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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 Independent, UK--"OCCUPIERS ARE FAILING DESPERATE CITY" (Aid agencies have accused the British and United States governments of failing to meet their legal obligations to the people of Iraq. Cafod, Christian Aid and Oxfam - three leading humanitarian organisations working in post-conflict Iraq - claim levels of security are insufficient to allow aid workers to do the job needed... But the agencies agree the situation is potentially explosive. "Things could flip either way. It does require the restoration of security and stability," said Ms Nickolls. "If that doesn't happen you risk moving towards a disastrous situation.... There is far more organised crime, people are threatening to go on strike, people are unhappy with the political situation.... There is potential for more civil unrest.")
2//The Daily Star, Lebanon--ISSA DENIES RUMORS OF US PLAN TO OFFER LEBANON $500 MILLION TO DISARM HIZBULLAH (US Congressman Darryl Issa on Friday rejected as inaccurate press reports that he is in Lebanon to offer the government half a billion dollars in US aid in return for neutralizing Hizbullah. "There are no preconditions for the aid to Lebanon in my proposals; the reports did not come out from my office," Issa, a Republican congressman for California, affirmed in an interview with The Daily Star...The Beirut daily Al-Safir reported Thursday that Issa and Democrat Congressman Robert Wexler are in Beirut to discuss the delivery of $500 million in phases to Lebanon in return for disarming Hizbullah.)
3//Asia Times Online, Hong Kong--AN OSIRAK IN THE OFFING (Until now, there are no indicators that apart from keeping up the psychological pressure on Iran, the US is planning any other action, of either an overt or covert nature. Overt military or covert para-military action would require time for preparation... A more likely possibility is a preventive strike to destroy the Iranian nuclear establishments before they are completed and commissioned next year. It would be similar to the Israeli preemptive strike against the Osirak nuclear reactor, which was being constructed in Iraq in the early 1980s with French assistance... The US calculation would be that a preemptive strike against Iran's nuclear establishments would convey a suitable warning to Tehran to act more rigorously against terrorists and to keep off Iraq, and at the same time prove immensely popular in the US in the run-up to next year's presidential elections, and without getting the US involved in a messy and protracted war before the elections.)
4//The Moscow Times, Russia--ANDERSEN SNAPS UP MOSCOW'S COMCOR-TV (New York-based Andersen Group said Thursday that it is boosting its stake in Moscow cable television provider Comcor-TV from 50 percent to full 100 percent ownership. Under the deal, Andersen will obtain control over the cable arm of Moscow Telecommunications Corp., known as Comcor, in exchange for a 49 percent share in Andersen Group. The transaction is expected to close in the fourth quarter of this year...Andersen chairman Francis Baker called the deal a way for his investment company to grab a slice of the promising broadband market.)
5//The Toronto Star, Canada--MACKAY WINS CLOSE CONTEST (Nova Scotia MP Peter MacKay is the new leader of the federal Progressive Conservatives, but only after making a controversial deal with Saskatchewan farmer David Orchard to review the North American free trade agreement... Liberal MP Paul Martin, in Vancouver for a Liberal leadership debate, said "it is hard not to think that the Tories haven't put a gun to their heads" with the deal on a free trade review, the Star's Tonda MacCharles reports.)
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1//The
Independent 01 June 2003
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/politics/story.jsp?story=411297
"OCCUPIERS
ARE FAILING DESPERATE CITY"
By Jo Dillon, Deputy Political Editor
Aid agencies have accused the British and United States governments of failing to meet their legal obligations to the people of Iraq.
Cafod, Christian Aid and Oxfam - three leading humanitarian organisations working in post-conflict Iraq - claim levels of security are insufficient to allow aid workers to do the job needed.
They warn this puts Britain and America in breach of their international obligations - and liable for censure by the United Nations. It puts in jeopardy the health and welfare of ordinary Iraqis and presents the risk that frustration among the people will turn to civil unrest if steps to improve their lot are not taken urgently.
Oxfam's policy adviser for Iraq, Jo Nickolls, has just returned from a stint in Baghdad. "One of the most striking things is the sense of complete uncertainty and fear," she said. "People don't know how things are going to progress and at the same time are having to live a very tough day-to-day existence without electricity and clean water."
(SNIP)
"Security is definitely the primary concern," Ms Nickolls said. "The occupying power has a duty to restore as far as possible law and order and safety. They do seem to be failing to meet their obligations."
Her views were shared by fellow aid workers. Alistair Dutton, emergencies officer at Cafod, who has just returned from Basra, said: "I can't pretend that the regime that has been removed was in any way good or easy to work under....But five or six weeks after the war ended, the situation in the country is not consistent with the Coalition forces' responsibilities under international law. Failure to secure the country or to make it safe is severely hampering the humanitarian effort."
Aside from looting, the ready availability of guns and general lawlessness,
the aid agencies complain that unexploded bombs and mines have not
yet been cleared.
(SNIP)
Dominic Nutt, emergencies officer for Christian Aid, who has also been in Basra, said the war itself had adversely affected the aid situation. "The basic infrastructure was chronic and held together with glue and string, but there were engineers there who were able to keep the system going. When the war came, they had better things to do."
While the war had had a "profound effect", he insisted there was not yet a "humanitarian crisis". But the agencies agree the situation is potentially explosive. "Things could flip either way. It does require the restoration of security and stability," said Ms Nickolls.
"If that doesn't happen you risk moving towards a disastrous situation.... There is far more organised crime, people are threatening to go on strike, people are unhappy with the political situation.... There is potential for more civil unrest."
2//The Daily Star Beirut, Saturday May 31, 2003. Updated 08:30 AM
+3GMT
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/31_05_03/art6.asp
ISSA DENIES RUMORS OF US PLAN TO OFFER LEBANON $500 MILLION TO DISARM
HIZBULLAH
US congressman stresses need for cooperation in order to achieve
regional peace
Adnan El-Ghoul
Daily Star staff
US Congressman Darryl Issa on Friday rejected as inaccurate press reports that he is in Lebanon to offer the government half a billion dollars in US aid in return for neutralizing Hizbullah.
"There are no preconditions for the aid to Lebanon in my proposals; the reports did not come out from my office," Issa, a Republican congressman for California, affirmed in an interview with The Daily Star.
Nevertheless, Issa stressed the need for stability as a precondition for investment. "If we are going to have people investing time ... and being in the South (of Lebanon), we need to have protection ... and an atmosphere of cooperation agreed on," he said.
Regarding these concerns, Issa said he had talked with congressmen, as well as Jewish members and others close to the Jewish lobby in the United States.
The Beirut daily Al-Safir reported Thursday that Issa and Democrat Congressman Robert Wexler are in Beirut to discuss the delivery of $500 million in phases to Lebanon in return for disarming Hizbullah.
Issa said Friday he was asking for guarantees of stability and the ending of hostilities from both sides. "Provocative acts on either side are wrong," he said.
While the Bush administration is pressing for a complete and immediate withdrawal of Hizbullah from the South, Issa said he did not strongly oppose negotiating a cease-fire on the border while a peace settlement is being worked out.
"If the Syrian and Lebanese governments offered a cease-fire and a gradual sustained pullback ... as an interim step ... I would recommend that my government negotiates the specifics of such an agreement," Issa said.
(SNIP)
The presence of Hizbullah in the South has no positive purpose according to Issa. "I think, and we all know it, that if the Israeli Army wanted to come back in, Hizbullah would not be able to stop them. So standing on the border or sending anti-aircraft shells or dropping them in Israel," is ineffective, he said.
Issa, "on the record", said that "Israeli overflights in Lebanese airspace is wrong. Certainly if the Lebanese government complains to the US or the UN about the overflights, the complaints should be heard."
Issa said he does not expect much from the Lebanese Army due to its limited resources, and therefore it cannot keep law and order in the Palestinian refugee camps. Issa believes that the US administration should offer assistance in this regard.
(MORE)
3//Asia Times Online May 31, 2003
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/EE31Ak02.html
AN OSIRAK IN THE OFFING
By B Raman
B Raman is Additional Secretary (ret), Cabinet Secretariat, Government of India, and presently director, Institute For Topical Studies, Chennai; former member of the National Security Advisory Board of the Government of India. He was also head of the counter-terrorism division of the Research & Analysis Wing, India's external intelligence agency, from 1988 to August, 1994.
(SNIP)
Much to the concern of the US and Israel, Iran has an active nuclear power program. Resisting US pressure not to complete the project, the Russian government is going ahead with assisting Iran in the construction of a nuclear power station at Bushehr. There have been allegations from the US of Iran also trying to acquire a military nuclear capability through a factory allegedly under construction for the enrichment of uranium. The specter of Iran's weapons of mass destruction one day being used against Israel or getting into the hands of terrorists is being raised. The informal bilateral interactions in the margins of the Geneva group meetings are reported to have been discontinued, but it is not clear whether it was the US or Iran which took the initiative in this matter. While the Washington Post has said that it was the US which decided to call off the interactions, there are other reports blaming Iran for it.
The Washington Post reported on May 25 that "the White House appears ready to take on an aggressive policy of trying to destabilize the Iranian government". In chat shows on US TV, one can already hear orchestrated drums beating for a regime change in Iran.
After a meeting with the Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer on May 25, Iran's Foreign Minister Kamal Kharrazi called al-Qaeda a "dangerous organization" and said that Iran was serious about combating it. He claimed that Iran had already arrested and deported many al-Qaeda members who had crossed illegally into the country and was interrogating other suspects. "There is no way that Iranians would support al-Qaeda because we have been fighting against al-Qaeda since before even the Americans were engaged with [fighting] them," he said.
Disregarding his assurances, Richard Myers, the chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, told NBC TV on May 26: "The issue with Iran is pretty clear. We have to eliminate the safe havens where the terrorists are, and Iran of course has some of the al-Qaeda members. The reports are that al-Qaeda has been in Iran off and on for some time, particularly after our actions in Afghanistan. Some portions of Iranian-backed forces and organizations are in Iraq right now trying to influence events there, to the coalition's detriment."
Until now, there are no indicators that apart from keeping up the psychological pressure on Iran, the US is planning any other action, of either an overt or covert nature. Overt military or covert para-military action would require time for preparation. Surrogates, who will do the US bidding, have to be identified, motivated and trained. Bases from which covert actions could be mounted have to be found. The ideal locations for such bases would be Iraq and Pakistan. Since Musharraf's visit to the US in February last year, there has been speculation that he has agreed to the US intelligence agencies setting up clandestine stations in Balochistan for monitoring developments in Iran and that it was due to unhappiness over this that Abdul Sattar, the then foreign minister, resigned, ostensibly on health grounds.
It is understood that this subject figured during the recent discussions of Lieutenant-General Ehsanul Haq, the Director-General of the ISI, with US intelligence officials in Washington and that there would be further discussions on it during Musharraf's forthcoming visit to the US in the second half of June. The Pakistani collaboration with the US in this matter is being projected as part of the war against terrorism, intended to monitor the activities of al-Qaeda and Taliban terrorists on Iranian territory and not as part of any destabilization project directed against Tehran. In its present unsettled state, Iraq is unlikely to be of any major use to the US, though the MEK terrorists could prove handy.
A more likely possibility is a preventive strike to destroy the Iranian nuclear establishments before they are completed and commissioned next year. It would be similar to the Israeli preemptive strike against the Osirak nuclear reactor, which was being constructed in Iraq in the early 1980s with French assistance. Either the US could itself carry out the strike, or encourage Israel to do so. The Israeli government would be only too happy to oblige. The US calculation would be that a preemptive strike against Iran's nuclear establishments would convey a suitable warning to Tehran to act more rigorously against terrorists and to keep off Iraq, and at the same time prove immensely popular in the US in the run-up to next year's presidential elections, and without getting the US involved in a messy and protracted war before the elections.
4//The Toronto Star Jun. 1, 2003. 08:29 AM
[LINK]
MACKAY WINS CLOSE CONTEST
Nova Scotia MP new Tory leader; Victory sealed by controversial deal
Allan Thompson, Ottawa Bureau
Nova Scotia MP Peter MacKay is the new leader of the federal Progressive Conservatives, but only after making a controversial deal with Saskatchewan farmer David Orchard to review the North American free trade agreement.
MacKay, 37, won a bitter and divisive contest on the fourth ballot last night with 1,510 votes - 64 per cent of those counted - after rival candidates Jim Prentice and Scott Brison ganged up against him.
MacKay only secured victory by making the deal with Orchard.
(SNIP)
In his acceptance speech, MacKay said free trade "has been a big winner for our country."
"But even (former prime minister Brian) Mulroney, who led the fight for the Canada-U.S. free trade agreement, has stated it's not perfect," said MacKay, a strong proponent of free trade.
"It has been 15 years since this agreement was brought to North America. What we will do as a party is study the ways to improve the deal for Canada."
The handwritten deal with Orchard, struck in the early evening, commits MacKay to establishing a blue ribbon panel of Tories to review the effects of free trade and gives Orchard a say in naming the chair.
Orchard was virtually a one-issue candidate. His anti-free trade stance put him second to Joe Clark in the 1998 leadership race.
(SNIP)
And Liberal MP Paul Martin, in Vancouver for a Liberal leadership debate, said "it is hard not to think that the Tories haven't put a gun to their heads" with the deal on a free trade review, the Star's Tonda MacCharles reports.
Sinclair Stevens, a cabinet minister under Mulroney, told reporters he helped broker the deal with MacKay. Stevens was seen huddled with Orchard after the first ballot.
MacKay succeeds Clark as leader of the struggling, fourth-place party in the House of Commons, desperate to capture public attention and rebuild before it has to face off in an election next year against Prime Minister Jean Chrétien's likely successor, Martin. The Tories have only 15 seats in the 301-seat Commons.
(MORE)
5//The Moscow Times Friday, May. 30, 2003. Page 5
http://www.themoscowtimes.com/stories/2003/05/30/043.html
ANDERSEN SNAPS UP MOSCOW'S COMCOR-TV
By Larisa Naumenko
Staff Writer
New York-based Andersen Group said Thursday that it is boosting its stake in Moscow cable television provider Comcor-TV from 50 percent to full 100 percent ownership.
Under the deal, Andersen will obtain control over the cable arm of Moscow Telecommunications Corp., known as Comcor, in exchange for a 49 percent share in Andersen Group. The transaction is expected to close in the fourth quarter of this year.
Andersen Group has said it intends to invest $6 million in Comcor-TV, with $3.5 million in cash injected up front.
Andersen chairman Francis Baker called the deal a way for his investment company to grab a slice of the promising broadband market.
"Through the acquisition, our program to provide broadband communications throughout Moscow -- a profoundly underserved market -- is progressing," he said.
Comcor-TV began to roll out its network in central Moscow in August 2001. It is currently wiring the capital to provide "last mile" broadband services, extending cable television and high-speed Internet connections from a centralized network. One wire enables access to both services.
Under a 50-year contract, the company has rights to use the Moscow Fiber-Optic Network, an infrastructure grid into which City Hall has funneled more than $400 million since 1992. Comcor-TV is licensed to service up to 1.5 million homes and businesses, or 44 percent of all households in Moscow.
(MORE)
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©2003, Gloria R. Lalumia, insight@zianet.com
Radio for the Left at http://www.zianet.com/insightanalytical/radio.htm
