October 21, 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 OCTOBER 21, 2005

1//The Daily Star, Lebanon--SENIOR FRENCH, CANADIAN OFFICIALS WARN IRAQ ‘FACULTY FOR TERRORISM’ (Iraq has become a "postgraduate faculty for terrorism" and is attracting thousands of foreigners who could foment violence when they return home, the head of Canada's spy agency said Thursday. Jim Judd, director of the Canadian Security Intelligence Service, told the Toronto Star newspaper that a new generation of militants was using the war in Iraq to get first-hand experience. "We all obviously hope the conflict in Iraq ends soon, but then worry about what all these people are going to do," he said. "They will re-migrate around the world and return home. … Judd said his agency was aware of Canadian militants planning to go to Iraq, but he declined to give more details. Judd's warnings were echoed by France's top anti-terrorism judge, who said terror threat in Europe remains high as young European Muslims are being radicalized in Iraq and returning home to commit jihad. "It's quite a black hole, sucking up all the elements located in Europe, and pushing them to leave Europe and go to Iraq," Judge Jean-Louis Bruguiere, a leading terrorism expert, told BBC radio.)

2//The Independent, UK-- SHORT TRIES TO GIVE MPs POWER TO VETO WAR PLANS (Tony Blair's power to send British troops to war will face its most serious challenge yet in the Commons today. Clare Short, who resigned from the Cabinet over the Iraq war, is bringing in a Bill that would compel Mr Blair - and any other Prime Minister - to seek Parliament's consent for any future military action. Her private member's Bill is expected to win substantial backing from MPs in the Commons today, but government business managers will almost certainly use Parliament's complex rules to stop it becoming law. Mr Blair is opposing the measure, which he says would deny British forces the element of surprise that might be vital in some future conflict. Writing in today's Independent, Ms Short describes the Prime Minister's power to make war as "profoundly undemocratic," and warns "this personalised power leads to ill-considered decisions." She also drops a hint that her Bill has the tacit backing of the Chancellor, Gordon Brown, and the Blairite former cabinet minister Stephen Byers.)

3//Asia Times Online, Hong Kong--RUMSFELD SETS NEW CHINA TONE (Even as he visited the headquarters of the People's Liberation Army Second Artillery Corps (SAC), China's strategic missile command - the first US defense secretary ever to do so - Donald Rumsfeld warned China that the secretive nature of its military expansion was raising global suspicions. Therein lies an inherent problem in the US's ties with China. While political ties have taken a turn for the better since September 11, 2001, with regular summit meetings and high-level exchanges, military exchanges have remained limited, sporadic and at times acrimonious. It is of some significance, therefore, that Rumsfeld concluded his three-day visit to China on Thursday with an agreement with his Chinese counterparts to expand contacts and engagement between the world's most powerful and the largest (and modernizing) militaries. Chinese Defense Minister Cao Gangchuan and Rumsfeld agreed to "join hands to upgrade Sino-US military ties and make them consistent with overall bilateral relations.")

4//The Moscow Times, Russia--KREMLIN WELCOMES EX-COLD WARRIOR (President Vladimir Putin on Thursday gave a warm welcome to new World Bank chief Paul Wolfowitz, whose past as a Washington hawk appeared to ruffle feathers only briefly. Wolfowitz, who visited the Kremlin on the tail end of a two-day visit, balanced praise with warning after meeting with the president. … Putin, for his part, said he hoped for a continuation of the "very good relationship" that had developed between Moscow and the World Bank under Wolfowitz's predecessor, James Wolfensohn. In comments to reporters after the meeting, Wolfowitz warned against the temptation of excessive social spending and said that corruption was "No. 1 on the list" of obstacles facing sustained economic development. … Wolfowitz responded dismissively Thursday to a Russian journalist's question about whether he would use the World Bank "as an instrument of American imperialism." "I don't think either you or I know exactly what you mean by that word," Wolfowitz said. The bank exists purely to reduce global poverty, he said, "and my view is the whole world is better off when there are fewer poor people.")

5//The Daily Times, Pakistan--DEMOCRATIC PAKISTAN TO BE A ROLE MODEL FOR ISLAMIC WORLD (Senator Dr Abdullah Riar, a Pakistan People’s Party member, said here on Wednesday that were the United States to help Pakistan regain democracy and constitutional rule, it could serve as a model for the Islamic world. In an address on Pakistan and the present political situation, the PPP lawmaker said if Washington was truly serious about democracy and civilian rule taking root in Muslim countries, as it professes, then it should first help Pakistan take that road, instead of backing the present military-led government. Despite Pakistan’s chequered history, said Riar, he was optimistic about the prospect of Pakistan regaining representative rule. The last six years, he stressed, had brought upon the nation another phase of “deliberate political management” with the collaboration of a feudal and religious substructure. The country is going through a constitutional and democratic crisis. A progressive, liberal-democratic Pakistan is the only way forward to address the issues of social development, and combating terrorism and fundamentalism in both the long and the short run. President Pervez Musharraf’s continued insistence to keep his military uniform as well as occupy political space has become an obstacle for the resumption of the democratic process.)

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1//The Daily Star, Lebanon Friday, October 21, 2005
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition...

SENIOR FRENCH, CANADIAN OFFICIALS WARN IRAQ ‘FACULTY FOR TERRORISM’
Compiled by Daily Star staff

Iraq has become a "postgraduate faculty for terrorism" and is attracting thousands of foreigners who could foment violence when they return home, the head of Canada's spy agency said Thursday.

Jim Judd, director of the Canadian Security Intelligence Service, told the Toronto Star newspaper that a new generation of militants was using the war in Iraq to get first-hand experience.

"We all obviously hope the conflict in Iraq ends soon, but then worry about what all these people are going to do," he said. "They will re-migrate around the world and return home.

"At the end of the day a lot of the issues that motivate these people are so varied and different that they will carry on possibly beyond their service in Iraq and continue to be motivators, what are now well-trained, highly effective, dangerous people."

Judd said his agency was aware of Canadian militants planning to go to Iraq, but he declined to give more details.

Judd's warnings were echoed by France's top anti-terrorism judge, who said terror threat in Europe remains high as young European Muslims are being radicalized in Iraq and returning home to commit jihad.

"It's quite a black hole, sucking up all the elements located in Europe, and pushing them to leave Europe and go to Iraq," Judge Jean-Louis Bruguiere, a leading terrorism expert, told BBC radio.

"Some of them come back with the intention and with the need to carry out jihad because this is a global concession, not only in Iraq but also in their home countries, in the U.K., in France, as well as Spain and other countries in Europe," he warned.

(MORE)

2//The Independent, UK Published: 21 October 2005
http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/politics/article321153.ece

SHORT TRIES TO GIVE MPs POWER TO VETO WAR PLANS
By Andy McSmith

Tony Blair's power to send British troops to war will face its most serious challenge yet in the Commons today.

Clare Short, who resigned from the Cabinet over the Iraq war, is bringing in a Bill that would compel Mr Blair - and any other Prime Minister - to seek Parliament's consent for any future military action.

Her private member's Bill is expected to win substantial backing from MPs in the Commons today, but government business managers will almost certainly use Parliament's complex rules to stop it becoming law. Mr Blair is opposing the measure, which he says would deny British forces the element of surprise that might be vital in some future conflict.

Writing in today's Independent, Ms Short describes the Prime Minister's power to make war as "profoundly undemocratic," and warns "this personalised power leads to ill-considered decisions."

She also drops a hint that her Bill has the tacit backing of the Chancellor, Gordon Brown, and the Blairite former cabinet minister Stephen Byers.

"Both Gordon Brown and Stephen Byers have said since the Iraq war that Parliament and not the Prime Minister should make the final decision about whether the country goes to war," she writes.

Mr Byers is expected to vote for Ms Short's Bill today, but Mr Brown, as a member of the Cabinet, will oppose the measure in public, whatever his private views.

The Short Bill would require the Prime Minister to set out a report to the Commons and the House of Lords saying why he wants to send troops to war. He would also have to cite the legal authority for war - a live issue because of the continuing controversy over the legality of the Iraq war - and give an indication of how long and over how wide an area he expects the war to be fought.

She also included clauses that would allow the Prime Minister to send in the troops first, and then go to Parliament for retrospective approval. Ms Short argues that this answers Tony Blair's point that there will be situations in which it is necessary to retain the element of surprise.

But the Prime Minister's supporters say that it would be wrong to send troops into battle when there was a risk that Parliament might overrule the Prime Minister and order them to pull out.

(MORE)

3//Asia Times Online, Hong Kong Oct 21, 2005
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/China/GJ21Ad01.html

RUMSFELD SETS NEW CHINA TONE
By Jing-dong Yuan
(Dr Jing-dong Yuan is director of Research for East Asia Non-Proliferation Program at the Center for Non-Proliferation Studies, Monterey Institute of International Studies, where he is also an associate professor of international policy studies.)

MONTEREY, California - Even as he visited the headquarters of the People's Liberation Army Second Artillery Corps (SAC), China's strategic missile command - the first US defense secretary ever to do so - Donald Rumsfeld warned China that the secretive nature of its military expansion was raising global suspicions.

Therein lies an inherent problem in the US's ties with China. While political ties have taken a turn for the better since September 11, 2001, with regular summit meetings and high-level exchanges, military exchanges have remained limited, sporadic and at times acrimonious.

It is of some significance, therefore, that Rumsfeld concluded his three-day visit to China on Thursday with an agreement with his Chinese counterparts to expand contacts and engagement between the world's most powerful and the largest (and modernizing) militaries.

Chinese Defense Minister Cao Gangchuan and Rumsfeld agreed to "join hands to upgrade Sino-US military ties and make them consistent with overall bilateral relations."

While in Beijing, Rumsfeld also engaged China's future party leaders at a seminar at the Central Party School, where he called on China to take greater responsibility in world affairs and also develop a more open and transparent society.

In this, he echoed the message repeated by administration officials over the past few months - that China is at a critical crossroads and its direction has important implications for the world.

It is for this precise reason that there has been a spurt in diplomatic activity between the two countries. President George W Bush is scheduled to visit Beijing next month. Earlier this week, Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan made his first trip to China, along with US Treasury Secretary John Snow. Earlier, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice dropped by, followed by her deputy, Robert Zoellick, to launch a senior-level dialogue on strategic issues.

Rumsfeld's SAC visit is a major step toward greater bilateral military exchanges and reciprocity, even though the Pentagon's request to tour China's real military command center in the Western Hills was denied by the Chinese government.

(SNIP)

Uncertainty over the implications of China's rise is understandable. But exaggeration of China's current capabilities and, worse still, deliberate distortion of Beijing's intentions could lead to policies that would alienate Beijing, threaten regional peace and stability, and be harmful to America's own interests.

For instance, China has the world's largest military and its defense modernization over the past two decades has resulted in improved equipment, better training and a more mechanized and integrated force.

But even with these achievements, the People's Liberation Army (PLA) remains a military with limited force-projection capability. Its foreign military procurement in recent years has enabled the PLA to leapfrog in selected areas and develop pockets of excellence, but it is also an indication of the deficiency of a domestic defense industrial base that has yet to meet the requirements of the Chinese military.

Rumsfeld's visit should jump-start more candid discussion at the highest military level on these issues and concerns. The first priority should be to prevent misperception, misunderstanding, miscalculation and misjudgment between the two militaries. On the Taiwan issue, with the US-Japan security alliance and Chinese military modernization, Washington and Beijing cannot afford missteps. Rumsfeld's visit should go some way towards preventing them.

4//The Moscow Times, Russia Friday, October 21, 2005. Issue 3279. Page 1.
http://www.moscowtimes.ru/stories/2005/10/21/002.html

KREMLIN WELCOMES EX-COLD WARRIOR
By Stephen Boykewich, Staff Writer

President Vladimir Putin on Thursday gave a warm welcome to new World Bank chief Paul Wolfowitz, whose past as a Washington hawk appeared to ruffle feathers only briefly.

Wolfowitz, who visited the Kremlin on the tail end of a two-day visit, balanced praise with warning after meeting with the president.

A former U.S. deputy defense secretary, Wolfowitz has in the past sparked indignation in Moscow with his comments. But at the beginning of his visit with Putin, Wolfowitz tried out his Russian: "I very much love the Russian language, but I can't say very much." He then switched to English, saying: "When I was a student studying mathematics, my father, who was also a mathematician, told me, 'If you want to be a serious mathematician, you study Russian.'"

Putin, for his part, said he hoped for a continuation of the "very good relationship" that had developed between Moscow and the World Bank under Wolfowitz's predecessor, James Wolfensohn.

In comments to reporters after the meeting, Wolfowitz warned against the temptation of excessive social spending and said that corruption was "No. 1 on the list" of obstacles facing sustained economic development.

(SNIP)

Wolfowitz said he and Putin had discussed a World Bank program to increase the transparency of Russia's judicial system. The program includes a $500,000 loan but will be 90 percent financed by Russia.

"Everyone up to and including the president acknowledged corruption as a problem facing this society and this economy," he said.

(SNIP)

Another key issue in the meeting was Russia's agenda as it assumes the chair of the Group of Eight industrialized nations in 2006. Wolfowitz said the main themes would be energy development, health care and poverty reduction.

Russia will expand the focus on African poverty set by current G8 head Britain to include poverty "in this part of the world, especially Central Asia," Wolfowitz said.

Earlier, Putin said he wanted to call attention to Moscow's "efforts to support CIS countries, which also need special attention on the part of the international community."

Before meeting with the president, Wolfowitz met Prime Minister Mikhail Fradkov and local businessmen, with whom he discussed a $500,000 World Bank loan to support the creation of special economic zones meant to stimulate investment in industries such as high tech.

(SNIP)

The overall tone of the visit was a long way from the furore caused by comments Wolfowitz made in March 2001 in his capacity as U.S. deputy secretary of defense.

In an interview with a London newspaper, Wolfowitz said that Russian arms sales to Iran were "an ongoing activity and a serious problem."

"These people seem willing to sell anything to anybody for money. It recalls Lenin's phrase that the capitalists will sell the very rope from which we will hang them," Wolfowitz was quoted as saying in The Sunday Telegraph.

The Foreign Ministry responded at the time with a statement calling Wolfowitz's comments "dogmatic" and "openly confrontational."

"After eight years of absence from the corridors of power, top U.S. Defense Department officials seem not to understand how much the world has changed," the statement said.

Before assuming the post of World Bank head, Wolfowitz was best known as the ideological architect of the Iraq War. During the Cold War era, Wolfowitz worked on nuclear strategy in various government posts.

Wolfowitz responded dismissively Thursday to a Russian journalist's question about whether he would use the World Bank "as an instrument of American imperialism."

"I don't think either you or I know exactly what you mean by that word," Wolfowitz said. The bank exists purely to reduce global poverty, he said, "and my view is the whole world is better off when there are fewer poor people."

5//The Daily Times, Pakistan Friday, October 21, 2005
http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2005...

DEMOCRATIC PAKISTAN TO BE A ROLE MODEL FOR ISLAMIC WORLD
By Khalid Hasan

WASHINGTON: Senator Dr Abdullah Riar, a Pakistan People’s Party member, said here on Wednesday that were the United States to help Pakistan regain democracy and constitutional rule, it could serve as a model for the Islamic world.

In an address on Pakistan and the present political situation, the PPP lawmaker said if Washington was truly serious about democracy and civilian rule taking root in Muslim countries, as it professes, then it should first help Pakistan take that road, instead of backing the present military-led government.

Despite Pakistan’s chequered history, said Riar, he was optimistic about the prospect of Pakistan regaining representative rule. The last six years, he stressed, had brought upon the nation another phase of “deliberate political management” with the collaboration of a feudal and religious substructure. The country is going through a constitutional and democratic crisis. A progressive, liberal-democratic Pakistan is the only way forward to address the issues of social development, and combating terrorism and fundamentalism in both the long and the short run. President Pervez Musharraf’s continued insistence to keep his military uniform as well as occupy political space has become an obstacle for the resumption of the democratic process. The seven point agenda he promised to implement on taking over had fallen by the wayside, he added.

Sen Riar said in Pakistan institutions have been depoliticised and the military has been politicised. Virtually every public enterprise is currently headed by a retired military officer or an affiliate. Federal-provincial issues, such as a fair and equitable distribution of financial resources, remain unresolved. The most contentious question relates to the distribution of waters which is creating signs of instability in the minority provinces. While the country has achieved a certain degree of macro-economic stability, there has been a growing increase in unemployment and it is obvious that macro economic stability has had no visible impact on the daily life of the people of Pakistan. On the contrary, inflationary pressures have squeezed the last penny from the pockets of those who need it the most. He said the accountability that the regime had promised has been turned into a political instrument against opponents. The mainstream leadership has been driven out of the country. Unprecedented manipulation of the electoral process in the 2002 general elections and the recent local government elections has distorted the political process in critical ways.

The PPP legislator said by holding non-party local elections, the regime had reinforced ethnic, sectarian and fundamentalist fault-lines in the Pakistani society through suppression of the fair and equal environment that political parties like the PPP seek to build. As a result, secular leaders and parties have been marginalised and regressive forces strengthened and built up. He said were the recent local council elections to be taken as a pointer, one could hold little hope for the fairness of the 2007 national elections. He called for the appointment of a credible and impartial national election commission. He said, “Musharraf’s isolation in the domestic context is impacting his ability to deliver on anti-terrorist goals with each passing day. He does not have the legitimate political mechanism or support to follow through on combating fundamentalism.”

(SNIP)

He said Gen Musharraf keeps international and regional fears alive by insisting that Pakistan’s stability and security depend entirely on his person, which is projected as a justification for concentrating all powers in his dual offices. However, there was reason to be optimistic. The Pakistan of today is not same as it was in previous decades. There is much greater receptivity for democracy and unrepresentative rule is viewed as anachronistic. Urbanisation is another fillip for democracy. Because of the communications resolution, even in far-flung areas, people can see how successful societies manage their affairs, or how in a neighbouring country the government in office has been sent packing. “This phenomenon is a counterforce to the logic of authoritarianism and feudalism in this era of globalisation,” he added.