This Modern World, currently under the stewardship of Bob Harris as Tom Tomorrow moves, kicks today off with two equally incindiary articles (though each for different reasons).
Item one: According to The New Republic, Bush requests Bin Laden’s capture in time for elections.
Okay, this one isn’t a surprise in the “gee, I didn’t see that coming” category…more in the “I can’t believe they’re this blatant about it” category.
This spring, the administration significantly increased its pressure on Pakistan to kill or capture Osama bin Laden, his deputy, Ayman Al Zawahiri, or the Taliban’s Mullah Mohammed Omar, all of whom are believed to be hiding in the lawless tribal areas of Pakistan.
[…]
This public pressure would be appropriate, even laudable, had it not been accompanied by an unseemly private insistence that the Pakistanis deliver these high-value targets (HVTs) before Americans go to the polls in November. …The New Republic has learned that Pakistani security officials have been told they must produce HVTs by the election. According to one source in Pakistan’s powerful Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), “The Pakistani government is really desperate and wants to flush out bin Laden and his associates after the latest pressures from the U.S. administration to deliver before the [upcoming] U.S. elections.”
[…]
A third source, an official who works under ISI’s director, Lieutenant General Ehsan ul-Haq, informed tnr that the Pakistanis “have been told at every level that apprehension or killing of HVTs before [the] election is [an] absolute must.” What’s more, this source claims that Bush administration officials have told their Pakistani counterparts they have a date in mind for announcing this achievement: “The last ten days of July deadline has been given repeatedly by visitors to Islamabad and during [ul-Haq’s] meetings in Washington.” …according to this ISI official, a White House aide told ul-Haq last spring that “it would be best if the arrest or killing of [any] HVT were announced on twenty-six, twenty-seven, or twenty-eight July”–the first three days of the Democratic National Convention in Boston.
Item Two: Children held and possibly tortured or abused in Abu Gahraib?
This one started with a German news report, and has started to find its way around the world’s news sites — at least, those not in the U.S. — and may potentially threaten Norway’s relations with the U.S.
Three days ago, a German TV newsmagazine called Report Mainz broadcast an eight-minute segment reporting that the International Red Cross found at least 107 children in coaliton-administered detention centers in Iraq.
The report also quotes from a yet-unpublished June 2004 UNICEF report, which (as near as I can tell through my crappy German) confirms that children were routinely arrested and “interned” in a camp in Um-Qasr. UNICEF seems particularly vexed with the “internment” status, since that means indefinite detention.
Another storm seems about to begin. Possibly a large one.
[…]
Hit the Norwegian links, and you’ll find that the local Amnesty International has stated that “Norway can not continue its military collaboration with the US in light of the alleged torture of children.” Norway actually listens to its activists; you’ll find that the Prime Minister’s office says it plans to address the situation with the U.S. “in a very severe and direct way.”
If this ain’t news, I don’t know what the hell is.
Okay, so maybe these aren’t the cheeriest stories to start your day with. Sorry about that. I’ll see if I can do better.