June 18, 2003

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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//Asia Times Online, Hong Kong--FROM LIBERATION TO COUNTER-INSURGENCY (But even the US mainstream press, which has been dutifully documenting the efforts of the country's troops to restore order and win over the population, is now suggesting that things are not going according to plan, assuming that there ever was one. "Significantly, this realization is reaching deep into the US heartland," writes Tom Engelhardt, whose website of reflections and key articles about the "war on terrorism" has drawn a steadily growing audience since the terrorist attacks of September 11. "Newspapers from Cleveland, Tallahassee, Charlotte and Salt Lake City carried headlines this weekend such as 'Losing the Peace', 'Iraq War Still Hot, Commanders Say', 'Civilian Deaths Intensify Anti-US Ire' and 'The War Is Over, But US Soldiers Keep Dying'," according to Engelhardt, who noted that the vocabulary of the Vietnam War is re-infiltrating the press.)

2//Islam Online, Qatar--TALIBAN DEATH SQUADS POISED FOR REVENGE: LEAFLETS (Taliban fighters formed death squads to target Afghan officials in order to avenge the deaths of fellow fighters killed by the U.S. forces and their "proxy" Afghan government, according to pamphlets distributed in Afghanistan's restive southeast. The Pashtu-language pamphlets, circulated across the Afghan border town of Spin Boldak, opposite the Pakistani town of Chaman, also urged local people to join the fighting against the government of Hamid Karzai, reported Agence France-Presse (AFP) Tuesday, June17. "We will very soon start attacks, similar to the campaign by Arab mujahedin. Taliban have already directed the mujahedin to launch (such) attacks," the AFP quoted one of the alleged leaflets as saying.)

3//The Toronto Star, Canada--EXPECT CASUALTIES, GENERAL WARNS (Canadians should brace for casualties when soldiers deploy on a peacekeeping mission to Afghanistan later this summer, a top military commander says. "Things could get really ugly in a split second," Brig.-Gen. Andrew Leslie predicted near a dusty training field on this base, where troops were running through their final phase of urban warfare training... Asked to rank the danger factor of his upcoming mission, Leslie replies: "On a scale of one to five, with five being extreme, full-on combat, I would say this is a four.")

4//The Sydney Morning Herald, Australia--EXPOSED: TRAIL OF CONCEALED WARNINGS (The Federal Government was warned repeatedly for more than a year before the Bali bombings that Australian interests in Indonesia were under threat from terrorist attack - but it advised travellers that tourism on the island was operating normally...In submissions to a Senate inquiry, the Office of National Assessments and ASIO said they had specifically identified Bali as a possible target four months before the attack... The ONA directly briefed the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Alexander Downer, in mid-June last year that Bali and bars, clubs and hotels were possible targets. The travel advisories Australia issued for Indonesia never mentioned the threats to these locations and never explicitly highlighted that Australia and its interests could be targeted.)

Related Story: US TIES TO MAKE AUSTRALIA A PARIAH IN ASIA

5//The Chosun Ilbo, South Korea--GYEONGGI GOVERNOR EMBRACES TROOP RELOCATION (The governor of Gyeonggi Province, welcoming the relocation of U.S. troops to south of the Han River, said Monday that the province would build what it calls an "international peace city" on 5 million pyeong near Osan and Pyeongtaek. Those two cities make up one of the two hubs into which Washington wants to reposition its forces here..."The international peace city will be self-sufficient, with residential areas for the families of U.S. soldiers and regular citizens," Sohn said. "There will also be a golf course and commercial facilities." )

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1//Asia Times Online June 18m, 2003
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/EF18Ak01.html

FROM LIBERATION TO COUNTER-INSURGENCY
By Jim Lobe, Inter Press Service

WASHINGTON - It was just 45 days ago that President George W Bush, in a campaign-perfect photo-op, landed on the USS Abraham Lincoln off the coast of California, swaggered across the deck in full flight gear, and declared that Operation Iraqi Freedom had liberated that nation from the evil clutches of former president Saddam Hussein.

But within six weeks, the US Central Command in Baghdad has unleashed a new campaign with a far more ominous name. Operation Desert Scorpion is designed, in the equally ominous words of Monday's Wall Street Journal, "to avoid a prolonged guerrilla campaign" that appears to be under way, at least in what is now referred to as "the Sunni triangle" of central Iraq.

(SNIP)

But even the US mainstream press, which has been dutifully documenting the efforts of the country's troops to restore order and win over the population, is now suggesting that things are not going according to plan, assuming that there ever was one. "Significantly, this realization is reaching deep into the US heartland," writes Tom Engelhardt, whose website of reflections and key articles about the "war on terrorism" has drawn a steadily growing audience since the terrorist attacks of September 11.

"Newspapers from Cleveland, Tallahassee, Charlotte and Salt Lake City carried headlines this weekend such as 'Losing the Peace', 'Iraq War Still Hot, Commanders Say', 'Civilian Deaths Intensify Anti-US Ire' and 'The War Is Over, But US Soldiers Keep Dying'," according to Engelhardt, who noted that the vocabulary of the Vietnam War is re-infiltrating the press.

For instance, New York Times' military analyst Michel Gordon used the dreaded term "counter-insurgency" about prospects for defeating unhappy armed Iraqis. "Unlike the rush to Baghdad, this fight will not be measured in days but in months, if not years ... For the Americans this is a campaign of raids, bombing strikes and dragnets, as American commanders try to isolate and destroy remnants of the old order. It is more like a counter-insurgency than in invasion," Gordon added, in what Engelhardt said marked the first reference to the tactic in relation to the US involvement in Iraq.

In a swift echo, The Christian Science Monitor followed with an article on Monday titled "US Anti-Guerrilla Campaign Draws Iraqi Ire". "The US army has changed from being a liberator to an offensive occupier," the article quoted Fawzi Shafi, editor of a new weekly newspaper in Fallujah, the apparent center of anti-US resistance, as saying.

Rehabilitating schools and providing free gasoline to communities are now referred to by the old Vietnam cliche of "winning hearts and minds"; arms seized by US troops have been called "weapons counts", an eerie reminder of the "body counts" of Vietnam days.

And while the US strikes of the past ten days are referred to so far only by their operation codenames, it takes very little imagination to see them as akin to "search-and-destroy missions" of that bygone period. Washington's first governor in Iraq, retired General Jay Garner, even told the New York Times that he saw "Vietnam and the strategic hamlet concept" as relevant to the Iraqi occupation, presumably to separate the population from rebellious elements. It remains unclear precisely who those rebellious elements are, although Paul Bremer, who succeeded Garner, said that they do not appear to be under centralized command.

(SNIP)

" What we are seeing here is a fundamental reassessment of the situation in Iraq in terms of political and military stability," said Daniel Goure, a Pentagon adviser at the Washington-based Lexington Institute. "We have been operating on two assumptions: that once the war was over the Iraqis would rapidly move into peaceful mode, and second, that there would be a new political and economic spirit in the country. We discovered neither of these assumptions is true."

2//Islam Online June 17, 2003
http://www.islamonline.net/English/News/2003-06/17/article13.shtml

TALIBAN DEATH SQUADS POISED FOR REVENGE: LEAFLETS

CHAMAN, Pakistan, June 17 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) - Taliban fighters formed death squads to target Afghan officials in order to avenge the deaths of fellow fighters killed by the U.S. forces and their "proxy" Afghan government, according to pamphlets distributed in Afghanistan's restive southeast.

The Pashtu-language pamphlets, circulated across the Afghan border town of Spin Boldak, opposite the Pakistani town of Chaman, also urged local people to join the fighting against the government of Hamid Karzai, reported Agence France-Presse (AFP) Tuesday, June17 .

"We will very soon start attacks, similar to the campaign by Arab mujahedin. Taliban have already directed the mujahedin to launch (such) attacks," the AFP quoted one of the alleged leaflets as saying.

The pamphlets placed Spin Boldak district chief Syed Fazaluddin Agha, a local leader and a suspected "agent" of Karzai's government "on the hit list."

Another leaflet quoted by the AFP said Taliban fighters "give them (alleged agents) notice of 10 days to give up their government jobs."

It also urged the local people to "stop spying for the forces of non-believers" and not to cooperate with Karzai's "puppet regime."

"We will soon capture American agents and we reserve the right to avenge the death of Taliban," said one of the pamphlets.

"They are claiming that the Taliban have formed suicide attackers and will soon start their operations.

"They are threatening that they will take revenge against district officials for recent killings of Taliban," Spin Boldak district official Khalid Khan told AFP by telephone.

(SNIP)

Many Afghan officials, suspicious of Pakistan for its previous nurturing and support of the Taliban, have accused it of offering sanctuary to fugitive extremists in its remote tribal border regions.

Afghan and U.S. forces hunting the fugitives have come under repeated attacks along the southeastern border, leading to suspicions that anti-U.S. and anti-Karzai groups have been regrouping on the Pakistani side.

Increasing atrocities and violation of rights of Pashtuns in areas where non-Pashtuns hold power are reported every day, said AFP.

(MORE)

3//The Toronto Star Jun. 17, 2003. 06:21 AM
http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer

EXPECT CASUALTIES, GENERAL WARNS
Canadian troops training for worst in Afghanistan
Soldiers to patrol the dangerous streets of Kabul

Sonia Verma
Staff Reporter

CFB Petawawa-Canadians should brace for casualties when soldiers deploy on a peacekeeping mission to Afghanistan later this summer, a top military commander says.

"Things could get really ugly in a split second," Brig.-Gen. Andrew Leslie predicted near a dusty training field on this base, where troops were running through their final phase of urban warfare training.

"We are training for the worst case and that's what these circumstances are," said Leslie, who will head up the Canadian headquarters of the International Security Assistance Force, charged with patrolling the streets of Kabul.

His stark warning was issued as most of these soldiers make their final preparations for a six-month tour that begins in August, dubbed Operation Athena.

Their mission is to keep Kabul safe, so the Afghan Transitional Authority and aid agencies can rebuild the war-torn country.

Working in lockstep with the country's new military and police forces, they will try to quell the violence that has simmered in Afghanistan since the U.S. pulled out most of its troops.

A battle group, a brigade group headquarters and support elements make up Canada's initial contribution of 1,800 soldiers.

A second rotation, equal in size, will relieve them in February.

(SNIP)

Asked to rank the danger factor of his upcoming mission, Leslie replies: "On a scale of one to five, with five being extreme, full-on combat, I would say this is a four."

(MORE)

4//Sydney Morning Herald June 18 2003
http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/06/17/1055828330002.html

EXPOSED: TRAIL OF CONCEALED WARNINGS
By Tom Allard, Foreign Affairs Writer

The Federal Government was warned repeatedly for more than a year before the Bali bombings that Australian interests in Indonesia were under threat from terrorist attack - but it advised travellers that tourism on the island was operating normally.

On September 28, 2001, ASIO warned that Islamic extremists in Indonesia regarded Australia as a "soft target alternative to the US".

In submissions to a Senate inquiry, the Office of National Assessments and ASIO said they had specifically identified Bali as a possible target four months before the attack.

The ONA directly briefed the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Alexander Downer, in mid-June last year that Bali and bars, clubs and hotels were possible targets.

The travel advisories Australia issued for Indonesia never mentioned the threats to these locations and never explicitly highlighted that Australia and its interests could be targeted.

(SNIP)

The submissions to the Senate inquiry re-ignited the debate about the adequacy of government warnings to Australians travelling to Indonesia before the bombings that killed 202 people, including 88 Australians.

The Prime Minister, John Howard, told Parliament yesterday that the intelligence references to Bali and bars and night clubs was based on "speculation about what Jemaah Islamiah had the potential to do".

(MORE)

RELATED STORY:
//The Sydney Morning Herald June 18 2003
http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/06/17/1055828329634.html

US TIES TO MAKE AUSTRALIA A PARIAH IN ASIA
By Linda Morris

Australia risked being made a pariah of Asia and a target of terrorism through its "subservience" to the United States, a specialist in Asian affairs has warned.

The country has a worsening image problem in Asia and is highly likely to be a "scapegoat" for its role in Iraq, said Alison Broinowski, a visiting fellow of the faculty of Asian Studies at the Australian National University.

Her warning came in a speech at the Sydney Institute last night, just days after the arrest of three Thai Muslim men accused of being part of Jemaah Islamiah.

(MORE)

5//The Chosun Ilbo Updated Jun.17,2003 16:56 KST
http://english.chosun.com/w21data/html/news/200306/200306170006.html

GYEONGGI GOVERNOR EMBRACES TROOP RELOCATION
By Lee Tae-hun

The governor of Gyeonggi Province, welcoming the relocation of U.S. troops to south of the Han River, said Monday that the province would build what it calls an "international peace city" on 5 million pyeong near Osan and Pyeongtaek. Those two cities make up one of the two hubs into which Washington wants to reposition its forces here.

The new city would consist of residential areas for American soldiers and Koreans as well as educational and cultural facilities. "If the U.S. soldiers wish to move into Pyeongtaek or Osan, we will actively accept it," said the governor, Sohn Hak-gyu, in an interview with the Chosun Ilbo.

"The international peace city will be self-sufficient, with residential areas for the families of U.S. soldiers and regular citizens," Sohn said. "There will also be a golf course and commercial facilities."

(SNIP)

The new city would be between Osan and the Ahnjeong U.S. airfield, the province said. Plans are designed for about 70,000 households and 200,000 persons to reside in the area. The province intends to spend about 4 trillion won ($3.3 billion) through 2010 to realize the plan.

Sohn said that he would try to persuade local residents who oppose the plan by focusing on its brightest side - that the U.S. base will contribute greatly to regional development.