August 22, 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 AUGUST 22, 2005

1//Asia Times Online, Hong Kong--IRAQ AT THE GATES OF HELL (… Iraqi nationalism now appears to be dissolving as fearful Iraqis seek safety in confessional bonds. Patrick Cockburn has written vividly in the London Review of Books of Sunni neighborhoods in Baghdad living in terror of Shi'ite death squads that operate with apparent government sanction, and of Shi'ite neighborhoods traumatized by the unending wave of suicide bombers. "The bodies of Sunnis are being found in rubbish dumps across Baghdad," wrote Cockburn, "... the commandos rarely try to conceal their responsibility for killings. They arrive in full uniform, a garish green and yellow camouflage, at the homes of former Sunni officials and arrest them. A few days later the bodies - sometimes savagely tortured, with eyes gouged out and legs broken - turn up in the morgue." … The joke in Iraq before the invasion was that Iraqis actually wanted the gates of hell to be opened so they could get out. But even Iraqis' stubborn gallows humor is fading as the prospects for a better future after Saddam diminish. Every hour the violence continues there are countless new scores to be settled, new hatreds born and old ones reinforced, and a greater likelihood that Iraq will disintegrate. Yet there are slivers of light amid all this darkness. Reports out of Ramadi tell of Sunni Arab tribesmen bravely fighting off insurgents who had come to drive away their Shi'ite neighbors. In the testing days ahead, that kind of unity will have to be the rule rather than the exception if Iraq is to survive.)

2//Arab News, Saudi Arabia--SYRIAN AIRLINES TO RESUME FLIGHTS TO BAGHDAD (Syrian Airlines will resume flights to Baghdad next month as part of a new Syrian strategy to boost bilateral cooperation with Iraq in all domains, particularly transportation, said a senior official. Speaking to Arab News after meeting with a visiting Iraqi delegation yesterday, Syria's Deputy Transport Minister Dr. Mahmoud Zanboa said that "once some problems related to securing insurance to its flights by reputed world companies are resolved, Syrian Airlines will resume flights to Iraq.")

3//The Daily Star, Lebanon--IRAN'S NEW PRESIDENT PROPOSES CABINET (Iran's hard-line President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad put his proposed cabinet to Parliament, lashing out at the West and liberalism and promising a government that will "promote virtue and prohibit vice." Signaling his shock election win had delivered a clean break from the previous reformist administration of President Mohammad Khatami, Ahmadinejad pledged to fight off liberalism that he argued threatened Islamic values. … Ahmadinejad has allocated political posts - such as the Interior Ministry, intelligence and culture - to fellow ultra-conservatives, while technocrats have been appointed to head the oil and foreign ministries. Since Ahmadinejad announced his team earlier this month, eyebrows have been raised over some nominees' qualifications - including Ali Saidloo, nominated for the sensitive Oil Ministry, science portfolio nominee Mohammad-Mehdi Zahedi and Health Ministry nominee Kamran Baqeri-Lankarani. "If the Parliament behaves reasonably and logically, some nominees will not receive the vote of confidence. If the Parliament behaves politically, all the ministers would be approved," Mohammad Khoshchehreh, an MP from Tehran, told IRNA.)

4//Gulf News Online, United Arab Emirates--EGYPT PRESIDENTIAL POLL PUTS STATE-OWNED MEDIA TO THE TEST (On launching his campaign for re-election last week, President Hosni Mubarak chose the private satellite TV station Dream to show his address live. The move marked a U-turn for Egyptian television, which used to devote long hours of its transmission to following the daily activities of the president. "The beginning augurs well for the way ahead," said Jameela Esmail, wife of Ayman Nour, one of nine candidates challenging Mubarak in Egypt's first competitive presidential polls. "Since the onset of campaigning on Wednesday, Egyptian TV has demonstrated impartiality towards candidates, according each equal airtime," Esmail, an ex-presenter at Egyptian TV, told Gulf News. "This was previously unthought-of." Esmail is, however, critical of the press for "slanted" coverage of the presidential campaigning. Even the so-called independent newspapers are prodded to assault candidates of other parties. We know that some of them cooperate with security agencies.")

5//The Sydney Morning Herald, Australia--TEACHERS ACCUSED OF ANTI-US BIAS (The federal Treasurer has drawn a rebuke from teachers for warning them against spreading anti-Americanism in schools and suggesting it could mutate into anti-Westernism and terrorist attacks against Australia. Venturing outside his usual economic territory, Peter Costello said many teachers were carrying left-wing ideological baggage from the 1970s. "If your teacher's carrying that bias it tends to get passed on," he said yesterday. "… Anti-Americanism can easily morph into anti-Westernism. Particularly you've seen that with terrorists. They don't really draw distinctions between Americans or Britons or Australians; they just like to hit anybody who they consider to be part of the West." Mr Costello's comments to Channel Nine followed a lengthy critique of the US-Australia relationship at the Australian American Leadership Dialogue on Saturday night. The NSW Teachers Federation condemned Mr Costello's comments as "absolute nonsense." Its senior vice-president, Angelo Gavrielatos, said: "The constant denegration of teachers isn't good for the country." … Mr Costello said problems with American power and differences in policy were far outweighed by benefits. "If the world is to have a hegemon, the modern United States is the kind of hegemon we would like to have: democratic, respectful of human rights, with strong and genuine belief in individual liberty," he said. But Sharon Canty, spokeswoman for the Parents and Citizens Federation, suggested Mr Costello was more interested in media and leadership than policy. "Evidence of successful education in NSW could be a student's ability to recognise a grab for leadership and media time when they see one," she said.)

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1//Asia Times Online, Hong Kong Aug 20, 2005
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/GH20Ak01.html

IRAQ AT THE GATES OF HELL
By Ashraf Fahim
(Ashraf Fahim is a freelance writer on Middle Eastern affairs based in New York and London. His writing can be found at www.storminateacup.org.uk)

In early July, Iraq's former interim prime minister Iyad Allawi told the media that Iraq was "practically in stage one of a civil war". There is no known calculus for determining what level of violence qualifies as the initial stage of a civil war, so we cannot know if Allawi was correct.

There has certainly been a rise in inter-communal killings, particularly between Arab Sunnis and Shi'ites, to go with the deadly battle between occupation and government forces and the insurgents. But we have not yet seen the kind of sustained military engagements, a la Lebanon, the Balkans or Sierra Leone, nor the specter of large-scale ethnic cleansing that would put Allawi's claim beyond doubt.

Two years ago, Arab League secretary general Amr Moussa predicted ominously that an invasion would "open the gates of hell" in the region. At the time, Western ears heard melodrama in that warning, the bombastic rhetoric of an out-of-time Arab nationalist.

In retrospect, of course, it was nothing if not prescient. The invasion unleashed unspeakable horrors - cities bombed to ruin, gritty urban combat, gruesome beheadings, apocalyptic car bombings. Civil war, however, would truly complete Moussa's prophecy. It would be a tragedy to dwarf Iraq's current blood-soaked chaos, ushering in not only a paroxysm of internecine killing, but perhaps a regional conflagration that would send ripples of instability far beyond.

Iraqi nationalism now appears to be dissolving as fearful Iraqis seek safety in confessional bonds. Patrick Cockburn has written vividly in the London Review of Books of Sunni neighborhoods in Baghdad living in terror of Shi'ite death squads that operate with apparent government sanction, and of Shi'ite neighborhoods traumatized by the unending wave of suicide bombers. "The bodies of Sunnis are being found in rubbish dumps across Baghdad," wrote Cockburn, "... the commandos rarely try to conceal their responsibility for killings. They arrive in full uniform, a garish green and yellow camouflage, at the homes of former Sunni officials and arrest them. A few days later the bodies - sometimes savagely tortured, with eyes gouged out and legs broken - turn up in the morgue."

(SNIP)

Iraq's descent into zero-sum sectarianism has increased fears in the Arab world that it will become another Lebanon, where a gruesome 15-year civil war tore that country's intricate sectarian mosaic asunder. The denominational map in Iraq is not as maddening as it is in Lebanon, but the grievances of Iraq's three major communities are becoming ever more intractable. And Iraq's population of 25 million, 10 times larger than Lebanon's, clearly has a stellar per capita rate of martial acumen to go with an apparently endless reservoir of arms. An all-out conflict in Iraq would therefore make Lebanon seem quaint.

(SNIP)

Given all this grist, how might the dark mill of civil war begin turning in Iraq? It might simply develop out of a continuing, steady rise in the vicious cycle of revenge killings. Alternatively, a sudden breakdown of the political process could lead each sect to quickly assert its interests by force: the Kurds attempting to seize Kirkuk, for example, or Arab Sunnis and Shi'ites fighting for control of the mixed Sunni-Shi'ite towns south of Baghdad - all of which would entail ethnic cleansing. Further ideological and interdenominational divisions would also arise. Inter-Shi'ite rivalries were recently on display in the southern town of Samawa, where supporters of SCIRI and influential cleric Muqtada al-Sadr clashed. Muqtada espouses a brand of Iraqi and Islamic nationalism that could lead his Mehdi Army to side with those opposed to federalism if civil war did erupt.

And then there are the neighbors. As professor Juan Cole, an expert in Iraq and Shi'ism, recently wrote in the Nation: "If Iraq fell into civil war between Sunnis and Shi'ites, the Saudis and Jordanians would certainly take the side of the Sunnis, while Iran would support the Shi'ites." In essence, a civil war would see the eight-year Iran-Iraq war of the 1980s replayed on Iraqi territory. To complicate matters, any Kurdish success would draw in Turkey. Beyond Iraq, a civil war could destabilize the Gulf, and thereby the world economy. Sunni-Shi'ite tensions could be kindled in states like Bahrain, Kuwait and most importantly, Saudi Arabia, where an occasionally restive Shi'ite population forms a majority in the eastern part of the country (where all the oil is).

This situation presents the US with an unenviable quandary. If civil war does break out it will be blamed regardless - either because of the provocation of its enduring presence or the vacuum left if it withdraws precipitously. To an extent, the Bush administration has only itself to blame for Iraq's simmering sectarian tensions. Iraq was hardly a model of communal harmony under Saddam Hussein. But US support for sectarian political parties and the creation of a political system centered around confessional quotas has significantly elevated identity politics. If the administration intended to divide Iraq's communities in order to make them more malleable, its success could come at a very high price.

The joke in Iraq before the invasion was that Iraqis actually wanted the gates of hell to be opened so they could get out. But even Iraqis' stubborn gallows humor is fading as the prospects for a better future after Saddam diminish. Every hour the violence continues there are countless new scores to be settled, new hatreds born and old ones reinforced, and a greater likelihood that Iraq will disintegrate.

Yet there are slivers of light amid all this darkness. Reports out of Ramadi tell of Sunni Arab tribesmen bravely fighting off insurgents who had come to drive away their Shi'ite neighbors. In the testing days ahead, that kind of unity will have to be the rule rather than the exception if Iraq is to survive.

2//Arab News, Saudi Arabia 22 August 2005
http://www.arabnews.com/?page=4&section=0&article...

SYRIAN AIRLINES TO RESUME FLIGHTS TO BAGHDAD
Dahi Hassan, Arab News

DAMASCUS — Syrian Airlines will resume flights to Baghdad next month as part of a new Syrian strategy to boost bilateral cooperation with Iraq in all domains, particularly transportation, said a senior official.

Speaking to Arab News after meeting with a visiting Iraqi delegation yesterday, Syria's Deputy Transport Minister Dr. Mahmoud Zanboa said that "once some problems related to securing insurance to its flights by reputed world companies are resolved, Syrian Airlines will resume flights to Iraq."

Zanboa said that the new move would also coincide with the implementation of several agreements signed, or to be signed, between the two sides in a bid to enhance cooperation between the two countries in land, air, and maritime transportation.

(MORE)

3//The Daily Star, Lebanon Monday, August 22, 2005
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition...

IRAN'S NEW PRESIDENT PROPOSES CABINET
By Agence France Presse (AFP)

TEHRAN: Iran's hard-line President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad put his proposed cabinet to Parliament, lashing out at the West and liberalism and promising a government that will "promote virtue and prohibit vice." Signaling his shock election win had delivered a clean break from the previous reformist administration of President Mohammad Khatami, Ahmadinejad pledged to fight off liberalism that he argued threatened Islamic values.

"The international community they go so far as to condemn us. What sort of balance is this? This is injustice and oppression, and our nation will not accept this in international affairs," Ahmadinejad, who officially took office on August 3, told Parliament.

It was a clear reference to threats against Iran in the wake of Tehran's decision to resume sensitive nuclear work earlier this month. The clerical regime has refused to return to a full freeze of nuclear fuel work - the focus of fears the country is seeking atomic weapons.
Ahmadinejad also vowed a more assertive trade policy.

"Currently we are importing from some countries billions of dollars [worth of goods] whereas they are not buying our oil and they are also not buying our products," he said in a speech one MP described as "more about ideals than strategies."

"These countries should be thankful to us because we are helping their economies boom, but they are not thankful and are looking at us as if we were indebted to them," the 49-year-old former commando told the conservative-controlled assembly.

The speech to the Majlis, carried live on state television and radio, opened a debate that could last several days on the former Tehran mayor's proposed 21-member Cabinet.

Although right-wingers dominate the assembly, the procedure may not be a mere formality. Of those nominated, only two have previously held ministerial posts while the others are mostly unknowns.

Ahmadinejad said four principles would guide the policy of his new government: "expansion of justice, serving people, elevating the country financially and spiritually, and kindness to people."

"Liberal thought justifies and recognizes all abnormalities and deviations [and] isolates the values defined by religious training such as equality, forgiveness, selflessness, chastity and immaculacy," he told the 290-seat Majlis.

"Our nation does not and will not tolerate such a thing," he said, vowing a "culture of spirituality" in the Islamic Republic.

"We should expand a culture that promotes virtue and prohibits vice, and also favorable to Islamic traditions such as respect to parents, visiting relatives, generosity to orphans and philanthropy ... and we should fortify the education, universities, mosques, seminaries and genuine cultural groups."

Ahmadinejad has allocated political posts - such as the Interior Ministry, intelligence and culture - to fellow ultra-conservatives, while technocrats have been appointed to head the oil and foreign ministries.

Since Ahmadinejad announced his team earlier this month, eyebrows have been raised over some nominees' qualifications - including Ali Saidloo, nominated for the sensitive Oil Ministry, science portfolio nominee Mohammad-Mehdi Zahedi and Health Ministry nominee Kamran Baqeri-Lankarani.

"If the Parliament behaves reasonably and logically, some nominees will not receive the vote of confidence. If the Parliament behaves politically, all the ministers would be approved," Mohammad Khoshchehreh, an MP from Tehran, told IRNA.

(MORE)

4//Gulf News Online, United Arab Emirates Published: 21/8/2005, 06:50 (UAE)
http://www.gulf-news.com/Articles/RegionNF.asp?ArticleID=178157

EGYPT PRESIDENTIAL POLL PUTS STATE-OWNED MEDIA TO THE TEST
By Ramadan Al Sherbini, Gulf News Report

Cairo: On launching his campaign for re-election last week, President Hosni Mubarak chose the private satellite TV station Dream to show his address live.

The move marked a U-turn for Egyptian television, which used to devote long hours of its transmission to following the daily activities of the president.

"The beginning augurs well for the way ahead," said Jameela Esmail, wife of Ayman Nour, one of nine candidates challenging Mubarak in Egypt's first competitive presidential polls.

"Since the onset of campaigning on Wednesday, Egyptian TV has demonstrated impartiality towards candidates, according each equal airtime," Esmail, an ex-presenter at Egyptian TV, told Gulf News.

"This was previously unthought-of." Esmail is, however, critical of the press for "slanted" coverage of the presidential campaigning.

Even the so-called independent newspapers are prodded to assault candidates of other parties. We know that some of them cooperate with security agencies."

Before the start of campaigning for the September 7 presidential election, Egyptian Minister of Information Anas Al Feqqi, pledged that state-owned television and radio stations will observe "impartiality and objectivity."

"Talk about media impartiality is a big illusion," said Suliman Juda, a member of the liberal Wafd Party. "The line, which separates Mubarak as the head of state and the NDP candidate, is blurred.

Most state-owned media treats both as one thing," he told this newspaper. Juda called on Mubarak to stop opening new projects until campaigning is over.

"If he likes to continue such activities, then the mouthpiece of his party should be the only forum to cover them."

A senior official at the ruling party denied instructing government-run media to side with the NDP candidate. "We do not make any directives to national newspapers on how to cover campaigning," Mohammad Kamal, the media campaigner for Mubarak, told reporters.

(SNIP)

While praising Egyptian TV for "at last succumbing to winds of change," journalist Sa'ad Hajras, believes that neutrality towards the presidential contenders is impossible.

"National newspapers are a legacy of the one-party system. The state continues to monopolise radio and television," he wrote in Al Gomhuria.

"The Ministry of Information itself belongs to this legacy. Reform should start with ending the state's monopoly of all media."

5//The Sydney Morning Herald, Australia August 22, 2005
http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/teachers-accused...

TEACHERS ACCUSED OF ANTI-US BIAS
By John Garnaut and Geesche Jacobsen

The federal Treasurer has drawn a rebuke from teachers for warning them against spreading anti-Americanism in schools and suggesting it could mutate into anti-Westernism and terrorist attacks against Australia.

Venturing outside his usual economic territory, Peter Costello said many teachers were carrying left-wing ideological baggage from the 1970s.

"If your teacher's carrying that bias it tends to get passed on," he said yesterday. "… Anti-Americanism can easily morph into anti-Westernism. Particularly you've seen that with terrorists. They don't really draw distinctions between Americans or Britons or Australians; they just like to hit anybody who they consider to be part of the West."

Mr Costello's comments to Channel Nine followed a lengthy critique of the US-Australia relationship at the Australian American Leadership Dialogue on Saturday night.

The NSW Teachers Federation condemned Mr Costello's comments as "absolute nonsense." Its senior vice-president, Angelo Gavrielatos, said: "The constant denegration of teachers isn't good for the country."

In his first public speech on foreign policy since becoming Treasurer almost 10 years ago, Mr Costello acknowledged the existence of problems with American power, such as its success in exporting "distasteful" views on sex and violence through the mass media.

"Unfortunately, America has found it much easier to spread its mass culture than to spread its high principles," he said.

Observers said Mr Costello had used the speech to inject nuance into the Australia-US relationship, and contrasted it with comments made by some cabinet colleagues.

Mr Costello said Australia's regional interests would frequently diverge from America's, as he had made clear in his approaches to international trade, to Indonesia during the Asian economic crisis and more recently to China, when the United States was pushing for it to revalue its currency.

(SNIP)

Mr Costello also contrasted Australia's tolerance of democratic diversity with the utopian values often associated with neoconservatives in the Bush Administration.

"The United States believes it has a 'manifest destiny' to take its view of human rights to the world," he said.

(SNIP)

Mr Costello said problems with American power and differences in policy were far outweighed by benefits.

"If the world is to have a hegemon, the modern United States is the kind of hegemon we would like to have: democratic, respectful of human rights, with strong and genuine belief in individual liberty," he said.

But Sharon Canty, spokeswoman for the Parents and Citizens Federation, suggested Mr Costello was more interested in media and leadership than policy.

"Evidence of successful education in NSW could be a student's ability to recognise a grab for leadership and media time when they see one," she said.