June 15, 2005

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 15, 2005

1//Asia Times Online, Hong Kong--RUDE AWAKENING FOR IRAN (The string of explosions that rocked Teheran, the southern city of Ahwaz and two other Iranian cities on Sunday and Monday, has sharpened Iranian-Arab relations, raised the possibility that Iran is being targeted by a covert operations campaign and threatened to put Iran on a collision course with its Persian Gulf Arab neighbors, just days before presidential elections on Friday. … Whether Sunday's violence was orchestrated by pro-Saddam elements or militant Islamic Sunni Arab foreign fighters remains unclear. Sunni fundamentalists have declared war on Iraq's Shi'ite majority population and targeted them through a bombing campaign targeting mosques and other public spaces. Although officially denied, another scenario points the finger of blame to the exiled opposition group Mujahideen-e Khalq (MEK), currently based in Iraq. The Marxist organization was responsible for a horrific string of terrorist attacks in the early years after the revolution of 1979 that killed a veritable who's who of Iran's political leadership. They have largely been neutralized in recent years, to the extent that the Iranian government allowed some former members to be repatriated earlier this year. "This could be a joint operation between the MEK and former Iraqi intelligence agents aimed at sabotaging the elections," said Kayhan Barzagar, a scholar at Tehran's Center for Scientific Research and Middle East Strategic Studies. "In Teheran, it's only the MEK who have the operational power to launch something like this." A spillover of Sunni-Shi'ite tensions from Iraq to Iran would mark a dangerous regional escalation.)

2//The Daily Times, Pakistan--PAKISTAN SEES AFGHANISTAN RID OF AL QAEDA IN 10 YEARS (The militant Al Qaeda network should be dismantled and sustainable democracy achieved in Afghanistan within 10 years, allowing foreign troops to leave, President General Pervez Musharraf said on Tuesday. Musharraf said that a sustainable democracy with a central authority needed to be achieved in Afghanistan, its militia removed and a strong Afghan army created, before foreign troops could leave. “All this is do-able in 10 years and I am very sure that the way we are going we will be able to dismantle the Al Qaeda organisation totally (within Afghanistan in 10 years),” Musharraf said during the first visit by a Pakistan president to Australia. … Musharraf said that Al Qaeda mastermind Osama Bin Laden was alive and probably living in the rugged mountains bordering Afghanistan. “Maybe he is in the border region in hiding wherever he sees a vacuum. It’s very easy for a person to hide,” he said.)

3//The Pakistan Tribune, Pakistan--OSAMA IN IRAN, NOT PAK: US OFFICIALS (Terror mastermind Osama bin Laden is in eastern Iran and not the rugged tribal areas of Pakistan's northwestern frontier where many believe him to be on the run, US intelligence officials said on Monday. In interviews to the Washington Times, the US officials said the Iran theory, which is held by a minority, is based on bits of intelligence information and the fact that months of CIA operations, along with search-and-destroy sweeps by thousands of Pakistani troops have failed to find the al-Qaida chief.)

4//The Daily Star, Lebanon--SAUDI ARABIA TURNS DOWN EU REQUEST FOR FULL NUCLEAR INSPECTIONS (Saudi Arabia has turned down a European Union request to allow full international nuclear inspections, saying it will only agree to special investigations if other countries exempted from them do the same, EU diplomats said. Saudi Arabia is insisting on its right to sign a Small Quantities Protocol (SQP), which has been used since 1971 to make inspections less burdensome in nations with small nuclear programs. An EU briefing memo - made available to the Associated Press by a diplomat accredited to the International Atomic Energy Agency - showed Saudi unwillingness to bow to Western pressure.)

5//Financial Times, UK--SNOW HITS OUT AT EU ANTIPATHY TO BUSINESS (John Snow, the US Treasury secretary, on Tuesday urged European leaders to stop using anti-capitalist rhetoric or risk losing US investment. Mr Snow, on a visit to Brussels, urged European governments to proceed with free-market reforms and not adopt words or policies that deter investors. The comments came amid rising criticism in France of “Anglo-Saxon” capitalism and anti-business language from Germany's ruling Social Democrats. Hedge fund managers and private equity investors were denounced recently as “locusts” by Franz Müntefering, the Social Democrat leader. In an interview with the Financial Times, Mr Snow said any move away from free markets and competition would hurt European economies. “American businesspeople are going to put capital where they feel they are welcome, where capital is honoured and where they can get good returns,” he said.)

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1//Asia Times Online, Hong Kong Jun 15, 2005
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/GF15Ak01.html

RUDE AWAKENING FOR IRAN
A Special Correspondent

TEHERAN - The string of explosions that rocked Teheran, the southern city of Ahwaz and two other Iranian cities on Sunday and Monday, has sharpened Iranian-Arab relations, raised the possibility that Iran is being targeted by a covert operations campaign and threatened to put Iran on a collision course with its Persian Gulf Arab neighbors, just days before presidential elections on Friday.

In the worst violence to hit Iran in over a decade, four bomb blasts struck government buildings in the capital of the oil-rich Ahwaz province near the border with Iraq, killing 10 people and wounding at least 86. They were followed a few hours later by two small bombs in central Teheran that killed two more and wounded four. The bombing campaign continued on Monday as three more bombs exploded in Iran's southeastern town of Zahedan and the clerical city of Qom - the seat of Iran's clerical theocracy - with no injuries reported.

A spokesman for Iran's security services immediately blamed supporters of ousted Iraqi president Saddam Hussein for the attacks, accusing "groups that were close to Iraq's Ba'ath Party and Saddam Hussein and are now based in Arab countries".

"The terrorists of Ahvaz infiltrated Iran from the region of Basra [in Iraq]," Ali Agha Mohammadi, a spokesman for Iran's top security-related body, the Higher National Security Council, told the AFP news agency. "These terrorists have been trained under the umbrella of the Americans in Iraq," he charged, and added that Iran suspected there were links between British troops across the border and the London-based Ahvaz Arab People's Democratic-Popular Front.

(SNIP)

Intelligence Minister Ali Yunesi said the bombers were based outside of Iran, but refrained from identifying specific countries. "We have proof of a link between these people outside Iran and some intelligence services in the world," Yunesi was quoted as saying by the official Islamic Republic News Agency.

Whether Sunday's violence was orchestrated by pro-Saddam elements or militant Islamic Sunni Arab foreign fighters remains unclear. Sunni fundamentalists have declared war on Iraq's Shi'ite majority population and targeted them through a bombing campaign targeting mosques and other public spaces.

Although officially denied, another scenario points the finger of blame to the exiled opposition group Mujahideen-e Khalq (MEK), currently based in Iraq. The Marxist organization was responsible for a horrific string of terrorist attacks in the early years after the revolution of 1979 that killed a veritable who's who of Iran's political leadership. They have largely been neutralized in recent years, to the extent that the Iranian government allowed some former members to be repatriated earlier this year.

"This could be a joint operation between the MEK and former Iraqi intelligence agents aimed at sabotaging the elections," said Kayhan Barzagar, a scholar at Tehran's Center for Scientific Research and Middle East Strategic Studies. "In Teheran, it's only the MEK who have the operational power to launch something like this."

A spillover of Sunni-Shi'ite tensions from Iraq to Iran would mark a dangerous regional escalation. Arab Sunni insurgents have chafed at Iran's perceived close links with the Iraqi Shi'ite majority government currently in power in Baghdad and apparently seek to provoke civil war through a campaign of assassinations, bombings and intimidation.

(SNIP)

The immediate signs are that the bombings may have had the effect of intimidating some Iranians from voting in this Friday's presidential elections. Tehran considers participation in these elections almost as important as their result, due to the expectation that Washington will equate poor turnout with an Iranian vote of no confidence in their government.

"I'm not going to vote, I'm afraid of another explosion," said Ahmad Ali Yacoub, a 36-year-old government employee in Ahwaz. "I think Friday will be a very dangerous day."

Election front-runner Hashemi Rafsanjani and majlis (parliament) Speaker Gholamali Haddad Adel accused the perpetrators of seeking to harm public participation. "On the contrary, experience of the past 27 years has proved that every time people feel the threat, they display greater resolve to contribute to national or political issues."

A European Union diplomat in Teheran told Asia Times Online there is little concern on the part of the international community regarding the conduct of the elections. "Ahwaz is an area that occasionally has problems, but is too far away from the center of power to affect political stability. Since they did not attack an electoral office or a candidate's center, we can't even term what happened an attack on the elections."

So who did it?
Scenario 1: Iraqi Sunnis strike Iran (SNIP)
Scenario 2: Al-Qaeda's revenge on Iran (SNIP)
Scenario 3: Hardliners play hardball (SNIP)
Scenario 4: Gulf Arab meddling (SNIP)

Conclusion
Unless continued, the bombings are unlikely to destabilize the country, but have contributed to a considerable increase in pre-election tension. The string of attacks erupted just days before Iranians go to the polls and a few days before the release of an International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) report on Iran's nuclear program that is expected to criticize the country for its handling of its nuclear affairs.

The IAEA's negative report is expected to touch off another round of accusations by Washington, heightening Washington-Teheran tensions and giving ammunition to regime hardliners eager to see a security-oriented, former member of the military come to power.

2//The Daily Times, Pakistan Wednesday, June 15, 2005
http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=story_15-6-2005_pg7_37

PAKISTAN SEES AFGHANISTAN RID OF AL QAEDA IN 10 YEARS

CANBERRA: The militant Al Qaeda network should be dismantled and sustainable democracy achieved in Afghanistan within 10 years, allowing foreign troops to leave, President General Pervez Musharraf said on Tuesday.

Musharraf said that a sustainable democracy with a central authority needed to be achieved in Afghanistan, its militia removed and a strong Afghan army created, before foreign troops could leave.

“All this is do-able in 10 years and I am very sure that the way we are going we will be able to dismantle the Al Qaeda organisation totally (within Afghanistan in 10 years),” Musharraf said during the first visit by a Pakistan president to Australia.

“I think in 10 years we should be able bring a semblance of democracy that is sustainable, ensuring the integrity of Afghanistan.” He said Pakistan was committed to the Bonn process and had contributed significantly to reconstruction and rehabilitation efforts in Afghanistan.

“We have provided unrestricted transit access to Afghanistan, and helped the country hold presidential elections last year” he said.

Musharraf said Al Qaeda’s back had been broken in Pakistan, where hundreds of Al Qaeda suspects have been arrested since 2001 and handed over to the United States.

“We have broken (Al Qaeda’s) cohesion, their lateral and vertical cohesion (in Pakistan). That’s a great achievement because they cease to exist as a homogenous body able to execute operations in a command and control environment,” Musharraf said.

Musharraf said that Al Qaeda mastermind Osama Bin Laden was alive and probably living in the rugged mountains bordering Afghanistan. “Maybe he is in the border region in hiding wherever he sees a vacuum. It’s very easy for a person to hide,” he said. He said that Abu Farraj Al Libbi, Al Qaeda’s alleged number three who was captured in Mardan on May 2, had not provided information that could lead them to Bin Laden.

(MORE)

3//The Pakistan Tribune, Pakistan Tuesday June 14, 2005 (1429 PST)
http://paktribune.com/news/index.php?id=109280

OSAMA IN IRAN, NOT PAK: US OFFICIALS

WASHINGTON: Terror mastermind Osama bin Laden is in eastern Iran and not the rugged tribal areas of Pakistan's northwestern frontier where many believe him to be on the run, US intelligence officials said on Monday.

In interviews to the Washington Times, the US officials said the Iran theory, which is held by a minority, is based on bits of intelligence information and the fact that months of CIA operations, along with search-and-destroy sweeps by thousands of Pakistani troops have failed to find the al-Qaida chief.

Asked whether the US intelligence community thinks bin Laden may be in Iran, a senior administration official told the paper: "Some people think he is."

4//The Daily Star, Lebanon Wednesday, June 15, 2005
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition...

SAUDI ARABIA TURNS DOWN EU REQUEST FOR FULL NUCLEAR INSPECTIONS
Compiled by Daily Star staff

VIENNA: Saudi Arabia has turned down a European Union request to allow full international nuclear inspections, saying it will only agree to special investigations if other countries exempted from them do the same, EU diplomats said.

Saudi Arabia is insisting on its right to sign a Small Quantities Protocol (SQP), which has been used since 1971 to make inspections less burdensome in nations with small nuclear programs.

An EU briefing memo - made available to the Associated Press by a diplomat accredited to the International Atomic Energy Agency - showed Saudi unwillingness to bow to Western pressure.

It quoted Saudi Deputy Foreign Minister Prince Turki bin Mohammad bin Saud al-Kabira as telling EU officials in Riyadh that his country would be "willing to provide additional information" to the agency "only if all other parties" to the small quantities protocol did the same.

IAEA chief Mohammad al-Baradei said yesterday that the SQP, which severely limits investigations by the UN nuclear watchdog, has been identified "as a weakness of the safeguards system" of inspections.

The European Union made a so-called diplomatic demarche on Sunday in Riyadh, asking Saudi Arabia to make a "gesture of good faith" to allow full inspections if it signed the protocol, to which it has the right, an EU diplomat told AFP.

But Saudi Arabia said it "was only ready to make such a gesture if other signatories to the SQP made such gestures also," said the diplomat, who asked not to be identified. The diplomat's comments were confirmed by another EU representative in Vienna, where the IAEA board of governors is meeting this week.

The first diplomat said the Saudi response, rather than being a flat refusal, was taken by the EU as a preliminary response as the IAEA tries to resolve problems caused by the SQP.

Saudi Arabia, a key state in the tense Middle East, is not believed to be a direct nuclear proliferation threat, but diplomats are seeking to calm fears amid a major test of wills with nearby Iran, which U.S. officials suspect of seeking to develop nuclear weapons.

(MORE)

5//Financial Times, UK Published: June 14 2005 22:09 | Last updated: June 15 2005 00:04
http://news.ft.com/cms/s/8cefecea-dd02...

SNOW HITS OUT AT EU ANTIPATHY TO BUSINESS
By Tobias Buck and George Parker in Brussels

John Snow, the US Treasury secretary, on Tuesday urged European leaders to stop using anti-capitalist rhetoric or risk losing US investment.

Mr Snow, on a visit to Brussels, urged European governments to proceed with free-market reforms and not adopt words or policies that deter investors.

The comments came amid rising criticism in France of “Anglo-Saxon” capitalism and anti-business language from Germany's ruling Social Democrats.

Hedge fund managers and private equity investors were denounced recently as “locusts” by Franz Müntefering, the Social Democrat leader.

In an interview with the Financial Times, Mr Snow said any move away from free markets and competition would hurt European economies.

“American businesspeople are going to put capital where they feel they are welcome, where capital is honoured and where they can get good returns,” he said.

“It is not so much the language that is used, it is the policies that get embraced. And if policies get embraced that make capital feel unwelcome, capital won't come.

“It seems to me shortsighted on the part of anybody to discourage investment in their own country.” Mr Snow also warned against imposing tough new regulations on hedge funds. “Be careful with the heavy-touch approach because these are awfully important financial market players. They make financial markets more efficient and move capital around and put it in the hands of those who can use it best.”

Mr Snow said government regulation could even increase risks. “They [hedge funds] police themselves to a high degree, because they know the government isn't there.

“And one of the worrisome things about the government inserting itself into a situation like that is the moral hazard increase, is the perception that market players don't need to do the same due diligence, the same monitoring, the same oversight. That's a concern with hedge funds and that's a concern with derivatives.”

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