 |
||||||
| March 8, 2004 |
||||||
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 MARCH 8, 2004 1//The Sydney Morning Herald, Australia--SON GIVES CLUES TO AL-QAEDA LAIRS (A son of Osama bin Laden's deputy has given crucial information on the location of al-Qaeda leaders after being captured by Pakistani forces near the Afghanistan border, intelligence officials in Islamabad say. Ayman al-Zawahiri's son, Khalid, was seized with 20 other suspected foreign militants in a raid in the remote South Waziristan area 10 days ago, the officials told London's The Sunday Telegraph. His information has helped direct Pakistani and US forces in their drive to capture bin Laden and other senior al-Qaeda figures believed to be in the area...More than 1600 US troops, including special forces units, are at Salerno base, near Khost in eastern Afghanistan, ready for a spring offensive to capture the terrorist mastermind.) 2//Asia Times Online, Hong Kong--BLAME GAME AND THE BA'ATHISTS (The US takes the line that al-Qaeda has chosen Iraq as its new "battleground" to take on US interests. However, such accusations might be misguided...Individuals belonging to bin Laden's International Islamic Front - a loose umbrella network for terrorist networks dedicated to jihad against America - are definitely present in Iraq, but as yet there is no definite proof of full-blown al-Qaeda operations in Iraq...In May last year, the US announced that the Ba'ath Party was officially dissolved. But a stroke of a pen cannot wipe out an institution that has roots deep in society forged over many decades. On June 30 the US hands over sovereignty to Iraq. It could be that the Ba'athists have not rolled over just yet.) 3//The Jordan Times, Jordan--SYRIAN BAATH PARTY CELEBRATES ALONE (Syria on Monday marks the 41st anniversary of the rise to power of its Baathists, amid growing questions about the ruling party's role and impatience with the slow pace of reforms. "The fall of the Iraqi Baath has undoubtedly affected its Syrian twin which now finds itself alone amid a hostile environment since the spring 2003 US intervention and with an Arab world overtaken by liberalism," a Western diplomat said in Damascus. The latent discontent of many Syrians seems to go hand in hand with the international pressures which have weakened the regime.) 4//The Independent, UK--SCIENTIST 'GAGGED' BY NO. 10 AFTER WARNING OF GLOBAL WARMING THREAT (Downing Street tried to muzzle the Government's top scientific adviser after he warned that global warming was a more serious threat than international terrorism. Ivan Rogers, Mr Blair's principal private secretary, told Sir David King, the Prime Minister's chief scientist, to limit his contact with the media after he made outspoken comments about President George Bush's policy on climate change. In January, Sir David wrote a scathing article in the American journal Science attacking Washington for failing to take climate change seriously. "In my view, climate change is the most severe problem we are facing today, more serious even than the threat of terrorism," he wrote.) 5//Inter Press Service, Italy--INDIA, BRAZIL, SOUTH AFRICA READY TO LEAD GLOBAL SOUTH (India, Brazil and South Africa, representing three major democracies in three different corners of the globe, emerged confident in leading South-South cooperation at a two-day meeting of their foreign ministers that ended here Friday. The new confidence was enshrined in a plan of action adopted by these countries and in the 'New Delhi Agenda for Cooperation' that will see them working together, Brazilian Foreign Minister Celso Amorim said at a joint press conference after the first ministerial meeting of the India-Brazil-South Africa (IBSA) Forum. ''This is a group to spread goodwill and the message of peace -- we are not against anyone,'' Amorim added, seeking to allay apprehensions that the rest of the world may have of the coming together of three economies physically separated by vast expanses of deep ocean.) * * * 1//The
Sydney Morning Herald March 8, 2004 SON GIVES CLUES TO AL-QAEDA LAIRS A son of Osama bin Laden's deputy has given crucial information on the location of al-Qaeda leaders after being captured by Pakistani forces near the Afghanistan border, intelligence officials in Islamabad say. Ayman al-Zawahiri's son, Khalid, was seized with 20 other suspected foreign militants in a raid in the remote South Waziristan area 10 days ago, the officials told London's The Sunday Telegraph. His information has helped direct Pakistani and US forces in their drive to capture bin Laden and other senior al-Qaeda figures believed to be in the area. (SNIP) In Islamabad, officials have privately confirmed that Khalid al-Zawahiri is being questioned by a team of intelligence officers - from Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence agency and the CIA - at a secret location in Pakistan. They say that recent sweeps by British and US special forces in the Tora Bora mountains have been linked to disclosures by al-Zawahiri and others, including his wife, captured with him during raids on houses in Azam Warak. Al-Zawahiri is said to have been in touch with his father recently. Hundreds of troops from Pakistan's paramilitary Frontier Corps, backed by helicopter gunships, have been sent to the area to tackle the foreign militants and either capture bin Laden or drive him across the Afghan border into US hands. More than 1600 US troops, including special forces units, are at Salerno base, near Khost in eastern Afghanistan, ready for a spring offensive to capture the terrorist mastermind.
BLAME GAME AND THE BA'ATHISTS KARACHI - The United States military says that it was al-Qaeda. The US-appointed Iraqi Governing Council says that it was al-Qaeda. But al-Qaeda says that it was not responsible for the attacks on worshipping Shi'ites in Baghdad and Karbala on Tuesday that killed more than 150 people. (SNIP) Jumping on the al-Qaeda bandwagon Invariably, al-Qaeda is blamed for atrocities around the world, especially since the September 11 strikes in the US for which they were clearly responsible. The US takes the line that al-Qaeda has chosen Iraq as its new "battleground" to take on US interests. However, such accusations might be misguided. Individuals belonging to bin Laden's International Islamic Front - a loose umbrella network for terrorist networks dedicated to jihad against America - are definitely present in Iraq, but as yet there is no definite proof of full-blown al-Qaeda operations in Iraq. From the very first days of the Iraqi resistance, attacks against coalition and other targets have been organized in nature, so much so that US authorities initially blamed former Iraqi Republican Guards as coordinating them with military precision. In fact, members of the former Ba'ath Party, Republican Guards and Saddam Hussein's paramilitary Fedayeen quickly melted into different Islamic groups, under the cover of which they planned and executed their on-going resistance. Al-Qaeda is not an army or a guerrilla force that can take on another army, such as in Iraq and Afghanistan. Since the US invasion of the latter country in late 2001, al-Qaeda members have fled to less war-ravaged locations in Pakistan, Somalia and North African countries to plan their next big operations against US interests. Individuals such as Zarqawi - who is not a top al-Qaeda operator - run their own independent networks only in ideological association with al-Qaeda. (SNIP) The biggest losers to date in Iraq have been the Sunni-dominated Ba'ath Party and its approximately 2.4 million official members out of a population of 24 million, driven out of power and office and largely excluded from participation in the "new" Iraq. (SNIP) Over the years, membership or affiliation with the party was required for many if not most white-collar jobs, and all aspects of the military, and as can be seen from its structure, permeated all levels of society. Ba'athists have a non-Arab bias, and during Saddam's times non-Arab pilgrims were banned from Iraq's holy cites, such as Najf and Karbala. But this year they were back in vast numbers for the Ashura rituals at which Tuesday's attacks took place. In May last year, the US announced that the Ba'ath Party was officially dissolved. But a stroke of a pen cannot wipe out an institution that has roots deep in society forged over many decades. On June 30 the US hands over sovereignty to Iraq. It could be that the Ba'athists have not rolled over just yet.
SYRIAN BAATH PARTY CELEBRATES ALONE DAMASCUS (AFP) - Syria on Monday marks the 41st anniversary of the rise to power of its Baathists, amid growing questions about the ruling party's role and impatience with the slow pace of reforms. "The fall of the Iraqi Baath has undoubtedly affected its Syrian twin which now finds itself alone amid a hostile environment since the spring 2003 US intervention and with an Arab world overtaken by liberalism," a Western diplomat said in Damascus. The latent discontent of many Syrians seems to go hand in hand with the international pressures which have weakened the regime. The Baath Party, with a pan-Arab socialist ideology often perceived as obsolete, has overcome major crises to maintain stability in Syria for nearly half a century. (SNIP) The regime's extraordinary resistance to such obstacles, however, came at the cost of stagnation. More than 5,000 people have so far signed a petition calling for political reforms which is to be submitted to authorities on March 17 - the 41st anniversary of the state of emergency. When Bashar Al Assad succeeded his father in 2000, the British-trained ophthalmologist was seen as a force of modernisation. But the young president soon faced tough resistance from the various pillars of the regime: The army, the security services, senior party officials and the influential political and economic class. "He could try to widen his base through economic reform and political liberalisation, but substantial reform would threaten the pillars of his own power," Raymond Hinnebusch, professor of international relations at the University of St Andrews in Scotland, said in his book "Syria, Revolution From Above." (MORE)
SCIENTIST 'GAGGED' BY NO. 10 AFTER WARNING OF GLOBAL
WARMING THREAT Downing Street tried to muzzle the Government's top scientific adviser after he warned that global warming was a more serious threat than international terrorism. Ivan Rogers, Mr Blair's principal private secretary, told Sir David King, the Prime Minister's chief scientist, to limit his contact with the media after he made outspoken comments about President George Bush's policy on climate change. In January, Sir David wrote a scathing article in the American journal Science attacking Washington for failing to take climate change seriously. "In my view, climate change is the most severe problem we are facing today, more serious even than the threat of terrorism," he wrote. Support for Sir David's view came yesterday from Hans Blix, the former United Nations chief weapons inspector, who said the environment was at least as important a threat as global terrorism. He told BBC1's Breakfast with Frost: "I think we still overestimate the danger of terror. There are other things that are of equal, if not greater, magnitude, like the environmental global risks." Since Sir David's article in Science was published, No 10 has tried to limit the damage to Anglo-American relations by reining in the Prime Minister's chief scientist. In a leaked memo, Mr Rogers ordered Sir David - a Cambridge University chemist who offers independent advice to ministers - to decline any interview requests from British and American newspapers and BBC Radio 4's Today . (SNIP) Sir David, who is highly regarded by Mr Blair, has been primed with a list of 136 mock questions that the media could ask if they were able to get access to him, and the suggested answers he should be prepared to give. One question asks: "How do the number of deaths caused by climate change and terrorism compare?" The stated answer that Sir David is expected to give says: "The value of any comparison would be highly questionable - we are talking about threats that are intrinsically different." If Sir David were to find himself pushed to decide whether terrorism or climate change was the greater threat, he was supposed to answer: "Both are serious and immediate problems for the world today." But this was not what Sir David said on the Today programme on 9 January when the Science article was published. Asked to explain how he had come to the conclusion that global warming was more serious than terrorism, Sir David replied that his equation was "based on the number of fatalities that have already occurred" - implying that global warming has already killed more people than terrorism. (MORE)
INDIA, BRAZIL, SOUTH AFRICA READY TO LEAD GLOBAL
SOUTH The new confidence was enshrined in a plan of action adopted by these countries and in the 'New Delhi Agenda for Cooperation' that will see them working together, Brazilian Foreign Minister Celso Amorim said at a joint press conference after the first ministerial meeting of the India-Brazil-South Africa (IBSA) Forum. ''This is a group to spread goodwill and the message of peace -- we are not against anyone,'' Amorim added, seeking to allay apprehensions that the rest of the world may have of the coming together of three economies physically separated by vast expanses of deep ocean. ''If we have conquered distance (to get together), we will annihilate the distance of both mind and geography -- the Cape of Good Hope will now be the Cape of New Hope,'' said Yashwant Sinha, India's minister for external affairs. The aviation ministries of the three countries have already begun talks. New shipping links, important to the maritime countries, are also being worked out. (SNIP) IBSA also had poverty to share and proposed to tackle this with a separate fund to be managed by the United Nations Development Fund (UNDP). Brazil and India put down 100,000 U.S. dollars each on the table for the fund and South Africa, 50,000 dollars. ''We have resolved to work together in all areas of human endeavour and most importantly in fighting hunger and poverty not only in our countries but in the developing world as a whole,'' Sinha said. A Trilateral Business Council will create the framework under which business people from the three countries could get together and create synergies with the existing Preferential Trade Agreements that Brazil has initiated with India. Brazil, as a leader of the MERCOSUR group that includes Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay, could play a key role as a link between India and Latin America, with which India already has signed a framework agreement that is expected to lead to a preferential and later a free trade agreement. Trade between India and MERCOSUR was estimated to be worth 2.5 billion dollars in 2002-2003. Similarly, India is negotiating a similar pact with the South Africa Customs Union (SACU) and is looking at ways in which the South Asia Free Trade Association (SAFTA), formed at a South Asian summit in January, could fit in. Amorim said he expected the free trade agreements to eventually evolve into and ''connect large free trade areas spread across three continents''. Officials from the three countries agreed to work to increase trade flows among them from the present 4.6 billion dollars to 10 billion dollars by 2007. (MORE) | ||||||
|
©2004, Gloria R. Lalumia, insight@zianet.com Radio for the Left at http://www.zianet.com/insightanalytical/radio.htm BACK TO TOP |
||||||
 |
||||
| DAILY BUZZ | ||||
| INTERVIEWS | ||||
| ANALYSIS | ||||
| MEDIA LINKS | ||||
|
Unless
otherwise noted, all original |
 |
|||
