July 12, 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 JULY 12, 2004

1//The Independent, UK--BUTLER ACTS TO PREVENT PM 'SPINNING' HIS REPORT (Lord Butler is to head off any attempt by Tony Blair to "spin" the conclusions of his report on the handling of intelligence before the Iraq war by speaking live before the Prime Minister makes his statement to the House of Commons. In an attempt to stop Downing Street quoting selectively from the document, Lord Butler of Brockwell plans to seize the initiative by publishing his conclusions before Mr Blair has a chance to comment on the report publicly.)

2//The Telegraph, UK--CAUTIOUS WHITEHALL KEEPS THE SECRET STATE ALIVE (The Government's passion for secrecy while it talks about openness is revealed today after a study by The Daily Telegraph that raises serious concerns about the new Freedom of Information Act. It shows that more than 76,000 files which have passed the normal 30-year closure period laid down by the Public Record Act remain hidden on the Lord Chancellor's instructions...With the news that the Treasury has insisted on search fees of up to £575 for Freedom of Information Act requests, it casts doubt on Labour's declared commitment to open government.)

3//Asia Times Online, Hong Kong--REBELS HAVE YEMEN ON THE HOP (More than 200 people have been killed in clashes between Islamic rebels and government forces using warplanes and tanks; this is not Iraq, but the picture of developments in Yemen. Thousands of families are at risk as the clashes continue in the Marran mountains of the Saddah area, about 150 kilometers north of the capital Sana'a, and close to the border with Saudi Arabia. It is the main center of the Zaidi Shi'ite sect founded about 1,000 years ago.)

4//The Times of India, India--EVEN GEORGE FERNANDES WAS STRIP-SEARCHED IN US (George Fernandes was strip-searched twice in Dulles Airport in the US capital area when he was defence minister, once while on an official visit to Washington and another time while en route to Brazil, according to former Deputy Secretary of State Strobe Talbott. In his new book Engaging India - Diplomacy, Democracy and the Bomb , Talbott says he was told this angrily by Fernandes himself when he had visited India in February this year as part of a delegation assembled by the Aspen Institute and the Confederation of Indian Industry...."He and other Indians who later referred to the incident clearly regarded it as more than merely a lapse of protocol or just another example of the post 9/11 excesses and indignities that air travellers had to endure for the sake of security. The Indians saw it as a symptom of a deep-rooted widespread condescension - or worse - on the part of the West toward the East."

5//The Moscow Times, Russia--PUTIN'S RATING FALLS BELOW 50 PERCENT (Four months after a landslide re-election victory in March, President Vladimir Putin's ratings have plunged to below 50 percent, their lowest since he was first elected in 2000, according to the latest poll. Some contributed the decline to the start of unpopular social reforms...At the core of the social reforms is the government's plan to replace healthcare, transportation and subsidized housing benefits to the least-protected part of the population, such as pensioners and veterans, with non-indexed cash payments. The State Duma passed the legislation in the first reading last month and plans to bring it up for a second vote in early August.)

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1//The Independent, UK 12 July 2004
http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/politics/story.jsp?story=540136

BUTLER ACTS TO PREVENT PM 'SPINNING' HIS REPORT

By Marie Woolf, Chief Political Correspondent

Lord Butler is to head off any attempt by Tony Blair to "spin" the conclusions of his report on the handling of intelligence before the Iraq war by speaking live before the Prime Minister makes his statement to the House of Commons.

In an attempt to stop Downing Street quoting selectively from the document, Lord Butler of Brockwell plans to seize the initiative by publishing his conclusions before Mr Blair has a chance to comment on the report publicly.

Downing Street is bracing itself for some criticism of the way the Government handled the intelligence, but it does not believe the conclusions will be devastating. A No 10 source said the Butler report, to be published on Wednesday, would generate "choppy waters", nothing more.

"Obviously there are going to be some criticisms that we will have to address," the source said. "The mood is not the same as it was pre-Hutton."

Mr Blair is expected to make a statement to MPs about the report an hour after Lord Butler's press conference and will receive a copy of the report 24 hours in advance.

The report is expected to criticise the methods used to process intelligence information about the extent or existence of Saddam Hussein's weapons of mass destruction in the approach to the Iraq war.

John Scarlett, the incoming head of MI6, and the spy chief he replaces, Sir Richard Dearlove, are both facing the prospect of censure.

The advice offered by Lord Goldsmith, the Attorney General, that the war on Iraq was legal under international law is also expected to be questioned in the report. The Butler inquiry team heard evidence that Jack Straw, the Foreign Secretary, had been informed by his legal adviser, Elizabeth Wilmshurst, that a war on Iraq would be illegal.

(SNIP)

In a BBC Panorama documentary last night, two of Britain's most experienced intelligence analysts said Mr Blair went too far when he said intelligence showed that Saddam posed a "serious and current" threat. John Morrison, a former deputy chief of defence intelligence, accused Mr Blair of stretching the intelligence services' assessment of the threat posed by Saddam.

(MORE)

2//The Telegraph, UK Monday 12 July 2004
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml;sessi...

CAUTIOUS WHITEHALL KEEPS THE SECRET STATE ALIVE
By Ben Fenton
(Filed: 12/07/2004)

The Government's passion for secrecy while it talks about openness is revealed today after a study by The Daily Telegraph that raises serious concerns about the new Freedom of Information Act.

It shows that more than 76,000 files which have passed the normal 30-year closure period laid down by the Public Record Act remain hidden on the Lord Chancellor's instructions.

More than a third - 27,000 - are regarded as so sensitive by the Whitehall departments which produced them that even a description of their contents has been suppressed.

The 76,000 files represent almost 0.8 per cent of the 9.5 million documents preserved in the National Archives, a process that began with the Domesday Book.

The secrecy surrounding the 27,000 anonymous files threatens to undermine the effectiveness of the Act when it is implemented next January because historians and researchers will not know which documents are worth applying to see.

With the news that the Treasury has insisted on search fees of up to £575 for Freedom of Information Act requests, it casts doubt on Labour's declared commitment to open government.

(MORE)

3//Asia Times Online, Hong Kong Jully 10, 2004
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/FG10Ak02.html

REBELS HAVE YEMEN ON THE HOP
By Nabil Sultan

SANA'A - More than 200 people have been killed in clashes between Islamic rebels and government forces using warplanes and tanks; this is not Iraq, but the picture of developments in Yemen.

Thousands of families are at risk as the clashes continue in the Marran mountains of the Saddah area, about 150 kilometers north of the capital Sana'a, and close to the border with Saudi Arabia. It is the main center of the Zaidi Shi'ite sect founded about 1,000 years ago.

The rebels have been chanting slogans against the United States and Israel, according to local reports. Air attacks and tank assaults have not been successful so far in capturing rebel leader Hussein Badr al-Deen al-Hothy. Al-Hothy, a former member of parliament for the al-Haq (Truth) party, leads an organization called Believing Youth.

The government accuses al-Hothy of setting up a group modeled on the Lebanese Hezbollah to destabilize the government, and of being involved in attacks on government officials and institutions, and in stirring anti-American sentiment at mosques. He is also accused of preventing people from paying the Islamic tax zakat to the government and of trying to set himself up as an imam. Yemen has not had an imam since Zaidi Imam Hamid al-Din was overthrown as ruler in 1962.

(MORE)

4//The Times of India PTI [ SATURDAY, JULY 10, 2004 03:16:31 PM ]
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com:80/articleshow/774182.cms

EVEN GEORGE FERNANDES WAS STRIP-SEARCHED IN US

WASHINGTON: George Fernandes was strip-searched twice in Dulles Airport in the US capital area when he was defence minister, once while on an official visit to Washington and another time while en route to Brazil, according to former Deputy Secretary of State Strobe Talbott.

In his new book Engaging India - Diplomacy, Democracy and the Bomb , Talbott says he was told this angrily by Fernandes himself when he had visited India in February this year as part of a delegation assembled by the Aspen Institute and the Confederation of Indian Industry.

(SNIP)

Talbott says, "Fernandes, as defence minister, made much of how American-Indian military cooperation was thriving. India, in short, had weathered the storm of American sanctions and was now well on its way to establishing itself as a military partner".

"Just as we were saying good-bye to Fernandes, a member of our delegation innocently asked him when he would next be coming to Washington. His demeanor abruptly changed. It was as though he was glad to have an excuse to tell us how he really felt about our country", he recalls.

"Ignoring an Ethiopian delegation that was already filing into his office and taking its seats, Fernandes regaled us with the story of how he had been strip-searched by officers of the US Immigration and Naturalization Service at Dulles Airport when he arrived for an official visit in early 2002, and again, in mid-2003, when he was passing through the US on his way to Brazil."

" He seemed to enjoy our stupefaction at this tale. He and other Indians who later referred to the incident clearly regarded it as more than merely a lapse of protocol or just another example of the post 9/11 excesses and indignities that air travellers had to endure for the sake of security. The Indians saw it as a symptom of a deep-rooted widespread condescension - or worse - on the part of the West toward the East."

5//The Moscow Times, Russia Monday, July 12, 2004. Page 3
http://www.themoscowtimes.com/stories/2004/07/12/011.html

PUTIN'S RATING FALLS BELOW 50 PERCENT
By Oksana Yablokova, Staff Writer

Four months after a landslide re-election victory in March, President Vladimir Putin's ratings have plunged to below 50 percent, their lowest since he was first elected in 2000, according to the latest poll. Some contributed the decline to the start of unpopular social reforms.

Only 49 percent of those surveyed by the Public Opinion Foundation on July 3 and 4 said they would vote for Putin if an election were held today.

This was a drop of 3 percentage points from the previous week, which is within the usual margin of error, but there has been a decline of 7 percentage points since March, when Putin's ratings were at 56 percent

Lilia Shevtsova, a political analyst with the Carnegie Moscow Center, said that a slight decline in Putin's popularity was to be expected and should be seen in view of the social reforms launched by Mikhail Fradkov's government.

At the core of the social reforms is the government's plan to replace healthcare, transportation and subsidized housing benefits to the least-protected part of the population, such as pensioners and veterans, with non-indexed cash payments. The State Duma passed the legislation in the first reading last month and plans to bring it up for a second vote in early August.

The plan has drawn mass criticism from affected sectors of the population.

(MORE)