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	US Senate moves to ban Prisoner Torture by NYT / AP / Los Angeles Times   Washington. November 8, 2005   Bush stance on torture terrible - Republican Senator Chuck Hagel. (AP, Washington Post)   A leading Republican senator says the Bush Administration is making a terrible mistake in opposing a congressional ban on torture and other inhumane treatment of prisoners in US custody.   Senator Chuck Hagel, said yesterday that many Republican senators support the ban proposed by fellow party member Senator John McCain, a prisoner of war during the Vietnam War.   The ban was approved by a 90-9 vote last month in the Senate and added to a defence spending bill.   The White House has threatened a veto, but the fate of the proposal depends on negotiations between the Senate and the lower house on the spending measure. The house does not support the ban.   Vice-President Dick Cheney has lobbied Republican senators to allow an exemption for those held by the CIA if preventing an attack is at stake.   "I think the Administration is making a terrible mistake in opposing John McCain"s amendment on detainees and torture," Senator Hagel said on the American ABC network. "Why in the world they"re doing that, I don"t know."   Senator McCain, citing the Senate vote as well as support from the public, former secretary of state Colin Powell and others with government service, said he would push the issue with the White House "as far as necessary".   "We need to get this issue behind us," Senator McCain said on the Fox News Sunday program. "Our image in the world is suffering very badly, and one of the reasons for it is the perception that we abuse people that we take captive."   Over the past year, Vice-President Dick Cheney has waged a largely unpublicised campaign to stop Congress, the Pentagon and the State Department from imposing more restrictive rules on the handling of terrorist suspects, according to defence, state, intelligence and congressional officials.   Last winter, when Democrat Senator John D. Rockefeller vice-chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, began pushing to have the full committee briefed on the CIA"s interrogation practices, Mr Cheney called him to the White House to urge that he drop the matter, according to three US officials.   In recent months, Mr Cheney has been the force against adding safeguards to the Defence Department"s rules on treatment of military prisoners, putting him at odds with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and acting Deputy Secretary of Defence Gordon England. On a trip to Canada last month, Dr Rice interrupted a packed itinerary to hold a secure video-teleconference with Mr Cheney on detainee policy to make sure no decisions were made without her input..   October 09, 2005   "The Senate Draws a Line" by Rosa Brooks. (Los Angeles Times)   USA: 46 Republicans joined Senate Democrats to issue a stinging rebuke to the administration"s interrogation and detention tactics in the war on terror.   By a vote of 90 to 9, the Senate approved an amendment to the defense appropriation bill. The amendment - whose main sponsor was Arizona Sen. John McCain - prohibits the Defense Department from using interrogation techniques other than those authorized by the Army Field Manual and provides that "no individual in the custody or under the physical control of the United States government, regardless of nationality or location, shall be subject to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment."   The Bush administration fought tooth and nail against the amendment, claiming that it would tie its hands in the war on terror. Naturally, no administration spokesperson would say that they intended to treat terror suspects in a cruel, inhuman or degrading way, but that"s what they mean. The administration has walked a fine line, claiming that techniques such as "waterboarding," forced nudity, "stress positions" and mock executions are legally permitted because they"re not technically "torture" (a conclusion shared by few experts) and because they"re still "humane" (a conclusion shared by practically no one).   With the amendment, the Senate made it clear that such hairsplitting wasn"t fooling anyone. As McCain put it, his emotion and authority contrasting sharply with the president"s recent shallow rhetoric: "Mr. President … I don"t think I"m naive about how severe are the wages of war, and how terrible are the things that must be done to wage it successfully…. But what I do mourn … is what we lose … when by official policy or by official negligence we allow, confuse or encourage our soldiers to forget that best sense of ourselves, our greatest strength: that we are different and better than our enemies; that we fight for an idea … that all men are created equal and endowed by their Creator with inalienable rights."   The McCain amendment defines "cruel, inhuman or degrading" treatment as that which would be prohibited by the 5th, 8th and 14th amendments to the Constitution. This sets a clear and realistic standard for how U.S. personnel should treat detainees, regardless of whether the Geneva Convention applies. The Supreme Court has interpreted the 5th, 8th and 14th amendments to prohibit interrogation and detention tactics strikingly similar to those approved by the Bush administration for use against terror suspects.   In 2002, for instance, the high court looked at the case of an Alabama prisoner who was left handcuffed to a post in the hot sun, bare back, for seven hours with limited access to water and with no bathroom breaks - treatment less severe than what many detainees held by the U.S. in Afghanistan, Iraq and Guantanamo Bay have been subjected to. Yet a 6-3 majority of the court condemned the "obvious cruelty inherent in this practice" in the Alabama case as "antithetical to human dignity" and "degrading and dangerous."   The McCain amendment, which passed despite an explicit White House veto threat, is the Senate"s clearest rejection yet of the administration"s claim that "anything goes" in the war on terror. And though the amendment must still pass in the House - and survive the threatened veto - to become law, it may be a harbinger of other Senate rebellions to come. Former counsel Alberto Gonzales, who requested the now infamous 2002 Justice Department memo asserting that the president is not bound by federal laws prohibiting torture.   President Bush is struggling to regain support for his increasingly incoherent foreign policy agenda while trying to push through his minimally qualified Supreme Court nominee here at home. He"d do well to consider Justice Robert Jackson"s famous words in the 1952 Youngstown Steel seizure case. "When the president takes measures incompatible with the expressed or implied will of Congress," Jackson wrote, "his power is at its lowest ebb."    October 9, 2005   "Binding the torturers" hands". (The New York Times)   When the U.S. Senate voted last week to bring America"s chain of military prison camps under the rule of law, President George W. Bush threatened a veto. The White House explained his objections by saying the measure would bind the government"s hands. Yes, exactly.   The rules would finally bind military prisons to democratic values and the standards of behavior recognized by every other civilized nation. They would bind the U.S. government to a code of conduct that will help protect those in the nation"s uniform.   The measure would ban "cruel, inhuman or degrading" treatment of prisoners held by the military - which, by the way, is already against American law and a long-standing treaty. Bush, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Attorney General Alberto Gonzales are about the only ones left who want to defend the justness and practical value of the abhorrent practices introduced at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, and then exported to Abu Ghraib. Ninety senators voted for the new law, including 46 Republicans.   More than two dozen retired senior military officers endorsed it, including two former chairmen of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, John Shalikashvili and Colin Powell. Generals know that turning American servicemen and servicewomen into torturers endangers Americans captured on the battlefield. Senator John McCain, Republican of Arizona, the primary sponsor of the legislation, was among the Americans tortured by North Vietnamese jailers. He said that "Every one of us - every single one of us - knew and took great strength from the belief that we were different from our enemies."   Not only is the Bush administration trying to block the Senate"s efforts to finally fix this enormous problem, but it continues to block any serious investigation of the abuse, torture and murder of prisoners.   The senators who voted for the law on the humane treatment of prisoners should also lend their backing to another measure that would create a truly bipartisan and independent commission, armed with subpoena power, to investigate the prisoner abuses at Abu Ghraib and other military detention camps - like the one that investigated the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. The Republican majority in the House should also pass the new law on interrogations - then override Bush if he has the bad judgment to veto it.
	The price of democracy by Sian Powell / John Aglionby The Australian / The Guardian / Earth Institute News Indonesia   Jakarta. October 17, 2005   "SBY stands firm after turbulent year", by Sian Powell. (The Australian)   On a meet-the-people excursion in Cilincing, north Jakarta, on Friday, Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono told the assembled villagers to help those who were less fortunate. "Our country still faces trials and challenges," he said. "So we must remain patient and have faith in God to face those challenges."   With this mix of humility and honesty, Dr Yudhoyono has weathered his first year in office remarkably well, substantially retaining the people"s confidence and largely maintaining peace in one of the world"s most geographically and ethnically fractured nations.   He dealt capably with one of history"s worst natural disasters, the December tsunami; he has helped to broker a peace for a long-festering insurrection in Aceh; and he has convinced the populace not to revolt over drastic but essential fuel price hikes. Marking his first anniversary in office this Thursday, Dr Yudhoyono now has a foundation of trust and confidence to build on across the sprawling archipelago.   Yet some of his critics maintain he has fudged a desperately needed crackdown on corruption and, more ominously, has decided to use the Bali bombings earlier this month to let the military edge back into domestic security, and to toughen anti-terror laws to the point of undermining hard-won civil liberties.   Salim Said, a military expert and a professor at Muhammadiah University in Malang, says the military"s return to domestic affairs was controversial, and the public is now concerned that a return to the dark days of former leader Suharto"s military dictatorship is in the offing - Indonesia endured more than three decades of military rule.   It"s unlikely, though, that there will be anything more than concerned muttering in reaction to the military"s new role. The President has handled more difficult problems in recent weeks. Earlier this month, he slashed fuel subsidies for the second time this year, reneging on a pledge, and pushing up prices of fuel and ordinary commodities in a nation where half the people live on less than $2.50 a day. It prompted little more than a few small demonstrations and desultory rock-throwing and tyre-burning - nothing compared with the protests of the past.   Political scientist Daniel Sparingga from Airlangga University says the President continues to enjoy widespread support from the public, despite a terrible year of adversities. "I think many of his plans could not be realised as quickly as he had hoped, because of so many things like the tsunami, the falling rupiah, the oil price rises," he said. "And people see his cabinet is not as good as people had hoped - there is nothing special. Yet he still has public support because they see he is honest and not corrupt, and because there is no alternative leadership."   The war on corruption, says Dr Sparingga, has been a touchstone for Indonesians, and they see that efforts have been made to address the entrenched graft that dogs the nation. The former governor of Aceh province, Abdullah Puteh, has been prosecuted, convicted and jailed for corruption, and it is likely he will be stripped of his assets. The minister of religion under former president Megawati Sukarnoputri, Said Agil Hussein Al Munawwar, has been hauled before the courts for a scandal concerning funds for the annual Haj pilgrimage to Mecca. The General Elections Commission has been torn apart by corruption investigators, and the Supreme Court chief justice Bagir Manan and former president Suharto"s half-brother Probosutedjo are being investigated over corruption allegations.   "People can see he is serious in combating corruption, now that the corruption of the higher-ups has been revealed," Dr Sparingga says.   Even so, other analysts say the work is moving too slowly, and there are any number of Indonesian leaders who still enjoy immunity from prosecution - including Suharto, who lives in leafy splendour in central Jakarta.   Indonesia Corruption Watch chief Teten Masduki believes the President has shown his dedication to ridding the country of corruption, yet the results are meagre. "When he was inaugurated, there were three main issues he wanted to deal with - they were economics, corruption and security," he says. "There has been no extraordinary achievement in these fields, but there has been moderate progress."   A survey conducted late last month by the Indonesian Survey Institute found concerns about the economy had dragged Dr Yudhoyono"s approval rating down to 63per cent. While this is still a rating most Western politicians can only dream about, it is a far cry from the heady days after he was elected last year, when a similar poll found he had a massive approval rating of 80per cent.   Dr Sparingga says the public expected Dr Yudhoyono to be courageous in tackling the nation"s entrenched problems. "He was expected to lead with an iron fist in law enforcement, because for the public, the most important thing is combating corruption and for the entrepreneurs it is a feeling of safety, with no more need for bribes."   Bali. October 4, 2005   "The price of democracy", by John Aglionby. (The Guardian)   Viewed through a prism of headlines, Indonesia can easily appear to be an unstable nation being ripped asunder by radical Islamists. Four big terrorist attacks by locally recruited militants in three years - the 2002 Bali nightclub bombing, the 2003 bomb at the Jakarta Marriott hotel, the 2004 bomb at the Australian embassy in Jakarta and Saturday"s second Bali bombing - suggest not only incompetent security forces but something profoundly wrong with society.   A further problem is the authorities refusal to rein in orthodox Islamist groups that have bullied more than two dozen churches into closure over the past two years and repeatedly attacked the Indian-based Ahmadiyah sect"s premises on the grounds of alleged deviancy, as well as a decision by the national ulemas council to ban pluralism and liberal teachings.   The most populous Muslim nation undoubtedly has its problems. Outposts of radicalism have taken root in much of the sprawling archipelago over the past seven years and militants continue to stoke communal conflict in the eastern islands of Sulawesi and the Moluccas.   Jemaah Islamiyah, the terror network linked to al-Qaida that wants to turn most of south-east Asia into a caliphate, has put down deep roots in the country and some leading members, such as Azahari Husin - the Malaysian being blamed for orchestrating the last three of the four attacks - have been forming their own organisations with even more radical agendas. Azahari"s is called Thoifah Muqatilah (combat unit) and it is thought to want to escalate the struggle. Like the organisers of the London attacks, he uses fresh recruits unknown to the authorities who are willing to make martyrs of themselves.   Azahari and his cohorts are tapping into the resources of other radical groups, such as Kompak, based in Sulawesi; the Indonesian Mujahideen Movement, whose leader is Abu Bakar Ba"asyir, the alleged former head of Jemaah Islamiyah; and Darul Islam, a 55-year-old network that spawned most of the newer offshoots, including Jemaah Islamiyah.   Afraid of being seen as western pawns by the country"s Muslim majority, the last four presidents have declined to crack down as hard as they could have on these radical groups, thereby allowing them to expand. The government and its people are now paying the price, having to quell extensive periods of unrest and prevent terrorist attacks with security and intelligence forces which, until very recently, were far from first-rate.   Having said all this, the radicalism must be placed in context. Despite its impact, the movement"s numbers are tiny and not growing fast. And despite the perceived global assault on Islam - whether in Iraq, Palestine or elsewhere - the vast majority of Indonesia"s 190 million Muslims remain moderate. Islam arrived in Indonesia through trade rather than conquest, so not only does it lack some of the characteristics prevalent elsewhere but it is also diluted by cultural traditions that predate its arrival. This is becoming manifest in domestic politics: Islamist parties are faring well but only because they espouse clean, well-run government and shy away from demanding an Islamic state.   And history cannot be ignored. Radical Islam was born during the colonial era but was violently repressed during the 32-year dictatorship of General Suharto, supported by the west. When his regime collapsed in 1998, it was as if the lid had been blown off a pressure cooker. Radicalism thrived on the oxygen it had been starved of.   The other major development in Indonesia since 1998 is that it has transformed itself into a flourishing democracy. Indonesians directly elected their president for the first time this year and a return to authoritarianism seems unlikely. A new respect for law and order means that Indonesia is not willing to copy Malaysia and Singapore - or the United States - by detaining alleged militants and terrorists indefinitely without charge.   The Bali bombings are undoubtedly a partial consequence of this openness and no one doubts there will be more attacks. While the great majority of the nation condemns them, there seems to be an acceptance that giving everyone a voice is part of the price of becoming a democracy. Indonesia has shown the world the world how a predominantly Islamic country can embrace democracy. Alas, it is also showing the world that the transition can be costly.   Posted 09/22/05   "Indonesia President addresses World Leaders Forum, cites Peace as crucial to achieving MDGs. (Earth Institute News)   Indonesia president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono took the stage at Columbia University"s World Leaders Forum and challenged the world to take more decisive action in meeting the UN Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). At the same time, he held up Indonesia as both a bleak reminder of the need to make immediate progress as well as a model for how the far-reaching development goals could be met by combining peace with development.   During the speech, he recited some now-familiar statistics that become more stark at every reading: 1.1 billion people around the world live in extreme poverty; 1.3 billion people lack access to clean water and three billion to sanitation; and an estimated eight million die every year as a result of their poverty.   "It is said that statistics do not bleed, but when they are as horrible as these, you have to pause and think," said President Yudhoyono. "Apart from that, when you see those video clips on TV of skeletal babies in the throes of helpless hunger, your humanity is challenged. You cannot avert your eyes. Attention must be paid. Action must be taken."   President Yudhoyono made his remarks as part of the third World Leaders Forum, an annual event at Columbia that brings international leaders to campus during the UN General Assembly to examine global challenges and explore cultural perspectives from rising global health needs to the influence of American films abroad. Earth Institute Director Jeffrey Sachs invited Yudhoyono this year specifically to address the need to achieve the MDGs and meet the world"s shared commitments to fight extreme hunger, poverty and disease by 2015.   "These goals intersect with all the other goals we have whether it"s for global peace, for the war on terror, for other forms of instability," said Sachs in his introduction of President Yudhoyono.  "If there is no development, there cannot be security for anyone."   In Indonesia, lingering resentment over colonial rule and government corruption in province of Aceh helped stoke nearly three decades of unrest and open rebellion and spawned a cycle of increasing violence and poverty. Repeated attempts to end the violence between the Indonesian government and the Free Aceh Movement failed. Then, in December 2004, a magnitude 9.3 earthquake and subsequent tsunami devastated northern Sumatra, killing an estimated 130,000 people in Aceh and leaving more than half a million homeless.   Afterward, President Yudhoyono said, people on both sides of the conflict recognized that reconstruction and rehabilitation of the region could only be carried out successfully in an atmosphere of peace and openness.   As a result, Indonesia is enacting new structural and economic reforms that put special emphasis on fighting corruption, improving rural infrastructure and reducing poverty, including establishing a $1.9 billion social safety net. In addition, the government is seeking ways of giving the people of Aceh greater participation in and ownership over reconstruction, an effort that is bringing peace to a shattered region for the first time in more than a generation.   "We made peace [in Aceh] in record time, and that peace is holding." said President Yudhoyono. "The challenge now is to make that peace endure so that it will become the environment of a battle in which former adversaries will be fighting on the same side — the battle against poverty."   (The Earth Institute at Columbia University is the world"s leading academic center for the integrated study of Earth, its environment and society. The Earth Institute builds upon excellence in the core disciplines — earth sciences, biological sciences, engineering sciences, social sciences and health sciences — and stresses cross-disciplinary approaches to complex problems. Through research, training and global partnerships, it mobilizes science and technology to advance sustainable development, while placing special emphasis on the needs of the world"s poor).   Click on the link below to read more Earth Institute news stories. Visit the related web page
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