FPI Overnight Brief

FPI Overnight Brief
July 26, 2010

Special Announcements

FPI seeks college juniors or seniors, graduate students, or recent graduates to work as unpaid interns at its office in downtown Washington, DC for the fall semester. For more information, and to apply, please visit FPI’s employment page.

Tomorrow evening, please join FPI for a panel discussion that will including experts on the internet and its effectiveness in the struggle for democracy and human rights. A cocktail reception will be held at 6:30pm, and the panel will begin at 7. Though this event is specifically focused towards young professionals, all are welcome to attend and invite others. For more information, and to RSVP, please visit FPI's website.

Wikileaks

Thousands of classified documents related to the Afghan war released without authorization by the group Wikileaks.org reveal in often excruciating detail the struggles faced by U.S. troops as they battle an increasingly potent Taliban force and also try to work with Pakistani allies who often appear to be helping the Taliban. – Washington Post

A six-year archive of classified military documents made public on Sunday offers an unvarnished, ground-level picture of the war in Afghanistan that is in many respects more grim than the official portrayal. – New York Times

Americans fighting the war in Afghanistan have long harbored strong suspicions that Pakistan’s military spy service has guided the Afghan insurgency with a hidden hand, even as Pakistan receives more than $1 billion a year from Washington for its help combating the militants, according to a trove of secret military field reports made public Sunday. – New York Times

Afghanistan/Pakistan

One U.S. Navy service member was killed in a shootout with Taliban fighters in the eastern Afghan province of Logar and another is in insurgent custody, a Taliban spokesman and Afghan officials said Sunday. – Washington Post

Recent moves by Afghanistan and Pakistan to improve their once-frosty relationship have prompted deep concern in other countries in the region and led some to consider strengthening ties to Afghan President Hamid Karzai's political rivals. – Washington Post

The Taliban, by use of a brutal assassination campaign that targets tribal leaders and other influential locals, has gained the upper hand in Pashtun-populated areas such as the southern provinces of Helmand and Kandahar. The strategy has weakened tribal solidarity among Pashtuns, effecting a societal breakdown that has both reduced their collective ability to resist extremists and made them wary of cooperating with government and coalition forces. – Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty

The U.S. wants Pakistan to implement international sanctions against three key terrorist financiers who have raised money for the Taliban and its Pakistan-based affiliate, the Haqqani Network – Associated Press

Taliban guerrillas have captured a strategic district from the Afghan government after days of clashes in eastern Nuristan province, officials said on Sunday. - Reuters

Koreas

A powerful four-day show of joint U.S. and South Korean sea and air power entered its second day without incident Monday, despite North Korea's pledge to start a "sacred war" over the maneuvers. – Los Angeles Times

The way U.S. officials see it, there's little mystery behind the most notorious shipwreck in recent Korean history…But challenges to the official version of events are coming from an unlikely place: within South Korea. – Los Angeles Times

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton urged Asia on Friday to vigorously apply sanctions against North Korea, saying Pyongyang's belligerent actions marked a clear regional threat. - Reuters

China/Tibet

The Obama administration is working to establish a formal legal process to resolve disputes between Asian nations over claims in the South China Sea, a move that could raise new tensions with China. – Wall Street Journal

Human rights groups are strongly criticizing the Chinese government for imposing a harsh prison sentence Friday on an ethnic Uighur journalist and intellectual who gave an interview to a Hong Kong news publication last August, just weeks after deadly ethnic rioting shook the western region of Xinjiang. – New York Times

Han Chinese workers, investors, merchants, teachers and soldiers are pouring into remote Tibet. After the violence that ravaged this region in 2008, China’s aim is to make Tibet wealthier — and more Chinese. – New York Times

Republican and Democratic senators alike are calling on the Pentagon to explain why it has failed to provide Congress with an annual report on China's military power that was needed for debate on the defense bills. – Washington Times

The investments in Brazil reflect China's "going out" strategy, which seeks to guarantee natural resources for development purposes and to shield the country's state-owned enterprises from slower growth at home. Flush with more than $2 trillion in foreign exchange reserves, China has directed its state firms to scour the globe for opportunities. As it does so, China is playing by its own rules, giving its firms an edge over U.S. and other multinational companies bound by internationally mandated restrictions intended to promote fair competition. – Washington Post

A Chinese court sentenced a senior political adviser to death, suspended for two years, in the latest development in a wide-ranging investigation of corruption tied to home appliance magnate Huang Guangyu. - Reuters

Iran

In an apparent effort to garner international support for its nuclear program, Iran has agreed to meet with the European Union’s foreign affairs chief in early September, after the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. – New York Times

Authorities in Iran have issued an arrest warrant for an acclaimed Iranian lawyer and arrested his wife and brother-in-law over his involvement in the case of a woman sentenced to death by stoning. - Guardian

Iran's Islamic authorities appear to be stepping up repression of a small, long-maligned religious minority, advocates for the group say. Members of the Bahai faith in Iran reportedly have been subject to a recent series of attacks on their homes and cemeteries and investigations into their bank accounts – Baghdad and Beyond

Iran said on Saturday it planned to build an experimental nuclear fusion reactor, state television reported, at a time when the West is demanding that Tehran suspend sensitive nuclear work. - Reuters

Iran warned on Saturday it would stop trading with countries that impose restrictions on its assets abroad in the face of tightening international sanctions over the Islamic state's disputed nuclear activities. - Reuters
Iran will react swiftly if its commercial shipping or aviation are subjected to inspection, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Sunday. - Reuters

Twelve Iranians granted asylum after fleeing to Turkey following opposition protests last year have arrived in Germany, the interior ministry said on Saturday. - Reuters

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said on Friday that Iran would send its first manned shuttle into space by 2019, Iran's English-language Press TV reported. - Reuters

A former CIA director says military action against Iran now seems more likely because no matter what the U.S. does diplomatically, Tehran keeps pushing ahead with its suspected nuclear program. – Associated Press

Iran's leader accused Russian President Dmitry Medvedev on Friday of turning against Tehran and joining the United States in spreading lies about its nuclear program, in the latest sign that Iran is drifting apart from a one-time key backer. – Associated Press

Iraq

The deaths of two Kurdish reporters in northern Iraq in the last two years has prompted charges that authorities in the semiautonomous Kurdistan region, long hailed as the country's success story, are complicit in the intimidation of journalists. – Los Angeles Times

Several high-ranking members of Iraq’s most violent insurgent group were among a group that broke out of a maximum security prison this week, Iraqi security officials said Friday. – New York Times

The Obama administration has not settled on a plan to protect and supply thousands of State Department diplomats and employees left behind in Iraq once all but a relatively few U.S. troops leave the county in a little more than a year. – Washington Times

Mosul and the surrounding province of Nineveh are a microcosm of Iraq's most explosive and unresolved conflicts as the United States prepares to draw down to 50,000 troops by Sept. 1. Kurdish and Sunni Arab leaders battle over disputed lands, provincial and central government officials wrestle for control, and Sunni insurgents continue to slip back and forth across the porous borders with Turkey and Syria. – Washington Post

Iraq's new parliament will meet on Tuesday for just the second time since a March 7 parliamentary election that produced no clear winner, a representative of a political bloc said on Sunday. - Reuters

Charles W. Dunne writes: By bringing to bear the considerable leverage it still possesses, the US can prevent Tehran and Damascus from dictating the formation of the Iraqi government, and help form one that reflects the will of all Iraq’s people. – The National

Israel

Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak is due to arrive in Washington on Monday bearing two warnings for American policymakers: Sanctions won't thwart Iran's push for nuclear weapons, and Israel will strike directly at Lebanese government institutions if Hezbollah launches rockets at Israeli towns. – Washington Post

Israel has told the U.N. Security Council's North Korea sanctions panel that ballistic missile proliferation by Pyongyang is destabilizing the Middle East and urged countries to step up efforts to stop it - Reuters

Israel will return the Turkish aid ships on which its troops killed nine activists trying to reach blockaded Gaza, officials said on Friday, in what appeared to be a new bid to repair bilateral ties. - Reuters

The United Nations Human Rights Council appointed a team of international experts on Friday to investigate Israel's raid on a Gaza-bound aid flotilla and called on all parties to cooperate. - Reuters

Middle East

Reports that a U.N. tribunal will blame the Shiite Muslim militia Hezbollah for the 2005 assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri have triggered fears of violence in this small, unstable country. – Los Angeles Times

Well-heeled Syrians had already been coming to this ancient industrial city, drawn here by Louis Vuitton purses and storefront signs in Arabic. But local shop owners say Israel’s deadly raid on a Turkish-led flotilla to Gaza in May has solidified an already blossoming friendship between Syria and Turkey, the new hero of the Muslim world. – New York Times

A proposed U.S. arms sale to Saudi Arabia will include 84 new Boeing Co. F-15 fighter jets and may be valued at as much as $30 billion, according to a government official familiar with the plan. - Bloomberg

Army-backed tribes and Houthi rebels resumed fighting [Saturday] afternoon in north Yemen less than 24 hours after agreeing to a ceasefire, according to a tribal source. – The National

Kuwait’s education chief has run up against the fire and brimstone of puritanical Muslim members of parliament for her recent decision to tone down the incendiary religious content of the nation's school curriculum. – Baghdad and Beyond

Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan, keen to muster support for his reform package ahead of a September referendum, said on Saturday he might amend an army law criticized by the opposition as authoritarian. - Reuters

Fouad Ajami writes: Egyptians had led the march of Arab modernity, and for decades they lived on that sense, and memory, of primacy. All this is of the past. Other Arabs have gone their way and negotiated their own terms with the world. A sense of disappointment now suffuses Egypt's political and cultural life. There is peace with Israel, but it is unloved. There is a dependency on the U.S., but one of bitter resentment on the part of most Egyptians. There are ideas of a big country at the crossroads of three continents, but the reality of an unimaginative autocracy. Grant Mr. Mubarak his due: He has not dispatched his countrymen on deadly expeditions and needless wars. He has kept the peace, he has been the cop on the beat. But Egypt needed and deserved something better, more ennobling, than a tyrant's sterile peace. – Wall Street Journal

Defense

The conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan have cost Americans a staggering $1 trillion to date, second only in inflation-adjusted dollars to the $4 trillion price tag for World War II, when the United States put 16 million men and women into uniform and fought on three continents. – New York Times

A long-stalled bill to help pay for the Iraq and Afghanistan wars is back at the feet of House Democrats, who must decide whether to accept the Senate's leaner proposal or keep pushing for billions of dollars in extra domestic spending — a politically risky move that could further delay resources to U.S. troops. – Washington Times

An influential Pentagon advisory board will recommend that Defense Department Secretary Robert Gates slash the civilian work force by more than 111,000 people and drastically pare the military's combatant command structure as ways to save billions of dollars – Defense News

By December, the U.S. Army will complete a number of studies to help it determine what the force will look like for the next six years, according to a memo from Lt. Gen. Daniel Bolger, deputy chief of staff, G-3/5/7. – Defense News

Gary Schmitt writes: The country does need to get its fiscal house in order, but not on the backs of the military. Right now, Defense’s share of federal outlays—including those for Iraq and Afghanistan—is 18 percent. That’s the same level it was at during the Clinton years. In contrast, mandatory spending eats up some 56 percent of federal spending, while discretionary non-defense spending is 19 percent. Core entitlement spending (Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid) is now double that of defense. And while entitlement spending and debt service will continue to explode, the Pentagon’s share of federal spending will be shrinking to 15 percent within the next few years. While the Obama administration has already cut some $300 billion in defense programs, it has been spending nearly $800 billion to (supposedly) stimulate the economy. The fact is, the deficit problem has little to do with defense; to paraphrase the Clinton team, “It’s entitlements, stupid.” – The Weekly Standard Blog

Schmitt continued his argument in Congressional testimony.

Arms Control

The Obama administration's arms reduction treaty with Russia, which for months seemed headed for swift approval in the Senate, is suddenly facing delays that some supporters fear could threaten its survival – Los Angeles Times

Sen. Richard Lugar (Ind.), the only Senate Republican to publicly endorse a U.S.-Russia arms treaty, said this week he is optimistic the upper chamber will approve it this year. – The Hill

Supporters of a world arms trade treaty said significant progress had been made as nations concluded the first round of talks on Friday on a pact meant to regulate the $55 billion global weapons market. - Reuters

Lockerbie Bomber

A coming Senate hearing in Washington has set off a new round of political disavowals by British and Scottish officials who laid the groundwork for last year’s release of the former Libyan intelligence agent convicted in the 1988 Lockerbie bombing. – New York Times

The US government secretly advised Scottish ministers it would be "far preferable" to free the Lockerbie bomber than jail him in Libya. – The Australian

Barack Obama is under growing pressure to release a letter that reveals the US grudgingly supported freeing the Lockerbie bomber on compassionate grounds. - Guardian

Russia

Resistance movements often have a soundtrack. In the Soviet Union during the last decades of communist rule, dissidents listened to the Beatles and admired guitar-strumming bards like Vladimir Vysotsky, whose bitter lyrics contrasted sharply with the cheeriness of official propaganda. Nowadays, dissenters in Vladimir Putin's Russia have found a new source of musical inspiration: a homegrown version of Tupac Shakur and Public Enemy. – Wall Street Journal

Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said late Saturday that he met with the Russian spies who were expelled from the United States, joining them in patriotic songs and promising them good jobs and a bright future back in their homeland. – Associated Press

Russia's top general has assured a visiting senior NATO commander that Russia is ready to restore military cooperation with the Western alliance almost two years after relations were frozen during the Georgian war. - Reuters

Russian police killed two men on Sunday accused of bombing a North Caucasus hydroelectric plant, media reported, just days after President Dmitry Medvedev threatened to sack security officials if there were another attack. - Reuters

France will build at least two high-tech amphibious assault ships for the Russian navy, President Nicolas Sarkozy announced July 23, on a visit to a western shipyard. - AFP

India

In the past two decades, tens of thousands of public interest litigations have been filed against the Indian government and corporations on grounds that such mega-projects threaten livelihoods, land or the environment. These suits have led to landmark rulings on education, the environment and human rights in India. But the number of cases has risen dramatically in recent years, straining India's already backlogged courts and holding up power stations, mining ventures, airport upgrades and other projects desperately needed to sustain the country's economic expansion, government officials say. – Washington Post

India and the United States on July 23 pledged closer security ties to combat terrorist threats, a day after the U.S. military's top officer warned extremists could try to stage fresh attacks on the South Asian country. - AFP

Kyrgyzstan

More than 300 people died in the violence between ethnic Kyrgyz and Uzbeks in June that destroyed hundreds of homes and businesses. The government says it will do everything necessary to rebuilt trust between the two communities. But more than a month on, there's little sign of reconciliation between the two main ethnic groups who inhabit this crippled city. Instead, ongoing threats and allegations of abductions and torture are pushing the sides even further apart than they were in the immediate aftermath of the violence. – Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty

Charles Recknagel writes: The interim government followed through on its promise to hold a referendum on a new, more democratic constitution. And when voters approved the document at the end of June, Kyrgyzstan became the strongest parliamentary system in Central Asia, at least on paper. Not only that, but in limiting the power of its future head of state, the country achieved something unheard of in its authoritarian region. The turmoil of recent months has produced a new glimmer of hope for a democratic Kyrgyzstan. – Foreign Policy

Japan

Washington has given up on moving 8,000 U.S. Marines to the U.S. territory of Guam from Japan by 2014, media said on Friday, a potential blow to Prime Minister Naoto Kan who is already struggling over a U.S. base dispute. - Reuters

Southeast Asia

Burma is working on a nuclear weapons programme, experts have concluded, after its existence was exposed by leaked photographs. – Telegraph

Two corruption cases threaten to unseat Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva, dissolve his political party and hobble the bickering coalition that administers Thailand's military-backed government. – Washington Times

A bomb exploded at a bus stop in central Bangkok on Sunday, killing one person and wounding 10 in an attack that reignited tensions two months after the end of deadly opposition protests. - Telegraph

Supporters of Thailand's main opposition party rallied in Bangkok on Friday in the first big political gathering since a deadly military crackdown on anti-government protesters two months ago. - Reuters

A United Nations-backed tribunal on Monday found a 67-year-old former prison warden of the Khmer Rouge guilty of crimes against humanity and war crimes for overseeing the torture and killing of more than 14,000 prisoners. He was the first major figure to be tried in the murderous regime since it was toppled 30 years ago. – New York Times

Australia's Labor government has consolidated its election-winning lead over the conservative opposition one week into the campaign for the August 21 election, a poll published on Saturday showed. - Reuters

Ideas

The U.S. launched a new initiative on Sunday aimed at battling large-scale public corruption in foreign states…In addition to tackling the lucrative field of public bribes, the new initiative is also aimed at recovering public money and redirecting it to its intended use. – The Hill’s Blog Briefing Room

Europe

The meetings of the Ukrainian, Belarusian, and Azerbaijani presidents with Saakashvili -- the embodiment of disobedience toward Russia -- indicate that these leaders are trying to balance their relations with Russia with other political vectors. – Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez promised to call on his Latin American allies to recognize the independence of Abkhazia and South Ossetia, two separatist Georgian regions considered autonomous states by just four countries around the world. – Associated Press

Two Saudi clerics have declared Muslim women are exempt from wearing full veils in France, which is planning to ban them, but added they should avoid visiting it as tourists. - Reuters

John Vinocour writes: [Two] week[s ago] the chancellor wrote in a newspaper article that the “Federal government is very conscious of the exemplary role model Germany assumes in terms of stability policy within the euro area.” Read that as a we’re-boss-here laying down of the law for Germany’s neighbors – International Herald Tribune

Africa

Guinea has agreed to send hundreds of troops to Somalia to bolster the African Union’s peacekeeping force in the country after Somali insurgents claimed responsibility for bombings in Uganda during the World Cup final that killed 76 people. – New York Times

An Al-Qaeda-linked gang in the Sahara desert claimed on Sunday that it had killed a 78-year-old French hostage in revenge for the killing of six comrades in a failed Mauritanian-French rescue raid. – Telegraph

A top U.S. official on Sunday pledged continued support for African peacekeeping efforts in war-torn Somalia as Uganda's president urged African leaders to unite against terrorism just weeks after Somali militants set off deadly twin bombings in Uganda. – Associated Press

The African Union said on Saturday Africa must turn ever more to China for its development because conditions and checks often stalled the flow of funds from Western nations and the World Bank - Reuters

Americas

Tensions are bubbling once more along the rugged 1,200-mile border between Venezuela and Colombia. – Los Angeles Times

President Hugo Chavez threatened on Sunday to halt oil sales to the United States if Venezuela faces any military attack by its U.S.-allied neighbor Colombia. – Associated Press

Roger Noriega writes: One thing is clear: Chávez’s record of providing money, arms, political support, and, yes, safe haven to groups waging a murderous war against a sovereign state openly violates international law. If the United States and our neighbors fail to muster a meaningful response to Colombia’s latest evidence and formal appeal for help, they will share the blame for giving Chávez’s bandit regime a license to kill. – The American

Just as Cuba's government under Raul Castro appeared to be loosening its grip, Fidel is back - dismaying those waiting for the imminent capitalist explosion. - Telegraph

Brazil's ruling party candidate, Dilma Rousseff, remained in a technical tie in October's presidential race with the opposition's Jose Serra, an opinion poll showed on Saturday. – Reuters

Prisoners in a northern Mexico jail were allowed out at night to carry out murder-for-hire jobs using jail guards’ weapons and vehicles, officials said Sunday, revealing a level of corruption that is stunning even in a country where prison breakouts are common as guards look the other way. – New York Times

Jackson Diehl writes: Since the end of the Cold War, neglect of Latin America has become something of a fine art in Washington, practiced by Republican and Democratic administrations alike. But even in that context, the disregard for Mexico over the past couple of years is kind of astonishing. – Washington Post
________________________________________
Announcements

FPI has developed Foreign Policy 2010, a briefing book available on the FPI website, which pulls together articles and op-eds from leading thinkers in each of the key foreign policy issue areas. FPI will be updating the briefing book on a regular basis throughout 2010. To suggest additional articles or content for the briefing book, please email info@foreignpolicyi.org.

If you believe in our mission and would like to support our activities, please consider making a donation to the Foreign Policy Initiative to ensure our future success.

FPI is on Facebook and Twitter . We encourage you to follow us and spread the word to your friends and colleagues.

________________________________________
Events

Rediscovering Preventive Diplomacy for Peace in the World's Hotspots
Brookings Institution
July 26

Human Rights and Settlements in the Occupied Territories
New America Foundation
July 26

A Discussion with Rose Gottemoeller
United States Institute of Peace
July 26

Considering Afghanistan's Reconciliation Options
Senate Foreign Relations Committee
July 27

Confirmation Hearings for Nominees to Ambassadors to Venezuela, Chile
Senate Foreign Relations Committee
July 27

Achieving the UN Millenium Development Goals
House Foreign Affairs Committee
International Organizations, Human Rights, and Oversight Subcommittee
July 27

Enforcing US and EU Sanctions Against Tehran
Foundation for Defense of Democracies
July 27 (RSVP by July 23)

US Military Approaches to Occupation in Iraq
Middle East Institute
July 27

India: Latin America's Next Big Thing?
Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars
July 27

Counterterrorism in the Obama Administration
Heritage Foundation
July 28

Improving the Federal Gov's Foreign Language Capabilities
Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee
July 29

Examining the Implementation of Iran Sanctions
House Oversight and Government Reform Committee
July 29

Skating on Stilts: Why We Aren't Stopping Tomorrow's Terrorism
Heritage Foundation
July 29

Strategic Counterterrorism: The Signals We Send
Cato Institute
July 29

Photography Through the Eyes of Saudi Arabian Women
Middle East Institute
July 29

India, China, and Asia's Growing Presence in the Middle East
Middle East Institute
August 4

Previewing the September 26 Venezuelan Elections
Hudson Institute
September 15

Nuclear Terrorism: Strengthening our Domestic Defenses (part II)
Senate Homeland Security and Government Oversight Committee
September 22

The Overnight Brief is a daily product of the Foreign Policy Initiative, which seeks to promote an active U.S. foreign policy committed to robust support for democratic allies, human rights, a strong American military equipped to meet the challenges of the 21st century, and strengthening America's global economic competitiveness. To submit comments or suggestions, email overnight@foreignpolicyi.org.

ENDS

© Scoop Media