Asia

Juan Cole has all the links.

From TurkishPress

Turkey on Friday made public its report on the May 31 Israeli attack on a humanitarian aid convoy that killed eight Turks and an American of Turkish origin and injured many others.

Turkey repeatedly asked Israel to officially apologize and pay compensation for all the loss and damages caused by its illegal attack.

The report, prepared by Turkish National Commission of Inquiry, has been submitted to the Panel of Inquiry set up by the UN Secretary-General in August 2010, in accordance with the Presidential Statement issued by the UN Security Council in June 2010 which called for a prompt, impartial, credible and transparent investigation conforming to international standards.

A PANEL ON SOLIDARITY AND RESISTANCE TO US FOREIGN POLICY

*US Imperialism in the Middle East  *the US Government's Profound Hatred of Democracy and the War on Dissent *Secret War in Pakistan *Israel’s War Plans *the Revolt in the Arab World

Sponsored by the International Socialist Organization

featuring:

*Michael Schwartz on US Imperialism in the Middle East* (Author of “War Without End” and Professor of Sociology at SUNY Stonybrook)

 *Arun Gupta on the US Government's Profound Hatred of Democracy and the War on Dissent*

(founding editor, Indypendent)

 *Adaner Usmani on the Secret War in Pakistan* (Student Activist based in Karachi. Works with the Action for a Progressive Pakistan and Labour Party (LPP))

 *Lamis Deek on Israel’s War Plans* (Activist with Al-Awda NY: The Palestine Right of Return Coalition) 

*Mostafa Omar on the Revolt in the Arab World* (Egyptian-American activist, member of the International Socialist Organization)

By Jeff Cohen

In the last year of his life, Martin Luther King Jr. questioned U.S. military interventions against progressive movements in the Third World by invoking a JFK quote: “Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable.”

Were he alive to have witnessed the last three decades of U.S. foreign policy, King might update that quote by noting: “Those who make secular revolution impossible will make extreme Islamist revolution inevitable.”

For decades beginning during the Cold War, U.S. policy in the Islamic world has been aimed at suppressing secular reformist and leftist movements. Beginning with the CIA-engineered coup against a secular democratic reform government in Iran in 1953 (it was about oil), Washington has propped up dictators, coaching these regimes in the black arts of torture and mayhem against secular liberals and the left.

One Day After Securing A Huge Deal With China, Boeing Lays Off 1000 American Workers

Boeing just laid off 1000 workers in Southern California, according to the Orange County Register.

The move comes just a day after Boeing agreed to a $19 billion deal with China to produce 200 airplanes for the country.

The layoffs affect workers in the company's Long Beach, Anaheim, and Huntington peach facilities. The bulk of the layoffs will occur in Long Beach, where 900 will lose their jobs.

The company has been consistently cutting jobs in Long Beach. It had 20,000 employees there in 1990 and now only has 7,000, according to the Long Beach Press Telegram.

READ MORE

By Sherwood Ross

NAVY MAKES MOVE TODAY ON JEJU ISLAND

By Bruce Gagnon, Organizing Notes

By Richard Greeman

1. Who’s Provoking Whom?

North Korea is a tinderbox, and the Obama Administration -- like the Bush Administration whose bellicose policies it inherited – has been playing with matches. Why are the U.S. and its allies acting hysterical about the Iranians -- whose nuclear programs might at some future time lead to nuclear weapons -- while recklessly provoking the North Koreans, whose stock of tested nuclear weapons are presumably operational now?

By David Swanson

An excerpt from "War Is A Lie" http://warisalie.org

One type of "defensive" war is one that follows a successful provocation of aggression from the desired enemy. This method was used to begin, and repeatedly to escalate, the Vietnam War, as recorded in the Pentagon Papers. Setting aside the question of whether the United States should have entered World War II, in either Europe or the Pacific or both, the fact is that our country was unlikely to enter unless attacked. In 1928 the U.S. Senate had voted 85 to 1 to ratify the Kellogg-Briand Pact, a treaty that bound — and still binds — our nation and many others never again to engage in war.

http://www.endthekoreanwar.org/index.php

President Obama is sending the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier USS George Washington (carrying 75 warplanes and a crew of over 6000) and other warships for additional war-games with the South Korean military beginning this Sunday, November 28.

This only escalates the already tense situation on the Korean peninsula and brings us dangerously closer to an all-out war.

And the blogosphere is already full of hate-mongering rhetoric calling for “retaliation” after the tragic incident on Yeonpyong Island earlier this week.

Two civilians and two South Korean soldiers have died. We say NO MORE LOST LIVES.

We need all those who stand for peace to call for de-escalation on the Korean peninsula and an immediate end to the U.S.-South Korean war games.

On Sunday, November 28, from 12 noon to 3 pm EST (9 am to 12 noon PST)

By Sherwood Ross

By David Swanson

An excerpt from the just published book "War Is A Lie" http://warisalie.org

After two world wars with a depression in between, none of which Americans had submitted to voluntarily, President Harry S Truman had some bad news. If we didn't set off immediately to fight communists in Korea, they would shortly invade the United States. That this was recognized as patent nonsense is perhaps suggested by the fact that, once again, Americans had to be drafted if they were going to go off and fight. The Korean War was waged in supposed defense of the way of life in the United States and in supposed defense of South Korea against aggression by North Korea. Of course it had been the arrogant genius of the Allies to slice the Korean nation in half at the end of World War II.

That's right. Ain't we proud! Read all about it!

Let's recall the words of Smedley Butler in 1935:

“At each session of Congress the question of further naval appropriations comes up. The swivel-chair admirals . . . don’t shout that ‘We need lots of battleships to war on this nation or that nation.’ Oh, no. First of all, they let it be known that America is menaced by a great naval power. Almost any day, these admirals will tell you, the great fleet of this supposed enemy will strike suddenly and annihilate our 125,000,000 people. Just like that. Then they begin to cry for a larger navy. For what? To fight the enemy? Oh my, no. Oh, no. For defense purposes only. Then, incidentally, they announce maneuvers in the Pacific. For defense. Uh, huh.
“The Pacific is a great big ocean. We have a tremendous coastline in the Pacific. Will the maneuvers be off the coast, two or three hundred miles? Oh, no. The maneuvers will be two thousand, yes, perhaps even thirty-five hundred miles, off the coast.
“The Japanese, a proud people, of course will be pleased beyond expression to see the United States fleet so close to Nippon’s shores. Even as pleased as would be the residents of California were they to dimly discern, through the morning mist, the Japanese fleet playing at war games off Los Angeles.”

New America Media, Yoichi Shimatsu

In its most recent selections of peace laureates Barack Obama and Liu Xiaobo, the Nobel Peace Prize Committee has been pushing the strategic agenda of its chairman since 2009. Outside of European policy circles, Thorbjoern Jagland has no celebrity status, yet he is among the most powerful figures influencing the future global order.

The veteran Norwegian Labour Party politician has taken a stance similar to that of Britain’s Tony Blair in support of European Union integration and a strong alliance with Washington to ensure Western leadership in international affairs. He has served as Norway’s prime minister, foreign minister, speaker of the parliament known as the Storting, and current chairman of the Council of Europe, a body that backed the EU and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization during the Cold War.

His political career has been defined by his close relationship with NATO. He sat on the Norwegian government’s standing committee on defense and was a key player in NATO parliamentary conferences.

This story originally appeared at TomDispatch.com.

Chavez has threatened to cut off oil sales to US if US and Colombia attack Venezuela.

And US and South Korea seem intent on provoking North Korea into a casus belli.

A Priority for Hillary Clinton in Vietnam

Walter Isaacson and Lt. General Phung Khac Dang, Vice President of the Vietnam Veterans Association are briefed on dioxin containment work at Danang Airport

21 July 2010 The last stop on Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's Asian tour this week is Vietnam, where she will discuss among other things an enduring remnant of the war, the after-effects of Agent Orange. The U.S. government belatedly recognized the impact of the deadly defoliant on American troops, but has resisted accepting responsibility for the damage the chemical inflicted on the Vietnamese with birth defects still evident decades after the end of the war.

Unite with U.S. Veterans in calling for Justice through Government Assistance

Washington DC -- On July 12-16, 2010, Ms. Tran Thi Hoan, a 23 year old Vietnamese victim of Agent Orange, and Dr. Nguyen Thi Ngoc Phuong, a Vietnamese physician and expert on the human effects of Agent Orange, will be in Washington D.C. to join U.S. military veterans in calling for justice and U.S. government assistance for Vietnam’s Agent Orange victims as well as medical care for the children of U.S. veterans and Vietnamese Americans exposed to Agent Orange. Their visit comes as the U.S. and Vietnam mark 15th years of diplomatic relations.

Habitat for Humanity's 'Musicians Village' Homes In NOLA Were Made With Defective Chinese Drywall
By Susie Madrak | Crooks & Liars

This is devastating. The working poor of New Orleans must feel like they have a target on their backs. Katrina, the Gulf disaster... now this? Apparently Habitat for Humanity is so worried about legal exposure, they've been stonewalling the residents:

NEW ORLEANS — For more than a year, the local chapter of Habitat for Humanity has insisted there were no defects in the Chinese drywall it used to build nearly 200 houses for victims of Hurricane Katrina, including many in its heavily publicized “Musicians’ Village’’ development in the Upper Ninth Ward.

But a house-by-house canvas of Musicians’ Village by reporters from the Sarasota Herald-Tribune and ProPublica found several homeowners who reported serious problems and one who said she had complained to Habitat for more than a year about corrosion and electronics failures believed to be related to her drywall.

The reporters’ interviews with dozens of residents also turned up a second potentially significant problem: Some of the homes that Habitat officials believed had been built with American-made drywall actually contain a Chinese product instead. Read more.

Turkey restricts Israeli use of airspace | CNN

Turkey has clamped down on Israel's use of its airspace, according to a statement from the Turkish prime minister and information from a Turkish government official.

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Monday that his country's airspace had been closed to Israeli aircraft in the wake of the Israel's May raid on a Turkish ship that was part of a Gaza aid flotilla. Nine Turkish activists were killed in the raid, which has caused an epic rift between the two countries.

But the government official, who declined to be identified, told CNN that "this is not exactly the (complete) closing down of Turkish airspace."

All civilian flights are continuing, the official said. "With regard to military flights, the normal procedure is that for each ... flight countries, must ask for permission to use Turkish airspace. It is evaluated on a case-by-case basis. It is true that one Israeli flight was not allowed into Turkish airspace. ... Any future military flights will also be evaluated on a case-by-case basis." Read more.

WARNING GRAPHIC CONTENT - Kyrgyzs Burning Uzbeks Alive

Related articles:

• Kyrgyzstan: Bloodstained Geopolitical Chessboard
• 'Kyrgyzstan Is On the Brink of Collapse'
• Kyrgyzstan And The Battle For Central Asia

Angelina Jolie Speaks Out for World Refugee Day

Presidential Proclamation - World Refugee Day

'Kyrgyzstan Is On the Brink of Collapse' | Der Spiegel

With hundreds dead and tens of thousands of refugees, ethnic violence has brought chaos to Kyrgyzstan. Central Asia policy expert Andrea Schmitz told SPIEGEL ONLINE about the history behind the attacks on the Uzbek minority and the wobbly transitional government.

SPIEGEL ONLINE: The news from Kyrgyzstan is deeply disturbing. Officially, 170 people have been killed during the angry unrest over the last week and other sources put the death toll above 700. What is the current situation?

Schmitz: Official figures probably understate the number of dead, which is likely to be considerably higher. I do not have the exact numbers. The situation at present is so chaotic no one can reliably count the dead.

SPIEGEL ONLINE: Reports say almost all the dead belong to the Uzbek minority.

Schmitz: That appears to be correct. However, it's also said that those behind the unrest have tried to turn Kyrgyz and Uzbeks against each other. But the violence has clearly focused on the Uzbek minority. Do you consider this plausible? Read more.

Kyrgyzstan: Bloodstained Geopolitical Chessboard
Rick Rozoff | Stop NATO | Blog site | June 16, 2010

Events in a remote, landlocked and agrarian nation (map) of slightly over five million people have become the center of world attention.

A week of violence which first erupted in Kyrgyzstan's second largest city, Osh, in the south of the country, has resulted in the deaths of at least 120 civilians and in over 1,700 being injured.

More than 100,000 ethnic Uzbeks have fled Osh and the nearby city of Jalal-Abad (Jalalabad) and three-quarters of those have reportedly crossed the border into Uzbekistan.

A report of June 14 estimated that 50,000 were stranded on the Kyrgyz side of the border without food, water and other necessities. [1]

Witnesses describe attacks by gangs of ethnic Kyrgyz against Uzbeks with reports of government armed forces siding with the assailants.

The following day the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) estimated that 275,000 people in total had fled the violence-torn area.

On June 14 the deputy head of the International Committee of the Red Cross in Osh, Severine Chappaz, was quoted as warning: "We are extremely concerned about the nature of the violence that is taking place and are getting reports of severe brutality, with an intent to kill and harm. The authorities are completely overwhelmed, as are the emergency services.

"The armed and security forces must do everything they can to protect the vulnerable and ensure that hospitals, ambulances, medical staff and other emergency services are not attacked." [2]

The government of neighboring Uzbekistan had registered 45,000 refugees by June 14, with an estimated 55,000 more on the way. United Nations representatives said that over 100,000 people had fled Kyrgyzstan, mainly ethnic Uzbeks to Uzbekistan, by June 15.

Security of U.S. Passports Called Into Question
Why Are Key Components Outsourced To Country In Turmoil?
By Matthew Mosk, Matthew Cole, Brian Ross and John Solomon | Center For Public Integrity and ABC News

GPO's inspector general has warned that the agency lacks even the most basic security plan for ensuring that blank e-Passports -- and their highly sought technologies – aren't stolen by terrorists, foreign spies, counterfeiters and other bad actors as they wind through an unwieldy manufacturing process that spans the globe and includes 60 different suppliers.

The U.S. government agency that prints passports has for years failed to resolve persistent concerns about the security risks involved in outsourcing production to foreign factories, a joint investigation by ABC News and the Center for Public Integrity has found. Read more.

Pentagon Chief In Azerbaijan: Afghan War Arc Stretches To Caspian And Caucasus
By Rick Rozoff | Stop NATO | Blog site

U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates arrived in Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan, on June 6, meeting with President Ilham Aliyev on that day and on the following with Defense Minister Colonel General Safar Abiyev.

Gates was the first cabinet-level American official to visit the strategically positioned nation - located in the South Caucasus with Russia to its north, Iran to its south and the Caspian Sea to its east - in five years and the first U.S. defense chief to visit since Donald Rumsfeld did in 2005.

When Gates' predecessor was last in Azerbaijan his mission centered on "the transportation of Caspian oil and the security of the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil pipeline" as the chief element of U.S. trans-Eurasian oil and natural gas plans "which [are] directly connected with Mr Rumsfeld's department" [1] to bring Caspian Sea hydrocarbons into Europe while bypassing Russia and Iran, both of which adjoin Azerbaijan.

Rumsfeld's visit of five years ago also focused on a related initiative, the Caspian Guard project the Pentagon launched in 2003. "Guaranteeing security to the pipeline...will be the prime goal of the Caspian Guard. The Caspian Guard will represent a network of police detachments and special military units in the Caspian region." [2]

At the time Rumsfeld's Defense Department planned to allot over $100 million for the Caspian Guard to operate at both ends of the inland sea - Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan - and to be based in Stuttgart, Germany where the Pentagon's new Africa Command is now based. In fact U.S. European Command was simultaneously elaborating plans for the Caspian Guard and a complementary Gulf of Guinea Guard in oil-rich western Africa to secure control over the 21st century's main new sources of energy supplies. [3]

Gates arrived in Azerbaijan the day after the ninth annual Asian security summit organized by the International Institute for Strategic Studies in Singapore and before his attendance at the NATO defense chiefs meeting in Brussels on the 9th.

He had intended to visit Beijing following the conference in Singapore, but his overtures in that direction were rebuffed by the Chinese government, presumably because of Washington's confirmation this January of plans to complete a $6.5 billion arms transaction with Taiwan, one whose latest installment includes 200 Patriot Advanced Capability-3 anti-ballistic missiles.

That Baku replaced Beijing on the Pentagon chief's way to the NATO meeting indicates the importance that the comparatively small nation - with a population of under nine million while China's is over 1.3 billion - has in American global geostrategic plans.

By David Swanson

In 2008 Joe Allen published "Vietnam: The (Last) War the U.S. Lost," which provides a terrific and concise history of the United States' involvement in Vietnam, from beginning to end. Doing this in 200 pages results in a limited history, but the basic points all seem right.

Allen concludes that Vietnam was ended by three forces: the resistance of the Vietnamese, the peace movement in the United States, and the resistance of soldiers in the U.S. military. Because he was writing in 2008 or earlier, Allen compares the Vietnam War only to the Iraq War, not Afghanistan. But many points he makes are, or may prove to be, relevant to both of those current quagmires. He finds the Iraqis, the Americans, and the American soldiers all coming up short in comparison with the three groups that ended the Vietnam War. The same can almost certainly be said with regard to Afghanistan.

Earlier in the book, Allen discusses a moment that has some similarities to our own:

Japan's prime minister announces resignation | CNN

His approval rating took further hits over his failed promise to move a major U.S. Marine base off Okinawa to ease the burden of the island, which hosts the majority of the United States military presence in Japan. Earlier this month, calling his decision "heartbreaking," he announced that the base would remain on Okinawa, although relocated to a different part of the island...."Local government, local communities should be the main actors," said Hatoyama.

Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama announced Wednesday he will resign after eight months in power.

"I'm going to step down," Hatoyama declared in a live broadcast on Japanese television NHK, while addressing party members of both the upper and lower houses of the Diet, Japan's parliament....Parliamentary elections are scheduled to take place in July.

The DPJ will now elect a new leader of the party -- most likely on Friday -- who will be in line to be the next prime minister of Japan. Read more.