Morning Coffe - 5 November 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
UM, GUYS? - Ousted Honduran President Mel Zelaya is questioning why Washington is prepared to recognize the November 29 presidential election if it takes place before he is returned to power, as expressed on CNN en Espanol yesterday by the top U.S. envoy to Latin American. Last week, Zelaya and the leader of the coup regime cut a deal under the watchful eye of the U.S. State Department. The deal called for a reinstatement of Zelaya contingent on the approval of Congress. Washington hailed the pact as a triumph for democracy. Now the Honduran Congress is dragging its feet on the vote and the election is rapidly approaching. Link
UN SHIFTS STAFF FOR SAFETY - The United Nations today announced plans to relocate 600 staff members in Afghanistan for their own safety. Last week five UN personnel and 3 Afghans were killed in a Taliban attack on a guest house in Kabul. The relocation won't affect aid delivery, which is done by Afghan staff. Kai Eide, the UN's head of mission in Afghanistan, said that some of the workers will be moved within Afghanistan and others will be transferred to other countries. Link
US-COLOMBIA PACT SPARKS UPROAR - Colombian opposition leaders are up in arms over a new 10-year pact with the United States that would allow the U.S. to use not only Colombian military bases but civilian airports as well. U.S. military and civilian contractors would enjoy diplomatic immunity under the deal. We all know how well de facto immunity worked out for Blackwater in Iraq. Link
ICC TO PROBE KENYA VIOLENCE - The International Criminal Court announced today that it will begin an inquiry into the wave of post-election carnage that overtook Kenya in 2008. ICC investigator Luis Moreno-Ocampo told Kenyan leaders that the ICC was bound to investigate because the atrocities that took place were "crimes against humanity." More than 1000 people died in the post-election conflict. Link
MEXICAN MILITARY CALLED OUT AT IACHR - The 137th session of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) kicked off Monday in Washington, D.C. Today there will be a hearing on "Public Security and Human Rights in Tijuana, Mexico." Activists and family members will testify about alleged human rights abuses by the military in northern Mexico. President Calderone has effectively placed the country under military occupation in the name of his stepped-up drug war. Accusations of rape, arbitrary detention, torture, and murder by soldiers have skyrocketed since soldiers began to take the place of police officers on the beat. Link
Provocateurs
Robert Fisk in THE INDEPENDENT
"Could there be a more accurate description of the Obama-Brown message of congratulations to the fraudulently elected Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan? First the Palestinians held fair elections in 2006, voted for Hamas and were brutally punished for it – they still are – and then the Iranians held fraudulent elections in June which put back the weird Mahmoud Ahmadinejad whom everyone outside Iran (and a lot inside) regard as a dictator. But now we have the venal, corrupt, sectarian Karzai in power after a poll far more ambitiously rigged than the Iranian version, and – yup, we love him dearly and accept his totally fraudulent election. "
Zach Roth in TPM MUCKRAKER
"Newsweek magazine is teaming up with an oil-industry lobbying group to host an event on climate-change and energy issues involving lawmakers, just as the Senate gets set to take up legislation on the subject. The panel discussion, entitled "Climate and Energy Policy: Moving?," will feature Jack Gerard, CEO of the American Petroleum Institute, and, as moderator, Newsweek columnist Howard Fineman, according to an email invitation sent by a Newsweek business staffer and obtained by TPMmuckraker. "
Rayne in THE SEMINAL
"When a large corporation decides that an unsaleable subsidiary business’s operations are no longer serving its interests, it folds up shop. It cherry-picks the best people and redeploys them elsewhere, and then it cuts costs by eliminating all other now-unnecessary expenses, including departments and personnel. This is what we, the shareholders of the United States, have asked the management team installed as the Obama administration to do, with regard to the occupation of Iraq; we want them to close up shop and stop spending money related to the war’s operations. And yet certain elements of the Department of Defense and the Department of State are doing everything they can to sustain or inflate costs through continued operations. "
Water Cooler

Imprisoned Burman opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi was briefly allowed out of captivity to meet with a high-ranking American diplomat, Kurt Campbell, Assistant Secretary of State for East Asia, at a hotel in Rangoon. Campbell is the highest-ranking U.S. diplomat to meet with Suu Kyi in her 14 years of captivity. Earlier in the day, Campbell met with Burman's prime minister, General Thein Sein, but, in what was seen as a snub, did not meet with Gen. Than Shwe, the leader of the junta.

 

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