SpyBlogg

Definitely forget the terror war

2005-07-28T19:51:00.000+02:00

Definitely it’s time to say goodbye to the GWOT- the Global War on Terror. It is apparently over because the idea is not playing well in the polls. That war's mission has now been revised with a new enemy that its likely to prove more popular better in the media. (and in the mind of Thomas Friedman.) Call it "violent extremism" a concept that is at once vaguer and more pervasive and something that violent extremists on all sides can understand..Bush Aide Karen Hughes now has to sell the new war and help us forget the old. Down with VE's - repeat after me.

Get Them Violent Extremists. It’s probably easier. And who are they? Fox's Bill O'Reilly named some in a recent outburst of bloated Bill-sized baloney as passed on by FAIR:

"You must know the difference between dissent from the Iraq War and the war on terror and undermining it. And any American that undermines that war, with our soldiers in the field, or undermines the war on terror, with 3,000 dead on 9/11, is a traitor. Everybody got it? Dissent, fine; undermining, you're a traitor. Got it? So, all those clowns over at the liberal radio network, we could incarcerate them immediately. Will you have that done, please? Send over the FBI and just put them in chains, because they, you know, they're undermining everything and they don't care, couldn't care less."

There has always been, for me, a very bad smell about 9/11. I don't know if it’s the PNAC declaration that it will take a "Pearl Harbour like incident to mobilize the American public for war in Iraq" back in 1998, or the testimony of former FBI agents such as Sybil Edmonds and Kathleen Crowley, who testified before the 9/11 commission. It seemed that the outlines of the 9/11 plot were discovered by 4/11. However, after 9/11, those within the FBI who actively tried to prevent it were either demoted or fired, while those who actively or passively prevented the FBI from acting on the information were promoted.

“I have always believed that decisions of promotion and demotion are closely linked to the goals of the organization. What exactly were the goals of the FBI before and after 9/11?
Something is not kosher, and everybody knows it.
Write: LuisB

Objective: The War on Tourism

2005-07-27T19:10:00.000+02:00

Call it the terrorists' War on Tourism - a war waged by jihadists that long predates 9-11, Afghanistan and Iraq.
Last week's terror attacks on Egypt's Sharm el-Sheikh resorts left nearly 90 dead. The attacks also sent an economic and political shockwave throughout the rest of Egypt.

Jihadist terrorists wage a war to create and maintain poverty. In Egypt, damaging the tourist industry does just that. Tourists climbing the Pyramids, sailing on the Nile and sipping coffee in Cairo are a source of very good jobs.

In 1992, the jihadists launched an "insurrection" against the Egyptian government, and the tourist industry was an immediate target. Since 1992, there have been at least 15 major attacks on tourists - an advertising campaign of high explosive and bullets designed to undermine the Egyptian economy.

For example, in 1993, jihadists targeted Cairo's Tahrir Square, killing a Swede, a Turk and an Egyptian. Eighteen were injured. In 1997, six terrorists massacred 58 foreign tourists (many of them Germans) and four Egyptians in an attack at Luxor's Temple of Hatshepsut. Islamist extremists argue that "pagan" temples desecrate Muslim lands, so if the jihadists ever take power in Egypt, Luxor might be razed. Don't laugh - the Taliban blew up the Bamiyan Buddhas in Afghanistan.

Here's a sketch of the terrorists' counter-tourism strategy: Attacks on foreign visitors guarantee instant international headlines, especially in the visitors' home nations. All terrorist attacks are designed to sow doubt in the local government's ability to protect lives, property and businesses, but the tourist industry is a very international industry and attacking it is an easy way to discourage international investment.

These attacks also isolate and impoverish individuals who work in tourist industries -people who tend to be multilingual and aware that "foreigners aren't devils."

Jihadist assaults on tourists aren't confined to the Middle East. The October 2002 Bali nightclub terror blasts killed 202 people. Suddenly, Bali's hotels were empty and thousands of Indonesians were without paychecks. Jemaah Islamiya - Al Qaeda's Southeast Asian "subsidiary" - took credit for that attack.

A year later, Jemaah Islamiya detonated a car bomb outside Jakarta's Marriott Hotel and killed 12 people. Abu Sayyaf - another Al Qaeda affiliate - has kidnapped tourists visiting the Philippines and Malaysia. Terror attacks launched against visitors in predominantly Muslim countries, however, aren't solely aimed at bikini-clad Swedes skin-diving in the Red Sea or Germans examining Egyptian ruins. Jihadists also slaughter Muslim pilgrims, when it suits their political and media interests.

A pilgrim is a religious visitor, and in the Middle East pilgrims are big business - just ask your travel agent.

In November 1979, Islamist terrorists belonging to the Muslim Brotherhood attacked Mecca's Grand Mosque. The terrorists planned to launch a religious-based revolt against the Saudi government. Even if it failed to ignite a popular revolution, the 1979 attack had an information objective: It would demonstrate Saudi weakness by sending the message that the Saud regime wasn't capable of protecting Mecca and other Muslim holy sites.

There is some evidence that a relative of Osama bin Laden helped organize the 1979 Mecca attack. The attack didn't start a revolt, but it did produce a bitter siege. Several Middle Eastern political analysts say the Saudis' ultimate counter-attack was a reasonably successful military operation, but a political disaster.

The Saudis know pilgrims matter. When Al Qaeda set off bombs in Riyadh in November 2003, the Saudis reinforced Mecca with 5,000 soldiers and police to protect the 2.5 million Muslims visiting during Ramadan.

Subsequently, the Saudis discovered an Al Qaeda cell in Mecca. Two of the terrorists blew themselves up to evade capture. Saudi police feared the terrorists were planning to attack a festival celebrating the end of Ramadan.

The jihadists are at war with Muslims and with Muslim countries. Their war, with Muslim pilgrims as pawns, began before the Soviet Union's invasion of Afghanistan and long before the United States invaded Iraq. This past Sunday, 1,000 Egyptians in Sharm el-Sheikh demonstrated against terrorism. The Christian Science Monitor reported the demonstrators chanted:
"There is no God but God; terrorism is the enemy of God."

Amen.

All my Live...

2005-07-19T19:35:00.000+02:00

All my Live I just live for pronouncements like this:

"Washington (CNN) -- President Bush told reporters Monday that if anyone committed a crime in connection with the leak of a CIA agent's identity, 'they will no longer work in my administration.'"

No one asked the President about laws he may have violated in invading Iraq nor did he include himself in that commitment to fire law violators in his midst.

Nuclear proliferation anyone?
President Bush has agreed to share nuclear technology with India, reports the Washington Post:
"President Bush agrees to share civilian nuclear technology with India, reversing decades of U.S. policies designed to discourage countries from developing nuclear weapons."

Congress must approve this "exception." India has not signed the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.

The ups and downs of the terror war
The Arabic news media corporation Al-Jazeera reports:

"Pakistani intelligence agents have arrested eight senior Taliban leaders, including a deputy to fugitive Taliban chief Mullah Mohammed Omar, a security official says... the arrests were made on Monday after security agents made raids on several homes in northwestern Pakistan."

At the same time
The same network advises:

"Four Arab al-Qaeda members who escaped a few days ago from a heavily fortified U.S. prison in Afghanistan, have reached a Taliban haven safely, according to a spokesman for the group.

"'The Taliban found and recovered four al-Qaeda mujahidin this morning,' the group's spokesman, Abdul Latif Hakimi, said on Thursday from an undisclosed location."

Meanwhile…
"A U.S. Chinook helicopter has crashed west of the city of Asadabad during an anti-Taliban operation in eastern Afghanistan."

London think-tank fears more terror attacks
The New York Times reports today – 19.07.05 - that an intelligence memo, "less than a month before the London bombings, said no group had the intent or the ability to strike."

Yesterday, the British think-tank Chatham House issued another kind of report:
"Riding pillion to the U.S. in order to tackle terrorism is a high-risk policy, according to a new report by Chatham House and the Economic & Social Research Foundation."

2004-11-16T18:12:00.000+01:00

RUSSIA - DEMILITARIZATION

The largest military installation on the globe is now open to tourists
Facility 825 GTS
The largest military installation on the globe is now open to tourists who like to walk on the wild side

Our correspondent has visited the site of what used to be the largest military facility on earth – an underground complex for servicing Soviet submarines hidden in Balaklava, a sea port in South Crimea.
The ancient town of Balaklava turned into one of the most restricted and mystic locations of the U.S.S.R due to that highly classified facility.

Going deeper underground
The underground complex for servicing submarines was referred to as "Facility 825 GTS" in the Soviet-era documents. Josef Stalin reportedly ordered the construction of a national antinuclear defense facility of the first grade after he had been deeply impressed by the range of devastation inflicted by American A-bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945. He believed the facility was a must for protecting the Soviet subs in case the nuclear hell broke loose and a guarantee for delivering a retaliation nuclear strike.
The construction kicked off four years following the death of Stalin. It was completed in 1961.

The town of Balaklava features a uniquely located harbor that is long and deep.
One side of the harbor is lined by the picturesque ruins of Cembalo, a medieval Genoa fortress while the other one is topped by Mount Tauros, the name stands for "empty" in Turk. It's the mountain that hosted an entire underground facility inside. The concrete walls covering the premises hollowed out in the rock were 56 meters thick.

The facility was made to withstand the effect of a direct nuclear strike measuring up to 100 kilotons. The thick doors were to seal off the area in case of a nuclear threat thus enabling some 3,000 strong personnel to survive and operate for 3 years. The facility was equipped with machines providing an independent air supply, a number of powerful diesel power generators, and fuel and water pipelines. It also had an underground Railroad track to service the needs of transportation, not to mention perfectly equipped command posts, bakeries, storage areas for lube and fuel, a hospital and living quarters, mess halls, galleys, bathrooms and shower rooms, even the recreation rooms for the personnel. All the above made it totally independent from the ground defense network.
The Facility 825 GTS was a combined water canal in terms of military engineering. It had a dry dock, repair workshops, warehouses for storing torpedoes and other weapons. There were two exit ways on either side of the mountain. There was an entrance way to the gallery from the harbor. The entrance way could be blocked by a inflatable boat lock as required. The other boat lock was mounted on the northern side of the mountain to seal the seaward gates. The both orifices in the rock were skillfully covered with camouflaged and nets.

I must reveal a few figures at this point just to make you realize how cyclopean the facility was. The total length of an underground tunnel was half a kilometer while a utility gallery housing main workshops ran for 300 meters. The flashlights we used for lighting our steps around the facility weren't strong enough for us to estimate the length of the canal stated by our tour guide – 360 meters. But we were really impressed by the size of a concrete arch measuring 12 m wide by 18 m high. None of the tourists of our group dared approach the edge of the canal after being told that its depth was at least 7 meters.

Small wonder the underground galleries could easily accommodate 7 submarines of basic Soviet designs or up to 14 subs of different classes if need be. The estimated period of a complete overhaul of a submarine is said to have planned for 3 weeks maximum. The repair programs are said to have been conducted always on time during those 30 years of operations of the underground facility.

Weary subs
Today's tourists are unable to witness the wonders produced by the Soviet navy installation hidden underground . Its glory belongs to the past.

The unique facility was vandalized in broad daylight during the division of the Black Sea Fleet. In 1991, submarines were removed from the installation, its unique equipment was dismantled and moved away, traces of secret technologies were destroyed. The rest of the equipment, namely pipework, cables, tanks, and all the metal objects including stairways and handrails were brutally ripped off and stolen. Who was behind those hideous acts of vandalism is still unknown.

Tourists today can only shine their flashlights over the concrete moldy walls with some twisted iron parts sticking out. A few instructions on handling the torpedoes are still around but the paint on them almost peeled off. There's also a railroad track with a trolley for carrying weapons in sight. And the hermetically sealed doors are also rusting in peace. No thieves will ever be able to take them away. The canal disappearing in the dark holds still waters that look dead like in a river of oblivion. The facility of gigantic proportions that took a great deal of time, effort, and money to build in the past, these days it looks like a huge shabby relic of the Soviet military power. The picture strikes everyone that steps inside.

"I still remember the times when we were afraid of the Soviet Union.
Now I'm sure that we did it with reason," said John Hinkley from Connecticut, on emerging from the gallery. I met the American while touring the facility. It's just amazing to find out that scores of tourists from Poland, Canada, U.S.A., Israel, Holland, France, Germany have already went down for a little bit of a nerve-racking experience even though a permanent ticket office is yet to be set up and guided tours became available not a long time ago.

If you want to learn more about the underground navy facility, you can ask around the local fishermen. All of them claim to have worked there. They just love telling you tall stories spiced with most incredible details, the ones that are normally left unsaid by the tour guides.

For example, the locals say that in days of old the sea approaches to the Balaklava facility were protected by specially trained dolphins and members of the navy special forces akin to the U.S. Navy Seals.
The repair workers were escorted around the premises by armed seamen at all times while at work. Submarines entered and exited the harbor at nighttime only, so the electricity in the town of Balaklava was regularly shut off in those hours of harbor maneuvering. Rumor has it that a dry dock was swarming with live fish once the water was discharged after putting a sub put into place. The workers reportedly used some ingenious methods for smoking the fish to keep it from wasting away. As a result, a trail of zesty smoke was coming from the mountain as a sure sign of yet another weary sub coming under repairs for all the spies to see despite a cloak of secrecy hanging above the place.

Monument or museum or amusement park
It's still unclear what this place is going to look like some day in the future. Is it going to be a museum? A monument to the Soviet military valor? A symbol to pacifism? According to a concept plan by the Central museum of Ukrainian armed forces, a museum will be filled with expositions covering several subjects, such as the history of the town itself, the Crimean War, the role of Sevastopol in the Great Patriotic War and the history of the Ukrainian navy. A number of dummy subs will be put afloat on the empty canal for effect.

Total area of the underground installation beneath Sevastopol is said to be 350 thousand square meters. A special commission formed by the city officials conducted search operations from 1984 to 1987 in order to recover information on every underground facility of the city. The commission took stock of more than 600 facilities located underground: command posts, communications centers, onshore artillery positions, storage rooms for torpedoes, missiles, bombs, powder- magazines, storage areas for military equipment and victuals, shelters for personnel and local population.
We won't exaggerate much by saying that Soviet-era holiday-makers enjoying the Crimean sunshine and the sea were actually sleeping on a volcano.
Write: by Valentina Gatash. November 2004

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

RUSSIA - IRAQ

Russia to Arm New Iraq
Iraq’s army will be equipped with soviet-era made weapons, as agreed upon a meeting between Russia’s Genshtab Chief, Gen.Yuri Baluev, and NATO Chief-in-Staff, Gen. James Johnes.
Write: by LuisB. November 2004

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

NIGERIA - INTERNAL AFFAIRS

Nigeria stores up future trouble
Nigeria's government has lost the latest battle in its war against the unions. The government has bowed to pressure and moderated its planned petrol price rises. But economists say the government is storing up trouble for itself in the future.

Motorbikes on street in Lagos
The cost of transport is highly contentious
There are two things guaranteed to anger the average Nigerian: Firstly, the fact that their oil-rich country relies on fuel imports and secondly, the price of petrol.
Nigeria exports about 2.5 million barrels of crude oil a day, but is then forced to buy back petrol, diesel and other refined fuels from non-oil producing countries, such as Spain, at a far higher price.

Foreign investors
Nigeria's government has reaped an estimated $280bn from oil in the past 30 years but has failed to invest enough money in its own oil industry to ensure efficient refineries and a proper supply network to distribute the fuel to service stations.

In light of the fuel reduction we decided to suspend the strike John Odah of the Nigeria Labour Congress

Why Nigerian unions called off the strike
The restoration of Nigeria's decrepit refineries - owned by Nigeria's state-owned oil company - has been a priority for a succession of ministers.
But chronic mismanagement, years of corruption and a string of political appointees has left the refineries in a worse state than ever.
As President Olusegun Obasanjo started his second term, he embarked on a different tactic altogether: wooing foreign investors to come and build their own refineries and distribution networks.

Bitter pill
Nigeria's downstream oil industry holds substantial appeal to international oil firms. The country has a population of 130 million and a large number of people with money to spend on fuel.

Is it right to force people to pay higher petrol prices?

In pictures
The problem has been compounded by the fact that oil prices have been rising steadily since President Obasanjo was re-elected, thus pushing the gap between the true price of petrol and the price at which it is sold in Nigeria ever wider.
But there is one obstacle preventing their entry into the marketplace: the heavy subsidies on fuel prices which amount to about $2bn a year.
That is why the government has been trying to press ahead with the highly unpopular measures of raising petrol prices, a move that is broadly supported by economists.
It is only when Nigeria's petrol prices come into line with their true value on the international marketplace that the foreign investors will finally arrive.

Angry drivers
President Obasanjo has been trying to persuade people of the benefits of removing the subsidies by convincing them that the money could be spent instead on improved education or health care.
Indeed, the amount of money spent subsiding fuel is a huge drain on the budget and could be spent much more effectively elsewhere. Subsidies, after all, benefit the rich as much as the poor.
But there is no easy way of weaning people off cheap fuel, and the promise of future investment in social services is hardly able to sway people who are facing an immediate rise in petrol prices they simply cannot afford.
The cost of fuel already accounts for an unwieldy proportion of people's pay packets. The prospect that fuel prices may double again is met with incredulity and, increasingly, anger.

Long-term fears
Two thirds of Nigeria's population is sill living on less than $1 a day, and the proposed fuel price increases are crippling large swathes of society, preventing people getting to work and threatening some small businesses with bankruptcy.

Nigerian two-wheel taxi drivers at fuel pump
The government wants to raise petrol prices by 25 per cent
The government's plans have been strenuously opposed every step of the way: people are weary of hearing that they must swallow a bitter pill for their own future good.
And that bitter pill is made virtually impossible to swallow by the knowledge that vast amounts of cash have been squandered or stolen during the 1980s and 90s.
This time, the threat of another general strike - and the union's promise to deliberately target oil exports - caused the government to back down on its policy at the eleventh hour.
Avoiding the hugely unpopular petrol price rises is undoubtedly a huge relief for many Nigerians in the short term.

But it is one step backwards in the long-term goal of breaking the cycle that makes Nigeria reliant on imported petrol, which leads to the equally unpopular fuel shortages.
Source: BBC News in Lagos. November 2004
Write: by Briony Hale

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

USA - MILITARY

U.S. conducts successful test of anti-ballistic missile laser
The United States has reported a successful ground-based test of an airborne laser meant to intercept ballistic missiles.

The Missile Defense Agency said the megawatt-class laser underwent a successful test on Nov. 10. The Pentagon agency said the laser was operated in a ground-based demonstration at Edwards Air Force Base, Calif.

Officials said this marked the first time that a directed energy weapon meant for use in a Boeing 747 aircraft has been demonstrated.

The test, which lasted a fraction of a second, involved the simultaneous firing of all six laser modules and associated optics that comprise the Chemical Oxygen Iodine Laser. Officials said the modules, built by Northrop Grumman, performed as expected.

Officials said the test was conducted in the framework of the Airborne Laser project. "It was the first time that multiple modules of the powerful laser had ever been fired while linked together as a single unit," the Missile Defense Agency said in a statement on Nov. 10. "In the test, the laser light produced by the six modules was fired into a wall of metal called a calorimeter or beam dump. The temperature rise of the metal was used to validate that laser power was generated."

The ABL program has undergone a two-year delay in wake of the failure to develop a laser weapon that could be fitted into the nose of a Boeing 747-400F aircraft. The Pentagon has acknowledged that the laser system developed in 2002 was too heavy for flight.

The ABL, a program expected to reach $4 billion through 2008, has been designed to autonomously detect, track and destroy enemy ballistic missiles.

The high-power laser was meant to focus a basketball-sized spot of heat that can destroy a missile in the boost-phase of launch at a range of hundreds of kilometers.

Officials said the ABL was meant to intercept ballistic missiles from such countries as Iran and North Korea. Israel has expressed interest in the ABL and was said to be seeking to cooperate with the United States in a scaled-down version of the program.

The Nov. 10 test was said to have verified the integration, operation and control of six laser modules in flight configuration. Officials said the laser would be installed in the 747, integrated with the beam control/fire control system and eventually tested in flight.

Officials said the ABL prototype, termed YAL-1A, has resumed preparations for its first flight test. In December 2002, the aircraft was removed from service for modifications to the airframe to ensure the installation of the laser beam control system.

In early 2005, officials said, the ABL Track Illuminator Laser and Beacon Illuminator Laser would be installed. This would be followed by a flight of the YAL-1A that would include the test of the full beam control system.

At a later stage, the Chemical Oxygen Iodine Laser would be installed on the Boeing 747, followed by additional ground and flight tests. Officials said no date has been set for the first ABL attempt to intercept a ballistic missile.
Write: LuisB. November 2004

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

IRAQ - INTERNAL AFFAIRS

Study Examines Iraq Oil-For-Food Program
Saddam Hussein's regime made more than $21.3 billion in illegal revenue by subverting the U.N. oil-for-food program - more than double previous estimates, according to congressional investigators.

``This is like an onion - we just keep uncovering more layers and more layers,'' said Sen. Norm Coleman, R-Minn., whose Senate Committee on Government Affairs received the new information at hearing Monday.

The new figures on Iraq's alleged surcharges, kickbacks and oil-smuggling are based on troves of new documents obtained by the committee's investigative panel, Coleman told reporters before the hearing. The documents illustrate how Iraqi officials, foreign companies and sometimes politicians allegedly contrived to allow the Iraqi government vast illicit gains.

The findings also reflect a growing understanding by investigators of the intricate schemes Saddam used to buy support abroad for a move to lift U.N. sanctions.

Coleman said the probe is just beginning and that officials aim to discover ``how this massive fraud was able to thrive for so long.'' He said he is angry that the United Nations has not provided documents and access to officials that investigators need to move ahead.

``Saddam Hussein attempted to manipulate the typical oil allocation process in order to gain influence throughout the world,'' Mark L. Greenblatt, a counsel for the Senate panel's permanent subcommittee on investigations, said in prepared testimony obtained by The Associated Press.

``Rather than giving allocations to traditional oil purchasers, Hussein gave oil allocations to foreign officials, journalists, and even terrorist entities, who then sold their allocations to the traditional oil companies in return for a sizable commission.''

The reference to terrorist groups referred to evidence that the regime had allocated oil to such organizations as the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, and the Mujahadeen Khalq, a group seeking to overturn the government of Iran, Greenblatt said.

Previous estimates - one from the General Accountability Office and the other by the top U.S. arms inspector Charles Duelfer - concluded that Saddam's government brought in $10 billion illicitly from 1990 to 2003, when sanctions were in place.

But congressional investigators found that vastly more oil - totaling $13.7 billion - was smuggled out of Iraq than previously thought. Investigators also raised the GAO's estimate of $4.4 billion in oil-for-food kickbacks by $200 million, and said the regime made $2.1 billion more through a scheme where foreign companies imported flawed goods at inflated prices.

According to the documents, the Iraqi government signed deals to import rotting food and other damaged goods with the full understanding of the exporting companies, who accepted payments for top quality products while kicking back much of the price difference to the Iraqi regime.

The panel estimated that such substandard goods accounted for 5 percent of all goods imported under the oil-for-food program, which was put in place in 1996 amid concerns that the Iraqi population was suffering from lack of food and medicines under the sanctions. The rough estimate ``is drawn from anecdotal information provide by officials of the former Iraq regime, the United Nations, and U.S. government officials,'' the panel said.

The total estimate of illegal revenue also includes $400 million from interest earned from hiding illicit funds in secret bank accounts. Another $400 million in illicit revenue grew out of pricing irregularities and kickbacks in the Kurdish areas of northern Iraq.

The Senate panel is conducting one of several congressional probes into alleged illegal profiteering in the oil-for-food program after allegations of corruption came to light earlier this year when Saddam was driven from power during the U.S.-led invasion. Former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker heads a panel that's conducting an independent investigation.

The new documents offer examples of how Saddam's regime - sometimes the former Iraqi president himself - awarded lucrative oil allocations to garner political favors.

In one document, Russian ultra-nationalist politician Vladimir Zhirinovsky - who campaigned for the lifting of sanctions on Iraq - invites an oil company to negotiate a price for an oil allocation the Iraqi government awarded him.

Zhirinovsky and other foreign officials and political figures implicated in the scandal so far - mostly from Russia, France and China - deny any wrongdoing.

In Zhirinovsky's case, the Russian allegedly used his political party's letterhead to invite an international oil company to Moscow to negotiate a deal to buy oil allocated to him.

The Iraqi government allocated 80 million barrels of oil to Zhirinovsky and his party, according to the panel, at a time when the Russian politician was backing Baghdad publicly.
Write: by Pauline Jelinek, Associated Press Writer. November 2004

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

IRAQ - DEFENSE

News Analysis: What next in the battle for Iraq?
U.S. military commanders say the weeklong assault that has wrested most of Falluja back from insurgent control achieved nearly all their objectives well ahead of schedule and with fewer pitfalls than anticipated. But where do the United States and the government of the interim prime minister, Ayad Allawi, go from here? In the coming weeks, the two allies must still combat a resilient and dangerous insurgency operating in most of Iraq, accelerate a huge economic reconstruction effort and lay the groundwork for elections to be held in January. . One goal of the offensive in Falluja was to eliminate a major safe haven for insurgents, a hub for assassinations, car-bombings and ambushes from Ramadi to Baghdad and beyond. Another was to allow the city's 250,000 residents to participate in elections scheduled for January. . Registration is already under way elsewhere in Iraq, so commanders will face pressure to secure areas to permit Iraqi electoral commission employees to conduct their work. . Commanders and U.S. diplomats in Iraq are hoping that once rid of insurgents, cities in the Sunni heartland north and west of Baghdad will join the political process, despite calls by some Sunni groups last week to boycott next year's elections. . But obstacles remain. . "The Falluja operation will be a military success, but whether it's the key to political success will remain to be seen," Senator Jack Reed, Democrat of Rhode Island, a member of the Armed Services Committee who visited Iraq on Friday and Saturday, said in a telephone interview. "The insurgents are working hard to derail this, and commanders are expecting widespread violence leading up to the elections in January." . Military commanders point to several accomplishments in Falluja. A bastion of resistance has been eliminated, with lower than expected U.S. military and Iraqi civilian casualties. Senior military officials say up to 1,600 insurgents have been killed and hundreds more captured, altogether more than half the number they estimated were in the city when the campaign began. . . But U.S. and Iraqi officials still face daunting tasks. . Falluja clearly will require a lot of effort even after the final pocket of insurgents is eliminated in the city, a senior U.S. general in Iraq said in an e-mail message.

"Lots of challenges - infrastructure, basic needs for returnees, security forces, and governance, not to mention elections. Assume the insurgents will continue to try to make life tough there as well.”

Outside Falluja, the insurgency rages on, amid intelligence reports that the battle has become a big recruiting draw for young Arab men in mosques from Syria to Saudi Arabia. . In Baghdad, where attacks were increasing even before the Falluja offensive, U.S. soldiers said that insurgents in at least one part of the capital shifted their tactics last week, massing in limited numbers in their attacks on Americans instead of shooting from the shadows and rooftops or laying ambushes with roadside bombs. . Sergeant Rowe Stayton, an infantry fire-team leader in northern Baghdad, said in an e-mail message that his troops had killed 15 insurgents and wounded 6 others, without suffering a casualty. . "Over all, yes, the anti-Iraqi forces have been more aggressive or stupid, depending on one's perspective," Stayton said. But commanders say they are baffled over how to combat an insidiously effective intimidation campaign that insurgents are waging against Iraqis from political leaders and police chiefs to the women who do the laundry for troops at U.S. bases.

"People are affected every day by criminality," Reed said.

"The situation has not - is not - turning around." U.S. officials say that about 100,000 Iraqi security forces have been trained and equipped, and that many are fighting side by side with U.S. forces. "The good news is that significant numbers of Iraqi security forces are standing their ground and fighting all over north-central Iraq," Major General John Batiste, the commander of the 1st Infantry Division based in Tikrit said in an e-mail message on Saturday. "Our hard work is paying off.”.

But not everywhere.
Last week, scores of police officers in Mosul fled their stations under insurgent attacks, allowing militants to loot half a dozen stations and steal dozens of police vehicles and uniforms and hundreds of weapons, all enough to set up an impostor police force, U.S. officer’s fear. Many senior officers grumble that reconstruction aid in Iraq, while beginning to flow to finance nearly 1,000 projects is still slowed by bureaucratic wrangling. . With most international aid organizations having withdrawn from Iraq because of the dangerous conditions, and many contractors skittish about sending workers into areas vulnerable to insurgent attacks, more and more U.S. troops will be called on to provide security to allow reconstruction to move ahead. . The Pentagon has extended the tours of about 6,500 troops to help with security, and senior commanders say that for now, the more than 140,000 U.S. troops in Iraq should be enough.

But enough for what exactly?
The experience of Falluja in the next few may weeks may be instructive. . "The operational lesson is that 'taking' cities is comparatively easy, but that 'holding' them is harder and ultimately decisive," said an army officer who just returned for a year's duty near Falluja. "And that fight is largely one for Iraqis, not Americans, to win." .
Write: by Eric Schmitt, The New York Times. November 2004

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

SOMALIA - POLITICAL AFFAIRS

Somalia undeterred by peacekeeper opposition
Somalia's new government is determined to seek foreign peacekeepers to help stabilise the country despite a high-profile murder widely seen as a warning not to deploy them, the prime minister said.

"My government will not be demoralised by the killing of Gen. Mohammed Abdu," Mohammed Ali Geedi, prime minister of Somalia's new Transitional Federal Government (TFG), told Reuters late on Sunday.

"We will not despair. The government needs protection. So it is inevitable to bring protection forces for the government into the country, until disarmament is carried out."

Somalia's new president, Abdullahi Yusuf, has asked the African Union (AU) to send 20 000 peacekeepers to help disarm the militias who rule the damaged country of up to 10 million and collect the millions of small arms owned by Somalis.
The AU is considering the request but its fledgling peacekeeping department is already overstretched by trying to monitor a ceasefire in Sudan's troubled Darfur region.

General Mohammed Abdu Mohammed was shot by unidentified assailants in Mogadishu on November 5 in an attack seen by diplomats as a warning to the AU not to deploy the troops. He was flown to Kenya for treatment but died early last week.
The general, a prominent and respected figure who served in the long-defunct National Army of ousted Somali dictator Mohamed Siad Barre, was shot several days after he expressed support for the deployment of AU forces in media interviews and at seminars.

Several militant Islamist groups in Mogadishu long hostile to Yusuf have expressed opposition to the deployment of foreign forces, saying without elaborating that their use would be against Islam and they would transmit "diseases".
Yusuf was elected by a reconciliation conference held in Kenya last month seeking to end the chaos that has gripped the country since Siad Barre's overthrow in 1991. He picked Geedi, a former academic, as prime minister on November 3 and he and Geedi are due to pick a cabinet by December 2.

Geedi said the government had yet to get any funding from the international community and this would be forthcoming only when the cabinet was chosen. "There is a (funding) pledge but the condition is to set up governmental structures," he said.
Yusuf has yet to return to his Horn of Africa nation, where militias have ruled by the gun for the past 13 years.

Geedi was speaking after a luncheon for Somali politicians in Nairobi where powerful warlords Muse Sudi Yalahow, Osman Ato and Mohammed Qanyare pledged support for Yusuf's government.
A militant Somali Islamist, Hassan Dahir Aweis, has pledged to reject any attempt by Yusuf to return to Mogadishu, accusing him of being a puppet of neighbouring Ethiopia.

Aweis, who holds influence among militia allied to the city's Islamic courts, recently resurfaced after vanishing amid heightened US scrutiny of Somalia after the September 11 attacks.
Write: by Muse Sheikh Omar

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

USA - NON PROLIFERATION AFFAIRS

Arms Control Glance
A look at some Bush administration non-proliferation activities:- Proliferation Security Initiative: Begun in 2003, this calls on countries to work together to intercept components of weapons of mass destruction.
- Global Threat Reduction Initiative: Introduced this year, this provides assistance for nations to remove and secure high-risk radioactive materials so they can't be used by terrorists.
- Nunn-Lugar Cooperative Threat Reduction program: This 1991 program initiated by Sen. Richard Lugar, R-Ind., and then-Sen. Sam Nunn, D-Ga., provides funding for the dismantling of weapons of mass destruction in the former Soviet Union and finding work for former weapons scientists.

In 2003, it was expanded to other nations and President Bush recently approved using Nunn-Lugar money to destroy chemical weapons in Albania, the first time for use outside the Soviet Union.

With support from the administration, Lugar is proposing changes to the program intended to remove bureaucratic obstacles and proposing a new program for the dismantling of conventional weapons.
- Fissile Material Cutoff Treaty: This long-debated treaty would ban production of plutonium and highly enriched uranium for nuclear weapons. The administration supports the treaty but says verification is not possible and that trying to develop verification procedures would delay approval of the treaty. Some arms control advocates say the treaty would be meaningless if compliance can't be verified.
- Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty: The administration supports an additional protocol to the treaty intended to make it harder for countries to use civil nuclear programs as a cover for nuclear weapons programs.

- U.N. Security Council Resolution 1540: Approved in April, this resolution sought by the administration required all U.N. members to pass laws preventing "non-state actors" such as terrorists and black marketeers from making or trafficking in weapons of mass destruction or the materials, the materials to make them and the missiles and other systems to deliver them.
Write: by LuisB. November 2004

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

ALBANIA - DEMOCRACY

Trial of Kosovo Albanians begins
Kosovo Albanian women hold portraits of relatives missing since the 1999 war The court has so far dealt with abuses against ethnic Albanians Three Kosovo Albanians accused of committing war crimes during the Kosovo conflict have gone on trial in the International War Crimes tribunal.

The former members of the Kosovo Liberation Army are accused of atrocities against Serb and ethnic Albanian civilians in Kosovo in 1998.

Fatmir Limaj, Haradin Bala and Isak Musliu deny responsibility for torture and murder in the KLA's Lapushnik camp.

It is the first time that the tribunal has tried Albanians from Kosovo.
Prosecutors accuse the three men of detaining 35 Serb and Albanian civilians in the Lapushnik prison camp.
The indictment says that 14 were murdered before Serb forces took control of the area in eastern Kosovo in 1998 and that the KLA then killed 10 ethnic Albanian detainees accused of collaborating with Serbs.

Inhuman conditions
The charges against Mr Limaj, 33, a commander at the camp, include the murder of 10 Serbs and Albanians.
Former camp guard, Mr Musliu, 57, is accused of participating in the murder of four detainees in July 1998.
Mr Bala is, 54, accused of taking part in the execution of 11 detainees in the same month as Serb forces were in the process of retaking the Lapushnik region.

According to the charge sheet, the three men "contributed to maintaining inhuman conditions in the camp... and participating in acts of torture and physical cruelty inflicted on detainees".
The Hague tribunal is often accused of being biased against Serbs and not bringing more ethnic Albanians to trial.
The tribunal's chief prosecutor, Carla Del Ponte, said she would issue a new indictment against KLA leaders before the end of the year.
She criticised the international community and the local authorities in Kosovo for their lack of co-operation with her investigation of alleged crimes committed by the KLA.

Specific crimes
The prosecutor said it was difficult to build indictments against Kosovo Albanians, because witnesses were afraid to testify.
A relative of one of the men on trial recently appeared in court accused of intimidating witnesses in this case.
Tribunal spokesman Jim Landale defended the court's record.

"It's clear from our records that we've had trials involving Serbs, Croats, Bosnian Muslims and now Kosovar Albanians, among others," he said

"What's important, however, is that the tribunal is putting on trial individuals charged with specific crimes - crimes that come within our jurisdiction - and in this particular case, violation of the laws and customs of war and crimes against humanity."

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

SECURITY - ARMORED VEHICLES

False Security: Armored Cars
In late October, the assassination of Ansar Tebuev, the deputy prime minister of the Karachaevo-Cherkessia Republic, an autonomous republic in the North Caucasus. Tebuev, a former counterterrorism official, was ambushed at an intersection near his office at the Ministry of the Interior in the republic's capital of Cherkessk.

At the time of the attack, Tebuev was riding in an armored Niva sedan. Sources in the North Caucasus-based Russian law enforcement community say the assassins blocked Tebuev's car with their own vehicle, from which two gunmen jumped out and opened fire with AK-47 assault rifles. They reportedly targeted the radiator of the Niva first, and then concentrated their fire on its windshield. Several of the bullets struck the laminated window, and at least one of them penetrated the pane, killing Tebuev. Witnesses also said that as the attack unfolded, Tebuev's chauffeur jumped out of the vehicle and fled on foot.

Several aspects of the case - including the behavior of the driver - have authorities investigating whether Tebuev was killed in a terrorist plot or by other types of criminals. However, the fact that he was murdered despite the apparent protection of his armored vehicle raises several points that bear discussion.

Contrary to popular belief, whether the threat is one of kidnapping in Mexico City or terrorism in the Caucasus, an armored vehicle in and of itself does not provide complete security for its passengers. Instead, it is only one aspect of a total security strategy.

As the Tebuev case shows, armored vehicles are not designed to withstand concentrated fire from high-powered rifles. Repeated hits in a small area will eventually penetrate the ballistic glass or the metal armor in the body. Attacks such as the 1988 assassination of U.S. naval attache Capt. William Nordeen, killed by November 17 militants in Athens, have shown that armored vehicles do not necessarily withstand large improvised explosive devices, and the 1989 killing of Deutsche Bank Chairman Alfred Herrhausen in Germany demonstrate that they also do not protect against smaller devices at a closer distance, especially if the device uses a shaped or plate charge, which focuses the force of the explosion.

In a kidnapping scenario, if the vehicle is stopped or disabled, assailants can place an explosive device on it, forcing the occupants to open the door - a tactic witnessed several times in Latin America
- or they can pry it open like a can of sardines if given enough time. Since most armored vehicles use the car's factory-installed door-lock system, techniques used by car thieves, such as using master keys or punching out the locks, can also be used effectively.

Armored vehicles are designed to protect the occupant from an initial attack and to give them a chance to escape from the attack zone. Even the heaviest armored vehicles on the market do not provide a mobile safe haven in which one can merely sit and wait out an attack. If assailants know their target is using an armored vehicle, they will bring sufficient firepower to bear to achieve their goals. If the driver does not get the vehicle off the "X" of the attack site, the assailants essentially can do whatever they please.

That said, what else must be done to protect the armored vehicle's passenger?

The first and most crucial factor to consider is the driver: The car is only as good as its driver, so it is critical that the chauffeur be alert, motivated and willing to be trained. It is foolish to place an expensive security system - and the life of the principal target - in the hands of a minimum-wage employee. In addition to technical competence, the driver needs to clearly understand that he or she is responsible for the principal's safety, and that they are not merely "Driving Miss Daisy."

The next step is ensuring the driver is properly trained. Returning to the Tebuev case, the driver's reaction -fleeing as the gunmen opened fire -- reportedly has brought him under suspicion as being part of the plot. However, it is also quite possible that the driver merely panicked, froze and then fled to save his own skin - the typical reaction of an untrained person amid the shock of an armed attack.

A professional who has been trained in attack recognition and taken part in a number of emergency action drills usually can overcome the initial shock much more quickly - and even if not capable of executing a textbook-perfect maneuver, will be able to react. They are trained to get off the "X," and even an imperfect response is better than no response at all. For example, an U.S. security professional who was ambushed several years ago in Cairo by a group called Egypt's Revolution was actually shot in the head during the initial salvo of gunfire, but given his training, was able to floor the accelerator and point his car at the gunmen - who threw away their weapons and fled. Had he frozen on the "X," both he and his passenger would have been killed.

Periodic refresher training courses are also important for VIP drivers, to keep their skills polished and alertness elevated. Tactical training also can help them avoid the tendency to worry about damaging the often expensive vehicle they are driving - another common reaction among drivers. Many times they freeze rather than scratch a fender, not recognizing that their lives and that of their protectees are much more important than the paint job.

Third, protective teams assigned to VIPs must take serious steps to vary the times and travel routes the person uses, and to protect information about the principal's schedule. An armored vehicle can create a false sense of security that can be deadly. If someone is in a situation that requires an armored vehicle for protection, the most basic tenet of security must be acknowledged: A predictable travel route and schedule make an assault much easier to execute -- and as discussed earlier, an armored vehicle simply does not provide absolute protection from attack.

A final factor to consider is that in any type of assault, from a kidnapping to a terrorist assassination, preoperational surveillance must be conducted in order for the assailants to succeed. It is during this period that operatives are most vulnerable to detection and interdiction - and thus, that professional security programs begin to implement proactive security measures such as counter surveillance. Once an assault has begun, only reactive measures are left -- and the assailants, who have the element of surprise, will likely succeed.
Write: by LuisB. November 2004

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

2004-10-07T17:27:00.000+02:00

IRAQ - DEFENSE AFFAIRS

Iraq WMD Team Head Leaves Many Questions Open
Head of Iraq Survey Team Charles Duelfer asserted Wednesday in testimony and report to the US Senate Armed Forces Committee that no WMD stockpiles were found to exist in Iraq in 2003. However, Iraq was producing missiles beyond UN-imposed limits and could have fitted them with warheads very quickly. The ICG team found no active nuclear program and no conclusive findings on biological programs. However, by 2003, Iraq had capabilities for producing chemical or biological weapons in months and retained the intellectual capacity to reconstitute WMD programs.

The ISG team found no evidence of mobile biological weapons facilities but cannot be sure they will not turn up to negate its report on this question. Duelfer warned of the danger that Iraqi WMD expertise could be transferred to other hands. Iraqi insurgents have indeed tried to develop WMD, but their efforts have been stopped.

In answer to a question, Duelfer said Saddam chose not to have banned weapons at the particular point of time before the war, given the frame of reference after 9/11 including sanctions, isolation, reduced revenues. All in all, it was the ICG chief's view that those conditions were not sustainable. Had he stayed in power, his advisers and most Iraqis were sure he would have pursued WMD. In fact he said he would.

Speaking analytically, Duelfer maintained the world is better off with Saddam gone.

Duelfer could not say definitively that Iraqi weapons were not transferred out of Iraq before the 2003 war. But many questions ared still unanswered.

ICG has just obtained mass of new documents as large as the collection already in hand.

Senator McCain: Every intelligence agency in the world, US, British, French, Israeli, came to the same conclusion that Iraqi had WMD. How do you account for that?

Only Saddam knows the full truth of his WMD.

Duelfer referred to many conversations he had with Iraqis, top Saddam regime officials and Saddam himself. He pointed out that the deposed Iraqi ruler was deliberately ambiguous and misleading in a speech he made on June 200. When questioned by the ICG head in his prison cell, Saddam explained that he had tried to impress Iran that he had more than he did.

Most Iraqis believed he had banned weapons. "Why wouldn't he? Twice they saved him?"

But the types of logic that apply in the West don't apply in Iraq, Duelfer pointed out.
Author: by Yuumei. October 2004

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

VENEZUELA - DEFENSE AFFAIRS

Venezuela's Paper Army
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has announced the purchase of Russian attack helicopters at a cost of $40 million to reinforce army units deployed along his country's border with Colombia. However, the helicopters - if they arrive - will be too little, too late to make a difference. Venezuela's armed forces are a hollow shell, so weakened by years of defense spending cuts that soldiers patrolling the border region frequently lack uniforms, boots, helmets, body armor and ammunition for their assault rifles.

Analysis
Venezuelan Vice President Jose Vicente Rangel is in Moscow negotiating the purchase of Russian attack helicopters to reinforce Venezuelan army units deployed along the border with Colombia. President Hugo Chavez announced the $40 million deal after five Venezuelan army soldiers and a woman engineer with state oil company Petroleos de Venezuela (PDVSA) were killed in a Sept. 17 ambush by rebels with the 10th Front of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC).

The ambush occurred in the Venezuelan border state of Apure in a sector called Mata de Cana between the towns of La Charca and La Victoria, less than 15 miles from the border with Colombia. Colombian rebel groups, cross-border drug traffickers and other smuggling organizations have long overrun the area.

Although the Chavez government immediately imposed an information blackout on the incident, Venezuelan military sources say it appears the FARC killed the soldiers by mistake. The soldiers were traveling in a curiara, or indigenous canoe, and were so poorly dressed that from a distance of 50 to 100 yards they likely appeared to be civilians, possibly criminal smugglers. From the FARC's perspective, this would make them competitors for control of criminal enterprises along the border, and therefore legitimate targets.

If the FARC unit had identified the soldiers as members of Venezuela's military, it is likely the rebels never would have fired at the canoe. The FARC has a tacit non-aggression pact with the Chavez government, and the rebels would not have violated that pact consciously.

Chavez has maintained for several years that Venezuela's side of the border is heavily defended by some 20,000 to 30,000 soldiers reinforced with armor, air and ground transport and electronic surveillance systems designed to locate and identify potential enemies, including Colombian rebels. This claim is inaccurate. The truth is, operational readiness levels within the Venezuelan army, air force and navy are so critically low that if war with Colombia were to break out today the Colombian army could easily capture and hold large swathes of Venezuelan territory, such as the state of Zulia, which accounts for close to 40 percent of Venezuela's total crude oil production.

Venezuela's armed forces (FAN) are among the poorest, least prepared military institutions in Latin America, despite the country's substantial oil revenues. The FAN is tactically and operationally incapable of keeping Colombian rebel groups outside Venezuelan territory. On paper, the army has close to 70,000 soldiers, but actual troop strength is closer to 40,000.

The army's troubles did not begin when Chavez assumed the presidency in early 1999. For example, in 1990 a 150-man company was commanded by one captain, two lieutenants, three sub-lieutenants and 10 sergeants. However, by the time Chavez became president the same 150-man company was commanded by one captain, one sub-lieutenant and two sergeants. Moreover, in 1999 the average frontier battalion had 740 soldiers on paper, but actual troop strength was only 320 men commanded by one lieutenant colonel, 10 officers and 10 sergeants. These ratios have grown much worse since Chavez assumed the presidency and slashed defense spending by more than 40 percent in order to weaken the FAN and dilute its capacity to launch a successful coup.

According to a classified study done in mid-2001 by the army's military intelligence division and obtained recently by Stratfor, the army was a hollow shell three years ago. International defense standards for developing countries state that operational readiness levels for 11 key measures of military offense and defense capabilities should never drop below 70 percent. In Venezuela's case, however, the army's capabilities in nine of 11 key measures of operational readiness levels were far below that 70 percent floor in 2001. The situation today is far more critical, sources say.

For example, in terms of troop strength the Venezuelan army's operational readiness levels in 2001 were only 56.69 percent. In terms of food supplies, its readiness levels were only 40.25 percent, and weapons capabilities were only 23.22 percent. Several lower-ranking officers who have commanded army forces on the border during the past three years say their soldiers lacked uniforms, boots, helmets and body armor. They also say their troops were sent on combat patrols without sufficient ammunition to engage hostile forces such as the FARC, drug traffickers, paramilitary groups and other border bandits. The officers add that border unit commanders frequently had to rent privately owned commercial vehicles from local residents to transport patrol troops into high-risk border areas.

The classified study done in 2001 also rated the army's communications capabilities at only 20.90 percent, combat medevac capabilities at 44.48 percent, ground transport capabilities at 39.36 percent and armored vehicle capabilities (including tanks) at only 48.92 percent.

On paper, Venezuela's armored offensive capabilities are significantly more substantial than Colombia's. For example, Venezuela's army as of May 2003 had an armored component that included 81 AMX-30 main battle tanks, 36 AMX-13 light tanks, 80 British-made Scorpion-90 light tanks, 75 M18 Hellcat tank destroyers and nearly 300 U.S.-, French- and Brazilian-made personnel carriers. The Venezuelan army also was equipped with more than 100 105-mm and 155-mm self-propelled and towed artillery howitzers, 175 106-mm recoilless rifles and more than 220 Brandt 120 mm and 81 mm mortars.

The classified army readiness study obtained by Stratfor states that as of mid-2001, the army's armored operational readiness levels were only 48.92 percent overall. Of 528 armored vehicles, including main battle tanks such as the AMX-30 and light tanks such as the Dragoon 300 and the Scorpion, 336 were operational and 189 were inoperative. Individual weapons systems readiness levels on paper looked good for systems such as the AMX-30 battle tank (71.76 percent) and the Dragoon 300 and Scorpion tanks (97.03 percent and 97.62 percent, respectively). However, these averages do not tell the full story.

Army sources say retrofitting work done in recent years on the AMX-30 battle tanks by Metalurgica Van Dam, a Venezuelan metallurgical firm with no prior experience in modifying tanks, effectively destroyed the combat capabilities of these systems. A battle tank's turret must rotate 360 degrees, but Van Dam's "retrofitting" work made it impossible for the tank turrets to rotate more than 80 degrees in either direction.

This means in combat the tanks can be flanked and destroyed easily from the sides and rear by infantry units armed with light anti-tank rockets. Van Dam also cut through the armor of the AMX-30 tanks in such a way that the tanks were split completely in two. As a result, the armor of these tanks can now be penetrated by ammunition as light as a .30-caliber machine gun bullet, according to military sources. This means an infantry soldier armed with a rocket-propelled grenade
(RPG) can penetrate the turrets of these tanks and kill the crews inside with as much ease as a hot knife slicing through butter if the rocket impacts directly on the welding seam.

In addition, the Dragoon 300 and Scorpion light tanks might show adequate operational readiness levels on paper, but they lack munitions. These tanks can be deployed, as some were deployed in April 2002 to protect Chavez in Miraflores from the 900,000 unarmed protesters who marched to the presidential palace demanding his resignation. However, in an armed engagement these tanks would quickly run out of ammunition, which in effect would make them useless.

The only two measures where the army exceeded the 70 percent floor were air transport (73.91 percent) and electronic warfare (80.05 percent). However, more than half of the army's helicopters are not equipped with weapons systems capable of providing close air-ground support. In effect, the army's air transport command is used mainly to ferry generals around the country on official and personal missions.

Moreover, the army's electronic warfare systems have been withdrawn from border regions and redeployed mainly to Caracas and central Venezuela, where they are used to conduct electronic surveillance of all communications inside Fort Tiuna, Palo Negro and other bases. Instead of intercepting Colombian communications, the Chavez government is using its electronic surveillance systems to spy on Venezuelan army units in a permanent effort to locate and identify officers that could be conspiring against him.
Author: by LuisB. October 2004

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

USA - INTERNAL AFFAIRS

Taxing questions . . . and misfires
Have you noticed the press tends to ask the candidates the same old tired questions, whether at a press conference, interview or debate? Yet there are many basic questions on tax policy (and other topics) Americans should have answers to before they vote.

Here are some of those questions, which I am urging reporters with access to Mr. Bush and Mr. Kerry, including the debate moderators, to ask.

To Mr. Bush and Mr. Kerry:
1 - What is the maximum federal income tax rate you think any American should pay?
2 - On what basis did you select that number?
(Note: The average federal tax rate for all Americans is now about 15 percent, and surveys over the years indicate most Americans do not believe it is fair for anyone to pay more than 20 percent.)

To Mr. Kerry: Even though you have failed to produce income tax returns for yourself and Mrs. Kerry, the information you did produce indicates your wife's effective federal income tax rate was less than 12 percent (less than that for the average American). If your tax rate proposals were current law, what would be your and Mrs. Kerry's effective tax rate? (Note: It appears from the limited tax information the Kerry campaign has provided, most of the Kerry’s' wealth is in tax sheltered investments - such as tax-free municipal bonds - which would not be affected by Mr. Kerry's tax increase proposals.)

To Mr. Kerry: You have proposed increasing the maximum federal income tax rate to almost 40 percent for many small business owners and other working Americans. This tax rate is far higher than what you and Mrs. Kerry appear to pay or would pay under your proposals. Is this fair, and if so why? (Note: The Kerry’s are reported to be among the 400 richest Americans.)

To Mr. Kerry: You have said you want the wealthiest Americans to pay more taxes. However, under your proposals, many people who clearly are not wealthy and some with even negative net worth’s would have their taxes increased, while many wealthy people would not pay more in taxes. Is this fair? (Note: The Kerry rhetoric confuses wealth and taxable income, and these are not the same. For instance, people who borrow to start or grow businesses, or have serious and very expensive medical problems often have negative net worth’s, even though they may earn $200,000 a year. These people are not wealthy. However, many very wealthy people may receive little in taxable income, because they bought tax free municipal bonds or did other - totally legal - things to tax shelter their income. One can be a billionaire and not pay an additional penny of tax under the Kerry tax proposals.)

To Mr. Bush and Mr. Kerry: Some economists believe the decline in U.S. manufacturing employment is partly due to our allowing imports to come into the country tax free (because foreign producers rebate their consumption taxes at the border) and compete against taxable U.S. goods, and yet require our exports to compete globally against foreign goods with U.S. taxes included in the price. Do you agree there is a problem? If so, what would you do to address it?

To Mr. Bush and Mr. Kerry: Many fine economists, such as Nobel Prize winner Robert Lucas, have argued the single best thing we can do to improve economic performance and job creation is eliminate taxes on capital, such as taxes on capital gains, interest and dividends. Do you agree? Why or why not?

To Mr. Kerry: Your economic adviser, former Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin, endorsed a proposal whereby the United Nations would be able to directly tax American citizens and businesses. Do you agree with your adviser that the U.N. should be able to directly tax Americans, rather than only receive a grant from the U.S. government?

To Mr. Kerry: In the summer of 2000 - before President Bush was elected president - he proposed cutting taxes immediately to reverse the decline in the economy that resulted in the recession at the end of the Clinton administration. As economists know, the recession caused the job losses about which you have been so critical. We understand you and the Clinton administration do not believe, as Mr. Bush and his advisers did, that the recession could have been avoided if the proper tax cut had been enacted in 2000. However, the question remains, what would you have done to avoid the recession, and why did you not propose your alternative at the time?

Democracy functions best when the voters are informed, and that, in turn, requires the press to demand specific answers from the candidates rather than slogans.
Author: Richard W. Rahn is a senior fellow of the Discovery Institute and an adjunct scholar of the Cato Institute. October 2004

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

EUROPE - IMMIGRATION

Illegal Immigration into Europe; Analyses
German Intelligence services estimate that at least 500,000 illegal immigrants arrive each year in Europe and receive about 5 billion euros in annual social welfare benefits, a sum that ranks just behind drug trafficking and arms smuggling receipts.

As of August 2004, there have been 9904 illegal immigrants turned back at Europe's borders.

In the above diagram, yellow arrows represent routes taken by illegal immigrants via sea, blue represents land routes, and red represents air routes.
Immigration Routes from the Middle East
The first destination for illegal immigrants from Iran, Iraq, Turkey, or Kurdistan is Istanbul, Turkey. From there, they depart for either Brindisi or Bari, Italy or Frankfurt, Germany, and then on to France, Spain, or the United Kingdom.

Sea Routes
From Istanbul, the route is by "zodiac" boats with the immigrants leaving from the coasts of the Aegean Sea. The cost of passage averages 1500 euros.

Air Routes
Forged passports and tourist visas can be bought in a travel agency for approximately 4,000 US dollars with about eight days wait time. Air travel is usually from Istanbul to Frankfurt, where an immigrant seeks political asylum.

Land Routes
Illegal immigrants travelling from Istanbul to Germany
-Usually by truck - normally pass through Greece, Bulgaria, and Romania. The Bulgarian border is considered to be the most permeable

Immigration Routes from East Africa
Illegal immigrants from East Africa travel via Istanbul, or Brindisi. Such immigrants usually come from Sudan, Chad, Ethiopia, Egypt, Somalia, Kenya, or Niger.

Via Italy
Libya has become a major hub for illegal African immigrants whose destinations are EU countries, especially Italy, as Tripoli no longer requires a transit visa for travellers from the "brother countries" of continental Africa.

Via Turkey
Departing from Sudan, frequently in cargo ship containers originating in Eastern Europe, illegal immigrants arrive in Turkey; they proceed on their way to the Ukrainian port of Odessa, then via land route through Moldavia, and on to Galati in southeast Romania.

Immigration Routes from West Africa
The typical route for illegal immigrants is via Algeria, with Tamanrasset as the first point of entry. Immigrants then travel through Algeria by car or truck and cross the Moroccan border at either Oujda or Nador. The goal is to reach the enclave of Melilla, also known as "little Spain" or Ceuta, on the Moroccan coast. Immigrants taking this route are from Niger, Mali, Nigeria, Cameroun, Togo, Ivory Coast, Ghana, Guinea, and Liberia.

The passage north to Gibraltar is usually made at night in overcrowded boats called "pateras." Passage is organized by traffickers who charge 600 to 2,000 euros per person. Once in Spain, immigrants can travel to other destinations within the EU.

Immigration Routes from Asia
Illegal immigrants from Asia, travelling by air or by land, come primarily from China, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Bangladesh, and Sri Lanka. Immigrants from Russia and the Federated Republic of Chechnya travel primarily by land routes.

Air Routes
Some Chinese immigrants fly directly to Paris, using false Japanese or South Korean passports that cost approximately 15,000 euros.

Land Routes
Illegal immigrants from China cross the Ukraine, Poland, and the Czech Republic by truck, proceeding on foot across the Czech-German border into Germany. Chinese immigrant networks are using Belgrade as a hub.

From East to West Europe
Illegal immigrants taking the East-West route come mainly from Russia, Ukraine, Moldavia, Belarus, Georgia, and the Caucasus.

Land Route
Traveling by truck, car, and by foot, illegal immigrants travel through Slovenia seeking to reach Italy as their port of entry to the European Union. Leaving from Chisinau, Moldova, they travel to Italy by train, car, or by foot at night, crossing the Romanian and Albanian borders.

Sea Route
Illegal immigrants from Albania who arrive on the Italian coast sail in small, flat, light-weight boats called "scafi" that can travel below radar. Most often, they arrive either in Lecce, in southern Italy, in San Foca, a resort opposite the Albanian coast, or in Bari, Brindisi, or Otranto.

European Legislation Countering Illegal Immigration
Current legislation being studied by the European Commission includes the negotiation of a common asylum rights policy; harmonization of penalties for those who aid in human trafficking, those who aid or organize coordinated transits through the EU, and penalizing employers who overlook irregularities on work visas. Sri Lanka, Macao, and Hong Kong have already signed cooperation accords with the EU to combat illegal immigration. The EU is negotiating with an additional six countries - Morocco, Ukraine, Russia, China, Pakistan, and Algeria - to sign agreements on immigration policies.

The European Commission is also discussing the implementation of a Europe wide database of all temporary visas issued for the countries of the Schengen zone and the creation of a European agency to control borders.

The G5
Germany, France, Italy, Spain, and the UK meet annually to discuss the undertaking of immigration projects and legislation by the group such as:
- Establishing a list of countries from which immigrants to Europe are ineligible to claim asylum
- Intensifying international cooperation to discover and dismantle illegal immigrant and human trafficking networks
- Requiring airlines to provide passenger data before arrival UK Legislation. In the United Kingdom, an illegal immigrant can stay for an unlimited period while being processed for political asylum. During this time, the asylum seeker is provided with publicly-funded legal services and housing.

Recent legislation includes a November 2002 law providing for the reinforcement of border inspections with France and Belgium, fines and penalties for transportation companies caught carrying illegal immigrants, wittingly or not, and the creation of reception centers for asylum seekers.

The law also provides for the naturalization of some 50,000 immigrants who requested political asylum three years or more prior to November 2002. The law also enacted stricter penalties for asylum seekers who have lost or misplaced their paperwork and made visas obligatory for nationals of the 18 countries with the highest number of immigrants to the UK.

According to the Home Office, the majority of asylum seekers and illegal immigrants come from Somalia, Afghanistan, Iraq, and Zimbabwe followed by China, Iran, and Pakistan. It reported 61,050 requests for asylum from undocumented and illegal immigrants in 2003. While this is the highest number within the EU, it is 43 percent less than the previous year, when the new asylum law was enacted.

German Legislation
At this time, an illegal immigrant can remain in Germany for only 18 months while processing for political asylum.

A law adopted on 9 July 2004 restricted even legal immigration to Germany - requiring an immigrant's dossier to be re-examined after three years, providing for the automatic expulsion of immigrants sentenced to prison, the construction of deportation centers, and the automatic expulsion of any immigrant deemed a threat to national security.

According to the Interior Ministry, the majority of illegal immigrants come from Turkey, Serbia and Montenegro, Iraq, the Russian Federation and China. The ministry reported that 50,600 immigrants in Germany requested asylum in 2003.

Italian Legislation
Italy allows an illegal immigrant to remain in the country for only two months while processing asylum documentation. The "Bossi-Fini" law of 2002 required the intensification of border patrols, digital fingerprinting of all illegal immigrants, and immediate expulsion of, or one year imprisonment for repeat offenders. Although Italian employers classified 634,728 immigrants as documented workers in 2003, residence permits will no longer be given to immigrants not possessing valid work contracts. Italy is currently negotiating an immigration treaty with the Balkan countries (including Albania) and Libya, under which Italy will have a fixed quota system for immigrants. The countries, with which Italy is negotiating, are being asked to institute mechanisms to reintegrate returning illegal immigrants.

Italy saw a 40 percent decrease in reported cases of illegal immigration in 2003 compared to the year prior (14,331 vice 23,719).

According to the Interior Ministry, the majority of illegal immigrants to Italy come from Sri Lanka, Iraq, the former Yugoslavia, and Turkey. The Ministry reported that 7,280 immigrants requested asylum in 2002.

Spanish Legislation
Spain allows 40 days for an illegal immigrant to begin processing the documentation needed to remain in country. However, the law of 29 October 2003 provided a statute of limitations on clandestine immigration. The law provides local and federal police the power, for up to 10 years, to bring charges against a person who has entered the country illegally and continues to reside within the country, even though he or she may be a citizen at the time of prosecution. Procedures are being negotiated to make it more difficult for family members to rejoin each other once asylum status has been granted to one member. There will be severe penalties for immigrants caught trying to enter the country illegally and for businesses that knowingly employ illegal immigrants. In addition, transportation companies, such as airlines, buses, and trains, will be required to supply information on passengers who do not use their return trip ticket on a round trip purchase.

The Spanish and Moroccan police reportedly will increase cooperative efforts to patrol the Straits of Gibraltar and implement the Integrated Border Patrol System (SIVE), a string of radar stations capable of picking up the movement of small marine craft.

The Spanish Ministry of the Interior stated that of the more than 70,000 immigrants deported in 2003, 16,000 entered Spain via clandestine coastal landings. In 2002, there were 6,179 requests for political asylum in Spain from immigrants coming primarily from Morocco, Algeria, Nigeria, Cuba, and Colombia.

Austrian Legislation
Considered to be one of the most extreme in the EU, a law adopted on 23 October 2003, which allows only two months to begin processing for residency status, does not permit demands for asylum to be made at Austria's borders and bars additional evidence to the court of appeal once the appellate court has rendered its decision. An immigrant can also be deported during the appellate process for any reason.

The Austrian Ministry of the Interior reported 32,400 demands for asylum in 2003, with the majority of the requestors originating from Russia, Turkey, India, Serbia and Montenegro, and Afghanistan.
Author: LuisB. October 2004

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

TURKEY - INTERNAL AFFAIRS

Turkey – come on in
The European Commission's green light to accession talks with Turkey, if endorsed by European leaders in December, heralds a potential transformation in Europe as momentous as this year's great eastward expansion.

Travel
Turkey would not join for at least a decade. But if and when it is admitted to the EU, this comparatively poor and fast-growing Muslim country of 70 million people is likely to become the largest single member.

There is alarm at this prospect, especially in France, Germany, the Netherlands and Austria. Having turned back the Turks at the gates of Vienna in 1683, they ask, why should we be inviting them back into Europe? Will Europe not become awash with poor farmers, or open itself to more terrorism?

Such fears are understandable, but should be rejected. Turkey is a member of the Council of Europe and Nato, and is now fast adopting European models of government. Civilian authority over the coup-prone military has been reasserted; the death penalty has been abolished; the notorious state security courts have been scrapped; torture is less widespread; there are greater safeguards for freedom of the press; Kurdish language and cultural rights are being recognised; and Turkey has exerted pressure on Turkish Cypriots to approve a UN peace plan for the divided island.

What is more remarkable is that the changes are being brought in by the Islamist-inspired Justice and Development Party (AKP) of Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the Turkish prime minister, who was educated in an Islamic seminary and whose wife wears the veil. The Turks clearly have a long way to go before they are ready to join the EU.

Their civil rights record, for instance, still leaves much to be desired. But they have done more than enough to deserve to begin membership talks. The best way to encourage further reform is for the EU to keep its word, and make clear that it is not an exclusive Christian club.

And if the EU can make Islamists adopt democratic values, then it will have shown that its "soft power" is as important as America's military "hard power" in undermining the political base of Islamist terrorists.
Author: LuisB. October 2004

2004-07-30T17:05:00.000+02:00

NAMIBIA - SOCIAL AFFAIRS

Namibia On the Brink of a Serious Crisis
Namibia and the rest of southern Africa face one of the world's most serious humanitarian crises, a top United Nations official has warned. Fresh from visits to Namibia, Malawi, Mozambique and Swaziland, James Morris, the UN Secretary General's special envoy for humanitarian needs in southern Africa, has warned of serious consequences if nothing is done to stem the crisis.

"The numbers of food-insecure and vulnerable households tell of an extraordinary human tragedy and southern Africa must still be considered the location of one of the world's most serious humanitarian crises," Morris wrote in a report to the UN.
When he was in Namibia last month, Morris urged Namibia to play a greater role in combating the effects of HIV-AIDS and to offer improved access to services for the rapidly growing number of orphans and vulnerable women.

He said the Government needed to step up efforts to deal with the "humanitarian crisis" in the country.

"I am particularly concerned about the plight of orphans and women and their inability to access critical necessities such as food, clean water, education, and health care," he said.

Morris came to review how the international community could more effectively assist Namibia in battling HIV-AIDS, food security and the drain of human resources.

"An expedited implementation of commitments is required if Namibia is to get through this crisis without losing an entire generation," said Morris.

Namibia ranks among the top five countries in the world most affected by HIV-AIDS. The virus has become the country's leading cause of mortality with nearly a quarter of a million people infected. Average life expectancy will decline to around 40 years of age by the end of 2005 - 25 per cent lower than without HIV. There are already more than 120 000 orphans and vulnerable children in Namibia and the number will reach 250 000 by the year 2020.

The World Food Programme, Unicef and the Namibian Government recently put together a joint appeal of US$5,8 million to help over 600 000 orphans and other vulnerable children and women suffering from the combined effects of erratic weather, severe poverty and worsening HIV-AIDS rates.
However, funding has been slow and this has had a serious effect on the UN's ability to adequately support the most vulnerable groups.
Source; The Namibian (Windhoek). July 04
Write: by Christof Maletsky

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

ZAMBIA - INTERNAL AFFAIRS

Zambia wants 15-25 year jail terms for hackers
Zambia's government is to present a tough bill on cyber crime to parliament on Friday that will see convicted hackers and other offenders face harsh sentences ranging from 15 to 25 years in jail.

The Computer Misuse and Crimes Bill enjoys strong backing from bankers and the Computer Society of Zambia, a group of professionals promoting computer use, who say hacking into dormant accounts has become a problem in this poor southern African country.

"We feel this law will help to deal with the increasing number of electronic frauds and hacking especially in the financial sector," said Milner Makuni, president of the Computer Society of Zambia.

The most famous cyber offence in Zambia was committed by a young computer whizkid who hacked the State House website and replaced the picture of then president Frederick Chiluba with a cartoon.

He was arrested and charged with defamaing the head of state but the case failed to succeed because there was no law in Zambia which deals with cyber crimes.

"The bill, once passed, will help to deal with high tech cyber crimes that our current legal system cannot address," said Bob Samakai, a ministry of communication permanent secretary.

But some cyber experts worry that the measure is likely to be abused by the authorities to curb access to the Internet.

"It is difficult to regulate the use of computers and Internet because we are dealing with a world wide web," said Brenda Zulu, a renowned cyber journalist who specialises in online reporting.

She said the country should first develop a policy on Information Communication Technology (ICT) before rushing to enact legislation on computers.

Currently, the Zambian government is seeking public input in the draft ICT policy, which is yet to be adopted.

"This law is very vague and not necessary for Zambia at the moment," said Lloyd Himambo, an editor of Zambia's online newspaper, The Watchdog.

He said regulating the use of computers will be a difficult undertaking and wondered how such a law will be enforced in Zambia, a country where computers are a preserve of the rich.

About 1 in 1,000 Zambians owns a computer, according to unofficial estimates.

The Computer Society of Zambia agrees that enforcing such a law will be difficult, but pledged to help train police officers to understand cyber crimes.

"I think what people should be fighting for is to upgrade their security features on their websites to deal with hacking but not to criminalise it," said Zulu, adding that hacking a site can be done outside Zambia making it difficult to track the offenders.

A senior Zambian lawyer, who has studied the bill, said it is an "import of the British Act" and lacks local input.

"I think this law is very advanced for the Zambian society and government should not rush it through parliament before reaching consensus," he said, on condition of anonymity.
Source; AFP. July 04
Write; by Dickson Jere

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

MALAWI - INTERNAL AFFAIRS

Church pair caught in the act
A Malawian court convicted a Catholic priest and a nun of disorderly conduct on Thursday after they were caught engaged in a sexual act in a parked car with tinted windows. The Malawian priest, 43, and the 26-year-old nun from neighbouring Zambia spent the night in police cells after being caught in the act on Wednesday, police said. A court in the capital Lilongwe handed down suspended jail sentences of six months with hard labour after the pair pleaded guilty to charges of disorderly conduct.

"These people were caught in a sex act," Assistant Superintendent Kelvin Maigwa told Reuters.

Officials in the Church, whose priests are barred from sex or marriage, declined to comment. Passers-by alerted police at Lilongwe International Airport after the parked Toyota Corolla, which had tinted windows, began shaking in what police described as "a funny manner".
Source; Independent Online. July 04

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

SOUTH AFRICA - GEOSECURITY

What were SA men doing in Pakistan?
Islamabad and Johannesburg - The two South Africans held in Pakistan by intelligence agents were caught with a top al-Qaeda operative after a fierce gunbattle at the weekend.

The operative, Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani, is of the world's most wanted men with a $25-million (about R157-million) price on his head.

He was in custody in Pakistan on Friday for his suspected role in the 1998 bombings of the US embassies in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam.

'It is a big achievement for our security forces'
On Thursday Pakistan's high commissioner in Pretoria, Akbar Zeb, expressed doubt that the two South African men being held captive on suspicion of terrorism activities were only tourists.

They had been granted visas on July 10 to visit Pakistan for "tourism" purposes.

Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Aziz Pahad called Zeb in to insist that South Africa's high commission in Pakistan be given consular access to the men.

Zeb assured Pahad that the high commission in Islamabad would be given consular access to the two men "very soon" - once his government's intelligence authorities had completed their initial investigations.

The two South African suspects, believed to be 20-year-old Islamic-studies student Zubair Ismail of Laudium and Feroz Ganchi, reported to be from Fordsburg, were arrested on Sunday along with Ghailani and 13 others.

He is wanted for the death of Americans
They were arrested in a house in the city of Gujrat after a 14-hour gunbattle. Police seized firearms, ammunition, grenades and maps.

But the families of the men in South Africa claim Ismail was in Pakistan to study while Ganchi, a doctor, was there for relief work.

Others said the men were on a hiking expedition.

Zeb dismissed speculation in the South African media that there had been a muddle over the men's identities or that the men arrested had stolen passports from Ganchi and Ismail.

According to Sapa, Pahad met the Ganchi family, at their request, on Wednesday to tell them what the government was doing.

"Ghailani and the others were arrested after the firefight in Gujrat, about 175km south-east of Islamabad, Pakistan Interior Minister Faisal Saleh Hayat said.

"It is a big achievement for our security forces," he said.

The US's $25-million reward for the capture of the Tanzanian national is the same bounty offered for al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden and 19 others on the Federal Bureau of Investigation's (FBI) Most Wanted Terrorist List.

Ghailani is probably the most senior al-Qaeda operative caught in Pakistan since the arrest in March 2003 of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the suspected mastermind of the September 11 attacks on New York and Washington.

"He is wanted for the death of Americans," said an official in Washington on condition of anonymity.

Ghailani, who is in his early 30s and goes by the nicknames "Foopie" and "Ahmed the Tanzanian", was indicted in New York in 1998 for the synchronised blasts that blew up the US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, killing 224 people.

Washington blamed al-Qaeda for the devastating bombings and carried out a missile attack on Afghan military training camps run by Bin Laden shortly afterwards. Bin Laden escaped unhurt.

Four al-Qaeda supporters were sentenced to life in prison in October 2001 by a Manhattan federal judge for the bombings.

The FBI and the Manhattan US Attorney's office had no immediate comment on Ghailani's arrest.

Hayat said Pakistani security forces had been acting on a tip-off when they raided a suspected militant hideout in Gujrat. One policeman was slightly wounded in the gunbattle, he added.

Hayat said Ghailani, his Uzbek wife and up to eight other foreigners, including two South Africans, were among those arrested.

Those held included four men, three women and five children, Pakistan's Nation newspaper said today.

"They were strangers, and they acted as such, keeping mostly to themselves," the newspaper said, quoting neighbours.

Pakistan had not yet received a request from the US for Ghailani's extradition, Hayat said.

"He has been in Pakistan for some time. We have to establish the exact nature of his activities and scope of his network in Pakistan.

"Only after we have exhausted our inquiries shall we be able to hand him over to the US."

US Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage praised Pakistan's pursuit of al-Qaeda-linked fighters during a visit to Islamabad this month.

US officials suspect that Bin Laden and his deputy Ayman al-Zawahri and other al-Qaeda supporters are hiding somewhere in rugged tribal areas along the Afghan border and have pressured Pakistan to pursue foreign militants in the lawless region.

Up to 600 fighters, including Arabs, Chechens and Uzbeks, are believed to be in the tribal belt, many of them sheltered by tribesmen who have also been involved in fierce clashes with Pakistani troops this year.

Pakistani forces launched two major operations this year in the region after President Pervez Musharraf vowed to clear the country of foreign militants accused of attacks in Pakistan, including two attempts on his life in December, and strikes on US-led forces in Afghanistan.

Pakistan says it has arrested hundreds of al-Qaeda fighters and handed them over to the US since it joined the US-led war on terror in the wake of September 11. - Reuters and Independent News Service.
Source; The Star. July 04
Write; by Zeeshan Haider, Beauregard Tromp and Peter Fabricius

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

UZBEKISTAN - INTERNAL SECURITY

Uzbek Blasts Hit U.S., Israeli Embassy, Prosecution
Explosions struck the U.S. and Israeli embassies and the prosecutor's office in the Uzbek capital Tashkent on Friday, causing a number of casualties.
"An explosion has occurred outside the prosecutor's office," said Svetlana Ardykova, head of the prosecution's press service.
Russia's Interfax news agency quoted an official at the U.S. embassy as saying the blast had been caused by a suicide bomber with explosives attached to his waist.
Israel radio said an explosion had hit its embassy in the capital of the ex-Soviet Central Asian state, killing two local people.
Fifteen people are now standing trial in Tashkent on charges of trying to overthrow the ex-Soviet state in connection with attacks in February that killed nearly 50 people.
The defendants were said to have been followers of the extreme Islamist al Qaeda organization.
Uzbekistan was a staging post for the U.S. operation that ousted the Taliban in neighboring Afghanistan and has allowed Washington the use of an air base.
The administration of Uzbek President Islam Karimov, who unabashedly uses tough methods to root out Islamic extremism, stands accused by rights groups of widespread human rights violations.
Source; Reuters. July 04

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

SPAIN - NATIONAL SECURITY

Lebanese national arrested in connection with March 11 bombs
Spanish police arrested a Lebanese national on Wednesday evening for his alleged connection with the perpetrators of the March 11 terrorist attacks in Madrid.
The man, Semaan Gaby Eid, had reportedly been in contact with Jamal Ahmidan, El Chino, considered a mastermind behind the Madrid blasts and one of the terrorists who killed themselves in April's Leganés explosion. Gaby Eid is also believed to have played a role in the purchase of the explosives used in the attacks. At the time of his arrest in Madrid's Carabanchel district, Gaby Eid was carrying forged papers.
Source; El Pais. July 04
Write; by Marta Zhein

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

U.S.A. - INTERNAL AFFAIRS

'Terror' Against the Press
The curious saga of the Boston FBI's 'unconfirmed reports' of a right-wing threat to the media July 29th, 2004 4:25 PM BOSTON-It looks like the FBI's Boston field office faked a threat of domestic terrorism just before the start of the Democratic National Convention by leaking "unconfirmed" reports of white supremacist groups readying an attack against media vehicles in Boston. Fox News, for one, reportedly was wildly trying to disguise its trucks by covering up its logos.

The effect of this probably was to make the press even more suspicious of anti-war demonstrators than it already is-to even view them as possible terrorists, and if not actual terrorists, then a crowd within which terrorists could operate.

All of this is taking place in an atmosphere of fear and tension whipped up by the Bush administration, with its reports of Al Qaeda "sleeping cells" preparing to strike against America in the midst of the presidential campaign. (See my July 16 article on a chilling Election Day scenario.)

The white supremacists on the far right have never shown any great interest in the war on terror, and they usually try to use the press, not attack it. Mark Potok, editor of the Southern Poverty Law Center's Intelligence Report, which tracks the far right, told Glynn Wilson of the serious-minded Southerner Daily News blog, "We have had no indication whatsoever, not an inkling, that there is any kind of violent action planned by the radical right in Boston. We follow these groups quite closely."

ABC News said last week (basing its report on anonymous sources) that, just before the convention opened on July 23, statements by a domestic group of college-age people in the Midwest triggered the FBI warning, according to Wilson. The ABC report said the group's members had not gone to Boston, Wilson noted. Other warnings of "a very real concern" about impending "violent action by white supremacists" emanated from the Secret Service, the Boston Joint Terrorism Task Force, and Boston police, Wilson said.

CNN reported July 23 that "authorities fear that some protesters are preparing to target the media" and that the "Boston Joint Terrorism Task Force is investigating." According to the CNN story, the FBI's Boston office issued a statement saying it had "unconfirmed information" that, as CNN put it, "a domestic group plans to attack media vehicles, possibly with 'explosives or incendiary devices.' "

Special Agent Gail A. Marcinkiewicz, the public affairs coordinator for the Boston FBI office, told the Southerner that the report of a "radical domestic terrorist group" planning an attack on media trucks in Boston was "unconfirmed."

Wilson noted that Boston authorities, according to ABC, were worried about two right-wing white supremacist groups in particular: Volksfront and White Revolution. Potok told Wilson that some members of Volksfront pleaded guilty last year in the beating death of a homeless black man, and the Volksfront online bulletin board recently carried a posting urging members to go to Boston and "rally."

"But there was no suggestion whatsoever of any violence," Potok told Wilson, "let alone violence against media trucks. . . . I find it extremely difficult to believe that White Revolution or Volksfront would be involved in an action like this."

Overall, the racist far-right would just love to get some publicity from the war on terror, but these people are stuck in the Stone Age when it comes to weaponry and ideas, and they are definitely not into suicide bombings. Such groups have always tried to manipulate the press, not attack it-except for such rare cases as the neo-Nazis' murder of Denver talk-radio host Alan Berg in 1984.
Source; Mondo Boston. July 04
Write; by James Ridgeway

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

COLOMBIA - NATIONAL SECURITY

Colombian Bishop Is Freed
Marxist rebels of the National Liberation Army on Tuesday released a Roman Catholic bishop, Misael Vacca, two days after his kidnapping prompted condemnation from Pope John Paul II and a rescue operation by Colombia's army.
Church officials told reporters that Bishop Vacca, of the city of Yopal, was found safe in a small town northeast of Bogotá, the capital.
Rebels of the Liberation Army, which was for years led by a Spanish priest, had said they planned to release him with a message to give to the government. But President Álvaro Uribe, whose father was killed by guerrillas, did not wait and ordered troops and helicopters into rugged mountains in northeastern Colombia.
Source; NYT. July 04

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

FOCUS

KENIA - SECURITY AFFAIRS

Arms Trade Booming in Northern Kenya
Nairobi Women and children are used as conduits for trans-border trade in guns and ammunition in the northern Kenya, a new study reveals.
The guns and the bullets are then transported to various parts of the country including Nairobi by donkey carts, trucks and, sometimes, government vehicles.
The research, which is a campaign against small arms by Oxfam - a British development and charitable organisation - says that the weapons come from Ethiopia, which borders Kenya to the North and Somalia which borders Kenya to the East. Others come from Uganda and the volatile Democratic Republic of Congo.
The weapons are picked at the Manyatta Burji-Moyale in Ethiopia. Most of these are normally destined for markets in Eastleigh and Kariobangi North estates in Nairobi, the study, done early this year, says.
Most of this thriving business goes on under the noses of border officials who either look the other way or are too ignorant to know what goes on.
In Mandera, the source of the ammunition and guns is the Suftu area of Ethiopia and Gedo region of Somalia. The entry point is Suftu, Mandera/Somalia border and several other secret routes. The weapons are ferried using donkeys, human couriers and lorries. Most of these find markets in Wajir, Isiolo, Meru, Marsabit and, occasionally, West Pokot.

Unlike in Moyale, ammunition sale in Mandera is done more discreetly. The sale, most of the time, takes place in the middle of the night as opposed to Moyale where business is transacted throughout the day.
The source of ammunition that comes through Wajir is Lower Juba region, Kismayu and Mogadishu
The main entry point is Diff, and through numerous cut lines paved during the oil exploration in the mid 1980s.

The mode of transport is lorries that ferry uncustomed goods from Somalia and human couriers.
Most of the ammunition from Somalia that comes through Mandera is readily gobbled up by Mandera, southern Moyale, eastern part of Marsabit and Wajir north.

In Isiolo, the source of the arms is the Oromo Liberation Front rebels. Others come from Wajir due to the differences between the Ajuran and Degodia community, and also from Kenya Police through the regular and Kenya Police Reservists (homeguards).

The entry points are Merti, Garba Tulla, Modogashe and Habaswein.
In Garissa, the source of the weapons is Somalia, especially the Upper Shabelle and Lower Juba.
The traffickers get in through Diff, Liboi and Daadab and carry their deadly cargo by bus and lorries. Others are disguised as livestock traders.

Most of these arms find their way into Ijara, Tana River, Ukambani and Nairobi.
West Pokot gets its arms from the Democratic Republic of Congo and also Karamojong in Uganda.

The guns, which are used in cattle rustling, enter Pokot through Kacheliba, Alale and Turkwel. A brand new AK-47, the Oxfam report says, can go for as little as Sh10,000 while a bullet can go for even Sh50.
In Samburu, gunrunners get their products from West Pokot, Isiolo, Turkana, Uganda and Sudan.
They come through Nyahururu, Barsaloi, Baragoi, South Horr, Ngurunit and Archer's Post and find a ready market in Maralal, Barsaloi and Baragoi.

The string of world-class tourist hotels and lodges that dot the banks of Ewaso Ng'iro in Samburu district is a clear testimony that development can flourish in the arid and semi-arid areas. Interestingly, these investments are never attacked despite being in a bandit-prone area.
A member of the Moyale Peace and Reconciliation Committee says that the government's indifference and vast and porous Ethiopian border largely contribute to the spread of small arms in district.
In Moyale this "business" is monopolised by women and truck loaders who transport it to Nairobi concealed as jerry cans carrying old engine oil. Every other day a convoy of nine lorries depart from Moyale carrying an estimated 560 rounds of ammunition.

"I can afford to buy food for my children and that is the basic thing I should provide for them. The rest, like going to school, are luxuries I can't afford to give to them. I don't beg and neither does my husband rob other people," says Marre Hirbo, 38, speaking of her bullet business.

She carries them disguised in a bag of maize seeds and crosses the border nonchalantly in the morning.
She normally picks them from her younger sister's house, a few metres from Moyale-Ethiopia's police headquarters, sandwiched between a mosque and the Ethiopian military barracks.
On the Kenyan side at Manyatta Burji village where her house is, somebody is waiting on the tail of a convoy travelling to Nairobi. Marre buys a jerry can and half fills it with engine oil where her 60 ammunition are dipped, then hidden in the back of a truck for the long journey to Nairobi.
She justifies her trade again: "The government has failed to develop Moyale, what are we expected to do?"
There are more than 16 police roadblocks from Moyale to Nairobi during the day and twice the number at night. Yet the bullets arrive in Nairobi unnoticed.

In Wajir, an intelligence officer monitoring terrorism and other related activities confided that as long as the cut-lines paved during the exploration of oil in the mid-1980's are there, it will be a gigantic task to stop the small arms trade in Wajir and Garissa besides the act of terror itself.
The officer says the region is sitting on a time bomb, adding that there are many illegal activities based on local and cross-border politics as well as others of economic dimension controlled from Somalia going on and can easily be missed by a undiscerning eye.

"Every transaction here is so intricate that it needs a trained eye, a lot of patience and intensive networking to understand and uncover," he adds.
Those who sell their animals to livestock markets in Garba-Tulla, Merti, Modogashe and Sericho transport arms. A bullet normally costs Sh100, says the report.

The guns and ammo are used to protect the animals while on transit to market centres. Once they reach the market, the guns and ammo are sold at the same time the animals are disposed of.
"We have to pay school fees and other needs during the dry season when the prices of our livestock are at the lowest. So once in a while we sell them out of the stock that we keep for emergency," says Aden, a former school teacher.

The proximity of Wajir to Somalia, the little presence of the government and the vastness of the area has made trade in small arms and ammunition so lucrative that it offers alternative employment to local youths.
The proliferation of arms in the area is also attributed to suspicions and conflicts among the four clans that inhabit the district. Each clan controls a constituency.
The story of Garissa will never be complete without mentioning one of the most bloody conflicts in the entire province between the Ogaden/Auhlian and the Abdalla clans of the then greater Garissa before its split into Garissa and Ijara districts.

Two former senior government officials incited leaders of their respective clans to take up arms in what started as a fight over resource control but ended up as territorial battle. Ijara became a district as a result of the bloody war that claimed the lives of many of the "midwives" involved in its birth. Hundreds of arms and thousands of rounds of ammunition were bought from Somalia to the greater Garissa district.
The embers of these clan differences still smoulder, sometimes fanned by the winds from resource pressure, drought and land. However, after the 1997 General Election, there was a lull on the battlefront and peace took root thanks to the Pastoralists Peace and Development Initiative and the posting of Mr Mohammed Saleh, who comes from the region, as Provincial Commissioner. But this initiative was cut short after the transfer of the PC in 2002. Trafficking in ammunition seems to have been reactivated.

Isiolo is in the middle of Kenya. Its position is therefore of strategic importance. Due to its terrain and proximity and easy and fast access to major urban areas, Isiolo is a dream of every military commander. Its weather is ideal for desert warfare. The open spaces are best for the infantry and artillery.
Its seasonal rivers and sandy nature are the most important training ranges for the tanks and combat engineers and the British Army brings its troops for training there too, hence the town is surrounded by four military institutions namely School of Infantry (SOI), School of Combat Engineering near Archer's Post, the 78th Armoured Brigade and the 75th Artillery Battalion based at School of Artillery.

The Isiolo/Moyale Highway is one of the major arteries in the road network systems whose notoriety as a conduit for small arms and ammunition trade is well known to the authorities.
Isiolo is also a rendezvous for arms dealers, traders, travellers and livestock traders from the northern region except Turkana and Tana River. Its location in the heart of Kenya, therefore, is of significant strategic importance.
Ewaso Ng'iro traverses four provinces as it flows and drains into Lorian Swamp in North Eastern Province. The river, which forms one of Kenya's largest basins, is the lifeline of the agriculturists in the upper catchment, the wildlife and tourism in the middle and the pastoralists in the lower area.
These combined factors attract other pastoralists who bring their livestock to Isiolo and hence much pressure is put on the land leading to conflicts. For this reason, many of these pastoralists buy arms to protect themselves or to raid others.

A G3 in Isiolo goes for Sh30,000 while an AK-47 sells at Sh20,000. Bullets from police officers after an operation go for between Sh30-60 but when there is no operation they costs Sh100. They are also sold further afield to the Samburu in Wamba, Archer's Post, Serolipi, the Rendilles of Marille and Laisamis and Turkanas of Baragoi transported by lorries that ferry goods to Marsabit on the Nairobi/Addis Highway.

In 1997, Isiolo was a battle front between the Degodia clan from Wajir West and the Borans after the Degodia, who had come in search of water and pasture for the livestock most of which had been wiped out by a prolonged drought. However, they extended their welcome and the Borans were not amused. The Degodias were armed and so for the Borans to tackle them, they sought weapons from the Ethiopian cousins in the Oromo Liberation Front. A war erupted killing many.

In Samburu East constituency, the British Army had pitched camp and its Artillery and Infantry units practise three times in a year at the Laresoro range a few kilometres outside the sleepy town of Archer's Post.
"The guns in Samburu came from North Eastern Province. The Samburus bought them from the Somalis after we came under attack from several neighbouring tribes," says Sammy Leshore, Samburu East MP. The chairman of the Samburu Peace Committee, Mr S. Lenairoshi also says people buy bullets from policemen and homeguards. In Alale sub-district of West Pokot the weapons are bought from Uganda - they just walk across the border and back without any hindrance.
In 2003 alone, more than 32,000 people were displaced in Kerio Valley and areas bordering West Pokot due to banditry and cattle rustling activities, recalls Oxfam.
Source; The Nation (Nairobi). July 04
Write; by Mburu Mwangi and Said Wabera

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

CENTRAL ASIA - GEOSTRATEGIES

The new 'Great Game' in Central Asia
Geostrategic considerations, the struggle against terrorism, and concrete economic interests are among the intertwining strands of a new 'Great Game' in Central Asia, with the US inheriting Britain's imperial role and trying to consolidate its post-Cold War sphere of influence.

About two years ago, I visited the US airbase in Bagram, some thirty miles north of the Afghan capital Kabul. A US Army public affairs officer, a friendly Texan, gave me a tour of the sprawling camp, set up after the ouster of the Taliban in December 2001. It was a clear day, and one Chinook helicopter after the other took off to transport combat troops into the nearby mountains. As we walked past the endless rows of tents and men in desert camouflage uniforms, I spotted a wooden pole carrying two makeshift street signs. They read "Exxon Street" and "Petro Boulevard”. Slightly embarrassed, the PA officer explained, "This is the fuel handlers' workplace. The signs are obviously a joke, a sort of irony." As I am sure it was. It just seemed an uncanny sight as I was researching the potential links between the "war on terror" and US oil interests in Central Asia.

Strategic struggle for Wild East
I had already traveled thousands of miles from the Caucasus peaks across the Caspian Sea and the Central Asian plains all the way down to the Afghan Hindu Kush. On that journey I met with and interviewed warlords, diplomats, politicians, generals, and oil bosses. They are all players in a geo-strategic struggle that has become increasingly intertwined with the war on terror: the "New Great Game". In this re-run of the first "Great Game," the nineteenth-century imperial rivalry between the British Empire and czarist Russia, powerful players once again position themselves to control the heart of the Eurasian landmass, left in a post-Soviet power vacuum. Today the US has taken over the leading role from the British. Along with the ever-present Russians, new regional powers such as China, Iran, Turkey, and Pakistan have entered the arena, and transnational oil corporations are also pursuing their own interests in a brash, Wild East style. Since 11 September 2001, the Bush Administration has undertaken a massive military buildup in Central Asia, deploying thousands of US troops, not only in Afghanistan but also in the republics of Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, and Georgia. These first US combat troops on former Soviet territory have dramatically altered the geo-strategic power equations in the region, with Washington trying to seal the Cold War victory against Russia, contain Chinese influence, and tighten the noose around Iran.

Oil giants covet Caspian riches
Most importantly, however, the Bush Administration is using the "war on terror" to further US energy interests in Central Asia. The bad news is that this dramatic geopolitical gamble involving thuggish dictators and corrupt Saudi oil sheiks is likely to produce only more terrorists, jeopardizing US prospects of victory. The main spoils in today's Great Game are the Caspian energy reserves, principally oil and gas. On its shores, and at the bottom of the Caspian Sea, lie the world's biggest untapped fossil fuel resources. Estimates range from 85 to 190 billion barrels of crude, worth up to US$5 trillion. According the US Energy Department, Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan alone could sit on more than 130 billion barrels, more than three times the US reserves. Oil giants such as ExxonMobil, ChevronTexaco, and British Petroleum have already invested more than US$30 billion in new production facilities. The aggressive US pursuit of oil interests in the Caspian did not start with the Bush Administration, but under Clinton who personally conducted oil and pipeline diplomacy with Caspian leaders. US industry leaders were impressed. "I cannot think of a time when we have had a region emerge as suddenly to become as strategically significant as the Caspian," declared Dick Cheney in 1998 in a speech to oil industrialists in Washington. Cheney was then still CEO of the oil-services giant Halliburton. In May 2001 Cheney, now US Vice President, recommended in the Administration's seminal National Energy Policy report that "the President make energy security a priority of our trade and foreign policy," singling out the Caspian Basin as a "rapidly growing new area of supply."

Chemical dependency
Keen to outdo Clinton's oil record, the Bush Administration took the new Great Game into its second round. With potential oil production of up to 4.7 million barrels per day by 2010, the Caspian region has become crucial to the US policy of "diversifying energy supply”. The other major supplier is the oil-rich Gulf of Guinea, where both the Clinton and the Bush administrations have vigorously developed US oil interests and strengthened ties with corrupt West African regimes. The strategy of supply diversification is designed to wean the US off its dependence on the Arab-dominated OPEC cartel, which has been using its near-monopoly position as leverage against industrialized countries. As global oil consumption keeps surging and many oil wells outside the Middle East are nearing depletion, OPEC is in the long run going to expand its share of the world market even further. At the same time, the US will have to import more than two-thirds of its total energy needs by 2010, mostly from the volatile Middle East. Many people in Washington are particularly uncomfortable with the growing turmoil in Saudi Arabia, whose terror ties have been exposed since the 11 September 2001 terror attacks. As the recent bombings and attacks on oil installations have shown, there is a growing risk that radical Islamist groups could topple the corrupt Saud dynasty, only to then stop the flow of oil to "infidels." The consequences of 8 million barrels of oil - 10 per cent of global production - disappearing from the world markets overnight would be disastrous. Even without any such anti-Western revolution, the Saudi petrol is already, as it were, ideologically contaminated. To supply the ideological deficit left by lack of democracy, the Saudi ruling elite relies on the fundamentalist Wahhabi version of Islam - many of whose preachers see no room for compromise with nations like the US.

Tapping new veins
To escape its Faustian pact with Saudi Arabia, the US has tried to reduce its dependence on Saudi oil sheiks by seeking to secure access to the fabulous oil and gas resources in the Gulf of Guinea and the Caspian. Central Asia, however, is no less volatile than the Middle East, and oil politics are only making matters worse: Fierce conflicts have broken out over pipeline routes from the landlocked Caspian region to high-sea ports. Russia, still regarding itself as imperial overlord of its former colonies, promotes pipeline routes across its territory, notably Chechnya, in the North Caucasus. China, whose dependence on imported oil increases with its rapid industrialization, wants to build eastbound pipelines from Kazakhstan. Iran is offering its pipeline network for exports via the Persian Gulf. By contrast, both the Clinton and Bush administrations have championed two pipelines that would avoid both Russia and Iran. One of them, first planned by the US oil company Unocal in the mid-1990s, would run from Turkmenistan through Afghanistan to the Pakistani port of Gwadar on the Indian Ocean. Several months after the US-led overthrow of the Taliban regime Afghan President Hamid Karzai, a former Unocal adviser, signed a treaty with Pakistani leader Pervez Musharraf and the Turkmen dictator Saparmurat Niazov to authorize construction of a US$3.2 billion gas pipeline through the Herat-Kandahar corridor in Afghanistan, with a projected capacity of about 1 trillion cubic feet of gas per year. A feasibility study is under way, and a parallel pipeline for oil is also planned for a later stage. So far, however, continuing warlordism in Afghanistan has prevented any private investor from coming forward. Construction has already begun on a gigantic, $3.8 billion oil pipeline from Azerbaijan's capital of Baku via neighboring Georgia to Turkey's Mediterranean port of Ceyhan. British Petroleum Amoco, its main operator, has invested billions in oil-rich Azerbaijan and can count on firm political support from the Bush Administration, which stationed about 500 elite troops in war-torn Georgia in May 2002.

Pipeline perpetuates instability
Controversial for environmental and social reasons, as it is unlikely to alleviate poverty in the notoriously corrupt transit countries, the pipeline project also perpetuates instability in the South Caucasus. With thousands of Russian troops still stationed in Georgia and Armenia, Moscow has for years sought to deter Western pipeline investors by fomenting bloody ethnic conflicts near the pipeline route, in the Armenian enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh in Azerbaijan and in the Georgian breakaway regions of Abkhazia, South Ossetia, and Adjaria. Washington's Great Game opponents in Moscow and Beijing resent the dramatically growing US influence in their strategic backyard. Worried that the US presence might encourage internal unrest in its predominantly Muslim Central Asian province of Xingjian, China has recently held joint military exercises with Kyrgyzstan. The Russian government initially tolerated the US intrusion into its former empire, hoping Washington would in turn ignore Russian atrocities in Chechnya. However, for the Kremlin, the much-hyped "new strategic partnership" against terror between the Kremlin and the White House has always been little more than a tactical and temporary marriage of convenience to allow Russia's battered economy to recover with the help of capital from Western companies. It is unthinkable for the majority of the Russian establishment to permanently cede its hegemonic claims on Central Asia. Russia's Defense Ministry has repeatedly demanded that the US pull out of Russia's backyard within two years. Significantly, President Putin has signed new security pacts with the Central Asian rulers and last October personally opened a new Russian military base in Kyrgyzstan. It is the first base Moscow has set up outside Russia's borders since the end of the cold war. Equipped with fighter jets, it lies only thirty-five miles away from the US airbase.

Strange bedfellows
Besides raising the specter of interstate conflict, the Bush Administration's energy imperialism jeopardizes the few successes in the war on terror. That is because the resentment US policies cause in Central Asia makes it easier for al Qaida-like organizations to recruit new fighters. They hate the US because in its search for antiterrorist allies in the new Great Game, the Bush Administration has wooed some of the region's most brutal autocrats, including Azerbaijan's Heidar Aliev, Kazakhstan's Nursultan Nazarbaev and Pakistan's Musharraf. The most tyrannical of Washington's new allies is Islam Karimov, the former Stalinist dictator of Uzbekistan who allowed US troops to set up a large and permanent military base on Uzbek soil during the Afghan campaign in late 2001. Ever since, the Bush Administration has turned a blind eye to the Karimov regime's brutal suppression of opposition and Islamic groups. "Such people must be shot in the head. If necessary, I will shoot them myself," Karimov once famously told his rubber-stamp parliament. Although the US State Department acknowledges that Uzbek security forces use "torture as a routine investigation technique," Washington in 2002 gave the Karimov regime US$500 million in aid and rent payments for the US airbase in Khanabad. Though Uzbek Muslims can be arrested simply for wearing a long beard, the State Department also quietly removed Uzbekistan from its annual list of countries where freedom of religion is under threat. Even though the US this year held back US$18 million in aid, Powell assured Karimov he was still in their good books. "Uzbekistan is an important partner of the United States in the war on terror and we have many shared strategic goals. This decision does not mean that either our interests in the region or our desire for continued cooperation with Uzbekistan has changed," the State Department said. The current US policy of aiding Central Asian tyrants for the sake of oil politics repeats the very same mistakes that gave rise to bin Ladenism in the 1980s and 1990s because their disgusted subjects increasingly embrace militant Islam and virulent anti-Americanism. Tellingly, Uzbekistan has recently seen a sharp increase in terrorist activities, with several bomb attacks shaking Tashkent in April, including the first-ever suicide bombings in Central Asia. More than forty people died in gun battles between the terrorists and security forces.

Alternatives to fossil fuels needed
The 11 September attacks have shown that the US government can no longer afford to be indifferent toward how badly dictators in the Middle East and Central Asia treat their people, as long as they keep the oil flowing. So, while the war on terror may not be all about oil, certainly in one sense it should be about just that. A bold policy to reduce the addiction to oil would be a wise strategy to win the epic struggle against terrorism. In the short term, this means saving energy through more efficient technologies, necessary anyway to slow the greenhouse effect and global warming. The Bush Administration's old-style energy policies of yet more fossil-fuel production and waste are continuing in the wrong direction. It is time to realize that more gas-guzzling Hummers on US highways only lead to more Humvees (and US soldiers) near oilfields. What is urgently needed instead - for security reasons - is a sustainable alternative energy policy. Ultimately, no matter how cleverly the US plays its cards in the New Great Game in Central Asia and no matter how many military forces are deployed to protect oilfields and pipelines, the oil infrastructure might prove too vulnerable to terrorist attacks to guarantee a stable supply anyway. The Caspian region may be the next big gas station but, as in the Middle East, there are already a lot of men running around throwing matches.
Write; by Yuumei. July 04

2004-06-22T12:58:00.000+02:00

HIGHLIGHTS

SOUTH AFRICA – LEGAL

You'll pay, US lawyer tells SA government
Six apartheid victims, including the mother of a teenager shot dead in the 1976 Soweto riots, are seeking $20-billion dollars (about R140-billion) in a lawsuit targeting the South African government and major corporations, their lawyer said on Monday.

The suit was filed in New York District Court on Saturday, demanding at least $10-billion for "genocide, expropriation and other wrongful acts" by international companies under apartheid, American lawyer Ed Fagan told a news conference.

The plaintiffs are also seeking another $10-billion in damages because President Thabo Mbeki's government "continued to allow companies to exploit victims without protecting them, allowing industry to violate people's rights."

'These companies were strategic partners of the apartheid government'
The full amount would be paid into what Fagan termed a "humanitarian fund."

"At the end of the day these companies were strategic partners of the (apartheid) government," Fagan said.

The post-apartheid government set up in 1994 was targeted in the case "because of its failure to fulfil its obligations and its conspiracy with specific companies to violate these people's rights," he added.

Apart from Mbeki, the suit targets mining giants Anglo American and Goldfields; United States computer giant IBM; UBS Bank of Switzerland and South African petroleum giant Sasol.

Among the plaintiffs in the lawsuit is Dorothy Molefi, the mother of 13-year-old Hector Petersen, who was shot dead in Soweto in June 1976 when police opened fire on schoolchildren and teenagers who had gathered to protest against the imposition of Afrikaans - seen as the language of the white oppressors - in schools.

'South African matters resolved in South Africa'
The picture of Petersen being carried away by two teenagers became iconic of black South Africa's struggle against racist oppression.

Mbeki's spokesperson Bheki Khumalo said the government would defend its case, but wanted "South African matters resolved in South Africa."

"If Ed Fagan has decided to do this and he has indicated that he is doing it, well, the government will have to go to court and defend itself. We are convinced that we have a winable case."

Mbeki has in the past condemned any moves to sue major companies in the US, arguing that many of the companies were now assisting in South Africa's development.

Fagan said the civil action was separate to that of a class action on behalf of apartheid victims already before a New York court, and from which South African lawyers claimed Fagan had been dismissed.

This was disputed by the flamboyant US lawyer: "I was never fired. I merely took a back seat. It was them who were fired."

He has also drawn scathing criticism from civic groups for raising the expectations of poor and mainly black victims of apartheid.

Fagan became prominent when he won a $1.2-billion compensation claim by Holocaust survivors against Swiss banks, including UBS and Credit Suisse, in 1998.

Fagan said his clients would give the South African government two weeks to respond to a "proposal" - without divulging details - before the case would go ahead.

"Make no mistake about this. This is not a game, it is not a procedural play, it is not a show. It is a deadly serious lawsuit, it has legal legs, it has legal precedent.

"If our allegations are true, you are going to pay," he said.

Fagan said he did not want to comment on the other case already before the New York courts - in which judgment had been reserved - were 34 companies were being sued for billions of dollars.
Source; Sapa-AFP, June 04
Write; by Jan Hennop
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

SYRIA – LAW

Syria preparing sanctions against United States
Syria is preparing a law that would prohibit trade dealings with the United States in response to U.S. sanctions imposed on the Arab country last month, Syrian legislators said Saturday.

More than 130 members of the 250-seat legislature have prepared a draft of the "America Accountability Act" that would impose "strict sanctions" on American interests in Syria.

In a statement faxed to The Associated Press in Damascus, parliament officials said the draft law is a response to "Washington's policy in the region and its unlimited support and bias for Israeli policies and practices and to the Syria Accountability Act."

The Syria Accountability Act is a U.S. law passed last year that calls for sanctions against Syria for its alleged support of terrorism. Syria denies the U.S. claims and says the sanctions are political.

Muhammad Habash, a lawmaker with moderate Islamic affiliations who is one of the campaigners for the draft law, said the law was meant to maintain the dignity of Syrians.

"We are not simple-minded to the degree that we imagine we can affect the great American economy," he said. "But we are able to maintain our dignity and slap the Americans so they know that if they continue with their arrogant policies, people everywhere around the globe will spit at them."

In May, President Bush banned all U.S. exports to Syria except for food and medicine, and banned Syrian flights to and from the United States after long-standing complaints that Syria was supporting terrorism and undermining U.S. efforts in Iraq.

The sanctions were based on the Syria Accountability Act.
The parliament statement said lawmakers would submit the draft law for a vote June 27 during a Parliament session in which Foreign Minister Farouk al-Shara will explain the Syrian government's rationale for imposing the sanctions. The statement said the law was expected to pass overwhelmingly.

It would have to be ratified by President Bashar Assad before becoming law.

The statement did not give details on the nature of the sanctions Syria will impose.

Lawmaker Suleiman Haddad said the sanctions may be in the form of boycotting American goods but would not be a complete boycott of the United States, though he said some members of parliament supported that option.

"We in Syria believe that there is still a thread between us and America," Haddad said in a telephone interview Saturday. He said the sanctions would not impose restrictions on U.S. companies working in his country.

Trade between the United States and Syria amounts to $300 million a year. Several U.S. companies operate in Syria, which in the last year has signed oil-exploration deals with American companies worth a total of $34 million.

The U.S. sanctions imposed under the Syria Accountability Act also authorize the Treasury Department to freeze the assets of Syrian nationals and entities involved in terrorism. They also restrict relations between U.S. banks and the Syrian national banks.
Source; The Associated Press, June 04
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

CECENIA – RUSSIAN AFFAIRS

Mujahideen attack Russian military bases in Ingushetia
Chechen and Ingush Mujahideen armed with grenade and rocket-launchers have seized government buildings in Ingushetia, a region bordering warring Chechnya.

An Ingushetia Interior Ministry official said the attack on the ministry building in the city of Nazran began late on Monday. The official also said police buildings in Ordzhonikidzevskaya, just over the border from Chechnya, and in Karabulak have been seized by other attackers.

There is no official word on casualties, but witnesses said that dozens bodies are lying around the Interior Ministry building.

Ingush sources reported that Interior Minister of Ingushetia Murad Kostoev was dead. Dozens of Russian occupation solders and FSB servicemen's were kill when Mujahideen attack Russian military bases in Ingushetia.

In an interview on Radio Liberty last week, Chechnya's president Aslan Maskhadov said that Chechen solders were preparing to undertake new offensives.

"We are planning to change tactics. Before, we concentrated our efforts on acts of sabotage, but soon we are planning to start active military actions," he said.

A three-man crew from Russia's NTV television came upon some of the attackers at a border crossing as they tried to reach Nazran from neighboring North Ossetia.

"Out of the dark, a voice says 'Stop, put your hands on the hood,' said NTV correspondent Maxim Berezin. "A man carrying an automatic weapon came up. 'Who are you?' 'We're from NTV.' He took a few steps back, as if to shoot us.

"Then he said, 'Say that we are the Martyr's Brigade,' I don't remember of whom, Abu, Alyua, I don't remember what he said. 'We have shot everyone here. Go and announce that.'"

The town of Karabulak and village of Sleptsovskaya also came under attack. Mujahideen killed many Russian occupation solders on military base in Troickaya village near airport. Reports say a multiple rocket launcher was being fired in Nazran and other towns of Ingushetia, and people were sheltering in cellars.

Reports also say that 30 solders of Interior Ministry of Ingushetia were dead.

At 3 a.m. 22 June Mujahideen are begin leave villages and towns of Ingushetia.
Source; Russian media, June 04
Write; by LuisB
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

INTERNATIONAL – SEMITISM

Annan Sees 'Alarming Resurgence' of Anti-Semitism
Secretary-General Kofi Annan declared on Monday there was an "alarming resurgence" of anti-Semitism in the world and called for U.N. bodies to adopt resolutions and investigate the ancient scourge.

Greeted with a standing ovation, Annan opened the first U.N.- organized seminar dedicated to anti-Semitism in response to charges that the world body dwelled on Palestinian rights and deliberately ignored injustices to Israelis and Jews.

"When we seek justice for the Palestinians - as we must - let us firmly disavow anyone who tries to use that cause to incite hatred against Jews, in Israel or elsewhere," Annan told the gathering, which included a wide spectrum of American Jewish groups and representatives of other religions.

Annan said it was hard to believe that 60 years after the Holocaust that anti-Semitism was rearing its head.

"But it is clear that we are witnessing an alarming resurgence of this phenomenon in new forms and manifestations," he said. "This time the world must not, cannot be silent.

Annan called on U.N. member states to adopt a resolution to combat anti-Semitism, similar to one approved in April by the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe. Fifty-five nations said the Middle East conflict could never justify anti-Semitism and attacks on Jews.

He also said the Geneva-based Commission on Human Rights, should examine anti-Semitism with the same diligence it looked into racism against Muslims in various parts of the world.

"Are not Jews entitled to the same degree of concern and protection?" Annan asked.

Jewish leaders pointed to dissent in the Arab world they say is descending into expressions of extreme anti-Semitism and a flurry of incidents in Europe, especially in France and Russia, they felt had not been addressed properly.

Only Germany came in for praise for its education system and tough laws to combat anti-Semitism, despite rising fears among the Jewish community there. There was little discussion of anti-Semitism in the United States where there are about 5 million Jews, slightly more than in Israel.

Author Elie Wiesel, the Nobel laureate and Holocaust survivor, said he thought anti-Semitism had perished in the Auschwitz death camp, but "only the Jews perished there."

Wiesel, the keynote speaker, said that discriminating against Jews often translated into hatred against all minorities and "those who are different."

"When we urge you to fight anti-Semitism, it is because we want to save other people as well," he said.

Edgar Bronfman, president of the World Jewish Congress, demanded Annan appoint an official charged with combating anti-Semitism, an annual report on the subject and a resolution to "unequivocally condemn anti-Semitism."

The United Nations came in for heavy criticism, especially from Anne Bayefsky, a professor and fellow at the Hudson Institute think tank, who said Israel was demonized on a regular basis while Arab nations got away with redrawing the map of the Middle East.

To cheers from the audience, she castigated the United Nations as well as Annan for an "inability to confront the corruption of its agenda."

Felice Gaer, a human rights and U.N. expert from the American Jewish Committee, said there were enough U.N. resolutions on the books against racism and intolerance but U.N. officials appeared afraid to activate them.

But she called Annan's address "forthright and unique in U.N. history. "It's as good as it gets," she said.
Write; by Evelyn Leopold, June 04
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

IRAN - UK – DEFENSE

Iran – UK naval dispute
Communications with three Royal Navy vessels and eight sailors seized by Iran have been lost.
A British military spokesman said the craft, which entered Iran's territorial waters, cannot be contacted.
Eight British sailors have been arrested by Iran. The seacraft were detained near the Iraqi border after, said Iran, they had entered its waters without permission.
A spokesman for the officially appointed Iranian Revolutionary Guards said: "We got news that a number of foreign vessels entered Iranian waters without permission.
"Three boats were guided to Iranian shores and more than five crew were arrested."
Iranian naval sources told the country's media eight British crew were arrested after their vessels were found to contain weapons and maps.
One station said the crew had confessed to making "a mistake" and that the Iranian navy had confiscated the three vessels.
The confrontation was said to have taken place in the Shatt al Arab stretch of water between Iraq and Iran.
Sky News' Foreign Editor Tim Marshall said: "Iran is making a point to Britain probably, and that point is 'back off'."
He added that Iran may be using the incident as a bargaining tool against British-backed UN demands on its nuclear programme.
A spokesman for the British Ministry of Defence said it was investigating the reports. Royal Navy boats patrol the waterway - a highly disputed boundary between Iraq and Iraq - to prevent smuggling.
Source; Sky News, June 04
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

U.S.A. – INTERNAL AFFAIRS

San Francisco proposes limited non-citizen voting
A plan is being considered that allow non-citizens, including illegal immigrants, to vote in San Francisco school board elections.
The San Jose Mercury News said Monday the proposed November ballot measure was aimed at getting more parents involved in their children's education by waiving California's requirement that voters be U.S. citizens.

San Francisco has long been a home to a large Asian immigrant community as well as growing numbers of Latinos. Only those non-citizens with children in public school would be allowed to vote, and only in school board elections.

The Mercury said a similar proposal that would have allowed immigrants to vote in all municipal elections was rejected in 1996 by a judge who ruled the move would require an amendment to the state constitution.

If passed, the measure would be the first in California, although similar laws have been enacted in New York, Chicago and Maryland.
Source; San Jose Mercury News, June 04
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

MEDIA – MILITARY CONFLIT COVERAGE

Beheading a tool for propaganda
Islamic militants record gruesome killings and post them on Web to get media coverage
There has been a progression in the terrorists' exploitation of images to announce and dramatize their killings.
Beheading has been adapted widely by Muslim radicals for killing enemies in recent conflicts in Algeria, Bosnia and Chechnya, experts said.

But the executioners of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl in Pakistan in 2002, Pennsylvania businessman Nick Berg in Iraq on May 11 and aviation engineer Paul Johnson in Saudi Arabia on Friday have turned the act into propaganda by using digital cameras to record the spectacle.

On Friday, the grisly images were posted on the Web for a global audience, including Westerners for whom decapitation is particularly shocking.

The Site Institute - a Washington organization which tracks terrorist groups - located on Friday an Arabic-language communiqué about Mr. Johnson's killing accompanied by grim photographs of the murder on a website set up recently using the free service provided by Geocities, a subsidiary of Yahoo!.

Said Site analyst Josh Devon: 'Terrorism doesn't work unless the media is involved. Shooting someone isn't necessarily terrorism.

Beheading someone and posting it on the Web is terrorism.'

In Mr. Pearl's case, video footage of the murder was delivered to the US consulate in Karachi. Only later was it posted on the Internet and aired in part by CBS News.

The video of Mr. Berg's killing was posted immediately on the Web, provoking a storm of grief and outrage.

Mr. Johnson's killers managed to draw even more attention by announcing in their Web posting on Tuesday that he would be killed in 72 hours if their demands were not met.

'Here, we had the countdown: This guy was alive, but yet we knew he was doomed as the 72-hour countdown went on,' said Mr. Robert Thompson, a media and culture expert at Syracuse University in New York.

The combination of ritual murder with digital communications 'is this bizarre collision of worlds'.

He said the Internet had a powerful pull for terror groups because it allowed instant, international distribution to groups that otherwise could not broadcast their message through traditional media.

He said terror groups had been savvy enough to recognise, however, that only the most violent, most graphic events will draw attention.

'You can't put just anything on the Internet and expect people to pay attention,' he said.

'I can think of few things other than a beheading that is able to singularly focus people's attention.'

Mr. Marc Sageman, a former CIA officer and author of Understanding Terror Networks, said militants in Algeria, Chechnya and Bosnia had used decapitation widely.

'This has become the ritual way of slaughtering infidels,' he said.
'That's the way you slaughter animals, so I suppose it's a way of saying infidels are no better than animals.'

While beheading went out of use long ago in the West, the Saudi government still uses it for executing men and occasionally women for serious crimes, occasionally including religious crimes such as blasphemy.

The government's senior executioner, Mr. Muhammad Saad al-Beshi, gave several media interviews last year, bragging that his sword is 'very sharp. People are amazed how fast it can separate the head from the body'.
Source; LAT-WP, June 04
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

COLOMBIA – NARCOTICS

Colombian drug dealers set up cocaine supply bases in Balkans
Colombian drug clans set up bases in the Balkans to penetrate into Eastern Europe, Antonio Maria Costa, head of the UN Office Office for Drug

Control and Crime Prevention, said on Friday.

We discovered bases of Colombian drug dealers in the Balkans, in particular, in Albania, he noted. They promote Colombian cocaine to Eastern Europe, Russia and Ukraine.

According to Antonio Maria Costa, formerly Colombian cocaine was coming to Europe via Spain. However, Asia, first of all, Afghanistan, remains Europe's main source of cocaine and heroin.

Meanwhile, the UN report on cocaine production in Colombia, Peru and Bolivia says that illegal cocaine crops reduced by 20% in these countries.

All in all, 200,000 families live by cocaine crops in Colombia, Peru and Bolivia, the report proceeds.

According to UN experts, big illegal military units in Colombia initiate cocaine production in the Andes.
Source; RIA Novosti's, June 04
Write; by Mikhail Belyat
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

BOSTWANA – GEOPOLITICAL

San want their day in Bostwana court
The fate of one of southern Africa's oldest nomadic tribes, the San or Bushmen, could be sealed when the Botswana High Court hears argument on the issue of ancestral land rights.

The court case, which commences on July 5 with an in loco inspection, could decide the future of the Gana and Gwi Bushmen communities.

Two hundred and forty-eight Bushmen and Bakgalagadi adults are taking the Botswana government, including President Festus Mogae, to court over the government's forced eviction of them and their families from their ancestral land, in what could be a test case for Bushman rights across southern Africa.

The in loco inspection is supposed to visit settlements from which the San were allegedly forcibly removed from the Central Kalahari Game Reserve to settlements outside the reserve.

'Expected to become farmers overnight'
The Bushmen want the government to recognise their right to return to their land and live there without fear of further eviction, and to hunt and gather freely.

The original case of forced removal from their ancestral land was dismissed on a technicality in April 2002.

However, the Bushmen appealed and won the right to have the case re-heard on its merits.

The Botswana government had initially apparently terminated all services, including water, because it claimed that it could not afford the monthly cost of Botswana pula 55 000.

The first wave of removals took place in 1997, and most of the community has since been relocated to settlements outside the park.

In exchange for their traditional hunting-gathering existence, the Botswana government claims the San have been granted title deeds to plots, a mere 40 by 40 meters, in a conservation area - the Central Kalahari Game Reserve - about the size of Belgium.

The displaced tribesmen have also allegedly been given goats and cattle.

"People as old as 80 years and older who have been hunter-gatherers all their lives were expected to become farmers overnight", a South African spokesperson for the applicants said on Monday.

But the Botswana action has drawn strident opposition from Survival International, a British organization supporting tribal communities and their rights to their land and to decide their own future.

The organization has been at the forefront of an awareness campaign; organizing petitions across the world against the removal of the San and even suggesting that diamond prospecting could be behind the relocation.

Survival International also accuses the Botswana authorities of harassment of the San, saying they have been "tortured, beaten up or arrested for supposedly over-hunting, or hunting without correct licenses."

The Botswana government has vehemently denied these allegations, as well as that diamond prospecting was at the root of the relocation.
Source; Sapa, June 04

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

FOCUS

GEOPOLITICAL – INTERNATIONAL

Some lessons from nations that won the war on terror
At the Observatory of Human Rights in Algiers, the Algerian capital, a visitor is shown a chart indicating the course of almost a decade of terrorist war waged in the name of Islam.

The chart does not give the number of victims. Different sets of figures have circulated for years. In 1994 the Interior Ministry cited a figure of 11, 000. In 1996, Socialist opposition leader Hocine Ait-Ahmed estimated the number of those killed at almost half a million. In1999 Abdel-Aziz Bouteflika, then a presidential candidate, put the number at "over 100, 000". My estimate, based on information collected from many sources since 1994, produces a figure of around 28,000. But we still need years of painstaking research to establish the full facts.

There is more accurate information about the numbers and the frequency of terror attacks. The chart mentioned above shows that terror attacks reached their peak between 1994 and 1996. At some point, in 1995, the various terror groups were able to launch up to 30 more or less simultaneous attacks each day. In some cases, the terrorists killed hundreds of people in a day, the record being reached with the massacre of an estimated 500 people in the village of Ben-Talha.

In March 1994 during a visit to Algiers it was hard to avoid the impression that the Algerian state was on the verge of collapse and that the terrorists would soon ride into the capital to seize power. The nation had suffered human and physical losses on the scale of a conventional war. The damage done to its economic and administrative infrastructure by the terrorists ran into billions of dollars. Thousands of municipal buildings, schools, clinics, libraries and private homes had been destroyed. Dozens of villages had been turned into desert, their inhabitants driven out or massacred.

By 1996, however, the tide had begun to turn against the terrorists and within a year it was clear that Algeria was no longer in mortal danger. By 1999 Algeria had won its war against terrorism.

A similar story could be told of Peru, the Latin American nation most affected by terrorist war.

At one point, the main terrorist organization known as Sendero Luminoso (The Shining Path) was capable of striking anywhere and anytime it wished. Over almost two decades, the terrorist war claimed the lives of at least30, 000people, mostly civilians. By seizing control of a good chunk of the illicit narcotics trade, the terrorist groups had access to an almost endless source of cash to finance their campaign.

And, yet, by 1999 Peru, too, seemed to be emerging from its ordeal. With Sendero Luminoso flushed out of its safe havens and its leadership in the can, the Peruvian state was able to reassert its authority even in the deepest jungles of the hinterland.

Algeria and Peru are not the only nations to have faced and defeated modern terrorism. Egypt and Turkey have had similar experiences with exceptionally brutal terrorist movements.

Today no fewer than 22 countries are affected by terrorism of one form or another. In some, like India, the Philippines, Thailand and Myanmar, the state has succeeded in containing the terrorist threat without fully defeating it. In others, like Uzbekistan, Pakistan and Afghanistan, terrorism has transformed into low- intensity warfare that could continue for years.

Elsewhere, as in Colombia, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ivory Coast and Uganda terror groups have organized themselves into mini-armies that control large chunks of territory and threaten the central state.

But all these experiences reveal one important fact: No terrorist movement in the past two decades has succeeded in overthrowing the state and seizing power for itself. This is in contrast with the experience of the previous decades that saw several terrorist movements, often disguised as revolutionary guerrilla movements, come to power on a wave of violence.

How did Algeria, Peru and other nations that have defeated terrorism managed to do so in the face of heavy odds?

The question is of interest to the latest victims of terrorism, including Saudi Arabia.

While Algerian, Peruvian and other experiences in fighting terrorism show important differences, they all have several key features in common.

The first of these is a psychological determination on the part of the ruling elites to stay the course. One central aim of the terrorist, of course, is to instill fear in society in general and the elite in particular. By refusing to be frightened, society and its leaders achieve their first victory against the terrorists.

This, of course, is easier said than done. In Algeria, for example, the terrorists launched a campaign of murdering university teachers and students, especially girls. Scores were killed, mostly by having their throats slit. The immediate effect was dramatic. More than half of the students of the Algiers University stayed away for weeks and months. By 1995, however, the authorities had provided enough security to persuade the students, and their teachers, to return. This was still an act of daily courage on the part of tens of thousands of young people who were prepared to risk their lives but not to allow terrorists to close the universities.

In both Peru and Algeria the authorities started by grouping key personalities of the system in fortified neighborhoods so as to protect them against assassination attempts. But they soon realized that this made the task of the terrorists easier. The terrorists, using a few people for surveillance, could chart the movements of all the key people to and from a small area. This gave them fixed targets while they themselves enjoyed maximum mobility.

The terrorists achieved spectacular successes by killing many top people. Dozens of ministers, governors, mayors, trade union leaders, political party personalities, prominent media men and women were murdered in Peru and Algeria. In Algeria they even assassinated the head of state.

Later, both countries decided to spread their key personnel widely, beyond the terrorists' capacity to organize surveillance operations leading to assassinations.

The second lesson to learn is to understand the difference in the rhythm and tempo of the terrorist organization and the state security forces. The terrorist is almost always capable of running the100 - meter course faster than his state adversaries. He aims at achieving big victories quickly and with a few spectacular operations. The state security forces, on the other hand, must be prepared to draw the terrorist into a marathon course. They need to slow things down as much as possible and to make sure that even the most spectacular attacks fail to produce the results desired by the terrorists.

The third lesson to learn is the strategy of forcing the terrorists into fixed positions before moving against them. The terrorist constantly seeks anonymity, like fish in water.

But he also needs safe havens, hospitals, recreation centers, places to hide his bigger weapons, and facilities to train new recruits or imprison potential defectors. All this means a loss of mobility, which is the terrorist's key advantage over the state.

In both Algeria and Peru, and to some extent even in Turkey and Egypt, the state decided to actually help the terrorists become fixed targets.
In Algeria, for example, the anti-terror units deliberately stayed out of some areas, notably the Mitidja plain and the town of Blida, thus shooing the terrorists there. On some occasions the security forces even refused to intervene to stop terrorist operations that took place under their noses, so to speak. The idea was to convince the terrorists that they had a safe haven. In time this meant that the terrorists became fixed targets while the security forces enjoyed the advantage of mobility and the choice of the time to attack.

Counterterrorism experts know the fourth lesson as "the onion principle." This means treating the terrorist organizations as bodies constituted by numerous layers. The classical counter terrorist method is to look for the core of the "onion" in the hope of eliminating it. But in both Peru and Algeria, it soon became clear that it was more efficient to deal with the outer layers first.

These outer layers provide finance, information, surveillance, espionage and a variety of logistical support for the core groups. Thus disrupting or destroying them would have a direct impact on the efficiency of the core groups.

Dealing with the outer layer is also important because they offer opportunities for misinformation campaigns and, more importantly, infiltration. This method was most successfully used in Egypt where the authorities managed to infiltrate virtually all terror groups, at times right to the highest levels of their leadership.
Write; by LB-Yuumei, June 04
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

PALESTINA – INTERNAL AFFAIRS

Babes and Bombs
Why do Palestinian children become human bombs, willingly strapping on suicide belts and slipping into Israel to kill as many Jews as possible?
That's the key question, which the New York Times has once again failed to answer, this time in an otherwise informative story by Greg Myre ("Israel Says Children Enlist Children as Suicide Bombers", June 13,2004).
While Myre pulls no punches when it comes to telling readers how Palestinian children are now recruiting their classmates and cousins to become suicide bombers, he shies away from telling readers why Palestinian kids have taken up this grisly task.
In Myre's rendition the child recruitment is a mystery - he reports only that "some Palestinian leaders have condemned the use of teenagers, and opposition to the practice is widespread among ordinary Palestinians..." Could the Palestinian kids have been indoctrinated in their schools? Myre casts doubt on this, reporting at face value the claims of one Palestinian school official that he tries to keep politics out of the classroom, "This place is for education and we don't want to talk about politics."
Unfortunately, nothing could be further from the truth. Far from being opposed to child suicide bombers, Palestinian society and Palestinian leaders revel in child "martyrdom," and the Palestinian media and schools do all they can to encourage a cult of death among children. The paramount Palestinian leader, Yasir Arafat, for example, stated in an interview on Palestinian TV that: "... this child who is grasping the stone, facing the tank, is it not the greatest message to the world when that hero becomes a shahid [martyr]? We are proud of them..." (PATV, Jan. 15, 2002 cited in Ask for Death, Palestinian Media Watch.)
While Arafat's words certainly carry weight among Palestinian children, perhaps the most effective recruitment tool has been music videos, which are broadcast for hours on end by official Palestinian television (there is no independent television under Arafat's rule). The videos are a call to death and martyrdom for Palestinian children, promising the glories and pleasures of heaven to the young "warriors for Allah":
"How sweet is the fragrance of the shahids, how sweet is the scent of the earth, its thirst quenched by the gush of blood flowing from the youthful body." (Quoted by Itamar Marcus and Barbara Crook in the Jerusalem Post, January 29, 2004)
Another music video also aimed at children and broadcast repeatedly told young viewers that: "Oh, young ones: Shake the earth, raise the stones. You will not be saved, O Zionist, from the volcano of my country's stones. You are the target of my eyes, I will even willingly fall as a shahid [martyr for Allah].
Allahu akbar [god is great]! Oh, young ones!" (Quoted by Itamar Marcus and Barbara Crook in the Jerusalem Post, June 2, 2004).
Yet another music video shown repeatedly on Palestinian TV centered on a Palestinian child who had been killed at the start of the present violence in October 2000. A young actor portrays the child in paradise, flying a kite and running on the beach, and encouraging other Palestinian children to follow him in martyrdom, "I am waving to you not
in parting, but to say, 'Follow me.' " (Itamar Marcus and Barbara Crook in the National Post, April 8, 2004).
As for the claim that Palestinian parents oppose such suicide bombings, news reports, including in the Times, indicate the opposite. For example, a few months ago Myre's colleague James Bennet reported that
"Many Palestinian parents have praised their sons and daughters for carrying out suicide attacks, hailing them as heroes and martyrs." (New York Times, March 25, 2004) Palestinian support and encouragement for child suicide bombers is an ugly reality. The Times' reluctance to deal with this ugly reality will help only to perpetuate it.
Source; Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America, June 04
Write; by Alex Safian
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

2004-06-17T17:49:00.000+02:00

HIGHLIGHTS

U.S.A. – POLITICAL AFFAIRS

Impeachment process was illegitimate: Clinton
Former President Bill Clinton has called his fight against impeachment a "badge of honour" and his affair with White House intern Monica Lewinsky "morally indefencible" in a CBS television interview.

In the hour-long interview on CBS 60 Minutes to be telecasted on Sunday, two days before publication of his memoir My Life, Clinton said he was proud of his successful fight against impeachment, the network said in excerpts released on Wednesday.

"I didn't quit, I never thought of resigning and I stood up to it and beat it back," he said.

"The whole battle was a badge of honour. I don't see it as a stain, because it (the impeachment process) was illegitimate," added Clinton, who called the process "an abuse of power."

Clinton's more than 900-page memoir, published by Alfred A Knopf, hits book stores on June 22.

He told 60 Minutes that high on his list of regrets was his affair with Lewinsky, which he called "a terrible moral error."

Clinton said his wife, Hillary, and daughter, Chelsea, were able to overcome the effect of the revelation of the affair through counselling.

The former president said Hillary needed time with him to decide whether she would stay married to him.

"We'd take a day a week, and we did - a whole day a week every week for a year, maybe a little more - and did counselling," said Clinton. "We did it together. We did it individually. We did family work."

Clinton said there was no rational explanation for his adulterous behaviour.

"I did something for the worst possible reason. Just because I could," the former president said. "I think that's just about the most morally indefencible reason anybody could have for doing anything."

Clinton also discussed other issues during the interview, including the war on terror and Osama bin Laden and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and regretted his failure to convince Yasser Arafat to accept a proposal he thought could finally bring Middle East peace, CBS said.
Source; Reuters; June 04
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

DEFENSE – MILITARY TECHNOLOGY

Navy Tests New Combat System
A new combat system is being tested during the Alaskan exercise Northern Edge '04 in June.

Used for what is commonly known as "jamming," the Improved Capabilities System III (ICAP III) overloads specific hostile communication bandwidths, causing users to temporarily lose service.

"Training and testing of ICAP III is a stepping-stone for the Navy," said Chief Aviation Structural Mechanic Ron Szpynda, Air Test Evaluation (VX) 9.

"This is the first time we have used this system."

VX-9's EA-6B Prowlers are being used to test the system. The aircraft provides protection for strike aircraft, ground troops and ships, by jamming enemy radar, electronic data links and communications.

"The system floods an opposing bandwidth with more frequency than those operating systems release," said Cmdr. Jim Winship, VX-9 branch head. "This causes users to temporarily lose service. Everything from telephones to sophisticated electronic equipment goes static, because the jammer can overwhelm the frequencies they use."

More than 9,000 Navy, Marine, Air Force and Coast Guard service members from units stationed in the continental United States and the Pacific theater have come to Alaska to participate in the joint training exercise.
Source; US Navy, June 04

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

ECOTERRORISM - ANIMAL RIGHTS

Animal rights activists deny targeting lab 7 say they didn't push violence at test site
Seven animal rights activists pleaded not guilty yesterday to charges that they promoted violence and vandalism against a research company that tests chemicals on thousands of animals at a New Jersey lab each year.

The 10-minute arraignment drew about 30 protesters to the federal courthouse in Trenton, and prompted the U.S. Marshal's Office to heighten security in and around the building. But the demonstration was peaceful and the court proceeding ended without incident.

The defendants, members of the group Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty, were indicted last month on charges of conspiring to commit animal enterprise terrorism, an offense punishable by three years in prison. Prosecutors contend the defendants encouraged and in some cases planned attacks to intimidate the research company Huntingdon Life Sciences, its clients or associates.

Huntingdon uses thousands of animals - mainly rats, but also dogs and monkeys - to conduct product safety tests each year for its clients, primarily pharmaceutical and chemical manufacturers. The company is based in London, but performs most of the tests at a laboratory in Franklin Township, Somerset County.

In 1999, opponents formed SHAC and vowed to shut down the company. The indictment contends the group posted an online list of "Top 20 Terror Tactics" that encouraged attacks, threatening letters and phone calls, e-mail "bombs" to crash computers and home invasions against Huntingdon employees and business associates. Most of the actual incidents alleged to have occurred were acts of vandalism.

The charges represents a rare prosecution under a federal law enacted to respond to what critics said was an upsurge in violent animal rights activity. Members of such groups say the prosecution could be a test case for how far the government can go in policing activism.

U.S. District Judge Mary Cooper tentatively set an Aug. 17 trial date, but attorneys said they probably will ask for an extension.

Executive Assistant U.S. Attorney Charles McKenna, who is prosecuting the case, said the evidence includes phone wiretaps and surveillance that yielded 440 audiocassettes and 50 videotapes. He told the judge that the case, "in many aspects, isn't the standard case."

Five of the seven defendants had lived until recently in central New Jersey, not far from the Huntingdon lab. The others hail from Long Island and Washington State. Almost all are in their mid-20s.

One, Darius Fullmer, is a paramedic. Another, John McGee, is a first-year law school student at Rutgers University. A third, Andrew Stepanian, was a student at the C.W. Post campus of Long Island University, his attorney said last month. The others - Kevin Kjonaas, Lauren Gazzola, Jacob Conroy and Joshua Harper - are "social justice volunteers," according to online statements from the group.

Each entered identical not-guilty pleas yesterday. They declined to discuss the case, but are planning a multistate speaking tour to highlight their arrests.

Cooper approved court-appointed attorneys for each, but several private defense attorneys said after the hearing that they plan to ask the judge to let them represent the defendants for free.

"This case is about First Amendment practices in the 21st century, the use of modern technology, the freedom to use Web sites to speak for any cause," said Andrew Erba, a Cherry Hill attorney who said he has represented civil rights groups before. Erba said he expected to represent Kjonaas, 26, who calls himself the president of SHAC-USA.

Attorney Daniel Perez said he has advised Gazzola for more than a year and intends to represent her at trial. Perez said the group did nothing more than advocate protection for laboratory animals.

"All these people are really accused of is running a Web site that reports on the activities of the animal rights movement and supports direct action," Perez said. "They did not engage in illegal activity. They exercised their rights to free speech. So when I read the indictment, my reaction is, where's the beef? Or maybe I should say: Where's the tofu?"

The free speech issue was a favorite for the protesters who toted signs and chanted slogans for about an hour before yesterday's hearing. Armed U.S. Marshals ringed the building, with riot gear stored inside the entrance alcove just in case.

"I came here because this is a travesty of justice," said David Lambon, 31, of Norristown, Pa. Lambon said he was an independent activist and a college student "between schools."

"This case is about more than just SHAC," said Camille Hankins of New York Animal Rights Activists, who led chants outside the courthouse with a bullhorn yesterday. "It's about the right to engage in community activism everywhere."
Source; Star-Ledger, June 04
Write; by John P. Martin and Brian T. Murray. John P. Martin covers federal courts and law enforcement.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

AFGHANISTAN – GEOSECURITY

Osama always used Pakistan as training base: US report
Osama bin Laden never cut his links with Pakistan or Afghanistan where he trained terrorists for Kashmir and other Islamic insurgencies even when he moved to Sudan in 1991, the US 9/11 Commission has said.

The commission, which presented new findings as it conducted its 12th round of hearings in Washington, said the Al-Qaeda chief continued his links with the region even when he moved to Sudan in 1991.

"Al-Qaeda had never entirely left the region, even when headquartered in Sudan, it had used Pakistan and Afghanistan as a regional base and training centre supporting Islamic insurgencies in Tajikistan, Kashmir, and Chechnya," said one of the two reports that commission investigators, introduced at the ongoing hearings.

Bin Laden returned to Afghanistan in May 1996, and as soon as the Taliban, a Pakistan-backed Afghan faction seized control of Kabul in 1996, he began building close relations with them.

"Pakistan did not break with the Taliban until after 9/11, although it was well aware that it was harbouring bin Laden," the report said.

"The Taliban's ability to provide Bin Laden a haven in the face of international pressure and UN sanctions was significantly facilitated by Pakistani support. Pakistan benefited from the Taliban-Al-Qaeda relationship, as Bin Laden's camps trained and equipped fighters for Pakistan's ongoing struggle with India over Kashmir."

The training camps in Pakistan and Afghanistan provided multifaceted skills to Islamic terrorists because a worldwide jihad needed terrorists who could bomb embassies, hijack airliners, or provide foot soldiers for the Taliban, "and guerrillas who could shoot down Russian helicopters in Chechnya or ambush Indian units in Kashmir," noted the report.

Furthermore, it said, Al-Qaeda had a worldwide network of recruiters and travel facilitators, and "there are strong indications that elements of both the Pakistani and Iranian governments frequently turned a blind eye to this transit through their respective countries."

The two statements of findings by the commission also reveal other aspects of the war on terrorism that may impinge on Bush's presidency.

The reports said specifically that the commission could not find any substantive link between Al-Qaeda and the Iraqi regime of Saddam Hussain.

The report also noted that bin Laden did not have any personal fortune of $300 million, a much touted number in the past, to support his activities. Rather, he raised the money through the network of charities and fundraisers and used the 'hawala', an informal method to move money around the world.

"Bin Laden relied on the established hawala networks operating in Pakistan, the United Arab Emirates, and throughout the Middle East to transfer funds efficiently," the report stated.
Write; by Ela Dutt Indo-Asian News Service
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

IRAQ – SECURITY AFFAIRS

Deadly Attacks in Iraq Since January
A look at some of the deadliest bombings in Iraq this year:

- June 17: A sport utility vehicle packed with artillery shells slams into a crowd waiting to volunteer for the Iraqi military, killing at least 35 people and wounding at least 138.

- June 14: A car bomb rips through convoy in Baghdad, killing 13 people, including an American, two Britons and a Frenchman. Three of dead were General Electric Co. employees and two were security contractors. At least 62 people were wounded.

- June 13: A suicide car-bomber kills 12 people and wounds 13 near a U.S. garrison in Baghdad.

- June 8: A car bomb explodes outside a U.S. base in Baqouba, killing one U.S. soldier and five Iraqis. Fifteen Iraqis and 10 U.S. soldiers are wounded. A second car bomb explodes in Mosul, killing nine people and injuring 25.

- June 6: A car bomb explodes near the entrance to an American-run base at Taji north of Baghdad, killing at least nine people and wounding 30 others, including three U.S. soldiers.

- June 1: A roadside bomb explodes near U.S. base in the northern town of Beiji, killing 11 Iraqis and wounding more than 22 people, including two U.S. soldiers.

- May 17: A suicide car bomber kills Izzadine Saleem, president of the Iraqi Governing Council, and eight others including the bomber outside the Green Zone.

- April 24: A roadside bomb hits a bus south of Baghdad, killing 13.

- April 21: Five suicide bombings near police stations and police academy in southern city of Basra kill at least 74 people and wound 160.

- March 2: Coordinated blasts strike Shiite Muslim shrines in Karbala and in Baghdad, killing at least 181.

- Feb. 11: A suicide attacker blows up a car packed with explosives in a crowd of Iraqis waiting outside an army recruiting center in Baghdad, killing 47 people.

- Feb. 10: A suicide bomber detonates a truckload of explosives outside a police station in Iskandariyah, killing 53 people.

- Feb. 1: Twin suicide bombers kill 109 people in two Kurdish party offices in Irbil.

- Jan. 18: Suicide car bombing near main gate to U.S.-led coalition's headquarters in Baghdad kills at least 31 people.
Source; AP, June 04
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

IRAN – NUCLEAR AFFAIRS

Iran ready to tear up nuclear agreement
Iran yesterday threatened to resume enriching uranium, the key to its suspected nuclear bomb programme, in response to European-led criticism of its lack of full cooperation with UN nuclear inspectors.
The warning, from President Mohammad Khatami, came as the International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna prepared to adopt a resolution strongly critical of perceived continuing Iranian attempts to block and deceive the inspectors.

"We had, we have and we will have, a nuclear programme to enrich uranium to produce fuel," said Mr Khatami - in what is a blow to Britain, Germany and France, which last year struck a widely hailed deal for Iran to suspend uranium enrichment.

"With the ongoing trend, we have no moral commitment any more to suspend uranium enrichment," Mr Khatami said.

There has been discontent in the EU - and more visibly in the US - at the Iranian approach since it agreed to suspend enrichment. The IAEA says the country has continued to make equipment and refine crude uranium for the enrichment programme.
Source; The Guardian, June 04
Write; by Ian Traynor
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

U.S.A. – LEGISLATION

Anti-Terror Laws Target Americans, Not Just Terrorists
Federal and state prosecutors are applying stiff antiterrorism laws adopted after the 9/11 attacks to broad, run-of-the-mill probes of political corruption, financial crimes and immigration frauds.

If the government gets its way, even routine transactions of buying or selling American homes could soon come under the scrutiny of money-laundering provisions of the USA Patriot Act. The Treasury Department, which already has caught up financial transactions in casinos, storefront check-cashing stores and auto dealers for scrutiny, wants to expand Patriot Act coverage to home purchases as well.

Since 9/11, critics say the greatest effect of new state and federal antiterrorism laws has been on crimes already covered by other laws.

Washington-area snipers John Muhammad and Lee Boyd Malvo were both convicted under a post-9/11 Virginia antiterrorism statute making it a death-penalty offense to be involved in more than one murder in a three-year period. Muhammad was sentenced to death, and Malvo was given life imprisonment without parole.

The FBI has used Patriot Act provisions in a political corruption probe involving a Las Vegas girlie bar, and the Justice Department reported to the House Judiciary Committee last year that it used the new law in probes of credit-card fraud, theft from a bank account and a kidnapping.

In the first action of its kind, the Treasury Department also used the Patriot Act this year to put Syria's largest commercial bank and two commercial banks in Myanmar on blacklists actions that forbid any U.S. financial institution from doing business with them.

Legal experts say they're not surprised that antiterrorism laws are being used for more than just terrorism.

Peter Swire, a law professor at Ohio State University, recalled that Congress adopted antiracketeering laws in 1970 with the intent to thwart mobsters, but the punitive laws have since been broadened and put to use in civil cases against corporations, and most recently against the organized campaigns of pro-life protesters against abortion clinics.

Swire worked in the Clinton administration and chaired a White House working group looking at issues involved with electronic surveillance. He said many Patriot Act provisions, which sped through Congress within days after 9/11, were proposals that either Congress or the White House had previously rejected. Many provisions are slated to expire next year unless Congress makes the changes permanent.

Swire said one little-noted impact of that law on the judicial system is that prosecutors can add more charges against defendants, even when terrorism isn't involved.

"Prosecutors like to have more arrows in their quiver it gives them more leverage in plea bargaining," he said. Plea bargaining is the process where prosecutors offer to drop some charges in return for a defendant's guilty plea in order to avoid costly, time-consuming trials.

Swire contends the Patriot Act has been so controversial that the Justice Department has been very cautious in using all of its provisions.

"They are careful because they know people are checking to see if it is abused," he said. "Once it becomes permanent, I think it will be used more widely."

The American Civil Liberties Union and other civil rights groups are campaigning for Congress to terminate some of the more controversial provisions of the Patriot Act, contending the law unnecessarily expands government powers.

The ACLU says the government already has sufficient investigative tools, and the Patriot Act has been used for non-terrorist-related crimes such as seizing stolen funds from bank accounts in Belize.

Michael Mello, a law professor at Vermont Law School, disagrees and said the Patriot Act made some needed changes in government procedures, including provisions that tore down barriers that prohibited the FBI and CIA from sharing information.

"There's been a sea change by tearing down that wall," said Mello. "To forbid the FBI from getting spooks' (CIA) information that someone in the United States was carrying out a significant criminal enterprise is insane."

In spite of the criticism from the ACLU and others, Mello said he doesn't believe the Patriot Act has been misused or has resulted in any expansion of government powers. "In the absence of evidence, the critics lose," he said.

Mello agrees that there are some provisions in the Patriot Act that should be allowed to expire. He opposes a controversial provision allowing the Justice Department to use so-called "national security letters" to obtain library records, medical records and banking records of people put under surveillance. The Patriot Act wasn't needed when police searched library records in the hunt for Unabomber Ted Kaczynski or the effort to track New York's Zodiac killer, Mello noted.

Many government activities under the Patriot Act remain shrouded in secrecy. One of the provisions not expiring is an expansion of police powers to obtain "sneak-and-peek" warrants allowing surveillances - including break-ins - without notifying the people being watched.

The government is being more aggressive in asking courts for surveillance warrants. The Justice Department last year made a record 1,727 requests for wiretap approvals from the secretive Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, but does not publicly disclose how many investigations that might involve.

Attorney General John Ashcroft told the Senate Judiciary Committee last week that the Patriot Act has been used judiciously, and he urged Congress to give speedy consideration to extending it.
Source; Capitol Hill Blue, June 04
Write: by Lance Gay
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

JORDANIA – INTERNAL AFFAIRS

Jordan sentences al-Qaida suspects
Ansar al-Islam's founder Mullah Krekar was among those indicted

Jordan's state security court on Wednesday sentenced nine defendants, all but one of them absent, to 15 years in prison for conspiracy and al-Qaida membership. But court president Fawwaz Bakur commuted the sentence against the only one in court, Jordanian Ahmad al-Rayati, to seven and a half years with hard labour "to give him a chance to improve himself and because he is a bread-winner", the court said.

Riyati, 35, was among 15 people on trial since October. Eight of the absentees were also given 15 years but one was killed in a shootout in April.

The remaining six, all Jordanians who lived in Iran, had died under mysterious circumstances and in an unidentified location, prosecutors said in March, and Bakur dropped charges against them.

One of the absentees sentenced is Najm al-Din Faraj Ahmad, also known as Mullah Krekar, the founder of Ansar al-Islam, or Supporters of Islam, who has been cleard in Norway of charges of funding terrorism and inciting murder.

Al-Rayati was specifically charged with having received military training in Afghanistan and training others in Tehran to "prepare poisons and produce explosives for assassinating heads of the Jordanian intelligence service".

He was arrested by US troops in Iraqi Kurdistan during the US-led war on Iraq in March 2003 and extradited to Jordan.

Norwegian inquiry
Al-Rayati denied all the charges against him and interrupted the verdict by shouting at the court.

"I am not a criminal. You are the criminals," he said, adding that he wanted to leave Jordan to live in Rafah, in the Gaza Strip.

Mullah Krekar is on a US list of terrorist organisations, alleged by Washington to be linked to al-Qaida and having mounted attacks on US-led forces in Iraq.

"I am not a criminal.
You are the criminals"
Ahmad al-Rayati, defendant in state security court trial

On Tuesday Norwegian prosecutors in Oslo dropped their case against Krekar citing lack of evidence, but the United States said it still had serious concerns about him.

He had been the target of a Norwegian police inquiry since September 2002. Among other allegations he is suspected of involvement in a conspiracy to murder Kurdish political rivals and funding of "terrorist" organisations.

But Krekar, who has been living in exile in Norway since 1991, still faces an expulsion order for posing a threat to national security and violating his residency permit by returning to Iraq several times.

He founded Ansar al-Islam in December 2001, although he insists he has not led the group since May 2002 and denied all the charges against him.

Ansar al-Islam used to control a small group in northeastern Iraq before U.S forces pushed it out in late March last year. It then allegedly had between 700 and 900 members.
Source; AFP, June 04
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

FRANCE – GEOPOLITICA

France: The Great American Migraine
America's problems with France didn't start with Jacques Chirac. Chirac is just the latest in a line of Frenchmen that has given the United States a long and seemingly unending, migraine headache.

As President Bush sat on the podium with Mr. Chirac - who was looking pompous as only Chirac can - it was obvious by the body language of the president that he would rather have been having a root canal done without Novocain than be sitting next to this man, Chirac, who reeks of arrogance and delusions of grandeur and needs to be frisked for the knife he always buries in the back of American presidents. While Bush did what was expected of him, giving the French leader due respect, Chirac seemed to feel no need to return the favor, even publicly.

There was a time, of course, when France was important. That was a long, long time ago and somewhere along the line France got the reputation of being just a tad quick to surrender to enemies. Has France had a great leader since Napoleon?

You might ask: "What about the French Foreign Legion?" Well, it that seems no French are allowed in the French Foreign Legion. Perhaps that's why it is so feared.

It has been said that we wouldn't have won the Revolutionary War without help from the French. The war may have lasted a year longer, but would the war have been lost without our "good friends" the French? What were the French after? Did they help us out of the goodness of their hearts or did they just want to poke a stick in the eye of their nemeses, the Brits?

Americans are even insulted by the French in Canada. The French Canadians tried to tear Canada apart and become a separate country, loyal to France and not England. French Canadians want to be independent, but prefer to sing the praises of the great French culture instead acknowledging Canada's English roots. It must drive French Canadians crazy that the Queen is on Canadian money and still honored after all these years. Canada's last president from the French providences, Jean Joseph Jacques Chretien, loved France so much that he named his first child, France. Chretien's loathing of the United States was very apparent every time he spoke. Following Mother France's socialist course, Chretien also destroyed Canada's military and ran their economy into the ground paying for social programs. It is unknown if Canada's military inherited the surrender gene from the French or the strong fighting gene from the English. Perhaps it depends on what part of Canada the soldier hails from.

The world met the great French leader and general, Charles De Gaulle, in the 1940's. De Gaulle received his promotion to general in the field and when his country collapsed and surrendered to Nazi Germany, De Gaulle fled to England. In France, as in most countries, promotions to that level must be approved by the government, but France's government had gone the way of the Dodo, so De Gaulle just "forgot" to tell anyone that his high rank was not official. De Gaulle set about becoming the de facto French leader in England by driving Winston Churchill crazy.

Churchill kept De Gaulle busy by giving him control of the 1st Free French division which was made up of whatever flotsam and jetsam the British leader could dig up or have released from prison early. De Gaulle was kept away from any real war plans as the Allied leaders sent him and his band of criminals here and there, usually somewhere in a flank position because anywhere else "General" De Gaulle got in the way of the real soldiers.

De Gaulle drove General Eisenhower to distraction. De Gaulle was never happy that the American general was chosen to be the supreme commander in Europe. De Gaulle, of course, felt that honor should be his. The free world can thank God everyday that De Gaulle was not leading anything. He was consulted out of political respect and the knowledge that he would probably lead France after the war but that was the only reason. De Gaulle felt D-Day would be a disaster and would never be successful. That was just one just one in a long string of De Gaulle's opinions that were wrong.

After the Allied forces liberated France, De Gaulle was allowed to "liberate" Paris with his nonexistent army. This man, with his supreme ego, probably believed he really did liberate Paris. It was all political, of course, and General Patton was left grinding his teeth over the slight.

General George Patton, a great general known to be a little pompous himself, said he would rather have a battalion of Germans in front of him than a battalion of French behind him. Patton had a big mouth, but at least he had the skills in warfare to back up his ego.

De Gaulle did become the leader of France after World War II and in the 1960's decided French soil could no longer stand having American soldiers standing on it so he pulled out of the military branch of NATO and ordered all American troops out of France. An angry President Johnson asked De Gaulle if he wanted us to dig up our dead and remove them as well. The story goes that a sputtering De Gaulle told him he didn't mean THOSE American soldiers.

In the here and now, Chirac proudly carries on the French anti-American tradition. However, Chirac has taken it to new heights. Saddam Hussein was a longtime good friend of Chirac, and Saddam thought right up until the first bomb dropped that his good friend in France would keep him safe from the Americans. Saddam should have known that the French always promise more then they can deliver.

As irritating as France's active support of Saddam was prior to Operation Iraqi Freedom, the revelation that France, along with Germany and Russia and the United Nations were lining their pockets off the blood of Iraqi children does not seem to fall into the category of "friend and ally." The fact that our soldiers have been killed with weapons sold to Saddam by France and other "friends" is more than irritating, it's infuriating - considering the current attitude of the French Government.

The latest insult was Chirac's refusal to attend President Ronald Reagan's funeral. Already in the States for the G-8 conference, Chirac flatly refused to attend the funeral and, at first, was not even going to send a representative. After some protests from the French press, Chirac decided to send an underling. Could it be that Chirac is jealous of Reagan for doing what France could not? Reagan brought down the Berlin Wall and the Soviet Union - something the mighty French thought was impossible.

Admit it. The average American would just like to smack Chirac every time his face is shown on the television screen. Chirac and the French use the U.N. to hang on to what little power France has left, and the fact the United States can survive quite nicely without any help from France just drives the French crazy. How dare the United States be so darn successful!

As France's economy tanks, the United States economy grows. As the French military perfects the art of surrender, our military doesn't know the meaning of the word. As "new Europe" looks to the United States for guidance - and not France - its pride is hurt. Didn't the world get the memo from God stating that France should be the leader of the world?

The world seems to have missed that memo - or read it, laughed, and threw it away.
Source; FOF, June 04
Write; by Barbara J. Stock
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

PALESTINA – HUMAN RIGHTS

UN expert warns Caterpillar Inc. over Israeli use of bulldozers to demolish Palestinian houses, orchards
A UN-appointed specialist said Wednesday that he has warned Caterpillar Inc. that Israel's use of bulldozers to demolish West Bank orchards and houses could make the company an accomplice in the violation of basic human rights of the Palestinians.

Jean Ziegler, the United Nations' special expert on the right to food, said he forwarded a letter to Caterpillar chief executive James Owen expressing concern "about the actions of the Israeli occupation forces in Rafah and in other locations in Gaza and the West Bank."

According to The AP, Ziegler said his letter was the first under a new resolution passed earlier this year by the 53-country UN Human Rights Commission extending responsibility for protecting rights beyond governments to "non-state actors."

Ziegler wrote to Owen under the letterhead of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, the overall UN watchdog, and sent his letter on his own as he is entitled to do, a spokesman said.

The Israelis are "using armoured bulldozers supplied by your company to destroy agricultural farms, greenhouses, ancient olive groves and agricultural fields planted with crops," the May 28 letter said.

Ziegler, a Swiss university professor, told The Associated Press that he had yet to receive a response from the company.

"Allowing the delivery of your D-9 and D-10 Caterpillar bulldozers to the Israeli army through the government of the United States in the certain knowledge that they are being used for such actions might involve complicity or acceptance on the part of your company to actual and potential violations of human rights, including the right to food," Ziegler wrote in his letter.

The Israelis have also used the bulldozers to destroy "numerous Palestinian homes and sometimes human lives, including that of the American peace activist Rachel Corrie," he said.

Ziegler, appointed by the UN Human Rights Commission, said after a 10-day visit to Gaza and the West Bank last year that Israel was confiscating fertile Palestinian land for military zones or Jewish settlements.

"We saw thousands of olive trees destroyed by bulldozers," he said.
Source; Menareport, June 04
Write; by LuisB
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

SAUDIA ARABIA – INTERNAL SECURITY

Saudi Ruler to Deploy Anti-Terror Forces
Saudi Arabia's ruling crown prince warned Islamic militants Tuesday that the kingdom planned shortly to deploy more security forces than they had ever faced before.

"Be assured that the kingdom has enough men whom you haven't seen so far, but within the coming few days you will see them," Crown Prince Abdullah told the militants, whose attacks have increased during the past three months. His remarks were televised.

Westerners in Saudi Arabia are responding to the attacks by moving to high-security compounds or even to Bahrain, and by pushing for the right to armed private guards, according to diplomats and real estate agents.

Western embassies in Riyadh, the Saudi capital, are negotiating with the government for a relaxation of the ban on private security guards carrying firearms, a Western diplomat said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Some Westerners have expressed concern that terrorist sympathizers may have infiltrated the Saudi security services, the diplomat said.

Security forces arrested a militant Tuesday north of Riyadh as they stepped up their presence in and around the city in a hunt for the kidnappers of Paul Johnson, an American who was abducted Saturday by a group calling itself al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula.

Security officials said the militant was detained in the King Fahd district, but it was not immediately clear whether the detainee was connected to the recent terror attacks.

Johnson, 49, of Stafford Township, N.J., was employed by Lockheed Martin and worked on Apache helicopters.

Third Westerner Killed
The day he was seized, Islamic militants shot dead another American, Kenneth Scroggs, from Laconia, N.H., in his garage. Scroggs was the third Westerner killed in a week, after the shooting death of an Irish cameraman for the British Broadcasting Corp. on June 6 and another American who was killed in his garage June 8.

Soldiers with automatic rifles guarded government buildings and manned check points in the city on Tuesday. Other security forces were searching houses where Johnson might be held, a Saudi official said, speaking on a condition of anonymity.

The Interior Ministry set up a hot line to receive information about Johnson or possible terrorist attacks.

In his appearance on television, the crown prince addressed a group of writers, intellectuals and clerics, urging them to take a proactive position against Islamic militancy.

"What is required from you as brothers, as clerics, as writers, is not to be silent," Abdullah said. "Silence is a crime against your religion, against your country and against your people."

The U.S. Embassy in Riyadh has advised Americans to leave Saudi Arabia, and Britain has authorized the voluntary departure of its nonessential embassy staff and their families.

"There is no overcrowding at consulates and there is no panic among Westerners to leave," a Western diplomat said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

An estimated 35,000 Americans have been working in Saudi Arabia. It was not clear how many have left since the terror attacks became more frequent in April. Western diplomats said Monday that Americans and others were leaving in response to the violence, but that it could not be described as an exodus.

A real estate agent in Riyadh told The Associated Press that Westerners were moving from parts of the capital seen as less secure to walled compounds and upscale neighborhoods with greater security.

"They will feel safer as more security forces are deployed (in those areas)," the real estate agent said, speaking on a condition of anonymity.

Foreigners who work in the oil industry, and live on the eastern coast of Saudi Arabia, have even crossed international borders to sleep soundly.

"Foreigners working in the oil industry have been renting houses in neighboring Bahrain," a second real estate agent told the AP. "They finish their work and come back the next day."

Bahrain is just a 30-minute drive across the 18-mile King Fahd Causeway from eastern Saudi Arabia.
Write; by LuisB, June 04
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
U.S.A. – INTERNAL AFFAIRS

Senate Rejects Harder Penalties On Companies, And Ban On Private Interrogators
The Senate on Wednesday defeated Democratic-led efforts inspired by controversies in Iraq to institute tougher criminal penalties for companies that overcharge on war and relief efforts and to ban private contractors in military interrogations.
Both measures grew out of events in Iraq, where some American companies have been accused of overcharging the government for goods and services, and where employees of private companies have been implicated in the prison abuse scandal.

Opponents said the proposals could disrupt military operations in Iraq and impair American intelligence and supply efforts. The plan to bar private interrogators within 90 days and translators within a year was rejected on a 54-43 vote; the tougher criminal penalties - of as much as 20 years – were defeated 52-46. If adopted, both would have been added to a major Pentagon bill now being debated in the Senate.

Senators approved an alternative Republican plan to extend current domestic antifraud laws to those operating overseas and, on a voice vote, adopted a declaration that those held in American custody should not be subject to torture.

Senator John W. Warner, Republican of Virginia and chairman of the Armed Services Committee, said he feared the proposal to allow jail terms of up to 20 years for those found to have "materially overvalued" goods and services could deter companies from seeking work in Iraq. He said such a step required more consideration.

"I think the Congress should deliberate very carefully a criminal penalty of up to 20 years for these thousands upon thousands of companies that are currently engaged," he said.
But Senator Patrick J. Leahy, Democrat of Vermont, said current prohibitions did not seem to deter companies from charging excessive prices.
"We constantly pick up the paper about a number of these companies that are obviously overcharging and nothing is happening to them,'' he said. "I am one frustrated American and would like them to stop."
Source; New York Times, June 04
Write; by Carl Hulse
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
EU – GEOSECURITY AFFAIRS

When the EU adopts anti-terrorism measures is it trying to combat terrorism or crime?
Commission proposal on exchange of information on terrorism could lead to hundreds of innocent people being put on "watch-lists" for each anti-terrorist investigation- Companies, charities and all bank accounts to be targeted
- European Criminal Registry to be set up including data on all those charged - whether found guilty or not

At the EU Summit meeting (the 25 Prime Ministers) in Brussels on 17-18 June 2004 will adopt a new Action Plan on terrorism and a series of reports in the wake of 11 March 2004 (Madrid).

A recent detailed analysis of the 57 measures being put forward following 11 March 2004 (Madrid) by the Council of the European Union (the 15 EU governments) and the European Commission. The analysis found that 27 of the measures had little or nothing to do with tackling terrorism including measures to do with crime in general and the surveillance of telecommunications (phone-calls, e-mails, faxes, internet usage) and of movement. This strategy begs the question whether there is, at the highest level, a confusion of aims and effort.

The Action Plans for the Summit (from the Council of the Europe Union and the European Commission) are peppered with references to a Commission Communication dated 29 March 2004, which is a classic demonstration of confused aims. This contains a proposal for a Council Decision on exchanging "information and cooperation concerning terrorists offences" (see below) and a "wish-list" on criminal matters. The logic is to bring together the:
"Union's arsenal of weapons against terrorism. Many of these are not specifically anti-terrorism but range wider while including terrorism [and] a link should be established between terrorism and other forms of crime" [even though these are] not always immediately obvious..if the fight against terrorism is to be totally effective, it must be handled in conjunction with the fight against other forms of crime."

It argues that the connection is, in part, through the use of "similar" methods and proposes everybody’s (convicted criminal or not) bank accounts should be "registered" and "be accessible to law enforcement agencies". Companies and charitable organisations too are to be targeted because they could be "infiltrated" by terrorists. Everyone, across whole spheres of everyday life, are to registered and recorded to try and track down terrorist "suspects" - of course, the same information - once collected and accessible to a host of state agencies - could equally be used for other purposes which have nothing to do with terrorism.

The big project is the proposed creation of a "European Criminal Record" to be held on a "European Criminal Registry" - which according to a Commission spokesperson would contain not only all convictions and disqualifications but also all charges brought (even of those found innocent at trial) from the whole of the EU - in "the fight against crime, and in particular terrorism".

The simplistic notion in the Commission Communication is that there is an intrinsic link between terrorism and organised crime and indeed all crime - an argument which, if turned around, implies that all crime is linked to terrorism.

Framework Decision: exchanging information
The specific proposal in the Communication is a draft Council Decision on "the exchange of information and cooperation concerning terrorist offences". This envisages in Article 2 the exchange of "information" during investigations and prosecutions concerning terrorist offences as set out in Article 1 to 3 of the 2002 Framework Decision on combating terrorism. The "information" is to be communicated to Europol and Eurojust (EU prosecutors) and made "available immediately to the authorities of other interested Member States".

It is sensible that such information should be made available. However, the proposal contains no provision for the "information" to be removed/deleted should a person be found innocent. There is no provision for the "information" passed over on those caught up in a "criminal investigation" but never charged or convicted to be removed/deleted. This is especially worrying as an "investigation" into a suspected terrorist offence would embrace not just the subject but their family, friends and work associates to see if there were any links to the suspected offence. A typical investigation could involve 20-40 other people who are found to be quite innocent but "information" on them could be "immediately" transmitted to dozens of agencies across the 25 EU member states.

In April ten Muslim "suspects" were arrested in the north of England but never charged - this could have led to several hundred names and personal details being put into EU-wide circulation with no obligation for this data to be deleted. If there is no obligation to delete the names and details of innocent people they could find themselves on "watch-lists" for years to come.

There is another problem with the draft Decision. The intention is to widen the scope from those persons, groups and entities placed on updated lists of terrorist groups on formally adopted EU lists to all those investigated under Articles 1 to 3 of the controversial Framework Decision on combating terrorism (2002) which, despite some amendment, is still ambiguous as to where the line is drawn between terrorism and large-scale protests. It covers, for example, those acting with the aim of:
unduly compelling a Government or international organisation to perform or abstain from performing any act (Art 1.ii)
To broaden the scope of cooperation on terrorism to this much broader definition open the way for abuse and its application to non-terrorist offences.

Comment:
"The increasing tendency to stress the "anti-terrorist" benefits of crime control and wholesale surveillance measures shows a confusion of aims which detracts from the clear need to protect people from terrorist attacks.
This has to be one of the most confused and illogical Commission Communications ever produced. It should be withdrawn and be re-presented and deal only with investigations into terrorist offences - and include absolute safeguards for those innocently caught up in them."
Write; by LuisB, June 04
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

FOCUS

SECURITY – WARFARE

Honeypots Let You Spy on Your Enemy
What's one of the first tenets of warfare?
Know your enemy.

Well, the principal that holds for military warfare holds true for digital warfare, as well. But it's not like black hat hackers are having lunch with security administrators and sharing their secrets for intrusions and hybrid worm attacks. So how do you figure out who your enemy is and what he's trying to do to your network?

The answers lie in the honeypot. According to members of the Honeynet Project and the Honeynet Research Alliance, most of what you need to know about hackers can be found there. Their new collaborative book, Know Your Enemy: Learning About Security Threats looks at honeypots, honeynets and what they can teach us about the bad guys, as well as how to successfully set them up yourself.

Honeypots, which have been around for about 12 years but are gaining interest and momentum, are digital decoys, of sorts. They are built to be probed and attacked -- an online come-on to blackhat hackers. Once the honeypot is attacked, security administrators can watch how the hacker moves around the system, and she can see what tools the hacker is using and what information he's going after.

It's a way to spy on your enemy.

And if you're lucky, it might even be a form of camouflage. Hackers could be fooled into thinking they've accessed a corporate network, when actually they're just banging around in a honeypot - while the real network remains safe and sound.

There also are honeynets, which are a network of honeypots, loaded up with real hardware, like Linux boxes, Cisco switches, Windows NT and Solaris. Lance Spitzner, a senior security architect at Sun Microsystems Inc., created the Honeynet Project with the help of about 30 other security professionals.

Spitzner is one of the authors of the book Know Your Enemy. He talked about what they've learned about hackers, what companies should be doing to better protect themselves, and if putting together a honeypot or a honeynet is the right thing for most companies.

There also are honeynets, which are a network of honeypots, loaded up with real hardware, like Linux boxes, Cisco switches, Windows NT and Solaris.
Lance Spitzner, an engineer at Sun Microsystems Inc., created the Honeynet Project with the help of about 30 other security professionals.

Q: Are honeypots and honeynets the best way to learn about hackers?
It's definitely one of the best ways. You get to watch them operate in their own environment. It's difficult to survey hackers or talk with them... With a honeynet, you can watch and analyze what they're doing without them knowing they're being watched. What tools do they use? What systems are they going after? Who are they communicating with?

Q: What are some of the more interesting things you've learned about hackers?
The attackers and threats are far more aggressive and active than most people think. The typical home user, if they have a dedicated connection to the Internet, is getting scanned about 10 times a day. People think they only go after major companies, but they go after everyone.

And people think of hacker terrorism but most hackers are just criminals.
They're out to make money. There are so many creative ways to make money hacking computers. They can go online and take information, like addresses and social security numbers, off peoples' computers. Then they can use the information or sell it. They might even break into hundreds or thousands of computers and sell these hacked computers to someone else. They might set up a porn site on your computer and charge people to go see it.

Q: What changes have you seen in how hackers operate?
There have been two big changes. In '97, '98 or '99, you'd see the misguided youth. But in past few years, there's been a switch to the criminal. People are out to make money. Tools are far more aggressive and automated. It makes for a different level of sophistication.

Q: What should administrators and CSOs know about your findings?
Stay with the basics. People try to go for the latest and greatest. If you're running a current and patched operating system, you should be protected. Anti-virus software and firewalls will go a long way to eliminating most threats. It's not that hackers have super secret weapons.
They're trying to look for mistakes in your environment. They look for simple passwords or systems that aren't patched. With 20 percent effort, you can eliminate 80 percent of the threat.

Q: Should companies be running their own honeypots or honeynets?
Commercial organizations? Probably not. Do the basics. If you're having problems with patching and such, you shouldn't have a honeynet. If you've got all the basics done, sure. Go ahead. Get a honeynet because you can learn a lot. But academics, military and government run most honeynets. Stick to what you have to do first. Once you've got the basics down, honeynets can give you a lot of information, maybe even on internal threats.

Q: What should companies do to protect themselves that they're generally not doing?
Companies are not doing the basics. Most want to pass audit. They want to be able to tell shareholders that they're secure... In a lot of cases, you hear about companies being taken out by worms. These exploits have been known for six months and the patches have been out for six months. That means these companies haven't patched their systems in six months. That's just blowing it on the basics.
Write; by Sharon Gaudin, June 04
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
GEOPOLITICAL – SECURITY

Divisions over terror threat in Malacca Straits
There are mounting fears that terrorists will strike in the Malacca Straits. Concern over this notwithstanding, Malaysia and Indonesia are fiercely opposed to US policing of the body of water that lies between them. They have, however, signaled interest in cooperating with Washington on certain issues to enhance maritime security in this strategic waterway.

The terrorist threat to the Malacca Straits topped the agenda at a recent high-level conference in Singapore, which saw a narrowing in the gap between the positions of the United States and Singapore on the one hand and Malaysia and Indonesia on the other, with regard to measures to step up security in the Straits.

In March, Admiral Thomas Fargo, head of the US Pacific Command, put forward in Congress an initiative to work with Southeast Asian countries to protect the Malacca Straits. The Regional Maritime Security Initiative that Fargo outlined envisaged mutual intelligence gathering and joint patrolling of the waterway. Fargo indicated that the initiative would involve US elite troops who could "take action when the decision has been made to do so".

While Singapore embraced the initiative, Malaysia and Indonesia rejected the proposal as an infringement of their sovereignty. "I think we can look after our own area," Malaysian Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi told the media last month. At the conference, Malaysian Deputy Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak, who also serves as defense minister, said the use of US forces in Southeast Asia to fight terrorism would fuel Islamic fanaticism in the region and should be avoided as it would be a setback in the region's ideological battle against extremism and militancy.

Subsequently, Razak told the Malay-language Mingguan Malaysia newspaper: "The presence of foreign troops in our waters would trigger public anger and breathe new life into terrorist groups."

Articulating the Indonesian position on the proposed deployment of US forces, Nugroho Wisnumurti, a former director general for political affairs in the Indonesian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, wrote in April in the Jakarta Post that the deployment of foreign marines and special operations forces in Indonesia's territorial waters could harm the country's national interests” even if the aim is to fight terrorism". He also pointed out that "the deployment of foreign forces in our territory, including in our territorial waters", would run counter to "one of the basic principles of Indonesian foreign policy, the policy of non-alignment".

"However well intentioned that plan might be, the US plan would not serve the best interests of the countries concerned in fostering regional cooperation to fight terrorism. There should be other ways to reach the same objectives. It is also desirable that the countries concerned should be consulted before any effort to fight terrorism in Southeast Asia is made public," the former diplomat wrote.
Singapore, in contrast, had no reservations over the involvement of the Americans in policing the Straits. And Singapore will also work with India, South Korea and other nations to enhance security in the Straits. Deputy Prime Minister Tony Tan said this week: "One of the major issues which we will discuss with South Korea is involvement by South Koreans in maritime security. The Singapore armed forces has interactions with the Korean military from time to time. We hope to expand and deepen these interactions."

Connecting the Indian Ocean to the South China Sea and the Pacific Ocean, the Malacca Straits are one of the busiest ocean highways in the world. An estimated 50,000 ships are said to pass through the waterway a year - more than double the number that crosses the Suez Canal and nearly three times the number of ships that use the Panama Canal.

A terrorist strike in the 630-mile-long Malacca Straits would severely dislocate world trade for months. A quarter of the world's commerce passes through this waterway, including 10 million barrels of crude oil heading daily from the Persian Gulf toward China, South Korea and Japan.
About 80 percent of Japan's oil passes through the Malacca Straits. Closure of the Straits in the event of a terrorist attack would require ships to travel an additional 994 miles from the Gulf. Freight rates would increase sharply. In all, the Straits accounts for a third of the world's trade and half of the world's oil supply.

The security situation in the Malacca Straits has always been a matter of concern. For centuries, it has been a haven for pirates. It is a narrow waterway - just 1.5 miles wide at its narrowest point. Choking the Straits by blowing up a ship would not be difficult. Besides, its shallow reefs, innumerable islets and the slow movement of ships thanks to the heavy traffic in the waterway provide the perfect environment for pirates and terrorists to operate, making it a tempting target.

Maritime piracy in the Malacca Straits has witnessed a sharp increase in recent years. Worldwide, it has increased by three times in the past decade, growing by 20% last year alone. According to the International Maritime Bureau, Southeast Asia witnessed 189 incidents of piracy last year, accounting for more than 40% of the global total.

Terrorism experts point out that if pirates were able to strike with such ease in the Straits, terrorists would find it even easier. Analysts are warning that al-Qaeda and its affiliates in the region, such as Jemaah Islamiya, might take the help of local pirates to carry out an attack in the Malacca Straits.

A recent spurt in crew abductions in the Straits has triggered fear that pirates acting in concert with terrorists might be using the kidnapped crew to acquire training in navigating large commercial vessels. In March 2003, 10-armed men hijacked an Indonesian chemical tanker.
They seized control over the ship apparently to learn to steer it. After operating the ship for an hour through the Straits, they left with equipment and technical documents. "This might be the maritime equivalent to the Florida flight school where the September 11 [2001] terrorists took their flying lessons," observed the Washington-based Institute for the Analysis of Global Security (IAGS).

Security agencies are not ruling out the possibility of terrorists capturing a vessel loaded with liquid natural gas and slamming it into a pier in Singapore or ramming tugboats into oil tankers or vessels with chemical fertilizer.

Sections who are in favor of the Americans playing a bigger role in the Straits question whether the littoral states will be able to counter a terrorist attack on their own. The IAGS observed: "Despite claims by Indonesian naval officers that their navy is able to provide sufficient response to the security problems in the region, many naval experts think otherwise. The Indonesian navy is aging and suffers from lack of warships and resources to patrol its vast coastline and the periphery of some 17,000 islands. Of its 117 naval ships, comprising 14 warships, 57 patrol boats and 44 support vessels such as tankers and carriers, only 30 percent are seaworthy.

"With such insufficient maritime power, it is clear that Indonesia simply cannot secure the 600-mile Straits alone, but its fear of any perceived challenge to its sovereignty as well as its concern of American 'imperialism' apparently overrides military logic," said the IAGS.

At the Singapore conference, the US position on the maritime security initiative was a watered-down version of the plan outline by Fargo in March. US officials said it was up to concerned countries - not the United States - to decide how they wanted to police the Malacca Straits.

"It will not be US forces that do that. It will not be US forces coming down unnecessarily and doing anything aggressive," said Admiral Walter Doran, commander of the US Pacific Fleet, adding that there were also no plans for "bases, or standing forces".

There was a visible toning-down in Malaysia's position as well. While it continued to maintain that involvement of foreign forces would prove counterproductive, it indicated that it was willing to discuss the regional maritime security initiative. "We should definitely expand our cooperation with the US and others, in terms of acquiring and sharing quality intelligence," Malaysia's deputy prime minister said.

He is due to meet Fargo this month, when he will be discussing among other things "possible exercises, in the form of specific anti-piracy or anti-terrorist type of operations which, maybe, some countries are more familiar with and more experienced in than us".

However, Razak stressed that "the actual interdiction, if it comes to that, would come to the littoral states to execute".

Malaysia, meanwhile, will next year have its own version of the US Coast Guard to patrol and safeguard security along the Straits. A new paramilitary maritime enforcement agency will begin its operations in March, said Mohd Nazri Abdul Aziz, a minister in the Prime Minister's Department.

Mohd Nazri said that the agency would administer laws, curb criminal activities, monitor the maritime zone and rescue and research operations and assist the Malaysian armed forces during emergencies, crises or wars.

"The safety of the Straits of Malacca is important. If not guarded properly, foreign powers may be prone to intervene in its management, and this will pose a threat to the country's sovereignty," he said.

Currently, maritime enforcement laws are administered in a sectorial manner by 11 government departments and agencies involving 5,000 personnel and more than 400 vessels. Initially, the new agency will have 82 small and medium-sized boats and will take over assets from the various agencies in stages.

The narrowing of the gap in the positions between the various countries concerned with security in the Malacca Straits augurs well for the global effort to tackle maritime terrorism. The question is whether the concerned countries will get their acts together soon enough. Japan has also expressed interest in taking part in any talks on maritime security in the Malacca Straits.

US heavy-handedness and insensitivity to local concerns of sovereignty and national pride have contributed in significant measure to the failure of the "war on terrorism" to achieve its goals. If the war on maritime terrorism should succeed, this would have to change.

Comment - Singapore, in contrast, had no reservations over the involvement of the Americans in policing the Straits. And Singapore will also work with India, South Korea and other nations to enhance security in the Straits. Deputy Prime Minister Tony Tan said this week: "One of the major issues which we will discuss with South Korea is involvement by South Koreans in maritime security. The Singapore armed forces has interactions with the Korean military from time to time. We hope to expand and deepen these interactions. LuisB"
Source; Asia Times Online Ltd. June 04
Write; by Sudha Ramachandran
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

BELGIAN - INTERNAL SECURITY

The Islamic belgian case
Shortly after 6:30 p.m. on a Tuesday in December, a young man named Ahmed Azzuz marched into a Belgian television station, burst onto the set of the evening news and, standing beside the startled anchorwoman and directly before the cameras, unfurled the red, black, green and white flag of Palestine. "Stop the hypocrisy!" he demanded in Dutch as news crews scrambled behind the scenes to regain control. It was the 16th anniversary of the first intifada, and Azzuz had a message: "Israel must vanish," he said, his voice calm and even. "The killings of Palestinians must cease."

When he had finished speaking, he calmly thanked the audience, rolled up his flag, and walked away. The whole episode took less than two minutes. Police were called, but lacking sufficient grounds for his arrest, he says, they simply gave him a ride home.

Azzuz is a Founder and the Belgian President of the Arab European League, or AEL, an outspoken self-styled civil rights movement with a growing membership - and growing influence - in Belgium, the Netherlands, France and beyond. Combining Arab nationalism with impassioned Islamism, it positions itself as an uncompromising defender of European Muslims, eschewing assimilation and espousing confrontational political ideas such as the introduction of sharia law in Europe. It has warned of - or threatened - an "almost unpreventable" attack on Antwerp's Jewish community if it does not "cancel its support for Jewish policy as fast as possible and distance itself from the state of Israel." (Azzuz's "Stop the hypocrisy" was a reference to those Belgian Jews who, he claims, join the Israeli army, which he sees as proof that Belgium is biased toward Israel.)

More recently, the Dutch faction of the League issued an invitation to Pakistani extremist Hussain Ahmed, leader of the Jamaat-e-Islami, a group with known ties to al-Qaida and the Taliban, to speak at a congress center in the Netherlands. (Dutch officials subsequently refused to grant Ahmed an entry visa, citing national security concerns; the AEL blamed "the Zionist lobby" for the decision.) The AEL has issued public approvals of 9/11, pledged solidarity with Iraqi insurgents and has challenged new French measures to ban Muslim headscarves in public schools.

Had Azzuz used his guerrilla TV tactic at an American network, it would have been national news - and he might still be in detention. In Europe, however, Azzuz's piece of political theater aroused less outrage - in part because Europe, home to some 15 million Muslims, is struggling to figure out how to deal with the militancy of small but growing groups like the Arab
European League without trampling on civil rights, and without alienating more moderate Muslims who are by far the bigger bloc.

To its defenders, the league is an uncompromising advocate for European Muslims, in the tradition of American blacks and Latinos who aggressively called for recognition in the '60s. But to its critics, including some fellow Muslims, the league and its charismatic leader, Dyab Abou Jahjah, are a divisive and potentially destructive force, so provocative that some Belgian officials have sought to knock its Web site offline or even to have the group banned outright. In the wake of the March terror bombings in Spain and a pair of controversial new reports linking anti-Semitic acts in Europe to Muslim immigrants, Jahjah, Azzuz and their league allies are coming under closer law enforcement scrutiny and increasing political pressure.

Just before the Madrid attacks, the Dutch General Intelligence and Security Service disclosed in a report that the number of Muslim immigrants in that country being recruited by international jihadists had increased.
Pinpointing groups like the AEL, the report warned "a violent radical Islamic movement is gradually taking root in the Dutch society." (The Dutch government has just learned that it could be targeted by al-Qaida, in part because of the radicalization of Muslims in the Netherlands, according to press reports. Spanish and Italian intelligence have reportedly heard on phone taps that a terrorist group is "standing by" in Holland.) And in a report by the European Union's Monitoring Center on Racism and Xenophobia issued March 31, researchers found that young Muslims were the biggest force behind a wave of anti-Semitic incidents and attacks in Europe since 2001.

Far from apologizing, Jahjah and other league leaders have seemed to draw energy from conflict and controversy. The league has largely declined to condemn a wave of anti-Semitic acts by Muslim youth. League officials have offered no public criticism of the March 11 Madrid train bombings that left nearly 200 dead and hundreds more injured. (Authorities believe a Moroccan terrorist cell carried out the attack with ties to al-Qaida).
Instead, Jahjah suggested in a televised debate that a similar attack was likely in the Netherlands. "It's logical," he said. "You make war with us, we make war with you."

Despite their confrontational stance, AEL leaders insist that they advocate only peaceful methods of change: Jahjah has declared, "We are against violence." But their stance is ambiguous. One line from the AEL manifesto asserts: "You don't receive equal rights: you take them." And the league's Web site praises Sheikh Ahmad Yassin, the founder and spiritual leader of Hamas, who along with seven bystanders was assassinated in March by Israel in a missile attack. Yassin, the site said, is "an example for many of us."

Somali-born Dutch Parliamentarian Ayaan Hirsi Ali, a former Muslim whose outspoken criticism of Islam's treatment of women has made her the target of death threats from Muslims around the world, blasted this statement in a March 27 Op-Ed in the Dutch newspaper de Trouw. "A terrorist leader with the blood of hundreds on his hands is evidently a source of inspiration for the young men and women of the AEL," she wrote.

Jahjah stirred more controversy in an open letter to U.S. President George W. Bush.

"Mr. President," the letter reads, "we are a peaceful people, we do not attack unless we are attacked, we do not kill unless we are killed, and we do not aggress, we defend. If you want peace, you and your people, there is only one way, and that is the way out of our land." But if the U.S. continues its close backing of Israel and "the Zionists," Jahjah warns, and persists with its "aggression and occupation troops in Faloudja, in Baghdad, in Nadjaf, in Gaza and Jerusalem and Ramallah ... more and more of your soldiers will undoubtedly rest in peace."

It is the sort of rhetoric that has come to define the self-described "Arabian panther." Eloquent, charismatic and Hollywood handsome - think George Clooney meets Robert de Niro - the 32-year-old Jahjah founded the Arab European League in Belgium in 2000, before the 9/11 attacks. Born in Lebanon and now a citizen of Belgium, he is part Malcolm X and part rock star. His makes no attempt to conceal his goal: He wants to introduce sharia - the religious laws and codes of Islam - to form what he calls a "sharocracy" in Europe. The sale of alcohol in grocery stores would be banned, as would sexually suggestive advertising. Islamic holidays would become national holidays, like Christmas.

Jahjah has spoken of the Sept. 11 attacks as "sweet revenge," though the Dutch newsweekly HP/de Tijd quoted him as saying he would prefer to have seen empty planes crash the Pentagon and the White House. "I'd have found that quite beautiful," he said.

Jahjah and his followers vehemently insist that Middle Eastern immigrants and their children must preserve their own culture and religion; comparing assimilation to "fascism" and "rape," Jahjah demands that the cultural and religious traditions of Middle Eastern immigrants and their children be not just preserved but integrated into the culture of the West. "I'd rather die than assimilate," Jahjah has said.

When asked by a Belgian television reporter if terrorism or a revolution were possible in the Lowlands, he offered a curt reply: "With the AEL, it could very well happen."

Jahjah and the AEL burst into the headlines in November 2002, when Moroccan youths (Belgians of Moroccan descent are simply called "Moroccans") looted shops, threw stones, smashed cars and staged a three-day standoff with police after a psychologically disturbed Belgian shot and killed a young Muslim teacher on the streets of Antwerp for no apparent reason. Belgian officials blamed Abou Jahjah. Though Jahjah insisted his only part in the event was trying to calm everybody down, police arrested him after the chaos had subsided and thoroughly searched his home. The AEL called this proof of Belgium's ongoing vendetta against their movement; Belgian lawmakers contended that Jahjah posed a danger to the community of Antwerp. Jahjah was released after an Antwerp court ruled that there was insufficient evidence to hold him.

Either way, the arrest propelled his name and the league's cause into the international arena. To some, he was a celebrity radical, an alluring combination of sex symbol and martyr; the Belgian media frequently called him the "black angel of integration."

That was hardly the first brush with notoriety for the league. In April 2002, enraged by Israel's massive military assault into the West Bank in response to a Palestinian terrorist attack, Moroccans and AEL members smashed the storefronts of Jewish-owned shops, calling for jihad and chanting "Osama bin Laden!" Before the U.S. invaded Iraq a little over a year ago, league members hurled rocks and Molotov cocktails during anti-American demonstrations staged at the Antwerp harbor.

In 2003, almost a year after Pim Fortuyn's assassination, the league opened a Dutch chapter; soon after, Mohammed Cheppih was appointed to head it. But earlier statements from Cheppih supporting suicide bombers in Palestine and the death penalty for homosexuals provoked such an outcry that he was forced to step down. Still, he remains an influential consultant to the league.

Today, behind a motto that is early Malcolm X - "by any means necessary" - the Arab European League reports steady growth, with members now in 12 countries. In Holland, it says, membership has surged from 200 in March 2003 to about 1,000 now. A new office has opened in France, and last summer, the league deployed a new political wing, the Muslim Democratic Party, to represent its views in European Parliamentary elections this year.

For its adherents, the AEL offers a united platform and an amplified voice. This is especially true for the second- and third-generation children of immigrants who came here - primarily from Turkey and Morocco - as guest workers in the 1960s, '70s and '80s, kids struggling to define their identity in a post-9/11 and increasingly nationalistic Europe. The children and even the grandchildren of Turkish and Moroccan immigrants are still considered "Turkish" or "Moroccan," rather than Dutch or Belgian. To these boys, Jahjah is a role model, a hero; for girls, he is a star. One newspaper quoted a young girl saying to Jahjah's bodyguards outside a talk he gave in Holland: "I just want to see him in the real."

In person and via the league's Web site, Jahjah speaks directly to these disenfranchised youth. He is deeply mistrustful of the Western press, arguing that no matter what he says, he will be misquoted or that “the Zionist lobby” will twist his words in an effort to turn popular opinion against him. Non-Muslim reporters are barred from Jahjah's lectures and speeches, and he pointedly ignored Salon's several attempts to reach him. Other AEL officers rarely speak to non-Muslim members of the press.

However, Jahjah's Belgian lieutenant, Azzuz, agreed to an interview in December, after a series of protests that led to the arrest of 10 league members - including some who hung the Palestinian flag over the Dutch Parliament building in The Hague and Azzuz's own television caper. Speaking by phone from Antwerp, the 27-year-old Belgian AEL leader, the son of Moroccan immigrants, was cordial but direct. The deaths of 9/11 were "collateral damage" - a term, he says, that Muslims learned from Americans.
"Finally, something had happened to those who kill our women and children," he said of the terror strikes that have reshaped world politics. "But America still blames others. They didn't learn their lesson at all." What lesson is that? "Stop supporting the terrorist state of Israel," Azzuz replied. George Bush "doesn't hold the strings," he says, the Zionists do.

Relations between the peoples of the West and the Middle East have deteriorated to such a point, Azzuz said, that "something like Sept. 11 is likely to happen again."

Belgium is a world capital of the diamond industry; it is a small but powerful engine of European capitalism, a bastion of conservatism and home to a large population of Orthodox Jews. It has long struggled to reconcile the submerged cultural conflicts between its Flemish, or Dutch-speaking, culture and the French-speaking Walloons. Neighboring Holland, by contrast, is a tiny country with a large reputation for liberalism and tolerance. In "coffeeshops" throughout the country, menu items for "Colombian" and "Purple Mountain" refer not to java but to varieties of marijuana; in the winding streets of Amsterdam's red light district, women pose in lingerie before the windows. It is here that same-sex marriage and doctor-assisted euthanasia were first made legal.

But the two countries share a common dynamic: As their Muslim populations have grown larger and more restive, both have spawned a sometimes-fierce anti-immigrant backlash. The result has been a cycle of building hostilities between Muslim and European in which it is usually impossible to tell who threw the first stone.

The influx of Muslims into Holland, Belgium and the other nations of Europe is hardly new. Tens of thousands have arrived, mostly from Turkey and Morocco, since the 1960s and 1970s. Those in the first wave, like immigrants everywhere, often came looking for political freedom and economic opportunity. Even now, though, the grandchildren of those immigrants say they often feel like second-class citizens in the countries they call home.
The immigrants' levels of education are generally lower; for them and their children, unemployment rates are higher. In Belgium, unemployment among Muslims is estimated at up to 40 percent.

Still, the population of Muslims in Europe continues to grow. According to one recent report, it could nearly double by 2015, approaching 30 million.

Almost a million Muslims now live in the Netherlands, giving the country the second-highest Muslim population per capita in Europe, after France. In a country still coming to grips with its guilt over the large numbers of Jews deported during the Nazi occupation more than 60 years ago, many are reluctant to discriminate against a different religious group, even if that group stands opposed to Holland's famed liberal and secular mores.

But after some Dutch Moroccans openly celebrated the 9/11 attacks, and after a radical imam in Rotterdam pronounced that "homosexuals are pigs," many among the Dutch were pushed over the brink. The rightist sociology professor Pim Fortuyn rose suddenly to political prominence, inaugurating his own party which he led into Parliamentary elections. Fortuyn, a gay man, ripped Islam as a "backward culture" and called for tough new curbs on immigration.
Though he was assassinated in the spring of 2002, his party swept to power with considerable support from voters under 30. Though Fortuyn's party did not hold power long, its powerful influence is still felt in strict new immigration rules and the planned deportation of 26,000 failed asylum-seekers.

The rise of far-right parties like Lijst Pim Fortuyn and Belgium's Vlaams Blok and the popularity of right-wing leaders like France's Jean-Marie le Pen has made European Muslims feel increasingly unwelcome, even hated.
"People are getting angry," says Ayhan Tonca, chairman of Holland's largest organization of Turkish mosques.

The international political climate in recent years has further eroded tolerance and goodwill on both sides. The bloody Israeli-Palestinian conflict has inflamed Muslim animosity toward the West, a rage fueled by Arab news stations and Internet sites that beam graphic news and propaganda into Muslim homes throughout the West, thousands of miles from the zones of conflict.

In that atmosphere, the rhymes Moroccan youth chant beneath the stormy skies and along the cobbled streets of Holland's Jewish neighborhoods have become frighteningly familiar: "Hamas, Hamas, alle Joden aan het gas!" they cry. ("Hamas, Hamas, all Jews to the gas!) Or: "Joden moet je doden!" which translates with chilling simplicity: "Kill Jews!" On May 4, 2003, during a national moment of silence in remembrance of those who perished in Holocaust, a group of Moroccan boys began playing soccer with the wreath Holland's Queen Beatrix had placed by the Holocaust Memorial at the Palace in Amsterdam. There is an increasing incidence of race-based crimes, such as the recent murder of a teacher by a Turkish student in The Hague. "The teacher dishonored him," one friend of the confessed killer, known only as "Murat D.," explained to the media as other Turkish classmates chanted, "Murat, we love you!"

And while Jewish schoolboys in France now leave yarmulkes at home because the law demands it, in Holland, they do so out of fear. Indeed, the Dutch Center for Information and Documentation on Israel reports a 140 percent increase in anti-Semitic acts in the year 2002 and first half of 2003. That number "omits any act that could be viewed as anti-Israel," says the center's director, Ronny Naftaniel.

"There were some 330 incidents last year," says Naftaniel, who estimates that 75 percent were perpetrated by Moroccan youth. "There is a minimal amount of anti-Semitism that is constant in Holland, of course, but if you blame Jews for being the world power who direct the politics of the world, if you throw stones at Orthodox Jews, if you chant 'Hamas, Hamas' on trams and buses in the cities, that's anti-Semitism, and that's a problem."

Some Muslim leaders also acknowledge rampant, and often rabid, anti-Semitism in the Muslim communities here; even Jahjah and other AEL officials have, on occasion, spoken against it. But not Naima Elmaslouhi, the Arab European League's vice president in Holland. Speaking briefly by cellphone from the Amsterdam police station in December, as she waited for the release of fellow league officers arrested during a pro-Palestinian demonstration, she said the claims of anti-Semitism are exaggerated. "It's just one or two incidents," she said.

Perhaps the clearest expression of who Jahjah is and what he wants comes in his book, "Tussen 2 Werelden: Roots van Een Vrijheidstrijd," or "Between Two Worlds: The Roots of a Freedom Fight." Published late last year by the prestigious Dutch-Belgian publisher J.M. Meulenhoff, a house known for its strong list of Jewish literature, Jahjah's memoir-cum-manifesto suggests that ambiguity and contradiction are central to his character - and maybe to his strategy.

Born and raised in Hanin, in south Lebanon, Jahjah grew up in the midst of that country's civil war and Israel's invasion of Lebanon, which culminated in the 1982 slaughter in the refugee camps of Sabra and Shatilla, where an Israeli commission of inquiry found that Israeli forces and their commander Ariel Sharon were indirectly responsible for the massacre of at least 800, and perhaps as many as 2,000, Palestinian civilians at the hands of Israel's Christian Phalange allies.

In the early 1990s, at the age of 19, Jahjah traveled to the West; he applied for political asylum in Belgium, telling immigration officials that he'd been a member of the militant Shiite group Hezbollah and was seeking to escape its persecution. When authorities began to question his story, he married a Belgian ex-girlfriend, receiving residency as her spouse. The couple divorced shortly after his papers came through. Since then, he has denied he was a member of Hezbollah, saying he made the story up to get asylum.

The league, Jahjah says in his book, isn't especially radical, but rather a "healthy, democratic protest organization born of the frustration and disappointment and hurt" of its members, a movement that seeks only equality and freedom. Only action, maintains Jahjah, will produce change. Azzuz agrees, saying that sometimes a bit of civil disobedience is necessary to win attention. "It's not like we take hostages," he says. But in another passage, Jahjah's book also contains a somewhat different message: "Violence is no solution," he writes, "but it can open the way to a solution."

In his book, Jahjah claims people wrongly accuse him of ties to al-Qaida when in fact, he says, it is the AEL that is terrorized. Bodyguards protect him from the many domestic and international organizations that he claims want him dead, including Israel's Mossad. (Israel dismissed the charge as "laughable.")

But critics see evidence of the league's character not only in what Jahjah says and does, but equally in what he doesn't say:. For instance, neither he nor the AEL condemns al-Qaida. And while it would be unreasonable to blame Jahjah, Azzuz or the Arab European League for the wave of anti-Semitism, they are widely seen as contributing to the climate of rage and polarization, if only by issuing mixed messages.

This impression was strengthened last November, after terrorists suspected of al-Qaida links killed more than 50 people and injured hundreds in four bombings in Turkey - including two bombings at Istanbul synagogues. Some in the AEL did publicly condemn the attacks. But Elmaslouhi, the Dutch league's vice president, voiced "support and understanding" for the bombers. "I am against the killing of innocents," she told the Dutch newspaper Algemeene Dagblad, "but how do you know who is innocent?"

To some critics, Jahjah, Azzuz and others in the Arab European League seem less interested in multicultural harmony than in hostile separatism. These critics warn that a militant "Arab pride" movement poses risks that far surpass mere social tension.

The recent report by the Dutch General Intelligence and Security Service noted that self-styled mujahedin "purposefully influence members of the Muslim communities in the Netherlands in order to create a polarization in society and to alienate the Muslims from the rest of the population." The effect, according to the report, is to strengthen their recruitment efforts by "appealing to the idea that the rights and interests of 'good' Muslims are being violated time and again." As proof of the potential danger, the report cites the example of two Dutch-Moroccans who were killed in Kashmir while training for jihad.

Such concerns have provoked officials in both Belgium and Holland to wonder whether the Arab European League should be banned. In Belgium, Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt has called Jahjah a "threat to society," though his effort to shut down the AEL on the grounds of "inciting violence, issuing threats and disturbing the public order" - a move Jahjah ascribed to "the Zionist lobby" - failed.

But when the AEL posted its statement supporting Hamas founder Yassin on its Dutch-language Web site, motions were filed in the Belgian courts to have the page, if not the entire site, pulled from the Web. While the courts debate, the provider serving the site has cancelled the League's account, forcing it to scramble for another and rebuild essentially from scratch. (The English version of the site remains for the most part intact.)

But some are concerned that banning the league would only send the movement underground, making it even more dangerous. "At least, it's out there in the open," says Ayhan Tonca, who heads the organization of Turkish mosques in Holland.

For their part, AEL members accuse European officials of criminalizing their movement and exaggerating the social problems within the Euro-Muslim community. Even if that's true, the increased pressure on the league and allied groups is likely to increase the tension. As with the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians and the widening conflict between Islamist groups and the West, it sometimes seems that there is no middle ground.

Tonca, speaking from Holland's Turkish community, says he understands the appeal of the Arab European League, and cautions that Europe has no choice but to accept a cultural evolution. "We have to accept that Muslims are a part of Europe," he says. "It isn't just a Judeo-Christian culture anymore."

Moroccan-born Mohamed Sini, a Dutch Labor Party official who chairs the organization Islam and Citizenship, calls the league an "extremist group" that only exacerbates tensions. Tonca, too, accuses Jahjah of being not much different than his opponents - Fortuyn, le Pen, the Vlaams Blok. All, he says, divide in anger rather than unite in peace.

The European establishment is wrestling with similar worries. Last December, the European Union shelved a report that blamed Muslims for the recent wave of anti-Semitism; when a new draft was issued last month, it blamed neo-Nazi and other racist groups, with Muslims being only a secondary cause – even though the numbers in the report showed that Muslims were in fact behind most of the incidents.

But to those who say that Europe must become a melting pot now in a way that it has not been in modern times, Jahjah and other league members say they're not interested in blending in.

Absorbing the principles and norms of Holland, Belgium and other European democracies, they say, would mean sacrificing their integrity, their identity as Muslims. Rather, they argue, the Judeo-Christian majority of Europe should incorporate Islamic norms and values into its own. "Europe would be a better, safer place," a message on the now-defunct Dutch Arab European League Web site proclaimed, "if it observed the values and the norms of Islam."

"As a minority group," says Azzuz, "we have rights."

"Idiocy!" Naftaniel snaps in reply. "Integration doesn't ask that you give up your culture."

Despite the league's plans to expand its presence in the coming year, especially in France, Naftaniel, Tonca and Sini all maintain that the movement will eventually fall by the wayside. "They fail to serve the real concerns and interests of [European] Muslims," Sini says, "mostly because they blame everyone else for the tensions without looking within themselves."

But he is nonetheless concerned, both about the AEL's actions and about the responses they engender. "Extremism," he warns, "breeds extremism."

Tonca likewise worries that Abou Jahjah's call will produce Turkish militants. "The most dangerous terrorists are those who are well educated in the West," he notes, "and I fear that the Muslims who are educated here are becoming radical."

Separation, Naftaniel says, is not compatible with democracy; coexistence requires collaboration and cooperation. "If one believes in democracy," he says, "then the most challenging thing is to sit down with those who with whom you differ."

That might be the starting point for détente, but does the league want détente? Its signals have been mixed, at best. Jahjah himself has publicly denounced the chants of "Hamas, Hamas, alle Joden aan het gas!" Elsewhere, though, he has expressed impatience with talk of peaceful coexistence. "The days of sharing couscous with a Jew are over," he told Belgian newspaper De Morgen in April 2002.

Another top league official, apparently distressed by reports that Muslim children in Holland refuse to listen to classes about the Holocaust, wrote in a statement on a league site that the organization is "against each and every form of discrimination and racism. As Muslims we see the Jews as 'the people of the book' and it is obligatory to fight the hate against these people." But the statement continues: "With equal fury the AEL fights Nazism and Zionism." This association of Israel with Nazism, common these days among European Muslims, is widely seen as a crude and inflammatory form of anti-Semitism.

Which to believe, then - the overtures of peace, or the rhetoric of fury?
In the interest of the vrijheidstrijd, or the freedom fight, Jahjah wraps himself in the mantel of the American revolutionary hero Patrick Henry. "We seek only to live in peace and with the freedom to live our own lives with equality, appreciation, and respect," he writes in "Between Two Worlds."
"And if anyone tries to remove that right and to oppose us, we will fight until the oppression stops, and we acquire freedom - or die in the attempt."
Write; by Abigail R. Esman, a contributing editor at Art and Auction, writes on art and contemporary culture from New York and Amsterdam. June 04

2004-06-03T19:24:00.001+02:00

HIGHLIGHTS

GEOPOLITICA – AFRICA – NAMIBIA

Marathon Congress Drains Emotions
The half moon was above the President's Hall of the Windhoek Show Society, as the elections director announced that Lands Minister Hifikepunye Lucas Pohamba was halfway to becoming President-elect.

Just as Windhoek's street lamps overwhelmed the moonlight, Pohamba needed the votes of nomination contender Nahas Angula to drown out the challenge of former Foreign Affairs Minister Hidipo Hamutenya.
Angula, one of three nominees for the ruling party's presidential candidate in the upcoming national elections, had fallen out in the first round.
By the time Pohamba wrapped it up in the early hours of a chilly Sunday morning, the moon had long retired, leaving the twinkling stars to light up the sky for Swapo's congress delegates as they moved celebrations from the Show Grounds to the party's head office in Katutura.

The celebrations seemed less about rejoicing over Pohamba's victory than letting off steam over the events of the preceding week that had raised the tension among the nominees and their supporters.
It had been an arduous trip to Swapo's watershed special congress called to select a successor to President Sam Nujoma.

The hour arrives
A sense of trepidation hung in the air as the more than 500 delegates gathered on Friday. After weeks of reports that Nujoma was campaigning against Hamutenya, the President set a confrontational tone on Monday by dismissing his Foreign Affairs Minister and his protege. Hamutenya defended himself, saying he was fired on flimsy grounds and suggested that dirty tricks had been used to get him out of the race.

Shortly before the congress opens, some delegates talk about their fears and concerns.
For others, the body language shows that their nerves are on edge.
That same day, one of the delegates is reportedly admitted for psychiatric treatment after a nervous breakdown.

One delegate said the person from the Oshikoto Region was overwhelmed by the pressure of "political elephants" fighting.
Others say the breakdown may have been caused by party politics in the regions rather than the presidential race.
In the hall by 18h00 - Many delegates try to disguise their jitters by singing and dancing to liberation music.
Anti-colonial tunes, such as Mambulu djeimo moNamibia (Boers get out of Namibia) are still a potent rallying cry in the ruling party.
Nujoma's restrained opening statement seems to soothe the anxiety of expectant delegates.
Friday night passes without much fanfare.

D-Day
Delegates, adorned in Swapo colours - suits, scarves, beads and hats - return the next morning for the election.
They are locked in the meeting hall, and had yet to start voting by 13h00, as they listened to the candidates and their backers promoting themselves.
By then people had already caucused often and for a long time, and had agreed who to vote for, or agreed to disagree.
Voting is over by 17h00.
An hour later they are back in the hall, ostensibly to hear the results.

More songs:Olye ngoka ta ende kombanda yomeya? Hailwa Sema yaNujoma (Who's that walking on water? Comrade Sam Nujoma).
Anxiety builds up.
The hall falls silent when Bonny Haufiku takes the microphone.
He is only looking for a lost ID.
More tense moments for the candidates and their supporters, eyes to the desk in front and to the television screens.

20h35: Angula, Hamutenya and Pohamba give journalists a photo opportunity.

Waiting continues.

21h25: Elections director, acting Judge Petrus Damaseb, walks in.

21h35: Nujoma follows, his fist punching the air as the crowd sings Sema owu li peni? (Sam where are you?).
He seems tense and nervous.
Damaseb announces the first results.
Delegates must vote again and reconvene at 03h00.
The final results are out by 03h35.

Half an hour later, Nujoma looks at his watch when Tjiriange announces that celebrations will continue with the braai at Swapo headquarters.

There is no moon by then, but plenty of stars in the sky.

Celebrations continued through Sunday.

"Swapo is the winner," says Swapo activist Willem Nathinge.
Source; The Namibian, May 04

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

SECURITY – EUROPE

Spain Alerts Italy and the UK about Imminent Al Qaeda Attacks
Two Islamist cells with logistical support have been found in [Spain]. Police in Spain, Italy and the UK have been working around the clock to localize several cells of Ansar al Islam, some of whose members have already been identified, who intend to commit attacks against British and Italian targets during President Bush's trip to Europe, antiterrorist sources have informed La Razón. These groups are composed primarily of Algerian fundamentalists, although there are also some Moroccans, and they were trained in the camps of Afghanistan.

The alarm sounded in Europe upon the receipt of completely reliable information that several cells of Ansar al Islam, the terrorist group in the Al Qaeda network led by the Jordanian terrorist Mohammed al Zarkawi, is planning to commit large-scale attacks in Italy and the UK. The "commandos" have operational and logistical support in Spain, where they may have obtained money and some of the false documentation they use. In theory, according to the sources, it is not believed that they are going to carry out attacks in Spain, although any scenario is possible, given the dangerous nature of the Islamists.

Current investigations are directed at localizing, as soon as possible, a group of Algerian extremists who are already in the UK and Italy to attempt to carry out attacks in the next few days, coinciding with the European tour that the leader of the US begins in Italy tomorrow. The police of these countries, with the close cooperation of the Spanish police, have managed to identify some of the terrorists, some of whom may be Moroccan.

These are experienced terrorists who, according to the sources, received their training in the Al Qaeda camps in Afghanistan, where they learned techniques for the manufacture and placement of explosives and highly destructive weapons.

In May, Judge Baltsar Garzón of the Audiencia Nacional sent three Algerians and one Spaniard to prison for their alleged connection with a terrorist group related to Al Qaeda, and he asked the UK to hand over the alleged head of the group, Heidi Ben Youssef Boudhiba, alias "Fathi," who is being held in [England] and who has been connected with the cell that attempted to carry out a ricin attack in London.
Source; La Razón, May 04
Write; by J. M. Zuloaga

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

GEOPOLITICA - MOZAMBIQUE – NATIONAL AFFAIRS

Manuel slates corruption in Africa
Corruption is one of the major factors holding back Africa's economic growth, South African Finance Minister Trevor Manuel acknowledged on Thursday, adding more needed to be done to both prevent corruption and punish the corruptors.

Speaking on the second day of the 14th annual World Economic Forum Africa Economic Summit in Maputo, Mozambique, Manuel noted that the South African Revenue Service (SARS) had done "as much or more" than any institution to root out corruption within its ranks in recent years, having convicted 27 people for corruption in 2002 alone.

"Corruption is indeed a big issue," he said. "But we must also hit out at the corruptors as hard as those who take it--and it is imperative that the private and public sectors campaign together on the issue."

He called for a "big campaign" to blacklist those companies involved in issuing bribes in the Lesotho Highlands project, to ensure that they did not receive new contracts. Currently even the World Bank was avoiding Lesotho, he observed.

Manuel added that one of the biggest challenges was to make rules and salaries transparent and predictable.

"It is clear that one can't live off a government salary and it is clear that one must go after baksheesh to survive. It is a joint responsibility between the public and private sectors to ensure that salaries are adequate and fair, thus relieving the temptations of corruption."

Approximately 550 leaders from all sectors of society are currently participating in the three-day WEF Summit, the first to be held in Mozambique. This year's theme is "Engaging Business in Development".
Source; Sunday Times, May 04
Write; by Lynn Bolin

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

GEODEFENSE – CHINA

China war games seen as 'message'
China's military is preparing to hold large-scale war games intended as a "political message" to Taiwan, amid heightened tensions between the island and mainland, according to U.S. intelligence officials.

The military exercises are part of China's annual maneuvers involving large numbers of troops, ships, aircraft and missiles, and will take place on Dongshan Island. The island is located off the coast of Fujian province along the southern Chinese coast near Taiwan.
A U.S. intelligence official said the exercises will begin later this month.

"It isn't just a training exercise. It's also intended to send a political message [to Taiwan]," the official said, speaking on the condition of anonymity.
The official said the political message in the exercises is one of "military readiness," intended to signal to Taiwan that China is ready to use force if necessary to reunite the island with the mainland.

Past war games on Dongshan, which is used for amphibious assault exercises, have involved 30,000 to 100,000 troops and large numbers of warships, submarines and combat aircraft.

The maneuvers are set to begin as the governments of China and the Republic of China (Taiwan) last week traded accusations that rival patrolling warplanes crossed the line dividing the Taiwan Strait into Chinese-and Taiwanese-controlled waters.

The government-owned Hong Kong newspaper Ta Kung Pao, which first disclosed the exercises in a report published Monday, said that about 18,000 troops would participate and that the war games are practice for "seizing control of the air over the Taiwan Strait."

The exercises are expected to continue through July, the newspaper said.

China's communist government has expressed anger through press statements in recent weeks. China views plan by Taiwanese leader Chen Shui-bian for a referendum on updating the island's constitution in 2006 as a move toward formal independence, which Beijing opposes.

The Pentagon on Friday released an annual report on Chinese military power, which said Beijing is making strides at boosting its space defense capabilities.

The report provided information that the Chinese military is working on methods of space warfare against U.S. intelligence.

It was the first public warning by the Pentagon that the Chinese are considering ways of "blinding" U.S. eyes in space before launching any attack on Taiwan.

The space-warfare elements of the report bolster the findings of a 1999 congressional commission led by Rep. Christopher Cox, California Republican, that said China is developing space weapons.
Source; The Washington Times, May 04
Write; by Bill Gertz

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

GEOECONOMY – EUROPE

Schroeder warns about oil dependency
German chancellor Gerhard Schroeder Thursday called on global governments to step up efforts to harness renewable energies, saying that such a move would make the world less vulnerable to terrorism.

Speaking at International Renewable Energy Conference in Bonn, Schroeder said the world's dependency on oil was playing into the hands of terrorists.

Terror attacks on oil facilities "are directly aimed at striking a vital nerve of humankind", the Chancellor told government representatives from more than 130 countries attending the Bonn conference.

The spate of recent attacks in Saudi Arabia and the continued instability in Iraq made it dramatically clear that the availability of a variety of sources of energy was vital to international security, Schroeder said.

He also noted that current high oil prices illustrated an urgent need to move away from oil and towards renewable resources like the sun, wind, hydropower and bio-energy.
The German leader's remarks came at the opening of a two-day ministerial session at the conference.

The conference, which began 1 June and is to end Friday, will issue an International Action Programme (IAP) for renewable energy projects and initiatives around the world.

Earlier Thursday, British Prime Minister Tony Blair, in a video transmission to the Bonn proceedings, also said building up renewable energy would strengthen world security.
Source; DPA, May 04

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

DEFENSE – SPAIN - IRAQ CRISIS

Zapatero meets Blair for Iraq, Europe talks
Spanish Socialist prime minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero was meeting British premier Tony Blair Thursday for talks on Europe and Iraq.
In his first visit to the British capital, Zapatero opened up the prospect of making progress on the controversial European Constitution.
The former Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar caused the earlier talks to stall over voting rights.
Progress on details of the constitution and the question of who will succeed Romano Prodi as Commission president were expected to dominate the talks.
Blair said the two countries were working closely on European matters and that "it is important we are good partners".
Despite major disagreements between Madrid and London on Iraq, the British prime minister insisted relations between the two countries were "just fine".
The decision of Zapatero to withdraw Spanish troops from Iraq caused a split between Spain and Britain.
It is the latest in a series of meetings Zapatero is conducting with European leaders.
He has also travelled to Italy, Germany, France and Portugal.
But he has no plans to meet with President George W. Bush who arrives in Italy Thursday for a whistle-stop tour of Europe to mark the 60th anniversary of D-Day.
Source; EFE, May 04

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

GEODEFENSE - IRAN – NUCLEAR

U.S. says Tehran is hiding nuclear plans
The United States accused Iran yesterday of using deceit and denial to hide its clandestine development of nuclear weapons, after damning revelations from the U.N. nuclear watchdog on the Islamic republic's atomic energy program.

Kenneth Brill, the U.S. ambassador to the Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), told reporters that Iran's refusal to fully cooperate with the agency "fits a long-term pattern of denial and deception that can only be designed to mask Iran's military nuclear program."
An IAEA report released on Tuesday said agency inspectors had found more traces in Iran of highly enriched uranium that could be weapons-grade. The IAEA also reported that Iran, which insists its nuclear program is for peaceful, civilian purposes, has admitted to importing parts for sophisticated P-2 centrifuges for enriching uranium, going back on claims that it had made the parts domestically.
"Almost two years after the IAEA became aware of Iran's covert nuclear program, and fully one year after the discovery of Iran's attempts to conceal their work at the Kalaye Electric Company [in Tehran], delayed access, inconsistent stories and unanswered questions continue to be the hallmark of Iranian cooperation with the agency," Mr. Brill said.
"Even a disinterested observer must now ask, what is it that the Iranians are so intent on hiding?" Mr. Brill asked.
The IAEA report is to be submitted to the agency's 35-nation board of governors on June 14. The United States has called for the IAEA, which has been investigating the Iranian program since February 2003, to refer the Islamic republic to the U.N. Security Council for possible international sanctions.
In Tehran, top nuclear negotiator Hassan Rowhani said yesterday that Iran had "no secret nuclear activities."
Mr. Rowhani said: "Iran's nuclear dossier is on the way to being sorted out and there is nothing very important that is pending."
But Mr. Brill said: "Iran is still stalling, providing last-minute declarations and contradicting earlier definitive statements. The IAEA continues to find new, incriminating evidence of undeclared activity. ...
"The question is how long the [IAEA] board of governors and the international community will tolerate this," he said.
Diplomats and experts said they expected nothing to happen in the short term because Washington does not have a "smoking gun" to prove Iran is making nuclear weapons.
"The United States is stymied unless the IAEA can come up with some devastating revelation that Iran is lying or hiding something," said Gary Samore, a London-based nonproliferation expert.
He said the Iranians may even be emboldened with their success in putting off the IAEA to resume the enrichment of uranium, something they voluntarily suspended in order to build confidence with the international community.
A Western diplomat close to the IAEA said such a move by Iran "would spark a crisis with [Britain, France and Germany] and others and I don't think that's a price Tehran wants to pay."
Highly enriched uranium can be used for fuel in reactors but also the explosive in atomic bombs.
Another diplomat said nothing less than the international non-proliferation regime was at stake in Iran.
The diplomat said getting to the bottom of the Iranian program was "difficult but crucial for nonproliferation and for the IAEA."
"If progress is slow, there will come a time when the Europeans will have to reflect on their policy," the diplomat said.
Source; Agence France Presse, May 04
Write; by Michael Adler

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

FOCUS

INTERNATIONAL SECURITY - IRAQ AFFAIRS

Saddam's secret money-laundering trail
A detailed analysis of Saddam Hussein's secret money-laundering techniques shows here for the first time how he used the same offshore money launderers as Osama bin Laden. That covert money network, based in the tax havens of Switzerland, Liechtenstein, Panama and Nassau, helped bankroll the war machines of both Iraq and al-Qaida.

More than 1,000 pages of confidential corporate, bank and legal documents show how the network functioned. The papers come from court cases filed in several European countries, from corporate records, from investigations by Italian police, from a report of the Kroll international investigative agency, and from private sources. The documents are the basis of further investigations coordinated in Europe by the prosecutor of Milan.

They show, for example, that a father-and-son team in Liechtenstein, whose business is setting up shell companies and secret bank accounts, worked to move the money of both Saddam and al-Qaida. Engelbert Schreiber and his son Englebert Schreiber Jr. are listed as founder or board member of Mediterranean Enterprises Development Projects; Tradex; Techno Service Intl.; Saidomin; and Executive Flight Assistance, all Liechtenstein companies that handled arms sales and payoffs for Saddam. They are also listed on corporate documents for Nasreddin International Group Ltd Holding (Liechtenstein). Ahmed Idriss Nasreddin, on the U.S. terrorist blacklist, was a founder of Al Taqwa, the bank that moved money for al-Qaida and which was closed down by the United States after 9/11. The Schreibers declined to respond to numerous requests for comment.

One of the men linked in documents to several Panama shell companies used in the Saddam laundering network was Baudoin Dunand, a Swiss lawyer who is administrator of the Saudi Investment Company (SICO), the Geneva investment affiliate of the Bin Laden family conglomerate, run by Osama bin Laden's half-brother Yeslam Binladen. (They spell their names differently.) Mr. Dunand declined to respond to repeated requests for comment.

The Banca del Gottardo in Lugano, Switzerland, moved al-Qaida money via the Al Taqwa bank, a shell bank that operated through correspondent accounts at the Gottardo branch in Nassau. It also handled payments for the Saddam money network. The bank's spokesman wrote, "Please be advised that we do not intend to make any comments or discuss any issues with you regarding the article you proposed in your e-mail."

Banque Paribas, headquartered in Paris, with a significant portion of shares owned by Saddam's cousin Nadhmi Auchi, moved money for the Al-Mahdi network in the 1980s and was the bank chosen to handle the Iraqi oil-for-food payments. In fact, Iraq insisted that Paribas handle the oil-for-food escrow account. A corporate document for Al Taqwa Trade, Property and Industry Co. Ltd. of Liechtenstein -- an al-Qaida network shell company also shut down by the United States -- lists Banque Paribas, Lugano, where it had accounts. (Paribas in 2000 merged with another French bank to create BNP Paribas, with Auchi continuing as one of the largest shareholders.)

Saddam Hussein began constructing his offshore operation in 1968 in Switzerland, aware that the country's bank secrecy made it a prime place to organize the movement of illicit funds and the purchase of arms. That year, 11 years before his coup, Saddam sent his half-brother Barzan Ibrahim Hasan Al-Tikriti to Geneva to construct the network to launder secret commissions charged on sales of Iraqi crude oil. The system would also be used for kickbacks on purchase from Western arms dealers. Liechtenstein, which Swiss bankers and money-managers often use to handle dubious clients, was used to ensure even more impenetrable secrecy: real names of company and account owners would be hidden from law enforcers.

The keys Iraqis in the operation were Said Rahim Hussein Al-Mahdi and Nadhmi Auchi. Al-Mahdi was sent to Lugano because his father-in-law, Talaak El Naboulsi, an Egyptian soldier and member of the Muslim Brotherhood, was then working in Geneva for Barzan. (Barzan is now in U.S. custody.)

Al-Mahdi set up his system of secret companies and accounts with the assistance of the prominent asset managers (also known as trustees or fiduciaries) Elio Borradori in Lugano in the southern, Italian-speaking part of Switzerland, and Enrico Walser and Engelbert Schreiber, in Vaduz, Lichtenstein. He would also use managers in Panama, and the Bahamas. The same jurisdictions would be used to launder money in the oil-for-food sales in the 1990s.

Al-Mahdi established MEDP (Mediterranean Enterprise for Development and Projects), registered in Lugano, with subsidiaries - generally just paper shells - in New York (MEDP USA at 900 Third Ave., New York, incorporated in 1984), London, Paris, Milan, Vienna, Tokyo, Seoul, and Sao Paolo. Nazir Auchi, Nadhmi’s brother, chaired its subsidiary in Baghdad. These shells in turn had shares of other companies that carried out the money laundering and arms purchases.

The offshore networks directed by the two men were crucial intermediaries for such weapons merchants as Messerschmitt-Bulkow-Blohm Helicopter and Military Aircraft Group /MBB (Germany), Thyssen Industries (Germany), Airbus (the consortium of French, German, Spanish and U.K companies), and Dassault (France), which used them to pay kickbacks and, after international embargos were established, to hide illegal sales.

For example, a 1982 bank transfer from the Nassau branch of the Banca del Gottardo in Lugano notes a credit to MEDP's "Satan" account of 33,000,000 French francs (about $6 million) from Dassault International. On a trip to Paris in January 1985, Al-Mahdi signed a contract with Dassault International whereby the company was instructed to send payments to an account at the Indosuez Bank branch in Lugano.

Banca del Gottardo has a colorful history: it is the bank that moved the bribe and kickback money paid by a Swiss construction company to former Russian President Boris Yeltsin and his cronies in exchange for contracts to refurbish Kremlin buildings. In the 1970s, Gottardo was the Swiss subsidiary of Banco Ambrosiano, "the Vatican bank," which collapsed in 1982 in a $1-billion fraud that involved money siphoned off to offshore shell companies and accounts. Ambrosiano had laundered drug- and arms-trafficking money for the Italian and American mafias.

A 1983 document shows $1 million transferred from the Gottardo Satan account to Hamid Al-Tikriti's account at the National Bank of Kuwait. The recipient - Abid Hamid Mahmoud Al-Tikriti - was Saddam's presidential secretary and cousin, arrested by the United States in June 2003. In 1981, half a million dollars had been sent by Gottardo to Hamid Al-Tikriti's Kuwaiti bank account.

Some Satan payments went to individuals in the United States. A December 1982 telex from MEDP Paris requests a transfer of $200,000 from the Satan account to Jawdat T. Mansour and Rihad J. Mansour to their account at the 63rd (Street) and (El) Cajon (Blvd.) office of the San Diego Bank, 4690 63rd Street, San Diego, California.

Asked about the commission agreement, Dassault Vice-President Gerard David said by phone from Paris, "We don't know anything about it. Our president wasn't president then. It was 20 years ago. The law in France is that every 10 years we destroy the archives. We have nothing to say. It's not an answer, but it's the truth."

Al-Mahdi's network used Panama shell companies set up by Roger E. Watson, who had dual American-Panamanian citizenship. An official Panama document dated 1985 lists Watson as vice-president of a company called Radistal; the president was Giuseppe Poggioli, a Lugano financial consultant who acknowledged in e-mail that al-Mahdi was his client. Watson and Poggioli were also officers of another Panama shell company, Dumynta. Poggioli said about Watson, "I think he was the Consul of Panama in Lugano, but I am not 100-percent sure. I have no more contact with him since 1986 or 1987."

In 1985, Al-Mahdi was called back to Baghdad and imprisoned by Saddam, who suspected he was skimming funds, and he was beheaded in 1986. After Al-Mahdi's death, Saddam divided control of the network between the directors of the subsidiary companies of MEDP, Iraqi businessman Manhal Sheikh Kadir in London and the Lebanese Alfred Jawde in New York. Watson, who set up a residence in Como, Italy, replaced Borradori in 1987 as Saddam's financial consultant and managed Panama shell companies for the network via his L.R. European Company. Poggioli said that he, Poggioli, also left the operation. Kadir and Watson could not be located, and Jawde, sent the documents, declined to comment. Borradori was reached, but he is of advanced age and has difficulty communicating.

An Aug. 13, 1990 document signed by International Aircraft Leasing Ltd. And Erfel Anstalt, both shell companies registered in Liechtenstein, noted past "consulting agreements" with Airbus Industries, Blagnac, France, March 7, 1985, and with MBB, Munich, Feb. 19 and March 18, 1985; and a contract with Thyssen Industries AG, Essen, West Germany, Nov. 26, 1987. An Erfel record of that date sets out commissions from MBB and Thyssen totaling SF 720,000 ($432,000).

The United Nations enacted comprehensive trade and weapons embargoes against Iraq in 1990. However, a 1991 Erfel document notes a $255,875 - 5 percent - commission from Airbus and a $45,247 - 5 percent – commission from Thyssen. And a 1991 balance sheet for IAL cites a debt of 1,455,000 German marks due to Thyssen Industries AG, Essen, with FF 3,812 earmarked for Kensington Anstalt, an Al-Mahdi shell company.

IAL prepared a chart that showed that from 1986 to 1991, it collected "commissions" of $1,238,813 (Canadian) from MBB, $10,827,000 (U.S.) from Airbus, $3,900,000 (Canadian) from Thyssen, and DM 1,466,000 from Thyssen D.

Thyssen and Airbus, which now includes MBB, were sent the documents, but company officials declined to respond.

A confidential December 2001 report by Kroll, the international investigative agency, said that two Swiss companies, MEDP Corporation SA in Lugano and Midco Financial SA (in liquidation), were the holding companies that handled the money Saddam skimmed. It said, "Whilst in Geneva, Barzan was believed to have participated in financial schemes that included in the year 2000 the illegal sales of Iraqi petrol" and the purchase of weapons.

The unpublished report, authenticated by Kroll board chairman Jules Kroll, was commissioned by Kuwait after the Gulf War in an attempt to locate Iraqi assets it could claim as compensation. Jules Kroll explained, "In 1990 we were given the assignment and paid by the government of Kuwait." He said the goals were to identify Iraq's procurement network and to find assets outside that would be used to fuel the regime and buy weapons. The 2001 report was an update of the 1991 report."

Kroll investigators discovered that one of the middlemen helping Saddam was Marc Rich, the U.S. tax-evader pardoned by President Clinton. Rich had been indicted by the United States in 1983 on charges he evaded more than $48 million in taxes and illegally bought oil from Iran during the 1979 hostage crisis. He fled the United States and settled in Switzerland. Kroll said, "We came up with evidence that through Marc Rich's Spanish subsidiary, he was using some Iranian cutouts - specifically Bakhtiar, Iranians, whose family was close to Saddam - he was using them to negotiate arrangements as it related to oil."

"The work was all turned over to OFAC (the Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control)," Kroll said. That means the Clinton administration knew about Rich's aid to Saddam.

The Kroll report also dealt with Nadhmi Auchi, reporting the Italian intelligence view that he was a "high-level Iraqi defense procurement and intelligence agent."

After Roger Watson in 1987 became Saddam's financial consultant, he also became an adviser to Auchi's International Company of Banking and Financial Participations (CIPAF). According to official Italian documents, Auchi used Panama to launder kickbacks for two contracts for the Iraqi military. An Italian parliamentary report in 1987 said that one of them, Dowal, set up by Watson, was used to collect $23 million in hidden commissions on Baghdad's purchase of warships manufactured by the Italian shipyard, Cantieri Navali Riuniti.

In another case, the Operation "Clean Hands" (Mani Pulite) investigation in Italy revealed in 1993 that Auchi received about $40 million in hidden commissions to facilitate approval of a Franco-Italian engineering project to construct a pipeline from Iraq to Saudi Arabia. Italian banker Pierfrancesco Pacini Battaglia declared to investigators that he had received instructions to transfer these commissions to accounts in Panama established in the names of Iraqi officials.

Auchi's spokesman condemned any allegations of wrongdoing as "outrageous."

The totals from skimmed oil revenues and contract kickbacks from the late 1970s through the oil-for-food 90s have been estimated by U.S. officials to reach $30 or $40 billion.

Jules Kroll said that until 9/11, a few staff members at the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control "were the only ones spending any energy on this issue in any organized way." He said, "The level of ignorance at the CIA was total, at the FBI it was beyond total. The law enforcement and intelligence community in the U.S. was behind the curve. It was of little interest to them," he said.
Source; by United Press International. Copyright 2004. All rights reserved. May 04
Write; by Investigative journalist Lucy Komisar is writing a book on the offshore bank and corporate secrecy system.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

2004-05-13T00:04:00.000+02:00

HIGHLIGTS

Legal – Human rights

The Age of Comparative Atrocity
American shame; Islamist snuff movies
It's a tough call whether Abu Musab al-Zarqawi-the Jordanian "militant" who is reportedly responsible for the videotaped butchery of Nicholas Berg-is more stupid than he is brutal, or whether he is a bigger monster than he is a fool. Zarqawi's own nauseating videotape makes the case for his indescribable brutality. The argument that he is Islamism's biggest lunatic yet-no small claim-is similarly straightforward: He has inaugurated an otherwise inconceivable display of comparative atrocity that could deliver his enemy from its own demoralization.

After all, Americans have been sufficiently shamed, dishonored, and demoralized by the repulsive images of prisoner abuse at Abu Ghraib that even many prominent war supporters have been reconsidering the effort.
Dispirited analysts at the conservative National Review Online have been looking for an exit from the occupation; blogger Andrew Sullivan has asked himself if, knowing in advance how the occupation would proceed, he would have supported the war to begin with. New York Times columnist David Brooks has concluded that the United States misconceived the effect of its own power, and has pronounced the occupation an intellectual failure, even if it ultimately succeeds in establishing a liberal Iraq.

What does Zarqawi do? In "retaliation" for the Abu Ghraib imagery, he stages a singularly nauseating "execution" of a private American citizen who has been wandering around Iraq. The probable effect is to offer many Americans an exit from their own moral horror.

Mind you, Zarqawi's ghouls in this video don't merely "behead" Berg, as most accounts indicate. "Beheading" suggests a quick severing and a quick death. What Zarqawi and his friends do is butcher Berg-there's no other word for it. They don't use a sword or an axe; they use a knife. You can hear Nicholas Berg screaming as Zarqawi's gang hacks at his neck and then pulls at his head until it comes off his body. They then hold his bleeding head in front of the camera. The tape is appalling not only for its utter bloodthirstiness, but also for the total absence of simple human empathy.
Elemental empathy-for example, an unwillingness to rip a victim’s heads from his body-is a primary measure of civilization. (The shame Americans felt at the Abu Ghraib an image is, after all, rooted in such empathy.) Even in the dehumanizing context of warfare, which strains the empathy of all its participants, this is savagery.

But if this is a moment of comparative atrocity, the issue becomes whether the Zarqawi horror is capable of having any effect on the Abu Ghraib images.
The probable answer is that while the murder tape obviously doesn't make pictures of prisoner abuse any less disgusting or shameful, it does offer many of those who feel disgust and shame a different context in which to perceive those images.

The Abu Ghraib pictures reveal American soldiers humiliating their prisoners in a sadistic manner (in some images, the Americans are actually smirking). It's a painful sight because it is cruel on its own terms (we don't even know if the terrorized individual prisoners are actually guilty of anything), and because we regard such sadism as unworthy of our image of ourselves.

Indeed, the pictures are sufficiently difficult that American newspaper editors are increasingly unsure how to play the images that continue to appear. Perhaps sensing a rise of "shame fatigue," some editors have been moving newer images to inside pages. As Washington Post editor Leonard Downie, Jr. put it, "[W] e decided we had published so many shocking photos that it was fine to publish inside rather than on the front page."

By contrast, Zarqawi intentionally tapes and distributes his bloody atrocity; the literal slaughter of an innocent is offered as an example of his righteousness. "Unworthiness" simply never enters the calculation; that it is inhuman is its point. Shameless brutality of this degree has the power to transform the shame of Zarqawi's enemies (those who seek such transformation). Zarqawi has reminded his enemies that, unlike him, they are capable of shame.

One rarely encounters an enemy willing to dehumanize himself this way. It's not unknown: Genghis Khan, sweeping out of Mongolia in the 13th century, sent out an advance phalanx of rumormongers to spread tales of massacre and cruelty, in order to encourage the cities in his path to surrender the more quickly. But that strategy was based on the Mongols' strength, and the relative weakness of the cities that various waves of Mongol armies were intent on sacking, (Baghdad was ultimately among them).

That's hardly the situation in which Zarqawi and his allies find themselves. If the U.S. has a military weakness, it's the one that Vietnam's Gen. Vo Nguyen Giap identified: Wars can be won on the American home front. But you try to win such a war by demoralizing the populace, not by demonstrating your own butchery. Revealing yourself as a butcher only encourages your enemies to find you and kill you.

That's the whole point of atrocity images and stories, both true and false, from Trajan's Column in Rome to the notorious false stories spread during World War I to the phony anti-Iraq baby-incubator testimony of the first Gulf War: to dehumanize the foe. That's the business of the Pan-Arab press: delegitimizing the American effort in Iraq by portraying it in terms of atrocity. In the case of an Al Jazeera, it has been to display civilian corpses; in the case of some Pan-Arab newspapers, it has been to augment genuine pictures of prisoner abuse with stills from pornographic films, and to claim that such stills are also from Abu Ghraib.

That sort of thing is recognizable propaganda in a classic mode. Zarqawi's righteous snuff movie is something different: an act of lunacy, a gift to his enemies, and, one hopes, an unwitting suicide note.
Source; Reason; May 2004
Write; by Charles Paul Freund is a Reason senior editor.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Media – Iraq affair

Some Arab papers ignore Berg slaying
Beirut, Lebanon - Arab media reacted cautiously Wednesday to the videotaped beheading of an American civilian by Islamic militants in Iraq, with some newspapers conspicuously playing it down or even ignoring it.

The biggest pan-Arab satellite television channels broadcast an edited version of the gruesome video, not showing the actual killing of Nick Berg, 26, of West Chester, Pa., a Philadelphia suburb. The businessman was abducted in April.

In one of the most explicit displays, Kuwait's Al-Siyassah daily ran a photo of a masked militant holding up Berg's severed head.

The video of the execution was released on the Internet too late for some Middle East newspaper columnists to react to it. The killing, attributed to Abu Musab al-Zarqawi's group, appalled many Arabs.

Some opinion-makers condemned the killing.

"This shows how base and vile those who wear the robe of Islam have become," said Abdullah Sahar, a Kuwait University political scientist.

Some said it surpassed the American military's abuse of Iraqi prisoners in Abu Ghraib prison, which has been the top story for the past 10 days in the Middle East.

"We were winning international sympathy because of what happened at Abu Ghraib, but they come and waste it all," said Abdullah Sahar, a Kuwait University political scientist, said of the Islamic militants responsible.

In the video, the masked militants said they were taking revenge on Berg because of the abuses at the Baghdad prison.

Mustafa Bakri, editor of Al-Osboa weekly newspaper in Egypt, said Berg's death will only hurt efforts to expose American offenses against Iraqis.

"Such revenge is rejected," Bakri said of the execution. "The American administration will make use of such crimes just to cover their real crimes against Iraqis."

Bakri spoke as he took part in a Cairo demonstration by about 50 Egyptian journalists and lawyers against American human rights abuses in Iraq.

Al-Jazeera and Al-Arabiya, the big two satellite networks, aired carefully edited versions of the video. In Al-Arabiya's edit, a militant is seen drawing a knife and jerking Berg's body to one side. The rest is not shown.

"The news story itself is strong enough," said Jihad Ballout, spokesman for Qatar-based Al-Jazeera. "To show the actual beheading is out of the realm of decency."

Lebanon's private Al Hayat-LBC station led its bulletins Wednesday with the video. Its news presenter said: "We apologize to our viewers for not showing the entire tape because of the ugliness of the scene."

Kuwait state television broadcast the news of the execution late Tuesday but not the video.

Iraqi newspapers reported nothing about the killing, although it may have broken to late for them.

Egypt's leading daily, Al-Ahram, ignored the beheading Wednesday. Two other major pro-government newspapers ran news agency reports on their inside pages, without photos.

An Al-Ahram editor, Ahmed Reda, said the news came too late Tuesday night for the paper to confirm the video's authenticity with the U.S. government.

Newspapers in Syria, where the government controls the press tightly, did not report it at all.

A professor of journalism at the American University in Cairo, Hussein Amin, said the handling of the story by Egypt's pro-government papers was political and appropriate.

"I think that the government does not want to show this on the front page as a main item because it shows a very poor - poor is not the proper word; disgusting maybe is the better word - example of revenge," Amin said.
"There is also the threat that it could be happening to other Americans. If they put it on the front page, (it could be seen as) they are favoring this kind of action."

Jordanian newspapers, state television and radio reported Berg's killing, but without commentary.

Most Lebanese newspapers, such as the left-wing As-Safir, published the report and a photograph of Berg sitting in front of the militants. As-Safir ran the headline: "Al-Zarqawi slaughters an American to avenge Iraqi prisoners."

In many Arab newspapers, the beheading received less display than the news of America's imposing sanctions on Syria and the killing of six Israeli soldiers in Gaza City.
Source; AP, May 2004
Write; by Zeina Karan

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

GeoPolitica – Afghanistan affairs

Karzai calls for war on drug trade as illicit poppy-growing spreads
Karezeq, Afghanistan - The bulb of the little pink flower reaches deep into Afghan society, sowing problems with the country's allies, financing gunmen and even bringing addiction to ordinary Afghans.

In Afghanistan, opium is everywhere. The United Nations says the burgeoning poppy crop produced three-quarters of the world's illicit opium last year, worth $3.2 billion Cdn and accounting for half Afghanistan's gross domestic product. Output was 20 times more than in 2001, the last year of rule by the strict Taliban regime.

Returning from a recent conference with donor countries, President Hamid Karzai called on Afghans to wage a "jihad," or holy war, on the drug trade.

It was a politically risky move. Poppy farming supports thousands of families and is a major source of income for many powerful warlords.

On a recent day, a counter-narcotics team in Kandahar province fanned out across farms, flanked by a dozen bodyguards armed with AK-47s and rocket-propelled grenades.

In the town of Karezeq, farmers confronted the team at the edge of fields pink with blooming poppies.

An elderly farmer begged for an officer to "be a good Muslim" and leave his crops alone. The response was quick: "It's the opium that you grow that's un-Islamic."

Eventually, they compromised: One-third of the plants would be uprooted. The farmers glumly watched as tractors tore up the earth.

Karzai's government says the goal is not to destroy farmers' livelihoods, but to encourage planting legal crops. While wheat and corn are nowhere near as profitable, at least the farmers know those crops will get to market, officials say.

The vast majority of the poppy crop is exported to meet the demand for drugs in the United States, Europe and elsewhere, but some stay at home, feeding a growing addiction problem.

In the slums of western Kabul, devastated by three decades of war, opium addicts gather in bullet-pocked ruins, sheltering in basement rooms littered with used needles and burned matches. They heat opium powder into a liquid and inhale the vapour.

Counsellors from the Najat drug rehabilitation centre scour Kabul for addicts, offering first-aid and encouragement. Female doctors meet at the homes of women addicts, and dozens of burqua-clad addicts come for checkups.

Each week, dozens of addicts hope desperately for one of the few beds Najat offers for in-house rehabilitation.

Once accepted, they spend weeks in cramped rooms, relearning responsibility and personal hygiene, receiving medical attention and counselling, and trying to get clean.

Feradoon, 42, can barely dream of kicking his habit. He meets every day with other addicts in the ruins of an old Kabul cinema.
They have no one else to turn to. In a culture where family is everything, these men are shunned by their relatives.
"No one can stop using this drug when he is alone," Feradoon says.
Source; AP, May 2004
Write; by David Guttenfelder

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

GeoPolitica – Venezuela affairs

Venezuelan law enforcement agencies raid US Embassy warehouse; makes more arrests
Venezuelan authorities have raided a US Embassy warehouse in Caracas and made more arrests just a day after President Hugo Chavez Frias revealed another opposition-led conspiracy to overthrow his democratically elected government.
Quoted by wire services, US Embassy spokeswoman Victoria Alvarado says the embassy had used the warehouse to store furniture, and denied any US involvement in efforts to oust Chavez.

- Venezuelan security services had arrested scores of Colombian right-wing paramilitary fighters, Sunday, thwarting a plot to launch another coup d'etat tomorrow, Wednesday.

A US-backed coup d'etat in April 2002 saw the imposition of Dictator for a Day Pedro Carmona Estanga who immediately dissolved the National Congress, the judiciary and the Constitution in one fell swoop, instigating a shoot-to-kill hunt for Chavez loyalists.
In Washington, US State Department spokesman Richard Boucher trotted out the same old platitudes, rejecting Chavez Frias' charges that the United States is also behind the latest conspiracy.
Source; Vheadline.com, May 2004
Write; by David Coleman

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

GeoEconomical -Argentina

A new government oil company is born in Argentina
The Argentine government announced this Tuesday the creation of a government energy agency to ensure the supply of gas and electricity at accessible prices for the domestic market. Argentina is currently undergoing a serious energy crisis with domestic shortages and reduced overseas sales with diplomatic consequences in the region.Minister Julio De Vido

"The government decided the creation of Argentina Energy S.A., Enarsa, with the purpose of participating in the hydrocarbons and energy markets through the rational exploitation of resources", said Planning Minister Julio De Vido during a press conference in Government House in Buenos Aires.

The objective of Enarsa is to ensure the availability of gas and electricity at prices compatible with the economic level of the country and "rebuild reserves, production levels, gas supplies together with infrastructure needs in the transport of gas and electricity", added Mr. De Vido.

Enarsa will be made up of 53% non-transferable shares belonging to the government, 12% to the Argentine provinces and 35% will be offered to the private sector.
Enarsa that is expected to associate with private companies to explore and exploit different fuels is the first government company in the local hydrocarbons market since the Argentine government privatized YPF and Gas del Estado in the nineties.
Several private companies have anticipated they will work closely with the Argentine government in the energy emergency.

Brazilian Petrobras promised to double the transport capacity of its gas pipeline that extends 3,300 kilometres from Ushuaia in Tierra del Fuego to Buenos Aires, which means an additional 2,8 million cubic meters in 2005 and another eight million cubic meters in 2006.

Repsol-YPF also is committed to increase gas production by 9,5 million cubic meters.

Argentina has abundant reserves of natural gas but the lack of investments during several years and a booming economy have caused a bottle neck with shortages both for the domestic industrial market and overseas, mainly Chile.

"If we have an energy crisis in Argentina today, unfortunately it's because corporations have not been investing particularly since 1998", said President Nestor Kirchner.
The Kirchner administration also decided to increase taxes and retentions on hydrocarbon and fuel exports in an attempt to discourage overseas sales and ensure domestic supply.
Source; Mercosur, May 2004

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Africa – Nigeria affairs

Mobs raze Christian-run businesses in Nigeria
Kano - Muslim mobs looted and burned at least five Christian-run businesses in the northern Nigerian city of Kano on Tuesday, after a rally called to protest a sectarian massacre.
A reporter at the scene said that gangs of young men torched and looted Christian properties on Gyadi-Gyadi Court Road in a mainly Muslim area of the city, triggering explosions in a cooking gas store.
Police jeeps were racing around the area, with heavily armed officers sporadically firing warning shots, but security forces appeared to be holding back to avoid triggering a full-scale confrontation with the mob.
Most businesses, including the main Christian market in the minority community's ghetto, Sabon Gari, had been closed before Tuesday's mass rally called in protest at last week's attack on the Muslim town of Yelwa.
There was no sign of any casualties in the violence.
On Sunday last week a heavily armed gang of militants from the Christian Tarok ethnic group stormed the mainly Muslim rural town of Yelwa, in the Shendam local government area of central Nigeria's Plateau state, and killed between 200 and 300 people, according to government figures.
At Tuesday's protest, Islamic leaders demanded that President Olusegun Obasanjo put an end to the Plateau state crisis within seven days "or bear the blame of whatever happens".
Source; AFP, May 2004

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

FOCUS

GeoPolitical – Iraq affairs

The Curse of Pan-Arabia
Consider a tale of three cities: In Fallujah, there are the beginnings of wisdom, recognition, after the bravado that the insurgents cannot win in the face of a great military power. In Najaf, the clerical establishment and the shopkeepers have called on the Mahdi Army of Muqtada al-Sadr to quit their city, and to "pursue another way." It is in Washington where the lines are breaking, and where the faith in the gains that coalition soldiers have secured in Iraq at such a terrible price appears to have cracked. We have been doing Iraq by improvisation; we are now "dumping stock," just as our fortunes in that hard land may be taking a turn for the better. We pledged to give Iraqis a chance at a new political life. We now appear to be consigning them yet again to the same Arab malignancies that drove us to Iraq in the first place.

We have stumbled in Abu Ghraib. But the logic of Abu Ghraib isn't the logic of the Iraq war. We should be able to know the Arab world as it is. We should see through the motives of those in Cairo and Amman and Ramallah and Jeddah, now outraged by Abu Ghraib, who looked away from the terrors of Iraq under the Baathists. Our account is with the Iraqi people: It is their country we liberated, and it is their trust that a few depraved men and women, on the margins of a noble military expedition, have violated. We ought to give the Iraqis the best thing we can do now, reeling as we are under the impact of Abu Ghraib - give them the example of our courts and the transparency of our public life. What we should not be doing is to seek absolution in other Arab lands.

Take this scene from last week, which smacks of the confusion - and panic - of our policies in the aftermath of a cruel April: President Bush apologizing to King Abdullah II of Jordan for the scandal at Abu Ghraib.
Peculiar, that apology - owed to Iraq's people, yet forwarded to Jordan. We are still held captive by Pan-Arab politics. We struck into Iraq to free that country from the curse of the Arabism that played havoc with its politics from its very inception as a nation-state. We had thought, or implied, or let Iraqis think, that a new political order would emerge, that the Pan-Arab vocation that had been Iraq's poison would be no more.
The Arabs had let down Iraq, averted their gaze from the mass graves and the terrors inflicted on Kurdistan and the south, and on the Shiite holy cities of Najaf and Karbala and their seminarians and scholars. Jordan in particular had shown no great sensitivity toward Iraq's suffering. This was a dark spot in the record of a Hashemite dynasty otherwise known for its prudence and mercy. It was a concession that the Hashemite court gave to Jordan's "street," to the Palestinians in refugee camps and to the swanky districts of Amman alike. Jordan in the 1980s was the one country where Saddam Hussein was a mythic hero: the crowd identified itself with his Pan-Arab dreams, and thrilled to his cruelty and historical revisionism.
This is why the late king, Hussein, broke with his American ties - as well as with his fellow Arab monarchs - after the invasion of Kuwait. His son did better in this war; he noted the price that Jordan paid in the intervening decade. He took America's side, and let the crowd know that a price would be paid for riding with Saddam. But no apology was owed to him for Abu Ghraib. He was no more due an apology for what took place than were the rulers in Kathmandu.

But this was of a piece with our broader retreat of late. We have dispatched the way of Iraqis an envoy of the U.N., Lakhdar Brahimi, an Algerian of Pan-Arab orientation, with past service in the League of Arab States. It stood to reason (American reason, uninformed as to the terrible complications of Arab life) that Mr. Brahimi, "an Arab," would better understand Iraq's ways than Paul Bremer. But nothing in Mr. Brahimi's curriculum vitae gives him the tools, or the sympathy, to understand the life of Iraq's Shiite seminaries; nothing he did in his years of service in the Arab league exhibited concern for the cruelties visited on the Kurds in the 1980s. Mr. Brahimi hails from the very same political class that has wrecked the Arab world. He has partaken of the ways of that class: populism, anti-Americanism, anti-Zionism, and a preference for the centralized state.
He came from the apex of the Algerian system of power that turned that country into a charnel house, inflicted on it a long-running war between the secular powers-that-be and the Islamists, and a tradition of hostility by the Arab power-holders toward the country's Berbers. No messenger more inappropriate could have been found if the aim was to introduce Iraqis to the ways of pluralism.

Mr. Brahimi owes us no loyalty. His prescription of a "technocratic government" for Iraq - which the Bush administration embraced only, to retreat from, by latest accounts - is a cunning assault on the independent political life of Iraq. The Algerian seeks to return Iraq to the Pan-Arab councils of power. His entire policy seeks nothing less than a rout of the gains, which the Kurds and the Shiites have secured after the fall of the Tikriti-Baathist edifice. The Shiites have seen through his scheme. A history of disinheritance has given them the knowledge they need to recognize those who bear them ill will. American power may not be obligated - and should not be - to deliver the Shiites a new dominion in Iraq. But we can't once more consign them to the mercy of their enemies in the Arab world. At any rate, it is too late in the hour for such a policy, for the genie is out of the bottle and the Shiites will fight back. Gone is their old timidity and quietism. Their rejection of Mr. Brahimi's diplomacy is now laid out for everyone to see.

For his part, Mr. Brahimi knew that the Americans were eager to dump, and he rightly bet on the innocence (other, less charitable terms could be used) of those in the Bush administration now calling the shots on Iraq. They were unburdened by any deep knowledge of the country, and Mr. Brahimi offered the false promise of pacifying Iraq in the run-up to our presidential elections.
His technocracy is, in truth, but a cover for the restoration of the old edifice of power. Fallujah gave him running room; its fight for a lost, unjust dominion, was his diplomatic tool. His prescription, he let it be known, would calm the tempest in that sullen place. The Marines were fighting to bring that town to order. The Marines were not Mr. Brahimi's people: Their fight, and their sacrifices, he dismissed as a "collective punishment" of a civilian population. Mr. Brahimi should know a thing or two about collective punishment. His native Algeria has provided enough lessons in what really constitutes the indiscriminate punishment of populations that come in the way of military power.

In the scales of military power, the Arabs have not been brilliant in modern times. But there is cunning aplenty in their world, and an unerring eye for the follies of great foreign powers. The Arabs can read through President Bush's stepping back from his support for Ariel Sharon's plan for withdrawal from Gaza. There are amends to be made for Abu Ghraib, and those are owed the people of Iraq. Yet here we are paying the Palestinians with Iraqi coin. The Palestinians will not be grateful for our concessions; and they are to be forgiven the only conclusion they will draw. Those concessions have already been taken as the compromises of an America now in the throes of self-flagellation.

We can't have this peculiar mix of imperial reach, coupled with such obtuseness. It is odd, and defective in the extreme, that President Bush chose the official daily of the Egyptian regime, Al-Ahram, for yet another interview, another expression of contrition over Abu Ghraib. In the anti-Americanism of Egypt (of Al-Ahram itself), the protestations of our virtue are of no value. In our uncertainty, we now walk into the selective rage of the Egyptians, a popular hostility tethered to the policies of a regime eager to see us fail in Iraq - a regime afraid that the Iraqis may yet steal a march on Egypt into modernity. Cairo has no standing in Iraq.
Why not take representatives of a budding Iraqi publication into the sanctuary of the Oval Office and offer a statement of contrition by our leader?
Our goals in Iraq are being diluted by the day. There has been naivete on our part, to be sure, and no small measure of hubris. We haven't always read Iraq right, but if we abdicate the burden and the responsibility - and the possibilities - that came with this war, our entire effort will come to grief. In Najaf on May 7, in a Friday sermon made from the shrine of Imam Ali - Shiism's most revered pulpit - Sheikh Sadr-al-din Qabanji, a respected cleric with ties to Ayatollah Ali Sistani, called on the Mahdi Army of Muqtada al-Sadr to quit the city. "Listen to the advice of the ulema," he said, using the term for the recognized men of religion. "Come, let us together find another way, and go back to your homes and provinces." The defense of Najaf, he said, belonged to its people, and the bands of young "Sadrists" were told to return to the slums of Baghdad. We haven't stilled Iraq's furies, and our gains there have been made with heartbreaking losses.

But in the midst of our anguish over Abu Ghraib, and in our eagerness to placate an Arab world that has managed to convince us of its rage over the scandal, we should stay true to what took us into Iraq, and to the gains that may yet be salvaged.
Source; Wall Street Journal, May 2004
Write; by Mr. Fouad Ajami, of Johns Hopkins, is the author of "The Dream Palace of the Arabs" (Vintage, 1999).

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

GeoSecurity – Syria

The Road for Damascus
More of a sideshow in the US war on terrorism; Syria hasn't been invaded like neighboring Iraq. Or warned with threats as North Korea or Iran - although it was almost listed in President Bush's "axis of evil" speech.

But finally this week, the hard-line secular regime in Damascus is due for some punishment from an administration long divided over whether Syria deserves more carrot than stick in dealing with its terrorist offenses.

Congress pushed Mr. Bush to act by approving a measure last November calling for sanctions on Syria if it didn't shape up. The move was driven as much by political pressure to help Israel as to protect the US.

But it's clear American patience with Syria's young leader, Bashar al-Assad, has run thin because of his tactical feints in helping the US with post-invasion Iraq, promoting of various terror groups, and toying with weapons of mass destruction. A Washington eager to reform the Middle East can't wait while Mr. Assad plays old games of conspiracy and half-steps, despite having 130,000 US troops next door in Iraq.

The latest Syrian game is to claim that it too is threatened by militant Islamists after a bombing in its capital on April 27. But Bush isn't buying it, and in imposing sanctions this week, he's decided Syria fits the category of being a nation against the US because Syria isn't doing enough to be with it in fighting terror.

He's expected to bar sales of dual-use items that could have military applications, and will likely to restrict US oil investments in Syria as well as Syrian planes flying to or over the US - for starters.

The Western-educated Assad may want to help the US, but he's surrounded by old generals who thrive off the business they've long enjoyed in Lebanon by having 20,000 troops occupy that country. (Syria also allows Iran to use Syrian soil to support the anti-Israel Hizbollah fighters in Lebanon.)

The worst offense is Syria's unwillingness to prevent foreign fighters from entering Iraq across a 400-mile border. It may be calculating that the US is on the run in Iraq and will soon exit. Bush has every reason to send Syria a stern signal of US resolve.
Source; CSMonitor.com, May 2004

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

2004-05-11T20:54:00.000+02:00

HIGHLIGHTS

GeoPolitica - Security

Terror manual names Australians
Australians have been named in an al-Qaeda manual as the primary targets for terrorists in Indonesia.em>

The manual, targeting the Cities, specifies which foreign nationals to target in Muslim countries such as Americans in Saudi Arabia, French in Algiers and Australians in Indonesia.

Terrorism expert Clive Williams said the document was significant as it named, for the first time, Australians rather than Westerners in general as the number one target in Indonesia. Mr Williams also said it appeared Australia was increasingly named in al-Qaeda documents as a result of involvement in the war in Iraq.

"The rhetoric and the emphasis has been more on Australians certainly since we got involved in Iraq," said Mr Williams, director of terrorism studies at Australian National University.

Anti-terrorism agencies monitor large volumes of al-Qaeda material published on the internet.

The 11-page manual by an al-Qaeda leader in Saudi Arabia, Abdulaziz al-Mokrin, ranks Australia fourth on an overall list of "human targets" behind Americans, British and Spanish and ahead of Canadians and Italians.

The manual also lists groups of people according to their importance as targets. Businessmen, bankers and economists are first, then diplomats, politicians and scholars, thirdly scientists, and experts and then soldiers. Tourists are ranked last.

Mr Williams said the manual was not a fatwa or directive to kill Australians but rather a "white paper" that terrorists could consider when planning attacks.

"Australia has been mentioned at least half a dozen times by al-Qaeda as a potential target overseas but this is the first time I've seen a reference to Australians in Indonesia, that they should be the target of choice," Mr Williams said.

"The danger of that, of course, is that Indonesians who are sympathetic to al-Qaeda might therefore think about Australians as being the primary target in Indonesia, which is not what we have been up till now."

Manager of security analysis at Sydney-based Intelligent Risks, Ian Shaw, said the manual was a concern considering terrorists in Indonesia were still capable of another Marriott-style attack.

A bomb blast at the J.W. Marriott Hotel in Jakarta last year killed 12 people.

The manual gives instructions about establishing a terrorist cell and communicating with its members without being detected.

"The primary targets should be Jews and Christians who have important status in the Islamic countries," the manual, obtained by The Australian, says.
"The purpose is not to allow them to settle in the lands of the Moslems. Our advice is to start with unprotected soft targets and the individuals from countries that support the local renegades."
Source; The Australian, May 2004
Write; by Trudy Harris

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Security – Iraq affairs

Security woes undermine best-laid plans
Instability slows work of Americans trying to improve life for Iraqis

In a briskly air-conditioned room somewhere in the depths of Camp Victory near the Baghdad International Airport, Col. Michael Formica is repeating himself.

"It's all about low hanging fruit," said Formica, gesturing toward his PowerPoint presentation. "Low hanging fruit."

The commander of the 2nd Brigade of the 1st Cavalry Division is referring to easily achieved tasks that will enlist the support of Iraqis who have come to doubt the Americans' ability to rebuild a peaceful, self-functioning country.

In laying out a summary of a plan to clean up the 21 neighborhoods for which his unit is responsible, Formica rattles through a list of short-term tasks that will create "instant employment, instant beautification, and instant change in perception."

The projects include rebuilding a market, renovating a youth center, and refurbishing facilities at a local veterinary college.

Buried amongst the maps and bullet points are colorful slides.

One of them suggests a future still unimaginable for most Iraqis in a neighborhood that now will forever now be associated with the worst of American behavior in Iraq.

The slide shows Abu Ghraib, the neighborhood that houses the notorious prison that has become the focus of the growing abuse scandal that has severly damaged the military's credibility in Iraq.

In this case, the neighborhood - a rough, low-income part of Baghdad teeming with men formerly employed by the Iraqi military industry – is reincarnated as a picturesque suburb with lush green gardens and neat rows of brick houses.

When the presentation is finished, a small, stout Iraqi speaks. In halting English, Dr. Majid Nassir of the Baghdad Veterinary College thanks Formica and his men. But then he adds, "Before anything, we must work on security."

Security concerns trump all It's a familiar refrain, one which has plagued the 1st Cavalry Division since it formally assumed control from the 1st Armored Division over Baghdad a little over a month ago.

It was a tough welcome. The fighting in April - which resulted in scores of American deaths and hundreds of Iraqi casualties - was the worst since the war. Not only did the violence halt rebuilding efforts, it reinforced the growing Iraqi perception that the coalition has yet to accomplish anything.

"The biggest problem is that the coalition's been here over a year, and nothing's changed," said Col. Kendall Cox, commander of the Engineer Brigade of the 1st Cavalry Division.

"So we've set out this low hanging fruit strategy. Find something you can reach up and grab and fix and show the Iraqi people."

A clean sweep?
The strategy is bound up in "Operation Iron Broom," a key part of the unit's mission "to defeat anti-coalition forces in order to create the infrastructure and economic conditions for the transfer to legitimate Iraqi governance" on June 30.

The $10 million operation was launched in Baghdad in March and encourages local participation in the reconstruction effort.

Some of these projects, modest in size and scope, show initial promise. A new walled market area just opened in Abu Dasher, a district with some of the lowest literacy and employment rates in Baghdad. The new space provides enough room for 150 to 200 stalls and boasts small details such as running clean water to improve sanitary conditions.

"This is the ideal thing we need to do. It's built by Iraqis for Iraqis," said Cox. "We're not doing this. We're providing the means and the money for Iraqis to do this."

As the colonel leaves the market, an elderly Iraqi man who has been guarding the market space approaches him. The man wants a gun to better protect the new facility. But Cox shook his head. "Right now, we cannot give weapons."

A new soccer field opened with fanfare recently. Following a ribbon-cutting ceremony, local officials sat under a marqee, passages from the Quran were read out, and two teams kicked off on the new pitch.

But surrounding the field was a seven-foot high fence topped with barbed wire; on opening day, dozens of young Iraqi boys clung to the wire peering through at the U.S. troops standing guard.

Case study:
Kerkh sewage treatments plant other projects better illustrate the challenges of rebuilding basic services in a dangerous environment. The Kerkh Sewage Treatment Plant is one of three designed to protect the Tigris River from raw sewage produced by the city's 5.2 million residents.

But a lack of maintenance, a shortage of spare parts, and extensive looting during the war have rendered the southern Baghdad plant ineffective in processing the wastage generated by two million people.

Since last year, Bechtel, through a contract with USAID, has been responsible for overhauling the plant. But two months ago, when violence flared across Baghdad, two plant workers were killed when their car hit a roadside bomb.

Both Bechtel and local employees immediately stopped going to work until the 1-8 Battalion of the 1st Cavalry showed up to secure the plant premises.
Source; NBC News, May 2004
Write; by Adrienne Mong

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Human rights – Afghanistan

U.S. changes rules for Afghan prisoners
Afghanistan - The U.S. military has cut the amount of time prisoners spend at holding facilities on bases in Afghanistan while authorities investigate allegations of abuse, including two deaths, the top general in the country.

The change in prison procedure comes during a widening scandal into prisoner abuse in Iraq.

Lt. Gen. David Barno said the military had looked into "challenges and problems" at holding facilities in Afghanistan. He didn't say what the allegations were, or if any of them had proved true.

"One of the things we've done recently is to reduce the amount of time we're allowing local (American) commanders to have people in their temporary facilities before they come to Bagram," the main U.S. base north of Kabul, Barno said. Barno was responding to a question about reported complaints by former detainees of abuse during the past year at bases including Gardez in eastern Afghanistan and Kandahar, in the south.

He said all complaints were investigated and "appropriate action" taken as a result.

"I am aware of a number of the allegations out there. We have run a series of investigations on some of the challenges and problems that have been brought up with some of the remote holding facilities," he said.

The military opened a formal investigation into the deaths of two Afghans at Bagram's closely guarded jail in December 2002, but says it has had trouble-gathering evidence and has yet to release results.

Autopsies found that both men died of blunt force injuries.

A third Afghan died last June at a holding facility in eastern Kunar province. A U.S. intelligence official said last week the CIA inspector general is investigating that death because it involved an independent contractor working for the agency.

Barno said "a number of very significant changes" were made at Bagram as a result of those deaths, but the military refuses to give details of its prison regime.

"I'm very confident in our procedures there," he said.

The military insists it is treating its prisoners in Afghanistan humanely, saying Bagram receives regular visits from officials of the International Committee of the Red Cross.

"I'm very confident in our procedures there," Barno said.
But human rights groups point to lingering allegations of torture from former prisoners held at a network of secretive American jails across Afghanistan.

The U.S. military views Taliban and al-Qaida prisoners as "unlawful combatants," and has held hundreds captured in the 2001 war for more than two years without formal charge or access to lawyers.

It conducted a major review of its Bagram jail again in March, but it is unclear if that review was prompted by the investigation of abuse of prisoners in Iraq.

The military in Afghanistan has refused to comment on findings in an internal Army report that prison guards in Iraq and Afghanistan were told to "soften up" prisoners so they would be more cooperative in interrogations.
Source: The Associated Press, May 11, 2004

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

GeoPolitics - Defense

Iran Warns Israel of Retaliation
Iran's top nuclear negotiator warned Israel on Tuesday that his country would retaliate if the Jewish state were to attack Iranian nuclear facilities.

Israel and the United States suspect Iran is secretly building nuclear weapons under cover of a nuclear energy program. In the past, Israel has said it would not allow Iran to build a nuclear bomb.

In 1981, Israeli fighter-bombers destroyed a nuclear reactor that was under construction outside Baghdad because it feared Iraq would acquire a nuclear weapon.

Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said last month Iran was a threat to Israel, ``maybe the main existential threat.''

In an interview with state television, Iran's chief negotiator on nuclear affairs, Hasan Rowhani, warned that an Israeli attack would have severe consequences.

``Israel knows our hands are well equipped,'' Rowhani said. ``If such an incident happens, it will meet a resolute response from our side.''

Rowhani did not explain what he meant by saying Iran was ``well equipped,'' but Defense Minister Ali Shamkhani said in December that Iran would strike back with long-range missiles if Israel were to attack its nuclear facilities.

Shamkhani said Iran's Shahab-3 missile, which has a range of about 810 miles, would be one of the weapons used. Israel is about 600 miles west of Iran.

Suspicion of Israel and its agents is pervasive in Iran. On Saturday, Iran's armed forces closed the new Imam Khomeini International Airport on its first day of scheduled flights. Citing security concerns, the armed forces spoke of possible links between Israel and a Turkish company that has a contract to operate the airport. The Turkish company rejected the allegation.

Turkey has military links with Israel.

Iran is building its first nuclear reactor, which is expected to come on stream next year. It has been criticized by the International Atomic Energy Agency for failing to disclose certain aspects of its nuclear program. Iran has promised to cooperate fully with IAEA inspectors and insists its program is for peaceful purposes.
Source; AP; May 2004

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Business – Corporate affairs

Chiquita paid alleged terror groups
Banana producer says Colombian unit made protection payments to groups U.S. regards as terrorists.

The U.S. government is investigating Chiquita Brands International Inc. for making "protection" payments to certain Colombian groups, which the U.S. says, are terrorist organizations, the company said Monday.

The announcement came on the same day the Cincinnati-based distributor of bananas and other fresh fruits reported first-quarter net income falling to $20 million, or 46 cents per share, from $25 million, or 62 cents, a year ago.

Chiquita Chief Executive Fernando Aguirre said in a conference call with analysts that the company is taking the investigation "very seriously, but believe it's manageable."

"I want to stress that this issue only involves our Colombia subsidiary," Aguirre said.

The Department of Justice recently indicated it will be evaluating the role and conduct of the company and some of its officers into a matter involving Chiquita's banana subsidiary in Colombia, Chiquita said.

In April 2003, the company's management and audit committee voluntarily disclosed to the Justice Department that its subsidiary had been forced to make "protection" payments, according to Chiquita.

The payments went to certain groups in Colombia that have been designated as foreign terrorist organizations under U.S. law, the company said.

Chiquita said the groups made threats against the company's workers and that it made the payments only to protect its employees.

Chiquita disclosed the matter to the Justice Department when the company learned that supporting such a federally labeled terrorist organization is a criminal act under a U.S. statute, the company said.

It is an open secret in Colombia that companies are occasionally forced to buy off illegal armed groups fighting in the country's four-decade-old war, but Chiquita's admission appeared unprecedented.

Chiquita ships bananas from plants in northern Colombia in areas with a heavy presence of the outlawed far-right United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia, which is responsible for some of the worst human rights abuses in recent Colombian history.

Known by its Spanish initials AUC, it has killed thousands of people, mainly peasants, for suspected links to Marxist rebels over the past few years. It also traffics cocaine, according to U.S. officials.

Human rights groups say the AUC worked closely with the army in a push against rebels in the Uraba banana-growing region in the 1990s. The government says any soldiers caught cooperating with the AUC will be prosecuted.

The AUC, now negotiating peace with the government, has targeted unions, which it often accuses of being guerrilla fronts.

A Colombian union is currently trying to sue Coca Cola (KO: Research, Estimates) for the murder of a worker by paramilitaries at a bottling plant in 1996. The soft-drink company says it had nothing to do with the incident.

Banana prices this year fell sharply from the year-earlier period, when flooding in Costa Rica and Panama limited supply.

Net sales for the quarter rose to $793 million from $471 million a year earlier. Atlanta AG, a German fresh produce distributor acquired at the end of March 2003, accounted for $283 million of the increase, Chiquita said.

The remainder resulted from favorable European exchange rates and increased sales of other fresh produce, the company said.

The company said it is cooperating with the Justice Department investigation.

Shares of Chiquita (CQB: Research, Estimates) fell 21 cents, or 1.2 percent, to $17.10 on Monday on the New York Stock Exchange before the company’s late-day announcement.
Source; Reuters, May 2004

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

FOCUS

Security – Secret services

Secret world of U.S. interrogation
Long history of tactics in overseas prisons is coming to light

In Afghanistan, the CIA's secret U.S. interrogation center in Kabul is known as "The Pit," named for its despairing conditions. In Iraq, the most important prisoners are kept in a huge hangar near the runway at Baghdad International Airport, say U.S. government officials,
counterterrorism experts and others. In Qatar, U.S. forces have been ferrying some Iraqi prisoners to a remote jail on the gigantic U.S. air base in the desert.

The Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq, where a unit of U.S. soldiers abused prisoners, is just the largest and suddenly most notorious in a worldwide constellation of detention centers -- many of them secret and all off-limits to public scrutiny - that the U.S. military and CIA have operated in the name of counterterrorism or counterinsurgency operations since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

These prisons and jails are sometimes as small as shipping containers and as large as the sprawling Guantanamo Bay complex in Cuba. They are part of an elaborate CIA and military infrastructure whose purpose is to hold suspected terrorists or insurgents for interrogation and safe-keeping while avoiding U.S. or international court systems, where proceedings and evidence against the accused would be aired in public.
Some are even held by foreign governments at the informal request of the United States.

"The number of people who have been detained in the Arab world for the sake of America is much more than in Guantanamo Bay. Really, thousands," said Najeeb Nuaimi, a former justice minister of Qatar who is representing the families of dozens of prisoners.

The largely hidden array includes three systems that only rarely overlap: the Pentagon-run network of prisons, jails and holding facilities in Iraq, Afghanistan, Guantanamo and elsewhere; small and secret CIA-run facilities where top al Qaeda and other figures are kept; and interrogation rooms of foreign intelligence services – some with documented records of torture - to which the U.S. government delivers or "renders" mid- or low-level terrorism suspects for questioning.

All told, more than 9,000 people are held by U.S. authorities overseas, according to Pentagon figures and estimates by intelligence experts, the vast majority under military control. The detainees have no conventional legal rights: no access to a lawyer; no chance for an impartial hearing; and at least in the case of prisoners held in cellblock 1A at Abu Ghraib, no apparent guarantee of humane treatment accorded prisoners of war under the Geneva Conventions or civilians in U.S. jails.

Although some of those held by the military in Iraq, Afghanistan and Guantanamo have had visits by the International Committee of the Red Cross, some of the CIA's detainees have, in effect, disappeared, according to interviews with former and current national security officials and to the Army's report of abuses at Abu Ghraib.

The CIA's "ghost detainees," as they were called by members of the 800th MP Brigade, were routinely held by the soldier-guards at Abu Ghraib "without accounting for them, knowing their identities, or even the reason for their detention," the report says. These phantom captives were "moved around within the facility to hide them" from Red Cross teams, a tactic that was "deceptive, contrary to Army doctrine, and in violation of international law."

CIA employees are under investigation by the Justice Department and the CIA inspector general's office in connection with the death of three captives in the past six months, two who died while under interrogation in Iraq, and a third who was being questioned by a CIA contract interrogator in Afghanistan. A CIA spokesman said the hiding of detainees was inappropriate. He declined to comment further.

None of the arrangements that permit U.S. personnel to kidnap,transport, interrogate and hold foreigners are ad hoc or unauthorized, including the so-called renditions. "People tend to regard it as an extra-judicial kidnapping; it's not," former CIA officer Peter Probst said. "There is a long history of this. It has been done for decades. It's absolutely legal."

In fact, every aspect of this new universe - including maintenance of covert airlines to fly prisoners from place to place, interrogation rules and the legal justification for holding foreigners without due process afforded most U.S. citizens - has been developed by military or CIA lawyers, vetted by Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel and, depending on the particular issue, approved by White House General Counsel's Office or the president himself.

In some cases, such as determining whether a U.S. citizen should be designated an enemy combatant who can be held without charges, the president makes the final decision, said Alberto R. Gonzales, counsel to the president, in a Feb. 24 speech to the American Bar Association Standing Committee on Law and National Security.

Critics of this kind of detention and treatment, Gonzales said, "assumed that there was little or no analysis - legal or otherwise - behind the decision to detain a particular person as enemy combatant."

On the contrary, the administration has applied the law of war, he said. "Under these rules, captured enemy combatants, whether soldiers or saboteurs, may be detained for the duration of hostilities."

Because most of the directives and guidelines on these issues are classified, former and current military and intelligence officials who described them to The Washington Post would do so only on the condition that they not be named.

Along with other CIA and military efforts to disrupt terrorist plots and break up al Qaeda's financial networks, administration officials argue that the interrogations are a key component of their global counterterrorism strategy and counterinsurgency operations in Iraq. As the CIA's deputy director, John McLaughlin, recently told the commission investigating the Sept. 11 attacks: "The country, with all its capabilities, is now much more orchestrated into an offensive mix that is relentless."

Military jails and prisons
Abu Ghraib prison - where photographs were taken that have enraged the Arab world and rocked U.S. political and military leadership - held 6,000 to 7,000 detainees at the time of the documented abuse.
Today, it and other sites in Iraq hold more than 8,000 prisoners, U.S. and coalition officials said. They range from those believed to have played key roles in the insurgency to some who are held on suspicion of petty crimes.

Until the current scandal cast some hazy light, little has been publicly known about the Iraqi detention sites, their locations and who was being held there. That has been a source of continuing frustration for international monitoring groups such as New York-based Human Rights Watch, which has repeatedly sought to visit the facilities. Even the military's investigative report on abuses at Abu Ghraib remains classified, despite having become public through leaks.

Far better known has been the Defense Department's facility at Guantanamo Bay. The open-air camps there house about 600 detainees, flown in from around the world over the past two years. Secrecy there remains tight, with detainees and most of the facilities off-limits to visitors.

The U.S. Supreme Court is deciding whether detainees held there, whom the Pentagon has declared "enemy combatants" in the war against terrorism, should have access to U.S. courts.

Last week, the U.S. military acknowledged that two Guantanamo Bay guards had been disciplined in connection with use of excessive force against detainees. And U.S. defense officials confirmed the existence of a list of approved interrogation techniques, dating to April 2003, that included reversing sleep patterns, exposing prisoners to hot and cold, and "sensory assault," including use of bright lights and loud music.

The treatment of prisoners in Afghanistan has received less public attention.

The U.S. military holds 300 or so people at Bagram, north of the capital of Kabul, and in Kandahar, Jalalabad and Asadabad. Human Rights Watch estimates that at least 700 people had been released from those sites, most of them held a few weeks or less. Special Forces units also have holding centers at their firebases, including at Gardez and Khost.

In December 2002, two Afghans died in U.S. custody in Afghanistan. The U.S. military classified both as homicides. Another Afghan died in June 2003 at a detention site near Asadabad.

"Afghans detained at Bagram airbase in 2002 have described being held in detention for weeks, continuously shackled, intentionally kept awake for extended periods of time, and forced to kneel or stand in painful positions for extended periods," according to a report in March by Human Rights Watch. "Some say they were kicked and beaten when arrested, or later as part of efforts to keep them awake. Some say they were doused with freezing water in the winter."

CIA detention
Before the U.S. military was imprisoning and interrogating people in Afghanistan and Iraq, the CIA was scooping up suspected al Qaeda leaders in such far-off places as Pakistan, Yemen and Sudan. Today, the CIA probably holds two to three dozen captives around the world, according to knowledgeable current and former officials. Among them are al Qaeda leaders Khalid Sheik Mohammed and Ramzi Binalshibh in Pakistan and Abu Zubaida. The CIA is also in charge of interrogating Saddam Hussein, who is believed to be in Baghdad.

The location of CIA interrogation centers is so sensitive that even the four leaders of the House and Senate intelligence committees, who are briefed on all covert operations, do not know them, congressional sources said. These members are given periodic reports about the captives, but several members said they do not receive information about conditions under which prisoners are held, and members have not insisted on this information. The CIA has told Congress that it does not engage in torture as a tactic of interrogation.

"There's a black hole on certain information such as location, condition under which they are held," said one congressional official who asked not to be named. "They are told it's too sensitive."

In Afghanistan, the CIA used to conduct some interrogations in a cluster of metal shipping containers on Bagram air base protected by three layers of concertina wire. It is unclear whether that center is still open, but the CIA's main interrogation center now appears to be in Kabul, at a location nicknamed "The Pit" by agency and Special Forces operators.

"Prisoner abuse is nothing new," said one military officer who has been working closely with CIA interrogators in Afghanistan. A dozen former and current national security officials interviewed by The Washington Post in 2002, including several who had witnessed interrogations, defended the use of stressful interrogation tactics and the use of violence against detainees as just and necessary.

The CIA general counsel's office developed a new set of interrogation rules of engagement in after the Sept. 11 attacks. It was vetted by the Justice Department and approved by the National Security Council's general counsel, according to U.S. intelligence officials and other U.S. officials familiar with the process. "There are very specific guidelines that are thoroughly vetted," said one U.S. official who helps oversee the process. "Everyone is on board. It's legal."

The rules call for field operators to seek approval from Washington to use "enhanced measures," methods that could cause temporary physical or mental pain.

U.S. intelligence officials say the CIA, contrary to the glamorized view from movies and novels, had no real interrogation specialists on hand to deal with the number of valuable suspects it captured after Sept. 11. The agency relied on analysts, psychologists and profilers.
"Two and a half years later," one CIA veteran said, "we have put together a very professional, controlled, deliberate and legally rationalized approach to dealing with the Abu Zubaidas of the world."

U.S. intelligence officials say their strongest suit is not harsh interrogation techniques, but time and patience.

'Renditions'
Much larger than the group of prisoners held by the CIA are those who have been captured and transported around the world by the CIA and other agencies of the U.S. government for interrogation by foreign intelligence services. This transnational transfer of people is a key tactic in U.S. counterterrorism operations on five continents, one that often raises the ire of foreign publics when individual cases come to light.

For example, on Jan. 17, 2000, a few hours before Bosnia's Human Rights Chamber was to order the release of five Algerians and a Yemeni for lack of evidence, Bosnian police handed them over to U.S. authorities who flew them to Guantanamo Bay.

The Bosnian government, faced with public outcry, said it would compensate the families of the men, who were suspected of having made threats to the U.S. and British embassies in Bosnia.

The same month, in Indonesia, Muhammad Saad Iqbal Madni, suspected of helping Richard C. Reid, the Briton charged with trying to detonate explosives in his shoe on an American Airlines flight, was detained by Indonesian intelligence agents based on information the CIA provided them. On Jan. 11, without a court hearing or a lawyer, he was hustled aboard an unmarked U.S.-registered Gulfstream V jet parked at a military airport in Jakarta and flown to Egypt.

It was no coincidence Madni ended up in Egypt. Egypt, Morocco, Jordan and Saudi Arabia are well-known destinations for suspected terrorists.

"A lot of people they [the U.S.] are taking to Jordan, third-country nationals," a senior Saudi official said. "They can do anything they want with them, and the U.S. can say, 'We don't have them.' "

In the past year, an unusual country joined that list of destinations: Syria.

Last year U.S. immigration authorities, with the approval of then-Acting Attorney General Larry Thompson, authorized the expedited removal of Maher Arar to Syria, a country the U.S. government has long condemned as a chronic human-rights abuser. Maher, a Syrian-born Canadian citizen, was detained at JFK International Airport in New York as he was transferring to the final leg of his flight home to Canada.

U.S. authorities say Arar has links to al Qaeda. Not wanting to return him to Canada for fear he would not be adequately followed, immigration officials took him, in chains and shackles, to a New Jersey airfield, where he was "placed on a small private jet, and flown to Washington D.C.," according to a lawsuit filed recently against the U.S. government. He was flown to Jordan, interrogated and beaten by Jordanian authorities who then turned him over to Syria, according to the lawsuit.

Arar said that for the 10 months he was in prison, he was beaten, tortured and kept in a shallow grave. After much pressure from the Canadian government and human rights activists, he was freed and has returned to Canada.

CIA Director George J. Tenet, testifying earlier this year before the commission investigating the Sept. 11 attacks, said the agency participated in more than 70 renditions in the years before the attacks. In 1999 and 2000 alone, congressional testimony shows, the CIA and FBI participated in two dozen renditions.

Christopher Kojm, a former State Department intelligence official and a staff member of the commission, explained the rendition procedure at a recent hearing: "If a terrorist suspect is outside of the United States, the CIA helps to catch and send him to the United States or a third country," he testified. "Though the FBI is often part of the process, the CIA is usually the main player, building and defining the relationships with the foreign government intelligence agencies and internal security services."

The Saudis currently are detaining and interrogating about 800 terrorism suspects, said a senior Saudi official. Their fate is largely controlled by Saudi-based joint intelligence task forces, whose members include officers from the CIA, FBI and other U.S. law-enforcement agencies.

The Saudi official said his country does not participate in renditions and today holds no more than one or two people at the request of the United States. Yet much can hinge on terminology.

In some interrogations, for example, specialists from the United States and Saudi Arabia develop questions and an interrogation strategy before questioning begins, according to one person knowledgeable about the process. During interrogation, U.S. task force members watch through a two-way mirror, he said.

"Technically, the questioning is done by a Saudi citizen. But, for all practical purposes, it is done live," he said. The United States and Saudis "are not 'cooperating' anymore; we're doing it together."

He said the CIA sometimes prefers Saudi interrogation sites and other places in the Arab world because their interrogators speak a detainee's language and can exploit his religion and customs.

"As hard as it is to believe, you can't physically abuse prisoners in Saudi Arabia," the Saudi official said. "You can't beat them; you can't electrocute them."

Instead, he said, the Saudis bring radical imams to the sessions to build a rapport with detainees, who are later passed on to more moderate imams. Working in tandem with relatives of the detainees, the clerics try to convince the subjects over days or weeks that terrorism violates tenets of the Koran and could bar them from heaven.

"According to our guys, almost all of them turn," the Saudi official, said. "It's like deprogramming them. There is absolutely no need to put them through stress. It's more of a therapy."

The Saudis don't want or need to be directed by American intelligence specialists, who have difficulty understanding Arab culture and tribal relations, he said. "We know where they grew up," he said of the detainees. "We know their families. We know the furniture in their home."

Research editor Margot Williams contributed to this report.
Write; by Dana Priest and Joe Stephens, May 2004

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Business – Economic affairs

Deny, Deny, Deny, $2.65 Billion
Citigroup's agreement to pay $2.65 billion to settle, in part, lawsuits about its role in the buildup of WorldCom, now MCI, was accompanied by the inevitable statement that paying the money will allow the bank to "put this unfortunate chapter behind us." But the settlement doesn't really do that - other WorldCom litigation is still pending - and it shouldn't, as the deal is part of Wall Street's reckoning of recent wrongs, which is ongoing.

The size of the payout is staggering not because it is the second-largest class action settlement in history, but because it dwarfs the $1.4 billion settlement agreed to by Citigroup's (nyse: C) Salomon unit and the rest of Wall Street last year.

That settlement, which concerned conflicts of interest by stock analysts, now seems like a down payment. Wall Street still faces analyst-related litigation and lawsuits about the spinning and laddering of IPO shares.
These actions fester despite some of the cases against Henry Blodget and Merrill Lynch (nyse: MER) being dismissed and despite Credit Suisse Group's (nyse: CSR) settlement with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission concerning IPO allocations. Citigroup, J.P. Morgan Chase (nyse: JPM) and other big banks have settled some Enron-related cases, but more are outstanding.

Citigroup has been denying wrongdoing in relation to WorldCom for a while now, and it admitted no wrongdoing yesterday. It denied that its star telecom analyst Jack Grubman was conflicted by his relationship with former WorldCom Chief Executive Bernard Ebbers and his closeness to WorldCom. Citigroup denied it could have known about accounting fraud at WorldCom despite its close relationship with the company. It denied that its then-CEO Sandy Weill did anything wrong when he lobbied Grubman to change one of his ratings on AT&T (nyse: T). It denied that it did anything wrong when it doled out shares of other companies' IPOs to WorldCom executives.

Yesterday, Citigroup's current CEO Charles Prince took the opportunity of the bank agreeing to pay the $2.65 billion to praise Weill for his leadership in reforming Citigroup. But if Weill is to be so praised, shouldn't he have first been denounced for presiding over the structures that led to the conflicts of interest and the litigation in the first place?

That's not how it works, of course. This type of incentive system mirrors that in corporate America in general. Weill is a prime example. In 2000 alone, he cashed in stock options worth $196.2 million on top of a bonus of $18.4 million. Of course, as is often said, those stock options would not have been worth so much had the value of Citigroup shares not increased.

But soon after, the price of the bank's shares started to fall (along with the market in general). Weill was not called on to pay anything back. Unlike Grubman, he was never fined nor censured.

Now the system is, in a way, working in reverse. Citigroup will pay out far more than it ever earned directly from investment banking fees from WorldCom. What once looked like a world of big rewards and no risk is now all risk and no reward. Not for those who were involved, but for those who own Citigroup shares today.
Source; Forbes, May 2004

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

2004-05-07T12:28:00.000+02:00
HIGHLIGHTS

Security – U.S.A.

Even With Hindsight Liberals Can't See Straight
Over in the alternative universe of the 9/11 commission hearings watched only by me, Richard Ben-Veniste recently proposed an amazing new standard for investigating Arabs in this country. In the middle of haranguing Condoleezza Rice, Ben-Veniste demanded to know why the suspected 20th hijacker, Zacarias Moussaoui, had not been more aggressively investigated, despite the fact that - I quote - he had "no explanation for the funds in his bank account, and no explanation for why he was in the United States."

So let me get this straight: Airport security can't acknowledge that a person is an Arab, but they should be allowed to audit his bank records? (Come to think of it, "Can't Explain His Bank Account or Why He's Here" is also a pretty good description of John Kerry.)

Can we use that as a standard going forward? The government prohibits airlines from searching more than two Arabs per flight, so it would be terrific if liberals would let us examine their bank accounts. If Democratic Party shills like Ben-Veniste - who himself looks like someone who ought to be searched at airports - are going to make ludicrous, macho statements like that in order to win applause from weeping widows in the peanut gallery, can't we hold them to that policy when it matters?

Ben-Veniste thinks the key to stopping the 9/11 attack was for the FBI to have drawn the obvious conclusions from an Arab in flight school. If only the FBI had searched Moussaoui's computer, they would have found a flight-simulator computer program, information about the Boeing 747, and extensive files on crop dusters. From this, apparently, Ben-Veniste imagines the FBI would have drawn the obvious conclusion that on Sept. 11, 19 Muslims were going to hijack airplanes out of Logan, Newark and Dulles airports and fly them into buildings.

A somewhat more direct chain of causation traces its way back to the aviation-security commission chaired by Vice President Al Gore in 1997. If that commission had done its job, you wouldn't have to wait for one of my columns to find out that there was a commission on airline safety years before the 9/11 attacks. Isn't it curious that Democrats aren't bragging about Gore inventing air safety? The reason Al Gore hasn't added "anti-terrorism" to the list of things he invented is that Gore's commission concluded that passenger profiling must ignore ethnicity and nationality. Or as Gore himself might have put it, "I took the initiative in making it easier for Muslims to use airplanes to slaughter innocent American citizens."

The Gore commission on air safety decided that profiling should be based on "reasonable predictors of risk, not stereotypes or generalizations." Amazingly, all those "reasonable predictors of risk" failed to stop a single Muslim terrorist on 9/11. One wonders whether a profiling system that included ethnicity and nationality would have been more helpful in stopping 19 Muslim men, 15 of whom were from Saudi Arabia, all speaking Arabic to one another, from boarding planes on Sept. 11.

Recently - i.e., about the time Ben-Veniste was shocked that the FBI hadn't uncovered the 9/11 plot based on the fact that Moussaoui had overstayed his visa - Sen. Hillary Clinton and Sen. Chuck Schumer were clamoring for the release of Ansar Mahmood, a 26-year-old Pakistani immigrant detained in October 2001 after he was observed taking photographs at a water treatment plant in upstate New York. Mahmood later pleaded guilty to committing a felony by giving financial aid to illegal immigrants from Pakistan. Schumer says Mahmood should be permitted to stay in the U.S. because he "was cleared of terrorist links," and he has already served his time for "a non-violent felony." Hillary simply calls Mahmood's detention "disturbing."

Where is Ben-Veniste when we need him? What happened to the "We Don't Know Why He's Here or His Sources of Money" standard for harassing Muslim immigrants? In contrast to Mahmood, Zacarias Moussaoui had committed no felonies; his only apparent offense was to have overstayed his visa. But Ben-Veniste is appalled that the FBI didn't beat Moussaoui for information.

The French had linked Moussaoui to al-Qaida - based largely on the information that he took frequent trips to Afghanistan and Pakistan, Mahmood's home country. When FBI agents in Minneapolis requested a warrant to search Moussaoui's computer, FBI headquarters wrote back, "We don't know he's a terrorist" - i.e., the argument Schumer is making for Mahmood's release right now.

Liberals always claim to know exactly what to do as soon as it's too late. After Muslims attack with airplanes, they want to investigate flight schools. After Muslims attack with shoe-bombs, they want to investigate shoes. After a Muslim introduces E. coli into New York's water supply, liberals will be enraged that Muslim immigrants taking pictures of New York water treatment plants weren't investigated more aggressively - as soon as they are done blaming Bush for not stopping the attack amid their caterwauling about the detention of Muslim immigrants. Liberals are the only known species whose powers of reasoning are not improved by the benefit of hindsight. Not only are they always fighting the last war, in most cases they're surrendering.
Write; by Ann Coulter, May 2004

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Economy - Energy

Oil Nears $40 on Gasoline, Security Fears
World oil prices set fresh 13-year highs on Thursday, within a whisker of $40 a barrel for U.S. crude, stoked by worries about summer gasoline shortages in the United States. Fears of possible sabotage attacks on oil facilities in the Middle East also helped to keep prices strong. U.S. light crude hit a high of $39.97 a barrel, before easing to trade 27 cents lower at $39.30 a barrel, while London Brent fell 21 cents to $36.51, down from a high of $37.20, which was the highest level since October 1990. U.S. gasoline futures also eased slightly after hitting another record level of $1.3290 a gallon.

Despite the profit-taking dip, analysts predicted $40-a-barrel oil was still imminent.

"I think we're going to have a four in front of the oil price very soon. It's certainly pretty ugly for the oil consumers of the world," said David Thurtell, commodities strategist at Commonwealth Bank of Australia in Sydney. Middle East supply security concerns, low U.S. gasoline stocks and rampant demand growth in China have driven U.S. crude prices toward the record $41.15 hit in October 1990 after Iraq invaded Kuwait in the crisis that led to the Gulf War.

"Terrorism fears are causing a permanent risk premium to be built into the market," said independent energy consultant Geoff Pyne.

Traders worry that weekend shootings at a Saudi Arabian petrochemicals plant and attempts a week earlier to bomb Iraq's key Basra oil export terminal might be precursors to a bigger attack on vital oil facilities in the Middle East, which pumps about one-third of global daily crude output.

Tetsu Emori, chief commodities strategist at Mitsui Bussan Futures in Tokyo, forecast that crude was likely to push up to $43-$45 a barrel by mid-year. "Last year we hit $39.99 before the war, which was largely psychological. Now we need to look at the fundamentals and they are very strong," Emori said. Prices spiked close to $40 during intraday trading in February 2003 as U.S.-led forces prepared to attack Iraq.

Summer U.S. gasoline consumption is at the cutting edge of rising consumption. U.S. refineries are struggling to meet demand that in the past four weeks rose 3.4 percent versus the same period last year to 9.1 million barrels a day, suppressing stocks of the motor fuel well below the five-year seasonal average.

The United States, with less than five percent of the world's population, accounts for some 45 percent of the world's gasoline consumption of just over 20 million barrels daily, U.S. government figures show. While U.S. motorists are paying a record $1.84 a gallon, retail prices are only a third of average western European levels and have had no impact on demand.
Source; Reuters, May 2004
Write; by Barbara Lewis

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Media – Corporate

Michael Moore Lied About Disney Ban
Michael Moore made a big stink earlier this week when he accused Disney of pulling the plug on his latest film, “Fahrenheit 911”. He decried Disney’s decision not to distribute the film as politically motivate censorship.
However, Moore was crying wolf. He admitted in a CNN interview that he knew a year ago that Disney would not distribute the film, according to a report from independent.co.uk.

Moore told CNN, "Almost a year ago, after we'd started making the film, the chairman of Disney, Michael Eisner, told my agent he was upset Miramax had made the film and he will not distribute it."

The lightning rod film producer claims that he had a contract with Disney for distribution, but according to independent.co.uk, a source close to Miramax (the subsidiary involved in the film) said that the deal was for financing, not for distribution.

Moore’s admission prompts the question, why all the outrage now? Easy answer? Publicity baby! The film is set to premier at the Cannes Film Festival later this month. The politically charged film can easily generate controversy and press on it’s own. It is reportedly an attack film against the Bush administration that questions the President’s handling of the War on Terror and the events surrounding the 9/11 attacks. According to some news outlets, the film even attempts to link the Bush family with the family of Osama Bin Laden, in pure Michael Moore style.

This publicity stunt may backfire. If Moore will take a year old event and use it to drum up publicity, it might lead to questions regarding the credibility of some of the issues covered in his film and the spin Moore puts on them.
Source; CNN, May 2004

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Politic - U.S.A. national affairs

'Tired' Powell might not be around for second term
Colin Powell, the Secretary of State, has sent the clearest signal yet that, weary and frustrated, he does not intend to be around for a second George W. Bush term if the President wins re-election in November.
In classic Powell style, he does not deliver the message in person. Instead, confidants, notably his deputy Richard Armitage and his chief of staff Larry Wilkerson, have made his feelings plain in a lengthy article in the magazine GQ, clearly with the Secretary of State's blessing.
…Mr. Wilkerson tells GQ that in his opinion, Gen. Powell is "tired. Mentally and physically. And if the President were to ask him to stay on, he might for a transitional period but I don't think he'd want to do another four years."
Gen Powell's sole on-the-record comment to GQ on his intentions is a bald "I never speculate on that". But the article will fuel uncertainty about the Cabinet's shape in a second Bush administration. Changes are likely at the Pentagon. The most widely mentioned possible successors at the State Department include Condoleezza Rice, Mr Bush's national security adviser, and Paul Bremer, the outgoing head of the Coalition Provisional Authority in Baghdad.
The Powell who emerges from the interview is similar to the figure in journalist Bob Woodward's recent insider account of the run-up to the Iraq War (of which he sxeerms to have been a prime, but as usual unquoted, source). He comes across as a pragmatic secretary of state exhausted by constant battles with the neo-conservative hawks at the Pentagon and in the vice-President's office, in which, over Iraq at least, he is generally on the losing end.
Equally plain is the Secretary of State's disdain for the so-called "chickenhawks," in Mr Wilkerson's words, "people who have never been in the face of battle, who are making cavalier decisions about sending men and women out to die."
The chief of staff mentions by name Richard Perle, the former close adviser to the Pentagon, and Paul Wolfowitz, the deputy Secretary of Defense. "I call them utopians.. I don't care whether utopians are Vladimir Lenin in a sealed train or Paul Wolfowitz. You're never going to bring utopia and you're going to hurt a lot of people in the process of trying to do it."Gen. Powell also appears to be haunted by the moment that is the nadir of his tenure, his presentation to the United Nations Security Council in February 2003, offering "proof" of Saddam Hussein's non-existent weapons of mass destruction. It's a source of great distress to the Secretary; Mr. Armitage told GQ.Mr Wilkerson evokes the atmosphere in the CIA meeting room in the days before the UN speech, when Gen. Powell and his aides worked around the clock to try and make a credible WMD case against Iraq, scouring the evidence for material that would save the Secretary of
State from humiliation.
Harlan Ullman of the National War College, and friend and mentor of Gen Powell, confirms another open secret in Washington, of the Secretary's glacial relations with Dick Cheney, the vice-President. "I can tell you firsthand that there is a tremendous barrier between Cheney and Powell," Mr Ullman told the magazine.
Assuming he does leave, Gen. Powell's future is unclear. At 67, he is in the closing stages of his career. There have been suggestions he might become the next President of the World Bank, a post traditionally held by an American. This assumes that John Wolfensohn, a Clinton era appointee, steps down later this year after eight years.
But Gen. Powell might not be inclined to take a job that carries little clout with the current Republican administration, prone to see the Bank as an emanation of the ever suspect United Nations.
Write; By Rupert Cornwell in Washington. May 2004

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

FOCUS

Human rights – Romania

The Romanian government fails to acknowledge the human tragedy unfolding in psychiatric hospitals
Amnesty International welcomes the statement of the Spokesperson of the Romanian Government published on the government's Internet site on 4 May 2004, in reply to the Romania: Memorandum to the government concerning inpatient psychiatric treatment (AI Index EUR 39/003/2004) published on the same day. At the same time the organization regrets that the government has failed to take this opportunity to fully acknowledge the crisis in mental health care services, one of the most tragic human rights issues facing Romania today. Amnesty International also regrets the government's failure to engage in a constructive dialogue with the organization and the Romanian civil society, as a first step to remedying the situation.

In the last 15 years, successive Romanian governments failed to recognize the gravity of the situation in mental health care services and to introduce the required comprehensive and effective reforms. Without recognizing the true dimensions and all aspects of the problem it is impossible to expect that a tragic situation which concerns thousands of human beings held in psychiatric institutions in deplorable conditions is addressed urgently and appropriately and in line with all of Romania's obligations under international human rights treaties. The government is not simply in violation of international and domestic law. In light of the human suffering, which takes place in these institutions, recognized by most Romanians who are well informed about this situation, the morality of a position that denies reality is highly questionable.

Amnesty International would also like to reply to specific points raised in the government's press release. The reply notes that currently Romania is unable to provide mental health services which are like those available in the West. Nevertheless, the Romanian authorities, according to the statement, have taken required measures to ensure the respect of basic rights and elemental needs of people who had been subjected to in-patient psychiatric treatment.

In light of numerous violations documented in our memorandum, based primarily on information collected in the field by Amnesty International's delegate, the organization would appreciate to receive specific information regarding the above-mentioned government measures. We would particularly like to receive information on existing standards regarding living conditions, diet, heating and hygiene, which are in force for institutions under the control of the Ministry of Health; as well as information about institutional methods to ensure that such standards are complied with in all facilities providing inpatient services.

It is also alleged that not all of the information presented in Amnesty International's memorandum is true, giving as an example the fact that representatives of the Ministry of Health and public prosecutors periodically visit medical facilities, including those where patients are subjected to involuntary psychiatric treatment.

No statement to the contrary was made in Amnesty International's memorandum. In fact, the memorandum did not specifically reflect on the government's obligation to supervise psychiatric hospitals. This is an opportunity then to put on record Amnesty International's observation regarding this issue: the organization's field research established that the government's supervision of the psychiatric hospitals is insufficient and in breach of international standards (1). For example, in a number of instances, hospital directors were unable to produce for Amnesty International's delegate copies of reports of any recent inspection visits. Presumably, such documents would arise following an inspection by the Ministry's representatives, and would contain their observations, any recommendations made and advice on terms and methods of their implementation.

Furthermore, Amnesty International is concerned to note in the Government's statement that the inspections, so far, have not brought to light any irregularities with regard to the placement of people for involuntary psychiatric treatment and that a list of patients' rights is prominently posted in the visited facilities. Such lists were not observed in locked words visited by Amnesty International's delegate where interviewed patients had been subjected to treatment without being given the opportunity to effectively challenge this decision as provided in the Mental Health Act (2). Moreover, Amnesty International is aware of the public prosecutor's duty to periodically visit hospitals, which care for people who are deemed criminally irresponsible under the provisions of the Penal Code. In that respect it is interesting to note that a senior prosecutor who participated in a debate concerning conditions in psychiatric hospitals organized in Bucharest in late March 2004 by the Group for Social Dialogue, reportedly stated that the living conditions in Poiana Mare were considerably worse than in any prison and that placement for involuntary treatment in this hospital amounts to "being sentenced to death".

The government's statement also challenges Amnesty International's observation that the Mental Health Act is not being implemented because the government had failed to adopt regulations for its implementation.

Almost all of the directors of the hospitals visited and medical and legal specialists who had been consulted in Romania by Amnesty International's delegate, including a member of the team of experts who participated in the drafting of the law, stated unequivocally that the Act is not directly applicable. An exception, as stated in Amnesty International's memorandum, was only noted in a hospital in Bihor County but this effort, although well intentioned, did not appear to provide all the required legal safeguards to the patients concerned. Amnesty International would welcome to receive detailed information about the direct implementation of the law and specific instances in which decisions have been challenged before judicial bodies, noting that any such practice may only be sporadic and inconsistently applied. The very fact that this is not a practice that is systematically ensured throughout the country indicates its arbitrary nature and is in violation of international law.

With regard to the so-called "social cases" - people who had been placed in psychiatric hospitals on non-medical grounds, including those who had formerly been cared for in children's institutions - the government's statement claims that such cases are not numerous and result from the situation which prevailed in the country before the changes in 1989.

Amnesty International would like to receive more information from the Romanian government regarding the basis for this assessment of the situation. On 5 May 2004, a day following the publication of the Government's statement, the State Secretary in the Ministry of Health, according to a report published the same day by BBC-Romanian Service, could not provide journalists at a press conference with any figures concerning the number of people who are held in psychiatric hospitals on non-medical grounds. However, he gave an example of the psychiatric hospital in Jebel where 60 residents, out of a total of 414, were "social cases". In one of the hospitals visited by Amnesty International's representative, according to the director, 40-50 residents, none of whom need psychiatric treatment, out of a total of 450 in this institution, had been transferred there from a near-by orphanage. In the medical-social centre of the Nucet Psychiatric hospital which has about 95 residents, most of whom had previously been in orphanages, in February 2004, when Amnesty International's delegate visited the hospital, the latest resident from an orphanage had arrived on 1 December 2003.

Amnesty International is concerned to note that the Government considers its description of the situation in "Socola" Psychiatric University Hospital in Iasi as erroneous. In support of this claim it is noted that "the management of this hospital had confirmed that Amnesty International's experts did not visit this facility in May 2003". Furthermore, the government stated that the registry of received funds by the hospital in the indicated period showed that the hospital was not in a difficult situation and that its activities were carried out in normal conditions.

In the organization's memorandum there is a clear designation of institutions visited by its representative as well as the date of the visits. Amnesty International has made no claim to have visited the hospital in Iasi and had described its situation based on a report in a national daily newspaper. This information, to our best knowledge, had not been refuted at the time by the hospital or other authorities involved (4). In fact the same article quoted Dr Stefan Georgescu, Chief of Iasi Directorate for Public Health, who reportedly stated: "Because of the debts that exist in the system "Socola" hospital has problems in obtaining supplies. Psychiatry is seriously underfunded. For example, Intensive Care Therapy is allocated several million lei per day while for a bed in psychiatry we receive only 300.000 lei. We cannot manage on such modest sums."(5)

The government statement further notes that the budget of the Ministry of Health provides not only for conventional therapies but also for other appropriate therapies.

Amnesty International has noted the inadequacy of some forms of therapy, such as pharmacotherapy, and the absence of a wide range of other therapies in practically all of the institutions visited. We would be interested to receive specific information regarding the volume of such funds and its precise allocation to psychiatric hospitals in 2003. The organization is concerned that the Government is failing to acknowledge what every psychiatrist who had been interviewed by Amnesty International's delegate had stated: that allocated resources even for pharmacotherapy were grossly insufficient and that they feared further cuts. Some doctors were forced to resort to collecting donations from the staff in order to purchase the required medication, while others relied on gifts and aid from their foreign colleagues.

Similarly, Amnesty International's findings do not correspond with the government's observations regarding methods of restraint and seclusion or that patients are provided with all the information in appropriate circumstances to be able to exercise their right to free and informed consent.

Finally, with regard to the cases described in the memorandum, concerning patients who died following an assault by another patient, Amnesty International concurred with the observations of competent authorities, which issued statements at the time that understaffing was a major contributing factor to the reported tragic events.

Amnesty International welcomes the government's statement that it will thoroughly investigate the violations of human rights described in the organization's memorandum. We also welcome a statement of 5 May 2004 by the Ministry of Health as a positive first step to improve the situation in psychiatric facilities for which it is responsible. At the same time, Amnesty International would like to reiterate its appeal to the Romanian government to fully implement all the recommendations made in the organization's memorandum.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
(1) See Principle 22 of the UN Principles for the Protection of Persons with Mental Illness and the Improvement of Mental Health Care which states that: "States shall ensure that appropriate mechanisms are in force to promote compliance with the present principles, for the inspection of mental health facilities, for the submission, investigation and resolution of complaints and for the institution of appropriate disciplinary or judicial proceedings for professional misconduct or violation of the rights of a patient".
(2) A list of patients' rights was observed in an open pavilion in Gataia hospital.
(3) See Ziua: "Psihiatrii condamna statul pentru drama de la Poiana Mare" 4("Psychiatrists condemn the state for the drama in Poiana Mare") 1 April 2004.
(4) See Evenimentul zilei: "Jale in spitale" (Misery in hospitals), 12 May 2003.
(5) "Din cauza datoriilor care exista in sistem, la Spitalul Socola s-au inregistrat unele necazuri in aprovizionare. In psihiatrie, exista o puternica subfinantare. De exemplu, daca pentru Terapie Intensiva se aloca si citeva milioane de lei pe zi, pentru un pat la psihiatrie se dau doar 300.000 de lei. Sumele sint la un nivel de modestie cit sa ne descurcam", a declarat seful Directiei de Sanatate Publica Iasi, Dr. Stefan Georgescu.
Source; International Secretariat of Amnesty International, May 2004

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

GeoPolitica – Iraq

Washington's Delicate Balancing Act: Negotiating Between Iraq's Sunni and Shi'a Arabs
Since the start of the U.S. occupation of Iraq, Washington has carefully attempted to balance between the interests of the country's Sunni and Shi'a Arab communities. The two communities, while both Iraqi, have diverging interests on a number of issues due to the history of their religious differences. For a variety of reasons, Washington decided that its interests would be best served by tipping the balance of power between these two groups in favor of Shi'a interests.

- Washington's Motivations Behind Supporting Iraqi Shi'a

Shi'a Arabs are the majority cultural group in Iraq, composing about 60 percent of the population. Since the Shi'a are a majority, their support is absolutely critical in order to keep a general level of stability in the country.

Furthermore, before the start of the invasion, Washington policymakers believed the Shi'a population to be an easy group to win the "hearts and minds" of. The Shi'a community was harshly repressed under Saddam Hussein's Ba'athist government and were occasionally the recipients of brutal crackdowns due to their open resistance to Baghdad's rule, as was seen in the wake up Operation Desert Storm in 1991 when Iraqi troops loyal to Saddam forcefully quelled a Shi'a uprising that began due to the power vacuum created after the retreat of the Iraqi military from Kuwait, and also due to the first Bush administration's call for them to rise up.

Additionally, there was also the effort by Washington policymakers to marginalize Iraq's Sunni Arab population since they were the traditional power base behind the Ba'ath Party. Often the recipients of special favors by Saddam's government in Baghdad, Iraq's Sunni Arab population was more privileged than the country's other major cultural groups, such as Sunni Kurds and Shi'a Arabs. For these reasons, the Bush administration decided that its best course of action would be to push this population off to the sidelines and deal with the victims of the Ba'ath Party's brutality since it would be likely that they would be more open to supporting the U.S. and therefore more beholden to U.S. interests.

Therefore, shortly after the invasion, it is likely that the guerrilla movement in Iraq was exactly as Washington claimed: disenfranchised Sunni Arab militants who were taking up arms against U.S.-led forces. Yet as the occupation continued on, and Washington was unable to achieve relative stability in the country, it became clear that it was not only Sunni Arabs that were taking up arms against U.S.-led forces. This development was evident by the various tapes sent to Arab news networks, such as al-Jazeera, by Iraqi insurgents; in the videos, various militants expressed their hatred for Saddam Hussein's Ba'ath Party in addition to their hatred for the U.S.-led coalition.

As the occupation proceeded, and the level of stability in Iraq did not improve, the insurgency became more and more diversified, as attacks were launched against U.S.-led troops, Kurds in the north, Sunni Arabs, and Shi'a Arabs. During this time, various groups in Iraq were taking advantage of the power vacuum created after the fall of Saddam to weaken the power base of their enemies or ideological opponents -- indeed, not only is it possible that Sunni and Shi'a Arabs were killing each other, but, as the U.S. alleges, Shi'a leaders may have been assassinating other Shi'a leaders.

- Fallout with the Shi'a

This state of affairs continued for months, with the Shi'a community largely remaining docile in the hopes that true democracy in Iraq would be achieved, thus guaranteeing their ascension as the majority powerbrokers in any new government. Washington, worried over the possibility of too much Shi'a control, began to backtrack slightly on its promise of national elections, and attempted to work certain balancing constraints into the interim constitution. These constraints attempted to equalize the power between Sunni Kurds, Sunni Arabs and Shi'a Arabs.

Angered by the change in U.S. policy, Shi'a leaders began to become more outspoken toward the U.S.-led coalition, with both more radical leaders, such as Moqtada al-Sadr, and more moderate leaders, such as Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, speaking with a unified voice over their disapproval of Washington's plans.

This increasing anger caused the Shi'a community to move away from outspoken support of U.S. policies, and also paved the way for more radical Shi'a leaders such as al-Sadr to increase the size of their following. Al-Sadr, whose power rests upon his Mehdi Army, a private militia containing thousands of fighters, heightened his rhetoric against the U.S.-led coalition to the point that Washington policymakers decided to punish him, closing down his al-Hawza newspaper and arresting one of his top deputies on a murder charge.

Al-Sadr's rebellion, which may have initially been supported by a small minority of Shi'a, had a unifying effect upon the Shi'a community, as Washington's open confrontation with Mehdi fighters put Iraqis in the position of either supporting one side or the other. As in all cases of occupation, the local population generally always supports those that share their culture and history over foreign occupiers, no matter either side's ultimate intentions. Indeed, this was partly the reason why other more moderate Shi'a leaders, such as al-Sistani, have been careful to criticize al-Sadr and have, in effect, offered him safe haven in Najaf.

- More Balance Needed

After witnessing the explosive power of the Shi'a community, Washington policymakers came to the understanding that they would not be able to revive Iraq through the support of Shi'a Arabs and Kurds alone; Iraq's Sunni Arab population would have to be better incorporated into the government. Faced with an insurgency encompassing both Shi'a and Sunni Arabs, Washington has now attempted to remove some of the grievances behind the insurgency.

Also, because Iraq's Sunni Arab population was favored by Saddam, they were often the most educated and skilled Iraqis, a reality that has hurt Washington since it has excluded these pertinent individuals from government and societal affairs. Recognizing their mistake, Washington has now reversed its de-Ba'athification policy and is actively reincorporating former Sunni Arabs, who worked with the Ba'ath Party, into positions of influence.

The threat of Shi'a rebellion also forced Washington to draft a better solution to the continuing problem of Sunni militants. While before the Shi'a rebellion Washington had enough troop power to spar with these militants, faced with an insurgency encompassing two of Iraq's three main cultural groups, Washington quickly discovered that it did not have the troop force to fight so many different enemies at once. Now, in an effort to alleviate this danger, Washington has recruited former Ba'athist generals and placed them in positions of military power. By giving many former soldiers their jobs back, Washington hopes to eliminate much of the fodder that is impelling Sunni militants to attack U.S.-led troops.

Of course, this balancing act is difficult to maintain. As Washington helps Sunni Arabs achieve their interests, it risks upsetting Iraqi Shi'a, thus throwing off the balance once again. For this balancing act to be successful, Washington has to be very attuned to the concerns of all groups involved in Iraqi affairs and be able to rapidly shift its strategy in light of new political shifts and developments. Failure to do so will mean that inevitably Washington will be unable to sustain its balancing act; should this occur, a debilitating situation on the ground will likely erupt.
Source; Power and Interest News Report, May 2004
Write; by Erich Marquardt

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -