2002 - Political Events
Political Events
President Bush unsettles America's Asian and European allies with a state of the union address January 29 that includes the term "Axis of Evil," making some Americans squirm by echoing Ronald Reagan's "evil empire" characterization of the former Soviet Union, lumping Iraq and Iran with North Korea and implying that the United States may opt unilaterally to shut down their ability to foment terrorism with weapons of mass destruction (Canadian-born speech writer David Frum, 41, originally used the term "Axis of Hatred" but higher-ups in the West Wing changed it). Allies and many Americans express concern in early March at news of a secret 56-page Pentagon report to Congress outlining a broad overhaul of U.S. nuclear policy with contingency plans to use nuclear weapons against targets that include not only Iraq, Iran, Syria, Libya, and North Korea but also China and Russia (the Bush administration hastens to say that its position on first-use of nuclear weapons is no different from that of earlier administrations).
Common Cause founder and former cabinet member John W. Gardner dies of prostate cancer at his Palo Alto, Calif., home February 16 at age 89, having worked for campaign-finance reform. The House of Representatives has voted 240 to 189 February 14 to overhaul campaign-finance laws, the Senate votes 60 to 40 March 20 to approve the Campaign Finance Reform Bill, generally called the McCain-Feingold bill for its sponsors John S. (Sidney) McCain Jr., now 65, (R. Ariz.) and Russell D. (Dana) Feingold, 59 (D. Wis.). It limits "soft money" contributions to political parties but doubles the $1,000 limit on individual contributions, President Bush raised a record $113 million in such "hard money" contributions 2 years ago, and he signs the measure March 27, but opponents led by right-wing Republican Mitch McConnell (R. Ky.) and the National Rifle Association immediately file suit in federal district at Washington, D.C., to have the measure declared unconstitutional, others such as the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) vow to fight the new law in court, and compromises soon make the campaign-finance "reform" almost meaningless (see 2003).
President Bush responds June 6 to revelations that the CIA and FBI had information prior to last year's terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon that might have led to the apprehension of the perpetrators. Bush calls for the creation of a cabinet-level Department of Homeland Security that would coordinate some activities of various intelligence agencies, the Coast Guard, the Immigration and Naturalization Service, and the Secret Service with an annual budget of $37.5 billion. The president appointed former Pennsylvania governor Tom Ridge last fall to coordinate domestic security from the White House but resisted giving him cabinet status. Democrats in the Senate block a House bill authorizing creation of the new department, protesting that its employees would be denied collective-bargaining rights.
Retired U.S. ambassador Joseph C. Wilson IV, 52, speaks out July 6 against any invasion of Iraq, saying the administration has exaggerated the case for war. Sent to Africa by the CIA in February to investigate claims that Iraq's Saddam Hussein tried to buy yellowcake (uranium ore) in Niger, Wilson reported back that Niger officials knew of no such effort (see 2003).
President Bush and Vice President Cheney escalate their insistence that Iraq's Saddam Hussein has biological and chemical weapons of mass destruction, is close to having nuclear-weapon capability, and must be ousted in a "regime change" even if the United States must do it unilaterally. Cheney gives a speech to the Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW) at Nashville August 26 saying, "We will not live at the mercy of terrorists" and urging quick action. Hard-liners in the White House push aside Secretary of State Colin Powell and others who urge caution, they dismiss Iraqi promises to allow resumption of inspections by United Nations observers, Britain's prime minister Tony Blair is the only foreign head of state to support a preemptive strike against Iraq (most Britons strongly oppose any unilateral U.S. action, as do most other Europeans, and no Middle Eastern nation offers aid in the absence of United Nations approval). Bush addresses the UN General Assembly September 12 to press his argument that Iraq has repeatedly avoided compliance with UN resolutions since 1991 and threatens to make the UN a paper tiger; Pentagon officials warn that Saddam will use desperate measures if attacked; "After all," President Bush says at Houston September 26, "this is the guy who tried to kill my dad." Leading Democrats voice alarm at letting any president take such extreme action at his own discretion, they say it would actually weaken the "war" against terrorism (no clear link has been established between Baghdad and al Qaeda), and they warn that taking preemptive military action would set a precedent that nuclear powers such as China, India, Korea, or Pakistan might follow.
The White House releases a 33-page document September 26 entitled "National Security Strategy of the United States" and quoting statements made by the president at West Point June 1. Thought to have been influenced in large part by Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul D. Wolfowitz and other members of the Project for the New American Century founded in 1997, the "Bush doctrine" says America is the world's strongest nation, enjoying "unparalleled military strength." It echoes a Pentagon memorandum released to the press in March 1992 and some subsequent statements, saying, "Our forces will be strong enough to dissuade potential adversaries from pursuing a military buildup in hopes of surpassing, or equating, the power of the United States," and the country will never again allow its military supremacy to be challenged as it was during the cold war, but many question the wisdom of such chest thumping at a time when America is trying to enlist allied support for action against terrorism.
The president enjoys high popularity in the polls and many in Congress fear political defeat if they appear soft on the issue of national security; Bush softens his own position, saying in a speech at Cincinnati October 6 that war is neither "imminent nor inevitable," but he insists that Iraq possesses weapons of mass destruction and Congress approves a resolution October 10 and 11 authorizing him to take whatever action he deems "necessary and appropriate in order to defend the national security of the United States against the continuing threat posed by Iraq" (the House vote is 296 to 133, the Senate 77 to 23). Opinion polls show that the public is at best ambivalent on the issue of invasion and many in both chambers, and on both sides of the aisle, insist that they do not support any new doctrine of preemptive action, especially without UN sanction and allied support. President Bush signs the resolution October 16, gains little support at the UN, and makes belligerent statements about invading Iraq; only then is it revealed that North Korea has admitted to having a clandestine nuclear-weapons development program in violation of her 1994 agreement not to pursue such efforts, the White House says it will seek a diplomatic solution to that nation's nuclear threat, but it rejects a North Korean offer for talks November 3. Veteran congresswoman Patsy Mink (D. Hawaii) has died at Honolulu September 28 at age 74 of viral pneumonia stemming from chicken pox.
Saddam Hussein opens the gates of his prisons October 20, letting common criminals go free along with tens of thousands of political prisoners, but many opponents of the regime remain missing and hundreds of family members take to the streets with demands for knowledge of long-lost husbands, sons, and fathers.
Sen. Paul Wellstone (D. Minn.) dies in the crash of a chartered plane October 25 at age 58 while campaigning for election to a third term; he was outspoken in his objection to any unilateral action against Iraq, and his death spurs opposition to the Bush administration's policy. October 26 rallies against unilateral action bring out the largest crowds of protesters since the anti-Vietnam war demonstrations of the 1960s, with more than 100,000 at Washington, D.C., and smaller but sizeable groups in New York's Central Park and elsewhere. Republicans regain control of the Senate by a narrow margin in the November 5 elections, President Bush says the question of war with Iraq is up to Saddam Hussein, and the UN Security Council whose 15 members include Syria votes unanimous approval November 8 of Resolution 1441 requiring Iraq to come clean on her weapons-development programs, admitting inspectors with no restrictions whatever, or face "serious consequences." The vote postpones any decision as to what the Security Council will do should Saddam Hussein not comply.
The Homeland Security Act signed into law by President Bush November 25 combines 170,000 federal workers from 22 existing agencies (including the Coast Guard, Customs, Immigration and Naturalization Service, and Transportation Security) into a new department that does not include the CIA or FBI but would have its own, independent intelligence arm. Originally drafted by Sen. Joseph Lieberman (D. Conn.), the measure met with horror on the part of Republicans, who found the idea of a huge new federal bureaucracy distasteful, but the Bush administration embraced it in June, the House approved it July 31, some senators tried to block the measure on grounds that employees in the new department would have no collective-bargaining rights, but the Senate approved it November 19. In the end only nine Democrats in the Senate voted nay, the rest fearing they would be called "soft" on national defense, but opponents questioned whether the new department would make the country any safer against terrorism (some critics say it will actually make it less safe as agencies and individuals jockey for power). Even the most optimistic supporters concede that it will take at least 5 years to have the new department up and running, and President Bush has twisted arms at the last moment to avoid having opponents eliminate provisions that favor special interests such as pharmaceutical companies and corporations that have moved offshore to avoid paying U.S. taxes.
Former CIA director Richard Helms dies of multiple myeloma at Washington, D.C., October 23 at age 89; former Roman Catholic priest and Vietnam War draft-resistance leader Philip F. Berrigan of liver and kidney cancer at Baltimore December 6 at age 79.
French voters reelect President Jacques Chirac by a wide margin May 5 in a resounding rejection of right-wing extremist Jean-Marie Le Pen, who nevertheless wins nearly 18 percent of the vote (his highest showing yet) to Chirac's 82 percent, but Socialist leaders quickly end their alliance with the 69-year-old president.
A lone gunman kills 49-year-old right-wing Dutch populist Pim Fortuyn in a parking lot at the town of Hilversum May 6. A former sociology professor who was campaigning to be the nation's first homosexual prime minister, Fortuyn had opposed immigration and received relatively large support, as had politicians with similar views in Belgium, Austria, Denmark, and France.
Social Democrat German chancellor Gerhard Schröder wins reelection by a narrow margin September 22 after antagonizing President Bush by vowing that Germany will not support a unilateral U.S. attack on Iraq in the absence of clear evidence to support charges of an "imminent" Iraqi threat. Few Europeans support any U.S. invasion.
Chechen separatists seize a Moscow theater October 23 and threaten to start killing hostages if Vladimir Putin does not declare an end to the war with Chechnya by October 25 and start pulling out (see 2000). Commando troops surround the theater and begin tunneling beneath it, the terrorists allow some children to go, several women escape, but 763 people are still in detention 58 hours later when an agitated smoker deprived of his nicotine fix goes berserk in the stuffy theater at about 2:40 in the morning, leaps from his seat, and lunges for an exit, stepping on people's heads and backs of seats. A gunman opens fire, misses the young man, and shoots another man in the eye, a girl is hit, and a 200-man Federal Security Force team subdues the suicide hostage takers by releasing an opiate gas, accidentally killing about 117 hostages along with all but one of the Chechens (see 2004).
Afghans elect their interim leader Hamid Karzai president in a loya jirga held at Kabul in June (see 2001). Germany has provided a huge tent for the 1,500 delegates who have attended, but Karzai dashes hopes for democratization when he announces his cabinet; he has promoted warlords to head the ministries of defense and foreign affairs while removing professionals. U.S. special forces protect Karzai from assassination; his government exercises little or no control beyond Kabul, with warlords vying for power elsewhere in the country and wide-scale production of opium poppies for the heroin trade resuming after it was virtually halted by the Taliban in areas it controlled. French and German forces will try to maintain order in Afghanistan in the absence of enough U.S. troops.
Bahrain voters in the Persian Gulf elect a parliament October 24 that will for the first time share some decision making with the tiny island's progressive king Sheik Hamad bin Isa al-Halifa, who has released all political prisoners, repealed laws permitting arbitrary arrests, invited exiles to return home, and eased restraints on the press (see 2000). His wife, Sabika, has campaigned actively to encourage women to vote, and it is the first election in the Gulf region to have female candidates and voters.
Turkey's Justice and Development Party sweeps the November 3 parliamentary elections, making former Istanbul mayor Recep Tayyip Erdogan, 48, head of state in place of the ailing Bulent Ecevit, now 77, whose party wins barely 1 percent of the vote (see 1999). Erdogan recited a poem in a 1997 speech that said in part, "The mosques are our bayonets, the domes our helmets, and the believers our soldiers;" that led to his conviction in 1998 on charges of inciting religious hatred in a staunchly secular country, he was stripped of office and sentenced to 10 months' imprisonment, he served 4 months in 1999, the nation's highest court has disqualified him in September from running for office, but Turks are fed up with corruption and economic failure, and Erdogan has projected a moderate, pro-Western image, denying that his party espouses an Islamic agenda. The party names former economics professor Abdullah Gul, 52, prime minister November 16; a machinist's son who is considered a moderate, he expresses confidence that the country can thrive as a democracy with western leanings under Islamic leadership. The new regime at Ankara moves November 30 to lift a 15-year state of emergency that has imposed restrictions on Kurds in the southeast, but anti-American sentiment in the region is strong and the government announces December 3 that in the event of a war with Iraq it will allow U.S. use of Turkish air bases but will not allow any large-scale deployment of U.S. troops in its territory (see 2003).
The Arab satellite television channel al-Jazeera airs a 4-minute audiotape by Osama bin Laden November 12, the al Qaeda leader praises recent terrorist attacks on the island of Bali and at Moscow, he threatens further bloodshed related to Iraq, Pentagon experts determine that the voice really is bin Laden's, and the revelation establishes that he is still alive despite efforts to find him somewhere in Afghanistan or Pakistan. The CIA, FBI, and Pakistani authorities captured bin Laden's operations chief Abu Zubaydah at Faisalabad in March, a CIA Predator drone fired a missile in Yemen November 3 that killed six suspected al Qaeda operatives including Qaed Salim Sinan al-Harethi, and U.S. officials announce November 21 that al Qaeda's chief of Persian Gulf operations Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri is in custody (he is said to have masterminded terrorist plots that included bombing the U.S.S. Cole in October 2000). Suicide bombers kill 16 people (including the attackers) at a Mombasa hotel November 28.
Hostilities between Israelis and Palestinians escalate to new levels of intensity as the cycle of provocation and retaliation continues (see 2001). Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Abdullah proposes a normalization of relations based on the return of Israel to its pre-1967 borders, skeptics say the proposal is a public relations effort designed to rebuff criticism that almost all of the terrorists in last year's World Trade Center and Pentagon attacks were Saudis, Prime Minister Sharon deploys 20,000 troops and sends 150 tanks into the West Bank city of Ramallah, the Bush administration removes its support of Sharon's hard-line tactics, and United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan tells Israel March 12 that she "must end the illegal occupation" of Palestinian lands, but the conflict continues. A suicide bombing March 27 in the dining room of Israel's seaside Park Hotel at Netanya kills 29 and injures more than 100 (the room has been packed with Passover Seder celebrants); a synagogue bombing at Djerba, Tunisia, April 11 leaves 21 dead, including 14 German tourists; a car-bomb explosion outside the Sheraton Hotel at Karachi May 8 kills 14 people, 11 of them French citizens; President Bush phones Sharon and Arafat May 23, urging them to accept a framework for ending the violence, but he receives strong criticism from U.S. Christian ecumenicals who support Sharon. A bomb exploded outside the U.S. Consulate at Karachi June 14 kills 12 and injures 26; an Israeli F-16 drops a one-ton laser-guided bomb on a densely-packed Gaza neighborhood just after midnight July 23, killing Hamas military leader Sheikh Salah Shehada along with 14 other people, nine of them children. President Bush condemns the bombing as "heavy-handed," Palestinians vow revenge, and the incident encourages further terrorism. An explosion on the French tanker Limburg October 6 leaves one crewman dead, 12 injured, and dumps 90,000 gallons of oil into the Gulf of Aden. Authorities find evidence of a bomb and suggest that al Qaeda terrorists rammed the ship; a terrorist bomb explodes in a Bali nightclub the night of October 11, killing upwards of 180 and leaving close to 300 wounded. Most of the victims are foreign tourists, many of them from Australia. Authorities arrest a Muslim cleric who has been linked to Islamic extremist groups. Israel's Labor Party quits the 19-month-old coalition government October 30 as the moderately leftist group asserts its displeasure at Prime Minister Sharon's proposed budget, which favors settlements over the social needs of the country. Former Israeli diplomat Abba Eban dies at Tel Aviv November 16 at age 87, having always favored a sharing of the country with Arabs.
Zambia's ruling party president Levy Mwanawasa takes office January 1 after the tightest election since the country gained independence in 1964. The electoral commission has announced that Mwanawasa won 29 percent of the popular vote, the leading opposition candidate 27 percent, but there are charges of extensive ballot-rigging, the 10 opposition parties boycott the swearing-in ceremony, and there is widespread stone-throwing in protest demonstrations.
Angolan government forces ambush Unita rebel leader Jonas Savimbi February 23 and kill him in a skirmish near his base in the province of Moxico. Dead at age 67, Savimbi began fighting for independence from Portugal more than 35 years ago and then struggled for power after Angola gained independence in 1975, representing himself as an anti-communist to get support from the CIA.
Zimbabwe holds a presidential election in March, opposition candidate Morgan Tavangari mounts the strongest challenge yet to the corrupt rule of 78-year-old President Robert Mugabe, foreign observers note so much intimidation, violence, and other irregularities that they declare the election fundamentally flawed, Mugabe claims victory by a large majority, but the United States and some other countries refuse to recognize the outcome.
Kenya's voters end 39 years of rule by the founding Kenyan African National Union (KANU) Party, which loses the presidential election December 27 to National Rainbow Coalition Party leader Mwai Kabaki, 71, a Ugandan- and London-educated economist who has promised an end to the blatant corruption that has kept the impoverished, AIDS-ridden country from receiving World Bank or International Monetary Fund support. A onetime Mau Mau member, Kabaki wins 63 percent of the popular vote, defeating the late Jomo Kenyatta's 43-year-old son Uhuru Kenyatta, a U.S.-educated businessman chosen by outgoing president Daniel arap Moi, now 76, who has held office since 1979 and allegedly looted the country of more than $1 billion in taxpayer money, hiding it in overseas accounts or using it to buy foreign real estate, including two London hotels, spacious English country homes, and a fleet of luxury cars.
Former North Vietnamese general Van Tien Dung dies at Hanoi March 17 at age 84.
East Timor gains independence from Indonesia May 20 (see 1999; 2001).
India and Pakistan mobilize on their border in late May, raising fears of war between the two nuclear powers. Tempers cool despite continued atrocities by Muslims against Hindus and vice versa.
Malaysia's prime minister Mahathir Mohamad announces June 25 that he will leave office October 25 of next year. Now 76, he has held power since 1981, railed against the West (but condemned last September's terrorist attacks), and kept peace among nation's ethnic Malays, Chinese, and Indians, countenancing secularization in the Islam state of 21 million. His hand-picked heir-apparent is Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, 62, who has been deputy prime minister.
The United States, Japan, and South Korea issue a joint statement October 26 demanding that North Korea dismantle her clandestine nuclear-weapons development program "in a prompt and verifiable manner" and warning Kim Jung Il that his "relations with the international community" depends on compliance. North Korea and Japan hold high-level talks at Kuala Lumpur beginning October 29, but the North Koreans insist that they will negotiate only with the United States and refuse demands that they halve the development program. The United States cuts off oil shipments to North Korea in November; South Korea, Japan, and the European Union follow suit November 14 pending action by Pyongyang "to dismantle completely" its program to develop nuclear weapons (see 2003).
Chinese Communist Party chief Jiang Zemin gives up his position as general secretary November 15 after 13 years in which the People's Republic has achieved stability and prosperity, becoming an international powerhouse with greater personal freedom and higher living standards but with continued corruption and widespread unemployment. Now 76, Jiang remains the power behind successor Hu Jintao, 39.
Former Burmese dictator U Ne Win dies under house arrest at his lakeside home outside Rangoon (Yangon) December 5 at age 81.
South Korean farmer's son and former civil-rights lawyer Roh Moo Hyun, 56, wins a tightly contested presidential election December 19, succeeding Kim Dae-jung. Roh has been associated with calls for the withdrawal of some 30,000 U.S. troops, he proposes loosening ties to the United States, and he favors continued engagement with North Korea despite that country's resumption of its nuclear-energy program. Critics have called him a dangerous radical with no knowledge of foreign affairs.
Venezuela has a massive civil uprising April 11 against President Hugo Chavez, right-wing generals announce his resignation and whisk him away to the island of Orchila, Chavez has alienated the country's elite (and many foreign powers) by visiting with Iraq's Saddam Hussein, Cuba's Fidel Castro, and Libya's Muammar Qadaffi, Washington makes no secret of its pleasure at having the democratically elected president ousted after 3 years in power, he is replaced briefly by a 60-year-old puppet who dissolves the National Assembly and dismisses the Supreme Court, forces loyal to Chavez restore the president to power at Caracas within 48 hours, the country is left in turmoil, and hundreds of thousands take to the streets in December, shutting down oil exports and demanding Chavez's ouster.
An investigative judge at Buenos Aires orders the arrest July 10 of former Argentine military dictator Gen. Leopoldo Galtieri and more than 30 other military officers in connection with the "dirty war" against leftists from 1976 to 1983. Now 75, Gen. Galtieri faces accusations that he and the others were responsible for the torture and disappearances of an estimated 5,000 people.
Colombia's president Alvaro Uribe Vélez, 50, assumes office August 7 despite the firing of at least five homemade mortar shells that kill or mortally wound at least 19 people in the center of Bogotá as he prepares to take the oath. A bookish-looking Oxford- and Harvard-educated lawyer who served as governor of his home province Antioquia from 1995 to 1998, Uribe has won election in May with 20 percentage points more than his nearest rival; he flies August 8 to Valledupar in the heart of the country's lawless northeastern territory, where he helps set up a plan to recruit civilian informers in an effort to combat Marxist guerrilla groups, notably the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) that gunned down Uribe's father on the family ranch in Antioquia 19 years ago and supported Uribe's predecessor, Andres Pastrana.
Brazil's left-wing Workers' Party wins the presidential election in a runoff October 27, making former factory worker Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, 56, president. He has defeated former cabinet member José Serra, 50, of the centrist Social Democratic Party who has suggested that da Silva will make Brazil vulnerable to an Argentine-style economic class war or to Venezuelan-style political instability, but Silva has tapped into a widespread discontent and Serra's party does not win control of the nation's largest states.
Former Bolivian dictator Hugo Banzer dies of a heart attack at Santa Cruz May 5 at age 75; former Peruvian president Fernando Belaunde Terry at Lima June 4 at age 89; former Dominican strongman Joaquín Balaguer at Santo Domingo July 14 at age 95; former Guyana president Desmond Hoyte of heart failure at Georgetown December 22 at age 73.
The U.S. Supreme Court expands the concept of state sovereignty under the Eleventh Amendment May 28, ruling 5 to 4 that the state-owned Port of Charleston, S.C., is immune from prosecution by the U.S. Maritime Commission (a cruise line had complained to the Commission that the port wrongfully denied a berth to one of its ships).
Former U.S. senator (and Georgia governor) Herman E. Talmadge dies at his Hampton, Ga., home March 21 at age 88; Gen. Benjamin O. Davis Jr. (ret.) at Walter Reed Hospital July 4 at age 89, having led the Tuskegee Airmen in World War II; submarine commander Edward L. Beach, U.S. Navy (ret.), dies at his Washington, D.C., home December 1 at age 84.
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