No hand in attack on Israeli diplomat: Iran

Sachin Parashar, TNN | Jun 1, 2012, 02.50AM IST

NEW DELHI: Iranian foreign minister Ali Akbar Salehi, who is in India to invite PM Manmohan Singh to the upcoming NAM summit in Tehran, on Thursday launched a bitter diatribe against Israel, even suggesting that no Iranian may have been involved in the bomb attack on an Israeli diplomat's car here. He was also non-committal on whether Iran would allow an Indian police team to visit the country.

"We totally refute these allegations," he said in the presence of his Indian counterpart S M Krishna after a meeting. This is the first time Tehran has officially responded to charges about involvement of Iranians after these were authenticated by the findings of Indian investigating agencies. While taking care not to directly blame any Iranian agency for the attack, India had earlier requested Tehran through MEA to cooperate in the investigations against three named Iran nationals.

Government sources, however, said that immediately after Salehi's remarks, Krishna tried to save the situation by taking up the matter with his counterpart in another meeting over lunch and telling him that India would still like to send a police team to Iran "based on suggestions made earlier by Iran itself".

Iranian authorities had earlier indicated that they were not averse to India sending a team to the country. Krishna told Salehi that Indian agencies had some evidence which suggested involvement of people based in Iran. Salehi then responded by saying that Iran will "consider" allowing a police team to visit the country.

"What Iran foreign minister has said is not going to impinge on the investigations and we are hopeful that they will allow a probe team to visit Iran soon," an official said.

Drawing a parallel with an earlier case in which Iran was accused of plotting to assassinate the Saudi ambassador in the US, Salehi said the international community actually needed to ask the Zionist regime as to who were the actual perpetrators as it was Israel which had legalized assassinations.

Salehi decided to let go after he was asked whether or not Iran was going to support the probe by Indian agencies. "They (Israel) said just a few days ago that they were introducing these computer viruses into our industry and seemed proud of it. When they assassinate our best scientists, our young scientists... they were just in the beginning of their careers... they expressed loudly they were the ones who assassinated these scientists. It is them the international community has to ask who were the perpetrators," he said.

"They have given assassinations a legality when it comes to killing Palestinians. So, we totally refute the allegations... the world conscious (sic) knows the Zionist regime and how they do their business," he added.

With New York’s Israel parade ready to go, not everyone is feeling the love

With 35,000 spectators expected, parade follows controversy over inclusion of New Israel Fund.

By JTA | Jun.01, 2012 | 2:57 AM

Young marchers in the Salute to Israel parade along the parade route on New York's Fifth Ave., Sunday, June 1, 2003. Photo by AP

It’s America’s biggest annual show of support for Israel, and if this year’s marchers have any luck, the sun will be shining on Sunday morning when tens of thousands assemble on Manhattan’s Fifth Avenue for the 48th annual Israel day parade.
From Jewish day school contingents to the Chai Riders motorcycle club to non-Jewish marching bands to corporate sponsors riding on floats, some 35,000 marchers from 200 organizations will head up the avenue festooned with Israel’s blue and white.
“This is the biggest celebratory Israel-themed event anywhere in the world,” Michael Mittelman, the parade’s director, told JTA. “This year, we want to celebrate how Israel is contributing positively to the world.”
The theme of this year’s parade is “Israel Branches Out,” and Mittelman said participants will be dressing up as fruit, nature, agriculture and even technology.
A few are likely to be protesting. Every year, some counterdemonstrators -- usually a handful of anti-occupation protesters and the fringe, anti-Zionist Neturei Karta Chasidic group -- hold a small rally near the parade, which runs from 57th to 74th streets.
This year, hawkish critics of the New Israel Fund mounted a public relations campaign to try to get the NIF, which funds liberal Israeli groups and a few Israeli Arab organizations, excluded from the parade. The critics charge NIF with being anti-Israel and in favor of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement against Israel. Neither charge is true, and the calls to exclude NIF were ignored.
Turnout for the parade, which began in 1964, usually is a function of what’s happening in Israel – and the weather. In years when Israel has been embattled, such as during the second intifada, participation swelled. In 2002, an estimated 750,000 spectators came to watch 100,000 marchers.
These days the parade, which last year changed its name to the Celebrate Israel Parade from the Salute to Israel Parade, draws much smaller numbers. It also has grown increasingly Orthodox over the years; most of the marchers are children from area day schools.
The parade is organized by the Jewish Community Relations Council of New York, and funding and sponsorship come from various sources, including the Israeli government and the UJA-Federation of New York.
“We are proud to be the major supporter of what is the largest annual pro-Israel event outside the Jewish state itself,” said John Ruskay, UJA-Federation’s executive vice president and CEO. “Whether marching in the parade or lining Fifth Avenue to show our support, this is one time of the year when we put aside our differences and demonstrate how we come together for Israel when it matters most.”
Security is typically tight, with hundreds of officers from the New York Police Department lining the route and cement-filled dump trucks blocking vehicular access to the parade route.
Among the marchers will be New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Israeli Diaspora Affairs Minister Yuli Edelstein, along with grand marshal Harvey Kaylie, president of Mini-Circuits. New York’s U.S. senators, a few U.S. Congress members and other local politicians usually show up, too.
The parade, which runs from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m., will be preceded by a four-mile Celebrate Israel Run through Central Park featuring some 6,000 athletes dressed in blue and white and followed by a concert in Central Park organized by an Orthodox group.

Egypt's notorious emergency law expires

Egypt's notorious emergency law expires

 

Egypt's notorious emergency law expired Thursday, ending more than 30 years of broad powers to arrest and detain for a police force accused of widespread human rights abuses.

The military rulers who took charge from ousted President Hosni Mubarak indicated they have no intention to renew the law, saying they will continue to be in charge of the country's security after it expired and until an elected civilian authority was in charge.

The law was a defining and much-resented feature of ousted President Hosni Mubarak's authoritarian, 29-year regime. In place since the assassination of President Anwar Sadat in 1981, the law was almost automatically renewed every few years; the last time in May 2010.

"The significance of the expiration of the law is huge," said Heba Morayef, a researcher with Human Rights Watch. "It is the symbolism attached to it" as one of the main tools of oppression under Mubarak's rule, she said.

"This is an end of exceptional measures that provided cover to human rights abuses such as torture and enforced disappeared," she said.

After Mubarak's ouster in an uprising last year, the military rulers who took over amended the law to limit its use to cases of thuggery and the spreading of rumors.

Mubarak's regime justified the continued use of the law to crack down on terrorism, drug trafficking and to impose speedy justice on activities deemed threats to national security. But human rights groups and activists said it gave security agencies extensive powers to detain, try without defendant rights, and crack down on opponents.

The uprising was partially fueled because of the abuses of the police force and it vented anger against the symbols of the security agencies. The lifting of the law was a key demand by the pro-democracy youth groups that engineered the uprising 15 months ago.

Days into the uprising, the police force all but disappeared from the streets, leaving the country's security largely in the hands of the military rulers. Since, there have been calls to reform the police force but they have not really gotten off the ground.

On Thursday, the military rulers who took charge from Mubarak said they will continue to be in charge of the country's security after the expiration of the law and until they transfer power to an elected civilian authority.

The military had said it will hand over power to a democratically elected government by the end of June. A runoff between two top presidential candidates on June 16-17 is the final phase of the transition to democratic rule.

Playing Iran at its own game

The lack of any meaningful offer in Baghdad would indicate that the P5‏+1 is now confident of two things: that Iran is not currently building a bomb and that there is time to negotiate before a possible Israeli attack.

By David Patrikarakos Jun.01, 2012 | 4:26 AM

Iranian representatives participating in nuclear talks in Baghdad. Photo by Reuters

The result of last week's talks between Iran and the P5 +1 is clear: the promise of more talks in Russia later this month. What may seem depressingly slight counts as progress on the Iranian nuclear file these days. It was after all an agreement to meet again - the importance of which should not be discounted. Since the two sides met in Istanbul in April, we have witnessed the most sustained engagement between Iran and the P5 +1 (the United States, the UK, France, Russia and China, plus Germany ) in almost three years. From the end of 2009 to April 2012, Iran made great progress with its nuclear program and largely refused even to meet with the P5 +1 to discuss it. Its strategy was simple: stall diplomacy, move on with enrichment and increase its stockpiles of low-enriched uranium. During 2011, Iran even managed to smash through a technological barrier and enrich to 20 percent, from which it is only a small step to weapons-grade uranium. With things going so well, there was just no reason to negotiate.
But now it seems there is, and the talks began with a P5 +1 proposal. While no details were officially released, it reportedly involved allowing the Iranians to enrich to low levels. Clearly, neither side is ready yet to compromise on its respective red lines. For the P5 +1, this is the demand that Iran cease enriching uranium to 20-percent levels at its Fordo plant, and the need for Tehran to surrender its existing stockpile of the same. For Iran, it is an end to the sanctions on its oil and banking sectors that have been in place since the end of last year. The P5 +1 offered to lift only a few peripheral sanctions, on items like Iranian aircraft parts - something Iran greeted with derision, while continuing to argue for its "inalienable right" to enrich uranium under article IV of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty (which allows states to pursue peaceful nuclear technologies "without discrimination" ).
And the Iranians, for once, had a point. The P5 +1 offered nothing of substance, refusing even to show reciprocity to news earlier in the week that in separate negotiations with the International Atomic Energy Agency, Iran was close to allowing inspectors greater access to some of its more controversial nuclear sites. While it was likely this was another case of Iranian stalling, even IAEA director-general Yukiya Amano described the possibly of an imminent deal as "an important development."
Asking Iran to enrich at lower levels than it is currently doing in exchange for a token lifting of peripheral sanctions was to proffer the stick with no attendant carrot. An offer to lift sanctions in exchange for a ceiling on enrichment would have been more logical (and made Iran look utterly unreasonable if it were rejected ). All of which begs the question of why such a palpably weak offer was presented in the first place.
The answer lies in the fact that there were talks at all. Iranian diplomats were in Baghdad for the simple reason that they needed to be there. The country is under serious economic and political pressure. Sanctions are hurting and will hurt even more when the EU oil sanctions (which will join unilateral U.S. oil sanctions ) come into force on July 1. The unified front necessary at home to withstand the combination of political and economic pressure has, since the 2009 elections, disappeared. Even the rallying cries of influential conservative newspapers like Kayhan, which urge the mullahs to forget negotiations and push on with enrichment, have been ignored.
Iran's ability to stall is legendary. I have spent countless hours listening to shell-shocked veterans of negotiations with Tehran recount tales (with, it must be said, a certain begrudging awe ) of Iran's ability to drag things out. If its flexibility is not lauded, its stamina certainly is. For a long time, the Iranians calculated (correctly ) that each day without diplomatic movement was one more day of uranium enrichment. Now, it seems, they need that movement, but unfortunately for them times may have changed.
The lack of any meaningful offer in Baghdad would indicate that the P5 +1 is now confident of two things: that Iran is not currently building a bomb and that there is time to negotiate before a possible Israeli attack. As each day passes, Iran's economy weakens; its people grow more restless: There are not enough jobs for the young, fewer subsidies for the old and little money for anyone except regime officials and their cronies.
For years, the word most often used to describe negotiations with Iran was "circular": endless rounds of talks raking over the same issues repeatedly, with no apparent end in sight. But now it is the P5 +1 that appears happy to let things drag on, to let sanctions ravage Iran's economy and to see just how high a price Iran is willing to pay for its continuing enrichment. The P5 +1 is now playing Iran at its own game and it seems that we may have come full circle after all.
David Patrikarakos is a journalist and the author of "Nuclear Iran: the Birth of an Atomic State," due to be published by I.B. Tauris this August.

US Still Runs Afghan Torture Prison

US Still Runs Afghan Torture Prison

Officials Retain Effective Control Over Detainees in 'Afghan Custody'

by Jason Ditz, May 30, 2012

The US has made much of its transfer of the detainees at Parwan Detention Facility to Afghan government control. This, as with so many other “transition” moves, has been hyped as enormously significant, but in reality is superficial.
For the detainees, nothing has really changed. They’re still stuck on a US military base, with their “administrative detention” nominally under Afghan control, but access to them is still strictly controlled and the Afghan general running the facility is hopeful for future influence, but still mostly a figurehead.
Even though the transition agreement puts him theoretically in total charge, the Afghan general himself is not much better off than the detainees on site, his cellphone is seized when he arrives at the facility (by US military officials), and even his access to interviewers is controlled from the Pentagon.
Such issues are likely to continue to grow, as US officials try to change the narrative of occupied Afghanistan to an “ended” war with a massive and coincidental military presence, while at the same time retaining all of the control in everything but name.