Posted on 09/30/2006 10:18:39 AM PDT by DAVEY CROCKETT
A good memory jogger page of articles:
http://www.rferl.org/specials/chechnya/
Links to several about Anna P.
http://www.rferl.org/featuresarticle/2006/11/E0E30694-727A-48D0-AF05-77ECC4E3EDFD.html
http://www.rferl.org/specials/archive/2006.asp
http://www.slate.com/id/2154518/entry/0/fr/rss/
GoogleBombing the midterms
[list at link]
The November 12 New York Times noted that a familiar Internet prank had been elevated during the recent congressional midterm elections to a campaign tool. The Times called it "loaded links," but more typically the technique is called Googlebombing. The idea is to get lots of Web sites to use the same "anchor text" (i.e., the text you actually see in hyperlinks) to link to a particular Web page. Because of the peculiarities of Google's search algorithms, this raises the Google ranking of that Web page much higher than would otherwise be the case. The campaign application is obvious: create a pattern of links that will offer up negative commentary about a particular candidate to Google users. This variety of Googlebombing appears to be the first campaign dirty trick (practitioners prefer the term "netroots citizen activism") in many a year to be pioneered by Democrats.
Two weeks before the election, Chris Bowers, a blogger on the left-leaning Web site mydd.com, conducted a small experiment called "the Google Bomb Project" that recruited other liberal bloggers and got impressive results, driving selected negative links to the first page of Google search results for more than half of the Republican congressional candidates. A volunteer named Lucas O'Conner posted the response you see below detailing the remarkable outcome (36 candidate "bombs" appeared on the first search results page after only one week) and pondering what it may augur for future elections. O'Conner also examined the project's "efficacy, morality, and general point," which he defended on the grounds that the press isn't doing enough impartial analytical reporting. As Fox News might say: We manipulate algorithms, you decide.
continued.........
http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/news/archives/2006/11/28/the_quiet_death_of_malachi_ritscher.html#more
The quiet death of Malachi Ritscher
By Matthew Weaver / Iraq/ USA 12:31pm
Malachi.Ritscher
Malachi Ritscher. Photo: Joeff Davis/APBefore burning himself to death, Malachi Ritscher wrote in a suicide note that his fellow Americans had become "more concerned with sports on television and ring-tones on cellphones than the future of the world".
He didn't realise how prophetic his words would turn out to be. His self-immolation on Chicago's Kennedy expressway was intended as a high-profile anti-war protest that could not be ignored. He set up a sign saying "Thou shalt not kill" and he explained on his website: "If I am required to pay for your barbaric war, I choose not to live in your world."
But at the time of his gruesome protest, which occurred on November 3, no one (with the odd exception) paid much attention to the story.
This media "blackout" has generated a slew of blog comment and criticism, with bloggers latching on to it as proof of the media's fixation on the "trivial, mundane or the painfully obvious", as Words Matter put it.
A post on Indymedia by Jennifer Diaz says the lack of coverage is a sign of how "the once objective news media have become politicized conglomerates either owned by or cozy with the powers that they are supposed to be watchdogging".
This being America, there are also some on the right urging people to stop "lionising" Ritscher, while others dismiss him as "delusional" because he regretted not having killed Donald Rumsfeld when he had the chance.
Now, more than three weeks after Ritscher's death, the media are picking up the story. They may have ignored the original anti-war protest, but not the anti-media protest that followed it.
Contemporaria
This post was last changed at 12:31 PM, November 28 2006, at a time when the top headline on Guardian Unlimited was BBC dismay at Grade's ITV move, and the top headline from the BBC was Labour and Tory loans total £59m, and there were posts elsewhere tagged with these same keywords:
The post was written by Matthew Weaver. You can email the author at matthew.weaver@guardian.co.uk
http://www.guardian.co.uk/frontpage/story/0,,1959448,00.html
BAE secret millions linked to arms broker
Swiss bank accounts traced as row over Eurofighter contract escalates
David Leigh and Rob Evans
Wednesday November 29, 2006
Guardian
Secret payments of millions of pounds from Britain's biggest arms company have been found in Swiss accounts linked to Wafic Said, a billionaire arms broker for the Saudi Royal family, according to legal sources.
Mr Said refused last night to speak about the allegations. But the discovery presents the biggest potential breakthrough yet achieved in the Serious Fraud Office's three year investigation into allegations that illegal commissions may have been paid to Saudi royals by BAE Systems.
Details from the accounts would help to establish whether money was channelled to members of the Saudi ruling clan, and the amounts involved. The development comes amid threats from the company and its chief executive, Mike Turner, that the SFO's ongoing inquiry threatens to damage the UK economy. He has claimed that the Saudi royal family may take a £6bn contract from BAE and give it to the French instead.
The company wants the SFO to abandon the investigation before the Saudis pull out of the deal for a new fleet of 72 Eurofighter Typhoons.
Speculation over the progress of the inquiry led to a dip in the company's share price earlier this week.
But the SFO appears determined to focus on the accounts and their links to 68-year-old Mr Said. A billionaire in his own right, he is a friend of Peter Mandelson and has been a donor to the Conservative party. A tax-resident in Monaco, Mr Said has built a huge Palladian mansion on his Oxfordshire estate.
Though he is not regarded himself as a target of the inquiry - BAE acknowledges that the inquiry is aimed at the company - Mr Said has been a business manager for the sons of Saudi crown prince Sultan.
He has previously conceded that he has been an intermediary on Saudi arms deals struck over 20 years. He is credited with playing a key role in launching the Al-Yamamah deal in 1985, which has brought £43bn of revenue to BAE and has been the focus of the SFO inquiry.
Mr Said has always denied receiving commissions from BAE.
Legal sources say the SFO is likely to want to inspect his accounts to see if they show whether BAE payments were passed to members of the Saudi royal family, and when. Officers have been looking at whether any payments were made after 2002, when they were outlawed.
According to City sources, Mr Said's link to the investigation emerged after official notification to the arms broker by the Swiss authorities that access was being sought to bank accounts of a company registered anonymously in Panama.
Both the Swiss legal authorities in Bern, and the SFO director, Robert Wardle, have been keeping their moves secret.
Swiss authorities said yesterday: "The office of the attorney general of Switzerland confirms being in charge of the execution of a request for mutual legal assistance in criminal matters from the UK serious fraud office relating to this case." They and the SFO refuse to give any further details. But after Mr Said and other account-holders were alerted by the Swiss, he hired the City law firm Clifford Chance to represent him.
A series of British newspapers were briefed that the latest Saudi contract to buy Eurofighters was in danger and that the SFO should "put up or shut up".
The MoD, which is negotiating the deal to sell Eurofighters, remained silent.
The only person with the power to halt joint SFO-MoD police inquiries is the attorney general, Lord Goldsmith. But Britain is party to an OECD agreement, under which national economic interests are not allowed to stand in the way of efforts to stamp out bribery. Britain criminalised overseas corruption in 2002, but has not yet brought a prosecution.
Lord Goldsmith has been scrupulous in not bringing political pressure to bear on investigators, Westminster sources say. To do so would cause political uproar. Yesterday, a Lib Dem frontbencher, Norman Lamb, said: "The idea that pressure from a foreign government can hinder a serious criminal investigation is abhorrent."
BAE said: "BAE Systems is not obstructing the investigation and continues to fully co-operate with the SFO." Their spokesman said: "We will not be commenting on any point of substance. This cannot be taken as any kind of admission."
Guardian Unlimited © Guardian News and Media Limited 2006
http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,,1959296,00.html
US university sued for return of 'misused' £750m endowment
Ed Pilkington in New York
Wednesday November 29, 2006
Guardian
American universities are closely watching a legal action in New Jersey that could determine whether they continue to have the freedom to spend billions of dollars in annual donations as they see fit.
The two-day hearing, which began yesterday, has been brought by the children of Charles and Marie Robertson, among the largest benefactors to Princeton University. They seek control of the endowment, saying it has not been spent in accordance with their parents' wishes.
The donation of $35m was made in 1961 out of a supermarket inheritance. The fund, which has now grown to more than £750m, was given to the university's Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs.
Charles Robertson was a graduate of Princeton and went on to work in US naval intelligence in the second world war. He stipulated that the endowment should be used to train graduates to enter government service in international affairs. Woodrow Wilson, who was president of Princeton before going on to the White House, gave the university its motto: "In the nation's service." The Robertson children, led by the benefactors' son William, issued a writ in 2002. They say relatively few graduates from the school have been placed in government foreign-policy jobs.
"University officials secretly used the foundation's growing endowment as a piggy bank, diverting more than $200m to activities, projects, programmes and personnel unrelated to the mission," William Robertson said in a statement.
The action has been brought under the Donor Bill of Rights which gives philanthropists the right "to be assured their gifts will be used for the purposes for which they were given". The university argues that its academic freedom is under threat, and is making the counter-claim that its right to administer the endowment as it sees fit should be upheld.
The financial stakes could also be high for other US universities, which collectively receive $24bn a year in donations. In 1995, Yale was ordered to return a $20m gift from a rich Texan because it failed to follow his stipulation that the money be spent on a course on western civilisation.
Guardian Unlimited © Guardian News and Media Limited 2006
http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,,1959525,00.html
Poisoning puts business with Russia under a cloud
· Investor trust put at risk after Litvinenko death
· Kremlin 'more concerned about asserting its power'
Terry Macalister
Wednesday November 29, 2006
Guardian
The poisoning in London of a former KGB officer, Alexander Litvinenko, will damage investor confidence in Russia, the primary trade association representing those doing business between Britain and Russia warned yesterday.
The warning comes at a time of unprecedented interest in Russian companies raising money on the London Stock Exchange, and coincides with increased criticism by Moscow of Shell and other western firms operating in Russia.
"While there is no proof as to who is responsible, this horrible incident will add fuel to the negative views expressed in the western media about the rule of law in Russia and the activities of the Russian state," said Godfrey Cromwell, executive director of the Russo-British Chamber of Commerce, which celebrates its 90th anniversary this year .
"Such things matter a great deal to investors looking at Russia and, whoever was the perpetrator, this type of publicity will deter some investors," he added.
Businessmen active in the west such as Russian emigre, Alex Konanykhin, agree. "Foreign investors now read reports about Russia being an authoritarian country where political opposition has been stifled and where the legal system is controlled by the government and used for taking over lucrative companies," said Mr Konanykhin who is a former friend of the now-jailed Mikhail Khodorkovsky, founder of Russian oil company Yukos.
Despite the bad publicity, Mr Konanyhkin does not think it will change the ways of the Kremlin.
The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) this week criticised the Russian government for its expansion into key economic sectors in a report on the economy. It also pointed to concerns about Gazprom the state-run energy company, and its "seemingly insatiable appetite for asset acquisition."
But Artyom Konchin, equity analyst with Aton Capital in Moscow, is confident that western investors will not be chased away by the latest high-profile problems. "I have not seen any [negative] echoes yet and I do not expect the sentiment of investors to change much. People are very pragmatic when it comes to money," he argues.
"After all, 90% of those who invested in [the recent flotation of] Rosneft were those who invested in Yukos [the company alleged to have had its assets stolen by Rosneft]," he adds.
A huge swath of Russian companies - many coming from the sector such as Rosneft - have had full shares or depository receipts listed on the London Stock Exchange.
The electricity generator, OGK-5, is one of the latest businesses to successfully raise money despite unease about the way western groups such as Shell and BP are being treated in Russia.
Shell has been under attack over alleged environmental damage on its Sakhalin-2 gas project amid attempts by Russian state-owned Gazprom, to muscle into the scheme.
Many Russian commentators put the two events together and Mr Konchin says there is no doubt that the Kremlin would like more control over a sector where the value has rocketed on the back of rising energy prices.
Mr Konanykhin believes the Kremlin is more concerned about asserting its own political power than worrying about what foreign politicians or investors think.
On the road from Moscow
Alex Konanykhin the former banker, says he has been hunted relentlessly from one continent to another for over a decade by forces acting for the Kremlin.
A beneficiary of the early 1990s move from a managed to a free enterprise economy, Mr Konanykhin once ran a $300m finance house in Moscow - the Russian Exchange Bank.
But in 1992 he discovered that two former KGB men had approached individual shareholders about winning their stakes in an attempt to launch a takeover. Within days Mr Konanykhin found himself being kidnapped by associates of the two men while on a business trip to Budapest with his wife.
"You will sign your companies and bank accounts over to us," the men demanded. When he asked what would happen if he did not, they replied: "Then you might accidentally drown in your apartment's bath."
Mr Konanykhin and his wife Elena managed to flee, first to Slovakia and then to America but soon found many of their assets in Russia frozen and their reputations shredded by the KGB.
By 1994, one of the banker's former kidnappers was boasting in a Russian business newspaper that he wouldn't bet a dollar on Mr Konanykhin's life.
The Russian businessman, who was granted political asylum in the US and now runs an internet business there, says his attempts to win justice in his home country and question the ethics of the state that allowed this to happen just got him deeper into conflict. The FBI warned him in 1995 to take care as they had information that the KGB had hired US mafia men to get rid of him.
The Russian government tried three times to get him extradited with the help of US officials but he managed to fight them off with court judgments that deemed the attempts unlawful.
Mr Konanykhin, who has taken up martial arts with a vengeance, says he keeps fear at bay with "mental training". And while he no longer expects to meet a violent death, he says he will not be having children with the wife he loves.
"Children represent a perfect pressure point. A man might stop caring about himself but will have difficulty in stopping caring about people he loves."
Guardian Unlimited © Guardian News and Media Limited 2006
[there are many good comments on the site]
http://www.guardian.co.uk/russia/article/0,,1957728,00.html
Corruption, violence and vice have triumphed in Putin's Russia
The president may not have personally ordered Litvinenko's murder, but he is overlord of a culture which legitimised it
Max Hastings
Monday November 27, 2006
Guardian
In Moscow shortly after 9/11 a clever Russian academic told me: "Don't believe all that stuff Putin is dishing out about how sorry we all are about what has happened. A lot of people here are thrilled to see the Americans get a kicking." A few months ago I heard a cluster of diplomats lament the difficulties of doing business with the Russians. "They still see negotiation in the old cold-war way, as a zero-sum game," said one. "If the west wants something, it must be bad for Moscow."
Few of us today want to see the Russians as enemies. We admire their music and literature, sympathise with their appalling history and, a few years ago, delighted in their emergence from the sour, brooding seclusion in which they languished for most of the 20th century.
It is precisely because we feel goodwill towards them that there is something of the bitterness of rejected courtship in our response to their recent behaviour, of which the apparent murder of Alexander Litvinenko is a bleak manifestation.
Why, having tasted freedom and democracy, should they wish to return to the murderous practices of Stalinism? How can they acquiesce in Putin's restoration of tyranny? Here is a nation suddenly granted wealth which might enable its people to become prosperous social democrats like us.
Instead, to our bewilderment, Russia is institutionalising a state gangster culture which promises repression and ultimate economic failure for itself, fear and alienation from the rest of the world. We hear of few Russians at home or abroad who have achieved wealth through honest toil. Instead, the tools of success in Putin's universe are corruption, violence, vice and licensed theft on a colossal scale.
"Complex feelings of insecurity, of envy and resentment towards Europe ... define the Russian national consciousness," wrote Orlando Figes, the outstanding British historian of the country. Underpinning all Putin's dealings with the outside world is a demand for respect, a rage at perceived western condescension. This is shared by his people, in a fashion which goes far to explain why so many support his policies.
Frustration about lack of respect has been woven into Russian foreign policy for centuries, accentuated under communist rule. A Romanian who visited Russia in September 1944 was awed by the hardships accepted by Stalin's people. He noted a blend of arrogance and inferiority complex in their attitudes to the outside world: "They are aware of their great victories but at the same time fear they are not being shown sufficient respect. This upsets them."
Russian responses to western failures of deference have often been indistinguishable from those of the yob on a suburban train who assaults an innocent commuter because he dislikes the way the man looks at him. State violence has been an unembarrassed part of the Russian polity since time immemorial.
There was much hand-wringing in the west earlier this year when Russia's parliament formally endorsed the principle that its government enjoys a right to hunt down state enemies overseas. Moscow dismissed the foreign reaction as bourgeois hypocrisy. Had not President Bush publicly committed the US to a doctrine of preventive war against entire countries which he deems a threat to American security?
It is possible to believe, as I do, that Putin did not personally order the murder of Alexander Litvinenko, while regarding the Russian president as overlord of a culture which legitimised it. Putin cannot shrug off a simple truth about his society: his friends and supporters walk the streets in safety and wealth; his foes perish in horrible ways, with dismal frequency. The murder of one Russian journalist critical of his regime might be dismissed as mischance. The deaths of 20 mock Kremlin protestations of innocence.
The end of the cold war looks more and more like one of those practical jokes the gods play upon mankind. We rushed to celebrate the fall of the wall, the passing of an era in which east and west threatened each other with nuclear annihilation. Yet we now perceive that dealing with a Russia rich in energy wealth presents more complex challenges.
It is a notable irony that the RAF will soon get the first of £20bn worth of Typhoon fighters, an idiotic cold-war legacy. All the participating European governments involved flinched before the diplomatic difficulties and job losses which would have followed cancellation. We are to possess a formidable force of aircraft designed to shoot down Soviet bombers.
It is hard to conceive any scenario in which Moscow will launch bombers against the west. Instead we must confront a defiant new Russia, fortified by possession of a substantial part of the world's oil and gas reserves in an era when energy competition will be critical. Even if Scotland Yard delivers a report on the Litvinenko death which concludes that the Kremlin was directly responsible, it is hard to see how Tony Blair could respond by ordering the scrambling of Typhoons.
Thus far, the response of European governments to Russian gangsterism and intransigence can either be dignified as temperate or scorned as appeasement. Blair has sought to forge a personal friendship with Putin. The former German chancellor Gerhard Schröder has been rewarded for his support of Moscow policies with a directorship of Gazprom - the company building a pipeline that will supply gas directly from Russia to Germany. At the G8 in St Petersburg earlier this year, other world powers sought to treat the Russians as if they were people like us, in the lingering hope that they will become so.
This seems fanciful. At the heart of Putin's policies is a determination to restore the old Soviet Union's might and influence. It is hard to see how these would be exercised towards ends that the west would consider benign.
Though George Bush's follies have debased the coinage of freedom and democracy, these remain noble objectives, never likely to be shared by Moscow. This is a city where taxi drivers see no embarrassment in carrying miniature portraits of Stalin on their dashboards, where the British historian Antony Beevor is denounced because he speaks the truth about Soviet excesses in the second world war.
The Russian archives, which provided such a bonanza for western researchers for more than a decade after they were opened, are now largely closed again. There is no pretence that this reflects national-security requirements. It is merely because Putin was disgusted by the revelations which the files yielded to us about the horrors of the Stalinist era. The collapse of the Soviet Union, which the world perceived as a triumph for freedom, is described by the president himself as the greatest calamity of the 20th century.
Western revulsion from Russian behaviour, including the murder of Litvinenko, merely feeds Russian paranoia. Our hopes that contact with the west will persuade the new Russia to adopt civilised behaviour look threadbare. "We sometimes say that one must be very unlucky to be born in Russia," a melancholy tourist guide said to me in St Petersburg a couple of years back. The west has no choice save to continue the weary struggle to engage with Moscow. It would be naive, however, to anticipate that freedom and respect for law will triumph any day soon in that tragic, sometimes apparently accursed society.
comment@guardian.co.uk
Guardian Unlimited © Guardian News and Media Limited 2006
US Airways flight to Houston makes emergency landing in Tucson
TUCSON, Ariz. -- A US Airways flight from Phoenix to Houston had to
make a
precautionary emergency landing here Monday afternoon because of a
slight
depressurization in the plane's cabin, airline officials said.
A spokeswoman for Tempe, Ariz.-based US Airways said there were no
injuries
among the 124 passengers and five crew members aboard.
One person did complain of sickness, but a doctor on board evaluated it
as a
pre-existing condition not associated with the depressurization,
authorities
said.
The plane left Phoenix's Sky Harbor International Airport around 3:50
p.m.
and experienced the slight depressurization problem shortly into the
flight,
according to the airlines spokeswoman.
The captain decided to make a precautionary emergency landing at Tucson
International Airport. The plane was being checked and was expected to
depart Tucson later Monday night to continue its route to Houston.
http://kvoa.com/Global/story.asp?S=5736190
Aviation Safety Council backs pilot over Jeju near miss
The Cabinet's Aviation Safety Council (ASC) yesterday released its
preliminary investigation report on the near mid-air collision over
South
Korea's Jeju Island on Nov. 16, stating that the action taken by the
pilot
of the Far Eastern Air Transport flight FE306 was correct.
According to the ASC's report, pilot Chen Szu-han ( ) reacted
appropriately throughout the incident.
Although the plane plunged about 490m within 10 seconds to avoid a
nearby
aircraft, the ASC believed that the sudden plunge was "acceptable."
no comment
However, the ASC refused to comment on the question of whether Korean
air-traffic controllers were responsible for the near collision.
According to the ASC's interview with Chen, he was granted permission
to
lower his aircraft's position from 11,887m to 9,449m at 10:04am as it
approached Jeju International Airport. But when the plane descended to
10,607m three minutes later, air traffic controllers suddenly told him
to
stop his descent immediately.
Meanwhile, the aircraft's collision warning alarm also sounded and Chen
saw
a Thai Airways flight heading towards his aircraft. He immediately put
his
aircraft into a dive in accordance with the instructions of the alarm
system, while air controllers ordered that the plane descend
immediately.
investigation team
According to ASC Chairman Wu Jing-shown ( ), South Korea's Aviation
and Railway Accident Investigation Board (ARAIB) has authorized his
council
to lead the investigation team.
The ASC will release a complete report after the interpretation of both
the
plane's Cockpit Voice Recorder (CVR) and the Flight Data Recorder
(FDR).
Thai Airways also promised to send the FDR of its flight to Taiwan
soon, in
order to help identify the cause of the near miss.
http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/taiwan/archives/2006/11/25/2003337790
Nigeria: Air Passenger Traffic Unaffected by Safety Threats
Daily Trust (Abuja)
Recent events in the aviation industry, including threats to air
travels,
have not adversely affected passenger traffic at the domestic terminal
of
the Murtala Muhammed Airport, Ikeja.
A correspondent of the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that normal
flight schedules were being operated by airline operators.
Some of the airlines whose operating licences were withdrawn by the
Nigeria
Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA), were, however, deserted by passengers.
NCAA at the weekend suspended the operating licences of Sosoliso
airlines,
while it grounded some aircraft in the fleet of some other airlines,
including Fresh Air and IRS.
Security operatives had also on Sunday aborted moves by some Nigerians
to
smuggle explosives aboard a Bellview aircraft heading for Abuja.
Mr Amos Atanda, a Kaduna bound passenger, told NAN that the events of
last
weekend had shown an improvement in the security situation and safety
regulations in the aviation industry.
"The grounding of some airlines will ensure the safety of lives of
innocent
passengers like me," he said, and commended efforts of security
operatives
in foiling the bid to smuggle explosives aboard a Bellview aircraft.
Another traveller, Mr Femi Olaoye, who was travelling to Abuja,
observed
that although the occurrences were scary, they were not enough to
prevent
him from traveling by air.
Alhaji Mohammed Tukur, Coordinator and Public Relations Manager of
Chanchangi Airlines, told NAN that the attempt to smuggle explosives
aboard
a flight was capable of creating fear in the minds of the travelling
public.
He, however, noted that the airline had continued to record appreciable
increase in the number of passengers on its flights.
The Station Manager of NICON airways, Mr Kayode Adeniran, said that the
airline was still operating its scheduled flights, noting that only one
of
its aircraft was withdrawn for normal technical overhaul. (NAN)
http://allafrica.com/stories/200611270252.html
Second Accident Near KVGT In Three Days Raises Eyebrows
No One Injured In Forced Landings
Two close calls in three days near the North Las Vegas airport have
caught
the interest of city officials, and the FAA.
The pilot of a Cessna 414 made a forced landing Sunday afternoon on a
city
street near the airport. The plane -- which was heading for North Las
Vegas
from San Luis Obispo, CA -- hit three power poles, but all three
persons
onboard the twin escaped injury.
No one on the ground was hurt. The plane caught fire shortly after the
crash, but the flames were quickly put out by firefighters responding
to the
scene.
"Not something you'd expect on a Sunday afternoon; I was just glad they
missed our houses. This pilot must have been very good, because he was
able
to glide it down a little bit, and miss all the houses," said resident
Barbara Dunkley to television station KVBC-3.
Two days before, another aircraft flying to Las Vegas made a forced
landing
about one mile from the runway at KVGT. The FAA states the pilot of the
Cessna 210 had declared a fuel emergency prior to the Friday accident.
None
of the six persons onboard were seriously hurt.
That both accidents occurred within a three-day period may be nothing
more
than lousy timing. City officials, however, say the North Las Vegas
Airport
has connections to a series of general aviation accidents, include an
April
2003 crash of a Cessna 172 in a practice area near a local high school.
That
accident claimed the lives of a student pilot, and the FAA examiner
administering a private pilot checkride.
A week before that accident, one pilot was injured when his Beechcraft
V35
Bonanza crashed after takeoff, in another apparent fuel-starvation
incident.
The FAA and NTSB are on the scene to investigate the two latest
accidents,
which like all the others happened off of KVGT airport property.
The North Las Vegas airport has attracted the FAA's attention before,
however. The agency named KVGT the second-worst airport for runway
incursions in a 2003 study. Los Angeles International was ranked number
one.
FMI: Read The FAA Preliminary Reports:
http://www.faa.gov/data_statistics/accident_incident/preliminary_data/media/
A_1127_N.txt
aero-news.net
Today in History:
November 29, 1987 - Korea (Republic of)
Bombing of KAL Flight 858
Korean Air Lines Flight 858 was blown up over the Andaman Sea near Burma by two North Korean agents, killing all 115 persons aboard.
November 29, 1945 - Serbia-Montenegro
Republic Day
No information provided.
Upcoming Significant Events:
November 30, 1966 - Barbados
Independence Day
No information provided.
November 30, 1967 - Yemen
Independence Day
South Arabia, including Aden, was declared independant by the National Liberation Front (NLF) and was renamed the People's Republic of South Yemen.
November 30, 1989 - Germany, Federal Republic of
Assassination of Herrhausen
Alfred Herrhausen, the head of Deutche Bank AG and the most influential businessman in Germany, was assassinated by terrorists of the Red Army Faction (RAF) on November 30, 1989 in a Frankfurt suburb as Herrhausen was being driven to work. A very sophisticated light-activated bomb was detonated as Herrhausen's car drove by. The killing shook Germany.
December 1, 1918 - Serbia-Montenegro
Independent State Established
No information provided.
December 1, 1940 - Thailand
Thai Communist Party Founded
No information provided.
December 1, 1958 - Central African Republic
National Day
The Central African Republic became an autonomous republic within the French community.
December 1, 1970 - Yemen
Declaration of the PDRY
The People's Democratic Republic of Yemen (PDRY) was declared following the takeover of the government by a radical wing of the National Liberation Front (NLF).
December 1, 1989 - Philippines
Sixth Coup Attempt Begins
The sixth attempt to overthrow the Aquino government was begun by disaffected elements of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP).
December 1, 1990 - Romania
National Day of Romania
National holiday
December 2, 1971 - United Arab Emirates
Independence Day
The British protective treaty with the Trucial sheikhdoms ended on December 1, 1971, and on December 2, six of the shaikhdoms entered into the Union of the United Arab Emirates. The seventh sheikhdom, Ras Al-Khaimah, joined in early 1972.
December 2, 1975 - Laos
Communist Party Seizes Control
The monarchy was abolished and the Lao People's Democratic Republic was established. National holiday.
December 2, 1983 - Spain
Bombing of U.S. Facilities
Basque terrorists bombed eight U.S. facilities in Spanish Basque territory to protest U.S. involvement in Central America.
December 3, 1934 - Peru
Birthday of Abimael Guzman
Abimael Guzman, also known as "President Gonzalo," is the founder and leader of the Sendero Luminoso guerrilla organization. Guzman's followers often "celebrate" his birthday by carrying out attacks or murdering soldiers, public servants, and municipal authorities.
December 3, 1984 - India
Chemical Leak at Bhopal
A chemical leak at Union Carbide's Bhopal plant resulted in two thousand deaths and nearly 150,000 injuries.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061129/ap_on_re_us/terrorist_designation_7
Judge strikes down Bush on terror groups
Posted on Tuesday, November 28, 2006 at 10:08pm
A federal judge struck down President Bush's authority to designate groups as terrorists, saying his post-Sept. 11 executive order was unconstitutionally vague, according to a ruling released Tuesday. The Humanitarian Law Project had challenged Bush's order, which blocked all the assets of groups or individuals he named as "specially designated global terrorists" after the 2001 terrorist attacks.
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,20867,20840327-2703,00.html
Italian who met spy held for tests
Correspondents in London
29nov06
AN Italian academic was in protective custody in London and awaiting tests for radiation exposure last night, after the death by poisoning of former Russian spy Alexander Litvinenko.
Mario Scaramella, who met Litvinenko at a London sushi bar on November 1, was said by SKY TV and the BBC to be undergoing tests to determine whether he, too, had been contaminated by polonium-210.
Professor Scaramella is said to have given the former secret serviceman a Russian security services hit list on which both their names featured.
Daily Mirror reporter Graham Brough revealed he was sent for tests after tracking down and interviewing Professor Scaramella in Italy. He wrote in last night's edition of the tabloid that he was referred for tests after contacting a special phone line set up after Litvinenko's death last Thursday.
"They asked a series of questions, then homed in on the fact that Scaramella's palm had been slightly sweaty when I shook hands," he said.
Scotland Yard detectives are following a radioactive trail left around London by Litvinenko in an attempt to discover where the former KGB spy was poisoned.
They are using his mobile telephone and CCTV cameras to plot his exact route as he met a number of wealthy Russians, business partners and nuclear experts on the day he fell ill.
So far, Litvinenko appears to have left a trace of the radioactive isotope polonium-210 at almost every place he visited. The substance has now been found at seven locations but police said last night they would check other places he may have visited on November 1.
Polonium-210 - large quantities of which were found in Litvinenko's urine - has already been found at a hotel and the sushi bar where he met Professor Scaramella before falling ill as well as at his north London home. On his deathbed, Litvinenko was able to recount to detectives most of the places at which he stopped and whom he met that day.
Officers are using surveillance cameras from shops and business premises to determine if anyone was following the Russian dissident, who was recently given British citizenship.
Forensic experts found samples of the radioactive material at two more locations in central London yesterday, including an office block in Mayfair that includes a company linked to exiled Russian oligarch Boris Berezovsky. A second location where polonium-210 was uncovered is a mansion block converted into offices in Grosvenor Street, close to the Millennium Hotel, where Litvinenko reportedly discussed a proposed business deal in oil and gas exploration with three Russians.
Part of the intensive care ward at London's University College Hospital remains sealed off, as do parts of the Millennium Hotel and the Itsu sushi bar in Piccadilly. Litvinenko's wife, Marina, and 12-year-old son, Anatole, have been given health checks and are understood to show no signs of contamination. They are being protected by police at a safe house.
The inquest into Litvinenko's death will open tomorrow but is expected to be adjourned.
The Times
© The Australian
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,20867,20839572-2703,00.html
Burma a threat to peace, US warns
Correspondents in New York
29nov06
THE US has attacked Burma's military government as a threat to international peace and security, and called for UN action to force a change in its polices.
US ambassador to the UN John Bolton said yesterday he planned to push for a Security Council resolution to pressure Rangoon for change.
Mr Bolton cited the Burmese Government's failure to curb trafficking in drugs and people and to end abuses that have led one million people to flee the country, and actions that have made the transmission of diseases such as AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria more likely.
"The policies the Government has been pursuing ... continue to contribute to instability in the region, and therefore, in our view, constitute a threat to international peace and security," the US envoy said.
The first resolution would not seek sanctions against Burma, he said. "What it will do is lay out what we expect Burma's performance to be.
"We need to focus on concrete changes in Burmese policy," he said. "The resolution will focus on those elements of the Government's policies that do threaten stability in the region and more broadly."
Burma is already on the Security Council's agenda, which means it is under UN scrutiny.
But Washington faces an uphill struggle to get the Security Council to take tough action against the country.
China strongly opposed putting Burma on the agenda, as did Russia. And both are veto-wielding members of the Security Council.
The renewed US push for action also highlights the difference in approaches to Burma by Washington and Canberra. Australian government agencies have been involved in providing counter-terrorist training for Burmese officials, as part of broader programs for ASEAN member nations.
Mr Bolton announced plans for the Burma resolution after a Security Council briefing from undersecretary-general for political affairs Ibrahim Gambari, who has just returned from Rangoon, where he met imprisoned pro-democracy leader and Nobel peace prize-winner Aung San Suu Kyi.
Mr Gambari said afterwards he had raised with the Burmese Government the need to release all political prisoners, including Ms Suu Kyi.
"Her health is fair considering the circumstances of her prolonged detention," he said. "She asked to have more regular visits by her doctor and I'm pleased to note that on November 16 she was allowed to see her doctor." The doctor had previously seen her on August 24.
Mr Bolton said the US was concerned about Ms Suu Kyi's physical condition. "We think, obviously, she should be released from house arrest, but at a minimum they have to make sure that she is not denied appropriate humanitarian assistance," he said.
Ms Suu Kyi looked gaunt in a rare photograph released by the UN after her meeting with Mr Gambari in Rangoon.
Mr Gambari said he had raised with the Burmese Government the importance of including Ms Suu Kyi's party, the National League for Democracy, in the political process.
He said he expressed the need for an agreement between the Government and UN agencies to deliver humanitarian aid, an agreement with the International Labour Organisation to address complaints about forced labour, and a halt to fighting with rebel ethnic minorities.
"None of the issues raised, or suggestions I raised, were rejected, so they are all on the table and we are just waiting for concrete action on their part," Mr Gambari said.
"The ball is clearly in the court of the Government."
AP
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,20867,20840312-2703,00.html
US to blame, Iran leader tells Iraq
Correspondents in Tehran and Baghdad
29nov06
SUPREME leader Ali Khamenei, Iran's highest authority, told the Iraqi President last night that the US occupation and US-backed regional "agents" were to blame for the violence in Iraq.
Ayatollah Khamenei told Jalal Talabani at talks in Tehran that Iran was ready to help restore security in Iraq if Baghdad wished, echoing comments made a day earlier by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
The US says the fighting in Iraq is being fuelled by Iranian weapons exports and its backing for Shia Muslim groups - charges that Tehran rejects.
"The first step to resolve the insecurity in Iraq is the withdrawal of the occupiers and handing over the security issues to the Iraqi Government, which is backed by the people," state television quoted Ayatollah Khamenei as telling Mr Talabani at their meeting in Tehran.
"Some US agents in the region are the middlemen for implementing American policies and creating an insecure Iraq.
"Supporting terrorist groups in Iraq and igniting insecurity ... will be very dangerous for America's agents and the region."
Iraqis fear a new wave of sectarian bloodletting after a bombing in Baghdad's Shia slum of Sadr City on Thursday killed 202 people, the worst such attack since the US invasion in 2003.
UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan said Iraq had been pushed closer to civil war and called for Iran and Syria to help.
"In case of Iraq's request, Iran will do its utmost to help establish security in Iraq," Ayatollah Khamenei said, saying Iran wanted a secure and prosperous neighbour.
Mr Talabani said at the start of his visit on Monday that Iraq wanted Iran's assistance.
Washington is facing growing calls to enter a dialogue with Iran to help end the violence. The White House said the issue of talking to Iran and Syria about Iraq was likely to be raised at a meeting this week between President George W. Bush and Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki.
Mr Bush said last night conditions for the US to hold talks with Tehran, which Washington accuses of seeking to develop nuclear weapons, had not changed.
"As far as the US goes, Iran knows how to get to the table with us, which is to do that which they said they would do, which is verifiably suspend their enrichment program," he said in Tallinn, the Estonian capital.
The US and other Western powers insist Iran must suspend nuclear work before negotiations start on a package of economic and political incentives offered by six world powers.
Iran insists it only wants nuclear technology for electricity and does not seek atomic bombs.
Mr Talabani's attempt to enlist Tehran's help in halting Iraq's slide into civil war came as a senior US intelligence official said the Iranian-backed group Hezbollah was training members of the Mahdi Army, the Shia militia led by rebel cleric Moqtada al-Sadr.
Mr Talabani, in Tehran for two days of talks with Mr Ahmadinejad, said Iraq was "desperately in need of help" to quell the escalating insurgent attacks.
After talks with the Iraqi leader, Mr Ahmadinejad said: "We have no limits in offering our help to our brothers in Iraq, the Iraqi nation and the Iraqi government. If there is peace and stability in Iraq, there is peace and stability in Iran, and there would be peace and stability in the region."
Mr Talabani's trip had been delayed for three days because of a government-imposed curfew to bring calm to Baghdad.
The visit by the Iraqi President, a Kurd from northern Iraq with long ties to both US officials and Iranian leaders, was seen as a sign that Iraq's neighbours, who have taken in thousands of refugees since the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003, were fearful of chaos spreading across their borders.
Syria's President Bashar Assad was invited to the talks by the Iranian President, but officials said he was unlikely to attend.
Reuters, AP
© The Australian
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,20867,20845077-2703,00.html
Second Russian in poison mystery
Peter Wilson, Europe correspondent
30nov06
THE intrigue surrounding the radiation poisoning of a former KGB agent in London last week has taken another twist, with the disclosure that former Russian prime minister Yegor Gaidar is in hospital with a mysterious illness that his friends say could be another poisoning.
Anatoly Chubais, a former finance minister and a close ally of Mr Gaidar, told London's Financial Times yesterday that he suspected Mr Gaidar had been poisoned.
Mr Chubais, the wealthy head of Russia's electricity monopoly, ruled out any involvement of Russia's security services or the Kremlin in Mr Gaidar's unexplained illness, which left him suddenly unconscious, vomiting blood and bleeding from the nose.
He collapsed while attending a conference in Ireland last Friday - the day after the death in London of Alexander Litvinenko, which has since been attributed to a dose of the radioactive agent Polonium-210.
Mr Gaidar lives in Moscow and maintains close links with some Russian government officials but is a critic of President Vladimir Putin. He is undergoing tests in a Moscow hospital that have found no signs of radiation poisoning, but he told the Financial Times by telephone that doctors had so far been unable to identify the cause of his violent vomiting and bleeding.
In a link that would delight lovers of espionage thrillers, Mr Gaidar once employed as a bodyguard Andrei Lugovoi, a former KGB agent who met Litvinenko in a London hotel room on the day Litvinenko was apparently poisoned.
British pathologists will don chemical suits and breathing apparatus tomorrow to conduct a post-mortem examination of Litvinenko's radiation-riddled body to confirm their belief he somehow ingested a tiny pellet of the radioactive material.
Litvinenko's body is being kept in a lead-lined coffin by British officials who have so far conducted tests on eight people in London who fear they may have been exposed to the radiation that killed him.
Mr Gaidar said he felt ill after eating a simple breakfast where he was staying near Dublin. He said he could barely move his limbs and had to lie down for most of the afternoon.
Ekaterina Genieva, who helped to organise the conference at the National University of Ireland in Maynooth, said Mr Gaidar looked pale and unwell when he came down to answer questions about Russia. After about 10 minutes, Mr Gaidar said he had to leave the room.
"I rushed after him and found him lying on the floor unconscious. He was vomiting blood and bleeding from the nose for about 35 minutes," she said.
Mr Gaidar was taken to the James Connolly Memorial Hospital in Blanchardstown, where he was treated overnight. The following morning, Mr Gaidar asked to be discharged, and after a visit to the Russian embassy in Dublin, he was put on a flight back to Moscow.
The disclosure of Mr Gaidar's collapse came as Kremlin officials and government-backed media in Moscow argued that Litvinenko's death might have been orchestrated by exiled tycoon Boris Berezovsky, who fiercely opposes Mr Putin and employed Litvinenko after the ex-KGB lieutenant colonel sought asylum in Britain.
The Russian officials stepped up their accusations against Mr Berezovsky after London police found traces of radioactive polonium-210 at Mr Berezovsky's London offices.
Valery Dyatlenko, deputy head of the security committee in the Duma, Russia's lower house, told television: "The death of Litvinenko - for Russia, for the security services - means nothing ... I think this is another game by Berezovsky."
Mr Berezovsky, a one-time Kremlin powerbroker who fell out with Mr Putin and fled to England, issued a statement mourning Litvinenko's death and blaming Mr Putin.
Detectives are understood to want to question Mr Berezovsky about the events of November 1, the day Litvinenko fell ill. Mr Berezovsky has declined to explain publicly why Litvinenko, who was recently given British citizenship, visited his headquarters in Mayfair on that day.
In his first comment on the Litvinenko affair, Tony Blair insisted yesterday that no "diplomatic or political barrier" would be permitted to obstruct the police inquiry, even if the evidence pointed to a state-sponsored assassination. "We are determined to find out what happened and who is responsible," the Prime Minister said.
Police yesterday questioned Mario Scaramella, an Italian nuclear expert, who met Litvinenko at a sushi bar in Piccadilly where evidence of the radioactive poison was found. Radiation has so far been found at seven locations across London.
© The Australian
November 29, 2006 Anti-Terrorism News
Lebanon's Hezbollah to hold anti-govt protest - within next 48 hours
http://today.reuters.co.uk/news/CrisesArticle.aspx?storyId=L29913134&WTmodLoc=World-R5-Alertnet-6
(Lebanon) Report: Two Syrian-Sent Would-Be Assassins Seized - planning
to murder 36 senior Lebanese officials
http://www.adnki.com/index_2Level.php?cat=Security&loid=8.0.364386710&par=0
MEMRI: Lebanon on the Brink of Civil War (4)
http://memri.org/bin/latestnews.cgi?ID=IA30406
(Iraq) Sectarian violence kills 24 Iraqis; Bush / Maliki meet in Jordan
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061129/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq_061128164249
(Iraq) Bush to Focus on Troop Training in Talks With Iraq Leader
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,232680,00.html
(Iraq) Bush adviser's memo cites doubts about Maliki - might not be
capable of controlling sectarian violence
http://www.iht.com/articles/2006/11/29/america/web.1129policy.php
(Iraq) Bomber kills four in Iraq police station assault
http://www.khaleejtimes.com/DisplayArticleNew.asp?xfile=data/focusoniraq/2006/November/focusoniraq_November239.xml§ion=focusoniraq
(Iraq) Gunmen again fire on Iraq health ministry
http://www.khaleejtimes.com/DisplayArticleNew.asp?xfile=data/focusoniraq/2006/November/focusoniraq_November240.xml§ion=focusoniraq
(Iraq) Slaughter in the mosque: a new terror for Iraqis; Executions
held in prayer rooms
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,3-2475084,00.html
(Houston) U.S. Citizen Wanted to Join the Taliban, Officials Say
(update on earlier story of US citizen and Pakistani national indicted)
http://blogs.abcnews.com/theblotter/2006/11/us_citizen_want.html
(Afghanistan) Roadside bomb kills 2 NATO soldiers in Afghanistan -
Logar province
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20061129/wl_canada_nm/canada_afghan_violence_col_15
(Afghanistan) Suicide bomb kills 2 civilians in southern Afghanistan -
in Kandahar city
http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2006/11/29/asia/AS_GEN_Afghan_Violence.php
(Afghanistan) NATO signals Afghan reinforcements
http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/europe/11/29/nato.wrap/index.html
Afghan security handover is on track for 2008, says NATO
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,3-2476920,00.html
(Afghanistan) Pakistan Tells NATO: Accept Defeat by Taliban
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml;jsessionid=IRJRIA15DRD0HQFIQMGSFFOAVCBQWIV0?xml=/news/2006/11/29/wafghan29.xml
(Pakistan) 4 bombs explode on Pakistan railway line - in Naushki
capital of southwestern Baluchistan province
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061129/ap_on_re_as/pakistan_bomb_blasts_1
Pakistan test fires nuclear-capable missile (Shaheen-1)
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20061129/wl_sthasia_afp/pakistanmilitarymissile_061129080411
Pakistan: Militants Ban Distribution of Newspapers For Two Days
http://www.adnki.com/index_2Level.php?cat=Security&loid=8.0.364332160&par=0
(Pakistan) BBC apologizes to Taliban for running old story
http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2006\11\29\story_29-11-2006_pg7_4
(Pakistan) Al Qaeda and Taliban Openly Operating in Pakistan - senior
al Qaeda operatives have been spotted "walking and talking openly" in
the market of Mir Ali in North Waziristan
http://blogs.abcnews.com/theblotter/2006/11/al_qaeda_and_ta.html
(India) 9 Pakistan terrorists behind 7/11 attacks
http://www.mid-day.com/news/city/2006/november/147478.htm
(Iran) Ahmadinejad sends message to Americans - to be publicized at UN
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20061129/wl_mideast_afp/iranusdiplomacy_061129094814
(Israel) Arab Female Terrorist Attempts to Murder Officer
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/news.php3?id=116518
Indonesian Muslim militant gets 12 years in terrorism sentence - Joko
Wibowo
http://news.monstersandcritics.com/asiapacific/article_1227453.php/Indonesian_Muslim_militant_gets_12_years_in_terrorism_sentence
(UK) Sharia law is spreading as authority wanes - Islamic sharia law is
gaining an increasing foothold in parts of Britain
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2006/11/29/nsharia29.xml
(UK) Abu Hamza Prison Cell Near Dhiren Barot: "He and Hamza are very
close. They’re allowed together for Friday prayers and get the chance
to speak with all of the other terror suspects."
http://www.thesun.co.uk/article/0,,2-2006550466,00.html
(UK) Britain accused on secret CIA flights
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,13509-2477055,00.html
German police arrest Turkish terrorist suspects - 52 people targeted in
raid against Marxist People's Liberation Party/Front
http://www.expatica.com/actual/article.asp?subchannel_id=26&story_id=34703
Europe Criticized on Terrorism - for tending to treat terrorism in
Turkey as a matter of human rights
http://www.zaman.com/?bl=international&alt=&trh=20061129&hn=38771
(Spain) Judge says police covered up ETA terrorist evidence
http://www.expatica.com/actual/toc.asp?subchannel_id=81
45,000 illegal aliens from terror-sponsoring countries released into
U.S. population
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=53151
Bush seeks to ease visa requirement
http://www.washingtontimes.com/national/20061129-121704-2202r.htm
Federal Air Marshals decry imams' charges
http://www.washingtontimes.com/national/20061129-121812-1240r.htm
Judge strikes president's authority to designate terrorist groups -
litigation based on PKK and Tamil Tigers
http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/local/states/california/northern_california/16117145.htm
FBI evidence offers insight into Unabomber - Extensive writings,
unexploded bomb found among belongings
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15946094/
One killed in Nigerian bomb blast
http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=68&art_id=iol1164791506105O524
Related News:
EU: Brussels to recommend partial freeze on negotiations with Turkey
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20061129/ts_afp/euenlargeturkeycyprus_061129111101
Pope supports Turkey's entry into European Union
http://www.iht.com/articles/2006/11/28/news/pope.php
Mothers
A mother asked President Bush,
"Why did my son have to die in Iraq?"
Another mother asked President Kennedy
"Why did my son have to die in Viet Nam?"
Another mother asked President F.D. Roosevelt,
"Why did my son have to die at Iwo Jima?"
Another mother asked President W. Wilson,
"Why did my son have to die on the battlefield of France?"
Yet another mother asked President Lincoln,
"Why did my son have to die at Gettysburg?"
And yet another mother asked President G. Washington,
"Why did my son have to die near Valley Forge?"
Then long, long ago, a mother asked...
"Heavenly Father, why did my Son have to die on a cross outside of Jerusalem?"
The answers to all these are similar --
"So that others may have life and dwell in peace, happiness and freedom."
This was sent to me with no author and I thought the magnitude
And the simplicity were awesome!
IF YOU DON'T STAND BEHIND OUR TROOPS,
PLEASE, FEEL FREE...TO STAND IN FRONT OF THEM!!!
Turkey's hard choices ahead
http://www.thenewanatolian.com/opinion-18779.html
Turkey's hard choices ahead
Cengiz Candar
ccandar@superonline.com
27 November 2006
Turkish diplomacy is standing before hard choices. Some should be made
immediately, some in the short-term and some in the mid-term. The
imminent
one is concerning the pope's visit that will start tomorrow. The next
one
should be concerning the Finnish initiative on the Cyprus issue to
salvaging
Turkey's road of accession before December 6 and 11, ahead of the EU
summit.
Another short-term one concerns the Turkish stand in Iraq and the
mid-term
one is about Turkey's Middle East policy with a priority that has to be
given to the relations with Syria and within the context of the
possible
developments in Lebanon.
The pope's visit could serve to be an opportunity for a "Peace
Declaration
of Christianity and Islam" that would enhance Turkey's international
standing in the wake of Pontiff's inadvertent remarks on Muslims'
Prophet in
September. Turkey is the first and the unique Muslim country in this
world
with one foot in Europe that Benedictus XVI would be visiting. I had
touched
upon this issue several times. Unfortunately, until a few days ago,
both
sides (Turkish government and Vatican) chose to snub each other.
It seemed that Tayyip Erdogan was more concerned not irritate his
constituency on the eve of a crucial year by showing a warm welcome to
the
pope and he took refuge in the pretext that he has to go to a scheduled
NATO
Summit in Riga as the reason he would not be able to meet with the
pope. He
delegated one of his unimpressive deputies for the task of receiving
the
Pope. The upcoming NATO Summit will one of the shortest and the
unimportant
ones in the Alliance's history.
On the part of Vatican, the politico-religious center of Catholicism
gave
the image that the pope is more interested in upholding Christian unity
by
his visit to the Greek Orthodox Patriarch Bartholomeos I in Istanbul,
rather
than making it a new and promising opening to the Muslim world, an
attitude
that may alienate the Muslims further.
Yet, 48 hours before the visit, both sides came back to their senses.
Tayyip
Erdogan sought ways to meet the Pope before he leaves Turkey and he
made a
call to the Pontiff for endorsing his and Spanish Prime Minister
Zapatero's
initiative for the amelioration of the relations between the two
monotheistic beliefs. And, Benedictus XVI's prayer speech in Vatican's
St Peter's Square was very sensible in terms of the peace message he sent
to
the Muslims while he was on his way to Turkey.
The other hard choice for Turkish diplomacy concerns the talks that the
Foreign Minister Abdullah Gül will conduct with his Greek Cypriot
counterpart in Finland under the aegis of the Finnish Presidency of the
EU.
We have to wait and see whether Turkish diplomacy would be able to go
the
extra mile on the Cyprus issue without jeopardizing the government's
fortunes for the election year. Its success will depend on if an
optimization could be reached in Finland. That also depends on how
successfully the Finns would play their hands.
The third one is about Iraq. Erdogan disclosed that he will probably
meet
with George W. Bush in Riga, during the NATO Summit and will warn him
about
the apocalyptic consequences of Iraq's disintegration. If that is what
he
will do is not a big deal. Bush is already aware of it. He is looking
for a
magic formula (which does not exist) from a number of American
agencies,
institutions and personalities, as well as from his allies.
That means Turkey should develop or devise a position of its own. It
has to
be a proactive one. Reactions alone or warnings with reiterating the
already
well-known indicators do not substitute a policy. Until now, when it
comes
to Iraq, Turkey stuck to delivery of the PKK from either Americans who
are
stuck somewhere else other than Northern Iraq or from impotent Iraqis
like
the Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki.
Iran invited Iraq's President Jalal Talabani and Syria's Bashar Asad.
Despite the postponement of Talabani's visit, he is expected in Tehran
in
the coming days and his is predicted by Iran's Foreign Minister
Manouchehr
Mottaki that would produce "important agreement." A credible Iranian
political analysts said, "Mr. Ahmedinejad is hopeful that he (Talabani)
he
can attract America's attention through Iraq." Observers in Tehran said
"The
Iranian leadership is trying to use Mr.Talabani, who has a special role
inside Iraq and has never criticized Iran, as a mediator between Tehran
and
Washington."
Isn't this the role Turkey was and is supposed to play?
And isn't Turkey the only neighboring country to Iraq reluctant to
receive
Talabani in its capital?
Turkey is sidelining itself in Iraq. It is playing a much lesser role
than
it deserves to play. The hard choice is ahead but any delay will make
it a
much harder choice in the future.
Last but not the least hard choice is concerning the deteriorating
situation
in Lebanon. Lebanese government ratified the international tribunal
decided
by the UN Security Council to prosecute and to bring in justice the
culprits
of Rafiq Hariri's murder. The finger prints may lead to the
presidential
palaces of Beirut and Damascus. To prevent such a route to be taken,
Syria
and its Lebanese allies (Hezbollah) seem determined to bring the
government
of Fouad Siniora that depends on the parliamentary majority led by the
Sunni
leader Saad Hariri.
The government (or Turkey) may find itself soon to make a choice
between its
two friends who are adversaries: Assad and his totalitarian minority
rule in
Damascus and Hariri and his democratic majority in Lebanon.
All are the hard choices ahead of Turkey.
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