October 11, 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.

* * *

WORLD MEDIA WATCH FOR OCTOBER 11, 2004

1//The Independent, UK--ANGER OVER PM'S PLAN FOR 'IRAQ HONOURS LIST' (Plans by Downing Street to draw up a "special Iraq honours list", which could include officials who prepared the flawed dossier making the case for war, provoked an angry response yesterday... The disclosure came as MPs returned to Westminster today with their disquiet over the war heightened by the conclusion of the Iraq Survey Group (ISG) that Saddam Hussein possessed no WMD. Mr Blair will face demands to defend government policy to the Commons in the light of the ISG report.)

2//The Moscow Times, Russia--THE BUZZ IS THAT PUTIN MAY STAY (The buzz in liberal circles these days is that President Vladimir Putin's far-reaching political reform plans could help him retain power after his second and final term ends in 2008. "It's a general feeling," said Vladimir Pribylovsky, head of the Panorama think tank. "This reform is a showdown. All masks are dropped." The proposal, which scraps the popular vote for governors and individual races for the State Duma, could be a step toward amending the Constitution to extend Putin's final term from the current four years or to allow him to seek a third term, analysts said. Putin has repeatedly indicated that he will not cling to the presidency after his second term.)

3//The Jordan Times, Jordan--RUSSIAN FM VISITS TEHRAN (Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov arrived in Tehran Sunday for talks expected to focus on Iran's stand-off with the UN's nuclear watchdog and possible preparations for a visit here by the Russian president... Russia has said on several occasions that it will continue its nuclear cooperation with Iran as long as the nation complies with the IAEA. "Iran must comply with all IAEA demands," Russian President Vladimir Putin said last month. Putin said Russia had sent a message to this effect to Tehran, and added that he believed Iran's assurances that it was not trying to develop nuclear weapons.
But also last month Igor Ivanov, chief of Russia's Security Council, said Russia was against bringing up Iran's nuclear programme at the UN Security Council and believes the issue should stay with the IAEA.)

4//Asia Times Online, Hong Kong--SIDELINED NEO-CONS STOKE FUTURE FIRES (Sidelined by their failed predictions for Iraq and US President George W Bush's efforts to reassure voters he is not a warmonger, prominent neo-conservatives and their Christian Right allies are nonetheless trying hard to prepare the ground for future US adventures in the Middle East... The neo-conservatives, who led the charge to war in Iraq, have steadily lost influence over US policy in Baghdad since a year ago, when US troops found themselves welcomed by a serious and growing insurgency rather than the flowers and sweets the neo-cons had predicted. At the same time, Bush's top political adviser, Karl Rove, was reported to have told unhappy war hawks in the Pentagon and Vice President Dick Cheney's office, the two neo-con strongholds, that Bush's re-election prospects would be greatly enhanced if there was "no war in '04".)

5//The Daily Star, Lebanon--WILL UNIFIL BE DRAWN INTO CRISIS? (The United States is reportedly threatening to push for the disbandment of the UN peacekeeping force in South Lebanon (Unifil) to pressure Beirut and Damascus into fulfilling UN Resolution 1559. But diplomats in Beirut say Unifil is necessary to help stabilize the fractious Lebanon-Israel border, adding that the fate of the 26-year-old peacekeeping force should not be linked to the month-old resolution... Still, there is no confirmation that the U.S. intends to seriously push for the termination of Unifil, and the anonymous quote in Al-Hayat may be nothing more than a trial balloon...Some diplomats suggested, however, that Unifil's potential closure or troop reduction could be used against Lebanon and Syria. "As a means of pressure, it is possible they will use Unifil," said one diplomat. "But any withdrawal at this stage could have serious consequences for stability along the Blue Line.")

* * *

1//The Independent, UK 11 October 2004
http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/politics/story.jsp?story=570738

ANGER OVER PM'S PLAN FOR 'IRAQ HONOURS LIST'
By Nigel Morris, Home Affairs Correspondent

Plans by Downing Street to draw up a "special Iraq honours list", which could include officials who prepared the flawed dossier making the case for war, provoked an angry response yesterday.

Tony Blair is proposing that about 50 non-military honours, including knighthoods, OBEs and MBEs, be handed out, probably in the new year, if approved by Whitehall. Although Downing Street said the awards would be aimed at those working at the "sharp end" rebuilding the country, it confirmed they could also cover London-based civil servants.

The disclosure came as MPs returned to Westminster today with their disquiet over the war heightened by the conclusion of the Iraq Survey Group (ISG) that Saddam Hussein possessed no WMD. Mr Blair will face demands to defend government policy to the Commons in the light of the ISG report.

The honours plan forms part of a secret Whitehall document leaked to a Sunday newspaper. According to the memo, Sir David Omand, the Government's intelligence and security co-ordinator, will recommend names for the list. One recipient could be Jane Marriott, the head of the Foreign Office's nuclear proliferation department, who played a key role in assessing Saddam's weapons arsenal. Simon Webb and Paul Roper, Ministry of Defence officials, and David Brummell, of the Attorney General's office, could also be honoured.

(MORE)

2//The Moscow Times, Russia Monday, October 11, 2004. Page 1.
http://www.themoscowtimes.com/stories/2004/10/11/002.html

THE BUZZ IS THAT PUTIN MAY STAY
By Anatoly Medetsky, Staff Writer

The buzz in liberal circles these days is that President Vladimir Putin's far-reaching political reform plans could help him retain power after his second and final term ends in 2008.

"It's a general feeling," said Vladimir Pribylovsky, head of the Panorama think tank. "This reform is a showdown. All masks are dropped."

The proposal, which scraps the popular vote for governors and individual races for the State Duma, could be a step toward amending the Constitution to extend Putin's final term from the current four years or to allow him to seek a third term, analysts said. Putin has repeatedly indicated that he will not cling to the presidency after his second term.

Or Putin could effectively remain the head of state as a powerful prime minister under a weak president. Under this scenario, the president would be a largely ceremonial figure, as in Germany.

A weak president could be elected by parliament instead of by popular vote and could come from Putin's inner circle, Olga Kryshtanovskaya, head of the Center for the Study of the Elite, which is part of the Russian Academy of Sciences, said at a news conference last week.

Irina Khakamada, a liberal candidate in March's presidential election, which Putin easily won, warned of a looming "constitutional coup" late last week.

"I am stating that there will be no more presidential elections in the form that we are all expecting," she said at a conference dedicated to Putin's reform.

Yury Korgunyuk, editor of the Partinfo political weekly, said he is leaning toward the scenario of a third presidential term. "The idea that Putin will be re-elected seems increasingly certain to me," he said. "I don't think there will be any sophisticated schemes. They will just strike the article about the number of terms" from the Constitution.

(MORE)

3//The Jordan Times, Jordan Monday, October 11, 2004
http://www.jordantimes.com/mon/news/news5.htm

RUSSIAN FM VISITS TEHRAN

TEHRAN (AFP) - Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov arrived in Tehran Sunday for talks expected to focus on Iran's stand-off with the UN's nuclear watchdog and possible preparations for a visit here by the Russian president.

Lavrov, who will be in Tehran for two days, is lined up for talks with his counterpart Kamal Kharrazi as well as Iran's top national security official and nuclear negotiator Hassan Rowhani, officials here said.

Russia is currently helping Iran build its first nuclear power station in the southern city of Bushehr and is under almost daily diplomatic pressure from the United States to abandon the $ 800million deal.

But Moscow is also eager to see Iran cooperate with demands from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), which has called on the Islamic republic to suspend certain sensitive aspects of its nuclear programme.

(SNIP)

In addition, the so-called Big Three - Britain, France and Germany - would like Iran to give up its work on the nuclear fuel cycle, a process that can be used to make fuel for atomic energy or nuclear weapons.

Fuel cycle work is permitted under the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, of which Iran is a signatory, if for peaceful purposes. Iran insists it only wants to generate nuclear power to meet growing domestic energy demands and free up its huge oil and gas resources for export.

Russia has said on several occasions that it will continue its nuclear cooperation with Iran as long as the nation complies with the IAEA.

"Iran must comply with all IAEA demands," Russian President Vladimir Putin said last month. Putin said Russia had sent a message to this effect to Tehran, and added that he believed Iran's assurances that it was not trying to develop nuclear weapons.

But also last month Igor Ivanov, chief of Russia's Security Council, said Russia was against bringing up Iran's nuclear programme at the UN Security Council and believes the issue should stay with the IAEA.

"Iran has shown in a justifiable matter that it must have access, like other countries, to new technologies, including nuclear technology used for peaceful means," Ivanov said.

4//Asia Times Online, Hong Kong October 9, 2004
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/FJ09Ak01.html

SIDELINED NEO-CONS STOKE FUTURE FIRES
By Jim Lobe

WASHINGTON - Sidelined by their failed predictions for Iraq and US President George W Bush's efforts to reassure voters he is not a warmonger, prominent neo-conservatives and their Christian Right allies are nonetheless trying hard to prepare the ground for future US adventures in the Middle East.

Echoing increasingly threatening noises from the government of Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon about preventing Iran from developing a nuclear weapon, neo-cons are calling for Washington to undertake covert action, at the very least, to oust what some of them call the "terror masters" in Tehran as part of a more general "World War IV" against alleged Arab and Islamic extremism. (The Cold War is widely considered as World War III.)

Some neo-cons are even complaining that if Bush had been serious about the "war on terrorism", he should have taken on Iran after Afghanistan, rather than Iraq.

"Had we seen the war for what it was, we would not have started with Iraq, but with Iran, the mother of modern Islamic terrorism, the creator of Hezbollah, the ally of al-Qaeda, the sponsor of [Abu Musab al-]Zarqawi, the longtime sponsor of Fatah and the backbone of Hamas," wrote part-time Pentagon consultant Michael Ledeen of the American Enterprise Institute (AEI) this week.

His article also reprised an argument he first made three years ago - that the Iranian people were already rising up against the mullahs and needed only a little nudge from Washington to succeed.

Neo-conservatives are also busy stoking tensions with Syria, even amid indications that Washington and Damascus are feeling their way toward some kind of "modus vivendi" that may even include joint military patrols along the latter's porous border with Iraq.

Last week they heard from a Syrian exile, Farid Ghadry, who apparently aspires to become the Ahmed Chalabi - the neo-con boosted leader of the exiled Iraqi National Congress whose standing in Washington plummeted after it was alleged he passed secrets to Iran - of his homeland.

In addition to lobbying for the pending Syria Liberation Act, which would commit the US government to "regime change" in Damascus, Ghadry charged that the government of President Bashir Assad was building "a new colony of terrorism" for youths in Lebanon's Bekaa Valley.

The neo-conservatives, who led the charge to war in Iraq, have steadily lost influence over US policy in Baghdad since a year ago, when US troops found themselves welcomed by a serious and growing insurgency rather than the flowers and sweets the neo-cons had predicted.

At the same time, Bush's top political adviser, Karl Rove, was reported to have told unhappy war hawks in the Pentagon and Vice President Dick Cheney's office, the two neo-con strongholds, that Bush's re-election prospects would be greatly enhanced if there was "no war in '04".

(MORE)

5//The Daily Star, Lebanon Monday, October 11, 2004
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=10&categ_id=2&article_id=9153

WILL UNIFIL BE DRAWN INTO CRISIS?
U.S. reported to use force as pressure card

By Nicholas Blanford
Special to The Daily Star

BEIRUT: The United States is reportedly threatening to push for the disbandment of the UN peacekeeping force in South Lebanon (Unifil) to pressure Beirut and Damascus into fulfilling UN Resolution 1559.

But diplomats in Beirut say Unifil is necessary to help stabilize the fractious Lebanon-Israel border, adding that the fate of the 26-year-old peacekeeping force should not be linked to the month-old resolution.

The pan Arab Al-Hayat daily on Saturday quoted a Bush administration official as saying that ending Unifil's mandate was a "viable option" if Syria "insists on its contention that everything is well in a peaceful, stable Lebanon."

Resolution 1559 calls for the departure of all foreign forces from Lebanon, the dismantling of all militias and the deployment of Lebanese troops throughout the country.

References to the dismantling of Unifil tends to make officials in Beirut nervous. The last time Unifil faced a potential reduction or disbandment, in 2001, the government argued for the peacekeeping force to remain unchanged.

Still, there is no confirmation that the U.S. intends to seriously push for the termination of Unifil, and the anonymous quote in Al-Hayat may be nothing more than a trial balloon.

Diplomats in Beirut whose countries are represented on the UN Security Council say they have heard no reports suggesting Unifil could be dragged into the tussle over Resolution 1559.

"Unifil is doing a vital job," said a European diplomat. "It is the only reliable source to tell us what is really going on along that difficult and dangerous border. ... It is not something to tamper with."

Some diplomats suggested, however, that Unifil's potential closure or troop reduction could be used against Lebanon and Syria.

"As a means of pressure, it is possible they will use Unifil," said one diplomat. "But any withdrawal at this stage could have serious consequences for stability along the Blue Line."

(MORE)