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| October 3, 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//Islam
Online, Qatar--IRAQI RESISTANCE GROUPS FORM UNIFIED COMMAND
(In a statement, a
copy of which was sent to IslamOnline.net, the National Front
for the Liberation of Iraq revealed that "after intensive
contacts with a number of armed Iraqi groups and Arab volunteers
who flocked to the country ahead of the U.S.-led invasion,
a unified resistance command has now been forged." It
indicated that the contacts made also included elements from
Saddam Fedayeen and Baathists who are not loyal to ousted
president Saddam Hussein.) 3//Moscow Times, Russia--NEW BOOK LINKS PUTIN TO UNDERWORLD (Now, as prosecutors in Germany and Liechtenstein tighten the noose and move closer to the courts, a new book has hit German bookstores offering the most in-depth look yet at SPAG, its ties with Putin, and into Rudolf Ritter, a co-founder of the company who is now awaiting trial in Liechtenstein for allegedly laundering cocaine cash for the Cali cartel.) 4//The Independent, UK--OIL AND GAS RUNNING OUT MUCH FASTER THAN EXPECTED, SAYS STUDY (Research presented this week at the University of Uppsala in Sweden claims that oil supplies will peak soon after 2010, and gas supplies not long afterwards, making the price of petrol and other fuels rocket, with potentially disastrous economic consequences unless people have moved to alternatives to fossil fuels. While forecasters have always known that such a date lies ahead, they have previously put it around 2050, and estimated that there would be time to shift energy use over to renewables and other non- fossil sources...Dr James McKenzie, senior assistant on the climate change programme at the World Resources Institute in Washington, said: "We won't run out of oil - but what will happen is that production will decline, and that's when all hell will break loose.") 5//Inter Press Service, Italy--G22 WARMS UP FOR POST-CANCUN WTO TALKS (The group of developing countries known as G22, or G20+, united in condemnation of hefty farm subsidies in the United States and European Union, is already preparing to continue WTO negotiations despite the debacle of the ministerial conference last month in Cancun...Now all that is needed is to get the United States and European Union excited about joining the process, commented Pérez del Castillo. He will meet Monday in Washington with the U.S. trade representative Robert Zoellick, and will then set a meeting with Pascal Lamy, the EU trade commissioner. The two trade powers are hesitant about a renewal of the negotiating process, and avoid taking the initiative, said the General Council chairman.) * * * 1//Islam
Online Last Update: Thu., Oct 02, 2003, 18:30 GMT IRAQI RESISTANCE GROUPS FORM UNIFIED COMMAND BAGHDAD, October 2 (IslamOnline.net) - As Ricardo Sanchez, commander of the U.S. ground troops in Iraq, admitted that resistance attacks become "a little more lethal, a little more complex, a little more sophisticated and in some cases a little more tenacious", an Iraqi group announced the formation of a unified command of Iraqi resistance groups. In a statement, a copy of which was sent to IslamOnline.net, the National Front for the Liberation of Iraq revealed that "after intensive contacts with a number of armed Iraqi groups and Arab volunteers who flocked to the country ahead of the U.S.-led invasion, a unified resistance command has now been forged." It indicated that the contacts made also included elements from Saddam Fedayeen and Baathists who are not loyal to ousted president Saddam Hussein. It asserted that the resistance factions that joined the new alliance - not less than 10 - are deployed across the occupied country, but are specially active in Kirkuk and Arbil in the north; Baghdad, Tikrit and Fallujah in the center; and Basra and Babel in the south. No Multinational Forces It its statement, the Front threatened the U.S.-British occupation troops of expanding the scale of resistance attacks, asserting that Iraq "will witness the end of the U.S.-British arrogance of power." "The Front warns all world countries, including Arab and Islamic states, against sending a single soldier to Iraq under any circumstances," stressing such troops would be "treated just like any of the occupation forces". (SNIP) The Front did not rule out dialogue with the U.S. troops, provided that such dialogue would "guarantee the right of our people to have the occupying forces withdrawn from the country." Collaborators Punished Meanwhile, the Front threatened "collaborators with the occupation", pledging to "severely but fairly punish every traitor who has sold himself to the occupier." Abdul Amir El-Rakabi, an Iraqi opposition figure based in Paris, told IslamOnline.net on April10 , a day after the fall of Baghdad, about the formation of the National Front for the Liberation of Iraq. (MORE)
DEPLOYMENT OF TURKISH TROOPS TO IRAQ HUNG UP OVER US' CRACK DOWN ON KURDISH REBELS ISTANBUL, Turkey (AP) - Pressure is mounting on Turkey to decide if it will become the first Muslim nation to send troops to Iraq, but deployment appears to increasingly hinge on Turkish demands that the United States crack down on Kurdish militants who seek an autonomous region in Turkey and have set up base across the border in Iraq. Turkish troops could give much-needed relief for the US military operation in Iraq. But for now, the United States appears reluctant to fight the militants, fearing the confrontation could spark tension in one of Iraq's most stable regions. The US State Department's counterterrorism chief, Cofer Black, arrived in Turkey on Wednesday for talks on how to fight the militants, who waged a bloody 15-year war for regional autonomy in southeastern Turkey. Turkey's government hopes a US commitment to fight the militants could help it win domestic support for the deployment. (SNIP) The government also seeks influence in the future of Iraq. Turkey's foreign minister said sending in Turkish troops could "shorten" the period of Iraq's occupation. Minister Abdullah Gul told the Italian news agency Ap.Biscom during a visit to Rome Wednesday that his government would decide soon on the deployment and that one possibility was that Turkish troops could go into Iraq not as a police force "but only for humanitarian reasons." "We know their religion, we understand their traditions and we could direct relations with the population in a surely better way," Gul was quoted as saying in the interview. "In this sense, and with this premise, our presence could surely serve to bring back the country to normality and to shorten the occupation period." Turkey's public overwhelmingly opposed the war. A majority of lawmakers reportedly oppose sending troops to Iraq. (MORE)
NEW BOOK LINKS PUTIN TO UNDERWORLD How involved was President Vladimir Putin in the activities of a decade-old German company now at the center of a pan-European probe into St. Petersburg mobsters, Colombian cocaine and transcontinental money laundering? The question has intrigued investigators and journalists since a German foreign intelligence report was leaked to the press during Putin's rise to power. The report alleged that SPAG, a company set up ostensibly to invest in St. Petersburg real estate, was actually laundering funds for Russian criminal gangs and Colombian drug lords. The French daily Le Monde was first out of the gate with the story, raising some uncomfortable questions about Putin's tenure on SPAG's supervisory board, which lasted from when he was deputy mayor of St. Petersburg in the early 1990s until he entered the Kremlin. Newsweek magazine followed a year later with a report that raised even more questions, but despite contradictory denials and clarifications from Putin's press service, the story quietly went away. Until this May, that is, when German police launched a nationwide raid on the homes and offices of more than 200 people connected with the company. Now, as prosecutors in Germany and Liechtenstein tighten the noose and move closer to the courts, a new book has hit German bookstores offering the most in-depth look yet at SPAG, its ties with Putin, and into Rudolf Ritter, a co-founder of the company who is now awaiting trial in Liechtenstein for allegedly laundering cocaine cash for the Cali cartel. Thumbing its nose at attempts by Vladimir Kumarin, the reputed head of the St. Petersburg-based Tambov mafia ring, to quash the book, called "Die Gangster aus dem Osten" or "Gangsters From the East," the publisher, Europa Verlag, is actually touting it to other international publishers at the ongoing Frankfurt book fair, the world's largest. In his 305-page work, J?rgen Roth details how German investigators --with little or no help from their Russian counterparts -- uncovered a complex web of relationships and transactions that link SPAG to St. Petersburg's criminal underworld and beyond. The book fails to tie Putin directly to any criminal activity, but does paint a convincing argument that he was more involved with SPAG's activities than previously acknowledged. Like the Le Monde and Newsweek articles, "Gangsters From the East" links Putin to alleged mobster Kumarin (who has since changed his name to Barsukov) through Vladimir Smirnov, the former head of SPAG's St. Petersburg operations and an old associate of the president. In 1994, as deputy mayor of St. Petersburg, Putin awarded the St. Petersburg Fuel Company, or PTK, the highly prized right to be the sole supplier of gasoline to the city. At the time, Smirnov was a major shareholder in PTK and local media reported that the company was controlled by the Tambov. What followed could aptly be described as a gang war, as high-profile killings of major players in the fuel market rocked the city, contributing to its reputation as Russia's version of 1930s Chicago. In 1998, Smirnov took over PTK and appointed Kumarin/Barsukov as his deputy. Since Putin came to power, Smirnov has vaulted from relative professional obscurity in Russia's second city to influential positions in the capital. First he was given a post in the powerful Kremlin Property Department -- where Putin once worked -- and now he heads the lucrative trading arm of the Nuclear Power Ministry, Tekhsnabexport. (MORE)
OIL AND GAS RUNNING OUT MUCH FASTER THAN EXPECTED, SAYS
STUDY World oil and gas supplies are heading for a "production crunch" sometime between 2010 and 2020 when they cannot meet supply, because global reserves are 80 per cent smaller than had been thought, new forecasts suggest. Research presented this week at the University of Uppsala in Sweden claims that oil supplies will peak soon after 2010, and gas supplies not long afterwards, making the price of petrol and other fuels rocket, with potentially disastrous economic consequences unless people have moved to alternatives to fossil fuels. While forecasters have always known that such a date lies ahead, they have previously put it around 2050, and estimated that there would be time to shift energy use over to renewables and other non- fossil sources. But Kjell Aleklett, one of a team of geologists that prepared the report, said earlier estimates that the world's entire reserve amounts to 18,000 billion barrels of oil and gas - of which about 1,000 billion has been used up so far - were "completely unrealistic". He, Anders Sivertsson and Colin Campbell told New Scientist magazine that less than 3,500 billion barrels of oil and gas remained in total. Dr James McKenzie, senior assistant on the climate change programme at the World Resources Institute in Washington, said: "We won't run out of oil - but what will happen is that production will decline, and that's when all hell will break loose." (MORE)
G22 WARMS UP FOR POST-CANCUN WTO TALKS GENEVA, Oct 2 (IPS) - The group of developing countries known as G22, or G20+, united in condemnation of hefty farm subsidies in the United States and European Union, is already preparing to continue WTO negotiations despite the debacle of the ministerial conference last month in Cancun. The new bloc constitutes a solid, serious force that is well aware of how it should advance in negotiating agricultural trade, said a source close to the World Trade Organisation. The G22 held meetings Thursday in Geneva to assess the situation after the thwarted outcome of the Fifth WTO Ministerial Conference three weeks ago in the Mexican Caribbean resort of Cancun. The first discussion involved the core countries of the G22: Argentina, Brazil, China, India and South Africa. Later, the full membership gathered at the WTO headquarters to hammer out the strategy the group will follow in the broader negotiating process. Uruguayan diplomat Carlos Pérez del Castillo, serving this year as chairman of the WTO General Council, has been holding consultations since last week in order to lay the groundwork for relaunching the negotiations after the serious setbacks in Cancun. The WTO's mandate, issued by the prior ministerial conference in Doha, Qatar, in 2001, is to negotiate and reach agreements on trade liberalisation in 15 areas, with a deadline of Jan. 1, 2005. What is known as the Doha Round of multilateral trade negotiations, begun in February 2002, had been bogged down on several points prior to the Cancun conference, where profound differences came to the fore, largely along North-South lines, pitting developing against industrialised countries. (SNIP) Now all that is needed is to get the United States and European Union excited about joining the process, commented Pérez del Castillo. He will meet Monday in Washington with the U.S. trade representative Robert Zoellick, and will then set a meeting with Pascal Lamy, the EU trade commissioner. The two trade powers are hesitant about a renewal of the negotiating process, and avoid taking the initiative, said the General Council chairman. However, among the rest of the 146 WTO members there are signs emerging of a commitment to the multilateral trade approach, and of a willingness to get the process back on track before December. (MORE) | |||||
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