The Progress Report


UNDER THE RADAR

IRAQ
Rumsfeld Prepared to Fail

U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Gen. Richard Myers, chairman of the Jjoint Chiefs of Staff, are making a surprise visit to Iraq today, "aimed at containing the prisoner-abuse scandal." Contrary to the assertions of many conservatives that the abuse was the responsibility of a few errant soldiers, Rumsfeld "indicated that he may not be satisfied with an explanation that the abuse at Abu Ghraib prison was solely the acts of a small band of misguided military police, and that he may be looking higher up the chain of command." He also "raised the possibility yesterday that the U.S. mission in Iraq could fail." Rumsfeld: "Is it possible it won't work? Yes."

A PLAN FOR SUCCESS: The Center for American Progress has a new plan to revive the flailing operations in Iraq. Yesterday, we released an in-depth report on the steps the United States needs to take to implement reforms and take responsibility for the abuse in Iraq in order to rebuild confidence among Iraqis and restore credibility in the international community. Among the recommendations: Develop and institute a new system of management of detainees in Iraqi prisons; transfer prisoners to new facilities and allow Iraqis to determine the fate of Abu Ghraib; compile and maintain a database so Iraqis can locate family members held in detention; create a permanent prison monitoring committee with Iraqi and international representation; and expand the Pentagon investigation into the abuses to include the chain of command.

IMPROVE THE RATIO: According to the report by American Progress, another large step the United States must take is to "increase the guard-to-detainee ratio and remove civilian contractors from interrogation teams." The current ratio of guards to prisoners is shockingly low; "estimates have ranged from 130 to 450 U.S. guards for up to 8,000 prisoners." (Keep in mind, the prisons at Guantanamo have 800 gaurd responsible for 600 prisoners.) The report suggests: "given the difficulty of bringing more forces into Iraq and the need to establish credibility, the United States should recruit soldiers from other coalition countries. The goal should be a ratio of one guard to every five prisoners."

TAKE RESPONSIBILITY: The American Progress report also charges it is time to "call on the top Pentagon leadership to resign for the good of the country." It turns out this call has been taken up by conservatives and progressives alike: Neocon Max Boot writes in this morning's LA Times, "Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld's failure to offer his resignation over the Abu Ghraib scandal is sadly typical of the lack of accountability that permeates the U.S. government."

SPINNING THE GENEVA CONVENTION: Secretary Rumsfeld yesterday claimed the United States was following the Geneva Convention rules in its interrogations in Iraq. That's not the case. The conventions ban "physical or moral coercion." The WSJ reports, the murkiness of the rules may have led to massive misunderstandings. For example, "a Red Cross official said some measures on the list, such as 'stress positions,' sensory deprivation, sleep deprivation and dietary manipulation, would be prohibited under the Geneva Conventions if used systematically against prisoners." "These techniques, to the extent I understand them, when applied constantly to prisoners would not comply with the Geneva Conventions," said Christophe Girod, head of the ICRC delegation. Gary Solis, an expert in the law of war at Georgetown University law school and a former Marine judge, said, "There's no getting around it, we have ignored provisions of the Geneva Convention in favor of gathering intelligence."

UNHEEDED ALARM BELLS: The alarm was sounded. According to the WP, last year a total of 80 military lawyers "appealed to a senior representative of the New York State Bar Association to try to persuade the Pentagon to revise its practices" regarding interrogation rules in Iraq. "They were quite blunt," said Scott Horton, then head of the Bar Association's committee on international law. "They were extremely concerned about how the political appointees were dealing with interrogation issues. They said this was a disaster waiting to happen and that they felt shut out" of the rules-drafting process. Horton would not identify the participants, saying they did not want their names publicized.

MISSED OPPORTUNITIES: Lt. Gen. Ricardo told reporters today "it appears Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, an associate of Osama bin Laden believed to be behind a wave of suicide bombings in Iraq," was responsible for killing Nicholas Berg. According to NBC, the Bush administration had "several chances to wipe out" Zarqawi's operation and "perhaps kill Zarqawi himself — but never pulled the trigger" before the war. The push to go into Iraq halted that effort, though. "People were more obsessed with developing the coalition to overthrow Saddam than to execute the president's policy of preemption against terrorists," said terrorism expert and former National Security Council member Roger Cressey.

LABOR
Bridging the Information Gap

The first step to recovery is admitting you have a problem. While such logic eludes most large corporations, Gap Inc. showed yesterday it was the exception to the rule. In a refreshing display of corporate transparency it issued a report which "concedes that working conditions are far from perfect at many of the 3,000 factories world-wide that make its clothing." Gap admitted "forced labor, child labor, paying below minimum wage, physical punishment and coercion are some of the widespread workers' rights violations occurring at many of its factories worldwide." Specifically, the report found "between 10% and 25% of its factories in China, Taiwan and Saipan use psychological coercion or verbal abuse" and "50% of the factories visited in sub-Saharan Africa run machinery without proper safety devices." The retailer also acknowledged "problems of discrimination and management interference with workers' right to associate are more widespread than its data suggest." Disclosure, of course, does not solve the problem. Whether the company fulfills its promise to become "more vigilant in its resolve to improve factory conditions" will be the true measure of its success.

GAP TAKES A STEP FORWARD, WAL-MART STILL BACKWARDS: Gap's conduct sharply contrasts to that of Wal-Mart. According to Charles Kernaghan of the National Labor Committee Wal-Mart is "the biggest sweatshop abuser in the world." In many of the countries where it does business the "gross national product is less than Wal-Mart's total annual sales revenues." And despite falling under heavy criticism in the mid-1990s about conditions at the foreign plants that make its clothing Wal-Mart is still, according to their spokesman, "debating how best to compile information on factory conditions."

REFUSING TO ENFORCE TRADE LAWS WITH CHINA: While some in Corporate America like Gap are willing to acknowledge the harsh realities of human rights/labor abuses, apparently the Bush administration is not: last month, the White House rejected "a petition by the AFL-CIO to investigate China's alleged exploitation of workers" – a practice which artificially deflates labor costs and violates trade agreements. According to Bush's own Assistant Secretary of State, there is nothing "that I don't find factually accurate" in the AFL-CIO's petition, as "many of the charges were taken from the State Department's own report on human rights." But instead of enforcing trade laws and acknowledging China's awful record, the White House claimed any investigation would supposedly "take us down the path of economic isolationism." But the labor movement is not backing down: AFL-CIO president John Sweeney will visit China to investigate working conditions himself, after Chinese officials permitted the trip.

ENDORSING WAL-MART'S LABOR PRACTICES: Instead of deploying the Labor Department to investigate Wal-Mart's harsh treatment of workers, Vice President Cheney last week visited Wal-Mart headquarters and portrayed the company "as an example of the Bush administration's success." Cheney "and wife Lynn marveled at the efficiency" of the company and rubbed elbows with CEO Lee Scott, a major campaign contributor to Bush and conservative allies. Scott claimed "Wal-Mart's respect for its humble beginnings has kept its massive corporate structure in touch" with employees. But neither Cheney nor Scott mentioned the fact that Wal-Mart pays workers wages that often fall below the poverty line, and keeps roughly one-third of its entire workforce on a part-time schedule, so as to restrict workers' access to health benefits. He also mentioned nothing of the various lawsuits Wal-Mart faces for worker abuse, nothing about Wal-Mart's use of undocumented workers, and nothing about the company's controversial practice of locking workers in stores and not providing them with work breaks. That silence may have been bought by Wal-Mart's recent decision to ratchet up political contributions "primarily to Republicans."







PATRIOT ACT – OPENING ARGUMENTS: A Manhattan federal judge yesterday "widened the public's glimpse into a lawsuit by the American Civil Liberties Union challenging some terms of the antiterrorism law known as the USA Patriot Act, after the government sought to keep virtually every detail of the case under a court seal, or secrecy order." The A.C.L.U., which is contesting a provision in the law that lets the F.B.I "require telephone, Internet and other communications companies to provide basic information about their customers, including addresses and call records," had originally been forced to file its suit under seal, for fear of being in violation of the law they sought to contest. As the law stands, the F.B.I can send a subpoena, known as a national security letter, "which includes an order barring the company from informing the customer of the investigation or discussing it with anyone...The F.B.I. can acquire data on customers even if they are not suspected of terrorist activity."

MEDIA – MOORE FINDS DISTRIBUTORS: AP reports "Miramax Films chiefs Bob and Harvey Weinstein plan to buy back Michael Moore's 'Fahrenheit 9-11' — which Walt Disney Co. blocked Miramax from releasing — and distribute it themselves." Under the deal, the brothers, "who have a thorny relationship with parent company Disney, would not be able to distribute the movie through Miramax. They would have to find a third-party company." Disney chief executive Michael Eisner had expressed concern that releasing Moore's film, which "criticizes President Bush's handling of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and connects the Bush family with Osama bin Laden's," could endanger Disney's tax breaks for its theme parks in Florida, where the president's brother Jeb is governor.

VOTING – THE ELECTION SHOULD NOT BE AUTOMATED: In another blow to electronic voting, "A scathing internal review of the iVotronic touch-screen voting machines used in Miami-Dade and Broward, Fla., counties, written by a Miami-Dade County elections official, has raised fresh doubts about how accurately the electronic machines count the vote." Meant as a panacea in the wake of the 2000 presidential election debacle, electronic voting has come under increased scrutiny in recent months, with critics contending "the headlong rush into electronic voting was a mistake because the systems are unproven." The new review of iVotronic, "one of the main systems in use nationally," concludes there is a "'serious bug' in the voting machine software that results in votes potentially being lost and voting machines not being accounted for in the voting system's self-generated post-election audit."

IRAQ – FACTS HARD TO COME BY: The "Iraq fact of the day" on yesterday's White House Web site was that Iraq was "Mov[ing] toward Regulating Its Own Electronic Media." But today's WSJ reports, unbeknownst to Iraqi officials who thought they were calling the shots, "the authority to license Iraq's television stations, sanction newspapers and regulate cellphone companies was recently transferred to a commission whose members were selected by Washington." In fact, the White House has quietly been installing its officials in key positions in Iraq, giving the U.S. "powerful levers for influencing nearly every important decision the interim government will make. The moves risk exacerbating the two biggest problems bedeviling the U.S. occupation: the reluctance of Iraqis to take responsibility for their own country and the tendency of many Iraqis to blame the country's woes on the U.S."

WAL-MART – "GREAT COMPANY" VIOLATES CLEAN WATER ACT AGAIN: Wal-Mart, "one of our nation's great companies" according to Vice President Dick Cheney, "will pay a $3.1 million fine to settle a Clean Water Act violation stemming from excessive storm water runoff from its construction sites, federal officials said Wednesday." The settlement "cites Wal-Mart violations at 24 construction sites in nine states and alleges the company failed to get required permits, did not institute a runoff control plan and failed to install controls to prevent discharges." Wal-Mart was previously charged with similar violations in 2001, when it reached a similar settlement including a $1 million penalty.

RIGHT-WING CULTURALLY OFFENSIVE QUOTE OF THE DAY: Rush is at it again, looking for attention by justifying the abuse at Abu Ghraib "I maintained throughout the release of these prison photos, perspective was what was needed," Rush Limbaugh declared on his radio program. "They're the ones who are sick," he added. "They're the ones who are perverted. They are the ones who are dangerous. They are the ones who are subhuman. They are the ones who are human debris, not the United States of America and not our soldiers and not our prison guards." MediaMatters is launching an ad this week denouncing Limbaugh's previous outrageous comments "comparing the torture to a college fraternity prank and people 'having a good time.'"

(Sam note: I guess Rush is still on drugs...)


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