IAEA says Congress report on Iran's nuclear capacity is erroneous and
misleading
http://www.guardian.co.uk/iran/story/0,,1873114,00.html
=B7 Claims about programme are 'unsubstantiated'
=B7 Leak shows watchdog detected five major errors
Dan Glaister in Los Angeles
Friday September 15, 2006
The Guardian
The UN's nuclear watchdog has attacked the US Congress for what it
termed an "erroneous, misleading and unsubstantiated" report on Iran's
nuclear programme.
In a letter to the Republican chairman of the House of Representatives'
intelligence committee, a senior director of the International Atomic
Energy Agency (IAEA) said the report was "incorrect" in its assessment
that Iran had made weapons-grade uranium at a site inspected by the
agency. Instead, the letter said, the facility had produced only small
amounts of uranium, which were below the level necessary for weapons.
Shock treatment
Larry Elliott
September 14, 2006 06:01 PM
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/larry_elliott/2006/09/post_386.html
In one sense the overture to the annual meeting of the International
Monetary Fund and World Bank meetings in Singapore was all too
familiar. The shindig starts with the Fund's magisterial overview of
the global economy and every six months the message is the same: things
are going well but there could be serious trouble ahead. Like the boy
who cried wolf, the IMF is always jumpy about the state of the US trade
deficit, frets about the prospect that China's under-valued currency
will trigger protectionist sentiment, and wonders aloud about how long
growth can remain resilient in the face of sky-high energy prices.
And for the last four years, the global economy has carried on
regardless. It has shrugged off the tripling of energy prices, weatherd
the global imbalances and the gradual increase in interest rates. So is
the Fund wrong to be concerned? Not at all. The moral of the story of
the boy who cried wolf was that, in the end, there was indeed a wolf.
Conditionality blues
Liz Stuart
September 14, 2006 05:29 PM
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/liz_stuart/2006/09/post_388.html
In Mali, one of the poorest countries in the world, one person in four
grows cotton for a living. But since the World Bank insisted on reform
of the sector, the price for seed cotton fell 24% in a year, and many
farmers are now growing for zero profit. Even the Bank's own research
has shown - after the event - that the changes are likely to lead to
increase poverty and slow economic growth.
This may have been the kind of example that the UK secretary of state
for international development, Hillary Benn, had in mind when he called
for the World Bank to stop demanding that countries manage their
economies in a certain way if they want a loan.
Divided we stand
Ian Traynor
September 14, 2006 05:13 PM
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/ian_traynor/2006/09/is_kaczynski_polish=
_for_putin.html
Busy times for the twin brothers running Poland. Notoriously
travel-shy, preferring the company at home of their families, cats, and
cronies, the Kaczynski brothers are suddenly notching up the air miles.
While President Lech has spent most of the week in Israel, Prime
Minister Jaroslaw has been in Washington and Chicago. Prior to that he
was in Helsinki and Brussels seeking to dispel the strong reservations
emerging internationally about the kind of Poland the twins hope to
create.
Turning the page
Jorge Casta=F1eda
September 14, 2006 02:05 PM
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/jorge_castaeda/2006/09/post_384.html
Three months from now, when Mexico's new president Felipe Calder=F3n
takes office, many will consider it a dubious honour. These are perhaps
the only two certainties in Mexico's politics right now. With oil
prices higher than ever, its country-risk premiums lower than ever,
remittances from abroad, tourism revenues and foreign investment
hitting all time highs, and annual GDP growth estimated at 4.2% for
this year, Mexicans - in many ways - have never had it so good.
Indeed, after 10 years of uninterrupted macroeconomic stability -
something Mexico had not experienced since the 1960s - the middle class
has expanded dramatically, and reasonably priced bank credit is now
available to millions who had been excluded in the past. Yet, despite
these robust changes, poverty remains widespread, inequality abysmal,
and social resentment is on the rise.
Confined to the sidelines
Jonathan Freedland
September 14, 2006 01:20 PM
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/jonathan_freedland/2006/09/confined_to_=
the_sidelines.html
If I were a Conservative party strategist, I would be quietly building
up a big fat file, for use at the next general election, called "Labour
- in its own words". It would contain the most withering condemnations
of the government - all of them issued from Labour's own top echelon.
So we would have Charles Clarke calling Gordon Brown "stupid" and
"delusional"; John Reid describing his own Home Office as not "fit for
purpose"; and the late Robin Cook branding the Iraq war "illegal".
Underneath I would run the line: If that's what they say about
themselves, what are we meant to think?
Honesty remains the best policy
Asim Siddiqui
September 15, 2006 09:05 AM
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/asim_siddiqui/2006/09/honesty_remains_t=
he_best_polic.html
This week I held a meeting with a number of Jewish activists based in
the city of London. They called the meeting to explore new ways to
bring the two communities together. Essentially there is deep concern
within British Jewish quarters of rising anti-semitism and attacks on
Jewish properties. A cursory glance at the Jewish Chronicle shows the
fears and anxieties of Britain's Jewry. Whilst many of the attacks are
no doubt from the far-right, some are from Muslim extremists.
My own view to them was that Lebanon has changed the way Muslims and
Jews should engage. The view that you can organise politically-correct
samosa and bagel tea parties and discuss how similar Jewish and Islamic
theology is and think that will somehow bring communities together is
redundant. (Of course many aspects of the theologies are similar - they
come from the same source, we share the same God. I have therefore
never found that argument particularly profound). Instead, let's
discuss the elephant in the room that really divides us, namely Israel.
Caught in the crossfire
Richard Wilson
September 14, 2006 12:37 PM
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/richard_wilson/2006/09/richard_wilson.h=
tml
"It's the white people supplying the weapons in Africa - now you're
going to feel what it's like," my sister Charlotte was told, shortly
before being gunned down by members of the Forces pour la Liberation
Nationale (FNL) armed group in war-torn Burundi. The UK post-mortem
found that she had been shot seven times in the back with an eastern
European semi-automatic rifle. Her killers may have been illiterate
members of a ragtag peasant army, but they knew where the guns were
coming from.
In the five years since, I've been haunted by the idea that the man who
sold them those guns might be walking the same streets as me here in
London, drinking in the same pubs, and catching the same tube trains.
While the violence ravaging Central Africa might seem distant and
unreal, it begins here, in Europe, where the guns and bullets are made,
and many of those brokering the sales are British or Britain-based.
A bad joke
Brian Whitaker
September 14, 2006 11:27 AM
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/brian_whitaker/2006/09/a_bad_joke.html
Hadi Saeed al-Mutif grew up in the countryside in southern Saudi Arabia
and at the age of 18 started training to become a policeman. Two months
into his training, Hadi had gathered with other recruits for afternoon
prayers, as required by the rules. "Let us pray upon the Prophet .."
the Imam said - at which point Hadi allegedly quipped: "... and upon
his penis".
A couple of his fellow recruits reported Hadi to the authorities at the
training centre and he was ordered to stand under the Saudi flag for
two hours as a punishment.
No oil for brooms
Phil Gunson
September 14, 2006 11:05 AM
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/phil_gunson/2006/09/oil_for_brooms.html
Depending upon where you stand, Hugo Ch=E1vez is either the saviour of
the world's poor or a conventional Latin American military demagogue
with a fat chequebook and an equally oversized ego.
But there is no doubt that the Venezuelan president is a relentless
self-publicist whose flair for bold initiatives often runs some way
ahead of his capacity to deliver.
That huge gap between us and the cavemen is getting smaller all the
time
http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,,1872839,00.html
The discovery that modern neanderthals lived in Gibraltar shows just
how fluid the story of our ancestors really is
Simon Jenkins
Friday September 15, 2006
The Guardian
The remains of a neanderthal settlement have been found on the Rock of
Gibraltar, carbon-dated to just 24,000 years ago. This is 10,000 years
later than the last known remains and, according to the rampant
neanderthal lobby, brings these lovable people almost to the present
day. It proves to those who have championed their cause that every
discovery about neanderthals has them surviving longer than was
previously thought.
The latest issue of Nature describes primitive stone tools and wood
fires in Gorham's cave on the side of the Rock. The wonders of modern
archaeology reveal roughly a dozen people living in a cave near a
stream three miles inland from the sea. This being the ice age, the sea
level was then 100 metres lower and hunting grounds were plentiful. The
Gibraltar Museum's Clive Finlayson speaks of a "Mediterranean
Serengeti" of leopards, hyenas and deer. In the cave were stone spears,
knifes and scrapers. One was so sharp, said Finlayson, that "it drew
blood". (He should have that seen to, given Lord Carnarvon's fate after
cutting himself when he opened Tutankhamun's tomb.)
Paranoia in Pyongyang
http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldbriefing/story/0,,1872982,00.html
Simon Tisdall
Friday September 15, 2006
The Guardian
North Korea's political paranoia spilled into the open this week when
the isolated regime accused the US of plotting a nuclear strike. The
state-run Rodong Sinmun newspaper said a "sub-critical" underground
nuclear test in Nevada last month was part of Washington's efforts to
develop new nuclear weapons. "The US is perfecting a nuclear war plan
after listing our and other countries as targets for its pre-emptive
nuclear attack," it said.
An American assault is not remotely on the cards. But North Korea's
clamour reflects more than its leadership's persecution complex. In
Seoul the claim was read as possible evidence that the North is
preparing to justify an imminent nuclear test of its own. South Korean
officials have said Pyongyang could conduct a test, or repeat July's
destabilising Sea of Japan missile launches, at any time. Not
coincidentally, President Roh Moo-hyun was in Washington yesterday
arguing for a more "flexible" US line.
Bush stance on al-Qaida suspects is morally wrong, says Colin Powell
http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,,1873049,00.html
=B7 Geneva convention must be respected
=B7 Setback for White House military tribunals plan
Suzanne Goldenberg in Washington
Friday September 15, 2006
The Guardian
The former secretary of state Colin Powell yesterday repudiated White
House plans to allow coercive interrogations of al-Qaida suspects,
saying it would erode the moral basis of the US "war on terror".
In a letter to Senator John McCain, one of a trio of powerful
Republicans who have opposed White House proposals for new legislation
on detainees, Mr Powell warned that it would be a mistake to reduce
America's commitment to the Geneva convention on treatment of
prisoners. "The world is beginning to doubt the moral basis of our
fight against terrorism," Mr Powell wrote.
Republicans reject Bush's anti-terror law
http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,,1873121,00.html
Suzanne Goldenberg in Washington
Friday September 15, 2006
The Guardian
George Bush suffered a serious rebuff yesterday to his demand to grant
the CIA and the military a freer hand in the war on terror after Senate
Republicans moved to block legislation that would allow coercive
interrogations of detainees.
The show of defiance came hours after Mr Bush made a rare visit to
Capitol Hill to drum up support for White House proposals to limit
America's commitment to the Geneva convention on treatment of
prisoners. Four Senate Republicans, including John Warner, the chairman
of the armed services committee, joined Democrats to vote against the
proposals setting the stage for a showdown with the White House.
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