Overseas Roundup

Good Morning!

Off to another new feature....we'll be combing through Watching America again this week to see what the rest of the world is thinking of us. Of course, we'll start with the Warron Terra. Remember the confessions of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed? Some of our allies aren't buying it.

The sweeping confession of alleged al-Qaida mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, who has claimed involvement in 31 terror plots, has been met with skepticism from German commentators. Some editorialists have stronger feelings about the "show" trial against Mohammed than whether or not he is telling the truth.

According to a transcript released on Thursday by the Pentagon, suspected al-Qaida leader and 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed made far-reaching confessions that he was "responsible for the 9/11 operation from A to Z," and that he personally beheaded kidnapped Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl with his own knife. Mohammed has allegedly claimed responsibility for a total of 31 terrorist attacks -- some of which were never completed -- an admission that would make him al-Qaida's key operation planner.

German commentators criticize the conditions under which the confession was obtained, noting that Mohammed had been subjected to years of "rough" interrogations at the hands of the CIA. Apart from condemning a hearing that did not adhere to the laws laid out in the United States constitution, along with a transcript that was heavily edited, German papers also cite allegations that Mohammed was tortured while held in custody as a suspected terrorist. Can his testimony be trusted or was he coerced into giving it?

It's hard to say if there is anything more to Mohammed's confessions than the fantasy product of a "vain, megalomaniacal über-terrorist," writes the conservative Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung:

"The transcript makes clear that Mohammed was the key figure in a network which sprang up in the Afghan-Pakistani border region, spanned the world and was financed by the Arabic world. It was ambitious in its goals and merciless with its victims. The greater the mass murder, the better. This was Khalid's logic -- and he even admitted it in front of a military tribunal. The evidence is overwhelming."

"Admittedly, his confession is flawed because of its location and the allegedly problematic conditions under which he has been held ever since he was captured by the CIA in 2003. Has he ever been forced to give testimony or even tortured? He himself claims that he was tortured before being taken to Guantanamo, but that he voluntarily provided his current testimony. Still, whether or not this will satisfy the criteria for a legal trial is as controversial as the hearing itself has been. For its part, the Bush administration has nobody but itself to blame for the fact that the actions and motives of the perpetrator are now playing second fiddle to the practices used by the Americans in fighting terrorism."

Of course, other countries keep reporting inconvenient things about Guantanamo Bay. Particularly involving treatment of the 'detainees'. Can you say Concentration Camp?

DAVID Hicks, the Australian accused of terrorism, was dazed and bewildered for three weeks after US officials gave him a new medicine, his lawyer said today.

US military lawyer Major Michael Mori said he had complained to US authorities about allegations Hicks was forcibly sedated at the US Guantanamo Bay military base last month just before he was informed of new terror charges.

He said Hicks told him he was given a new liquid medicine, ostensibly for a stomach complaint, that knocked him out for 24 hours, and left him bewildered and dazed for three weeks.

"I just raised it, you know," Major Mori said. "Obviously there's nothing I can do about it being done but I can ask 'just please don+t do it in the future'."

But Major Mori said he expected David Hicks' legal appearance on terror offences at Guantanamo Bay will go ahead next week despite two legal challenges.

A Pentagon spokesman said he was looking into the allegation.

"I can say however David Hicks has been treated humanely at Guantanamo, as per our policy. Also, it should be noted that a number of past allegations concerning his treatment were completely unsubstantiated," the spokesman said.

Major Mori and Hicks' US civilian lawyer Joshua Dratel traveled to Guantanamo Bay last week to visit the 31-year-old Adelaide terrorist suspect.

Hicks is charged with providing material support for terrorism.

The defence team has applied in the US District Court in Washington for a stay on Hicks' military commission hearing, pointing out that the US Supreme Court is considering whether to hear an appeal from Guantanamo Bay detainees.

Major Mori said he did not know when the injunction would be heard. "You guys are making much more of thisicipate the (arraignment) hearings will go forwards."

Hicks is also one of 45 detainees seeking an appeal in the US Supreme Court to challenge their detention.

They argue they should be given the same legal rights as others appearing in the US justice system.

A decision on whether the case will be expedited could be delivered this week.

Major Mori would not be drawn on how Hicks was feeling ahead of his arraignment on March 26, or whether he was looking forward to seeing his father, Terry Hicks.

When asked how Hicks was, Major Mori said "much the same as he was a month and a half ago" which is when his legal team saw him last. He said Hicks had been in solitary confinement for a year and it was taking its toll.

Of course, we can't look overseas without getting the latest opinions on our escapades in Iraq. The French have a couple of interesting things to say about it.

L’Alsace Lorraine: Four years after the invasion of Iraq, President Bush nevertheless persists. Yesterday during a brief speech he called for the American people to be “patient,” as if he believed in miracles.

Nevertheless, the balance sheet of the past four years is catastrophic; for Iraq, for the United States and for the rest of the world.

First of all on a human level, several tens of thousands of Iraqi civilians, perhaps several hundred thousand, have died in daily attacks, clashes between militias and sectarian fighting. And over 3,500 soldiers from the “coalition,” including 3,200 Americans have been killed, to say nothing of the 12,000 to 20,000 Iraqi soldiers and police. To this macabre assessment, one must add thousands of wounded, often handicapped for life.

A MILITARY DISASTER …
And then there's the military situation, which incites little optimism. The spectacular charge of armored vehicles and helicopter-born troops in the spring of 2003 quickly encountered a vacuum, driving military commanders to adopt a “hedgehog” strategy: up to last summer, the U.S. Army remained sheltered in its bases and limited its activities to patrols and to carefully targeted operations, in order to implicate the Iraqi security forces so as not to appear as an all-too-visible “occupation army."

Confronting a wave of attacks since the fall (and after the ejection of Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld), the U.S. high command went on the offensive, concentrating specifically on Baghdad and the oilfield sector. The capital has been broken into sectors with some degree of effectiveness and the number of attacks appears to have dropped. But Northern Iraq remains under the control of Sunni guerillas, who confront Shiite militias are in the South … So the 160,000 man task force has, as the generals command, extended the Baghdad “experiment” over additional areas, with the assistance of a better-equipped and more controlled Iraqi army … in the hope that its units will not pass its arms and equipment to rival militias.

… AND POLITICALLY
On the political front, the situation is disastrous. First of all in Iraq: Despite free elections and a theoretically democratic government (but corrupted to its core), the country is divided in three. The Kurdish region is in fact independent (to the great displeasure of Turkey and Iran, who are both hostile to the creation of a Kurdish state) but vulnerable to a Turkmen or Arabic rebellion. The North, especially the Sunni areas, has escaped Baghdad’s authority, and in mixed Sunni-Shiite regions, guerilla war is raging and amongst the Shiite Parties, rival militias battle over power and oil.

Even more grave, the entire Middle East has been destabilized. America's quagmire in Iraq has favored the ascent to power of Hamas in the Palestinian territories and Hezbullah in Lebanon, it has strengthened Syria and established Iran as a regional power, which is now pulling the strings across the region. And finally, Islamic terrorism is gaining ground.

… AND INTERNATIONALLY
Lastly, the situation internationally depends on Iraq, which is the Achilles’ heel of the American hyperpower. China has never been so present, Russia has made its diplomatic return to the Great Game and Latin America has broken free of Washington’s guardianship, which is too preoccupied elsewhere. Anti-Americanism, stimulated in Europe by affairs like the Guantanamo prison scandal, has reached levels unknown since the Vietnam War era.

Americans, of which only a small minority approve of the war, are conscious of this dip in fortunes, which is costing hundreds of billions of dollars every year. But the Congress, despite being majority Democrat, is powerless before the threat of a Presidential veto that cannot be overridden … George W. Bush is especially determined to leave the burden of Iraq to his successor.

Always interesting to see what the rest of the world thinks of us, isn't it?