unworkable [from rubble to resolution]

NYT: Israel and Hamas reject UN calls for a cease-fire, as aid groups become increasingly desperate
"Israel and Hamas rebuffed a United Nations call for a cease-fire in the 14-day Gaza war on Friday, with Israel saying continued barrages of rocket fire from its adversaries made the United Nations resolution "unworkable"... In Beirut, a Hamas spokesman, Raafat Morra, said the resolution "does not suit us because it is not in the best interest of the Palestinian people," Agence France-Presse reported...

The developments came as international aid groups lashed out at Israel, saying that access to civilians in need is poor, relief workers are being hurt and killed, and Israel is woefully neglecting its obligations to Palestinians who are trapped, some among rotting corpses in a nightmarish landscape of deprivation."
WP: for Israel, a "workable" cease-fire means "the total cessation of rocket fire and [arms] smuggling"
BBC: which is one reason "why Gaza war looks set to go on"
"[Israel has] set two main objectives, neither of which has been achieved yet. First, damage the Hamas military wing so badly that they will either be unable to launch rockets into Israel, or be so intimidated that they will not dare. Israel's second demand is that the border between Gaza and Egypt is controlled so that Hamas will not be able to bring in weapons and money through tunnels...

Hamas has reasons to fight on too. Like Israel, it has dismissed the ceasefire resolution. It has demanded a ceasefire that opens all Gaza's crossings to Egypt as well as Israel, and a halt to military action and complete pullout by the Israelis... They have an ideology of struggle, resistance and sacrifice. They could have extended the ceasefire with Israel but chose not to do so."
Gdn: in a surprising turn-around, the US abstained from the UN Security Council resolution, but didn't veto it
"When discussions first began at the UN last Saturday, Washington blocked even a press statement, the weakest form of UN communique. By Wednesday, the White House had come round to the idea, proposed by Britain and France, of an official statement to be issued by the presidency of the security council, but continued to reject any talk of a formal resolution. Then, in dramatic events on Wednesday night, Condoleezza Rice, the US secretary of state, announced a volte face, seeming to swing the US behind the resolution. That astonished diplomats closely involved in the negotiations, who moved swiftly to issue a text of the resolution...

Explaining the US decision to abstain, Rice said Washington agreed with the text and goals of the resolution but added: "The United States thought it important to see the outcomes of the Egyptian mediation efforts in order to see what this resolution might have been supporting."
Gdn: while Obama may establish direct channels of communication with Hamas
"The incoming Obama administration is prepared to abandon George Bush's ­doctrine of isolating Hamas by establishing a channel to the Islamist organisation, sources close to the transition team say... Richard Haass, a diplomat under both Bush presidents who was named by a number of news organisations this week as Obama's choice for Middle East envoy, supports low-level contacts with Hamas provided there is a ceasefire in place and a Hamas-Fatah reconciliation emerges."
Gdn: UN calls Israeli bombing of house filled with evacuees "one of the gravest incidents since the beginning of operations"
"OCHA [the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs] said the incident took place on 4 January, a day after Israel began its ground offensive in Gaza. According to testimonies gathered by the UN, Israeli soldiers evacuated about 110 Palestinians to a single-storey house in Zeitoun, south-east Gaza. The evacuees were instructed to stay indoors for their safety but 24 hours later the Israeli army shelled the house. About half the Palestinians sheltering in the house were children, OCHA said. The report also complains that the Israeli Defence Force prevented medical teams from entering the area to evacuate the wounded."
WP: emergency workers still pulling out survivors from under the rubble
Crimes of war? Anthony Dworkin and Andrew Sullivan (part 1, 2) analyze the conduct of the war
NYT: interactive graphic of the conflict in Gaza

NYT: 14 killed in Afghani attacks on Thursday and Friday near Kandahar Province
NYT: Petraeus says US success in Afghanistan requires sustained commitment, possibly talks with Iran
"Gen. David H. Petraeus said Thursday that the country would require a “sustained, substantial” commitment from the United States and other nations to stop a downward spiral of violence and a resurgence of the Taliban and Al Qaeda... [He] also said that Iran, which has been the target of United Nations sanctions because of its nuclear program, had common interests with the United States and other nations in a secure Afghanistan.

Although he hinted that such interests might make talks with Iran feasible, he said he would leave the topic to diplomats and policy makers."
FP: Fick and Nagl on the application of the Counterinsurgency Field Manual in Afghanistan

NYT: two al Qaeda leaders killed by US unmanned aircraft in Pakistan
"Predator aircraft operated by the C.I.A. killed a Kenyan citizen who was described as Al Qaeda’s chief of operations in Pakistan, as well as his Kenyan lieutenant... The C.I.A. declined to comment on the reported deaths of the top Qaeda operatives, reflecting the secrecy surrounding the Predator strikes along the border that have stirred anger among Pakistan’s political and military leaders, and the residents of the mountainous region... Once largely reserved for missions to kill senior Arab Qaeda operatives, the Predator has since last summer been increasingly used to strike Pakistani militants and even trucks carrying rockets to resupply fighters in Afghanistan. Many of the Predator strikes are taking place as deep as 25 miles into Pakistani territory, not just along the border."
WP: these kind of precision strikes result of good intelligence
"Terrorism experts have cautioned that al-Qaeda has shown surprising resilience, quickly replacing leaders who are killed or captured. Still, there have been few occasions since 2001 when the group lost so many top operatives so quickly. Bruce Hoffman, a terrorism expert and Georgetown University professor, said the agency's tactics appear to be cutting dramatically into al-Qaeda's top ranks with strikes deep into a lawless border region that insurgents long regarded as a sanctuary.

"It is a stunning testament of the accuracy of intelligence that the United States is obtaining," Hoffman said. "Either we have built up an impressive network of sources that facilitates such precision targeting, or the Pakistani authorities are cooperating big-time." Added the U.S. counterterrorism official: "The continuous loss of senior talent has to have a pretty serious effect."
NYT: Pakistani national security adviser reveals surviving Mumbai gunman is Pakistani, is fired soon thereafter
"Pakistan’s national security adviser, Mahmud Ali Durrani, confirmed Wednesday that the lone surviving gunman from the Mumbai terrorist attacks, Muhammad Ajmal Kasab, is a Pakistani citizen. Hours later Mr. Durrani, a respected retired army general and former ambassador to the United States, was fired by the Pakistani prime minister for “irresponsible behavior.”

The bizarre turn of events — which came after repeated claims by Pakistani officials that they could find no proof of Mr. Kasab’s nationality — showed how deeply the aftermath of the Mumbai siege has riven the country’s fragile government as it struggles to come to grips with what American officials have said is clear evidence that Pakistani nationals plotted the attack.

Even as officials in Islamabad asserted that the country’s premier spy agency, the Directorate for Inter-Services Intelligence, was trying to shed longstanding sympathies and ties to Islamist militants, evidence continued to grow that it was a militant group established by the agency two decades ago that carried out the Mumbai attacks."
NYT: released dossier details the attacks

NYT: Eight Iraqi soldiers and two civilians killed in attacks in Diyala, Kirkuk and Mosul
"Although the majority of Diyala’s population is Sunni, the provincial council is dominated by Shiites because Sunnis boycotted local elections in 2005. But as new provincial elections, scheduled for Jan. 31, are approaching, tensions between Sunnis and Shiites have increased."
WP: US troops in Iraq allowed to drink in combat zones... for Superbowl
"Of all the missives the top U.S. military commander in Iraq has signed, probably none generated more cheer than the one issued this week authorizing all U.S. troops to drink beer. Two catches: only two per person and only on Super Bowl night.

The waiver, issued Wednesday by Gen. Ray Odierno, marks the first time all American service members in Iraq will be allowed to break the ban on liquor in combat zones without risking being court-martialed."

NYT: Sri Lankan government takes the Elephant Pass; Tigers suffering
"Sri Lankan forces captured the strategic Elephant Pass base from the Tamil Tigers on Friday, ousting the rebels from their last stronghold on the Jaffna peninsula and boxing them into a shrinking pocket of land in the northeast.

The capture of the base gives the government nearly full control of the northern peninsula, the Tamil’s cultural capital, for the first time since 2000. It also puts the country’s major north-south highway completely under its control for the first time in 23 years."

WP: Khmer Rouge leader's trial to start this spring
"International co-prosecutor Robert Petit said that Kaing Khek Iev, who was better known as Duch when he headed the Tuol Sleng torture center in Phnom Penh, will probably go on trial in March, but that four other defendants, all in their 80s, are unlikely to take the stand until 2010.

The trial process, which has so far cost $50 million, has been marred by delays, controversial defense motions, accusations of corruption and, most recently, a public dispute between Petit and his Cambodian co-prosecutor, Chea Leang, over future prosecutions.

Petit wants to file charges against an additional five or six former Khmer Rouge members, but Chea Leang has objected, saying that the court should concentrate its limited resources on the cases on hand. She has also cited a need to focus on national reconciliation."

WP: meanwhile, Khalid Sheik Mohammed is tried in absentia in France for Tunisian bombings
"Khalid Sheik Mohammed, the self-styled mastermind of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, went on trial in Paris on Monday on charges he helped organize a truck-bomb attack on an ancient Tunisian synagogue seven months later in which 21 people were killed.

Although far less deadly than the World Trade Center and Pentagon attacks, the Tunisia bombing dramatized al-Qaeda's support beyond Afghanistan and Pakistan. It occurred as the United States and the rest of the world were coming to grips with the threat posed by Osama bin Laden and beginning to understand that his followers were scattered in a number of countries, including some in Europe and North Africa... According to charges brought by French authorities [another defendant] drove a tanker truck laden with propane gas into the historic Ghriba synagogue on the Tunisian island of Djerba on April 11, 2002. The blast killed the driver and 14 German tourists, five Tunisians and two French citizens, providing the basis for a trial in France."

BBC: and Charles Taylor's son is sentenced to 97 years in US court for torture
"Chuckie" Taylor, the son of former Liberian President Charles Taylor has been sentenced by a US court to 97 years in prison for committing torture. The case has been the first test of a 1994 US law allowing the prosecution of citizens who commit torture overseas...

[Taylor's] elite pro-government military division was widely feared in Liberia and the crimes were especially brutal when the unit was cracking down on a rebellion which began in 1999. At his trial in October 2008, Chuckie Taylor was accused of committing or conspiring to commit executions, imprisoning a group of individuals in a hole in the ground, burning victims and administering electric shocks."

AP: Two kidnapped aid workers released in Somalia...
AP: ...and one killed, as the UN suggests a "Green Zone" for aid workers
"It is very difficult to address (the) Somali situation from Nairobi (the Kenyan capital). I think it is even negative," the UN envoy, Ahmedou Ould-Abdallah, said during a news conference in Nairobi, Kenya. "We should have a Green Zone, if necessary, in Somalia." Ould-Abdallah did not give a time frame for creating a fortified, walled-off area like the Green Zone in Iraq used by U.S.-led forces, but it would be costly and time-consuming.

WP: trial of opposition party organizer reveals breakdown of power-sharing in Zimbabwe
"At 72, Fidelis Chiramba had spent a decade as a rural opposition party organizer, and late 2008 seemed to bring the truest promise yet for the democracy he wanted. In September, Robert Mugabe, Zimbabwe's autocratic president for nearly three decades, shook hands with his rivals and agreed to share power.

But one dark October morning, Chiramba was seized by several men in four cars, his wife said. Soon, dozens of civil rights and opposition activists had vanished, according to human rights organizations and lawyers. They remained missing until late December, when authorities marched Chiramba and 17 others into court on accusations of plotting to overthrow Mugabe.

The allegation is widely viewed as an invention. But the activists remain behind bars, and Chiramba's wife has come to think his hope was an illusion.

"Only God's will can change this country, because this government is adamant, " Sophia Chiramba, 69, said in an interview in Harare, the capital. "It is not willing to change. We human beings have tried. But I believe there's a limit."

NYT: US sends emergency aid to Darfur; some wonder, "why now?"
"Bush ordered an immediate airlift to deliver vehicles and equipment to the war-torn Darfur region of Sudan to bolster a struggling international peacekeeping effort there.

Mr. Bush waived a requirement that he notify Congress 15 days before undertaking such a mission, because waiting would “pose a substantial risk to human health and welfare,” the White House national security adviser, Stephen J. Hadley, said in a statement...

“It is certainly more than passing strange to have the national security adviser come out and say that this step is being taken and Congressional notification is being waived because of the urgency of the situation in the last two weeks of the administration, when Darfur has been on fire for five years,” said John Norris, executive director of the Enough Project, a group here that campaigns against genocide...

Referring to his own decision not to send troops to Darfur, Mr. Bush said, “I still believe it was the right decision.” But he acknowledged that by relying on an international force, he had put himself “at the mercy of the decisions of others,” in this case a United Nations effort that “seems very bureaucratic to me, particularly with people suffering.”

IHT: "Surge" possible at US-Mexico border
"Chertoff said the criminal activity in Mexico, which has caused more than 5,300 deaths in the last year, had long troubled American authorities. But it reached a point last summer, he said, where he ordered specific plans to confront in this country the kind of shootouts and other mayhem that in Mexico have killed members of warring drug cartels, law enforcement officials and bystanders, often not far from the border. "We completed a contingency plan for border violence, so if we did get a significant spillover, we have a surge — if I may use that word — capability to bring in not only our own assets but even to work with" the Defense Department, Chertoff said in a telephone interview."
BBC: Colombian drug trafficker on trial killed in Spanish hospital
"Leonidas Vargas, a once powerful Colombian drug trafficker, has been shot dead in his hospital bed in the Spanish capital, Madrid. Police said that a gunman entered his room and fired four shots at Vargas, who was being treated for lung disease. Vargas, 59, was the head of the Caqueta cartel which ran vast cocaine laboratories in Colombia in the 1980s."

NYT: Greece riots lead to cabinet shake-up
"Shaken by scandals, public protests and a surge in extremism, Prime Minister Kostas Karamanlis of Greece on Wednesday replaced his finance minister, who was one of his closest aides, and eight other cabinet ministers in a sweeping cabinet shake-up.

Mr. Karamanlis won re-election 16 months ago, vowing to press ahead with economic and social reforms. But in recent months, a number of scandals and weeks of violent protests triggered by the police shooting of a teenage boy in December have damaged Mr. Karamanlis’s popularity, with the Socialist Pasok Party taking the lead in opinion polls for the first time in nine years...

Despite the cabinet overhaul, Mr. Karamanlis left seven of the 16 ministerial posts in the cabinet untouched, including the posts of ministers of defense, foreign affairs and interior whose handling of the December riots was widely criticized."
NYT: as violence continues
"Gunmen wielding submachine guns, assault rifles and grenades attacked a police unit in central Athens on Monday, seriously injuring a police officer a few blocks away from the site where the police fatally shot a teenage boy last month in a confrontation with leftist youths, setting off days of rioting.

The authorities in Athens said at least two masked gunmen fired more than 30 bullets, seriously injuring the 21-year-old officer near the Culture Ministry. Ballistics tests showed that two or the weapons used had been employed in earlier attack, one on the United States Embassy in Athens in January 2007, and another late last month on a police van... There was no immediate claim of responsibility.

The tactics used in Monday’s attack revived fears of a new round of domestic extremism."