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| December 19, 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 DECEMBER 19, 2003 1/Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Germany--BLOW TO GERMAN INVESTIGATORS (A single letter sent to a Hamburg courtroom has delivered a serious blow to Germany's huge anti-terrorism effort, while implicitly raising the difficult question of whether the courts have relaxed their standards of proof in cases involving suspected terrorists. Within minutes of Abdelghani Mzoudi being freed by the Hamburg State Court on Thursday, a lawyer for the only other suspect in the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks to be found guilty in a German court, Mounir Motassadeq, predicted that the same lack of evidence that led to Mzoudi's release would result in a reversal of his client's conviction.) 2//The Guardian, UK--SCRAP ANTI-TERROR LAWS, SAY MPs AND PEERS (Controversial laws allowing the home secretary to indefinitely intern foreigners suspected of international terrorism should be scrapped, a committee of Britain's most senior parliamentarians said today... The report states: "Other countries have not found it necessary to have any such derogation and we have found no obvious reason why the UK should be the exception.") 3//The Jordan Times, Jordan--VETERAN FRENCH ICONOCLAST READY TO DEFEND SADDAM (Veteran French lawyer Jacques Verges - a 79-year-old iconoclast with half a century of experience defending unpopular causes - confirmed on Wednesday that he was willing to act for captured Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein when he comes to trial. Speaking to AFP before leaving by plane for Jordan, Verges said he has already been asked to act for Iraq's former vice-premier Tareq Aziz and that he was also ready to defend Saddam Hussein. He said he was to meet members of Aziz's family in Amman...A quintessential devil's advocate who has made a career of arguing what most choose not to hear, Verges defended Gestapo chief Klaus Barbie...) 4//The News International, Pakistan--NORTH KOREA VOWS TO BEEF UP N-DETERRENCE (North Korea will continue to build nuclear weapons until Washington drops its hostile policy and accepts the Stalinist state's terms for an end to the nuclear crisis, Pyongyang's official media said on Thursday...In Seoul, South Korean President Roh Moo-Hyun said South Korea was trying to stop the United States from "using fists" to unilaterally resolve the nuclear crisis with North Korea, according to Yonhap news agency...The president, promising to take a leading role in ending the crisis when elected one year ago, said the initiative was now held by Washington and Pyongyang, even though "it is a life-or-death matter to us.") 5//Asia Times Online, Hong Kong--CENTRAL ASIA'S GREAT BASE RACE (And so the rivalries of the great powers, Russia and America, India and Pakistan - and China as well - now fully embrace Central Asia. There is a distinct possibility that the former Soviet Union will be divided into staging grounds for rival blocs that ultimately are enmeshed in conflicts triggered by or for their proxies with another great power - or its proxies...Add the influx of weapons, the drug trade, the rise of terrorism and the pervasive misrule in these states, and it is easy to see that the combustible elements that can explode into conflict are gradually being assembled and readied for use.) * * * 1//Frankfurter
Allgemeine Zeitung December 18, 2003 BLOW TO GERMAN INVESTIGATORS A single letter sent to a Hamburg courtroom has delivered a serious blow to Germany's huge anti-terrorism effort, while implicitly raising the difficult question of whether the courts have relaxed their standards of proof in cases involving suspected terrorists. Within minutes of Abdelghani Mzoudi being freed by the Hamburg State Court on Thursday, a lawyer for the only other suspect in the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks to be found guilty in a German court, Mounir Motassadeq, predicted that the same lack of evidence that led to Mzoudi's release would result in a reversal of his client's conviction. Like Mzoudi, Motassadeq was a Hamburg resident charged with 3,066 counts of abetting murder, and was sentenced in Hamburg to a 15-year prison term on Feb. 19. Both men were accused of providing logistical support to the three members of the Hamburg-based cell who died in the attacks on New York and Washington. But while Motassadeq remains in prison, and is the only person anywhere yet convicted in connection with the devastating terrorist attacks in the United States, an elated Mzoudi was released after Presiding Judge Klaus Rühle told a stunned courtroom that he was canceling Mzoudi's arrest warrant. The reason: A letter from the Federal Office of Criminal Investigation, the BKA, which raised serious doubts that the 31-year-old Moroccan had any prior knowledge of the attacks. Specifically, Rühle said the letter, sent as a fax, stated that the BKA had been provided with evidence that an unidentified witness said to have knowledge of the planning for the Sept. 11 attacks had told American interrogators that he and the three Hamburg men who died in the attacks were the only people in the city who knew what was being planned. (MORE)
SCRAP ANTI-TERROR LAWS, SAY MPs AND PEERS Under powers passed as emergency laws within weeks of September 11 2001, David Blunkett can lock up foreign nationals without charge or trial, in an exemption from part of the European convention on human rights. But MPs and peers on the privy council review committee said such powers should be revoked and replaced with laws that do not require the UK - uniquely in Europe - to derogate from the ECHR. Instead, they suggest that suspected terrorists be prosecuted under standard criminal law, even if that meant a change to allow evidence collected from security service phone taps. The report states: "Other countries have not found it necessary to have any such derogation and we have found no obvious reason why the UK should be the exception." (MORE)
VETERAN FRENCH ICONOCLAST READY TO DEFEND SADDAM PARIS (AFP) - Veteran French lawyer Jacques Verges - a 79-year-old iconoclast with half a century of experience defending unpopular causes - confirmed on Wednesday that he was willing to act for captured Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein when he comes to trial. Speaking to AFP before leaving by plane for Jordan, Verges said he has already been asked to act for Iraq's former vice-premier Tareq Aziz and that he was also ready to defend Saddam Hussein. He said he was to meet members of Aziz's family in Amman. Aziz gave himself up to the US army in April and is believed to be in detention at Baghdad airport. Aziz's eldest son, Ziad Aziz, confirmed in Amman that Verges had been hired to take on his father's case. "I have asked Mr Verges, who is a longstanding friend, to defend my father." Ziad Aziz, who fled to Jordan in April along with his mother, brother, sister and their families, said that he would be at the airport in Amman to greet the controversial lawyer on his arrival Wednesday evening. Ziad Aziz indicated that he did not believe Verges would visit Iraq in the near future to meet his new client or the former Iraqi dictator, saying a trip was not possible "in the current circumstances." (SNIP) A quintessential devil's advocate who has made a career of arguing what most choose not to hear, Verges defended Gestapo chief Klaus Barbie - whose 1987 trial brought France face-to-face with its ambiguous wartime past - and convicted terrorist Ilich Ramirez Sanchez, commonly known as Carlos. More recently he became vice-president of the International Committee to Defend Slobodan Milosevic and represented the former Yugoslav leader in a suit before the European Court of Human Rights. (MORE)
NORTH KOREA VOWS TO BEEF UP N-DETERRENCE SEOUL: North Korea will continue to build nuclear weapons until Washington drops its hostile policy and accepts the Stalinist state's terms for an end to the nuclear crisis, Pyongyang's official media said on Thursday. North Korea has offered a package of "simultaneous actions" to resolve the impasse while Washington wants North Korea to move first on scrapping its nuclear weapons drive. "The DPRK's (North Korea's) stand to beef up its nuclear deterrent force will remain unchanged no matter what others may say as long as the United States keeps pursuing a policy to threaten and stifle the DPRK with nukes while turning down its proposal for (a) simultaneous package solution to the nuclear issue," said Rodong Sinmun, the ruling Workers' Party newspaper. "The nuclear deterrent force is a decisive means for coping with the US threat of war," the newspaper said in the dispatch carried by the official Korean Central News Agency. "This situation compels the DPRK to keep and steadily increase its nuclear deterrent force," it added. In Seoul, South Korean President Roh Moo-Hyun said South Korea was trying to stop the United States from "using fists" to unilaterally resolve the nuclear crisis with North Korea, according to Yonhap news agency. Speaking to local journalists Roh lamented that Seoul had been sidelined in efforts to end the 14-month standoff, Yonhap said. The president, promising to take a leading role in ending the crisis when elected one year ago, said the initiative was now held by Washington and Pyongyang, even though "it is a life-or-death matter to us." "I will not just sit idle," Roh was quoted as saying. "We are trying to stop the United States from resolving the issue with fists and unilaterally," he said. (MORE)
CENTRAL ASIA'S GREAT BASE RACE Anyone examining contemporary security issues in Central Asia and the Caucasus quickly comes to the conclusion that security has become increasingly militarized. This growth of military power, influence and ambition is taking place in many ways, but a key theme is the scramble by major foreign powers for military bases in the strategically vital region. The search for bases preceded the September 11 terrorist
attacks in the United States, but since then the rush
for foreign bases has accelerated. Indeed, it has become
a focal point of the many international rivalries that
now dot these areas. And it appears likely to divide
the region into rival proxies for the major military
powers. Russia pressures states to oppose US bases Quite recently, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan and Georgia, almost certainly due to Russian pressure, announced their opposition to permanent US bases in their territory, once the "war against terrorism" is over. Indeed, Kyrgyzstan's government reversed its earlier stand on bases - that the US could stay as long as necessary. This struggle over bases has grown as the US has embarked on a global restructuring of its basing system. This impending reordering has clearly triggered Moscow's defensive and imperial reflexes. Due to Washington's changed perception of contemporary strategic realities, there is good reason to believe the US is seeking some form of regularized access to, if not permanent basing rights, in at least some of the post-Soviet republics. (SNIP) And so the rivalries of the great powers, Russia and America, India and Pakistan - and China as well - now fully embrace Central Asia. There is a distinct possibility that the former Soviet Union will be divided into staging grounds for rival blocs that ultimately are enmeshed in conflicts triggered by or for their proxies with another great power - or its proxies. Since most of these foreign military installations are air bases, ground forces to defend them will eventually appear. The specific locations of these bases in the Caucasus and Central Asia and China's recent maneuvers with Kyrgyzstan's armed forces reliably suggest where the major powers think Central Asian governments are in trouble and how they will "help" them. These bases, however, are by no means the only ways in which the states of the former Soviet Union have undergone a progressive militarization. Add the influx of weapons, the drug trade, the rise of terrorism and the pervasive misrule in these states, and it is easy to see that the combustible elements that can explode into conflict are gradually being assembled and readied for use. (MORE) | |||||
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