Putting The Kibosh On Iraq's Al-Sadr

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Sabotaging al-Sadr

In the continuing wake of the results of the Iraq Study Group and in anticipation of President Bush's upcoming announcement of plans for Iraq, the subject crowds the front pages again.

Anonymous sources tell The New York Times that with support from the U.S., two Kurdish groups in the Iraqi government plan to form "a coalition whose aim is to break the powerful influence of the radical Shiite cleric Moktada al-Sadr within the government."

Sadr heads a militia of about 60,000 that has long been a thorn in the side of the U.S. military "and is accused of widening the sectarian war with reprisal killings of Sunni Arabs," writes the Times. Prime Minister Nuri al Maliki — "who has close ties to" Sadr — was invited to join the coalition but "has held back for fear that the parties might be seeking to oust him."

Putting 'Angry Young Men To Work'

As one of the prevailing reasons that Iraqis join the insurgency appears to be the benefit of cash in an economically struggling country (unemployment is 70 percent in some areas), the Pentagon is launching a plan to "bring life to nearly 200 state-owned factories" that were abandoned in the wake of the 2003 invasion, reports the Washington Post's front page.

A "small task force" has been working on the project for six months, and the goal is to "employ tens of thousands of Iraqis" in the next several months.

"We need to put the angry young men to work," Army Lt. Gen. Peter Chiarelli told the Post. "One of the key hindrances to us establishing stability in Iraq is the failure to get the economy going.

Iraq Strategy Gets Gonged

USA Today's front page offers up the results of a poll on public views on Iraq, revealing that shockingly, "Americans are increasingly pessimistic about the war and want most U.S. troops withdrawn within a year." While most people support the recommendations from the Iraq Study Group, they don't think the administration will implement them. It's a case of bipartisan pessimism, as only 20 percent of those polled have "a great deal" of trust in President Bush to "recommend the right thing" for Iraq and even fewer — 14 percent — think Democrats have better ideas on the matter. (USA Today has one more front-page bombshell — it's difficult to park in urban areas. Especially during the holidays.)

Spy Games Stay In The Headlines

In the wake of Alexander Litvinenko's poisoning — on his deathbed, he claimed it was the work of Russian President Vladimir Putin — the front pages of the Washington Post and The New York Times both discuss the reach of Eastern Europe's security services.

The Times article says that with pressure from the EU, "a renewed effort is under way across the former Soviet bloc to expose the continued role of the security services and to root out former police agents and collaborators."

The Post writes that in Russia, however, security forces are widening their reach — particularly the FSB, one of its "most powerful and secretive forces," and the successor agency to the KGB. Critics say this expansion is further encroaches on civil rights — that it has been used to "justif[y] the extraordinary rendition or targeted killing of terrorism suspects and domestic programs such as warrantless surveillance of citizens."

The Post faxed some questions to an FSB spokesman to discuss its functions, but was declined an answer because the topics "touched on classified material." Instead the Post quotes a July interview FSB conducted with a Russian newspaper.

The deputy director had this to say: "Western countries condemn Russia for encroaching on democracy but invest in their own special and police services nearly unrestricted powers that encroach on the rights and freedoms of their citizens. Why? Because they know what a danger terrorism poses."

A Very Ethically Challenged Christmas

So, for the most part, no one pays too much attention to many of the crappy things that go on in the world until someone like Leonardo DiCaprio tells us that we should. Now that he's made a movie about conflict diamonds, everybody and their brother is writing an article about conflict diamonds. Should you boycott? What is the Kimberley Process, anyway?

Well, Merry Christmas, people of questionable moral fiber. As for the rest of you, Foreign Policy magazine has some unfortunate news. Many other products besides diamonds that you're asking for this holiday season are probably just as unethical.

Let's begin with the one that's going to get everybody's knickers in a twist: candy bars. That's right kids. Choco-Santas are a no go, as FP explains that "seventy percent of the world's cocoa (and most of the United States') comes from West Africa, where nearly 300,000 children under the age of 14 toil in dangerous conditions on cocoa plantations." You can, of course, buy fair trade chocolate. If for some wild reason that isn't available at the corner store, you can buy from Cadbury, which "buys 90 percent of its cocoa from Ghana, where trafficking of child workers is prohibited." Of course, who knows if you're eating the Creme Egg fashioned from the other 10 percent.

You can also forget gold, the vinyl that you're shower curtain is probably made of (which would have made a fine Christmas treat for a loved one), teak furniture, and finally, your cell phone. But who really uses one of those anyway, right?

[oktrade]

You are kidding
Alsadr is the US secret weapon to keep the war going on in Iraq.