Saturday 20 April 2002

Security Council OKs Jenin Mission. With an Israeli green light, the U.N. Security Council has given its unanimous backing to a U.N. fact-finding team that will visit the Jenin refugee camp to determine what happened during Israel's military assault. [AP World News] But I wonder how much on-the-ground cooperation this fact-finding team will get from Israel? The TV pictures which we've recently seen are quite horrendous, and the devestation appears disproportionately widespread if all the Israelis were supposed to be doing was 'hunting militants'. 8:52:36 AM  Your view

U.S. Assures Arab World on Arafat. The Bush administration assured the Arab world on Friday that it would keep working with Yasser Arafat toward peace, effectively sidetracking the view of some senior U.S. officials that an alternative Palestinian leader should be pursued. [AP World News] Strangely appropriate to follow the previous post, really. Why should this ever be in question? Yasser Arafat is the elected leader of the Palestinians, so obviously he has to be dealt with is the situation in the Middle East is to be resolved. 8:48:13 AM  Your view

Chem Weapons Chief Responds to U.S.. The head of the international chemical weapons monitoring organization, under U.S. pressure to resign, dismissed allegations of mismanagement as "nonsense" and said Washington wants him out because of his independence. [AP World News] This story is bad enough in itself, but is even more sinister when seen in the context of other similar US initiatives. The story hasn't surfaced yet in any of my news subscriptions, but there was a report on last night's television news that the US got its way in the case of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). The Bush administration had made no secret of its dislike for IPCC Chairman Dr Robert T Watson and succeeded at the session in Geneva in having him replaced. Is this big oil calling the tune? Exxon are rumoured to have pulled the strings in this case, since Dr Watson had been a voluble ambassador for the findings of the IPCC on climate change, which obviously are not in the interests of the oil companies.       Two disturbing trends are becoming apparent: if the US doesn't like you (whether you're a democratically elected leader of a country or a high-ranking official with independent views), then they'll get rid of you, and the US administration is making it all too clear that money is more important than principles or the greater general good. 8:39:13 AM  Your view

		© Copyright 2002 Jim MacCormaic . Last update: 29/09/2002; 06:02:44 am .