Egypt’s Morsi Flees as Protesters Storm Presidential Palace
Protesters Demand Egypt Abandon New Draft Constitution
by Jason Ditz, December 04, 2012
Massive numbers of protesters, by some estimates 100,000 or more, marched on Egypt’s presidential palace in Cairo, storming the outer gates and entering the grounds of the compound, forcing President Mohamed Morsi to flee.
The protesters were both condemning Morsi’s edict granting himself unchecked power until a new constitution was in place and the referendum, scheduled for a week from Saturday, on a proposed new constitution.
Morsi’s edict has been hugely controversial and has sparked multiple protests, but he has defended it as temporary and designed to prevent an unfriendly court system from ousting the constitutional committee just days before the draft constitution had been finished. With the vote looming, however, the protesters are now condemning theconstitution for having been written by Morsi’s allies in the Muslim Brotherhood.
Yet after last year’s parliamentary elections ended in an overwhelming victory for the Brotherhood’s Freedom and Justice Party (FJP), it is unsurprising that party got a solid major of the seats in the constitutional committee. Specific complaints about the draft have been few, with most condemning it on the basis of its authors, and in the end it seems that the referendum will likely pass on the back of Islamist supporters, ending the most onerous of Morsi’s own power grab by finally giving him a constitutionally defined role.
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Iran FM: Direct Talks With US ‘Possible’ With Khamenei’s Approval
Decisions on Comprehensive Talks Up to Supreme Leader
by Jason Ditz, December 03, 2012
Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi has confirmed that it is possible his nation may hold talks with the United States, saying that such a decision would be entirely up to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
“Comprehensive political talks are within the powers of the exalted supreme leader,” Salehi noted. Khamenei has not commented on the possibility yet, but other officials have come out either for or against such talks.
The US hasn’t confirmed whether or not it would go along with bilateral talks either, but has been in talks with other P5+1 nations about the prospect of issuing assorted demands to Iran in the event talks begin.
Iran’s spy agency has endorsed talks, saying that diplomacy is necessary to move out of the current crisis. Other officials have warned that the talks are a waste of time so long as the US position does not change.
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NATO Confirms Plan to Send Missiles to Turkey
Suddenly Couches Deployment as About Syrian Chemical Weapons
by Jason Ditz, December 03, 2012
NATO chief Anders Fogh Rasmussen today reiterated that the alliance intends to deploy Patriot missiles to the Turkish border with Syria in response to Turkish requests in recent weeks.
The excuse for such a deployment has been lacking, however, with the sum total of cross-border shelling a few stray artillery shells which US officials have conceded that can’t even say for sure were fired by Syria’s military in the first place.
But officials were talking up Syria’s chemical weapons program today, and that seems asgood an excuse as any, so NATO officials are now saying the deployment is about shielding Turkey from a chemical weapons attack.
Russia, for their part, are reiterating their own criticism of the plan, saying the whole thing is pointless and just a further provocation of Syria. Since Turkey is openly backing rebels who have seized a good chunk of northern Syria, there are likely plenty of hard feelings there already.
http://news.antiwar.com/2012/12/03/afghan-government-bans-us-control-of-prisons-detainees/
Afghan Government Bans US Control of Prisons, Detainees
Kabul's decree prohibits any foreigners from having control over Afghan prisons and detainees
by John Glaser, December 03, 2012
The Afghan National Security Council has announced that foreigners are prohibited from arresting Afghans or controlling prisons in the country, defying US plans to maintain these powers after 2014.
Afghan President Hamid Karzai called any foreign-run prisons “a breach of…national sovereignty,” reiterating in his statement that “No foreigners have the right to run prisons and detain Afghan nationals in Afghanistan.”
The decree speaks to a long-running dispute between Kabul and the Obama administration. The Obama administration gave in to Afghan demands to gain control over Afghan prisons after the US withdrew.
After most US troops withdraw in 2014 – at least 10,000 will remain occupying the country perhaps until 2024 – the Obama administration planned on walking a fine line in cooperation with the Kabul government to maintain some control, and effectively tell Kabul which prisoners to indefinitely detain.
Western commentators have tried to claim that resisting full Afghan control is aimed at mitigating harsh treatment of prisoners.
But while the Afghan-controlled prisons do have a very recent history of detainee torture and abuse, so do US-run prisons.
Early this year, an Afghan investigative commission accused the American military of abusing detainees in the Bagram prison facilities, prompting Karzai’s push on the issue. Attorney for Human Rights First Daphne Eviatar said in a recent CBS interview of Bagram that “It’s worse than Guantanamo, because there are fewer rights.”
Kabul seems to be winning the ongoing spat about prisoner control, but the dispute is another illustration of the Obama administration’s refusal to finally end the war in Afghanistan, public statements to the contrary.
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http://news.antiwar.com/2012/12/03/un-calls-on-israel-to-open-nuclear-program-to-inspections/
UN Calls on Israel to Open Nuclear Program to Inspections
General Assembly overwhelmingly approved a resolution calling on Israel to join the NPT and allow IAEA inspectors
by John Glaser, December 03, 2012
The UN General Assembly has overwhelmingly approved a resolution calling on Israel to open its nuclear program for inspection “without further delay.”
Israel’s advanced nuclear arsenal has long been understood to exist, although it hasn’t been officially admitted by the Israeli government. Many have argued Israel’s possession of nuclear weapons is what drives the accelerated Iranian program and causes other regional instability.
The resolution was approved on Monday by a vote of 174-6 with 6 abstentions and calls on Israel to join the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty immediately and open its nuclear facilities to inspection by the International Atomic Energy Agency.
It also offered support for a high-level conference to ban nuclear weapons from the Middle East which was just canceled by the US and Israel, in order to protect Israel’s regional nuclear monopoly.
If Israel agreed to dismantling its vast stockpiles of nuclear weapons and to a deal enforcing a nuclear weapons-free zone in the Middle East – a deal Iran and Israel’s Arab neighbors have repeatedly proposed – the supposed threats Israel faces in the region would virtually disappear.
But Israel refuses to give up its nuclear monopoly, insistent on maintaining its excuse to build up its military and distract from the Palestinian issue.
As former CIA Middle East analyst Paul Pillar has written, “the Iran issue” provides a “distraction” from international “attention to the Palestinians’ lack of popular sovereignty.”
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Iran claims capture of US drone | |||
Pilotless Scan Eagle entered Iranian airspace over Gulf waters after taking off from warship, according to state media.
Last Modified: 04 Dec 2012 10:25
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| Iran's Revolutionary Guard has captured a US drone after it entered the country's airspace over the Gulf, according to a state media report. The report on state televison quoted the Guard's navy chief, General Ali Fadavi, as saying that the Iranian forces caught the "intruding" pilotless aircraft on Tuesday.
The drone had apparently taken off from a US aircraft carrier, the report said.
Fadavi said the unmanned Boeing-made Scan Eagle was now in Iran's hands. "The US drone, which was conducting a reconnaissance flight and gathering data over the Persian Gulf in the past few days, was captured by the Guard's navy air defence unit as soon as it entered Iranian airspace," Fadavi said. "Such drones usually take off from large warships." He did not provide any further details nor said when the incident happened. There was no immediate comment from the US Navy's 5th Fleet, based in Bahrain. If true, the seizure of the drone would be the third reported incident involving Iran and US drones in the past two years. Past precedents Last month Iranian fighter jets fired on a US drone in the Gulf but failed to bring it down, according to the US defence department. Pentagon said the unmanned aircraft came under fire - at least twice but was not hit - and that the Predator was over international waters.
The US and its allies believe Iran is pursuing a nuclear weapon. Iran denies the charge, saying its nuclear activities are for peaceful purposes only, such as power generation and cancer treatment. Exactly a year ago, on December 4, Iran claimed to have captured a much bigger and more sophisticated stealth drone, a bat-winged RQ-170 Sentinel. Iran rejected a US request for its return and said it would reverse-engineer that drone to make its own.
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