UPI Hears...

WASHINGTON, Nov. 24 (UPI) -- Insider notes from United Press International for Nov. 24

An image-conscious White House has declined having President George W. Bush address Parliament when he visits Ottawa, on Nov.30-Dec.1, citing concerns that normally placid Canadian parliamentarians might heckle Bush. White House spin-doctors want to avoid live network broadcasts of Bush being booed or shouted at as he attempts to repair frayed relations with Ottawa. The White House has labeled the Bush visit "substantive." Look for some horse-trading; Bush could seek Canada's help in training of Iraqi security forces after the Jan. elections, while Prime Minister Paul Martin could offer Canadian assistance in the upcoming Palestinian elections. Two demonstrations are already scheduled for Nov. 30, one in Confederation Park against Bush's general policies and a second on Parliament Hill against Bush's war. At least one Canadian professional group is taking its disdain for Bush's visit a step further; "Lawyers against the War" have sent a letter to Martin demanding that Bush be treated as a war criminal and either indicted or barred from entering the country as "persona non grata."

Is there a thaw in the decades-old cold war between Armenia and Turkey? Armenian President Robert Kocharyan is urging Turkey to abandon its 11-year blockade of the country. After a shooting war broke out between Azerbaijan and Armenia in 1991, Turkey shut its border with Armenia to show solidarity with Azerbaijan, still involved in long and bitter territorial dispute with Armenia. Kocharyan said, "Turkey is blockading Armenia, one can only call that harassment." Relations between Armenia and Turkey have been strained since World War I over the killing of 1.5 million Armenians by the Ottoman Turks between 1915 and 1923. This is a charge Turkey denies. Making a peace offering, Kocharyan said that Armenia would not insist Turkey admit to genocide for talks on normalizing relations to proceed, commenting, "For us, the recognition of the genocide of Armenians in 1915 by Turks is certainly very important, but it will never be a condition for the development of bilateral relations. If Ankara recognized this fact, it would be a significant step forward in the direction of normalizing relations."

Insisting that construction equipment is in fact "dual use" military technology, Human Rights Watch has joined the campaign to pressure Caterpillar Inc. to stop selling D9 bulldozers to Israel's military because it uses the machines to violate human rights in the occupied territories. HRW describes the bulldozers as the Israeli Defense Force's "primary weapon to raze Palestinian homes, destroy agriculture, and shred roads in violation of the laws of war." HRW's Middle East director Sarah Leah Whitson said, "Caterpillar betrays its stated values when it sells bulldozers to Israel knowing that they are being used to illegally destroy Palestinian homes. Besides HRW, Amnesty International, the Presbyterians and Pax Christi have all criticized Caterpillar for its sales of bulldozers to Israel, while elements within the Mennonite and Anglican churches are lobbying for their churches to join the campaign. Caterpillar CEO Jim Owens replied that Caterpillar "did not have the practical ability or legal right to determine how our products are used after they are sold." Caterpillar builds the D9 to Israeli military specifications as Caterpillar sells the bulldozer to Israel under the U.S. Foreign Military Sales Program. In Israel the D9s are modified and armored by state-owned Israel Military Industries Ltd.

While the Department of Defense is regularly excoriated for sloppy accounting, the problem is not limited to the Pentagon. Australia's Defense Department mismanagement misplaced extensive amounts of military hardware unaccounted for, according to a National Audit Office report. Defense head Ric Smith acknowledged that his department's accounts were not "true and fair," with accounting errors about an estimated $8 billion worth of equipment, costings and liabilities. The National Audit Office in its latest Defense annual report wrote that weapons components are among hundreds of millions of dollars worth of equipment untraceable because of poor record-keeping, noting that Defense Department had been unable to account for $8 billion in assets and liabilities. Defense Minister Robert Hill and Finance Minister Nick Minchin criticized the audit, saying that the government was "extremely disappointed that the Auditor-General has found reason to criticize the quantitative and qualitative internal control in the department." While Smith denied that an "$8 billion black hole" existed, he nonetheless acknowledged that there were "areas of uncertainty" while adding that the flaws "don't affect operational capability or effectiveness."