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| November 21, 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 21, 2003 1//The Sydney Morning Herald, Australia--HOW US KEPT AUSTRALIIANS IN THE DARK (Australian air force officers stationed at US command centres during the Iraq war were denied access to critical US intelligence they needed for their duties and were forced to leave classified briefings because of a policy described by a senior US Air Force intelligence officer as silly...General Crawford, who is head of the US Air Force Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance Centre, told his Australian and British counterparts at the conference that there were only two solutions to the problem. The first was for the US "to change their dog-gone policy". The second way, he joked, was "to make the UK, Canada and Australia the 51st, 52nd and 53rd states".) 2//Interfax, Russia--44% OF RUSSIANS SYMPATHIZE WITH ORGANIZERS OF ATTACKS AGAINST COALITION TROOP IN IRAQ (Forty-four percent of Russians sympathize with Iraqi guerillas who have been staging terrorist attacks against coalition troops, while 15% said they sympathize with the Americans, and 41% were undecided, according to a poll...Most Russians (83%) suggested that Islamic terrorists may deliver on their promises soon to stage major terrorist attacks in a number of large U.S. cities.) 3//Asia Times Online, Hong Kong--HOUSE OF SAUD PLAYS A
RADICAL CARD (At a three-day meeting over the weekend,
Crown Prince Abdullah and a group of more than 40 Saudi
scholars gathered in Mecca for discussions on mediation
between the government and those waging a bloody campaign
to overthrow the House of Saud. The meeting included a
mentor of Osama bin Laden, Muslim theologian Safar al-Hawali,
who denies claims that the recent Riyadh bombing could
be considered jihad.) 5//The Philippine Daily Inquirer, Philippines--US ADMIRAL, GOVERNOR SET WAR GAMES MEET (US Armed Forces Commander in Chief for the Pacific (CINCPAC) Admiral Thomas Fargo is to meet North Cotabato Governor Emmanuel Piñol over the proposed holding of a joint RP-US military training in Central Mindanao. Central Mindanao is one of several regions on the island where the separatist Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) maintains base. The MILF views Piñol as an adversary because of the executive's constant support for a military campaign against the rebel group.) * * * 1//The
Sydney Morning Herald November 21, 2003 HOW US KEPT AUSTRALIIANS IN THE DARK Australian air force officers stationed at US command centres during the Iraq war were denied access to critical US intelligence they needed for their duties and were forced to leave classified briefings because of a policy described by a senior US Air Force intelligence officer as silly. Major-General Tommy Crawford told a conference of Australian, British and US military experts he strongly opposed the policy that blocked Australian officers from getting intelligence on Iraq even when some of it originated from Australian intelligence sources. "Now that's a silly damn policy," said Major-General Crawford after an RAAF officer with the Australian embassy, Wing Commander Alex Gibbs, asked why Australian and British officers at US command centres were denied vital material during the war. The intelligence could have been helpful in protecting Australian Special Forces in Iraq, according to US security analysts. General Crawford said the opposition to giving coalition officers access to the intelligence network came from US intelligence agencies outside the military. London's Daily Telegraph newspaper, which first reported the intelligence conference, quoted a senior US Air Force intelligence officer, Colonel Allen Roby, saying: "They gave us stuff and we labelled it secret and then they weren't allowed to see it". (SNIP) General Crawford, who is head of the US Air Force Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance Centre, told his Australian and British counterparts at the conference that there were only two solutions to the problem. The first was for the US "to change their dog-gone policy". The second way, he joked, was "to make the UK, Canada and Australia the 51st, 52nd and 53rd states". A security analyst at the conference, Loren Thompson, said that if the intelligence exchange was not fixed, the lives of Australian military personnel, especially special forces, could be put at risk. (MORE)
44% OF RUSSIANS SYMPATHIZE WITH ORGANIZERS OF ATTACKS AGAINST COALITION TROOP IN IRAQ MOSCOW. Nov 20 (Interfax) - Forty-four percent of Russians sympathize with Iraqi guerillas who have been staging terrorist attacks against coalition troops, while 15% said they sympathize with the Americans, and 41% were undecided, according to a poll. (SNIP) Sixty-three percent of those polled said that the United States made the wrong decision when it carried out its military action in Iraq to displace Saddam Hussein. Seventeen percent of respondents expressed the opposite opinion and another 20% were undecided. Most Russians (83%) suggested that Islamic terrorists may deliver on their promises soon to stage major terrorist attacks in a number of large U.S. cities.
KUWAIT TO SUPPLY IRAQ WITH OIL PRODUCTS FOR WINTER KUWAIT: Oil-rich Kuwait has agreed in principle to supply Iraq with oil products to meet winter shortages as well as allow Baghdad to use its terminals to export oil, an official said Thursday. The emirate also gave a provisional nod to buy natural gas from its former occupier in return for billions of dollars of debt and agreed to assist in rebuilding the Iraqi oil sector, said Issam Jehad, an advisor to Iraqi Oil Minister Ibrahim Bahr al-Ulum. The agreements were the result of three days of talks here between Ulum and his Kuwaiti counterpart Sheikh Ahmad Fahd al-Sabah. (SNIP) Kuwait will supply Iraq with kerosene, petrol and gasoline to meet winter shortages, but the exact quantities will be determined by the technical committee, Mr Jehad said. "We have an almost 40 percent shortage in oil products and Kuwait agreed to provide whatever supplies it can," he said. The two ministers also discussed establishing joint companies to invest in the rehabilitation of the Iraqi oil sector expected to require some $50 billion over the next decade. (SNIP) Ulum arrived in Kuwait late Tuesday on his first official visit to the emirate. He has already visited OPEC members Saudi Arabia and Qatar and was due to leave Kuwait later Thursday or early Friday for Iran. He revealed a long-term plan to boost Iraqi oil production to five million barrels per day (bpd) by 2010, which requires assistance from neighbours and foreign oil majors. But the short-term plan, to be carried out by Iraqi expertise, is to return to pre-1990 production level of more than three million barrels daily. Iraqi output increased 150,000 bpd during October to 1.55 million bpd, but that was a slowdown in the speed of growth after increases of 350,000 bpd in both September and August.
HOUSE OF SAUD PLAYS A RADICAL CARD KARACHI - Just when Islamist radicals and the House of Saud appeared to be enjoying a mutually-agreed standoff, a bomb blast ripped through a residential complex in Riyadh on November 8, claiming the lives of at least 17 people. The attack - as yet not claimed by any group, although al-Qaeda were immediate suspects - threatened to take relations between the monarchy and radicals back to the time shortly before the Iraqi war at the beginning of the year when al-Qaeda ended a ceasefire with the Saudi rulers. However, events in the kingdom indicate that the House of Saud - despite its public rhetoric against militancy - and the Islamic radicals have "reunited' to save the kingdom from anarchy, and the inevitable subsequent threat of external forces meddling in the country's domestic affairs. This is due to the efforts of a few royal family members and prominent clerics. At a three-day meeting over the weekend, Crown Prince Abdullah and a group of more than 40 Saudi scholars gathered in Mecca for discussions on mediation between the government and those waging a bloody campaign to overthrow the House of Saud. The meeting included a mentor of Osama bin Laden, Muslim theologian Safar al-Hawali, who denies claims that the recent Riyadh bombing could be considered jihad. (SNIP) These examples of past Saudi bids to defuse tense international situations, as well as the current efforts by both Turki and Crown Prince Abdullah to smooth troubled domestic waters, while laudable in one sense, are in fact self-serving in that the Saudi rulers will go to any extreme to perpetuate their rule - even if it means, as in the latest case, soliciting the help of the Islamic radicals, and thereby supporting their cause.
US ADMIRAL, GOVERNOR SET WAR GAMES MEET COTABATO CITY -- US Armed Forces Commander in Chief for the Pacific (CINCPAC) Admiral Thomas Fargo is to meet North Cotabato Governor Emmanuel Piñol over the proposed holding of a joint RP-US military training in Central Mindanao. Central Mindanao is one of several regions on the island where the separatist Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) maintains base. The MILF views Piñol as an adversary because of the executive's constant support for a military campaign against the rebel group. It was Piñol who proposed the holding of the Balikatan in the region, particularly in his province. But Piñol said his concern was the economic gains that his province would get from the exercises. "Its not more on combat, its more on the gains that our people would get out of hosting the exercises," Piñol told the Inquirer. (snip) "Other provinces shy away (from) the idea but North Cotabato is very much willing," Piñol told the Inquirer. Defense Secretary Eduardo Ermita earlier announced that the war games could be held next year in Central Mindanao. Ermita said the main reason for this was the reported presence of the Jemaah Islamiya in the region. |
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