January 25, 2006

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 JANUARY 25, 2006

1//Azzaman in English, Iraq--U.S. FORECASTS OF FURTHER VIOLENCE SCARE IRAQIS (Many Iraqis have expressed their indignation and disappointment at U.S. President George W. Bush’s predictions that violence is set to intensify further this year. They were even angrier when the president openly supported the government’s decision to boost fuel prices nearly fivefold. Some even accused the president of negligence and inaction. His predictions show that he is aware of the calamities that are to come while he does nothing about them, they said. … In the nearly three years since the president dispatched his troops to deliver the country from dictatorship, many Iraqis receive his remarks with sarcasm. Here are a number of ideas of what Iraqis say they will do if the president fails to deliver his promise of ‘victory’ in the war: We will launch another November 11 attack. [September 11, ed.] We will establish a new sovereign government that will prevent our own president from visiting America and meeting with U.S. president. We will not prevent our own president from addressing the U.S. congress using a script prepared for him by the State Department. We will persuade our forthcoming parliament to regain the control of our oil output and exports, scrap latest fuel increases and hike prices on international markets that will eventually lead to a fivefold increase in fuel rates in the U.S. We will withdraw our support to the U.S. in its war on terror. We will torpedo the Middle East peace process. There are of course many other ideas which I cannot mention here for fear of accountability.)

2//The Independent, UK-- SANITISED IMAGES HIDE TRUTH ABOUT WAR, SAYS FISK (… "War is not about victory or defeat. It is about the total failure of human spirit," Robert Fisk, The Independent's Middle East correspondent, told the debate. "When you see the things I see, you would never support war ever again." The increasingly chaotic conflict in Iraq is utterly unjustifiable and a by-product of the same Western thirst for "control, control, control" of the Middle East's assets and resources that has been evident for centuries, added Fisk. "We've always gone to the Middle East to 'liberate' people, taking with us our guns and our swords, our horses and our helicopters," he said. Fisk, whose new book The Great War for Civilisation: The Conquest of the Middle East has been published by Fourth Estate, said there could be no lasting settlement in Iraq for as long as the occupiers remained there. … "One thing that unsettles people is the sense that there is a slightly voyeuristic element to seeing people suffering," suggested Simon Kelner, The Independent's editor-in-chief, who chaired the debate. Fisk replied that film-makers saw fit to include the full gore of war in productions such as Saving Private Ryan and there was no reason why news broadcasts should be any different. Most of the 600-strong audience at Manchester Town Hall agreed when the issue was put to the vote.)

3//Asia Times Online, Hong Kong--PAKISTAN ON THE SPOT OVER IRAN NUCLEAR SECRETS (Reverberations continue from the attack by a US Predator drone on the village of Damadola in Pakistan's Bajur tribal area last week. The raid was designed to root out al-Qaeda operatives believed to be in the area, but larger forces are at play. … And at least one person well versed in the labyrinthine geopolitics of the region sees the attack as a way of ratcheting up pressure on Musharraf to hand over nuclear scientist Dr Abdul Qadeer Khan for direct interrogation by the US. According to the former director general of the Inter-Services Intelligence [ISI], retired Lieutenant-General Hamid Gul, Washington wants Khan, the father of Pakistan's nuclear-weapons program, to provide the smoking gun it needs to prove that Iran has a clandestine nuclear-weapons program. Khan, under virtual house arrest in Pakistan, has confessed to nuclear-proliferation activities, including dealings with Iran. Pakistan refuses any access to him. The issue now, therefore, is just how much further the US will go [more attacks on Pakistani territory?], and how much Pakistan will cooperate in such endeavors, given the growing groundswell of anti-US sentiment in Pakistan.)

4//The Toronto Star, Canada-- WHITE HOUSE LOOKS FOR POSITIVE SHIFT IN CANADA (The White House offered congratulations to Stephen Harper and the Conservatives on Tuesday as the U.S. administration looked for a positive shift in dealings with Canada. … "We've had a good working relationship with Canada for a long time," said McClellan. "I'm not going to try to compare one administration to the next." Former Bush officials were much more forthcoming. They blasted Liberal missteps Tuesday, but also acknowledged the United States has behaved like a "rogue nation" by ignoring free-trade rulings in Canada's favour in the bitter softwood lumber fight. … Both [Roger] Noriega and [David] Frum as well as former White House economist Phillip Swagel, agreed the U.S. has handled the softwood issue badly. "We didn't say that when we were in government, not that it didn't cross our minds," said Noriega.)

5//EUobserver, Belgium--FRENCH EU ENERGY BLUEPRINT WINS FRIENDS (Future EU energy policy could be based on boosting nuclear power and oil and gas stocks as well as research into new fuels in line with a French blueprint, but Europe remains vulnerable to foreign suppliers for now. … The French text calls for the EU to "consider the contribution of nuclear power to the security of supply and the fight against climate change" while urging Brussels to seek better relations with major oil and gas producers such as Russia and the Middle East oil cartel, OPEC. … But the bulk of the paper lists detailed ideas on how Europe can cut energy consumption in transport and industry while spending more on research into solar and wind power as well as biofuels. The French proposals strike a jarring note with European public opinion however, with just 12 percent of people saying the EU should develop nuclear power options in a Eurobarometer survey out the same day. In France, the pro-nuclear figure was just 8 percent, while most respondents across Europe said they would prefer Europe to push for more solar and wind power and to spend cash on research into new fuels instead.)

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1//Azzaman in English, Iraq January 23, 2006
http://www.azzaman.com/english/index.asp?fname...

U.S. FORECASTS OF FURTHER VIOLENCE SCARE IRAQIS
By Fatih Abdulsalam

Many Iraqis have expressed their indignation and disappointment at U.S. President George W. Bush’s predictions that violence is set to intensify further this year.

They were even angrier when the president openly supported the government’s decision to boost fuel prices nearly fivefold.

Some even accused the president of negligence and inaction. His predictions show that he is aware of the calamities that are to come while he does nothing about them, they said.

This is a president Iraqis have come to know and in many respects even better than the U.S. citizens he rules.

Many of them believe in the hands of this president rests their destiny and that he has a hand in whatever has been happening to the country since his 2003 invasion.

Two months ago he raised Iraqis’ expectations when he presented U.S. legislators with a new strategy for what he described as ‘victory’ in the war against the violence plaguing the country.

He also promised to speed up the reconstruction of the war-torn country.

Then he made his New Year remarks that violence was to continue and even intensify.

The president, many now say, has dumped our hopes of ‘victory’. He simply gave us no time to relish the good news of his new strategy for ‘victory’ in Iraq, they said.

In the nearly three years since the president dispatched his troops to deliver the country from dictatorship, many Iraqis receive his remarks with sarcasm.

Here are a number of ideas of what Iraqis say they will do if the president fails to deliver his promise of ‘victory’ in the war: We will launch another November 11 attack. [September 11, ed.]

We will establish a new sovereign government that will prevent our own president from visiting America and meeting with U.S. president.

We will not prevent our own president from addressing the U.S. congress using a script prepared for him by the State Department.

We will persuade our forthcoming parliament to regain the control of our oil output and exports, scrap latest fuel increases and hike prices on international markets that will eventually lead to a fivefold increase in fuel rates in the U.S.

We will withdraw our support to the U.S. in its war on terror.

We will torpedo the Middle East peace process.

There are of course many other ideas which I cannot mention here for fear of accountability.

(MORE)

2//The Independent, UK Published: 24 January 2006
http://news.independent.co.uk/media/article340618.ece

SANITISED IMAGES HIDE TRUTH ABOUT WAR, SAYS FISK
By Ian Herbert, North of England Correspondent

The sanitised images of war broadcast on television are a "lethal weapon" masking atrocities which demonstrate that conflict can "never be justified," an Independent debate was told last night.

"War is not about victory or defeat. It is about the total failure of human spirit," Robert Fisk, The Independent's Middle East correspondent, told the debate. "When you see the things I see, you would never support war ever again."

The increasingly chaotic conflict in Iraq is utterly unjustifiable and a by-product of the same Western thirst for "control, control, control" of the Middle East's assets and resources that has been evident for centuries, added Fisk. "We've always gone to the Middle East to 'liberate' people, taking with us our guns and our swords, our horses and our helicopters," he said.

Fisk, whose new book The Great War for Civilisation: The Conquest of the Middle East has been published by Fourth Estate, said there could be no lasting settlement in Iraq for as long as the occupiers remained there.

He presented a powerful case for presenting in the media the full horror of war - images such as the blood that poured over the top of his shoes in a Baghdad hospital, and the bones he saw where should have been feet on the legs of a child - a horrific sight which was edited out in newspaper images of the child.

"One thing that unsettles people is the sense that there is a slightly voyeuristic element to seeing people suffering," suggested Simon Kelner, The Independent's editor-in-chief, who chaired the debate. Fisk replied that film-makers saw fit to include the full gore of war in productions such as Saving Private Ryan and there was no reason why news broadcasts should be any different. Most of the 600-strong audience at Manchester Town Hall agreed when the issue was put to the vote.

(MORE)

3//Asia Times Online, Hong Kong Jan 25, 2006
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/South_Asia/HA25Df01.html

PAKISTAN ON THE SPOT OVER IRAN NUCLEAR SECRETS
By Syed Saleem Shahzad
(Syed Saleem Shahzad is Bureau Chief, Pakistan Asia Times Online.)

KARACHI - Reverberations continue from the attack by a US Predator drone on the village of Damadola in Pakistan's Bajur tribal area last week. The raid was designed to root out al-Qaeda operatives believed to be in the area, but larger forces are at play.

On the one hand, some call the strike, in which 18 people were killed, a calculated risk by the US in the "war on terror." Others claim that it was a part of President General Pervez Musharraf's delicate tightrope walk to balance his image at home with that of the face he projects abroad as a US ally.

President Shaukat Aziz, on a visit to the United States, has categorically denied on US television that Pakistan was told in advance of the raid, and also rejected US claims that a few senior al-Qaeda figures died in the attack. However, Asia Times Online has reported that Islamabad definitely knew of the attack (see Pakistan's misplaced ire over US misfire, January 18).

Certainly, the attack in Bajur has many facets to it. On one side, it has broken the semblance of niceties and courtesies between Washington and Islamabad, at the same time conveying the United States' desperation in making significant progress against al-Qaeda.

And at least one person well versed in the labyrinthine geopolitics of the region sees the attack as a way of ratcheting up pressure on Musharraf to hand over nuclear scientist Dr Abdul Qadeer Khan for direct interrogation by the US.

According to the former director general of the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), retired Lieutenant-General Hamid Gul, Washington wants Khan, the father of Pakistan's nuclear-weapons program, to provide the smoking gun it needs to prove that Iran has a clandestine nuclear-weapons program. Khan, under virtual house arrest in Pakistan, has confessed to nuclear-proliferation activities, including dealings with Iran. Pakistan refuses any access to him.

The issue now, therefore, is just how much further the US will go (more attacks on Pakistani territory?), and how much Pakistan will cooperate in such endeavors, given the growing groundswell of anti-US sentiment in Pakistan.

Pakistan is definitely caught between a rock and a hard place. But then so, too, is the US.

Blame it on Afghanistan

Suicide bombings in Afghanistan are now widespread. These began last winter - for the first time in the history of the country - and have escalated this cold season, allowing the resistance to show its muscle in this traditionally quiet period for militant activities.

The US has invested millions of dollars in Afghanistan to nurture loyalties among clerics, soldiers, the administration and political leaders. It applied a technique of creating vested interests, which initially worked.

However, the organized terror tactics of the Taliban have seriously undermined these efforts, and with the way in which the Afghan resistance is growing, there is a strong chance that all pro-US political developments will go back to square one.

The difficulty for the US is that the resistance uses Pakistani territory both as a haven and to obtain supplies. More than a dozen remote passes in the Pakistani-administered tribal areas link the two countries, and a wild no-man's land also provides a sanctuary for hit-and-run militants launching attacks in Afghanistan.

(SNIP)

The Iran factor

"The Bajur attack is more political than military," said former ISI chief Gul. "On one side it carried a message that they [the Americans] would play their game of 'war on terror' on their terms, and would destroy their enemies, even on Pakistani soil. The killing of Nek Mohammed, Hamza Rabia and the current incident of Bajur are examples.

"However, there is reverse swing [an unexpected angle] in this game," said Gul. "The Americans cannot get any concrete evidence on Iran's nuclear program [that it plans to build nuclear weapons], and without such evidence they will not take the matter to the [United Nations] Security Council. They have been pressing hard on Pakistan to hand over Dr A Q Khan for interrogation because they understand that this is the only way to get evidence on Iran's nuclear program. So apparently they are trying to put Pakistan in a serious quagmire by giving it the option to either bear constant air strikes in Pakistani territory or hand over Dr Khan," Gul maintained.

"At the same time, to further strangulate Musharraf, they are once again beating the drum of democracy. Now there are clear voices from Washington in favor of democracy in Pakistan. I recall a situation in which the late Pakistani premier, Mohammed Khan Junejo, visited the US [in 1986], and when he returned, his attitude towards the late [dictator] General Zia ul-Haq changed. To me, Shaukat Aziz' [present] US visit, given the current situation, is of significance and we will have to see what secret message he brings back with him," Gul said.

4//The Toronto Star, Canada Jan. 24, 2006. 07:34 PM
http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?page...

WHITE HOUSE LOOKS FOR POSITIVE SHIFT IN CANADA

WASHINGTON (CP) — The White House offered congratulations to Stephen Harper and the Conservatives on Tuesday as the U.S. administration looked for a positive shift in dealings with Canada.

"We look forward to working with the new government to strengthen our relations even more," said spokesman Scott McClellan, who expected President George W. Bush to call Harper soon.

Republicans have been quietly hoping for a Conservative win after years of increasingly tense ties under the Liberals that reached new lows with their anti-American election campaign.

And they maintained a polite public front after Harper's victory.

"We've had a good working relationship with Canada for a long time," said McClellan. "I'm not going to try to compare one administration to the next."

Former Bush officials were much more forthcoming.

They blasted Liberal missteps Tuesday, but also acknowledged the United States has behaved like a "rogue nation" by ignoring free-trade rulings in Canada's favour in the bitter softwood lumber fight.

(SNIP)

Privately, U.S. officials have made no secret of their increasing frustration and anger over what they considered dirty tricks from the Martin camp.

Roger Noriega, former assistant secretary of state responsible for Canada until last year, said the U.S. doesn't normally get emotional about the bilateral relationship.

But leaks from Martin's team designed to portray Bush as an unintelligent Bible-thumper rankled everyone, he told a forum at the conservative American Enterprise Institute.

"These were provocations over time that had eroded the confidence, the level of trust," said Noriega, and that's as important as actual policy.

As well, leaks of Canada's decision not to join the U.S. missile defence program "almost simultaneously" with high-level meetings, ``really did serious damage."

"Harper starts with a clean slate," said Noriega. "I don't think anyone expects him to do anything but represent Canadian interests."

Others agree the administration has realistic expectations of just how much Harper can do as he grapples with a minority government and citizens who don't relish the president or his foreign policy.

Canadian pollster Darrell Bricker warned that Harper has "a government with training wheels."

"He's not going to be able to do a lot that's different from Paul Martin," said Bricker.

(SNIP)

There are certainly high hopes that Harper can follow through on promises to increase Canada's defence spending and intelligence capabilities.

Liberal tactics in the campaign produced an intensely ugly race, said Frum, adding that "anti-Americanism is the fool's gold of Canadian politics."

"Canada is not a Latin American country. You don't get very far by tapping into seething resentment."

But it won't be difficult, he said, to put the Canada-U.S. relationship back on course now.

Both Noriega and Frum, as well as former White House economist Phillip Swagel, agreed the U.S. has handled the softwood issue badly.

"We didn't say that when we were in government, not that it didn't cross our minds," said Noriega.

(MORE)

5//EUobserver, Belgium 24.01.2006 - 17:44 CET
http://euobserver.com/9/20757

FRENCH EU ENERGY BLUEPRINT WINS FRIENDS
By Andrew Rettman

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - Future EU energy policy could be based on boosting nuclear power and oil and gas stocks as well as research into new fuels in line with a French blueprint, but Europe remains vulnerable to foreign suppliers for now.

Paris presented the plan to EU energy ministers in Brussels on Tuesday (24 January) with energy commissioner Andris Piebalgs saying "It's very much in line with what we are thinking about" for the commission's March green paper.

He advised other countries to draft plans similar to the French ideas, adding "I didn't see anything that is not acceptable" in Paris' proposals.

The French text calls for the EU to "consider the contribution of nuclear power to the security of supply and the fight against climate change" while urging Brussels to seek better relations with major oil and gas producers such as Russia and the Middle East oil cartel, OPEC.

The text also advises the EU to coordinate information on national oil reserves and to diversify gas supply routes while leaving ultimate control of energy resources in the hands of member states.

But the bulk of the paper lists detailed ideas on how Europe can cut energy consumption in transport and industry while spending more on research into solar and wind power as well as biofuels.

People want clean energy at no extra cost

The French proposals strike a jarring note with European public opinion however, with just 12 percent of people saying the EU should develop nuclear power options in a Eurobarometer survey out the same day.

In France, the pro-nuclear figure was just 8 percent, while most respondents across Europe said they would prefer Europe to push for more solar and wind power and to spend cash on research into new fuels instead.

On average 47 percent believed energy action should be taken at EU level, but most people in the UK and Finland thought their own governments could handle the problems best.

A majority said they are conscious of energy issues when buying light bulbs, cars and fridges and plan to reduce consumption, but over 50 percent stated they are unwilling to pay more for new fuel types.

Mr Piebalgs admitted that public opinion has limited value in expert level planning, saying "one opinion poll does not shape all our policy."

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