Doctors Without Borders Leaves Afghanistan and Rumsfeld Leaves the Public Eye
Aid group Médècins Sans Frontières pulls out of Afghanistan
TheOlympian.com
. . .
The Nobel Prize-winning medical relief group, also known as Doctors
Without Borders, denounced the U.S. military's use of aid to persuade
Afghans to snitch on insurgents, saying it risked turning all relief
workers into targets. It was also dismayed that Taliban rebels tried to
claim responsibility for the June 2 attack on its staff.
“We feel
that the framework for independent humanitarian action in Afghanistan
at present has simply evaporated,” said Kenny Gluck, MSF's director of
operations. There is a “lack of respect for the safety of aid workers.”
(more)
With War Losing Support, Rumsfeld Stages a Retreat
CommonDreams.org
WASHINGTON
— Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, once so popular as an
administration spokesman for the Iraq war that President Bush dubbed
him a “matinee idol,” has reduced his public profile, trimming
appearances as the war has turned from a positive for the Bush campaign
into a potential liability.
Critics, particularly on the left, have delighted in the shrinking Rumsfeld role.
Now,
supporters have weighed in as well, but not with delight. “He's our
rock star,” one senior administration official said Wednesday on
condition of anonymity. “He should be out there.”
The man
who gave daily progress reports at the Pentagon in the heat of the war
has appeared only twice at Pentagon briefings since May.
And the
White House, which coordinates which administration officials appear on
the networks' news-making Sunday talk shows, has not lined up a
Rumsfeld interview for months, although a senior administration
official, speaking on condition of anonymity, denied that the White
House did not want Rumsfeld speaking out.
(more)
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