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'Redeployment From Iraq in four to six Months' 0000-00-00 00:00:00
Senator Carl Levin in ABC's This Week
It's barely one week after the Democrats won the congressional elections and President Bush tendered the resignation of Defence minister Donald Rumsfeld, but the winners show they don't intend to let the grass grow under their feet as Democrat Senator Carl Levin said that the U.S. presence in Iraq
is "not open-ended and (...) we need to begin a phased redeployment of forces from Iraq in four to six months' in an interview on ABC's This Week. Levin will probably become chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee in the newly elected Congress.
Carl Levin, Iraq Read more:Months
'The End of the First Half of the Age of Oil' [1] 0000-00-00 00:00:00 "I think that the governments have been really seriously misled by what I call the malign influence of economists because under the mentality and mindset and experience of economists they simply say well supply must always meets demand in an open market. (...) The European Union, for example, facing supply issues, its reaction is: liberalize the market. They don't realize the supreme irony that the more efficient you are in producing the stuff the quicker it's gone."
Last week Monkeyfister posted the must see presentation "The End of the First
Half of the Age of Oil', which oil geologist Dr. Colin Campbell held during a conference in Kinsale, Ireland in the summer of 2005. It's really worthwhile watching, so please take the trouble to check out the posting.
Colin Campbell, Oil
Why Would Syria Help Out Washington? 0000-00-00 00:00:00 Today British Prime Minister Tony Blair urged Iran and Syria
to help out the U.S. and the U.K. in their efforts to end the violence in Iraq. But why would they do this? Washington
and London are "bogged down in the quagmire' of Iraq and therefore regime change in Tehran and Damascus, as aspired once by the Bush administration, seems very unlikely right now. In the case of Syria, however, a gleam of hope is justified. As violence continues in Iraq large numbers of refugees likewise continue to leave the country. The UNHCR recently estimated that at least 600,000 Iraqi refugees are already living in Syria. Although many of them have "fled over the past decade or more, (...) now some 2,000 a day are arriving in Syria'. According to the UNHCR "the needs of those who have fled are dramatic and to a large extent unmet'. As such the growing number of Iraqi refugees constitutes a potential source of instabilitaty within Syria's borders, but therefore it might also be an opportuni
Why Iran Might Be Willing to Help Out Too 0000-00-00 00:00:00 In "Iran Seeks to Keep US Troops in Iraq', an article on EurasiaNet, Kamal Nazer Yasin states that Iran isn't happy at all with the current chaos in Iraq. According to a unnamed political scientist he quotes one of the reasons for a quick American pull out is that "Iranian security forces are simply not prepared to protect [the 700-mile common border] against a massive inflow of refugees, weapons, smugglers and armed adversaries of all kinds'. Click here to the whole report and learn why Iran might be interested in talks with the U.S. too.
Iran, Iraq Read more:Willing
The Idea of Raising US Troops Levels 0000-00-00 00:00:00 Today Guardian Unlimited reports that the Iraq Study Group led by James Baker is about to present a four-point strategy for Iraq involving an increase of US troops levels by 20,000 to allow for "a last big push' in Baghdad. This would off course oppose the advise of general John Abizaid not to increase troops levels, because "more pressure [is] needed to be put on the Iraqi army to do its part'. But as the abduction of Sunni employees and visitors of the Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research by "a small army of 80 gunmen, dressed in police uniforms' shows once again: one cannot rely on Iraqi security forces. Not so much because they lack the courage, skills or resources to act against sectarian violence, but because it's virtually impossible to distinguish them from the opposing parties. Considering this the idea of raising US troops levels doesn't sound that odd.
Iraq, Sectarian Violence, John Abizaid, Baghdad, Iraq Study Group Read more:Raising
, Troops
Small-Scale Clash of Civilizations? [2] 0000-00-00 00:00:00
Poster that announces the show of Dutch cabaret artists De Vliegende Panters (The Flying Panthers) in the Rotterdam quarter Afrikaanderwijk (Rotterdam, the Netherlands, 14 November 2006)
With a population of almost 600,000 Rotterdam is the second largest municipality in the Netherlands after Amsterdam. A considerable part of its inhabitants belongs to one of its major ethnic minorities (Turks, Moroccans, Surinamese). This is also the case in the Afrikaanderwijk, an old working-class neighbourhood in the south of Rotterdam. According to the The Centre for Research and Statistics (COS), the research centre of the municipality, 33.7% (3,175) of the population of this neighbourhood is of Turkish descent and 13.4% (1,264) of Moroccan descent. This is clearly visible because of the considerable amount of women wearing headscarves on the streets of the Afrikaanderwijk.
Yesterday afternoon I walked along the metro line which passes through the Afrikaanderwijk as a poster caught my attention Read more:Small
, Scale
, Clash
, Civilizations
Postmodern Prime Minister 0000-00-00 00:00:00
Dutch Prime-Minister
Jan-Peter Balkenende (right) talking with regular host Albert Verlinde on RTL Boulevard
Right now Dutch prime minister and leader of the Christian-democratic party CDA (Christian Democratic Appeal) Jan-Peter Balkenende, once again nick-named Harry Potter in this week's edition of The Economist, is co-hosting RTL Boulevard, an airy, daily television show dedicated to fashion, crime fighting and gossips about international and Dutch celebrities.
Jan-Peter Balkenende, Balkenende, RTL Boulevard, Netherlands Read more:Postmodern
Dutch Also Tortured in Iraq 0000-00-00 00:00:00 Today Dutch
newspaper de Volkskrant reports that the Military Intelligence and Security Service of the Netherlands ("Militaire Inlichtingen en Veiligheidsdienst', MIVD) tortured dozens of Iraq
i prisoners in 2003. The Dutch army had occupied southern Iraq province of al-Muthanna as part of the Stabilisation Force Iraq (SFI) from July 2003 shortly after Golf War II till April 2005. The prisoners were put on goggles, as a result of which they couldn't see anything. Intermittently their glasses were put of after which they were exposed to glaring light. To keep them awake they were wetted and their hearing was exposed to extremely high sounds. According to de Volkskrant even now retired Chief of Staff Luuk Kroon was informed about what was going on at the time, but Kroon choose to ignore the advise of Kees Neisingh, major-general of the military police, to propound it to the Counsel for the Prosecution ("Openbaar Ministerie' or "OM'). Whether Defence Minister Henk Kamp was in
Torture or No Torture? 0000-00-00 00:00:00 Should sleep deprivation, exposing prisoners to extremely high sounds and glaring light be considered as torture or not? On Healing Iraq for the first time I learned about the methods used by Iraqi militia's to torture their prisoners which involved electric drills. No one would deny this is torture. The methods used by the Dutch Military Intelligence and Security Service (MIVD) as described above, on the other hand, are clearly less bloody and, I assume, less painful. Two Dutch experts have already gave their opinion about the matter and disagree with each other. Frits Kalshoven, a Dutch retired professor specialized in war-law, says this isn't torture. Willem van Genugten, a professor whose field of expertise comprises international law and human rights, on the other hand, says it is torture according to international law. Who's right? I'm not sure. Nonetheless, if the allegations are the correct it's clear that the MIVD set foot on a very slippery slope and the least thing Read more:Torture
Torture or No Torture? (2) 0000-00-00 00:00:00 In Dutch newspaper NRC Handelsblad professor M.T. Kamminga, specialized in international law, says that the MIVD methods reminds him of the interrogation technics which the British applied during the conflict in Northern Ireland. On 18 January 1978 (Ireland vs. the United Kingdom) the European Court of Human Rights condemned these technics as a violation of article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights, "prohibition of torture'. Not because the technics amounted to torture, but rather to "inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment'. The British technics involved comprised "hooding', "wall-standing', "subjection to noise', "deprivation of sleep' and "deprivation of food'. The Netherlands is one of the signatories of the Convention.
Iraq, Torture
, MIVD, Hooding, Deprivation Of Sleep, Kamminga
Political Turmoil After Volkskrant Report 0000-00-00 00:00:00 The report published by de Volkskrant this morning created a lot of political turmoil in the Netherlands. A survey of the events that ensued the publication can be found in the International Heral Tribune.
Netherlands, De Volkskrant, Volkskrant Read more:Turmoil
Torture or No Torture? (3) 0000-00-00 00:00:00 Ãn a previous posting I mentioned professor Willem van Genugten who states that the applied interrogation methods of the MIVD amounted to torture. I failed to mention on what grounds the methods should be labeled "torture', according to Van Genugten. In de Volkskrant, however, he underpinned his statement by referring to three articles of the third Geneva Convention:
Article 3 forbids "violence to life and person, in particular murder of all kinds, mutilation, cruel treatment and torture' and (...) "outrages upon personal dignity, in particular, humiliating and degrading treatment'.
Article 13: "Prisoners of war must at all times be humanely treated' (...) Likewise, prisoners of war must at all times be protected, particularly against acts of violence or intimidation and against insults and public curiosity.
Article 14: "Prisoners of war are entitled in all circumstances to respect for their persons and their honour.'
Willem Van Genugten, Van Genugten, Geneva Co Read more:Torture
Minister Verdonk Attending Al Jazeera in Dutch 0000-00-00 00:00:00 DutchMinister
for Integration and Immigration Rita Verdonk being interviewed by Al Jazeera in Noordwijk, the Netherlands
The 6 pm edition of Dutch public television news show NOS Journaal showed Dutch Minister for Integration and Immigration Rita Verdonk being interviewed by Al Jazeera in the coastal village of Noordwijk about the intention of the Dutch government to ban the wearing of burqa's and other face covering veils in public. The minister, known for her tough stance towards non-western immigrants, answered the interviewers in Dutch instead of in English. Why? Because she deemed "it very important that Dutch is spoken by all sorts of people who want to participate in society'.
Netherlands, Rita Verdonk, Al Jazeera, Face Covering Veils, Burqa
Torture or No Torture? (4) 0000-00-00 00:00:00 In discussion program Buitenhof Chief of Staff of the Dutch armed forces Dick Berlijn describes what has happened, to his knowlegde, in Al-Samawah, Iraq: no high tones were used, but "some of background noise' in order to avoid that detainees could communicate with each other, detainees were put on a blinded goggle and "water was thrown', but neither high pressure syringes nor a fire-engines were used to wet people. The latter seems to be a red herring of Berlijn, for it wasn't the question if high pressure syringes were used to wet the detainees, but if they were wetted to keep them awake.
Iraq, Dick Berlijn, Buitenhof Read more:Torture
Dutch Special Forces in the World of the Wild Beard 0000-00-00 00:00:00 Yesterday night I watched the documentairy of Vik Franke on the (fighting) missions of Dutch
commando's in Uruzgan, Afghanistan. Franke joined them as an "embedded' journalist on some of these missions. What caught the eye was that image of the well-groomed western soldier didn't quite apply. Many of the Dutch commando's wore big ferocious beards. At first I thought: no wonder, these guys stay out of their camps in the Afghan dessert for days, maybe for weeks and because of that they simple lack the possibility to shave. But on second thoughts that couldn't be the explanation, because some of them combined their beards with perfectly cropped haircuts, while others had no beard at all and their interpreter had a neatly groomed whisker. Then I remembered Robert D. Kaplan's "Soldiers of God: With Islamic Warriors in Afghanistan and Pakistan' (1990). In this book Kaplan described how even journalists transformed after entering the martial world of the Afghan mujahideen. A Read more:World
, Special
, Forces
'Investigators Intimidated by Dutch Marines' 0000-00-00 00:00:00 The reporting by Dutch
daily de Volkskrant on the alleged mistreatment of Iraqi detainees by the Dutch Military Intelligence and Security Service (MIVD) in Al-Muthanna in 2003 continues. To start with, last Friday de Volkskrant reported that the MIVD had "tortured' dozens of Iraqi prisoners. Today's edition of the newspaper states that the marines also raided houses, although they weren't authorized to do so. But even more remarkable is the following. On his weblog (in Dutch, CV) defence minister Henk Kamp condemned previous Volkskrant reporting on the detainee issue, for the newspaper had failed to mention that military police (marechaussee) had investigated the issue and had propounded it to the the Counsel for the Prosecution ("Openbaar Ministerie' or "OM'). The OM, in turn, had concluded on the basis of the marechaussee investigation that criminal investigation was unnecessary. But today's edition of de Volkskrant includes a report that undermines the minister's Read more:Marines
Dutch General Election - Anti-Islam Party 9 Seats 0000-00-00 00:00:00 83.1% Of the votes are counted and the election-results are assuming a definitive shape. Balkenende's CDA gets 41 seats (loses 3), the social democrats of the PvdA lose 9 seats and ends up with 9 seats. Current member of Balkenende's government the VVD loses 6 seats. Big winners are likely Jan Marijnissen's SP (Socialist Party
) (wins 16 seats, gets 25 seats) and Geert Wilders's PvdV (Party for Freedom) (1 seat now, wins 8). Especially the success of the latter is remarkable, because public opinion poll's didn't predict it. It shows that anti-immigrant sentiment, especially anti-muslim sentiment is still alive.
DutchGeneralElection
, CDA, PvdA, Geert Wilders, PvdV, Socialist Party Read more:Islam
, Dutch General Election
, Seats
SP Frontman: 'Mao Zedong Mass Murderer' 0000-00-00 00:00:00
SP frontman Jan Marijnissen in late night show Pauw en Witteman yesterday
As Jan Marijnissen, frontman of the Socialist Party (SP) and winner of the Dutch General Election 2006, is confronted with the Maoist past of his party in Dutch late night show Pauw en Witteman last night, he unmistakenly distances himself and his party from this past, publicly rebuking a SP blogger who put a Mao affiche on the weblog of the youthwing of the SP ("Rood') and new SP Member of Parliament Renske Leijten, who played down the meaning of the mao affiche during the show. According to Marijnissen the SP shouln't associate with Mao, for the Great Helmsman "is known as a mass murderer'.
Socialist Party, SP, Jan Marijnissen, Renske Leijten, Mao Zedong, Maoism Read more:Frontman
, Murderer
Dutch General Election - The Immigrant Electorate 0000-00-00 00:00:00 According to research bureau Foquz Etnomarketing most members of the big ethnic minorities in the Netherlands voted on one of the left wing parties last Wednessday. Of the Moroccans even more 90%. Two-third of them voted on the PvdA, as did almost half of the Surinam voters and more than one-third of the Turkish voters. Remarkably, 12.3% Of the Turkish votes went to the center-left / liberal Democrats 66 ("Democraten 66', "D66' in short) of Alexander Pechtold. On its website public television news show NOS Journaal suggests that the explanation for the popularity the D66 among Turkish voters is PvdA's decision to remove Erdinç Saçan of the candidate list, because of his refusal to fully acknowledge the Armenian genocide, bred bad blood among the Turkish electorate. However, Foquz also states that the PvdA remains very popular among Turks as 35,8% of them voted on the Dutch
Labour Party.
Dutch GeneralElection
, D66, PvdA, Erdinç Saçan, Armenian Genocide Read more:Dutch General Election
, Immigrant
Living in a True Hell on Earth 0000-00-00 00:00:00 "After living 3 horrible years in Iraq and witnessing all what I've witnessed, I realized that I can't live in this country anymore, I can't live in a country where some gunmen prevent me from going to school, where corrupted policemen will kill me just because of my religion or what's written on my ID, where religion bigots will have me killed just because I wear jeans, or shorts or because I shave my beard everyday in the morning."
A dramatic appeal for help by Baghdadi blogger Nabil in one of the bloodiest weeks after the fall of Saddam Hussein in Iraq.
Iraq, Nabil's Blog Read more:Living
, Earth
Why Balkenende Presented RTL Boulevard 0000-00-00 00:00:00
Dutch Prime-Minister Jan-Peter Balkenende (right) talking with regular host Albert Verlinde on RTL Boulevard
As Dutch Prime Minister and leader of the Christian Democratic Appeal (CDA) Jan-Peter Balkenende presented RTL Boulevard, a daily television show dedicated to fashion and gossip about celebrities, just a week before the Dutch General Election of last Wednessday of course he expected to win votes. But what was the plan behind this move? In today's edition of daily NRC Handelsblad (page 37) Martijn Lampert of Bureau Motivaction, a Dutch research bureau, says that Motivaction had advised the Prime Minister to present to show and explains this advise as follows. Motivaction thought it wise for the CDA to aim this time at the voters who don't belong to the CDA's traditional rank and file, which is "ideologically strongly colored' and very "sensible of authority', but at modern, middle-class voters. The latter not being "ideologically-minded', but rather dedicated
Rumsfeld Allegedly Sanctioned Abuse at Abu Ghraib 0000-00-00 00:00:00 According to Janis Karpinski, the former U.S. Army Brigadier General who run the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq, Defence Minister Donald Rumsfeld
sanctioned the abuse of detainees at the notorious prison. In an interview with Spanish newspaper El Pais Karpinski said she had seen a letter with the Minister's name printed under it and a written signature above the name, apparently Rumsfeld's signature, which authorised the use of harsh interrogation methods as sleep deprivation, making detainees stay for a long time and having them sit in stress positions. In the margin of the letter was written in the same handwriting as the signature's: "Make sure this is accomplished'. (Source: "Rumsfeld okayed abuses says former US army general', a Reuters report) Read more:Allegedly
On the Funding of the Iraq Insurgency 0000-00-00 00:00:00 Today's edition of the New York Times includes an interesting article on the funding of militia's in Iraq
. In "U.S. Finds Iraq Insurgency
Has Funds to Sustain Itself' reporters John F. Burns and Kirk Semple discuss a U.S. government report, according to which '[t]he insurgency in Iraq is now self-sustaining financially, raising tens of millions of dollars a year from oil smuggling, kidnapping, counterfeiting, connivance by corrupt Islamic charities and other crimes (...)'. Click here to read the article.
Iraq, Funding
, Insurgency, New York Times
Dutch General Election - Aftermath 0000-00-00 00:00:00
VVD Minister Rita Verdonk triumphant after she learned that she had won more voters than VVD leader Mark Rutte
Today the final election-results were declared with a remarkable result as far as the center-right party VVD of Mark Rutte is concerned. After former political leader of the VVD Jozias van Aartsen resigned Rutte had to compete with hard-line Minister for Integration and Immigration Rita Verdonk for the party's leadership. Rutte was elected by 51.5% of the VVD members and could count on the support of the VVD leadership. The Dutch
voters decided otherwise. During the GeneralElection
, which were held last Wednessday and during which the VVD lost 6 seats in the Dutch Lower House, 553,200 of them voted on Rutte and 620,555 on Verdonk. According to Dutch public television news show NOS Journaal it was the first time in the history of the Dutch parliament that the number two of a party beat the leader. Maybe even more remarkable: Verdonk apparently didn't feel uncomfortable a Read more:Aftermath
, Dutch General Election
The Loyalty of Rita Verdonk 0000-00-00 00:00:00 Today, on a press conference set up by herself, Dutch Minister for Integration and Immigration Rita Verdonk stated that she will remain loyal to the parliamentary party and to her boss, current leader of the VVD Mark Rutte. But because she attracted more voters than the number one of the list of candidates during the General Election - "a unique situation', she stressed - she deemed it necessary that the party contemplates on the new situation. Therefore she told the party's leadership that it should set up a committee which should research what this situation implicates.
Rita Verdonk, Verdonk, Mark Rutte, Rutte, VVD, Dutch General Election Read more:Loyalty
Rutte Wards Off Coup - Verdonk Backs Down 0000-00-00 00:00:00 Yesterday night the parliamentary party of the VVD, including fighting cocks Rita Verdonk and her boss Mark Rutte, convened and had some "very intensive talks'. It became clear that Rutte was supported by the party and Verdonk stood pretty much alone. According to Dutch newspaper de Volkskrant some members of the parliamentary party accused Verdonk of "destroying the party'. Current Minister of Internal Affairs and as such influential VVD member Johan Remkes dismissed the idea of setting up a research commitee, because «commitee's are underground shelters spineless for politicians. Verdonk must simply decide what she wants.» At the end of the evening that the outcome of the "very intensive talks' appeared to be that there won't be any committee that would decide who should lead the VVD's parliamentary party and Verdonk was / felt forced Verdonk to state publicly that she will "range herself on the side of Mark Rutte'. Because '[h]e's the number 1'.
Rita Read more:Backs
Global Demand For Oil Will Grow Less Fast 0000-00-00 00:00:00 Yesterday's edition of Dutch daily NRC Handelsblad discussed an interesting report by the McKinsey Global
Institute (page 17). According to the report the global demand for oil will grow less fast than was estimated by, among others, the International Energy Agency (IEA). The IEA believes that 92 million barrels of oil per day will be used in 2010, which is 7 million barrels more than now. According to McKinsey daily use will be 87 million barrels per day as a result of increased efficiency of the refinement process, which will require far less crude oil for the production of a litre of gasoline or diesel. Increased efficiency will account for 4 million barrels per day. McKinsey furthermore believes that car usage will decrease consequent on high oil prices and the use of biofuel will grow faster than estimated, both resulting in a global demand for oil which will increase less fast than was expected.
Crude Oil, Oil, Refinement, McKinsey
Nickerie Gets Condom Machine 0000-00-00 00:00:00 Last month I dedicated a posting to the high rates of suicide and attempted suicide in the Surinam district of Nickerie. I quoted journalist Armand Snijders then, according to whom these rates were probably (partly) bound up with the traditional, Hindustani background of most of the Nickerians as several suicides in which the victims were women occured when "dishonor' was brought to the suicide's family. This could happen when, for example, an unmarried woman gets pregnant. Today Surinamese daily newspaper Dagblad Suriname reports that this shouldn't be a cause for concern anymore. For because of World AIDS Day Nickerie gets a CondomMachine
for the first time in its history. The pupils of the secondary schools of Nickerie are supposed to walk in procession the center of the capital of Nickerie, Nieuw Nickerie, to watch the machine being used for the first time. Times change, also in Nickerie.
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