Max's Politburo

Why Zimbabwe is fu**ed...

... and The Times is not helping.

The MDC's withdrawal from the run-off election plays right into Mugabe's hands.  He never really wanted the run-off to take place anyway.  That's why he delayed it well beyond the 3 weeks required by the constitution, in order to give his thugs more time to intimidate the opposition and rig the poll in Zanu-PF's favour.  Now he doesn't even have to steal the election: he'll just run it and declare victory, or he won't run it and blame the MDC for giving up on 'Zimbabwean democracy'.  According to John Simpson who is -- miraculously -- still in Zimbabwe, most people there don't even know that the MDC has pulled out, such is the blanket news ban of the opposition.

Sure, there is international outrage and clamour and even South Africa is finally speaking up (though notably it's ANC leader Jacob Zuma, and not President Thabo Mbeki ).  But that will last a few days, a week at most.  Thabo Mbeki will be glad when the election tumult recedes and the situation returns to 'normal' -- 'normal' being the continued rapacious hollowing-out of Zimbabwe's economy, population and soul.  The tragedy rolls on....

So, Zimbabwe is f***ed anyway you look at it.  But if you read the headlines in The Times of London on any given day you would think that Gordon Brown is about to ride in on a white horse and lop off Mugabe's head.  Few organs of public opinion have given Mugabe as much ammunition as The 'colonialist' Times.  Here is a sample of front-page headlines from the past week, including today's:

• "Outrage Over Investment in Zimbabwe"
• "Call for Military Intervention in Zimbabwe"
• "War Crimes Warning to Mugabe"

The Times wears its heart in the right place, but it's ludicrous exaggerations play right into Mugabe's hands by strengthening his only remaining justification for power -- that he is single-handedly fending off Britain's aggression. 

Outrage?  The only people the Times could drum up to complain about Anglo-American's proposed £200m investment in a Zimbabwean mine are LibDem spokesman Ed Davey and Business and Regulatory Reform Select Committee chairman Peter Luff, plus some mildly condemnatory statements from has-beens like William Hague, Peter Hain and David Milliband.

Call for military intervention?  What a great pipe-dream, but the only meat to that article was a quote from LibDem leader Paddy Ashdown that "military intervention in Zimbabwe would be justified." True, but not exactly the sign of an imminent invasion (though Mugabe will certainly have spun it that way).

And if there was indeed an inkling of hope that Thabo Mbeki could negotiate an agreed departure for Mugabe, with a compromise government to follow, surely that idea was put paid by The Times (and Newsnight and others) calling for Mugabe's head in a War Crimes trial.  Giving dictators paid lifetime beach holidays under immunity from prosecution offends me deeply, but if it can stop the misery and save lives it should be considered.

The Times lives in a colonialist la-la land, and one Mugabe has exploited well.  Moral crusades are not the same as the journalistic search for truth.  In a blog post today, Times journalist Daniel Finkelstein rails against the BBC's John Simpson for reporting the facts from the ground: that Tsvangirai has been effectively outmaneouvred by Mugabe.  I share Finkenstein's dismay over the stolen election, but I can't help but feel that in political terms Simpson is summing up the truth, whether we like it or not.

Best travel video ever

The best kind of cheesy is the kind that makes you cry.  Check out this heart-warming video.  Wow:

Where the Hell is Matt? (2008) from Matthew Harding on Vimeo.

Thanks for the heads-up MetroDad.

Teenagers at Guantanamo

For a few years post-9/11 the US had the benefit of the doubt.  Bush was given pretty wide latitude to interpret US laws aggressively in order to pursue the war on terror.  Most countries were happy to turn a blind eye -- even collaborate -- with the CIA's rendition programme and other tactics by this deeply aggrieved nation.  But this article in Salon.com reminds us just how far this has gone, and why that goodwill has been so squandered...  Here's an excerpt:

June 24, 2008 | GUANTÁNAMO BAY, Cuba -- When Mohammed Jawad took the stand in a courtroom at the U.S. Naval base here late last week, he described a litany of abuse he has endured while detained at Guantánamo, including a sleep deprivation regime known colloquially as the "frequent flyer" program.

"Day and night, they were shifting me from one room to another room," Jawad said. "I don't remember how much time I slept, but it was only a short time before they were knocking on my door and shifting me from place to place. No one answered me why they were giving me this punishment."

Military records showed that during a 14-day period in May 2004, Jawad was moved from cell to cell 112 times, usually left in one cell for less than three hours before being shackled and moved to another. Between midnight and 2 a.m. he was moved more frequently to ensure maximum disruption of sleep.

Such tactics used against a detainee would have been severe under any circumstances -- Department of Defense guidance limits sleep deprivation to a maximum of four days -- but in the case of Jawad, they are particularly disturbing because he was a scared and suicidal teenager at the time. Jawad's military-appointed lawyer, Maj. David Frakt, described the tactics as "sadistic and pointless," and moved to dismiss the charges against his client on grounds of torture.

Jawad was arrested by Afghan police in December 2002 after allegedly throwing a grenade into a U.S. army vehicle in Afghanistan that severely injured two U.S. soldiers and their Afghan translator. Frakt argues that Jawad was drugged and forced to fight with Afghan militia. Jawad doesn't know his exact birth date, but was 16 or 17 years old at the time. In early 2003, he was brought to Guantánamo.

According to government records obtained by the Associated Press under the Freedom of Information Act, more than 20 detainees under the age of 18 have been brought to the prison camp since 2002. The treatment of underage prisoners at Guantánamo, largely in defiance of international law, is one of various ways in which the Bush administration's policies have tainted prospects for Guantánamo detainees ever to be brought to justice under U.S. law.

Although most of the 20 juvenile detainees have now been released, three remain, having spent more than a quarter of their lives at Guantánamo. The other two juvenile detainees were each only 15 years old when they were apprehended. Mohammad El Gharani was arrested at a mosque in Pakistan and brought to Guantánamo in early 2002. Omar Khadr, a Canadian, was apprehended in July 2002 after a firefight in Afghanistan that resulted in the death of a U.S. soldier. Held for several months in Afghanistan, he was barely 16 when he arrived here later that same year.

Bush can't deliver Hispanics after all

So much for the perceived media wisdom.  A recent WSJ/NBC poll on Americans' voting intentions seems to overturn the widespread assumption that Obama doesn't have the Hispanic vote.  In fact, his poll margin is 2:1 against McCain (62% vs 28%)!  -- greater than his lead among Clinton primary voters in general. 

There are two messages in these numbers:

1. Bush's former popularity among Hispanics has ben sapped by his inability to push through immigration reform (a rare piece of decent legislation) and by his party's increasing hostility toward immigrants in general; and,
2. the supposed Black/Hispanic animosity is not what it's cracked up to be -- a story of minority success such as Obama's finds appeal across the board.

This poll result should simplify Obama's selection of a Vice-President.  Forget Bill Richardson (was a long shot anyway) -- the main focus should now be on finding a running mate that can bring in more of the working class white male vote: Jim Webb?  Joe Biden?  Or someone with military credentials perhaps?

Vengeful justice breeds radicals

How on earth do two wrongs make a right here??

The wife of one of the failed July 21 suicide bombers was jailed for 15 years yesterday for keeping secret details of his plot to cause carnage on the London Underground.

Yeshi Girma, 32, who has three children by the bomber Hussein Osman, wept throughout the hearing at the Old Bailey and threw her hands in the air as the sentence was handed down.

Her sister, Mulu Girma, 24, a model, and brother, Esayas Girma, 22, were each jailed for ten years for helping Osman to escape a police manhunt and withholding information from the authorities.

Judge Paul Worsley told the three siblings that the sentences he was able to pass by law were "woefully inadequate to reflect the enormity of what you were about in July 2005".

How does locking up Yeshi Girma help in any way?  All I see is three radicalised children growing up without a mother, aunt or uncle...

Is her sentence a deterrent to other young plotters' wives?  I doubt it. 

Bush repents, sort of

Bush interviewed by The Times of London a couple of days ago:

"I think that in retrospect I could have used a different tone, a different rhetoric," Bush said. Pointing to phrases like "bring them on" and "dead or alive," he said that these "indicated to people that I was, you know, not a man of peace."

Ya' think?