by Gloria R. Lalumia
World
Media Watch
by Gloria R. Lalumia
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//Asia Times Online, Hong Kong--CHINA, RUSSIA AND THE IRAQI OIL GAME (As Iraq is universally acknowledged to be the new promised land of oil, the name of the game in the industry is PSA. PSA stands for "production share agreement": Iran and Kuwait, for instance, don't approve PSAs, they flatly refuse to share sovereignty over their natural wealth. Iraq is another matter entirely...To widespread doubts about how a pro-American post-Saddam government would respect contracts signed with non-American oil giants, the INC (Iraqi National Congress) has reassured all players - mostly Russian and European - that the new post-Saddam administration will honor all its PSAs.)
2//The Independent, UK--TURKS' PROTEST VOTE MAY SWEEP ISLAMIST PARTY INTO POWER (Such is the frustration on the streets that, come Sunday's elections, voters are poised, once again, to deliver a resounding protest by voting in a new Islamic-leaning party with no government experience... Polls show that the Justice and Development Party (AKP), led by a popular former mayor of Istanbul, is the clear front-runner... But the prospect of an AKP victory in Turkey, a Nato member, is worrying for the secularist establishment and military, who in 1997 forced from power the first Islamist-led government in what was described as a "soft coup". Staunch secularists speak darkly of the popular AKP leader, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, being a "wolf in sheep's guise" and fear he will introduce an Islamic agenda if he takes power.)
3//Gulf News Online, United Arab Emirates--GOVERNMENT ARRESTS RELATIVE TO TRACK DOWN HIKMATYAR (Authoritative sources said yesterday that the arrest of the son-in-law of former Afghan prime minister Gulbadin Hikmatyar was an attempt to track down the elusive leader who has been vocal in his support for the ousted Taliban regime...Former Afghan diplomat and son-in-law of Gulbadin Hikmatyar, Baheer was arrested along with his servants from Islamabad by Pakistani police accompanied by FBI agents and taken to an undisclosed location for interrogation. His computers and personal files were also seized.)
4//Arutz Sheva, Israel-- PUBLIC BLAMES BEN-ELIEZER (A phone poll conducted last night for Israel Radio found that 56% of those asked blame Defense Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer for the break-up of the national unity government, while only 18% blame Prime Minister Sharon.)
GOVERNMENT
AT THE CROSSROADS (Staffers in Sharon's office say that he may wait until
after the Labor primaries on Nov. 19 before he decides what to do. Some
say that the Prime Minister does not want to form a government with an
"extremist" image, and that he has not given up hope up of Labor
re-joining the government - even though chances for such are very slim.)
5//Frankfurter Allgemeine, Germany--SCHRODER MESSAGE TURNS GRIM (The chancellor
who spent most of his first four years in office essentially telling the
country that only minor course corrections were necessary to secure prosperity
has launched the legislative agenda of his second term with an altogether
bleaker economic message...Most anger inside the SPD so far concerns the
planned implementation of the Hartz Commission proposals on labor reform,
which call for deep cuts to long-term unemployment benefits. But reductions
in subsidies and changes in Germany's massive health and pension systems
are also coming, Schröder said.)
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1//Asia
Times Online October 31, 2002
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/DK01Ak02.html
CHINA,
RUSSIA AND THE IRAQI OIL GAME
By Pepe Escobar
Eleven percent of the world´s reserves (second in the world after Saudi Arabia); 112 billion barrels of proven reserves; and at least 220 billion barrels of probable reserves. As Iraq is universally acknowledged to be the new promised land of oil, the name of the game in the industry is PSA.
PSA stands for "production share agreement": Iran and Kuwait, for instance, don't approve PSAs, they flatly refuse to share sovereignty over their natural wealth. Iraq is another matter entirely.
Because of the UN sanctions, and with its oil infrastructure in tatters, recent agreements approved by Saddam Hussein, with French conglomerate TotalFinaElf, for instance, had to be PSAs. But anyway, these are only agreements; TotalFinaElf boss Thierry Desmarest said not long ago that no contract had been formally signed yet.
The war of positioning for a possible post-Saddam Iraqi environment is getting more ruthless by the minute. American oil conglomerates are openly courting representatives of the Iraqi National Congress (INC), the umbrella opposition. The darling of Exxon Mobil and Chevron Texaco is Ahmed Chalabi, US vice President Dick Cheney's pal and major contender for the title of Iraq's number one opposition figure. Chalabi, the INC leader, has already stressed on the record that he favors the creation of a "US-led consortium to develop Iraqi oil fields. American companies will have a big shot at Iraqi oil."
To widespread doubts about how a pro-American post-Saddam government would respect contracts signed with non-American oil giants, the INC has reassured all players - mostly Russian and European - that the new post-Saddam administration will honor all its PSAs.
(SNIP)
Security Council members China, Russia and France will only follow Washington's plans for regime change if they are absolutely sure of a level playing field in a post-Saddam Iraqi oil industry. Meanwhile, a doomsday scenario is deeply bothering Bush-Cheney and the American oil army: attack against Iraq. Middle East in flames. $60 a barrel of oil. Game over.
But hopes are high on a dream scenario. Saddam is out in no time. Negligible "collateral damage". Iraq starts pumping oceans of oil. The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries is knocked out. $10 a barrel of oil. Victory.
This explains why Washington is going all the way - with or without UN resolution, weapons inspectors, whatever. To get to the oil, you need a vassal state. Ergo, Saddam's days are numbered.
2//The Independent 01 November 2002
http://news.independent.co.uk/europe/story.jsp?story=347832
TURKS'
PROTEST VOTE MAY SWEEP ISLAMIST PARTY INTO POWER
By Pelin Turgut in Istanbul
Pity the Turks. Angered by corruption scandals and endemic pork-barrelling, they have in every election for the past 12 years voted out the old and taken up an alternative in the hope of good government.
Yet each has become another failed experiment - the most recent coalition plunged the country into its worst recession in living memory.
Such is the frustration on the streets that, come Sunday's elections, voters are poised, once again, to deliver a resounding protest by voting in a new Islamic-leaning party with no government experience.
Polls show that the Justice and Development Party (AKP), led by a popular former mayor of Istanbul, is the clear front-runner, with about 30 per cent of the vote in a field of 23 parties. The nearest contender, the left-leaning Republican People's Party (CHP), has about 18 per cent.
None of the three parties in power is even likely to pass the national 10 per cent threshold needed to post MPs to parliament.
An AKP victory on Sunday would not, however, mean that Turkey is becoming more Islamic. Surveys show that religious hardliners account for only a fourth of the votes the AKP is likely to receive. The fact is most Turkish voters will go to the ballot box to vent their rage at years of bad government and to give the unknown a chance.
But the prospect of an AKP victory in Turkey, a Nato member, is worrying for the secularist establishment and military, who in 1997 forced from power the first Islamist-led government in what was described as a "soft coup". Staunch secularists speak darkly of the popular AKP leader, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, being a "wolf in sheep's guise" and fear he will introduce an Islamic agenda if he takes power.
The idea of an AKP-led government is also unnerving to Turkey's Western allies. America is lobbying Brussels to give Turkey some hope of EU membership at a European Union summit next month. A date with Europe, Washington hopes, will temper any extremist tendencies. But the AKP, one of two parties to emerge from the ashes of a banned Islamist party, says it has changed. Gone are the heavy beards, vows of pan-Islamic unity and restrictions on free-market economics. Mr Erdogan and his friends are now pro-EU and even supportive of American military action in Iraq.They have organised briefings in European boardrooms to convince wary investors of their commitment to IMF-backed fiscal policies.
(MORE)
3//Gulf News Online | 31-10-2002
http://www.gulf-news.com/Articles/news.asp?ArticleID=67196
GOVERNMENT
ARRESTS RELATIVE TO TRACK DOWN HIKMATYAR
Peshawar | From Behroz Khan
Authoritative sources said yesterday that the arrest of the son-in-law of former Afghan prime minister Gulbadin Hikmatyar was an attempt to track down the elusive leader who has been vocal in his support for the ousted Taliban regime.
"I think his arrest is aimed at finding clues to the whereabouts of Gulbaddin Hikmatyar," a close relative of the arrested Dr. Ghairat Baheer told Gulf News.
Former Afghan diplomat and son-in-law of Gulbadin Hikmatyar, Baheer was arrested along with his servants from Islamabad by Pakistani police accompanied by FBI agents and taken to an undisclosed location for interrogation. His computers and personal files were also seized.
Baheer's family said that the raid on his F-10 residence in Islamabad was carried out at 3.00am on Tuesday to arrest the ex-diplomat, who also hold the portfolio of foreign affairs in Hikmatyar-led Hezb-i-Islami Afghanistan.
The chief of Hezb-i-Islami is wanted by the U.S. forces for his opposition to the presence of Americans in Afghanistan and issuing pro-Taliban statement after he was expelled from Iran under U.S. pressure.
(SNIP)
U.S. forces have started an intensive search for Hikmatyar in different parts of Afghanistan, particularly in Kunar province, where the U.S. and their Afghan allies believed the former Afghan prime minister could be hiding.
(MORE)
4//Arutz Sheva Friday, 01 November 2002, 26 Cheshvan 5763
PUBLIC
BLAMES BEN-ELIEZER
http://www.IsraelNN.com/news.php3?id=32798
A phone poll conducted last night for Israel Radio found that 56% of those asked blame Defense Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer for the break-up of the national unity government, while only 18% blame Prime Minister Sharon. In addition, 66% attribute political motives to Ben-Eliezer's actions yesterday, while 38% feel the same about Sharon.
GOVERNMENT
AT THE CROSSROADS
http://www.IsraelNN.com/news.php3?id=32797
The Cabinet ministers of the Likud party will convene tonight to discuss their party's next moves amidst the political crisis now facing the country. The Labor Party's resignation last night has left the government with only 55 (out of 120) Knesset seats, with no-confidence motions scheduled for as early as next Monday.
Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has not officially turned to the 7-seat National Union-Israel Beiteinu (NUYB) party, headed by MK Avigdor Lieberman, but it is understood that NUYB is the most likely candidate to join. Lieberman is currently against joining the government, but members of his party do not agree. "If we can't join a right-wing government, then which government can we join?" asks his colleague MK Benny Elon. Lieberman answered this question on Arutz-7 earlier this week, saying that he wants new elections as soon as possible, which would give the right-wing more strength in the Knesset and enable a broader government.
Former MK Chanan Porat, founding leader of the National Union party, said today that he would recommend joining a narrow nationalist government, "but with two conditions. First is the legalization of the outposts, which should not be too problematic. More significantly, the government must postpone all consideration of Bush's Road Map plan - something that is much more dangerous than Oslo - at least until after the next elections."
(SNIP)
Staffers in Sharon's office say that he may wait until after the Labor primaries on Nov. 19 before he decides what to do. Some say that the Prime Minister does not want to form a government with an "extremist" image, and that he has not given up hope up of Labor re-joining the government - even though chances for such are very slim: Two of the three candidates in the race, Ramon and Mitzna, have been outspokenly in favor of leaving the national unity government, and even the underdog Ben-Eliezer has said that he would not return.
(MORE)
5//Frankfurter Allgemeine November 1, 2002
http://www.faz.com/IN/INtemplates/eFAZ/default.asp?
width=640&height=452&agt=netscape&ver=4&svr=4.77
SCHRODER
MESSAGE TURNS GRIM
Chancellor who avoided talk of austerity now warns that spending cuts
inevitable
By Michael Gavin
The chancellor who spent most of his first four years in office essentially telling the country that only minor course corrections were necessary to secure prosperity has launched the legislative agenda of his second term with an altogether bleaker economic message.
With Germany facing unemployment of almost 10 percent, the likelihood of negligible economic growth at least through 2003 and public finances that are stretched close to the limit and worsening by the day, it was an uncharacteristically somber Gerhard Schröder who delivered his new government's policy statement on Tuesday.
Before it was over, Germans had been given their clearest warning yet that painful cuts to the country's extensive social welfare system are on the way. "Reform means questioning some claims, regulations and benefits of the German welfare state," the chancellor said, though he provided no details. "It is not the time to always be making new demands without being willing to be prepared for new exertions," he said at another point.
Following two weeks of coalition negotiations in which his Social Democratic Party (SPD) and its junior partner, the Greens, agreed on a broad range of tax hikes, the speech's repeated emphasis on austerity appeared to signal to voters, and the left wing of Schröder's own party, that the focus is now turning to the spending side of the ledger.
Most anger inside the SPD so far concerns the planned implementation of the Hartz Commission proposals on labor reform, which call for deep cuts to long-term unemployment benefits. But reductions in subsidies and changes in Germany's massive health and pension systems are also coming, Schröder said.
(SNIP)
The change in tone from Schröder's old claim that the economy needed only "a steady hand" angered the main opposition leader, Angela Merkel of the Christian Democratic alliance. She accused him of "disappointing and deceiving" voters. Schröder's message was so relentlessly grim that his economics and labor minister, Wolfgang Clement, warned reporters the next day against excessive pessimism. The economy is "moving too slowly, but it's still going up," he said.
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©
2002, Gloria R. Lalumia
insight@zianet.com
Updated listings of Radio for Progressives on the internet at http://www.zianet.com/insightanalytical
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