June 28, 2004

World Media Watch

by Gloria R. Lalumia

BUZZFLASH NOTE: WMW provides BuzzFlash readers foreign views and perspectives that are not usually available from the media here in the U.S. The presentation of these articles from these international publications is not an endorsement of their viewpoints.

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WORLD MEDIA WATCH FOR JUNE 28, 2004

1//The Independent, UK--$20M 'HOLE' IN IRAQI FUNDS HELD BY US-LED AUTHORITY (The US-controlled administration in Baghdad has failed to account for more than £20m of the country's money as it hands over power to an Iraqi government, a report says. The money - oil revenues and international funds frozen during Saddam Hussein's regime - had passed into the coffers of the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) before disappearing, according to the report. Although a belated audit is being done, its results, expected to be critical of the CPA, are not due until the middle of July, two weeks after the organisation ceases to exist. The $18.5bn in aid authorised by the US Congress is the subject of no less than four separate audits.)

2//The Jordan Times, Jordan--ZARQAWI - TERROR MASTERMIND OR BOGEYMAN? (After rebel attacks on Baquba last Thursday, Colonel Dana Pittard, the commander of US forces in the northeastern city, told AFP the insurgency in his area was dominated by Iraqis. Outside experts do not discount the possibility Zarqawi is wandering Iraq, but they believe he serves as a convenient bogeyman for a complicated insurgency. "Frankly, the coalition may generally believe he is responsible for these high-profile attacks... [but] Zarqawi is a great way of pointing the finger at a foreign terrorist threat," said International Crisis Group security analyst Robin Bhatty. "Zarqawi is an identifiable target.")

3//The Sydney Morning Herald, Australia--SHIITE TRIBES GATHER FOR WAR ON FALLUJA (Washington threw up its hands and said Iraq's new interim government could fix Falluja. But even before he formally takes control at midnight on Wednesday, the Prime Minister, Iyad Allawi, is confronted with another declaration of war on Falluja - this time from the massed Shiite tribes of southern Iraq. At a council of war after Friday prayers at Baghdad's Baratha mosque, the sheiks - or chiefs - of more than 40 of the tribes issued a declaration: they would destroy Falluja, along with neighbouring Ramadi, unless the insurgency leaders they hold responsible for the Shiite deaths are handed over to them - for execution.)

4//Asia Times Online, Hong Kong--TEHRAN'S DEMONS REVISITED (Barely one month after the ruling Iranian conservatives secured the control of the 290 seats in the majlis, or parliament, the result has been political chaos, an increase in crackdowns on the population, mostly youngsters and dissidents, a visible comeback of pressure groups, and a harder line in foreign policy..."However, the more the Iranian authorities increase oppression and crackdowns, the more they antagonize the world outside, the more they get unpopular at home and the more isolated abroad, hastening the countdown to their own demise," Behnoud concluded.)

5//The Windsor Star, Canada--ANGRY VOTERS LACK TRUST IN POLITICIANS (Never mind Paul Martin's mad-as-hell tour, Canadians have had their own mad-as-hell tour. Across the country, disenchanted voters have written sour letters to newspapers, spewed invective at Liberal politicians, placed grouchy phone calls to radio shows and have warily elevated the Conservatives to serious contenders for forming the next government...When Canadians go to the polls Monday, their votes are expected to amount to a referendum on public trust. "It's clear that trust, accountability, and integrity -- these are the issues of the election campaign," says Sudbury voter John Leonard, summing up popular sentiment these days.)

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1//The Independent, UK 28 June 2004
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/story.jsp?story=535744

$20M 'HOLE' IN IRAQI FUNDS HELD BY US-LED AUTHORITY
By Kim Sengupta

The US-controlled administration in Baghdad has failed to account for more than £20m of the country's money as it hands over power to an Iraqi government, a report says. The money - oil revenues and international funds frozen during Saddam Hussein's regime - had passed into the coffers of the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) before disappearing, according to the report. Although a belated audit is being done, its results, expected to be critical of the CPA, are not due until the middle of July, two weeks after the organisation ceases to exist. The $18.5bn in aid authorised by the US Congress is the subject of no less than four separate audits.

The report, by the charity Christian Aid, accused Washington of breaching the United Nations resolution which handed the Iraqi funds to the CPA. Resolution 1483 of May 2003 stated that the spending of the money, by the CPA-controlled Development Fund for Iraq (DFI), should be independently audited. But an auditor was not appointed until April this year, so the result cannot come out until after the handover.

Diplomatic sources said the audit showed that vast sums have been lost due to incompetence, theft and corruption. Huge contracts were given out to Western - overwhelmingly American - companies, some charging almost 10 times the price of local ones. Iraqi companies began to receive contracts only two months ago, and then only for projects of less than $500,000.

There also appears to be confusion over earnings from Iraqi oil sales. CPA documents give different figures for the year to the end of May. One says $10bn, the other $11.5bn. A previous Christian Aid study into Iraqi funds, in October 2003, claimed $4bn has gone missing.

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2//The Jordan Times, Jordan Monday, June 28, 2004
http://www.jordantimes.com/mon/news/news7.htm

ZARQAWI - TERROR MASTERMIND OR BOGEYMAN?

BAGHDAD (AFP) - The US-led coalition has identified militant Abu Mussab Zarqawi as prime suspect in the Iraqi insurgency but commanders and intelligence officials paint a more nuanced picture of the violence.

The coalition blames the suspected Al Qaeda operative for at least 25 attacks in Iraq, including the March 2 coordinated suicide bombings of Karbala and Baghdad that killed about 170 people, still the bloodiest day of the insurgency.

His name is invoked readily but it is impossible to say with any certainty what attacks, if any, the man is truly responsible for.

(SNIP)

A senior intelligence officer said last month that Zarqawi does not drive the insurgency but his access to fighters and weapons are what make him dangerous.

The official said the insurgency was fuelled by Sunni fears of the future after the fall of Saddam, a fellow Sunni Arab.

"It [the insurgency] is motivated by a Sunni identity and an Iraqi identity and belief that the Sunnis ... have a dominant place in the future for Iraq."

After rebel attacks on Baquba last Thursday, Colonel Dana Pittard, the commander of US forces in the northeastern city, told AFP the insurgency in his area was dominated by Iraqis. Outside experts do not discount the possibility Zarqawi is wandering Iraq, but they believe he serves as a convenient bogeyman for a complicated insurgency.

"Frankly, the coalition may generally believe he is responsible for these high-profile attacks... [but] Zarqawi is a great way of pointing the finger at a foreign terrorist threat," said International Crisis Group security analyst Robin Bhatty. "Zarqawi is an identifiable target."

3//The Sydney Morning Herald, Australia June 28, 2004
http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2004/06/27/1088274628212.html?oneclick=true

SHIITE TRIBES GATHER FOR WAR ON FALLUJA
By Paul McGeough

It took exceptional courage for this 29-year-old Shiite to go to Falluja at all.

But he went eight times to the Sunni stronghold west of Baghdad, and now he proffers a well-thumbed envelope - in it are the seeds of yet another Iraqi war.

It contains five terrible photographs. They slide easily enough into the slender hands of Adnan Faisal al-Muthair, and though each shows the naked body of a brother or a cousin, he seems numbed to their grotesque injuries.

The head of Hammid, his 32-year-old brother, has been crushed; his cousin Khalid lies tangled in electrical wires - his flesh is charred and a small towel over his groin conceals another appalling abuse; a section of flesh has been gouged from his cousin Hameed's forearm - that is where he had a tattoo of the name of the holiest of Shiite saints, Imam Ali. The faces in the others are burnt beyond recognition.

Falluja is the Iraqi nut that seemingly cannot be cracked.

The death and subsequent butchery of four American security contractors in its main street at the end of March provoked a siege by the US marines that became a battle in which more than 800 died. But in the end the Americans agreed to withdraw - with none of their demands met.

Washington threw up its hands and said Iraq's new interim government could fix Falluja. But even before he formally takes control at midnight on Wednesday, the Prime Minister, Iyad Allawi, is confronted with another declaration of war on Falluja - this time from the massed Shiite tribes of southern Iraq.

At a council of war after Friday prayers at Baghdad's Baratha mosque, the sheiks - or chiefs - of more than 40 of the tribes issued a declaration: they would destroy Falluja, along with neighbouring Ramadi, unless the insurgency leaders they hold responsible for the Shiite deaths are handed over to them - for execution.

Even Saddam Hussein had difficulties with the factiousness of Falluja. Known as the city of mosques (and reputedly home to the best kebab joint in all of Iraq), it was home to much of the former leader's officer corps, and also to the more headstrong of the Sunni tribes and imams.
Since the April ceasefire it has become a no-go zone - even for the US military. Instead, it is policed by the US-paid Falluja Brigade, a mix of former Saddam soldiers and the very insurgents who were fighting the US.

The brigade was the idea of Muhammed Latif, 66, a former Iraqi army colonel who was jailed and tortured by Saddam, who offered it to the Americans as a face-saving exit from a confrontation which otherwise seemed destined to end with even more appalling casualties.

Latif runs the brigade. But according to accounts of Iraqi and other Arab visitors, members of the brigade and the Iraqi police stationed in the city are working with the insurgency. Control of much of Falluja has been ceded to a hard core of insurgents and their foreign Arab colleagues - Saudis, Syrians, Yemenis and Jordanians - who are imposing a local regime that is reminiscent of the defeated Taliban of Afghanistan.

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4//Asia Times Online, Hong Kong June 26, 2004
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/FF26Ak03.html

TEHRAN'S DEMONS REVISITED
By Safa Haeri

PARIS - Barely one month after the ruling Iranian conservatives secured the control of the 290 seats in the majlis, or parliament, the result has been political chaos, an increase in crackdowns on the population, mostly youngsters and dissidents, a visible comeback of pressure groups, and a harder line in foreign policy.

Before being "selected" by the leader-controlled Guardian Council, the body that vets all candidates to all elections in the republic, the candidates who found their way to the new majlis had been told not to try to "waste" their time in "futile" political debates, the "trade mark" of the outgoing parliament that was dominated by reformers and considered as one of the country's most dynamic and democratic parliaments. Instead, the new legislators were advised to be more concerned about people's real problems, such as jobs for the millions of unemployed, security, fighting corruption and social injustices.

But despite these recommendations, the seventh majlis started its work with shouts of "Death to America" during its inaugural session, followed by statements from some hardline deputies urging the government to emulate North Korea by getting out of the nuclear Non Proliferation Treaty (NPT), amid threats of not approving the Additional Protocol to the NPT, thus raising tensions in the dispute between Iran and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) - the United Nations' nuclear watchdog - that accuses Tehran of not fulfilling promises made last October to Britain, France and Germany on suspending uranium-enriching activities and providing the UN full and complete reports on its nuclear programs and projects.

"If the majlis feels that the Additional Protocol serves the interests of the nation, it will ratify it. If not, it will reject it and the government has to abide by the decision," Dr Qolamali Haddad-Adel, the new Speaker - and the first ever not being a cleric - said in a session broadcast live on state radio, adding, "Iran's majlis does not take orders from foreigners."

(SNIP)

"These people are hand-picked by the Guardian Council and the conservatives and they have to respond to what the ruling hardliners expect them to do," commented Sho'leh Sa'di, a lawyer and former member of the majlis, predicting more difficult times ahead for Iranian people and in Iran's relations with the international community.

(SNIP)

One telling example of this state of chaos was offered to the world when a naval unit of the Revolutionary Guards, which on Monday seized three British patrol boats and their two officers and six soldiers who had strayed into Iranian waters off the Aravand Roud (the Iranian name of the Shat el-Arab River that runs between Iran and Iraq before flowing into the Persian Gulf) refused to obey orders from both their high command and the government to release the captures.

(SNIP)

"The incident was full of messages," Masoud Behnoud, an Iranian journalist, told Asia Times Online. "One [message] was addressed to Iraqi public opinion in particular and the Arab world in general, saying, 'see how the very men who have occupied your land and are ruling over you as masters behave like sheep in our hands, humiliated and defeated'. The other message is addressed to the British and the Europeans, telling them no matter your hard line at the IAEA and on human rights, we don't want to retaliate."

"However, the more the Iranian authorities increase oppression and crackdowns, the more they antagonize the world outside, the more they get unpopular at home and the more isolated abroad, hastening the countdown to their own demise," Behnoud concluded.

5//The Windsor Star, Canada June 26, 2004
http://www.canada.com/windsor/windsorstar/news/sto...

ANGRY VOTERS LACK TRUST IN POLITICIANS
Integrity, accountability key issues

Janice Tibbetts, Canwest News Service

OTTAWA -- Never mind Paul Martin's mad-as-hell tour, Canadians have had their own mad-as-hell tour.

Across the country, disenchanted voters have written sour letters to newspapers, spewed invective at Liberal politicians, placed grouchy phone calls to radio shows and have warily elevated the Conservatives to serious contenders for forming the next government.

By most accounts, disillusionment has eclipsed all during a campaign that pollster Darrell Bricker says has been otherwise "remarkably issueless."

When Canadians go to the polls Monday, their votes are expected to amount to a referendum on public trust.

"It's clear that trust, accountability, and integrity -- these are the issues of the election campaign," says Sudbury voter John Leonard, summing up popular sentiment these days.

In Eastern Canada, a Halifax woman crystallized a common predicament when she told Liberal candidate Sheila Fougere on the doorstep: "The dilemma is whether our dissatisfaction with the Liberal government is sufficiently strong that it overcomes the hesitancy around the right-wing social agenda of the Conservatives."

Others have been less delicate in their assessment of the Liberal record. Paul Martin encountered chants of "liar" and "thief" while campaigning for votes in Windsor.

On the West Coast, Vancouver letter writer Chris Svendsen denounced the prime minister as "a dodgy politician on a sinking ship."

Pollster Conrad Winn reports that Quebecers were so angry during telephone surveys that there were "a huge number of unprintable answers."

So, how did the Martin Liberals slip from potential majority government status just five weeks ago to potentially losing their 11-year grip on power?

Political pundits attribute the dip to the public getting a chance to vent stored-up anger over fiascos such as the massive cost overruns in the federal gun registry, the lavish, out-of-control spending by disgraced privacy commissioner George Radwanski that surfaced last year, and, finally, Martin's decision to go the polls when the facts of the $200-million Liberal sponsorship scandal remain unanswered.

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