Man arrested on suspicion of assaulting kabuki star Ebizo Saturday 11th December, 04:39 AM JST/RMG workers block DhakaSylhet highway /City Corp Elec

Man arrested on suspicion of assaulting kabuki star Ebizo

Saturday 11th December, 04:39 AM JST

Police arrested on Friday a 26-year-old man for allegedly assaulting top kabuki performer Ichikawa Ebizo at a bar in Tokyo in late November.

The Metropolitan Police Department said the man, identified as Rion Ito, a resident of Tokyo, admitted to the assault allegations.

Ebizo, 33, at an earlier news conference, denied engaging in any act of violence.

Investigative sources said Ito, a former member of a motorcycle gang, punched Ebizo in the face in the early morning of Nov 25 at a bar in Tokyo’s Nishiazabu district and caused him to sustain heavy injuries such as a broken cheek bone.

(Source:Japan Today)

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RMG workers block Dhaka-Sylhet highway (Bangladesh)

Star Online Report

Workers of a garment factory in Narayanganj blocked the Dhaka-Sylhet Highway for half an hour Saturday morning and ransacked at least five vehicles bringing allegation that the authorities were not following the new wage board in payment of their salary.

At least 10 officials of the factory were injured when the workers attacked them in the morning, reports our Narayaganj correspondent.

Some 7,000 to 8,000 workers of export-oriented Robin Tex BD Limited located at Bhulta Gausia village in Rupganj upazila of the district went to the factory at about 8:00am and started demonstration instead of joining work.

They locked the main gate from inside at about 9:30am and ransacked furniture, computers and machineries of the factory. They also confined the officials inside the factory.

Later, the workers took to the highway, put barricade and ransacked the vehicles, halting transport movement.

They withdrew the barricade at about 10:30am when police assured them of meeting their demand through negotiation with the authorities.

The workers alleged that the authorities gave their salary as per the old wage board when the government has declared the new wage board implemented from the month of November.

Rupganj police Chief Forkan Shikder confirmed the incident.

Transport movement resumed on the highway and the situation is now under control now, the officer-in-charge said.

Meanwhile, workers of two garments were demonstrating in Kaliakoir upazila of Gazipur in the morning bringing the same allegation against the authorities, Prothom Alo reports.

The factories are Moazuddin Textile Limited located at Purba Chandra area and Knitwear Limited at Ratanpur village in the upazila.

The authorities gave salary to the workers on Thursday but they did not maintain the new wage board, the workers claimed.

Since Friday was weekly holiday, the workers went to the factories Saturday morning and started demonstration.

On information, Gazipur Industrial Police and Kaliakoir police rushed to the spot and were trying to bring the situation under control.

(Source:Daily Star)

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India/Bangladesh: Indiscriminate Killings, Abuse by Border Officers

The family of Abdus Samad who was killed in BSF custody. Hundreds of Indian and Bangladeshi nationals have been killed due to indiscriminate use of lethal force by India’s border guards.
© 2010 Prashant Panjiar


Indian Government Should Investigate and End Impunity for Security Force Personnel!!! IMMI


(Kolkata) - India and Bangladesh should take immediate steps to end the killing of hundreds of their citizens at the West Bengal-Bangladesh border by India's Border Security Force (BSF), Human Rights Watch said in a report released today. The Indian government should prosecute BSF soldiers responsible for serious human rights abuses, Human Rights Watch said.
The 81-page report, "‘Trigger Happy': Excessive Use of Force by Indian Troops at the Bangladesh Border," documents the situation on the border region, where both Bangladesh and India have deployed border guards to prevent infiltration, trafficking, and smuggling. Human Rights Watch found numerous cases of indiscriminate use of force, arbitrary detention, torture, and killings by the security force, without adequate investigation or punishment. The report is based on over 100 interviews with victims, witnesses, human rights defenders, journalists, law- enforcement officials, and Border Security Force and Bangladesh Rifles' (BDR) members.
"The border force seems to be out of control, with orders to shoot any suspect," said Meenakshi Ganguly, South Asia director at Human Rights Watch. "The border operations ignore the most basic rule of law, the presumption of innocence."
Since both Indians and Bangladeshis have fallen prey to this excessive use of force, both governments need to open a joint independent investigation to turn the situation around, Human Rights Watch said.
Many people routinely move back and forth across this frontier to visit relatives, buy supplies, and look for jobs as well as for both petty and serious crime. The border forces are charged with intercepting illegal activities, especially narcotics smuggling, human trafficking for sex work, and transporting fake currency and explosives. They are also charged with restraining militants who are plotting violent attacks.


In many of the cases investigated by Human Rights Watch, the victims were cattle rustlers -farmers or laborers hoping to supplement their meager livelihood as couriers in the lucrative but illegal cattle trade that is rampant at the West Bengal border. Alauddin Biswas, a border resident, described the killing of his nephew who was suspected of cattle rustling by border guards in March 2010:
I went to see the body. It was lying 5 or 6 kilometers away from our house. There were police and politicians. We all saw that the BSF had shot him while he was lying on his back. They had shot him in the forehead and the bullet had pierced through and was lying a few inches inside the ground. If he was running away, he would have been shot in the back. They just killed him...
Over 900 Bangladeshi nationals have been killed by the BSF over the last decade, many of them when they crossed into Indian territory for cattle rustling or other smuggling activities. However, in several cases we also found that Bangladeshi nationals were injured or killed due to indiscriminate firing from across the border. For instance, 13-year-old Abdur Rakib was shot as he was grazing his buffaloes near the border when a soldier opened fire. Another boy, Mohammad Omar Faruq, age 15, was injured.
The Indian government is constructing a fence close to the border to contain the infiltration of economic migrants from Bangladesh, as well as militant groups responsible for attacks on Indian citizens. The resulting limitations on freedom of movement of those wanting to access their own land closer to the border has led to hardship for border residents.
"Residents complain that intimidation, verbal abuse, and beatings are common, with border guards, particularly the BSF, treating everyone as suspects." Ganguly said. "The border force, with a peacetime mission of preventing illegal activity, is acting like it is in a war zone, torturing and killing local residents."
The border force justifies the killings by claiming that suspects were evading arrest, or that it had to fire in self-defense, Human Rights Watch said. But suspicion of a crime or evasion of arrest cannot alone justify the use of lethal force. The United Nations Basic Principles on the Use of Force and Firearms by Law Enforcement Officials calls upon officials to apply, as far as possible, nonviolent means before resorting to the use of force and firearms. Officials are required to exercise restraint and "act in proportion to the seriousness of the offense." Human Rights Watch found no evidence in any death it documented that the person was engaged in any activity that would justify such an extreme response.
Hundreds of complaints of mistreatment by the border forces have been filed, but no member of the force has been prosecuted. Human Rights Watch found that local police forces rarely register complaints against border security and sometimes encourage the victims to drop their cases, telling them that nothing will come of it. On one occasion, the police informed a victim that the border force had committed no crime, since it was there "to beat the people."
The Bangladesh government should vigorously protect the right to life of its citizens, even those who may be involved in illegal trade, and should call upon the Indian government to exercise restraint.
"Human Rights Watch has repeatedly called upon the Indian government to prosecute those responsible for human rights violations instead of letting its security forces get away with murder," Ganguly said. "The BSF insists that there are internal investigations, but why then is it so unwilling to reveal whether anyone has been punished for these killings."
Testimony From the Report
"The BSF personnel were frustrated because their suspects escaped. They surrounded the boys and without giving any reason, started beating them with rifle butts, kicking and slapping them. There were nine soldiers, and they beat my sons mercilessly. Even as the boys fell down, the BSF men continued to kick them ruthlessly on their chest and other sensitive organs...."
- Krishna Chandra Mondal, father of three boys arbitrarily beaten by the BSF.
"At around 3 a.m. we decided to cross the Indian border. While passing a field we did not notice that some BSF soldiers were hidden there. As soon as the BSF saw us, they started firing without warning. On that night, the BSF shot at least 30 rounds. I had never experienced such firing from the BSF before."
- Nazrul Islam, Bangladeshi, injured by indiscriminate BSF shooting.
"I had taken our three buffaloes for grazing in the field...about 50 yards from the border. It is a common grazing ground and a lot of other boys were feeding their buffaloes in the same field....A young boy was catching fish in the lake.... A BSF soldier was standing at the border and loudly talking to the boy who was catching fish. It seemed that he wanted the boy to give him some free fish.... Soon they started to verbally abusing each other and then the BSF pointed a gun at the boy. The boy ran and the soldier started to shoot. I think maybe about seven to ten rounds were fired... I was hit on the right hip and fell down."
- Mohammad Omar Faruq, 15, injured by BSF shooting recounts the death of 13-year-old Abdur

(Source: The daily Sun)
Special request to contact with Muktidooth authority from Indian authority for such exchange to find the mystery for such misunderstanding

The "Protect, Respect and Remedy" Framework > Guiding Principles

The "Protect, Respect and Remedy" Framework > Guiding Principles
On 22 November 2010, Special Representative Ruggie proposed draft "Guiding Principles for the Implementation of the United Nations 'Protect, Respect and Remedy' Framework".
- Announcement [PDF]
- Draft report by Special Representative Ruggie with full text of Guiding Principles & commentaries [PDF]
The draft Guiding Principles are open for comment at Special Representative Ruggie's online consultation forum until 31 January 2011.
Business & Human Rights Resource Centre will feature submissions to the consultation and commentaries on the Guiding Principles on this page. We invite anyone making comments on the draft Guiding Principles to also send the comments to regaignon@business-humanrights.org for inclusion on this page.
Comments submitted to Special Representative's consultation
Nomogaia: [PDF] "Nomogaia's submission to the SRSG on the Draft Guidance Principles", 6 Dec 2010
Dr. Nadia Bernaz, Lecturer - Programme Leader MA Human Rights and Business, Middlesex University Business School, Law Dept.:
- comment on Guiding Principle 11 re State Duty to Protect - Multilateral institutions [scroll down to "Discussion"], 24 Nov 2010
- comment on Guiding Principle 12 re Corp. Responsibility to Respect [scroll down to "Discussion"], 25 Nov 2010
For additional submissions to the Special Representative on an early outline of the Guiding Principles, by Amnesty Intl. and Intl. Business Leaders Forum, see the 2010 submissions to the Special Representative.

Commentaries on draft Guiding Principles
Amy Lehr, Foley Hoag blog: "U.N. Special Representative for Business and Human Rights Releases Draft 'Guiding Principles'", 5 Dec 2010
James Harrison, International Law Observer blog: "Draft Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights", 7 Dec 2010
Allens Arthur Robinson law firm: "Focus: Protect, respect and remedy - business and human rights", 6 Dec 2010
Martin Lipton, Kevin S. Schwartz, Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz law firm: [PDF] "Guiding Corporate Social Responsibility: A United Nations Blueprint to Promote Human Rights", 24 Nov 2010

Pakistani journalist gunned down at his home in Sindh

Pakistani journalist gunned down at his home in Sindh
New York, December 6, 2010--Authorities in Sindh province must fully investigate Sunday's shooting death of Pakistani journalist Mehmood Chandio, president of the Mirpurkhas press club and bureau chief for the Sindhi-language television Awaz, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today.
Assailants knocked on the door of Chandio's home, firing two or three times when he answered, Mazhar Abbas, a former head of the Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists, told CPJ in an e-mail message Sunday. Chandio died after being transported to the hospital.
Chandio was a prominent local figure. Soon after his death, colleagues staged a protest outside the local press club, calling for a forceful investigation into the killing. CPJ is investigating to determine whether the slaying is related to his work.
"Provincial authorities must take charge of the investigation into Mehmood Chandio's brutal slaying and bring his killers to justice," said Bob Dietz, CPJ's Asia program coordinator. "Pakistan has one of the world's worst records of impunity in the case of journalists' deaths, with a dozen killings unprosecuted since 2002."
CPJ's Impunity Index ranked Pakistan as the 10th worst country in solving journalist murders.
(CPJ)

Mobile phones: a health hazard?/Iran Resumes Nuclear Talks

Iran Resumes Nuclear Talks
GENEVA — Iran and six world powers haggled Monday over the terms of negotiations that the West hopes will limit Iranian nuclear activities that could be used to make atomic weapons.
As the meeting in Geneva – their first in a year – broke for lunch, there were signs that both sides were at least willing to listen, even though they may remain far part on how deeply the talks should tackle concerns about Iranian nuclear activities.
Several officials from the six powers at the meeting – the U.S., Russia, Britain, France, Germany and the European Union – said the Iranian delegation had reacted calmly when told the group was still seeking a commitment from Tehran to stop uranium enrichment, which can make both fuel for reactors and the fissile core of nuclear arms.
Iran has insisted previously that the topic of enrichment was not up for negotiation.
Tehran says it does not want atomic arms, but as it builds up its capacity to make such weapons, neither Israel nor the U.S. have ruled out military action if Tehran fails to heed U.N. Security Council demands to freeze key nuclear programs.
EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton "thoroughly condemned" the assassination last week of a prominent Iranian nuclear scientist and the wounding of another, said one official, after chief Iranian negotiator Saed Jalili said the attacks had burdened the atmosphere of the talks.
Ashton also met Jalili in the foyer of the conference center before the talks began. As the doors closed to reporters Monday morning, the two had joined the other delegations sitting around a light brown oval table, with flags of their nations behind them.
Although other non-nuclear issues had also been mentioned, Ashton and others focused on the need to concentrate on Iran's nuclear program, said the official who – like another who agreed to discuss what went on inside the meeting – did so on condition of anonymity.
A series of bilateral meetings were planned after lunch, which featured duck with olives, char fillet with sage, rice pilaf and deserts. Those meetings could include a one-on-one between Jalili and U.S. Undersecretary of State William Burns, who heads the U.S. delegation, said the officials.
Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki sounded a note of optimism as the talks began, telling reporters in Athens that "the countries that are participating today in the talks on the nuclear program have the room to follow a policy to resolve the issue."
On Sunday, Iran announced it had delivered its first domestically mined raw uranium to a processing facility, claiming it was now self-sufficient over the whole enrichment process.
Ali Akbar Salehi, head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran and the country's vice president, said Iran had for the first time delivered domestically mined raw uranium to a processing facility – allowing it to bypass U.N. sanctions prohibiting import of the material.
Salehi said the delivery proved that the mysterious bombings which targeted the Iranian scientists would not slow the country's progress.
Iran acquired a considerable stock of yellowcake a uranium powder, from South Africa in the 1970s under the former U.S.-backed shah's original nuclear program, as well as unspecified quantities of yellowcake obtained from China long before the U.N. sanctions.
Western nations said last year that Iran was running out of raw uranium and asserted that Tehran did not have sufficient domestic ore to run the large-scale civilian program it said it was assembling.
"Given that Iran's own supply of uranium is not enough for a peaceful nuclear energy program, this calls into further question Iran's intentions and raises additional concerns at a time when Iran needs to address the concerns of the international community," said Mike Hammer, spokesman of the U.S. National Security Council.
But Salehi denied that local stocks were lacking and said Iran was now self-sufficient over the entire nuclear fuel cycle – from extracting uranium ore to enriching it and producing nuclear fuel.
Since Iran's clandestine enrichment program was discovered eight years ago, Iran has resisted both rewards – offers of technical and economic cooperation – and four sets of increasingly harsh U.N. sanctions meant to force it to freeze its enrichment program.
Nations have a right to enrich domestically and Iran insists it is doing so only to make fuel for an envisaged network of reactors and not to make fissile warhead material. But international concerns are strong because Tehran developed its enrichment program clandestinely and because it refuses to cooperate with an IAEA probe meant to follow up on suspicions that it experimented with components of a nuclear weapons program – something Iran denies.
Israel has threatened to attack Iran, even though Israel is believed to have stockpiled more than 200 nuclear weapons and it is not a member of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty.
Western officials have urged Tehran to address international concerns about its nuclear activities.
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has said it was up to Iran to restore trust about its nuclear intentions, urging it to come to Geneva prepared to "firmly, conclusively reject the pursuit of nuclear weapons."
But for Iran, the main issues are peace, prosperity – and nuclear topics only in the context of global disarmament.
"Iran has not and will not allow anybody in the talks to withdraw one iota of the rights of the Iranian nation," President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said before the talks.
Source: The Huffington Post

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You'll get exposed, if deceive poor: PM

You'll get exposed, if deceive poor: PM


Dhaka: Prime minister Sheikh Hasina has said one has to answer at some point, if one goes on sucking the blood of the poor. She made the comments regarding allegations against Muhammad Yunus of 'siphoning foreign aid from Grameen Bank to another fund'.

"Bangladesh has set many examples. Deceiving people by siphoning their money is another such example. This is nothing but sucking out money from the people after giving them loans. No improvement of the poor has taken place. They were just used as pawns to get more aids," the prime minister commented while speaking at an opinion exchange meeting with reporters at her official residence Ganabhaban on Sunday.

"The people of Bangladesh have been used as guinea pigs. I have never supported that. And now I protest.

Naimul Islam, editor of Amader Shomoy, said, "Initially the government had 60 percent share of the Grameen Bank which now have came down to 25 percent. It seems like Yunus wanted to empty the government exchequer, if possible. The government, however, did not let that happen."

He also asked whether the government will investigate into the allegation raised against Dr Yunus and Grameen Bank.

Responding to the query, the prime minister said, "Grameen Bank had been grabbed in such a manner as if it was a private property. This should also be investigated. Poor people are becoming destitute. They have been tricked by sweet nothings. Finally, things are coming out in the open."

Hasina likened Khaleda Zia's 'love' for her cantonment house with Yunus' 'love' for his Grameen Bank and said, "Grameen Bank is a public property. But it is being privatised out of 'love'. Yunus Sahib has fallen in love with Grameen Bank."

"One cannot but get caught if played with the money of the poor," she added.

Norway's national TV NRK aired a documentary on November 30 titled "Fanget i Mikrogjeld" or "Caught in Micro debt", based on which bdnews24.com ran a report on December 1.

According to the documentary, Nobel laureate Yunus transferred the money to Grameen Kalyan, which was in no way involved with microcredit operations.

Responding to the allegations, Grameen Bank claimed there was no wrongdoing in the agreement between the bank and Grameen Kalyan under which it received Tk 3,917 million from the bank.

"Decisions were taken by the Grameen Bank Board, with due deliberation, good faith, and with good intentions to benefit the poor," the rejoinder said.

Awami League joint general secretary Mahbub-ul-Alam Hanif on Dec termed Muhammad Yunus as 'corrupt' and said Yunus had no right to ruin Bangladesh's abroad. While the Awami League general secretary Syed Ashraful Islam expressed his worries over the issue.

On the same day at another function, Finance minister A M A Muhith said he sees no 'fault' in the diversion of Tk 7 billion aid from Grameen Bank to another company if the bank's claim of 'understanding' in this regard with the Norwegian government was true.

When the prime minister's attention was attracted to the differing comments made by her party stalwarts, Sheikh Hasina replied, "We want Bangladesh's image to brighten abroad. The finance minister also wanted the same while he made the comments."
(Source:Daily Independent)

Israel vs Iran: rumours of war/Russia and Poland: a friendship that must not fail

Israel vs Iran: rumours of war
Paul Rogers, 2 December 2010
Subjects:
· Conflict
· Democracy and government
· International politics
· Iran
· Israel
· global security
· globalisation
Iran is again at the centre of international politics. Its diplomats are discussing their nuclear plans. Its nuclear specialists are being targeted in Tehran. Its Saudi neighbours are pleading with the Americans to bomb it. But most serious of all, the momentum behind an Israeli military assault on its nuclear facilities continues to refuel.

A recent article in this series noted that a number of political developments in late 2010 were increasing the prospect of an Israeli military strike on Iran’s nuclear facilities. These included the results of the mid-term elections in Congress, which favoured Republicans committed to unstinting support for Israel and will constrain the Barack Obama administration’s ability to respond critically in the event of an attack; and a rising Israeli concern with Iran's missile developments as well as its presumed nuclear-weapon programme (see “Israel vs. Iran: the Washington factor”, 18 November 2010).
The subsequent pattern of events, including information contained in the latest batch of documents released on 28 November 2010 by the WikiLeaks project, reinforces this argument in compelling ways.
The new WikiLeaks material provides a trove of United States diplomatic communications from its embassies around the world. Among the most prominent themes of the accompanying media coverage is the reporting by diplomats of several Arab leaders’ antipathy to Iran; the most striking example being the plea from King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia that Washington should "cut off the head of the snake".
This revelation may be interesting more for the explicitness of such remarks than for the actual sentiment, which is hardly a surprise. But far less publicised - until it was picked up by the Weekly Standard, the most prominent journal of Washington's neo-conservatives - was a Saudi claim that Iran was harbouring a network of al-Qaida associates, including one of Osama bin Laden's lesser-known sons, Ibrahim (see Thomas Joscelyn, “WikiLeaks: The Iran-al Qaeda Connection", Weekly Standard, 1 December 2010). This detail feeds a wider view gaining strength in Washington, that Iran increasingly represents an even more pressing danger than had been understood (see Ali Gharib & Jim Lobe, “War cries ringing in Obama's ears”, Asia Times, 1 December 2010).
Any connection between Iran and the perpetrators of the 9/11 attacks - however remote it appears to be - is welcome to those in the United States (mainly though not exclusively on the Republican right) already committed to the belief that Iran’s nuclear ambitions are but the latest example of an enduring perfidy, and further justification for attacking the regime; or at least supporting Israel in a similar operation. The logic is plain: Iran supports al-Qaida and is developing nuclear weapons, a process that will end with a nuclear-armed al-Qaida and an even more catastrophic assault on America.
The mindset
The political topicality of this argument in the Weekly Standard is reinforced by two current events. The first is the coordinated assassination attempts in Tehran on 29 November 2010 against two Iranian nuclear scientists: Majid Shahriari (who was killed) and Fereydoon Abbasi (who was injured). They were targeted in an identical way, by the attachment of bombs to their car-windows as they drove to work through the morning traffic by assailants on motor-cycles. The explosions follow a similar incident on 12 January 2010 when Masoud Ali Mohammadi, a specialist in quantum mechanics, was killed in Tehran by a booby-trapped motor-cycle (a case made even more opaque by suggestions that Mohammadi was sympathetic to Iran’s opposition green movement).
The perpetrators of all three attacks are as yet unknown. But it may be significant that some of Iran's nuclear facilities have also been targeted in sabotage efforts in 2010. Perhaps the most serious of these was a sustained cyber-assault which, for example, is likely to have interfered with uranium-enrichment at the Natanz plant.
The second event is the agreement by Iran and the international community to conduct a fresh round of talks on the nuclear issue in Geneva on 6-7 December, the first high-level discussions between the parties since October 2009. The Iranian side will be led by Iran's chief nuclear negotiator, Saeed Jalili; the European Union’s high representative for foreign and security policy Catherine Ashton will head the “3+3” delegation (Britain, France, Germany, China, Russia, the United States).
The revival of the stalled dialogue between the EU and Iran could plausibly be read in terms of a welcome easing of tensions. It could also be seen as indicating a certain weakness on the Iranian side: either as a result of the impact of the current round of economic sanctions, or of difficulties in Iran’s civil-nuclear programme (or both).
The problem is that the other key player in this multi-sided drama, the Israeli governmental and security elite, sees Iran very differently. Israel views any diplomatic move of any kind by Iran as an evasive and delaying tactic which it uses to proceed with its as-rapid-as-possible development of a nuclear arsenal. The façade of negotiations is just that. Iran is a danger tout court, and must be confronted (see "Israel vs Iran: fallout of a war", 15 July 2010).
The threat
The depth of this suspicion of Iran among Israel’s political and military leadership - shared by many in Washington - is well conveyed in an analysis by a prominent Israeli professor in the respected United States defence journal, Defense News (see Efraim Inbar, “Halt Nuclear Iran: Military Action May Be Only Recourse”, Defense News, 15 November 2010). Professor Inbar’s establishment credentials are impeccable: he is the director of the Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies at Bar-Ilan University, lectures at several leading American and British universities, and is current president of the Israeli Association of International Studies. This status gives his views influence and reach among leading Israeli politicians.
Efraim Inbar’s overall judgment is stark: “Unfortunately, diplomacy has run its course, while economic sanctions are generally futile. Only military action can stop Iran's race for nuclear arms”. This is backed by the familiar case that a nuclear-armed Iran will threaten regional stability in general as well as Israel in particular, not least by encouraging Turkey, Egypt and Saudi Arabia to go nuclear. But an Iran with nuclear weapons will also be far bolder in seeking to destabilise Turkey and Egypt, says Inbar, who also strongly rejects the notion that regional nuclearisation could underwrite stable deterrence.
The dangers of Iran’s nuclear-weapons acquisition go even wider, Inbar argues. It will lead the west to lose influence in oil-and-gas-rich central Asian states, which will gravitate towards a nuclear Iran or seek closer security ties with Russia or China; Pakistan too will “adjust its nuclear posture” in response to the new reality of a nuclear-armed neighbour to the west, and India in turn will do the same - “possibly creating an even more sensitive nuclear balance”.
Moreover, the reverberations of a nuclear-armed Iran include two direct threats to stability in Europe: “Iran is allied with Syria, another radical state with an anti-American predisposition, and seeks to create a radical Shiite corridor from Iran to the Mediterranean Sea via south Iraq, Syria and Lebanon. Such a corridor will facilitate Iranian ability to project power into the Balkans, where it has a presence in the three Muslim states of Bosnia, Albania and Kosovo. A nuclear Iran could also encourage the radicalization of Muslims in Europe”.
The impact of Tehran’s successful development of a nuclear weapon on a number of Iranian-supported terrorist organisations in the region - such as Hamas, Hizbollah and Islamic Jihad - must also be considered. Inbar says that they “will feel more secure and confident with the backing of a nuclear Iran”.
This article in a leading US defence publication, which identifies the Iranian nuclear challenge as a major threat across the wider region and on to western Europe as well to Israel, is a valuable exposition of elite thinking in Israel. The subsequent Weekly Standard piece - which goes as far as linking Iran directly to 9/11, al-Qaida and the continued peril of attacks (which may now also be nuclear) against the United States - complements this assessment well.
The precedent
The appeal of Efraim Inbar’s view that “(at) this late stage, only military action can prevent the descent of the greater Mid-east into a very brutish region” - especially among those with the ability to act on its recommendations - is considerable. After all, there is a strong precedent for an analysis of this type. A military assault on Iraq to terminate the Saddam Hussein regime had been advocated in Washington for at least four years before it happened; it should not then have been so surprising that 9/11 offered a pretext for a near-instant “framing” of Iraq alongside Taliban-hosting Afghanistan (see Nick Ritchie & Paul Rogers, The Political Road to War: Iraq, Bush and 9/11, Routledge, 2007).
The echoes, with Iran now in place of Iraq, are potent. True, it will take far more to persuade a United States administration led by Barack Obama to engage in direct military action against America’s principal adversary in the middle east. But Israel’s leadership is weighing the options, planning the scenarios, calculating the advantages and considering the outcomes. This time, there will be even less excuse for surprise.
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(Source:Open Democracy)

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Russia and Poland: a friendship that must not fail
Dmitri Trenin, 2 December 2010

Since 2008 Russia and Poland have engaged with each other in a way that would previously have been inconceivable. Some issues remain to be confronted, but they are not insurmountable. Other Russian neighbours would do well to take note, maintains Dmitri Trenin
President Dmitri Medvedev’s visit to Poland on December 6 is not going to be a breakthrough. Rather, it will seek to expand and deepen the positive changes in the Polish-Russian relationship. If the momentum which has been building over the past two years can be sustained, that relationship can be transformed into one of the key pillars of stability and security in Europe. If so, it will stand next to Franco-German, Polish-German or indeed Russo-German reconciliation as a foundation of a continent-wide security community.
What has been happening between Warsaw and Moscow since the fall of 2008 has been nothing short of astounding. First, in the wake of the Georgia war, the two countries engaged in diplomatic consultations, with the Russian side sending a signal to the Poles: we respect you and value your thoughts. Then, Prime Minister Putin came to Poland in 2009 to attend the solemn ceremony marking the 70th anniversary of the start of World War II. Before he came, he had authored a conciliatory article in a major Polish newspaper. While in Poland, he not only weathered the criticism directed at Soviet foreign policy, but also had a useful conversation with Prime Minister Tusk while walking with him alone along a Gdansk pier.
Prime Minister Vladimir Putin came to Poland in 2009 to attend the solemn ceremony marking the 70th anniversary of the start of World War II.
In the next act of reconciliation, again driven by the Russian side, Putin invited Tusk to come to Katyn in April 2010 for a joint ceremony to honour the slain Polish officers, 70 years after their deaths. Putin even kneeled, briefly, while laying a wreath to the memorial. Putin even kneeled, briefly, while laying a wreath to the memorial. It wasn't a grand "Brandt at the Warsaw Ghetto" moment, but that seemingly natural, even though unexpected, gesture was much appreciated. It was probably there and then that the ice was broken. It was probably there and then that the ice was broken.
The budding relationship was put to the severest of tests three days later, as the Polish presidential plane carrying the first couple and scores of dignitaries crashed at Smolensk. The Russians, shaken as much as the Poles, literally went out of their way to cooperate with Warsaw. For the first time in living memory, they declared a national day of mourning to honour the foreign dead. Medvedev went to the funeral and clearly named Stalin and his henchmen as responsible for the murderous crime at Katyn.
"Thus, it is clear that the engagement initiative was initiated by Moscow and that it was coming from the head, rather than the heart. This is not necessarily a bad thing. National interests are more solid grounds for relations than leaders’ feelings of empathy or remorse."
Dmitri Trenin
In the months that followed, Moscow was satisfied with the outcome of the recent Polish presidential election and did not react at all to the accusations by some Poles that it – alongside with members of the Polish government – might have had a hand in the air crash at Smolensk. The accusations, of course, were preposterous, and evidently a reflection on Polish domestic politics, but Moscow was careful not to unleash anti-Polish sentiments in Russia. Instead, the Kremlin leaned on the Duma, usually a fount of Russian patriotism, to issue, ahead of Medevdev’s visit, an official statement recognizing, beyond any reasonable doubt, Stalin’s responsibility for the 1940 deaths. The stakes remain too high to let anyone spoil Russia’s Poland strategy.
The strategy Moscow has been pursuing with Warsaw had a lot do with Poland, but even more so with Europe. Especially under the Kaczynski Brothers’ tandem leadership, Warsaw made its dispute with Moscow into an obstacle for the wider EU-Russia relationship, blocking, among other things, the negotiation of a new partnership agreement. Russian attempts to lean on the Poles with a little help from its friends in Berlin and Paris were futile: such a breach of EU solidarity in favour of Moscow was never on the cards. In the end, the Kremlin realized there was no way around Warsaw.
However, the Russians needed a pragmatic Polish partner for a productive dialogue, and they saw an opening in the new government led by Donald Tusk, as they later would see one in Barack Obama. They also discovered that Foreign Minister Radek Sikorski was a modern Polish nationalist and not, as they had feared, an American stooge. Having found suitable partners, the Russians began to act to engage them.
Since 2008-9, the importance of the engagement has only grown. The global economic crisis, which hit Russia hard, pushed Moscow to look for ways to modernize its economy in order to remain a great power. Russian foreign policy was redesigned to furnish external resources for the country’s technological modernization. Since those resources were mainly to be found in the West, and predominantly in Europe, the importance of the EU relationship shot up. Warsaw, as the EU’s gatekeeper, had to be managed even more carefully.
Thus, it is clear that the engagement initiative was initiated by Moscow and that it was coming from the head, rather than the heart. This is not necessarily a bad thing. National interests are more solid grounds for relations than leaders’ feelings of empathy or remorse. Yet, it would be wrong to conclude that Russia’s present leaders cannot be moved at all when having to deal with the hideous crimes of Stalinism. Even a cynical value-less attitude stops in awe before them.
So, the issue is, where next? What kind of a relationship between Russia and Poland after the reconciliation? First of all, “difficult issues” from the two countries’ checkered history, as they are known to Polish and Russian diplomats, are not all done. They need to be brought to the surface, examined and honestly assessed. Second of all, the relationship needs to be made forward-looking. Polish and Russian youth should be allowed to rediscover each other. Thirdly, Russo-Polish political consultations should become even closer and cover a broad range of issues: Warsaw needs to feel Moscow treats it as a valued and even privileged partner in Europe.

British cops eat pizzas that were evidence in torture case

Posted by Chris Spags
I’m no lawyer, but I do know that when you have a piece of evidence about a new case, you probably shouldn’t eat it. Unfortunately, a crew of British police officers didn’t compute that same notion when they purchased two pizzas from a delivery boy that were initially intended for suspects in a torture case.
Prosecutors say that Hertfordshire police bought two pizzas from a delivery man from Domino’s at a discounted rate after he was unable to drop the pizzas off with the house that ordered them.
The house that ordered them were a gang who were suspects in the kidnapping and gruesome torture of a local drug dealer. The reason no one was in the house was because they fled the scene prior to police arrived, but not before ordering pizza.
The pizza boxes had the suspects’ address, time they were ordered, and cell phone number printed on a label on them.
It is unclear if the pizzas were evidence-destroyingly delicious or not.
I understand that, as a cop, you should be more cautious with potential evidence (and probably focus on your job on the scene instead of trying to rip off delivery boys). But what would the pizzas really tell them about the suspects? “Oh, the criminals like anchovies…they must have moved to 1349 Derbyham Lane! Good work, detectives!”
That said, any time your police work sounds like a scene in a movie in which Chris Farley plays an in-over-his-head detective working his first stakeout, it may be time to find a new line of work.
Blundering police ‘ate court evidence’ after buying pizzas meant for torture suspects [Telegraph]
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