Peace Like A River » Cables, dispatches and memoranda

Cables, dispatches and memoranda

November 14, 2008 (7:30 am) | Daily Roundup | By: Jeff Kouba

Cables, Dispatches and Memoranda A brief world news roundup for 14 November 2008.

United States & the Americas

Marketwatch – President-elect Barack Obama is making former Rep. Jim Leach, R-Iowa, and former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright available to meet with representatives of the G20 nations on his behalf this weekend during the group’s emergency financial summit. Obama himself will not attend the meeting.
Treasury Dept – The U.S. Department of the Treasury today designated the Union of Good, an organization created by Hamas leadership to transfer funds to the terrorist organization.
John Martin – The FBI informant who infiltrated an alleged terror cell in South Jersey pleaded with the lead suspect to stop procrastinating and offered to buy guns so the group could train for an attack on Fort Dix or another site. In recordings played in federal court in Camden today, the informant, Mahmoud Omar, accused defendant Mohamad Shnewer of delaying the jihad and repeatedly gave Shnewer deadlines to put the plot into motion.
HS Today – President-elect Barack Obama wants to renew the US commitment to finding Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, according to his national security advisers. The Obama team believes the Bush administration has downplayed the importance of catching the FBI’s most-wanted terrorist because it has not been able to find him.
Prensa Latina – The 27th Meeting of Foreign Affairs Ministers of the 22 nations forming the Group of Rio will start sessions Thursday in the Mexican state of Zacatecas, according to a note by the Mexican Foreign Ministry, published Wednesday. The Foreign Ministers of the block will exchange criteria on the current world and regional situation, in the context of the global economic and financial crisis, and the recent presidential elections in the United States, said the document issued by the Mexican government.
Press TV – The President of Ecuador has authorized the country’s military to attack Colombian guerrillas, in a bid to end their cross-border assaults. President Rafael Correa issued a decree on Wednesday for the deployment of 7,000 troops and 2,000 border patrol police, in an effort to protect the country’s northern border with Columbia, Xinhua reported.
MercoPress – Uruguay’s Senate voted this week to decriminalize abortions during the first twelve weeks of pregnancy but President Tabare Vazquez is expected to veto the measure which will be upheld by the opposition.
Robert Amsterdam – The following is a translation of a rather tongue-in-cheek article from Izvestia about the latest raft of deals between Russia and Venezuela.
Global Voices – Nicaragua: Concerns About Fraud in Recent Elections
COHA – A number of days ago, the U.S. Consulate in Bogota, Colombia denied a visa to Catholic priest Rafael de Jesus Gallego, after he had been given assurances through the Embassy’s Human Rights Office that it would be routinely granted to him. Father Rafael was later told that the visa had been denied for “security” reasons.
Miami Herald – A crime reporter in the violent Mexican border city of Juarez was killed Thursday, adding to dozens of journalist deaths in a country where newspapers are so fearful, many refuse to cover drug violence.
MSNBC – Mexican soldiers have seized 19 light planes from a hangar near the U.S. border believed to be used by drug smuggling gangs, the army and Mexican media said on Thursday.
CNN – Human rights groups from the United States and Spain filed a lawsuit in a Spanish court Thursday, charging El Salvador’s former president, Alfredo Cristiani, with covering up crimes against humanity.

Manas Airmen and ten Kyrgyz World War II veterans crowd close for the camera during a tour of a KC-135 Stratotanker, Nov. 11, Manas Air Base (Senior Airman Ruth Holcomb)

Russia, Caucasus & Central Asia

Press TV – Russia says the UN Security Council resolutions do not legally prevent Moscow from completing nuclear fuel shipment to Iran’s Bushehr plant. Moscow is obliged to provide Iran with nuclear fuel as part of an agreement signed between the two countries to build Bushehr power plant and the shipment is totally legal, Russian ambassador to Kuwait Alexander Kinshchak said in an interview with al-Watan daily.
Voice of Russia – President Dmitry Medvedev has arrived in France at the start of his four-day foreign tour that will take him to summits at Nice and in Washington. President Medvedev will lead the Russian delegation at the Russia-EU summit in Nice on November 14 and at the G-20 meeting of finance ministers in Washington.
RIA Novosti – The Russian Foreign Ministry accused Ukraine on Thursday of attempting to conceal the truth over Georgia’s August 8 offensive on breakaway South Ossetia, and Kiev’s role in the armed conflict.
Al Jazeera – A sailor has been charged for setting off the fire-extinguishing system on the Russian nuclear submarine Nerpa, causing 20 people to be gassed to death, investigators say. “The inquiry has established that a member of the crew, a sailor, set off the anti-fire system … without authorisation and for no reason,” Vladimir Markin, an investigator, said on Thursday.
Moscow News – If literary translated, Dagestan means ‘the country of mountains.’ Formally a part of Russia, this republic has always been something different, a constant pain in the neck for the Russian authorities and an alluring escape for Russian romantics since the nineteenth century (remember Leo Tolstoy and Mikhail Lermontov). Paradoxically, this tumultuous place resonants with an atmosphere of calm. Caucasian Dagestan is a relatively small region, yet it is made up of dozens of nationalities and about 30 different languages.
EuroNews – Armenian President Sargsyan: Armenia joining NATO is “not on the agenda”

Middle East

AFPS – Coalition forces killed one terrorist, captured four suspected terrorists and detained six additional suspects during operations today targeting al-Qaida in Iraq’s financial, explosives and leadership networks, military officials reported.
Al Sumaria – While Iraq’s government was about to welcome US amendments on the security agreement due to be signed with Washington, an Iraqi source told Al Hayat Newspaper that the government was surprised by Sayyed Ali Al Sistani who warned of harming Iraq’s sovereignty. The source noted that his stand has embarrassed the government and prevented it from announcing a positive stand towards the amendments.
AFP – Bulgaria will withdraw its 155-strong military contingent from Iraq when its mandate expires at the end of this year, Prime Minister Sergey Stanishev said Thursday.
South Korea MoD – Defense Minister Lee Sang-hee will embark on a trip from Nov. 6 through Nov. 13 to make an official visit to Saudi Arabia and inspect units deployed abroad. During his visit, the minister will inspect preparations to pull out the country’s Zaytun and Daiman units in Iraq and Kuwait while holding talks with their host nations to discuss ways to ensure the safe withdrawal of the units.
NOW Lebanon – Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni met on Wednesday night with United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and protested that arms smuggling from Syria to Hezbollah in Lebanon was still ongoing, Yedioth Aharonot, an Israeli newspaper, reported. She said that this constituted a blatant violation of UN Security Council Resolutions and added that Syria, which wanted to receive legitimization from the world, must be given a clear message by the council, holding it responsible for the smuggling that endangered the region, according to the paper.
ITIC – Yet another step in the establishment of a totalitarian “Islamic Emirate” in the Gaza Strip: the Hamas administration announces that it is now drawing a new bill, imposing also shari’ah-based penal codes on the Gaza Strip
ynet – Lebanese newspaper reports head of ‘espionage ring’ for Israel was also ordered to reconnoiter place where senior Syrian officer was killed.
David Lesch – For a lengthy period I seemed to be the only American talking to President Asad; as such, Washington often called on me to share my impression and analysis of him and Syrian policies. To an array of officials from the State Department, Pentagon, intelligence community, and the Bush administration, I essentially repeated three main themes, all of which were summarily ignored when communicated upward.
Rosa Brooks – But even ultra-affluent Dubai is fragile these days. You see, this gem of the postmodern, globalized economy doesn’t really produce anything of value, its oil accounts for only about 5% of gross domestic product. Its economy relies on services, tourism and … that’s about it, actually. Those elaborate hotels, malls, amusement parks and skyscrapers? Heavily leveraged, built out of the shifting sands and the same intoxicating thin air that sustained Wall Street until recently. And Dubai may be going down.

Iran

Fars – The Iranian Foreign Ministry has condemned the kidnapping of Iranian diplomat in Pakistan, dismissing the abduction as an act of terror. Iran’s commercial attache, Heshmatollah Attarzadeh Niyaki, was kidnapped in an ambush attack by unidentified gunmen on Thursday on his way to Iran’s consulate in the Pakistani city of Peshawar. The gunmen reportedly killed Attarzadeh’s driver and took the diplomat to an undisclosed location.
IRNA – President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said on Thursday that Iranian nation is not after entering war against any other nations. The president made the remarks in a meeting with the families of martyrs and war veterans in the northern province of Mazandaran. He added that the era of hegemony has come to an end and the great powers are on the verge of collapse.
IRNA – First Vice-President Parviz Davoudi by referring to the capacities of the Islamic countries said a new plan must be devised to develop banking cooperation in the Islamic world. Islamic Development Bank’s Managing Director Ahmad Muhammad Ali said underscored the IDB will implement various programs to expand Islamic banking and to institutionalize it.
The National – Iran has backed out of a deal to supply Pakistan and India with natural gas, Pakistani media reported on Thursday. The news of an Iranian walkout was not unexpected, given India’s opposition to the cost of the deal, according to Samuel Ciszuk, an Iran expert at Global Insight.
Payvand – Photos: Persian Gulf shores in Bandar Abbas, Iran

South Asia

NY Times – A day after a fierce suicide bombing in southern Afghanistan, insurgents struck Thursday in the east of the country when an American military convoy was attacked in a crowded market, killing one soldier and 18 civilians, according to the United States military and Afghan police officials. One of the dead was a 12-year-old boy, who died when a suicide car bomber in a Toyota Corolla approached an American military convoy and then swerved into a weekly market at around 8 a.m.
UK MoD – It is with deep sadness that the Ministry of Defence must confirm that two Royal Marines were killed as a result of an explosion in the Garmsir District of southern Helmand Wednesday 12 November.
Bakhtar – Six people were killed and 3 others injured in a mine blast and suicide attack in Helmand province. The incident occurred when police started operation for arresting of anti narcotic smugglers in that province.
Geo – Militants attacked Saido Sharif airport with small weapons here on Thursday, however, no casualties were reported. Security forces pounded militants’ positions in upper areas of Tehsil Kabal and Matta during the last night but no loss of life was reported.
Gulf News – The Pakistani Parliament has been told that during the last three years, a total of 3,236 women were killed, 1,019 in the name of honour.
Chitral News - Lowari tunnel would see a breakthrough by end of December, reiterated NHA sources on Wednesday. Only 450 meters remaining to be drilled. It may be pointed out that the people of Chitral are exuberant at the very thought of realising their cherished dream of having an all weather road connection with the rest of the world.
TIME – Recent news of the arrest of 10 people linked with two relatively small terror attacks earlier this year has created a national furor, and is likely to skew political parties’ calculations ahead of next year’s general elections. The arrests by the Anti-Terrorist Squad of Maharashtra police have shocked India for two reasons. The nine accused are all Hindu right-wingers, confirming, for the first time, suspicions raised by political and security analysts that the Hindu extremist fringe has been organizing for terror attacks. Second, among the accused are a serving lieutenant colonel and a retired major of the army, an institution so far considered impervious to communal elements.
Colombo Page – Sri Lankan troops of the Task Force-1 advancing ahead of the Western Kilinochchi battlefront have entered two key rebel-held coastal villages along the Northwestern coast this morning, the military said. The fall of these strategically important coastal villages of Devil’s Point and Vallaipadu is a sever blow to the rebels as these areas are used for Sea Tiger operations to smuggle weapons and launch attacks on the ground troops.
Javno – Analysts say the Sri Lankan military is making gains and has the unflinching support of President Mahinda Rajapaksa in its mission to wipe out one the world’s most ruthless and effective insurgent groups. Here are some scenarios of what could happen next.

Far East & Pacific

Jakarta Post – An influential bloc of Islamic nations called on the Philippine government and Muslim rebels Thursday to end clashes it said put half a million civilians at risk and aided extremists who seek to destroy the fragile peace process. The government of President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front should resume peace talks and end the clashes that erupted in August after the Philippine Supreme Court scrapped a preliminary peace deal, said Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu, secretary-general of the Organization of the Islamic Conference.
Asia Times – Cambodia is to place much tighter controls on the more than 2,000 non-governmental organizations and associations that operate in the country. Prime Minister Hun Sen has long complained of their constant criticism, and increased aid from China and South Korea has made the country less dependant on the Western-led aid community. The move could speed up private-sector development, but it will also allow a hoped-for energy bonanza to avoid scrutiny.
Xinhua – The number of containers handled by Singapore’s ports continued to decline with 2.52 million standard containers throughput in October, down from 2.55 million in the previous month. The decline was due to the global economic slowdown and less demand from major markets such as the United States and Europe, according to a statement by the Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore on Thursday. But data showed that the figure was an increase of 5 percent compared to the same month last year.
Irrawaddy – Trials continued on Thursday in a Rangoon prison courtroom, where at least 19 dissidents were sentenced to up to eleven years imprisonment on charges of disturbing public order, resisting officials on duty and illegal assembly, according to informed sources. The defendants included 11 members of the opposition National League for Democracy.
FT – The Chinese military has boosted troop numbers along the border with North Korea since September amid mounting concerns about the health of Kim Jong-il, the North Korean leader, according to US officials. Beijing has declined to discuss contingency plans with Washington, but the US officials said the Peoples’ Liberation Army has stationed more soldiers on the border to prepare for any possible influx of refugees due to instability, or regime change, in North Korea.
Danger Room – Late last month, the Chinese People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) accepted its first purpose-built floating hospital, the 10,000-ton “Ship 866.” While seemingly innocuous on the surface, ships like this are windows into an evolving military strategy for an emerging world power. Hospital ships can be used for a wide range of missions, from supporting full-scale amphibious assaults against heavily defended targets, to humanitarian “soft-power” expeditions winning hearts and minds. The question is: what is Ship 866 intended for?
Radio Australia – It’s been reported the proposed relocation of United States marines from Okinawa in Japan, to Guam may be delayed. Japan’s Yomuri newspaper reports the transfer could be put off till at least 2015 and cost more than the initial estimate of 10 point three billion US dollars.

Europe

Bloomberg – The German economy, Europe’s largest, contracted more than economists expected in the third quarter, pushing the nation into the worst recession in at least 12 years.
EarthTimes – Germany’s lower house of parliament on Wednesday passed a controversial law granting sweeping powers to federal police in the fight against terrorism. The legislation, which has to be approved by the upper house, allows investigators to conduct video surveillance of terrorist suspects and monitor their private computers.
Barents Observer – In an official lunch with foreign diplomats, Icelandic President Olafur Ragnar Grimsson shocked neighboring Nordic countries with inviting Russia to take use of the strategically important airbase. Foreign diplomats hardly believed what they heard when the Icelandic president said that his country needs “new friends” and that Russia should be invited to take use of the old U.S. airbase of Keflavik.
SE European Times – Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi on Wednesday (November 12th) urged the EU to speed up accession talks with Turkey and to commit to supporting Ankara’s membership bid. Turkey started its accession negotiations in 2005 but has been able to close only eight of the 35 negotiating chapters so far.
AP – Denmark’s intelligence service says there is still a considerable threat from Islamic extremists against Danes and Danish interests abroad. The Danish Security and Intelligence Service says it has seen signs of threats from militants, especially in North Africa, the Middle East, Pakistan and Afghanistan.
Kommersant – Wintershall, the hydrocarbons division of BASF, is discussing joint development projects in Eastern Siberia and the Russian Far East with Gazprom. The Russian monopoly is most interested in technical and financial support from its German partner in order to create a gas and chemical complex that will include the Kovykta gas condensate field.
IslamOnline – After a nearly two-month contest and after following up a flood of IslamOnline.net’s audience nominations and views, North London Central Mosque was declared the clear winner of IOL competition for the Best Islamic Centre in Europe. [me: recall the history of this mosque]

Africa

Al Arabiya – Somalia’s Shebab fighters imposed Sharia law on the port of Merka Thursday, as the Islamist group continued to tighten its grip on the Horn of Arica country. The insurgents also briefly occupied three small towns on the outskirts of Somalia’s capital Mogadishu on Thursday, but melted away as Ethiopian forces headed south from the city to confront them.
Garowe – A notorious warlord allied to Somalia’s Islamic Courts Union (ICU) has rejected an order from the al Shabaab faction to “disarm peacefully,” inside sources tell Garowe Online.
Russia MoD – The Russian patrol ship Neustrashimy and a British frigate, HMS Cumberland, successfully rebuffed pirate attempts to seize the Danish ship Powerful off Somalia. Pirates tried shooting at the vessel and made two attempts to capture it. The Russians and British used helicopters to counter-attack the pirates, who had opened machine gun fire on Powerful and twice tried to seize it. A Ka-27 helicopter took off from the Neustrashimy and a Lynx helicopter took off from the HMS Cumberland.
David Scheffer – Sudan’s president, Omar Hassan Ahmed Bashir, stands accused of, among other horrible crimes, masterminding the use of rape as a form of genocide against several ethnic groups in Darfur. In the coming weeks, three judges of the International Criminal Court in The Hague will decide whether that controversial charge will be included in the likely arrest warrant against him.
John Bavoso, Diplomatic Courier – Devastation in DR Congo; The DRC has been engulfed in violent civil war since 1996, which has claimed the lives of 5.4 million people, making it the world’s deadliest conflict since WWII.
Radio France – The rebel forces of Laurent Nkunda’s National Congress for the Defense of the People (CNDP) advanced without firing a shot Thursday toward the town of Kanyabayonga where government soldiers were blamed for a looting rampage earlier in the week.
IRIN – Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe’s government is launching another wave of attacks against the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), a spokesman for the opposition party told IRIN, after a much vaunted power-sharing deal appeared to be on the verge of collapse.
Afrol – The fall of the Iron Curtain cost Africa much in terms of reduced investments and development aid, which in the 1990s was redirected to Eastern Europe. But now, following EU demands and increased wealth, country after country in the region is setting up development cooperation agencies focusing on Africa, with booming budgets.

The Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS Curtis Wilbur passes by Fukuoka city as the ship departs Hakata Harbor. Wilbur was in Fukuoka for a scheduled port visit where the crew engaged in goodwill activities with the community. Curtis Wilbur is assigned to Destroyer Squadron 15 and is permanently forward deployed to Yokosuka, Japan. (photo by Brock Taylor)

The Global War

Phil Zabriskie – War Never Ends; Getting to know the men of Whiskey Six—and the loved ones they left behind.
Alex Evans – Ahead of this weekend’s G20 summit, David and I have published a short paper entitled A Bretton Woods II worthy of the name. Key points: The summit is unlikely to be able to live up to its billing. Leaders do not yet understand the nature of the problem well enough to be able to implement viable solutions. However, the problem is more fundamental than a simple lack of shared awareness.
Prague Watchdog – Salafism: Theory and Practice; The doctrine (akida) of the Wahhabi school of thought (its second name – Salafism – is derived from the concept of as-Salaf-as-Salih, and refers to a group of righteous associates of the Prophet Muhammad whom the Wahhabis claim to follow) was established in the Muslim world by Sheikh Muhammad ibn Abd-al-Wahhab on the basis of the writings of the fourteenth century theologian ibn Taymiya
Dr. Richard Benkin – An India-Israel-United States Alliance: The Last Great Hope for Humanity
OECD – Economic activity is expected to fall by 0.9 percent in the US next year, by 0.5 percent in the Euro area and by 0.1 percent in Japan as OECD countries enter a protracted slowdown, according to latest projections.

Sights & Sounds

Africa Today – *Former British Prime Minister, Tony Blair is in Rwanda; we get his views on the conflict in the east of DR Congo. * Meanwhile, Rwanda’s diplomatic row with France escalates, why? *And Somali pirates lose their lives in an encounter with warships in the Gulf of Aden.