Middle East

The Guardian is reporting that the Obama team has signaled they may open some low-level diplomacy with Hamas:

The incoming Obama administration is prepared to abandon George Bush's ­doctrine of isolating Hamas by establishing a channel to the Islamist organisation, sources close to the transition team say.

The move to open contacts with Hamas, which could be initiated through the US intelligence services, would represent a definitive break with the Bush ­presidency's ostracising of the group. The state department has designated Hamas a terrorist organisation, and in 2006 ­Congress passed a law banning US financial aid to the group.

The Guardian has spoken to three ­people with knowledge of the discussions in the Obama camp. There is no talk of Obama approving direct diplomatic negotiations with Hamas early on, but he is being urged by advisers to initiate low-level or clandestine approaches, and there is growing recognition in Washington that the policy of ostracising Hamas is counter-productive. A tested course would be to start ­contacts through Hamas and the US intelligence services, similar to the secret process through which the US engaged with the PLO in the 1970s. Israel did not become aware of the contacts until much later.

That's what Obama is thinking:

Sen. Barack Obama, D-Illinois, met with House Democrats yesterday, talking about his trip abroad and his observations.

Obama told the caucus, according to an attendee, "Nobody said this to me directly but I get the feeling from my talks that if the sanctions don’t work Israel is going to strike Iran."

Of course if this happens before Bush leaves office, then we will be in war number 3.

We might as well brace ourselves for $6.00 a gallon at the pumps:

High gasoline prices and prospects for an Israeli-Palestinian peace deal headline Vice President Dick Cheney's trip to the Mideast, but fears about Iran's rising influence will be a key topic of his private talks at each stop.

Mr "closed door energy meetings" Cheney is going there to discuss prices? This guy will fuck us all!

Vanity Fair has posted an extensive piece that lays out the case that our Government sparked recent problems in Gaza. It even goes as far as saying it's "part Iran-Contra". Sounds like Congress has some questions to ask.

And since he didn't do that then the Palestinians decided to do it themselves.

Tens of thousands of Palestinians poured into Egypt from Gaza Wednesday after masked gunmen used land mines to blast down a seven-mile barrier dividing the border town of Rafah.

Men and women walked unhindered or rode in donkey carts over the toppled corrugated metal along sections of the barrier, carrying goats, chickens and crates of Coca-Cola. Some brought back televisions, car tires and cigarettes and one man even bought a motorcycle. Vendors sold soft drinks and baked goods to the crowds.

That road map to peace sure has a lot of hairpin curves in it.

Not much more yet. There are reports of causalities, but no numbers yet. I wonder how long before the administration blames Iran for this.

Bush's latest attempt to start World War 3:

The Bush administration said on Monday it had notified Congress of plans to sell Saudi Arabia a package of advanced arms in what officials have described as an effort to counter growing Iranian military clout.

That is how Bush promotes peace in the Middle East - buy selling weapons.

Bush in Saudi to court ally on Mideast peace

That's from Reuters and of course to Bush that courting means beating a war drum. I wonder how much saber rattling he will do towards Iran today? Let's ask USA Today:

Bush takes anti-Iran push to Saudis

Yup that's what I thought.

Seriously - isn't that what we have heard for years? They blame Clinton and Carter. So then riddle me this one:

Anxious not to repeat mistakes of past Middle East peace-making, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has turned to former presidents Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter for tips ahead of her own conference this year.

Rice invited Carter, a vocal critic of Bush administration policies, to the State Department on Wednesday where the two discussed his Arab-Israeli peacemaking efforts in the 1970s, State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said on Friday.

Their talks were "good and cordial," he said. They focused on the Middle East and not Carter's recent criticism of President George W. Bush's policies in Iraq and elsewhere.

A Soviet specialist, Rice also telephoned another former Democratic president, Bill Clinton, who tried, and ultimately failed, in his eight years in office to bring the Israelis and Palestinians together.

I guess Democrats weren't too bad for the Middle East. I can't wait for the Republicans to cry foul on this one!

Looks like Turkey is now involved, and not by our invitation:

Several thousand Turkish troops crossed into northern Iraq early Wednesday to chase Kurdish guerrillas who operate from bases there, Turkish security officials told The Associated Press.

Two senior security officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media, said the raid was limited in scope and that it did not constitute the kind of large incursion that Turkish leaders have been discussing in recent weeks.

“It is not a major offensive and the number of troops is not in the tens of thousands,” one of the officials told the AP by telephone. The official is based in southeast Turkey, where the military has been battling separatist Kurdish rebels since they took up arms in 1984.

It looks like we are trying to downplay this, but remember what happened last year when only a couple of Israeli soldiers crossed over into Lebanon.

This has a real potential to become a fire storm:

Fifteen British Marines on patrol in the Persian Gulf have been "seized" by the Iranian navy, the British Ministry of Defense said.

The Marines were "engaged in routine boarding operations of merchant shipping in Iraqi territorial waters," the ministry said in a statement on Friday.

A U.S. military official who monitors the region told CNN the Marines stopped an Iranian ship suspected of smuggling automobiles, and boarded it for an inspection.

The British ministry's statement said the Marines "completed a successful inspection of a merchant ship when they and their two boats were surrounded and escorted by Iranian vessels into Iranian territorial waters."

Now they are reporting that there is some debate as to rather the U.K. ship was in Iranian waters. I wonder if this would have happened if we talked to Iran in 2003 when they offered?

This should really be a non-story, but the right could not resist. They swift boat anyone they can and their latest victim has done the honarable thing.

From Matt:

Amanda Marcotte resigned from the Edwards campaign.  It was her decision.  Amanda feels encumbered by the campaign and unable to effectively defend herself from the right-wing.  As such, it's the correct decision to make because a Presidential campaign is the wrong place to be if you want to hit back at the right on your own behalf.  Aspiring bloggers for campaigns should take note of the restrictions placed on your freedom when you go to work for a campaign.  The personal cost can be quite high.

Melissa at Shakespeare's Sister is still with the Edwards campaign.  Bill Donohue's attack on Edwards failed, and we know that creepy bigots like him only have power if we grant it to them through our own actions.

Remember the protests that broke out in Afghanistan after it was revealed that an interrogator at Gitmo allegedly desecrated the Koran? The right and the administration quickly blamed the media for the protests and violence that followed the story and said it was false. Well now the FBI is citing similar cases:

FBI agents at Guantanamo saw a military interrogator squat over the Koran in order to anger a prisoner and observed a detainee whose head was wrapped in duct tape, according to recently released FBI documents from a 2004 internal inquiry.

The documents stemmed from a survey of nearly 500 FBI employees who were asked if they saw any aggressive interview techniques, interrogations or mistreatment of prisoners at the U.S. military base at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba. More than 25 incidents were reported.

The 244 pages of documents were released on the FBI's Web site on Tuesday and were turned over to the American Civil Liberties Union as part of its lawsuit.

So this is how we win the hearts and minds of the Middle East? Of course Bush will now be protected from blame by the right saying "it was others acting inappropriately". Where is the responsibility in the Oval Office. George Bush is responsible - it comes with the title of Commander in Chief.

Looks like it isn't just the Democrats who have a problem with Bush's Middle East approach:

Sen. Arlen Specter (news, bio, voting record), a 26-year Senate Republican, said he will visit Syria despite loud objections by the Bush administration, contending the situation in Iraq is so dire that it is time Congress step up to the plate and see what it can do.

Specter, R-Pa., said in an interview late Friday that he is planning a trip to the Middle East that will include Israel and Syria. The senator said he and other Republicans are concerned that the administration's policies in the Middle East are not working and that other GOP members may follow in his footsteps.

"I've talked to my Republican colleagues, and there is a disquiet here," Specter said.

There is a very simple concept here that the administration just seems to not be able to come to grips with. No nation wants a broken state on their border. This includes Syria and Iran. They do not want to share a border with a broken Iraq. This provides severe security issues for them. Why did Iran help us with intelligence when it came to Afghanistan?

After a much needed break yesterday, I return to this news:

The Israeli army dropped phosphorous bombs against Hizbollah guerrilla targets in Lebanon during the war in August, an Israeli minister said yesterday, confirming Lebanese allegations for the first time.

Phosphorus weapons can cause severe burns and are banned for use in civilian areas, but Israel insisted it used the weapons in accordance with international law. "The Israeli army made use of phosphorous shells during the war against Hizbollah in attacks against military targets in open ground," Cabinet Minister Yaakov Edri said.

I posted about complaints that some weapons were being used in Gaza were leaving injuries that had eerie similarities to Phosphorus weapons. As this article points out, these weapons are very nasty:

Israel has been accused of firing up to four million cluster bombs into Lebanon during the war, especially in the hours before the ceasefire. UN experts say up to one million cluster bombs failed to explode immediately and continue to threaten civilians.

The UN Mine Action Centre says at least 21 people have been killed and more than 100 wounded by cluster bombs since the end of the war. A cluster bomb killed a 12-year-old boy and injured his brother in southern Lebanon yesterday.

So did Israel break international law by using these weapons in civilian areas? I believe the UN should investigate that and if it is the case all the people who rallied behind Israel's "success" need to ask themselves how successful they really were. If it took Israel breaking international law and resorting to something so horrible then they did not become victors, they became terrorists. We must also wonder where Israel got these weapons. We are aware of one other country that has used them recently - ours.