Bush Policy on Russia and Georgia
The New York Times reports today: “The United States took a series of steps that emboldened Georgia: sending advisers to build up the Georgian military, including an exercise last month with more than 1,000 American troops; pressing hard to bring Georgia into the NATO orbit…” Neither President Bush this morning nor Secretary of State Rice yesterday took questions following their comments.
RICHARD FALK, rfalk@princeton.edu,
http://www.transnational.org/SAJT/tff/people/r_falk.html
Falk is professor emeritus of international law at Princeton University and distinguished visiting professor at the University of California, Santa Barbara. He is the author of more than 20 books including “The Costs of War: International Law, the UN, and World Order after Iraq.” Falk recently returned from Turkey.
He said today: “I am above all astounded by the mainstream media’s failure to take proper note of the pipleline geopolitics that infuses the Russian moves with their global significance. Also, in the course of condemning Russia, Bush failed to take any account of the fact of Georgia’s provocations in denying rights to the people of South Ossetia, which continue to threaten the population with Georgian oppressive rule. On a wider front, Washington’s effort to penetrate the Russian sphere of influence in Central Asia by seeking to promote NATO membership for Georgia and Ukraine, together with the intended deployment of a missile defense system in East Europe, undoubtedly helped tip the scales in Moscow.
“One can imagine the U.S. outrage if Russia reacted similarly to American interventions in Cuba or Panama. Even so, the Russian recourse to force across an international boundary is a challenge to the core principle of international law and to the UN Charter. This is not a defensive use of force, and from an international law perspective, should be challenged and censured.
“At the same time, it pales in significance if compared to analogous U.S. behavior, especially the 2003 unprovoked and unlawful aggression against Iraq. At this point, what is needed in Georgia is for the Russians to withdraw, and for the UN to establish a peacekeeping presence in South Ossetia (and Abkhasia) capable of protecting the human rights and autonomy of these two societal entities until some sort of internationally monitored referendum can serve as the basis for self-determination in both places. To revive Cold War rhetoric of ‘the free world’ in relation to Georgia, as Bush did in his statement on the crisis, is one more instance of monumental irresponsibility by the president, and Orwellian in its implication that Georgia was a democracy respectful of human rights.”
From: Institute for Public Accuracy
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Troops from Atlanta will train in Republic of Georgia
14 Jul 2008
A large contingent of Georgia Army National Guard soldiers flew to the Republic of Georgia on Sunday for joint military exercises at a time when tension is brewing in the region. The soldiers, mostly from the metro area, will be part of “Immediate Response 2008,” which will amount to the largest U.S. footprint on the crossroads of Asia and Europe since the Cold War began. The three-week operation also provides practical training for the 48th Infantry Brigade’s 1st Battalion, 121st Infantry Regiment just months before a pending deployment to Afghanistan.
At:
http://tinyurl.com/5gc28r (www.ajc.com)
From: CLG News
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House Foreclosure Activity Rises 55% From July 2007 to July 2008
News release: “RealtyTrac®, the leading online marketplace for foreclosure properties, today released its July 2008 U.S. Foreclosure Market Report™, which shows foreclosure filings — default notices, auction sale notices and bank repossessions — were reported on 272,171 U.S. properties during the month, an 8 percent increase from the previous month and a 55 percent increase from July 2007. The report also shows one in every 464 U.S. households received a foreclosure filing during the month.
http://tinyurl.com/6pxocj (www.realtytrac.com)
“…Bank repossessions, or REOs, continued to be the fastest growing segment of foreclosure activity in July, posting a 184 percent year-over-year increase — compared to a 53 percent year-over-year increase in default notices and an 11 percent year-over-year increase in auction notices,” said James J. Saccacio, chief executive officer of RealtyTrac. “The sharp rise in REOs, combined with slow sales, has resulted in a bloated inventory of bank-owned properties for sale. RealtyTrac now has more than three quarters of a million properties in its active REO database, a number that represents approximately 17 percent of the inventory of existing homes for sale reported in June by the National Association of Realtors.”
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THE GREAT CORPORATE TAX HEIST
By Robert L. Borosage, Huffington Post
Want to learn how to make $50 million dollars and not pay taxes? Over a quarter of large, U.S. corporations do it every year.
http://www.alternet.org/workplace/94985/
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ISN Security Watch – Hot issues in the Arctic
14 August 2008
Hot issues in the Arctic
A report on the Arctic Circle’s oil and gas raises new questions over who owns the region and natural resources it offers, Carolin Hilpert writes for ISN Security Watch.
By Carolin Hilpert for ISN Security Watch (14/08/08)
The US Geological Survey presented the first publicly available assessment of the Arctic Circle’s petroleum resources on 23 July, revealing an estimated 90 billion barrels of undiscovered, but technically recoverable, oil north of the Circle.
If the report is accurate, the find would account for roughly 13 percent of undiscovered oil in the world – enough to meet worldwide supply for the next three years (at current consumption rates). In addition, the area also contains 30 percent of the world’s undiscovered natural gas.
For several years, the Arctic littoral states – Denmark, Canada, Norway, Russia and the US – have conducted research on or put forward claims to the Arctic’s resources. The significance of the report is that, for the first time, it puts actual figures on the littoral states’ expectations regarding oil and gas in the Arctic. This was impossible in the past due to the amount of ice in the Arctic. With the ice rapidly melting due to global warming, previously inaccessible areas are now open.
Waiting for the thaw
Arctic sea ice is important for the Earth’s climate as its white surface reflects most of the sunlight, thereby exerting a cooling effect.
In 2005, NASA calculated a loss in Artic sea ice twice the size of Texas. In September 2007, the record-setting melting rate made the Northwest Passage the most navigable it has been since 1972.
Another attraction of the Arctic ice stems from its riches. Oil and gas companies have long expressed an interest in the area’s untapped resources. With world oil prices skyrocketing and demand increasing, businesses and policymakers alike are turning their eyes northward. Melting ice caps mean that these resources are becoming increasingly accessible.
But when will the Arctic be ice-free?
According to Dr Georg Heygster from the Institute of Environmental Physics at the University of Bremen, scientists previously discussed if the North Pole would be ice free at the end of this century. “Now the discussion, within the framework of the EU project DAMOCLES [an ice monitoring system] is, ‘Will the Arctic be ice free in summer in 20 or 40 years?’” he told ISN Security Watch.
But predictions are not easy to make.
“An important caveat is that the Arctic sea ice in the Arctic is highly variable,” Walt Meier, a research scientist at the University of Colorado National Snow and Ice Data Center, said.
“It’s quite possible we could have a very warm year that yields ice-free conditions one summer, but then some cooler conditions in following years that keep ice around through the summer,” he told ISN Security Watch. “So, once summer ice is gone in one year doesn’t mean it’s gone for good.”
The US Geological Survey report did not consider economic factors or accessibility to the oil and gas. Nevertheless, drilling in the Arctic, where the oil may lay thousands of feet below the surface, is not as easy or cheap as in the deserts of Saudi Arabia. Extraction is only feasible if worldwide oil prices remain high. Apart from the low temperatures, there are other factors that will complicate extraction.
“First, there is no doubt that the central Arctic will remain ice covered except [during a] few summer months, so the specific difficulties imposed by the sea ice will remain over most months of the year,” Heygster said.
“Second, the Arctic sea ice is continuously drifting […] a station on the sea ice will be moving relatively to the sea floor. As a consequence, all activities which require instrumentation at a fixed position, like drilling, would have to be performed completely underwater with no direct contact to the atmosphere, or, as an alternative, from a ship which actively melts away all the sea ice approaching its position. This would require huge amounts of energy.”
Unless oil prices remain high, gains from extracting the North Pole’s resources may not be worth the costs.
Another issue to consider is the question of who actually owns the Arctic.
UNCLOS: Setting legal boundaries
In July 2007, a spectacular Russian expedition placed a titanium flag of the Russian Federation below the seabed of the Arctic, sparking fears of an “Arctic race.” The quest to secure natural resources has long fomented territorial claims. In fact, already in 1926, the Soviet government claimed that Arctic territory belonged to the Soviet Union. However, no other country recognized the Russian delineation.
The legal regime that applies to the Arctic is outlined in the UN Convention on the Law of the Seas (UNCLOS). The Convention regulates states’ behavior on the high seas, their rights and responsibilities and the management of natural resources.
Accordingly, each country bordering the Arctic (and more generally, all other coastal states) enjoys the exclusive economic rights zone of 200 nautical miles beyond their coastlines. The North Pole itself is not subject to any national jurisdiction or sovereignty.
Articles 76 and 77 of UNCLOS say that a state can lay economic claims to more than its 200 nautical miles zone and exercise “sovereign rights for the purpose of exploring it and exploiting its natural resources” if it can prove that the ocean floor is a “the natural prolongation of its land territory.”
If a coastal state wishes to forward such a claim, it has 10 years upon the entry into force of the Convention to do so. Norway was the first country in 1996 to ratify the Convention; Russia, Canada and Denmark followed. So far, only the US has not signed on to the Convention as it is awaiting ratification by the US Senate.
Race or crawl?
Even with the prospects of claims to the area and its oil and gas, fears of a “race” to the Arctic are greatly exaggerated.
According to Ron Macnab, member of the Canadian Polar Commission, international law is capable of handling the peaceful process of territorial claims to the Arctic.
“Indeed, in the Arctic as in the rest of the world, the delimitation of the outer continental shelf is an orderly process subject to rules enshrined in [UNCLOS], and to date it has been carried out in a fairly disciplined manner,” Macnab told ISN Security Watch.
In fact, last May, political representatives from the five coastal states of the Arctic Ocean met in Ilulissat, Greenland, to address these concerns. The participants expressed their continued commitment to the legal framework of the law of the seas and insisted that overlapping claims would be addressed in an orderly manner and with the relevant legal provisions.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, who attended the meeting, downplayed the meaning of the Russian flag planted on the North Pole and compared it to the US flag on the moon, an action that did not signal territorial claims.
But Russia is testing the viability of UNCLOS. In December 2001, Russia submitted a claim to the Arctic that was neither rejected nor accepted by the responsible body, the Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf. The Commission did however ask Russia to prove if the Lomonosov Ridge, an underwater ridge of continental crust in the Arctic, was a continuation of the Russian section of the Eurasian landmass, which is in line with Articles 76 and 77 of UNCLOS.
In November 2006, Norway submitted a claim equal to the Russian version. The Commission plans to meet next year to address the Russian claim.
Carolin Hilpert is a graduate student of international relations at ETH Zurich and a former ISN intern.
From: ISN Security Watch
http://www.isn.ethz.ch/news/sw/
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On Hannity & Colmes, Corsi still compounding book falsehoods with further falsehoods
On Hannity & Colmes, Jerome Corsi claimed that the “whole point” of his book The Obama Nation is that the assertion by Sen. Barack Obama that he stopped using illegal drugs when he went to college is “not reliable.” But Corsi does not make that point in his book; rather, Corsi falsely asserted that Obama “has yet to answer questions” about his drug use. Sean Hannity asked Corsi, “[D]o we know if he ever sold drugs[?]” — though Hannity has previously asserted that such a question was a manifestation of “politics of personal destruction.”
Read More
http://mediamatters.org/items/200808130007?lid=515762&rid=12532650
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Wild theories of ‘Obama Nation’ author
By: Kenneth P. Vogel
‘The Obama Nation’ author has a trail of questionable assertions and vitriol, which affects his credibility.
more:
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0808/12526.html
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UNFIT FOR PUBLICATION: SWIFTBOATER BOOK ‘THE OBAMA NATION’ FILLED WITH FALSEHOODS
By Matthew Gertz, Eric H. Hananoki, Media Matters for America
A review finds that Jerome Corsi’s new book contains numerous falsehoods about Sen. Barack Obama.
http://www.alternet.org/mediaculture/94322/
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Borowitz Report – Gold Medal Shocker
August 13, 2008
China’s Gold Medals Found to Have High Lead Content
Phelps Warned Not to Lick Medals
China’s impressive haul of gold medals at the Beijing Olympics was tarnished somewhat today when it was revealed that “abnormally high levels of lead” were found in the first-place medallions.
The medals, which were supposed to be made entirely of gold, were instead found to be composed of 99% lead alloy and coated with a gold-colored lead-based paint.
The shocking revelations roiled the Olympic complex today and sent officials looking for answers from the Chinese manufacturer of the medals, the Wuhan One Hundred Percent Gold Medal Corporation.
“We are trying to determine how exactly so much lead got into those gold medals,” said a spokesman for Wuhan, China’s largest exporter of gold medals. “Until we do, we are urging all first-place athletes not to lick, taste or suck on their medals.”
The news about the potentially toxic gold medals spread panic among Olympic champions, especially U.S. swimming phenom Michael Phelps.
“I am very, very concerned about my extensive contact with gold medals,” Mr. Phelps told reporters. “But what am I supposed to do? Stop being so awesome?”
In other Olympic news, China’s hopes for winning more medals in women’s gymnastics were dashed when one of their leading gymnasts vanished down a bathtub drain on Tuesday.
Immediately after Jiang Qimin’s disappearance, Beijing authorities launched a search for the acclaimed seven-pound athlete.
Jiang had been the subject of speculation earlier this week as many foreign observers doubted China’s claims that the two-foot-tall gymnast was sixteen years old.
In an interview with NBC’s Bob Costas on Monday, Jiang sparked controversy with this response to a question about her age: “I want my sippy cup.”
Upcoming Events
October 22, 2008 at 8:00PM
Countdown to ’08
Andy hosts “Countdown to the Election, with special guests Joy Behar (The View) and Jeffrey Toobin (CNN, bestselling author of “The Nine”)Location:
92nd Street Y in NYC
For tickets go to www.92y.org
November 2, 2008 at 7:30PMAndy in New Haven
Spend “An Evening with Andy Borowitz” in New Haven on Sunday, November 2. Cocktails before the show start at 6:30Location:
Joseph Slifka Center at Yale
For tickets go to JewishNewHaven.org
http://www.borowitzreport.com/
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three thousand words
Tom Tomorrow: Mocking Obama
http://tinyurl.com/5myyva (action.credomobile.com)
Trouble Town (Lloyd Dangle): anthrax letters
http://tinyurl.com/57pc6v (troubletown.com
Ted Rall: we won’t make things, we’ll have ideas
http://tinyurl.com/6gtteo (editorialcartoonists.com)