Congress [last week] gave final approval to the Merida Initiative for anti-drug security assistance to Mexico and Central America and sent the bill to the White House. The plan calls for $400 million in anti-drug and security assistance for Mexico, whose government sounds happy with the plan. It also provides for $65 million to be split up between seven countries of Central America from Belize to Panama plus Haiti and the Dominican Republic. Here’s WOLA’s take.

The bill’s language recognizes the “shared responsibility between the United States and Mexico to combat drug trafficking and related violence and organized crime.” It’s good to see the U.S. Congress accept that fact, but Mérida is definitely a mixed bag and, in some ways, a missed opportunity for the United States to finally start getting it right on fighting drugs.  It has some positive things — $3 million in technical assistance to help Mexico establish a unified national police registry, $10 million for drug demand reduction and rehabilitation in Mexico — but a lot of misguided spending on military hardware ranging from helicopters to surveillance systems to aircraft platforms. And it doesn’t address at all the critical need for drug demand reduction in the United States and controls on the smuggling of firearms over the border into Mexico from  the United States. These are the twin traffics — drugs into the United States, guns into Mexico — that threaten to erase any chance Merida has of succeeding even before it starts.

The President’s announcement regarding North Korea’s nuclear declaration is in my opinion premature. While the declaration is a step in the right direction, the decision to immediately remove sanctions against North Korea is a step backwards. North Korea has a long history of not honoring agreements it made in good faith. Waiving sanctions prior to a factual review of North Korea’s declaration sends the wrong message to our friends involved in the Six Party Talks, and it reduces America’s leverage in the negotiations.

Pakistan is a very important link in the War on Terror and has been helpful in a lot of ways but not as helpful or as focused as it could be. Right now there are a lot of major challenges about the ability of the current government to deliver and to marshal the kind of resources necessary to accomplish the task. The border areas in Pakistan are alarmingly out of control, and they are contributing to instability in Afghanistan as well as in Pakistan. Unless the government exhibits a greater ability to target its own resources to deal with this both militarily and in the social economic structure, it’s going to be very, very challenging for us in the next years. There are enormous issues which this hearing obviously is geared to focus on.

This recent crime by Chinese computer hackers is horrific. With complete disregard for the privacy of these offices, individuals stole the private information of American citizens and sought to sabotage our government. The Members of Congress who were victims of these acts have been long-time champions for human rights in China; this is not how they should be rewarded for their tireless efforts.

Every day, Congressional offices deal with constituents’ privileged information and it is imperative that Congress work to protect our government and the people we represent from the future threat of computer hackers. I hope that President Bush remembers this incident when dealing with China in the future and that he carefully looks into this incident before sending sensitive security information technology to the Chinese.

The Hill’s Bob Cusack takes a look at the week ahead on Capitol Hill.

This issue is of special concern for me, as the Air Force’s Strategic Command (STRATCOM) is located at Offutt Air Force Base in Bellevue, Nebraska. STRATCOM is in charge of our nation’s nuclear assets and Secretary Gates’ decision shows just how important STRATCOM’s mission really is.  The control of nuclear weapons is a job that should never be taken lightly and thus I am glad that attention is being paid to the mistakes that have been made.

The report that was issued raises serious concerns and decisive action was taken.  It was the Secretary of Defense’s judgment that this was necessary and I have no reason to doubt him.

I urge for new leadership that will ensure the safekeeping of our nuclear weapons and ensures accountability.

This shared commitment between the U.S. and Israel to a tough, permanent fight against terror is not limited to the shadows. It also involves the states that support terror, including Iran. In recent testimony on Capitol Hill, General David Petraeus said without equivocation that Iran is now the greatest obstacle to stability in Iraq through its Special Groups. Iran backs Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas in Gaza. Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad recently invited camera crews on a tour of his uranium enrichment facility in Natanz, openly flouting the U.N. Security Council.

Iran has violated no fewer than three binding Security Council resolutions, and, according to the IAEA, has likely drawn upon its military to support clandestine aspects of its nuclear program. This conclusion contrasts sharply with the most recent National Intelligence Estimate on Iran, which concluded that at a single point in time, Iran had put an end to its nuclear weapons program.

Some people like to think that Iran is not a serious threat. They wave away the very suggestion of it as a kind of hysteria. Yet when a country completely ignores the U.N. Security Council; funds, arms, and trains terrorists; claims to pursue nuclear technology for civilian use, despite the fact that it sits atop the third largest oil reserves on the planet; and openly says it wants one of its neighbors wiped off the map, it is nothing if not a serious threat. This isn’t saber-rattling. It’s common sense. And those who disagree with it, in my view, don’t have any. Read the rest of this entry »

The Hill’s Jackie Kucinich lays out the agenda for this week on Capitol Hill.

Finally, the USTR is taking action and asking the WTO to enforce the Information Technology Agreement (ITA), as Congress has been urging the Administration to do for more than a year.  To sustain innovation in the high-tech sector and preserve our transatlantic trade relationships, the countries who signed the ITA must play by the rules and live up to the agreement.  It is my hope that the EU will respond to the USTR’s announcement by dropping their arbitrary tariffs against US goods and upholding the ITA.

While today’s announcement is good news, this enforcement case is only one of a handful brought before the WTO by the Bush Administration over the last 8 years.  I am hopeful that a new Administration will work more aggressively to reduce our trade deficit by using every tool at its disposal to ensure that American goods and services are treated fairly around the globe.

In 1996 the United States and other countries accounting for over 90 percent of world trade in computers, semiconductors, and other information technology products agreed in the World Trade Organization to eliminate their import tariffs on all such products. As a result, the United States became a huge exporter of these products.   Now, over 10 years later, the European Union (EU) has decided to start imposing 14 percent import duties on new information technology products in violation of the agreement.

Their rationale is that these new products didn’t exist in 1996 and many of them, such as computer monitors that can receive TV signals could be considered consumer goods.  Duh!  As NAM President John Engler just told the press, “Integration of electronics into more and more multifunction products is the future of the electronics industry. We need to encourage this product evolution with liberal tariff treatment, not discourage it with protectionism. If the EU is permitted to make its own definitions of what is covered, everyone else will do so too - and pretty soon the Information Technology Agreement will just be history.” Read the rest of this entry »