Posted on 12/17/2006 4:03:30 PM PST by DAVEY CROCKETT
To view this item online, visit http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=53685
Monday, January 8, 2007
IN THE MILITARY
U.S. nuclear sub collides with ship
American vessel reportedly strikes Japanese commercial fishing craft
Posted: January 8, 2007
9:43 p.m. Eastern
© 2007 WorldNetDaily.com
USS Newport News (file photo)
A U.S. nuclear-powered submarine has collided with a Japanese commercial fishing vessel in the Arabian Sea, according to reports.
Tokyo's Foreign Ministry received the report from U.S. officials, and the Pentagon has confirmed the incident.
The fast-attack USS Newport News was surfacing in the Arabian Sea south of the Straits of Hormuz when it hit the Japanese ship, a Navy official told CNN.
(Story continues below)
There were no injuries, he said, but there was some damage.
"Neither ship is in extremis," the official told the network, meaning the damage was not serious enough to put the ships in jeopardy.
The cause of the mishap is still under investigation.
This is not the first time a U.S. sub has collided with a Japanese ship.
On Feb. 9, 2001, the USS Greeneville struck the training ship Ehime Maru during an emergency ascent demonstration in waters off Hawaii.
Nine people, including four high-school students, were killed in that incident, while 26 others on the Japanese vessel were rescued.
[Didn't something like this happen a few weeks ago, on the Montana route?]
Man held after disrupting United flight enroute to Great Falls
A passenger on an airplane coming from Denver received less than a warm
welcome when he landed in Great Falls Sunday.
The Great Falls Police Department was waiting at the airport, boarded
the
plane when it landed and arrested the man.
He had been unruly during the flight and at one point knocked on the
cockpit
door, according to a passenger.
The passenger also threatened the flight attendant, pushed and grabbed
on to
her, said Sabrena Mangum, spokeswoman for Sky West, which operates
United
Express flights in and out of Great Falls. At that point, some other
passengers confronted the man and things got somewhat physical.
The pilots considered turning around and heading back to Denver, but
after
the passenger was calmed they decided to continue to Great Falls,
Mangum
said.
Shortly before landing, the passenger started running up and down the
aisle,
she said.
"The passenger was obviously drunk when he got on board," said Barb
Facile,
who was also on the flight.
The man talked loudly, got out of his seat and walked around, she said.
Eventually, he approached the cockpit.
"He didn't appear to be dangerous," she said.
GFPD responded to the incident, but couldn't release any information on
it.
Since the event occurred in the air, it's the FBI's jurisdiction, said
Lt.
Ernesto Rodriguez of the GFPD.
The man was on United Express Flight 6561, which landed in Great Falls
a
little after 9 p.m. Sunday.
Everybody on the plane tried to help out by keeping the man in his seat
and
talking him down when he got overly obnoxious, Facile said. There was
only
one flight attendant on the plane.
"For the most part, he didn't affect any passengers," she said.
Mainly, people were probably just afraid he was going to throw up on
them,
she said.
It's United Express' policy not to allow passengers who are intoxicated
to
board a flight, Mangum said. Safety officers are looking into whether
the
man was drunk when he got on board. It's possible that he may have
snuck
alcohol on the flight with him.
It's against federal regulations to interfere with the safety duties of
any
crewmember, Mangum said. What the passenger did would probably be
considered
as such. She wasn't sure what the penalty is for trying to enter a
cockpit.
It's very rare to have things like this happen on flights, she said.
http://www.greatfallstribune.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070108/NEWS01/701080303
Upcoming Aviation Video - Tenerife Accident
Discovery Channel
The hour long show about the worst aviation accident of all time at
Tenerife
will air on the Discovery Channel on the following dates:
SERIES TITLE: MOST DEADLY
PREMIERE: Tuesday, January 9th at 10 pm.
Repeats on January 10th at 2 am and January 23rd at 3 pm.
Indonesia Missing Jet Found Underwater
A large metal object found under the sea may be remnants of Indonesian
missing commercial airliner.
The wreckage of an Indonesian jetliner that disappeared one week ago
with
102 people on board may have been found.
A navy ship has detected metal on the ocean floor, Indonesian top
commander
said Monday.
The search for missing Adam Air Boeing 737 was heading to waters off
Sulawesi Island's western coast to do a more detailed survey, said
Gatot
Sudijanto, a commodore in the Indonesian navy, Reuters reports.
"If that metal turns out to be what we are looking for, then thanks be
to
God," he said.
The missing plane left Java island for the North Sulawesi provincial
capital
of Manado on New Year's Day, but experienced 80 mph winds and storms
halfway
through the two-hour flight, forcing it to change course at least
twice,
officials said.
Rescue teams - more than 3,600 soldiers, police and volunteers - were
searching in the Java's dense jungles and surrounding seas.
A day after the plane disappeared, Indonesian authorities misinformed
the
public saying that the missing jet has been found, and that there were
12
survivors.
http://www.torontodailynews.com/index.php/WorldNews/2007010808indonesia-jet
ROK airplane lands on Akita Airport taxiway
AKITA--A Korea Air aircraft mistakenly landed on a taxiway at Akita
Airport
on Saturday, apparently mistaking it for the runway, sources said.
The Boeing 737-900, carrying 133 passengers and crew members from
Incheon
Airport in South Korea, landed on a 30-meter-wide taxiway that runs
parallel
to a 60-meter-wide runway at about 12:15 p.m.
No other aircraft or vehicles were on the taxiway, and no injuries were
reported.
But the Construction and Transport Ministry's investigative committee
on air
and railway accidents regarded the incident as serious because it could
have
resulted in a major disaster. The panel has dispatched two
investigators to
examine the accident.
According to the ministry's Civil Aviation Bureau, the accident was
unprecedented, although a large plane once landed on a runway that was
closed due to construction work. Light rain was falling at the time but
visibility was good at the airport. The taxiway is about 120 meters
south of
the 2,500-meter-long runaway.
The captain of the plane reportedly told the investigators that two
runwaylike strips came into sight and that he picked the right-hand
strip
for landing, even though he could not tell for certain which was the
runway.
A copilot then realized the mistake and told the captain immediately
before
landing.
Planes arrive at the airport either from the west or east side,
depending on
wind direction. The east route is equipped with an electronic system to
guide planes as they come into land. However, the west route is not
equipped
with such a system, and aircrews must rely on visual observations for
landing operations.
At the time of the accident, a wind of about 5 meters per second was
blowing
from the southeast, and visibility was fair for about 10 kilometers.
The
airport's control tower instructed the Korean plane to land via the
west
route, and the crew followed this order.
If trouble occurs during landing, pilots are supposed to abort the
landing
and pull up with the engine at full power. But the Korean plane went
ahead
with the landing and touched down on the taxiway.
"The taxiway is narrower than the runway, and it must have been dark as
there are no lights [along the taxiway]," said an experienced pilot who
has
made landings at Akita Airport. "It's unthinkable that the pilot
mistook the
taxiway as the runway from the sky."
http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/national/20070107TDY02009.htm
Global Crisis Watch
January 8, 2007 | Episode #40
Iran's secret mayhem in Iraq, Al Qaeda's loss in Somalia, and the political tango in Washington over Iraq
Global Crisis Watch calls to Washington and Buffalo and dissects the recent discovery of Iran's support for Sunni militants in Iraq with Eli Lake of the New York Sun, the defeat of al Qaeda and the Islamic Courts Union in Somalia with Dr. Abdiweli Ali of Niagara University, and the political tango unfolding in Washington over President Bush's Iraq strategy with Daveed Gartenstein-Ross, author of "My Year Inside Radical Islam."
Link: http://www.GlobalCrisisWatch.com/gcw/gcw_070108.mp3
29:30 minutes | 13.7 Megs
Notable Quotes from the Podcast
"(U.S. intelligence) found an assessment of Iraq, which included the prescription from the entity in Iran that said: We need to step up our influence and... coordination with not only the Shiite groups, like the Mahdi Army that we know about, these death squads that are affiliated with some of the Shiite political parties, but also with Sunni Jihadist groups which have been murdering at random... This has been found in the diplomatic pouch, as I understand it, of a senior person of al-Quds who goes by the name Chizari and this information is believed to be not only authentic but was confirmed in subsequent interrogations of Chizari and combined with other information that our U.S. forces have collected... This establishes a much clearer connection between Iran's intelligence services and the al-Quds Force and the Sunni Jihadists who are killing so many Shiite civilians in Iraq."
- Eli Lake
"There was a call by the ICU for interantional Jihadists to come to Somalia to fight the war and a lot of international Jihadists... heeded that call and among them were some Western nationals. The top echelons of the ICU are, for example, American nationals. The Secretary for Foreign Affairs of the ICU, Ibrahim Hassan Adow, is an American national. The head of the reconstruction for the ICU, engineer Umar Aftoche, is an American national. So it's no secret that there are foreigners in the upper echelons of the ICU."
- Dr. Abdiweli Ali
"Ayman al-Zawahiri's... ideology is alien to most Somalis and that's why they lost in their latest crusade in Somalia. Somalis practice moderate and tolerant Islam and his Jihadists propaganda will not work in Somalia. We might see suicide bombings here and there but not the type of insurgency that we have seen in Iraq. What we would like to tell al-Zawahiri is that the train has already left the station and his hate message is not welcome in Somalia. However, this all depends on how the international community helps the TFG assert its control over the whole country. For that to happen, the TFG needs diplomatic, financial and military support. Basically what we need to do is not only kill the mosquito but also we have to dry up the breeding ground. We have to continue the fighting, eliminate the higher echelons of the ICU and demobilize the rest of their fighters. This all depends on how the international community, including the U.S. Government, approaches this problem. We have this momentum. We should not lose this momentum and we hope that his message will not be heeded in Somalia."
- Dr. Abdiweli Ali
"According to top military planners, 20-to-30,000 troops isn't quite enough. They'd like a surge of about 50,000 but politically that's not going to go through."
- Daveed Gartenstein-Ross on President Bush's plan to increase troops in Iraq
Playlist
Iva Davies - Smoke N' Oakum
Alexandre Desplat - Beirut Taxi
Thomas Newman - Drive Away
Thomas Newman - The Reptile Room
Global Crisis Watch is an independent and weekly 30-minute current affairs and news podcast focusing on the Global War on Terror, the War of Ideas, and indigenous pro-democracy efforts around the world. Hosted by Nick Grace and Sasha Eckstein in Washington, DC, the show features interviews with brave activists and journalists about terrorism, democratization, and indigenous efforts to promote freedom and liberty.
Monday, January 8, 2007
World: Former CIA Analyst Says West Misunderstands Al-Qaeda
U.S. -- former CIA analyst Michael Scheuer, undated
Michael Sheuer
(courtesy photo)
WASHINGTON, January 8, 2007 (RFE/RL) -- Michael Scheuer is a 22-year veteran of the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), where for six years he was in charge of the search for Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden. While in the CIA, Scheuer anonymously authored two books critical of how Western governments were waging the "war on terror." He resigned in 2004 and is now a terrorism analyst for CBS News. RFE/RL correspondent Heather Maher asked him to assess the fight against Al-Qaeda.
RFE/RL: For several years you were the head of the CIA unit charged with capturing Osama bin Laden. How do you judge current efforts to find him?
Michael Scheuer: I think the current efforts to capture Osama bin Laden are probably the best we can make -- but in a situation where it's almost impossible to expect success. Bin Laden lives in an area that has the most difficult topography on earth. He lives among a population that is very loyal to him, as a hero in the Islamic world.
But I think most importantly, American forces there and NATO forces are more engaged on a day-to-day basis trying to make sure [that Afghan] President [Hamid] Karzai's government survives than they are in chasing Osama bin Laden. The tide has really turned against us in Afghanistan, and it seems to me very unreasonable to expect to capture or kill Osama bin Laden in the foreseeable future.
I resigned because I thought the 9/11 commission had thoroughly failed America by not finding anyone responsible for anything before 9/11. The amount of individual negligence and culpability at the highest levels of the American government was completely whitewashed by the 9/11 commission.
RFE/RL: Yet for years, U.S. President George W. Bush has characterized bin Laden's capture as an important victory in the war on terror.
Scheuer: Well, he is certainly the symbol of a war, a war that really had very little to do with terrorism. American political leaders on both sides of the aisle have really not come to grips yet, five years later, with what this war is about. They continue to say that bin Laden and Al-Qaeda and its allies are focused on destroying America and its democracy, its freedom, [its] gender equality. And really this war has very, very little to do with any of that. It has to do with what the West and the United States do in the Islamic world.
And so because of our misunderstanding of the enemy's motivation and his intent, we have greatly underestimated the difficulty of attacking him and destroying him before we get attacked again.
RFE/RL: It sounds like you think the Bush administration is making some serious mistakes in how they are waging the war on terror and the hunt for Al-Qaeda figures like bin Laden.
Scheuer: Well, I think the whole war effort so far has been a mistake, in the sense that we're slowly becoming [like] Israel, in that the only options we have open to ourselves are military and intelligence operations.
Bin Laden has never been focused at all on Western civilization, as such. His ability to rally Muslims to his side is dependent almost solely on the perception in the Islamic world that Western foreign policy is an attack on Islam and the followers of Islam.
RFE/RL: Has the United States created more of a target with its invasion of Iraq?
Scheuer: Certainly we have, and not intentionally. I'm not one that thinks that we have leaders who are eager for this war.
But we just don't have leaders with the courage to stand up and understand that it's our presence more than anything else in the Islamic world that motivates the enemy, and Iraq was really a turning point in the war on Al-Qaeda and its allies.
A boy in Pakistan shows a mobile phone with an image of Osama bin Laden (epa file photo)I'm not at all an expert on Iraq or whatever threat was posed by [former Iraqi President] Saddam Hussein. But the sad reality of it is that the invasion of Iraq turned Al-Qaeda and Osama bin Laden from a man and an organization into a philosophy and a movement. And now we're faced with an Islamic militancy around the world that is far greater than it was on [September 11, 2001,] and almost certainly durable enough to sustain an eventual loss of Osama bin Laden or Ayman al-Zawahiri.
RFE/RL: Do you foresee more attacks on the United States or in the West on the scale of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks in New York and Washington?
Scheuer: Oh, I think greater than 9/11. I don't think it will happen in Europe, but I do think it will happen in the United States. Bin Laden has been very clear that each of Al-Qaeda's attacks on America will be greater than the last, and I think the only reason we haven't seen an attack so far is that he doesn't have that attack prepared. But when he does, he will use it. And try to get us out of the way, which of course is his main goal.
America is not his main enemy. His main enemies are the Al-Saud family in Saudi Arabia, the Mubarak regime in Egypt, and Israel.
RFE/RL: Explain a bit about what you mean by that.
Scheuer: The primary goal of Al-Qaeda and the movement it has tried to inspire around the world has been to create Islamic governments in the Islamic world that govern according to their religion. And bin Laden's view on this is that those governments -- the government of Egypt, the government of Saudi Arabia, the government of Jordan, Algeria, right down the line -- only survive because the United States protects them, and Europe protects them. Either with money, diplomatic and political support, or military protection.
And bin Laden's goal has been to simply hurt the United States enough to force us to look at home, to take care of things here, and thereby prevent us from supporting those governments, which he -- and I think the vast majority of Muslims -- regard as oppressive police states.
Once America is removed from that sort of support, Al-Qaeda intends to focus on removing those governments, eliminating Israel, and the third step, further down the road: settling scores with what the Sunni world regards as heretics in the Shi'ite part of the Islamic world. So his vision for the world, and the vision they're pursuing, is a very clear and orderly one, at least from their perspective.
RFE/RL: Tell me about the book you're working on, it's called "From Pandora's Box: America And Militant Islam After Iraq." What does that title mean?
Scheuer: Well, the Bush administration, the media, [and] the Democrats have talked a lot about the unintended consequences of invading Iraq. And the book is basically an effort to say: yes, there have been unintended consequences -- but they weren't unpredictable consequences.
What I'm trying to describe in the book is that we just have a simple failure here to understand our enemy and the world we deal with.
RFE/RL: And the use of the phrase "after Iraq" refers to a time when the United States is no longer in that country?
Scheuer: The book is written because I think we're defeated in Iraq. I think we're simply looking for a way to be graceful about the exit, but it's going to be very clear to our opponents in the Islamic world that they've defeated the second superpower.
They defeated the Soviet Union in Afghanistan; they've defeated us in Iraq; and it looks very likely that they'll defeat us in Afghanistan. And so Iraq, for all intents and purposes, as far as our enemies are concerned, is over.
RFE/RL: What do you see as Pakistan's role? Obviously President Pervez Musharraf is seen as an ally of the West and someone whom Bush keeps very close, but a lot of observers say there are many things going on in Pakistan that Musharraf turns a blind eye to.
Scheuer: One of the great misunderstandings in the United States -- and in Western European governments, and European governments generally, I suppose -- is to believe that every country's national interests are identical with ours. Certainly that's a malady in Washington.
U.S. President George W. Bush (left) in Islamabad with Pakistan Presdeint Musharraf in March 2006 (epa)The truth, I think, is America has probably never had a better ally than President Musharraf. What he's done to date in terms of allowing us to expand our presence in Pakistan; permission for overflights of aircraft; his assistance to the CIA, especially, in capturing senior Al-Qaeda members in Pakistani cities; and, for the first time in Pakistan's history, sending the conventional armed forces into the border areas to try to capture some of the Al-Qaeda fighters -- which brought Pakistan to the brink of civil war -- is an astounding record of support for America.
Basically what Musharraf has done -- nothing has been in the interest of Pakistan. And I think he's just simply to the point -- and I think from his perspective, correctly so -- that we've stayed too long in Afghanistan, we haven't accomplished our goal. And he has to begin to look out more for Pakistan's national interests and its survival as a stable political entity.
RFE/RL: I'd like to switch to a different topic in the war on terror. You agree with the practice of rendition, is that right?
Scheuer: Yes. Well, in a sense, I was the, or one of the authors of the practice, and I think it's been, at least for the United States, the single most productive and positive counterterrorism operation that we have waged, at least in the last 30 years.
RFE/RL: Do you say that because of the quality of information the United States has gotten from people it has taken to third countries for interrogation?
Scheuer: No. You know that's one of the major misunderstandings of the media. I have been totally ineffective in trying to explain how the program was set up.
The program was set up initially to make sure that we removed people who were a threat to the United States or our allies from the street and had them incarcerated. The second goal was to seize from them at the moment of their arrest whatever paper documents or electronic documents that they had with them, or in their apartment, or in their vehicle, at the time. Those were the two goals. Interrogation was never really an important goal. Primarily because we know that Al-Qaeda's fighters are trained to fabricate information, or to give us a lot of accurate information that turns out to be dated and therefore not useful after it's been investigated.
The reason people were taken elsewhere than the United States was not for interrogation, but because President [Bill] Clinton at the time, along with his national security [aides], Richard Clarke and Sandy Berger, did not want to bring those people to the United States, and directed us -- the CIA -- to take them where they were wanted for illegal action, which turned out to be in Egypt or another Arab country. But the agency itself always preferred to take people into U.S. custody for reasons that were basically institutional protection.
We knew at the end of the day that this would become a very unpopular program because of where these people were taken.
RFE/RL: So the U.S. decision to open secret overseas facilities and keep people for indefinite periods of time -- that was something that developed after you put together the initial rendition program?
Scheuer: It was. Whatever was involved in those prisons -- that was a Bush administration decision to not put these people into the regular U.S. judicial system.
And the truth of the matter is that for both the Clinton administration and the Bush administration, American law makes it very difficult to put these people into our judicial system because most of the time, they're arrested by foreign governments, and we cannot vouch whether they were roughed up by those foreign governments, whether their documents were tampered with, whether their hard drives or floppy disks were tampered with.
And so what I think we're really seeing here is a lack of willpower on the part of American politicians to find a way to accommodate this process to the American judicial system.
RFE/RL: You decided to end your career at the CIA earlier than you originally planned to. Was it difficult to resign?
Scheuer: I resigned from the agency with much regret. I had intended to work there for 30 years and then retire, or longer if I could. And I had nothing to complain about regarding the agency. Indeed the agency asked me to stay when I decided to resign.
The terrorist attack on the World Trade Center in New York on September 11, 2001 (epa)I resigned because I thought the 9/11 commission had thoroughly failed America by not finding anyone responsible for anything before 9/11. The amount of individual negligence and culpability at the highest levels of the American government was completely whitewashed by the 9/11 commission. And I resigned because I wanted to speak out on those issues.
My feeling since I have left has been that I have not had any influence at all on that particular debate. I think I've had a bit of influence through my books and writings on trying to convince people that the war we're fighting against Al-Qaedaism is a more serious problem than we have imagined to date. And that it has much more to do with religion than anyone in power is willing to talk about. I seem to have an equal number of detractors on the right and on the left, and perhaps that is suggests that I have at least said something that's getting some attention.
RFE/RL: Can I ask what your political affiliation is?
Scheuer: I've been a Republican all my life. I've never voted for a Democrat. I think my father would reach out from the grave if I did and throttle me. But that doesn't have anything to do with American security. I don't think the Bush administration has had a more pointed or eager critic than myself.
Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty © 2007 RFE/RL, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
http://www.rferl.org/featuresarticle/2007/1/28453ea2-7c65-49eb-b84c-aa008002591f.html
Tuesday, January 9, 2007
EU Says Impact Of Russia-Belarus Oil Dispute Spreading
Poland -- Part of the Druzhba pipeline system in Plock, 08Jan2007
Part of the Druzhba oil-pipeline system in Plock, Poland
(epa)
January 9, 2007 -- The European Union's executive commission said today the impact of the oil dispute between Russia and Belarus has spread to several Central and Western European countries.
The European Commission said refineries in Germany, Poland, Hungary, Slovakia, and the Czech Republic have all been affected by a halt in Russian oil supplies through the Druzhba pipeline in Belarus.
Commission spokesman Ferran Tarradellas Espuny said it was "unacceptable" the EU had not been informed of the suspension.
"The commission has underlined that it is unacceptable that energy suppliers or transit countries do not inform their counterparts of any decision that may affect their supplies," Espuny said. "[EU Energy Commissioner Andris Piebalgs] has called [on] the two parties involved to rapidly find a mutually acceptable solution and to restore oil supplies to the European Union immediately."
The European Commission has called an "urgent" meeting of EU oil supply officials on January 11 to discuss the situation.
Russia and Belarus blame each other for provoking the halt in oil supplies, which came after the two countries imposed punitive oil levies against each other.
A top-level Belarusian government delegation is in Moscow today for talks to resolve the dispute.
(compiled from agency reports)
Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty © 2007 RFE/RL, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
http://www.rferl.org/featuresarticle/2007/01/05ee5138-92d0-49bf-999c-2a646285fe98.html
http://www.rferl.org/newsline/6-swa.asp?po=y
Monday, January 8, 2007 Volume 11 Number 3
AFGHAN PROVINCE GOVERNOR SAYS PAKISTAN HAS STARTED FENCING BORDER
Paktika Province Governor Akram Khpalwak claimed on January 7 that Pakistan has begun to fence and mine its disputed southeastern border with Afghanistan, Pajhwak Afghan News reported. Khpalwak said officials have been told by residents that some 2,000 Pakistani regular and militia forces began the project in the Azam Warsak and Qamardin Karez areas along the border. Khpalwak claimed that Pakistanis "are fencing and mining areas pointed out by Taliban and Al-Qaeda and leaving those passages used by militants for sneaking into Afghanistan and crossing back into Pakistan." He demanded that the UN and the international community stop Pakistan from fencing the border. Pakistan recently announced it would implement its plan -- which has been discussed since 2003 -- to partially fence and mine its border with Afghanistan as a measure to stop militants from going back and forth between Afghanistan from Pakistan (see End Note and "RFE/RL Newsline," December 29, 2006 and January 5, 2007). Afghanistan has consistently objected to such plans. AT
FORMER TALIBAN AIR-FORCE CHIEF BURIED IN PAKISTAN
Mullah Mohammad Kakar, the former air-force chief of the Taliban government, was buried in the Gardy Jungle area of the Chaghi district in Baluchistan Province on January 5, the Rawalpindi daily "Jang" reported on January 5. Large numbers of Afghan refugees reportedly attended the funeral. According to the report, Kakar and two others were killed in an air strike by coalition forces in Helmand Province in southern Afghanistan on January 2. AT
JAILED AFGHAN POLICE CHIEF GOES ON HUNGER STRIKE
Mohammad Azim Jalal Hashemi, the former police chief of Baghlan Province, began a hunger strike in jail on January 6 to protest his incarceration, Pajhwak Afghan News reported. Hashemi has been jailed for allegedly abducting a young girl. He said he will continue his hunger strike until he is released. He said he married the girl with her consent and claims he was falsely arrested. Hashemi also alleged that Baghlan Governor Sayyed Ekramuddin Masumi has conspired against him. According to the report, Hashemi was arrested after the family of the girl, who was not identified, pressed charges against the former police chief for abduction. Interior Ministry spokesman Zmaray Bashari indicated on January 6 that the case has been referred to the prosecutor-general. Masumi has denied any involvement in Hashemi's case. AT
INDIAN DIRECTOR OF 'KABUL EXPRESS' APOLOGIZES TO AFGHAN'S HAZARAS
Kabir Khan, the director of the Indian-made film "Kabul Express," has apologized to the Hazaras in Afghanistan for comments in his movie that he claims are not part of his original production, Kabul-based Tolu Television reported on January 6. Afghanistan's Ministry of Information and Culture on January 3 criticized "humiliating scenes" in the film "Kabul Express" and decided to ban it in Afghanistan for offensive language toward one of Afghanistan's tribes (see "RFE/RL Newsline," January 5, 2007). Khan said the pirate copies of the film on sale in Kabul are not authentic, charging that they were imported from Pakistan. "I have heard that the film 'Kabul Express' hurt my Afghan brothers...I will soon send real copies of this film to Afghanistan and you will not see the names of any tribes in it. If you still feel uncomfortable watching it, I apologize to the Hazara tribe," Khan said. The Pakistani Embassy in Kabul has rejected charges that the pirate copies of "Kabul Express" in Afghanistan came from Pakistan. AT
IRANIAN LEGISLATORS DISSATISFIED WITH PRESIDENT
Reformist parliamentarian Nureddin Pirmoazzan has spoken of a move by some legislators to summon President Mahmud Ahmadinejad to the chamber for questioning, RFE/RL's Radio Farda reported on January 7, adding that this is a sign of legislators' increasing dissatisfaction with Ahmadinejad. Pirmoazzan told Aftab news agency that 38 lawmakers have signed the initiative to question Ahmadinejad, and laws require 72 signatures before the president can be called in. Isa Saharkhiz, a Tehran-based journalist and former deputy minister of culture under President Mohammad Khatami, told Radio Farda on January 7 that the December 15 elections -- which were interpreted as a defeat for Ahmadinejad and right-wing radicals associated with him -- triggered a "countdown to the fall" of Ahmadinejad. Saharkhiz said the polls showed Ahmadinejad's fragile public support and "how the current known as the Barracks Party (hezb-i padegani) brought him to power" in 2005, a reference to the support Ahmadinejad was thought to have from military and paramilitary forces. Saharkhiz said recent criticism, notably by deputy parliament speaker Mohammad Reza Bahonar, indicates growing disapproval among conservatives of Ahmadinejad. "The situation is such that Mr. Ahmadinejad cannot even meet with [Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali] Khamenei as easily as he used to," he said, adding that he believes Ahmadinejad's "golden period is over, and he is moving fast toward his downfall." VS
IRANIAN FOREIGN MINISTRY SAYS TEHRAN RESPECTS NPT FOR NOW
Foreign Ministry spokesman Mohammad Ali Husseini said in Tehran on January 7 that Iran is not thinking of leaving the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT) now, but he warned it will respond to any action against its nuclear installations, ISNA reported. "Right now, ending cooperation with the [International Atomic Energy] Agency [IAEA] is not on the agenda," he said, but "any action against Iran will not remain without response, and the attacker will regret his action." Husseini was referring to reports in London's "Sunday Times" on January 7 on Israeli readiness to strike Iranian nuclear installations in Natanz, Isfahan, and Arak, in central regions of Iran. He said that "regional states know well that the main threat" is Israel. "We have said repeatedly that our activities are within the framework of international standards and regulations," he said. Threats to strike Iran, he added, "show the weakness of the opposite side and will in no way undermine Iran's resolve...to continue its peaceful nuclear activities." Husseini said a committee has been formed within the Supreme National Security Council to consider how Iran might review its cooperation with the IAEA, following a parliamentary vote obliging it to make such a consideration. The committee, he added, includes "specialists from the Foreign Ministry and other bodies" who would decide on what actions to take, ISNA reported. VS
IRANIAN AGENCIES REPORT CIVIL RESTRICTIONS
News agencies have reported several arrests and other civil restrictions in recent days in Iran. Hesam Firuzi, the doctor of Ahmad Batebi -- a student jailed for taking part in 1999 demonstrations in Tehran -- received a summons on January 2 to report to a branch of the Tehran revolutionary court in the following three days, he told ILNA on January 3. ILNA did not specify the charges against Firuzi, though the court wanted Firuzi to provide "explanations." Separately, journalist Ali Farahbakhsh was reportedly arrested more than 40 days ago by "security agents" while returning from an Asian conference, ILNA reported on January 6, citing journalist Mashallah Shamsolvaezin, a member of the Iran Journalists Guild, of which Farahbakhsh was also a member. Shamsolvaezin told ILNA that the group did not know about Farahbakhsh's situation or why he was arrested. Also, graduates wrote on January 6 to protest the closure of two student unions in the Bu Ali Sina and medical science universities in the western city of Hamedan, ILNA reported. The two academic institutions seem to be autonomous parts of the larger Hamedan University. A letter signed by 110 former members of Hamedan University warns that closing student groups will merely radicalize "the social and university atmosphere," ILNA reported. VS
REPORT GIVES NEW AIDS FIGURES IN IRAN
Just over 14,000 people in Iran are infected with the HIV virus, which causes AIDS, the daily "Farhang-i Ashti" reported on January 7, citing a report and ISNA. The latest number of HIV-positive Iranians is 14,090, while 1,760 people -- of whom 1,695 are men -- have died of AIDS in Iran, the daily cited the report as stating. The report gave intravenous drug use through shared or dirty needles, as the largest cause of HIV infection, affecting 64.9 percent of cases. The report gave the second- and third-most-prevalent infection means as "unclear" and sexual intercourse, respectively infecting 25.5 percent and 7.5 percent of the number of infected given, "Farhang-i Ashti" reported. The Health Ministry is planning a special awareness campaign, the daily added. VS
IRAQI PREMIER SAYS HUSSEIN HANGING IS AN IRAQI AFFAIR...
Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki on January 6 said the hanging of former President Saddam Hussein was an internal matter and warned that his government might "review" relations with governments that criticized the execution, state-run Al-Iraqiyah television reported the same day. "We consider the execution of the dictator to be an internal affair that concerns the Iraqi people alone," al-Maliki said. "We reject and condemn the conduct of some governments, whether it is on the official level or through affiliated media outlets. We find it extremely strange to hear statements by some governments weeping over the tyrant on the excuse that his execution occurred on a holy day, although these governments know well that Saddam had violated all sanctities and sacred occasions for 35 years." He also insisted that the execution was not a political decision, but rather it was a verdict "carried out after a fair and transparent trial, which the dictator did not deserve." Al-Maliki's statements came during a speech marking the 86th anniversary of the formation of the Iraqi Army. SS
...AND UNVEILS NEW SECURITY PLAN FOR IRAQI CAPITAL
Prime Minister al-Maliki announced during a speech on January 6 that a new security initiative to secure Baghdad will be implemented soon, state-run Al-Iraqiyah television reported the same day. "The Baghdad security plan will deny all outlaws a safe haven, irrespective of their sectarian or political affiliation. We will also hold accountable any person who does not follow orders properly or who operates based on a political or sectarian background," al-Maliki said. He said the new plan would rely on Iraqi forces to implement it while being supported by coalition troops. Al-Maliki also said that Iraqi military commanders will be given more freedom to execute the plan in sectors they supervise, implying that they will not have to wait for decisions from higher authorities in order to take immediate action. Meanwhile, U.S. President George W. Bush is expected to unveil soon a new Iraq strategy that is widely believed to include an increase of up to 20,000 U.S. troops to help secure Baghdad. "I'll be ready to outline a strategy that will help the Iraqis achieve the objective of a country that can govern, sustain, and defend itself sometime next week," Bush said on January 4. SS
IRAQI SUNNI LEADER REJECTS NEW SECURITY PLAN
Iraqi parliament speaker Mahmud al-Mashhadani on January 7 rejected the new security initiative announced by al-Maliki, Al-Sharqiyah reported the same day. Al-Mashhadani described the plan as "illegitimate," adding that al-Maliki never consulted the parliament about the plan. "The Iraqi Constitution does not allow the prime minister to approve a security plan without referring it to the Council of Representatives, now that the Emergency Law -- which gave him extraordinary executive powers -- has expired. Consequently, there is no legal legitimacy for this plan," al-Mashhadani said. The emergency laws, in place everywhere in Iraq except for the semi-autonomous northern Kurdish region, have been renewed every month since they were first authorized in November 2004, but they expired on January 3. The laws allow the government to impose nighttime curfews and give Iraqi security services extra powers to make arrests without warrants and launch police and military operations. SS
UN SECRETARY-GENERAL URGES IRAQ TO POSTPONE EXECUTIONS
Ban Ki-moon on January 6 strongly urged the Iraqi government to grant a stay of execution to Barzan Ibrahim al-Tikriti and Awad al-Bandar, two top former Hussein-era officials who have been condemned to death, international media reported the same day. Ban's chief of staff, Vijay Nambiar, in a letter to Iraq's UN ambassador, reiterated the secretary-general's support for UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Louise Arbour's call for restraint by the Iraqi government in implementing the death sentences imposed by the Iraqi High Tribunal. The letter also refers to Ban's view that "all members of the international community should pay due regard to all aspects of international humanitarian and human rights laws." His initial comments on Hussein's execution on January 2 caused a furor when he said capital punishment "was for each and every member state to decide" -- a statement that was at odds with the UN's policy of opposition to the death penalty. On January 4, the Iraqi government postponed the execution of al-Tikriti and al-Bandar until after the Eid al-Adha festival, which ended on January 6 (see "RFE/RL Newsline," January 5, 2007). SS
TWO INTERPRETERS OF KIDNAPPED U.S. CITIZEN FOUND DEAD
Two Iraqi interpreters, who were kidnapped on January 5 along with an American contractor, were found slain on January 6 near Al-Basrah, AFP reported the same day. The two were found near a stadium in the city with bullet wounds to the back of their heads. Local police official Muhammad al-Musawi said the U.S. citizen and the two Iraqis, all of whom worked for a private security firm, were seized in the town of Al-Haritha north Al-Basrah on January 5. U.S. Embassy spokesman Louis Fintor confirmed the abduction of the U.S. citizen. On November 17, gunmen wearing police uniforms also kidnapped four U.S. citizens and an Austrian, who were working for a Kuwaiti-based security firm called the Crescent Security Group, near the southern border town of Safwan (see "RFE/RL Newsline," November 20, 2006). SS
SENIOR IRAQI OFFICIAL ESCAPES ASSASSINATION ATTEMPT
A source in the Iraqi Interior Ministry announced that a high-ranking member of the Education Ministry survived an assassination attempt on January 7 in eastern Baghdad, Xinhua news agency reported the same day. Gunmen opened fire on the convoy of Habib Abd al-Husayn al-Shammari, a director-general in the Education Ministry, as it was traveling through Baghdad's Al-Zayuna neighborhood. Al-Shammari escaped unhurt, but two of his bodyguards were killed. SS
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http://www.rferl.org/newsline/2-tca.asp
Monday, January 8, 2007 Volume 11 Number 3
IRAN READY TO SUPPLY ARMENIA WITH NATURAL GAS
Iran has installed the requisite infrastructure on its border with Armenia and is ready to begin supplying that country with natural gas, according to energy official Mohammad Reza Lorzadeh, as quoted by iranmania.com on January 7 and reposted by Groong. On December 14, Armenian Energy Minister Armen Movsisian hinted that the Armenian section of the pipeline currently under construction to export Iranian gas to Armenia might not be completed as planned by the end of the year, RFE/RL's Armenian Service reported. Lorzadeh said that Yerevan has requested a meeting with Iranian officials in March to discuss gas imports. On December 1, Armenian Prime Minister Andranik Markarian told the Russian daily "Kommersant" that it is still too early to say whether Armenia will agree to a demand to cede control of the pipeline to Russia's Gazprom. Armenia reportedly is not entitled to do so without Tehran's consent. LF
JOURNALISM WATCHDOG APPEALS TO AZERBAIJANI PRESIDENT
Reporters without Borders (RSF) has issued a statement condemning the December 25 assault on Nicat Huseynov, a journalist with the opposition newspaper "Azadliq," day.az reported on January 5. Huseynov was attacked on the street in broad daylight by four men and subsequently hospitalized with knife wounds and head injuries (see "RFE/RL Newsline," December 27, 2006). RSF called on Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev to put an end to violent attacks on journalists, arguing that democracy cannot exist in a country where the press lives under the constant fear of physical reprisals. LF
UN CONDEMNS ABKHAZIA SHOOTING
The UN Observer Mission in Georgia (UNOMIG) issued a statement on January 7 in which it condemned and "deeply deplored" the January 5 attack on a Georgian police post in the village of Ganmukhuri in which one Georgian policeman was killed and a second injured (see "RFE/RL Newsline," January 5, 2007). The statement called on both sides to apprehend the people responsible for such violence and to cooperate to prevent its escalation. It also reaffirmed UNOMIG's repeated earlier calls for dialogue between the two sides. The Russian peacekeeping force deployed along both sides of the Inguri River, which marks the border between Abkhazia and the rest of Georgia, likewise issued a statement on January 7 deploring the Ganmukhuri shooting, regnum.ru reported. That statement decried as "inappropriate" Georgian media reports accusing the Russian peacekeepers of failing to apprehend the Abkhaz gunmen believed to be responsible before they could attack the police post. Meanwhile, Georgian accounts of the shooting continue to diverge in key details. The Georgian television station Rustavi-2 reported on January 5 that the perpetrators fired an antitank shell from a Russian checkpoint in the village of Pichori on the Abkhaz side of the river. But Caucasus Press on January 6 quoted Georgian Interior Minister Vano Merabishvili, who visited the scene of the incident, as saying that the attackers sneaked up to the Georgian police post and opened fire at point-blank range. LF
GEORGIA DENIES INVOLVEMENT OF ARRESTED NATIONALS IN COUNTERFEIT OPERATION
Local police and government officials in Georgia's Shida Kartli region have rejected as untrue South Ossetian Interior Ministry claims that three Georgians arrested on January 3 in Tskhinvali had in their possession about $100,000 in counterfeit bills, Caucasus Press reported on January 4. The following day, relatives of the three men said they had some $10,000 in cash with which one of the men hoped to purchase a KamAZ truck, Caucasus Press reported. On January 7, South Ossetian Interior Minister Mikhail Mindzayev told journalists that counterfeit U.S. dollars are manufactured in Turkey and transported to Russia via Georgia and South Ossetia, regnum.ru reported. On November 26, "The Washington Post" published a detailed account of alleged counterfeiting operations based in South Ossetia. South Ossetian President Eduard Kokoity promptly denied that report (see "RFE/RL Newsline," November 28, 2006). LF
GEORGIAN OPPOSITION DEMANDS RELEASE OF DETAINED ACTIVISTS
Some 50 people participated in a march by torchlight through Tbilisi during the night of January 6-7 to demand the release from pretrial detention of 12 members and supporters of the Samartlianoba (Justice) party headed by fugitive former National Security Minister Igor Giorgadze, ITAR-TASS, regnum.ru, and Caucasus Press reported on January 7 and 8, respectively. The 11 men and one woman -- Guram Papukashvili, Varlaam Galdava, Kakha Kantaria, Giorgi Metreveli, Ramaz Samnidze, Vakhtang Talakhadze, Temur Zhorzholiani, Giorgi Akhobadze, Yakob Kvinikadze, Revaz Bulia, Zaza Davitaia, and Maia Topuria -- were detained in a series of police raids in early September and charged with plotting to overthrow the Georgian leadership (see "RFE/RL Newsline," September 7, 2006). Topuria, Zhorzholiani, and Samnidze have also been charged with treason. All 12 deny the charges against them. LF
KAZAKH PRIME MINISTER RESIGNS
Kazakh Prime Minister Daniyal Akhmetov resigned on January 8, RFE/RL's Kazakh Service reported. No reason for the resignation was given. The resignation was accepted by President Nursultan Nazarbaev. Akhmetov has been prime minister since June 2003, and his resignation will force the whole cabinet to step down. The Kazakh parliament, which according to the constitution approves the president's nominee for prime minister, is due hold a plenary session on January 10. PB
KAZAKHSTAN REJECTS U.S. STATEMENTS ON KRISHNA EVICTION
Kazakh Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Gaukhar Beiseeva told a news conference in Astana on January 5 that a recent U.S. Embassy statement over the late-November demolition of houses in a Hare Krishna community in an Almaty suburb (see "RFE/RL Newsline," December 8, 2006) is "inappropriate," "Kazakhstan Today" reported. Beiseeva said the Foreign Ministry has presented the U.S. ambassador in Kazakhstan with a note expressing its view that the U.S. statement was inappropriate. Also on January 5, Amanbek Mukashov, head of a Kazakh state commission investigating the eviction of the Hare Krishna community, told a news conference in Astana that "the commission believes that in this conflict, the actions of district executive bodies and court decisions on the demolition of premises built without permission on the unauthorized plots of land are justified and legal," Interfax-Kazakhstan reported. DK
KAZAKH STATE OIL COMPANY TO PAY $1 BILLION FOR SHARE IN CHINESE OIL ACQUISITION
State-run Kazakh oil and gas company KazMunaiGaz will pay China's CITIC Group $955 million for a 50 percent stake in the Canadian-registered company Nations Energy following CITIC's 100 percent acquisition of that company, Interfax-Kazakhstan reported on January 5. The report noted that CITIC's deal to acquire Nations Energy, the primary asset of which is Kazakhstan's Karazhanbas oil field, was finalized on December 30, 2006 (see "RFE/RL Newsline," January 3, 2007). China National Petroleum Corporation acquired PetroKazakhstan -- another Canadian-registered firm with assets in Kazakhstan -- for $4.2 billion in 2006, although KazMunaiGaz later acquired a stake in PetroKazakhstan (see "RFE/RL Newsline," July 18, 2006). Against this backdrop, the CITIC acquisition encountered opposition in Kazakhstan (see "RFE/RL Newsline," November 20, 2006). DK
TAJIKISTAN ASKS RUSSIA TO ALLOW MIGRANTS BACK IN
Tajikistan's State Migration Service has asked the Russian government to amnesty approximately 50,000 Tajik citizens who have been deported from Russia over the last three years, Russia's Ekho Moskvy radio station reported on January 5. Service head Anvar Boboev said that most of the Tajik nationals, who are barred from returning for five years, were punished for failing to register within three days of their arrival in Russia. Ramazan Abdulatipov, Russia's ambassador to Tajikistan, told Ekho Moskvy that an amnesty "would improve the status of labor migrants [and] Russia would benefit from that as well." Nevertheless, RFE/RL's Tajik Service on January 6 quoted Konstantin Romodanovsky as saying that Tajik labor migrants "remove" $2 billion a year from Russia to Tajikistan. Romodanovsky added, "It's true that they work for their money, but Russia must receive a portion of these revenues as is the case in civilized countries." DK
ELECTRICITY PRICES TO RISE IN TAJIKISTAN
Rashid Gulov, who is in charge of energy policy at Tajikistan's Ministry of Energy and Industry, told RFE/RL's Tajik Service on January 6 that a commission has been formed to supervise gradual price increases. He said, "If we fail to raise rates gradually, it won't be possible to recoup the investments we're currently making to build hydroelectric stations and power lines." Gulov said that the average price of one kilowatt-hour of electricity should reach 7 dirhams (2 cents) by 2010. Current prices are 2.66 dirhams for industrial enterprises, 4.97 dirhams for agricultural enterprises, 1.6 dirhams for federally funded institutions, and 4.9 dirhams for commercial enterprises. Residential customers pay 1.6 dirhams for usage up to 250 kilowatt-hours, and 2.7 dirhams for usage in excess of that amount. DK
TURKMEN ACTING PRESIDENT ADVOCATES AGRICULTURE REFORM
Acting President Gurbanguly Berdymukhammedov told a cabinet meeting in Ashgabat on January 4 that Turkmenistan's agricultural sector is experiencing serious problems with cotton and wheat production and should be prepared for wide-ranging reforms, NewsCentralAsia reported. Berdymukhammedov said that the People's Council will consider agricultural reform when it meets next in March, and he ordered the Agriculture Ministry to prepare reform proposals by January 20. Before his death in December (see "RFE/RL Newsline," December 21, 2006), Shortly before his death in December, President Saparmurat Niyazov sacked a number of agriculture-sector officials for allgedly falsifying harvest statistics (see "RFE/RL Newsline," November 28 and 29, 2006). DK
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Funding for Australian Mosques Investigated
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/news.php3?id=119020
Funding for Australian Mosques Investigated
20:39 Jan 08, '07 / 18 Tevet 5767
(IsraelNN.com) Australia's Foreign Minister is alarmed over funding for
mosques being built down under.
"There have been investigations by federal authorities in Adelaide into
funding for mosques from Saudi Arabia," Foreign Minister Alexander
Downer
told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation's ABC radio in Adelaide on
Monday.
"I don't mean funding by the Saudi Arabian government, but by extremist
groups in Saudi Arabia," Downer added.
http://search.news.yahoo.com/search/news/?fr=yalerts-keyword&c=&p=bomb+OR+explosive+device&ei=utf-8
1. Explosive device defused near school in Ingushetia Open this result in new window
Itar-Tass - Jan 08 10:38 PM
NAZRAN, January 9 (Itar-Tass) - An explosive device was spotted last night in the Gamurzievsky district of Nazran. It was under a gas pipeline on the grounds of a secondary school, near a highway, Itar-Tass learnt on Tuesday from the Ingushetia Interior Ministry.
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2. Bomb Squad Called Out To Detonate Homemade Explosive Open this result in new window
KKCO Grand Junction - Jan 06 5:12 PM
The Bomb Squad was called out Friday night to diffuse a home made explosive device in the Clifton area. Around 12:30 a.m. the Sheriff's Office contacted three men who were walking on 2nd Street.
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3. Two students charged with setting off explosive device using sparklers Open this result in new window
Channel NewsAsia via Yahoo! Singapore News - Jan 08 6:17 AM
SINGAPORE : Two students were charged in court on Monday with setting off an improvised explosive device using sparklers.
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4. Two students charged with setting off explosive device using sparklers Open this result in new window
Channel NewsAsia - Jan 08 4:10 AM
SINGAPORE : Two students were charged in court on Monday with setting off an improvised explosive device using sparklers. Wesley Meow Guang Siang and Muhammad Firdaus Mahaf, both 17, were the first persons to be charged with such an offence.
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5. Suspicious Device Tests Positive for Explosive at Port of Miami Open this result in new window
News Channel 6 Paducah - Jan 08 12:45 PM
MIAMI (Reuters) - A police bomb squad was sent to the Port of Miami to investigate a suspicious item being unloaded from a truck on Monday but police could not confirm television news reports that tests had detected C-4 explosives.
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6. `Bomb' Not Genuine Open this result in new window
Hartford Courant - Jan 08 12:15 AM
Police closed streets south of the New Haven Green Sunday after an employee of an office building at 132 Temple St. found a box containing an object that police said resembled an explosive device.
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7. Home-made bomb kills man Open this result in new window
Edinburgh Evening News - Jan 08 4:26 AM
A MAN has died after a home-made explosive device detonated in a house close to RAF Coningsby air base in Lincolnshire.
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8. Bomb squad responds to LC Open this result in new window
The Spokesman-Review - Jan 08 3:18 PM
Police have detonated a suspicious device at Lewis and Clark High School. The authorities were called at about 11:45 a.m. after a security guard removed what was believed to be a fake bomb and took it into the school's courtyard. The Spokane bomb squad is investigating. The school was not evacuated.
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9. Teens charged with sparkler-bomb blast Open this result in new window
Channel NewsAsia via Yahoo! Singapore News - Jan 08 8:17 PM
Two 17-year-old students became the first persons in Singapore to be charged in court on Monday with building a bomb using sparklers and setting it off.
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10. NFdL bomb turns out to be part of game Open this result in new window
Fond du Lac Reporter - Jan 08 2:29 AM
North Fond du Lac Police called a Green Bay bomb squad Sunday morning when they thought they had a bomb on their hands, but it turned out to be a device used in a popular treasure-hunting game called Geocaching.
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http://www.tol.cz/look/TOL/printf.tpl?IdLanguage=1&IdPublication=4&NrIssue=199&NrSection=2&NrArticle=18056&ST1=ad&ST_T1=job&ST_AS1=1&ST2=body&ST_T2=letter&ST_AS2=1&ST3=text&ST_T3=aatol&ST_PS3=1&ST_AS3=1&ST_max=3
TRANSITIONS ONLINE: Balkan Eye: Watch Out, Milorad
by Tihomir Loza
8 January 2007
Although in this part of the world rumors of assassination plots far outnumber actual slayings, politicians must not ignore even the slightest suspicion of a threat.
Milorad Dodik, the prime minister of Republika Srpska, is probably Bosnia’s most interesting politician.
To those inclined to see him as a nationalist he’s given plenty of material to go on. Often using deliberately coarse vocabulary, Dodik has repeatedly promised, among other things, to end what he sees as manipulation of Bosnia’s political agenda by Sarajevo-based Bosniak politicians. In the run-up to last year’s general elections, Dodik even threatened to call an independence referendum for Republika Srpska.
At the same time, even his critics recognize that since taking office last spring Dodik has spearheaded major political and economic improvements in Republika Srpska. He promised to turn the Serb-dominated entity into "Bosnia’s better half" and in some ways it is already starting to feel this way.
Dodik has liberalized trade, held transparent privatizations, and has taken the concerns of Republika Srpska's minorities seriously. Perhaps most importantly, he also seems intent on transforming the Serb-majority entity through waging war on organized crime. It will be Dodik’s success, or lack thereof, in this war – rather than his rhetorical wars with Bosniak politicians in Sarajevo – that will ultimately become the test of his time in office.
The collapse of communism in Yugoslavia gave birth to criminal enterprises that expect cooperation from the state. This cooperation can take many different forms ranging from expecting the state to turn a blind eye to illicit activity to active participation of public officials in blatantly criminal acts.
Organized criminals have different types of aspirations. Some are interested only in making money. Others are keen to stamp their own worldviews on society. And as in many other parts of the world, post-communist gangsters use different means to achieve their goals or express disapproval. Some resort to murder only as the very last resort. Others think of murder first and ask questions later. While places like Moscow, Sofia, or Tbilisi have seen many gangland killings, they lag far behind the Balkans, with Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, and Kosovo leading the league.
Dodik should always bear this in mind. Two alleged assassination plots against him have been foiled in the past nine months, one just before the New Year. Both times organized crime groups from across the Balkans were said to have been involved. Ominously, a government aircraft has twice malfunctioned recently with Dodik aboard. Moreover, a special prosecutor for organized crime appointed by Dodik’s government has also received death threats.
Although rumored, unconfirmed, or semi-confirmed assassination plots far outnumber actual slayings, there are many reasons why even the slightest suspicion should never, ever be taken lightly. To start with, Balkan organized criminals have repeatedly demonstrated that they mean business.
While it is true that the improvement in the functioning of governing structures of the region since the beginning of the decade has narrowed down the space available to organized crime, the nature of Balkan mafiosi has not changed. They still regularly kill those they regard as a threat. Most importantly, they kill when they can.
Dodik should regard the trial of those accused of assassinating Serbia’s Prime Minister Zoran Djindjic as very instructive in this regard. The trial demonstrated quite clearly that those politicians seeking to launch an assault on organized criminal groups should first make sure that measures designed to protect them, their prosecutors, and their families are foolproof.
Second, politicians need to be ever vigilant. There were two unsuccessful assassination attempts on Djindjic before he was ultimately gunned down. No charges followed the unsuccessful attempts even though it is now clear that slightly more law-enforcement attention would have apprehended and charged a dozen or so of the very same people who later succeeded in killing the prime minister. Djindjic and his closest colleagues did not have time to get terribly worried because of other pressing priorities. It was exactly this recklessness that cost Djindjic his life and set back Serbia’s modernization effort.
There have so far been two alleged attempts on Dodik’s life of which we learned from official police sources. No arrests followed. The public seems to have lost interest and Dodik is as busy as ever planning new development policies and attracting investment – just as Djindjic was. It is Dodik’s responsibility to make sure the similarities with Djindjic end right there. As proof of his commitment to fight organized crime, we need to hear more detail about the latest alleged assassination attempt, including an explanation of why there has been no arrest so far.
Tihomir Loza is a deputy director of TOL.
Police want 'mafia wife' returned
Italian police say they want the wife of a mafia boss to return to Italy to answer questions about her alleged involvement in a crime empire.
A warrant is out for the arrest of Ann Hathaway, wife of Antonio Rinzivillo - jailed for 30 years for murder and drug trafficking.
The 44-year-old, now in Manchester, is wanted for alleged mafia association by the Italian authorities.
Police said they are hoping Ms Hathaway will be sent back to Italy.
The warrant follows the arrest of 88 people by investigators.
Colonnello Diego Eramo, from the Italian police, told BBC News they believe the mother-of-two was an intermediary between her husband in prison and people outside.
He said that while Rinzivillo was in jail they believe "she continued to work for the family".
She was living in Rome, but is now believed to be back near her family in Middleton.
Mr Eramo said: "We are hoping with the issue of this arrest warrant that she will be sent back to Italy to answer questions."
Ms Hathaway's arrest warrant was signed by Gela-based investigating magistrate Gianbattista Iona on 12 December. Interpol is now dealing with the case.
At one stage her husband's power was so great he was said to be the Mafia's number two behind Bernardo Provenzano, who was arrested earlier this year after more than 40 years on the run.
Rinzivillo is serving 30 years in prison for murder and drug trafficking. He was sentenced after being convicted of the murder of a Milan lawyer, Antonio Mirabelle.
Italian police also seized more than £14m in family assets including two building companies, a supermarket, pizzeria and two haulage firms as part of the operation.
Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/uk_news/england/manchester/6244007.stm
Published: 2007/01/09 10:47:20 GMT
© BBC MMVII
Where states stand on Soviet-era police files
As spying revelations from the communist past continue to dog public figures in central and eastern Europe, BBC News looks at where individual states stand on declassifying their secret police files.
ALBANIA
Post-communist governments have never managed to adopt a law on opening the secret files of the Sigurimi, the communist-era secret police.
However, in October 2006, parliament passed a resolution calling for them to be opened.
Crimes committed under the late communist ruler Enver Hoxha must, it said, be "recognised and denounced so that they are not repeated" and it called for the naming of ex-collaborators holding public office.
The resolution was non-binding and separate legislation would be needed to oblige the authorities to open the files.
BULGARIA
In December 2006, Bulgaria's parliament finally passed a law to open its communist-era intelligence archives and potentially shed light on the now-defunct Darzhavna Sigurnost, one of the Cold War's most notorious secret services.
According to the law, people are allowed to see their files.
A commission will also be created to investigate public figures - such as politicians, public officials, scientists, judges, church officials and journalists - and publish their names on the internet if found guilty. The names will appear only after these people have been informed, and they will have the right to appeal to the Supreme Administrative Court before their names are published.
Some files will remain classified "for national security reasons" and a separate archive will be created for those documents.
FORMER CZECHOSLOVAKIA
In 2003, the Czech Republic published lists of those who co-operated with the communist-era Czechoslovak secret police, the StB.
A list of the names of about 160,000 alleged collaborators had been made public over a decade earlier ago by a former dissident, Petr Cibulka, who said he had received them from a source with access to StB records.
Slovakia began releasing thousands of StB secret files in November 2004.
The files, which date back as far as the mid-1950s, contain lists of more than 21,000 names, including informers and alleged dissidents.
GERMANY
Following reunification, Germany passed a law in 1991 on opening the archives of East Germany's secret police the Stasi.
The Stasi Records Act protected the files from destruction and allowed for their gradual release.
Any citizen has the right to inspect his or her personal files and find out to what extent the Stasi affected their life. More than two million people have inspected their personal files to date.
HUNGARY
A 2003 law allowed individuals access to their own files created by the communist-era secret police, and also allowed victims to see the records of people who spied on them.
Only data from the period which is deemed to affect national security may remain secret.
POLAND
In November 2006, President Lech Kaczynski signed a new law to open communist-era secret police files that include information on current diplomats, government ministers and members of parliament.
Previously, only historians and journalists previously had access to the files, which are held by the National Remembrance Institute (IPN), set up in 1998 to prosecute Nazi and communist crimes in Poland.
Under new rules, expected to come into effect before mid-February 2007, public figures including senior officials, judges, teachers, journalists, diplomats, municipal officials, heads of state-owned companies, editors, publishers and school directors, will have to apply to the IPN for a special certificate saying whether or not they collaborated. They could be fired if they are found to have worked as agents.
Previously, only leading public officials were subject to vetting. The records will now be made public, but those who are shown to have collaborated will have the right to appeal to the courts to clear their names. It is thought that around 400,000 people will be affected by the new law.
ROMANIA
In 1999, the government set up a special commission, the Council for Studying Securitate Archives (CNSAS), to review millions of secret police documents. By law, the CNSAS is required to search the files for signs of collaboration among politicians and other public figures, such as civil servants and members of civil society including journalists and priests.
But it was only quite recently that the council was given the relevant files by the security services. Some politicians have already been named as collaborators. It is up to the board of the CNSAS to vote on whether an accused public figure collaborated or not. The government has yet to decide whether or not the guilty will be punished.
In 2005, all Securitate archives were opened to the public except those that concern national security issues. So far, thousands of people have been able to find out whether their neighbours or loved ones were spies.
FORMER USSR
In the former Soviet Union - apart from the Baltic states - the tendency has been to throw a veil over files kept by the Soviet secret police, the KGB.
Indeed, former KGB officers are prominent in the top echelons of politics and business in Russia.
Of the Baltic states, Latvia has voted to disclose the contents of KGB files containing the names of former secret police agents in March 2007.
Parliament voted for the measure despite strong opposition from President Vaira Vike-Freiberga who argued that the privacy and personal security of individuals could be put at risk.
Lithuania's parliament voted in October 2006 for the opening of the government's special archive, where all KGB files are stored, to unlimited public access.
In Estonia, members of the public are allowed to read KGB files kept at the national archives.
FORMER YUGOSLAVIA
In 2001, Serbian citizens were allowed to look at secret files kept on them by the former state security service, the UDBA, for the first time.
But human rights organisations objected to the fact that the UDBA's successor maintained control of the files and they also suspected that many files were destroyed in the days and weeks after former President Slobodan Milosevic fell from power in 2000.
Much of the public concern in both Serbia and Croatia is over secret police files from the years following the collapse of Yugoslavia.
In November 2001, Croatia opened secret police files kept by the government of President Franjo Tudjman.
In April 2003, an unapproved website appeared listing data on about 1.5 million individuals from Slovenia, taken from UDBA archives. The government sought to block access to the site.
Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/europe/6243765.stm
Published: 2007/01/09 12:27:25 GMT
© BBC MMVII
Argentina detains squad suspect
A former police chief accused of leading a death squad during the 1970s has been arrested in Argentina.
Juan Ramon Morales is suspected of involvement in the Triple A, a right-wing paramilitary group which operated in the country.
Human rights campaigners say the death squads killed some 1,500 government opponents between 1973 and 1976.
Eighty-eight-year-old Mr Morales, who denies the crimes, was arrested in his home in the capital, Buenos Aires.
After refusing to testify before judges he was placed under house arrest at his home.
He is the second alleged member of the notorious death squad to be arrested in recent weeks.
In late December, Argentine Rodolfo Almiron was arrested in Spain.
Police superintendent Jose Ramon Morales was alleged to have been one of Mr Almiron's main collaborators.
The judge who issued the warrant said both Mr Morales and Mr Almiron are wanted in connection with "crimes against humanity" committed by the Argentine Anti-Communist Alliance, or Triple A.
The group was set up during Juan Domingo Peron's third and last presidency by Jose Lopez Rega, then minister for social welfare.
It continued to operate under the government of Peron's widow, Isabel, during which period most of the killings took place.
Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/americas/6243305.stm
Published: 2007/01/09 00:14:50 GMT
© BBC MMVII
What comes next for Venezuela?
By Greg Morsbach
BBC News, Caracas
Now that the dust has settled after President Hugo Chavez's landslide victory, there is much speculation as to how Venezuela will change in the next few years under his leadership.
Mr Chavez has openly talked of his third term in office as "a new phase" in his long term project for the Latin American country.
He has made no secret during or after his election campaign that his "Bolivarian Revolution", named after the 19th century South American independence leader Simon Bolivar, is heading towards socialism.
In the next 14 years, Mr Chavez wants to turn Venezuela from a capitalist into a socialist society.
The strategic roadmap to help him do that has already been drawn up and is called "The Simon Bolivar National Plan".
A pro-Chavez member of parliament, Carlos Escarra, told the BBC he has been appointed personally by Mr Chavez to prepare sweeping reforms of the nation's constitution.
Name change
Mr Escarra, who is now part of a presidential commission on constitutional reform, said: "One of the proposals is to change the name of our country from Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela to Socialist and Bolivarian Republic.
"This would better reflect the changes that are happening here. But there are also more basic changes to our constitution that are being planned.
"For example, we want to eliminate the old, bureaucratic structures of the state and replace them with grass roots institutions."
Mr Chavez has often talked of how he intends to stay in power until the year 2021 to implement his socialist project.
To remain in office for that long, Mr Chavez and his followers want to change the constitution in order to remove the limits on how many times he can be re-elected in succession.
"That's definitely part of the plan for next year," said Hector Navarro, a senior director for Mr Chavez's election campaign team.
"Remember that President Chavez was re-elected by a wide margin. So that gives him the popular mandate and legitimacy to make big changes."
However, any changes to Venezuela's constitution must first be approved with a two-thirds majority in parliament, and then in a nationwide referendum.
But this should not pose too much of a problem for Venezuela's left-wing leader as parliament is entirely run by his loyalists and a large segment of the population is on record as supporting him.
Constitutional reform
December 2007 has been touted as a possible date for a referendum on the constitution, giving the president plenty of time to prepare the details and seek popular support.
There will be other changes in addition to the constitutional reform, according to many respected analysts.
Most predict that Venezuela's private economy will disappear as we know it.
Orlando Ochoa, a leading economist, forecasts that the free market economy will be replaced by a socialist model where the state will have much greater control over the private sector.
"The state will regulate prices and profits in the private sector," Mr Ochoa said.
Transformations
Alberto Garrido, an independent analyst, is certain that in the next 14 years parts of the economy will simply vanish.
"Private health care and private education will be first in line to be scrapped by the government as part of its drive towards socialism," said Mr Garrido.
"The whole country will be geared towards the motto: one leader - one party - one ideology," he added.
One proposal that is on the table for next year is to create a single political party to represent the Chavistas, the name given to Mr Chavez's supporters.
Remember that President Chavez was re-elected by a wide margin. So that gives him the popular mandate and legitimacy to make big changes
Currently there are a string of parties supporting Mr Chavez - each with their own leaders and party hierarchy.
In terms of foreign relations it is almost certain that the Chavez government will opt for continuity: there is very little appetite in Caracas for a rapprochement with Washington and the Bush administration at present.
Despite the best efforts of the State Department to build bridges following his election victory, there was a frosty reception from Venezuela's firebrand leader.
He dismissed Washington's diplomatic overtures as "insincere".
"They sometimes hold an olive branch out to us. But there are always strings attached. And we, as a sovereign state, cannot accept conditions," Mr Chavez told reporters here at a recent news conference.
However, senior Venezuelan diplomats privately admitted they could envisage a completely different relationship with a Democrat in the White House, particularly with somebody from the Clinton family.
No scrutiny
Venezuela's Deputy Foreign Minister for North American Affairs, Jorge Valero, told the BBC "in the next few years, there will be a lot more cooperation between our government and the nations of the southern hemisphere".
Venezuela is also trying to substitute the US with China as its number one commercial partner.
"The idea for the next few years for Venezuela to sell all the crude oil it presently shipping to the US to the Chinese instead," said Alberto Garrido.
The ultimate goal is to become completely economically independent from the US because Mr Chavez does not want to be a leader who is at the beck and call of the political and economic establishment of North America.
He does not wish to have his democratic credentials, his style of government and his socialist project scrutinised internationally.
Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/americas/6212430.stm
Published: 2006/12/06 05:03:11 GMT
© BBC MMVII
Abe warns world against N Korea
By Chris Hogg
BBC News, Tokyo
Mr Abe became prime minister in September
Shinzo Abe interview
Japan's PM Shinzo Abe says his country cannot tolerate a nuclear-armed North Korea and wants closer international co-operation to stop such an outcome.
In a BBC interview, Mr Abe also defended his plans for Japan to develop a more assertive foreign policy.
He made clear he believes North Korea poses a very grave threat to the world.
Mr Abe begins a trip to Europe in London where he is due to hold discussions with the British Prime Minister Tony Blair.
"If the North Koreans are to possess nuclear weapons that may lead to the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction," he said.
"That could fundamentally undermine the non-proliferation regime, which may then lead to more problems regarding Iran for example."
Mr Abe's visit to Europe is an opportunity for a prime minister who is just a few months into the job to start to build closer relationships with Western leaders.
Japan cannot tolerate North Korea owning nuclear weapons nor the means to deliver them
Shinzo Abe
It comes as he presses ahead at home with plans to re-write the country's pacifist constitution, a move that is causing some concern.
Mr Abe sought to reassure his critics, pointing out that Japan had upheld freedom and democracy for six decades, and saying he plans to discuss with Nato officials what the country can do to promote global peace and stability.
Kidnap issue
Significantly, Mr Abe used the interview - at his offices near the National Diet building in Tokyo - to raise the issue of the abduction of foreign nationals by North Korea.
It was his campaigning on this issue that helped to bring him to prominence in Japanese politics and he takes every opportunity he can to press the point.
JAPAN'S MISSING
Snatched in the '70s and '80s
Used as cultural trainers for N Korean spies
Five allowed home in 2002
Five children now freed from N Korea
Eight said to be dead, others missing
"We believe that this abduction issue is a grave infringement of basic human rights," he said, insisting that "all countries around the world need to address it".
He also said that according to testimonies provided by abductees, who were kidnapped by the North in the 1970's and 80's to train its spies, there are some Europeans.
This has not been verified. North Korea returned five Japanese nationals in 2002 but claimed that others who had been abducted had died.
After visiting London, Mr Abe will also make stops in Berlin, Paris and Brussels.
There he will hold discussions with Nato leaders about closer co-operation between Japan and the alliance.
"By deepening the partnership between Japan and Nato member countries we shall be able to address various problems, conflicts and also peace-building," the prime minister said.
Japan is already working with Nato, supporting operations in Afghanistan for example.
But Mr Abe insists that other nations have nothing to fear from a more assertive Japan.
"I believe we will be able to gain the understanding as well as the confidence of the world regarding Japan's assertiveness" he said.
Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/asia-pacific/6241191.stm
Published: 2007/01/09 04:10:13 GMT
© BBC MMVII
Clashes after China school closed
Chinese authorities have forcibly shut a school in Shanghai for 2,000 children of poor migrants, sparking clashes with parents and teachers, it is reported.
About 300 government officials and police interrupted classes and ordered pupils onto buses at Jianying Hope School in the Putuo district on Friday.
The fracas occurred on Monday after parents returned to demand the children be allowed to finish their school term.
The pupils were mainly children of migrant workers from Anhui province.
The Xinan Evening News, a newspaper published in Anhui province, said police dispersed the crowd, beating and pushing people, although no arrests or serious injuries were reported.
They told us that Jianying is an illegal school and the teaching here was not up to standard
School director Zhen Maohui
The Putuo district police declined to comment on the incident.
Local education officials said the school was closed because its "environment was unsuitable for teaching" and the teachers were "unqualified".
The school's lease was also said to have expired and that it was situated in a land clearance area - earmarked for property or industrial redevelopment, the newspaper reported.
"Police, city management officials and education bureau officials rushed into our school without giving us any notice," the school's director, Zhen Maohui, told AFP news agency.
"They told us that Jianying is an illegal school and the teaching here was not up to standard," said Mr Zhen.
Reports said the students were being transferred to another school in western Shanghai.
'Steep tuition fees'
The BBC's Quentin Sommerville in Beijing says migrants' low pay and long hours has given Chinese manufacturers a great competitive advantage.
But the workers share few of the rights enjoyed by China's city dwellers and are often subject to discrimination, our correspondent adds.
Under Chinese law, children of the country's tens of millions of poor migrant workers are often barred from attending local schools unless they pay steep fees.
Last month, China announced plans to abolish tuition and other fees for 150 million rural students, in a bid to narrow the gap between wealthy coastal provinces and poorer regions.
However, children of rural families who have migrated to China's booming cities will not be included.
Last year, the Beijing city government began a campaign to shut down up to 239 unregistered migrant schools attended by more than 95,000 children.
While these schools are usually unregistered, human rights groups say they exist because of the government's refusal to help migrant workers and their families.
Strong demand for land for urban redevelopment in Shanghai, Beijing and other cities has also sharpened such conflicts.
Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/asia-pacific/6243997.stm
Published: 2007/01/09 12:52:41 GMT
© BBC MMVII
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