turkey took on a sour tone in February when the House Foreign Affairs Committee passed a resolution calling Turkey's killing of 1.5 million Armenians in 1915 "genocide." Turkey recalled its ambassador, Namik Tan. The Obama administration has insisted that it does not support the panel's move.

Over the past year, U.S. officials have shown muted tolerance toward Turkey's outreach to Syria and outright disapproval of Turkey's rhetoric on Iran. The United States has openly chastised Turkey -- which is heavily dependent on Iranian-supplied energy sources -- for undercutting the U.S. push to isolate Iran internationally over its nuclear program.

"It seems, to me at least, that Turkey is contemplating a fundamental realignment,'' said Rep. Steve Israel (D-N.Y.), a member of the House Appropriations subcommittee that funds U.S. foreign policy initiatives.

Phil Gordon, the assistant secretary of state for Europe, said recently that the United States doesn't necessarily believe that Turkey is turning away from its Western allies. He said Turkey's move to improve relations with its neighbors was understandable, but warned that that effort "should not be pursued uncritically or at any price," especially at the expense of its relationship with Israel.

Relations between Israel and Turkey were good until Israel launched a military offensive in the Gaza Strip in December 2008. Erdogan's popularity soared after he lectured Israeli President Shimon Peres about the attacks in January last year.

His criticism, which has continued, contributes "negatively to the way Israel is perceived in Turkey," said an Israeli diplomat who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of relations between the two nations. "It's not clear which direction Erdogan is taking Turkey."

But to Turkish officials, the direction is obvious. As their nation has grown economically, it is only natural for Turkey seek a bigger role in global affairs.

Turkey, meanwhile, is also looking to export some of its cultural influence. In recent years, the country has had about 30 television shows broadcast across the Arab world.

Kivanc Tatlitug, a popular soap opera star, has been so effective at promoting Turkey's interests and tourism in the region that during Foreign Minister Davutoglu's recent visit to Bulgaria, "there was a question whether Turkey, as a government, is promoting these series as propaganda,"' Davutoglu said.

It is, he said, one thing the government is not doing.

The Nation - The Surveillance Regime

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Editorial

This article appeared in the April 26, 2010 edition of The Nation.

April 7, 2010

The recent California federal district court ruling that the Bush administration's warrantless wiretapping violated a 1978 surveillance law was the first significant judicial rebuke to post-9/11 government eavesdropping. For that reason alone, Judge Vaughn Walker's damages award to the Muslim charity Al-Haramain and its attorneys, targets of unlawful spying in 2004, is worthy of celebration. But the ruling won't change our current deeply troubling surveillance regime. In that sense, it is a timely reminder of unfinished business.

Ever since Barack Obama took office, accountability for rights violations during the "war on terror" has been thin. Victims of wrongful overseas detention, surveillance and torture have received no apology and no reparations. Despite an early commitment to close Guantánamo, 183 prisoners remain there. Indeed, Obama has released fewer detainees than Bush did during his last year in office. And despite an early promise to protect the First Amendment rights of Muslim charities, Obama has done nothing to change the onerous application of terrorism financing laws. Walker's decision is only the second to have ruled against the so-called Terrorist Surveillance Program. All other challenges--including one against the odious 2008 FISA Amendments Act (FAA), which The Nation has joined as a plaintiff--ultimately got booted at the courthouse door.

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Even if Walker's opinion survives possible appeal, it will have no effect on the broad surveillance powers unleashed by the FAA, which passed with then-Senator Obama's support. Under that law, the government can dispense with individualized warrants, the cornerstone of Fourth Amendment privacy protections. Absent meaningful judicial review, we simply can't know how much surveillance the government is carrying out.

Continuity, not change, has characterized the conduct of Eric Holder's Justice Department. Walker documents, in his opinion, the government's persistent "refusal to cooperate with the court's orders," its improper use of procedural delays and even point-blank refusals to produce information. Yes, this was business as usual during the Bush era. But Walker was talking about events on Obama's watch.

Nor is Walker's experience unusual. In lawsuits by survivors of the CIA's "black sites" and Guantánamo's interrogation rooms, the government either keeps insisting that "state secrets" require outright dismissal or has stuck to the canard that noncitizens forcibly brought into US custody overseas lack all constitutional rights. In Guantánamo litigation, habeas lawyers complain about obfuscation, secrecy and delay not dissimilar from what they faced in the Bush era.

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Blaming the lawyers is easy. But it is the otherwise near-absolute absence of accountability that makes Walker's opinion such a lonely beacon. This absence is, in large part, a result of the Obama administration's failure to explain to the American people that the surveillance program violated the Constitution, and that unlawful and futile torture was rife in Guantánamo and the black sites.

It is not too late to win the political, or the moral, battle. It is not too late to use the bully pulpit of the presidency to explain that reckless and illegal incursions into privacy rights are no road to security. It is only by taking on that battle that the Obama administration, and not just a handful of voices on the federal bench, can produce the real change its lawyers have been fighting.

CQ - Behind the Lines for Thursday, April 8, 2010

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By David C. Morrison, Special to Congressional Quarterly

Soft on terrorism: NYPD to fight spiking crime rates by reassigning counterterror cops to street patrols in tough neighborhoods . . . What we're not fretting about this week: "When the enemy's best recent shot involves lighting his pants on fire [don't sweat] nightmarish visions of WMDs," maven maintains . . . Dead End Gals: Liverpool airport securers arrest two women trying wheel an already deceased family member on board. These and other stories lead today's homeland security coverage.

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West Texas law enforcers are on guard following a DHS alert warning of possible killings in retaliation for a recent crackdown on the Barrio Azteca gang, FOX News’ Joshua Rhett Miller reports — as Homeland Security Newswire judges: “The steady deterioration of security conditions in Mexico has brought the country to the verge of resembling Colombia in the 1990s.” Hard hit by budget cuts, the NYPD has decided to fight spiking crime rates by reassigning counterterror cops to street patrols in tough neighborhoods, The New York Post’s Larry Celona relates — which development CBS 2 News’ Marcia Kramer terms an “anti-terror shocker.”

Feds: A San Francisco man arrested yesterday for threatening House Speaker Nancy Pelosi was upset over health care legislation, the FBI tells Bloomberg’s Karen Gullo and Justin Blum. “Every year, thousands of people find themselves caught up in the government’s terrorist screening process [and] their numbers are likely to rise,” The New York Times’ Mike McIntire spotlights. As to its counterterrorist judicial framework, the Obama administration’s stylistic differences from its predecessor’s tack “mask a sameness in substance that should worry civil libertarians,” Reason’s Eli Lake assesses. Facing questions about the legality of its drone attacks in Pakistan’s Afghan-borderlands, team Obama “is pushing back with a legal defense of a program it only tacitly acknowledges,” The Wall Street Journal’s Keith Johnson surveys.

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Homies: The good news in the unsettling succession of failed TSA administrator would-be’s “is that someone in the U.S. Senate staff is doing their homework and checking the records of Obama’s nominees,” James Corum comments in The Daily Telegraph. Updates to the National Infrastructure Protection Plan have shifted DHS toward more regional collaboration among infrastructure owners and operators, Homeland Security Today’s Mickey McCarter has a GAO report finding. The Washington Post’s latest “Fed Face” profile, meantime, focuses on Marcy Forman, a senior special agent with ICE.

State and local: Tight security measures will affect car, foot and Metro bus and rail travel in D.C. during next week’s nuclear security summit, the Post’s Martin Weil alerts — as Greater Greater Washington queries: “Do Washington’s unique security fears limit the Bill of Rights for its citizens?” Legislation requiring text books used in Oklahoma public school to include info about the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing has been signed into law. The Tulsa World tells. “If the United States government collapses, Michael Craft and his Unorganized Militia of Champaign County are ready,” The Dayton (Ohio) Daily News profiles. In a dramatic turnaround from 16 years ago, Californians now overwhelmingly favor giving illegal immigrants a “path to legalization,” The San Jose Mercury News finds a new poll showing — while The Arizona Daily Sun has Gov. Jan Brewer asking for more federal resources along the Mexico border.

Ivory (Watch) Towers: A Drexel University project is leading to a camera that could detect gases emitted during the manufacture of biological and chemical terror agents, The Philadelphia Inquirer informs. Beijing has given the task of creating an escape plan for tourists at Tiananmen Square in the event of a bioterror event to the No. 2 prof at Peking University’s department of atmospheric sciences, The South China Morning Post reports. A device devised by Duke University researchers to help first responders tackle the pandemonium following a dirty bomb attack quickly IDs who needs to be treated for radiation poisoning, The Raleigh News & Observer notes.

Bugs ‘n bombs: “For the first time, preventing . . . nuclear terrorism is now at the top of America’s nuclear agenda,” The Associated Press quotes President Obama announcing his plans for the U.S. nuke arsenal. “When the enemy’s best recent shot involves lighting his pants on fire, we shouldn’t torture ourselves with nightmarish visions of weapons of mass destruction,” a Washington Examiner columnist cracks — as Mother Jones questions if Obama’s stance is pushing Iran toward nuclear armaments. “There is no doubt that suicide attacks can be deadly — and terrifying. But are they effective in furthering the larger goals of the attackers?” a Los Angeles Times op-ed ponders. “No country in the world is more dependent on its computers than the United States . . . That means the United States is uniquely vulnerable to sophisticated computer hackers,” NPR notes.

Close air support: The FBI and F-16s responded to Denver International after a passenger was acting oddly on a United Airlines flight from Washington, 9News notes — and see AP as to whether a Qatari diplomat really tried to set fire to his shoes.Techies who swooped on Apple’s new iPad are thrilled to discover that TSA apparently won’t make them pull the devices out of their bags at checkpoints, Forbes finds out. Muslim and Sikh groups praised TSA for rolling back screening rules on passengers arriving from 14 primarily Islamic countries, even as some worry that profiling will continue, The Religious News Service notes. Liverpool airport security arrested two German women trying to wheel an already deceased family member onto an easyJet flight to Berlin, which Jaunted deems “a first.”

Coming and going: “In a world beset by the possibilities of terrorism, for flights that are anything less than trans-Atlantic many travelers will do anything they can to avoid airports,” a San Gabriel Valley (Calif.) Tribune editorial on high-speed rail observes. Travel insurance “doesn’t cover you if you are concerned about terrorist bombings on the plane, train, or bus” and, if it does “it may be limited to the exact city of your itinerary and to a specific time frame,” Gather tutors. Since 1995 there have been 250 attacks on passenger rail systems worldwide, resulting in 900 deaths and more than 6,000 injuries, Government Executive spotlights — and check LiveScience.com’s “What Were the Worst Subway Attacks in History.” Cutting Edge News, finally, complains that DHS’s February quadrennial review “mentioned subways only once in more than 100 pages.”

Crime and punishment: The second woman in the “Jihad Jane” case yesterday shook her head to indicate a not guilty plea, rather than speak at a brief Philadelphia court hearing, The Inquirer informs. A Texas man who tried to firebomb a Pasadena condominium development was sentenced this week to five years in a federal slammer, the Los Angeles Times relays. Some prisoners held in the Bureau of Prison’s harsh “Communications Management Units” protest being designated as “terrorists” by Justice, despite never having been convicted of any terror-related crime, Inter Press Service says — while Politico sees the administration releasing new rules for maximum-security detention of terror convicts identical to those its predecessor proposed in 2006 and then abandoned.

Over there: Somali “teachers say recruit-hungry insurgent units have decimated their classrooms as they entice youth to join their “jihad” holy war, The Media Line spotlights — while The Washington Post reports that Somalia’s U.S.-backed government and its Kenyan allies have recruited hundreds of Somali refugees, including children, to fight in a war against al-Shabaab. Monday’s multi-prong suicide attack on the U.S. Consulate in Peshawar “was a reminder that no place is safe and no one is beyond the terrorists’ deadly reach,” Lahore’s Daily Times editorializes. The bodies of nine of the 10 Pakistani gunmen from the 2008 attack on Mumbai were buried in a secret location in January, Reuters is told.

Over here: Six years after State barred Tariq Ramadan from entering the United States, the Muslim scholar will speak in Chicago on Saturday, as “his opponents warn of danger ahead,” The Chicago Tribune curtain-raises — while The Orange County Weekly hears “self-described liberty lovers” warning local Muslims “to be on guard” when Ramadan speaks near Disneyland in May. Following the metro blasts in Moscow, women from the Caucasus “worry about the return of the arbitrary arrests, xenophobic attacks and open hostility that many experienced after similar terrorist attacks in the past,” The New York Times spotlights. “While the challenge of terrorism cries for long-term, consistent strategy, Russia’s system of heavy-handed and unaccountable governance precludes strategic thinking,” Masha Lipman maintains in the Post.

Holy Wars: Muslims aren’t alone in seeing a double standard in how terrorism is linked to Islam but not often to Christianity or other religions, RNS, again, explores — as Al Jazeera finds CAIR asking the FBI for intel on militia groups’ threat to American Muslims. When leading Islamic scholars convened in Turkey last weekend to debate the 14th-century text undergirding today’s jihadism, top religious leaders were notably absent, while “many locals viewed the conference with suspicion before it even began,” Hurriyet reports. Forty pages of captured Web chat offer a rare glimpse into the inner workings of Southeast Asia’s Jemaah Islamiyah al Qaeda affiliate, suggesting more international links than previously assumed, AP reports. “Inspired by 18^th century American revolutionists, today’s Tea Partiers have gotten the nation’s attention. Can they foment their own revolution?” AP explores, answering: “Not yet.”

Blood libel: “Boston’s Liberty Tree, the towering elm that stands on the very spot where the original provided shade and a meeting place for patriots in the lead-up to the American Revolution, has been in very poor health of late,” Ridiculopathy laboriously parodies. “The symptoms are plain to see: withered roots, drooping limbs, and even an embarrassing case of bark rot. According to a spokesperson from the National Parks Service, the tree has been poisoned with what appears to be medical waste. Someone, it seems, has been feeding it blood on a regular basis. Earlier this week an anonymous tipster phoned officials to say that . . . he or she had been strongly encouraged to do it after listening to a recent local talk radio show. Here’s the weird part: This was not a call-in gardening program meant to answer people’s questions about this sort of thing. It was a political show dedicated to anti-government rants of one sort and another. What the host was doing offering any tree-related advice, especially advice this far off base, is anyone’s guess.”

Source: CQ Homeland Security