December 28, 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.

Due to the holiday, please look for the next WMW on Wednesday, January 4, 2006.

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WORLD MEDIA WATCH FOR DECEMBER 28, 2005

1//The Scotsman, UK--PUTIN’S SHOW OF STRENGTH TRIGGERS FEAR OF FRESH NUCLEAR ARMS RACE (Vladamir Putin has sparked fears of a new arms race between Russia and the United States by deploying a nuclear ballistic strike force system that officials made clear could penetrate US anti-missile defences. On Christmas Eve, the Russian army activated a new fleet of Topol-M missiles that can fit a nuclear warhead and travel 6,000 miles, changing trajectory to foil any enemy interception device. The accompanying hawkish rhetoric of the Russian military commanders and the frenetic response of the US navy have stoked concern that the former Cold War adversaries have quietly resumed the arms race. General Nikolai Solovtsov, commander of the Russian missile forces, has mobilised a new battalion for the Topol-M missiles, which have a capacity for a one megatonne impact - 75 times the power of the 1945 Hiroshima bomb. Gen Solovtsov, a critic of US anti- missile defence technology, said the Topol-M missile "is capable of piercing any missile defence system" and is immune to electromagnetic blasts used by current US anti-missile systems. While Russia had disbanded two missile divisions last year, it has now formed more than 20 new units - in the fastest increase of nuclear spending since the run-up to the Cuban missile crisis.)

2//MosNews.com, Russia--PUTIN’S LIBERAL ECONOMIC ADVISOR ILLARIONOV RESIGNS (Andrei Illarionov, an economic advisor to Russian President told a press conference on Tuesday in Moscow that he has tendered his resignation. … Illarionov said that he had a lot of reasons for his decision but outlined just three – “the change in economic policy and economic model [of the Russian state], the change of political regime and the emergence of a corporate state”.

3//IribNews.ir (Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting) Iran--KARZAI LAUDS IRAN’S CONTRIBUTIONS (Afghanistan's President Hamed Karzai in a meeting with Iran's Foreign Minister in Kabul said that the assistance rendered by Iran has helped Afghanistan to find its rightful place. The Afghan government and nation are thankful for this help, he added. In a meeting with visiting Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki, the Afghan President referred to the relation between Afghanistan and its neighbors. "Afghanistan wishes further progress and development of Iran and will not let anyone drive a wedge between the two Muslem neighbors," Karzai added. He also referred to the many shortcomings in his country due to past three decades of conflict. … Mottaki said Tehran has put expansion of relations with its neighbors on its list of foreign policy priorities.)

4//Egypt Today, Egypt--THE LOST FAITH (A web of truths, half-truths, myths and outright lies surrounds the Yezidi of northern Iraq. It hardly seems necessary though, for the truth about this tiny ethnic and religious minority is strange enough not to need embellishment: They won’t wear the color blue. They don’t eat lettuce. They kidnap their wives. Many of them believe the American invaders are fulfilling an ancient prophecy that a blue-eyed man will come from the West to free them from oppression. This small ethnic community, numbering perhaps 500,000 people in Iraq, 750,000 at most, is all that remains of what is perhaps the oldest monotheistic religion in the world, the Yezidi religion, a faith documented (at least sparsely) as far back as 2000 BC and according to oral tradition is vastly older still. … The Joint Claims Commission in Mosul has the daunting task of assessing the mountains of land claims. Hindered by the continuing violence and funding problems, their work proceeds at a slow pace. The importance of their mission cannot be overstated: Their job is the peaceful resolution of decades or even centuries of ethnic violence. The number of people affected and the bitterness involved offer a very clear warning to the Yezidi and the other peoples of northern Iraq: As bad as it is now, and as bad as it has been, things can still get very much worse.)

5//The Independent, UK--SLEAZE WATCHDOG STALLS BLAIR’S ‘CRONY’ PEER LIST (Tony Blair has become embroiled in a new "cash for favours" row over his nomination of prominent Labour Party donors for peerages. The parliamentary sleaze watchdog has blocked the Prime Minister's working list of 28 peers, which includes businessmen who have donated thousands of pounds to his party. … Now the House of Lords Appointments Commission has put a hold on the peerages, pending further checks. "The appointments commission is holding it up because they are dissatisfied with some of the names on the Prime Minister's list. Some members of the commission are holding out as a matter of principle," one source close to the cross-party commission of peers said. … The commission was set up as part of the reform of the upper chamber after the removal of hereditary peers to answer criticism that future Prime Ministers could abuse their power of patronage over life peerages. … The list also raises the issue of the use of peerages to reward party donors. Cash for peerages caused a furore in the early 20th century when the then Liberal Prime Minister, Lloyd George, accepted bribes for honours.)

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1//The Scotsman, UK Mon 26 Dec 2005
http://news.scotsman.com/international.cfm?id=2459162005

PUTIN’S SHOW OF STRENGTH TRIGGERS FEAR OF FRESH NUCLEAR ARMS RACE
Fraser Nelson, Political Editor

Vladamir Putin has sparked fears of a new arms race between Russia and the United States by deploying a nuclear ballistic strike force system that officials made clear could penetrate US anti- missile defences.

On Christmas Eve, the Russian army activated a new fleet of Topol-M missiles that can fit a nuclear warhead and travel 6,000 miles, changing trajectory to foil any enemy interception device.

The accompanying hawkish rhetoric of the Russian military commanders and the frenetic response of the US navy have stoked concern that the former Cold War adversaries have quietly resumed the arms race.

General Nikolai Solovtsov, commander of the Russian missile forces, has mobilised a new battalion for the Topol-M missiles, which have a capacity for a one megatonne impact - 75 times the power of the 1945 Hiroshima bomb.

Gen Solovtsov, a critic of US anti- missile defence technology, said the Topol-M missile "is capable of piercing any missile defence system" and is immune to electromagnetic blasts used by current US anti-missile systems.

While Russia had disbanded two missile divisions last year, it has now formed more than 20 new units - in the fastest increase of nuclear spending since the run-up to the Cuban missile crisis.

Last month, the US navy carried out its most ambitious and successful test of an anti-missile interceptor, which can be launched from an Aegis class cruiser in the Pacific Ocean. A warhead from an incoming rocket was destroyed 100 miles above sea level - the first time an anti- missile defence has succeeded, in tests, when launched from a ship.

Duncan Lamont, a British defence analyst and editor of Jane's Strategic Weapons Systems, said the new Topol missiles could evade the "ballistic missile defences currently being fielded in Alaska and California".

The roll-out of the Topol-M and the hawkish accompanying language mark the fastest expansion of nuclear missiles since the SS-18 and Pershing II technologies were rolled out a generation ago.

Since the last US-Russia arms control treaty was signed in 1993 in Moscow, Russia has struggled to fund technology to replace its ageing defence system. The budget dried up as the Russian economy suffered.

But now the economy is flush with new oil wealth, the nuclear missile programme has been revived and was last month allocated a £1 billion budget increase from the Kremlin. This has boosted Mr Putin's popularity.

Japan, growing anxious about a nuclear missile strike from North Korea, signed up to the American missile defence programme last week and allocated £14 million for joint research.

The Ukrainian government, elected last year in a part-protest against Moscow's influence, has asked to come back under the former Soviet military umbrella and be protected by the Topol-M stationed in the Volga river.

In September, Russia successfully tested a Bulava missile, a submarine-launched equivalent of the Topol-M. Launched from the White Sea, it hit its target 30 minutes later on Kamchatka, in the opposite, Far Eastern side of Russia.

The escalation in missile defence will pose difficult questions for Tony Blair, the Prime Minister, who must soon decide whether to renew Britain's trident nuclear deterrent. The case for not doing so is largely based on the pacification of post-Soviet Russia.

(MORE)

2//MosNews.com, Russia Created: 27.12.2005 15:45 MSK (GMT +3), Updated: 16:15 MSK
http://www.mosnews.com/news/2005/12/27/illarionov.shtml

PUTIN’S LIBERAL ECONOMIC ADVISOR ILLARIONOV RESIGNS

Andrei Illarionov, an economic advisor to Russian President told a press conference on Tuesday in Moscow that he has tendered his resignation.

“I have tendered my resignation as a presidential economic advisor and have handed it to my employer,” the Interfax news agency quoted Illarionov as saying.

“As long as I had an opportunity to do something, including speaking, I thought that it was important to stay here,” he said.

Illarionov said that he had a lot of reasons for his decision but outlined just three – “the change in economic policy and economic model [of the Russian state], the change of political regime and the emergence of a corporate state”.

(SNIP)

Andrei Illarionov is known for his liberal views that often contradict the general line of the Kremlin. He was among the few officials who openly opposed the arrest of Mikhail Khodorkovsky, once Russia’s richest man who has been imprisoned for eight years on charges of fraud and tax evasion.

In late October this year Khodorkovsky’s key ally Leonid Nevzlin addressed Illarionov with an open letter in which he called on the aide to stop whitewashing Putin’s regime.

3//IribNews.ir (Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting) Iran 2005/12/27 09:30:02 Þ.Ù
http://www.iribnews.ir/Full_en.asp?news_id=204367&n=12

KARZAI LAUDS IRAN’S CONTRIBUTIONS

Kabul, Dec 27 - Afghanistan's President Hamed Karzai in a meeting with Iran's Foreign Minister in Kabul said that the assistance rendered by Iran has helped Afghanistan to find its rightful place.

The Afghan government and nation are thankful for this help, he added.

In a meeting with visiting Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki, the Afghan President referred to the relation between Afghanistan and its neighbors.

"Afghanistan wishes further progress and development of Iran and will not let anyone drive a wedge between the two Muslem neighbors," Karzai added.

He also referred to the many shortcomings in his country due to past three decades of conflict.

"We should draw assistance from Iran's experiences to boost the development drive in Afghanistan."

He accepted an invitation from Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad for a visit to Tehran.

Mottaki said Tehran has put expansion of relations with its neighbors on its list of foreign policy priorities.

(SNIP)

The two nations' officials are resolved to strengthen ties in all fields and "we believe that the capacities should be raised in all levels."

4//Egypt Today, Egypt December 2005
http://www.egypttoday.com/article.aspx?ArticleID=6160

THE LOST FAITH
Feared, hated and torn asunder, the Yezidi peoples of northern Iraq, who claim to be the guardians of the first monotheistic religion, a faith that predates Judaism, Christianity and Islam, have been used as political pawns for centuries. Today, despite the odds, some are standing their ground in Iraq’s embattled north.

By Cache Seel

A WEB OF TRUTHS, half-truths, myths and outright lies surrounds the Yezidi of northern Iraq. It hardly seems necessary though, for the truth about this tiny ethnic and religious minority is strange enough not to need embellishment: They won’t wear the color blue. They don’t eat lettuce. They kidnap their wives. Many of them believe the American invaders are fulfilling an ancient prophecy that a blue-eyed man will come from the West to free them from oppression.

This small ethnic community, numbering perhaps 500,000 people in Iraq, 750,000 at most, is all that remains of what is perhaps the oldest monotheistic religion in the world, the Yezidi religion, a faith documented (at least sparsely) as far back as 2000 BC and according to oral tradition is vastly older still. Today, the Yezidi regard Muhammad as a prophet and Jesus Christ as an angel in human form. Some scholars believe elements of the Yezidi religion date to ancient Assyrian and Zoroastrian religions.

The Yezidi story of creation begins much the same as that taught to any Muslim, Christian or Jewish child. God created the angels from light (or fire). Later, He created the earth and then made Adam, the first man, from mud (or clay). The angels were told to serve as intermediaries, but one rebelled. This is where the stories diverge. For the followers of the Muslim, Christian and Jewish faiths, God then banished the now ‘fallen angel’ from heaven. We call him Satan, Shaitan, Lucifer or, more commonly, the Devil.

In the Yezidi faith, God asked the angel why he disobeyed. The angel replied that he could not bow before anyone but God himself. God was pleased and made him the chief of all angels. They call him Azaziel or Al-Malek Al-Tawwus — the Peacock Angel.

This fundamental difference has led them to be mislabeled as devil worshippers by their neighbors, but in point of fact there is no such thing as a devil in the Yezidi faith, let alone Heaven or Hell.

(SNIP)

Misunderstandings about the Yezidi are widespread. Being a closed society that doesn’t believe in proselytizing, they have traditionally had no interest in educating their neighbors about themselves. The prohibition on mixing with outsiders isn’t simply on marriage: A Yezidi cannot use a spoon, drinking glass or even a comb that has belonged to an outsider.

This isolation has led them to be used as a regional bogeyman to scare bad children of other faiths and ethnicities. Many of those who have grown up on these myths find it hard to discard them later in life. Educated people in large urban centers such as Mosul swear to us that the Yezidi commonly burn women at the stake.

Their self-imposed isolation has at times been disastrous for the Yezidi. Sheikh Hamad explains how the harmless tradition of ‘kidnapping’ wives has been used against them: “In Sheikhhan, close to Dohuk, rumors started about the kidnapping.” Not understanding the consensual nature of the practice, nor the strict ban on outside marriage, local men began raiding Yezidi villages and fields for wives.

“Several villages were forced to move,” Sheikh Hamad recalls. “The Yezidi lost many of their daughters and all of their land there.”

(SNIP)

The city of Tal Afar was once a microcosm of the ethnically heterogeneous north. Amid the chaos following the recent collapse of the police force, the various groups formed militias to defend themselves. The thinly represented Yezidi fled to nearby communities in Sinjar. According to survivors, the Shi’a militias were killing any Yezidi they could find.

The mayor of Tal Khaseb, Mokhtar Madrees, announces they’ve already absorbed as many refugees from Tal Afar as they can handle. But it may not be over yet: “They’ve killed at least 100 Yezidi there [in Tal Afar] in the last two months,” he tells us.

Where to go from here

Northern Iraq’s violent history continues. The vacuum left by the fall of the Baath regime and frustration at the (stalled at best, failed at worst) reconstruction have led to unprecedented violence in the area. The struggle to fill the void has turned the various groups against each other — and even against themselves.

Unlike other minorities, the Turkmen are not religiously cohesive. In some areas, they are split nearly in half by the Sunni-Shi’a divide. Much of the sectarian violence in Tal Afar was Turkmen against Turkmen. The destruction has reached incomprehensible proportions.

(SNIP)

The Yezidi are sharply divided on the best course for their future, but the divide remains political. The Yezidi Movement is the only party that is exclusive to them, but not everyone wants to stand alone. Others, mindful of the fate of the Chaldeans after British withdrawal and noting strong Yezidi support of the Coalition Forces, want stronger allies and have thrown their weight behind the powerful Kurdish parties.

The aftermath of the Arabization programs is phenomenal in scope. Human Rights Watch counted nearly 1 million displaced people living in the semi-autonomous Kurdish region alone. The hundreds of thousands of tribesmen who were ordered into the areas the displaced left now number in the millions, few of whom have any interest in returning to the harsh life of a desert nomad. Left unchecked, this situation has the possibility of spreading from Iraq to the rest of the region.

The ayatollahs of Iran openly claim dominion over all followers of the Shi’a sect and are already accused of supporting Shi’a Iraqi militias. And should the situation degenerate into an all-out civil war, the Turks have plainly stated that they would use any means necessary to keep an independent Kurdish state from coming into being.

The Joint Claims Commission in Mosul has the daunting task of assessing the mountains of land claims. Hindered by the continuing violence and funding problems, their work proceeds at a slow pace. The importance of their mission cannot be overstated: Their job is the peaceful resolution of decades or even centuries of ethnic violence.

The number of people affected and the bitterness involved offer a very clear warning to the Yezidi and the other peoples of northern Iraq: As bad as it is now, and as bad as it has been, things can still get very much worse.

5//The Independent, UK Published: 28 December 2005
http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/politics/article335342.ece

SLEAZE WATCHDOG STALLS BLAIR’S ‘CRONY’ PEER LIST
By Colin Brown, Deputy Political Editor

Tony Blair has become embroiled in a new "cash for favours" row over his nomination of prominent Labour Party donors for peerages.

The parliamentary sleaze watchdog has blocked the Prime Minister's working list of 28 peers, which includes businessmen who have donated thousands of pounds to his party.

(SNIP)

Now the House of Lords Appointments Commission has put a hold on the peerages, pending further checks. "The appointments commission is holding it up because they are dissatisfied with some of the names on the Prime Minister's list. Some members of the commission are holding out as a matter of principle," one source close to the cross-party commission of peers said.

"They think it's getting ridiculous. The embarrassment for Labour is that some people are due to get honours and, if they don't get them, they will have a right to be peeved. They have told these people they are going to get ermine and it's being held up."

Those nominated by Mr Blair for peerages include Labour donors such as Dr Chai Patel, who runs the Priory clinics, Sir Gulam Noon, founder and chairman of an Indian food company in the UK, Barry Townsley, a stockbroker who gave £6,000 to Labour and sponsored a city academy in Hillingdon, and Sir David Garrard, a property developer millionaire who donated to Labour and contributed £2.4m to the Bexley city academy but who has previously given £70,000 to the Conservatives under William Hague.

A number of Tory donors are also on the Conservative list drawn up by David Cameron's predecessor as leader, Michael Howard. It threatens to reopen the row over "cronyism" that erupted when Mr Blair awarded a peerage to Paul Drayson, a Labour supporter who donated more than £1m to the party. Lord Drayson of Kensington founded the pharmaceutical company PowderJect, which secured Government contracts for smallpox vaccine. He has since been made Defence Procurement minister.

The commission was set up as part of the reform of the upper chamber after the removal of hereditary peers to answer criticism that future Prime Ministers could abuse their power of patronage over life peerages.

There is no suggestion of any wrongdoing by any of those on the list but Commission members asked for further evidence on the tax status of some of the nominees, who are normally required to pay tax in the UK.

The list also raises the issue of the use of peerages to reward party donors. Cash for peerages caused a furore in the early 20th century when the then Liberal Prime Minister, Lloyd George, accepted bribes for honours.

(MORE)