Then-US Ambassador to Switzerland and Liechtenstein Pamela Pitzer Willeford, 2003

Two things only surprise in the latest batch of Wiki-Leaked US cables published Tuesday 11 January by the Guardian that relate to Switzerland: the enduring insistence of the US government in January 2006 over what it saw as the anti-US stance of Swiss media, and the confidential tag for a 13-point cable by Ambassador Pamela Pitzer Willeford that was almost entirely filled with matters of public record.

The only thing possibly requiring confidential protection was author Willeford’s efforts to say who US real friends were (Liechtenstein, keen to clean up its money laundering image) and who the cooler friends were (Switzerland, which had the audacity to disagree with the US now and again, and to ask uncomfortable questions).

The bulk of the cable refers to various Swiss reports that anyone can find on the Internet, and which journalists, on a regular basis, have written about, making me wonder about the extent of confidential cables inflation over the years. Surely the original idea was to classify as highly private only comments and conversations? Cloak and dagger work is more exciting, I suppose, than the slogging work of information-gathering that we journalists routinely do, but what a shame that tax money has to be spent on keeping under wraps information that in reality isn’t under wraps at all.

Willeford wasn’t the one who classified it, but the addresses at the top, to the FBI and Ofac, the government office that oversees sanctions, plus her signature on the end of it makes it clear that she thought the FBI at least would benefit from the information.

US feared Switzerland was too soft on Muslims in anti-terrorist fight

The cable does offer us a chance to remember that Switzerland was seen officially but privately by the US government in 2006 as far too tolerant of Muslims in the context of the fight against terrorism. In contrast, in March 2010 “the US State Department annual report on human rights cited it [2009 Swiss popular vote banning the construction of new mosques] as an example of anti-Muslim discrimination in Europe,” reported swissinfo.

Ambassador apparently in the dark about CIA secret prisons

The other bit that offers fodder for reflection is about CIA secret prisons and overflights, words that indicate the ambassador was in the dark about this activity, yet she was quick to decide the Swiss government was out of line in insisting on some answers. The cable was written in January 2006, 10 weeks after the Council of Europe assigned Swiss lawyer and European member of parliament Dick Marty the job of investigating the matter, in November 2005. In June 2006 Marty issued his initial report, providing damning evidence that the CIA indeed had secret torture centres in Europe. US President George W Bush confirmed the existence of the secret prisons, in September 2006.

The European Parliament in the months that followed issued its own report, concurring with Marty’s. Marty then published additional evidence of the secret prisons and overflights, in June 2007. The Council of Europe adopted his report 27 June 2007, but by then Ambassador Willeford had been gone from Bern for nearly a year. A remark made to me by a departing US State Department employee comes to mind, “The embassies don’t really do diplomatic work and haven’t for a long time. They’re just the decorative icing on the cake. The only place where things really happen is in Washington.”

For the sake of the US staff in Bern, and Swiss officials working with them, I hope this ex-staffer had it wrong. Willeford’s cable doesn’t provide much reassurance, though.

Going down in history as witness to VP shooting friend

The most significant thing the just-published cable provided me was a reminder of Willeford’s role as ambassador in Bern from 2003 to 2006, when received prejudices, such as the anti-US stance on Swiss media, were confirmed with little evidence, feeding US misconceptions about this small and apparently too independent nation.

And a reminder, too, of Willeford’s strange history, a string of often-puzzling successes and the odd historical note that 21 days after sending this cable she was the only eyewitness to Vice-president Dick Cheney accidentally shooting 78-year-old Harry Whittington. The three were out quail hunting on an old friend’s ranch with others from the Texas business aristocracy.

Frankly, that story made more exciting reading than Willeford’s hapless cable.

This is the speech 11-year-old Daniel Yuval gave in Geneva 29 November 2010 to the international meeting convened to review progress made on the Mine Ban Treaty since the Cartegena Summit in Colombia a year earlier.

Background story

Daniel’s words should set a fine example for politicians, straightforward, clear and to the point. Daniel, a landmine survivor, argues eloquently for the removal of all mines:

Daniel Yuval during a break in Geneva, 29 November 2010

Thank you, everyone, for letting me speak to you today. This is my first trip to Geneva. I am so happy Switzerland invited me to come. Thank you!

I want to tell you my story and ask for your help. We have a big problem in Israel—landmines. Most people in Israel didn’t know about it until this year.

Ten months ago, I went on a picnic with my family to the Golan Heights. It had just snowed, and I had never seen or played in the snow. The place is called Har Avital. My sister Amit and my brother Yoav and I were laughing as we ran into the field to make snowballs. My mom and dad were there, along with many other families.

Suddenly, there was a big “boom”. I didn’t know what happened. I didn’t feel anything at first. I didn’t know there were landmines under the snow, and all around us.

My dad came into the field to pick me up and carry me out. I told him not to worry, I would be okay. And, I told my brother and sister to hold tight to dad’s legs, so they wouldn’t get blown up, too.

Other parents took off their shirts to tie around my leg. Then a helicopter came to fly me and my sister to hospital. Only then I started to know what happened. I had stepped on a landmine.

When I woke up from the operation, the pain in my leg was bad. But, I started to think about something just as bad, that this could happen again to other children.

I spent more than three months in the hospital, and had almost 20 operations, to cut off my right leg below my knee, and to clean and fix my left leg. Many famous people called or visited me in the hospital. When Prime Minister Netanyahu called me, I told him, we have to do something to clean up landmines. I told Mr Netanyahu that no more children should ever get hurt from this weapon.

Jerry White and his friend Dhyan Or came to visit me in the hospital.

Jerry also lost a leg to a landmine in the Golan Heights. I asked them, “How do people get rid of landmines?” They told me that many countries do it. They said, “If we work together, we can try to stop any more people from getting hurt or killed.”

I am now the Youth Ambassador for the Campaign for a Mine-Free Israel. We are asking the government of Israel to pass a new law to clean up old minefields everywhere in Israel and the West Bank. I’m told there over 500,000 mines to get rid of. Some say, one million.

In March and May, I went to the Knesset and told them it was time to take action. I am asking everyone to support this new law. Help us clean up the mess. I believe we can do this by the time I graduate from high school in Israel.

Someone told me we need about 70 million dollars to do this. That is a lot of shekels, that I don’t have! But, I hope that the Israeli Government and others can make this happen. It is worth it, to make sure no more children get killed, or have to spend months in the hospital like I did.

Daniel Yuval, age 11, addresses Geneva followup meeting to Cartagena Summit on implementing the Mine Ban Treaty

Stepping on a landmine is terrible. It’s scary and painful, not just for me, but for my mom and dad, and my whole family. For myself, it was really hard work. I had to learn to walk all over again. But, the good news is, I have learned to run, and can beat some people in my class in the 660 metres. I also take kick-boxing and Judo, and play football.

I want to thank everyone in this room who is committed to getting rid of landmines. We in the Middle East have a big problem. But, we know it can be done. My neighbor Jordan joined the Mine Ban Treaty and is almost finished clearing all its minefields. I hope Israel will be next. I hope soon all the world will be free from landmines.

I thank you for listening to me and hearing my story. I want to thank Roots of Peace for bringing me here, and Mom and Dad for believing I can make a difference. Thank you!

50,000 march in Dublin against Irish austerity plan

Ireland: rain coming (The Burren, view of Galway Bay, October 2010) - click on image to view larger

Economist and Nobel laureate Paul Krugman has just given the Irish an early Christmas present, some badly needed cheer and praise for a population that doesn’t deserve to be mired down in its current mess.

Meanwhile, 50,000 people took to the streets in Dublin to protest against austerity cuts Saturday 27 November. Krugman likely has some fans in the crowd.

I wish he could come up with a Christmas miracle for them now.

A great read: “Eating the Irish”, NY Times

2010 is the 81st anniversary of the Persons Case in Canada, which finally declared women in Canada to be Persons!

Note: This is a Canadian version of November 15, 1917, Night of Terror – Women Fought for Our Rights from Amazing Women Rock. It’s been making the rounds by e-mail for several weeks, author unknown, with the request to share it.

All women who have ever voted, have ever owned property, have ever enjoyed equal rights need to remember that women’s rights had to be fought for in Canada as well.

Do our daughters and our sisters know the price that was paid to earn rights for women here in North America?

This is the story of women who were ground-breakers. These brave women from the early 1900s made all the difference in the lives we live today.

Remember, it was not until 1920 that women were granted the right to go to the polls and vote.

Silent sentinels picketing the White House

The women were innocent and defenseless, but when, in North America, women picketed in front of the White House, carrying signs asking for the vote, they were jailed. And by the end of the first night in jail, those women were barely alive.

Forty prison guards wielding clubs, with their warden’s blessing, went on a rampage against the 33 women wrongly convicted of “obstructing sidewalk traffic.”

Lucy Burns

They beat Lucy Burns, chained her hands to the cell bars above her head and left her hanging for the night, bleeding and gasping for air.

Dora Lewis

They hurled Dora Lewis into a dark cell, smashed her head against an iron bed and knocked her out cold. Her cellmate, Alice Cosu, thought Lewis was dead, suffered a heart attack. Additional affidavits describe the guards grabbing, dragging, beating, choking, slamming, pinching, twisting and kicking the women.

Thus unfolded the “Night of Terror” on November 15, 1917, when the warden at the Occoquan Workhouse in Virginia ordered his guards to teach a lesson to the suffragists imprisoned there because they dared to picket Woodrow Wilson’s White House for the right to vote.

For weeks, the women’s only water came from an open pail. Their food, all of it colorless slop, was infested with worms.

Alice Paul

When one of the leaders, Alice Paul, embarked on a hunger strike, they tied her to a chair, forced a tube down her throat and poured liquid into her until she vomited.

She was tortured like this for weeks until word was smuggled out to the press.

Resources for students, published with this story, by I Lee.

GenevaLunch was among the many media organizations that touted the World Bank’s revised voting scheme 25 April, with a 3.13 percent increase in developing countries’ voting power. But AllAfrica has picked up a long thoughtful article on the subject from the IPS news agency which points out that the shift in voting power has actually decreased the votes of one-third of African countries, with Nigeria and South Africa hardest hit. Each lost 10 percent of its voting power. “Sub-Saharan Africa, the target of many of its “poverty reduction” programmes, retains a total of less than six percent of the institution’s voting rights,” the article notes.

Now that the US and Russia are about to sign a new treaty to reduce their nuclear weapons arsenals, the story behind the negotiations is starting to surface. Global Security Newswire carries a lengthy and detailed story, citing several sources, that shows the extent of the two presidents’ involvement – interesting reading, and let’s see what else comes out in the next few weeks. The GS Newswire also carries an article on US President Barack Obama’s efforts to make sure Senate ratification of the treaty is not mired in the kind of bipartisan politics that made the new health care legislation such a  battleground.

Rather oddly, the New York Times is credited with some information that was available first on the White House web site, which was quick to post details once Obama and Medvedev spoke last Friday, 26 March, a refreshing change after the months-long news blackout by both sides, during the negotiations.

GenevaLunch has received a spate of anti-Muslim comments in recent days, linked mainly to articles about fighting in Nigeria between Muslims and Christians. Most have been spam, others have been from individuals who clearly have strong negative feelings about Islam. The policy for comments at GenevaLunch is clearly stated next to the comments box: “We are happy to have your comments, which are approved before they appear: please remember to be courteous and brief. We accept only comments directly related to an article. We do not accept comment spam – messages sent to more than one site. Thank you!”

“Courteous” covers showing respect for other people’s religions, no matter what your own beliefs are. We won’t be publishing any comments that verge in this direction and we’ve removed a couple comments that were dubious and that appear to have prompted more comments along the same lines. The comments space is offered to readers so they can contribute in a positive way to discussions about the news. A good example of this is the large number of comments we had in early January on our articles about luggage lost when Geneva airport baggage handlers went on strike. You can see all these articles and their comments here.

Nicholas Nova on Twitter just pointed out the most surprising thing the Swiss government has done this week. Its latest photo of the cabinet, or Federal Council (see New to Geneva? Me too post) can be ordered as a print, is available online and – this is true – is also available as a 3D photo, for which the government will send you the glasses to view it! I’ve ordered mine, too curious not to. And there is a whole selection of 3D images of Switzerland.

A government of more depth than I’d realized.

Some days you just have to love certain journalists and today I love the BBC’s Megan Lane, for her superb “Short History of Long Speeches,” which reminds us that while Libya’s Leader of the Revolution Muammar Qadaffi was a bit over the top with his rambling speech at the UN General Assembly, he’s a long way from catching up with Fidel Castro or that great speaker, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk whose fans were surely rewarded for endurance. But I still have a fond spot for Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev, who had a tendency to read the same page twice, thereby keeping his listeners alert by throwing in that monkey wrench (spanner to some of you) that makes listeners wonder if they haven’t heard this before, and how could that be.

A long time ago, when I was not a fan of Ronald Reagan, I read Peggy Noonan’s book about the challenges of being his speechwriter. One of the astonishing things, for me as a Reagan skeptic, was to learn that he wrote his own speeches, and he liked them short. It made me like him a bit better.

Pierre Bessard of the Liberales Institut, a Zurich-based research group, has contributed an Op-Ed article to the New York Times today called “Leave Swiss banks alone” which I think has the best explanation I’ve seen for the Swiss attitude towards paying taxes.

Ironically, given the US pressure on Swiss banking secrecy, it probably mirrors what many Americans believe they believe about the role of government. Switzerland puts it into practice.

The average Swiss on the street I’ve spoken with in recent months is embarrassed by and angry about UBS and its activities in the US, but these people also feel quite strongly about the importance of maintaining the citizen/government balance. They feel equally strongly about privacy.

Rich and famous people come to Switzerland for two reasons: the banks, and the fact they can breath more easily. True, the mountain air is crisp and relatively clean, but the Swiss respect their privacy – it’s all part of the same recipe, and it’s not so much designed to make a nation rich as to ensure national self-respect.