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interpreting the constitution

number 155 06.01.08

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More than 100 nations have formally
adopted a treaty banning the distribution
and deployment of deadly cluster bombs.
Six countries that lead the world in
manufacturing the controversial
munitions— the US, Russia, China,
Israel, India, and Pakistan— boycotted
the negotiations that preceded the
adoption of the agreement in Dublin last
week. The Bush administration, which
sent a delegation to the talks to actively
lobby against the cluster bomb ban, said
that the US would ignore the treaty,
calling cluster technology munitions
“absolutely critical and essential” to
military operations.

Among the 111 countries adopting the

treaty, which will be officially signed at a
ceremony in Oslo in December, are a
number of close military and strategic
allies of the US. It is uncertain whether
these countries will be required to
mandate the removal of cluster weapons
from US bases on their territory. Some
human rights advocates involved in the
treaty negotiations predicted that
heightened international pressure would
ultimately prevent the US from ever
using cluster bombs again.

According to the Los Angeles Times,
the negotiations turned on the support
of British Prime Minister Gordon Brown,
who overruled some of his own military
advisers to join other EU countries in

adopting the ban on the bombs,
which have caused civilian casualties
in Iraq, Afghanistan, Cambodia,
Kosovo, and Lebanon. The
newspaper called Britain’s break with
the US “a major diplomatic defeat.”

US diplomats have publicly warned
that an international ban on cluster
bombs will jeopardize US
participation in future peacekeeping
and disaster relief efforts, as most
American military units possess some
form of the weaponry. Critics of the
bombs say they leave unexploded
submunitions, or “bomblets”, that
are often found and detonated by
civilian children. it's all true

Pentagon auditors are unable to account
for almost $15 billion in payments made
to private contractors for goods and
services in Iraq, according to testimony
before a Congressional committee last
week. An internal Defense Department
investigation that reviewed $8.2 billion
spent by the US Army found insufficient
or improper documentation for more
than $7.7 billion, amounting to a 95
percent failure rate in basic accounting
standards. Auditors estimate that
another $1.8 billion in frozen Iraqi assets
was disbursed by the Pentagon, often in
the form of pallets of cash, without
documentation.

Legislators from both parties condemned
the revelations, which were deemed
significant because they included a rare
acknowledgement from inside the
Pentagon that significant waste and

contract fraud did occur. House
Committee on Oversight and
Government Reform chairman Henry
Waxman said, “Investigators looked at
53 payment vouchers and couldn’t find
even one that adequately explained
where the money went.”

In one case highlighted during the
hearing, $320.8 million of the seized
Iraqi funds were used for “Iraqi Salary
Payment,” according to the only
information on the invoice. Another
payment of $11.1 million to US
contractor IAP contained no indication
of what was received by the US military.
The auditors found no details to explain
$134.8 million in cash payments to
foreign governments that sent troops to
Iraq, including $68.2 million to the UK,
$45.3 million to Poland, and $21.3
million to South Korea. it's all true

A number of recent media reports, citing
diplomatic and military sources, indicate
that the Bush administration intends to
launch a military strike against Iran
before the president leaves office in
January 2009.

The Asia Times reported last week that
the US will launch an air assault against
Iranian Revolutionary Guard and Quds
forces by August. A week earlier, Israeli
Army Radio broadcast a report that a
senior member of the president’s
entourage on his recent visit to the
Middle East told Israeli officials that Bush
and Vice President Dick Cheney were
convinced it was necessary to bomb
Iran’s nuclear research facilities before
the end of their term. A Time magazine
article raised the possibility of Bush
ordering such an attack some time
between November and January, “after

the political cost goes down and when
he may feel he is doing his successor a
favor.”

According to the Asia Times, several
US legislators have already been briefed
on the planned air strike. The newspaper
claimed that two senators, California
Democrat Dianne Feinstein and
Republican Richard Lugar of Indiana, had
privately voiced their opposition to the
attack, and had threatened to go public
with the information. The report also
noted potential international tensions
arising from an attack on Iran, which
could prompt hostile reactions from
Russia and China, and fuel a broader anti-
American backlash in the Islamic world.

White House Press Secretary Dana
Perino denied the Israeli Army Radio
report, which was picked up by the

Jerusalem Post and circulated
throughout the Middle East. The
original broadcast linked the
increasing likelihood of a US attack
on Iran to recent events in Lebanon,
where Hezbollah gained control of
new territory, to the consternation
of the Israeli government. But Israel
is not the only country in the region
pushing for a strike on Iranian nuclear
facilities. According to Time ,
Egyptian and Saudi leaders are
privately concerned about the scope
of Iran’s nuclear programs and would
not oppose an attack.

Political observers generally agree
that any attack on Iran, if carried out
before the general election, would
tend to be favorable for Republican
candidate John McCain, a supporter
of regional military action. it's all true

US Marines in and around Fallujah in
Iraq have begun to pass out ‘coins’
stamped with Christian messages
including Bible verses to citizens after
they have been searched at a military
checkpoint at the western entrance
to the city. Spokespersons for Iraqis
say that the Christian coins are
humiliating to those who practice the
Muslim faith and reveal that US
soldiers are both occupiers and
missionaries.

The Christian coins are stamped with
the question, “Where will you spend
eternity?” on one side and a verse
from the Biblical Book of John (3:16)
that asserts that one can only achieve
“eternal life” through the acceptance
of Christian doctrine.

Local leaders in Fallujah demanded
that the Marines stop handing out
the coins saying that the Americans,
who are perceived as an occupying
force in the country, are causing
strife between Iraqis, especially in
Christian and Muslim communities in
the city and that the act of being
proselytized is demeaning and
humiliating. it's all true

With the world gripped by a crisis
in the costs and availability of
basic foodstuffs, a new focus on
the threats to the planet’s topsoil
by unsustainable farming
techniques and urban
development has emerged.

International Assessment of
Agricultural Knowledge, Science
and Technology for Development
released a report in April that
estimated that “global cereal
demand is projected to increase
by 75% between 2000 and 2050
and global meat demand is
expected to double.” The
researchers found, however, that
farming methods that emphasize
increasing crop yields have “in
some cases had negative
consequences on environmental
sustainability. The report’s
authors said that over 2.5 billion
people are affected by “significant
levels of land degradation.”

The United Nations has said that
soil loss is a contributing factor to
malnourishment in impoverished
populations. The National
Academy of Sciences reported
that US topsoil is disappearing ten
times faster than it is created
through a chemical and biological
process that takes years. Topsoil
is created at a rate of one to two
inches every one to two hundred
years.

David Montgomery, a geologist at
the University of Washington told
the Seattle Post Intelligencer,
"The estimate is that we are now
losing about 1 percent of our
topsoil every year to erosion,
most of this caused by
agriculture." it's all true

The Office of the Inspector General for
the Justice Department released a report
last week that revealed that FBI agents
who were stationed at the detention
center at Guantanamo Bay Cuba
compiled a dossier that detailed what
agents referred to as “war crimes” that
were committed by CIA and US military
personnel and private contractors as
they interrogated the detainees held
there.

The file was created beginning in 2002
by FBI agents shocked by the tactics
employed by the CIA as it used so-called
“enhanced interrogation techniques”
that were devised of at the highest levels
of the US government. As reported
previously by redstateupdate.net, it is
now known that torture tactics were
discussed by members of the Bush
Administration including Dick Cheney
and Condoleezza Rice in meetings at the
White House.

FBI agents recorded that CIA and
military personnel and private
contractors used various brutal
techniques as they questioned detainees
including; “short-shackling” of the hands
to the feet, prolonged isolation, sleep
and sensory deprivation, electric shock,
humiliation, threats of death, beatings,

sexual assault, terrorizing with attack
dogs and water-boarding. Although
much of what is revealed in the dossier
has been previously reported and alleged
by detainees to have taken place, the
FBI dossier confirms the reports and
describes in detail the types of torture
that were used at the facility in
Guantanamo Bay.

The Inspector’s report also reveals the
divide between employees of the FBI
and agents of the CIA and others who
were hired to perform the enhanced
interrogations that took place at the
detention center. The inspector found
that FBI agents at Gauntanamo reported
what they saw as abuses to superiors in
the Justice Department, but they were
ignored, rebuffed and eventually told to
cease compiling reports of the abuse in
2003.

Although FBI agents did report the abuse
that detainees were suffering, the
inspector’s report was critical of the
Justice Department for not providing
agents with “specific or consistent
guidance” on how illegal behavior by
other government agencies should be
reported. The ACLU said, “the FBI’s
leadership failed to act aggressively to
end the abuse.” it's all true