Doha Debates on Sunni-Shiite Violence
For those of you with access to BBC World, the best 24 hour news channel in the English-speaking world check out the Doha Debate this weekend. I was one of the debaters in Qatar.
Press coverage: The Christian Science Monitor
The blurb:
' Watch the latest Doha Debate: 'This House believes the Sunni-Shia conflict is damaging Islam's reputation as a religion of peace' on BBC World on May 3rd and 4th at the following times:
Doha times: Saturday May 3rd: 10:10 and repeated at 18:10 and 22:10
Sunday May 4th: 03:10 and repeated at 10:10, 18:10 and 22:10
GMT Saturday May 3rd: 07:10 and repeated at 15:10 and 19:10
Sunday May 4th: 00:10 and repeated at 07:10, 15:10 and 19:10
The Doha Debates have been broadcast on BBC World since January 2005. BBC World is the BBC's international, 24 hour news channel, broadcasting by satellite to nearly 300 million people in more than 200 countries. '
Labels: Iraq
posted by Juan Cole @ 5/02/2008 01:59:00 AM
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7 Comments:
looking forward to the Doha debate.
daithi, Dublin, Ireland.
The BBC streams archived Doha Debates .
http://clients.mediaondemand.net/thedohadebates/
Here is the summary:
http://www.dohadebates.com/output/page1.asp
Caught between Scylla (Cheney-BetrayUs) and Charybdis (Bernanke-Rubin) as each rushes to foreclose the Empire:
Secret Bush "Finding" Widens War on Iran
Six weeks ago, President Bush signed a secret finding authorizing a covert offensive against the Iranian regime that, according to those familiar with its contents, "unprecedented in its scope."
This widened scope clears the way, for example, for full support for the military arm of Mujahedin-e Khalq, the cultish Iranian opposition group, despite its enduring position on the State Department's list of terrorist groups.
Similarly, covert funds can now flow without restriction to Jundullah, or "army of god," the militant Sunni group in Iranian Baluchistan – just across the Afghan border -- whose leader was featured not long ago on Dan Rather Reports cutting his brother in law's throat.
All this costs money, which in turn must be authorized by Congress, or at least a by few witting members of the intelligence committees. That has not proved a problem. An initial outlay of $300 million to finance implementation of the finding has been swiftly approved with bipartisan support, apparently regardless of the unpopularity of the current war and the perilous condition of the U.S. economy.
Petraeus is said to be at work on a master briefing for congress to demonstrate conclusively that the Iranians are the source of our current troubles in Iraq, thanks to their support for the Shia militia currently under attack by U.S. forces in Baghdad.
Interestingly, despite the bellicose complaints, Petraeus has made little effort to seal the Iran-Iraq border, and in any case two thirds of U.S. casualties still come from Sunni insurgents. "The Shia account for less than one third," a recently returned member of the command staff in Baghdad familiar with the relevant intelligence told me, "but if you want a war you have to sell it."
Sometime in the next two weeks, fleet radar operator may notice a blip on their screens that represents something rather more profound: America's growing financial weakness. The blip will be former Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin's plane commencing its descent into Abu Dhabi.
The Abu Dhabi Sovereign Wealth Fund injected $7.5 billion last November (albeit at a sub-prime interest rate of eleven percent,) but the bank's urgent need for fresh capital persists, and Abu Dhabi is where the money is.
Even if those radar operators pay no attention to Mr. Rubin's flight, and the ironic contrast it illustrates between American military power and financial weakness, others will, and not just in Tehran. There's not much a finding can do about that.
You would think that wildly escalating war crimes, the US murdering the blameless poor methodically, robotically in their Baghdad ghetto sealed in and surrounded by US military, would cause a great outcry during the course of such a strident contest for the National Social Workers Party nomination for President of the United States?
You'd be more than wrong, you'd be accused of being an America Hater, an "enemy" of the "Volk comrades", for bringing the subject up!
Is Sadr City Becoming the Next Gaza?
For the past month, Sadr City has been effectively sealed off from the rest of Baghdad as United States and Iraqi forces attempt to crush Muqtada al-Sadr’s Mahdi Army. In an ostensible effort to quell the launch of rockets from the neighborhood into the Green Zone, recent days have seen an intensification in fighting and causalities.
In an area only half the size of Manhattan, bombs have been dropped from U.S. warplanes, Predator Hellfire missiles fired and Apache attack helicopters dispatched. Yet the heart of Sadr City remains unpenetrated and only its southern outskirts precariously held. The difficulties of street warfare and a recent sandstorm – considered divine intervention by some – have hampered efforts to make further gains. The U.S. is now in the process of erecting a two-mile concrete wall which will separate the southern quarter’s Thawra and Jamila districts from the rest of the city. Apparently, what cannot be defeated will be imprisoned.
Your description of 'BBC World, the best 24 hour news channel in the English-speaking world' used to be right, but is no longer. Like CNN, Fox, etc, it spends 20% or more of its time on air advertising itself, and then feeds us pablum.
The 'Doha Debates' though, are good, until the moderator gets in and makes sure any real, heartfelt, worthwhile statements are lost in the usual nonsense of 'being fair to both sides'.
If Joseph Goebbels was debating Martin Niemöller, right now, the BBC would smooth away their differences, and then cut away for the break.
regards
Richard
I came upon this blast from the past, February 23, 1999, just about 2 years before Clinton I handed the baton to Bush II, today. Linked to by Lt Colonel Ret Karen Kwiatkowski :
Press Conference by Chairman, JCS, General Henry Shelton in Doha, Qatar
Q: People in the Arab world and Islamic world, they are wondering whether the United States have the right to, I mean, to make the plans to overthrow the regime in Baghdad. You know, it is not according to international law; it is not according to anything. But it is an American plan to just overthrow the regime. What's the opinion about that, and what's the American strategy towards the Iraq regime in the coming period?
Gen. Shelton: Thank you. I think that not only our American leadership but the leadership throughout the international community -- based on Saddam Hussein's actions and the way that the Iraqi people have suffered under his leadership -- all believe that Iraq would be better off if there was a change in the leadership, a change in the regime. We have made it clear that we would be willing to support those groups, both internal as well as external, that are opposed to Saddam Hussein, because we think that the Iraqi people deserve better. Now, we all also agree that we think that Iraq as a nation should continue. We're not advocating a splintered Iraq. But we will continue to provide whatever support we can to those that would like to see a regime change.
They were not then advocating a splintered Iraq... that had to await the arrival of Wolfowitz and Feith.
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