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| September 10, 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. * * * 1//Asia Times Online, Hong Kong--PART 1: SLEEPING WITH THE ENEMY (On May 23, as Bush issued his first Executive Order seizing control of Iraq's assets, Bremer for his part signed a decree which simply dismantled the huge Iraqi army - with more than 400,000 officers and soldiers. Furious with this decision, a great deal of them subsequently fell or are falling right in the lap of the Iraqi resistance movement...The official spin was that it should signal the end of the former government. Instead, it bolstered the resistance. European intelligence analysts comment that this may have been perversely what the Pentagon had in mind: to force the elusive nexus between the "remnants of Saddam's regime" and Islamists related to al-Qaeda... In a startling development, Washington was forced to swallow its own propaganda and start recruiting hundreds of real "remnants of Saddam's regime" - the feared Mukhabarat - to try to at least to identify the more than 40 different groups that compose the resistance. Members of the American-appointed interim governing council could not be but furious. This is not only a sensational case of sleeping with the enemy, but it also painfully highlights how the Americans simply have no access to ground intelligence.) 2//The Moscow Times, Russia--GAIDAR INVITED TO SHOCK, AWE IRAQ (The architect of Russia's at times disastrous transition to a market economy, Yegor Gaidar, has been invited by the U.S.-led coalition authority in Iraq to help craft a recovery plan for that country's war-torn economy...His scheme to privatize as rapidly as possible saw the crown jewels of the economy handed over to a handful of well-connected insiders for next to nothing. This time, however, it's unlikely that Gaidar will have quite as much influence. An official at the U.S. Embassy in Moscow said Gaidar had been invited to take part in an international conference in Baghdad later this month "with a view to explaining how European experience with economic reform might help Iraq manage its transition."... The decision to pick some of the world's most experienced brains on transition economies comes as U.S. President George W. Bush seeks to extend responsibility for postwar Iraq to non-coalition countries. Ironically, it also comes shortly after Iraq's new oil minister, Ibrahim Bahr Al-Uloum, told the Financial Times that his country is preparing to privatize its oil sector.) 3//Arab News, Saudi Arabia--RUSSIA EXPECTS $60B SAUDI INVESTMENT (Russia expects Saudi investments worth $ 60billion (SR225 billion) for new projects, Al-Hayat Arabic newspaper reported yesterday quoting a Russian diplomat in Riyadh... Riyadh and Moscow, the world's No. 1 and No. 2 oil producers and exporters, signed a landmark energy accord during the crown prince's visit. The visit also saw the signing of three other agreements. "The energy accord will make the two countries the center of international oil policy making, ensuring the interests of producers inside and outside the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries," the diplomat said...The Russians expect that the Saudis will channel part of their huge deposits in America and other international markets to projects in Russia. Economic analysts have estimated Saudi funds abroad at between $ 600billion and $ 800billion.) 4//The News International, Pakistan--EGYPT TV BANS VEILED PRESENTERS (A group of television presenters in Egypt say they have been banned from appearing on screen since they began wearing the Islamic veil. Some say they are considering taking legal action against the state owned broadcasting organisation as a result... Muslim women in Egypt began a protest against the veil in the 1930s, and by the 60s the veil was a thing of the past. But with the re-emergence of movements of Islamic revival, the veil has come back...The case highlights a dilemma for the Egyptian state. Under the Egyptian constitution, Islam is the state religion and Islamic Sharia is the main source for legislation... But the government apparently fears that such public display of Islamic symbols, of which the veil is the most potent, will play into the hands of Islamic activists whose aim is to enforce Islamic Sharia in all spheres of life. 5//The Jakarta Post, Indonesia--EDITOR GETS FIVE MONTHS FOR INSULTING PARTY LEADER (The South Jakarta District Court on Tuesday sentenced Karim Paputungan, an editor of the Rakyat Merdeka daily newspaper, to five months in jail on charges of insulting Akbar Tandjung, the chairman of the Golkar Party, the political horse of former autocrat Suharto... Ironically, Akbar, who was found guilty of corruption by a Jakarta district court last year and was sentenced to three years imprisonment, has remained a free man as he appeals his case to the Supreme Court, having already lost one appeal at the higher court. Karim has become the first Indonesian chief editor convicted in a case involving press freedom in the country under current President Megawati Soekarnoputri, whose Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI Perjuangan) won the general election of 1999 largely on its reform platform and anti-Soeharto credentials.) * * * 1//Asia
Times Online September 10, 2003 The Twin Towers and the Tower of Babel PARIS - Two years after September 11, 2001, the Washington neo-conservative dream of a rainbow of democracy shining from Israel to Afghanistan and traversing Iraq has vanished into thin air. From Kabul to Baghdad, the vision is being wiped out by the truth of hard facts. 1) The American army does not have the resources to play by itself the role of global sheriff. 2) America is not prepared for or interested in nation-building. 3) Military "victories", like Afghanistan and Iraq, mean nothing when they are not complemented by moral and political legitimacy. The lack of legitimacy creates a political void, immediately exploited by radical Islam. (SNIP) If somebody should take the fall for most of the current, ghastly chaos in Iraq, one has to look no further than American proconsul L Paul Bremer. On May 23, as Bush issued his first Executive Order seizing control of Iraq's assets, Bremer for his part signed a decree which simply dismantled the huge Iraqi army - with more than 400,000 officers and soldiers. Furious with this decision, a great deal of them subsequently fell or are falling right in the lap of the Iraqi resistance movement. The decision was of course made in Washington, possibly by Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld himself. The official spin was that it should signal the end of the former government. Instead, it bolstered the resistance. European intelligence analysts comment that this may have been perversely what the Pentagon had in mind: to force the elusive nexus between the "remnants of Saddam's regime" and Islamists related to al-Qaeda. As Asia Times Online has described (The plot thickens - Aug 23), the Iraqi resistance works as myriad cells operated by former soldiers of Saddam's army, each of them responding to a higher official with good military training. All obey to a Central Command, a sort of clandestine joint chiefs of staff. Crossing Iraqi information with European intelligence information, it's possible to determine that the bulk of this "invisible" army is composed by at least three different groups - all of them autonomous in military as well in financial terms: (SNIP) At least 100,000 former members of the Iraqi security services, especially the Mukhabarat, all of them unemployed, are roaming the Sunni triangle. Mohammed Khtair al-Dulami, head of the branch specialized on explosives, poisoning and other special operations, has not been arrested yet. Former Mukhabarat agents are acting as go-betweens for resistance fighters interested in buying loads of weapons from all sorts of dealers operating in the black market. In a startling development, Washington was forced to swallow its own propaganda and start recruiting hundreds of real "remnants of Saddam's regime" - the feared Mukhabarat - to try to at least to identify the more than 40 different groups that compose the resistance. Members of the American-appointed interim governing council could not be but furious. This is not only a sensational case of sleeping with the enemy, but it also painfully highlights how the Americans simply have no access to ground intelligence. The Mukhabarat was one of the four branches - the best organized and the most feared - of Saddam's security services. It was specialized in foreign relations. The Pentagon is particularly interested in working with agents familiar with Syria and Iran - also as an additional way to continue to demonize both countries. The Mukhabarat was officially dissolved by Bremer in early summer, as well as the ministries of information and defense. They are back - paid in dollars, and chasing Iraqis again. When Iraqis knew about it, is was one more nail in the coffin of the discredited American democratic "vision".
GAIDAR INVITED TO SHOCK, AWE IRAQ The architect of Russia's at times disastrous transition to a market economy, Yegor Gaidar, has been invited by the U.S.-led coalition authority in Iraq to help craft a recovery plan for that country's war-torn economy. (SNIP) "Many of the problems they are experiencing in Iraq are problems created by the collapse of a totalitarian regime that had a high level of state participation in the economy," Gaidar, a co-founder of the party, told the conference. "These problems have parallels with the histories and practices of post-socialist countries. They want to work out how to minimize the risks and privatize the economic system in the shortest period possible." As President Boris Yeltsin's first -- and youngest -- prime minister, Gaidar spearheaded the country's move away from a planned economy. He was also the overall architect of the largest and swiftest privatization in world history. Seeing himself as a "kamikaze" who didn't have much time to bring about revolutionary change before opposition forces moved in, his program of "shock therapy" was aimed at combating potentially disastrous shortages of goods. It ended up sparking a wave of hyperinflation that saw prices increase by a factor of 26 within a year, wiping out the life savings of an entire generation overnight. His scheme to privatize as rapidly as possible saw the crown jewels of the economy handed over to a handful of well-connected insiders for next to nothing. This time, however, it's unlikely that Gaidar will have quite as much influence. An official at the U.S. Embassy in Moscow said Gaidar had been invited to take part in an international conference in Baghdad later this month "with a view to explaining how European experience with economic reform might help Iraq manage its transition." The official said experts from nine Central and Eastern European countries had been invited to speak and about 50 Iraqi leaders, including members of government committees and some ministry advisers, would be in attendance. He could not say, however, what role the conference will play in deciding Iraqi economic policy, or what the future role of participants might be. The U.S. authority in Baghdad could not be reached for comment. In a telephone interview later Monday, Gaidar said he had only received the invitation Friday and had yet to discuss any plans with representatives of the U.S. administration. "Time would tell" if he would have to pack up his work in Russia and move full time to a brief advising Washington on reconstructing Iraq, he said. The decision to pick some of the world's most experienced brains on transition economies comes as U.S. President George W. Bush seeks to extend responsibility for postwar Iraq to non-coalition countries. Ironically, it also comes shortly after Iraq's new oil minister, Ibrahim Bahr Al-Uloum, told the Financial Times that his country is preparing to privatize its oil sector. "It would be fantastic if [Gaidar] were handed the opportunity to deal with the same giveaway twice in one lifetime," said James Fenkner, head of research at Troika Dialog. "It's the same sector too," he said, drawing a parallel with Russia's oil-dominated economy. A longtime critic of Russia's reforms, Marshall Goldman of Harvard's Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies, said by telephone that Washington could have made a worse choice -- it could have asked advice from fellow Union of Right Forces member Anatoly Chubais. "If they had invited Chubais, that really would have set off a firestorm. That would have really been too much," he said. Chubais was appointed by Gaidar in the mid-1990s to run Russia's privatization program. (MORE)
RUSSIA EXPECTS $60B SAUDI INVESTMENT JEDDAH, 10 September 2003 - Russia expects Saudi investments worth $ 60billion (SR225 billion) for new projects, Al-Hayat Arabic newspaper reported yesterday quoting a Russian diplomat in Riyadh. The diplomat said the recent three-day visit of Crown Prince Abdullah, deputy premier and commander of the National Guard, to Moscow would help strengthen Saudi-Russian relations. "The royal visit has paved the way for a strategic economic partnership" between the two oil giants, the Russian official told the Arabic daily. Riyadh and Moscow, the world's No. 1 and No. 2 oil producers and exporters, signed a landmark energy accord during the crown prince's visit. The visit also saw the signing of three other agreements. "The energy accord will make the two countries the center of international oil policy making, ensuring the interests of producers inside and outside the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries," the diplomat said. The official said the Kingdom had pledged $ 60billion in joint investment projects to develop Russia's economic sectors. The Russians expect that the Saudis will channel part of their huge deposits in America and other international markets to projects in Russia. Economic analysts have estimated Saudi funds abroad at between $ 600billion and $ 800billion. The diplomat welcomed Saudi investments in Russia and reiterated Moscow was keen to transfer technology to the Kingdom. He also said he hoped Russian companies would be able to participate in the Kingdom's gas projects. (MORE)
EGYPT TV BANS VEILED PRESENTERS CAIRO: A group of television presenters in Egypt say they have been banned from appearing on screen since they began wearing the Islamic veil. Some say they are considering taking legal action against the state owned broadcasting organisation as a result. The issue of Islamic dress code has long been controversial in Egypt and now the conflict is taking place against a quietly changing social landscape in Egypt with more and more professional women deciding to wear the veil. The presenters say they are being denied the right to choose and nothing in their contract with the state broadcaster bans them from wearing the veil. Strictly speaking what they wear is not a veil, but a headscarf that covers their hair. (SNIP) Muslim women in Egypt began a protest against the veil in the 1930s, and by the 60s the veil was a thing of the past. But with the re-emergence of movements of Islamic revival, the veil has come back. Now it has become an issue for the courts. The case highlights a dilemma for the Egyptian state. Under the Egyptian constitution, Islam is the state religion and Islamic Sharia is the main source for legislation. Professional women feel that they have done nothing wrong in living up to the terms of their constitution. But the government apparently fears that such public display of Islamic symbols, of which the veil is the most potent, will play into the hands of Islamic activists whose aim is to enforce Islamic Sharia in all spheres of life.
EDITOR GETS FIVE MONTHS FOR INSULTING PARTY LEADER JAKARTA (DPA): The South Jakarta District Court on Tuesday sentenced Karim Paputungan, an editor of the Rakyat Merdeka daily newspaper, to five months in jail on charges of insulting Akbar Tandjung, the chairman of the Golkar Party, the political horse of former autocrat Suharto. The court found Karim "legally and convincingly guilty of committing a criminal act of besmirching the good name of Akbar Tandjung". Presiding judge Asnawati order Karim, chief editor of the newspaper, to go directly to jail. Ironically, Akbar, who was found guilty of corruption by a Jakarta district court last year and was sentenced to three years imprisonment, has remained a free man as he appeals his case to the Supreme Court, having already lost one appeal at the higher court. Karim has become the first Indonesian chief editor convicted in a case involving press freedom in the country under current President Megawati Soekarnoputri, whose Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI Perjuangan) won the general election of 1999 largely on its reform platform and anti-Soeharto credentials. The law under which Karim was charged has its roots in old colonial legislation once used by the Dutch against Megawati's own father, Indonesia's founding leader Sukarno, when he was leading the country's independence struggle in the 1930s and 1940s. Former dictator Soeharto also used it to muzzle and imprison many critics during his three decades in power between 1966 to 1998. In the five years since Soeharto's fall, Indonesia's press has earned a reputation for being one of the freest in Asia. (MORE)
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