Countdown

Watch The Bouncing Ball: The Battle For Iraq Policy

Volume III, No. 31
Posted on Friday August 2, 2002

Watch The Bouncing Ball: The Battle For Iraq Policy

In a string of leaks and counter leaks, the administration’s private battle over Iraq policy has become a very public war. Last week Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld asked the FBI to investigate a Defense Department leak to the New York Times about a possible U.S. assault on Iraq. This week the Washington Post reported that the Defense Department is considering a possible “inside-out” attack on Iraq to “take Baghdad and one or two key command centers and weapons depots first, in hopes of cutting off the country’s leadership and causing a quick collapse of the government.” Also this week in the Washington Post, reports of the anonymous grumblings of senior U.S. military officials who “contend that President Saddam Hussein poses no immediate threat and that the United States should continue its policy of containment rather than invade Iraq to force a change of leadership in Baghdad.” If conventional wisdom holds, that the side that is losing the internal battle is the side that seeks to fight it out in the press, then it seems as if the “hawks” are currently winning the “should we or shouldn’t we” war about Iraq.

House International Relations Committee Considers “Middle East Marshall Plan”

Last week, the House IR committee considered the implementation in the Middle East of an economic development strategy modeled on the Marshall Plan, the multi-faceted program put in place by the United States in post World War II Europe and Japan. Among the highlights of the testimony was the following statement by former Senator George Mitchell: “…the United States and Israel are very close friends and allies, but they’re two sovereign countries. And in even the best of relationships, there are differences. And one prominent difference is that on the policy of the government of Israel with respect to settlements. Every American administration, going back to President Carter and including President Reagan, President Bush, President Clinton, and the current President Bush, have opposed the policy of the government of Israel on settlements, in varying degrees, but all in opposition. And when we conducted our mission, we concluded that we could not produce a report without including the issue of settlements, because it was raised over and over again and clearly is a central issue.”

Greyhound Again Profiles Muslim Passenger

According to CAIR, for the second time since September 11th, an Arab or Muslim passenger has been removed from a Greyhound bus due to their ethnicity or religion. In late June of this year, a Muslim passenger was removed from a Greyhound bus in Washington, D.C. because the other passengers did not feel comfortable with his presence. In July, an African-American Muslim man and his wife were removed from a Greyhound bus during a stopover in Cincinnati while the couple was traveling from Philadelphia to Nashville. When the passenger moved to the front seat behind the driver to help ease the pain in his knees (that he suffers as a result of a work-related injury), the driver asked if he would move across the aisle so as not to be sitting directly behind him. When the driver was later checking tickets and saw that the passenger’s last name was Muhammad (at which time he verbally noted this so that the other passengers could hear), he asked him to move. When Mr. Muhammad asked why he was being asked to move again, he was told the front seats were for handicapped individuals only. Mr. Muhammad explained that he was handicapped, but moved back to his original seat anyway. The driver then left the bus and found a police officer and had Mr. Muhammad removed from the bus.

Heard Around Town…

Congressman William Delahunt (D-MA) “It’s incumbent on the Administration to release a full report…these weapons are to be used with certain guidelines. If these guidelines have been violated, the American people have a right to know.”

An anonymous official involved in planning a possible strike against Iraq: “If it happened in October, I wouldn’t be completely surprised.”

Republic of Ireland citizen and press officer for the Israeli Embassy in Dublin Dr. Noreen O’Carroll: “…a missile attack on an apartment building, after midnight when children and adults are asleep in their beds, is no more justifiable than a suicide bombing. I am appalled and ashamed of the current Israeli government for sanctioning this and other similar operations.” She went on to say: “I am also appalled and ashamed of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s cold hearted response to it, stating that it was ‘one of our greatest successes’.” O’Carrol was fired after her letter was published in the Irish Times.

By the end of the week, there should be between 8 and 12 different letters from Members of Congress going to the General Accounting Office questioning Israel’s Arms Export Control Act violations.