Al Jazeera English’s Hamish MacDonald reports on how Iraq is positioning itself as a tourist destination again.

Martin Savidge hosts David Rayside and Rachel Tiven on LGBT politics and gay asylum. We begin the conversation with Jamaica, which makes up 17 of the 55 U.S. asylum cases won by Immigration Equality last year alone. We examine the metastasizing colonial and slave culture, entrenched poverty and rampant violence in Jamaica.

In 1994, former U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno expanded asylum law to include persecution based on sexual orientation. Sexual orientation has been increasingly used as grounds for asylum. We also discuss how to begin the process of applying for gay asylum in the U.S.

From human rights abuses to political progress, the gay rights movement is at different stages throughout the world. We take a comparative look at the progress of LGBT politics and the gay rights movement in different countries, including the best and worst places to be gay.

A Greek gay rights parade. Photo: Megan Thompson

• Read about one gay Jamaican’s story of asylum: Gay men in Jamaica must lead two separate lives
• Watch signature videos from Jamaica: Violence and venom force gay Jamaicans to hide and Gays in Jamaica worship in underground church
• Watch our signature video from Greece: Ancient Greek values clash with modern treatment of gays

GUESTS:

David Rayside is a political science professor at the University of Toronto. His latest book “Queer Inclusions, Continental Divisions” is a comparative analysis of Canadian and  American political recognition of same-sex relationships, the extension of parenting rights to same-sex couples and the response to sexual diversity in public schooling. For over thirty years, he has also been an activist on issues related to sexual diversity and gender within academic institutions and beyond.

Rachel B. Tiven is the executive director of Immigration Equality, a national organization fighting for equal immigration rights for the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and HIV-positive community. Under her leadership, Immigration Equality has doubled in size, quadrupled client services and opened a policy office in Washington, D.C.

Credits:
Host: Martin Savidge
Producers: Lisa Biagiotti and Ben Piven
Researcher: Geneva Sands-Sadowitz

For more information on homophobia and HIV in Jamaica, visit The Glass Closet, a multimedia project produced in partnership with the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting.

JAPAN: A Japanese navy ship intercepted a medium-ranged ballistic missile in a test off the coast of Hawaii. Japan has been investing in U.S.-developed ballistic missile defense systems since North Korea test fired a long ranged ballistic missile over northern Japan in 1998.

MALAYSIA: Malaysia’s Islamic party has called Muslim men in the country to marry single mothers as their additional wives instead of “young, virgin girls.” Men in Malaysia are allowed to marry up to four women under the approval of the Islamic courts. Government officials said this will “ease the burden” on the single mothers as they need support to take care of their kids.

INDONESIA: Authorities in Indonesia said they might expel the 78 Sri Lankan asylum-seekers if they fail to cooperate with them over identity checks. The ethnic Tamil refugees were intercepted in international waters near Indonesia 11 days ago while trying to reach Australia.

ZIMBABWE: Al Jazeera English is reporting that  UN special rapporteur on torture Manfred Nowak was denied entry to Zimbabwe.

SUDAN: African Union leaders are discussing various proposals to resolve the ongoing crisis in Darfur, reports Al-Arabiya.

IRAN: Iran’s Islamic Students News Agency is reporting that Iran’s ambassador to the IAEA Ali Asghar Soltanieh has delivered his country’s response to the IAEA. Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said  the West is moving from confrontation to cooperation on the issue, and the United Nations watchdog agency says it is hopeful an agreement can be reached.

According to the Middle East online news site, more than 60 Iraqi security force members have been arrested following the two bombings in Baghdad that killed more than 150 people. The New York Times is reporting on corruption on Iraq.

PAKISTAN: Pakistan Dawn TV reported on US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s town hall meeting where she told a Pakistani audience that Pakistan was not alone in its fight against militants and reiterated strong U.S. support for its ally.

ISRAEL: In Israel today, Haaretz is covering that country’s observation of the 14th year anniversary — according to the Jewish calendar — of the assassination of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin.

PALESTINE: Palestinian Ma’an news agency said that Hamas’s Prime Minister in Gaza Ismail Haniyeh has told an American delegates on a medical mission in Gaza that he welcomes the U.S. change of language on the Middle East conflict.

Tarek Bazley of Al Jazeera English reports from Baghdad.

If the security situation is not stable, should the United States withdraw its troops anyway?

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Which has many people wondering: What will be the measure of their success?

As Nick Spicer of Worldfocus partner Al Jazeera English reports, it’s a question the Obama administration has been thinking about as well.

Nora Bensahel is a senior political scientist at the Rand Corporation and an expert on American efforts in Afghanistan and Iraq. She explains the differences between the conflicts and objectives in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Bensahel addresses President Obama’s metrics system against terrorism and the Taliban-led insurgency. She also describes the upswing in violence in Iraq following the U.S. pullout from Iraqi cities in June, but says enduring acts of violence may be an indication of the weakness of the Iraqi government.

But on Monday, after a double truck bombing tore through a Shiite village in northern Iraq and a string of nine blasts hit Baghdad, at least 48 people were dead and more than 250 were injured.

Douglas Ollivant, who served two tours in Iraq and was the director for Iraq policy at the National Security Council, joins Martin Savidge to discuss the timetable for U.S. withdrawal and consider if the focus on Afghanistan is premature.

The attacks came less than 24 hours after workers began removing protective blast walls around Baghdad, under government orders.

Worldfocus partner Al Jazeera English reports on the bombings and how they underscore the increased violence that has plagued the country since U.S. forces pulled back from major Iraqi cities in June.

But then there are days like Friday, when a series of bombs exploded near five Shiite mosques in Baghdad, killing at least 29 people and shattering the perception, at least for now, that Iraq is a much safer place than it used to be.

Michael Wahid Hanna, a fellow at the Century Foundation, joins Martin Savidge to discuss the attacks and U.S. troop withdrawals.

Also on Wednesday, two bombs exploded in a Baghdad market, killing at least five people and wounding dozens. It was the second day of bombings in what appears to be a growing campaign of religious and ethnic violence between Shi’ite and Sunni Muslims.

Joost Hiltermann of the International Crisis Group joins Martin Savidge to discuss relations between the U.S. and Iraq and the security situation.

Last week, I read about Kurds laying claim to Iraq’s land and oil. Kurds in northern Iraq have taken steps toward further regional autonomy by finalizing their own constitution in the Kurdish parliament. The Iraqi government is not pleased about ever-bolder Kurdish claims to oil and gas revenues. Many American and Iraqi officials fear that Kurdistan is increasingly close to statehood, which could doom the Iraq’s federal arrangement.

Reading up on these recent developments reminded me of a my most memorable encounter with Kurdistan, which happened on September 5, 2007. Two days after I flew Iraqi president Jalal Talabani to a meeting with then-President George W. Bush, the Kurds reached an oil revenue-sharing deal with the Iraqi government. I know I’m not directly responsible for writing a page in history, but if you read the fine print, it’ll mention the pilot.

I was 20,000 feet above the Iraqi desert, flying an Air Force C-130 cargo plane en route to As Sulaymaniyah, a Kurdish governorate in northeastern Iraq near the border with Iran. No one in the crew had ever been there, so we opened up our airfield directory to check the airfield’s pertinent data.

Jehangir Irani with Pres. Jalal Talabani en route to meeting Pres. Bush. Photo: Jehangir Irani

The book lists airfields alphabetically, but finding As Sulaymaniyah wasn’t easy. It wasn’t under “s.” Nor was it under “Al,” “An” or “Ad.” Finally, after spelling it phonetically, “Alpha Sierra Sierra…,” did our navigator confirm it existed. But “Suly” didn’t just exist, it thrived. I saw none of the usual sights of war-torn Iraq. And I noticed a mix of Kurdish and Iraqi flags flying in this desert outpost just 160 miles north of Baghdad.

Where rising black smoke signals your arrival into Baghdad, Suly greets you with her rolling hills and valleys. Where dust and dirt line the floors of most Iraqi military facilities, Suly’s passenger terminal was so clean; let’s just say I wouldn’t be afraid to pick up where I left off after dropping my chow hall turkey sandwich.

Pres. George Bush’s meeting with Iraqi officials, Sept. 3, 2007. Photo: White House/Eric Draper

Then there’s the small matter of why I was there. My crew and I weren’t even scheduled to fly to Suly. But after landing in Baghdad, a high-priority task necessitated unloading our plane and flying to Suly with a short, bald Major as our only passenger - an unknown man who I labeled “the One.” After touching down in Suly, my plane was surrounded by a civilian team of former South African special forces. I was told by “the One” that Jalal Talabani, the Iraqi president, and a Kurd, was en route. This once placid airfield soon started buzzing, as doctors, political aides, and members of the Peshmerga, the famed Kurdish militia, found their way on to my plane.

On a culturally sensitive note, “the One” informed me that the Iraqi president shouldn’t be addressed as “Mr. Talabani.” I was to call the 73-year-old leader “Ma Jalal,” meaning “Uncle Jalal” in Kurdish. Though I’d never met the man, his charisma was apparent. Talabani wore a spotless silk suit that was impeccably pressed. His hair was coiffed slightly to the right, and his all-white mustache sat smartly on his upper lip. He was the gentleman that everybody would approach for a handshake and then walk away glowing.

I greeted Ma Jalal at my plane’s entrance and cranked the engines soon after he buckled up. We were now headed to Al Asad Airbase, a fairly large airfield controlled by the Marines, situated in the barren expanses of western Anbar province. It was here that the biggest surprise awaited us. In the distance stood Air Force One. President Bush had made yet another surprise trip to Iraq, and I was tasked with transporting the Iraqi president to meet him.

- Jehangir Irani

They discuss the U.S. offensive in Afghanistan, the American pullback in Iraq and unrest in Honduras following a military coup.

The day has been declared an official holiday in Iraq — “National Sovereignty Day.”

Even as parades celebrated the milestone, a deadly attack took place in the northern city of Kirkuk, where at least 27 people were killed. This is the latest in a string of attacks that have taken place over the last week, threatening the country’s security.

Michael O’Hanlon, a senior fellow in foreign policy at the Brookings Institution and one of the authors of the “Iraq Index,” joins Martin Savidge to discuss the withdrawal and it may mean for the future of Iraq.

Already, insurgents seem to be testing Iraq’s ability to maintain security, with a series of deadly bombings that has killed almost 200 people in recent days. The Pentagon has downplayed the recent spike in violence in Iraq.

On Wednesday, a bomb attached to a motorcycle killed 78 people at a market in the Sadr City neighborhood of Baghdad, which is already under Iraqi control.

Michael Wahid Hanna, a fellow at the Century Foundation, joins Martin Savidge to discuss whether Iraqi security forces are ready to take control and what role U.S. forces will continue to play in Iraq after the pullout from cities.

At least 28 people were killed and dozens were injured in the attack.

John Nagl, the president of the Center for a New American Security and a former army officer who served in Iraq, joins Martin Savidge to discuss preparation for the troop pullout and a national referendum coming up in July on the Iraqi-American security agreement.

Along with his brother, al-khazali was accused of staging a raid on government headquarters in Karbala. Both are also members of Asaib Ahl al-Haq, a group which is thought to be Iranian-backed.

Ghassan Shabaneh, assistant professor of international studies at Marymount Manhattan College, discusses the implications of al-khazali’s release.

The indicator chart looks like this:

Year           Broadcasts of late night American comedy from Iraq for a USO tour

2003          0
2004          0
2005          0
2006          0
2007          0
2008          0
2009          1

Progress!

Tony Blair in 2008.

It’s two years since Tony Blair left 10 Downing Street for good, but he hasn’t been able to win the praise and credit he yearns for after a decade of accomplishments as the Labor Party’s longest-serving prime minister, from British economic growth to peace in Northern Ireland. 

Blair and his friends have been arguing that the former prime minister should be better treated. One thing gets in the way: His friendship with George W. Bush and his decision to join the United States in the 2003 invasion of Iraq.

The latest: The London Telegraph reports that Blair’s decision-making in office — including the decision to invade Iraq — was based on his religious beliefs. It’s reminiscent of Bush’s description of the war on terrorism as a “crusade.”

The Telegraph quotes a book, “We Don’t Do God,” by John Burton, Blair’s political associate and sometimes mentor. The book says Blair played down his religious fervor while in office, but it was always at the forefront:

Tony’s Christian faith is part of him, down to his cotton socks. He believed strongly at the time, that intervention in Kosovo, Sierra Leone — Iraq too — was all part of the Christian battle; good should triumph over evil, making lives better.

He applied that same principle in everything he did — from establishing the Social Exclusion Unit to ethnic cleansing in Kosovo, and ridding Iraq of the evils of Saddam Hussein’s rule.

Bush’s religion-dominated worldview has also been in the news recently. GQ reported this month that former Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld mixed memos to Bush on Iraq with quotations from the Scriptures.

This week, Clive Hamilton, a visiting professor at Yale University, reports on a new book about former French President Jacques Chirac, written by journalist Jean Claude Maurice. The book says Bush spoke of Satan and the need to cleanse the world to prepare for Armageddon.

Chirac is said to have been stupefied and disturbed by Bush’s invocation of Biblical prophesy to justify the war in Iraq and “wondered how someone could be so superficial and fanatical in their beliefs.”

Prediction, not prophesy — Blair and Bush will long be the focus of armchair psychoanalysis: Bush for why he did what he did, Blair for why he didn’t know better.

- Peter Eisner

Photo courtesy of Flickr user World Economic Forum under a Creative Commons license.