Confessions of a News Junkie

I understand the basics of the Israeli-Palestinian conflicts. But after the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948, the six-day war in 1967, and land conflicts since, I struggle to find direction in the peace accords from the last four decades.

Carol Strenger writes a brief synopsis of the challenges to a resolution between Palestine and Israel in "Talking Cure Diplomacy." He suggests time tables are not feasible and the agreement process should be "open-ended until a two-state solution can be reached.

This is one of the most succinct descriptions of the conflict I've ever read, and is relevant in the current contentious settlement issues. Talking Cure Diplomacy

Last Thursday, a federal judge dismissed criminal charges against five Blackwater security guards accused of killing 17 unarmed Iraqi civilians in 2007. Those refuting the decision include the Justice Department, the FBI, which found that at least 14 of the Iraqis killed were shot without cause, and the Iraqi government.

U.S. District Judge Ricardo Urbina claims Blackwater security guards can’t be accountable both because their contracts relieved them from Iraq’s justice system and because the prosecution violated their constitutional rights through confession statements, such as being threatened of losing their jobs if they did not cooperate with investigators.

The Justice Department charged the Blackwater guards with manslaughter in 2008, while one contractor pleaded guilty late that year.

As of January 1, 2009, private contractors like Blackwater, now called Xe, are no longer exempt from Iraqi law; this means there might be more accountability for heinous acts and justice for the victims because judges like Urbina won’t be able to evade alarming evidence of war crimes.

On the same day, two national leaders and one former vice-presidential candidate made odd public comments that beckon further dialogue.

In an interview with NPR's Morning Edition host Steve Inskeep, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad questioned the holocaust again. Ahmadinejad told Inskeep he isn't a historian who can claim what did or did not happen,

While I personally was not alive 60 years ago, I happen to be alive now, and I can see that genocide is happening now under the pretext of an event that happened 60 years ago. So the fundamental question I raise here is that, if this event happened, where did it happen? As a form of an objection question, who was it carried by? Why should the Palestinian people make up for it?

The full interview is here.

Libya’s leader, Col. Muammar al-Qaddafi, again proposed to the United Nations General Assembly that Israel and the Palestinian territories be combined into one state called Isratine. I bet Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas would love it.

And Sarah Palin addressed Asian bankers, investors and fund managers in Hong Kong.

As the governor of Alaska she said...she had a unique insight (into foreign affairs) because “you can actually see Russia from land here in Alaska” — a remark that was widely lampooned. - The New York Times

Canadian Doug A. Coulter, the head of private equity in the Asia-Pacific region for LGT Capital Partners, says Palin has potential as a future presidential candidate. Let's hope that she travels a lot more, after giving her first speech abroad yesterday and making her first trip outside North America in 2007.

Sources:
Ahmadinejad: Holocaust 'Opinion Of Just A Few'
Qaddafi's First U.N. Speech Is a Rambling Diatribe
Palin Speaks to Investors in Hong Kong

The Taliban and Al-Qaeda continue to disgrace civility in Afghanistan and Pakistan. The unbearable conditions push migrants to The Jungle.

Ad hoc international and ethnic boundaries have sprung up across the town of Calais. Afghans live in a desolate place known as "the Jungle", Iraqis have their own encampment not far away. East Africans live in a terrace of derelict buildings in the town centre.

The Jungle is a filthy, squalid camp with shacks made from old bits of wood, corrugated iron, plastic sheeting and blankets.

It is starting to look permanent though. This week the men there began work on building a lashed-together mosque.

Ethnic disputes break out frequently. One man was recently murdered here by someone from another tribe. His friends have built him a memorial made from old breeze blocks.

In March, the French and British governments started planning detention centers in Calais to stop illegal immigrants from settling and from crossing the English Channel to Britain. Officials wanted to detain traffickers too.

Today officials detained 278 immigrants who would have paid traffickers about $700 for a trip to Britain. The Jungle may be gritty, but locals host soup kitchens and help build tents for the immigrants. Where will they go?

Sources:
French Officials Move to Close Camp of Migrants Headed to Britain
Detention centre planned for illegal immigrants in Calais
Police detain 278 migrants in raid on Calais 'jungle'
Calais: Immigrants desperate to reach UK

Mexican drug cartels don't stop in San Diego.

Oregon is fighting drug crimes with a $1.5 million federal grant, which will add two new investigators and a new analyst to work with local police and district attorneys in a multiagency Drug Crimes Strike Force.

I responded to an article about this issue in the Register Guard.

To the Editor:
The new $1.5 million federal grant to fight drug cartels in Oregon is a catalyst for stopping a crippling foe for addicts: access to methamphetamine. But the Department of Justice hasn’t explained its intentions for rehabilitating drug users. Investigating crimes is a step, but if cartels are the problem their deep bases won’t stop serious users.
The higher demand for meth could exhaust local police unless there is some attention to identifying and rehabilitating current users.
Courtney Hibbard, Eugene

Sources: Grant aimed at drug cartels