August 24, 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.

* * *

WORLD MEDIA WATCH FOR AUGUST 24, 2005

1//The Daily Star, Lebanon--WITH EYES ON IRAQ, ARABS FEAR SPREAD OF FEDERALISM (As Kurds and Shiites in Iraq push for a federal constitution, fears are rising in the Arab world that the urge to create separate states could spread in countries with religious and ethnic minorities, analysts said. When minority groups feel oppressed or deem that their rights are restricted by the centralized states in which they live, they are drawn to notions of autonomy or federalism so that they can better exercise their rights, Arab experts said. Therefore, the Arab world is keeping a close eye on the outcome of demands for a federalist Iraq as it creates its first constitution since the fall of ex-dictator Saddam Hussein, said Nabil Abdel-Fattah, an analyst from Cairo's Al-Ahram Center for Political and Strategic Studies. "The result of the fight - between Sunnis who are against federalism in Iraq and Kurds who are for it - will have a decisive influence on how other countries' crises play out, from west of Asia to the Middle East and Iran," he said. ... . The trend toward federalism, if it catches on, could incite minorities - from Berbers in North Africa to various ethnic and religious groups in Lebanon to the sizable Kurdish populations in Syria, Turkey and Iran - to seek their own states, said Hassan al-Barari, a researcher at Amman's Center for Strategic Studies. "In developing countries, federalism amounts to a step toward splitting up," Barari said. … . "the federalism bug, if it takes hold in Iraq, will spread fatally to complex societies like Lebanon, where each [ethnic and religious] community is going to demand it, saying it is necessary to defend their own interests," Barari said.)

2//The Telegraph, UK--VENEZUELA VOWS TO HELP CASTRO REPEL US "LORD OF WAR" (President Hugo Chavez of Venezuela has launched a blistering tirade against the United States, describing President George W Bush as the "lord of war". Mr Chavez also pledged to send troops to the aid of President Fidel Castro if Washington ever dared to order an invasion of Cuba. He sat beside Dr Castro following a summit meeting in western Cuba, as the two men used a six-hour live broadcast on Sunday night to set out their plans for the region and to condemn Washington's foreign policy. Mr Chavez, apparently responding to accusations by Donald Rumsfeld, the US defence secretary, that he was funding anti-democratic movements in Latin America, hit back, saying: "The grand destroyer of the world and the greatest threat … is represented by US imperialism. "The truth is that they [the Bush administration] are the great destabilisers in the region." … . In the meantime, Cuba and Venezuela have found numerous non-military schemes to confound the Americans. The two leaders recently launched Telesur, a regional satellite station which Rght-wing US critics have branded "Latin America's al-Jazeera". Cuba has been given substantial quantities of cheap oil by Caracas and, in return, has dispatched a fifth of its doctors to Venezuela's poorer neighbourhoods. Mr Chavez will travel on today to Jamaica, where he will sign a deal providing cheap oil to the island.)

3//The Toronto Star, Canada--ESCALATING TRADE WAR OVER SOFTWOOD LOOMS (The federal government hinted at an escalating trade war today as two senior cabinet ministers warned of potential tariffs on American exports in retaliation for U.S. policies on softwood lumber. Trade Minister Jim Peterson is identifying areas where Canadian tariffs could put maximum pressure on the U.S. economy with minimal damage domestically, two of his cabinet colleagues said. One federal minister used a Canadian sports analogy to describe the federal government's willingness to retaliate against its NAFTA partner. "I have a background from my younger days in hockey. When somebody slammed you into the boards with undue force and aggression, you took their number," Industry Minister David Emerson said in a scrum. "I think we've got to take their number." … . Emerson said Ottawa is trying to "identify a number of products where a tariff on American exports into Canada can be applied without serious damage to the Canadian economy and, hopefully, with maximum impact in the U.S. "The idea is a wakeup call [to the U.S.]")

4//The Daily Times, Pakistan--NUCLEAR BLACK MARKET: WESTERN COMPANIES LET OFF: KASURI (Pakistan uncovered the involvement of Western companies in the nuclear black market that Dr AQ Khan operated in, but the US and UK have taken no action against them, Foreign Minister Khurshid Kasuri has said. The US and Britain blacklisted 290 people who helped former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein build his nuclear set up, but they have not been touched, Kasuri said in an interview with the BBC Hard Talk programme.)

5//The Manila Times, Philippines--IMPEACH TRY SET BACK (Lawmakers backing an attempt to impeach President Arroyo for alleged vote-rigging suffered a setback Tuesday when they lost an initial vote on how to handle impeachment complaints. Voting 54-24 with three abstentions, the House of Representatives Committee on Justice decided that "prejudicial questions" preclude it from immediately hearing the three complaints against her. Opposition legislators believe the vote is a prelude to the committee’s eventually deciding to hear what is believed to be the weakest complaint, even though the opposition has threatened a walkout if it does. … . Opposition Rep. Alan Peter Cayetano said the vote would allow the Arroyo camp to further delay the impeachment proceedings. "I think it’s more of a setback for the Filipino people," he said. "We can expect massive delays. We can expect additional questions instead of going straight to the question" whe-ther Mrs. Arroyo can be impeached, Cayetano said. … . What is seen as the weakest complaint is the one filed by the lawyer Oliver Lozano alleging she betrayed public trust through vote fraud.)

* * *

1//The Daily Star, Lebanon Wednesday, August 24, 2005
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?e...

WITH EYES ON IRAQ, ARABS FEAR SPREAD OF FEDERALISM
By Agence France Presse (AFP)

AMMAN: As Kurds and Shiites in Iraq push for a federal constitution, fears are rising in the Arab world that the urge to create separate states could spread in countries with religious and ethnic minorities, analysts said.

When minority groups feel oppressed or deem that their rights are restricted by the centralized states in which they live, they are drawn to notions of autonomy or federalism so that they can better exercise their rights, Arab experts said.

Therefore, the Arab world is keeping a close eye on the outcome of demands for a federalist Iraq as it creates its first constitution since the fall of ex-dictator Saddam Hussein, said Nabil Abdel-Fattah, an analyst from Cairo's Al-Ahram Center for Political and Strategic Studies.

"The result of the fight - between Sunnis who are against federalism in Iraq and Kurds who are for it - will have a decisive influence on how other countries' crises play out, from west of Asia to the Middle East and Iran," he said.

"Federalism was not one of the concepts in the Arab political dictionary, until now," he said. The United Arab Emirates is presently the only federal state in the Gulf region. Sudan has applied a mild form of federalism for several years, whose unfulfilled objective was to suppress demands by ethnic groups in the South and in the western Darfur and Kordofan regions.

The trend toward federalism, if it catches on, could incite minorities - from Berbers in North Africa to various ethnic and religious groups in Lebanon to the sizable Kurdish populations in Syria, Turkey and Iran - to seek their own states, said Hassan al-Barari, a researcher at Amman's Center for Strategic Studies.

"In developing countries, federalism amounts to a step toward splitting up," Barari said.

"Ethnic groups in Arab countries are hiding behind federalism or liberalism, but what they are in fact seeking is the dismantling of the united state, such as the Kurds, who want to see an end to the Iraqi state drawn up in 1921," he said.

(SNIP)

According to Barari, Iraq's neighbors Syria, Turkey and Iran, which all have sizable Kurdish populations, "won't be able to prevent the birth of a Kurdish state on the ruins of Iraq, which will be recognized by the United Nations and the international community."

However, Kurdish leaders have repeatedly vowed in recent months that they do not intend to split off from Iraq, as long as their rights are recognized and they are able to maintain the degree of autonomy they have enjoyed for more than a decade.

Kurdish negotiators involved in wrangling over Iraq's future constitution have also indicated they would be flexible on demands for autonomy if it were to prove a major stumbling point in the process.

Still, Barari said, "the federalism bug, if it takes hold in Iraq, will spread fatally to complex societies like Lebanon, where each [ethnic and religious] community is going to demand it, saying it is necessary to defend their own interests," Barari said.

2//The Telegraph, UK Filed: 23/08/2005
http://www.portal.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2005/0...

VENEZUELA VOWS TO HELP CASTRO REPEL US "LORD OF WAR"
By Francis Harris in Washington

President Hugo Chavez of Venezuela has launched a blistering tirade against the United States, describing President George W Bush as the "lord of war".

Mr Chavez also pledged to send troops to the aid of President Fidel Castro if Washington ever dared to order an invasion of Cuba.

He sat beside Dr Castro following a summit meeting in western Cuba, as the two men used a six-hour live broadcast on Sunday night to set out their plans for the region and to condemn Washington's foreign policy.

Mr Chavez, apparently responding to accusations by Donald Rumsfeld, the US defence secretary, that he was funding anti-democratic movements in Latin America, hit back, saying: "The grand destroyer of the world and the greatest threat … is represented by US imperialism. "The truth is that they [the Bush administration] are the great destabilisers in the region." He defended his close ties with Dr Castro, whose latest crackdown led to the arrest of scores of opponents for discussing a post-authoritarian Cuba, and hailed almost half a century of communist rule on the island.

"People have asked me how I can support Fidel if he's a dictator. But Cuba doesn't have a dictatorship… It's a revolutionary democracy," he said. "We will do everything possible to avoid imperialist aggression, but if it occurs to some madman, he will find some young men … defending the independence and sovereignty of this land."

In the meantime, Cuba and Venezuela have found numerous non-military schemes to confound the Americans. The two leaders recently launched Telesur, a regional satellite station which Rght-wing US critics have branded "Latin America's al-Jazeera".

Cuba has been given substantial quantities of cheap oil by Caracas and, in return, has dispatched a fifth of its doctors to Venezuela's poorer neighbourhoods. Mr Chavez will travel on today to Jamaica, where he will sign a deal providing cheap oil to the island.

US officials believe that Venezuela is seeking to buy influence in the region. Mr Rumsfeld and others have also accused the Venezuelans of funding anti-democratic and populist movements in fragile democracies such as Bolivia.

Otto Reich, a former senior foreign policy official in the Bush administration, has accused Mr Chavez of aiding Left-wing guerrillas in Colombia and of offering support to Iran over its nuclear programme.

(MORE)

3//The Toronto Star, Canada Aug. 23, 2005. 01:49 PM
http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_...

ESCALATING TRADE WAR OVER SOFTWOOD LOOMS
Alexandra Panetta, Canadian Press

REGINA — The federal government hinted at an escalating trade war today as two senior cabinet ministers warned of potential tariffs on American exports in retaliation for U.S. policies on softwood lumber.

Trade Minister Jim Peterson is identifying areas where Canadian tariffs could put maximum pressure on the U.S. economy with minimal damage domestically, two of his cabinet colleagues said.

One federal minister used a Canadian sports analogy to describe the federal government's willingness to retaliate against its NAFTA partner.

"I have a background from my younger days in hockey. When somebody slammed you into the boards with undue force and aggression, you took their number," Industry Minister David Emerson said in a scrum.

"I think we've got to take their number."

The warning comes one week after the United States announced it would ignore a decision by a NAFTA panel that found Canadian lumber exports posed no threat of injury to U.S. producers. Emerson said Ottawa is trying to "identify a number of products where a tariff on American exports into Canada can be applied without serious damage to the Canadian economy and, hopefully, with maximum impact in the U.S.

"The idea is a wakeup call (to the U.S.)"

Canada is already seeking WTO authorization for billions of dollars in punitive tariffs against U.S. imports and is going before the U.S. Court of International Trade in New York to force the refund of duties.

With more that 80 per cent of Canadian exports going to the U.S. and the countries exchanging $1 billion each day, Canada would need to tread carefully to avoid a crippling trade war.

But the federal government is intent on making its point that U.S. Customs has illegally collected $5 billion in tariffs on Canadian softwood since 2002, said Finance Minister Ralph Goodale.

"We want to make sure that whatever option we pursue is effective in making our point ... without at the same time shooting ourselves in the foot," he said.

"Canada has wanted to make it very clear that we are not happy with the position of the United States to simply ignore what is a clear NAFTA ruling in Canada's favour."

One particularly draconian measure has already been ruled out — imposing export quotas on Canadian oil exports to punish alleged U.S. protectionism on lumber.

Emerson, who initially supported the idea when he was a lumber-industry executive, now says it would unfairly saddle Alberta with the bulk of the economic fallout.

(MORE)

4//The Daily Times, Pakistan Wednesday, August 24, 2005
http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=story_23-8-2005_pg7_1

NUCLEAR BLACK MARKET: WESTERN COMPANIES LET OFF: KASURI
Daily Times Monitor

LONDON: Pakistan uncovered the involvement of Western companies in the nuclear black market that Dr AQ Khan operated in, but the US and UK have taken no action against them, Foreign Minister Khurshid Kasuri has said.

The US and Britain blacklisted 290 people who helped former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein build his nuclear set up, but they have not been touched, Kasuri said in an interview with the BBC HARDtalk programme.

The minister said Pakistan had not and would not allow any foreign country or agency to interrogate Dr Abdul Qadeer Khan, the scientist who confessed to selling nuclear secrets to other countries. He said Pakistan had shared information gleaned from Dr Khan with the US and the International Atomic Energy Agency. He said Dr Khan had been pardoned because he had cooperated with Pakistan’s investigation agencies.

Pakistan had dismantled all terrorist training camps and Indian accusations of infiltration into Kashmir were baseless, Kasuri said. The struggle in Indian-held Kashmir was indigenous and there was no infiltration across the Line of Control from Pakistan or Azad Kashmir. "We have dismantled all training camps that were functional earlier and were used during the Afghan jihad against the Soviets," he said.

Asked how Pakistan could maintain a strategic alliance with the US when the two countries differed on many issues, Kasuri said it was normal for countries to have differences with each other. He said Pakistan and the US had been engaged for over 50 years, with ups and downs. "We opposed the invasion of Iraq. Whatever is against our national interest, we will oppose it," he said.

(MORE)

HARDtalk program description: Pakistan is one of President Bush's closest allies in the US-led war against terror but what impact has this had on President Pervez Musharraf domestically?

Recent polls suggest more than 50 per cent of Pakistanis are sympathetic to Osama Bin Laden?

And President Musharraf has come under increasing attack from the main Islamic opposition party for his closeness to President Bush. Yet, the government of Pakistan has also caused consternation in Washington with their refusal to hand over the nuclear scientist Dr. A Q Khan to the United States for questioning. Stephen Sackur asks Foreign Minister Kasuri about this difficult balancing act. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/hardtalk/4176202.stm

Link to BBC video of the full interview:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/newsa/n5ctrl/progs/05/hardtalk/kasuri22aug.ram

5//The Manila Times, Philippines Wednesday, August 24, 2005
http://www.manilatimes.net/national/2005/aug/24/yehey/top_stories/20050824top1.html

IMPEACH TRY SET BACK
House justice committee votes to tackle ‘prejudicial questions’ first

AFP, Maricel Cruz and William B. Depasupil

Lawmakers backing an attempt to impeach President Arroyo for alleged vote-rigging suffered a setback Tuesday when they lost an initial vote on how to handle impeachment complaints.

Voting 54-24 with three abstentions, the House of Representatives Committee on Justice decided that "prejudicial questions" preclude it from immediately hearing the three complaints against her.

Opposition legislators believe the vote is a prelude to the committee’s eventually deciding to hear what is believed to be the weakest complaint, even though the opposition has threatened a walkout if it does.

The committee’s vice chair, Edcel Lagman, said the result means the panel will first have to decide if it can tackle all three complaints at once, or if one complaint should take precedence over the other two.

Impeachment proceedings cannot be initiated against the same person more than once within a period of one year.

Opposition Rep. Alan Peter Cayetano said the vote would allow the Arroyo camp to further delay the impeachment proceedings. "I think it’s more of a setback for the Filipino people," he said.
" We can expect massive delays. We can expect additional questions instead of going straight to the question" whe-ther Mrs. Arroyo can be impeached, Cayetano said.

The President has been under fire for months since an audiotape was leaked in which a woman sounding like her apparently tells an election official to fix the outcome of last year’s presidential election.

Mrs. Arroyo has said she erred in calling an electoral official before all the votes were counted but has denied any wrongdoing and insisted she would not step down.

The admission sparked mass Cabinet resignations and defections from key allies who called on her to step down as her popularity rating dropped.

No impeachment complaint has ever succeeded in removing a Filipino president from office, but three have been filed against Mrs. Arroyo.

What is seen as the weakest complaint is the one filed by the lawyer Oliver Lozano alleging she betrayed public trust through vote fraud.

(MORE)