Morning Coffee - 21 October 2009

Welcome to Morning Coffee, brought to you by Lindsay Beyerstein with additional links from the UN Dispatch team. Every morning we survey foreign affairs and foreign policy news so you don't have to. We begin with the "Starting Five" items of the day -- these may not always appear on A-1, but they *are* the kinds of stories that will be buzzing in foreign capitals, the UN and wherever foreign policy minds roam.
Starting Five
DO-OVER IN AFGHANISTAN - UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon wants 200 poll officials in Afghanistan who were complicit in fraud fired ahead of the upcoming run-off election between Hamid Karzai and Dr. Abdullah Abdullah. UN overseers determined the original vote count, which appeared to give Karzai the absolute majority he needed to avoid a runoff, was the product of massive ballot box stuffing. Some observers see a chance to avoid a re-vote if Karzai and Abdullah strike some kind of deal to form a coalition government. Link
THERE GOES THE NABE - A botched renovation may cost Bolivia's Akapana pyramid its status as a UNESCO World Heritage site. The 1700-year-old landmark might even collapse. The pyramid is made of stone, but someone thought tourists would like it better if it were plastered with adobe. "They decided to go freehand with the [new] design... There are no studies showing that the walls really looked like this," said a dismayed UNESCO official. Link
A FLIGHT RISK, YOUR HONOR - In what may be the least controversial decision in legal history, a court denied bail to celebrated film director and self-admitted statutory rapist Roman Polanski. Polanski was apprehended in Zurich after more than 30 years on the run. He fled the U.S. after pleading guilty to unlawful intercourse with a 13-year-old girl. Link
THIRD TIME'S THE CHARM - A Nicaraguan court has given leftist prime minister Daniel Ortega the green light to seek a third term as president. The decision-making body consisted only of supporters of Ortega's Sandinista party. The opposition Liberals are disputing the legitimacy of the ruling, which the court says is final. Ortega's decision to seek a third term is part of a trend of leftist presidents challenging term limits. Many Latin American constitutions establish a very strong presidency with strict term limits as the primary check on executive power. Honduran president Mel Zelaya was ousted by a military coup on suspicion that he planned to abolish term limits. Link
PUTTING THE "WAS" IN ECOWAS - The African trading bloc ECOWAS has suspended Niger because its president called a controversial parliamentary election. President Mamadou Tandja dissolved parliament and called an election after abolishing term limits and giving himself the right to seek a third term. Opposition leaders are boycotting the vote. ECOWAS wants Tandja to negotiate with the opposition. Link
Provocateurs
Spencer Ackerman in FIREDOGLAKE
"We Jews in this country frequently demand that our Arab-American fellow citizens denounce the radical and racist fringe in their midst. Yet they show more fortitude in doing so than we do when we’re faced with a Lenny Ben-David, someone who once worked for the premiere Israel-U.S. lobby group and even for the Israeli embassy. Every Jew who knows Rebecca [Abou Chedid]— knows the goodness in her heart and her soul and the relentlessness with which she works to make peace a reality — must denounce Lenny Ben-David. "
Eve Conant in NEWSWEEK
"This May, Sila, now 38 years old, underwent a simple but profound operation to undo the past. She traveled to Trinidad, Colorado, where Dr. Marci Bowers, a gynecological and pelvic surgeon, has recently begun to perform "clitoralplasty" or "female circumcision reversals" on African women. A relatively new procedure, it reshapes the anatomy and, in 80 percent of patients, restores pleasurable sensation. "I want my womanhood back," Sila told Bowers when she first spoke to the surgeon about the operation. "I just want to know it's there. To have the feeling that I can fight against this culture." "
Josh Rogin in THE CABLE
"Jim DeMint is ready to release his holds against two top administration Latin America appointees, the South Carolina senator told The Cable, and he predicts the State Department will soon recognize the upcoming Honduran elections as legitimate. In an exclusive interview, DeMint said he was seeing signs of movement from the State Department related to U.S. policy toward Honduras and that he had come close to an agreement over his hold in his meeting earlier this week with Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs Thomas Shannon."
Water Cooler

Aleksandr Y. Khochinsky makes Jack Abramoff look like a schoolboy with an apple for his teacher. Khochinsky is a professional bribe broker who specializes in locating decadent gifts to sway Russian officials. It's a practice called "giving greyhound puppies," after a character in a Gogol novel who liked his bribes cute and furry. Forget a dinner at the Capital Grille or a campaign fundraiser. These oligarchs expect suits of armor and the hand-written letters of monarchs.

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