World Media Watch for May 22, 2002

BUZZFLASH NOTE: Once again, these are the views and perspectives of the individual papers, not of BuzzFlash or Gloria. They offer BuzzFlash readers a way of reading what other nations are saying about the crisis, whether we like it or not. We repeat: This is not an endorsement of their viewpoints.

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1//Khaleej Times, United Arab Emirates--"SECRET US-IRAN TALKS" STIR NEW POLITICAL ROW IN IRAN (The row over alleged "secret talks" between Iran and the United States grew on Tuesday, with a senior reformist member of parliament insisting they had taken place, despite official denials…Mirdamadi called on the government two weeks ago to disclose the details of the secret talks alleged by the media to have taken place since November 2001 in either Cyprus or Turkey.)

2//Ha'aretz, Israel--ANALYSIS: BUSH SENDING BURNS ON A SHUTTLE MISSION (Pentagon bosses are not happy about Burns' mission to the Middle East, but his direct superior, Secretary of State Colin Powell, refuses to admit defeat in the battle for the President's ear. While Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld and his deputy, Paul Wolfowitz, are pressuring President Bush to put off his Middle East efforts until next summer, after the Iraqi problem has been dealt with, Powell and Tenet belong to the "Palestine problem first" camp.)

3//The Globe and Mail, Canada--CANADA TO PULL TROOPS OUT OF AFGHANISTAN (Both Mr. Eggleton and Chief of Defence Staff Gen. Ray Henault said Canada's military resources are stretched too thin. Because of prior commitments in Bosnia and in the Golan Heights, Gen. Henault said the military is unable to replace the troops with more Canadian soldiers."…"It's something other countries are feeling as well," he said…Things have improved as a result of coalition activity, but I would not agree the war has been won," he said. "We continue to do significant levels of activity in support of the campaign.")

4//Asia Times Online, Thailand--WORLD'S SEAPORTS HIGHLY VULNERABLE TO ATTACK (...US seaports may be the most vulnerable locations for terrorist attacks with weapons of mass destruction. Captain William Schubert, Maritime Administrator of the Department of Transportation, warned that an attack on even one ship would probably force the closure of all 361 US ports for months. "We would have to shut our ports down for four months just to check all the containers. If anything would ruin our economy, that would," he said.)

5//The West Australian, Australia--DALAI LAMA WARNS WAR ON TERROR COULD BACKFIRE ("The difficulty with violence is (that) once you commit it, it's unpredictable," he said. "At the beginning you may have certain intentions or certain aims but once you've committed violence then there's always a danger (it will get) out of control.")

6//The Guardian, UK--COMMENT: THE GUNMEN COME IN FROM THE COLD (The truly significant development of Friday's Irish general election has been the rise of Sinn Fein.)

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1//Khaleej Times 21 May 2002. 9 Rabi Al Awwal, 1423.
http://www.khaleejtimes.co.ae/middleeast.htm#storyl

"SECRET US-IRAN TALKS" STIR NEW POLITICAL ROW IN IRAN

TEHRAN - AFP The row over alleged "secret talks" between Iran and the United States grew on Tuesday, with a senior reformist member of parliament insisting they had taken place, despite official denials.

Mohsen Mirdamadi, reformist chairman of the parliamentary Foreign Affairs and National Security Committee, said he was "surprised" at the comments Sunday by Intelligence Minister Ali Yunesi strongly denying any "official or unofficial" contacts between Tehran and Washington. Mirdamadi was quoted by the reformist daily Norouz, which he heads, that he would be meeting Yunesi's deputy Wednesday to give him information on the subject, which is highly sensitive in Iran.

A parliamentary source meanwhile said that a conference organised by Mirdamadi's committee on US-Iran relations, to be attended by both conservative and reformist figures, was going ahead as planned Tuesday. Mirdamadi called on the government two weeks ago to disclose the details of the secret talks alleged by the media to have taken place since November 2001 in either Cyprus or Turkey.

The government for its part ordered Yunesi's ministry to investigate, prompting the minister's remarks on Sunday. "These reports are rumours and in this situation in which the United States is threatening our nation, any talks with the US are against our national interest," he said. But Mirdamadi queried whether any inquiry had been mounted, warned Tuesday, "These remarks without investigation will harm the credibility of the intelligence ministry".

The reformist MP claimed Yunesi was voicing "his own personal views" and urged the intelligence ministry to gather all its information and study it before coming to a conclusion on the matter of clandestine US-Iranian channels. Meanwhile, the reformist press has fingered conservative figures, including former president Akbar Hashemi-Rafsanjani, as being involved in the secret talks.

But conservative newspapers have swung back at the allegations. The daily Jomhuri-e-Eslami accused reformist foreign ministry officials of spreading rumours about Rafsanjani to "break the taboo of talks with the US." It fumed: "These rumours damage the credibility of the regime".

(SNIP)

The United States, which has lumped Iran with North Korea and Iraq in an "axis of evil" is almost a daily target of attacks by the Iranian leadership, the latest coming on Monday from reformist President Mohammad Khatami. "American leaders are making statements which threaten the peace and stability of the world," Khatami was quoted by the radio as saying in a meeting with the speaker of the Kenyan parliament.

"This goes against the interests of the United States and the American people." -

2//Ha'aretz Wednesday, May 22, 2002 Sivan 11, 5762 Israel Time: 03:28 (GMT+3)
http://www.haaretzdaily.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=
166544&displayTypeCd=1&sideCd=1&contrassID=2

ANALYSIS: BUSH SENDING BURNS ON A SHUTTLE MISSION
By Akiva Eldar, Ha'aretz Correspondent

While CIA director George Tenet is busy defending the Bush administration's handling of pre-September 11 warnings of possible terror attacks, the U.S. has decided to dispatch Assistant Secretary of State for the Near East, William Burns, to the region. Burns will bounce back and forth between Jerusalem and Ramallah in an attempt to lay down the rules for the proposed regional peace conference.

Pentagon bosses are not happy about Burns' mission to the Middle East, but his direct superior, Secretary of State Colin Powell, refuses to admit defeat in the battle for the President's ear. While Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld and his deputy, Paul Wolfowitz, are pressuring President Bush to put off his Middle East efforts until next summer, after the Iraqi problem has been dealt with, Powell and Tenet belong to the "Palestine problem first" camp. In a paraphrase of what James Baker told the first President Bush ("F**k the Jews. They don't vote for us anyway."), the Pentagon is telling Bush Junior the same thing about the Saudis. American forces, say Pentagon sources, can make do with Jordanian and Turkish ground support in any attack on Iraq. But the State Department and the CIA are warning about getting too close to the fragile Jordanian monarchy, without a Saudi support system.

(SNIP)

The first task at hand is to convince Bush not to throw down the gauntlet and send out the invitations to the conference. The working assumption is that Bush will do anything he can to avoid a confrontation with Prime Minister Ariel Sharon. In order for his mission to be successful, Burns will have to find the magic formula that will lengthen Sharon's political life, without shortening that of Yasser Arafat's.

The principle guiding Washington, as it tries to formulate an agenda for the proposed regional conference, is that the sides will go into the conference with a long-term interim agreement, and will come out of it with a permanent settlement. The U.S. will free Israel from having to address the quality of any permanent settlement. Instead, the Palestinians will be presented with the "Bush Vision," that was adopted by the UN Security Council, and calls for the creation of a Palestinian state.

(MORE)

3//The Globe and Mail POSTED AT 5:26 PM EDT Tuesday, May 21
http://www.globeandmail.com/servlet/RTGAMArticleHTMLTemplate/C/20020521/
waffg0521?hub=homeBN&tf=tgam%252Frealtime%252Ffullstory.html&cf=tgam/re
altime/config-neutral&vg=BigAdVariableGenerator&slug=waffg0521&date=20020521&
archive=RTGAM&site=Front&ad_page_name=breakingnews

CANADA TO PULL TROOPS OUT OF AFGHANISTAN
By Allan Woods
Globe and Mail Update

Canada's 850 ground troops will be pulled out of Afghanistan at the end of July because the country's underfunded military is stretched too thin, the Minister of Defence said Tuesday in a news conference.

(SNIP)

Canada's elite commando troop, JTF2, as well as almost 1,300 air and naval personnel will remain in Afghanistan to contribute to the American led fight against terror.

Mr. Eggleton also said Canadian troops would play a role in training the new Afghan army. "Operation Apollo will continue to reflect Canada's commitment to the war against terrorism," he said.

Both Mr. Eggleton and Chief of Defence Staff Gen. Ray Henault said Canada's military resources are stretched too thin. Because of prior commitments in Bosnia and in the Golan Heights, Gen. Henault said the military is unable to replace the troops with more Canadian soldiers.

(SNIP)

"It's something other countries are feeling as well," he said.

In Afghanistan, the decision was met with an audible sigh of relief at the Kandahar airport when troops were informed they would be returning home at after six months in Afghanistan.

(SNIP)

"Things have improved as a result of coalition activity, but I would not agree the war has been won," he said. "We continue to do significant levels of activity in support of the campaign."

4//Asia Times Online May 22, 2002
http://www.atimes.com/front/DE22Aa01.html

WORLD'S SEAPORTS HIGHLY VULNERABLE TO ATTACK
By Thalif Deen (Inter Press Service)

UNITED NATIONS - The world's seaports are vulnerable to terrorism, the United Nations warned on Monday. UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, in a 127-page study released here, said that maritime security has been placed high on the agenda of the international community following the terrorist attacks in the United States last September.

(SNIP)

Monday's study said coastal states face major obstacles in fighting terrorism and crimes at sea. These include shortage of trained personnel and equipment; obsolescence or inadequacy of most national legislation; and weak maritime law enforcement capability of national agencies. A necessary first step in addressing some of these problems is for member states to become parties to the relevant UN conventions that govern the suppression of these crimes, the study added.

The UN warning comes amid reports that weapons of mass destruction, including nuclear, biological and chemical arms, could be freely transported from country to country in containerized cargo. Addressing a US Senate subcommittee on Technology, Terrorism and Government Information, a US official said early this month that US seaports may be the most vulnerable locations for terrorist attacks with weapons of mass destruction. Captain William Schubert, Maritime Administrator of the Department of Transportation, warned that an attack on even one ship would probably force the closure of all 361 US ports for months. "We would have to shut our ports down for four months just to check all the containers. If anything would ruin our economy, that would," he said.

Currently, about 90 percent of all goods in global trade are carried as containerized sea cargo. The United States alone receives more than 6 million containers every year. But only about 10 percent undergo X-ray scanning at some of the busiest US ports, including New York, Miami, Los Angeles, Oakland and Long Beach. Schubert said these containers are welded shut at foreign ports and delivered unopened to US cities. These containers are "perfect places" for terrorists to hide and deliver nuclear weapons, he added. Senator Diane Feinstein of California was quoted as saying that she would not mind if US ports are closed down for four months "if that will prevent a nuclear explosion".

(SNIP)

In the 20 years since the adoption of the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), crimes at sea have become more prevalent and are increasing, the study warned. The framers of the convention never envisaged many of the crimes that exist today and, as a result, either included only a general provision or none at all regarding suppression, it added.

(MORE)

5//The West Australian May 21, 2002
http://www.thewest.com.au/20020521/news/latest/tw-news-latest-home-sto57230.html

DALAI LAMA WARNS WAR ON TERROR COULD BACKFIRE

MELBOURNE-AAP THE Dalai Lama today questioned whether the war on terrorism was the best response to the September 11 attacks by Osama bin Laden.

(SNIP)

He could not suggest a short-term solution to the terrorist threat, but he warned the war on terrorism could backfire.

"The difficulty with violence is (that) once you commit it, it's unpredictable," he said.

"At the beginning you may have certain intentions or certain aims but once you've committed violence then there's always a danger (it will get) out of control."

The Dalai Lama said war could create a cycle of violence and counter-violence that did little to solve the original problem.

(SNIP)

The Dalai Lama said the long-term solution to the terrorist threat was to concentrate on basic human values rather than force.

He said the historical practice of the stronger nations with the most weapons having the biggest say was out-of-date.

Instead, the world's citizens had a shared responsibility to interact with and understand their neighbours.

(SNIP)

The Dalai Lama said such a long-term solution would reduce "serious terrorist acts", although completely eliminating terrorism was impossible. "So long as human beings remain on this planet, I think this will remain," he said.

The Dalai Lama is visiting Australia to promote Buddhist teachings of peace and to highlight Tibet's struggle for autonomy within China.

6//The Guardian Tuesday May 21, 2002
http://www.guardian.co.uk/Northern_Ireland/Story/0,2763,719346,00.html

COMMENT: THE GUNMEN COME IN FROM THE COLD
Sinn Fein and the Greens are the real victors of the Irish election

Niall Stanage
Niall Stanage is special correspondent for Magill magazine in Dublin.

What a difference a decade makes. In the Irish Republic of 1992, popular revulsion with an IRA campaign that seemed more sordid and pointless with every passing day was widespread. When Sinn Fein sought permission to hold its annual conference in Dublin's historic Mansion House, the request was refused. The republican faithful eventually convened in a draughty community hall. Speakers from the platform traded in the old lexicon of revolutionary certainty, but behind the scenes there was dismay - the party's failure to connect with the people of the republic could hardly have been more obvious.

Now all has changed utterly. The truly significant development of Friday's Irish general election has been the rise of Sinn Fein. The election came at a time when Ireland's much-vaunted Celtic Tiger appears to be running out of steam. Enough of a feel-good factor remained, however, for voters to return the outgoing coalition government, made up of Bertie Ahern's Fianna Fail party and the Progressive Democrats, to power. There was little sign of the shift towards the hard right seen in recent elections elsewhere in Europe. The protest vote went instead to the left, and Sinn Fein was the main beneficiary.

The fact that Gerry Adams's party won 6.5% of the first preference votes may not sound particularly impressive, but it represents more than a doubling of republican support since the last Irish general election in 1997. The party now holds five seats in the Dublin parliament, up from one five years ago.

(SNIP)

The upswing in Sinn Fein's electoral fortunes is clearly related to the IRA's abandonment of armed struggle. But Adams and his friends had been reaping the benefits of changes in Irish politics long before last Friday. Following the 1997 election, for example, the once-radical Democratic Left was absorbed into the larger, more middle-of-the road Labour party. In the process, considerable ground was freed up on the left and Sinn Fein wasted no time in cultivating that territory.

(SNIP)

But Sinn Fein's gains did not come only from its opponents' mistakes. The party has raised the notion of all politics being local to the status of a guiding principle, and its presence is now formidable across the republic. Sinn Fein has also been accused, perhaps unsurprisingly, of playing fast and loose with the law. Allegations of anti-drug vigilantism abound, particularly in connection with Martin Ferris's supporters. Ferris denies the charges. In any case, they do not appear to have harmed his electoral performance in the slightest. Sinn Fein, uniquely, can harness a brand of outlaw cachet that seems to become all the more magnetic as memories of IRA atrocities fade. Sinn Fein's appeal to the disenfranchised of Irish society is a powerful one. It draws support from the residents of sprawling housing estates for whom the Celtic Tiger is a sick joke; from young voters bored by the dull consensual nature of orthodox Irish politics; and from those who sympathise with the old Irish tradition of republican socialism.

Sinn Fein's rise need not be met with an agonised gnashing of teeth, however. From the outset of the peace process, Adams and his allies have used the promise of increased political power, north and south of the border, to draw the paramilitary hawks further and further away from armed struggle. They have already been proved right in Northern Ireland. Now the republic has followed suit. Sinn Fein has, to the horror of northern unionists, realised its aim of becoming a truly all-Ireland party. The gunmen have, finally, come in from the cold.

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© 2002, Gloria R. Lalumia
insight@zianet.com

More Stuff at: http://www.zianet.com/insightanalytical

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