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| November 12, 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. * * * WORLD MEDIA WATCH FOR NOVEMBER 12, 2003 1//Asia Times Online, Hong Kong--SAUDI BLASTS: MORE THAN MEETS THE EYE (A more convincing explanation for the presence of the neutralized cell in the pilgrimage area is that it was there not to carry out a terrorist strike against the pilgrims, but to facilitate the transit of jihadi terrorists from and to their places of training or their areas of operation... It is unlikely that the objective of this cell was to target the pilgrims, which would have alienated them from al-Qaeda and the IIF. It is similarly difficult to accept at present that the car bomb which killed the foreign Sunni workers at the Riyadh housing complex was designed to deliberately kill them. A more convincing explanation is that the real targets were - either the members of the Saudi ruling families or foreign diplomats and their families - elsewhere. There is reason to believe that the car bomb fitted with the explosives was being taken to the housing complex to be kept there before being taken to the real target. The explosion seems to have been caused by accident or by the interception of the vehicle by the security guards at the complex.) 2//The Dawn, Pakistan--'NO CONTROL OVER SEVEN DISTRICTS IN ZABUL' (US forces have launched a fresh operation against anti-coalition forces in northeastern Afghanistan while the deputy governor of a southeastern province conceded that Afghan authorities have lost control of at least seven of the province's districts...Meanwhile, deputy governor of the southeastern Zabul province Mawlawi Mohammad Omar, said areas over which officials lost control, were being controlled by tribal chiefs and elders, rather than the resurgent Taliban forces.) 3//The Chosun Ilbo, South Korea--DISPATCH CALL SAID LEANING TO COMBAT TROOPS (Cha Young-goo, the Defense Ministry policy chief, said Tuesday considering the dispatch of additional troops to Iraq that the approach focusing on sending only medical and engineering personnel "had some limitations." A comprehensive approach to take charge of a certain area in Iraq was desirable, he said...Cha, who participated in the U.S.-Korea assistant deputy ministers meeting held in Washington last week, said that Washington, as it had done in September, was still asking Korea to send 3,000-5,000 mainly combat forces, or a contingent much like the one Poland has sent, and that it expected more for Korea.... Iraqis said that if Korea sends more troops they would prefer noncombatants supporting a reconstruction mission, and that its security duties should be openly and independently run, being differentiated from that of the United States.) 4//Mena Report Newsletter, Jordan--CHALABI PLAYS FAVORITES IN THE GAME OF IRAQI RECONSTRUCTION (Nepotism is gaining momentum in Iraq as businessmen with close ties to US-endorsed opposition leader Ahmad Chalabi win large contracts in support of the nation's reconstruction effort. Associates of the prominent member of the Iraqi Governing Council have recently been awarded substantial telecom and security contracts...According to Iraqi and US businessmen, the influence of nepotism on Iraqi reconstruction ventures is discouraging foreign companies from pursuing deals in the Arab state. It is further tarnishing the image of an initiative already criticized for being dominated by politically connected US firms such as Halliburton and the Bechtel Group.) 5//The Moscow Times, Russia--KHODORKOVSKY DENIED BAIL BY COURT (Mikhail Khodorkovsky, Russia's richest man and the former head of Yukos, will remain in jail at least until Dec. 30, the Moscow City Court ruled Tuesday as it rejected an appeal to let him out on bail... Yury Korgunyuk, a political analyst with the Indem think tank, said Khodorkovsky would only have been released if Putin had intervened and personally instructed the Prosecutor General's Office not to "pressure" the court. But Khodorkovsky has become a much more daunting political animal since his incarceration and this kept Putin from stepping in, said Yevgeny Volk, the head of Heritage Foundation...James Fenkner, head of research at Troika Dialog, added: "If he is let out before the elections, could you imagine the political fight that might ensue? Releasing a wounded but enormously rich antagonist into the wilds of Russian politics could be destabilizing.") * * * 1//Asia
Times Online November 12, 2003 SAUDI BLASTS: MORE THAN MEETS THE EYE Statements emanating from Saudi authorities about their neutralizing an al-Qaeda cell, which was allegedly planning to carry out a terrorist strike against hajj pilgrims, and about the car bomb explosion at a Riyadh housing complex on November 9, which killed 17 foreign workers, all Sunni Muslims, do not provide a complete answer to understanding what has been happening in Saudi Arabia. (SNIP) However, there have rarely been instances of al-Qaeda or any of its associates in the International Islamic Front (IIF) deliberately targeting innocent Sunni civilians, either at their places of worship or while they were on pilgrimage or at their places of residence or work. It is, therefore, difficult to accept that al-Qaeda was planning to kill any pilgrims during the hajj or that it deliberately killed the foreign Sunni workers at the Riyadh housing complex. A more convincing explanation for the presence of the neutralized cell in the pilgrimage area is that it was there not to carry out a terrorist strike against the pilgrims, but to facilitate the transit of jihadi terrorists from and to their places of training or their areas of operation. (SNIP) Similarly, trained and jihad-hardened terrorists are sent to Saudi Arabia during the hajj under the garb of pilgrims and then infiltrated into other countries. In February last, dozens of terrorists belonging to the Pakistani components of the IIF had thus gone to Saudi Arabia and from there infiltrated into Iraq, even before the US-led invasion of that country. To facilitate such transits, different organizations of the IIF set up their presence in Saudi Arabia much before the hajj starts. It is one such cell that seems to have been detected and neutralized by the Saudi authorities. It is unlikely that the objective of this cell was to target the pilgrims, which would have alienated them from al-Qaeda and the IIF. It is similarly difficult to accept at present that the car bomb which killed the foreign Sunni workers at the Riyadh housing complex was designed to deliberately kill them. A more convincing explanation is that the real targets were - either the members of the Saudi ruling families or foreign diplomats and their families - elsewhere. There is reason to believe that the car bomb fitted with the explosives was being taken to the housing complex to be kept there before being taken to the real target. The explosion seems to have been caused by accident or by the interception of the vehicle by the security guards at the complex. (MORE)
'NO CONTROL OVER SEVEN DISTRICTS IN ZABUL' BAGRAM AIR BASE, Afghanistan, Nov 10-AFP: US forces have launched a fresh operation against anti-coalition forces in northeastern Afghanistan while the deputy governor of a southeastern province conceded that Afghan authorities have lost control of at least seven of the province's districts. The operation, termed 'Mountain Resolve,' began in Nuristan province after launching of an air strike on Nov 7, spokesman Col Rodney Davis told journalists at the Bagram Air Base, some 50 kilometres north of Kabul. (SNIP) Nuristan intelligence official Syed Omar said that US troops had been deployed at Want and Watapo in central Nuristan's Waigal valley, 170 kilometres northeast of Kabul. Hekmatyar is believed to have formed a loose alliance with Taliban and Al Qaeda elements and his supporters have been blamed for attacks on international peacekeepers in Kabul. Meanwhile, deputy governor of the southeastern Zabul province Mawlawi Mohammad Omar, said areas over which officials lost control, were being controlled by tribal chiefs and elders, rather than the resurgent Taliban forces. "There is no government control over Atghar, Naw Bahar, Shinkay and Shamazai in the south of the province," he said over satellite phone from the provincial capital Qalat.
DISPATCH CALL SAID LEANING TO COMBAT TROOPS Cha Young-goo, the Defense Ministry policy chief, said Tuesday considering the dispatch of additional troops to Iraq that the approach focusing on sending only medical and engineering personnel "had some limitations." A comprehensive approach to take charge of a certain area in Iraq was desirable, he said. It is wrong to distinguish between combat and noncombat troops, Cha said, and that to send combatants was desirable to guarantee the security of Korean troops and raise the status of Korea in the international community. He qualified the statement, saying it was not the Defense Ministry's unilateral opinion - but added that such a consensus had been formed within the government. The opinion contrasts sharply with the stance the government has announced, calling for the dispatch to involve mainly medics and engineers. Some analysts are saying that the government's stance has shifted again, toward sending combatants. Cha, who participated in the U.S.-Korea assistant deputy ministers meeting held in Washington last week, said that Washington, as it had done in September, was still asking Korea to send 3,000-5,000 mainly combat forces, or a contingent much like the one Poland has sent, and that it expected more for Korea. Details are expected to be determined at the Security Consultative Meeting between the two nations next week. (SNIP) The investigation team said that Iraqis wanted equipment and training support from Korea, rather than the dispatch of combat forces. Iraqis said that if Korea sends more troops they would prefer noncombatants supporting a reconstruction mission, and that its security duties should be openly and independently run, being differentiated from that of the United States.
CHALABI PLAYS FAVORITES IN THE GAME OF IRAQI RECONSTRUCTION Nepotism is gaining momentum in Iraq as businessmen with close ties to US-endorsed opposition leader Ahmad Chalabi win large contracts in support of the nation's reconstruction effort. Associates of the prominent member of the Iraqi Governing Council have recently been awarded substantial telecom and security contracts. Chalabi's business associate and personal acquaintance Ahud Farouki was offered a large stake in an $ 80million oil security deal when a consortium that included one of his companies was chosen for the job, reported LA Times. Prominent Iraqi National Council (INC) official Mudar Shawkat was also a beneficiary of preferential treatment when his son's company Nijla Telecommunications, a partially family-owned business, won a contract through a consortium to provide mobile phone services for southern Iraq. INC is an overseas Iraqi resistance movement chaired by Chalabi. (SNIP) Questions about Chalabi's business practices surfaced 11 years ago, when a court in Jordan convicted him of defrauding Petra Bank, where he served a four-year tenure as chairman and general manager. He was found guilty of playing a lead role in what to date remains the largest ever financial corruption scandal in Jordan's history. (SNIP) According to Iraqi and US businessmen, the influence of nepotism on Iraqi reconstruction ventures is discouraging foreign companies from pursuing deals in the Arab state. It is further tarnishing the image of an initiative already criticized for being dominated by politically connected US firms such as Halliburton and the Bechtel Group.
KHODORKOVSKY DENIED BAIL BY COURT Mikhail Khodorkovsky, Russia's richest man and the former head of Yukos, will remain in jail at least until Dec. 30, the Moscow City Court ruled Tuesday as it rejected an appeal to let him out on bail. "As soon as we receive the court decision in writing, I and my client may consider an appeal to higher courts or the European Court of Human Rights," Khodorkovsky's lawyer Anton Drel said after the two-hour closed hearing. "We suspected that our arguments would not be listened to," Drel said, adding that the court's panel of three women judges had not even considered setting an amount for the bail. Irina Yasina, Khodorkovsky's confidant and the director of his Open Russia charity, said the court had made the ruling under political pressure. "Surely all of us knew what would be the outcome. ... All the decisions were made in advance," she told reporters outside the court building in northeastern Moscow. (SNIP) While Khodorkovsky's defense felt they had done their best, observers polled Tuesday said they had no illusions. Khodorkovsky's arrest came after four months of legal attacks against his company and close allies. Core Yukos shareholder Platon Lebedev has been in jail since July 2 on similar charges of fraud and tax evasion. "Nothing could have been more predictable given the track record," said Christopher Granville, chief strategist at United Financial Group. Granville said Lebedev's request for bail last summer came about the time President Vladimir Putin declared that he saw no need to keep business executives suspected of economic crime in pretrial detention. "Given that, I confidently predicted that Lebedev would be released on bail. I was wrong," Granville said. "A new trend has established itself, and the political atmosphere has deteriorated to such a degree that there are even less grounds for expecting any reversal of that trend." Yury Korgunyuk, a political analyst with the Indem think tank, said Khodorkovsky would only have been released if Putin had intervened and personally instructed the Prosecutor General's Office not to "pressure" the court. But Khodorkovsky has become a much more daunting political animal since his incarceration and this kept Putin from stepping in, said Yevgeny Volk, the head of Heritage Foundation. Khodorkovsky is openly financing the Yabloko and Union of Right Forces political parties, and several of their deputies were pacing up and down the corridors of the court building Tuesday. "Everyone understands that Khodorkovsky on the outside is much more powerful and has much more potential for political and economic maneuvering," Volk said. James Fenkner, head of research at Troika Dialog, added: "If he is let out before the elections, could you imagine the political fight that might ensue? Releasing a wounded but enormously rich antagonist into the wilds of Russian politics could be destabilizing." (MORE) |
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