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World Media Watch
by Gloria R. Lalumia
BUZZFLASH NOTE: Once again, these are the views and perspectives of the individual papers, not of BuzzFlash or Gloria. They offer BuzzFlash readers a way of reading what other nations are saying about the crisis, whether we like it or not. We repeat: This is not an endorsement of their viewpoints.
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1//The Philippine Daily Inquirer, Philippines--BRITISH SUPPORT FOR BLAIR FALLS AFTER 'BAGHDAD BOUNCE' (British voters have turned their backs on Prime Minister Tony Blair just a month after rushing to his support following the country's success in the Iraq war, a poll showed Wednesday. The number of voters dissatisfied with Blair's performance as prime minister rose eight points to 50 percent between April and May, according to an ICM poll in The Guardian newspaper.)
2//Daily Times, Pakistan--CENTCOM BLACKOUT ON PAKISTAN (The US Central Command (CENTCOM) has removed all information on Pakistan from its website, after a report in Daily Times on May 18 saying that by joining the US-led war in Afghanistan, Pakistan had lost $10 billion...Sources told Daily Times this appears to have been done at the instance of the Pakistani government, which has revealed few if any details so far, of what precise part it was playing in the operation against Al Qaeda and its remnants...CENTCOM also said what must have come as a "shock" to the Pakistani people that contrary to the Musharraf government's claims that Pakistani facilities had not been used to carry out operations against Afghanistan, as many as 57,800 'sorties' or air attacks were 'generated' either from Pakistan's air space or from Pakistan's soil.)
3//The Independent, UK--BP PIPELINE WILL DISPLACE THOUSANDS, SAYS AMNESTY (A£2.9bn oil and gas pipeline project from the Caspian Sea to the Mediterranean, due to be constructed by a BP-led consortium, will infringe the human rights of thousands of people and cause environmental damage, according to an Amnesty International report published today...The pipeline, from the Azerbaijani capital, Baku, through Georgia, to the Turkish port of Ceyhan, is one of the most ambitious projects of its kind and has been seen as a crucial gambit in a 21st-century equivalent of the Great Game.)
4//Khaleej Times, United Arab Emirates--RUMSFELD IS AS "BRUTAL AND UNFAIR" AS SADDAM: EGYPTIAN PRESS (US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld is as "brutal" and "unfair" as ousted Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein for the way Arab prisoners are treated in Guantanamo Bay, the Egyptian government daily Al Ahram charged on Tuesday...In Pakistan, a Pakistani released from the United States' secretive prison on Guantanamo Bay, Cuba said Monday that most of the 600-plus prisoners still held there on suspicion of al-Qaeda links had become mentally disturbed.)
5//The Sydney Morning Herald, Australia--TERRORISTS MAY BE WALKING INTO GRIEF (On the theory that an individual's walk is as unique as a signature, the Pentagon has financed a research project at the Georgia Institute of Technology that has been 80 to 95 per cent successful in identifying people. If the Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency orders a prototype, people's "gait signatures" could join other data in a vast surveillance system that the Pentagon agency calls Total Information Awareness.)
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1//The
Philippine Daily Inquirer Posted: 9:14 AM (Manila Time) |
May 21, 2003
http://www.inq7.net/brk/2003/may/21/brkafp_1-1.htm
BRITISH SUPPORT FOR BLAIR FALLS AFTER 'BAGHDAD BOUNCE'
Agence France-Presse
LONDON - British voters have turned their backs on Prime Minister Tony Blair just a month after rushing to his support following the country's success in the Iraq war, a poll showed Wednesday.
The number of voters dissatisfied with Blair's performance as prime minister rose eight points to 50 percent between April and May, according to an ICM poll in The Guardian newspaper.
Meanwhile, those who said they were satisfied with Blair fell seven points to 42 percent, giving him a net rating of minus eight points compared to plus seven in April.
Blair's healthy popularity rating last month was attributed to the "Baghdad bounce" - a term used to describe the flurry of support afforded him after the swift removal from power of Iraqi tyrant Saddam Hussein.
In February, a month before Britain joined the United States in launching war against Iraq, Blair's net rating stood at minus 20 - a reflection of the huge opposition here to Britain entering the battlefield.
The Guardian cited last week's resignation of Clare Short, Britain's International Development Secretary, for the significant fall in Blair's popularity since last month.
Short resigned on May 12, citing disagreement with Blair's post war policy on Iraq.
(MORE)
2//Daily Times Wednesday, May 21, 2003
http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=story_21-5-2003_pg1_7
CENTCOM BLACKOUT ON PAKISTAN
By Khalid Hasan
WASHINGTON: The US Central Command (CENTCOM) has removed all information on Pakistan from its website, after a report in Daily Times on May 18 saying that by joining the US-led war in Afghanistan, Pakistan had lost $10 billion.
The section of the CENTCOM website that contained details of what role Pakistan was playing in 'Operation Enduring Freedom' also contained write-ups listing what each country that had joined the US-led coalition had contributed. Barring the references to Pakistan, the rest of the website is untouched.
Sources told Daily Times this appears to have been done at the instance of the Pakistani government, which has revealed few if any details so far, of what precise part it was playing in the operation against Al Qaeda and its remnants.
The CENTCOM section on Pakistan revealed that Musharraf's joining Operation Enduring Freedom had "adversely affected the already fragile economy of Pakistan." It said, "Major losses were caused to civil aviation, tourism, investment and shipping due to the rise in the rates of insurance. Besides this, Pakistani exports and foreign investments also suffered" resulting in a loss of $10 billion between September 2001 and October 2002. CENTCOM also said what must have come as a "shock" to the Pakistani people that contrary to the Musharraf government's claims that Pakistani facilities had not been used to carry out operations against Afghanistan, as many as 57,800 'sorties' or air attacks were 'generated' either from Pakistan's air space or from Pakistan's soil.
After Pakistan's policy reversal on the Taliban, it appears that the Pentagon was given the "run of the place and the freedom of Pakistan's skies". To facilitate the launching of air operations into Afghanistan, Pakistan provided as much as two-thirds of its air space as air corridor to the coalition forces, necessitating the rescheduling or redirecting of many commercial PIA flights. Five air bases/airfields were handed over to the forces as was the blanket concession that in case of emergency, coalition planes could land anywhere in Pakistan. The extent of the air war can be judged from the fact that on average, 0.4 million litres of fuel per day was provided to US forces. This was over and above "other services" on the bases used by the coalition.
(MORE)
3//The Independent 20 May 2003
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/environment/story.jsp?story=407841
BP PIPELINE WILL DISPLACE THOUSANDS, SAYS AMNESTY
By Kim Sengupta
A£2.9bn oil and gas pipeline project from the Caspian Sea to the Mediterranean, due to be constructed by a BP-led consortium, will infringe the human rights of thousands of people and cause environmental damage, according to an Amnesty International report published today.
Amnesty is urging the British Government to reject BP's application for taxpayers' money, in the form of export credit guarantees, for the 1,100 miles of pipeline.
The study accuses the consortium of concluding an unprecedented agreement with the Turkish government which, it claims, will in effect strip local people and workers of their civil rights.
The pipeline, from the Azerbaijani capital, Baku, through Georgia, to the Turkish port of Ceyhan, is one of the most ambitious projects of its kind and has been seen as a crucial gambit in a 21st-century equivalent of the Great Game. The scheme will allow vast supplies of oil and gas to flow in separate pipes from former Soviet central Asia to the Mediterranean without having to pass through Russian or Iranian territory.
(MORE)
4//Khaleej Times 20 May 2003
http://www.khaleejtimes.co.ae/
RUMSFELD IS AS "BRUTAL AND UNFAIR" AS SADDAM: EGYPTIAN PRESS
CAIRO
- US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld is as "brutal" and "unfair" as
ousted
Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein for the way Arab prisoners are treated
in Guantanamo Bay, the Egyptian government daily Al Ahram charged
on Tuesday.
"It has become difficult to differentiate between Rumsfeld and Saddam as well as between (Tony) Blair and Tariq Aziz," columnist Salama Ahmed Salama wrote, also comparing the British prime minister and Iraq's ex-deputy premier.
"Those who speak today of the atrocities committed by Saddam Hussein's regime and the absence of justice under the Baath authority will realize that what the Bush administration is committing through Rumsfeld is not less brutal nor less unfair than what Saddam Hussein did," he charged.
(SNIP)
The editorialist criticized the refusal by the "jailer Rumsfeld" to communicate information about the identity, the number or the age of those held in Guantanamo, "some of whom are 13 year-old or 16-year-old children."
(SNIP)
"This means that the United States does with the prisoners of Guantanamo the same things that Saddam Hussein had done with Kuwaiti prisoners, and about whom he had refused to communicate details," Salama wrote.
In Pakistan, a Pakistani released from the United States' secretive prison on Guantanamo Bay, Cuba said Monday that most of the 600-plus prisoners still held there on suspicion of al-Qaeda links had become mentally disturbed.
5//The Sydney Morning Herald May 21 2003
http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/05/20/1053196582651.html
TERRORISTS MAY BE WALKING INTO GRIEF
Watch your step! The Pentagon is developing a radar-based device that can identify people by the way they walk, for use in a new anti-terrorist surveillance system.
On the theory that an individual's walk is as unique as a signature, the Pentagon has financed a research project at the Georgia Institute of Technology that has been 80 to 95 per cent successful in identifying people.
If the Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency orders a prototype, people's "gait signatures" could join other data in a vast surveillance system that the Pentagon agency calls Total Information Awareness.
That system has raised privacy alarms on both ends of the political spectrum. In February, Congress barred its use against Americans, ahead of further congressional review.
But government documents show that scores of major defence contractors and prominent universities applied last year for the first research contracts to design and build the surveillance and analysis system.
(MORE)
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©2003, Gloria R. Lalumia, insight@zianet.com
Radio for the Left at http://www.zianet.com/insightanalytical/radio.htm
