May 8, 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.

BuzzFlash Note: World Media Watch will be on hold for a couple of weeks while Gloria Lalumia attends to other business. We anticipate her return on May 31.

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WORLD MEDIA WATCH FOR MAY 8, 2006

1//The Daily Star, Lebanon--POORLY PROTECTED OIL FACILITIES LEAVE WEST VULNERABLE (With oil prices already stretched to record highs, a terrorist attack targeting vital oil installations would have immediate global consequences, experts say. Wells, pipelines, refineries and tankers have all been targeted in recent years by Al-Qaeda-linked groups, or by local armed militants such as in the Niger Delta - and many of the facilities remain poorly protected against potential attacks. … For Michael Klare, head of the Peace and World Security program at the University of Massachusetts and author of the study "Resource Wars," oil markets are vulnerable because of a serious lack of spare capacity. "Without Iraq, there is very little spare oil in the world: Every bit of oil is in use," Klare said. "Even a small interruption in the supply of oil would push prices up. "That's why the American military is increasingly being converted into a global oil-protection service." … Earlier this year, the U.S. institute SITE, which monitors Islamic extremist websites, said it had discovered a password-protected forum listing 12 pages of potential targets for attacks. They included oil installations in Iraq, Afghanistan and Turkmenistan, as well as the Trans-Alaska oil pipeline - complete with maps and diagrams showing where to strike for maximum impact. Around 40 percent of world oil production transits via pipelines, many above ground, and many crossing politically troubled regions.)

2//The Sunday Times, UK--STRONGMEN OF SOUTH AMERICA FLEX THEIR MUSCLES (… Officials in Washington wanly acknowledged that US influence in South America was at a dangerously low ebb, with allies of Chavez jockeying for power in elections in Peru, Nicaragua and Mexico. The stage has been set for a protracted standoff between western consumers worried about rising prices and South American oil producers whose newfound enthusiasm for bashing foreign companies may spread to Africa, Asia and elsewhere. “Ten years ago [Bolivia] wouldn’t have created a ripple because there was enough world supply,” said Phil Flynn, a Chicago-based analyst. “But now we’re in a seller’s market. What we’re seeing now is any nation with any supply trying to cash in. Power has gone to the heads of these countries. It’s a very dangerous trend.” … The godfather of the movement is President Fidel Castro of Cuba, who after years of geopolitical irrelevance has suddenly found himself back in business as a thorn in America’s side. Yet it is Nicaragua that has become the most intriguing proxy for the battle over Latin hearts and minds. Having spent millions of dollars under President Ronald Reagan to oust the left-wing Sandinista regime, Washington is now facing the prospect of a democratic comeback by Daniel Ortega, the former Sandinista leader again running for president — this time with the help of Chavez.)

3//Asia Times Online, Hong Kong--US, SEOUL PARTING WAYS OVER NORTH KOREA (The more US officials claim to be getting along just fine with South Koreans, the more sharply their differences emerge on anything and everything to do with North Korea. The top American diplomat on North Korea, Christopher Hill, talked up US-South Korean rapport so much at a recent luncheon of the American Chamber of Commerce that one might have thought the two allies agreed totally on such hot-button issues as nuclear weapons, counterfeiting and the benefits of the industrial park at Gaesong just across the Demilitarized Zone between North and South Korea. No way, however, are the United States and South Korea in synch on any of these topics. In fact, the chasm between the two is widening constantly and soon may be unbridgeable.)

4//RIA Novosti (Russian News & Information Agency), Russia--RUSSIA CONSIDERS ANNULLING BENEFITS FOR GEORGIA, UKRAINE, IF THEY QUIT CIS (The government of Russia is considering canceling benefits for Georgia and Ukraine, if they decide to withdraw from the Commonwealth of Independent States, a government source said Sunday. Georgian foreign minister Gela Bezhuashvili said Sunday Georgia had started consultations with Ukraine on their withdrawal from the CIS, a loose association of former Soviet republics. … . Russian experts say Georgia's withdrawal from the CIS will mean for most of the republic's population a rupture or a considerable weakening of traditional economic and humanitarian ties with Russia and other CIS countries. … Georgia's withdrawal from the CIS would also affect the republic's energy sector, which covers only 40% of the country's energy needs while 60% of electricity is largely supplied from Russia, experts say.)

5//The Telegraph, UK-- POLICE PROBE BERLUSCONI’S ‘THINKING HILL’ (As long as he was prime minister, Silvio Berlusconi could keep police investigators outside the walls of his estate on the island of Sardinia, insisting that state secrets would be imperilled if they came inside. But now, a week after the billionaire media mogul finally accepted defeat in elections and resigned, Sardinian police have secured a warrant to enter the grounds of Villa Certosa, his lavish holiday home on the Costa Smeralda, one of Italy's most beautiful and expensive coastlines. … Prosecutors suspect - as they do with other improvements to the estate over previous years - that it was made without planning permission. The artificial hill, whose olive trees alone are estimated to have cost £80,000, is thought to have been created, and furnished with a bench, to provide a place for contemplation, with a spectacular Mediterranean view. … However, now that Mr Berlusconi is no longer head of Italy's government, he may face a potentially even more damaging legal threat from a separate case in Spain, where the campaigning judge, Baltazar Garzon, who once issued an arrest warrant against Augusto Pinochet, the Chilean dictator, could seek Mr Berlusconi's extradition. The Berlusconi family's Fininvest company is accused of violating anti-trust laws, and failing to pay taxes, when it acquired over 50 per cent of the Spanish commercial channel, Telecinco. Mr Berlusconi denied the charges and as long as he was prime minister he could not be extradited. "It is much easier to secure a conviction in Spain than it is in Italy," said one of Milan's prosecuting magistrates involved in a Berlusconi-related case, who declined to be named. "They don't joke about these things.")

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1//The Daily Star, Lebanon Monday, May 08, 2006

POORLY PROTECTED OIL FACILITIES LEAVE WEST VULNERABLE
Experts warn of hair-trigger market

By Michel Moutot, Agence France Presse ( AFP)

PARIS: With oil prices already stretched to record highs, a terrorist attack targeting vital oil installations would have immediate global consequences, experts say. Wells, pipelines, refineries and tankers have all been targeted in recent years by Al-Qaeda-linked groups, or by local armed militants such as in the Niger Delta - and many of the facilities remain poorly protected against potential attacks.

On February 24, Saudi security forces foiled an attack on oil installations in Abqaiq, which account for 70 percent of the country's output, and 10 percent of the world's, sending jitters through the oil sector.

According to Gal Luft, head of the U.S.-based Institute for the Analysis of Global Security (IAGS), the attack - had it succeeded - would have cut four to six million barrels per day out of an already tight oil market.

"It would have exceeded all of the oil taken off the market by the OPEC (Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries) during the 1973 Arab oil embargo," he said.

For Michael Klare, head of the Peace and World Security program at the University of Massachusetts and author of the study "Resource Wars," oil markets are vulnerable because of a serious lack of spare capacity.

"Without Iraq, there is very little spare oil in the world: Every bit of oil is in use," Klare said. "Even a small interruption in the supply of oil would push prices up.

"That's why the American military is increasingly being converted into a global oil-protection service."

In Nigeria, for example, local militant attacks on oil installations have removed 600,000 barrels per day from the global oil market, according to Roger Diwan, an analyst with the New York-based PFC Energy.

"That weighs on world prices," he said.

Whether to press local demands or a worldwide political agenda, many armed groups have understood that oil sites were an Achilles' heel for the West.

In a video broadcast in December, Al-Qaeda number two Ayman Zawahiri called on "mujahedeen to concentrate (their) attacks on oil stolen from Muslims, from which most revenues go to the enemies of Islam."

On an Islamist website, translated by the IAGS, militant calls on "our brothers in the battlefields to direct some of their great efforts towards the oil wells and the pipelines."

"The killing of 10 American soldiers is nothing compared to the impact of the rise in oil prices on America and the disruption that it causes in the international economy," he said.

Earlier this year, the U.S. institute SITE, which monitors Islamic extremist websites, said it had discovered a password-protected forum listing 12 pages of potential targets for attacks.

They included oil installations in Iraq, Afghanistan and Turkmenistan, as well as the Trans-Alaska oil pipeline - complete with maps and diagrams showing where to strike for maximum impact.

Around 40 percent of world oil production transits via pipelines, many above ground, and many crossing politically troubled regions.

(MORE)

2//The Sunday Times, UK May 07, 2006

STRONGMEN OF SOUTH AMERICA FLEX THEIR MUSCLES
Tony Allen-Mills, New York

On the front line of a new cold war between North and South America, Maria Velazquez Hernandez has already chosen sides. She returned home to Nicaragua last week after an all-expenses paid visit to Venezuela for a cataract operation that vastly improved her sight.

“It was like a miracle from God,” Velazquez declared. “And I want to thank President Hugo Chavez.” Venezuela’s swashbuckling would-be revolutionary leader had scored yet another propaganda victory in his venomous battle with Washington for influence and economic advantage across the Latin American continent.

Velazquez was one of 85 Nicaraguans flown to Caracas for operations funded by Chavez, who will bring his volatile mix of neo-Marxist zeal and charitable largesse to London next week. The 51-year-old former paratrooper will meet Ken Livingstone and other prominent leftwingers who share his contempt for the White House of President George W Bush.

After five years of trying to isolate the belligerent strongman and silence his anti- American insults, Washington’s policy of quietly wooing the Latin neighbours of the president who once called Bush an “asshole” was in tatters last week.

It was a measure of Chavez’s rapidly expanding clout in the region that even a country as poor and widely ignored as Bolivia can send shockwaves around the western world. Evo Morales, its populist new president, announced that he was following Venezuela’s example and nationalising energy resources, despite efforts by Condoleezza Rice, the US secretary of state, to prevent political shocks that might increase American petrol prices.

Officials in Washington wanly acknowledged that US influence in South America was at a dangerously low ebb, with allies of Chavez jockeying for power in elections in Peru, Nicaragua and Mexico.

The stage has been set for a protracted standoff between western consumers worried about rising prices and South American oil producers whose newfound enthusiasm for bashing foreign companies may spread to Africa, Asia and elsewhere.

“Ten years ago (Bolivia) wouldn’t have created a ripple because there was enough world supply,” said Phil Flynn, a Chicago-based analyst. “But now we’re in a seller’s market. What we’re seeing now is any nation with any supply trying to cash in. Power has gone to the heads of these countries. It’s a very dangerous trend.”

As the man in charge of the western hemisphere’s largest oil reserves, Chavez has been making the most of soaring revenues. Indeed his electoral position at home, where his spending on the poor has all but guaranteed him re-election, is so strong that yesterday he announced he would seek “indefinite” re-election, beyond the constitutional limit of 2014, if the right-wing opposition boycotts the December poll.

The oil wealth has also enabled him to advance his nationalist agenda to other Latin American countries he considers unacceptably subservient to what he calls Bush’s “imperialist” designs.

To Washington’s chagrin, Chavez is stitching together a cross-continental anti-American alliance he calls an “axis of good”, but which US officials see as a rogues’ gallery of failed dictators, corrupt opportunists and potentially sinister presidential wannabes.

The godfather of the movement is President Fidel Castro of Cuba, who after years of geopolitical irrelevance has suddenly found himself back in business as a thorn in America’s side.

Yet it is Nicaragua that has become the most intriguing proxy for the battle over Latin hearts and minds. Having spent millions of dollars under President Ronald Reagan to oust the left-wing Sandinista regime, Washington is now facing the prospect of a democratic comeback by Daniel Ortega, the former Sandinista leader again running for president — this time with the help of Chavez.

(SNIP)

US analysts predict a possible backlash against Chavez’s behaviour. He is unpopular in Brazil and Argentina, which consume Bolivia’s natural gas output and will bear the brunt of the nationalisation policies.

Yet Chavez has never shrunk from making enemies and Washington’s efforts to curb him have failed miserably. “I sting those who rattle me,” Chavez warned the US secretary of state recently. “So don’t mess with me, Condoleezza.”

3//Asia Times Online, Hong Kong May 6, 2006

US, SEOUL PARTING WAYS OVER NORTH KOREA
By Donald Kirk

SEOUL -The more US officials claim to be getting along just fine with South Koreans, the more sharply their differences emerge on anything and everything to do with North Korea.

The top American diplomat on North Korea, Christopher Hill, talked up US-South Korean rapport so much at a recent luncheon of the American Chamber of Commerce that one might have thought the two allies agreed totally on such hot-button issues as nuclear weapons, counterfeiting and the benefits of the industrial park at Gaesong just across the Demilitarized Zone between North and South Korea.

No way, however, are the United States and South Korea in synch on any of these topics. In fact, the chasm between the two is widening constantly and soon may be unbridgeable.

The differences emerge at every twist and turn in the complex, convoluted process of bringing North Korea back to six-party talks in Beijing on giving up its nuclear program. Hill made a huge concession to South Korean sensitivities when he signed off on September 19 to the infamous "statement of principles" under which, sure enough, the North said it would abandon its nukes.

The great flaw that renders the statement meaningless except as a document to point to from time to time is that it also promises that all the signatories will review the supply of direly needed energy to the North "at an appropriate time". No sooner was the ink dry on this piece of paper than North Korea reverted to its demand for nuclear power plants, as promised in the 1994 Geneva framework agreement, before doing a thing about halting its program for building nuclear weapons.

The fact is, as Hill later acknowledged, he agreed to this document so the United States would not appear as the odd man out, the spoilsport responsible for blocking any agreement at all. He was under strong pressure from the veteran South Korean diplomat who was then the South's chief negotiator at the talks, Song Min-soon. Song, who had gotten to know Hill when they both were ambassadors to Poland, now has moved on - and up - to the highly influential post of national security adviser, one of President Roh Moo-hyun's top aides.

At his talk before the chamber Hill let everyone know how friendly he was with Song. He joked that Song had been promoted since the last round of talks while he remained where he was, assistant secretary of state for East Asia and the Pacific.

The fact they get along so well personally, though, has done nothing to rid South Koreans of the sense that the United States is deliberately sabotaging the talks by raising the issue of North Korean counterfeiting. Why now, Koreans ask, and why won't the United States just drop the topic long enough for North Korea to return to the table?

(MORE)

4//RIA Novosti (Russian News & Information Agency), Russia 17:11 07/05/2006

RUSSIA CONSIDERS ANNULLING BENEFITS FOR GEORGIA, UKRAINE, IF THEY QUIT CIS

MOSCOW, May 7 (RIA Novosti) - The government of Russia is considering canceling benefits for Georgia and Ukraine, if they decide to withdraw from the Commonwealth of Independent States, a government source said Sunday.

Georgian foreign minister Gela Bezhuashvili said Sunday Georgia had started consultations with Ukraine on their withdrawal from the CIS, a loose association of former Soviet republics.

"In the wake of statements made by the leaders of Georgia and Ukraine about the possibility of their withdrawal from the CIS, the government of Russia is considering canceling a number of benefits, which these states enjoy within the CIS," the source said.

(SNIP)

Russian experts say Georgia's withdrawal from the CIS will mean for most of the republic's population a rupture or a considerable weakening of traditional economic and humanitarian ties with Russia and other CIS countries.

Experts say Georgia could sustain the greatest losses in this case in the economic sphere, in particular, in agriculture, which employs half of the republic's able-bodied population and sells its products mostly in the CIS countries.

According to experts, it would be difficult for Georgia to find alternative markets because its products are frequently of low quality. The search for alternative markets would reduce the republic's export revenues and would lead to agricultural product overstocking and the bankruptcy of agricultural producing and processing businesses. This would also lead to a higher unemployment rate.

According to official figures, there were 370,000 unemployed people in Georgia in mid-2005 or 18% of the workforce. According to unofficial figures, the unemployment rate was as high as 40%.

Georgia's withdrawal from the CIS would also affect the republic's energy sector, which covers only 40% of the country's energy needs while 60% of electricity is largely supplied from Russia, experts say.

5//The Telegraph, UK (Filed: 07/05/2006)

POLICE PROBE BERLUSCONI’S ‘THINKING HILL’
By Hilary Clarke in Rome

As long as he was prime minister, Silvio Berlusconi could keep police investigators outside the walls of his estate on the island of Sardinia, insisting that state secrets would be imperilled if they came inside.

But now, a week after the billionaire media mogul finally accepted defeat in elections and resigned, Sardinian police have secured a warrant to enter the grounds of Villa Certosa, his lavish holiday home on the Costa Smeralda, one of Italy's most beautiful and expensive coastlines.

Tomorrow, judicial police will enter the estate for the first time to inspect an unlikely new development: a 30ft hill, with a paved viewing point at the top, expensively planted with 100-year-old olive trees.

The mound, dubbed his "thinking hill" by Italian newspapers, was first revealed in a local television documentary last week.

Prosecutors suspect - as they do with other improvements to the estate over previous years - that it was made without planning permission. The artificial hill, whose olive trees alone are estimated to have cost £80,000, is thought to have been created, and furnished with a bench, to provide a place for contemplation, with a spectacular Mediterranean view.

Valerio Cicalo, a local prosecutor, believes that the concrete foundations laid under the hill could be in violation of coastal protection laws, which ban alterations to the terrain within 2 kilometres of the sea. If the investigation finds that Mr Berlusconi has broken the law, he could face a fine and the hill may be demolished.

When he was prime minister, local officials who wanted to investigate possible planning abuses were denied access to the 27-room villa and its 52 acres of grounds because all 14 of the Berlusconi family homes in Italy were protected by state secrecy rules, which were introduced two years ago.

The artificial mound is the latest in a series of embellishments which Sardinian prosecutors are now investigating. Mr Berlusconi added sea water therapeutic pools, a mock Greek amphitheatre and an underground docking bay, with a lift leading through the rocks up to the villa.

His lawyer, Nicolo Ghedini, claimed that planning and environmental rules had been observed for the "unique and extraordinary" park that Mr Berlusconi created.

The former prime minister has always claimed to be the target of Left-wing magistrates. Now that Italy has a Left-of-centre government, his supporters believe that he faces a vendetta by prosecutors, who have unsuccessfully attempted to convict him more than 10 times, on charges ranging from tax evasion to bribery.

(SPIN)

However, now that Mr Berlusconi is no longer head of Italy's government, he may face a potentially even more damaging legal threat from a separate case in Spain, where the campaigning judge, Baltazar Garzon, who once issued an arrest warrant against Augusto Pinochet, the Chilean dictator, could seek Mr Berlusconi's extradition.

The Berlusconi family's Fininvest company is accused of violating anti-trust laws, and failing to pay taxes, when it acquired over 50 per cent of the Spanish commercial channel, Telecinco. Mr Berlusconi denied the charges and as long as he was prime minister he could not be extradited.

"It is much easier to secure a conviction in Spain than it is in Italy," said one of Milan's prosecuting magistrates involved in a Berlusconi-related case, who declined to be named. "They don't joke about these things."