November 18, 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 NOVEMBER 18, 2005

1//Asia Times Online, Hong Kong--FRIENDLY FIRE AND THE US IN IRAN (In recent months, the Mujahideen-e Khalq (MEK) and its attempts to prove that the Islamic Republic of Iran intends to develop nuclear weapons garnered widespread media coverage and speculation. While bringing forth a modicum of new information, the attention fails to illuminate just how dangerous the MEK could be to the United States. Grappling in Iraq, the Bush administration now faces an analogous yet graver situation in the Islamic Republic. In the years leading up to the Iraq war, Ahmad Chalabi led the exiled Iraqi National Congress. In courting Bush officials like Richard Perle and Paul Wolfowitz to stoke the war flames in Iraq, Chalabi materialized defectors who affirmed suspicions about Saddam Hussein's ethereal weapons of mass destruction. Chalabi then secured administration support by seducing it with visions of Iraqis showering American liberators with flowers and a quick handover of a well-ordered Iraq from US troops to his Free Iraqi Fighters. Today, Maryam Rajavi, the so-called president-elect of the MEK's National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), conjures up the same desert visions for Iran. … The MEK now finds support within parts of the American government as a "third option". Such support is built on the fallacy that the MEK can not only provide information, but also enjoys enough popular support so that diplomacy and direct military action can be skirted. By lobbying to remove the MEK from the US's list of foreign terrorist organizations and considering the group as leverage to destabilize, overthrow, and/or replace Tehran's clerical government, supporters ignore the unsavory history of the MEK. And that puts the United States, its citizens and its interests in grave danger.)

2//The Independent, UK--TWO CHARGED OVER LEAK OF BLAIR-BUSH CONVERSATION ON CONFLICT (A civil servant has been charged with trying to leak a transcript of a confidential and controversial conversation between Tony Blair and George Bush about the Iraq war. A document containing a transcript of a conversation between the two leaders was sent to a rebel Labour MP, allegedly in an attempt to cause Mr Blair embarrassment over Iraq. But the MP returned the document to Downing Street, who called in the Metropolitan Police's Special Branch to investigate. The transcript of the conversation, understood to have taken place in a face-to-face meeting in the US, is believed to reveal that Mr Blair disagreed with Mr Bush about aspects of the war in Iraq.)

3//Gulf News Online, United Arab Emirates--PRESIDENT’S MOVE TO GET MADRASSAS REGISTERED FIZZLES OUT (President General Musharraf's campaign to get madrassas registered by December 2005 has apparently fizzled out because of a lack of cooperation from the key apex organisation of religious schools. The Wafaq-ul-Madaris (Federal Madrassa Board) that claims a membership of 8,500 madrassas has refused to follow the Madaris Registration Ordinance 2005. Three other leading representative organisations of the religious schools Ittehad Tanzeemat Deeni Madaris (Alliance of Religious Schools' Organisations), Tanzeemat Madaris Deeniya (Religious Schools' Organisation) and Tanzeemul Madaris Ahle Sunnat (Sunni Schools' Organisation) have also refused to get their madrassas registered, saying the registration process was intended to curb the "independence and sovereignty" of the madrassas. … The General has been through this routine several times and the announcement has had little public impact.)

4//Canada.com, Canada--NOV. 28 TARGET DATE FOR OPPOSITION TO BRING DOWN LIBERALS, FORCE ELECTION (Opposition party leaders are marking Nov. 28 as the red-letter day they intend to bring down the minority Liberal government, sparking a Christmas election campaign that will culminate with a mid-January vote. The word from the Liberals can be summed up in three words: "Bring it on." In theory, Prime Minister Paul Martin could avert a holiday campaign by agreeing to an NDP proposal -due to be debated Thursday - that would postpone the election call until after the Christmas-New Year festivities. But Martin reiterated Wednesday that he's not interested in the deal. "I'm going to continue to govern until such time as, in fact, a non-confidence motion is passed by the opposition and the government falls," the prime minister said outside a Liberal caucus meeting. … A new poll, however, suggests Harper may be taking a high-risk gamble in pressing for an early election. The survey by Decima Research found respondents, by a two-to-one margin, preferred a spring election to a winter one. The survey also put the Liberals at 33 per cent nationally, compared with 26 for the Conservatives, 22 for the NDP and 13 for the Bloc Quebecois.)

5//The Moscow Times, Russia--NATIONALISTS STAKING THEIR POLITICAL CLAIMS (In recent weeks, Russian nationalists have been steadily encroaching on the political stage, as seen in the slogans chanted during sanctioned street marches and the spin given to news programs, movies and commercials shown on national television. Given the tight grip the Kremlin holds on the country's political life, this burst of nationalism could not have occurred without at least a silent nod of official approval. Some say the latest upsurge of xenophobic nationalism was intentionally stimulated by the Kremlin with an eye to the 2007-08 elections. If voters are sufficiently alarmed by the fascist threat, the theory goes, they will support any Kremlin-backed candidate who they believe can curb the brown shirts. Others say the atmosphere of a besieged fortress instilled by the Kremlin after the velvet revolutions in Georgia and Ukraine, coupled with attempts to build patriotism by dragging out symbols of Russia's imperial past, were enough to foster the xenophobic sentiments.)

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1//Asia Times Online, Hong Kong Nov 18, 2005
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/GK18Ak02.html

FRIENDLY FIRE AND THE US IN IRAN
By Neda Bolourchi

In recent months, the Mujahideen-e Khalq (MEK) and its attempts to prove that the Islamic Republic of Iran intends to develop nuclear weapons garnered widespread media coverage and speculation. While bringing forth a modicum of new information, the attention fails to illuminate just how dangerous the MEK could be to the United States.

Grappling in Iraq, the Bush administration now faces an analogous yet graver situation in the Islamic Republic. In the years leading up to the Iraq war, Ahmad Chalabi led the exiled Iraqi National Congress. In courting Bush officials like Richard Perle and Paul Wolfowitz to stoke the war flames in Iraq, Chalabi materialized defectors who affirmed suspicions about Saddam Hussein's ethereal weapons of mass destruction. Chalabi then secured administration support by seducing it with visions of Iraqis showering American liberators with flowers and a quick handover of a well-ordered Iraq from US troops to his Free Iraqi Fighters.

Today, Maryam Rajavi, the so-called president-elect of the MEK's National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), conjures up the same desert visions for Iran.

Like the case of Chalabi, who offered information on the seemingly impenetrable Iraq, reliance on Rajavi and her supporters superficially makes sense. Given the US's lack of human intelligence inside the Islamic Republic's government, supporting the MEK would naturally appeal to the US administration as a means to quickly develop and install agents who can provide reliable information regarding the Islamic Republic's nuclear advancements.

The MEK even appears to fit the bill better than Chalabi in many respects. As an Iranian opposition group with members inside and outside the country, the MEK can utilize its nativist connection to seamlessly merge with countrymen without fear of being detected by foreign accents, mannerisms or characteristics.

Moreover, the MEK is the largest and the best-organized Iranian opposition group, with realistic estimates between 6,000 to 10,000 fighters, members and supporters combined. More importantly, the MEK demonstrated its ability to deliver reliable information when it revealed, on August 14, 2002, that the Islamic Republic possessed an advanced nuclear program that included facilities at Natanz and Arak.

The MEK now finds support within parts of the American government as a "third option". Such support is built on the fallacy that the MEK can not only provide information, but also enjoys enough popular support so that diplomacy and direct military action can be skirted. By lobbying to remove the MEK from the US's list of foreign terrorist organizations and considering the group as leverage to destabilize, overthrow, and/or replace Tehran's clerical government, supporters ignore the unsavory history of the MEK.

And that puts the United States, its citizens and its interests in grave danger.

(SNIP)

The MEK and its supporters, however, will encounter a rare ferociousness because the group presents the kind of common enemy against whom the reformists, the conservatives, the students and common people will all rally against - something that has not happened since the conclusion of the Iran-Iraq War.

But now the Islamic Republic is dangerously better armed, holds a network of relations throughout the Middle East, and is bolstered by proxies operating widely and freely from Russia to Bosnia and from Lebanon to Iraq and Afghanistan.

Although the Iranian people are clearly the most pro-American populace in the Middle East, does the United States really want to turn that advantage on its head and be on the receiving end of such an Iranian nationalist movement?

While the Persian puzzle continues to perplex, Chalabi-style fantasies are not an answer. The lessons from Iraq have been too many, at too high a price, for that mistake to be made again.

2//The Independent, UK Published: 18 November 2005
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/politics/article327779.ece

TWO CHARGED OVER LEAK OF BLAIR-BUSH CONVERSATION ON CONFLICT
By Jason Bennetto and Ben Russell

A civil servant has been charged with trying to leak a transcript of a confidential and controversial conversation between Tony Blair and George Bush about the Iraq war.

A document containing a transcript of a conversation between the two leaders was sent to a rebel Labour MP, allegedly in an attempt to cause Mr Blair embarrassment over Iraq.

But the MP returned the document to Downing Street, who called in the Metropolitan Police's Special Branch to investigate.

The transcript of the conversation, understood to have taken place in a face-to-face meeting in the US, is believed to reveal that Mr Blair disagreed with Mr Bush about aspects of the war in Iraq.

The document also revealed details that, if disclosed, could have endangered the lives of British troops.

A civil servant at the Cabinet Office is accused of sending the document to a former researcher for a Labour MP. The civil servant and the researcher were charged yesterday under the Official Secrets Act with unlawfully obtaining a confidential document about sensitive international relations.

The MP, Tony Clarke, who had rebelled on the issue of Iraq, claims he immediately contacted the authorities when, as he alleges, his researcher gave him the document in April or May last year.

Mr Clarke, who lost his seat of Northampton South at the general election earlier this year, told The Independent: "My researcher was worried about the content of the report and did entirely the right thing.

"Having read the document, I realised it was highly sensitive and it was clear the lives of British troops would have been under threat if it had been made public. As a consequence, I placed it in the hands of the authorities."

David Keogh, 49, a communications officer at the Cabinet Office, is accused of sending the document to Mr Clarke's researcher, Leo O'Connor, 42, between 16 April and 28 May 2004.

It is understood Mr Keogh had been on secondment at the Cabinet Office from the Foreign Office at the time of the alleged offence. Mr O'Connor will be accused of giving the document to his MP at his constituency office in Northampton.

(MORE)

3//Gulf News Online, United Arab Emirates Published: 16/11/2005, 23:24 (UAE)
http://www.gulf-news.com/Articles/WorldNF.asp?ArticleID=193023

PRESIDENT’S MOVE TO GET MADRASSAS REGISTERED FIZZLES OUT

By Amir Mir, Correspondent

Lahore: President General Musharraf's campaign to get madrassas registered by December 2005 has apparently fizzled out because of a lack of cooperation from the key apex organisation of religious schools.

The Wafaq-ul-Madaris (Federal Madrassa Board) that claims a membership of 8,500 madrassas has refused to follow the Madaris Registration Ordinance 2005.

Three other leading representative organisations of the religious schools Ittehad Tanzeemat Deeni Madaris (Alliance of Religious Schools' Organisations), Tanzeemat Madaris Deeniya (Religious Schools' Organisation) and Tanzeemul Madaris Ahle Sunnat (Sunni Schools' Organisation) have also refused to get their madrassas registered, saying the registration process was intended to curb the "independence and sovereignty" of the madrassas.

The Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal, the six-party religious alliance which dominates the provincial governments in the North West Frontier Province and Balochistan, has also opposed the move.

(SNIP)

Musharraf promulgated the ordinance in August, requiring all the seminaries to get registered with the government by December 31, 2005.

In July, he announced the religious schools that fail to register by December 2005 would be shut down. The General has been through this routine several times and the announcement has had little public impact.

4//Canada.com, Canada Thursday, November 17, 2005
http://www.canada.com/news/national/story.html...

NOV. 28 TARGET DATE FOR OPPOSITION TO BRING DOWN LIBERALS, FORCE ELECTION
Jim Brown, Canadian Press

OTTAWA (CP) - Opposition party leaders are marking Nov. 28 as the red-letter day they intend to bring down the minority Liberal government, sparking a Christmas election campaign that will culminate with a mid-January vote.

The word from the Liberals can be summed up in three words: "Bring it on." In theory, Prime Minister Paul Martin could avert a holiday campaign by agreeing to an NDP proposal -due to be debated Thursday - that would postpone the election call until after the Christmas-New Year festivities.

But Martin reiterated Wednesday that he's not interested in the deal.

"I'm going to continue to govern until such time as, in fact, a non-confidence motion is passed by the opposition and the government falls," the prime minister said outside a Liberal caucus meeting.

He spoke after a rumour swept Parliament Hill earlier in the day that the Liberals might consider proroguing the House of Commons - the technical term for calling an end to the parliamentary session.

That would short-circuit the opposition plan by making it impossible to bring a non-confidence motion next week.

Martin wouldn't categorically rule it out, saying he was "not going to respond to every rumour."

But Tony Valeri, the Liberal House leader, said later it's not something party strategists have even been discussing.

"We're focused on keeping the House open, not shutting it down," said Valeri. "It's the opposition that seems to be focused on shutting it down and dragging Canadians back to the polls."

Liberal backbenchers confirmed there was no talk of prorogation at the party's weekly caucus meeting and suggested the rumour may have been planted mischievously by the Tories.

Conservative Leader Stephen Harper, for his part, said his party is sticking to a timetable that will see a non-confidence motion introduced on Nov. 24.

Under Commons rules, the vote will almost certainly be delayed until the following week, with the most likely date for the showdown Nov. 28.

"That would be our expectation," said Harper. "I'm obviously open to quicker timetables, but we're prepared for that one."

A new poll, however, suggests Harper may be taking a high-risk gamble in pressing for an early election.

The survey by Decima Research found respondents, by a two-to-one margin, preferred a spring election to a winter one.

The survey also put the Liberals at 33 per cent nationally, compared with 26 for the Conservatives, 22 for the NDP and 13 for the Bloc Quebecois.

(MORE)

5//The Moscow Times, Russia Thursday, November 17, 2005. Issue 3297. Page 1.
http://www.themoscowtimes.com/stories/2005/11/17/002.html

NATIONALISTS STAKING THEIR POLITICAL CLAIMS
By Nabi Abdullaev, Staff Writer

In recent weeks, Russian nationalists have been steadily encroaching on the political stage, as seen in the slogans chanted during sanctioned street marches and the spin given to news programs, movies and commercials shown on national television.

Given the tight grip the Kremlin holds on the country's political life, this burst of nationalism could not have occurred without at least a silent nod of official approval.

Some say the latest upsurge of xenophobic nationalism was intentionally stimulated by the Kremlin with an eye to the 2007-08 elections. If voters are sufficiently alarmed by the fascist threat, the theory goes, they will support any Kremlin-backed candidate who they believe can curb the brown shirts.

Others say the atmosphere of a besieged fortress instilled by the Kremlin after the velvet revolutions in Georgia and Ukraine, coupled with attempts to build patriotism by dragging out symbols of Russia's imperial past, were enough to foster the xenophobic sentiments.

All, including leaders of nationalists groups, agree, however, that recent events have allowed radical nationalists to see themselves as a rightful public force and to hope for future political success.

"Our march was a decisive moment in the history of the Russian patriotic movement: It is no longer a marginal group but a popular force that everyone will have to take into account," said Alexander Belov, leader of the Movement Against Illegal Immigration, or DPNI, which provided an umbrella for the ultranationalist groups that took part in a march to mark the new Nov. 4 holiday.

Thousands of nationalists and unabashed skinheads paraded through the center of Moscow, giving Nazi salutes and carrying signs saying "Clean Russia of the Occupiers." The march was authorized by city authorities.

At about the same time, TV Center, a Moscow television channel with a national outreach, began showing a provocative campaign ad for the nationalist Rodina party, one of only four parties represented in the State Duma. The ad, which featured boorish dark-skinned migrants eating watermelon and tossing the rinds on the ground, called for "clearing the city of garbage."

It was taken off the air after city prosecutors began investigating complaints that it incited ethnic hatred. Rogozin reportedly has vowed to bring back the ad in a different form: The neighborhood would be identified as Paris one year ago and the characters would speak French.

(SNIP)

If previously the nationalist card was played largely by political and public forces as part of a larger agenda, nationalism has recently become a force of its own, said Dmitry Badovsky, a political scientist with the Institute of Social Systems at Moscow State University.

"It is like toothpaste that can no longer be pushed back into the tube," he said.

Badovsky said the Kremlin's attempts to energize youth political activism in order to fight off a velvet revolution in Russia had brought young violent nationalists close to entering public politics.

The mood seems ripe. In a poll released last week by the independent Levada Center, half of the 1,880 respondents said they would support banning natives of the Caucasus from living in Russia. The survey did not specify whether this referred to people from the North Caucasus, which is part of Russia, or from former Soviet republics that are now independent countries.

(MORE)