Foot dragging and facts

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Why is Washington blocking the publication of the 2004 Arab Human Development Report, produced by the UN and authored by experts from across the Arab world?

The US certainly has much to object to in the report's findings, which conclude that American policy is one of the main causes of terrorism and fundamentalism in the Middle East.

The report also stresses that the war on terror is at best a phony war, and that the Bush administration lacks any realistic vision of how to manage affairs in Iraq. Nor, the report suggests, does Washington have any genuine interest in reform. Rather, it is intent only on securing its oil interests. Democratisation and human rights have never been anywhere close to the top of Washington's foreign policy agenda, if indeed they are on there at all.

The Arab Human Development Report also criticises Washington's uncritical support of Israel, which has allowed Sharon to ride roughshod over the lives of Palestinians in the occupied territories. This backing goes beyond moral support to include a variety of annually budgeted aid packages.

And Washington is almost certain to be piqued by the report's gathering of evidence that its much trailed promotion of reform in the region is nothing more than a sleight of hand. No Arab state can possibly begin to implement the kind of reform programmes demanded while they are being pressured to make political and security concessions and allow a permanent American military presence in the Middle East.

The report has also earned the enmity of a number of Arab regimes, especially those supported by the US. It points out the state sponsored terrorism these regimes inflict on their own people, and details their appalling human rights record. Data on the numbers of political prisoners held is provided, and mechanisms for the transfer of power -- which appear to operate on increasingly hereditary principles -- are exposed.

Hardly surprising, then, that Washington is dragging its feet over the release date, and that many countries in the region are happy it should do so.