Brights News Feed

The International Campaign Against Honour Killings (ICAHK) reports a large demonstration yesterday in Arbil, Iraqi Kurdistan, against so-called “honour” killings, and against the large mob-murder of one young woman, Du’a Khalil Aswad, in particular. Hers is only one story; the UN has already recorded 40 such “honour” killings in the Kurdistan region over a three-month period this year.

ICAHK’s full story follows, of the tragic circumstances which led to her death and the brutal nature of the murder itself. The ICAHK are running a petition to the Kurdistan regional government, here.

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With a comfortable majority in the House of Representatives, but only a paper-thin, and perhaps temporary majority in the Senate, the new Democrat leaders of the U.S. Congress feel the need to act quickly. On the day that new congressmen were sworn in last week, the Democrats announced their short-term legislative agenda, with they are calling “the first hundred hours”. Included in their ambitious agenda are a major ethics package, adoption of the 9/11 Commission recommendations, and action to reduce drug costs under Medicare, but the first, and perhaps biggest challenge will be to rein in President Bush’s conduct of the Iraq War.

A day after the Pentagon announnced the replacement of the two most senior commanders responsible for the Iraq strategy, Senator Ted Kennedy (D, MA) announced a bill to restrict the President’s power to enlarge the war effort without explicit permission of Congress. Kennedy’s announcement was timed to preceed a major address, in which President Bush is expected to announce the deployment of 20,000 additional troops to Iraq.

In the wake of the Kennnedy announcement, media legal analysts are uncertain as to the constitutionality or practical effectiveness of the planned Democratic legislation. Even assuming that the Democrats can pass Kennedy’s bill, Bush is likely to veto it. Some believe that is precisely the purpose of the bill–to embarass the president by forcing him to veto a bill related to his own powers. If Bush does not veto the bill, a constitutional conundrum may result. Senator Kennedy’s bill proposes to limit spending on the war, but the constitution requires that all spending bills originate in the House. Moreover, the bill is not framed as an amendment to the War Powers Act, which is the instrument by which Congress gave the president permission to use military power in Iraq.

UN representative for the American Humanist Association, Beth Lamont, was arrested Tuesday, with fifteen other anti-war protesters, during a nonviolent demonstration outside the UN Building in New York. Police became involved when a mere sixteen protesters strayed from a designated “free speech zone”.

The protest at the UN. (The AHA’s Beth Lamont is in pink)

All sixteen activists were arrested within minutes. Arrests included the AHA’s Beth Lamont; Ann Wright, one of three State Department officials to resign in protest against the Iraq war; Elaine Brower, the mother of a U.S. Marine stationed in Fallujah and a spokesperson for World Can’t Wait; Episcopal Minister Father Luis Barrios; and C. Clark Kissinger, convener of the International Commission of Inquiry on Crimes Against Humanity Committed by the Bush Administration.

Two of the arrestees were formally charged. Disabled Iraq War veteran Geoffrey Millard was also held overnight and charged with resisting arrest and disorderly conduct. Father Luis Barrios was charged with felony assault on a police officer, resisting arrest, and disorderly conduct. He is due in court on the felony charge in January.

(Also see: NY1 TV News coverage via World Can’t Wait; Bush Crimes Commission; Humanist News)

Joe Lieberman, three-term incumbent senator from Connecticut, and former candidate for Vice-President, was defeated in his bid to win the Democratic Party’s nomination for his own Senate seat in last Tuesday’s primary election. For either party to fail to nominate an incumbent–especially one with Lieberman’s seniority and fame–is a rarity in American politics, and is widely seen as a strong indication of a change in popular opinion about the Iraq War.

Lieberman has been among the few Democrats supporting President George W. Bush’s Iraqi War policy, and is generally seen as pro-defense. Lieberman’s home state, Connecticut, though generally a haven of liberal politics, is also heavy with defense plants. Lieberman is the ranking Democrat on the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Commitee, and also sits on the Armed Services Committee.

Lieberman lost the primary to Ned Lamont, a millionaire business man with no national political experience. Lamont is strongly opposed the U.S. involvement in the Iraq War.

Lieberman has filed papers to be an independent candidate in the November Senatorial election, and continues to focus on the War on Terror. In A statement released on August 10, Lieberman called the recently-foiled airline bombing plot “the most serious evidence that we are in a war against a brutal enemy that intends to attack us over and over again in the most indiscriminate way.”

Mid-term elections in the US are often seen as a referendum on the president’s performance, and with Presiden’t Bush’s approval ratings dropping, some political commentators are predicting an upset for his party in November. If the Republicans lose their majority in Congress, Bush’s ability to promote his policies could be greatly reduced.